OECD Insights: Human Capital: How what you know shapes your life? by OECD

Author:OECD
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Education and Skills (Main), General Economics and Future Studies, Social Issues/Migration/Health
ISBN: 9789264048669
Publisher: www.oecd.org

Kanako’s case is extreme, but she represents a broader group of young people who for a wide range of reasons – psychological, social, cultural – opt out of both education and employment. There’s even a name for them: NEETs – not in employment, education or training. Many OECD countries, not just Japan, are increasingly concerned about the problems facing such young people.

Typically, about 80% of young people complete secondary school in developed countries, while about 20% drop out. No matter how much education expands, that hard core seems to remain fairly fixed. “I’m convinced that’s part of the reason that there’s been a big upsurge of interest in ministries of education in vocational education,” says Greg Wurzburg of the OECD.

Vocational schooling – which aims to prepare young people for a specific trade, such as carpentry – has faded away in many countries, says Wurzburg. “The spectrum of interests and abilities of students became bigger”, he explains, “but the spectrum of choice in schools has become smaller as vocational education became discredited in some countries”.

There’s now growing interest among governments in bringing it back, sometimes with controversial results. Following rioting in 2005, the French government announced plans to allow 14-year-olds to become apprentices. “The government’s objective is not really to give jobs to these young people but to extract them from a school system where they are failing”, Bernard Hugonnier of the OECD told the International Herald Tribune. “I’ll be frank: the goal is to get them off the streets.” But not all education alternatives are quite so controversial. Some countries are developing apprenticeship schemes, where young people learn on the job and often attend school part-time.

“ Greater emphasis on short-cycle programmes can help improve the match between the interests of the students and the labour market. ”

The New Economy: Beyond the Hype

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.