Now, vocational training strategies have been adopted in many countries during the last 50 years, focused on the central role of the state in planning, regulating, providing, and controlling vocational education and training. This approach has increasingly been criticized because of its distance from the practical requirements of the workplace, and because of the costs and bureaucracy entailed. Let me briefly clarify the term vocational training. Vocational training is closely related to the economy and the labor market. It can be defined as an instrument of providing people with the skills and knowledge required by the companies.
Vocational training has four functions.
Number one, it provides the qualified workforce necessary for the company to remain competitive in its markets, be they regional, local, national, or international. Two, it enables the national economy to become or remain competitive on the global markets. Three, for the individual, it is a means of earning an income, of job security, of economic and social participation, and of personal development. And four, on the social level, it secures employment and social stability by extending individual benefits of vocational training to the whole population. So, ladies and gentlemen, we have to ask ourselves why do companies train.