Academic vs Vocational education
I grew up, as many of you, in an environment that appreciates academic achievements, where the majority of school kids think of only one choice which is the higher education route. At least from my own experience I can say that it has never crossed my mind to consider vocational and technical education. I always believed that getting an academic degree is a must to be successful in life, however experience proves me wrong. Education is not only about higher education, but it can also take other pathways and an under-appreciated one is vocational education and training.
Despite the lesser popularity of vocational education compared with higher education, vocational qualifications are the one that bring learners closer to the market and enable them to achieve the skills and competencies required to meet the rapidly changing labour market needs and its ever-growing challenges.
Society mindset about routes of education should be shifted, and this requires serious efforts from all levels of responsibilities to change how society views technical and vocational education. This need is getting even more important with the current environmental challenges that require innovative solutions to tackle the pressing challenges our planet earth is facing (where my research passion lies!). Furthermore, there is a huge responsibility on the part of the technical and vocational education system to keep up with the expectation of labour market and economy by offering up-to-date vocational qualifications that are also relevant and in demand.
Learning is a lifelong process that should start from day one of childhood and continue throughout life. It should not matter whether a young adult chooses an academic or vocational education route, they should be able to move horizontally and vertically across different qualifications and pathways. I believe adopting and promoting this concept of learning will eventually remove the barriers that culture has created between the two education paths; higher education (academic) and vocational education.
Academic studies have been criticised for being distant from industry and practice, while vocational studies have been always praised for being other way around. This brings me to think, shouldn’t we start strengthening the efforts of integrating more hands-on experience to academic programmes and more theoretical side to vocational ones, without changing the very nature of each type of studies? This does not mean that they become close or similar. The point here is that vocational graduates are expected to master the practical aspects of their occupation, hence supporting this with more knowledge of the theory might generate innovation and creativity. Likewise, graduates of academic programmes grasp the theory and academic concepts without analogical hands-on experience, therefore, exposing them to practice prepares them not only for market but making them better informed about their future choices.
The world has come very far in technology and advancement and education systems should keep on top of it. This cannot be achieved without the vocational education system being better integrated into the wider education system.
Diana Abu Ghunmi holds a Ph.D. in Accounting and Finance from Durham University in the UK and has over 14 years’ experience in Academia.
She began working for the University of Jordan in 2009 where she was appointed Assistant Professor of Finance and subsequently promoted to Professor of Finance in the year 2020. Diana held the position of Deputy Dean of Administrative Affairs at the University of Jordan Business School in the years 2016-2018.
She has published many research articles and her main research interest lies in circular economy, sustainability, asset pricing models and Islamic Economy. She was a Fulbright Scholar at Virginia Tech University in the USA during 2015-2016 and was awarded research scholarships to carry out research in the University of Applied Sciences in Berlin in the summer of 2011 and in Cardiff Met University in the UK in the summer of 2014.
She also was a one week Visiting Scholar at Jagiellonian University in Poland (April 2019) and the University of Cyprus (April 2017) as part of the Erasmus Plus Faculty Exchange program. Diana has experience in vocational education having worked for the National Qualifications Centre, Ministry of Education in the United Arab Emirates.