The rise of the G20 starting in 2009 shows the power of the emerging economies around the world, and the power of those within the G20 in particular. So called BRICs, which represent Brasil, Russia, India and China, and countries such as Turkey, Mexico, Saudi Arabia and South Africa are all members of the G20.
The study titled ‘The VET Institutions in G20 Member Countries: Best Practices in Selected Countries’ conducted in 2010 by Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training'''' dealt with the major features of VET institutions of the leading countries such as France, Germany, Australia and Japan within the G20. While the VET institutions of these countries show the variation in VET systems among the advanced countries, the VET system of emerging countries are expected to show even more variation. The VET systems of emerging economies are of primary concern because emerging economies need skilled labor force to sustain growth.
This study is a sequel to ‘The VET Institutions in G20 Member Countries: Best Practices in Selected Countries’. This study focuses on vocational education and training system of 5 emerging economies within the 20, which are India, Russian Federation, Turkey, Brazil and South Africa. These countries are selected based upon their geographic location, importance in the regional economy, and diversity in culture and religion. These five countries represent different stages in development and diverse issues they are facing.
Emerging economies are receiving a great deal of attention due to their growing importance in the world economy. According to projections of World Bank and other worldly-renowned financial institutions, the size of the economy of these emerging countries are predicted to exceed that of the leading countries such as G7 by 2050.
This study includes five case studies, each of which describing the VET system of each country and the final chapter summarizing the result, discussing the common issues, and providing suggestions for future development.
The content of each case study consists of the following. First, each case study reviews socio-economic background of each country, which serves as the background influencing the making the VET system. Second, it describes major features of each VET system. These include the governance system of VET(i,e, financial and administrative system of VET), the delivery system of VET(i.e. VET institutions), and other key ingredients of VET such as social partnership, qualification systems, quality of teachers, curriculum development, and career guidance. Third, it discusses major issues each country faces with respect to building a national VET system and other human resource issues that are crucial to sustainable growth of these countries.
First, we summarize the major features and issues of VET of each of 5 emerging economies. India has abundant human resources with the 2nd largest population in the world. However, the quality of the labor force is still low with its low literacy rate. The GDP per capita of India is the smallest among members of the G20. India suffers from lack of educational infra-structure with insufficient number of educational institutions and low quality of education provided. The lack of VET infrastructure is even more serious. Improving access to VET is the major issue of VET in India. To solve this problem, India needs to increase investment in VET nationally and build up VET system that can grow human resources to match with the need of the labor markets.
Russia is a country which had already developed a quite successful VET system during Soviet era. However, with the rise of the Russian Federation, the country has gone through rapid transition in political and economic systems and also in social structures. Now, it needs a new VET system that can grow the manpower that are demanded in the changed world of work. However, with the change taking place faster than ever in all areas of society, the country is faced with a difficulty in utilizing the labor force that are trained under the old system while trying to update the VET system to grow the manpower that are needed in today's labor markets. This is called 'modernizing the VET system in Russia'. Economic instability is obstructing this modernization of VET in Russia. EU is helping Russia in this modernization process. Another issue threatening the growth of Russia in the future is the shrinking population. With the minus grow rate of population and population aging, Russia''''s growth potential is seriously being challenged.
Turkey's labor force is relatively young, which means it has quite an active labor force. Turkey also has a high rate of participation in VET. However, a high proportion of the labor force in Turkey are working in the agriculture sector and female participation in the labor force is very low, which works toward lowering the overall labor force participation of Turkey. Turkey is in the process of modernizing the VET system. The average level of educational attainment of the labor force is quite low. There is quite a gap in the quality of education provided among regions. Bridging this gap and achieving a balanced growth between regions is an important issue in Turkey.
Brazil is a country that has experienced an industrialization quite early among the emerging countries. Brazil is a highly industrialized and urbanized emerging economy with high labor force participation rate. Brazil has developed famous S-system to build the skilled labor force. S-system in Brazil governs most of VET institutions in Brazil. It is also a system established as a joint system between VET institutions and industries, and has historically served a function to grow skilled manpower. Brazil has a few important HRD issues. Brazil still has a very high proportion of informal sector and educational attainment of the majority of education is still low. Also, the S-system that has taken quite an important role in the process of industralization now suffers from quality problem which is caused by private nature of S-system's administration. The qualifications they issue are being recognised in the labor markets not very well. To solve this problem, the S-system needs to improve the quality of VET they are providing and the government needs to make an effort to develop a centrally administered quality assurance system.
South Africa has suffered from segregation policies and 'Apartheid' during the 1970's and 1980's. It has cleaned up thess practices in the late 90s when Mandela administration took over the power. Since then, everyone in SA has legal access to education. South Africa has a very well developed VET system which has been introduced by advanced countries such as Germany and Australia. It has established national qualification system as early as 1995 which is a very elaborate system linking the formal and informal education and regular and life-long education. South Africa has low rate of labor utilization. It has low labor force participation rate and high unemployment rate. In particular, unemployment of the youth reaches almost 50%. High rate of HIV infection every year is threatening to reduce the skilled labor force. In sum, South Africa has a fairly developed VET system, but the racial conflicts are still obstructing development of manpower and AIDS infection is another factor threatening the human resource development of South Africa. Promoting social inclusion and enlightening its people against the HIV infection, increasing access to education and VET, and improving the quality of VET are major issues South Africa is facing. South Africa needs to reduce the gap between the demand for labor in the labor market and the quality of labor supplied.
Common issues these emerging economies are facing can be summarized as follows. First, these countries suffer from the gap between the demand of the labor market which is created by rapid economic growth and the quality of labor being supplied. In other words, the actual VET system of these countries lag behind to cover the LM needs created by rapid national economic growth. These countries need reforms in the skill formation system to catch up with the demand in the labor markets. However, often financial shortages are factors standing in the way to modernize the VET system of these countries. Also, the growing popularity of general education compared to vocational education coupled with increasing tendency to receive higher education is another factor against development of VET in these countries.
Population change in the future in these countries is another important factor affecting the growth potential of these countries. Given that the emerging economies within G20 heavily rely not only on the quality of labor, but also on the size of the labor market which is affected by the size of the population and the structure of the population. population reduction and changing population structure of these countries pose a threat to their economic growth. Russia suffers from shrinking population; South Africa suffers from losing the population due to AIDS. How these countries cope with this population change will influence their growth in the future.
Finally this study suggests future direction of VET development for these countries based on the results of the case studies and their analysis. First, these countries need to continuously update their VET system. Second, in doing so, regional cooperation is important since countries in the same region tend to share common development issues and can therefore develop common solutions to these problems. In fact, two emerging economies, Russia and Turkey are being helped by EU in modernizing their VET system. Furthermore, this study suggests cooperation in the field of VET among emerging economies around the world. Emerging economies are at different stages in terms of VET development, and they understand the problems and issues common to the emerging economies, since they have gone through the same problems themselves. They could help each other by sharing their experiences and helping others to improve their VET them.
Korea, as one of the leading emerging economy within the G20, has gone through similar problems, Korea is also considered a model case among emerging economies that has overcome the problems and achieved sustainable growth. Korea, through increasing cooperation with emerging economies within and outside the G20 in the field of VET, can contribute to the development of these countries. We expect that this study can serve as a basis to increase such cooperation by providing information about the strengths and weakness of each emerging economy.