Session Information
Session 6B, Trends in VET systems and structures
Papers
Time:
2003-09-19
09:00-10:30
Room:
Chair:
Pekka Kämäräinen
Contribution
A common trend in European countries over the last two decades is the emergence of a new conception of steering in education and training. The focus has shifted from a highly centralised steering paradigm towards decentralisation and deregulation. With this decision- making powers are devolved towards lower administrative levels and/or educational institutions (the so-called territorial decentralisation; cf. Bray, 1994). Various factors drive this shift in the steering of education and training. One important factor is the increasing awareness that complex and detailed centralised legislation and prescriptive procedures have failed. There is an increasing dissatisfaction among the public with regard to the performance and quality of public institutions and the services they provide. Another important factor concerns the expectation that increased autonomy for educational institutions will enhance the quality of education and training. The reasoning behind this is that educational institutions know their participants much better than central government and that therefore problems that occur within education and training can best be solved at the level closest to the education and training practice. In the Netherlands a new law for all Vocational and Adult Education (WEB after its Dutch abbreviation) was introduced in 1996, which became fully operational in 1997. An important element of this law is the increased autonomy of the newly formed Regional Training Centres with regard to organisational, financial, personnel and educational policies. The Regional Training Centres obtained substantial discretionary powers in these areas. At the same time, however, the budgets available for (vocational) adult education, which formerly were distributed by central government, have been decentralised to the municipal level. The idea was (and is) that local authorities are better able to assess the education and training needs of the adult population and that local authorities would be better able to develop integrated policies with regard to combating (long-term) unemployment and social exclusion. In line with the decentralisation of the budget for (vocational) adult education, other budgets focusing on the groups with disadvantages (school drop-outs, long- term unemployed, immigrants, etc.) have been decentralised to the municipal level as well, in order to facilitate the policy-making processes on the local level.2. Research question and methodologyWhen the functioning of the WEB was evaluated, one of the core questions with regard to the decentralisation of the budget for (vocational) adult education was whether the expectations that this decentralisation led to a better match between (vocational) adult education supply and demand and to the development of integrated local policies in the areas of (vocational) adult education, employment creation and social cohesion. An important element to bear in mind in answering these question is that, when the WEB was implemented, a condition was that for the first period of six years of its working, (vocational) adult education should be provided by the Regional Training Centres. This meant that the local authorities were more or less obliged to 'buy' the (vocational) adult education they want to provide from these Regional Training Centres and that they have to negotiate the actual offer and the conditions under which it is offered with these centres. Given that the Regional Training Centres serve more than one municipality, in practice this means that these centres have to negotiate with several municipalities. An important sub question therefore concerned the functioning of the contractual relationship between the Regional Training Centres and the municipalities. In order to answer these questions, the evaluation has been designed according to a multiple case study design in which 8 cases (regions) were included. For each case interviews have been administered with representatives from the Regional Training Centres (in particular those responsible for the negotiations with the local authorities) and representatives from the municipalities in the catchment area of the particular centre (two municipalities per case). The case has been selected on the basis of their dispersion over the country and over urban and more rural areas.3. ResultsThe findings of the evaluation show that local authorities still have substantial difficulties in formulating their own adult education policies. This is particular the case for the smaller municipalities. A clear vision on and adequate instrumentation for assessing the education and training needs of the local adult population is often lacking. At the same time, the development of integrated local policies as described above is still in its infancy. It are in particular the large urban municipalities (large cities) that succeed most in getting such integrated policies off the ground. A major reason for the non-development of integrated policies is the lack of cooperation between different municipal departments that are involved in policy areas like (adult) education, employment and social security. The fact that Regional Training Centres have to deal with various municipalities makes the negotiating process time consuming and fragmented. Moreover, there is a discrepancy between the target groups the local authorities want to prioritise and the target groups the Regional Training Centres want to serve. This inhibits the development of innovative, such as integrated adult education and vocational training trajectories. Although this paper focuses on the Dutch case, the findings of this evaluation are of importance for other countries that consider to further decentralise their (adult) education policy making.
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