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The Vocational Aspect of Education

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Reforming Technical and Technological Education

a
David N. Wilson
a
Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada
Published online: 11 Aug 2006.

To cite this article: David N. Wilson (1993) Reforming Technical and Technological Education, The Vocational Aspect of
Education, 45:3, 265-284, DOI: 10.1080/0305787930450307

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 The Vocational Aspect of Education, Vol. 45, No. 3, 1993

Reforming Technical and

Technological Education

DAVID N. WILSON
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Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, Toronto, Canada

ABSTRACT This paper examines selected reform efforts in technical and

technological education from a comparative perspective. The similarities
and differences between reforms in selected countries - Brazil, Canada,
Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Sweden - are
analysed to determine major world-wide trends. Lessons are drawn which
should be useful for nations contemplating reform of their education and
training systems. Particular attention is focussed on the time taken to
complete reforms effectively and the need for long-term approaches,
relationships between educational reforms and industrial development, the
interdependence of reforms affecting general, technical and vocational
education, regional co-operation and the decentralisation of national
decision-making.

Introduction
As defined here, technological education (TE) refers to aspects of an
educational system involving instruction in mathematics, science,
technological concepts, directed towards the understanding of and ability
to apply technology. Hallak (1990) contends that "scientific learning is an
area that merits high investment priority". Unfortunately, he noted that:
This area has suffered budget cuts so severe that in many countries
laboratories cannot be maintained, scientific equipment has not been
replaced, materials for experiments are woefully inadequate. Students
are merely taught about science rather than getting scientific learning
... In a context of economic uncertainty and rapid technological
change, HRD policy must seek to improve the quality and flexibility of

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 DAVID N. WILSON

manpower. Experience shows that this is more easily achieved when

students have benefited from long and solid basic science training.
Technical-vocational education and training (TVET) refers to aspects of
an educational system involving pre-service instruction which may be
occupation-specific, as well as training in industry, including
apprenticeship and on-the-job training. Hallak (1990) suggests that there
is "conceptual overlapping... between the areas of general education and
training", particularly with respect to "the application of knowledge to
problem-solving".
Educational system reform refers to activities which affect, often
re-direct, and usually re-structure, aspects of education or an educational
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system in its entirety. Fagerlind & Saha (1989) stated that: "The term
'reform' is frequently used in a vague and diffuse way and is usually
defined as an attempt to change things for the better in a country or part
of a country". They define reform as "a thorough change in the structure
of the educational system of a country". Reforms can be achieved
through (a) innovative, stand-alone projects, (b) sectoral and/or policy
changes, and (c) various forms of decentralisation, according to Oliveira
(1989). Plank (1987) categorised educational policy reforms as additive,
external, regulatory and structural. Fagerlind & Saha (1989) noted that
reforms cause major changes in:
• the national allocation of resources to the field of education;
• the allocation of resources within the existing educational system to
other levels of the system;
• the percentage of students completing different levels of the
educational system;
• the percentage of students from different social strata or the
percentage of female students that complete different levels of the
educational system;
• the aims of the curricula and their content.
Ginsburg et al (1990) categorised educational reforms in terms of the
following aspects of educational systems and/or 'social transaction':
• size or number of students, teachers, administrators and buildings;
• goals and objectives;
• policy-making and the administrative/managerial system or power
structure;
• financing and budget-making processes;
• level of funding;
• system organisation: the types, status, and levels of, as well as links
and ages of transition between educational institutions;
• curriculum: content and organisation of what is taught;
• pedagogy: social relations of teaching and learning;

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 REFORMING TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

• selection, evaluation and promotion criteria and procedures for

students; and
• selection, evaluation and promotion criteria for educational workers
(teachers, administrators, etc.).
Their taxonomy appears to have expanded upon that advanced by
Merritt & Coombs (1977), which listed a "variety of specific measures"
implicit in educational reform, including:
correcting abuses;
enhancing efficiency;
improving effectiveness;
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reforming the policy process;

accommodating new groups; and
reforming goals.

The Study of TVET and TE Reform

Studies of reforms in TVET and TE appear to have been focussed upon
changes undertaken in individual nations, rather than upon several
nations in comparative perspective. In this respect, the situation has
changed little since Merritt & Coombs noted this lacuna 15 years ago.
Those few studies which have been trans-national in scope have only
examined selected aspects of TVET (Wilson, 1994). The paucity of
international and comparative studies of TE is even greater than those
examining TVET. Similarly, studies undertaken by multilateral and
bilateral aid agencies appear to have been limited to concerns with
development and lending policies and strategies, in particular the
question of whether to invest in TVET or 'academic' education.
The study of TVET and TE reforms appears to be quite timely in
view of current trends in the globalisation of production and trade, the
focus on international competitiveness, and the concomitant
technological modernisation of the extractive, productive, informatics
and service sectors of economies. The response of many developed,
newly-industrialising and former command economy countries to these
challenges has been marked by renewed interest in TVET and TE system
reforms. An indication of the attention being paid to global
competitiveness is inherent in a comment by the Director-General of the
Israel Ministry of Education, that they were "designing a [technological]
education system to fight the economic wars of the next century"
(Wilson, 1990).
Economic restructuring in most countries suggests that most future
jobs will have significantly higher educational qualifications and that the
continued employment of unskilled and under-educated workers is at
risk. Such restructuring includes the shift in employment opportunities
from the extractive and productive sectors to the service and information

