IVETA President Tom McArdle’s Closing Remarks, Moscow, 23 August 2006

Transcribed from Speakers Notes

I was asked to make a presentation of the Lessons Learnt at the Conference, and I have tried to do this, but I must admit up front that my comments reflect mostly my own views and reactions to the Conference are only attempted, as of course I did not get to every session as this is not possible.

My remarks are in three parts comprising some business, the lessons learnt and my own views, and I will put forward the Conference Resolution developed by the Organizers and the IVETA Executive Team.

First of all, allow me to congratulate the Conference Organisers on the Conference including the quality of the sessions, the hotel venue, the tours and activities, and the hospitality shown to all of us. I hope the participants will be able to make the educational tours planned for tomorrow as well. Second, allow me to inform the participants that the Africa Region is planning a Regional Conference May 7-9 in Mauritius and you can see our website for details.

And now the remarks on the Lessons Learnt:

To place my remarks in context, let me start with the idea that after a period of marginalisation from around 1980 to 1996 (when globalisation and technology became such important drivers of education reform), the importance and profile of VET has become more apparent in the world. We even heard from the Russian Federation Minister of Education it was discussed at the recent G8 meetings. At the same time, VET institutions and systems have undergone tremendous reform in the past ten years, and this is transforming the field, no doubt. Some of the important reforms include:

• How VET is financed and governed-diversifying sources of finance and including stakeholders in decision making;
• Diversification of providers and somewhat away from government provided VET to more VET delivered by private providers;
• Improved relevance and linkages to employers and other stakeholders;
• Adopting (and adapting) standards-driven, competency-based approaches;
• An improved focus on effectiveness and efficiency in training provision; and
• An overall recognition of the importance of “quality” in the provisions.

These reforms, along with new and innovative approaches, are now sometimes ahead of both formal education systems and many of the more traditional employers. Here I am speaking of such things as:

• The lifelong learning concept
• National and now regional qualifications frameworks;
• Occupational standards; New Quality assurance mechanisms, and
• A focus on outcomes and demand, rather than inputs and supply.

However, serious challenges remain, and I will highlight some of those that I see as most significant:

• There is still a kind of stigma, in most countries involved in IVETA, attached to VET, as inferior to tertiary and university education, and this is so particularly among parents, and, perhaps, even among educators.
• Most countries continue to struggle with both high unemployment (especially for youth and women) and shortages of highly skilled workers.
• There is a great need for our VET systems to upgrade the existing workers and involve them more in Lifelong learning activities.
• There is a continued over-reliance on institution or centre-based training, and difficulties in stimulating enterprise based training ( the training we all believe is the most relevant and efficient) that includes recognition and qualifications for the learners/workers.
• For the developing world, training programs that are too short in their duration to produce more highly skilled workers, combined with…
• The need to provide compensatory educational instruction for school leavers who do not acquire sufficient basic educational competencies we consider key or core competencies.

Particular areas of concern or weakness often include:

• Inadequate career guidance and counselling provisions;
• Inadequate labour market information
• Loss of national skills to migration
• Research into the return on investment and the rates of return for VET in an age of increasing demands for accountability
• Weak articulation of VET and tertiary education…This despite the idea that VET reforms addressing relevance, for example occupational standards, have great potential in the tertiary sector.

The Way Forward

For VET to become as important as we all know it can be, I offer some ideas of where we should be going.

• Consolidation and extension of the reforms already undertaken, and better integration of the education system and the training system;
• Enabling learners to reach higher skill levels after basic training, and this involves challenges of both promotion and financing;
• More outreach and promotion of articulation and transferability;
• An even stronger emphasis on the “soft” skills: communication, working in diversity, teamwork, project oriented learning, and the like;
• Continued strengthening of assessment processes and the Quality Assurance of those processes;
• The need to demonstrate with empirical data, how VET provides a good return on investment, and how National Qualification Frameworks and National Qualification systems bring marginalized groups into the economy and improve standards of living;
• Improving entrepreneurship training and services to SMEs, since more people will need to work on their own account but within the formal economy, and career guidance services;
• Becoming even more stakeholder driven and partnership focused-increasing cooperation and voluntary participation based on perceived benefits and value;
• Improving the performance (and not just the rhetoric) of recognition of prior learning (RPL0 “multiple pathways” and the use of technology and distance education;
• Exploring further the role of VET in the social security provisions of nations, and
• Influencing both secondary education and tertiary education reforms to improve relevance of these segments of the education provisions.

In summary, great things are possible for VET if we have an inspiring vision, a challenging, socially and economically relevant mission, and the leadership and management skills to actualise our common vision of enhancing skills to facilitate investment and job creation that ultimately generates the wealth and meets the aspirations of the people. This improves the social cohesion that must serve as the basis for improved international relations and peace.