Policy Futures in Education

ISSN 1478-2103

Volume 2 Number 1 2004

CONTENTS

[click on author's name for abstract and full text]
 

SPECIAL ISSUE
Vocational Education
Guest Editors: CHRISTOPHER WINCH & LORRAINE FOREMAN-PECK

Christopher Winch & Lorraine Foreman-Peck. Editorial, pages 1‑4
Kevin Williams. Vocational Purposes and the Aims of Schooling, pages 5‑13
Judith Suissa. Vocational Education: a social anarchist perspective, pages 14‑30
Stephen Swailes & Simon Roodhouse. Vocational Qualifications and Higher Education: some policy issues, pages 31‑52
Tim Oates. The Role of Outcomes-based National Qualifications in the Development of an Effective Vocational Education and Training System: the case of England and Wales, pages 53‑71
James Foreman-Peck. Spontaneous Disorder? A Very Short History of British Vocational Education and Training, 1563‑1973, pages 72‑101

SPECIAL ESSAY
Carol Coombe. Confronting the Impact of HIV and AIDS: the consequences of the pandemics for education supply, demand and quality. A global review from a Southern African perspective, pages 102‑140

REPORT
Ouyang Kang. Higher Education Reform in China Today, pages 141‑149

REVIEW ESSAY
Michael A. Peters. Dialogue or Clash of Civilisations?, pages 150‑155 VIEW FULL TEXT

BOOK REVIEW VIEW FULL TEXT
Education, Literacy and Humanization: exploring the work of Paolo Friere (P. Roberts) reviewed by Liam Kane, pages 156‑158

Editorial

For long a relatively neglected area of study, vocational education and training (VET) is coming into its own as an area of recognised importance. This change has occurred for a number of reasons, but the increased salience of vocational education in policy making across the world is an important one. It is, therefore, worth examining why it has become of growing importance to the policy process. The most obvious causes are the increasing liberalisation of trade, improvements in communications and the dissemination of information that go under the name of ‘globalisation’. Increasing trade liberalisation and transferability of information bring into sharp relief the relative strengths and weaknesses of different national economies. Because technology has been disseminated, it is now possible for manufacturing processes to be easily located in countries where they enjoy a decisive cost advantage. Even some services which do not require face-to-face contact have become amenable to transfer to countries which enjoy a low cost base. Some of these countries, although relatively poor in per capita income, nevertheless enjoy relatively high levels of basic education and a significant and growing graduate population, which can be utilised in the international market in services. It is natural to think that the competitive advantage of the more developed countries is going to lie in their high levels of general education and the significant proportion of individuals with intermediate and graduate qualifications. If these societies cannot compete on the cost of their labour, then they need to compete on the high specification and quality of the goods and services that they produce. One way of looking at vocational education is to see it as a means of securing this kind of competitive advantage.

However, there are other issues that have also served to make us more aware of vocational education which are more or less related to the globalisation issue. North America, Australia, Japan and Western Europe all enjoy historically high and increasing rates of participation in post-school education. It is implausible to assume that this growing population of people aspiring to education will all benefit from the same type of education. In addition, those being educated are increasingly aware of both the economic costs and potential benefits of their education. For these reasons, it is recognised more and more by policy makers that traditional forms of liberal academic education are not necessarily suitable for a large proportion of the population, neither are they necessarily of economic benefit to either the individuals concerned or to their societies. There is now greater sensitivity than there was perhaps in the past to the variety of abilities that humans may develop and the fact that vastly different kinds of ability may both be valuable to the economy and a source of intrinsic satisfaction to those whose abilities they are. We are thus more willing than we were in the past to recognise the intrinsic, as well as the instrumental, importance of manual, physical, aesthetic and social abilities alongside the traditionally recognised academic ones. It is also more readily recognised that the development of such abilities requires systematic educational preparation, although, as we shall see, there is a tendency in some developed countries, of which the United Kingdom (UK) is perhaps a notable example, to rely on more traditional methods of developing them. At the same time, paid employment plays a larger role in the life of the population than it did 50 years ago. The most notable indicator of this is the large-scale movement of women into the workforce and the consequent bringing of childrearing, domestic work and caring activities into the sphere of paid employment, thus in effect creating new areas of economic activity. Being at work is seen by many as an indicator that one is a worthwhile member of the community and the pressures to join the workforce are not simply economic, but moral as well. At the same time, the tendency of the working population to work shorter hours has been reversed, notably in the USA and the UK, although the contrary tendency can be seen in many Western European countries.

