JVER v27n2 - Strengthening Ties Between Career-Technical Education and Human Resource Development

Strengthening Ties Between Career-Technical Education and Human Resource Development

K. Peter Kuchinke
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Abstract

Building on Gray's ( 1997 ) observation of a common ground between vocational education and human resource development, the present paper seeks to extend the comparative analysis by contrasting each field in terms of its history and definition, professional standards, scope of interventions, and core bodies of knowledge. The analysis suggests that despite a shared historical, intellectual, and institutional space, vocational education and human resource development can be understood as related yet distinct communities of practice. In light of the changing nature of work and evolving career patterns of individuals, however, a further segregation of the two fields appears unwise. Instead, conceptual, theoretical, and empirical work is required to integrate vocational education and human resource development. This is required to better understand and improve the research and practice of what Copa ( 1996 ) termed education for , at , through , and about work throughout the life span with the aim of developing a comprehensive system of workforce education and workplace learning in the U.S.

In 1997, Ken Gray examined the compatibility between training and development/human resource development and vocational-industrial teacher education programs in the United States, arguing that both should be seen as parts of a single professional endeavor bound together by the tie of a common mission. This shared professional purpose was to "improve the occupational status of the individual student/client . . . . in one of two ways: either by increasing (a) the individual's labor market advantage . . . . or (b) that individual's performance productivity on the job" (p. 82).

Gray's analysis is in the tradition of foundational writing that has been pursued with much vigor in both career and technical education (CTE, to adopt the name suggested by Lynch, 2000 ) and human resource development (HRD) in the recent past-although with differing emphases. Among CTE scholars, much effort has been focused on developing a future vision for the field and on outlining new policies and practices at both the secondary and postsecondary levels (e.g., Jacobs, 2000 ; Lewis, 1998 ; Lynch, 2000 ; Miller & Gregson, 1996 ), while the main thrust among HRD scholars has been on building an identity for the field by formulating 180 a coherent and defensible definition, including statements of subject matter, boundaries to related areas, and examination of dominant discourses (e.g., Hatcher, 1998 ; Kuchinke, 1999 ; Lee, 2001 ; McLean & McLean, 2001 ; Walton, 2001 ). Few attempts, however, have been made to integrate CTE and HRD, and this should be seen as the major contribution of Gray's essay.

Gray's rationale for the common profession thesis was made on three main arguments: (1) the existence of a shared set of ethical standards (promoting learning, insuring safety of students/clients, keeping of public/employer trust, and promoting the transfer to knowledge to the workplace); (2) a common intervention or product employed by all workforce education practitioners (work-related instruction to improve labor market status and/or solve human performance problems); and (3) a common knowledge base (micro- and labor economics, sociology of work, career development psychology, and curriculum/instructional design and delivery).

While Gray's thesis is certainly plausible-HRD, after all, emerged in U.S. university departments of vocational and adult education and thus shares much of their historical, intellectual, and institutional space (see, for example, McMurty, 1998 )-there are also indicators of divergence that suggest that the common profession thesis is, at present, more of a desired future than actual practice. In academic departments with both CTE and HRD programs, faculty and students are often clearly identified with one field or the other. There is little overlap in terms of professional association memberships, service on editorial boards or in association leadership roles, conference attendance and presentations, publication in respective journals, or research and consulting projects. Graduate curricula in HRD often do not address issues of public vocational education nor do they address the foundations of CTE such as history, philosophy, pedagogy, or public policies (Kuchinke, 2002 ). HRD practitioners in business and industry and CTE teachers do not often collaborate, and neither group has much presence in the other's professional associations and industry groups. In short, while some boundary crossing exists among scholars and practitioners, HRD and CTE show signs of having evolved into distinct communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1990 ), each with its own professional and political culture, values, research directions and priorities, sources of research funding, and institutional characteristics. I believe that a further divergence of CTE and HRD will ultimately weaken both areas and hinder progress towards a comprehensive system of education, training, and development, whether in or outside of traditional school or work settings. The purpose of this paper, then, is threefold: (a) to review the current status of the fields, b) to expand the discussion initiated by Gray ( 1997 ) by addressing convergent and divergent trends; and (c) to suggest directions for positioning both within a broader system of learning and education for , at , through , and about work (Copa, 1996 ) within the framework of life-long learning and life-span development.

