Session Information
02 SES 06 A, Learning II: Excellence in VET
Paper Session
Contribution
This paper reports an integrated set of case studies investigating the contributions made by qualifications and by informal processes to the development of technical elites in Europe. Education and training systems across Europe have sought over an extensive period to provide qualifications to develop highly-skilled industrial workers capable of exercising advanced technical, supervisory and developmental responsibilities. Yet earlier qualifications research in Europe indicated that firms preferred to promote staff internally, suggesting that access to valued occupations was determined by internal labour markets rather than by formal certification (Mickler 2008; Drexel 1997; Kern and Schuman 1984).
Some evidence suggests that intermediate qualifications are now likely to have assumed greater importance in the formation of skilled employees. A shift to service industries and the delayering of older work organisations have eroded internal labour markets, which are generally weaker in the ‘new economy’ (Rubery 2000) Financial crisis has furthered this process through ‘lean’ production and casualisation. Meanwhile qualification systems have continued to focus on a need for highly-skilled workers and higher levels of credential, justified by greater needs for conceptual and ‘soft’ skills alongside technical expertise (ESDE 2015; Nilsson 2010). However, links between education and work appear weaker in liberal economies (Wheelahan and Moodie 2018)
An important change is that several European countries appear to be placing greater value on work-based knowledge than on school-based qualifications. Several TVET systems have shifted the location and control of upper-secondary education, with firm-based training playing an increased role in such countries as France, Holland, Sweden, Norway and England. The role of formal qualifications appears to be experiencing erosion, not in favour of the internal labour markets that existed in the past but by an increasingly dominant role for employers.
These questions were studied in England, where there has been a notable shift towards work-based qualifications, including the development of technical education or ‘T-level’ courses that include substantial work placements; ‘employer-led’ apprenticeships from which qualifications are increasingly being withdrawn; and the early development of higher education forms that are based primarily on workplace learning (Richard 2012; UK Government 2015; DfE/DBEIS 2016). These are significant changes in a country where links between upper-secondary qualifications and work have been weak; and where higher levels of vocational qualification have been lower than in other north European jurisdictions (Ianelli and Raffe 2007; OECD 2014).
The fundamental question for this study is what shift has taken place in the balance between qualifications and firm-based processes in the selection of candidates for elite technical roles (e.g. highly-skilled specialists, supervisors, workplace coaches and mentors), and how this affects the transitions of young people and adults into secure and rewarding occupations.
Two further important, related questions arise. One relates to the implications for educators and trainers, whose significance is likely to be enhanced by an increased role for qualifications but reduced in importance by the current emphasis on autonomous, informal and incidental learning, which are valorised over planned curricula (Billett 2014; Author 2018). A further complication arises if key decisions and learning take place in the workplace, necessitating a degree of boundary-crossing if school-based teachers are to play a significant role in the development of highly-skilled employees.
A further concern relates to those who are likely to be excluded by these selective processes. Greater emphasis on qualifications can limit possibilities for those unsuccessful in formal schooling. Yet it is not clear that their life-chances will be enhanced by emerging selection processes based on socialisation into workplace hierarchies, which may operate at the expense of training in industry skills (Tanguy 2016). Apparently serendipitous transitions into work may disguise the operation of powerful factors for social selection.
Method
A mixed methods but primarily qualitative study examined these processes across four vocational fields, selected to represent both established industries with recognised vocational provision and newer fields of employment in which qualifications are relatively new developments. Case studies of each occupational area were developed using a multiple case-study design (Yin 2003) which allowed us to make comparisons between, and identify commonalities amongst, the individual cases. Ethical approval was sought from, and granted by, the University of Derby, and the conduct of the project was consistent with the BERA ethical guidelines (2018). In each case, data was collected both in employment and educational settings. Data gathered in the workplace included the study of company policies and documents that set out formal selection and promotion procedures, alongside interviews with managers and employees, including apprentices and others undertaking work-based learning. The aim of data collection was to examine how formal and informal processes informed judgements about employees which supported their progression into secure and responsible job roles. Data collection in educational settings included interviews and observation of the way that young people were prepared for work placements, work-based programmes and employment. Additionally, a survey of teaching staff examined the sources of their expertise and the various ways in which they saw this as contributing to young people’s transitions. This aspect of data collection focused on the way that students were prepared for participation in less formal selection processes alongside the attainment of qualifications. Documents drawn from both educational and workplace settings which set out policies and processes used to prepare, document and evaluate the learning experiences of young people in the workplace were subject to intertextual discourse analysis (Fairclough 1999). Interview data were subject to thematic analysis utilising the constant comparative method (Wellington 2000). Whilst SPSS software analysed quantitative responses, open question data were analysed utilising the same approach as interview data. Both researchers checked and cross-checked data to confirm that initial codings and interpretations were agreed.
Expected Outcomes
Emerging data analysis provided some evidence of shifts in the methods used to select workers for responsible roles. Qualifications appear to exercise a certain role in the formation of technical elites although this appears to vary across firms and in particular across industries. For example, in established professional environments, such as health, qualifications remain an essential license to practice and so determines access to fully-credentialed professional roles. In digital industries, by contrast, educational qualifications can be eclipsed by professional credentials. Whilst both of these areas signal a greater success for vocational qualifications than in earlier research, many vocational qualifications prepare young people mainly for low-level roles in the workforce and do not indicate the levels of generalised knowledge that are often required for progression. Conversely, internal labour markets, which once operated to allocate privileged posts to senior employees, now appear to operate on a diminished basis in older industries and have less significance in newer fields. The role of collective arrangements appears substantially diminished. Instead, workplaces may provide informal selection mechanisms through which employees are still able to draw on attributes and forms of capital that are not recognised in formal qualifications. There is so far little evidence of these mechanisms operating during early participation in workplace learning, however. The effect of these changes is mainly perceived in educational settings in terms of behavioural requirements: discourses of ‘soft skills’ and ‘resilience’ have found their way into teaching and even into qualifications. This is reflected in preparation for employment and work placements, where guidance to students emphasises behaviour at the expense of preparation for learning opportunities and problem-solving in the workplace; and in the limited engagement between formal teaching and student learning at work. Further investigation on a broader scale is suggested, including substantial studies of national data and international comparisons.
References
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