This paper entitled ‘Squaring the Circle’ takes a look at how policy development in Further Education and Training in Ireland has come about.
Defining further and vocational education and further and vocational training has at best been tricky. The term FET (Further Education & Training) in Ireland is used as the catch-all conception of Further Education, Vocational Education and Vocational Education and Training by those that work in or access its services and by society as a whole. Though FET also occurs in some tertiary educational environments, the FET sector is regarded by stakeholders as being less clearly defined and of lower perceived status than Higher Education (HE) (McGuinness, S. et al, 2014). This echoes wider social norms but was also seen as relating to the diversity of FET in terms of ‘provision and perceptions of current provision’ (ibid).
The term FET is often used interchangeably with VET, depending on the perspective. There is no legal definition for ‘further education and training’, ‘initial vocational education and training’ or ‘continuing vocational education and training’ in Ireland. There are legal definitions for vocational education and then separately for vocational training. The most recent legislation, which marked the establishment of the (National Further Education & Training Authority) SOLAS and the ETBs, was in 2013 and covered FET but not VET specifically.
Education and Training in Ireland is not only about employability, it is also concerned with the key concept of lifelong learning. It is seen both in policy and structural terms as being one of the main pillars essential to the building and maintaining of a highly skilled workforce operating within a knowledge society (Harper & Fox, 2003).
With the introduction of SOLAS in 2013 came a drive to join the ‘T’ of training with the ‘FE’ of Education. One of SOLAS’s missions is to radically enhance the image of further/vocational education and training amongst Ireland’s school leavers and their parents/guardians and career guidance professionals (SOLAS 2014, p.12). This paper highlights the blurring of lines between ‘Training’ and ‘Education’ and asks if SOLAS are succeeding with this mission.
The paper discusses this in the context of Further and or Vocational Education and Training and concludes with the question of whether we should even try to ‘square the circle'?