Section for Technical and Vocational Education
Education Sector
UNESCO
1997

Published in 1997 by the United Nations
Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization
7, Place de Fontenoy
75352 Paris 07
FRANCE

ED-97/WS-45

UNEVOC Studies in Technical and Vocational Education

1.	Policies and Guidelines for Educational and Vocational Guidance (English and Chinese, 1994);
2.	New Training Technologies (English and Chinese, 1995);
3.	A Guide for Evaluation of Technical and Vocational Curricula (English, 1995);
4.	New Perspectives on Assessment (English and Chinese, 1995);
5.	Functional Literacy, Workplace Literacy and Technical and Vocational Education: Interfaces and Policy Perspectives (English, 1995);
6.	Vocational Guidance for Equal Access and Opportunity for Girls and Women in Technical and Vocational Education (English, 1996);
7.	Promotion of the Equal Access of Girls and Women to Technical and Vocational Education (English, 1995);
8.	Current Trends and Issues in Technical and Vocational Education (English, 1996);
9.	Technical and Vocational Education for Rural Development: Delivery Patterns (English, 1997);
10.	Promotion of linkage between Technical and Vocational Education and the world of work (English, 1997)

Foreword



This publication is one of the series entitled “Studies in Technical and Vocational Education” distributed by the Section for Technical and Vocational Education, UNESCO within the framework of the UNEVOC Project. UNEVOC is the acronym of UNESCO’s International Project on Technical and Vocational Education, which was launched in 1992. This project focuses primarily on the exchange of information, networking and other methods of international co-operation between specialists in technical and vocational education.

This monograph includes the Final Report of the UNEVOC International Expert Meeting on the Promotion of Linkage between Technical and Vocational Education and the World of Work which was held in Tokyo, Japan, from 3-6 February 1997 and the selected country papers submitted by the participants of the meeting. Due to the limited space available, and as agreed by the authors, the papers were simplified by the editor.

UNESCO wishes to express its appreciation to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (MONBUSHO) and the Japanese National Association of Technical High School Principals for hosting and sponsoring the above-mentioned event. UNESCO also wishes to thank all those who contributed their work to this publication.

The views expressed in the papers of this monograph are those of the individuals concerned and do not necessarily reflect those of UNESCO. The designations employed and the presentation of the material do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the UNESCO Secretariat concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

Final Report on the International Expert Meeting on the Promotion of Linkage Between Technical/Vocational Education and the World of Work (Tokyo, Japan, 3-6 February 1997)

1. Introduction


Technical and vocational education, by its nature, has to be connected with other sectors of society in order to educate and train the technical personnel and skilled workers needed for socio-economic development. In today’s rapidly changing society, it is essential for technical and vocational education to strengthen its linkage with the world of work in order to meet changing requirements. Meanwhile, easy access is warranted to technical and vocational education in corresponding to emerging demands for this type of education as a lifelong learning process.

UNESCO’s International Project on Technical and Vocational Education (UNEVOC) which was launched in 1992, is dedicated to developing and improving technical and vocational education in UNESCO’s Member States, through information exchange, networking and other methods of international co-operation. Strengthening linkages between technical and vocational education and the world of work is one of the major topics which have been dealt with by this project.

A UNEVOC Inter-regional Seminar on Co-operation between Educational Institutions and Enterprises in Technical and Vocational Education was held in Berlin, Germany in May 1995. The participants at this event discussed issues and strategies concerning the development of effective co-operation between technical vocational education settings and enterprises. Based on the outcome of this seminar, UNESCO organized an International Expert Meeting on the Promotion of Linkage between Technical/Vocational Education and the World of Work in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (MONBUSHO) of Japan, in Tokyo, Japan, from 3-6 February 1997.

The main objectives of this meeting were to facilitate exchange of experiences in the various modalities of linkage between technical/vocational education and the world of work (including industry, local community, and so on.) among participants, as well as to introduce and study Japanese innovative practices in this field. It was attended by experts from eight (8) Member States including Australia, Brazil, China, Germany, Indonesia, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Saudi Arabia. An observer from Canada also attended. Experts from Thailand and the United States were invited and their discussion papers were submitted to the meeting. Due to other engagements, they were not able to participate in the event.

2. Opening of Conference


The Conference was opened by Mr. D. Ikeda, Director of the Vocational Education Division of the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (MONBUSHO).

He stressed the importance of the links between TVE and work, and hoped that ideas about linkages would develop over the days of the meeting which could be followed up to put into effect the deliberations.

Mr. S. Horie, Executive Secretary of the Japanese National Commission for UNESCO also welcomed the participants. He pointed out that Japan had been an active Member State of UNESCO since 1951 and a strong supporter of UNEVOC since its inception in 1992. He stressed the importance of finding ways and means for the providers of TVE to collaborate with industries.

Mr. S. Iguchi, President of the National Association of Technical High School Principals also addressed the session. He expressed the interest of his association which was established in 1956 in the deliberations of the meeting and welcomed the participants to visit one of the technical high schools in Tokyo later in the week.

After a short self-introduction of the participants, the bureau of the meeting was elected. Mr. Nishinosono (Japan) was elected as Chairperson, Dr Lakomy (Brazil), as Vice-Chairperson, and Dr Ramsey (Australia) as Rapporteur. The provisional agenda of the meeting was then adopted.

3. Presentation of Keynote Paper


Three keynote papers were prepared for the meeting by Dr. G. Ramsey (Australia), Mr H. Nishinosono (Japan) and Dr G. Houlihan (U.S.A.). The first two were presented at the beginning of the meeting.

Dr Ramsey’s keynote paper titled “International Trends and Developments in Technical and Vocational Education” outlined recent trends and important issues concerning the linkage between TVE and the world of work, based on the experience in Australia and in other parts of the world.

Many countries are interested in the issue of key competencies which are acquired by learners in TVE and they have been discussed with attempts made to enhance these competencies in the future. The major problem with their implementation was seen to be the lack of training of most teachers to inculcate them and the lack of appropriate curriculum to serve the needs of the students.

