VET and Higher Education

Timo Fleckenstein and Samuel Mohun Himmelweit, together with Soohyun Christine Lee from King’s College London, work on a project that compares education reforms in Germany and South Korea; two countries where vocational training and education (VET) was key to the success of their export-oriented industrial growth strategies, but also where VET promoted social inclusion. The knowledge economy has put this skills-based, inclusive growth model under pressure, and we see labour market dualisation calling into question the social contracts in the two countries.

Education and skills policies in Germany and Korea have seen far-reaching changes: a decline of VET, and an expansion of higher education. This research analyses government capacity to reconcile economic efficiency and social inclusion in education reform. Preliminary findings suggest that Germany, drawing on its corporatist past, has been more successful in mediating pressures in the knowledge economy than Korea, where the country’s hierarchical business relations have undermined employer engagement and more inclusive polices. 

Publications

Fleckenstein, T., Lee, S. C., & Mohun Himmelweit, S. (2023). Dualisation, education and the knowledge economy: Comparing Germany and South Korea. Social Policy & Administration, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1111/spol.12896

Timo Fleckenstein has a long-standing interest in the Korean welfare state, including education and skills. In a forthcoming article in the Journal of Contemporary Asia co-authored with Soohyun Christine Lee from King’s College London and Jaehyoung Park from the Korean Ministry of the Economy and Finance, Timo shows how Korea, previously heralded as a country where education and growth reinforced each other, has developed a pathological equilibrium that is holding back economic and social progress. Low labour productivity and skills mismatch undermine the economic prospect of the country, and labour market dualisation threatens social cohesion. Governments of different political persuasion have recognised these challenges, and they have thought to reinvigorate VET. However, the research demonstrates that large employers – which were at the heart of a segmentalist coalition between business and government when the previous collective skills formation regime of the so-called Developmental State was dismantled – continue to undermine any efforts of meaningful vocational skills formation. It is argued that the country’s hierarchal production regime and, related to this, labour market dualisation provide the micro-foundations for successive failure in VET reform.

Earlier research on skills and education in Korea includes “The Political Economy of Education and Skills in South Korea: Democratisation, Liberalisation and Education Reform in Comparative Perspective”, published in The Pacific Review (Vol. 32, No. 2, pp. 168-197; together with Soohyun Christine Lee).

Against the background of education expansion and economic transformations, little is known about how education shapes the transition to work in developing countries. Drawing on the cases of Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal, this study by Shuang Chen examines the association between education and the timing and quality of transition to work. 

Chen, Shuang. "Education and transition to work: Evidence from Vietnam, Cambodia and Nepal." International Journal of Educational Development 61 (2018): 92-105.

As part of the World Bank projects for TVET in China, this co-authored study focuses on skills development and TVET in Yunnan province, one of the poorest provinces in China, and situates the case of Yunnan in the broader national context. The intended audience includes Chinese policymakers as well as researchers and development workers interested in understanding skills development in China.

Liang, Xiaoyan, and Shuang Chen. Developing Skills for Economic Transformation and Social Harmony in China: A study of Yunnan Province. World Bank Publications, 2013.

Anne West has carried out research with Jane Lewis, Philip Noden and Jonathan Roberts on students, graduates and families funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The most recent publications (given below) include a book focusing on how parents support and relate to their student and co-resident graduate children.

Publications

West, A. and Lewis, J. (2018) ‘Helicopter Parenting’ and ‘Boomerang Children’: How Parents Support and Relate to Their Student and Co-Resident Graduate Children, Abingdon: Routledge.

West, A., Lewis, J., Roberts, J. and Noden, P. (2017) Young adult graduates living in the parental home: Expectations, negotiations and parental financial support, Journal of Family Issues, 38, 17, 2449-2473.

Lewis, J. and West, A. (2017) Intergenerational relations between English students, graduates living at home, and their parents, Social Policy and Administration, 51, 7, 1248–1266.

Building on prior work by Divya Deepthi as part of an ESRC Innovation Fellowship, Divya and Sonia Exley have been writing about students’ experiences of technical and vocational learning in University Technical Colleges during the pandemic. University Technical Colleges (UTCs) are newly established (since 2010-11) technical and vocational secondary schools in England, catering for young people aged 14-19. We report on results from a survey of 252 students across two UTCs in England, exploring the technical and vocational learning experiences of these students during an exceptional 2019-20 academic year. Findings from the survey reveal lost learning and training opportunities during the pandemic, particularly where courses with practical elements relied on specific equipment and facilities that became inaccessible during lockdown. The survey also highlights disruptions to apprenticeship arrangements, work experience plans and to other engagement with employers.  Students in some instances have been effectively forced to stay on in education due to reduced apprenticeship and employment opportunities for school-leavers. We find evidence of students adapting their aspirations and career goals to the new economic circumstances.

A further planned paper within this programme of research is also being developed. The paper will discuss the emergence and growth of UTCs more widely in England, locating the UTC initiative in a longer historical context of attempts to solve quality and demand problems in the English technical and vocational education and training sector. 

Publications

Deepthi, D., & Exley, S. (2023). Exploring students' experiences of technical and vocational learning in University Technical Colleges during the pandemic. British Educational Research Journal, 49, 575–592. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3857