What is vocational education?
Answers
Answer: Vocational education is education that prepares people to work as a technician or to take up employment in a skilled craft or trade as a tradesperson or artisan. Vocational education is sometimes referred to as career and technical education. OAC Vocational Education, 1922
Explanation:
What are vocational courses?
Vocational courses are courses that
are usually aimed at equipping students
with practical skills for a specific
profession or field. These courses are
tailor-made to make students completely
job ready. Hence, are often aimed at a specialized career and designed
in a manner such as to help you upgrade
your skills for that particular career.
Benefits
• Focus is mainly on specialized knowledge.
• The realistic insight of the industry for which the training is given.
• More dynamic as they make students aware of ongoing trends in the global market with the help of practical knowledge.
• Act as the bridge between the skilled manpower required and available in the market.
• Programs offered are shorter, less expensive and aimed at the needs of the industry.
• Most of the programs require high school completion with basic knowledge of Mathematics and English.
• They can be taken online as well because of the convenient and easy learning process.
Disadvantages
However, just like any choice, there are going to be downsides. Vocational education is usually very limiting. The skills you’ll learn are very particular to that one field. Obviously, if you know for certain that this is the job you’d like to do, that’s no problem. But for those who are still thinking about what they’d like to do, or wanting to keep their options open, it might prove a challenge.
While vocational courses are generally cheaper than university courses as we just mentioned, there are a lot of add-on costs. You might need to pay for tools, uniforms and other various items out of your own pocket.
Though it is possible to obtain a high-paying position with vocational education, many people find themselves in a lower-paying role compared to those with a university education. Vocational education is considered to be less ‘prestigious’ than a university degree, however this is a problematic cultural perception. Facts paint a picture of vocational education as an imperative part of upskilling Australians providing better employment outcomes.