On the worldwide level, information and communication technologies have changed not only the work environment of individuals, but also the quality and density of global communication and interaction. Markets, including labour markets, are becoming more and more global. International division of labour is developing further. In many national economies, the shift from the production of goods to the provision of services is obvious.

All these developments have an immediate impact on technical and vocational education and training. Policy makers have to adjust to rapidly changing parameters.

It is UNESCO’s task and mandate to facilitate this process of adaptation. At its First International Congress for Technical and Vocational Education held in Berlin, Germany, in 1987, it was suggested that “...an international plan of action be drawn up for the development of technical and vocational education and for promoting international co-operation in this field”. In 1992, UNESCO launched its International Project on Technical and Vocational Education (UNEVOC). In the period since then, UNEVOC has systematically and effectively provided mechanisms and platforms for international exchange of experience and dialogue in technical and vocational education on the international as well as on the regional levels. This includes a variety of approaches and means, such as traditional print media, personal interaction in workshops and symposia, as well as communication and networking through Electronic Mail and the World Wide Web.

The Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in April 1999, will focus on developing strategies for improving technical and vocational education in the early years of the twenty-first century. The congress is expected to provide a framework for UNESCO’s Long Term Programme on Technical and Vocational Education to be launched from the year 2000.

In September 1998, the UNESCO-OEEK Symposium “Vocational Education and Training in Europe on the Threshold of the 21st Century” was held in an effort to provide a European perspective of the emerging challenges to technical and vocational education in the early 21st century.

Through this report, the valuable contributions delivered at this European Symposium by its participants are being made available to a larger community of teachers and trainers, of researchers and developers, of planners and policy makers in technical and vocational education and training. UNESCO invites you to join the debate, and to draw benefit from it for the advancement of the education and training system of your own country.

2 Introduction and Overview

The 2^nd International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education in Seoul

From 26-30 April 1999, UNESCO will organize, jointly with the Government of the Republic of Korea, its 2^nd International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education in Seoul.

This congress will be devoted to "Lifelong Learning and Training for the World of Work in the Twenty-first Century". It will address central issues related to learning and training for the development of human resources - issues that confront both developed and developing countries in an age of rapid social, economic and technological change.

The Congress will focus on the following main themes:

1. The changing demands of the twenty-first century: challenges to technical and vocational education

2. Improving systems providing education and training throughout life

3. Innovating the education and training process

4. TVE for all

5. Changing roles of government and other stakeholders in TVE

6. Enhancing international cooperation in TVE.

Regional preparatory meetings

The Congress was preceded by regional conferences and symposia to focus the technical and vocational education experiences and needs of the countries in those regions. The summarized conclusions of the regional conferences and symposia will serve as contributions from those regions to the Seoul Congress:

· The regional conference for Asia and the Pacific was held in Adelaide, Australia, 25-27 March 1998.

· The Arab States held a Regional Conference from 01-04 November 1998 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

· The Regional Consultation for Africa took place from 23-27 November 1998 in Nairobi, Kenya.

· For the Latin America and the Caribbean, the regional consultation was held in Quito, Ecuador, from 23-27 November 1998.

The UNESCO-OEEK Symposium

The UNESCO-OEEK Symposium "Vocational Education and Training in Europe on the Threshold of the 21^st Century" held in Crete, Greece, 23-26 September 1998, served for the European platform to prepare for the Seoul Congress. It was organized by the Organisation for Vocational Education and Training (OEEK) under contract with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Participation

The Symposium was open to all countries in the "European Region", which, as defined for UNESCO purposes, includes Canada and Israel. In addition, the following Central Asian countries had been invited: Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The full List of Participants is to be found on page 97 of this report.

The Programme

Five Thematic Units provided the framework for presentations and discussions:

A Vocational Education and Training and New Technologies

B Environmental Education and Training

C The Changing Role of the Public and Private Sectors in Vocational Education and Training

D Internationalization of Economic Activities and Tourism

E Non-Commercial Exchanges and Vocational Training

Each of the units was introduced by a brief video clip on past and contemporary aspects of the theme with a futuristic outlook into its possible future dimensions. Keynote speakers introduced each of the themes. Other speakers highlighted selected aspects. Details are given in the programme (see page 95). Brief discussions among interested participants were held at the end of each session. Participants volunteered to summarize highlights of the presentations and discussions. The summaries are presented on page 85 ff.

Meeting of UNEVOC Centres

On the eve of the official opening, the UNESCO-UNEVOC Implementation Unit Berlin arranged a special meeting of participants from UNEVOC Centres.

The purpose of this meeting was to inform representatives from national focal points in the UNEVOC Network (UNEVOC Centres) about current activities and plans of UNESCO within the International Project on Technical and Vocational Education (UNEVOC).

The meeting was open to other interested participants, in particular from countries that are considering joining the UNEVOC Network. It gave the opportunity for face-to-face contact with UNEVOC network members in other countries of the region.

Mr Krner, Chief of the UNEVOC Implementation Unit in Berlin, briefed participants about the UNEVOC Project and its Programme for 1998-1999, and about the preparations for the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education, Seoul, Republic of Korea, April 1999.

Mr Chinien, the Director of the Canadian UNEVOC Centre, explained the national UNEVOC network that he had established recently in Canada. He invited Mr Krner to officially launch the Internet Web Site of UNEVOC Canada. Finally, Mr Kr鰊ner presented the services rendered by UNESCO within the international UNEVOC Network, such as the international UNEVOC Web Site, the UNESCO-UNEVOC Electronic Mail Circulars, and the UNESCO-UNEVOC Electronic Mail Forum (E-Forum).

The Exhibition

Exhibition booths were maintained at the venue of the Symposium by

· the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
· the International Labour Organization (ILO),
· the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP),
· the European Training Foundation (ETF), and
· the Greek Ministry of National Education and Religious Affairs.

At the UNESCO exhibition booth, delegates were not only given the opportunity to view publications and other products of UNESCO's programmes in education, they were briefed throughout the Symposium on the various services rendered to the worldwide network of UNESCO's International Project on Technical and Vocational Education (UNEVOC). Several countries decided to join UNEVOC immediately after the Symposium.

Cultural Event

After the official closing of the Symposium, the Greek hosts kindly invited the participants to see the site of Knossos.

3 Opening


3.1 The Organization for Vocational Education and Training Mr Gerassimos Sapountzoglou


Mr Gerassimos Sapountzoglou is President of the Greek Organization for Vocational Education and Training (OEEK)

Mr Minister of National Education and Religious
Affairs,
Ministers,
Representatives of UNESCO,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Dear Friends,

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the Kalimera Kriti Hotel, in this beautiful corner of Greece, on the occasion of the symposium on “Vocational Education and Training in Europe on the Threshold of the 21st Century”.

A few months ago, this symposium was a challenge for us. Today, it is a reality of which we are confident of success. The objective of this gathering of people from 50 countries in the wider European region that are represented at the level of UNESCO is to agree with a ‘common perception’ and a ‘common approach’ to the important issue of vocational education and training. It is clear that we do not seek the planning of a ‘single policy’ that will have a ‘uniform application’.

Given the economic, social, and political differences which exist today among the countries that we represent, I do hope that we will be able to achieve, through dialogue, a series of conclusions and proposals for each thematic unit. We hold the responsibility for transmitting these conclusions and proposals to the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education which will take place in Seoul, Republic of Korea, next spring. It is about the contribution of the countries of the European continent to that congress.

A presentation of the thematic units will be made later. With these few introductory words, I would like to welcome you, and to wish you both a pleasant stay and success with our symposium.

I would like to invite the Minister of Education and Religious Affairs, Mr Gerassimos Arsenis, to take the floor and declare the opening our Symposium. Thank you very much.

3.2 The Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs Mr G. D. Arsenis


Mr G. D. Arsenis is Greek Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs. He has also previously been Minister of National Defence, Minister of Finance and Minister of National Economy

Mr Chairman of the Symposium,
Fellow Ministers,
Dear Guests,
Representatives of European countries
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am delighted to take this opportunity, on behalf of the Greek Government, to welcome you. Thank you for your participation, anticipating the results of your work.

The significance of this symposium is defined by the following three factors:

1. This symposium concerns a timely issue for Greece, for the European countries, for the world: the issue of vocational education and training. Here in Greece, we are in the middle of the implementation of a large-scale reform, of a fundamental change in our educational system, which includes vocational education and training. We are striving to prepare our country, our youth, to successfully meet the challenges of the 21st century. We are striving to successfully meet and grasp the great opportunities that stand before us.

I am sure that, in the discussion that will follow, there will be an exchange of experiences of the various participating countries, as well as a productive dialogue, which will significantly aid the shaping of certain basic conclusions useful to all of us.

