Vocational Education and Training in Asia

Abstract

General or vocational education? This is a `tough choice' in many developing countries (Yang, 1998, p. 289). In the human capital framework, general education is said to create `general human capital' and vocational and technical education `specific human capital' (Becker, 1964). The former is portable across one's life and from job to job, while the latter is not and hence many advocate general education, as more suitable for a flexible labour force that can change task and even the type of work; but the latter has an advantage, imbibing specific job-relevant skills, that can make the worker more readily suitable for a given job and would make him or her thus more productive. Hence both are important, and education systems in many countries therefore include both general and vocational streams of education in varying proportions.