It was further pointed that Australia was considered to have a strong State system of education and it was interesting to see these State responsibilities given over to the national government in the development of the new apprenticeship and traineeship system. The concept of a national approach to TVE was seen to be most important.

The second keynote speech was made by Mr Nishinosono of Japan. He introduced the policies and innovative practices in Japan to promote linkages of TVE with the industries.

It was pointed out that a number of Asian countries, children were suffering from their parents’ ambitious of wishing them to go to university rather than TVE. It was noted that this was not only a tendency typical for the Asian societies, but common in the countries of the Western world as well. It was pointed out that the relatively low status accorded to TVE in so many countries was demonstrated also in Japan, and there had been a significant move away from TVE to general education and university preparation.

The integrated course now in operation in some Japanese schools was seen as a significant achievement with increasing popularity and being successful. It is still in an experimental stage, but it is important to prepare young people for a wide range of work opportunities that society can provide.

The involvement of industry in the Japanese situation was not easy to define. The National Council on Vocational Education requires each course to observe appropriate standards and that the course reflects appropriate attitudes, which require a specific methods of teaching. Some companies are expected to provide computers in their work places for educational purposes. Some companies accept students from integrated courses, who have acquired the skills they need, through in-school training. Also, considerable use is made of people from industry visiting schools to demonstrate the nature of their work.

It was noted that more than 90 per cent of Japanese children reach the end of high school (12 years). Hence, the industries have the chance to enroll these young people into their own training programmes since they possess the necessary general skills required for their jobs. Due to this reason, there is only limited co-operation between employers and TVE schools.

Unlike many countries, companies in Japan feel responsible for providing their own training, and they prefer to employ people with general skills. However, it presents a problem for some small business or manufacturer that they cannot provide sufficient training for new employees in their companies.

In the integrated course in Japan there is no differentiation between courses for boys and girls. Many courses that have become obsolete have been transformed into new areas, providing more general training.

4. Presentation of Country Papers


There were presentations from seven countries which stimulated discussions, and some considerable diversities emerged. The German dual system has clearly had significant influence on the TVE system worldwide and had been adopted with modifications in several countries, while it was under increasing scrutiny in Germany itself.

Some issues, relating to the status of TVE dominated over the issues, related to the nature of courses, structural changes, or orientation modular or competency-based training programmes. Other issues which emerged at the meeting, were related to the salary potential of graduates, the lack of training and lack of experience of the teachers, and the reinforcement of the social stratification.

It was determined that there were increasing pathways for the students from school to work and that special arrangements were made for TVE students to continue their studies to universities. One example given was by the Republic of Korea, where their new universities are intended only for students who have come from TVE stream. It was considered that students undertaking work in the 3D category - dangerous, difficult and dirty - should be given close consideration in a nation’s education system. It was noted, too, that such jobs were becoming increasingly mechanical and “high tech”.

It was also noted that in some countries, the schools act as enterprises, producing and selling goods and services. This was seen to have a positive side by providing direct work experience, but at the same time it could distort the curriculum if the goal to earn money was too intensive and may become source of friction with private sector competitors, unless special care was taken.

It was further noted that the dual system is oriented towards providing general and cultural education in parallel with the development of skills. This was why the vocational school in Germany, for example, remains the corner stone of the system. Even where major companies undertake all the training, for example Siemens in Germany, this cultural education was still an important part of the curriculum.

The importance of foreign experts going to developing countries and to advise on TVE directions was also mentioned. In general, each country needs to adapt some ideas from other countries for their own purposes. Saudi Arabia’s use of experts from Japan, Germany and the United States of America, and Indonesia’s use of German and Australian experts to develop their own version of the dual system (Perididikan Sistem Ganda) were quoted as examples in this respect.

5. Multimedia presentations


Two multimedia presentations took place during the meeting. The first was presented by Katsura Kawakami who introduced a new experiment of vocational education for the staff of PANASONIC. The presentation emphasized the efficient, effective, cheap and wide coverage of their network system. For example, it took a student only 38 hours to complete a course on the network which would take 80 hours on conventional training in the classroom.

The second presentation was given by Yosuhiro Morimoto of the NEC Corporation. He referred to networks that have been established within Japan (an experiment involving 111 schools) and also implemented international scale where they hope to have more than 100 schools connected by March 1997. The Company has also two-way TV communication among their plants in ten Japanese cities which have greatly improved communication. The network for school students has allowed wide transmission of knowledge and skills, training through simulation, and enhanced motivation for active study.

There was considerable discussion about the implications of these multimedia developments for TVE. The shift of teaching from the class to the web, from compulsory to voluntary and from being conducted in work-time to the employee’s own time, all these factors enhanced flexibility.

A discussion also took place on how learning through networks could be accredited, and how specific learning required and taught by a particular employer could be given wider accreditation. Basically, the system relies on trust, but there are safeguards that can be built in.

It was considered that we were only now entering this present phase of teaching through multi-media and there is still considerable uncertainty about how it will be implemented and where it will lead.

It was agreed that science, mathematics and technology subjects were ideal for network learning. These curriculums were easy to generalise across countries and the medium suited the content because the answers were exactly fixed. It was observed that the network learning was less suitable to other subject areas and particularly, where practical “hands on” skills had to be developed.

The concept of a “virtual school” was discussed, following the “NEC Gakkos initiative” where schools throughout the world were connected by a computer network. This broadened the experience of students and permitted healthy international exchanges. The use of tools such as the “Yuki Special Programme” for developing multimedia programmes was considered to be useful in TVE;

The problem of upgrading the teachers knowledge and skills to use the new technologies was raised and a point was made that in China, for example, the first thing teachers have to do is to go through a programme to learn the new technology for themselves. Thus the issue of teacher training was critical, and it was pointed out that in some countries teachers are still questioning the effectiveness of the use of new technologies in the classroom in general.

The future role of companies currently involved in the telecommunications industry as they move into education was discussed. It was indicated that if the move into education of these companies is profitable, it will continue and challenge the traditional role of teachers.