2. There is another reason which makes this symposium important. It is a symposium where all European countries take part; in other words, not just European Union countries, but countries of the wider European region. These are countries with different experiences and different origins, but with a common goal: the upgrading of vocational education and training.

This symposium offers a great opportunity to draw some basic conclusions based on the European experience from this sensitive area; to draw, perhaps for the first time, conclusions that will guide us as to how we should proceed together in a single direction.

At this point, I would like especially to welcome the presence of the international organisations.

3. The third reason, for which we attach particular significance to this Symposium, is that it is the preparatory symposium for the UNESCO Conference to take place in Seoul next year on the important issue of vocational education and training.

As you know, this symposium in Crete is organised jointly with UNESCO, and we can say that its conclusions will shape the ‘European platform’ in Seoul concerning the issues of vocational education and training. This is our contribution towards Seoul. High priority will be given to issues relating to the fundamental changes that have to be made in vocational education and training.

We live in a revolutionary epoch. Things have changed radically and these changes have not only affected the economic, social and, in many cases, the political structures of countries, but, in addition, the entire system of general education and of education and training.

The basic constants of the 19th century, as well as those of this century that is coming to a close, cannot be the same for the 21st century. We are called upon to examine the new dimensions of the issue, to define the new framework within which we shall act with our eyes turned to the future and not to the past.

The element that overturned old balances and constants in the field of education and training was the change in the field of knowledge and technology. Running the risk of oversimplification, I could say that the economy, society and education have changed, and are still changing rapidly these days, because the relationships between know-how and technology, between engine and production system, and between man and machine have changed.

The economy, as we once knew it, the industrial economy, had its known attributes. Its main characteristic was its relative stability. Things did change, but they changed at a rhythm that moved with the change of generations. A person that became a civil engineer would remain a civil engineer throughout his life. A person that became an architect would remain an architect throughout his life. The electrician who knew his trade could remain competitive if he, throughout his career, occasionally brought his skills up to date.

Things have changed now. Technology is changing rapidly, and what was modern yesterday is obsolete today. We have estimated that, ten years after graduation, the technical knowledge of a university graduate will have become 80% obsolete. A graduate who wants to be current in his field, and efficient in his profession, will have to return to his area of knowledge and bring himself up to date.

But it is not just the rapidity of change that causes the conditions for reform in the system of education and training. It is also the nature of human presence that has changed in the field of production.

In the industrial epoch, things were simple and well-planned. Knowledge and science were accumulated in capital; in the big, specialised machine. The big, specialised factory machine, which operated on the Ford and Taylor models, embodied the entire wisdom of our civilisation. The only requirement for the operation of that machine was its supervision by workers who had enough knowledge to follow instructions and could adapt their behaviour to the rhythm of the machine. Charlie Chaplin’s film “Modern Times”, exemplified that characteristic feature of industrial production, with the machine defining the rate of production and the workers adapting to it. That was the characteristic of industrial production.

This had its impact on the system of education and training. In the industrial age, what was required were a small number of selected scientists, who conveyed the wisdom of our civilisation from one generation to the next in the universities. They would develop technology for specialised machines, and determine in their corporations and industries the rhythm and the technology of production. It is for this reason that we have had, and continue to have in many countries, a finite number of people admitted to higher education. As for the rest, who were part of the production process and followed passively the machine created by the technological elite, all they needed was mass education of a ‘passive nature’ to learn how to read and write in order to follow instructions and adapt their intellectual or physical abilities to the rates of production that had already been set.

That was also the reason for having open mass education at the primary and secondary levels: in order to produce a particular social and economic structure. The working-class and the middle-class were the constants of the past. Therefore, the system of education and training of the past was a stable system, one that was adapted to the needs of that epoch. Training was an extension of education that updated the knowledge of workers, scientists and specialised employees to the changes of times, which were not dramatic. This is all over now. The danger is that we often try to deal with today’s reality and tomorrow’s prospects with yesterday’s mentality.

Today, this specialised machine has become obsolete. It has been replaced by smart software, and a specialist who is no longer the passive worker, but one who has a different dialectical relationship with the flexible machine. It is now required from this person to exercise critical thinking and imagination as well as to lead the machine in directions chosen by his own initiative and imagination.

Thus, the relationship between man and machine, man and production is reversed. If you like, we are turning back to old times, when the boss conceived and executed all his own work. His tools were at his disposal since he knew how to use them with creativity. So rapid changes in technology change the relationship between man and machine; with adaptable machines, and requirements for critical thought from the man, the worker. These are the new conditions. These change education. These must change education. These should change education and training.

What do we need now? To begin with, we must open the field of knowledge at all levels to all citizens. Not a pyramid of knowledge, but an education of ‘open horizons and wide choices’. Open higher education to all those who want to follow that direction. We also need another brave change in education. From an education based on the transfer of knowledge from the book to the pupil, from the teacher to the pupil, we must proceed to an education that develops critical thinking and the personality, as well as the ability to make personal choices. There is information. Electronic libraries are present everywhere. The concern of the pupil in order to acquire knowledge does not have to do with the book. The concern of the pupil has to do with the making of right choices based on the abundance of information, often of poor quality, on the Internet. The pupil must select the information which is useful for him to synthesise the problem and come up with answers to the problems he wants to analyse.

The contemporary school, therefore, is no longer the traditional school of ‘passive knowledge transfer’. It is the school of the development of the personality and critical thought. Some react to that, but the battles for the future have always been fought this way: between those who have grasped the message of the times and go forward, and others who fight at the rearguard. I do not know of any reform that was achieved without a rearguard fight. The characteristic of the rearguard however is that they are left behind. It is time for societies to understand that if they want to have a perspective and a future, the key for that future is found in the radical change in the field of general education and of education and training. Higher education open to all and ‘a field where knowledge and critical thinking develop’ constitute the new education. Yet this is not enough. The relationship between education and training is different now.

In the past, the system was different. The educational system was the learning system in the school. One would learn at school, then enter the labour market; possibly attend a training programme to acquire expertise and specialization. Having acquired this specialization, one would be competitive in the production process, and this is how one would spend one’s life. All this has changed. The dividing lines between education and training are not as clear, because the field of education contains elements of training, and further training without elements of education cannot exist. A different relationship exists today, between the three fundamental elements, “general education”, “education” and “training” that we must differentiate. I believe that this must be one of the fundamental issues that this symposium must examine.

Finally, there is another issue that must be stressed. I have already mentioned it at the beginning. Science is changing rapidly. When we were young - and even earlier, at the time of Riccardo - we were taught at universities where the comparative advantages of countries were explained, and we knew that Portugal was expected to produce wine and that the United Kingdom would export textiles.

Today, the comparative advantages of countries can change within a week. What was the comparative advantage of Japan yesterday, has become the comparative advantage of Singapore or Korea today. Tomorrow, it will become the comparative advantage of other countries. This course will neither depend on the extensive accumulation of capital and machinery, nor on the change of physical factors. It will depend on inventiveness, on the daring thought of a worker in his warehouse, garage, or store, which will change completely the factors of production and will create something new. Therefore, comparative advantages change from one company to another, from day to day. In addition, skills change. Those who were trained in the past to repair cars can no longer repair them with today’s technology. The spark plug will no longer exist and computers will repair cars. This has already started.

Therefore, lifelong training will be required. The citizen should have an ongoing relationship with the field of education and training. In order to stay current and competitive, the citizen will leave the place of production, reenter the university, the school and the training institutes. Certain competencies and occupations that existed yesterday will become obsolete.

It is estimated that in the 21st century, on average, a person will have to change his career six or seven times. What this means for an employee is that, in order to keep up with the times, lifelong training should be the constant in his life. It will therefore be necessary for the system of general education and that of vocational education and training to change entirely.

We have started here in Greece the implementation of a daring educational reform. Changes in education cannot be completed within one, two or three years. They have a longer time-horizon. They will be gradually completed. One will learn from another’s experience. A single recipe on how to set up a new effective educational system does not exist. Every country has its own problems, its own cultural heritage. Every country has a different starting point in its economic and social relations. Every country must give its own answer to its own problems. That is why I believe that the contribution of this symposium will not be made to the extent that it will present the ‘single European platform’ for reform in the area of training, but to offer a diversified programme, varying by country, with converging objectives for the development of countries and for social cohesion.

As regards social cohesion, I would like to say a few words. Education and training are not just considered the necessary tools for meeting the challenges of production and the times. They are also the necessary prerequisites for maintaining social cohesion. The countries that will be left behind, that will not dare to make their big reform in education, run the risk of becoming countries with fragmented societies with social exclusions. Social exclusion will be avoided, unemployment will be combated, and social cohesion will be ensured only through a modern system of education that responds to the questions raised.

