Overview: The Technical and Vocational Education and Training Profession

Abstract

The teaching profession within the broader sector of Technical, Vocational Education and Training is differentiated by the way in which this educational provision is manifested in a particular country, the institutions within that country, and what purposes it seeks to serve at a particular moment in that country's social and economic development. As a sector of education that is often seen as needing to be highly responsive to changes in the kinds of skills and knowledge that countries require to develop, it has particular cultural impetuses and forms. Not the least of these is the degree to which its purposes are aligned with developing directly the skills required for work by the community or some other educational goal, such as more general competencies associated with the quality of working life. For instance, a longstanding debate within Western countries, but evident in practice elsewhere (e.g., Brazil, China and Russia) is the degree to which vocational education should be focused on developing specific vocational knowledge and skills, or comprise a form of education that has an orientation towards paid vocations. That is, whether workplace competence or general education is its primary educational goal. In other countries, this division of purposes takes particular forms. For instance, as contributors in this collection propose, the emphasis on particular values or ideologies or moral education are to be developed alongside workplace competence in China and Russia, whereas there are requests from Brazilian contributors for a reinstatement of values associated with collective and individual needs.