The issue that the Web provides cascades of undifferentiated information was raised and it was emphasized that students have to develop learning techniques and competencies which allow them to exploit the new technologies effectively. Also, it was pointed out that knowledge is only useful and transferable if it is presented in an organized manner and it requires a teacher with a good knowledge of structure and subject matter as well.

There was a debate as to whether in the future the teacher would be in control using the computer to assist, or the reverse. It was suggested that both will be required, depending on the learning context. It is also important that computer assisted teachers prepare curriculum materials and software.

With the growing tendency towards individualisation of learning, the issue of accreditation was raised. Recognition of prior learning as a basis for certification was considered as a matter of growing importance.

The effect on education becoming increasingly market-driven was also seen as an important issue. Will a training market improve quality, or will it homogenise education. Will it cause education to become the lowest common denominator of what might be acceptable, or will it narrow the values content of education. These questions have to be answered by the educators.

A big issue for all countries is the question of resources. There will have to be considerable internationalization in the development of curriculum materials, particularly in content areas which are common for many countries. It was suggested that more developed countries have a responsibility to support developing countries in this regard.

6. Discussion on major issues

A number of issues were discussed during the meeting and formed the basis to formulate recommendation, strategies and suggestions for TVE which could be considered further by UNESCO and its Member States.

The first group of issues discussed arose from the session on multimedia. It was noted that once this initial infrastructure had been introduced, this approach is ideal to teach various TVE students more efficiently. The following major issues have been discussed:

1. Major implications of multimedia and the use of networks:

· curriculum development, teaching and accreditation of students;

· training of teachers to assist them in their changing role to support students' computer-assisted learning and development of curriculum that might become teaching software;

· meeting the needs of different countries: some curriculum is common for many countries, but sometimes it needs translation, while other curricula are highly specific for the countries.

2. The use of a multimedia or network approach to develop competencies through self-learning: Students need to develop specific skills in order to receive knowledge through this new approach to learning.

3. The financing of the development of these multimedia approaches: The implications for both developed and developing countries.

4. Evaluation of students achievements through multimedia methods: How can recognition be given to learning in non-formal settings on the job or undertaken by employees?

5. The new roles of teachers: Teachers must be able to:

· assist students to develop a competency for self-learning;

· assist students to structure knowledge from the wide range of available sources so that it is transferrable and prepare them to deal effectively with a mass of information, including sophisticated ideas.

The meeting also discussed more general issues arising from the country papers presented. The following issues were seen as important:

1. How can countries, and particularly developing ones, gain the maximum benefit from the growing internationalization of TVE, as part of the increasing globalization of the world economy?

2. What changes are necessary for the providers of TVE to fulfill their changing role, particularly in terms of their need to establish closer link among industry, enterprises and employers?

3. What is the likely impact of the growing use of information technology on TVE and its delivery, whether in formal settings, on the job, or other settings?

4. What are the broader goals of TVE beyond the development of work-related skills, for example, its contribution to self-development and personal growth, so that individuals contribute fully to society and not just to the work place?

5. How can the coordination between TVE and general education be improved providing more flexible forms of articulation between the two? This may require changing the concept of TVE and general education so that they become integrated and as far as the students are concerned, preparing them for both work and life.

6. How can the status of TVE be raised so that it takes its proper place alongside general and higher education? In the short term, this will require creating better pathways among these three sectors, and including work as well as viewing TVE itself as a form of general education preparing people for a broad range of future employment as general education is expected to do.

7. How can employers and enterprises be encouraged to fulfill their role in bringing the world of work closer to the TVE providers in a climate where more and more is being expected of them by all three education sectors? How can they better fulfill their role in co-operative projects?

During the discussion it was noted that there was a trend to develop special universities to cater for TVE students. This was the case in Saudi Arabia where they were intended specifically for TVE students, the Republic of Korea where the 'new' universities were being established as the corner-stone of TVE and in Japan, where previous 'polytechnic' type universities had endeavoured to transform into traditional universities. This second trend was noted in several countries.

The importance of vocational guidance to young people was recognized for adequate information on the various options available to them. It was reported that in some countries students were becoming increasingly attracted to TVE, since they could see how it relates more directly to employment and provides also options undertaken at university courses either by being given credit for their TVE studies or having special university courses designed for them. The opportunity to enter university for the 'maester' degree in Germany was quoted as an example.

It was pointed out that some enterprises are not aware of the various changes that have occurred in TVE systems in general and what is happening in technical colleges in particular. This was seen as a real barrier to getting better support for TVE from industry.

7. Field visits


Participants undertook one day visit to familiarise themselves with the vocational education system in Japan.

The morning visit was to Kuramae Technical High School, a traditional school more than 70 years old. The buildings and equipment reflect its maturity, and it provides a solid base of vocational education through a three-year course for the age group from 15 to 17 years (after 9 years of compulsory schooling). There are 600 full-time day students, of whom 37 are girls. They all do a common course depending on speciality. There is a part-time night programme for more than 200 students, those unable to attend during the day. Students pay 8,000 yen per month (US$ 80) which is the same as for the general high schools. There are 40 students per class, but students make small group around 10 for the practical training and 20 for English and Mathematics.

About 10% of the graduates go on to university, 70% go straight to work and about 15% to other higher education institutions, such as engineering colleges. All students study general subjects, and it is seen as a general vocational education. All teachers must receive pedagogical training prior to teaching in the school and none come direct from industry.

The second institution visited was the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute for Education and Technology which was the best equipped government funded institution that any one of the visitors had seen before. The intention of this institute, which costed US$ 40 million to build and equip is to raise the status of TVE in the eyes of senior secondary students and to give them opportunities for hands-on experience in the most up-to-date technology of the actual work-place. It also trains teachers, and puts through 45,000 students and 10,000 teachers each year in 3 to 5 days training programmes. The Institute has the most up-to-date industry systems for biochemical-production, computer assisted business and automated production. It has sophisticated equipment that is difficult and costly to install in schools and provides fully systems operated facilities for advanced technology that will be studied by senior high school students in the 21st century.

