Densil Williams | False dichotomy between education and skills training

My article of December 19, 2021 in The Gleaner, on the value of a university degree, elicited some interesting commentaries. The debate seems to turn on skills training versus academic training. My thesis was never about a separation of these two non-mutually exclusive outcomes of the teaching-and-learning process.

The argument I put forward was, train the mind and allow a well-trained, critical mind to choose the path it wants in order to contribute to national development and an overall high-quality society. For, whether one chooses to pursue a skill (which people equate to vocational training) or an academic pathway (which, again, is equated to a university degree), without a well-trained mind, one would not be sufficiently equipped to fulfil their role in whatever field of endeavour they pursue. If the mind is not trained to think critically and be adaptable to new circumstances, the output from skills or academic pursuits will still not meet the threshold of productivity and innovation, to drive the necessary transformation to create a better society.

As a plantation society with the vestiges of colonialism and slavery, we should be careful not to set up an either/or narrative when discussing the educating of our population. This narrative will lead to too many persons missing out on formal training to develop the mind and acquire the necessary foundational skills which eventually will redound to their being job-ready. For example, important competencies such as critical thinking, problem-solving, diversity, emotional intelligence are skills that all learners should possess, whether or not they decide to go for a vocational-based career or an academic career. Our education system must be geared towards these competencies, not just preparing the learners for a job in order to get a high salary. It is competencies such as these that will result in higher levels of productivity, through innovation in processes and outputs. Without building this competency base, we will continue to have the perennial debate about low productivity in Jamaica. Indeed, our education system, by focusing on heavy content and not on critical competencies, creates a misalignment with productivity drivers and, therefore, shows up in the low productivity numbers.

PRODUCTIVITY DISCOURSE

Jamaica’s productivity rate has been among the lowest in the Caribbean for a while. It is not only low, but quite troubling, it is deteriorating. Data show that, output per worker in Jamaica in 2019, at about US$20,000, was two times less than Barbados at about US$40,000, and over three times less than Trinidad and Tobago, at about US$69,000. Further, when compared to 1990, about three decades ago, Jamaica’s output per worker was about US$23,000. While we can contest about how the numbers are derived, for example, whether or not the informal sector, which is so large, is included, the major lesson is that our output per person is declining, not improving.

Critical to this low level of productivity is that Jamaica has a small number of its workforce that possess the critical competencies to operate in a modern, global economy. A manifestation of this can be found in the enrolment in post-secondary education and, specifically, the degree-granting institutions’ data. With just about 10 per cent of the workforce having university qualification, and just about 20 per cent having any form of post-secondary certification, it is unsurprising that the competencies and skills needed to drive innovation and increased productivity would be sparse in the Jamaican labour force. To drive higher levels of productivity, Jamaica has to move away from the false separation of vocationally inclined and academically inclined workers, and provide all learners with the necessary competencies to operate in a modern, global economy, and be adaptable to any and all circumstances.

DIFFERENT PATHWAYS FOR LEARNERS

It is accepted that all learners will not choose the same path towards making a contribution to national development. However, what should be clear is that our education system must provide every learner with the basic competencies (critical thinking, problem-solving, emotional intelligence, teamwork, etc) so that they can function in the modern world, irrespective of the pathway they choose.

So, for example, the Ministry of Education sixth form pathways project announced recently is timely as Jamaica tries to get more of its population to develop critical competencies to meet the demands of the new global economy. The programme, it appears, will provide learners a longer time frame in the education system, in order to develop and nurture critical competencies, which, by age 18 when they graduate from fifth form, many would not have possessed. The pathway programme should be designed to cater to these critical competencies and not so much as an apprenticeship scheme to put people into vocational or academic categories. Therefore, when they leave the school system, they should be equipped to function well in any field of endeavour they so desire.

The private sector must be on-board also, to provide the relevant industry-specific training, once learners leave the school system with the necessary competencies. As the saying goes, education makes you trainable. As such, once the learners have the right set of competencies, the private sector should set in to mould these into whatever specificity it wants for its own industry or firm. It is this partnership that will be critical to raise the level of productivity in the nation.

Education can and will lead to positive transformation in society, but it must be seen as a tool to develop a critical mind and build lifelong competencies which will allow learners to be trainable and re-trainable as systems evolve. To achieve this, the system cannot be built on the false assumption that education and skills training are mutually exclusive. There is no dichotomy. We must educate in order to train. There should be no tension between skills and academic training. Both are critical for the advancement of any society.

Densil Williams is a professor of international business at The University of the West Indies. Send feedback to denislw@yahoo.com