1954 The memorandum on collaboration between ILO and UNESCO gives UNESCO responsibility for technical and vocational education and ILO responsibility for technical and vocational training 1962 Recommendation concerning Technical and Vocational Education (adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1962, and revised in 1974) 1964 ILO creates an International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education in Turin, Italy, with which UNESCO co-operates since 1979 Publication of Learning and Working, UNESCO 1981 The International Conference on Education adopts a recommendation concerning the interaction between education and productive work 1987 International Congress on the Development and Improvement of Technical and Vocational Education, Berlin

TECHNICAL AND VOCATIONAL EDUCATION (TVE) One of the reasons for the malaise in education today seems to lie in the difficulty in linking school with the world of work and education with employment policies. The world of work is governed by economic forces and its underlying rationale and objectives are very different from those of education. These objectives are diametrically opposed when it comes to child labour, but, in most cases, they remain apart and even in technical and vocational education there is only some measure of common ground and shared purposes. UNESCO's efforts and those of the other agencies in the United Nations system have been directed towards promoting the integrated planning of human resources in policy-making. UNESCO has co-operated with Member States to build up technical and vocational education, to adapt it to the changes brought about by technological progress, and to take productive work into account in general education. Despite all these efforts and despite the Organization's standard-setting action in this field, the need for closer liaison between education and the world of work has yet to be fully recognized in most Member States. (1) THE 1950s As early as 1948, the General Conference decided that UNESCO should work in conjunction with the International Labour Organization to develop 'vocational guidance and technical education’. (2) In 1952, UNESCO published Education in a technological society, a report which emphasized the need to introduce economic, social and even cultural components into vocational training, thus foreshadowing the principles that were to be further developed in the 1962 Recommendation, revised in 1974. The Organization's action at the time was focused mainly on agricultural education, the development of rural schools (3) and community-based education. Access of girls and women to vocational training has also been a major concern since then. (4) FROM THE 1960s TO THE 1980s With the accession of many countries to independence, efforts were directed towards strengthening infrastructures for technical and vocational education at the national level. Over 150 extra-budgetary projects were carried out with a view to establishing, modernizing or developing TVE institutions in a large number of Member States. (5) Intellectual co-operation was stepped up with the dissemination of guides, specialized directories and a bulletin. (6) Some 50 regional and subregional seminars and expert meetings were held to look into the main aspects of technical and vocational education. (7) These activities demonstrated the need to raise the very status of technical education, which was often still regarded as a second option. From the 1980s onwards, too, the Organization concerned itself with the interaction between education and productive work in general primary and secondary education and gave support to Member States for pilot projects in that field. (8) In 1989, the General Conference proposed that Member States should ratify a Convention on Technical and Vocational Education.(9)

A project for training teachers for technical education at secondary level

Mahatma Gandhi (India) The craft has to be taught, ‘not merely mechanically as is done today but scientifically, that is the child should know the why and wherefore of every process’. The scheme that I wish to place before you is not the teaching of some handicrafts side by side with so-called liberal education. I want that the whole education should be imparted through some handicraft or industry. Quoted in Fundamental education. A Quarterly bulletin, Vol. 1, No. 4, October 1949 John Dewey (United States) Philosopher and educator Work should be one of the main axes of the curriculum. But work should enjoy this prominence as a liberal rather than as a purely vocational study. The erstwhile academic studies should be integrated with it. Quoted in A History of the Problems of Education, Chapter IX, 'Curriculum', J. S. Brubacher, McGraw-Hill, 1966

Country: Indonesia Dates: 1981-1984 Achievements: Strengthening of technical education institutions. Training of 435 teachers. Opening of two training colleges for technical-school teachers (Yogyakarta and Padang). Training. Funding: UNDP - $1,970,000 UNESCO's contribution: Supply of equipment (television for micro-teaching, micro-processor, etc.); organization of teaching courses. Eleven experts and consultants; 47 fellowships.

                               

FOOTNOTES:

(1) Despite the large number and growing pace of reforms, especially after 1970, against a background of economic crisis and unemployment.

(2) Vocational and technical training which was more specifically concerned with the employment sector and occupational activities fell within the purview of ILO, while technical and vocational secondary education of a more general kind and the training of engineers were the responsibility of UNESCO. Similar agreements were to be concluded with FAO and UNIDO.

(3) In 1956, ILO, FAO and WHO took part in the evaluation of the two rural functional literacy centres, CREFAL and ASFEC.

(4) The Recommendation of the International Conference on Public Education (IBE) on the access of women to education (Geneva, 1951) contained a section on equal access to vocational education; in 1954 a report was submitted to ECOSOC on the status of women.

(5) Some, which started out as small vocational training establishments, became university colleges of technology or institutes of advanced technology, such as CENAFOR in Brazil; the National Technical Education Teaching Institute in Lebanon; the Teacher-Training College for Technical Education in Algeria; SELETE and KATE in Greece; the Faculties of Yogyakarta and Padang in Indonesia, etc.

(6) In particular, Terminology of Technical and Vocational Education (UNESCO, IBEDATA, 1978), and the launching in 1982 of an information bulletin, Technical and Vocational Education (9 issues published).

(7) These covered, for instance, national policies, teacher- training, training of technicians, production of educational materials, etc.

(8) Following a Recommendation of the International Conference on Education on various forms of interaction between education and productive work (Geneva, 1981), notably in connection with the regional networks of educational innovation for development.

(9) Ratified by eleven States