New Roles for Vocational Education and Training Teachers and Trainers in Europe: a New

VET professionals in Europe: new roles, new profiles

Graham Attwell. Bremen University. Germany.

Abstract.

Traditionally vocational education and training has never been seen as a profession in itself, like, for instance doctors or general school teachers. At a research level VET has been the preserve of a variety of different disciplines - including psychology, pedagogy, labour market research, and work science. Planners and policy makers in vocational education and training have likewise been drawn from many different fields. The failure of vocational education and training to gain recognition as a profession is reflected in the relatively low prestige, and rates of pay, for vocational teachers and trainers. It may also be seen in the generally low levels of training for people working in the field when compared with established professions.

However more recently has emerged a growing acceptance that changes in the work life in Europe is leading to new roles and responsibilities for teachers and trainers in vocational education and training. In particular studies of the complex interplay between people, technology and organisation and management within enterprises has focused attention on the role of teachers and trainers, or vocational education and training professionals, in managing and mediating that interplay.

This paper is based on the work and research of a further project: ‘New Forms of Education of Professionals in VET’ (EUROPROF). The two year research programme is being carried out by an international team bringing together 16 partners drawn from research institutes and universities in fourteen different European countries. The long term aim of the project is to develop a ‘community’ of VET researchers and practitioners and the ‘professionalisation’ of VET, in other words to gain the recognition of VET as a discipline and a profession in its own right. In the shorter term the project aims to build an international network of VET researchers and to develop new qualifications for VET professionals, planners, teachers and trainers, through a European Masters (MA) qualification to be offered in universities in different European countries.

EUROPROF aims to go beyond the comparison of different systems and curricula to establish a framework for collaborative or co-operative development between different institutions, regions and countries. Such a framework is based on the understanding that while common pressures in different countries are leading to convergence or globalisation at the level of demand and need the different cultural, social, historical, regional and institutional contexts are simultaneously leading to processes of divergence in practice. A new framework for common development must be capable of both responding to the common challenges whilst respecting and accommodating culturally specific activities in different regions and countries.

This paper looks at the background to change in vocational education and training and what form new occupational profiles for VET professionals might take.

Changing needs for skills and knowledge

The last 15 years have seen the emergence of a new paradigm in the organisation of production, at least in the advanced manufacturing countries in Europe. The basis of competitive advantage is not seen primarily as low wages and maximum control but as being productivity, quality, the ability to respond to changing demand and market structures and adaptability in production processes (Wobbe, 1997). This may be seen as a response to new demands for customised products, the introduction of short batch production, increases in product quality and reliability and additional functionality and design. Labour market factors driving change are the relatively higher wages in Europe and the widening dissemination of new technology linked to increasing competition of export orientated producers with East Europe and the Pacific Rim countries. At the same time there has been a notable growth in service based industries and in high technology industries. It is also worth noting the relative failure of earlier alternative prognoses for improving competitiveness through accentuated Taylorisation via the unmanned automated factory. The increasing focus on production processes is leading to the development of decentralised production processes and reductions in the division of labour through collaborative forms of organisation resulting in the need for the more comprehensive utilisation of human abilities and performance. Such developments have very important implications for the organisation of capitalism in terms of human resources:

• There is a higher reliance on the skills of the workforce and a demand for higher levels of skill and new forms of knowledge;
• The new production processes allow greater autonomy for workers raising questions about the motivation of the workforce;
• There is demand for a broader skills base and for greater transferability of skills.
• There is the need for permanent learning from the workforce.

New roles for VET and HRD professionals

The new role for human resources is in turn leading to new roles and responsibilities for VET and HRD professionals and new occupational profiles. It is this change which will be the subject of the next section of the paper.

Partners in different EC member states have been investigating the future roles and occupational profiles for VET professionals based on a series of interviews with practitioners and relevant institutions and organisations based on a common semi-structured questionnaire.

Spain

In Spain Celerrio and Miguel (1996) identified the emergence of new specialised training functions and a new polyfunctionality of traditional HRD actors. They analysed three major trends for change leading to a need for a new professionalism. The first is the greater involvement and co-operation between corporate HRD staff and outside training consultants in undertaking a wide range of tasks:

• the identification of training needs;
• the design of actions and strategies adapted to corporate organisational development strategies;
• the thorough planning of training processes,
• the anticipation of labour needs;
• agreements with specialised schools and initial training centres;
• quality assessment and control of strategies and actions.

