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Article
Publication date: 10 July 2017

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 “certificates”…

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
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 July 1999

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 England and…

1446

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
ISSN: 0040-0912

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 1997

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. The most…

329

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
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 June 2006

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/technical…

2370

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
ISSN: 0143-7720

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 6 February 2023

Ayaka Noda

This study aims to examine the rationales for and obstacles to developing a national qualifications framework (NQF) in Japan. From a research perspective, it attempts to propose a…

1274

Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to examine the rationales for and obstacles to developing a national qualifications framework (NQF) in Japan. From a research perspective, it attempts to propose a model of a qualifications framework in the national context to provoke further political discussion in developing the Japanese Qualifications Framework (JQF).

Design/methodology/approach

To propose a possible model of a qualifications framework in the Japanese context, this study employs a qualitative document analysis approach to known NQFs. Next, based on documents and the literature, including government data and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s Tokyo Convention (2011a, b), this study analyzes the motives and challenges in developing the JQF.

Findings

Japanese motives to develop the JQF can be summarized in four conditions: (a) International expectations along with the Tokyo Convention and establishment of the National Information Center, (b) avoiding qualification holders’ disadvantages in mobility, (c) quality assurance of qualifications with a competence-based approach and (d) lifelong learning by promoting recognition of diverse learning. The challenges in developing the JQF are (a) fitness with the traditional employment system and (b) multiple stakeholders’ involvement. The current priority in developing an NQF in Japan is to make educational qualification information “visible” based on legal grounds, particularly entrance requirements, to facilitate mobility.

Originality/value

This study explores the possibility of the JQF by summarizing the background and roles of NQFs worldwide and clarifying the motives and challenges for developing the JQF. This study provides suggestions for the possible qualifications framework model in the Japanese context from academic and practical perspectives in Japan, where official discussions on establishing an NQF have not progressed. Ensuring the international compatibility of qualifications so that qualification holders can smoothly take the next step in their studies and employment is important.

Details

Higher Education Evaluation and Development, vol. 17 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-5789

Keywords

Abstract

Details

Degrees of Success
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-80043-192-8

Article
Publication date: 29 February 2008

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

1243

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
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 October 1998

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 systems…

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
ISSN: 0309-0590

Keywords

Book part
Publication date: 18 November 2015

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 (VET). In…

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
ISBN: 978-1-78560-347-1

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