The American movement to integrate vocational and academic instruction within the schools also has its current counterpart in several other countries. At the same time, hybrid institutions are flourishing, as employers conduct education and training, and schools operate enterprises that produce goods and services. What seems to be driving this trend is a growing functional integration of learning and work. It is increasingly recognized that learning and production can, do, and must take place at the same time. While this has always been true to some extent in all work, and to a great extent in some occupations such as medicine and engineering, the functional integration of learning and work appears to be spreading in many fields.
Functional integration means that learning moves closer to work.
Learning in the context of real problem-solving is also more meaningful and motivating. At the same time, work itself changes. Continual adaptation requires faster transmission of existing know-how, and also more rapid creation of new ideas to improve products or work processes. People up and down the pay scale must be motivated more by intrinsic interest and curiosity in order to keep asking questions about how things could be done better. Contemporary competition depends on a continual flow of ideas from everyone.