Introduction
The journey of cooperation between industry and institute has taken different forms at different times. Historically, it started with simple interaction and gradually evolved to very close partnership overtime. There has been a wide variety of interactions practiced among industries and institutes which includes problem solving, curriculum development, study visits, scholarships, apprenticeship training and incubation center. However, until the time that the concept of public private partnership has evolved, industry, has, by far, not been involved in taking sustainable financial, technical and operational risks in the design, financing and building and operation of educational projects. Therefore, public-private partnership has been regarded as a natural progression of relationship from interaction elevated to structural partnership where the private sector assumes substantial operational risks in the design and implementation of educational projects.
Opportunities for cooperation in Technical and Vocational Education and Training
In the context of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET), partnership describes a coordination at the system level, and cooperation among various stakeholders and players which may include schools and enterprises at the institutional level. UNESCO (1999) cited that partnership may involve a wide range of actors including social partners, non-government institutions, community groups, or players in the private sector.
The nature and strategies of partnerships and linkages in the education sector vary because of cultural, economic and social factors prevailing in different countries. The public sector is perceived to have its own limitations in acting as a sole provider of TVET, if it does in some few countries, provisions are made available sans quality or the adequacy of training to meet requirements by different segments of the population.
Moving from a government-regulated framework to a market-oriented system creates new opportunities for partnership arrangements and incentives. The competition borne by the opening of the training market to private providers extends its implications to the diversification of TVET offerings and the drawing of public institutions into closer interaction with the industry.
Nowadays, TVET reforms are often designed to develop more comprehensive national training structures in an effort to increase public-private partnerships, to broaden the involvement of stakeholders and to make sure that training is of high quality, labour market relevant and serves the training needs of the population. (InWEnt: 2005).
The perennial and persistent cry of most of the industries in the Asia Pacific Region is that TVET graduates turned out by the system lack in the requisite skills, knowledge, attitudes or values to meet their needs. In effect, pre-mature competencies possessed by the new workforce are feared to affect productivity (Majumdar: 2008 ).
Situation imposes clear imperatives towards increasing genuine engagements and interaction between industry stakeholders, in particular between industry and education institutions. A whole-of-industry approach will be required to secure future skills needs under public private partnership. Skills formation strategies are long-term processes that help align skills supply, workforce development and business strategy through the collaborative action of industry, government, education and training sectors. (CII Karnataka, 2008)
What is the inherent basis of cooperation?
Over time, two different worlds have been built between Institute and Industry, [industry also often termed as Enterprise]. Each has activities going on in them. Under this circumstance, there exist relative differences in perspectives of education and industry. Education looks at the general development of students that will give them a wide range of opportunities and choices to prepare them after graduation while industries look for technicians and employees with specific skills who will fit directly into the system. Having this seemingly obvious discrepancy in their respective purposes, there is a need to create a platform where institutes and industry can meet eye to eye, share ideas and regularly interact. Forms of interaction can take place with the aim to understand and jointly plan pre-employment and in-service training.
If we look deeper to the specific environments in the institute and in the industry, it can be observed that institutions carry out their goals to facilitate learning, preserve a protected zone for students and nourish individual care to address the needs of the learners. The enterprise, on the other hand, work within the framework of industrial practices and norms with production, efficiency and profitability as the basic premise of day-to-day operations. The characteristics of the workplace as the supreme learning environment must be coordinated properly to ensure that there is a close correlation between the types of training that the workforce is being prepared for vis-à-vis the work environment, tasks and work systems. The institutions’ objectives must meet the expectations that industries regard in the context of finding the best in the pool to help them achieve industry goals. The goals need to be looked into in respect to institutional thrusts and objectives, as illustrated below
Consistent with these principles, the workplace, as the supreme learning environment, establishes relevant links between the types of technical and vocational skills that must be learned and types of the various learning environments that can provide this. In many opportunities, that the classroom provides the environment for abstract learning, the scientific or technical laboratories provides the Learning by Doing, the production facilities at school are effective in providing Learning in Work environments, and finally the workplace is suited to learning in the real world of work. Thus, learning outcomes are largely dictated by the amount of effort and input to create such learning opportunities that cultivate skills and competencies and the abilities of the learners to learn new skills and technologies at the rate technological changes are happening around them and taking place in the work place.
Objectives of Industry-Institute Interaction
Close interaction between the institute and the industry/enterprise is seen as the platform for showcasing best practices, latest technological advancements and their implementation and impact on the Industry. It is basically considered to improve the quality of technical and vocational education adequately to meet the needs of the industry and economy. Having a close interaction in place, industries are able to participate in technical and vocational education programs, with the goal of cross-fertilizing ideas for systems improvement.
To integrate industrial training and other inputs from the industry with the teaching-learning processes, interaction is necessary as it develops students’ awareness on job functions in the industry, attitudes to adapt to industrial environment, proper practical and relevant knowledge, skills and competencies in preparation to becoming self employed. Industry expectations are also echoed through sound interaction, particularly the requirements from new recruits who are expected to be orientated to industrial disciplines, job descriptions within the workplace with industrial practices.
Mutual benefit is derived from the shared expertise and experiences between the industry and the institute. In addition, operating within the framework of a specific cooperative program is an essential outcome of having both industries and institute agree on specific skills training for some specific jobs.
What is the nature of Interaction?
As the social and economic structures of various countries in Asia and the Pacific region move from labor-intensive and industrial-based to knowledge-based and globalized economy, the role of academic institutes has been intensified more than ever. Institutes possess the optimum resource base to supply new ideas, innovations and analysis of the trends in the labor market in a holistic and pedagogic approach.
There are different forms of Industry-Institute linkages that have been started in various countries in the region. These have likewise provided value-added approaches for public institutions to offer TVET and facilitate smooth decision making and reconciliation of different interests from the various sectors. These are enumerated below:
1 Problem Solving Interaction
The need for assimilating the latest technologies and technical capabilities to employ in the industrial work systems necessitates a strong and continuing process of reviewing the landscape of greater productivity through research and development (RD) approaches. Industries are heavily oriented towards raising competitiveness. By saying this, there is a felt need to continuously study how best technologies can be optimized to achieve productivity. The role of the industries here becomes collaborative and oriented to provide avenues for undertaking collaborative industrial projects, contract research or technology transfer initiatives and to solve intricate problems through RD. Institutes, which possess vast intellectual resources base, particularly those with strong research and development cells, are in the best position to provide the intellectual augmentation and innovations that serves industry purpose. The identification of industrial problems and discovery of the ways to solve them are also good motivations for industries.
2 Curriculum development and teaching and learning system
Mechanisms to involve industry representatives in formulating the curriculum and teaching and learning systems open productive platforms for industry-institute interaction. Collaboration, discussion and decision-making processes produce mutual agreements and understanding of the real conditions in the work place, the systemic functioning of industries and industry expectations. To some extent, such kind of interaction provides a highly effective mechanism to generate feedback based on employer demands to meet half-way in the design of academically-sound and industry-oriented curricula. This kind of interaction has resulted in the creation of such opportunities like offering of sandwich courses, development of courses jointly developed and certified under I-I tie up, joint continuing courses and periodic curricula update in relation to industrial trends and projections.
Suffice it to say, there is a need to review and modify curricula and teaching and learning styles of various disciplines to accommodate technological changes, management practices and needs of the labor market.
3 Scholarship and placement
The introduction of development funds in the form of scholarships, stipends, insurance and even sponsorships by the industry encourages students to continue embarking on study and training programs. This also proved to be effective in drawing the best talent for the industry. In countries where effective industry support mechanisms are in place, companies sponsoring graduate scholarships have the privilege for the right-of-first-refusal in employing new graduates. For example, major telecommunication companies with business in the Philippines provide scholarships to graduate and undergraduate students under specific arrangements with universities/institutes.
Through a well-established industry-institute interaction, job fairs, placement activities and similar career orientation programs can lead to systematic recruitment of the right people for the right job, thereby aiding skills matching that is highly required in some high technology sectors.
