Why 'Vocational' Education

WHY ‘VOCATIONAL’ EDUCATION ???

Why has there been a lot of interest, especially in less industrialised nations, in vocationalizing education i.e. in strengthening the links between education and employment?

Ishumi (IJED 1988) lists the following general aims:

(i)                  To transmit into the learners values and attitudes necessary and appropriate for the performance of certain tasks, be they manual, mechanical or other;

(ii)                To provide specific skills for employment or employability in a range of categories;

(iii)               To stem off or forestall impeding mass unemployment and possible public disaffection;

(iv)              To alleviate obsolete practices by reorienting and upgrading existing skills and levels of job performance;

(v)                To promote a work ethic and to sensitize learners to the importance of practical work and practical skill application;

(vi)              To forestall an impending, or halt an on-going, mass movement of school-leaver youth (and any others) from rural to urban areas and thereby to check an impending transfer of manpower and skill resources from the needy sectors.

Other aims include the following:

(a)    The need for a political response to serious and increasing levels of youth unemployment i.e. the need to be seen to be doing something. Moreover, vocational education can help to individualise the blame for unemployment and remove pressure on the government i.e. if young people are trained in vocational skills and still don’t get jobs then it is their fault.

(b)   A rejection of the theory/practice gap. The need to instill a respect for manual labour and reduce the devide between the educated elite and the general population. The need to reduce an automatic desire for  “white collar” occupations. Hence the policy in some countries of involving all pupils in manual labour.

(c)    The needs to be involved in productive enterprise in order to help pay the school’s requirements (wages, desks, book etc.). In the Botswana brigades this implies supporting education and training entirely by productive enterprise.

(d)   To provide a familiarity with tools and practical techniques to be of use in private life i.e. around the home.

(e)   The needs to create better educated people who are more flexible, adaptable and enterprising in the search for employment/ self-employment.

What problems and issues exist in relation to vocational education?

(i)                  The possession of a specialised qualification in one particular vocational area (e.g. typing) can mean lack of flexibility in relation to changes in the labour market i.e. if the market becomes saturated with typists. It is very difficult to predict demand three or four years hence.

(ii)                Can school really train for a particular job anyway? Doesn’t training really have to take place on the job? Can schools do more than provide a familiarisation with certain vocational areas? Do employers agree on what they want? (i.e. the problem of varied industries and levels of manpower.) Isn’t it really the role of schools to provide the sort of good basic general education to make people trainable?

(iii)               Practical and vocational subjects are often high cost (tool materials, small classes).

(iv)              Vocational type courses are often regarded as low status areas of activity compared to academic courses and hence are unpopular with parents and pupils. Academic courses therefore tend to attract higher achieving students. This is not always the case however. Evidence from Kenya suggests that where properly financed and resourced they can succeed and be popular.

(v)                However, there is no evidence that vocational training is any better at securing employment than a traditional academic education. Evidence from Kenya, Tanzania, Columbia, Trinidad and Tobago suggests that vocational courses provide no labour market advantage. Personal contacts, kinship networks etc, seem just as important. Vocational education cannot, therefore (given its high costs) be regarded as cost effective.

(vi)              There is often a shortage of teachers of vocational subjects they can earn more outside schools. This affects subject status. Shortages of materials and the need to maintain equipment are also problems.

(vii)             In schools where pupils are obliged to participate in productive labour there is often a tension between this and the need to gain academic qualifications. In Tanzania, for example, where all secondary schools are supposed to be involved in self-reliant productive activity, schools are also ranked nationally according to their degree of success in the formal examinations. So with crowded syllabuses the pressure will be on to concentrate on academic qualifications rather than productive work. Assessment needs to be more closely related to practical work skills.

(viii)           Moreover, such manual work at school is often regarded as a chore or even used as a punishment and can therefore develop a strong dislike of physical labour. Even work experience can have the opposite effects to that intended i.e. visits or short placements can convince students that work in industry/ agriculture is dirty/ boring/isolated etc, and a white collar job in an office is more attractive proposition.

(ix)              There is a danger of gender bias – boys do metalwork, girl typing and cookery.

(x)                Vocational courses can end access to higher education.