Unequal opportunity for vocational training

In the developed nations, due to the present rapid rate of change in knowledge and job options, education is increasingly informal, with special curricula and scheduling available close to job or home and at convenient times. However, this kind of practical curriculum and scheduling is not provided sufficiently near to the residents of deprived inner-city neighbourhoods, either as evening education for adults, or as early learning experiences for those below public school age. This is especially true of old people and of unemployed young mothers who have neither finished high school nor acquired any marketable skills.

Such a vacuum in job skills and training in social methods leads to a continuing cycle of ineptitude and defeatism. Most people look on advanced training as remote and unrelated to everyday life. The result is an ever decreased value placed on formal public education, increasing absenteeism and drop-outs. These factors exclude a large portion of the community from the job market and leave them without the tools necessary to relate themselves to the complex dynamics of the city.

The situation is different in rural areas of undeveloped countries. Not only are educational facilities less developed in rural than in urban areas, there is also a general preference for informal methods of training and on-the-job training, partly because this overcomes the problem of lack of formal education as an entry qualification and partly because such training is less costly. However, it is not comprehensive and standards of achievement vary. Therefore the ex-trainees have little mobility. If on-the-job industrial training is unavailable, openings are very limited and individuals lack the requirements for entry into an appropriate training school. In many families, both parents are illiterate. Unless there is enough money to send children to outside schools or to a place of employment, the children find that their advancement is blocked. Those fortunate ones who leave the area to be trained often do not return to the village to share their acquired skills.