Vocational education and training for development: A policy in need of a theory?

Abstract

The current decade has seen a significant return of interest in vocational education and training (VET) amongst the international policy community. This rise in policy and programmatic interest in VET's role in development, however, stands in contrast to the state of the academic debate. Whilst there have continued to be both policy and academic developments in VET in OECD countries; in the South there has been a paucity of VET research and little in the way of theoretical exploration. Rather, the academic orthodoxy in the international education and development field is dismissive of VET's possible contribution. Given the return of the policy interest in VET for development, and the possibilities of a broader vision of education-development relations beyond 2015, when the MDGs end, it is time to revisit the role of VET in development from an explicitly theoretical stance.In this article, I argue that the current approach to VET is grounded in an outmoded model of development, whilst the academic critique of VET in developing countries is clearly long outdated. In contrast, I examine the implications for VET of recent trends in thinking about development through the exploration of three particular theoretical approaches: human rights, capabilities and integrated human development. I conclude by considering the purposes, natures and possibilities of VET as a means of human development.

The Discourses of Vocational Education and Training: A Developmental Response from a European Perspective

“…Following the writings of Amartya Sen (1992Sen ( , 1995Sen ( , 1999Sen ( , 2003Sen ( , 2009) and later Martha Nussbaum (1998Nussbaum ( , 2000Nussbaum ( , 2010, I contend that the capability approach (CA) provides a good starting point for thinking about VET under the umbrella of an active education that does not reproduce current facts but that is an education for critical-thinking and development (Nussbaum, 2010). Research in that direction can be found in higher education debates (Boni & Lozano, 2007;Walker & Unterhalter, 2007;Nussbaum, 2010), but is still very marginal in the field of VET (Finlay et al, 1998;McGrath, 2002McGrath, , 2012, and even more residual if we restrict it to VET debates in the European space (Pring et al, 2009;Souto-Otero, 2010). Based on that premise, I offer a literary journey and a consideration of the CA, in order to bring the core values of VET to the attention of not only European policymakers, but also academics and practitioners.…”

Addressing Mismatch in Spain: A Concern and Proposal Beyond the Economic Sphere

“…Holford and Spolar (2012) in their study about Lifelong learning in Europe, remark that despite the inclusion of non-economic themes, these are the predominant ones when referring to the reasons for promoting VET. This master discourse of neo-liberal language of economic competitiveness (Dale & Robertson 2009), has been strengthened along the European recession, and, as this paper argues, the reason and hence, cause to be alert of the revival of work-based learning (McGrath 2012). The argument here is to propose a shift in the conception of VET thus moving away from traditional deficit accounts (Nussbaum 2011).…”

An Evaluation of Information Systems Students Internship Programs in Nigeria: A Capability Perspective

“…The development theories associated with the internship policies with the IS curriculum are located within the dominant modernization frameworks that argue that the creation of human capital for economic growth and employability is the solution to poverty and unemployment (McGrath, 2011 IS education for economic development is highly implicated in our conceptualization of development (Sein & Harindranath, 2004), that is, the approach to economic development influence the design and implementation of IS student internship program within the curriculum, and unless the contextual dimensions is consistent with the notions of development, the anticipated impact might not follow. McGrath (2012) suggest a reconceptualization of the notion of development which, to various extent, critique and surpass the dominant economic frameworks in which internship programs with the IS curriculum are currently located. It is here in this reconceptualization of the notion of development and the role of IS internship programs within this notion of development that this paper is located.…”