Definitions and Scopes of Practice for CTE and HRD

Despite much recent discussion over the future of CTE, the field appears to be quite clearly bounded. In a narrower sense, CTE is seen as "a collective term . . . to identify curriculum programs designed to prepare students to acquire an education and job skills, enabling them to enter employment immediately upon . . . graduation" (Lynch, 2000 , p. 155). The setting for CTE is either a high school or postsecondary institution or both (e.g., Bragg 1995 ), but generally focused on the prebaccalaureate level (Gray & Herr, 1998 ). A broader claim for CTE is made by Copa and Plihal ( 1996 ) who place CTE within a larger context:

The purpose of vocational education is to enhance the vocational development of an educated person. Vocational development is seen as a life-long process of developing the capacity for assuming vocational responsibilities. Vocational responsibilities are the expectations for accomplishment in social and economic roles . . . characterized by caring, commitment, and connectedness . . . . Full realization of human potential in vocational responsibilities is critical to human development and the social and economic progress of nations and the world. A vocational development perspective includes attention to both short-term and long-term needs. (pp. 91-92)

The discussion of the new vocationalism has centered around this broader perspective, including the preparation of students to become lifelong learners (Lynch, n.d. ) and the repositioning of vocational education as a complement to the academic curriculum-a return, as Lewis ( 1998 ) observed, to a progressive education stance advocated by John Dewey in the early part of the last century in contrast to the social efficiency philosophy of Prosser and Snedden.

With CTE located within the framework of public schools, HRD, in contrast, is viewed as education, training, and developmental activities in workplace settings, provided by employers to employees, and justified as an investment in enhancing the productive capacity of the workforce in the context of a competitive economic environment. Following a human capital logic (Becker, 1993 ), examples include McLagan's ( 1983 ) definition of HRD as the "integrated use of training and development, career development, and organization development to improve individual and organizational performance" (p. 7), and Swanson's ( 1995 ) definition of HRD as a "process of developing and unleashing human expertise through organization development and personnel training and development for the purpose of improving performance" (p. 208). Definitions advanced by adult educators are similar in scope-albeit from a learning rather than performance perspective. Watkins and Marsick's ( 1993 ) definition of HRD as a "combination of training, career development, and organizational development [offering] the theoretical integration needed to envision a learning organization, but it must be positioned to act strategically throughout the organization " (p. 355) illustrates this. However, there is unease among HRD scholars over too narrow a focus on the economic returns of HRD. Kuchinke ( 1999 ), for example, classified alternative philosophies of HRD by examining the meaning of the term development, which so prominently features in the name of the field. He distinguished among three prominent approaches: person-centered-following the tenets of humanistic and existentialist philosophies; production-centered-focused on immediate production and performance needs; and principled problem-solving-in line with a progressive education agenda and cognitive-developmental psychology.

The most comprehensive definition advanced by U.S. scholars--who also write extensively on global issues--is that "HRD is any process or activity that, either initially or over the long term, has the potential to develop adults' work-based knowledge, expertise, productivity, and satisfaction, whether for personal or group/team gain, or for the benefit of an organization, community, nation, or, ultimately, the whole of humanity" (McLean & McLean, 2001 , p. 1071).

Thus, while CTE is located within institutional settings--predominantly high schools and community/technical colleges--HRD is more loosely structured and exists in the space of work organizations and the plethora of formal and informal work-based learning activities. These different institutional settings, as subsequent sections will address, shape the educational enterprise and activities in each in substantial ways. In the next section, a brief review of the evolution, status, and provision of professional preparation for roles of CTE and HRD practice will be provided to further address similarities and differences.