The third visit was to the PANASONIC Audio-Visual and Systems Square (AV&CC) which gave a presentation of state-of-the-art equipment currently available commercially. The centre-piece new technology was high-definition TV with wide screen format which was also projected in 3-dimensional quality none of the visitors had experienced before the visit. The use of digital technology in education, medicine, business and general entertainment gave a taste of what will become more popular and widely available over the next decade.

8. Recommendations

8.1 General issues for UNESCO

1.	UNESCO should be complimented for the work it has initiated to enhance TVE through the UNEVOC Project, and is being advised that this work should continue in the future. It would be very helpful if other developed countries would add resources to those already provided by Germany to allow this further development.
	UNESCO should advise Member States to set up mechanisms which would assist them to implement special measures to improve the status of TVE and its functioning within the education industry, with particular emphasis on linking TVE to the world of work:
2.	UNESCO should continue its work to address gender and equity issues in the area of TVE so that groups which do not normally participate in training are given the opportunity to do so. In particular, strategies to enhance the opportunity for girls to undertake work in new employment fields is an important part of meeting gender needs.
3.	UNESCO should advise on structures being used in Member States to bring together industry and TVE providers at school, industry and national levels; such structures should include representatives of TVE, industry and relevant trade unions, and other community organizations.
4.	UNESCO may wish to determine a process for establishing competency standards that are international in areas where these are not already available.
5.	UNESCO should develop a programme of case-studies to utilize work being done in many countries to establish competency standards. Also, it should advise on strategies used to involve industry and TVE providers on how to achieve consensus on key competencies.
6.	UNESCO at the highest level should seek to establish close cooperation with global companies and enterprises to strengthen their support to the TVE system in the Member States, particularly in the telecommunications arena.

8.2 Educational issues for Member States

i) For general secondary schools:

· to provide vocational guidance which emphasises the opportunities in the world of work and TVE programmes which lead to it;

· to arrange students to have experience in work places so that they may have a better understanding of possible work futures;

· to focus on the development of key competencies which will show potential employers what skills for work students have;

· to promote the development of integrated courses dedicated to providing a more seamless approach to general and vocational education.

ii) For secondary vocational schools:

· to investigate to potential for implementing a modified 'dual' system which brings together learning in the work-place with learning in school;

· to investigate other models of bringing together learning in school with learning for work for example, co-operative education.

iii) Curriculum arrangements

· curricula should be made more job-related with the development of key competencies at the core;

· the projects undertaken by students should relate to real situations and real work-place experience;

· extending the contents of the general education in TVE school, so that vocational education can achieve general education aims;

· programmes of work practice should be developed so that young people may enter the work-place and be productive with minimum delay.

· work skills earned at school should be given credit toward vocational credentials achieved after entering work.

More general measures

Member States should develop more effective vocational guidance programmes for students and their parents.

Member States should be advised that it is in their national interest to ensure adequate financing for TVE and its funding should be considered so that its priorities are considered along with those of universities and schools.

· The salaries of teachers of TVE need to be adequate to attract the best teachers and particularly, people from industry and TVE teachers should be available to teach in the general secondary school;

· TVE should become increasingly integrated with the school education system and university education and should be accorded the same level of attention as other sectors of education.

· Member States should ensure that their national employer agencies such as Chambers of Commerce and Industry are actively involved in bringing TVE and the world of work together;

· Teachers of TVE should be provided regularly with opportunities for direct work experience to enhance their understanding of the world of work;

· Strategies should be developed to assist the industry to provide work experience without the burden being too great for enterprises, and the organizational arrangements should be made simple;

· Employment agencies for industries should be invited to play more active role in the vocational guidance in schools.

8.3 Broader issues for Member States

Member States should investigate the implications of key competencies as are being developed in their various forms with a view to implementing them in their countries. In particular, they should review the methodology used in basic education which focuses on important competencies similar to key competencies, to determine whether this methodology can be continued into the secondary school.

Member States should be advised that significant effort will be necessary for initial and in-service teacher training for TVE teachers to meet the requirements of the world of work with regard to classroom teaching.

Attention should be paid in the Member States to the extent that the concepts of TVE are included in the basic or primary school curriculum. This should include the development of manual skills and an understanding of the nature of work.

Member States should establish appropriate data-bases that would allow industries and TVE institutions to share information, particularly about labour market opportunities.

Member States should ensure that appropriate materials relating to environmental and ecological issues are included in TVE curricula at all levels and across all major fields.

In order to assist people enter the more competitive economic environment, TVE curricula should incorporate the development of entrepreneurial skills and an understanding of the competitive business world.

8.4 Multi-media issues for UNESCO and the Member States

UNESCO and the Member States should bring together representatives of TVE providers from the education industry with companies in the field of telecommunications, multi-media and software development so that the new technologies can be used more effectively in TVE.

Companies developing software in fields that may be transferrable across countries (e.g. in mathematics, sciences, technology, business studies, etc.) should be invited by UNESCO to produce generalizable curriculum materials. UNESCO/UNEVOC should set up strategies, particularly with developing countries, to make this possible.

UNESCO should work with the Member States to see whether joint financing of curriculum development in TVE or translation of materials that may improve the cost effectiveness of curriculum development.

UNESCO/UNEVOC should develop strategies to produce simulations of key work experiences which may be used in various countries. Simulation is seen as an important way to reduce the cost of practical experience.

The UNEVOC Project should undertake case-studies on various ways of integrating multi-media methods and material into the TVE curriculum.

UNESCO should promote the production of educational materials by companies developing multi-media materials (for example, some countries provide tax relief).

Since a number of countries implement the dual system of TVE and training by the school and the industry, the UNEVOC project could advise on how to use more effectively multi-media methods and materials so as to serve both the needs of on-and-off the job training.

9. Acknowledgement



During the closing session, all participants expressed their satisfaction of the great success of this meeting. They were all very pleased to have this opportunity to exchange their ideas and experience on such an important topic in technical and vocational education.

On behalf of the participants, Dr. Ramsey expressed sincere gratitude to the Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, Sports and Culture (MONBUSHO) for hosting this event and to the Japanese National Association of Technical High School Principals for their generous sponsorship. The warm hospitality extended to all participants made their short stay in Japan a wonderful experience.

