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Article
Publication date: 10 July 2017

Job outcomes among Korean graduates with vocational qualifications

Young-Min Lee and Sung-Eun Cho

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the status of recent Korean four-year college students’ acquisition of vocational qualification certificates (hereinafter…

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain the status of recent Korean four-year college students’ acquisition of vocational qualification certificates (hereinafter “certificates” or “qualifications”), the factors that influence certificate acquisition, and the resulting employment and wage effects.

Design/methodology/approach

Regression analysis was conducted on the data from the Graduates Occupational Mobility Survey.

Findings

The results showed that females and medicine and education majors had higher rates of vocational qualifications, as did the students in provincial as compared to metropolitan areas and students with high grades. In terms of effects on labor market outcomes, vocational qualifications exert a moderate degree of positive influence on employment rate, wage at the time of initial employment, and current wage (i.e. there is a persistent wage effect).

Originality/value

This study will provide policy implications to decrease youth unemployment in Korea and worldwide as well as to build employment services supporting the acquisition of vocational qualifications across various disciplines.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 59 no. 6
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/ET-11-2016-0166
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

  • Employment effect
  • Vocational certificate
  • Vocational education decision
  • Vocational qualification
  • Wage effect

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Article
Publication date: 1 July 1999

Policy failure in vocational education and training: the introduction of National Vocational Qualifications (1986‐1990)

Steve Williams

One of the most prominent developments in vocational education and training in recent years has been the development of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in…

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Abstract

One of the most prominent developments in vocational education and training in recent years has been the development of National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) in England and Wales, based on the assessment of an individual’s competence at work. However, the initial implementation of the NVQ policy generated a considerable amount of criticism. The standards of occupational competence on which the NVQs are based were attacked for being too narrow; employers appeared reluctant to take up the new qualifications; and the introduction of NVQs appeared to exacerbate, rather than mitigate, the “jungle” of vocational qualifications. Drawing on in‐depth interviews with key informants and an analysis of relevant documentation this article ascribes the initial failure of the NVQ initiative to progress in the manner that its planners had originally anticipated to the existence of certain institutional constraints: the political imperative to manage high levels of youth unemployment; inadequate accountability and supervision in policy implementation; the presence of a renewed ethos of voluntarism in UK labour market policy; and the weakness of employers’ representative structures.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 41 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/00400919910279955
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

  • National vocational qualifications
  • Competences
  • Vocational training
  • Education
  • Policy

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Book part
Publication date: 7 October 2019

Statistical Analysis of National Data Sets: Exploring Demographics, Access and Progression of Students in Higher Education from Vocational Entry Routes

Pallavi Amitava Banerjee

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Details

Transitions from Vocational Qualifications to Higher Education
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-78756-995-920191003
ISBN: 978-1-78756-996-6

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Article
Publication date: 1 August 1997

The Spanish VET system at the turn of the century: modernization and reform

Xavier Martinez Celorrio

Places the reform of the Spanish vocational education and training (VET) system in context, identifying the salient events and deficiencies in this modernization process…

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Abstract

Places the reform of the Spanish vocational education and training (VET) system in context, identifying the salient events and deficiencies in this modernization process. The most significant reaction to the need for improving, rationalizing and modernizing the former vocational training system was the development of the National Programme for Vocational Training in 1993. After several years’ negotiations, in 1992 the employers’ associations and trade unions signed the National Agreement on Continuing Training, which has given a notable impulse to this type of training in the last four years. It has been the first opportunity to set up a regulatory framework for the allocation of public funds to promote open access to continuing training for the employed populations. In 1996 the second plan was agreed, shoring up a sectoral model organized through collective agreements which aims to enrich the Spanish industrial relations model. Finally, analyses the new problems and deficiencies which could neutralize the reform’s innovative effects, as happened in the last reform under different historical conditions (1970). The success of a new Spanish VET system depends on actors’ capability to shore up a professionalized model for management and provision.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 21 no. 6/7
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599710171530
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

  • Competences
  • Qualifications
  • Spain
  • Vocational training

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Article
Publication date: 1 June 2006

Benefits of general vs vocational/technical education in Singapore using quantile regressions

Chris Sakellariou

This study sets out to investigate the pattern of benefits from education along the earnings distribution and compares this pattern between general and vocational…

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Abstract

Purpose

This study sets out to investigate the pattern of benefits from education along the earnings distribution and compares this pattern between general and vocational/technical education in Singapore, with a particular focus on male‐female differences.

