Articulation of Vocational Technical Education: A contribution for its comprehension and consideration in Public Policy.

Abstract

In an era characterized by constant technological changes and a demand for high-level technical skills, Secondary Vocational Technical Education needs to project itself far beyond the secondary curriculum and provide clear opportunities for further learning. This article aims to contribute to a broader knowledge regarding the challenge of articulation in this field. To this end, along with a revision of international experience and case studies of the Chilean context, the article aims to provide a definition of articulation coherent with the purposes of vocational education. The findings reveal that the countries that have made progress in connecting the distinct levels of vocational technical educational offerings, have explicitly declared that articulation is a prioritized goal and have carried out multiple actions in order to achieve it. Chile, however, lacks a national policy agenda for this field and standards that would facilitate an efficient education trajectory for the most vulnerable students that pursue technical careers. The advances in articulation are in their early stages, and generally limited to curriculum, which in practice translates into unique institutional agreements, that function for institutions of higher learning as a mechanism to target the predetermined market of vocational students. The study suggests the urgency of taking measures to advance towards an education system that would facilitate and promote the accumulation of technically skilled human capital and that would thus favor economic growth and greater equality of opportunity.