Publications

Arnold, R.
Vocational Training: new trends and prospects

Montevideo: Cinterfor/ILO, 2001
153p. (Tools for change, 16)

ISBN 92-9088-129-1
US$ 12.00

(Full text available only in Spanish pdf format)

 

Professor Rolf Arnold’s volume has one special characteristic: it is addressed to vocational training educators calling upon them to turn their attention to what they are doing, rather than the contents or techniques of their task. It constitutes a starting point for deep reflection about teaching activities in the world of labour. The use of new technologies and the current organisation of labour make it necessary for trainees to appropriate not only contents but also a framework of knowledge leading them to self-reflection, autonomy, decision-making and analysis. Consequently, what does it all imply for training based on competencies, and specially for professional teachers and trainers?

Until now, trainers and vocational educators have been defined according to their technical know-how; they have been specialists. However, what happens when techniques change quickly and knowledge becomes obsolete? How do educators react to this new reality? Which are the skills and know-how they have to pass on?

Professor Arnold’s reflections point out that at a moment when workers and trainees are redefining their roles in the world of labour, professional educators have to do likewise. From dispensers of technical know-how, they will have to turn into curricular guides, vanishing gradually into the background as students acquire the competencies enabling them to perform in the future. Curricula will also have to be redefined, as trainees are not intended for any one specific task but must be "polyfunctional" and capable of moving about in the occupational market, which implies continuous training throughout their lives. It might be said that this book lays siege to the last bastion of taylorism and questions the traditional didactic approach and pedagogy of vocational training.

 

 

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