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 DAVID N.WILSON

sectors. The relationship between economic restructuring and TVET/TE

reform was addressed by Neave (1988) in connection with the policy
context of vocationalisation, as follows:
If, in the early 1980s, reform of vocational training was seen as a way
of creating employment, now it became part of a broader plan to
re-equip European industry by updating the knowledge base on which
it rested. And, as Commission documents make clear, the central
element in this knowledge base lay in raising the level of technical
knowledge not only in the active labor force, but in those likely to join
it in the future.
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All these factors suggest that greater attention is being paid to the content
and quality of education, particularly to the improved teaching of
mathematics, science and technology. Hallak (1990) places this in the
context of reform by elaborating the resources necessary to successfully
implement such reforms. He notes that:
Prerequisite to curriculum reform is an assurance of resources
adequate to finance teacher training, the modification of textbooks,
and student evaluation and certification, plus the adaptation of
facilities and equipment.
Hallak also notes that "a modification of any part or segment of the
school system will have consequences on its other components". One of
the most neglected aspects of TE and TVET is attention to the routine and
preventive maintenance of facilities and equipment. Only two authors
appear to have paid more than 'lip service' to considerations of
maintenance (Hallak, 1990; Wilson, 1991a). The effect of modifications
throughout an educational system is viewed as an important observation,
since the 'ripple', or 'multiplier' effects of any changes induce both
anticipated (planned) and unanticipated (serendipitous) changes
throughout the entire educational system (and often beyond).

The Systems Studied

This article examines selected aspects of TVET and TE systems in Brazil,
Canada, Germany, Great Britain, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and
Sweden. This grouping of nations provides comparative coverage of
developed, newly-industrialised, and developing nations on four
continents. It covers centralised structures (Great Britain, Indonesia,
Singapore and Sweden) with national ministries of education and
decentralised federal state structures (Brazil, Canada, Germany and
Malaysia) with state/provincial ministries of education. While Canada has
no federal ministry of education, Sweden and Great Britain have
decentralised federal powers and responsibilities to local education
authorities.

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 REFORMING TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

The grouping also includes nations with unitary TVET/TE systems

under ministries of education and nations with the parallel (non-formal)
structure of a national training board (Brazil, Canada, Germany,
Singapore and Sweden). It is noteworthy that the parallel training board
structure has been adopted by both industrialised and
newly-industrialising nations with stated goals of gaining (or maintaining)
international competitiveness.
Other similarities and differences concern the locus of delivery of
TVET/TE. In Brazil, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Sweden the
TVET/TE systems are delivered largely at the secondary school level,
while in Germany and Great Britain the delivery systems are at both the
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secondary and post-secondary levels. Although Canadian systems have

vocational and industrial arts streams at the secondary level, most TVET
is delivered at the post-secondary level in community and technical
colleges. Sweden, Germany, Israel and the former USSR have consistently
devoted over 50% of their secondary enrolment to TVET and China plans
to vocationalise its upper secondary programmes (Wilson, 1994). The
delivery of technological education appears, to be primarily at the
secondary level, in order to provide an appropriate 'foundation* for the
ensuing study of TVET and/or technology at the post-secondary level.
Brazil and Singapore have financed their TVET systems through an
industrial levy system of a 1-2% tax on industrial payrolls. Britain had a
levy grant system between 1964 and 1973, in which tax rates varied by
industrial sector, but replaced it with a levy exemption system. The
German BIBB (Federal Institute for Vocational Training) system is
financed by employer contributions. Canada has recently re-directed
unemployment insurance funds (collected from both employers and
employees) from income maintenance to support TVET, while also
eliminating federal fiscal contributions. Most other nations finance TVET
from both central and state/provincial government budgets.
Technological education, in contrast, is normally financed from
government budgets devoted to formal education.
Curriculum development methods vary from centralised curriculum
preparation at the ministry of education in Indonesia, Malaysia and
Sweden, to Land (state) curriculum development in Germany, to
centralised curriculum development by a national training board in Brazil
and Singapore, to decentralised curriculum development at the
institutional level in Canada and Great Britain, following guidelines
produced by the ministries of education. Brazil and Singapore employ the
task analysis method of TVET curriculum development, while Sweden
blends the task analysis method with conventional curriculum design and
the other nations employ conventional methods, sometimes using
variations of the task analysis method, such as DACUM (an acronym for
Developing A CUrriculuM) pioneered in Canada.

