TVET LINKS

The Future of Technical and Vocational

Education
Jobs move from country to country because of cost and competence. The costs
of labour, power, transport, raw materials are all part of the decision matrix used
in choosing where to locate manufacturing and support services.

But one key equation now having a massive impact on job location is the balance
between labour cost and the application of technology to reduce the labour
component not just in manufacturing but also in many services. 

Airport Phnom Penh. Source: aesta1

Application of Technology and Jobs
The massively accelerated application of robotics in manufacturing has changed
the decision matrix, and low labour costs in developing economies are now being
offset by lower labour input costs in developed economies adopting robotics and
new materials. 

Further drivers for this trend is the requirement for far greater precision in
manufacturing, the increasing demand for weight reduction and the need for
materials strengthening using highly advanced carbon fibre tech and metal
alloys. 

Street in Bangkok. Source: aesta1

For TVET, a revolution in curriculum is required to prepare graduates for an immediate job,
but also for continuing employment. Imagine having been trained on extractive technology
such as ..cutting, boring, turning using the finest CBM equipment only to find that
employment depends on additive technology, the application of 3D printers.

Equally, imagine developing good entry level skills in working with metals when the
available jobs are using carbon fibre requiring molding rather than cutting skills. Imagine
being prepared for assembly line work and competing with a robot for the job.  
Intrusion of Computers into Design
Beyond this, the intrusion of computers into all aspects of design changes the
skills required of all new workers in the majority of classic technologies. The
hollowing out of jobs in most manufacturing industries is evidence of this and the
primary reason for the migration of jobs from low wage countries back to higher
technology countries which they left over the past 20 years.

Increasingly, manufacturing exists in eco-systems of computer control in which all

machines talk to each other and share information. A design change is
automatically shared with all equipment in the manufacturing process and they
adjust to this without assistance. 

The internet of things is visible in the integrating of household equipment with a

cell phone, but the far greater impact is the linking of all parts of a process within
an ecosystem.

Preparing Young People for Jobs. Source: aesta1

IBM, Google, Microsoft, SAS and others are in a foot race against each other to develop
these integrated systems that will dominate the workspace. Are we preparing TVET
graduates for this environment?

 How do we prepare tomorrow's graduates for this new world? How does TVET
stay relevant?
 How do we afford the changes needed?
 How do we attract the best and brightest young people into TVET institutions?

There is always the concern that new technologies take forever to make it into the job site.
Remember the Laser?  In 3 decades it moved from the Lab to a pervasive intrusion in
almost every aspect of our lives especially in the workplace. 

3D printers have begun this process and as industries find applications, they will disrupt not
just the workplace, but employment prospects for those without mastery of the necessary
knowledge.

TVET Students. Source: aesta1

How can TVET Educators Respond?
1. Link all education in TVET facilities to industries. 
This may involve paying the industry using the newer technologies to do some of the
training. The combination of school and O-J-T is already the preferred training model in
many TVET colleges and engineering Universities. Planners and legislators need to press
hard to achieve this model as quickly as possible.

2. Expand the physics programmes in most TVET training. 

Without a basic understanding of the science behind innovation, graduates will never keep
up with workspace changes.

3. Increase the commitment to internet based learning.

This is the fastest way to develop the skills required in graduates to keep up with changing
technologies in the workplace. As the job-for-life morphs to the Uber-economy of on call
jobs, employment will be based on required skills. Period. 

4. Change recruitment targets for TVET teachers. 

Recruit from the industries that graduates will join. Teachers who do not understand
industry, business and the workplace are not useful. Take them in as part time teachers so
 they still can earn what industry offers.

5. Focus student recruitment on University graduates. 

TVET is not for the less gifted. Equally, society demands a University degree if for no other
reason, to satisfy parents that they have done their job. Once away from home,
unemployed/underemployed grads are flocking to TVET right now. In Canada, many
university graduates go to College afterwards to get themselves employed.

6. Rethink TVET institutions programming. Do the initial design around part time
learners who are employed now and let full time students fit in around the vastly
restructured timetable formats.

It’s a new world for TVET. Educators will move on, or they will simply become irrelevant.

In many developing countries, the TVET institutions have achieved virtual irrelevancy
already as the needs of employers move further and further away from the capabilities and
capacity of the institutions.
 
Other Articles:

 8 Ways to Ease Youth Unemployment and Underemployment 

 Employability Skills for TVET Graduates
 Public TVET Education: How Did Nice People Like Us Get Into a Mess Like This?
 7 Effective Steps to Engage Employers in TVET
 The Necessity of Partnerships in TVET
 Education and Industry Collaboration in TVET: 11 Effective steps

What are you doing right now to future proof your career or that of your students?
Copyright: aesta1.