Competitiveness and VET

The Lisbon Strategy of the European Union aims to make the EU "the most dynamic and competitive knowledge-based economy in the world". It was set out by the European Council in March 2000. 

In 2005, Kazakhstan announced the objective to become one of 50 most competitive economies in the World. 

9 years after setting the Lisbon agenda and 4 years after the declaration of the Kazakh government the prelimary results are disappointing. Europa has lost competitiveness and is, nevertheless, fully involved in the current global financial and economic crisis. Kazakhstan has also lost on a wide range of factors, as a current issue of "Expert Kazakhstan" points out.  Accidentially or not, does this raises question whether official announced policies are able to do the job or whether they get used as covers for second agendas? I do not know. 

One success factor is clear: investment in the work force. Regarding VET, Kazakhstan is moving in the right direction. The sector was starving for ressources and attention since independence. We are now in the beginning of the modernization process. From this point of view, the results are no surprise. Unfortunately. 

The experience of EU8 countries in reforming VET

This article "Fiscal reform and Vocational Education in the EU8 countries" is about the experience of the EU 8 accession state in VET modernization. These 8 states do have a favourable сlimate for change in VET due to the EU accession process and the competitive pressure of neighboring rich EU-countries. Kazakhstan has the advantage of huge financial ressources and the experience of those countries. This waz, learning from the experience from EU8 countries might be a valuable lesson.
The strategic implication as researched in the article are about the convergence between general and vocational education. In general, Kazakhstan, moving to a 12 year school system, is in line with this. However, when modernizing VET, the focus might be on general skills - including the use of information and communication technology - in order to be cost-efficient and improve career potential of students.