scholarly journals Exploring the Intensity of Relationships with Vocational Education Centres: A Typology of Spanish SMEs

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9287
Author(s):  
Cristina Lavía ◽  
Beatriz Otero ◽  
Eneka Albizu ◽  
Mikel Olazaran

Even though the availability of skilled labour and technological know-how is critical to the sustainability of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the relationships between industry and the vocational education system have received little attention in the recent literature regarding social aspects of innovation. The objective of this paper is to analyse the intensity of relationships between industrial SMEs and vocational education and training (VET) centres from the firms’ perspective. The study is based on a survey carried out with a sample of 1388 Spanish industrial SMEs with vocational education graduates among their employees. Multivariate hierarchical segmentation techniques were used in order to identify the main explanatory variables. As a result, we obtained a typology (“tree”) of eight organizational profiles associated to different intensity levels (from higher to lower) of relationships between firms and schools. The results show that most industrial SMEs maintain relations with vocational education centres, reflecting the importance of the latter for the companies. The organisational type having the highest level of relations refers to SMEs with experience in external cooperation (cooperation with other actors in innovation projects) which have vocational education employees (graduates) in technical areas and which are bigger in size. Likewise, the results suggest that fruitful collaboration between SMEs and vocational education centres depends on the existence of an established culture of innovation among the smaller firms. This work sheds light on economic and social sustainability. Its results and discussion are linked to the objectives of United Nations sustainable development goals and the recent communication from the European Commission to the European Parliament entitled “European skills agenda for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness, and resilience”.

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
pp. 179
Author(s):  
Cosmas Kombat Lambini ◽  
Angelina Goeschl ◽  
Max Wäsch ◽  
Martin Wittau

Education for sustainable development (ESD) plays a significant role in achieving the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and simultaneously tackling the current global ecological challenges. Integration of ESD in Vocational Education and Training (VET) offers opportunities for private sector actors to contribute to reaching these global goals. The dual structure of business-integrated training in Germany further exemplifies a business case and the numerous opportunities available to private companies for engaging with the SDG framework. This briefing paper highlighted available evidence from the ESD literature on VET skills development in advancing the SDGs. Outcomes from best practices were based on the tried-and-tested länder—federal states—piloted vocational training of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) INEBB1 project (INEBB), demonstrating the conditions necessary for vocational education training in sustainability and plausible transfer mechanism within companies. These conditions included (1) the application of deductive concepts, (2) the establishment of blended-learning platforms (place-based and digital), and (3) the adaptation of the criteria and contents from the German Sustainability Codex (DNK) in curriculums designed for the training. This innovative vocational course and certification as specialist training for sustainable development was a model case in bringing the SDGs closer to German companies’ vocational education. INEBB2 sought to upscale applicable and task-based instructions from the experimented model project INEBB1 within different companies through regional, lateral, and vertical transfer strands. The INEBB project model in the review suggested there was a need for further empirical work and policy discourse on educational transfer research in the framework of VET for sustainable development. The INEBB project model integrated the new standard occupational profile items of the environmental protection and the sustainability and digitalised world of work across occupational competencies in the German dual system of vocational education and training that will come into force in August 2021 for all 326 dual training professions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 20 (8) ◽  
pp. 1428-1443
Author(s):  
Arjuman Naziz

Purpose Despite the growing emphasis on revitalizing the technical and vocational education and training (TVET) sector in Bangladesh, very little discussion has taken place on reforming the current inflexible transition pathways, from TVET to the universities. This paper aims to reflect critically on the existing literature on TVET, in the global and national context, and the experiences of students and TVET experts, to develop a model of collaboration between the polytechnic institutes and the universities in Bangladesh. Design/methodology/approach This paper follows a qualitative strategy of enquiry, using a mix of critical reflection on literature on TVET and higher education and unstructured interviews with two TVET experts, four TVET students and four students from a public university. It draws on the theories of collaboration and uses exemplary cases to illustrate and support the line of reasoning. Findings This paper identifies that there is resource dependency between the polytechnic institutes and universities in Bangladesh, and their institutional environment necessitates them to form collaboration to ensure flexible transition pathway, from polytechnic institutes to universities; this paper proposes a model for such collaboration. Practical implications This paper offers a guideline for forming collaboration among the relevant stakeholders. Social implications Collaboration between polytechnic institutes and universities in Bangladesh is likely to address the inequitable nature of TVET, by improving its social status and acceptance, as well as allowing higher income opportunity and greater mobility for the TVET graduates, coming especially from humble socio-economic backgrounds. Originality/value This paper contributes in the recent discussions on how collaboration among different stakeholders can contribute in achieving the sustainable development goals, with special emphasis on TVET.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (02) ◽  
pp. 2328-2334
Author(s):  
John Nehemiah Marwa ◽  
Hanifah Jambari ◽  
Ishak Taman ◽  
Nur Hazirah Noh@Seth ◽  
Mohd Zolkifli Abdul Hamid ◽  
...  

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