Today, for example, in the European countries, unemployment, to a large extent, is not due to the lack of economic opportunities. It is a structural unemployment, that has been created by a distorted educational system, which created educational and social splintering and lack of correspondence between education on one hand and the real needs of life and production on the other. In the new system that we want to develop, we must provide youth with all the means and competencies to be capable of grasping every opportunity and having a productive and efficient occupation in the new economies that arise. Therefore, unemployment will only reflect the inability of countries to implement modern educational systems.

So, the common goal is for modern education, for social and economic development, for social cohesion at the European and global levels, with differentiated mitigation approaches, based on the historical, cultural and political conditions of each country. We should not repeat the errors made in the field of economy to the educational field. There is no single educational policy at the global level just as, in my opinion, a single economic policy does not exist either at the global level.

The International Monetary Fund, a member of the United Nations and, at the same time, a very important economic organisation, has made the mistake of using the same recipe for every country and every case. To a large extent, the economic crisis that we face today at the global level is due to the persistence on promoting a single economic policy to diverse people and nations. UNESCO, on the other hand, has fought in the past for the differential approach to every cultural entity. In the field of education, we need common goals, but, at the same time, we need ranges for differential action for every social group and for every nation. In this way, each country will be able to deal with its problems from its own starting point.

I do hope that these issues will be extensively discussed here. I welcomed this symposium as the preliminary conference to the major one of UNESCO, and I would like to express a wish and an invitation on behalf of the Government. After the Seoul congress, the real work should begin; that is, the monitoring of the implementation of the conclusions of the conference. It would give me great pleasure to welcome you again in Greece, not to discuss what we should do, but to discuss what each of us does in his own country, and how we will all advance towards common goals and towards a common European vision.

With these words I declare the symposium open. I wish it every success.

3.3 The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Mr A. Parsuramen


Mr A. Parsuramen is Director of the Division for the Renovation of Secondary and Vocational Education at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)

Your Excellency Mr Arsenis, Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, Mr Sapountzoglu, President of the Organization for Vocational Education and Training (OEEK), Mr Petrov from the International Labour Organization, Colleagues from the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP) and from the European Training Foundation (ETF), Mr Vassilikos, Permanent Delegate of Greece to UNESCO, Delegates from the European Member States of UNESCO, from Canada, from Israel, from Kyrgyzstan, from Turkmenistan, from Uzbekistan and from Mongolia,

It is my pleasure to welcome you on behalf of the Director-General of UNESCO, Mr Federico Mayor, to the opening session of the “European Symposium on Technical and Vocational Education at the Threshold of the 21st Century”. Mr Mayor sends his sincerest thanks to H.E. Mr Arsenis and to the Government of Greece for hosting this important event.

Let me also convey to Mr Sapountzolgu and his staff at OEEK UNESCO’s profound appreciation of their efforts to make this symposium a reality and to have made it possible for us to meet on this beautiful island of Crete, whose heritage, as we all know, is composed of a rich mosaic of myth and reality. At this symposium on technical and vocational education, we may all be reminded that Talos, the legendary guardian of the island, who ran around it in order to protect it, was an early example of the resourcefulness and industry that is so necessary as we stand at the threshold of the 21st century.

Purpose of the Symposium

This Symposium takes place at a time when technical and vocational education in Europe is affected by major developments:

· The transition to a market economy in a number of countries in Central and Eastern Europe and in Central Asia;

· The change in the international division of labour; and

· The application of new information and communication technologies that have an immediate impact on work organization in many occupational fields.

In 1996, UNESCO’s International Commission on Education for the Twenty-First Century, chaired by Jacques Delors, former President of the European Union, submitted its report entitled “Learning: The Treasure Within”. In this report, the commission draws an alarming picture of the current state of secondary education:

“Secondary schools...provoke a considerable amount of frustration. Among the sources a/frustration are the increased and increasingly diversified requirements, leading to rapid growth in enrolments and overcrowded curricula... There is also the distress felt by school-leavers who face a shortage of opportunities, a distress by an all-or-nothing obsession with getting into higher education. Mass unemployment in many countries only adds to the malaise. The Commission stresses its alarm at a trend that is leading, in both rural and urban areas, in both developing and industrialized counties, not only to unemployment but also to the under-utilization of human resources.”

How can Member States respond to this challenge? What sort of solutions can our systems of technical and vocational education provide? UNESCO is currently developing an international forum for the exchange of experience and for the shaping of strategies in this field:

1. UNESCO held its First International Congress in Technical and Vocational Education in Berlin, Germany, back in 1987. Currently, UNESCO is preparing the Second Congress to be held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in April 1999. This Symposium is expected to provide, inter alia, a European perspective of the challenges to lifelong learning and training for the world of work at the threshold of the 21st Century.
2. Based on its long experience in the field of technical and vocational education, and on its International Project on Technical and Vocational Education (UNEVOC), UNESCO is currently designing a long-term programme on technical and vocational education starting in the year 2000. The results and recommendations of this European Symposium as well as of regional meetings in the other world regions will constitute the background information upon which the deliberations of the Seoul Congress will be based.

The Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education

Providing lifelong learning and training for the world of work in the twenty-first century is the main thrust of the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education which is being organized by UNESCO in cooperation with the Government of the Republic of Korea.

The acquisition of appropriate skills - both technical and social - is required to cope with the challenges presented by the evolving needs of the workplace. Education and training systems that respond adequately to these demands will contribute to the efforts to overcome the growing unemployment and marginalization of young people and adults in the industrialized as well as the developing world.

The Seoul Congress is expected to focus on developing strategies for improving technical and vocational education in the early years of the twenty-first century. Strengthening national development capacities, the international sharing of experiences and multilateral actions through networking are expected to constitute important components of such strategies. The Congress will bring together policy-makers from UNESCO’s Member States, partners from intergovernmental organizations and representatives of concerned nongovernmental organizations. Industry and labour associations will make specific recommendations on how we may address the challenges for technical and vocational education in the next century.

At this Symposium, you are invited to describe the problems your countries have encountered, and the innovations that have proved successful. Your conclusions will serve as contributions from the European Region to the Seoul Congress.

The European Region

I am happy to see the International Labour Organization and the European Union, with the European Training Foundation (ETF) and the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP), participating in this Symposium.

We appreciate the significant contribution these institutions, in particular the agencies of the European Union, are providing to the development of technical and vocational education in the European region.

UNESCO’s Global Mandate

UNESCO has a worldwide mandate and responsibility. In the European Region, we cooperate closely in particular with the European Training Foundation. The Conference on Technical and Vocational Education in Azerbaijan that UNESCO sponsored last September has been a particularly positive example of synergies created between UNESCO and the European Training Foundation.

UNESCO’s focus is on international exchange of experience on a global level. We would like to encourage our network partners - the UNEVOC Centres - in Europe to actively commit themselves as partners in the international UNEVOC Network. We know how much other partners in the network - in particular from small Member States and from countries with less privileged socio-economic situations - will appreciate your cooperation.

UNESCO’s Programme in Technical and Vocational Education

During the last years, UNESCO’s UNEVOC Project has focused its efforts on the advancement of technical and vocational education in Member States in three programme areas:

A. International exchange of ideas and experience and studies on policy issues

UNESCO has initiated and published a series of studies on various aspects of national systems of technical and vocational education. These studies and events have focussed on issues such as:

· the role of technical and vocational education within national education systems;
· policy and legislation;
· vocational guidance;
· access of girls and women to technical and vocational education;
· technical and vocational education for rural development;
· future trends in adult and continuing technical and vocational education.

Most of these studies have been followed up with workshops and symposia for policy-makers, researchers and educators with a view to discussing strategies and shaping plans for the development of their systems. We are happy to note that this action has enhanced the debate and public awareness concerning the role of technical and vocational education in a number of Member States.

The most important event in this context will be the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education which will he held in Seoul, Republic of Korea, in April 1999. This congress will be another effort to focus public attention on the need for lifelong learning and training, and the current symposium is an integral part of its preparation.

B. Strengthening of national research and development capabilities

In many Member States, capacities for planning, research and development tend to deal with issues of general education only. Technical and vocational education is not always considered as an integral part of education systems; thus it does not necessarily benefit from national capacity-building efforts. UNESCO has carried out numerous seminars, training workshops etc. to bring together planners, researcher and developers in such fields as:

· cooperation between educational institutions and the world of work;
· methodology of curriculum development in technical and vocational education;
· international transfer and adaptation of vocational curricula;
· curriculum development for entrepreneurship;
· policy definition for vocational training in the informal sector;
· training of teachers and trainers.

