Critically evaluate the vocational education and training system in Britain.
This essay discusses the vocational education and training (VET) system in Britain. Based on this, critically evaluate the skills shortage In UK. In regards to this topic, the study identifies the VET of UK and analyse whether vocational training of country proves to be effective in regards to make the employees skilled (McGrath, 2012). Besides that, factors are identified that affect the UK education and training programs.
The study aim is to explore the role of vocational education and training in developing skilled workforce and meeting the requirements of modern economy. This is because VET is the main component for the industries which helps the employer and employees to improve their skills and contribute efficiency towards the organisation and economy (Hoffman, 2011).
The discussion will focus on the VET policy of UK government in regards to make the workforces skilled. This analysis will also include the comprehensive account of argument that skill shortage in Britain is the result of its Voluntarist system of vocational education and training.
These arguments will be validated by particular example of various VET systems used in different countries along with highlighting the key aspect of vocational education and training system of Britain workplace. Thus, this essay provides the detail understandi
ng about the VET system and its impact on the economy.
Concept of vocational education and training system
The Vocational education and training plays an important role in making the economy of particular country strong. This is because skilled workforce is highly essential for the organisation as well as for country to bring innovation for the economic growth and development (Agrawal, 2013).
Vocational education and training system plays a vital role in terms to supplying the occupational skills that are in demand for fulfilling the changing needs. However, the VET system is used with the aim to bring the change and achieve the needs and wants.
Professional programs and qualifications generally assist in economic activities through formation of occupational identity. Other than that, Vocational education are the most critical tool for addressing social, economic and political crises that threatens the social stability and economic productivity of nations.
The non-existences of proper VET system give rise to the lack of competent and skilled labour in particular nation. This also creates the problem of growing unemployment. It is identified that the employee or student which has a vocational training certified tend to have better employment opportunity as compared to those who are not.
This is because vocational training system helps the individual to polish their skills and the talent workforces always contribute towards the organisation productivity. Therefore, the VET system is the important practice which needs to address properly by the government institutions and organisations.
According to McGrath (2012), the employer organisation and trade unions develop, design and implement the vocational programs. For instance, there is an establishment of national vocational qualification standards in Britain. The purpose of VET not only serves to supply and maintain the labour skills but also develops and delivers occupational standards in collaboration with the professional sector.
In regards to this study, Brown et al. (2013) believed that VET has a massive role to bring competitive advantage of firms as skilled workforces helps the company to achieve the innovation and develop the effective strategy. It results in productivity of company.
On the basis of this study, it can be stated that VET is the important system for the country growth as this system promotes the individual development by providing the skill and sufficient knowledge.
The vocational courses build the individual knowledge efficient and allow them to become the competent enough to perform difficult task and work (Keep, 2015). Thus, these areas indicate the significance of vocational education and training system for the country growth, organisation productivity and personal individual development.
Critically evaluate the Britain voluntarist system of vocational education and training that give rise to the shortage of skilled workforces
In a similar manner, Britain follows the Voluntarist VET system in which there is little or no state interference in vocational education is left to the choice of organisation or the individual. The VET system in UK tends to be Voluntarist where the state does not take any responsibility of offering skill development courses or promoting workplace learning.
Due to this, it results in over production of graduates and inadequate supply of transitional skills. However, the voluntarist practice in UK is considered as one of the core cause for the low level of VET provided by the companies. Furthermore, there is no governing body exist in Britain that could check the functioning of these authorities.
That’s why the vocational system not able to implemented properly in Britain. Similarly, there is also no accountability on part of VET providers particularly employers for the fulfilment of VET responsibility (Portes, 2016). Thus, without any accountable, it becomes difficult to implement the VET system successfully.
It is found that Britain government orientation support the state restriction over the VET system in a way that state could not involve in the development of vocational education and training system.
The consequences of such practice would be the low investment in skills and focused narrowly on education. Besides that, such areas also held responsible for the generation of shortage of skilled labour.
In a same concern, Green (2013) stated that the vocational course of Britain is also consider as ineffective due to give less attention towards the education and training system. Such action gives rise to the less skill development and due to this, the social, economic development gets suffered.
The reason behind of inefficiency in vocational course is that Britain government show no responsibility towards the training and educational courses so the universities and organisation fail to address the current environment changes (Sumption, 2017). That’s why, the VET system considers as a poor and unproductive.
In today’s scenario, every country concentrates on the VET system in order to enhance the growth of economy as skilled workforces are considered as an important asset for the country (Wadsworth et al., 2016).