Design/methodology/approach

Quantile regression methodology is used, which allows for estimates of education benefits that differentiate the contribution of the quantity and quality of education along the earnings distribution. The quantile regression estimates highlight where in the income/ability distribution the impact of education is more pronounced.

Findings

Finds that, while the pattern of returns to an additional year of education for general education follows that of other high income countries, exhibiting increasing returns to education as one goes from lower to higher income quantiles, the returns to vocational education exhibit much lower heterogeneity. Based on the findings, the vocational education system in Singapore has served women with secondary vocational qualifications particularly well. They earn more, have higher labor force participation, experience higher employment rates and are associated with a narrower gender earnings gap compared with women with general education. However, this is not the case for women with polytechnic qualifications, who earn much less than men with such qualifications.

Practical implications

The findings suggest that, by and large, Singapore's vocational education system at the secondary level has successfully addressed the needs of the industry and has contributed towards narrowing gender earnings differentials. It has also contributed towards less overall earnings inequality, because it results in less heterogeneity in the returns to education, compared with general education. However, the curricula of polytechnics need to be re‐examined to identify the cause of the sharply lower female benefits from this type of education.

Originality/value

The paper contributes to the empirical literature with its use of the quantile regression methodology in evaluating the benefits of vocational versus general education for men and women.

Details

International Journal of Manpower, vol. 27 no. 4
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/01437720610679214
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

  • Vocational training
  • Rate of return
  • Gender
  • Singapore

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Article
Publication date: 29 February 2008

Vocational education and training in Europe: An alternative to the European qualifications framework?

The purpose of this paper is to address the development of a European architecture of vocational education and promotes and alternative proposal.

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to address the development of a European architecture of vocational education and promotes and alternative proposal.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is the result of discussions of researchers in the Institut Technik und Bildung on a European Qualification Framework.

Findings

The paper provides an alternative approach to the European Qualifications Framework that accepts learning in professional and occupational practice as a form of learning in its own right.

Research limitations/implications

Even though the European Council has made a decision on the adoption of the EQF, this paper is a worthwhile contribution to the further dialogue that emphasises the notion of learning in settings of professional and occupational practice.

Practical implications

The practical question arises if the accreditation and assessment methods for learning through experience on the one hand and learning in formalised settings on the other can be the same.

Originality/value

The paper provides an alternative approach to the European Qualifications Framework and will be of interest to those in that field.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 32 no. 2/3
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/03090590810861730
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

  • European Union
  • Qualifications
  • Vocational training
  • Organizational structures

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Article
Publication date: 1 October 1998

Portability of qualifications: an answer to the qualificational demands of globalisation?

Wulf Heise

The article introduces the concept of the “portability of qualifications” as a framework for discussing the consequences of globalisation for labour markets and for the…

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Abstract

The article introduces the concept of the “portability of qualifications” as a framework for discussing the consequences of globalisation for labour markets and for the systems and agencies of initial and continuous vocational education and training. It defines the concept in relation to terms such as “mobility”, “flexibility”, “core skills” and “key qualifications”. It provides examples from industry and from the craft trades in Europe. It discusses the role of “portability of qualifications” in developing regions through inward investment and the benefits and risks of “portability of qualifications” from the perspective of the company, the individual worker and labour markets of Europe. Finally, it looks at pathways to foster and maintain the portability of qualifications in vocational education and training.

