Vocational-Technical Education Reforms in Germany, Netherlands, France and U.K. and Their Implications to Taiwan.

Three major models of vocational education and training provision for the 16- to 19-year-old age group have been identified: schooling model, which emphasizes full-time schooling until age 18; dual model, which involves mainly work-based apprenticeship training with some school-based general education; and mixed model. Germany is an exemplar of the dual model; the Netherlands and France provide the schooling model; provision in the United Kingdom (UK) is the mixed model. Although the dual system will continue to dominate the secondary vocational-technical education and training in Germany, German full-time vocational schools may be gradually incorporated into general education. More and more university students in Germany seek two-fold qualification--university studies and practical vocational training--to enhance their job prospects. In the Netherlands, some measures, such as encouraging more employers' organizations, trade unions, and industry involvement, have been taken to reform the senior secondary vocational school system. No significant recent reform efforts are found in France. The former polytechnics in the UK recently changed their name to universities to expand their capacities for student recruitment and program offerings. The implication for secondary and postsecondary vocational-technical education in Taiwan is that it is too school-based to adapt to the labor market and that there is a need for stronger links with the labor market. (Contains 15 references.) (YLB)