Vocational Education, Training and Apprenticeships
Vocational Education Training Apprenticeships
Vocational education, training or VET for short, is education that prepares and trains students for specific jobs, crafts, trades, and employment in many levels ranging, from a craftsmen, tradesmen, technician, or a professional position in accountancy, nursing, engineering, medicine, architecture, law, pharmacy and many other fields. Vocational education training is typically based on practical or manual training or non-academic preparation specifically pertaining to a particular job, trade, occupation, or vocation.
Vocational education, training is sometimes also called technical education since the trainee directly learns and develops knowledge, and eventual expertise, in a particular group of job skills. Vocational education training may be considered as the instruction of procedural knowledge. Procedural knowledge in vocational education training can be looked upon as opposite to declarative knowledge, which is generally used in education. Declarative knowledge typically focuses on theory, ideas and abstract concepts, which are common and characteristic of collegiate level or tertiary education.
Vocational education, training can be administered or taken at the post-secondary level, secondary level, further education level and can be intertwined along with the apprenticeship system. Vocational education and training is increasingly recognisable in terms of its merits as prior learning and partial academic credit towards a college education, but it is hardly ever credited as partial fulfillment towards pursuing the traditional definition of any form of higher education.
Vocational Apprenticeships
Vocational education and training is linked and traces its roots to the apprenticeship system of training. Apprenticeships are intended for many levels of jobs and occupations, ranging from manual trades to high knowledge work requiring expertise and experience.
As the labor industry transforms and becomes more specialised, governments and businesses are investing more in the development of vocational education training via training organisations and subsidised apprenticeship or traineeship schemes. Vocational education training at the post-secondary level is typically provided or funded by a local community college, an institute of technology, or by a university.
Vocational education and training has branched out and evolved throughout the 20th century and now serves and exists in industries like tourism, information technology, retail, funeral services and cosmetics, as well as in cottage industries and the traditional crafts.
Australian Vocational Education Training
Vocational education and training in Australia is generally offered at the post-secondary level and is made possible through the vocational education and training (VET) system by registered training organisations. The vocational education training system includes both public, TAFE, and private providers in a national training framework that are comprised of the Australian Qualifications Framework, Australian Quality Training Framework, and Industry Training Packages which identify the evaluation standards for the various vocational credentials.
Australia’s apprenticeship system in vocational education training is inclusive of both traditional apprenticeships in traditional trades as well as traineeships in service-oriented jobs. The two types have a legal contract that is executed by the employer and the apprentice and gives a mixture of school-based as well as workplace instruction. Apprenticeships in vocational education training usually take a minimum of three years and a maximum of four years, while traineeships will take a minimum of one year and a maximum of two years. Apprentices and trainees get a wage that becomes larger as they advance.
Vocational Education and Training Deliverables
Vocational Education and Training pertains to education as well as training that concentrates on delivering knowledge and skills needed for specific industries. Vocational education training is a learning option for young individuals in the senior phase of learning. Taking part in vocational education training can provide the following advantages:
- Vocational education training can support young people's shift to employment, vocational and higher education choices.
- Getting practical experience from work
- Obtaining familiarity on how workplaces operate can be realised thru vocational education training
- Vocational education training helps develop employable skills
- Development and improvement of interpersonal skills
- Vocational education training allows students to explore the potential career path they want to follow.
The distinctions between vocational education, training and tertiary education are increasingly becoming more indistinct. Many vocational education training providers are now providing specialised Bachelor degrees in particular fields not being sufficiently provided by the Universities. Vocational education training and its evolving role in opening doors for employment opportunities will continue to make an indelible mark on the Australian employment landscape.