Subregional networks have developed among these experts; they have produced guidebooks, exemplar curricula and other instruments that are now enhancing national capacities for research and development. Similarly, expertise and experience have been made available in such fields as equal access of girls and women to technical and vocational education, of application of modern technologies in technical and vocational education, of evaluation of vocational curricula, of assessment, and of educational and vocational guidance.

C. Facilitating access to data bases and documentation; strengthening the UNEVOC network

The globalization of markets, including labour markets, is a particularly challenging development for Europe. International exchange and transfer of knowledge is becoming more and more indispensable. UNESCO has therefore developed a worldwide network of focal points - known as “UNEVOC Centres” - to promote the exchange of experience and international cooperation in technical and vocational education. Today this network links 170 partners in 120 of UNESCO’s Member States throughout the world.

· Within the last four years, UNESCO has reached more than a thousand experts in technical and vocational education worldwide through workshops, symposia and other events.

· We disseminate “UNEVOC INFO”, the quarterly newsletter of the international project.

· Several thousand items from the “List of UNEVOC Publications” are mailed to partners in our network every year.

· Our UNEVOC Web Pages on the Internet are visited by more than 1000 users each month.

· Next week, UNESCO will officially launch the UNESCO-UNEVOC Electronic Mail Forum. This will bring together educators, researchers, policy makers and other people interested in sharing information in technical and vocational education internationally. UNEVOC already maintains electronic linkages with partners in more than 60 counties worldwide. You are all invited to join.

· UNESCO is publishing the series “UNEVOC Studies in Technical and Vocational Education”. To date, eleven issues have been produced.
May I invite you to visit the UNEVOC stand here at the site of the Symposium. My colleagues will be pleased to inform you about the various publications and services related to technical and vocational education that UNESCO can provide.

Perspectives for 2000 and beyond

In 1996-1997, the UNEVOC Project was subjected to an external evaluation. Based on this evaluation and on the recommendations formulated by the International Advisory Committee of UNEVOC, the Director-General will present at the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education a strategy on UNESCO’s future role in the development of technical and vocational education. This strategy will be the basis of a long-term programme on technical and vocational education by UNESCO as from the year 2000.

The guiding principles of this programme are contained in UNESCO’s “Convention on Technical and Vocational Education”, which was adopted by the Organization’s General Conference in 1989. Today these principles are as valid as they were 10 years ago. UNESCO and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are currently exploring the potentialities, fields and modalities of closer cooperation between both organizations in technical and vocational education and training. Only last week, the Government of Germany offered continued support for UNESCO’s programme in technical and vocational education in the year 2000 and beyond.

Within the last few months we have held regional consultations with National Commissions for UNESCO on the Draft Programme and Budget for 2000-2001. These consultations have produced clear evidence for the need to attach higher priority to our programme on technical and vocational education:

In the African Region, it was recommended that more emphasis was needed on increased access to secondary education, as well as on scientific education and technical and vocational education, which is perceived as an effective means of combating youth unemployment.

In the Asia/Pacific Region, the rapidly growing importance of technical and vocational education was recognized. Within the programme “Reform of Education”, the highest priority was requested for technical and vocational education and the renovation of secondary education.

According to the Latin America and the Caribbean Region, greater attention should be focused on technical and vocational education and science and technology education. Technical and vocational education was once again listed ‘first’ among the areas of highest priority.

Your Excellency,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

We will be listening to your contributions and comments with great interest. They will guide us for the development of the long-term programme in technical and vocational education that UNESCO will present at the Second International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education in Seoul in April next year.

Let me express once again our gratitude and our thanks to our Greek hosts and organizers of this Symposium for their initiative, for their generous support and for their cooperation in the organization of this event. I wish you every success in your deliberations over the next few days.

3.4 The International Labour Organization Mr Nikolai Petrov


Mr Nikolai Petrov is Chief of the Technical Cooperation Team in Employment and Training of the International Labour Office (ILO) in Geneva

Mr Chairman,
Your Excellency,
Dear Colleagues from Eastern and Central European countries,

Mr Hansenne, Director General of the International Labour Office, asked me to convey his greetings to this very important meeting. ILO is one of the oldest specialized agencies of the UN family. It was created in 1919, and its major principle is looking for social agreement on matters concerning the field of work. All the questions in this field should really be discussed, and a solution which can satisfy both sides of production, employers and workers, should be found. The government is in the centre helping them to reach agreement if necessary.

Because our organization devotes all its time and resources to the field of work, training for the job and training for employment are among its major prerogatives.

In recent years we have been coordinating our efforts more and more, and cooperating with UNESCO, as it is becoming rather artificial to divide vocational education from vocational training. So real life is pushing us to joint efforts in training young and not so young people to enable them find a job, to be gainfully employed, to have a steady income for themselves and for their families. ILO is also involved in the preparation of the World VET Congress which will take place next year.

We are very glad to participate in this important Symposium which is going to deal with the complex problems of VET reforms in European and Central Asian countries. I am sure that the thought-provoking speech made by the Minister of Education this morning will help us to come to the right proposals and conclusions by the end of our debates as Ariadna’s Thread helped Theseus to find the right way back from the Labyrinth when he visited this beautiful island some time in the past. I wish the Symposium every success.

Thank you.

3.5 The European Training Foundation Mr Ulrich Hillenkamp


Mr Ulrich Hillenkamp is Deputy Director of the European Training Foundation

Mr Chairman,
Your Excellency,
Dear Colleagues,

The European Training Foundation attaches great importance to this congress on vocational education and training in Europe on the threshold of the 21st century. It will demonstrate once more the significance of investment in human resources in preparing for continuing economic changes in the context of globalisation, and the need for new/changed qualifications evolving from the labour market in order to contribute to the employability and adaptability of the workforce.

Another issue that I give priority to is the topic of environmental protection and the education and training issues linked to this.

I would like to thank UNESCO and the Greek authorities for organising this important event. It is also a sign of good cooperation between Member States, international organisations, private sector institutions and the social partners. This type of conference has always been important for me, particularly as a medium for the exchange of experience in both formal and informal ways because lifelong learning applies to all of us. The conference represents, at the same time, a major step in the preparation of the World Congress on Vocational Education and Training in Seoul, and I am happy to serve as a member of the International Steering Committee to advise UNESCO in preparing this event. I am glad to see many familiar faces from our partner countries and from the international field. As this is an UNESCO conference, I am also happy to report on intensified cooperation between our two organisations.

Let me briefly introduce the European Training Foundation to you. The Foundation is one of the agencies of the European Union. It started its work in January 1995 in Turin, Italy, with the purpose of promoting cooperation and coordination of assistance in the field of vocational training reform in Central and Eastern Europe, in the New Independent States, and in Mongolia. In addition, the Foundation provides technical assistance for the implementation of the Tempus Programme for cooperation between the European Union and the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the New Independent States and Mongolia in the field of higher education. In July 1998, the geographical scope of the Foundation’s work was extended to the non-EU Mediterranean countries.

The Foundation’s activities are entirely financed from the European Union budget. Currently, 130 staff from all EU Member States are employed. The Foundation also provides traineeships for staff from its partner countries.

An important aspect of the Foundation’s work in order to ensure synergy and to minimise duplication is strong cooperation with other international and bilateral players. Let me stress here our close links with organisations such as CEDEFOP, UNEVOC Centres, UNESCO, the World Bank, ILO etc.

The main instruments the Foundation has developed to support the reform process in the partner countries are:

· Policy advice: for example, the provision of input to Phare and Tacis programming and the project definition process at the request of the Commission;

· Project design and management: for example, pilot or feasibility projects funded by the Foundation or jointly with other interested parties, or larger scale national and multi-country projects funded by the European Union’s Phare and Tacis Programmes;

· Cooperation: including the joint development of projects with other donors; activities to promote coordination and complementarity between donor initiatives; ensuring an effective information flow on vocational education and training to all relevant parties;

· Networking: especially through National Observatories and the promotion of exchange of information and experience. At present, the exact nature of the Foundation’s activities in the non-EU Mediterranean countries is in the process of being developed. The period 1998-2000 should be seen as a preparatory phase during which the Foundation adapts its expertise and approach to the particular needs and priorities of these new partner countries.

I am looking forward to a fruitful exchange of experience.

3.6 The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training Mr Stavros Stavrou


Mr Stavros Stavrou is Deputy Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP)

Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs,
Ministers,
Representatives from UNESCO,
President of OEEK,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

The quality and the mode of utilizing the human workforce at a micro- and macro-economic level will contribute much more to the development of the competitiveness of the economy and the multifaceted growth of society in general from now on. Therefore the role of Vocational Education and Training will become much more important than it ever has been. Moreover, the relevant choices that will be made today about what policies are to be followed, what methods and means are to be used, will definitely influence developments for many years to come.

