• Due to ongoing issues caused by Search, it has been temporarily disabled
  • Please excuse the mess, we're moving the furniture and restructuring the forum categories

Vocational education

I don't know; does it? Do you have any specific comments in mind?

FWIW, I'm currently doing a vocational course in photography.
 
I work in that area (specifically with apprentices and trainees) in Australia. I’m seeing an increasing number of older people and people with degrees and higher commencing apprenticeships. They see great futures in becoming a qualified electrician, plumber or carpenter. So in that sense, I will say yes.

On the other hand, we are facing current and future skill shortages in Australia, which shows that while we have a robust and technically advanced vocational education system here, not enough school leavers are taking this pathway.

My hope is that school-based apprenticeships, where students in years 11 and 12 actually start a part-time apprenticeship, will bridge this gap. Numbers are increasing each year. (The Brits stole this idea off us a few years ago, and it seems to be working well there too).
 
Assuming you're for vocational education, this has been a recurrent theme for many a decade.

Care to elaborate why it's pertinent to you right now?
 
bluesjnr said:
Assuming you're for vocational education, this has been a recurrent theme for many a decade.

Care to elaborate why it's pertinent to you right now?
Click to expand...
It won't matter; threads in Education die young unless they are about grammar rules.

There was a pendulum effect going on. Some people stopped favoring vocational ed in the U.S., feeling instead everyone should be on a college track vs. focusing on a trade from about age 16 onward. That was in about the early '60s. Education has a way of completely revamping itself in mutually exclusive ways every 20 years or so. Education for trades had a resurgence. I'm not sure where it stands now.
 
Minoosh said:
It won't matter; threads in Education die young unless they are about grammar rules.

There was a pendulum effect going on. Some people stopped favoring vocational ed in the U.S., feeling instead everyone should be on a college track vs. focusing on a trade from about age 16 onward. That was in about the early '60s. Education has a way of completely revamping itself in mutually exclusive ways every 20 years or so. Education for trades had a resurgence. I'm not sure where it stands now.
Click to expand...

When I last looked several years ago, the US did not have a strong apprenticeship system, with most tradespeople being completely trained in trade schools and/or polytechnics. 600,000 apprentices out of a workforce of 157 million (0.3%) compared with 250,000 out of a workforce of 12 million (2%) in Australia.

I think this is a real weakness. Someone in Australia can obtain, for example, a carpentry qualification without an apprenticeship, but probably won’t get work in that area. Practical experience is extremely important in my view.
 
lionking said:
When I last looked several years ago, the US did not have a strong apprenticeship system, with most tradespeople being completely trained in trade schools and/or polytechnics. 600,000 apprentices out of a workforce of 157 million (0.3%) compared with 250,000 out of a workforce of 12 million (2%) in Australia.

I think this is a real weakness. Someone in Australia can obtain, for example, a carpentry qualification without an apprenticeship, but probably won’t get work in that area. Practical experience is extremely important in my view.
Click to expand...
That's one reason the US needs immigrants (even illegal ones). They know how to actually do ****. Now if only we did not have such a love/hate relationship with them.
 
bluesjnr said:
Assuming you're for vocational education, this has been a recurrent theme for many a decade.

Care to elaborate why it's pertinent to you right now?
Click to expand...

It's important to me because there are opportunities I got in the 90's which don't seem to be there for the young now.

Everyone is different.

Not everyone is cut out for the same thing.

I've done OU stuff I've done electronics I've done engineering courses. The courses I enjoyed most were hands on and involved making things.

Some opportunities seem to be missing from education in the UK these days.
 
theprestige said:
I've come to respect vocational education and training a lot more as I get older. I think the US education system way over-emphasizes and over-subsidizes universities, and maybe doesn't do enough to encourage skilled trades.
Click to expand...
Pretty much my thoughts. Our high school district has two schools at present, but plans are to close one (the larger, more rural, campus) and consolidate all students into the other older campus. There is a grass-roots effort to convince the school board to consider making the larger campus into a vocational focused school rather than closing it.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom