Formal and Informal Systems of VET : Implications for Employee Involvement

Initiatives of employer involvement remain futile; this is because of the existence of formal and informal systems of VET in Britain. Reporting on an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council funded project into skills capacity issues across construction, manufacturing, logistics and creative sectors in the Tyne and Wear region, they noted that the formal VET system in Britain driven by government funding requirements and target culture results in the dominance of quantitative assessment of skills and qualifications that increasingly alienates employers who demand skilled employees who can ‘[get] the job done' and possess the ‘ability to work harmoniously' with coworkers. Such alienation emanates from a shift towards a depoliticised and bureaucratised formal VET system, which moves away from actual provision of skills development to an enabling and facilitation function that often relies on delivery of skills development through private training providers. As a result, employers who cannot afford the time to engage with the formal VET system either do not participate in training or seek solutions elsewhere (e.g.through poaching or paying for training courses overseas); those who do engage could also end up misplacing their efforts on meeting the requirements of funding agencies instead of focussing on developing skills that matter