Although the trend is still small-scale it conforms the existence of a new scenario where human centred innovation and the social shaping of technology and work organisation appear feasible, provided they are accompanied by the active presence of a third agent of innovation, the trade unions. A further trend is the increasing need to provide quality and assessment systems to the training market leading to greater clarification, effectiveness and equality of opportunities.

They identify the need to move away from the inertia of a technocratic model of management and training and planing which has previously influenced both training programmes for the unemployed and continuing vocational training and a conceptual change in the role which training plays in improving corporate competitiveness and the skills of the workforce. This technocratic inertia has been reproduced in the training of trainers resulting in little attention being given to the function of training in promoting the social organisation of innovation but rather prioritising a short term market perspective. A new model is needed for training HRD and VET professionals taking into account the following needs:

• the overcoming of technological determinism in identifying learning needs and skill requirements;
• the capacity for autonomy and the self development of the target population;
• the appreciation of work process knowledge as the basis for a reinvigorated continuing training process;
• the integration between corporate training strategies and organisational development needs;
• coherence between continuing training policies and human resource management models,
• integration between training programmes and local and regional development;
• the overcoming of an aid related concept for training and guidance for the unemployed through new professionalism.

France

In France initial investigations have revealed contradictory developments (De Bligniere, 1997). Whilst for a long period the professionality of trainers was based on their capacity to grasp pedagogical and mental problems new developments are taking place in two directions. The first is the extension of the training function to include new fields of practice:

• organisational development - human resource management and analysis of work organisation;
• social integration targeting disadvantaged groups.

The improvement of training is leading to new responsibilities including analyses of work systems, validation, assessment of training outcomes and negotiation with social partners.

A second contradictory development is a tendency towards fragmentation of vocational education and training roles. Whilst the management of the training system and process requires a holistic approach new specific professional functions and responsibilities are emerging for trainers including orientation, monitoring and reviewing, facilitating and tutoring.

Finland

In Finland an in-depth study has been undertaken in the metal and wood processing industries and in health and social care (Heikkinen, 1996). Both occupational areas are considered crucial to national development and to the challenges posed for Finland by European integration, bringing to the fore a variety of issues and concerns including the role of the state in the economy, production and education, relations of social partners in work-life and education and the meaning of gender in the division of labour and segmentation. The survey noted some differences in perceptions of occupational roles between teachers and trainers and instructors. For vocational teachers the main responsibilities were occupational and pedagogical expertise, co-operation and social skills and the capacity to update previous skills. Trainers and instructors felt their role was as development agents in the workplace, raising awareness and motivation for training and organising personal development. Respondents felt the most dramatic changes taking place in their role were due to the accelerating use of information technology and automation, even in the smallest enterprises.

A second change was the tendency towards a co-operative approach to work, both inside and externally to organisations, and the need for a broadly shared understanding of the goals and methods of organisations. Issues of customer orientation, marketing, awareness of business aims and accountability are needed by everybody. Third is a need for anticipating continuous change, understanding the importance of learning and the pedagogic components of work organisation. For VET professionals “there should emerge a common awareness of pedagogical challenges in VET, which could be met co-operatively among different actors, each partner making the best use of their experience and expertise”.

There was seen to be a new need for focusing on continuous vocational training for VET professionals in order to promote:

• understanding of society and cultural differences inside work-life, among groups of people and internationally;
• understanding and capability for developing and changing work-life and society and empowering people to become change agents;
• the pedagogical core in developmental interventions with a focus on individuals as human beings as a whole.

One study undertaken in Belgium through the EUROPROF project looked specifically at the role of VET and of VET professionals in countering unemployment and social exclusion (Nijmans & Douterlange, 1996). It concluded that vocational training as an instrument for countering unemployment requires a trainer with a broad profile. It is no longer sufficient for a trainer to be a specialist in his or her own field and possess the necessary teaching skills. The trainer must also encompass roles including counselling, guidance and work placement.

Further studies in the UK and in the Netherlands have stressed the new roles of VET teachers in co-ordination and management (Prosser, 1996; Streumer, 1996). In addition traditional teaching duties are being supplemented by activities such as student counselling, customised training and practical training.

