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Vocational education (or
Vocational Education and Training (VET), also called Career and Technical
Education (CTE)) prepares learners for careers that are based in manual or
practical activities, traditionally non-academic and totally related to a
specific trade, occupation or vocation, hence the term, in which the learner
participates. It is sometimes referred to as technical education, as the
learner directly develops expertise in a particular group of techniques or
technology.
Generally, vocation and career are used interchangeably. Vocational
education might be contrasted with education in a usually broader scientific
field, which might concentrate on theory and abstract conceptual knowledge,
characteristic of tertiary education. Vocational education can be at the
secondary or post-secondary level and can interact with the apprenticeship
system. Increasingly, vocational education can be recognized in terms of
recognition of prior learning and partial academic credit towards tertiary
education (e.g., at a university) as credit; however, it is rarely
considered in its own form to fall under the traditional definition of a
higher education.
Up until the end of the twentieth century, vocational education focused on
specific trades such as for example, an automobile mechanic or welder, and
was therefore associated with the activities of lower social classes. As a
consequence, it attracted a level of stigma. Vocational education is related
to the age-old apprenticeship system of learning.
However, as the labor market becomes more specialized and economies demand
higher levels of skill, governments and businesses are increasingly
investing in the future of vocational education through publicly funded
training organizations and subsidized apprenticeship or traineeship
initiatives for businesses. At the post-secondary level vocational education
is typically provided by an institute of technology, or by a local community
college.
Vocational education has diversified over the 20th century and now exists in
industries such as retail, tourism, information technology, funeral services
and cosmetics, as well as in the traditional crafts and cottage industries.
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