4 Industrial Tour and Study Visits
Exposing the future workforce to the actual field work, industrial environment, state-of-the-art science and technology adapted in machineries and equipment operations and industrial practices provide ways to relate classroom theories with actual industrial experiences at the cognitive level of the students. The visits to the industry broadens the mental orientation of the students and also give the true picture of the on- going work.
One of the strengths and attractions of academic and vocational institutions to prospective students is their ability to link with important industries, derive mutual support and later access employment opportunities for school pass outs. Familiarity to industrial process, close coordination and linkages form solid grounds for the industry to rely heavily on educational institutes with which they have ongoing linkages with to supply the manpower needed under any given circumstances. Employment prospects amongst students, in turn, are heightened by deeper familiarity with existing industrial systems.
5 Faculty and Staff exchange
One of the known motivations of industries to step up efforts to linkage with academic or vocational institutions is the access to well-trained students and faculty. Staff exchange between the industry and the institutes is one of the keys to make Industry-Institute interaction successful. The acquisition of actual field experiences by technical teachers aids in skills formation and facilitation of the learning process. These are gained through available forms of interaction such as industrial attachments, industry secondment to universities/institutes. Industry-institute interaction also paves the way for co-planning of the training needs of teachers and meeting them in close coordination with industries.
One of the best practices derived from Korean I-I interaction system is the recruitment by vocational training institutes and polytechnics of professional staff with significant industry experiences and actual industry training throughout their career. This is one way effectively translate technical skills and knowledge to students enrolled in technical education and vocational programs.
On the other hand, people from the industry also benefit from the exchange through their increased access and exposure in applied research, academic and management approach by teachers and institutes which provide new ideas for product innovations.
6 Industrial apprenticeship
The importance of education as a strategy in skilling the future workforce for industries is vital, as industry training is inextricably linked to industry practices (Fien et. al.: 2008).
Historically, the private sector has played pro-actively in the training for productive employment. Individuals learned new skills through training provisions such as the apprenticeship or on-the-job training, with systematic financing schemes. Industrial revolution in the 19th century changed the employment structure and demanded high level industrial discipline with specialized skills sets. At the turn of the 20th century, vocational schools were introduced, a practice that spread in Europe, and has set the agenda of governments to increase investments in vocational skills training.
Asia Pacific region has been a melting pot of different apprenticeship models widely adopted in various countries, and has utilized industry-institute interaction and linkages in various forms and commitment. The German model, for example, one of the most widely adopted models across regions, provides dual apprenticeship training which combines institute-based training and enterprise-based training; and are strongly oriented to the demand of the labor market. Theoretical training is provided about one day per week by vocational training centers, while practical training is provided in-enterprise in longer period during the week. An apprenticeship model that emanated from Japan focuses on enterprise-based training among employees in needed skills. The hallmark of the Japanese skills formation system is training by large corporations which make provision for in-service training throughout the life of the workers. Unregulated apprenticeship training, as another form of apprenticeship training, on the other hand, consists of observing and imitating the master and caters to individuals who lack the educational requirements for formal training, serves important target groups and is generally cost-effective.
Apprenticeship training has become an effective industry-institute interaction scheme and is governed by certain government policies that mandate industries in cooperation with government agencies, to share the cost on trainings. Sandwich diploma programs in some countries like India has facilitated the integration of industrial training into educational program.
7 Incubation center
Countries all over the world have started establishing incubation centers which allows for the shared access to infrastructures, practices, venture capitals and market information. In the context of technical and vocational education, business development or IT-oriented ventures, incubation centers allows for the development of a product of the academia for practical application. Incubation, as in technical development, facilitates concepts, research or laboratory process, practical application towards introduction for commercial purposes or release. Industry-institute cooperation at this level increases opportunities for hatching new innovations for the creation of new products.
The same concept is also applied in cultivating entrepreneurial skills. In some countries, government-sponsored sector-specific incubators are set up to take 15 to 20 small and medium enterprises, which provide opportunities for credit, access to technology, vocational and management training, and extensive consulting facilities. The incubator effectively chaperones SMEs during their initial growth stage. Industry interaction and support in these kinds of initiatives are of paramount importance to guide potential entrepreneurial activities with the trends in the labor market, skill development, other types of support such as access to credits, technology, market information etc. on a shared scheme between government institutions and training providers to encourage entrepreneurship.
8 Evaluation system
Industry-institute interaction in student evaluation has been regarded to give progressive benefit to the institutes as a way of providing technical guidance on the skills and competency levels of students. For example, practicing technical professionals in the field may be engaged in the assessment process to identify possible technical skills gaps, inadequacies in training focus, and competency matching with the kinds of work available in the industries. These are facilitated through industry involvement in the various stages of evaluation of students through interviews, seminar and projects.
Why Interaction is so critical in the knowledge era?
The complexities at the work place brought about by the rapid technological changes, paradigm shifts in education and training and the growing demand for skills training, call for harmonized efforts to reverse the acute skills shortage in many developing countries. Industry-institute interaction allows to explore endless possibilities in working in synergy and derive a new focus to address socio-economic and technology-driven challenges.
One of the challenges in the present times is the rapid pace of technology which makes skills obsolete at greater pace before everyone else could learn from them. The excessive pace of technological changes has emphasized the need to integrate technological knowledge and skills in education and training to expand life long capabilities of a knowledge-based worker. It has been observed that the economic pace of technological change makes 50 percent (50%) of computer knowledge irrelevant within one year, technological knowledge in three years, specialized vocational knowledge in five years and higher education knowledge in 10 years.
Another serious challenge is the increasing complexities at work, which lead to the growing need to adapt to new innovations in the market and adopt the technologies that provide utmost efficiency in machine operations. As a result, complex procedures are borne. An example of this is the transformation of automobile repair and operations manual from simple to complex piece of multiple-paged document that require skills cluster and know-how to perform them.Considering that people and institutions are not always interested in getting involved, partnerships through industry-institute interaction can only be achieved by finding out strategies to draw relevant stakeholders into systematic and reciprocal interaction to address such work place trends and technology emancipation.
Conclusion
The discussion that ensued sought to demonstrate the progressive journey of cooperation between industry and institute. The two different worlds that have been built between industry and institute are considered as the inherent bases of their cooperation. The different natures of industry-institute interaction were described exhaustively in the above discussion in recognition of the forms of interactions that have taken place and evolved over time. These interactions have been based on industry-driven and institute-oriented cooperation that exist at present, particularly those with focus on problem solving, curriculum development and teaching and learning improvements, scholarship and placement provisions, industrial exposures, human resource exchange, apprenticeship, incubation center establishment and evaluation system provisions. It is important to note that the people from the industry need to consider the institute beyond being a supplier of manpower. Rather, institutes must be viewed as organizations, which can be helpful in solving industrial problems.
Under the present global shifts, it has been imperative for institutions to have strong links at the national, regional, and state levels with agencies and organizations responsible for policymaking, funding, accreditation, and quality control. Furthermore, the changing world of work requires institutions to have links with the end users of their products to encourage information exchanges, establishment of norms, standards and their implementation, sharing of resources and expertise, provision of vertical and horizontal mobility to students in professional development, optimization of resources by avoiding duplication of efforts and development of policies for the growth and improvement of TVET provisions. This can be made possible by employing the appropriate public-private partnership approaches that can lead to reinforcing training and manpower skilling and consequently benefiting private entities through innovations and productivity.
Industry-Institute interaction sets the momentum for engaging institute to map out strategies and initiate an integrated approach to technical and vocational education and training for socio-economic development. The shift from labor-intensive to knowledge-based economy reinforces the academic component that needs to be considered in the business models implemented by industries, while industrial processes, skills requirements and business models need to be well-accounted for in educational and training planning and implementation.
Ms.R.Manju Shree
Asst Professor,
RVS Institute of Management Studies,
Kumaran Kottam Campus,
Kannampalayam, Coimbatore
Tamilnadu, India.