Many of the topics of this conference are recognized unanimously to share many similar features at national and international level. But these do not necessarily imply just one thing in the choices that we make: they are equal alternatives. This is the reason why international information and mutual communication and collaboration are not only valuable but necessary, so that the experience from other countries can be systematically evaluated, creatively used, and suitably adapted to local circumstances.

Issues like cohesive lifelong learning, ensuring the quality and an acceptable relationship between cost and benefit for training, a wider use of the workplace as a conveyor of learning, and the certification of professional skills that have been acquired informally are only some of the things that have to be dealt with properly and carefully in Europe and all over the world.

For over twenty years CEDEFOP has been working methodically and contributing as a decentralized planning agency to create as cohesive a European policy as possible in the field of vocational training with the active participation of the social partners and national governments of the Member States of the European Union and with the European Commission. It is a documentation and reference centre for collaboration and for promoting research which attempts and achieves bringing politicians closer to researchers and to those who are daily occupied with training (teachers, students etc.), in order to bring about a fruitful collaboration regarding prospects.

Experience teaches us that focusing the efforts of an international collaboration on certain topics with converging aims makes it possible to find commonly acceptable methods and means to search for solutions and models to be followed. The choice of topics for the Symposium is very successful because they seem to have many points in common not only for our consideration, but also in how things, such as new technologies, tourism and the environment are dealt with beyond national borders. So the prospectives for an essential and fruitful discussion that will lead us a step closer to the International Conference in Seoul are very favourable.

I wish you every success!

3.7 The Commissioner of the European Commission


Mr Christos Papoutsis

Mr Christos Papoutsis is Commissioner at the European Commission. He sent the following message to the participants of the Symposium

Let me start by congratulating the organisers of the European Symposium on Vocational Education and Training. I believe that the discussions that will take place within the framework of the Symposium will substantially contribute towards the development of the relevant thinking on the issue and the recording of concrete ideas and proposals on this current and important issue. The discussions and the conclusions of the Symposium will indeed be a valuable contribution towards the preparation of the UNESCO Second International Congress on Vocational Education and Training to be held next year in Seoul. Unfortunately my commitments at the regular Session of the Commission of the European Communities in Brussels prevented me from taking part in the deliberations of the Symposium, in spite of the fact that I would very much like to. Still, allow me to share with you certain thoughts concerning the issue of vocational education and training. It is an issue of particular concern to us in the EU and, indeed, its priority related to our policies and actions is high.

Vocational education and training has acquired a particularly critical importance in the new environment that has been shaped by the globalization of production and the markets, the application of new technologies and the development of the information society since it is in the very heart of our efforts to reinforce the competitiveness and the development of the European economy and the creation of new jobs. I could state that such a vocational education and training which would respond to these new economic and social developments is indeed the key for the achievement of our broader economic and social objectives at the threshold of the 21st century.

Currently in the Commission of the European Communities a large-scale initiative is under way to support entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial spirit in Europe. This initiative encompasses the promotion of a series of specific measures that aim at the improvement of the environment within which the European enterprises develop.

A central issue related to this effort is to adopt the curriculum and to develop the appropriate training programmes so that entrepreneurship and a new entrepreneurial concept are efficiently promoted in Europe. Cooperation between universities, research centres and enterprises is necessary for the success of the above endeavour.

We attribute particular importance to the appropriate preparation and education of young people that will enable them to develop entrepreneurial activities. We also believe that the training of the businessmen themselves, the executives and the rest of the employees of the enterprises, is very important for the latter to be able to face the new economic and social realities. The application of the new technologies, the obligations stemming from the issue of the protection of the environment, and the internationalization of the economic activity render necessary the provision of appropriate information and training for the enterprises and their employees. This becomes even more necessary if we consider the rapid development of new forms of economic activity, such as electronic commerce, and also traditional economic activities, such as tourism, that have important developments and, now, new quality features, and that the provision of a broad range of services is required for them.

In order to be able to respond effectively to the great challenge posed by the development of a modern and efficient vocational education and training system, close cooperation and coordination between the public authorities is required at European and national level, as well as the active participation of the private sector itself. The latter is one of the sectors which is at the centre of cooperation both with the countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean countries.

I believe that the European experience and our policies concerning this field can contribute constructively to the discussions that will develop in Seoul next year. I wish every success to the deliberations of the Symposium.

3.8 The Permanent Delegate of Greece to UNESCO Mr Vassilis Vassilikos


Ambassador Vassilis Vassilikos is Permanent Delegate of Greece to UNESCO

Minister,
Minister from Cyprus, which we hope will achieve its accession to Europe soon,
Minister from war-torn Albania,
Mr Parsuramen,
Mr Sapountzoglou,

I had prepared a short speech, dear delegates, but the minister has absolutely covered what I meant to say. I would like to congratulate my friend Mr Arsenis, Minister of National Education and Religious Affairs, and Mr Sapountzoglou, the Chairman of OEEK, and his collaborators from the bottom of my heart on this essential initiative to bring together a number of academics in order to discuss the vivid issues of vocational education and training on the threshold of the 21st century.

After the rapid technological developments in the fields of information, communication and informatics as well as in the new occupations, if we indeed believe that the century we anticipate can be better and more just for everybody, we must all mobilize without delay, for the last 486 days remaining to the dawn of the 21st century by preparation, programming and renewal in the sector of education, and especially in the sector of vocational education and training. We see that the Greek Ministry of Education is moving toward this direction by organizing conferences such as this and through the very fundamental reform which is being established in education by the Minister.

I hope that all of you, together with science and your knowledge, will find Ariadne’s thread in the beautiful Crete of Minos and the Labyrinth that will lead to the resolution of the problems of vocational education and training on the threshold of the 21st century. I also hope that the conclusions of this Symposium will constitute the platform for our discussion in the International Congress in Seoul. I extend my wishes for the success of the Symposium. This is the small speech I had prepared. Now let me say a few more words. When I got to meet Mr Sapountzoglou at the UNESCO General Assembly a year ago, and he explained (because I didn’t know, I must confess) what OEEK stood for, I realized that this is where the key for the future lies. We all know that we are searching for plumbers throughout our lives, while we can easily find doctors, scientists, lawyers etc.

This “looking for the plumber” provoked the following answer by Mr Sapountzoglou: “ Yes, but consider this: the natural gas that will come to Athens demands the further training of the plumbers which will allow them to deal with the connections of natural gas since it is explosive”. This is when I realized that what we are really dealing with: the new reality demands a new methodology through more specialized education. The minister said this morning that there are no spark plugs in the cars any longer and I believe that this is the key to the affair. They are not in the cars but they are in our brains. The Minister said that our attitude is of the 19th and the 20th century when we are already on the threshold of the 21st century, and that is where the problem lies. What he said is the essence of the problem. People are asked to intervene in the engine. We need critical thought and so the entire problem becomes a problem of education generally.

Let’s not forget that UNESCO is primarily concerned with those countries where people cannot even read or write, who have not made it through this first stage, this privileged stage of ours of the 17th, the 18th and the 19th century. When we speak of globalization, we actually mean only a part of the planet. However, the change must emerge from somewhere. The Minister spoke specifically about how to achieve that change and about how unemployment is a result of education.

So, Minister, you have covered everything I wanted to say and I have nothing further to add, save that in those discussions about what is of concern to us among the intelligentsia of this world, the message, that we consider to be the message, is a result of the way that the message is conveyed in each case. Therefore, when the means to convey the message is oral speech, we arrive at monotheism. When the means of the message is printing, then socialism is what emerges. Don’t forget that all the printers in the world were leftists. Now, when the message is conveyed through electrons, we don’t know what the message is actually going to be.

There is no message in an abstract sense. The message is formulated through the means. I have denied the rubric of the author all my life. Probably, you will ask why. Do you ever call anybody a technologist? We have the plumber, the electronics technician, the electrician, the computer operator: all being specialized professions of technology. The same applies to the professions related to literature: we have the writer, the translator, the poet, the playwright. This specialization in the professions is caused by new technologies. The history of literature is the history of technology.

From the moment we have trains, literature changes. From the moment we have aeroplanes, literature changes. From the moment we have faxes, then the erotic relationship between people who communicate through faxes rather than through telephones changes. And, of course, from the moment we have the Internet, we have occasions such as the tragic case we all heard about the day before yesterday.

That was what I wanted to say. I would thank Mr Sapountzoglou for inducting me into the history of vocational education and training. I know already that there are many directors here of higher education institutions, and I believe that therein lies the key against unemployment. Like my friend, Regis Debray, said, and at some place here we agree with Mr Arsenis, “the 21st century is going to be difficult, the 22nd is going to be easier”.