The contribution towards this event made by the late Miss Akemi Fujiu, a Japanese Associate Expert who worked in UNESCO from 1994-1995 was also mentioned and highly appreciated by the participants.

10. List of participants

Australia	Dr. Gregor Ramsey
	Chair
	Research Advisory Council
	Australian National Training Authority
	19A Gordon Street
	Mosman, NSW 2088
	AUSTRALIA
Brazil	Dr. Ana Maria Lakomy
	Professor
	Centre of Technological Education at Paran?
	(CEFT-PR)
	Avenida 7 de Setembro, 3165
	80230-901 Curitiba, Paran?
	BRAZIL
People's Republic of China
	Mr. Xianjin DOU
	Programme Officer
	Department of Technical and Vocational Education
	Chinese State Education Commission
	37, Damucang Hutong
	Xidan, Beijing 100816
	PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA
Germany	Dr. Antonuis Lipsmeier
	Professor and Director
	Department for Vocational Studies
	Institute for Vocational and General
	Education Studies
	Karlsruhe University
	Leisbergstr. 17d
	76534 Baden-Baden
	GERMANY
Indonesia	Mrs. Giri Suryatmana
	Assistant Director
	Home Economic Health and
	Social Work Education Development
	Directorate of Technical and Vocational Education
	Ministry of Education and Culture
	Jalan Jenderal Sudirman - Senayan
	Jakarta 10270
	INDONESIA
Japan	Mr. Haruo Nishinosono
	Professor
	Naruto University of Education
	Takashima Naruto
	JAPAN 772
Republic of Korea	Dr. Tae-hwa Jung
	Manager of Research Team IV
	Vocational Technical Education Research
	Centre
	Korean Educational Development Institute
	(KEDI)
	92-6, Umyundong, Seochogu
	Seoul 137-791
	REPUBLIC OF KOREA
Saudi Arabia	Dr. Ali N. Alghafis
	Director-General
	Technical Education, General Organization
	for Technical and Vocational Training
	P.O. Box 6041
	Riyadh 11442
	SAUDI ARABIA
Observer	Mr. Jean-Ren?Bibeau
	Senior Evaluation Specialist
	Ministry of Industry, Commerce,
	Science and Technology
	11750, Place de Guise
	Quebec, (Qc) G2A 3K7
	CANADA
UNESCO	Dr. Qian Tang
	Chief
	Section for Technical and
	Vocational Education
	Division for the Renovation
	of Secondary and Vocational Education
	7, Place de Fontenoy
	UNESCO, Paris
	FRANCE
	Mr Hiroshi Matsuzaka
	Associate Expert
	Section for Technical and
	Vocational Education
	Division for the Renovation
	of Secondary and Vocational Education
	7, place de Fontenoy
	UNESCO, Paris
	FRANCE
	Ms. Farida Gazdar
	Secretary
	Section for Technical and
	Vocational Education
	Division for the Renovation
	of Secondary and Vocational
	Education
	7, place de Fontenoy
	UNESCO, Paris
	FRANCE

11. Selected country discussion papers

11.1 Australia

International Trends and Developments in Technical and Vocational Education

by

Gregor Ramsey
Research Advisory Council
Australian National Training Authority
Mosman, NSW, Australia

INTRODUCTION

The enhanced focus on technical and vocational education (TVE) in most developed countries, and particularly those striving for a more competitive market for their goods and services, is now more than a decade old. The stimulus for this enhancement stems from a number of sources:

· the rapid internationalisation of the world economy;

· the increased emphasis on competition and the development of global markets;

· the need for increased quality in goods and services if enterprises are to be competitive;

· the changing role of governments as they move away from providing services directly to concentrate on funding and control; and

· the increased emphasis on "user pays" for government provided services, including education.

Developing countries have not been slow to take up some of these trends in the establishment of their own TVE systems. Where developed countries such as UK, Australia, Germany have had to face the difficult task of changing established and entrenched systems in a climate of budget constraint, developing countries have been able to expand their systems or put in place new ones using the best ideas in TVE from around the world without the inhibiting effect of conservatism slowing change.

Most developed countries have had to couch change in terms of some kind of reform agenda which has required a considerable shift in the way TVE is to operate. Most countries are bringing about changes which are consistent with the following guiding principles for technical and vocational education and training:

· the training must be industry focussed through strong partnerships (links) between the training providers and the industries and enterprises they serve;

· the training must be provided where it is needed, whether on the job, at home, or in a formal training institution;

· the curriculum must be flexible and able to be delivered in a range of settings, so is modular; providing close direction to the student and teacher;

· the training is competency based so that employers are clear about what people can do; and

· there is a consistent system of certification which guarantees quality as well as transportability of skill. (National standards in various forms are now common.)

The extent to which the economic turmoil of the 80s with the October 1987 stock market crash caused a radical rethink is not clear. It did, however, cause a sharper realisation of the difference between real money, generated by enhanced skills which add genuine value to what an enterprise does, and paper money which has more to do with asset stripping and repositioning and little to do with the overall improvement of an enterprise. Coupled with this have been significant changes in labour market trends. Those who are more skilled are more likely to remain employed or find new employment, so training for the whole workforce has become critical. The need to improve quality to best international standards has required a higher level of skill than had been the tradition on the shop floor or manufacturing line. Work practices are changing, requiring people who are able to use an increasingly sophisticated technology.

Some of these changes caused countries to examine where education dollars were most effectively spent. The support for university education and the fostering of an elite education system was called into question when countries with such approaches discovered they were less globally competitive than countries which provided much more extensive formal and informal education and training for the bulk of the workforce. The United Kingdom and Australia are examples of the first, while Japan and Germany are examples of the second. The realisation is growing that the mark of a clever country and one that will be internationally competitive, is a country which has educated the bulk of its citizens to a significant level, providing appropriate training to make their workforce at all levels highly skilled. A country's economic health is better sustained if education and training is provided to the whole potential workforce, rather than more and more resources being applied to those already advantaged, which is the trend in an elite system focussed mainly on universities.

