Vocational Education and Training through Open and Distance Learning

World review of distance education and open learning Volume 5

Louise Moran, Greville Rumble

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2004
• eBook ISBN: 9781134283040
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Adult Education

Conventional apprenticeships and older methods of professional training are not providing enough skilled workers - governments, companies and colleges are now using open and distance learning to fill these gaps.

Published in association with the Commonwealth of Learning, this unique review provides detailed analysis of worldwide experiences of vocational training and distance education. It looks at recent policy and practice at different levels - from transnational programmes and national policies to institutional and programme models.

Offering guidance on how distance education and new technologies are being used to support vocational education and training, this book will help senior institutional managers and policy makers to understand and appreciate:

* the role distance education can play in increasing skills levels in young people and the existing workforce
* the challenges in using educational technologies, and distance education to deliver vocational education and training
* how to devise effective policies to meet these challenges.

Chapter 1
Vocational education and training

Louise Moran and Greville Rumble

Vocational education and training (VET) occupies a central place in social and economic policy throughout the world. The last 25 years have seen a dramatic transformation in the world of work, changing not only the foundations of economies and social life but also the knowledge, skills and competencies that people require in almost every field of endeavour.

The driving forces are familiar: dramatic shifts from agrarian or industrial eras to a knowledge age, accompanied by equally dramatic changes in the nature and structure of work; the progressive globalisation of trade and communications; technological advances that encourage constant and rapid change in economic and social life; and demographic changes resulting from improvements in health and social conditions.

As the world moves ineluctably into a technology-dominated knowledge age the nature of work is changing profoundly. The skills of learning, the ability to process information, and the capacity to adapt rapidly to change, are fast becoming determining factors in personal, corporate and national survival and prosperity.

The constant state of turbulence in employment and the world of work, means that education systems cannot educate and train people in the expectation that their work activities will remain stable or that they will remain in the one job throughout their working life. The half-life of knowledge and skills is increasingly short in any job requiring skills – be they a farmer, shipbuilder, health worker, environmental engineer, plumber, manager or accountant. Lifelong learning has become an imperative strategy for meeting the challenges faced by contemporary societies. As the former British Secretary of State for Education and Employment put it:

For all of us the task is to get that message across: that learning is for life; that we can renew our skills; that (learning) gives us greater security in employment; but it also equips our nations to be able to take on the scourge of unemployment; to be able to equip ourselves for competitiveness.

(Blunkett 1998)

Training is by no means the only answer to a society’s imperatives for economic prosperity but VET has become a major plank in governments’ search for solutions. A recent World Bank study finds that governments often have unrealistically high expectations of their VET systems, which have led to substantial public sector involvement in VET but a disappointing record of achievement:

Governments have perceived an increased demand for training if the labor supply shows rapid growth, if employment grows quickly, or if unemployment increases significantly. They have called upon VET systems to help unemployed young people and older workers get jobs, to reduce the burden on higher education, to attract foreign investment, to ensure rapid growth of earnings and employment, to reduce the inequality of earnings between the rich and poor, and so on.

(Gill et al. 2000: 1)

Governments have responded by expanding the resources they put into vocational education and training, and reforming the ways in which it is planned, co-ordinated and implemented. Larger employers and corporations are responding by expanding their in-house training and workplace learning activities. Small and medium-sized businesses generally must rely on government-funded or commercial training opportunities. In many jurisdictions, commercial providers of training have increased their market share where publicly funded providers lack the capacity to respond quickly or precisely to rapidly changing demand.

Reform of VET systems or design of new ones has become a significant preoccupation of government and institutional policy makers alike. A primary challenge is to find ways to improve access to VET, particularly for those who are already in the workforce, are unemployed or seeking a first job, and/or are unable to participate in training opportunities because of financial, family or other constraints. A closely related challenge for policy makers and providers is to improve the quality of training to meet changing and rising demands for skilled and technical workers.

