Improving employment outcomes of career and technical education students

Abstract

Purpose In this rapidly changing world, we are experiencing the fourth industrial revolution, known as “Industry 4.0,” that requires education systems to redesign qualifications in order to meet the needs of an individual and the workplace of the digitized economy. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the relatively new approaches being explored mainly in the UK and Australia within the higher education (HE) sector and to propose a framework with selected career training pathways for the tertiary education system within the Australian context. The implementation plan postulated from the reports of recent studies conducted in England’s apprenticeship system is intended as a guideline for facilitating a sustainable career and technical education (CTE) with three pillars of innovation, integration and collaboration in order to improve employment outcomes required for the digitized economy in Australia. Design/methodology/approach This study adopts a descriptive, pragmatic research methodology to review and analyze education methods found in contemporary degree and vocation programs, particularly the degree apprenticeships adopted in England. This approach is used to explore, explain and develop a framework for student-centric apprenticeship options in CTE with graduate outcomes in the re-designed HE programs to successfully meet the needs of Industry 4.0 workplaces in Australia. Findings A student-centric framework is designed for HE programs with a proposal to include practical variations in apprenticeships to embrace flexible structures and industry responsiveness. The paper develops tactical plans and implementation flowcharts for the proposed framework with four CTE pathways, such as degree apprenticeships, start-up focus degrees, tailored studies and multiple majors that are designed for tertiary education programs to meet the dynamically changing employment needs of industry. Originality/value This proposal is a relatively new approach to improve employment outcomes of students undergoing degrees and vocational education with a focus on apprenticeship in four different forms. The strength of this pragmatic approach is in providing an insight into “what works” through a set of flexible, sustainable and practical implementation plan for the proposed CTE pathway framework in order to meet the future need of re-skilling and training for the digital economy.

An Investigation of Industry 4.0 Skills Requirements

“…Because of Industry 4.0, both technical and academic institutions must strive to supplement theoretical knowledge with practical skills, social skills and responsibility, ethics and values, and entrepreneurship capability, among others [20]. Other countries are moving towards rolling out work-based learning degree programmes that are meant to achieve learning and innovation skills, information technology skills, and life and career skills [32].…”

Lived Experience of Literacy Coaches in the Technology-based Classrooms to improve Students’ Literacy among Non-traditional High Schools in Jamaica

“…These vast changes are an attempt to facilitate the marketability of individuals in a competitive, global digitized space referred to as 'industry 4.0'. Institutions have moved to upgrade the traditional presentation of technology within curricula to align with the expectations of the 21 st century career; as such, the 'vocational education' has been renamed 'career and technical education' and includes programs which are geared towards specialized skills, technology and job preparations (Venkatraman, DeSouza-Daw, & Kaspi, 2018). Since the period of the late 1900's to the 2000, millennials' interaction with technologically advanced tools has changed the face of technology by moving the communication from speech to text through a multiplicity of modes such as internet, videos, audios, computer programming and most outstandingly, cell-phone use (Spires, Paul & Kerkhoff, 2017).…”

Development of Mobile Learning Media (MLM) to Enchance Students’ Understanding of CNC Programming Subjects

“…As a result, the competence of graduates is not in accordance with the needs of the world of work. Among the study programs that were held, manufacture was in the highest ranking for the weak competence of graduates [2]. CNC programming is one of the main parts of mechanical engineering vocational education [3].…”

“…The problem of the low competency of students' CNC programming must be resolved as soon as possible, because this competency is a competency that is needed in facing the challenges of the industrial revolution 4.0 [6]. The Industrial Revolution 4.0 requires a vocational education curriculum to adapt to real competencies and conditions in the workplace [2], [7]- [9]. This of course makes educators in the vocational education environment have to be able to develop their competencies and skills in order to fulfill the competence of graduates [4], [10].…”