Vocational school
A
vocational school, providing
vocational education and also sometimes referred to as a
trade school or
career college, is a
school operated for the express purpose of giving its students the skills needed to perform a certain job or jobs. Vocational schools do not exist to further
education in the sense of
liberal arts, but rather to teach primarily or only job-specific skills, and as such are better considered to be institutions devoted to training, not education.
The Finnish system is divided between vocational and academic paths. The vocational school is a secondary school for ages 16-21, which prepares for entering the workforce directly. The curriculum has very little academic general education.
In tertiary education, there are higher vocational schools (
ammattikorkeakoulu which is translated to
polytechnic or
university of applied sciences), which give about 3-4 -year degrees in more involved fields, like engineering (see
insinööri (amk)) or nursing. These are not academia, nor are they comparable to U.S. trade schools.
In contrast, an academic secondary school teaches no vocational skills. It prepares for entering the university or a higher vocational school.
In Germany, vocational schools â€"
Berufsschulen â€" have a history stretching back to the 19th century. A German
Berufsschule is generally a secondary
public school and does not charge tuition fees. Today they are part of the
dual education system which combines
apprenticeships in a company and vocational training in a school, both taking place over the same period of time on different days of the week.
As part of the dual education system, the
Berufsschule is a part-time school, with students attending 8â€"12 45-minute lessons a week. Sometimes schooling is arranged in blocks of several weeks, in particular for trades which are only learnt by a small number of people. The rest of the students' time is spent learning at the company where they take their apprenticeship. The whole course lasts 2â€"3.5 years depending on the subject taken.
Additionally, there are two other types of vocational schools in Germany. The first one is the
Berufsfachschule, a full-time secondary vocational school. The majority of these schools are private and therefore do charge tuition fees. The course at this type of school lasts 2-3 years. However, this type of vocational education is generally considered inferior to the vocational education at a Berufsschule. The second additional type of German vocational schools is the
Fachschule, a full-time post-secondary vocational school, and also most often a private school. Only graduates of a Berufsschule, with a minimum of 1 year work experience after graduation, are permitted to attend this type of school. The course at a Fachschule lasts 2 years, and is comparable in level to the
Higher National Diploma in the
UK.
A vocational school in the
Republic of Ireland is a type of
secondary education school which places a large emphasis on
vocational and
technical education; this led to some conflict in the
1960s when the
Regional Technical College system was in development. Typically the schools are managed by
Vocational Education Committees which are largely based on
city or
county boundaries. Establishment of the schools is largely by the state; funding is through block grant system providing about 90% of necessary funding requirements.
Vocational schools typically have
further education courses in addition to the traditional courses at secondary level. For instance
Post Leaving Certificate Courses which are intended for school leavers and pre-
third level education students.
Until the
1970s the vocational schools were seen as inferior to the other schools then available in Ireland. This was mainly because traditional courses such as the Leaving Certificate were not available at the schools, however this changed with the
Investment in Education (1962) report which resulted in an upgrade in their status. Currently about 25% of secondary education students attend these schools.
In the
USA, vocational schools are usually a
post-secondary school, but in some instances may take the place of the final years of
high school. They may be
public schools and as such are operated by a
government,
school district or other officially-sanctioned group, in which case they may or may not charge tuition. Most purely vocational schools are
private schools; within this group they may be further subdivided into non-profit schools and proprietary schools, operated for the economic benefit of their owners. For a long time many proprietary vocational schools had a poor reputation for quality in many instances, and for overpromising what the job prospects for their graduates would actually be; this has been largely corrected by more stringent regulation. The term
career college is reserved for post-secondary for-profit institutions.
*
Vocational education*
Career College Association website* Barry Yeoman,
Scam Scools, Good Housekeeping