Thank you!

3.9 The Organization for Vocational Education and Training Mr Gerassimos Sapountzoglou


Mr Gerassimos Sapountzoglou is President of the Greek Organization for Vocational Education and Training (OEEK)

At first, allow me to identify a number of integral elements of the framework of our work.

There are five thematic units, which will be covered with respective presentations at the level of units and sub-units according to the distributed programme. There will be always sufficient time for discussion and reactions to the presentations. In addition, every evening, there will be a special meeting in a nearby room where any participant interested will have a chance to participate in the process of the drafting of conclusions for each thematic unit.

We start with the first, “Vocational Education and Training and New Technologies”. I think that it reflects one of the fundamental issues that we should discuss today, at the dawn of the 21st century. It is an issue that will be dealt with by the Seoul Congress. We will focus on the subject through a dual prism. New technologies and vocational education - vocational education and new technologies. It is true that a number of determining factors of the international economic environment generate important concerns and quests for vocational education and training.

Internationalisation, the integration of new technologies in the process of production, the resulting capital/ labour substitutions, the change of production phases, the issues concerning the ‘new production structures’ and the ‘new organization of labour’ are all part of the first thematic unit. We have to reflect on what we should do as a result of the integration of new technologies in the production process. That is, how these technologies impose the revision of the vocational education and training specialities and their curricula.

Ladies and Gentlemen, due to new technologies, the phases of the production process need reform and change. For example, in order to manufacture a glass, we required, in the past, four production phases but, maybe now, we need two. What does this mean for the production itself and for the employee?

Therefore, the first part regards the influence of new technologies on vocational education and training. More specifically, in which dimension is the interplay between new technologies and vocational education and training expressed through changing standards of production and consumption?

From another perspective, the question is how can we use new technologies for vocational education and training. Already, in this room, the use of multimedia technologies. Internet, and various technological applications indicates that they can help us. How can the new technologies be used in order to make life simpler, both in vocational education and training and in distance training?

I proceed to the second thematic unit, titled: “Environmental Education and Training”. For sure, we must ‘green’ the curricula. The issue of adding new specialities and subject fields to the framework of curricula pertaining to the protection of the environment is vital. It is through the evolution and the development of economic activity that environmental policies generate not only knowledge but also professions. We should adequately prepare the workforce for these professions. We have already spoken of sustainable development. Today we must discuss the consequences of expansion in the area of the environment and the role of vocational training.

The title of the third thematic unit is “The Changing Role of the Public and Private Sectors in Vocational Education and Training”. You will soon discover that each thematic unit begins with a short film. The introductory film of this unit shows that traditional perceptions and relationships in the public and private sectors must be abandoned. It also shows how the ‘partnership relationship’ between employers, employees and the state, within the framework of a common agreement, must show us the way to make vocational education and training more efficient in accordance with the calls of modern economic reality. Issues concerning the development of tools for the monitoring of labour, as well as goods markets, should lead us to identify the finest role and the best working relationship between the pubic and private sectors.

Within the framework of this unit, one important issue is that of financing. A relevant presentation will be made on the subject of channelling financial flows to vocational education and training. The various financial systems and the number of alternative financing types of initial and continuing training, as well as initial vocational education, should be considered in our work.

The title of the fourth thematic unit is “Internationalisation of Economic Activities and Tourism”. We have already surpassed the age of one-dimensional vacation tourism. If we inquire about an urban hotel not a resort - on the distribution of its cycle of business, we will find that a proportion of 60-70% is attributed to professional tourism. The customers are managers and corporate employees, who travel for business. We therefore observe the emergence of a new type of clientele, of a new market. Issues pertaining to the role of vocational education and training in the new professions that stem from this new market are critical. This becomes especially important for the countries which intend to make use of their own absolute and comparative advantages in the area of services, and specifically in the sector of tourism.

Vocational education and training is therefore an important issue in the area of tourism. It is, further, an issue that concerns us not only in Greece, but, I think, for many other countries of the wider European region as well.

Last and fifth thematic unit: “Non-Commercial Exchanges and Vocational Training”. The title appears strange. Why ‘non-commercial exchanges’? Internationalisation is a fact, globalisation is a fact, and mobility is a fact. However, mobility does not only refer to goods and capital. There is another type which is a function of the level of societal development. It is a mobility that has to do with ideas, information, culture and art. It is a quite complicated topic, but vital for our society. We should investigate how, after attaining a certain level of prosperity, issues of cultural activity could yield new professions in the labour market. Naturally, for the operation of these markets, these new professions will in turn require training.

This is our last thematic unit that we would like to touch upon, here in Crete, on this island of our ancient civilisation: the issue of non-economic/commercial exchanges that present a profound economic interest in relation to vocational education and training.

Ladies and Gentlemen, this is the rationale for our symposium. Thank you very much.

4 Vocational Education and Training and New Technologies


4.1 The New International Economic Environment


by Ms Louka Katselis

Ms Louka Katselis is Professor at and Director of the Department of Economic Science of the School of Law, Economics and Political Sciences of the University of Athens.

Ministers,
Representatives of International Organisations,
Dear Participants,

The morning session is about to finish and the last speakers always bear a great responsibility. Many things have already been said and thus I will try to be comprehensive as well as substantial.

I will try to structure my brief intervention into three sections. Initially, I would like to highlight some basic changes in the international economic environment. Secondly, I would like to analyse their impact on the labour market and on the training service sector in particular. Finally, I will share some thoughts concerning the agenda of European policy, highlighting, in the process, some questions which national governments should answer in formulating policy.

Just a few years before the dawn of the 21st century, the European system of education and training is called upon to cope with old problems and to adapt to new challenges. The steps that should be taken must necessarily take into account the great changes that have taken place internationally.

From the beginning of the 1980s, Alvin Toffler was already writing prophetically about the end of the industrial society and the emergence of a new civilization, which brings into being new family and labour models, a new economy, new political conflicts, and most importantly a new perception of things.1

1 A. Toffler, The Third Wave
In the 1990s, we have already entered this new era. Within the new ‘information or knowledge society’, information processes as well as technology in the field of production are rapidly changing. The value of an enterprise is estimated from its capability to acquire, to produce, to disseminate, and to apply knowledge commercially within the productive process. Mass production is replaced by new production processes, which promote more flexible adaptation to consumers’ demands. In the new international world order, multinational enterprises which are active in the global market place are restructuring production in all industrial fields and services. Even the most traditional sectors of the economy, such as the textile industry, construction, tourism, or medical care are being affected.

In this new information society, competition and conflict are no longer competition and conflict between states for new territories or for enlarged markets. Instead, with the possible exception of raw material and energy resources, competition centres on the establishment of competitive conditions in the production and dissemination of knowledge and on the use of information networks, telecommunication satellites, or the mass media, for ensuring access to potential consumers.

The impact of these developments and the adaptation that they require have not yet been understood fully. They affect directly not only individual choices but also the exercise of policies.

At the production level, we are experiencing a crisis in the traditional, technologically obsolete industrial units such as the steel, metallurgical, shipbuilding, and automobile industries. Yet these were the industries which supported economic growth during the previous decades. Nowadays, all enterprises, regardless of size, are called upon to adapt themselves in view of the emergence of new, dynamic, information-intensive business units. In all sectors of economic activity, especially in services, production based on modern technology is being fragmented and is supported by a series of new services and networks.

Hierarchical organizational structures give way to more collective and flexible modes of administration. Highly-skilled labour assumes special importance and receives high wages. The employer or manager who bases the profitability of his unit on the high productivity of his staff is now becoming - and this is important - personally interested in the education, training, safety, mental and corporal hygiene of his workers, as well as their positive disposition to work. Thus, in rapidly developing societies, the productive network is extended further to cover workers’ support services including training, security, social protection, and family assistance. In this way, social services are provided within the market place while, for many years, these had remained unsatisfactory or covered exclusively through social policy.

In the new international economic order, the development and extension of the productive and creative capabilities of society presuppose the ability of its members to adapt easily, to obtain continuous training and further education, and to create effective networks of social support. Whenever productive restructuring is not undertaken in an organized, fast and effective manner, or is not underpinned by the simultaneous development of basic education, of training, of continuous education and of effective networks of social support, societies are being hit by unemployment and social exclusion. Societies then run the risk of becoming divided into “insiders” and “outsiders” even if productivity is enhanced and high growth rates are being achieved.

The rapid changes in production and organization have led to a rapid degradation of the acquired knowledge and to major upheavals in the labour market. It is estimated that 80% of the stock of knowledge of an individual becomes obsolete within a decade, and that a university graduate is forced to change his profession up to seven times throughout his lifetime. New professions continuously emerge while traditional ones disappear. Under these circumstances, there not only exist mounting pressures for new investment in education and training, but major changes in the character of the educational process have taken place.

