Vocational Education in the Commonwealth Caribbean and the United States

Vocational schooling and economic development: A Maltese case study

“…Lewis and Lewis (1985) review research reporting trends in the Caribbean, for instance, and tracer studies carried out in a number of islands in the late seventies and early eighties confirm general findings elsewhere that large percentages -between 25 and 33% -of vocational students were not working in the course-related jobs. Similar results have been obtained from tracer studies with students following vocational tracks in American high schools.…”

“…A key issue which is not often raised is that an important variable in the rates of return for students might not be whether s/he followed a vocational or general track, but the nature of the reward structure of the labour market which absorbs school-Ie avers (Lewis and Lewis, 1985). A second problem is that when comparison is made between the rates of return for vocational and for general students, it is often forgotten that these two types of tracks attract different 'types' of students, with the vocational catering for what are often socio-economically depressed groups of students.…”

Technical and Vocational Education in Developing Countries: Western paradigms and comparative methodology

“…The main task of schools is to prepare pupils for post-school occupational training although they may expose pupils to prevocational skills...." Corvalan (1988), in the context of Latin America, argues that the real failure of secondary VOCED is that it is generally unrelated to other sectors of the education system, let alone the labour market, it is too inflexible, teachers are inadequately trained and both parents and pupils regard it as second best. As Lewis & Lewis (1985) show in the context of the Caribbean, because governments so often only see TVET/VOCED as a solution to the problem of school leaver unemployment it is ill directed, under-resourced and fails to take into consideration local variations.…”

Factors influencing the intention of students at a selected TVET college in the Western Cape to complete their National Certificate (Vocational) Business Studies programme

“…This perception creates what Puckett et al (2012:1) describe as a 'negative-feedback loop', despite TVETs having the potential to respond to both the skills shortage and unemployment. Lewis andLewis (1985:167, cited in Harris, 2014:37) support this description, stating that the international perception of TVET is that it is a second-class option. A study by Needham and Papier (2011:36) in South Africa uncovered a difference in perception of vocational training between secondary-school learners and TVET college students: some learners were unaware of TVET, while others saw it as 'second-choice education … resulting in low-paying jobs with no career prospect' (Needham & Papier, 2011:36).…”