American education has been going through a period of general upheaval for about fifteen years now. One of the reasons (though not the only one) for all the reform and restructuring has been the widespread recognition that the faster pace of economic change requires some new form of initial schooling. That recognition prompted Congress in 1994 to write the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, which encourages states and local communities to make far-reaching changes in education from kindergarten through college.
While educators, policymakers, and citizens in this country grapple with this challenge, it may be reassuring to know that we are in good company, as most of the world's other industrialized countries are also struggling with the same issues. A recent NCRVE review of international developments has found a striking degree of agreement on four general policy directions:
The first principle is the most fundamental from the perspective of U.S. policy, because it affects how the others are implemented. Work-based learning, performance standards, and school-business partnerships often occur in countries that maintain strict separation between occupational training and academic education. These practices, by themselves, will not achieve the integration of academic and vocational education that is now being recognized as desirable in most countries.
To prepare individuals for work that demands autonomy and continual learning, many employers now call for education that promotes high-level thinking skills for all students, not just for the elite as in the past. Vocational education, which in many countries traditionally has offered practical training for students who were considered to possess relatively low academic ability, is now being reformed and in some places radically reconstituted. Reforms include strengthening the academic content of vocational preparation, as in the program of study for the French vocational secondary diploma instituted in 1986. In Germany, where many apprentices have traditionally received a high level of theoretical instruction as part of their training, there have been efforts in recent years to bolster the academic content even more. Countries are also making it easier for vocational graduates to pursue further studies at the university level, as in Germany where 30 percent of university students in 1994 had completed apprenticeships in the dual system. These changes are intended to attract larger numbers of intellectually talented students into vocational programs, to give them sufficient theoretical grounding to deal with changing technology, and to prepare them for continual problem solving.
As change proceeds in this direction, the line between vocational and academic education becomes less distinct. Instead of serving as an alternative to general education, vocational education becomes a method for promoting it. For example, in 1991 Britain began developing "General National Vocational Qualifications" which enable students to qualify for the university through courses of study that focus on broadly defined industries. In 1994, Japan started offering a new "integrated course" that permits high school students to design individual study sequences preparing them for both careers and higher education. These initiatives to start blending vocational and academic education mirror the increased merging of production and learning in the workplace.
Formal standards and certification procedures, which specify what individuals should know and be able to do, are important elements of a school-to-work system. Many countries are now reexamining their standards or establishing new ones. Countries with well-established occupational training systems have been reducing the numbers of specific occupations to promote workers' flexibility, and including more generic work skills. But occupational and academic standards have usually been defined separately. These changes in occupational criteria can be carried out without bridging the separation between academic and vocational streams. For example, in Germany, where approximately two-thirds of the youth population participates in apprenticeships, the reform of vocational standards affects most young people but does not entail changes in the academic curriculum of upper secondary schools (Gymnasien) geared to university preparation.
Other countries are trying to develop vocational credentials that can serve as a step to university and other forms of higher education. England and Scotland have made some progress in this regard. The Netherlands and Denmark have developed vocational routes to higher education. Growing numbers of young Germans who graduate from academic high schools are completing apprenticeships before going on to universities, and the theoretical preparation of German apprentices is becoming even more rigorous. Countries that are following this path sometimes invoke the goal of achieving "parity of esteem" between vocational and academic education. No country has yet developed a unified secondary school structure based on one set of credentials for both vocational and academic studies, but current reform plans in Scotland call for an integration of many previously separate vocational and academic programs while still maintaining separate vocational credentials for many students. The state of Victoria in Australia has achieved a relatively complete integration of the formerly separate vocational and academic secondary school systems, including new curriculum and assessment methods.
Because one hallmark of the emerging economy is the necessity for continual learning in the context of work, a logical implication for initial education and training is that schools should give young people some experience in work-based learning. By gaining practice in the deliberate use of work to develop knowledge and skill, young people should be better prepared for a lifetime of on-line learning at work. There is some evidence from France that this is so. Two basic strategies for work-based learning are classic apprenticeship and school-supervised work experience. In a classic apprenticeship, trainees have some of the rights and benefits of regular employees as well as some special entitlements. The German dual system is the biggest example of this kind. Several countries including Britain, the Netherlands, and Spain have recently created new apprenticeship systems or expanded existing ones. The same countries, and others including France, Korea and Sweden have also taken major new initiatives to expand work-based learning for students who are still under school supervision.
While some students in lower-secondary or middle school participate in school-supervised work experience that is broad-based and exploratory, most of the newly created work-based learning is for upper-secondary students and is still tied to vocational education with no connection to academic subjects. Unlike some incipient efforts in the United States, most of the new initiatives in other countries do not attempt to combine work-based learning with an integrated curriculum designed both to prepare young people for work and to maintain their option of enrolling in a university or other selective institution of higher education.
One form of school-supervised work experience is school-based enterprise, which engages students in production of goods or services for other people as part of a class or related school activity. Denmark recently has expanded the use of school-based enterprise in vocational education, to supplement the number of training places available in outside firms. Some German apprentices spend a portion of their time in school-based enterprises within enterprise-based schools. Like other forms of school-supervised work experience, school-based enterprises both in other countries and in the United States have mainly been part of vocational education, although a British initiative in the 1980s promoted mini-enterprises within the general academic curriculum.
Development of work-based learning and links between occupational and academic skill standards call for increased sharing of power and responsibility between educators and employers. In countries where schools still carry the main responsibility for education and training, the role of employers has increased. For example, in recent years employers have taken a more active part in the governance of work-related education and training in Australia, Britain and France. Both in these countries and in Germany, where employers traditionally have had a major say, the employers' participation in governance has been limited to vocational education, however. Employers still exert little direct influence on the curriculum of secondary schools or programs whose primary mission is to prepare students for selective institutions of higher education.
It is evident from this review that industrialized countries in Europe, Asia and Australia are pursuing reforms similar to those under way in many American communities: overcoming traditional distinctions between academic and vocational curricula, and combining the two with work-based learning in an integrated course of study that prepares students both for careers and for college or university. Since every country has its own unique set of institutions, the reforms take a different shape in each context. Some countries are just beginning to move in this direction; others are continuing a process begun decades ago. In spite of the differences, the fact that most industrialized countries have now decided to undertake similar changes suggests that the reasons for them are strong and pervasive. This should be encouraging to those of us in the United States who are waging the slow struggle to make these changes happen.
David Stern is a professor of education at U.C. Berkeley. Prior to becoming the director of NCRVE in 1995, he spent two years at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development in Paris, where he coordinated several comparative studies of education in industrialized countries. Thomas Bailey is an associate professor of economics and education and the NCRVE site director at Teachers College, where he also directs the Institute on Education and the Economy. Donna Merritt is a research associate for NCRVE and the Institute on Education and the Economy at Teachers College.
This article briefly summarizes some of the main findings from a longer report, MDS-950, School-to-Work Policy Insights from Recent International Developments, by David Stern, Thomas Bailey and Donna Merritt. To order copies of this document, contact the Materials Distribution Service at (800) 637-7652.