Skills Gap / Vocational Education / Meeting the needs of a specific labour market

The report  INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES TO SPECIALISATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION by Charlynne Pullen, Olivia Varley-Winter and Philippa Melaniphy presents “four country studies: Germany, the United States of America, Singapore and Australia”  (Adapted choosen excerpts by Job Market Monitor to follow).

For the purposes of this report, the definition of specialisation is an instance in which provision of vocational education is focused on meeting the needs of a specific labour market, whether this is defined by employer, region or sector.

These countries provide interesting examples of approaches to specialisation within vocational education, which the authors hope will inform the debate around specialisation. Within each country study the author have attempted to develop an understanding of strengths, challenges and success factors relating to the different approaches.

The report also examines the way in which vocational education is organised and
governed in the different case studies. The examples in the country studies suggest real challenges involved in taking a proactive approach to develop specialised industry skills in response to skills shortages. There are a range of ways that countries tackle this – from introducing ‘streaming’ in schools toward industry training, to workforce development agencies or chambers of commerce that develop training courses through consultation with industry and employers.

A common theme that has emerged however, is that specialisation requires employers and industry to commit to developing their staff. In return, training providers need to collaborate with employers and industry, in order to effectively meet the skills need.

Training providers can, of course, run highly effective courses without close involvement with employers or industry, but the providers’ ability to address specific employer and industry skills shortages will be limited without collaboration.

The three main conclusions

1. High quality basic education should be the foundation that enables specialisation at a later stage.
2. Strong regional government with the ability and resources to both identify and then actively support industry clusters or occupational sectors can enable specialisation.
3. Flexibility is a further important aspect of specialisation in vocational education, in the sense that industry requirements, technology, and economic circumstances can change very quickly. Also, at the learner level, it is helpful for individual learners to have options: if they cannot find employment in the job in which they have trained, it is essential they have skills that are transferrable to another job.

Source and Full Report @ (click on the image):

INTERNATIONAL APPROACHES TO SPECIALISATION IN VOCATIONAL EDUCATION