Young people, overwhelmed by new information, are gaining access to new sources of knowledge through electronic networks and contemporary communication media. They have to learn how to identify useful information, and how to infer their own conclusions from it. In order to do so, they must have developed earlier their analytical and critical thinking as well as most basic skills. They must have learned to think abstractly and creatively, to formulate their thoughts clearly both in oral and written form, and they must have developed integrative skills. They must have learned how to learn effectively. If they have done so, they will be aware that knowledge is a continuous process, which does not start at a certain point in life and does not end with a degree. ‘I am continuously learning as I grow old’ is what the ancient Greeks used to say.

In view of these major challenges, the structure of demand for education and training services has greatly changed. At the same time, we are witnessing changes in the supply of these services. Thus the educational system is called upon to create new structures, to extend its services, and to use new educational methods in order to rise to the task.

Let us have a closer look at these changes starting from the demand side for training services. Because of the changes which are taking place in production, frictional as well as structural unemployment is rapidly increasing. The time one spends between two jobs is prolonged, since there is no sufficient information on the labour market itself, and there is increased uncertainty about the characteristics or prospects of any open position. If the time devoted to job search is long, the skills that a prospective candidate possesses tend to become obsolete and his/her chance of finding a satisfactory job is reduced. Therefore, finding a satisfactory job presupposes, more often than not, training or retraining.

Under these circumstances, every potential employee, especially one that has been unemployed for a long time, feels the pressure to retrain and retool. He or she does not know in advance, however, which training programme may extend his/her skills more effectively, or which one may best respond to the needs of the labour market. The greater the need one has for retraining, the more inexperienced one is, the older one gets, and the more traumatic one’s previous work experience has been, the more incapable he or she appears in making the right choices.

Under the fear of long-term unemployment or marginalisation, young people, in particular, approach education or training services with apprehension. They feel the pressure from their social and family environment to do something, and they have the illusion that training would resolve the problem of their integration into the labour market. They make choices based on the advice of friends or family members who give them information on the current demand for graduates from a specific programme. The sad thing is that, many times, this information is not useful, since conditions in the labour market change rapidly and new skills are being demanded. Therefore, whereas the demand for educational, training and retraining services grows fast, the capabilities for an effective use of these services are reduced or, at least, not correspondingly broadened.

In addition, in the presence of more flexible labour markets, workers do not necessarily have adequate incentives to receive training. The more flexible the labour market becomes, and the lower real wages get, the greater is the cost that workers or the unemployed have to bear to acquire training or retraining.

As with any investment decision, investment in human capital has to be amortized. Enhanced flexibility in the labour market might in fact imply reduced incentives for investment in human capital, which is a necessary condition for productivity growth.

On the supply side, there is evidence of rapid growth in educational and training services provided by both the public and private sectors. The expansion of services, however, has, in many instances, remained anarchic and ineffective.

First, there still exists considerable confusion as to the distinction that should be drawn between basic educational as opposed to training services. This has been exacerbated by the fact that formal educational systems have often been driven to provide professional training services, while vocational institutes have often offered courses in basic sciences. It is slowly becoming evident that general education and basic skills ought to be provided by formal educational systems, whereas training systems ought to concentrate on the development of additional professional skills that are needed by the market.

Secondly, the priorities of publicly-funded educational and training programmes ought to be distinguished from those of the private sector. There is a growing consensus that the chief priority for the public sector is the provision of high-quality general education. Instead, in many developing countries, the public sector still provides professional training from the secondary-school level upwards at high cost and with limited effectiveness.

Priority on the provision of high-quality, basic education is becoming even more important in the information society of the 1990s. When citizens are functionally illiterate, when they have not developed their analytical thinking, when they cannot speak at least one foreign language, and cannot retrieve information with the use of computers, then they are seriously handicapped in a rapidly changing labour market.

The third issue in relation to the development of training services is the breadth, scope and content of competencies and fields offered. These are usually developed with an eye towards past or present development needs, even though, training ought to enhance capabilities for future needs. The absence of adequate information about future needs constitutes a major market imperfection that hampers the smooth functioning of both the training and labour markets.

Last but not least, quality is a major issue in the design of training programmes and in their implementation.

As the market for providing educational and training services faces new challenges, national governments and international organisations and agencies are called upon to make significant decisions and to spend considerable amounts of money under conditions of uncertainty. Can we draw some conclusions as to the direction of European policy in this domain? I believe agreement could be reached at the level of principles, and perhaps at the level of means of policy.

At the level of principles, I would set forth three main principles or objectives:

a) Safeguarding the right of access to educational and training services: unobstructed access to the educational and training systems has to be considered an undeniable social right, especially in the context of the information society. At all levels, education and training systems have to remain open to those who want to obtain services regardless of economic ability, age, or prior job experience.

Therefore our foremost European objective is to do away with educational exclusion. This principle dictates specific policy priorities, such as creating schools for those who have not completed basic education or are drop-outs, helping school and university students with special assistance courses, doing away with arbitrary quotas on the provision of tertiary education, and introducing flexible, educational training and retraining programmes at all levels. It should also be remembered that the social right to educational access goes hand in hand with two other social rights: the social right to employment, and the social right to information. Thus, active educational policies go hand in hand with active employment policies and policies to promote the dissemination of information available to citizens.

b) The second principle to which I believe we can agree is the need to extend the availability of educational options, and to enhance the educational choices of European citizens. The fast changes in technology and the burst of information make this a pressing need. Citizens should be able to choose the place, the time and the breadth of their education and training in order to cover their diverse professional, economic and social needs.

Since, from the level of maturity, the experiences and choices differ from person to person, the fulfilment of this second principle presupposes the development of basic skills - language, analytical abilities, expression - at the level of obligatory education, the expansion of these skills at the secondary level, and the substantial consolidation of knowledge at the level of tertiary education. Additionally, it requires the availability of adequate training and retraining services throughout one’s professional life. Social security and health benefits should be extended during training periods. Furthermore active consultation and orientation services should be developed so that citizens can make rational and cost-effective choices regarding their educational and professional future.

c) The third principle concerns the relationship between education and training on the one hand, and the workings of the labour market on the other. Educational and training systems should be open fora for the provision of skills and knowledge. They cannot and should not function as mechanisms which put up barriers to entry in the labour market, nor do they guarantee “professional rights” to their graduates. It is through the acquisition of high-quality skills and abilities that graduates enhance their chances to be integrated in the labour market and to perform successfully in it.

If we can agree on these three principles, we can go one step further and discuss policy options. The first issue that arises concerns the definition of an “optimal regulatory area” for educational and training policy. In the global market place, should education or training be designed at the supranational, the national or the very local level? The “subsidiarity principle”, according to which policies should be designed at the most functionally appropriate level, is not very helpful. Even though there appears to be a trend toward the localisation of educational and training services, my feeling is that the exigencies of a global market place will push us all towards greater homogeneity and more global networking in the provision of these services.

The second issue touches upon the role of the public sector. It is generally accepted that public intervention in the market place is justified on grounds of mitigating existing inequalities or of amplifying market inefficiencies. In this case, the public sector has an important role to play in safeguarding access to the educational and training systems, in the development of necessary skills for future market needs, or in complementing the private market in areas where fixed costs prohibit the development of profitable services by the private sector. Such a role for the public sector, however, presupposes social funding through the tax system. Consequently, the necessary steps must be taken to finance adequately public training services either from national budgets or from the European Union’s structural funds.

The third issue concerns the introduction of total quality management in the provision of educational and training services. The design and implementation of effective quality control systems in this field are still at an elementary stage. In this direction, specialized information systems need to be elaborated and integrated, and quality indicators developed. These can provide a basis for an objective evaluation of these services by both users and policy-makers.

Finally, special attention should be given to the development of contemporary services for counselling and professional orientation regarding training and educational choices. As we have already mentioned, most young people do not possess adequate information based on which to make educational or professional choices. At the same time, training centres need to become more closely connected with the business world through appropriate networking and/or apprenticeships, so that new skill requirements can be easily detected and obsolete ones eliminated. Networking between educational and training centres and business can also facilitate the placement of graduates and reduce considerably the costs of job hunting.

The challenge for European policy, therefore, is, on the one hand, to develop a modern educational and training system and, at the same time, to develop the adaptational capabilities required to service changing market needs.

It is only through flexible education and training in combination with active employment policies that unemployment in Europe can be reduced. As long as Europe insists that the fulfilment of the Maastricht criteria is more important than growth and employment, then any training policy will turn out to be ineffective. We can easily substitute the ‘unemployed European’ by the ‘European trainee’, but this does not provide a solution to Europe’s problem. Instead, the challenge before us is to provide all Europeans with those skills and capabilities that empower them to meet the challenges of changing labour markets in the emerging information society of the 21st century.