For instance, European countries and several other states are making attempts to modernize their regulation on Voluntarist VET with the aim to achieve rapid technology advancements, globalisation of markets and bring dramatic change in ICT field. But Britain is lacking in focusing on the vocational training system due to lack of government support and low awareness of people about the necessity of training in their lives.
Such areas restrict the properly implementation of vocational education and training system. In favour to this study, Eichhorst et al. (2015) depicted that Voluntarist system is the main reason due to which Britain is failing to adopt the vocational system.
The voluntary system has put no state interference due to which there is no choice related to education is left with the organisations and individuals.
Thus, the Voluntarist system in vocational education and training becomes the reason due to which there is less number of skilled people in Britain and companies tend to hire from other nations in order to perform some technical or specialised task (Fleckenstein and Seeleib-Kaiser, 2011). This proves to be expensive for the business and it directly affects the country effectiveness to bring growth in economy.
Impact of VET policy over the economy
The overall VET policy of Britain is not much effective for the labor market of the country that impacts not high on the performance of the employee. According to the research of Atkinson and Stanwick, (2016), Great Britain has a highly selective education system but it provides high liberty to the labors.
It provides high freedom to the students and other people in the training program that reduces their quality in work that is the most important reason behind low effective VET policy of the country.
There is the high negative impact on the economy of the country because the country has low skilled employees and they have to hire several skilled employees from EU labor market. It increases the labor cost of the country and it negatively affects the overall economy.
Vocational education and training policy of Britain is highly influencing for the economy of the country. In this, it provides different steps for improvement in the workplace skills (Barabasch and Petrick, 2012).
This skill improvement helps to Britain economy by an increment in the overall productivity. The labor of the country can develop skills through the VET policy that was developed by the government.
There are different organizations in the country who does not allows the low skilled workers and employees in the firm because it increases the overall cost of the firm like training cost, time consumption cost, etc.
Due to the low quality in the VET policy, several people have no high skills to work in an effective manner. In cancan to this, the organizational firms acquire the employees and workers from EU.
It is much costly for the organizational firms but it provides batter output as well as it increases the unemployment in the country. At the same time, according to the research findings of Galaz et al. (2015), it is defined that the main reason behind the unemployment is that the foreign workers are captivating the jobs of British workers.
If it will be continuously going on in Britain then it will reduce the economic condition of the country in the future. In addition to this, the people of the country will prefer the education system or VET system of the country then they will not get good skills for the organizational work.
For this, the people of the country will prefer the education system of the other country which provides effective skills and knowledge to the people. Similarly, the public of Britain will spend more on the foreign education that will negatively impact on the public (Knight-Jones, and Rushton, 2013). In the country, the shortage of skilled workers is impacting highly in the economic condition of the country.
The mostly preferable jobs of the country will be undertaken by people of other countries and the people of Britain will work on the low position that will also create the social issues in the organizations. This thing will not be accepted by the British people and they not allow them to do any other jobs.
At the same time, if the organization in Britain uses local labor who are low skilled in the organizational work then it will reduce the quality of the goods and services.
Moreover, VET policy will provide the training and development programs to the organization where the people will not be considered as highly skilled (Tran and Le, 2017). In concern to this, the organization cannot sustain in the multinational market to globalize their business. It will also negatively impact on the performance of the country.
The lack of technical education in the VET policy impacts on the overall skill development of the employees and workers. In the medium to long run, it can be expected by the British companies to lead more. It effects on the demand for labor in the organization to increase the wages and employment in the economy.
It is identified in the country that there are more low-skilled workers than expected. It indicates that the future of the country is not in the safe VET policy and the government should focus on the effective VET policy that produces more skilled worker for the country and help in the development of the economic condition (Tran and Dempsey, 2017).
As per the last five years data, it is recognized that there are more than 60% of employees who are low skilled. For concern to this, the country provides jobs to 1.2 billion people from the outside of the country. Furthermore, if the country will expand labor supply from the outside of the country than it can affect the labor market position.
In which, the local customer of the organization can be reduced due to the low use of their labor power in the firm.
As per the research of Knight-Jones, and Rushton, (2013), it can be said that the economic condition of Britain affected highly due to weak VET policy of the country. In concern to this, the business environment of Britain has affected highly due to lack of highly skilled labor.
An organization in Britain provides several kinds of training for their employees which create a cost for the business. In addition to this, the overall cost of the product and service is increased highly in the UK market that influenced the overall economy. Similarly, it is seen that the primary sector provides smooth structure for the business but low skilled labor market effects on the business environment.