Convergence of trends; divergence in affect

The EUROPROF project did not set out to analyse and compare the present occupational roles and profiles of VET professionals, but rather to develop future scenarios (Heidegger, 1995). Such aims influenced the methodology leading the partners to undertake a series of semi-structured interviews and qualitative analysis instead of conducting a quantitative survey. A further concern was to identify trends and changes in the activities being undertaken by VET professionals. The work of McLagen (1989) and surveys undertaken in Europe utilising the McClagen questionnaire (Ginkel, Mulder and Nijhof 1994; Odenthal and Nijhof, 1996) reveal changes in the functions of HRD professionals, what they fail to reveal is crucial changes being undertaken within these functions and in particular new methods, activities and strategies being employed in teaching and instructing. Functional analyses of the role of Vet professionals like in the UK (TDLB, 1995) similarly only show the present activities undertaken by VET professionals.

The EUROPROF survey reveals a complex process of simultaneous convergence and divergence. Firstly there is a broadening in the role of VET professionals in most countries in Europe. Perhaps of greatest significance is the increased attention being paid to continuing vocational training. Where as previously the main focus for continuing training lay in the area of management development the acceptance of ideas such as life long learning and the changes in work organisation are extending continuing training to include ever wider sections of the workforce. This is meaning new responsibilities for traditional HRD specialists but also leading to a blurring in the division of roles between what was seen as the work of VET practitioners and that of HRD professionals. Allied to this trend is the new emphasis on organisational learning leading to new roles for VET and HRD professionals within the work process and new tasks in initial education and training.

The third area where roles have broadened is in the provision of vocational education and training for the unemployed where there is a movement away from lower level instructional activities to view the task of retraining the workforce as a major concern and including counselling, work placement, monitoring as well as the planning and management of more demanding retraining programmes.

The trend towards decentralisation of vocational education and training provision are leading to new roles in the management of the VET. At the same time the emphasis on situated learning and work process knowledge are leading to deep seated changes in the form of VET provision with a move away from instruction and classroom provision towards a new focus on the management of the learning process and the identification, design and structuring of learning activities. This in turn is highlighting activities such as mentoring, coaching, simulating and facilitating rather than instructing and training. Once more the trends towards reform of initial vocational education and training towards more work process related activities rather than classroom learning is both broadening the role of VET professionals and at the same time leading to a convergence between the traditional roles of VET and HRD specialists. For both their main role is becoming the management of learning.

However the way these changes are manifested in effect in different sectors and countries is very complex. Much depends on the interaction between occupational profiles and the labour market. In countries with a strongly regulated labour market such as Germany the changes in role may be slower to appear as regulations take time to catch up with the new profiles and there remains a strong division between the roles of VET teachers, instructors and industrial trainers (Heise, 1996). In deregulated labour markets like the UK there may be a tendency towards increased specialisation in order to reduce costs. In some industrial sectors groups of employers have a strong influence over the actual implementation of occupational profiles and in some sectors and countries social partners also play a major role (FORCE, 1994; Nielson, 1996).

The design and organisation of initial VET in different countries also has a major influence on the roles undertaken by VET professionals. Whilst there is a general movement towards some form of alternance training throughout most of Europe in those countries with a school based VET system divisions between the VET and GRD function remain stronger. There are further differences caused by cultural and societal influences. EUROPROF studies undertaken in Greece (Patiniotis, 1996) have noted the strong influence of family environments exerting pressure for university education and the relative isolation of vocational education from labour market needs. Finally the very forms of education for VET professionals, which forms the central focus for the EUROPROF studies, will in themselves affect the occupational profiles and roles. In order to see the enactment of the new broader roles being advocated then there is the need for a thoroughgoing professionalisation of the education and training of VET professionals.

Concluding Remarks

The profound changes taking place in the organisation production and services in the European economies are leading to new concepts for the role and practice of vocational education and training. This in turn is leading to contradictory changes in the role of VET professionals with a new expanded role and new functions being developed but with some tendencies towards specialisation in the practice of these roles. The new roles for VET and HRD professionals lead towards a requirement for professionalisation, however the present fragmentation of education and training poses serious barriers to reform and improvement. The developing collaboration between researchers and providers of VET professional education at a European level offers a potentially fruitful avenue for development of new frameworks and new programmes of education which can begin to tackle the education deficit whilst respecting cultural and institutional integrity.