In a new study titled “OECD Economic Surveys: United States,” researchers at the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OECD) argue that the United States needs to make structural changes to its system of public schools or risk losing its economic competitiveness.
I do not agree with a majority of the OECD recommendations, but they are right about one thing. The United States needs to provide more high-quality vocational training opportunities for students. Researchers explain,
Of course, every individual has different aptitudes, and many will not go beyond a high school education. In this context, the strong vocational component of the German and Swiss educational systems can provide useful models for improving the earnings and participation of lower-skilled workers, particularly youth. Germany’s secondary education, for example, follows a dual system, in which the two-thirds of students who enrol[l] in the vocational tracks alternate between a few days in school and a few days at the workplace. The system is notable for its success in enabling young people from widely varying social backgrounds to integrate the learning of academic skills with the mastery of job-specific skills (OECD, 2010a). Switzerland’s highly developed vocational system is strongly market and employer driven; school and work-based learning are well integrated, and workplace training is not too company-specific (OECD, 2009a).
Gubernatorial candidate Pat McCrory argues that North Carolina’s public schools need to adopt an educational model with some of the same features as the German and Swiss systems.
