Working with historical, cultural and economic logics: The case of vocational training in Argentina

CLAUDIA JACINTO

International Handbook of Vocational Education and Training

Wiley

Año: 2019; p. 10 - 20

In recent years, vocational education and training (VET) has been the subject of renewed interest in international debates on economic development. This revalorization goes hand in hand with an ongoing and ever-changing discussion about VT roles and functions to respond to the challenges of providing the training to match the new demands of the world of work and, at the same time, to be relevant for local development and significant for the career paths of the underprivileged populations, like low-skilled workers, young people, or migrant populations. VET field is a heterogeneous compound of public and private actions, often in alliance among themselves, sharing interests, which are sometimes complementary and frequently contradictory. Also, from the institutional viewpoint, VET is probably the most heterogeneous of the main education and training sectors, with structures and offers many times occurring simultaneously (CEDEFOP, 2017). This chapter seeks to contribute to these discussions about new models, functions and formats of VET in the context of a developing country, Argentina. In the Argentine case, vocational training (VT), strictly speaking, is a terminal programme, which does not provide access to higher education. VT is different from the so-called technical stream, which is developed in formal secondary and tertiary education, and which provides access to a higher level of education.1 The chapter will focus on the two streams of VT: first, a stream which is mostly initial (but also continuing) VT for labour market entry; and second, a stream which is more flexible and closer to the world of work and the lifelong learning paradigm. The key difference between the two streams is that the first is related to educational policies and the second, to employment policies. These two streams often overlap and compete one another, but they also respond to different demands and clientele.