Is higher vocational education unique to China?

Both are available. The following is the development history of higher vocational education in the UK. You can take a look at it:

1. Vocational and technical education before the Second World War

< p>The Industrial Revolution in Britain began with the invention of the Watt steam engine in 1769. It first made progress in cotton spinning and coal and iron production, which led to the development of machinery manufacturing and other industrial sectors such as shipbuilding, mining, and smelting. In Scotland, a college for mechanics was founded very early. By the 1820s, cities such as Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds, and London had also successively established mechanical workers' colleges. The purpose of these schools is to provide scientific and technological education to craftsmen and skilled workers, and most of the courses are conducted part-time. By 1850, there were 600 cultural and mechanical workers' colleges in Scotland, with a total of 100,000 students. By the late 1860s, these schools no longer lived up to their name, as a large number of white-collar workers came to such schools with different interests and purposes. By the end of the 19th century, such schools had gradually turned into technical colleges. In the late 19th century, Britain's natural sciences, practical sciences and engineering were at a disadvantage. Before the University of London was founded in 1827, the only two universities at that time, Oxford and Cambridge, were deeply bound by religion. Their curriculum adhered to classical subjects, ignored theory, and was out of touch with social needs. In the last 50 years of the 19th century, the rise of the United States and Germany intensified world capitalist competition. The assembly lines and electrification of the United States were earlier than those of the United Kingdom; the German chemical industry developed rapidly, and by 1913 its scale exceeded that of the United Kingdom. Faced with the above situation, the cultivation of talents is even more urgent. University education needs new developments, not only to increase the number and expand the scale, but also to have corresponding teaching content and flexible academic system. After the 1850s, British universities were reformed in this direction, thanks to two major debates held by Newman, Spencer, Huxley, Pitezheng and others: real knowledge is liberal knowledge (liberal knowledge). ) or professional knowledge. The significance of the debate is to improve and establish the status of science in universities; universities are not only theoretical teaching, but also centers of scientific research. These two points are also in line with the requirements of the times and reflect the expectations of the development of modern society for education. This debate pushed the development and reform of university education since the establishment of the University of London to a new height. Another more direct stimulus was the loss of Britain's technological advantage to Germany at the 1867 European Exposition in Paris. The Nasser brothers who attended the exposition wrote in an open letter after returning to Leeds: "The main reason, we believe, is that they paid great attention to scientific improvements in various products and the good government establishment for workers and employees. A scientific and technical education system. Schools for training young workers have been established in all major manufacturing centers, providing scientific and technological education at very low fees, and some even for free.” The Nasser brothers proposed the establishment of industrial technical schools and textile design schools. plans, which led to the establishment of Yorkshire Polytechnic, which became the independent University of Leeds in 1904. Moreover, a group of industrialists who were enthusiastic about setting up universities also appeared in the UK, and they provided funds for the establishment of new universities. In the second half of the 19th century, a large number of new universities emerged in northern England and Wales. The development of British higher education in the 19th century was closely related to the development of science and technology. The First World War played a huge role in promoting British science and technology education. It has brought about changes in the student composition of British higher education. In the past, it was mainly the upper class who went to college, while children from other classes could only receive science and technology education and study in technical colleges. After 1914, the lower middle class and their children were able to attend college. During the war, the country went all out to develop "subsistence sciences", namely engineering, fuel technology, aviation, textiles, metallurgy, explosive chemistry, physics, as well as agriculture, aquaculture, nutrition, soil, marine biology and other disciplines. Universities have strengthened teaching and research in applied science and technology. After the war ended in 1918, research in this area was continued and strengthened. A 1935 report from the Ministry of Scientific and Industrial Research showed that industry investment in scientific research in this area increased by 40%. There is a unified national understanding of the importance of science and technology education and research.

II. Vocational and technical education after World War II

In the late 20th century, the former Soviet Union launched satellites into the sky, and the rapid development of the nuclear and electronic industries brought about post-war science Fierce competition in technology.

