The vocation education in China and England: an extended literature view

Abstract

The purpose of this dissertation is to compare and contrast specific aspects of VET in England and China, hoping to explore the pros and cons of VET in the two countries and to find suggestions that are adapted and suitable to both contexts, filling the research gap of comparison of VET systems in these two countries. This dissertation achieves its purpose using an inductive approach based on the perspective of post-positivism to expand the literature review on the situation of vocational education in China and England.

With carefully designed searching strategies, three themes are identified from relevant literature, which are: qualifications in vocational education, apprenticeships and teacher training. Discussion around these three themes found a series of common features as well as issues between China and England, including: an aim for a standardised system, low social acceptance and recognition, performativism and an overall neglect of the holistic development of students; as well as quality issues in VET educational practices, apprenticeships and teacher training. In addition, issues unique to each country are also identified, such as the over-emphasis on the paradigm of standardisation and excessive assessment and evaluation in England and the overall defects in legal and institutional development in China.

After more in-depth discussion and analysis, this dissertation proposes for more focus on the underlying causes of issues in VET for future researches, such as exploring the dimensions that affect the recognition of VET qualifications in society and industry. This dissertation also puts forward some suggestions for the development of VET from the standpoint of policy makers, for instance both countries should invest more in VET and pay more attention to details in reforms and policy implementation to guarantee the effectiveness of VET teaching, apprenticeships and teacher training. This dissertation encourages England to simplify the VET system to facilitate the navigation of teacher and student.