The overall business environment of the business firm impacts on the economic condition of the country because it does not provide an economic force. At the time of economic downturn, the labor demand may respond slowly than high economic growth. In concern to this, VET policy of the country helps the labor to make them right training program that is related to the organization.
The economic condition of Britain can be grown more in the current business environment if the VET policy of the country was strong. For the same thing, the VET policy can provide technical knowledge and skills that can support the organization to provide best and effective outcomes at lower cost.
But the VET system of Britain has the high flexibility that reduces the quality of the employees and impact on the overall performance of the firm. At the same time, it is identified that there are several organizations in Britain which affect to the economic condition. For this concern, the level of the business in the country can decrease in the international market that can negatively impact on the overall economic system.
Other factor that is responsible for the shortage of skilled labour in Britain
The skilled labour shortage issue has been identified in all the industries in Britain. The problem of shortage of skilled labour in Britain has been becoming serious as the time is passing especially when the industries have been becoming advanced in term of innovation and technology.
In this concern, there are other various factors such as BREXIT, migration, unwillingness of young generation, wages problems, working environment, economy and lack of awareness about the vocational training programs (Legrand and Vas, 2014). These factors create the negative impact that results the problem of skilled labour shortage.
Due to this problem, other problem raise within the industries. In this way, the BREXIT is one of the problems that increase the problem of shortage labour in Britain. After BREXIT, the skilled labour has shifted from UK to EU so this creates the problem for Britain as there is no large amount skilled labour for completing the tasks which need skills and knowledge.
At the same time, another problem is migration by the skilled labour due to BREXIT. The public of UK has to face many problems after BREXIT. In these problems, the migration is the biggest issue for which the government UK is also concerned. For reducing the impact of BREXIT on skilled workforce, government organizes the various strategies for building up the immigration system in Britain.
The less involvement of local youth can be defined as the other factor of problem of skilled labour shortage. In this way, it is found that there are maximum seven to eight percent students from over all new intake students who carry out the vocational courses to increase their skills as well as knowledge.
If the comparison is done between UK and other developing countries, this is the huge different that create the negative effect over the industries in UK. Because of these facts, the problem of skilled labour shortage is increasing as well as the emergence of vocational courses is also increasing (Pasura, 2017).
In addition, the wages problem is another factor who leads the skilled labour shortage within the industries in Britain. In the concern of industries, the work of skilled labour can be determined as an unbalanced work mainly in the manner of earnings. In the industries, the contractors and subcontractors find some benefits so they try to avoid huge expenses on the permanent labour as well as administrative employees.
These activities of contractors and subcontractors lead that the skilled labour only gets pay in case if they work for the particular day. Apart from above, working environment is also the factor which creates the problem of skilled labour shortage for the industries in Britain.
The local people of the Britain are less interested to work in the industries due to poor working environment at worksites. The skilled labour has to work in poor conditions where less safety arrangements have. In this situation, skilled labour wishes to migrate from Britain to get extra benefits.
Solution for overcoming the problem of shortage of skilled workforces in Britain
In concern to above issues, there are some recommendations that Britain need to follows in regards to improvise in the VET system. Zimmermann et al. (2013) found that Britain focus on the Voluntarist VET system which is not effective process to focus on vocational training activities.
Thus, there is need to shift the system from Voluntarist to Regulated VET System. Under regulated Vocational training system, organizations that are registered and authorized by the state provide industry based qualifications to the learners.
These organizations include both public and private institutions and the VET courses are designed to deliver nationally acknowledged competencies. Such actions serve the quality and skilled workforces which proves to be effective assets for the country to respond the business environment changes.
Besides that, it is also important for the Britain government to show their supporting system towards the vocational education and training system as with Britain government support, the state give attention towards the organisation training and institutions education courses.
It give rise to the development of skilled and talent workforce in Britain (Martin and Ruhs, 2011). Moreover, there is also need to bring change in the vocational courses so that the students and personnel learn new activities. This practice will bring the creativity in individual.
It is important for the government of the UK to develop effective policies to facilitate the promotion of vocational programs for developing skilled workforce. It needs to focus on the quality of education system to develop skills and capabilities of people.
Apart from this, it can combine vocational and technological training to nurture the people for skill development. It can be effective to develop technical education and impose high-level curriculum and exam system for all.
Apart from this, the UK government can focus on more integration of vocational training centres with the universities that can be effective to provide these training programs to students at college levels.
Through this, the students can get training at academic level that may be effective for them to be professional and learn new business skills. It can be effective for the schools to tell the students and their parents about vocational options (Cappelli, 2015).
