INTEGRATING VOCATIONAL AND ACADEMIC EDUCATION

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 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 classes and making it easier for vocational graduates to pursue further studies at the university level. These changes are intended to attract more 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 indistinct. Instead of serving as an alternative to general education, vocational education becomes a method for promoting it. At the same time, the teaching of academic subjects in many countries is moving toward more active pedagogy that often features production of student projects, though these are not necessarily related to present or future employment. The trend toward convergence of vocational and academic education mirrors the growing interconnection between production and learning in the workplace.

Developments along these lines are occurring in all major industrialized countries. For a basic description of the vocational and general educational systems in the G 7 countries, see Medrich, Kagehiro, and Houser (1994). Here the focus is on recent changes to the existing structure.

Japan unveiled a new "integrated" vocational academic high school course in 1994 (Japanese Ministry of Education, Science, and Culture, 1995, pp. 47-52). Until then, Japanese high schools offered either a prescribed general curriculum as preparation for university or a specialized vocational curriculum. The proportion of students attending vocational high schools fell from 40% in 1955 and 1965 to 26% in 1992. Therefore, beginning in 1994, high schools were permitted to offer an integrated curriculum focusing on career development. Students in the integrated program have fewer required subjects and are given career guidance to help them design their own course sequence. As of 1994, only seven schools had introduced the integrated curriculum but it was expected that the idea would catch on and promote "convergence of vocational and general education" (Yoshimoto, 1994, p. 5). This convergence already has occurred to some extent at the postsecondary level through the growth of special training colleges offering higher diplomas in industrial, commercial, and other vocational fields. Enrollment in these institutions stood at 862,000 in 1992, double the number in 1978, and more than one-third the 1992 enrollment level in universities.

France has created an array of upper secondary diplomas: general, technical, and vocational. Around age 15, after four years of lower secondary school, most students either continue in a three-year upper secondary program toward a general or technical diploma or enter a two-year vocational program. The vocational diploma was first introduced in 1985 to give graduates of two-year vocational programs an option to receive an upper secondary diploma after an additional two years. As of 1991-1992, the number of students enrolled for the vocational diploma had grown to 114,000 compared to 707,000 preparing for general and 290,000 for technical diplomas (Kirsch, 1994).

French students holding a secondary diploma can pursue further vocational education in several ways. Secondary schools themselves offer programs leading to higher technician diplomas. Two-year technical institutes within the universities also offer technical diplomas. The university technical institutes were created after uprisings in 1968 to give working-class students access to the university. Until the late 1980s, most graduates entered the workforce. However, the recession of the early 1990s has made it more difficult to find good jobs and larger numbers of university technical graduates have been continuing their studies at the university. This has caused some problems with university professors protesting that the application-oriented curriculum of the technical institutes does not provide sufficient theoretical preparation. At the same time, the two-year technical institutes are trying to add a third year which would purportedly be spent mainly in workplaces, thus encouraging graduates to enter employment. The controversy over the French university technical institutes reflects one of the dilemmas in combining vocational and academic education: if the academic content is rigorous enough to attract academically talented students, the vocational mission of the program may be forgotten. This dilemma may arise again in connection with new four-year university professional institutes that have been created to give another point of entry to the labor market at a still higher level of the educational system.

Norway introduced a comprehensive reform of its upper secondary education in 1994. The three-year sequence starts with a common core curriculum in the first year, then offers choices for increasing specialization in the next two years, with considerable work-based learning in the third year. Students who complete a vocational sequence but then decide to go on to university may do so after completing one additional year of study.

In Germany, as discussed in the first section, the dual system of apprenticeship is widely regarded as a successful model for initial vocational education (see Hamilton, 1990). A series of studies in the 1980s pointed to the effectiveness of German training, in particular, as compared to training in Britain (Daly, Hitchens, & Wagner, 1985; Prais, Jarvis, & Wagner, 1989; Steedman & Wagner, 1987, 1989). These studies found that German firms in certain manufacturing and service industries were more productive than similar firms in Britain. After carefully observing the production process, and taking into account any differences in the quality of equipment, the researchers concluded that the level of skill acquired by German workers in their initial training seemed to explain much of the difference in workplace productivity. For example, German mechanics were better able to keep equipment operating because they knew more engineering than their British counterparts.

Imparting a high level of theoretical and academic knowledge is an important goal of the German dual system. Soskice (1994) points out that employers encourage academic achievement by awarding the more sought-after apprenticeship positions to students who have performed better in school. In recent years, the school-based portion of apprenticeship training in most of the German states has begun to include a critical analysis of technology, so that students are better prepared to participate in the "active shaping" of technology and work. A greater amount of time has also been set aside for teaching general academic subjects. Hermann Schmidt (1994), President of the Bundesinstitut fur Berufsbildung (BiBB), which oversees the apprenticeship system, has declared that "the separation between general and vocational education is becoming obsolete" (p. 9).

