On The Effective Supply Of Public Vocational Education And Training

The Outline of China's National Plan for Medium and Long-Term Education Reform and Development (2010-2020) promulgated in 2010 proposes to "insist on the public welfare and universal benefit of education", to "build a system of basic public education services covering urban and rural areas", and to "achieve the equalization of basic public education services gradually" Education is a cause with public welfare and universal benefit. To provide basic public education services and achieve the equalization of basic public education services is one of the main functions of modern government. To provide basic public education services is to make all members of society to acquire basic and essential knowledge and vocational skills to maintain the basic rights for subsistence and development, to obtain decent work, and to lead a dignified life. To achieve the equalization of basic public education services is to make all members of society, particularly vulnerable groups, to enjoy equal opportunities and results of basic public education services fully.Since the 1990s, with the advance of economic reform and the transformation of economic growth mode, China's economic structure, industrial structure and labor and personnel institution have been changing, so a considerable number of workers in state-owned enterprises face with the challenges of being laid off, job-transfer and reemployment. Furthermore, with the development of rural economy and society and the transformation of agricultural production mode, a large number of surplus rural labor forces need to shift to non-agricultural industries. At the same time, a great many urban and rural new labor forces also need plenty of employment opportunities every year. Employment has a vital bearing on the people's livelihood, and it is the basic premise and approach of improving people's lives, which not only affects the sustained and healthy development of China's economy, but also concerns with the maintenance of social fairness and justice and long-term stability. Therefore, led by public sector, and supported by public finance, the public vocational education and training which provides for laid-off and job-transfer workers, rural surplus labor forces and urban and rural new labors forces gradually becomes part of public administration of Chinese government.In recent years, China launches large-scale public vocational education and training, which plays a positive role in promoting economic development, increasing employment and improving the people's livelihood. However, in the process of the supply of public vocational education and training, there are also some problems that can not be ignored, mainly shown as:both the supply and demand of public vocational education and training are insufficient. That is to say, on the one hand, both the quality and quantity of the supply of public vocational education and training can not meet the demand of economic development for skilled workers; On the other hand, both individual laborers' and employers'effective demand in which they are able and willing to purchase for public vocational education and training clearly shows insufficiency. In the labor market, the above embodies both oversupply and undersupply of labor forces. That is to say, in reality, it exists side by side that skilled laborers whom enterprises need are insufficient and a large number laborers who lack skills can not find jobs. Fundamentally, the structural contradiction in the labor market should be resolved by strengthening public vocational education and training, and the solution of the paradox of public vocational education and training should depend on the increase of its effective supply, because effective demand is insufficient just because of excess ineffective supply or insufficient effective supply, and eventually, the increase of effective supply should depend on the effective mechanisms or institutional arrangements which could resolve the contradiction between supply and demand.Based on the above, this dissertation takes "publicness" and "efficiency" as the logical starting point and fundamental purport, defines all kinds of basic vocational education and training provided by government to make up for "market failure" and maintain social fairness and justice as "public vocational education and training", chooses the "effective supply" which touches the heart of the problem as the origin of analysis, uses the research paradigm of institution analysis for reference, and applies the methods of theoretical deduction, historical research, literature analysis and comparative research and the analysis tools of state theory, publicness theory, institution ethics theory and game theory, analyses the publicness attribute, supply efficiency, ethical value and effective supply path of public vocational education and training through normative institution analysis, historical institution analysis and comparative institutional analysis. The study is of certain practical significance, policy value and theoretical implication in increasing the rationality of the institution design of public vocational education and training and its supply efficiency, and expanding the boundary of the theory of vocational education and training and then contributing to the theoretical growing.This dissertation attempts to pose and answer the following questions:Firstly, why does public vocational education and training have "publicness"? According to Samuelson's classic definition of public goods, namely, whether or not they are rivalrous and excludable, strictly speaking, vocational education and training is not a public good. However, public vocational education and training for grassroots workers and vulnerable groups is of great significance in developing economy, increasing employment, and promoting fairness, and then its external benefit is far greater than individual benefit, therefore, just relying on market supply will cause "market failure". In addition, to judge whether a good is a public good can not completely depend on its physical features of rivalry and excludability. To protect public interests or pursue certain administrative concepts, if a government once determines to provide some kinds of vocational education and training for specific groups by the mode of public supply, the kinds of vocational education and training will inevitably become public goods.Secondly, what is the effective supply of public vocational education and training? The products that public vocational education and training provides are human capital embodied in persons, which determines the supply and demand of public vocational education and training are particular and complex, different from that of common public goods and have their unique elements and standards. The effective supply of public vocational education and training is that, in a period of time, public vocational education and training which a country or region and its various educational institutions provide for grassroots workers and vulnerable groups using public powers and public resources, not only meets the education demand in which individuals, employers and society are able and willing to purchase in quantity, quality and structure, but also conforms to the principles of equity and efficiency, including number equilibrium, quality satisfaction, structure rationality, equity priority and efficiency consideration.Thirdly, why should the effective supply of public vocational education and training be implemented? Institutions not only embody certain political ideas, economic benefits and cultural values, but also have distinct ethical significance. As a kind of human capital investment, cultural capital endowment, social welfare policy and public good, public vocational education and training is of great ethical significance in promoting economic development, improving social mobility, administering unemployment and maintaining fairness and justice.Fourthly, how was and is public vocational education and training supplied then and now in China? From the perspective of history, the supply of public vocational education and training in China has undergone three stages, including development during the planned economy period, reform during the economic transition period, and reconstruction during the market economy period. And from the perspective of the present, the supply of public vocational education and training in China still has some issues in quantity, quality, structure, fairness and efficiency that can not be ignored. This is mainly because, under the circumstances of imperfect competition, information asymmetry, future revenue uncertainty, unanimity problem, impossibility of aggregating preferences, individual revenue maximization and opportunism tendency, the stakeholders of public vocational education and training have their own objective function and utility function, which often leads the actual supply of public vocational education and training to deviate from its willing supply.Fifthly, how could the effective supply of public vocational education and training be realized? To put the effective supply of public vocational education and training into practice, from the aspect of suppliers, the mechanisms of polycentric administration and multi-stakeholders participation should be established in order to form a kind of contractual partnership of both independence and interdependence and both competition and cooperation between the related stakeholders. From the aspect of supply contents, to realize multi-dimensional coverage, the target groups should expand to all kinds of grass-roots labors, and the supply contents should be made to meet the skills needs of different industries in the current and future periods through scientific and standard macro-planning. From the aspect of supply process, to bring in market incentive mechanisms, a kind of multi-level game framework and binding institution arrangement between the related stakeholders should be set up. From the aspect of supply results, to apply the diversified certification of study results, under the unified national qualifications framework, the education and training of different types, different levels and different regions should be interchanged and interfaced with each other. Then, according to the above, the modes of polycentric administration, multi-dimensional coverage, multi-level game and diversified certification are constructed in this dissertation.