The prevailing culture in many European and non-European countries is that vocational education is a second option – most parents would want their children to go to university.
This trend has been provoked and promoted by a clear separation between traditional white- and blue-collar workers. With the developments in technology and the internet of things, blue- and white-collar workers are today increasingly becoming the new symbiosis in a labour market demarcated by the so-called Industry 4.0.
The Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) is characterised by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres, collectively referred to as cyber-physical systems. Automation, robotics and artificial intelligence are some of the expressions of this new wave of industrialisation and service provision.
The first three industrial revolutions that transformed our modern society had at their core the steam engine, the age of science and mass production, and the rise of digital technology. The way people learned, lived and worked was changed fundamentally in less than two centuries. The proliferation of education brought an unprecedented higher quality of life to many, and poverty to an alarming number of others in developing and war-torn countries, but also in highly industrialised ones.
The 21st century is experiencing new forms of learning and working. Massive online courses (MOOCs) and digital nomads are quickly becoming sources of qualification and employment respectively. You can work from home, on your own and at any place, time and day of the week.
The same applies for learning. Education and training have ceased to become exclusively the domain of education institutions and in given physical spaces. On the contrary, more work places today are setting up their academies to skill, up-skill and re-skill their workers.
Sooner or later the increase in technology and the rapid development of production and service provision will place new challenges on teachers and lecturers in vocational education and training as well as in universities.
Whether these institutions will continue or cease to exist only time will tell. What is obvious today is that these institutions need to rethink their roles and the process of qualification, upgrade their infrastructure, retrain their teachers and establish a permanent and direct link with work environments.
Theses and dissertations will increasingly become impact-oriented even at undergraduate level. It is counterproductive to produce dissertations that fill book shelves with little or no relevance at all to the needs of the community that sponsors education. Learning by doing is attracting quicker employment than cognitive and theoretical education per se. The medieval traditional classroom is being overtaken by set-ups in which learning is facilitated by augmented reality and technology-led learning methods. Learning how to change a wheel of an Airbus A380 or carry out sophisticated brain surgery are activities in which students learn by virtually doing the job they are expected to do.
There is one manifest revolution in all this. Technology is levelling the playing field between those who work exclusively with their brain (the knowledge workers) and those who must also work with their hands to get things done. The shift is towards a larger number of knowledge workers with a difference (wise hands), people whose work necessitates a level of cognition coupled with an equally important level of operative approach.
Purely manual activities are progressively being taken over by robots, machines and mass production. Today we have driverless cars, cargo ships and flying machines. Robots are packaging food, providing security, organising big data, connecting businesses and conducting banking at a global level, flying aircraft, organising holidays and a million other activities that no longer require direct and continuous human involvement.
Technology is levelling the playing field between those who work exclusively with their brain and those who must also work with their hands to get things done
This infers that learning and working in today’s and especially tomorrow’s labour market requires a level of qualification not necessarily linked to a specific institution, be it a college, a university or an online course. Employers are validating certification and qualifications the value of which will no longer depend just on the name of the learning institution but on the acquired skills, competences and work-based experiences.
Self-learning is already replacing the teacher and the classroom. The biggest threat to many teachers is the level of knowledge of their own smart students.
Many jobs have been lost because of technology. But more have been created for the same reason. Vocational colleges around the world are gradually becoming providers of all levels of qualifications, including higher education degrees.
Malta is at an advanced stage of this development. Vocational degrees are on the increase both in demand and in supply. Employers are eager to engage vocational students in their workplace as these learners possess the right balance between the qualities of a knowledge worker and the potential of someone who can solve problems in a practical, efficient and cost-effective way.
Technology and the willingness to learn by doing are qualities that are providing the skills and competences needed to earn a job and to learn how to learn. In tomorrow’s labour market there will be no more learners and workers of a lesser god. You earn according to what you are capable of doing. Routine jobs that require mechanist functioning will be taken over by robots with whom we will have to learn to live and to engage ourselves with in a productive environment.
This paradigm shift puts increased responsibility on policy-makers to invest in vocational education and training (VET). Countries in which VET is considered as a first choice have had strong economies and very low unemployment over long periods of time. Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Hong Kong and to a lesser extent Scandinavian countries are very good examples.
This is because VET has the potential to be inclusive while providing excellence in different spheres of learning and employment. The variety of jobs and the creation of new jobs that VET can deliver is impressive. Parents would be happy to understand that when their young learners choose VET as their learning and working career pathway, their jobs are guaranteed and secured; their career paths wide open.
In this connection, the strengthening of VET in Malta’s secondary education is a step in the right direction. However, this must be supported by career guidance that is well versed in the developments occurring in the world of employment.
Similarly, Mcast’s infrastructure needs a stronger boost of public financing that ought to be supported also by the private sector through the offering of apprenticeships and work-based learning activities on a larger scale.
Human capital is the only natural resource of our country. It is the prerogative of all stakeholders to pull their weight and ensure that VET is bolstered by sustainable long-term investment and visibility. In today’s labour market climate, ready-made human capital is not possible anymore.
The developments at European level of VET since the Copenhagen Process (2002) have been unparalleled in the history of this sector of education. Equally, the launch of the European Qualifications Framework (2008) has shaped a new platform for the attainment of parity of esteem between VET and other forms of higher education. With Industry 4.0, the importance of VET will dramatically increase as new jobs will replace existing ones and new skills need to be taught and learnt.
It is almost impossible for the education sector to develop at the same rate as that of industry, technology and artificial intelligence. Yet it is through education and training that economies flourish or perish.
The time to act is now. No strong economy would ignore the opportunity and challenge to step up its efforts to boost VET, to value VET and to inform VET of new developments in the world of work. Industry 4.0 will inevitably close the intellectual and hands-on gaps that education structures create among learners and workers.
Predictions are reliable enough to declare that in the near future, there will be no more learners and workers of a lesser god.
Prof. Joachim James Calleja is principal/CEO of the Malta College of Arts, Science and Technology, and elected president of the European Forum of Technical and Vocational Training (EfVET).
This is a Times of Malta print opinion piece