Abstract
This chapter defines initial VET as the secondary education preparing young people for level 3 occupations. It describes three main approaches of organizing VET across Europe (cf. Wieland, Local Econ 30(5):577–583, 2015): (i) the liberal, market-based model where the supply and demand of un-standardized training is given by the market (UK, Ireland); (ii) the school-based/bureaucratic/state-regulated model (France) and (iii) the dual-corporatist model, applied in German-speaking countries, which merges school-based regulations with market-based approaches. It is argued that the ‘German dual model’ receives high endorsement in Europe and in Romania as well (where the first initiatives of this kind started to emerge, mainly in Transylvania). The chapter includes background information on the socio-economic context of Romania and its VET project.
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- 1.
There is high variance among countries in the level of status associated to VET. Besides, in the same country there are different levels of prestige associated to different VET schools, depending on the type of jobs they are conducting to. Yet, in general, our societies share a cultural divide between manual and intellectual work.
- 2.
Cf. Radu Merica, former president of the Romanian-German Chamber of Commerce, cited in media (Pantazi 2013).
- 3.
The decrease in birth rate after the fall of communism started to have effects on the enrollment structure at secondary school level and add nuance to the difference in students’ numbers.
- 4.
The dual model in VET is rare and a special case. The text will indicate when reference is made to the dual system and not to the school-based VET.
- 5.
A 2011 project of moving the national examination at the end of grade 9, when mandatory education ends, was unsuccessful due to major resistances from teachers’ trade unions and from the political leadership of the time.
- 6.
One can notice how the educational norms associate the notion of ‘vocation’ with ‘middle class’ occupations and, implicitly, denies it to those occupying the lower segments of the occupational structure.
- 7.
In a very rigorous sense of the term, technological high schools are also part of initial VET. They lead to level 4 qualifications sometimes in very similar occupations, yet with fewer time allocated to practice. Technological high schools provide a direct route to university and enjoy a different social status than the so-called ‘școli profesionale’. However, the book is not covering this area. The term ‘VET’ will be exclusively used with reference to the initial VET leading to level 3 qualifications.
- 8.
There is a single VET school that operates independently, without any high school classes. It is a dual school.
- 9.
In 2017, for instance, the pass rate had a national average of 72.9% (a recent record, however).
- 10.
This research identified very few instances of transfers in VET, mostly for young people in foster care, who experienced relocation.
- 11.
The school unit that accommodates a high school and VET schools is named ‘technical college’. It belongs to the secondary education level.
- 12.
MEN and CNDIPT (2018) ‘Total propuneri clasa a IX-a, învățământ profesional zi pentru anul școlar 2018–2019’. URL: http://www.tvet.ro/ http://www.alegetidrumul.ro/uploads/00_Total_propuneri_IP_ID_2018_2019.pdf
- 13.
Yet with one of the biggest budget deficits in the EU.
- 14.
There are high regional disparities: from major labour force shortages in the North and the West, to high unemployment in the East and the South.
- 15.
The book will prefer these concepts, whilst acknowledging their proximity to policy processes than to sociology.
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Pantea, MC. (2019). The VET Project. In: Precarity and Vocational Education and Training. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-02689-9_3
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