CONVERGING TRENDS AMIDST DIVERSITY IN VOCATIONAL-TRAINING SYSTEMS

Following a succession of brief overviews of national vocational train ing and education (VET) systems highlighting diversity in the way diff erent systems are structured and managed, this article seeks to identi fy converging trends as between countries with different cultural back grounds and at different stages of economic development. The author ar gues that in spite of such differences, countries reforming their VET systems face the same basic questions and often appear to be coming up with the same answers, for example, stronger links between institutio nal and on-the-job training; more recourse to alternating training in institutions and enterprises, and greater autonomy in the management a nd financing of VET institutions.