Recent Trends in Engineering and Construction Skill Formation - UK and Germany Compared

Accurate accounting for annual flows of vocational qualifications by sector of economic activity has been greatly impeded by the data collection methods put in place since the setting up of the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in 1986. Using unpublished data from a variety of sources, the paper concludes that, allowing for differences in the size engineering and construction sectors in the two countries, Britain continues to lag well behind Germany in the production of intermediate level engineering skills and in craft qualifications in the building trades. Assessments of the relative quality of the NVQ Level 2 in Construction and the German construction apprenticeship show the standard of practical competence acquired to be similar in both countries. The standard of the German tests of technical knowledge and of mathematics was judged to be well above the building trade craft level in Britain. Unlike their German counterparts, British construction and engineering trainees awarded NVQ 2 and NVQ 3 qualifications are no longer obliged to pass externally set and marked tests in occupationally-related technical skill and knowledge mathematics. It appears that Britain is still some way from closing the skills gap with Germany in engineering and in the building trades despite sacrificing rigour in assessment and the breadth and technical knowledge base of traditional skills training programmes and concentrating instead on work-related practical competences.

In brief: The state of apprenticeships

Hilary Steedman finds that the provision of apprenticeships in the UK lags behind other countrieseducation, apprenticeships

Apprenticeship in Europe: 'Fading' or Flourishing?

This paper sets out the extent and defining characteristics of apprenticeship in Europe. Apprenticeship is then situated within the wider context of European provision for education and training of 16-19 year olds and a simple typology is proposed and explained. The German-speaking dual system countries are characterised as high employer commitment countries with minimal integration of apprenticeship into full-time 16-19 provision and weak links with tertiary education. The UK, the Netherlands and France are characterised as having relatively low levels of employer commitment but greater integration of apprenticeship into full-time provision and stronger links between apprenticeship and tertiary level provision. Recent evidence on the extent to which both apprenticeship models improve employment probabilities is reviewed and pressures on the two apprenticeship models resulting from increasingly competitive global markets and consequent changing skill needs are examined. A final section discusses whether apprenticeship in Europe can adapt to and survive these pressures.apprenticeship, dual system, school to work transition

Measuring the Quality of Educational Outputs: A Note

This paper contrasts the approach to the measurement of stocks of education that is adopted by growth economists on the one hand and governments wishing to improve economic performance through education on the other. It it pointed out progress to date in demonstrating the link between human capital investment and economic growth for a range of countries world-wide has been disappointing. It is suggested that more precise measurement methods in compiling the datasets used by growth economists might contribute to research in this area. In the same way, the needs of governments monitoring the performance of their own country against those of others require a reformulated approach. To meet the needs of the latter group, data educational qualifications will need to be collected in a more consistent manner in the difference countries and adjustments made to take into account different types of certification. Inconsistancies in the current methods probably lead to a group of countries in which the real outputs are underrstated. A more rigorous and tightly-defined taxonomy should be developed in succession to the ISCED to from the framework for qualitative comparison. Decisions about the allocation of qualifications to a revised framework should be based on agreed measures of quality. Detailed information and qualitative data on inputs to qualifications need to be assembled, scrutined and analysed to permit the construction of such measures.

Benchmarking Apprenticeship: UK and Continental Europe Compared

This paper reviews the main characteristics of the provision, organization and financing of appprenticeship in a number of leading European countries - Austria, Denmark, France, Germany and the Netherlands. These are compared to current practice in Britain as exemplified by Modern Apprenticeship. The main areas examined are the statutory framework and standards; employment prospects; achieving the employer-apprentice match; prior school qualifications of apprentices and motivation to enter apprenticeship; the management and financing of apprenticeship. The paper concludes that apprenticeship in Britain, judged as a programme, falls short of the standards of that provided elsewhere in Europe on every important measure of good practice.

Apprenticeship policy in England: increasing skills versus boosting young people’s job prospects.

Successive British governments have committed substantial public resources to apprentice training, but far too few young people benefit and not enough high value skills have been developed. That is the central conclusion of a new report published by the Centre for Economic Performance (CEP). The report’s author, Dr Hilary Steedman, who has nearly 30 years of research experience in this field, calls for a change in the country’s apprenticeship model.

Young People Without Qualifications: How 'Headline Numbers' Shape Policy and Aspiration

England's most widely used indicator of young people's education and labour market status is the NEET category - 'not in education, employment or training'. Making comparisons with how France and Germany measure school leavers' progression and achievement, Hilary Steedman argues that NEET is no longer good enough.Apprenticeships, education, policy making, youth unemployment

Disengagement 14-16: Context and Evidence

This paper presents an overview of our current state of knowledge regarding poor motivation of 14-16 year oldschool pupils in the UK. A number of experts in the field from a variety of disciplines presented papers on thistopic to a series of seminars held at the London School of Economics between 2002 and 2003. These papers,summarised here, present evidence from a historical, comparative, and social science perspectives and report theresults of evaluation of government intervention programmes to improve motivation. International comparisons(PISA) show UK disengagement below the OECD average but the UK has the strongest link between socioeconomicdisadvantage and disengagement. We identify a very small 'out of touch' group who have practicallylost touch with school and a larger group - around one fifth of the cohort - who could be characterised as'disaffected but in touch'. Finally, we identify a further group - perhaps 15 per cent of the cohort who gainbetween 1 and 4 GCSE passes at Grades A*-C but who have not reached full potential as a result of loss ofinterest in learning. The 'out of touch' group often requires intensive one-on-one mentoring outside the schoolcontext. Evaluation of government intervention programmes has not so far shown an obvious way forward forthe 'disaffected but in touch' group, targeted principally by workplace learning measures. For the '1-4 Grade C'group, there may be something of a magic bullet - namely better vocational options.disengagement, motivation, under-achievement

Growing Skills in Europe: the Changing Skill Profiles of France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal, Sweden and the UK

This paper uses Labour Force and other national survey data to examine stock levels and changes in the stock of skills (educational and vocational qualifications) of the population over the period 1985-1996 for six European countries with particular reference to the low-skilled. National qualifications are classified using the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) levels 0-7. The low-skilled are defined as those who left education and training/gained no qualifications beyond the period of compulsory schooling. All countries have reduced the proportion in the low-skilled group over the period 1985-1996; however, countries which already had the lowest levels of low skills (Sweden, Germany) made the fastest progress. Younger (25-28) populations are better qualified than the working-age populations. Considerable differences still remain between countries in stocks of skills in both the young (25-28) and working-age population. These differences are greater at the lower end of the ISCED scale (0/1/2) than at the higher end (ISCED 5/6/7). In a number of countries (France, Germany, Netherlands, Portugal) higher level educational and vocational qualifications (ISCED 3 and above) were gained at a relatively late age (22-25). In Sweden and the UK only small proportions of the low-skilled gained further qualifications after the age of 21. Proportions of low-skilled men and women in the working-age population have declined at similar rates in all countries but in Germany and the UK the proportion of women with low skills remains substantially higher. In France, Portugal and Sweden more women have a higher education (ISCED 5/6/7) than men. In Germany, the UK and the Netherlands the situation is reversed and the gap between men and women has remained largely unchanged over the period 1985-1996. On the basis of the growth rates of the past ten years, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany appear to be converging on similar skill profiles for the young (25-28) population in 2010 when 10 per cent or less will be in the low skills group. On present trends it will take considerably longer for the UK and Portugal to reduce the low-skilled group to the 10 per cent level.