فصلنامه تعلیم و تربیت
سال بیست و هشتم شماره 4 (پیاپی 112، زمستان 1391)

To increase employability, a set of new general skills need to be developed. The modern perspectives on vocationalism have lead to new approaches in vocational training wherein the youth instaed of being trained for a specific job, are prepared to be more adaptive in the job market. Job specific training limits personal choice and adaptation to technological changes in the workplace and can not provide for the socio-economic needs of the society. However, even technical competence in a specific job requires general skills which need to be compatible with the contemporary workplace. To achieve such compatibility, educational methods need to be re-examined and training models redefined.

The very concept of professionalism stands in opposition to the liberal perspective of education. There are, of course, those who support the very concept, as there are those who oppose it. Nevertheless professionalism has both theoretical and epistemological foundations as well as an historical basis. From this perspective, two strands of professionalism can be identified: traditional and modern, each with its own assumptions and pattern of development, giving rise to appropriate criteria for evaluating the current Iranian vocational training programs and putting forward suggestions as to how to improve them. The evaluation has lead to the conclusion that the Iranian system in Vocational traing is more traditional than modern, and as a result incapable of meeting the challenges of the modern world. Thus modernization is a must.

The secondary education is a bridge between elementary and university education, as it is between family life and social life on the one hand, and school and workplace on the other. As such it aims at many different goals and functions. However, the bridge to higher education is gated through the entrance examamination which can affect the quality of the secondary education. To assess this impact a sample of 629 high school and university students along with their teachers and experts in the field was questioned using a questionnaire. The collected data indicates that the examination serves only as a way of entering higher education and as such all other goals and functions of secondary education are overlooked. It is therefore, suggested that the secondary education curriculum put more emphasis on all its goals and functions, while the higher education in cooperation with the Department of Education find different ways of admission in such a way that all goals and functions of secondary education are considered.

One of the main concerns for the educational and curricular planners is the extent to which secondary education is related to the job market. On the other hand, to explain the roots of unemployment among the youth, one must not only consider the socio-economic, as well as cultural and political shortcomings, but the educational underpinnings of this serious problem need to be evaluated. The extent to which high school curriculum meets the requirements of the job market, the way that the school system interacts with the economic system, and taking into account the skills needed by the employerswhen designing curricula are among the main factors that can affect unemployment. An analysis of the educational system at the secondary level along with the experiences of other countries in this regard, leads to the conclusion that there is a need to fundamentally overhaul this system and the way it is planned.

One of the main functions and objectives of any educational system is to train the needed man power in the society. A clear index of having met this objective would be the smoothness by which graduates are moved from school to workplace, a challenge faced by many countries, especially the developing countries like Iran. A documentational study of the current situation in Iran has lead to the conclusion that there are two sets of challenges and shortcomings facing graduates: challenges internal and external to the ducational sytem. Among the internal shortcomings one can mention the inefficiency of the general educational sytem in strengthening the basic competencies, the weakness of the guidance system, and ineffectiveness of the training and practicum programs. The external shortcomings include the lack of balance between the demand and supply of the work force, irregularity of the man power pyramid in the job market, lack of clarity in the job market's needs, and the inadequacies of the work place. Obviously, all these shortcomings can be addressed and remedied through well planned cooperation of both internal and external educational agents.

Since any difference in human capital accumulation between male and female students prior to their enterance to higher education or the job market can lead to gender-based segregation in both education and employment, factors affecting the choice of schooling tracts need to be identified and compared between boys and girls. To this end, a sample of 900 high school sophomores qualified to choose any of the theory-based or practice-based tracts was selected, and then their gender related beliefs were assessed using a questionnaire. The data analysis revealed that among factors influencing the girl's tract choice employment potential, school administrators, gender-related beliefs, and attitude together explain close to %64 of the variance, while among boys, it is the combination of social pressure, peer pursuation, and personal aptitude/interest that explains close to %60 of the variance.

To assess the employment status of Accounting and Computing graduates, a sample of adequate size from among 12000 such graduates in Tehran within the past 6-8 years was selected and given a questionnaire. The findings indicate that %34 of the respondents were employment at the time of schooling of whom only %4 were doing jobs unrelated to their area of study. Close to a quarter of the respondents are satisfied with their job. More than half of them consider the curriculum has not provided them with adequate occupational skills. The employers also rated the knowledge and skills of the newly employed as inadequate. The results show that there is a serious need for re-examination of the vocational training programs. The uses of job market information and academic counceling, as well as skilfull teaching staff are among many factors that require change.