Education Vocational

Education, Vocational, types of education that have a specific relation to working life. Vocational education is closely related to, but not identical with, the concept of training (or vocational training), which tends to focus on learning specific skills that are required in particular workplaces. Vocational education is, therefore, clearly distinguishable from academic (that is, general or liberal) education, which is concerned with the intellectual and moral development of individuals and has traditionally been associated with access to a variety of knowledge-based disciplines.

Vocational programmes for students completing compulsory education in England can be divided into two kinds—those that are work-based with varying degrees of off-the-job teaching (now known as modern apprenticeships) and full-time programmes mostly in colleges of further education that are oriented to broad occupational fields such as engineering and business administration. Provision for vocational education in Scotland is through national and higher national qualifications based in colleges, with relatively few following a work-based route. Since 1998 Scotland has, at least in terms of qualifications, gained a fully unified system that does not in theory distinguish between academic and vocational learning. What characterizes all countries, particularly those that make up the United Kingdom, is the assumption that vocational programmes are more appropriate for those with lower levels of attainment in general education.

The professional/vocational distinction also distinguishes forms of higher education such as engineering, accountancy, and pharmacy from the various alternatives to academic or general education for which a student can opt at the end of compulsory schooling.

Vocational education differs in both status and meaning according to the national tradition of which it is a part. Whereas in all countries of continental Europe vocational education includes substantial elements of continuing general education, it is only those countries following the German tradition that base it firmly on apprenticeship (or what is referred to in Germany as the “dual system”).

Conversely, British vocational programmes are usually followed only by those with low prior achievements in general education. Unlike in continental European countries, students choosing vocational programmes are frequently assumed to lack both the ability and the motivation to continue with their general education. There are significant differences in the approaches to vocational education of the different countries within the United Kingdom, and the tendencies referred to are far more marked in England and Wales than in Scotland. Provision of vocational education in Scotland has, since the early 1980s, been made through qualifications such as the Scottish National Certificate, which includes vocational and general education modules. With the “Higher Still” reform programme, introduced in 1998, Scotland has one of the few genuinely unified systems of general and vocational education.