Details

Journal of European Industrial Training, vol. 22 no. 7
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/03090599810230696
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

  • Europe
  • Flexibility
  • Globalization
  • Qualifications
  • Vocational training

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Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2015

Vocational Training and Gender Segregation Across Europe

Emer Smyth and Stephanie Steinmetz

This chapter seeks to provide insights into a hitherto neglected topic – that of gender segregation among those who have taken part in vocational education and training…

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Abstract

This chapter seeks to provide insights into a hitherto neglected topic – that of gender segregation among those who have taken part in vocational education and training (VET). In spite of a growing body of work on the link between educational and occupational segregation by gender, relatively little attention has been given to the specific role played by VET in facilitating gender-specific occupational segregation. Using the European Social Survey (ESS) for 20 European countries and comparable macro data from different European sources, the study examines the extent to which cross-national differences in the gender-typical or atypical occupational allocation of vocational graduates aged 20–34 can be attributed to VET-specific institutional differences.

The findings are consistent with earlier research showing the protective role played by VET in reducing non-employment levels. The findings in relation to the gender-typing of work are somewhat surprising, as they indicate that VET system characteristics make relatively little difference to occupational outcomes among women, whether or not they have a VET qualification. Slightly stronger, but still modest, relationships are found between VET system characteristics and occupational outcomes for men. Male VET graduates are more likely to be in a male-typed job in systems with a higher proportion enrolled on vocational courses. In tracked systems, however, they also tend to be more likely to enter female-typed jobs. In systems where VET prepares people for a wider range of occupations, a VET qualification can act as a protective factor against non-employment, at least for men.

Details

Gender Segregation in Vocational Education
Type: Book
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/S0195-631020150000031003
ISBN: 978-1-78560-347-1

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Article
Publication date: 3 July 2007

“Making schools practical”: Practice firms and their function in the full‐time vocational school system in Germany

Thomas Deissinger

To provide information and insight into the potential of reforms in full‐time vocational education and training (VET) (practice firms in vocational colleges) in contrast…

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Abstract

Purpose

To provide information and insight into the potential of reforms in full‐time vocational education and training (VET) (practice firms in vocational colleges) in contrast with apprenticeships against the background of training market frictions in Germany.

Design/methodology/approach

Structural information on the German VET system; empirical study (2006) within a research project to illustrate the didactical and social benefits of practice firms.

Findings

Underlines that vocational colleges and practice firms within them are part of a “preparatory” system which predominantly serves further education needs and the follow‐up intention to undertake an apprenticeship; confirms preceding research which put them in line with the “typical” full‐time VET system.

Research implications/limitations

Limitations are due to the focus on one type of full‐time VET and the specific conditions in the federal state of Baden‐Württemberg.

Practical implications

Provides useful information to understand the nature of VET in a given country; insight into the limitations of full‐time VET can help teachers to rethink co‐operation with companies in general.

Originality/value

Useful contribution to rethinking VET policy and to understanding limitations in the wake of an implementation of new forms of vocational learning against the background of culturally‐rooted tradtions.

Details

Education + Training, vol. 49 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/00400910710762931
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

  • Germany
  • Vocational training
  • Apprenticeships
  • Further education
  • National cultures

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Article
Publication date: 1 May 1987

Competence, Achievement and Qualifications

George Tolley

The reform of vocational qualifications is now under way. Britain's workforce is seriously underqualified and the need for competence, properly assessed and accredited…

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The reform of vocational qualifications is now under way. Britain's workforce is seriously underqualified and the need for competence, properly assessed and accredited, and personal qualities, such as attitudes and adaptability, must be met. The National Council for Vocational Qualifications is developing three major thrusts: towards competence, framework (the National Vocational Qualification), and accessibility and progression, giving a wide and more flexible range of learning opportunities.

Details

Industrial and Commercial Training, vol. 19 no. 5
Type: Research Article
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/eb004077
ISSN: 0019-7858

Keywords

  • Educational Attainment
  • Qualifications
  • Training Needs
  • Vocational Training

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