Vocat ional educat ion
3.9 Vocat ional educat ion
One of the most powerful influences on learning in a country is the government. It is the government which decides on policies for education. It decides at what age formal education starts and finishes. It decides if the education is free to citizens and at what level of education the provision of free education should cease. Once children grow up and join the world of work (the precise age at which this takes place of course varies across the world), they need to learn how to do their jobs. Some jobs (e.g. a doctor or lawyer) will need years of learning and high levels of skill and knowledge. Often people train for these jobs or professions before they begin to work by taking qualifications at college and university. Other jobs do not require so much learning before the employee begins work. A computer programmer is a very skilled job; it is possible learn while working by taking a series of courses over several years (although some people do learn how to do the job by studying at university).
The area of learning that is directly related to jobs is called vocational education. The attitude of governments across the world varies as to who should pay for the potential workers to learn the skills, attitudes and knowledge necessary to do jobs effectively. The discussion seems to centre on whether employers should pay for the training, whether people who want to do the work should pay or whether everyone in a country
Chapter 3: Training and development
(through the taxation system) should pay. In the first instance it seems clear that as the employers benefit from having skilled and qualified people to do the job, then they should pay. However, think about how an employer would feel if they paid for someone to be trained as a chef, and that person then left to work for a rival restaurant. In the second instance, you could argue that the person who wants the work should pay for the training as they would benefit all their working lives from the ability to do the job. Think, though about someone who may have the capacity to be a brilliant surgeon but who cannot afford the years of training. Think also that potential workers may be put off doing any job that entailed doing years of unpaid study. After all a junior doctor and a junior manager earn about the same early on in their career. What about the third suggestion, that everyone in a society should pay through the tax system? After all, everyone benefits from having a good medical service with skilled and knowledgeable doctors. Everyone benefits from having skilled and knowledgeable nurses when they have to go to hospital. When you (eventually) want to buy a property, or need to consult a lawyer about your will, you expect them to be highly skilled and very knowledgeable about the law. If we can agree that there is some merit in everyone paying towards the education and training of doctors, then what do we consider about bus drivers, car mechanics, plumbers or electricians. What about managers?
Life is not simple. Find out what the position is on vocational education in your country. There is a useful chapter on public policy on human resource development in Gibb (2008). In it he discusses the different perspectives on national HRD and why they might have arisen. He uses the UK as an example but acknowledges that different countries have different perspectives.