Due to various reasons, the development speed of the United Kingdom cannot keep up with that of the United States, Japan, and Germany, but it is also constantly reforming and catching up. The first is to improve the status of science and technology education. The United Kingdom has taken three major steps in the 50 years after the war: ① In the early 1960s, the United Kingdom changed some technical colleges with good conditions into advanced technical colleges and placed them under the central government. ②The "1956 White Paper" adjusted the structure of technical education, divided craft technology into technical degrees, and stipulated 11 advanced technical colleges as the highest level of technical education, among which 10 advanced technical colleges were based on the "Robbins Report" On the basis of the proposal, it was upgraded to a university 10 years later. This allows students to obtain university bachelor's degree certificates in the field of technical education, thus forming a dual-track system of higher education. ③The dual-track system ended in the late 1980s, and more than 40 multi-disciplinary technical colleges with an emphasis on applied technology were officially upgraded to universities, on an equal footing with Oxford and Cambridge. This makes technical education as qualified as traditional university education to issue degree certificates at all levels. , becoming an important milestone in the history of British higher education. It was the Robbins Report that played a programmatic role in the development of British higher education after the 1960s. The "Robbins Report" made it clear that the goal of British higher education is no longer to train missionaries, judges, lawyers and medicine, or to learn for the sake of learning. It is to cultivate the special skills and talents that people need to survive in competition, and to improve people's thinking ability. Higher education should not only produce experts, but also improve the culture and cultivation of the entire nation. Prior to this, the definition of higher education was limited to university education. The Robbins Committee concentrated on all aspects of higher education in the UK and made the meaning of higher education clear: it not only refers to universities, but also includes all post-secondary education such as advanced scientific and technological education in continuing education. It is just a formal bachelor's, master's, and doctoral program, and it also includes informal part-time certificate courses. Only in this way can higher education be developed in a comprehensive, multi-level and diversified way. The second step is for the country to formulate unified standards for professional certificates and their relationship with general academic qualifications. In the past, there were many private institutions specializing in examination certificates in the UK, but the standards were different, and vocational and technical professional certificates and general academic certificates did not communicate with each other. When people valued academic qualifications over professional certificates, most outstanding talents went to study with general academic qualifications. It has affected the development and improvement of vocational education. To this end, the state has formulated a five-level national professional qualification certificate standard (NVQ) that climbs from low-level to high-level based on the knowledge and skills needed for enterprise production and highlighting practical operational capabilities. It also stipulates that those who obtain a third-level certificate in vocational and technical education can directly enter university.

The other is to continue to maintain the "sandwich" school running characteristics in vocational and technical education. Since the days of the Ecole Polytechnique, the school has had a "sandwich" academic system. This kind of academic system, which lays the foundation in school in the first academic year, goes to work as an intern in an enterprise in the second academic year, and returns to school for in-depth study to obtain a degree in the third academic year, perfectly unifies theory and practice, which is incomparable with the traditional academic system. The biggest feature of the technical college. After the technical college was upgraded to a university, it still retained this school-running feature, which attracted many companies to intervene in education and opened channels for the two-way circulation of talents between schools and companies. Education in the UK is basically "state-run", and only one of more than 100 universities is private. On the one hand, the state uses legislative means to manage education, and on the other hand, it uses a large number of economic means to manage education. In recent years, the British government has trialled a “voucher” system in vocational and technical education. Middle school students around the age of 16 can get a voucher after graduation. With this voucher, they can "purchase" the opportunity to obtain the national second-level professional qualification certificate. A voucher represents at least 1,000 pounds. With it, you can Pay training fees. Distributing tuition fees to students in the form of vouchers gives students the right to choose schools and majors. Majors and schools that cannot attract students mean that there is no funding, and the school will have to close down if it does not improve its work. In order to encourage young people to continuously improve, the state also intends to widen the salary scale. Each level up in training means a jump in salary.