Traditionally, the separation between the pathways of apprenticeship and university has been clear: Students who attended a gymnasium and received the Abitur diploma went to university, while the others entered apprenticeship. However, in recent years, a growing number of Abitur holders are completing apprenticeships prior to entering university. Rauner (1995) reports that the proportion of university students who had completed apprenticeships grew from 21% in 1985 to 30% in 1994. Evidently these students have decided they want even more theoretical and academic preparation than the dual system provides. One reason, already noted in the first section, is that some employers are reportedly turning to universities and polytechnics (Fachhochschulen) to supply high-level employees. Steedman (1993) observes

a relatively new phenomenon . . ., the difficulty being experienced even by the most prestigious engineering firms in recruiting trainees of the necessary high ability and aptitude. Respected commentators . . . have, as a result, diagnosed a crisis of the whole [apprenticeship] system arguing that if the high-cost high-quality training provision of the prestigious industrial companies is discontinued in favor of recruitment from higher education, then the credibility of the system as a whole will be undermined. (p. 1288)

The United Kingdom is in the process of introducing a new set of vocational qualifications called General National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs). At the advanced level, these are intended to be the vocational equivalent of academic "A level" examinations, which are required for entrance to university. GNVQ courses are currently offered or planned in 14 fields, including art and design, business, construction and the built environment, engineering, health and social care, leisure and tourism, manufacturing, hospitality and catering, information technology, and science. The government is encouraging all institutions of higher education to accept GNVQs in combination with or instead of A levels. The 1991 White Paper on "Education and Training for the 21st Century," which inaugurated the new program, declared, "The government wants to remove the remaining barriers to equal status between the so called academic and vocational routes" (paragraph 4.2).

The first year in which students completed advanced GNVQs was 1994. In that year, 772 applied for admission to higher education, and 85.3% received at least one offer (UCAS, 1996). In 1995, the number grew to 8,525, and 89.1% received offers. UCAS, the clearinghouse for applications to institutions of higher education in Britain, reported that 91.6% of the 19,353 GNVQ holders who applied in 1996 received at least one offer of admission, compared to 88.4% of the total 379,582 applying for admission to higher education. The GNVQ field accounting for the largest number of applicants in 1996 was business, with 10,223 applicants, of whom 96% received at least one offer. Another 3,010 applicants held advanced GNVQs in leisure and tourism; 93% of these received offers. Of the 2,674 applicants who held advanced GNVQs in health and social care, 77% won offers. No other field accounted for more than 1,000 applicants in 1996. These figures indicate that the GNVQ has become an accepted route to higher education.

While the social demand for higher education in other industrialized countries is giving rise to policies that attempt to preserve vocational education by linking it to the university, the pressure for universal access to higher education is even greater in the United States. Conceived in revolt against monarchy and the feudal aristocracy that went with it, this country has traditionally placed great value on equality of educational opportunity. In fact, the proportion of young adults who complete a bachelor's degree or more (including a master's, which is the first higher education degree in several countries) is higher in the United States than in any other OECD country except Canada (OECD 1995a, p. 219). A high school graduate may decide not to go to a four-year college or university right away, but keeping the option open for the future is considered important in case a person wants to change careers or is forced to do so. Including college-bound students in career preparation programs also prevents the programs from being stigmatized as second-best.

The clarification of this commitment in U.S. policy can be seen in the evolution from the 1990 Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied Technology Education Act to the 1994 School-to-Work Opportunities Act. The 1990 Perkins Act mandated vocational and academic curricular integration and also provided support for Tech Prep programs, which link the last two years of secondary school with the first two years of postsecondary education (Hull & Parnell, 1991). The School-to-Work Opportunities Act repeated the appeal for curricular integration; called for the addition of work-based learning; and also urged the linking of secondary to postsecondary education, including not only two-year colleges and technical institutes but four-year colleges and universities.

Grubb (1995) provides examples of various approaches to high school reform that combine vocational and academic curriculum and prepare students for both careers and college. Stern, Finkelstein, Stone, Latting, and Dornsife (1995) report evidence that such approaches have improved students' performance in school. Business Week magazine (1996) has published descriptions of ten "new American high schools" that use integrated vocational and academic curriculum as the basis for whole-school reform. The National Association of Secondary School Principals has endorsed this strategy in a statement written with Jobs for the Future (1995). The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics and the National Science Teachers Association have both published curriculum standards that emphasize the value of understanding in a practical context. Many schools are using the study of technology to teach theoretical concepts in mathematics and science (Raizen, Sellwood, Todd, & Vickers, 1995). The National Center on Education and the Economy (1995) has published suggested standards for student performance that weave applied learning together with English, mathematics, and science; examples of actual students' work from various school districts are included. These and other initiatives indicate widespread interest in blending the vocational and academic curriculum so that students are prepared for both college and careers.

The dichotomy between vocational and academic will not disappear quickly or without struggle, since the old disciplines have long been entrenched and there is a strong tradition, especially in Europe but also in the United States, of using secondary education to sort students into various levels of the occupational hierarchy. But pressure is growing to create something new because work increasingly requires continual learning and it is becoming more difficult to attract talented or ambitious students to traditional vocational education. Fundamental change may take years or decades, but the pressure is being felt throughout the industrialized world, and educational authorities are responding.

[6] Jeff King notes that "the increased access to and use of the polytechnics and Fachhochschulen by skilled workers up-grading skills and qualifications beyond Technician or Facharbeiter levels means that firms and workers can either alternate work and higher education or pursue both simultaneously through evening and weekend degree programs . . ., thus reducing the appeal of pure recruitment from higher education alone."