History and Status of CTE and HRD

The long and distinguished history of vocational education requires little explanation in this context (see, e.g., Barlow, 1967 ; Lazerson & Grubb, 1974 ; Lewis, 1998 ; Wirth, 1980 ), nor does the field's proximity to HRD-both are concerned with work education, training, and development (defined, at times, narrowly, at times broadly); both have their roots in early training models, such as apprenticeships, guild training, and on-the-job training; both aim at developing and maintaining high-level skills and performance within work and employment contexts; both face the tension of addressing the needs of economic and social systems, of organizations, and individuals. While vocational education has evolved within the context of federal legislation since the inception of public funding with the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917, training and development in business and industry (and what was later to become the profession of HRD) has developed independent of federal, state, or local policy mandates and often more closely tied and responsive to the changes in product, service, and processes in public and private organizations (McMurty, 1998 ). Thus, HRD evolved as a system of workforce training and development, at times augmenting, at time substituting for, at times simply continuing vocational education in the workplace.

The importance of the human element in work organizations was first formally acknowledged in the 1920s with a series of studies involving a Western Electric plant in Hawthorne, Illinois (Roethlisberger, 1941 ), and gave rise to the human relations movement in organizational psychology that stressed the critical role of skilled and motivated employees for both firm performance and individual and societal well-being and progress, a sharp departure from the mechanistic tradition of Fordist production techniques and Taylorist scientific management of earlier decades. Decades later, during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a transformation of similar magnitude occurred, this time brought upon by the increase in global competition, changing demographic make-up of the workforce, demands for high quality goods and services, and rapid changes in process and production technologies (Noe, 1999 ). Firms responded to these challenges by shifting from what Barley and Kunda ( 1992 ) termed rational control-reliance on formal planning and hierarchies, bureaucratic work systems, and strict rules and procedures-to normative control, characterized by broad employee involvement, fewer layers of authority, increased span of tasks and relationships, and increased emotional involvement with work. This new type of employment relationship was at the basis of new models of managing organizations, such as quality management, process reengineering, organizational learning, culture change, and knowledge management, all of which place far greater cognitive and affective demands on employees-especially at the lower levels of the organizational hierarchies but also for professionals and managerial ranks.

In CTE, these changes have resulted in frameworks such as SCANS and the notion of high performance skills but have not been fully explored or implemented to keep pace with or abreast of current workplace demands (Lynch, 1996 ; McMurty, 1998 ; Office of Educational Research and Improvement, 1994 ). As a result of changes in virtually all sectors of the economy, the role of HRD has expanded. Two influential reports published by the Carnegie Foundation (Eurich, 1985 , 1990 ) first pointed to this new role by arguing that private and public sector organizations had, in fact, established a parallel educational system that, in scope, importance, and expenditure, rivaled the public one. The tenor of Eurich's reports reflected the prevailing sense of dissatisfaction with public education and fear that the country was being put at risk in an international comparison (e.g., National Commission on Excellence in Education, 1993 ) and suggested that HRD arose from the need for remedial education and training brought upon by a deficient system of public education. Although HRD in the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors-including government, military, education, healthcare-continues to provide remedial education (e.g., basic literacy and math), its scope is far broader and includes a wide range of work-related skills, such as leadership, communication, team work, technology, career planning, motivation, and many others. These are taught in an equally wide range of pedagogical approaches, from formal classroom training to self-directed study using the Internet, from learning-by-doing to coaching and mentoring, from in-house designs to collaboration with colleges and universities and from rote memorization to the great books approach. Direct expenditures in formal training alone have grown steadily over the years and in 1996 were estimated at $60 billion with indirect costs and non-formal training (such as on-the-job and self-directed learning) factored in, this number is estimated at $210 billion (Watkins, 1998 ) or about 1.8 per cent of payroll (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development, 1999 , Watkins, 1998 ). This can be contrasted with 1996 expenditures for formal education of $238 billion (with $94 billion of that in higher education) (Watkins, 1998 ). Given the shift towards a more knowledge-intensive economy and rapid changes in work processes, products, and services, there is every indication that HRD activities will remain a vital component of organizational strategy in all sectors of the economy (see Scott & Meyer, 1991 ).

