Editing Vocational education (section)

== Challenges ==
=== Labour market demands and trends ===
Following the [[Global financial crisis in 2009|global financial crisis in 2008]], labour markets across the world experienced structural changes that influenced the demand for skills and TVET. [[Unemployment]] worsened and the quality of jobs decreased, especially for [[youth]]. Gender differentials in labour force participation placed men ahead of women, and skill mismatches deepened. The crisis impacted labour markets adversely and led to deepening uncertainty, vulnerability of employment, and inequality.<ref>Bacchetta, M. and Jansen, M. (eds). 2011. ''Making Globalisation Socially Sustainable''. Geneva, ILO and WTO.&nbsp;</ref> Furthermore, measures to improve efficiency and profitability in the economic recovery have often led to [[jobless recovery|jobless growth]], as happened in [[Algeria]], [[India]] and [[post-apartheid South Africa]].<ref name=":1" />

In seeking to address the level of vulnerable employment, TVET systems have focused on increasing the employability of graduates and enhancing their capacity to function effectively within existing vulnerable labour markets and to adjust to other labour market constraints. This has meant enhanced coordination among government departments responsible for TVET and employment policies. It has also created the need for TVET systems to develop mechanisms that identify skills needs early on and make better use of labour market information for matching skills demands and supply. TVET systems have focused more on developing immediate job skills and wider competencies. This has been accomplished by adopting competency-based approaches to instruction and workplace learning that enable learners to handle vulnerable employment, adjust to changing jobs and career contexts, and build their capacity to learn and agility to adapt.<ref name=":1" />

=== Migration flows ===
Increasing migration are significant challenges to the national character of TVET systems and qualifications. TVET qualifications are progressively expected not only to serve as proxies for an individual's competencies but to also act as a form of a currency that signals national and international value.<ref>Leney, T. 2009a. ''Qualifications that Count: Strengthening the Recognition of Qualifications in the Mediterranean Region''. Thematic Study. Turin, Italy, ETF. http://www.etf.europa.eu/web. nsf/(RSS)/C125782B0048D6F6C125768200396FB6?OpenDocument&LAN=EN&nbsp;</ref> TVET systems have been developing mechanisms to enable credible and fair cross-border recognition of skills. In 2007, the [[International Labour Organization|ILO]] identified three types of recognition that TVET system may use: unilateral (independent assessment by the receiving country), mutual (agreements between sending and receiving countries), and multilateral (mostly between a regional grouping of countries). The most prevalent of these is unilateral recognition, which is mostly under the control of national credential evaluation agencies. Countries have been slow to move from input-based skill evaluations to outcome-based methodologies that focus on competencies attained.<ref name=":3">Keevy, J. 2011. ''The recognition of qualifications across borders: the contribution of regional qualifications frameworks''. Background paper commissioned by UNESCO. Pretoria, South African Qualifications Authority.&nbsp;</ref><ref name=":1" />

TVET systems are responding to migration by providing qualifications that can stand the rigour of these recognition systems and by creating frameworks for mutual recognition of qualifications. Regional Qualifications Frameworks such as those in [[Southern Africa]], [[Europe]], [[Asia]] and the [[Caribbean]] aim to significantly support the recognition of qualifications across borders.<ref>Keevy, J., Chakroun, B. and Deij, A. 2010. ''Transnational Qualifications Frameworks''. Luxembourg, Publications Office of the European Union.</ref> These efforts are further supported through the introduction of outcome-based learning methodologies within the broader context of multilateral recognition agreements.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3" />

===Providing broader competencies alongside specialist skills===
Skills for economic development include a mix of technical and [[soft skills]]. Empirical evidence and TVET policy reviews conducted by [[UNESCO]] suggest that TVET systems may not as yet sufficiently support the development of the so-called soft competencies.<ref>UNESCO. 2013b. ''Policy Review of TVET in Cambodia''. Paris, UNESCO. <nowiki>http://unesdoc.unesco.org/</nowiki> images/0022/002253/225360e.pdf#xml=<nowiki>http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?database=&set=53761B39_2_350&hits_rec=2&hits_lng=eng</nowiki>&nbsp;</ref><ref>UNESCO. 2013c. ''Policy Review of TVET in Lao PDR''. Paris, UNESCO. <nowiki>http://unesdoc.unesco.org/</nowiki> images/0022/002211/221146e.pdf#xml=<nowiki>http://www.unesco.org/ulis/cgi-bin/ulis.pl?datab</nowiki> ase=&set=53761918_0_231&hits_rec=2&hits_lng=eng&nbsp;</ref><ref>UNESCO. 2013d. ''Revue de politiques de formation technique et professionnelle au Benin''. Paris, UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0022/002213/221304f.pdf</ref> Many countries have, however, adopted competency-based approaches as measures for reforming TVET curricula.

