Vocational Education and Training: The need of the hour for youngsters?
Discover how the right education can equip students for their future careers through Vocational Education and Training. Delve into the benefits and obstacles of this educational path and explore valuable insights on establishing a top-tier training center.
Highlights
- Define Vocational Education
- Key features of Vocational Education and Training
- Pros and cons of Vocational Education
- Economic benefits of Vocational Education
- Challenges facing Vocational Education
- Best education practices in the world: The Swiss dual education system
- Importance of vocational training for career development
- How to set up a vocational training cebter?
Define Vocational Education
Vocational education is a different learning option from the path of college or universities. It offers a path that imparts the skills and knowledge needed to work in a given occupation. It is coordinated with the requirements of the labor market and is an integral part of the education system.
Vocational Training vs Academic Training
While college education often provides theoretical or broad knowledge that could be applied to a variety of professions within a certain field, students learn via vocational training the precise skills and knowledge provides direct knowledge and application for a specific field or position.
College education often includes courses on a variety of subjects that may not directly relate to a student’s major and that a graduate may not use in their career. Vocational school, on the other hand, skips this type of broad academic study and instead provides direct knowledge and instruction for a specific field or position.
Work-Ready Training
The vocational type of education is designed to make students “work ready” upon graduation. It provides significant practical education in a professional environment students will get accustomed to, so they develop specific industry skills that allow them to jump right into your profession and get started.
Vocational Training Settings
The vocational training system includes a variety of settings like apprenticeships or vocational schools for students to carry out their education.
While it is not yet common, some colleges and universities are beginning to incorporate vocational programs into their educational offerings in addition to their traditional academic options.
Students shall complete their vocational training with a certification or a diploma. In some cases, they may receive an associate’s degree. Some schools offer a range of professional areas, while some are specific to certain subjects, such as culinary schools or technology schools.
Continuing Education
Vocational training also helps people move forward in their careers. These programs are often shorter and more flexible than college or university programs. This makes it easier for people to go back to school or take continuing education to help them move to the next step. Through further education with vocational training, one could have the opportunity to:
- Advance to a higher-level position in the same company or field
- Gain the skills and knowledge needed to change careers
- Ask for higher pay to fit a credential or specialty skill
Key features of Vocational Education and Training
Vocational training has some key features that set it apart from academic education because it focuses on practical experience instead through hands-on training.
1. It makes a student job-ready
Vocational training provides skill based learning and focuses on how to transfer practical skills. This means that upon completion of the program a student has gained the necessary knowledge and hands-on skills needed to perform specific tasks of an occupation.
2. It is based on competency
Student performance is based on competence that is defined by meeting certain criteria. By the end of the vocational program, a student must demonstrate satisfactory performance on each of these criteria to be considered competent in their chosen profession.
Each vocational training program features units of competency. These focus on skills and knowledge a person needs to have for this occupation. The program includes a certain set of units of competency that the student needs to master. This varies by the trade, craft or technical program.
READ: Things you didn’t know about vocational education & training
Pros and cons of Vocational Education
The academic vs vocational debate touches many students preparing for their careers. While both of these types of schools can offer an excellent education and prepare students for their jobs, they offer a slightly different approach to learning and coursework.
Advantages of vocational education training
Pursuing a vocational education option can open numerous doors for students. They have the opportunity to learn a specific trade that will allow them to build an exciting career in a new field.
The focus on practical skills
Practical learning vs theoretical learning should be a priority for those evaluating schools. Students in vocational schools spend significantly more time learning practical and tangible skills that they will need for the workplace. They are more prepared to begin their jobs immediately.
An education that prepares students for the global stage
Vocational schools attract students with a variety of different life experiences. Students have the chance to attend courses and work closely with classmates from different ethnic, cultural, and economic backgrounds.
Students graduate with intimate experience of working cross-culturally, a better understanding of communicating with people from different backgrounds, and the insight they need to thrive in jobs around the world. In other words, they become assets to their organizations in the globalized world.
Building better relationships with classmates and professors
The schooling experience differs when it comes to the vocational education experience. Students spend significantly more time in their physical classes and less time working on outside projects. Students work together closely with their classmates and form relationships with teachers as they move through the program. This can help students set up better networking experiences and mentorship.
Awakening passions
Students in vocational jobs enter their career paths because they have the chance to pursue their passion or a career that interests them. When they get to school, they find that they can spend significant hours every week engaged directly with this area of interest for them. This encourages interest in the courses and creates an excellent learning environment for students.