Professional Preparation and Labor Markets for CTE and HRD

HRD practitioners are drawn from a wide variety of backgrounds and academic preparation with little formal requirements for certification or credentialing. Many, but by no means all, attain their professional preparation in U.S. colleges and universities. While training and development curricula played a relatively minor role in many departments of vocational education in the 1970s and early 1980s, their enrollments and stature increased over the past 15 years to a point where they are now the "bread and butter activity" (Gray, 1997 , p. 80), drawing large enrollments of certificate, master's and doctoral students. HRD certificate programs and even introductory courses face strong demand, also from non-education undergraduate majors who are seeking employment skills. While most programs were established in the 1980s, the decade of the 1990s saw an increase by about 15% (Kuchinke, 2002 ), and by 1997, some 250 U.S. colleges and universities were offering certificates and degrees in HRD and related fields, such as instructional technology and performance technology (ASTD, 1996 ). Kuchinke reported enrollment data for 55 HRD programs at large, doctoral-granting institutions and found that average enrollments, while substantial ( M =138 students), had declined at the master's level between 1991 and 1999 by almost one-half ( M =172 students in 1991 vs. 93 students in 1999) and doctoral level enrollments had grown by just over ten percent ( M =45 students in 1991 vs. 51 students in 1999). Whether this indicates a general leveling-off of the demand curve or is due to the strong labor market of the late 1990s, is open to further investigation.

At the same time, CTE enrollments have declined because of changing enrollment patterns in high school, the availability of alternative credentialing for vocational instructors, perceived lack of relevance and quality of vocational curricula, and a shift toward academic course-taking (Lynch, 2000 ). In response, many academic university departments reduced their program offerings, closed down altogether, or shifted their emphases. Lynch ( 1998 ) offered enrollment information of the various vocational subject areas and concluded that most had experienced declines over the previous decade, although comprehensive vocational education enrollments had increased substantially and the overall rate of decline had slowed compared to previous reports.

Labor market demand characteristics for HRD practitioners are difficult to obtain because the profession is not identified in the Department of Labor's information system. Rather, the most recent edition of the Occupational Outlook Handbook (U.S. Department of Labor, 2000 ) includes HRD in two broader job categories, (a) Human Resources (HR), Training, and Labor Relations Specialists and Managers and (b) Management Analysts. The former includes a variety of job titles such as job analyst, training and development manager, and training specialist. In 1998, about 600,000 jobs existed for this classification in the U.S., three of five positions were at the specialist level, two of five at the managerial level. Roughly one million employees classified by D.O. T. titles recognized as HR practitioners, with the boundaries between HRD and more general HR job responsibilities likely to be fluid. A reference text on career information (Macmillan, 1999 ) describes two major HRD roles, training specialist and organization developer. For both, employment outlook and job growth are listed as greater than average because of increased needs for human capital development in business, industry, and not-for-profit and public organizations and institutions. The guide also indicates strong competition for the best jobs as the profession draws from a variety of academic majors.

Lynch ( 1998 ) provided information on the demand of vocational teachers indicating growing concern by state and local policy makers over the dearth of academically trained vocational teachers entering the field and notes that "with evidence of a reduced commitment and capacity to produce teachers for America's vocational and technical education system [and] the vast majority of . . . teachers . . . retiring . . . a high demand for their replacements [can be forecast]" (p. 27).

Thus, while over the past 15 years there has been intense debate over the efficacy and future of vocational education, with concerns over the supply of qualified teaching personnel, administrative leadership, and academics, HRD programs and enrollments have expanded in numbers and size, although there are indications of a leveling-off of the growth curve of new programs and decline in enrollments in the recent past. Nonetheless, despite a somewhat fuzzy identity brought upon by a wide scope of the profession and some unease among traditional educators over the fit of HRD in teacher training institutions, HRD programs appear to be established in U.S. Colleges of Education where they seem to provide sizeable enrollments and a bridging function to non-school populations and to other units on campus concerned with work studies.

Professional Standards and Ethics

Professions develop by claiming authority over a distinct set of problems of practice, ownership of a distinct body of advanced knowledge, and standards for professional practice that are formalized and enforced (Abbott, 1988 ).

