Advancing Employability and Green Skills Development: Values Education in TVET, the Case of the People’s Republic of China

Abstract

The development of employability skills is an essential component of TVET, and the list of skills varies across countries. However, they are all related to general skills valued by employers and the ones that help individuals gain employment and succeed at work. The emergence of a green economy agenda within the framework of sustainable development makes additional requests on the composition of employability skills. A green economy requires development of generic green skills (among other skills) that are in demand in almost any occupation (Pavlova, M. Economic competitiveness and ‘green skills’ development: issues and concerns for research. Presented at the international conference, Green Korea 2011, Seoul, 15 Sept 2011, 2011). These skills help the workforce to understand issues of green growth, to interpret environmental legislation and to increase energy and resource efficiency to enable the processes involved in greening the economy. This chapter examines the types of values that could underpin ‘enriched’ employability skills and discusses experiences and practices in China to illustrate a way of including values in TVET to address a green skills agenda.