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Enquiry Abstract “TVET? –No, thanks. Not for my kids!” Liu Jingjia takes little pride in her profession. “Every time I introduce myself as a teacher, the first reaction is one of respect and interest, but the moment I add that I teach at a vocational school, people just don’t want to know more,” Liu says. [China Daily 16th September 2010, p. 20] Despite these kinds of comments, the position of skills development on the national agenda of policy-makers and development agencies improved markedly around the turn of the 21st century. This seminar tracks the ways skills have gained importance both in the developing and the more industrialized world. It analyses critically the multiple ‘drivers’ of skills development and the linkages of skills to the knowledge economy, growth, and employment in an increasingly competitive world. It also acknowledges that there are many modalities and delivery systems for skills development, arguing that this institutional diversity, often spread across as many as 17 ministries and training authorities, has made it more difficult to give a national account of the skills development sector. The re-emergence of skills has triggered many reform initiatives associated with technical and vocational education and training (TVET), some of which have become almost ‘fashions’ and are in danger of being adopted without sufficient evidence of their effectiveness. This account provides cautionary advice and insights that planners, and hopefully academics and students, will find rewarding. Speaker Professor Kenneth King has been with the School of Education and the Centre of African Studies in the University of Edinburgh since 1972, and Centre Director for 20 years till 2005. He was distinguished visiting professor in the University of Hong Kong for 2006-7, and is now Emeritus Professor of International and Comparative Education in Edinburgh. He is currently Visiting Professor in the Department of International Education & Lifelong Learning and in the Department of Education Policy & Leadership at HKIEd. His research and publishing interests have been: aid policy towards all sub-sectors of education; education and training in micro-enterprises or the informal sector; as well as work on skills development, higher education, and knowledge policies. He has been Editor of NORRAG NEWS, an aid policy review, for almost 25 years (www.norrag.org). He is on the EFA Global Monitoring Report Advisory Board. His current research, supported by the UK’s DFID, is on the role of Skills for Poverty Reduction, in Ghana, as well as in India and Pakistan. Since 2006, he has also been studying patterns of China-Africa cooperation, especially in the field of education, with support from the British Academy, Carnegie, Leverhulme, and the Hong Kong Research Council, and is currently writing this up. He is International Advisor to the Institute of African Studies in Zhejiang Normal University. He has recently completed work on a Technical Vocational Education Strategy for UNESCO, Paris, and a Fundamental of Educational Planning for IIEP on Technical and Vocational Skills Development (with Robert Palmer). |
