The Employer's Dilemma: Employer Engagement and Progress in Vocational Education and Training Reforms

• In Event: Hilton Roundtable Session 9
  In Roundtable Session: Implementing and Scaling-Up Reforms Supporting Transition to College and Career

Abstract

Employer engagement is a critical part of vocational education and training (VET) reform. Employers can be advisors, or can be given roles and responsibilities throughout the cycle of VET processes: helping design curricula, providing workplace training during VET application, and providing feedback or initiating updates. In the higher-engagement model, employers coordinate with other companies in their sectors and invest, then have the opportunity to earn returns. The lower-engagement creates a prisoner’s dilemma where participating firms risk losing their investment to poaching from refraining firms. We follow eight international VET reforms for one year. Cases where employers are highly engaged make more progress: high employer engagement seems riskier, but avoiding the dilemma helps implementation. An interesting exception is autocratic reforms.

Authors

• Katherine Marie Caves, ETH Zurich

• Ursula Renold, ETH Zurich