A scenario of the future of technical, vocational and higher education and the need for appropriate intervention and policy

Mahdi, Reza; Keykha, Ahmad

doi:doi.org/10.34785/J026.2022.008

A scenario of the future of technical, vocational and higher education and the need for appropriate intervention and policy

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Reza Mahdi ¹
Ahmad Keykha ²

¹ Assistant Professor of Higher Education Development Planning, Research Institute of Cultural and Social Studies, Tehran, Iran

² Ph.D. student of Economics and Finance Management of Higher Education, Department of Educational Administration and Planning, Faculty of Psychology and Education, The University of Tehran

doi.org/10.34785/J026.2022.008

Abstract

According to the fifth development plan, technical and vocational colleges and schools were taken from the Ministry of Education and were organized in "Technical and Vocational University" according to the budget law from 2013. In the 6th development plan, they were re-affiliated to the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology in the Islamic Council. In this article, the state of technical and professional higher education has been studied with emphasis on technical and professional university in two steps of narrative review and threestep thematic analysis of Wolcott (2008). With the existing laws, support and trends, the main institution in charge of these trainings will become a "weakened version" of industrial universities in the long run and will not be able to fulfill its central mission of training skilled employable and entrepreneurial human resources. In such a scenario, the role of these trainings in increasing national productivity, reducing inequalities and sustainable development will not be played efficiently. The responsible intervention of the government is necessary to solve the challenges of these educations in general and the challenges of universities and technical and vocational schools in particular.The government's insensitivity to the challenges and requirements of higher technical and professional education causes unwanted damage to the training of skilled human resources, the middle class and the creation of vitality and hope. With appropriate policies, technical and professional higher education can be guided in the right direction and a favorable future for this type of education can be guaranteed.

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