Do we have a match? coping with business requirements in vocational training courses

Abstract

Vocational training offers are increasingly wide-ranging and varied. These courses have a technical component that imparts students with fundamental skills to work in a specific profession and, at the same time, confer a school certification. The valorization of a practical instruction and the development of precise skills, together with the possibility of continuing studies, stand out as the main reasons that lead students to choose vocational education. However, it is still not clear whether this diversity in training areas matches the current needs of the labor market. This paper delves into this question by exploring the alignment and suitability of the secondary professional training offer and the needs of companies in one Portuguese district. The research methodology is quantitative. The secondary data were made available by the Directorate-General for Schools (DGEstE) and refer to the vocational training offer of 19 municipalities belonging to the district of Aveiro, in Portugal, for the triennium 2018-2021. Other databases used throughout the study to complement the analysis were the Office for Strategy and Studies (GEE) and the Directorate-General of Statistics of Education and Science (DGEEC), as well as the Portuguese Classification of Economic Activities (CAE-Rev.3) published by the National Institute of Statistics (INE). Results allow us to conclude that vocational training schools in the district under analysis have a moderate alignment with the labor market. Despite the fact that the development of specific skills facilitates students’ integration in companies, there are still some barriers for an effective school transition, such as a mismatching between training specialization and employability in the same sector of economic activity and/or between labor market demands and available vocational training courses. The study resonates with extant literature on the fact that mitigation of these impediments would be a relevant facilitator of equity and social inclusion, helping students in their career path and leveraging regional socio-economic development. An additional contribution of this study is to foster debate on the need to articulate vocational training schools, students and business requirements in a common quest, confirming the resistance policy makers still have when coping with the transition from vocational education to the labor market.