This paper examined and compared the development patterns of vocational
education in Taiwan and South Korea. A documental analysis technique was employed
to pursue related research questions.
The MIT Commission framework for differentiating labor force training patterns
among different countries was employed to discuss the development patterns of VET
in the two countries observed in this study. The MIT framework identified two
patterns of vocational training system. Pattern A countries, such as the U.S. and Sweden, rely more on formal educational institutions to provide specialized skills
training and retraining for their workers. On the other hand, pattern B countries,
such as Japan, are less likely to rely on formal schooling to prepare their labor force.
Instead, pattern B countries find it is more effective to have individual industries
equip their workers with flexible skills through OJT in order to respond to rapid
changes in technology and product markets. Based on patterns of student enrollment,
government policies, and characteristics of vocational curricula in the past 40 years, it
was concluded that S. Korea and Taiwan were heading toward different vocational
education patterns.
Taiwan's vocational education system seems to be close to pattern A countries,
i.e., countries relying on formal educational institutions for the provision of specialized
skills training, while S. Koreas vocational education system seems to be heading
toward the group of pattern B countries, i.e., countries relying on industry for the
provision of specialized skills training. Factors and rationales for this discrepancy as
well as related problems were discussed at the end of the paper.