Secondary or tertiary Education - Japan quo vadis?

The conference Dual-Track Development of Tertiary Education and Relevance of National Qualifications Frameworks, held on 16/17 September 2015 at Kyushu University (Fukuoka, Japan) aimed at discussing the different views on the decision from the Japanese government to establish by 2019 vocationally oriented universities. The debates dealt with the positioning of the professional/vocational education and training offers in the education system (whether they will be part of the higher education system or of the vocational and education training system) but also with patterns of cooperation with public and private companies. Currently professional training colleges are increasingly offering upgraded practice-oriented education and training in cooperation with companies.

An underlying issue of the conference was the development of the national qualifications framework and its link to existing taxonomies and competencies registers in use for labour market and education policy decisions. Japan as part of the ASEAN area is increasingly concerned with the development of the regional ASEAN Reference Qualifications Framework, in a way similar to the European Qualification Framework in its objectives.

The conference gathered around 100 participants from Ministries, local authorities, companies, providers and academia. Additionally to contributions by Japanese experts, three foreign examples were chosen to give inputs from abroad:

• the development of the Australian and ASEAN qualifications frameworks,
• the Korean qualifications framework and its regional impact and
• the German qualifications framework and changes to the German education and training system.

Isabelle Le Mouillour from the division for Basic Issues of Internationalisation/Monitoring of Vocational Education and Training Systems in BIBB held a keynote speech about qualifications framework and changes to the German education and training system. She introduced in the Japan debate issues, such as equivalence between vocational and academic qualifications or permeability in education system. Her contribution was embedded in her period as visiting scholar to the Research Centre for Tertiary Education and Qualifications, Kyushu University (Fukuoka; Japan).
She linked her contribution to three major developments in Japan:

1. The education and training system in Japan is undergoing changes motivated by the need to address major economic and social changes similar to those encountered in Germany. Japan is confronted with ageing population and the economic downturn is enduring leading to changes in recruitment practices and above all to changes in career paths.
2. The concept of lifelong employment by one company is increasingly challenged and an increased percentage of the workforce meanwhile change employers or is engaged in part-time and termed working contracts.
3. This led the government and education providers in their decision to develop professional education and training offers. The development process and the education and training provisions characteristics are not yet set.