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 DAVID N. WILSON

Although the use of task and activity analysis in curriculum

development began in the 'blue-collar' trades, its use has been adopted
for, and adapted to, many service and information sector training
systems. The current trend towards competency-based curriculum
development continues the task/activity analysis approach. Moreover,
there are remarkable similarities between the structure of the process
and curriculum development approaches used to produce
computer-assisted instruction software. This suggests that a convergence
between conventional and task/activity approaches to technical (and
even academic) curriculum development methods and approaches has
taken place.
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Testing and certification functions are performed by national

training boards in Brazil, Germany and Singapore. In Great Britain
'tradition' has delegated this role to bodies, such as the City and Guilds of
London Institute. However, the current National Council for Vocational
Qualifications (NCVQ) initiative is modernising these traditional
certification approaches. In Canada these roles are performed by both
the federal and provincial governments, but those desiring federal
(Interprovincial Standards Programme) certification must first attain
provincial certification. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Sweden the ministries
of education and labour share the testing and certifying functions.
The most recent system reforms are currently taking place in
Canada, Singapore and Sweden. Great Britain has probably experienced
the most dramatic reform 'oscillations' in its TVET system of any nation
between 1970 and 1992. Indonesia and Malaysia are currently reaping the
benefits of TVET curricular reforms implemented in 1984 and 1987
respectively. In marked contrast, the relative stability experienced in
Brazilian and German systems show evidence of the slow, steady,
incremental addition of innovations, rather than the dramatic 'overhaul'
of TVET systems.

Sweden
The Swedish experience contributes to our understanding of how
long-established systems adapt to changes in economic conditions. In
1944 a National Board for Vocational Schools was established through
co-operation of government with the Swedish Employers' Confederation
and the Swedish Labour Union Confederation, a tri-partite approach. The
reform of upper secondary schools in 1970 integrated vocational and
academic subjects under the National Board of Education (NBE) to
co-ordinate 24 county education committees responsible for technical
and academic education. In 1991, the NBE was abolished and replaced by
a smaller National Agency for Education. The county education
committees have been replaced by decentralised municipal education
authorities, responsible for the planning and execution of education and

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 REFORMING TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

training. The state subsidy to education is now given to the municipalities

as a lump sum, based upon the number of students. This means that a
long-established, centralised, hierarchical system has been decentralised
to.the local government level. Successive reforms have resulted in the
integration of the old apprenticeship system into a revised
upper-secondary school stage (gymnasieskolari), which enrols over 90%
of the relevant age cohort. Granander (1991) noted that "at times the
vocational oriented streams of this system have become the first choice
by a majority of students leaving the compulsory nine year(s) of
schooling". The 1991 reform is reducing the 22 curriculum 'lines', or
streams, developed after the 1970 reform to 16.
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This structure for the delivery of school-based TVET is paralleled by

the National Employment Training Board (NETB), which is responsible
for training within industries and enterprises. Prior to 1989, labour
market training was under the joint authority of the NETB and the NBE.
The AMU Group was created in 1986 as an independent authority to
deliver employment training at 24 regional AMU Centres extending
decentralisation to the non-formal sector.

Canada
The Canadian system reform follows 80 years of federal government
encroachment upon provincial constitutional responsibility for
education. Federal involvement in both institutional TVET and
training-within-industry has been governed, since 1982, by the National
Training Act. Technological education is delivered at the post-secondary
level in universities and community and technical colleges. Federal
funding of post-secondary education and training stems from the 1967
Established Programmes Finance Act (EPF), which provides tax-point
transfers to provincial governments to finance community and technical
colleges delivering TVET, as well as universities. These funds are
transferred to the provinces, which have operational responsibility for
community and technical colleges. These colleges have a considerable
degree of autonomy in curriculum development, although curriculum
guidelines are developed at the provincial ministry level.
Post-secondary TVET is delivered in these 160 community or
technical colleges in Canada's 10 provinces and two territories. Since
1985, the federal government has endeavoured to reduce EPF transfers to
the provinces and devolve fiscal responsibility for post-secondary
education to the provinces. In 1990 the Unemployment Insurance Act was
changed to redirect Can$775 million from income maintenance to labour
force training, as well as to make UIC self-supporting through the
withdrawal of federal contributions.
In 1991, following two Task Force reports, the Canadian Labour
Force Development Board (CLFDB) or national training board was