CURRENT TRENDS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF TVE

As with most changes, through global communications and meetings such as this, ideas from one part of the world very quickly become part of a change agenda in another. Not that proposals from one country are implemented unchanged in others. Rather, the idea is taken up and own country solutions proposed which modify the original to suit the new environment. This has particularly proven to be the case with TVE, for example with the German dual system being modified in other countries such as Indonesia, and the UK national qualifications frameworks being modified in countries like Australia, New Zealand and Mexico.

Generalisable Skills

Another example of a good idea being taken up almost simultaneously in several countries is the issue of generalised workplace skills which are expected to apply irrespective of the nature of the workplace environment. Various countries have their own names for them: for example, in the English speaking world they are called Essential Skills in New Zealand, Core Skills in the UK, SCANS skills (Senate Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills) in the US and Key Competencies in Australia.

Although each of the schemes differs on the margin, they have similar skill areas and the emphasis and intent is comparable. The essential aim of an education system based on competencies is to know what people can do, so that they may be better prepared for work. This is a very different aim from the more traditional content knowledge assessment which occurs in schools at the end of say, twelve years of schooling.

The key competencies are skills that good teachers always developed and are the skills required in the workforces of the next century. Those who have the skills will be employable, they are inculcated in economically rich environments, so unless we are careful, the poor and disadvantaged will be denied them. Attitudes and values about work do underpin them, but they are not supported at least explicitly by values about other things, for example, the arts, literature and music. Issues related to key competencies come to the core of the kind of society we want.

The Australian Key Competencies are:

· collecting, analysing and organising information;
· communicating ideas and information;
· planning and organising activities;
· working with others and in teams;
· using mathematical ideas and techniques;
· solving problems;
· using technology.

An eighth, cultural understanding, has particular poignancy with the recent debate in Australia about its cultural mix. This debate has brought into harsh relief the issue of people's attitudes and values and although it is essential to develop skills in people, they are not of themselves sufficient for an effective workforce. We are becoming increasingly aware that the skills we develop through TVE will be used by people who have particular value sets. So any development of skill must be paralleled by the development of people as people: their attitudes, values and appreciations. A skill developed in a person is not value free and this skill:value dichotomy requiring the development of the whole person will become increasingly an issue for all our countries and their education systems. Such development is an important component of lifelong education, which is a key UNESCO theme.

As TVE curricula become increasingly industry driven, the development of the skills to serve industry is critical. But so also is the development of the attitudes and values we expect of our citizens. Employers are only now beginning to see that both can influence the bottom line or profit, not just the skill. To give an example, a workplace where there is racial disharmony (in some workplaces in Australia there are as many as 18 different languages spoken with similar divergence in cultural background) will be an inefficient workplace.

The trend toward identifying generalisable skills and assessing people as to the sub-skills they have in each category or the level and depth to which they have acquired the skill will be an area of considerable development internationally. Such an approach challenges traditional content curricula and will influence dramatically what is to be taught in schools, as a precursor to more specific vocational education.

TVE in Schools

In most countries, the number of young people staying on at school is increasing. In many developed countries, more than 80 per cent of the entering cohort of children stay for a full 12 years. To look at this fact the other way round, in Australia in 1966 about 60 per cent of 15-19 year olds were in full time work. By now it is down as low as 18 per cent. This is a dramatic shift of load to schools, and I think it is fair to say that schools were generally slow to modify their curricula to meet the needs of their new clientele.

An important approach internationally has been to make the school curriculum in the senior years more job skill related. This is not so much to give school students work experience; rather it must involve developing higher order capacities in the whole year 11 and 12 cohort that previously had been reserved for the 20 or so per cent who stayed on beyond the compulsory school leaving age. This challenges many of our entrenched ideas about intelligence and the ranking of students and which students can learn which content. Addressing the needs of this new clientele has been attempted in a number of ways. Unfortunately, school teachers are ill equipped to meet the new expectations to develop the skills needed for the new world of work and change has generally been slow.

Countries are experimenting with providing a whole range of different pathways from school to work, such as:

Compulsory school	«	technical and vocational education « work
post compulsory school	«	professional education (university) « work
post compulsory school	«	technical	professional	education « work
		vocational	education	(university)
post compulsory	«	technical and « work « professional education « work « skills
school		vocational education		(university)	upgrading

The arrow is intended to represent the increased blurring of this interface and that increasingly both will occur together.

Each of the transition points is increasingly synergistic and less sharply defined as learning and working occur sometimes separately, sometimes together. Not that much of this is new: it is just that it is being applied more widely across the range of employment possibilities. The big issue in all of this is the increasing role of industry and the enterprises that employ people in technical and vocational education. For work and learning to be more effectively integrated, there must be close collaboration between employers and the providers of training.

Schools, particularly in the post compulsory years, will need to become employment placement centres working closely with industry to begin preparing young people for the work they may be expected to undertake. Schools often forget that the next step for a significant proportion of students in the final years of schooling is in fact to look for work, not further study.

The role of industry

Some sections of industry have always been heavily involved in TVE with the traditional apprenticeship being the back bone of the relationship between training providers and employers. Many countries have endeavoured to expand apprenticeship systems to new industries and to make them more attuned to developing relevant skills and competencies rather than simply "serving their time".

The intended expansion has been rather slow and has not taken into account the stage of development of many industries and enterprises. More importantly, to support an apprentice or trainee is costly for an enterprise, and particularly a small one with very little in the way of spare resources. This raises the question as to whether all the training resources should be in the hands of the provider, and whether at least some of these resources should go to the enterprise to pay for their contribution to training. Obviously, if at the end of the training the person will not be employed by the enterprise, there is a stronger case for some support. This is particularly so for work experience which may be part of school or where exemplary enterprises are used to train people.