3. Enlightenment

The British government has made great efforts to improve the status of vocational and technical education. To this end, it has carried out continuous reforms in the system, so that the entire British society has a continuous understanding of vocational and technical education. deepen.

For a long time, people have worshiped university education and despised labor and technical education. Only outstanding talents can enter the university. Vocational and technical education seems to be only established for those who prepare to be workers or low-level technicians. However, today vocational and technical education has achieved the same level of success as University education has the same status, and has opened up paths for mutual integration and mutual penetration. On the other hand, vocational and technical education is penetrated into the entire education system, so that every school stage pays attention to vocational and technical education. In the compulsory education stage (before the age of 16), technical courses are compulsory courses for students. After the age of 16, students are divided. Some choose a few courses to further deepen their understanding and pass the advanced level examination to obtain the qualifications to enter university. The other group implements vocational and technical education in various ways, and some first attend vocational and technical classes (schools) to obtain qualifications. Certificate, and then get a job; some find a job first, and are sent to vocational education classes by their units to improve their professional skills and obtain a certificate. Vocational education colleges outside universities have classes at technical secondary school level, as well as classes at university level and even master's level. They train, take exams and issue corresponding certificates according to unified national standards. In recent years, the British economy has been depressed, many companies have laid off employees in large numbers, and the unemployment rate has increased significantly. The British government strongly encourages unemployed people to receive vocational and technical training in order to change jobs or make them more competitive when they are re-employed after the economy recovers. Therefore, whether it is a period of economic prosperity or development, or a period of recession and stagnation, vocational and technical education has always been in a prosperous state. Looking at the development history of British vocational and technical education, we deeply feel that the reform of vocational and technical education must first change people's concepts and must change all aspects of the superstructure. Establishing a socialist market economy in China, reflecting the characteristics of China's vocational education in various reforms, and how to learn from useful foreign experience are exactly the goals of our education reform.

Although higher vocational education has developed to a certain extent, from the perspective of the British education system, vocational education had not been included in mainstream education before the 1970s. Higher education was mainly university education, with emphasis on Theoretical teaching and humanities research. In 1966, the Labor government published a white paper on "Plans for Vocational and Technical Colleges (also translated as Multidisciplinary Technical Colleges) and Other Colleges": -Formally integrating vocational and technical colleges into a higher education system parallel to traditional universities, and integrating them with general academic education have equal status. The following decades were a period of rapid development of higher vocational education in the UK. It implements a combination of full-time, half-time, night-time, correspondence and other teaching methods, and provides multi-level academic diploma courses and vocational qualification courses. Diploma examinations and vocational certificates are compatible with each other. With the support of the government, British vocational education has cultivated a large number of practical talents needed by society and formed a complete national vocational qualification certification system.

After the 1990s, British pre-vocational education concepts continued to innovate, and the concept of "new vocationalism" emerged. Its goal is to "build and consolidate a new vocational education system for all young people." New professionalism advocates the integration of higher education and higher vocational education, the professionalization of general education, and the popularization of vocational education, and proposes the idea of ??establishing a two-year basic degree system. The two-year basic degree system is an open learning system. The duration of the course is 2 years (240 credits). Students can choose to complete it full-time in 2 years, or in their spare time to complete it in more than 2 years with accumulated credits. Students can be high school graduates or adults who have worked for many years when they enroll. After graduation, students can choose to find a job or study for more advanced vocational qualifications and university honorary degrees. Teaching for the two-year foundation degree is also open-ended. Teachers can choose different teaching models and methods. For example, the e-learning online teaching platform provided by Manchester Metropolitan University is a virtual classroom designed for students who study while working. Teachers set up the homepage of the course according to the different teaching requirements of each course to provide students who participate in the course. Students create specific accounts and update and maintain them in real time. The course homepage contains the course syllabus, teaching methods, teaching materials for each chapter, exercises and assessment questions for each chapter, and a large amount of information. Students can interact with teachers in real time, ask questions or submit homework, etc.