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 DAVID N. WILSON

established. In addition, a series of provincial and local training boards

were recommended in order to "shift greater responsibility for
programme implementation to the local and/or sectoral level". Further,
"broad provincial jurisdiction in the area of education and training means
that the precise make-up and functions of these Boards in specific regions
of the country can only be determined after extensive federal-provincial
discussion and negotiation". This means that Canadian Training Boards
will adopt the quadra-partite (government, employers, labour and
education) participation model which has evolved in Germany and
Sweden. The CLFDB and provincial and local training boards are to
advise both levels of government on the expenditure of training funds
(Wilson, 1991e).
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Although no provincial, or local, training boards have yet been fully

established, the Ontario Training and Adjustment Board is slowly being
created, and is to co-operate with 23 local training boards. This writer
hopes that local boards will take over, and revitalise, the Trade/Industry
Advisory Committees which have worked with most community and
technical colleges since the 1940s to formulate courses and curricula
relevant to local HRD requirements.
As noted above, testing and certification are provincial
responsibilities, undertaken by either the ministries of labour,
post-secondary education, or education and training. In order to facilitate
labour mobility, the federal Interprovincial Standards Programme also
certifies those already holding provincial certification in 27 trade,
technology and service fields.
While the Canadian post-secondary TVET reform is just beginning, it
can be concluded that the reform is structural and regulatory in its
orientation. The reform also appears to be focussed upon the
reorientation of goals and objectives, changing the policy-making and
administrative power structures, the financing mechanisms, and the
relationships between institutions delivering training and the 'consumers'
of training in the extractive, productive, service and informatics sectors
of the economy.

Singapore
Following the decision to industrialise in 1960, a vocational stream was
introduced at the secondary school level in 1964, just prior to
independence in 1965. The Technical Education Division (TED) of the
Ministry of Education was established in 1968. TED adapted transferred
elements from the UK, Canada, Israel and the ILO to create an effective
TVET system for Singapore's newly industrialising economy (Wilson,
1981).
In 1973, the Industrial Training Board was created. The
apprenticeship system was reformed in. 1975. A National Trade

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 REFORMING TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

Certification system was established in 1973 and in 1977 the Ministry of

Education introduced a Basic Course for the weakest primary school
students which was to be followed by ITB institutional TVET and
employment. In addition, all secondary students failing the GCE ' 0 '
(ordinary) level examinations after three attempts were offered a place in
the ITB's NTC Grade 3 (semi-skilled) courses.
The creation of the Vocational and Industrial Training Board (VITB)
in 1979 reformed the system by amalgamating the Industrial Training
Board and the Adult Education Board. In addition, the Skill Development
Fund (SDF) was established to finance TVET by a levy on wages of 4%
(later reduced to 1%). All TVET facilities were transferred from the
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Ministry of Education to the VITB and the educational system itself was
reformed by the introduction of a comprehensive New Education System.
According to Pillay (1991), the underlying philosophy of the New
Education System was that "the best preparation for employment is a
sound education", configured around "bi-lingual ability, mathematics and
science as the core".
Wilson (1981) has labelled the VITB as the second best national
training system in the newly-industrialising countries. The World
Competitiveness Report (HMD, 1990) ranked the Singapore workforce
ahead of South Korea, Taiwan and Hong Kong in terms of labour-saving
technology, employee turnover, skilled labour and worker motivation,
and second to Hong Kong in labour flexibility. In 1991/92, as part of its
third reform, entitled 'integrating fronts', the VITB was re-named the
Institute for Technical Education and the German dual-system was to be
adopted. All students were to be retained in school for 10 years to
complete a minimum basic secondary education. A fourth secondary
stream was added to accommodate students previously retained in
primary school for eight years. This stream reintroduced the technical
stream, phased out and transferred to the VITB in 1979. TVET has been
"reformed in parallel" and "will henceforth be purely post-secondary".
The objective of the latest reform is to channel 25% of secondary
graduates to university, 40% to the three polytechnics, and 15% to the
labour market. "The social objective is to make appropriate training for
employment available for every school-leaver" (Pillay, 1991).
Singapore is a fascinating 'laboratory' for the study of TVET and TE
reform, since it has dramatically reformed its system three times in the
span of three decades. Each reform has been introduced in concert with
transformations of the Singapore economy; initially from entrepot trading
to industrialisation, then in a transition to a high-technology,
export-oriented economy, and most recently, towards the development of
"a total international investment and business centre, captur[ing]
high-end, high-value-added (including R&D) manufacturing] and ... a
centre of specialist brain service" (Pillay, 1991).

