Vocational Education and Vocational Skills: Urgent Need in European Production

Abstract: This paper and presentation is based on case studies in China, Mexico and Denmark. The paper identifies challenges posed to production companies by a lack of vocational skills and vocational education. The study is focusing on different types of production systems i.e. on manual, complex and automated production. The paper highlights how both China and Denmark have focused on theoretical rather than vocational education for more than a decade.
Based on a combination of a literature review and field studies of cases, including studies of mass production and unmanned and automated production, a framework of skills related to process tasks is developed. The paper and the presentation conclude that much more focus is needed on the development of vocational education and vocational skills in Denmark, the U.K, and in the U.S. and in China for employees to be able to handle future automated and advanced production systems.