Given paid employment’s importance in so many people’s lives, their concern to develop economically useful abilities, the varied needs of the economy and the requirement of increasing levels of knowledge and skill in order for people to become and to remain economically active, it is not surprising that vocational education is assuming the importance that it is. As we have noted, it is easy to see its instrumental importance, less easy perhaps to see that non-academic but vocationally relevant activities could have any intrinsic value. Yet to ignore the growing recognition that they do have such value is to ignore another important tendency in developed societies. We have already noted that the diversity of ability is increasingly recognised. We should also note that individuals want to discover what they might be good at and to develop those abilities in their education. If they do have to be educated they wish to develop skills which they find satisfying and which will also benefit them economically. They want to engage in activities that seem to them to be meaningful and to enhance their dignity as human beings. It is not enough for people in our kind of society to be economically viable, we also want to find meaning in what is a very significant aspect of our lives. This tendency poses a large challenge to developed societies which can be stated as follows. How does one reconcile the demand of potential recruits to the labour market for abilities that are both personally satisfying and economically worthwhile with the demand of employers for abilities that will be useful to their businesses, given the unpredictability of consumer demand and the vagaries of competitive advantage? This challenge is not simply one of getting the mix of educational programmes right, because preparation for economically useful activity may well require an extended engagement with the skills, knowledge, equipment and operational requirements of the area of economic activity which individuals are going to enter. Since specialist teachers, equipment and locations are required, as well as classrooms, such vocational education may well prove to be expensive as well as risky for both providers and learners in terms of expenditure of both time and money. The contemporary challenge of vocational education is one of providing preparation for economic viability while, at the same time, ensuring that the development of individual practical abilities is something from which people can gain satisfaction both in their earning and in their exercise. This is a formidable challenge and the articles collected here deal with various aspects of it.

Kevin Williams addresses the fear of many, that a vocational curriculum will be confined to the ‘academically challenged’ and that they will be deprived of a fulfilling school experience from a ‘high culture’ curriculum. Recognising that the jobs most esteemed in society (professional/academic) go to those who are academic winners, the vocational curriculum is seen to be inferior, not only in respect of educational quality, but also in terms of its economic exchange value. Williams argues that students who follow a vocational pathway are not necessarily excluded from a personally meaningful and culturally enriching education and that practical or manual subjects can be a source of personal satisfaction.

Judith Suissa expands the debate about the value of the vocational curriculum by contrasting the ideas of the social anarchists of the late nineteenth century with the ideas of two prominent advocates (Richard Pring and Christopher Winch) of a liberal conception of a vocational education. The social anarchists were concerned in their educational programme to foster the virtues of mutual cooperation and fraternity in order to bring about radical change in the political organisation of society. Pring and Winch, on the other hand, while advocating the development of critically active and reflective citizens as part of a vocational curriculum, are not concerned with radical reform. Suissa ends her article with some interesting suggestions about the way in which social anarchist perspectives can be introduced by teachers teaching citizenship education.

Stephen Swailes and Simon Roodhouse’s article investigates barriers to the take-up of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs). NVQs were introduced with the intention of accrediting and developing a flexible and skilled workforce responsive to global economic changes. NVQs are specifically designed to incorporate the skills employers need, and are designed to assess standards of competence as revealed in the workplace. Over four million people in work have gained an NVQ qualification over the past 15 years, yet there is much dissatisfaction with their design and take-up especially at the higher levels. A survey of over 80 organisations and an interview study with representative stakeholders, conducted in 2002, confirmed continuing problems with the design, take-up and exchange value of NVQs.

The problem of the diminishing credibility of NVQs is examined in depth in Tim Oates’s article. He argues that the failure of NVQs to become the preferred method of workplace training is due to failures in the conception of competence used to inform outcomes-based assessment. Oates traces these failures back to various pressures, such as the belief that the further education sector could not deliver high quality vocational provision, and the need to keep placement opportunities open to young people while keeping programme requirements to a minimum. An employer-led, outcomes-based training programme also fitted in with the new ‘managerialism’ of the 1980s, which emphasised transparency, explicitness and quality assurance through auditing processes. However, the idea of competence that the system was based on is conceptually flawed. Ontologically, it is flawed because competence does not exist in any simple way: it is an inferred capacity and, as Lum argued, to describe actions, procedures or objects as the standards do, is not to describe the skills or competence necessary for meeting the standards. Competence as conceptualised by NVQs cannot account for the fact that some people can transfer ‘competences’ to different contexts and some cannot. Rather, the focus should be on the qualities of individual action. Competence lies in a mix of action, knowledge, values and goals in changing settings, a much more complex conception than can be captured in outcomes statements. A purely assessment-led system of training has such severe limitations that it cannot possibly fulfil the ambitious aims of its originators. This has been tacitly recognised in the introduction of the Modern Apprenticeship. The design of this brings back elements of formation (as opposed to competence) and provides a better theoretical foundation for the specification of competencies.

The last of the special issue articles is by James Foreman-Peck. The notion that VET should be provided by employers was a distinctive feature of the British approach until the 1960s. This is conventionally contrasted with the much more formal state coordinated approach of Germany. The question Foreman-Peck poses is whether one can see the British approach as ‘spontaneous order’ because markets use information efficiently. Alternatively, is it ‘spontaneous disorder’ in which the absence of standards and coordination led to under-investment in VET and economic decline relative to those countries with strong leadership? He concludes that there is considerable evidence in the twentieth century that Britain suffered from shortcomings in the availability of highly trained labour. The most credible explanation is the VET system; booms and slumps do not provide adequate conditions for employer-led education and training.

We hope that this collection will both contribute to the policy debate concerning vocational education worldwide and illustrate the variety of approaches that are currently taken to this important subject.

