Content-type: text/html Downes.ca ~ Stephen's Web ~ What Canada Can Learn About Higher Education From the Most Competitive Country in the World

Stephen Downes

Knowledge, Learning, Community

I think there are useful comparisons between Canada's and Switzerland's approach to ocational and professional educational training (VPET) in this post. But the reader should be cautioned against accepting the author's explanations and causal stories. For example, it credits the VPET system with Switzerland's low youth unemployment rate, which is quite a stretch. And it suggests that reason for Canada's low level of business investment in VPET is the fear of job poaching, which again isn't really plausible. The solution (as always from business-focused publications) is shared governance of the educational system. I say, no representation without taxation. If business (or labour, or professional associations) want a say, then they should help fund the system. And even then, as students contribute the lion's share of the burden of their own education, they should probably still have the greatest say.

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Stephen Downes Stephen Downes, Casselman, Canada
stephen@downes.ca

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Last Updated: Apr 16, 2024 04:09 a.m.

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