Page 127 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

IVET (initial vocational education and training) reforms are occurring across
almost all Member States in response to the assumption that the availability of a
wider variety of choice may increase young people’s motivation to stay longer in
education or to return to formal education,. While these developments cannot be
regarded as guidance initiatives as such, many of them are relevant to the
study’s education-to-work agenda. Further, recent evidence implies that
individualisation and modularisation requires increased orientation and guidance
services, especially for those who are unable to manage increased responsibility
for their learning pathways.
VET reforms have not been studied here in detail. However, a brief list of the
types of reform being introduced is provided here, followed by a more detailed
examination of two specific VET-oriented routes which are of relevance to this
study (apprenticeships and school and work alternation initiatives):
(a) increasing modularity and flexibility: VET has been diversified in several
countries and educational routes have been set up which are more
accommodating to a wider range of students. There have been
developments in the individualisation, modularisation and flexibility of IVET
pathways in Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Latvia,
Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Spain and Sweden (Cedefop, 2009c);
(b) easing access to IVET for early school leavers: several countries (Bulgaria,
the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia and Hungary) have strategies
to aid access to vocational learning for school leavers who do not hold a
compulsory school certificate, or to offer short courses leading to
apprenticeship certificates or to prepare the learner for final upper secondary
examinations;
(c) improving the appeal of IVET courses: qualitative improvements have been
made to the content of IVET provisions, enhance make vocational pathways
more attractive (Spain, Latvia and Sweden). In Spain, initial vocational
qualification programmes (PCPI Programas de Cualificación Profesional
Inicial) were created in 2006 as part of the Organic Law on Education. The
new programmes now lead to recognised qualifications unlike previous IVET
programmes;
(d) improving the permeability of vocational pathways: reforms have also taken
place to ensure IVET courses lead to formal accreditation, so improving the
permeability of study pathways (Spain, Italy, Luxembourg and the
Netherlands).
Vocational education and training reforms seek to ensure that VET options
are a valued alternative to academic pathways. It is important to ensure that
learners are able to access vocational qualifications and that the benefits of

121