Public Private Partnerships in Vocational Education and Training: International Examples and Models

Introduction As Kazakhstan faces making investments in their extensive vocational education and training system, there are important forces driving the vocational education and training system in Kazakhstan to bring employers more actively into the educational process. The first reason to engage employers is to improve system level governance, to engage social partners in planning for vocational education and training. The second reason is fiscal. The government is interested in sharing the cost of vocational education and training with employers. Thirdly, there is a sense among local educators that the quality of the education will be improved by employer involvement in curriculum and testing, particularly in the development of the educational standards or a national qualifications framework. Finally, although it is undocumented, there remains a need to engage employers at the local level in the teaching and learning process. This last reason is perhaps the most critical from the international literature, although the hardest to mandate through national level policy and investment. The following memo provides some introduction to the issue of social partnerships or employer involvement in vocational education and training, and describes the existing situation in some key countries globally. 2 Social Partnerships in VET Public-Private partnerships, or social partnerships, are critical to the development of high quality vocational education and training because they allow for regular communication between employers and VET providers. This generation of better networks for communication is a tangible outcome of social partnership activities. Communication is critical in VET practice on many levels. This communication enables VET providers to learn what skills are in demand and to train for jobs that change regularly. The communication also allows employers to have input into the curriculum of VET and often gives them a recruiting tool to attract skilled workers. In systems such as those in Australia, New Zealand, or South Korea by developing a national qualifications framework and accountability system they have encouraged the development of communication. Therefore, communication is both a critical part of good social partnerships and an outcome of consistent engagement between the public and private sectors(Grubb & Lazerson, 2004). In a market economy, public private partnerships are the glue that links education and employers. The term is really used as shorthand for a range of public policies, funding systems, and curriculum frameworks that have as a shared goal to tighten the level of communication among educators and employers. The policy framework that governs …