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 DAVID N. WILSON

Great Britain
An example of dramatic shifts from one extreme to another is Great
Britain, which has experienced three phases since the 1964 Industrial
Training Act. First, a levy-grant system supported Industrial Training
Boards (ITBs) i n 24 industrial sectors. Rainbird (1991) noted this to be
"the most effective incentive mechanism for both increasing the volume
and improving the quality of training". Then, the 1973 Employment and
Training Act introduced central co-ordination and planning of national
labour force policy to correct some of the shortcomings of the 1964 Act.
The introduction of state funding for the ITBs made them dependent on
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the exigencies of government, vulnerable to policy changes, and

subordinated industrial requirements to those of central government.
The Manpower Services Commission (MSC) was created to co-ordinate
the ITBs and funding was changed from the levy-grant system to a
bureaucratic levy-exemption system. While the government was initially
prepared to subsidise shortfalls in training costs, subsequent policy
changes devolved training policy to voluntary efforts by employers
and/or employer organisations. In 1988, Great Britain wound up, or
privatised (by increasing employer representation), all but one of the
remaining ITBs and shifted responsibility for training to Training and
Enterprise Councils (TECs). Although the Thatcher government devolved
responsibility for training to employers, in terms of company, sectoral
and local-level decision-making, the employer-dominated TECs administer
government funding for training schemes for youth and the unemployed,
as well as pilot-testing Training Credits (Rainbird, 1991).

Germany
Under the 1969 Vocational Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz) the Federal
Institute for Vocational Training (BIBB) is responsible for national
training policy, while the Lander (states) have Chambers of Commerce
and Industry responsible for dual mode apprenticeship training within
industry. Administrative autonomy is delegated to BIBB, which is
composed of representatives of business and industry, labour unions,
employers and vocational training institutions. The Act applies only to
on-the-job training, further training and vocational retraining, but not to
vocational schools which, since Germany is a federation, are under the
jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education in each Land (state). The dual
system provides for a division of responsibilities between employers and
government in which employers release apprentices to Land vocational
schools for one or two days per week, while receiving in-company
training during the remainder of the working week. The Act stipulates
that youths up to 18 years of age may be .trained only in a recognised

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 REFORMING TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

training occupation. The German dual system requires quadra-partite

training board participation (i.e. government, employers, labour and
education) since part of the training is delivered in institutions and part
through in-plant training.
BIBB has the authority to decide, together with appropriate
government ministries, the content and length of training for each
occupation. Between 1969, when the Vocational Training Act was
promulgated, and 1990 the number of trade areas recognised in training
ordinances has been consolidated from 600 to 378. The three to
three-and-a-half year training period culminates in a final examination set
by a Board of Examiners with equal employer and employee
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representation and at least one vocational school instructor, established

by the Chambers of Commerce and Industry at the Land level.
In marked contrast to those systems which have recently undergone
broad-based reforms, the German dual system has merely been 'fine
tuned1 during the past two decades. It is interesting to note that the
appeal of the dual system is so widespread that it is currently being
adopted by Singapore, considered by Israel and Sri Lanka, and elements
appear to have been 'borrowed' by the new Canadian Labour Force
Development Board.

Brazil
SENAI, the National Industrial Learning Service of Brazil, is the oldest
national training board, having been established in 1942. SENAI resembles
BIBB in Germany, since it is a private entity under the aegis of the
Federation of Brazilian Industries. In fact, elements of the SENAI system
were adopted from Germany and Switzerland (in 1938) - but adapted to
the Brazilian milieu - by its founder, Roberto Mange.
SENAI benefits from an industrial levy comprising a tax of 1% on
industrial payrolls to finance its training activities. Training is delivered
in pre-service SENAI schools to 14- to 18-year-old apprentices, at the
post-secondary level to technicians and technologists, and to employees
requiring up-grading and/or re-training in industries. Castro & Oliveira
(1991) noted the high regard in which SENAI is held in Brazil, as well as
the fact that their students consistently outperformed academic
secondary students in national examinations. Wilson (19910 noted that
SENAI's performance is so well regarded that six Brazilian states contract
with SENAI to operate their secondary vocational schools.
The SENAI serie metodica ocupacionais (Shopwork Methodical
Series) curriculum has been developed through task analysis since 1942:
The method comprises a task sheet describing operations inherent to
each task ('what' the trainee should do); an operation sheet showing
'how to' perform each operation; a technological information sheet
describing the tools and equipment essential for the performance of

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 DAVID N.WILSON

each operation; and (from 1974) a complementary information sheet

explaining the 'why' of an operation or set of operations, in order to
introduce relevant theory into this practical training system.
The apprenticeship cycle of the SENAI system follows five steps: (1)
study of the task; (2) development of a work plan; (3) demonstration
by the instructor and/or through individualised multi-media packages
and application by the trainee; (4) performance of the task in the
workshop; and (5) evaluation to assess task mastery. (Wilson, 19910
The method has been adapted to the service and information sectors in
Brazil by SENAC (National Commercial Learning Service), established in
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1946, and to activity analysis elsewhere. Activity analysis enables the