Adaptable Programs
Vocational Courses are intended to support non-conventional students who wish to study while balancing other obligations. Options such as online learning, evening, night weekend make this alternative beneficial for those trying to develop new career expertise while working full-time.
Economic benefits of vocational education
Students entering vocational programs also find that they experience a variety of different economic benefits from choosing this educational path.
They often find a job more easily
When students graduate from a vocational program, they have work experience and precise training for their exact field. In other words, their prospective employer knows that the candidate has gone through specialized learning and practice in the field and is prepared to start working in the new position right away with minimal training.
Students often finish school faster
Many vocational based programs can be finished faster than the training and education programs provided for other paths. With less time spent in school, students get to make the transition from spending money for learning and training opportunities to making money in their careers faster. This helps to create net benefits for them from a financial standpoint.
Schools in the vocational sector often cost less than other types of learning institutions
Many students also find that vocational schools have a lower price on a year-to-year basis. Tuition and other fees that go into learning this field do not run as high as they do at other types of schools. This contributes further to the financial savings experienced by students during their education.
Challenges facing Vocational Education
Although the benefits for students entering vocational educational programs are many, there are a few challenges of vocational education that those entering a related field should be aware of.
Less of an opportunity to explore different subjects
In a traditional academic school program, students have opportunities to explore different subjects and disciplines outside their core topics for their future degrees. In a vocational setting, however, the subjects that students study revolve around their core concentration. While they may take some closely related tangential courses, they have fewer opportunities to take classes well outside their disciple.
Employers who focus on vocational students might be less able to adapt
Some organizations have encountered struggles when it comes to adapting with students who were educated in largely vocational settings.
Best education practices in the world: The Swiss dual education system
While the dual education model is used with success in many other countries, we can take a look at the Swiss apprenticeship system as an ideal example of this educational system. People, organizations, and countries take note of the Swiss system around the world, and it has shown its value in comparison to the education systems of other countries. A Harvard-backed study considered it the “gold standard” internationally.
In Switzerland, students learn about apprenticships and start them when they are still young. They begin the process in about fourth grade and most start apprenticeships by the age of 15 and then have skills for work by high school graduation. Switzerland has great high school graduation rates, with almost all students (97 percent) finishing high school, and low youth unemployment rates at about eight percent.
In the Swiss apprenticeship system, the majority of vocational training programs have two tracks to include both classroom and practical training. During every school week, these programs tend to include the hands-on apprenticeship part for three to four days per week and classroom training for the rest of the time. Swiss vocational programs last two to four years. They vary by the chosen program. Training is adjusted to fit needed skills and jobs within the chosen field at any given time, so it helps students prepare for the jobs that are available.
Vocational programs are very common and popular in Switzerland. There are about 250 programs students can choose from in upper secondary school, and about two-thirds of Swiss youth enter vocational training. There are benefits to apprentices, who are able to transition from the apprenticeship to a job or to a professional college or university. Companies also benefit, as they receive a full return on investment for the cost of each apprenticeship and the program has a 50 to 80 percent retention rate.
An argument against this type of program is that students at young ages are not always ready to make educational path choices that impact the rest of their lives. But Switzerland takes this into account. This system is unique because it allows students to change their educational path if they decide to do so. You would have different options available to you in this system. After completing the apprenticeship program, you can continue with advanced training in your area of focus or you can continue your education through universities of applied sciences or other Swiss universities.
The Swiss apprenticeship system is an example of how well dual training can work for students and a society. When determining their educational path and career choices, students should have the dual track education system in mind. It offers a combination of academic and on-the-job training while removing school debt and providing pay for the apprenticeship.
READ: Swiss vocational education and training model: the recipe for success?
Importance of vocational training for career development
When it comes to finding a job and encouraging emerging professionals to excel in their new career path, making sure that graduates have the skills they need for the position plays an essential role.
Vocational education and training, allows students to gain practical experience in their chosen career path before they even graduate. Students who finish these rigorous programs have the credentials and training they need to get started right away in their chosen career path.
Skill development and employability
Vocational learning opportunities play a critical role in skill development and employability. The importance of vocational development can largely be summed up as the difference between theoretical knowledge vs. practical skills. In non-vocational studies, students have significantly fewer opportunities to actually put their acquired knowledge to work compared to students going through a vocational education situation. However, for students in a vocational education setting, this situation gets corrected. Students spend hours in the classroom each week learning hands-on practical skills related to their chosen field. They do not focus as much time on researching the theoretical as learning the practical.
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