Vocational Education

Question 1

vocational - act that introduced vocational education

Answer 1

new vocationalism act - 1979

Question 2

vocational - what does vocational education do?

Answer 2

prepare young people for work

develop human capital (education meet needs of economy)

Question 3

vocational - what do functionalist?

Answer 3

its a beneficial way to boost the economy

Question 4

vocational - what do marxists think?

Answer 4

its a second-rate education for the working-class

Question 5

vocational - aims of vocational education

Answer 5

• improves quality workforces’s basic skills
• breaks status division between academic and vocational qualification
• produces skilled labour force to meet employers needs
• work experience eases transition from school to work
• more training related to learning work-related skills
• strong emphasis on communication, problem solving, literacy and numeracy in national curriculum

Question 6

vocational criticisms - work experience

Answer 6

seen as boring, reparative, little development of skills and have nothing to do with future ambitions

Question 7

vocational criticisms - post-school training schemes

Answer 7

employers use these schemes as a source of cheap labour and don’t lead to proper jobs

Question 8

vocational criticisms - reinforce division between social class

Answer 8

working-class more likely to take vs
lower status
less likely to lead to university
more likely to lead to lower-status/paid jobs
inferior to academic subjects

Question 9

vocational - birdwill

Answer 9

schools focus on children destined to go to higher education
fail to help them prepare for work, offer little careers advice or help in finding jobs
vocational qualification turn out to be worthless and training is low-quality

Question 10

vocational - parity of esteem

Answer 10

sources should be different but viewed as equal

most vocational courses lack this as its seen as second-rate