The search for effective methods of delivering training has intensified as the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competencies relevant to modernising and rapidly changing workplaces becomes a constant feature of labour-market and educational policies and business investment strategies. The philosophies, methods and technologies making up distance education are becoming central to government policy and institutional strategies for delivering training in the workplace as well as on campus or at home.

The purpose of this book is to report on how developing and indus-trialised countries are using distance-education methods and information technologies to provide vocational education and training for young people and adults. It is a book about policy choices and their outcomes, a review of contemporary aspirations and experience from which readers may draw conclusions to guide their own policy making and practice.

The book examines the nexus between VET and distance education at several levels of policy and practice: from trans-national programmes to national policy, and on to institutional and programme models that use distance-education methods and technologies to support VET. In order to do this, we have commissioned chapters and case studies that report on the features unique to each case, but also illuminate trends, problems and solutions that will resonate with educators and policy makers elsewhere. The diversity of the examples reinforces the view that vocational education and training is interpreted in a multiplicity of ways.

One area we have deliberately eschewed is that of teacher education – a quintessentially vocational area of education. Instead we refer readers to Volume 3 in this series of World Reviews: Teacher Education through Open and Distance Learning, edited by Bernadette Robinson and Colin Latchem (RoutledgeFalmer 2002).

In this introductory chapter we are concerned with three questions:

• What is vocational education and training?
• Why is VET important, and to whom?
• How is VET organised, and where does distance education fit into the equation?

DEFINING VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING

In this book we use the term ‘vocational education and training’, or VET, to describe the acquisition of knowledge, skills and competences for job performance. VET is, however, an imprecise and problematic term. There is no universally understood meaning of ‘VET’ such as there is of school education. Even a cursory examination of the literature shows significant variations around the world in how VET is defined, funded and delivered in national and institutional settings. Some analysis is warranted to set the context for the chapters and case studies that follow.

‘Vocational education and training’ is the preferred appellation of bodies such as the World Bank and the European Union but is only one of several terms in common use. In countries such as South Africa and the United Kingdom, the phrase ‘further education and training’ predominates. ‘Technical and further education’ or TAFE is an Australian variant, while ‘technical and vocational education and training’ is used in the Pacific. Elsewhere, terms such as ‘technical education’ and ‘training’, or other combinations of the above terms, are common.

It is hard to pin down an explicit description of the field. The complexity of VET is well outlined by Descy and Tessaring in their report on vocational education and training in Europe:

…(V)ocational education and training (VET) comprises all more or less organised or structured activities – whether or not they lead to a recognised qualification – which aim to provide people with knowledge, skills and competences that are necessary and sufficient in order to perform a job or set of jobs. Trainees in initial or continuing training thus undertake work preparation or adapt their skills to changing requirements. VET is independent of its venue, of the age or other characteristics of participants, and of their previous level of qualification. The content of VET could be job-specific, directed to a broader range of jobs or occupations, or a mixture of both; VET may also include general education elements.

(Descy and Tessaring 2001: 3)

WHY IS VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING IMPORTANT?

A recurring theme in this book is that VET occupies an increasingly central place in social and economic policy world-wide. It matters to individuals, employers and governments of every political persuasion, in societies both rich and poor. This is not surprising. Education per se is widely seen as a necessary precondition for economic growth within the knowledge-driven economies of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Although Wolf has recently questioned the link between it and economic growth (Wolf 2002: 24), there is a clear connection between education and private benefit as measured by the rate of return. As she concludes, for individuals ‘“Get educated, get richer” seems like sound advice’ (Wolf 2002: 21). Moreover, in some countries (notably the United States and the United Kingdom), wage differentials between the educated and the under-educated are widening. Rational teenagers and their parents know that without a qualification, an individual is increasingly unlikely to be considered for a job, whatever the qualifications actually (as opposed to formally) required to do it (Wolf 2002: 177).