"Sandwich Courses" realize the integration of industry and academia in vocational education

Sandwich Courses (Sandwich Courses) is a "theory-practice-theory" talent training model, and its implementation method is in Between the two semesters, the teaching method of alternating between on-campus lectures and corporate internships is used to achieve the goal of cultivating talents focusing on professional quality and comprehensive application abilities.

In the UK, this training model mainly takes two forms: the first form is divided into three stages. After graduating from high school, students first work in a company for one year, and then study for two or three years in school. Then go to work in the enterprise for one year of practice, which is the so-called "1+2+1" and "1+3+1" education plan; the second form is to study theory in school for three years in the first, second and fourth academic years, and then During the three academic years, students will go to companies for a year of practice, which is the so-called "2+1+1" education plan. But no matter which way you complete the "sandwich" course, students need to return to school in the final year to complete their studies.

Under normal circumstances, students’ work internship units and internship positions are completed simultaneously through corporate recruitment and school recommendation. Many enterprises and government departments have established long-term cooperative relationships with schools. The company regularly announces to the school the status of the positions to be hired and the work situation of the students; the school has set up a special department to be responsible for recommendations. Contact and implement students' internship work. Students can also log in to the website to directly query work internship information, find recruitment positions that suit them and contact companies to apply; they can also publish their personal information to seek corresponding corporate positions. If a student does not find a suitable company to complete the internship, the student will not be able to complete his studies until he finds an employer. It is worth mentioning that students can receive corporate remuneration during their internship, and the remuneration is not low, usually around ￡10,000 to ￡15,000 per year. One year of work experience not only makes students mature. Be confident, but also master work skills and accumulate useful work experience. This experience makes students easily employable and may even result in employment at the company where they are interning.

"Sandwich courses" promote behavior and quality control

The British government's white paper "Higher Education - Meeting New Challenges" believes: "Higher education students must not only accept academic Professional and vocational education, they must also graduate with the competencies, skills, attitudes and values ??needed to help revive the economy.” The “competencies, skills, attitudes and values” described here are exactly the “sandwich”. The realization and quality control of the training goal of the course practice link are the core of the "sandwich" course system, and are accomplished through the rigorous "sandwich" course assessment and evaluation system.

The assessment and evaluation system of the "Sandwich" course is a whole-process assessment system, which mainly includes enterprise assessment results. Instructor evaluation results and student self-evaluation results. Enterprise evaluation results: Students work in enterprises for a long time, and their internship behavior is mainly directly guided and trained by enterprise managers or supervisors. Therefore, enterprise evaluation results are the most important part of the evaluation and assessment system. As a result of the instructor's evaluation, each intern student has an internship instructor. At the beginning of the internship, the internship instructor guides and urges the students to formulate the students' "Personal Internship Development Plan". During the internship process, they track the students' internship progress through phone calls and emails, and discuss doubts with the students during the internship process at any time. Finally, the student teacher must have a “placement visit.” This visit is arranged by the student and must be attended by the manager of the company, the student and the instructor. During this visit, the instructor will check the progress of the student's "Personal Internship Development Plan", the student's internship diary, feedback from the company, etc. Student work diary: The student work diary consists of three parts: personal development plan, work log and feedback. It is the core document that demonstrates a student's performance during their work. Students are required to record their performance during the job. The content of the work undertaken, the completion progress of the personal development plan, the skills mastered and other achievements achieved during this period.

The assessment and evaluation system of the "Sandwich" course is a whole-process assessment system, which is completed jointly by enterprises, schools, and students. It plays an important role in behavioral control and quality control of students during their internship.