design of curricula in the service, informatics and social sectors, since it
focusses more upon the information and actions necessary to perform
jobs than technical knowledge and procedures.
Among the features which sets SENAI apart from most other national
training systems are its high degree of autonomy, centralised planning
and co-ordination of operations, and the fact that nearly every aspect of
the system is planned from the curriculum outwards. That is, facility
design, equipment procurement, training consumable supplies, instructor
training, etc. are all planned for the delivery of the Shopwork Methodical
Series. Curricula are designed centrally by experts in task analysis and
then used to design, build and equip the Centros de Formacao
Profissional (SENAI schools) and, subsequently, to order and deliver
training consumable materials to each school when needed. This high
degree of planned integration does not appear to have been replicated by
any other training system.
The SENAI system has been 'transferred' to 19 other Latin American
and two Caribbean nations, largely through the efforts of the ILO
Research and Documentation Centre for Vocational Training in Latin
America (CINTERFOR), and has also contributed to the methodology
'transferred' by the ILO to many developing and newly-industrialising
nations. Although the SENAI system has changed relatively little since its
initial design in 1942, those changes which have been made are in the
nature of refinements which have made the system more effective
(Wilson, 19910-
Thus, while the SENAI system has remained basically unchanged,
the continual adoption of innovations to improve the delivery of training
has cumulatively reformed the system. Such innovations include the
complementary information, or theory, sheets, the use of multi-media
instructional technology support, including audio and video cassettes,
films, computer-assisted-instruction, videodisc and computer simulation
software.

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 REFORMING TECHNICAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

Indonesia
Secondary education is divided into three-year junior and senior cycles,
each differentiated into a general-academic track and various
occupation-specific TVET tracks. The junior secondary TVET track, or ST,
is being eliminated during the current Repelita V, or fifth five-year plan
(1989-94). Technical senior secondary schools, STMs, enrolled 12.4%, or
484,432, of the 3.9 million secondary students in 1990/91 (Wilson, 1993).
The growth of TVET has been faster than that of general secondary
education despite constraints imposed by the shortage of workshops and
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equipment at public and private STMs. The employment rate for STM
graduates has exceeded that for academic secondary graduates by
20-30%.
Reform of the STM curriculum in 1984 involved the compilation of
competence profiles based upon job analysis. The revised STM
curriculum remains extremely complex, spanning six areas of study,
comprising 39 clusters and 100 study programmes. However, this
complexity facilitates the decentralisation of authority to teach courses
in accordance with local HRD requirements. In the Indonesian geographic
and demographic contexts, this is an extremely important feature.
STM students follow the same basic general subjects as the
academic senior secondary track (SMA) for 30% of the core programme.
Basic vocational courses account for another 30%, with the remaining
40% available for the study of elective courses. The 1984 curriculum was
designed to educate employable and entrepreneurial graduates at the
skilled middle (trade and technician) levels, as well as to prepare
graduates for lifelong education. Academic secondary curricula are
currently being reformed and Curriculum 94 is to be introduced during
Repelita VI, the sixth five-year plan, in concert with the implementation of
nine years of universal basic education.
The major difference between the 1984 STM curriculum and its 1976
predecessor lies in the change from a terminal curriculum to a focus
upon non-terminal academic preparation for entry either to the workforce
or to post-secondary studies. This changed focus is likely to have
resulted from the expansion of the polytechnics, as well as from the
impetus provided by sustained economic and industrial growth. In
addition, policy changes during Repelitas IV and V also affected the
emphasis in the revised curriculum. Among such policy changes were:
the encouragement of production units and co-operatives at STMs,
co-operation with local industries, an industrial practice component and
the co-ordination of specialisations with local employment opportunities.
These major differences in both the content and orientation of the
STM curriculum appear to have also changed student perceptions of
TVET, since there has been a surge in STM enrolment from 1985/86. The

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combination of changed perceptions and improved employment

opportunities for STM graduates, as well as their improved access to
post-secondary education, suggest that the 1984 curriculum reform has
made a considerable impact upon the educational system.

Malaysia
Malaysia attained universal primary education in 1984 and is also
currently implementing a policy of nine years of universal basic
education. The secondary level of education is divided into a two-year
Lower Secondary (Forms I-II) and a two-year Upper Secondary (IV and V)
cycle. A 1979 Cabinet Committee Education Review Report recommended
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the reduction of upper secondary streams to two: Academic and