CHRISTOPHER WINCH & LORRAINE FOREMAN-PECK
University College Northampton, United Kingdom

Vocational Purposes and the Aims of Schooling

KEVIN WILLIAMS Dublin City University, Republic of Ireland

This article argues for the compatibility of vocational purposes with the aims of schooling within the liberal tradition. Two main grounds will be offered in defence of this position. In the first place, school students who are following a track that leads to direct employment or to vocational training are not necessarily excluded from a fulfilling school experience or from a curriculum of high culture. In the second place, young people who concentrate on practical or manual subjects can experience much of the enrichment and personal satisfaction that have been traditionally and restrictively associated with the academic curriculum.

Vocational Education: a social anarchist perspective

JUDITH SUISSA Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom

This article discusses the social anarchist tradition of educational thought and practice, in order to throw new light on the philosophical discussion of the liberal-vocational distinction. Focusing on the central anarchist idea of integral education, I argue that the political stance of social anarchism is inseparable from the educational ideas and practice of this tradition, and contrast the key aspects of this political perspective with those embodied in mainstream educational policy and theory in the liberal state. Examining the issue of vocational education and training in light of this often-neglected political position can, I suggest, contribute to our understanding of the relationship between educational practice and values, political ideas and social change.

Vocational Qualifications and Higher Education – some policy issues

STEPHEN SWAILES University College Northampton, United Kingdom
SIMON ROODHOUSE University Vocational Awards Council, Bolton, United Kingdom

This article reviews the reactions to higher-level National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in the United Kingdom in the context of certification levels by level and subject. The most successful higher NVQs are linked to professional qualifying routes, have generic application across a range of sectors or fill gaps where qualifications were not previously established. Research among the main stakeholders to gauge their attitudes towards higher NVQs shows that, among positive aspects, some adverse attitudes still exist surrounding issues of comparability, the assessment experience and the design of occupational standards. Suggestions for overcoming these issues are given. However, the wider picture shows that support for occupational standards is strong and it is the use of standards, which may or may not involve NVQs, that will help to drive forward new policy initiatives addressing participation in the sector.

The Role of Outcomes-based National Qualifications in the Development of an Effective Vocational Education and Training System: the case of England and Wales

TIM OATES Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, London, United Kingdom

This article analyses the increasingly diverse and sophisticated critique of ‘outcomes approaches’ in vocational qualifications; critique which has now moved well beyond the early claims of reductivism and behaviourism. Avoiding a naive position on extraction of points of consensus, this article attempts to extract key issues which have purchase on policy and practice relating to National Vocational Qualifications. It outlines not only the ways in which current policy and development processes associated with the qualifications may be defective, but also ways in which they might be enhanced. Crucially, the article points to the severe limitations of the concept of ‘competence’ which lies at the heart of outcomes approaches, and emphasises the need to reconsider a ‘formation’ model for initial vocational education and training, rather than a ‘competence’ model.

Spontaneous Disorder? A Very Short History of British Vocational Education and Training, 1563‑1973

JAMES FOREMAN-PECK Cardiff Business School, United Kingdom

A distinctive feature of the British approach until the 1960s was that vocational education and training (VET) should be provided by employers. This is conventionally contrasted with the much more formal state coordinated approach of Germany. The question posed is whether the British style was the ‘spontaneous order’ that results because markets use information efficiently about the supply of and demand for skills. Alternatively, was it ‘spontaneous disorder’ in which the absence of standards and coordination led to under-investment in VET and economic decline relative to those countries with strong leadership in education and training? There is considerable evidence in the twentieth century that Britain suffered from shortcomings in the availability of highly trained labour. The most credible explanation is the organisation and operation of the VET system; the perceived self-interests of undereducated employers and restrictive unions during booms and slumps provided inadequate conditions for efficient employer-led education and training.

Confronting the Impact of HIV and AIDS: the consequences of the pandemics for education supply, demand and quality. A global review from a Southern African perspective

CAROL COOMBE Adviser on HIV/AIDS and Education, Pretoria, South Africa

The global spread of the HIV and AIDS pandemics will, for the next three generations at least, underline education access, quality and provision. Reforms within the sector will necessarily take account of the implications of this plague within national, provincial and local contexts. This article is based on several assumptions. The first is that HIV/AIDS is not only a medical problem: the spread of the disease has created a pandemic with social, economic, geopolitical and other consequences for all countries. Second, increasing numbers of countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa and the Caribbean, are now facing one of the great crises of human history. The third is that other countries in Eastern Europe and the Asia and Pacific regions will confront similar challenges as the pandemic spreads. The article focuses specifically on the relationship between HIV/AIDS and education in countries with different levels of HIV/AIDS prevalence. It concentrates on the impact of the disease on education at schools level, with some attention to teacher education. It outlines our current understanding of the pandemic, analyses current and anticipated impact of HIV/AIDS on education in order to clarify probable changes in demand for and supply of education services, and looks at education’s current responses to HIV/AIDS, principally in high prevalence countries.

Higher Education Reform in China Today

OUYANG KANG Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China

This report provides a brief account of the major reforms to higher education in China since 1949 and background reforms since 1978, focusing on recent trends and perspectives.

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