Castro, C. de Moura. Schaack, K; Tippelt, R. (Eds.)
Vocational Training at the Turn of the Century.
Frankfurt am Main : Peter Lang, 2000.

With this collection of texts written by Claudio de Moura Castro (some of them in cooperation with other experts) the editors Klaus Schaak and Rudolf Tippelt present an innovative and basic publication of the latest developments in the research of Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in an international context.

This volume covers a wide range of topics related to TVET in many different countries and geographical regions. There are treatises on comparative TVET -research, the economics of TVET, the linkages between the world of training and the world of work, traditional and modern apprenticeship, problems of intrnational TVET cooperation and the effects of policy changes from supply orientation to demand orientation, to name just a few of them. Geographically the analyses cover Africa, Asia and Latin America but are not restricted only to developing countries. There are equally important and interesting articles and analytical remarks on training in industrialized countries too, like the USA, France or Germany.

The collection of these articles therefore can be deemed to be a kind of a reference book concerning the state of training around the globe, which shows a "bewildering mosaic of schools, training institutions, enterprise training provisions and apprenticeship programs". As "these institutional solutions are not adopted by countries randomly or at will", but "have deep cultural roots in the country" (C. de Moura Castro/T. Alfthan), it is a prerequisite of any attempt to strengthen, enhance and reform a training "system" and to develop international cooperation projects to analyze the given "format of training". The analytical frame has to include various modes and locations of delivery, the financing mechanisms, the student recruitment patterns and the design of training paths for teachers and instructors, the political and organizational training arrangements, usually called the "training system", and its social, economic, cultural and political environment. Among these aspects the supply and demand of education/training and qualifications play an outstanding role, if they are quantifiable, though only rough indicators of training slots in schools, enterprises and other training provisions are available. Also value which society gives to training varies.

C. de Moura Castro's texts are valuable for every practitioner and theorist of intemational TVET-cooperation as they show tremendous amounts of analytical and theoretical skills sharpened by experience and combined with cultural sensitivity. Detailed analysis of a given situation and the design of well-adapted training policies and strategies seem to be the all encompassing aim of all the articles.

The book is subdivided in the following chapters:

• Understanding vocational training.
• The economics of training.
• Training for flexibility: promise or myth?
• Apprenticeship and training at the workplace.
• Training unemployed youth in Latin America
• Training in industrial countries: complex solutions for advanced economies.
• Training in Latin America: solutions and problems.
• On the art of visiting schools.
• On international cooperation in training
• Setting the record straight: a synthesis.

As a Brazilian by birth Claudio de Moura Castro shows confidence in the transferability of advanced experiences from industrialized countries to the developing world - retaining a critical point of view.

The Spanish version of this book was published by Cinterfor and it is available in our website
Formación profesional en el cambio de siglo

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