Vocational. While the lower secondary cycle enrols 64% of the relevant
age cohort, the upper secondary cycle enrols only 26%, following the
Lower Certificate of Education (Sijil Rendah Pelajaran, SRP) examination.
In 1984, 98.4% of total secondary enrolment was in academic streams
with only 1.6% enrolled in the vocational stream, in marked contrast to
Indonesia (Wilson, 1991d).
While graduates of the Arts/Science 'academic' stream sit for the
Malaysian School Leaving Certificate Examination (Sijil Pelajaran
Malaysia, SPM), enabling entry to the Sixth Form, TVET students sit for
the Sijil Palajaran Vokasional Malaysia (SPVM) Examination, to enable
application to the polytechnics or facilitate entry to the labour market.
Between 1982 and 1984 TVET curricula were reviewed and a
system-wide reform was planned. The review found that:
• only about half of the SVS students passed both trade and general
academic subjects in the MCE(V) examinations;
• disproportionate credit (five credits) was given for academic subjects
comprising 30% of class time, while TVE subjects comprising 70% of
class time received only one credit;
• there were limited opportunities for better SVS graduates to attend
post-secondary education; and
• the curriculum was not flexible enough to serve both students with
skill development aptitude and those with aptitudes for knowledge
enrichment. (Wilson, 1991d)
A new TVET curriculum was developed with three components: (1) study
of related engineering technology; (2) skill development in specific trade
areas; and (3) technical drawing. Between 1985 and 1987 instructional
materials were developed to standardise practical work and facilitate the
development of specific skills. The course workbooks were accompanied
by phase tests, designed to evaluate student achievement at intermediate
stages and improve the performance assessment system. In-service
courses on curriculum implementation and the use of the new workbooks

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were conducted to orient SVS teachers to the reformed curriculum and

new texts. The reformed SVS system was implemented during the 1987/88
" academic year.
The most important feature of the curriculum/system reform is the
streaming of SVS students at the end of Form IV (the first year of the SVS)
into vocational and skills streams, depending upon their achievement and
aptitude. Vocational stream students pursue courses with greater
emphasis upon academic subjects, while skill stream students pursue
courses with more practical work to acquire proficiency in trade skills to
industry standards. Vocational stream students will sit for the MCE(V)
examination, while those in the skills stream will sit for the National
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Industrial Training and Trade Certification Board examination. Vocational

stream students will have opportunities to pursue higher education at the
polytechnics, while skill stream students are expected to pursue
industrial employment. The reform has, in effect, incorporated a
technological education component in the vocational stream with a focus
upon the improvement of mathematics and science for those destined for
study in the polytechnics and/or entry to the high-skill areas of the
economy.
Thus, the Malaysian reform appears to be curriculum-centred, with
the TVET system being reformed to conform to the revised curriculum.
The attention paid to implementation of the reform appears to have made
use of lessons learned elsewhere about the complexity of curriculum
reform and the necessity of widespread in-service training of the TVET
teachers to make use of the revised curricula.

Selected Lessons and Trends

This writer has previously employed the institutional transfer
perspective to examine TVET reforms. This perspective examines the
transfer of innovations and institutions from one country to another and
the resulting structural and functional adaptations which have made the
transferred 'bits and pieces' integral parts of sustainable and
locally-relevant TVET systems. Many of the transfers studied have been
facilitated by bilateral and multilateral aid agencies. The explanatory
power of this theoretical approach facilitates understanding of the
dynamics of TVET system development and reform processes. These
studies have also generated valuable lessons on viable policies and
practices which contribute to the reform process (Wilson, 1981,1991Q-
Perhaps the most salient lesson is that the process of reform can
take considerably longer than initially estimated to yield the planned
results. The post-war reforms of the Japanese and South Korean TE and
TVET systems are a case in point, taking about 25 years to make a
sustained impact. However, the reform of the Singapore and Taiwan
systems were accomplished in about 10-15 years. Several Asian

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'tigers-in-waiting', such as Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and

the Philippines, hope to reduce this 'gestation period*. A related lesson is
that TE and TVET reforms must take place in concert with
industrialisation, or industrial restructuring. Otherwise, the educational
system will over-produce graduates which the economy may be unable to
absorb. The Philippine and Sri Lankan experiences appear to validate this
lesson with surplus educational system output resorting to widespread
labour migration. The Singaporean experience indicates that a
technologically-evolving economy can absorb the output of the education
and training systems.
Foster's (1965) widely-quoted 'vocational school fallacy' article
argued that LDCs should invest in academic secondary education, rather
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than TVET, because schools are very clumsy instruments for addressing
manpower shortages. The Ghanaian students he studied perceived an
'academic' secondary education as their appropriate 'vocational'
education, since it led directly to the clerical and white-collar
occupations which they valued. Foster's comments were relevant to the
pre-industrialisation period in Ghana, but the subsequent development of
industries and the expansion of the service sectors provided
remunerative and prestigious opportunities for TVET graduates. In fact,
Wilson (1977) found that Ghanaian A-Level graduates, who were unable to
find employment, had entered TVET programmes at the Accra Technical
Training Centre (where the entry qualification was only a Middle School
Leaving Certificate) to be trained in technical fields where there were
available employment opportunities. Even the World Bank's conservative
approach towards investment in TVET acknowledges its relationship with
industrial growth:
Policies that have sought to solve large-scale problems of youth
unemployment by expanding vocational schooling have not been
effective where economic growth is too slow to provide sufficient
employment opportunities. (World Bank, 1990)
Another lesson from available comparative studies of TVET and TE is that
an optimal balance between 'academic' and 'vocational' education must
be determined by the traditions, requirements and capabilities of each
nation. Thus, it appears that there is no universally applicable criterion
or standard, or even model. Singapore offers valuable insights into this
dictum, since it is currently reforming its TVET/TE infrastructure for the
third time in three decades. An important lesson is that the choice
between 'academic' and 'vocational' education does not have to be
either/or, but rather both/and, because quality TVET must be built upon
an identical 'academic' foundation, particularly in mathematics, science
and an understanding of the applications of technology. If, as noted
above, the entry qualifications for jobs in modernising technological
economies require higher levels of educational attainment, then this