The HEART Trust National Training Agency of [[Jamaica]] adopted this approach, with a particular emphasis on competency standards and balanced job-specific and generic skills. Competency standards aimed to ensure that the training was linked to industry and was up to date, and that competences were integrated into training programmes, along with the needed knowledge, skills and attitudes. The balancing of skill types was to ensure adequate attention was given to job-specific skills as well as the conceptual and experiential knowledge necessary to enable individuals to grow and develop in the workplace, and more generally in society.<ref>HEART Trust NTA. 2009. ''Policy on competency-based education and training''. Draft Concept Paper. Kingston, HEART Trust NTA.</ref><ref name=":1" />

=== Promoting social equity and inclusive workplaces ===
Preparing marginalized groups of youths and adults in 
with the right skills and helping them make the transition from school to work is part of the problem faced by TVET in promoting social equity. Ensuring that the workplace is inclusive poses numerous policy challenges, depending on the contextual dynamics of inclusion and exclusion, and the capabilities of individuals. For example, the experiences of exclusion by people with [[Disability|disabilities]] and disadvantaged women may be similar in some ways and different in others. Many individuals experience multiple forms of disadvantage in the workplace, to different degrees of severity, depending on social attitudes and traditions in a specific context or organization. Approaches to inclusiveness in the workplace will therefore vary according to population needs, social diversity and context. To give one example, the Netherlands set about the task of making workplaces more inclusive for low-skilled adults by offering programmes that combine language instruction with work, and in certain cases on-the-job training.<ref>OECD. 2012. ''Better Skills Better Jobs Better Lives – OECD: A Strategic Approach to Skills Policies''. Paris, OECD Publishing. http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/education/better-skills-better-jobs- better-lives_9789264177338-en</ref><ref name=":1" />

A review of employer surveys in [[Australia]], the [[Netherlands]], the [[United Kingdom]] and the [[United States|United States of America]], reported that employers valued people with disabilities for their high levels of motivation and their diverse perspectives, and found their attendance records to be the same or better than those of other employees.<ref>Employers’ Forum on Disability. 2009. What does the research say are the commercial bene ts? http://www.realising-potential.org/six-building-blocks/commercial/what-researchers- say.html&nbsp;</ref> Many employers mentioned that being seen as pro-inclusion was positive for the company or organization's image, an advantage that goes well beyond&nbsp;providing employment opportunities to disadvantaged groups. In many cases, however, social and cultural perceptions are an obstacle to making workplaces more inclusive, and this will require sensitive and concerted attention. Some low- and middle-income countries have sought to address this through legislation. In [[Tanzania]] the [[Disabled Persons (Employment) Act of 1982]] established a quota system that stipulates that 2 per cent of the workforce in companies with over fifty employees must be persons with disabilities.<ref>SADC and UNESCO. 2011. ''Final Report: Status of TVET in the SADC Region''. Gaborone, SADC, p. 10.</ref><ref name=":1" />

The 2012 [[Education for All Global Monitoring Report]] concluded that 'all countries, regardless of income level, need to pay greater attention to the needs of young people who face disadvantage in education and skills development by virtue of their poverty, gender or other characteristics'.<ref name=":02">UNESCO. 2012. ''Youth and Skills: Putting Education to Work''. EFA Global Monitoring Report. Paris, UNESCO. http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0021/002180/218003e.pdf</ref> The report found that several barriers and constraints reduced the success of TVET in meeting social equity demands. First, national TVET policies in most cases failed to address the skills needs of young people living in urban poverty and in deprived rural areas. Second, additional funds were needed to support TVET learning opportunities on a much larger scale. Third, the training needs of disadvantaged young women were particularly neglected. The 2012 EFA Global Monitoring Report also noted that skills training alone was not sufficient for the most disadvantaged of the rural and urban poor.<ref name=":02" /> Coherent policies that link social protection, micro-finance and TVET are considered critical for ensuring better outcomes for marginalized groups.<ref name=":1" />

=== Gender disparities ===
Recent years have seen rising numbers of young women enrolling in TVET programmes, especially in service sector subjects. At times the challenge is to bring more males into female-dominated streams. However, beyond number games, the real gender parity test that TVET systems are yet to pass is balancing the gender participation in programmes that lead to employability, as well as to decent and high-paying jobs. Gender disparities in learning opportunities, and earnings, are a cause for concern. The persistent gender-typing of TVET requires concerted attention if TVET is to really serve a key facilitative role in shared growth, [[social equity]] and [[inclusive development]].<ref name=":12">{{Cite book|url=http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002330/233030e.pdf|title=Unleashing the Potential: Transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training|last1=Marope|first1=P.T.M|last2=Chakroun|first2=B.|last3=Holmes|first3=K.P.|publisher=UNESCO|year=2015|isbn=978-92-3-100091-1|pages=20, 53, 85, 163}}</ref>

The absence of work, poor quality of work, lack of voice at work, continued gender discrimination and unacceptably high youth unemployment are all major drivers of TVET system reforms from the perspective of social equity. This is an area where TVET systems continue to be challenged to contribute proactively to the shaping of more equitable societies.<ref name=":12" />

Gender equality has received significant international attention in recent years, and this has been reflected in a reduction in gender participation gaps in both [[Primary education|primary]] and [[Secondary education|secondary schooling]]. Efforts to analyse and address gender equality in TVET are relevant to other aspects of equity and dimensions of inclusion/exclusion. In almost all parts of the world, the proportion of girls to total enrolment in secondary education defined as TVET is less than for 'general' secondary education.<ref>UNESCO Institute for Statistics. 2012. ''Global Education Digest 2012. Opportunities Lost: The Impact of Grade Repetition and Early School Leaving''. Montreal, UIS.</ref><ref name=":12" />

==== The Shanghai Consensus of the Third International Congress on TVET ====
The Shanghai Consensus of the Third International Congress on TVET made the following recommendations on expanding access and improving quality and equity, including to:&nbsp;

"Improve [[gender equality]] by promoting equal access of females and males to TVET programmes, particularly in fields where there is strong labour market demand, and by ensuring that TVET curricula and materials avoid stereotyping by gender."<ref>J</ref><ref name=":12" />