The problems of providing training in small businesses and enterprises is a pertinent one for both developed and developing countries. In many countries more than 80 per cent of the workforce are employed in enterprises with 20 or fewer staff. With increasing contracting out of services and a general push to down size, the trend to small business is likely to increase. A critical issue is to draw small business into the training arena. Needs of small business vary widely. For some, training is needed for a highly specific product or service. For others, training is needed to develop multi-skilling and flexibility so that they can undertake a range of tasks. The training and the work can readily be separated, and be undertaken either on or off the job or a mixture of both.

For some enterprises that are at the cutting edge either of product development or service provision, learning is actually part of decision making and is about problem solving and entrepreneurial skills. This approach requires a very different training response and is part of developing a learning organisation where learning and working are an integrated whole.

To parallel the increased focus on industry, most countries are expanding, or allowing to expand, the provision of training by private organisations. This allows the opportunity for more efficient delivery when compared with the government provider, but more importantly, offers a real choice both to the potential student and the employer. Such an approach starts to create a training market, with education and training beginning to develop the hallmarks of an "industry in the making". Different countries are at various stages in the development of a training market and some questions are being raised to be sure that TVE provision is not weakened when a market begins to take hold. Some of the concerns include ensuring:

· the quality of the training;

· that a real choice be presented to clients;

· that equity objectives continue to be met;

· that TVE is still offered in cases where it would be very uneconomic, for example, in small towns and distant regions.

The relationships between training providers and industries may be summarised in terms of the following principles that have some generalisability across countries and have influenced the development and provision of TVE:

· sharing more fairly the costs of training among the individual, the enterprise or industry and the government;

· increasing industry ownership of the traineeship system with enhanced stakeholder input to major decisions;

· providing a more streamlined system of regulation of providers and of credentials;

· expanding training opportunities so that they are more evenly spread across the whole workforce meeting the needs of all enterprises more equitably;

· ensuring that equity and access considerations are fairly applied;

· providing a national framework within which the training system operates;

· enhancing the quality of the training system, particularly through benchmarking both in country and across countries; and

· increasing internationalisation of training driven by global markets and enterprises.

As industries change, so will the training required to serve their needs. Much is occurring now which will provide a stable base for future TVE development. Relationships between TVE and industry will be influenced by the requirements of global enterprises on the one hand and the needs of small business, often with a very local clientele on the other. Do large global enterprises for example, need large global training organisations to respond to their needs in the way large companies require big banks to finance their investment? Can large training organisations meet the needs of small businesses and industries, or is that better done by one of smaller size? Some of these issues will be resolved as the competing forces from the training market take effect. Where there are gaps, government agencies will need to step in to ensure that a country's training needs are met. Competition alone, at least in the short term, is unlikely to do it.

The Delivery of TVE

As other industries and enterprises become more global in emphasis and reach, so also will the education and training industry. Already developed countries particularly are making their education and training services available to other countries, either by attracting overseas students to their countries, working in the overseas country or offering courses by distance techniques. Knowledge and information is now available anywhere, at any time through the world wide web and increasingly education and training organisations will be global in their reach.

Increasingly, too, industries are looking to meet international standards of good practice, and in the case of some industries, where the achieving of common ends and outcomes is sought. For example, aviation and telecommunications, the actual standards and training techniques are common internationally.

The trend is increasingly to deliver the training service where it is needed and to provide materials that are specific to certain outcomes or requirements. Because flexibility is in such high demand, courses tend to be modular, put together in ways which suit the specific individual's needs, and particularly their employment circumstances. This raises an important equity issue: how can we be certain that an employer will allow an employee to undertake what is best for them as opposed to what may be best for the firm.

Standard course lengths and standard course content are under challenge, as students with their employers work out what is best for them. It might be three modules over three months, it might be 24 over two years. No longer is training provided upfront, from which the person is then prepared for that specific employment for the rest of their life. Any learning is part of a lifelong engagement with a learning process, some of which will be formal, some informal.

People will develop skills in different ways, and the concept of recognition of prior learning (RPL) as it is known in Australia or accredited prior learning (ARL) as it is known in the UK become increasingly significant. Modular programmes when used in formal classrooms with people who have credit for a wide range of previous learning, challenges the traditional concept of a classroom of learners with a teacher working through a set curriculum. The teacher becomes the assessor of previous knowledge, the designer of a relevant learning programme (by advising on appropriate modules), the guide to the learner as they work through the modules. Parallelling this more formal training is the essential liaison with the learner's workplace. Training is becoming a highly complex business.

The development of curriculum to meet these much more complex requirements is expensive and time consuming: in fact it is pointing to a position where the whole concept of curriculum in TVE is changing and it may not be a helpful word much longer. Many countries are adopting a national approach to curriculum development, to meet national outcome standards consistent with world best practice. Many curricula developed in one country are accepted by or are modified for use in another. This makes economic sense and no doubt the trend will continue. There are clearing houses of materials, such as at the UNEVOC Centre at the Adelaide Institute of TAFE where they are made available for wider perusal. Increasingly, too, the world wide web will be a source of curriculum and will provide a process whereby curricula can be developed jointly both within countries and across countries. Soon teachers will be able to pick and choose from among curricula generated in many countries round the world, subject of course to the limitations of language.

The influence on curriculum of learning in the workplace is a matter of some research and much discussion. The central issue is to determine what is best learned in the workplace and what would be better undertaken in a more formal setting with a teacher and a group of students with more diverse backgrounds and employment experience.

The issue about who should make the learning decision is a critical one. The closer to the workplace the learning is undertaken, then the more likely will the employer influence what is learned. Also, an employer is less likely to support a learning program which is more general in its application, or directed at the employee finding a better job, probably with another employer.

Another dilemma is emerging as well. Curriculum development is expensive and is usually undertaken by Government agencies. As private providers come increasingly into the picture and a market develops, what are the terms on which these curricula should be made available? Should they be free, a modest change imposed, or a price determined consistent with cost recovery? What are the implications of social justice when a fee is charged? For example, in my country government schooling up to year 12 is essentially free. A person who leaves school after year 10 and returns to TVE some time later will be required to pay a fee even though they have not received the equivalent of 12 years of education free, as would those students who proceed to university.

