International organisations and policy-making in VET systems of developing countries

Abstract

Vocational education and training (VET) is considered to retain cultural patterns of work, vocations and vocation acquisition of a country and, thus, to be more resistant to changes in comparison with higher or secondary education sectors. One of the pillars of the stability of VET systems is actor constellations that are carriers of these cultural patterns. However, after World War II the influence of international organisations (IOs) as new actors in policy-making has started to be more obvious in matters of education, including VET. This paper reviews the activities of IOs in vocational education and discusses the question of their influence on policy-making in this sphere from the institutionalist perspective with a special focus on developing countries and countries in transition. The theoretical findings suggest that these countries have not fully institutionalised VET systems and, thus, more receptive to implementing policies financed and disseminated by IOs, but these policies show dependencies on the activities of IOs and have varied degrees of sustainability.