Our first conclusion, then, is that education matters to individuals. As long as individuals (and their parents) understand that educational qualifications matter when it comes to securing any, let alone well-paid, employment, there will be a continuing demand for education. It is not, therefore, surprising that public rhetoric also stresses the value of education to individuals and society.

The next question is: What kind of education is most important? The first pre-requisite is the possession of basic academic skills. As Wolf comments, ‘Poor literacy and numeracy – especially the latter – have a devastating effect on people’s chances of well-paid and stable employment’ (Wolf 2002: 34). At the other end of the spectrum, there is a clear pay-back from the possession of higher-level qualifications, although at the top end of the qualifications scale, the wage-premium enjoyed by graduates varies depending upon the subject studied. In between is a vast array of qualifications more or less directly tied to vocational outcomes.

At the public-policy level there has been a significant shift in thinking over the last 30 years as policy makers and politicians have come to argue that the real purpose of education is to prepare people for the world of work, and to promote economic growth. In this context it is increasingly argued that spending on education needs to be properly targeted to develop the skills and knowledge that modern economies require.

The competency-based qualification movement – especially evident in the United Kingdom and Australia – has been a forceful response to the desire to link VET tightly to job performance. In Australia, notwithstanding some difficult teething problems, the competency-based system of training packages is now an integral part of a nationally consistent qualifications framework and quality-assurance system, and this is also true of the UK where it is increasingly employer led. However, Wolf believes that in the UK the National Vocational Qualifications system has largely failed because young people and their parents have recognised that highly specific, narrowly defined, competence-based qualifications are no qualification in a labour market that demands flexibility above all else (Wolf 2002: 85). The issue of certification and its value to the various stakeholders is taken up by several contributors to this book, including Rennie (Chapter 11) and Ryan (Chapter 10).

One conclusion that we take from this discussion is that the credibility and status of the qualifications offered through vocational education and training matter a great deal. They may well be more important than the means of delivery adopted. Those who consume education and training – vocational or otherwise – are careful not to waste their time and money on meaningless qualifications, and on qualifications that, however relevant to what they are doing now, may lose their relevance as they change jobs and careers within an increasingly flexible labour market.

It is curious, then, that VET nevertheless remains a relatively invisible poor relation in the eyes of many policy makers and educators. Moodie (2001) argues that vocational education is traditionally defined by reference to the occupational level of its graduates, and that this in turn is related to class. Thus, while in practice vocational education comprises both trade and technician qualifications and professional and post-professional qualifications, it is typically equated with the former as a lower-status form of education.

Where this happens, the invisibility and lower status accorded to training can compound the challenges for governments of providing vocational education as, where, and when it is most needed. As Kennedy remarks about the British system:

Despite the formidable role played by further education, it is the least understood and celebrated part of the learning tapestry. Further education suffers because of prevailing British attitudes … There remains a very carefully calibrated hierarchy of worthwhile achievement, which has clearly established routes and which privileges academic success well above any other accomplishment.

(Kennedy 1997: 1)

In the nineteenth century, technical education was viewed as ‘the training of the hand rather than an education of the mind’ (Moodie 2001: 3). This distinction threaded through a century of debate about the differences between a ‘liberal’ and a utilitarian or vocational education, and is still evident today in the separation of theory (higher status) from practice (lower status). It is evident that many universities have been able to take advantage of this hierarchy of achievement so that today they are multilevel institutions confidently providing both vocational and liberal education. However, there is also evidence among educators of a certain unease about incorporating lower (especially sub-degree) levels of training into a university curriculum. Some seek to resolve this by creating separate organisational structures (the university–college nexus), which inevitably develop their own cultures and values that may be hard to bridge (Schofield 1998). Others have preferred to elevate courses concerned primarily with skills...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of illustrations
• List of contributors
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1 Vocational education and training
• Part I Vocational education across national borders
• Part II National public policy programmes
• Part III Institutional models and frameworks
• Part IV Conclusion
• Index