Perspectives on enhancing the standing of vocational education and the occupations it serves

The societal standing of vocational education is often perceived to be low, compared with other education sectors, albeit more so in some countries than others. However, this issue of standing is global and prevalent in countries with both developed and developing economies (UNESCO 2018). The consequences of this low standing can be profound. They include how governments, industry, enterprises and communities view and sponsor vocational education, and what constitutes its purposes, form and its administration. These perceptions also shape how both young and older people elect to engage with (i.e. preferred, non-preferred choice) and participate in vocational education provisions. Its standing also shapes how parents advise about it and employers’ willingness to engage with its provisions (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2018; UNESCO 2018). These factors have never been more salient than in an era in which young people and their parents have high aspirations about work and working life, and whom desire high status, clean and well-paid occupations. Aakrog (2020) suggests this generation of young people is quite different in their approach to selecting occupations than their parents. Contemporaneously, it has been suggested that traditions, familial expectations and material considerations as well as strong desire for self-realisation underpin contemporary decision-making about post-school options (Clement 2014). Certainly, the relationship between occupations and the standing of VET is profound and enduring. Over time, it has been the voices and sentiments of powerful others (e.g. aristocrats, theocrats, bureaucrats and academics) that have shaped the discourses about the standing of occupations and their preparation (Billett 2014). Almost all these sentiments have been developed through perspectives that fail to acknowledge the complexity of much of these occupational activities, nor an understanding of the requirements to develop the capacities to perform those tasks.