Structural Similarities of Formal Vocational Education Systems in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

Abstract

This paper analyses vocational education and training (VET) systems in four Asian and two African countries. Comparative research of VET systems suggests that they differ in terms of the nature and extent of specialization (when learners move from general to vocational education, how many learners move, and how narrowly specialized the vocational education is); the site/s of learning (education institutions, workplaces, or a combination); and the status of vocational education. The literature on VET in wealthy industrialized countries suggests that political, economic, and social factors dramatically shape the nature of training provided through formal education systems and workplaces. The four Asian countries in our study (Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam) and the two African countries (Ethiopia and South Africa) are substantively different in size (land size as well as population size), with very different political and economic histories, as well as cultural traditions. But in terms of the key dimensions of variation, the formal VET systems in these countries look relatively similar. The analysis suggests that the role of donors and other mechanisms for policy diffusion accounts for one aspect of the similarities – the adoption of competence-based training reforms. It further argues that there is one noticeable similarity in these countries, in terms of the nature of labor markets: very low levels of formal employment and extremely high levels of informality or unemployment. All six countries also have rapidly rising educational enrolments in general education. While human capital theory suggests that skills pay off in labor markets, the combination of widespread informality or unemployment, together with rising educational levels, is likely to shape both employer and family perceptions of qualifications and may entrench the apparently stubborn persistence of the weakness of vocational education systems.