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observation takes on even greater weight. Even Psacharopoulos (1985),

who is a well-known critic of TVET, acknowledges the "complementarity
of general education and skill training".
Rainbird (1991) notes that rather than "leaping from crisis to crisis",
the most important lesson from British experience has been that "the key
objective of training policy must be to create mechanisms which
encourage the establishment of a long-term approach to planning and
development, underpinned by institutional stability". The politicised
'oscillation' between structural, financial and delivery models in Great
Britain demonstrates that too frequent and too dramatic change can be
damaging to the overall effectiveness of a TVET system. Reform is not a
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static process, but is dynamic and continuous.

One emerging trend is the regionalisation of TVET and TE efforts,
dating from the establishment of centres by ILO in Latin America
(CINTERFOR) and Africa (CIADFOR), by the OECD in Europe (CEDEFOP)
and most recently by the South-East Asia Ministers of Education
Organisation (SEAMEO) in Brunei. These centres promote research,
documentation and development of TVET/TE programmes relevant to
conditions in their geographic regions (Wilson, 1991d, 1992). In the case
of CINTERFOR, regional co-operation evolved from earlier transfers of the
SENAI 'model' from Brazil to Colombia and other Latin American
countries (Wilson, 1991e).
Lauglo & Lillis (1988) noted that the trend towards vocationalisation
of educational systems was "not rooted in ideological revival, but in
political and economic conditions" and "are ideas which are 'actualised'
by political and economic circumstance". The movement towards
comprehensive secondary schools in Singapore and Sweden appears to
be related to this trend, as does the provision of nine or ten years of
'basic education', prior to TVET specialisation. The Singaporean case is
illustrative of the trend to provide good 'basic' TE at the secondary level
and defer streaming into TVET to the post-secondary level. This, in effect,
replicates the German 'dual system' which requires quadra-partite
participation - and co-operation - by government, employers, labour and
education.
A trend noted in Germany, Sweden, and Indonesia has been the
reduction in the number of options offered in TVET. This is presumably
related to the development noted above, namely increasing the TE
precursor learning of relevant science, mathematics and other relevant
theories. Both trends parallel developments in technological
modernisation, which require a better trained labour force.
Reforms which have removed the 'bottleneck' of terminal TVET
courses have been implemented in Malaysia, Indonesia and Singapore.
SENAI in Brazil has facilitated the progression of its graduates to pursue
post-secondary education since the 1950s. Similarly, Sweden and
Germany have long provided avenues for TVET graduates to upgrade

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their education by means of adult education programmes. In Canada,

mature age entry to both community/technical colleges and universities
has also been a long-standing avenue. Such avenues are eroding the
'blue-collar stigma' long associated with TVET and making the systems
more egalitarian in the process.
Another discernible reform trend is the decentralisation of the locus
of delivery for TE and TVET to the local levels. The Swedish and Canadian
reforms suggest that many of the central functions at the national level
can be deconcentrated to regional and provincial levels to accommodate
local economic requirements. While many NICs and LDCs do not appear
to favour decentralisation, the SENAI 'model' from Brazil suggests that a
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strong federal structure can also be decentralised to regional levels to

deliver relevant TVET. Indonesia is an example of this trend with its
co-ordination of TVET specialisations with local employment
opportunities.
A convergence of technological education and TVET appears to be
taking place, with emphasis placed upon scientific learning to support
further learning of higher-technology subjects in TVET. This trend
parallels the focus upon global competitiveness and the modernisation of
the extractive, productive, service and informatics economic sectors. As
Neave (1988) noted, reforms to re-equip industry and update the
knowledge base in both existing and future labour force participants are
required. Not surprisingly, therefore, policies advocating the upgrading of
TE and TVET curricula are being adopted by most industrialised and by
many developing nations.

Correspondence
Professor David N. Wilson, Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 252
Bloor Street West, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V6, Canada.

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