The Enlightenment of "Sandwich Course" on the Development of Higher Vocational Education in my country

Establishing an Organic Combination of Higher Vocational Education and the Business World

The relationship between higher vocational education and the business world Organic integration is the main trend in the development of higher vocational education in the UK. It is also one of the trends in the development of higher vocational education worldwide. Establishing new strategic relationships between schools and careers has become increasingly popular among business circles around the world. Recognized by industry and education. Manchester Metropolitan University’s work-study alternative “sandwich” course plays an important role in achieving this goal. In the "sandwich" course.

The relationship between enterprises and schools ranges from the setting up of practice sites, the provision of positions, and the recruitment of students. The payment of salaries, the supervision of students' work quality, and the assessment of learning effects have formed a systematic and organically integrated operating mechanism. This operating mechanism makes British higher vocational education more flexible, open, and more adaptable to the social economy. development needs.

The practical teaching link of my country's higher vocational education has also developed greatly in recent years, and many practical teaching methods and methods have been explored. Such as case teaching and classroom discussion. Group cooperation, experiments, course design, skills training, production internships, simulated environment training, innovative production, etc. But so far, no institution has adopted a practical approach similar to the British "sandwich" curriculum. The relationship between schools and enterprises is limited to the establishment of practical training bases and cooperation on horizontal topics; internship methods are also limited to observation and learning, and an organic integration mechanism has not yet been formed. Students cannot understand and master the modern equipment, production technology and scientific management of enterprises and institutions without being put into a real environment. The "zero-distance connection" between vocational positions and learning advocated by higher vocational education cannot be truly realized. Therefore, learning from the British "sandwich" teaching method, exploring new practical teaching models that organically integrate the corporate world and colleges and universities, and allowing students to truly enter corporate work and study will certainly shorten the students' adaptation period from school to corporate to the greatest extent. At the same time, let enterprises share the achievements of higher education to achieve a win-win situation for schools and enterprises, thereby making my country's vocational education more adaptable to the current social and economic development requirements.

Cultivation of new professional abilities that meet the needs of the times

The training goals of higher vocational education in the UK are no longer limited to the mastery of basic skills, nor are they limited to the expertise and knowledge of specific positions. Skill requirements, but based on the cultivation of students' new professional abilities. In order to adapt to the development of social economy, vocational skills should be regarded as a comprehensive reflection of multiple abilities and qualities. This new vocational ability not only includes professional skills and levels, but also pays special attention to comprehensive application capabilities. Pay attention to the role of personal qualities in professional activities and emphasize the transferability of core skills. It includes the ability of interpersonal communication and cooperation; including organization. The ability to plan and innovate; including the ability to adapt to changes in circumstances, etc. The evaluation system of British higher vocational education courses stipulates that companies and schools not only assess students' professional knowledge, but also personal qualities and qualities. Core skills such as comprehensive application ability are important assessment contents. This new core competency is a cross-professional competency that is essential for any profession and needs to be acquired in real work contexts and real conflicts and contradictions. Among the many practical teaching methods adopted by higher vocational colleges in my country, none can achieve this effect, even the most advocated simulation comprehensive practical training teaching method. Moreover, this method also involves the construction of a training base and the update of training software. There are various issues such as the effectiveness of the practical training platform. If we learn from the British "sandwich" curriculum model, increase cooperation with enterprises, and reform the practical model of my country's higher vocational education, it will play an important role in cultivating students' new professional abilities. Of course, the establishment of this approach requires a good external environment and policies, and the specific model needs further exploration.

Adopt flexible teaching forms

From the perspective of different teaching forms in British vocational education, whether it is a basic degree system or a "sandwich course", whether it is a vocational qualification certificate study or an academic degree Education, it all reflects the flexible and diverse characteristics of its teaching methods, and also implements the vocational education goals of lifelong learning advocated by the British government. 2006 will be a year of vigorous development for my country's vocational education. The government has allocated special funds for the development of vocational education. Exploring flexible and diverse vocational education teaching forms will undoubtedly play a very important role in the development of my country's vocational education.

Reference: http://219.239.238.40:82/200410/ca534445.htm