Similarly, government provided facilities could be used (hired?) by private providers, either at times of the day, week or year when they are not being used by the public provider, or in competition with the public provider where the private provider can offer the service more cheaply. Like most boundaries we have in education, the public:private provider can be quite a blurred one as public providers privatise some sections of their operations and private providers gain many of the benefits of public funding and support that previously had only been available to the government provider.

As soon as a training market develops, processes must be put in place either to accredit and hence assure the quality of courses offered by private providers or have a system of registration of the private provider so that the public can be assured of the quality of what they do. These safeguards can be expensive, and if the process of registration or accreditation is long, be seen to be obstructive to an organisation endeavouring to deliver training to meet a specific market. Different countries are grappling with these issues in different ways, with varying mixtures of "heavy hand" and "light touch" by government agencies. There is still much to discuss about where governments should be involved and where it is best to step back leaving it to the market to determine who will attract the clients with the normal "caveat emptor" warning to the potential buyer of the service on offer. One thing is critical, governments must ensure that private providers, and public ones as well, if they are receiving government funding, must have in place acceptable quality improvement systems.

Staff Development

The rate of change in TVE world wide is such that many countries are endeavouring to provide programmes of staff development to assist them come to terms with what is occurring. Apart from dramatic changes in teaching methods and techniques that may be applied within the classroom, other matters loom large for teachers and it is important that they receive some help in their understanding of issues. Some of these include:

· Teaching in a fee for service environment;
· making the public provider more competitive;
· benchmarking their activities to assist in improvement;
· understanding research techniques, methods and findings;
· teaching a much more diverse clientele;
· implementing recognition of prior learning;
· teaching and learning in the workplace; and
· developing management skills.

Some countries have developed national approaches to staff development with fully worked out strategic plans. It is important to note that as part of an industry, education and training enterprises need training as much as any other industry. In a sense, the education industry should be an exemplar of good practice in training for other industries. Too rarely can it be said that this is so. Indeed TVE provides far less opportunity for training for its teaching staff than does the university sector.

Any national strategy for staff development should have objectives aspiring to:

· increase the quantity of staff development and the resources devoted to it;
· improve the quality of staff development;
· address specific equity requirements;
· support training reform; and
· promote best practice in staff development.

As in any other industry, staff development should be undertaken directly in the workplace where that is most effective. A suitable balance needs to be struck between on and off the job training and formal and informal development programmes. An over arching principle ought to be that the staff development is directed at improving some aspect of what is happening in the teacher's workplace. The planning of any staff development activity should include a strategy for disseminating more widely what has been learned or implementing changes as a result of the program. Staff development activities must affect not only the individuals involved but activities in the workplace as well.

Organisation and Management of TVE

The reforms that are occurring in TVE are more far reaching than those occurring in schools and universities, and this is a global phenomenon.

In most countries, the status of TVE providers is low when compared with other sectors of education, so change can be imposed by ministerial fiat without the organised opposition that can so readily be mustered by schools and universities.

No more than a decade ago, TVE was mainly delivered by public providers with a few specialist areas being the subject of private provision. Aviation, some areas of commerce, retailing to name a few. The public providers were part of a government department, either within a broader education portfolio, or separate from it. The institutions were administered as if they were "grown up schools".

With the coming of the training reforms, many countries instituted enquiries and reviews of their TVE systems. These reviews were undertaken in the light of attempts to create a market situation with both public and private providers, looking to achieve a national policy and strategy for TVE to meet the more competitive economic environment, having training employer driven, and introducing greater flexibility in the content and delivery of courses.

Countries have introduced boards of vocational education and training to advise governments, training advising bodies such as the Training Enterprise Councils (TECs) in the UK and the Industry Training Advisory Boards (ITABs) in Australia to advise the providers of vocational education of their industry's needs. In addition, regulatory authorities to develop national competency standards were established as well as accreditation bodies to be responsible for course quality and registration of providers. This made for a very complex system which at least in Australia was seen by industry as cumbersome and difficult to comprehend, and steps have been taken to make the system simpler.

Public providers in some countries were seen to be unresponsive to the real needs of enterprises, and a reason given for this was that they had a monopoly and hence were not encouraged to be efficient.

There were two approaches to resolve this dilemma: one was to introduce or support with some government funding, private providers to act as genuine competition. The second was to give individual TVE institutions some degree of autonomy to enable them to compete with each other for students and for funds from both the Government and from the private sector. In a sense, large systems were cut up into smaller providers that had to be competitive to survive. Whether a Government would allow a public provider to go broke and hence disappear is still very much to be tested, but we are in early days yet.

This move to a large number of relatively small educational businesses is against the trend in other industries for consolidation to a few major providers that often then become global in their reach. There are signs that educational institutions will come together to make larger networks both within and across countries. The extent to which the supermarket chain model as opposed to the corner store model will predominate is still open in the TVE arena. There is no doubt that as more and more government money for training is put up for open tender, major global players in say the communications industry will become interested in providing TVE. After all, TVE is a multi-billion dollar industry in most of our countries, and if these funds become truly contestable, then major global enterprises are unlikely to stand back and watch, and in the process leave education to the educators. Some of the global changes we have seen in, for example, sport with global rugby and soccer or in banking with their consolidations and changes in the delivering of their services may well come in TVE.

The situation which evolves in the TVE industry may well parallel what occurred in other industries: there will be niche market providers that come and go, with major global educational enterprises that provide the bulk of the world's TVE. We are a long way from this state of affairs yet, but the signs are that the world is moving in this direction. Another possibility that already shows some signs of life is the "franchise" model where locally owned providers conform to a set of central standards to guarantee a product irrespective of where it is offered.

Some of these organisational changes will demand managers who have been as well prepared as managers in any other industry. They will have to become resource conscious, able to manage in a competitive environment. The secret of success in the new order will be service to clients, where the organisation will operate as an efficient business. Few countries have the educational leaders and managers to institute these changes effectively, and there may be merit in attracting managers from other industries, but rates of pay and conditions in TVE do not make such a move particularly appealing.

To conclude this section it is important to understand current thinking about how go