Beyond Formal Education: Reclaiming and Integrating Vocational Education

The Western attitude toward higher academic education as a signifier of success has been intensifying and spreading around the world. In some nations, this has resulted in higher stress levels and an increased focus on testing as a means of gaining access. In South Korea and China, intensive private tutoring has become a fact of life, resulting in students studying for hours with private tutoring organizations every evening, in addition to their formal schooling. South Korea’s entrance examination, suneung, is so intensive that there have been correlational studies connecting the test to higher suicide rates (Kim, 2010). On that date, the country shuts down so that students can take the test in peace (Lee, 2013). Students eagerly seek to obtain entrance to one of the three best universities in the nation, and good test scores are the gateway. In China, the gaokao exam holds a similar place of importance, and role as stressor (Ruiqing, 2013). In Azerbaijan, students are regularly woefully unprepared for the entrance exams that they must resort to corruption in the form of cheating and bribery to receive scores that will garner their entry into a university. The United States has a different education system than these countries, but the pressure and value paired with higher education achievement has some of the same results. Higher academic education is the place to be. Between 1995 and 2009, the rate of entry into higher education nearly doubled in the United States (OECD, 2012). In order to receive prestigious employment, or even entry-level positions, it is increasingly required to have a bachelor’s degree, if not a master’s or Ph.D.

Simultaneously, the price of higher education in the United States continues to rise, seemingly exponentially. In a review of the cost affordability of Western countries, the United States was found to be the third to worst, only ahead of Mexico and Japan (IREG, 2010). Much attention is paid annually to the US News and World Report ranking of universities and colleges, both by students and the universities themselves, and higher education institutions have entered into a sort of “arms race” to win by having selective acceptance rates, popular athletics programs, the “best” student experience, and largest endowments, among may other factors. In this commercialized battle for superiority, tuition and housing costs have risen, and both undergraduate and graduate students must take out huge student loans, on which many default. After the Netherlands, the United States has the highest total costs for both men and women attaining tertiary education, and by far the highest direct costs of education, six times the OECD average (OECD, 2014).

All of this is to suggest that perhaps this is not the direction in which education should be heading. In the light of this trend, it is easy to cherry-pick the problems in the system, but more difficult to determine how to fix the problems. There exists a social divide in prestige between jobs that are obtained through academic higher education and vocational education, and often the reward comes in social standing and economic advantage. Vocational programs (VET) are intended for those that are “non-academic,” a term which comes laden with judgment of class and capabilities. It means those with lower socioeconomic backgrounds, poor literacy skills, or from minority or immigrant groups. Certainly, academic tracks and university education are not for everyone, but that is not and should not be seen as a negative. The world and any country in it need the jobs that vocational education provides, so these jobs should not be looked down upon. Construction and maintenance or repair positions can pay very comfortably, and require significant experience and technical knowledge.

The process of reclaiming VET is not easy, but stronger integration of VET and academic tracks may be a means of achieving this. In recent decades, American high schools included courses such as “home economics” or “woodshop,” which were required for all students, but these were eliminated for being sexist and as unnecessary as the academic paradigm took power. However, the inclusion of these types of courses (not the actual home economics course, necessarily) could actually provide a broader “liberal arts” style education and support a student’s learning exploration. Even for students intending to attend a university, taking technical courses can prove beneficial (Meer, 2007). Taking VET courses can open pathways to those who may not be sure a university path is best for them (Poldiano & Tabasso, 2014). Without that experience, students may not find the program that is actually the best match for their interests and skills. By including the VET courses in mainstream education settings, it normalizes the option of VET as a viable and culturally acceptable path. VET courses could also work with local businesses and organizations to provide tangible and practical courses that may be used to support the local community. This could lead to greater social cohesion between economic classes. Additionally, the act of taking courses that may not be graded based on academic tests would better prepare all students for real world experiences and responsibilities. The below video is intended as a demonstration of the benefits of the Common Core, but the need to move beyond multiple choice tests could be supported by vocational education options as well.

In a study of purely vocational, purely academic, and a mixed pathway that included “loops” through both academic and vocational courses in Europe, Tuor & Backes-Gellner found that mixed pathways showed value, providing additional qualifications that would support students in the job market (Tuor & Backes-Gellner, 2010). Some nations have placed a great focus on vocational education as a separate, parallel track. However, these intensive tracking systems, such as Germany’s, would likely not succeed or gain acceptance in the United States due to the early age at which tracking occurs, as this would counter traditional “American dream” of all individuals being able to succeed doing what they want, and the perception of tracking depicts the program as counter that freedom of choice. Tracking’s division in labor and education would continue the current disparities and come at a cost to social cohesion.

Australia, however, has highly integrated in-school VET programs into their secondary school curriculum to the point that 40% of all students take at least one VET subject (Polidano & Tabasso, 2014). An integrated system is not new to the United States, but has not achieved much acceptance. This may be changing, for the best. A recent Atlantic article highlighted a set of schools in Pittsfield, New Hampshire that are developing student-centered learning programs (hardly a new feature), intended to enable students to explore areas outside of the traditional classroom, focus on real-world issues and projects, and reducing the focus on academic testing (Richmond, 2015). These programs are lauded for their hands on approach that seem to increase interest in schooling, and prepare students for the world beyond academia. While programs like this are an increasing trend in education, there is still little research about the long-term benefits and drawbacks of such a program in terms of academic and job achievement, but the model is interesting and worth further research and evaluation. Much of this essay has been speculative, but the potential benefits of integrating vocational education more highly into education seem to me to have merit, and could enable greater social cohesion and integration, bridging barriers in society.

 Works Cited

Kim, S. (2010). Globalisation and Invidiuals: The political economy of South Korea’s Educational Expansion. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 40(2). 309-328.

Lee, H. (2013, November 6). Trading Delayed as 650,000 South Koreans Take College Test.Bloomberg.com. Retrieved April 15, 2014, from http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-06/trading-delayed-as-650-000-south-koreans-take-college-entry-test.html

Meer, J. (2007). Evidence on the returns to secondary vocational education. Economcis of Education Review, 26(5), 559-573.

OECD. (2012). Education Indicators In Focus. OECD Publishing. http://www.oecd.org/education/skills-beyond-school/49729932.pdf

OECD (2014), Education at a Glance 2014: OECD Indicators, OECD Publishing. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/eag-2014-en

Polidano, C. & Tabasso, D. (2014). Making it real: the benefits of workplace learning in upper-secondary vocational education and training courses. Economics of Education Review, 42(1). 130-146.

Richmond, E. (2015). Where kids learn more outside the classroom than in them. The Atlantic. April 12, 2015. http://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/where-kids-learn-more-outside-their-classrooms-than-in-them/390297/

Rieble-Aubourg, S. (1996). Institutional Arrangements of Germany’s Vocational Education System: What are the implications for the US? International Journal of Comparative Sociology, 37(1), 174.

Ruiqing, D. (2013). Gaokao in Chinese Higher Education: to Go or not to Go. Acta Universitatis Danubius : Communicatio, 7(2), 13.

Tuor, S.N. & Backes-Gellner, U. (2010). Risk-return trade-offs to different educational paths: vocational, academic and mixed, International Journal of Manpower, 31(5) 495 – 519.

Usher, A. & Medow, J. (2010). Global Higher Education Rankings 2010: Affordability and Accessibility in Comparative Perspective. Higher Education Strategy Associates.