Abstract
This article traces the EC vocational training policy historically and describes the discursive alignments which brought the policy from a ‘common vocational training policy’ as laid down in Article 128, in the Treaty of Rome to the Lisbon Lifelong Learning strategy. The argument is that vocational training has served as a lever for the gradual expansion of the policy field into both general and higher education and for the establishment of a European discourse on Lifelong Learning. In the article, Ball’s concept of “policy as discourse” is used to identify the changing spaces of possibility within EC vocational training policy (Ball, What is policy? Texts, trajectories and toolboxes. Discourse, 13(2), 1993).
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Notes
The open method of coordination is in most EU studies described as “soft law”, i.e., the method does not establish the binding law of the community method which has to be implemented at national level. Like the programme method, it creates networks of individuals and institutions exchanging ideas and developing similar practices. But in addition, the open method involves national governments in creating and diffusing a EU framework of policies and practices on a topic area over which, they, officially, retain sovereignty. This works through the establishment of common policy objectives, benchmarks and indicators and through continuous evaluation by peers, and monitoring by the Commission through reviewing of policies and action plans in each country in annual or bi-annual reports (Cort 2008a).
In the article, I use the term “vocational training” hereby reflecting the legal basis for implementing a common vocational training policy as stated in Article 128 of the Treaty of Rome. It is not until the adoption of the Maastricht Treaty in 1992 that the term “vocational education and training” starts being more widely used in EC policy documents. The different EC usage of the terms reflects the fact that the community is Treaty-based and that wording has to be carefully considered in order not to overstep the EC legal jurisdiction.
By “technologies of Europeanisation”, I mean the modes of governance or policy instruments which lead to changes in national policies along the lines of European policy objectives or European models, such as the European Qualification Framework or the European Lifelong Learning model. This definition is partly based on the Vink, who defines Europeanisation pragmatically as “when something in the domestic political system is affected by something European” (Vink 2002, p. 3).
Andersen and Kjær (1996) introduce the concept of “space of possibility” by drawing on Foucault’s concept of “conditions of possibility”, which make certain ways of thinking and acting possible and exclude others (see Foucault 2005). I find their concept very interesting as it opens up for a spatiality of actions but also for counteractions, e.g., drawing on other discourses within this space.
It is inspired by the approach developed by Andersen and Kjær (1996), institutional history. They promote an analytical strategy consisting of two steps: 1) a diachronic analysis focusing on how a specific institution is constructed over time; and 2) a synchronic analysis focusing on changes/rupture that re-configure a specific institution. In this article, I apply the diachronic perspective. (For a synchronic perspective please see Cort 2008b).
EC policies adopted within the field of vocational training in general belong to the lower echelon of the EC judicial hierarchy, i.e. recommendations and decisions.
Gillingham points to the fact that the Treaty of Rome is highly influenced by ordo-liberal ideas of the market as the main mechanism for regulating the economy. He sees the Single European Act as a return to these ordo-liberal ideas, but points to a perpetual schism within the Community between the ideas of the European Community as a new “superstate” or as a new market economy consisting of 27 Member States. In the early 1960s, there was a wish within the Commission to establish a federal state and this led to conflicts with the Member States, especially France.
In the Treaty of Rome, vocational training is mentioned in several of the Articles (see e.g. Article 41 on a Common Agricultural Policy, Article 57 on the mutual recognition of diplomas, and Article 118 on social policy within the community).
This dichotomy of Commission versus Member States and the issue of retaining or pooling sovereignty is a common theme in many articles dealing with the European Community. However, as pointed out by many EU researchers EC politics is a complex process in which both the Member States influence EC policies and EC policies have a direct impact on national policies (see e.g. Howarth and Torfing 2005; Kohler-Koch and Eising 1999).
For researchers interested only in education, this is often regarded as the starting point for a common education policy in the European Communities and Neave notes that “[the Janne report] was a noteworthy contribution to breaking down the taboo which, hitherto, had been set around the area of education in community affairs” (Neave 1984, p. 8).
Ralf Dahrendorf was the German Commissioner of the first Directorate-General for Research, Science and Education from 1970 to 1974.
In his report, Janne also warns against the extreme outcome of à la carte system where learners can choose freely: ”inevitably, the industrial enterprise would seek to train workers, employees and supervisory staff according to its own needs and would organise promotion in such a way as to fit in with its own criteria for technical and managerial skills. The abolition of the legal value of degrees and diplomas, the institutionalisation of systems providing completely free options […] might culminate in the emergence of a meritocracy regulated by the interest of private enterprise’ (Janne 1973, p. 43). Now more than 30 years later, it might be worth remembering this far-sighted warning by Janne.
30 years later the unease seems to have disappeared as the terms of “a European VET area” and a “European education and training space” are generally accepted, even in national policy papers.
The central issue of the case was the payment of a fee for attending a course in the art of strip cartoon at the Academie Royale des Beaux Arts in Liège. A French student, Gravier, objected to paying the fee as it was only to be paid by non-Belgian students. The European Court of Justice ruled that “(2) the term “vocational training” includes courses in strip cartoon art provided by an institution of higher art education where that institution prepares students for a qualification for a particular profession, trade or employment or provides them with the skills necessary for such a profession, trade or employment”.(“Francoise Gravier v City of Liège” 1985).
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Cort, P. The EC Discourse on Vocational Training: How a ‘Common Vocational Training Policy’ Turned into a Lifelong Learning Strategy. Vocations and Learning 2, 87–107 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-008-9019-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-008-9019-9