The proper information of vocational qualifications and careers can be significant for the students to join these programs and make their career. For this, teachers in schools should be provided with training regarding the awareness of these programs to inform the students and their parents
From the above discussion, it is concluded that the main cause of shortage of skills in Britain is the Voluntarist system within which country have no control and show responsibility towards the vocational education and training framework.
At the same time, there is no governing body exist in Britain that could check the functioning of these authorities. That’s why the vocational system not able to implemented properly in Britain.
This becomes the cause of unavailability of skilled personnel in Britain. The country hires excessive talent workforces from outside the boundary. Such area do not prove to be worthy for economic growth. In regards to such issue, it is recommended that Britain should start focus on the Regulated VET System as compare to Voluntarist VET system.
This proves to be effective for the Britain to achieve skilled and talent workforces. Thus, these actions would help the Britain to resolve the issue of shortage of skilled people.
Agrawal, T., 2013. Vocational education and training programs (VET): An Asian perspective. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 14(1), pp.15-26.
Atkinson, G. and Stanwick, J., 2016. Trends in VET: policy and participation. NCVER Occasional Papers. Adelaide: National Centre for Vocational Education Research.
Barabasch, A. and Petrick, S., 2012. Multi-level policy transfer in Turkey and its impact on the development of the vocational education and training (VET) sector. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 10(1), pp.119-143.
Brown, G.A., Bull, J. and Pendlebury, M., 2013. Assessing student learning in higher education. UK: Routledge.
Cappelli, P.H., 2015. Skill gaps, skill shortages, and skill mismatches: Evidence and arguments for the United States. ILR Review, 68(2), pp.251-290.
Eichhorst, W., Rodriguez-Planas, N., Schmidl, R. and Zimmermann, K.F., 2015. A road map to vocational education and training in industrialized countries. ILR Review, 68(2), pp.314-337.
Fleckenstein, T. and Seeleib-Kaiser, M., 2011. Business, skills and the welfare state: the political economy of employment-oriented family policy in Britain and Germany. Journal of European social policy, 21(2), pp.136-149.
Galaz, V., Leach, M., Scoones, I. and Stein, C., 2015. The political economy of One Health research and policy.
Green, A., 2013. The roles of the state and the social partners in vocational education and training systems. In Education, Training and the Future of Work II (pp. 28-46). UK: Routledge.
Hoffman, N., 2011. Schooling in the workplace: How six of the world’s best vocational education systems prepare young people for jobs and life. USA: Harvard Education Press.
Keep, E., 2015. Governance in English VET: On the functioning of a fractured ‘system’. Research in Comparative and International Education, 10(4), pp.464-475.
Knight-Jones, T.J.D. and Rushton, J., 2013. The economic impacts of foot and mouth disease–What are they, how big are they and where do they occur?. Preventive veterinary medicine, 112(3-4), pp.161-173.
Legrand, T. and Vas, C., 2014. Framing the policy analysis of OECD and Australian VET interaction: Two heuristics of policy transfer. Journal of Comparative Policy Analysis: Research and Practice, 16(3), pp.230-248.
Martin, P. and Ruhs, M., 2011. Labor shortages and US immigration reform: promises and perils of an independent commission. International Migration Review, 45(1), pp.174-187.
McGrath, S., 2012. Vocational education and training for development: A policy in need of a theory?. International Journal of Educational Development, 32(5), pp.623-631.
Pasura, R., 2017. International student mobility and its impact on the Australian private VET sector. In Internationalization in Vocational Education and Training (pp. 41-62). Springer, Cham.
Portes, J., 2016. Immigration after brexit. National Institute Economic Review, 238(1), pp.R13-R21.
Sumption, M., 2017. Labour immigration after Brexit: questions and trade-offs in designing a work permit system for EU citizens. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 33(suppl_1), pp.S45-S53.
Tran, L.T. and Dempsey, K., 2017. Internationalization in VET: An overview. In Internationalization in Vocational Education and Training (pp. 1-15). Springer, Cham.
Tran, L.T. and Le, T.T.T., 2017. Teacher professional development under the impact of internationalization in VET. In Internationalization in vocational education and training (pp. 77-94). Springer, Cham.
Wadsworth, J., Dhingra, S., Ottaviano, G. and Van Reenen, J., 2016. Brexit and the Impact of Immigration on the UK. CEP Brexit Analysis, (5), pp.34-53.
Zimmermann, K.F., Biavaschi, C., Eichhorst, W., Giulietti, C., Kendzia, M.J., Muravyev, A., Pieters, J., Rodríguez-Planas, N. and Schmidl, R., 2013. Youth unemployment and vocational training. Foundations and Trends® in Microeconomics, 9(1–2), pp.1-157.