4.2 New Technologies and the Production Process: the Impact on Training by Mr Jean-Pierre Jallade

Mr Jean-Pierre Jallade is Associate Professor at the University of Paris IX (Dauphine), France. The introduction was prepared jointly with Mr Olivier Bertrand

1 Introduction

One should avoid the snag of technological "determinism" that would link in a simplistic way the introduction of new technologies, new qualifications and innovations in Vocational Training. One should refrain from saying that new technologies determine in a direct univocal way new qualifications which in turn generate new needs for training. The role of new forms of work organization is a determining factor in the emergence of new qualification.

2 Three fundamental developments

The major trends recorded in the past 20 years could be summarized as follows:

2.1 Intensification of competition and globalization

This can be translated into:

· an increased variability of goods and services so as to adapt them to demand, constant innovations,

· the growing importance of quality in the selection criteria of clients,

· the need for an efficient management so as to master costs and delivery deadlines: more flexible personnel management (part-time), outsourcing of some services for cost-related reasons.

2.2 New technologies:

· decentralized information technology in services is to be found everywhere,

· in large enterprises, wide networks operate in real time thanks to telecommunications,

· the automation of simple and repetitive tasks with suppression of unskilled jobs is underway,

· the spreading of programmable automation in industry allows for the flexibility necessary to adapt production to demand,

· but new technologies have also their limitations: a machine cannot replace creativity, judgement, human relations. Some tasks which could be computerized on the technical level are not for financial reasons.

2.3 The new forms of work organization

The main features are as follows:

· promoting flexible adaptable work structures and organization,

· decentralizing and delegating powers of decision,

· desegregating functions: production, marketing, research, maintenance,

· decreasing the number of hierarchy levels,

· development of team work: one no longer defines a job, but rather the production objectives of a team. Increased dialogue, mobilization of executors’ intelligence, pursuit of ideas and suggestions from the base.

3 Contents of jobs

With the exception of computer technology, there are few entirely new professions or jobs, but the transformation of existing work situations is generalized. Major trends can be summarized as follows:

· Disappearance of low-skilled jobs: great difficulties in sectors with a high percentage of low-skilled jobs.

· Increased multi-functionality of executive personnel: in industry, executive personnel must intervene on the first level of maintenance, less specialization for each type of machinery. The separation between mechanics, electricity, electronics is unsuitable. In the 70s’-80s, there was a great controversy in order to know whether new technologies were going to "de-qualify" jobs or - on the contrary - they were going to lead to an "enrichment" of tasks. In the field of services, secretarial work organized in a "pool" represented an extreme form of rationalization and dequalification. In modern enterprises and administrations, secretaries execute text processing for printing and have varied assistance tasks.

· Difficulties for the intermediary level of the hierarchy: the middle level management faces a crisis unless technically qualified;

· at the intermediary level, many jobs require rational competencies, particularly so in services: being able to listen to the client or user, carry out a diagnostic;

· at a higher level, many jobs require a higher specialization in view of the increased technical nature in certain fields: in finance for instance (actuaries), in commerce (logistics) and, of course, computer scientists;

· the "communication" and "human resources" functions, oriented towards animation, training and coordination are indispensable in a decentralized organization.

4 New competencies

The needs in terms of knowledge, know-how and behaviour raised by the labour market are in rapid development. New trends are as follows:

· traditional technical know-how loses importance;

· we witness an upwards shift of the general level of knowledge which must be more systematic and more in-depth, as equipment and organizations are more complex and clients more demanding;

· in industry, automation demands a desegregation of technical specialities as it touches upon many disciplines: "multidisciplinarity" becomes an asset;

· there is a "double-competency bonus" in many sectors: technical-commercial, legal-linguistic, biologist-computer scientist, etc;

· behaviour acquires a fundamental importance: people’s potential, personalities, adaptability, initiative, creativity. In the service sector (50% of jobs) priority is placed on basic knowledge and behaviour: relations with the client.

Adaptation to technological changes requires solid basic knowledge, both general and technological.

5 Implications for technical and vocational education and training

5.1 Initial training

· Access: everybody must leave the training system with a minimum diploma as unskilled jobs are disappearing; if this were not the case, then we would be creating "excluded people".

· Strengthen the progression itinerary: raising the level of competencies must be translated into opportunities for progress (in the scale of diplomas) within the system of technical and vocational education and training: vocational training should no longer be a "dead-end". Access routes towards higher education cycles and reintegration in general education should be multiplied.

· Training programmes should be despecialized by grouping channels, specialities and diplomas, and by stressing competencies "transferable" from one sector to the other. In all European countries, one sees a decrease in the number of training courses and diplomas by the grouping of specialities and diplomas. Modernization of contents must be a constant concern. Its implementation requires efficient institutional mechanisms of dialogue between social partners and public trainers.

· It is necessary to promote training in alternation and apprenticeship so as to allow for the acquisition of real-life behaviour. In-house training offers the opportunity to become familiar not only with new equipment, but also with corporate culture.

· Start an on-going process for the renewal of diplomas and programmes through bipartite or tripartite committees (employers/unions/government).

5.2 Continuing training

Continuing vocational training acquires a central role. It must "listen to" the needs of enterprises and become a component of personnel policies. Enterprises will be brought to invest in personnel training more than in the past. It is important that the development of "human resources" within enterprises becomes a factor of competitiveness and that continuing training policies are integrated in personnel policies.

4.3 New Technologies and the Production Process: Changing Patterns of Production and the Need for Effective Vocational Education and Training by Mr Stavros Stavrou

Mr Stavros Stavrou is Deputy Director of the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (CEDEFOP)

In the last few years we have seen an intensification of the globalization of the economy. Certain of its chief characteristics are, among others, the following:

· the rapid increase in the transparency of the demand and the supply of products and services beyond national borders,

· the globalization in terms of the convergence of major functional-quality models and other expectations on the part of the consumers,

· emphasis on improved quality and reduced delivery times as well as strict observance of deadlines,

· more intense differentiation, even individualization, of customers’ wishes, and

· the geographic-/functional distribution of production to more than one country aiming at its total improvement.

All this, in tandem with macro-economic circumstances that require an increase of the productive force beyond demand and the reduction of the product lifecycle, has intensified international competition. Businesses have added to and exploited these new technologies so as to face this challenge and become competent:

· in the development and timely introduction of new technologies in both production and the products, “innovation and time to markets”,

· to response to dynamic business changes in the environment, especially under conditions of uncertainty (flexibility, “customer oriented behaviour”),

· the globalization of business strategies.

Informatics, especially, and electronic mass media have created fully new circumstances (or at least the preconditions) for direct and effective communication and collaboration between three main areas:

· research, development and design planning,
· production, and
· management and administration through networking.

These attempts to reorganize the productive process means that we have partly gone beyond the Taylor and Ford models in some sectors at least. Initially, the efforts were focused on the technical restructuring of the production chain itself. The reduction of “production depth” with the relocation of some tasks outside the company, “the just in time production” and the provision of modern technological equipment (CAD, CAM, CIM etc.) have led to some examples of “factories without workers”, as well as to lean production which, in the change from the ‘80s to the ‘90s was felt to be the panacea that would resolve all the relevant problems. Very soon it became apparent that technological renewal and production restructuring would not suffice on their own to reinforce the competitiveness of a company by ensuring the much-desired flexibility and accuracy of the necessary reactions to the rapidly changing demands of the market. These efforts should be enforced with the introduction of new models of employment and personnel management that would have to have suitable skills for each case. One such wider systemic reforming of production called ‘business process re-engineering’ by the Anglo-Saxons, brings about the following: establishment of the semiautonomous work teams, revision and enrichment of the content of the work, and an increase in initiative and the limits of responsibility and decision by workers aiming at the reduction of the hierarchic ranks and the reinforcement of an interactive vertical cooperation.

Such a strategy would require a constant enrichment of professional skills and an amelioration of their level. But even though technical changes can be identified with a relatively high degree of certainty, the manner in which they affect the organization of work and the corresponding professional competence has not been sufficiently investigated, especially since the correlations are not one to one. There is a general trend to facilitate workers in their continuous training by widening their horizons to similar and neighbouring activities. The existence and the flexible exploitation of different means or opportunities for vocational education, training, additional training and career furthering through various combinations and choices remains always one of the critical desiderata.

It is internationally recognized that in the field of total reformation of production, part of the triptych of technical aspects, organization and vocational competence, there are still many opportunities that remain unexploited. A recent large survey in Germany showed tha