Leesa Wheelahan and Gavin Moodie have published a comprehensive collation of their work on vocational education's purposes and alternatives to competency-based education. The book 'Beyond Skills: A capability conception of Vocational Education' is published by Brill and part of the book series on 'The knowledge economy and education". It is open access and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0.
The book has 10 chapters. Many draw on journal articles published over the last decade or so. Wheelahan and Moodie's scholarly work have critique the mechanistic, competency-driven assessment (and it turn the curriculum) for VET. They have always pushed back at the marketisation of education and sought to provide alternatives for a more humanistic and socially-responsible approach towards the provision of VET.
The introductory chapter sets out the context and the main argument for the book. That is for a shift from alignment of education to human capital theory, towards a more 'social settlement' form of VET.
Chapter 2 then presents, summarised and discusses the evolution of human capital theory. The third chapter continues on with the various approaches towards 'skill' and critique of these. In Chapter 4, micro-credentials are used as an example of how curriculum is transformed and subordinate to objectives of employability. The work of Berstein is used to unpack and better understand these concepts.
Chapter 5 undertakes to better understand the role of qualifications. Why they matter, the key theories of education and qualifications and reminds us of the true value and purpose of qualifications.
In chapter 6, human capabilities are proposed as an alternative to the instrumentalist approaches currently standard across VET and education. The capabilities approach is introduced, discussed and critiqued. Then Chapter 7 brings a synthesis of the previous chapters to discuss the educational purposes of VET. Each of the purposes is then further expanded on and discussed in the next two chapters. Occupational purposes in Chapter 8 and social purposes in Chapter 9. The final chapter reviews the current foundations of VET and proposed a new foundation for VET.
Given the rise of AI and its impact on work, there are many concepts in the book that have relevance as the world of work shifts. At the moment, recent graduates are facing difficulties in entering the workforce. Caused by large organisations decreasing their 'graduate programmes' and lowering the number of entry level recruits.
There is advise for people to seek work in the trades - famously Geoffrey Hinton (godfather of AI) proposing plumbing as a good career path in the age of AI.
What then happens if this comes about? There will be greater competition for apprenticeships. Employers will be supportive as they will be able to attract higher calibre people. Where does this leave school leavers who have gravitated to the trades? What sorts of jobs will be left? The restrictive nature of trades education does not (at the moment) provide a wide education, encouraging critical thinkers and provide for social cohesion. This is noticeable when I work with developing programmes of study documentation. For degree level programmes, we need to weave in academic literacies (including critical thinking) and cultural competencies. For our programmes below degree level, the emphasis is placed solely on skills and knowledge. There is no room in the curriculum for any content/topic that is not related to being able to 'do a job'. So what happens when large portions of VET graduates are 'work-ready' but not necessarily 'critically thinking citizens'?
It is therefore important to look at alternative, like those proposed and supported through the 'beyond skills' book. We face rapid changes in how work is constituted as occupations and work tasks shift. There is a pressing need for VET to be cognisant of these and be transformtive to meet the challenges. Without VET systems (qualification frameworks, pedagogy, strategic direction etc etc) moving towards better ways to provision VET, the populace is left to find their own way, in a difficult economic, social and political environment (sigh).
No comments:
Post a Comment