In the teaching professions, standards are maintained through the system of credentialing and licensure that applies to most but not all disciplines. In vocational education, in particular, there are several tracks available to those wishing to enter the profession. In general, according to Lynch ( 1998 ),

most vocational education teachers-secondary and postsecondary-have at least a bachelor's degree, some education courses, and occupational experience. However, when segmented, 73 percent of beginning trade and industrial teachers and 50 percent of beginning health occupation teachers do not hold a baccalaureate degree . . . . Rather, these vocational teachers are credentialed in their respective states to teach as a result of some significant amount of occupational experience. (p. 23)

Certification and credentialing in the business context are restricted in range, with some occupations, such as accounting or health services requiring formal assessment of competence and strict requirements for continuing education and training to maintain the privilege to practice in the profession. However, many business occupations, among them HRD, have few formal qualifications. While informal observations suggest that large organizations increasingly require university degrees for even entry-level positions, many organizations staff their human resource departments with employees without formal education in HRD. Barriers to entry into HRD positions are generally low, and the function is often located within human resource or personnel units with comparatively low levels of power and influence compared to other functions and units. "Despite common claims that 'people are our most important asset,' surveys reveal that many organizations staff their 'people departments' with large portions of non-college-educated individuals and even larger proportions without degrees in HR [human resources] or related fields" (Rynes & Trank, 1999 , p. 811). Human resource employees, even with college degrees, receive lower starting salaries than most other business occupations (National Association of Colleges and Employers, 1999 ), have shorter career paths, and fewer chances of moving into executive positions (Rynes & Trank).

HRD industry associations provide professional development opportunities in the field and award professional certifications, such as the ASTD's certificate program in Human Performance Improvement consisting of six three-day modules offered through a consortium of colleges and universities throughout the country. The largest human resource management professional association, the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), offers certification at two levels, Professional in Human Resources (PHR) and Senior Professional in Human Resources (SHRP) through the Human Resource Certification Institute and to nationally recognized standards. Certification is available based on a minimum number of work experiences in human resources and passing scores on a national exam. Preparation options include preparatory courses, self-study, and academic programs at colleges and universities. Re-certification is required every three years by means of re-testing or completion of formal professional development. As of June, 2000, over 43,000 practitioners had undergone and achieved certification in the U.S. (SHRM, 2001 ). However, there is little research available to show the effects of voluntary certification on individuals' career progression, their performance, or organizational hiring preferences. Research from the UK, where there is a formal national-level certification system for HRD, suggests that despite a vocational qualification system for the profession, many organizations employ non-certified individuals, raising questions about the perceived value of certification system (Institute for Personnel and Development, 1999 ).

Ethical standards for CTE and HRD have been formulated, and these include the principles that "all interventions should be conducted in a manner that (a) promotes learning, (b) ensures safety of students/clients, (c) does not violate public/employer trust, and (d) promotes the transition of knowledge to the workplace" (Gray, 1997 , p. 83). Academy of Human Resource Development (AHRD) membership of about 800 endorsed a set of standards on ethics and integrity (AHRD, 1999) that include general principles of professional competence, integrity, professional responsibility, respect for people's rights and dignity, concern for other's welfare, and social responsibility; as well as standards for research and evaluation, advertising, publication of work, privacy/ confidentiality, teaching/facilitating, and resolution of ethical issues and violations. This rather comprehensive document was drafted with input from similar statements by other academic and professional associations and attempts to address the many potential ethical issues inherent in workplace situations within a liberal framework. As a profession, HRD commits itself to a set of values based on the belief that HRD practitioners "understand that a healthy economy, healthy organizations, and a healthy ecosystem are intricately interconnected. [HRD practitioners] apply and make public their knowledge of learning and performance in order to contribute to human welfare [and] mitigate the causes of human suffering [and] strive to advance...human development and a sustainable future" (p. 5). Thus, the belief in the commensurability of social, organizational, and individual progress appears to underlie the profession, just as this belief underlies the socio-technical systems design approach that much of organization development practice is based upon.

Both fields, it appears, have comparatively low occupational status. CTE programs are often perceived as lower in status than academic programs. In business and industry, HRD is often seen as less influential than other core functional areas, such as marketing and operations. In the case of CTE, the availability of alternative credentialing raises questions over the pedagogical preparedness and currency of knowledge among CTE teachers. In the case of HRD, the low barriers to entry into the field might contribute to its low status in the organizational hierarchy and raise questions over the quality of educational practice these practitioners can provide.

The Knowledge Bases of CTE and HRD

The question of the requisite knowledge of practitioners in both fields can be framed generally and conceptually (e.g., discussions of the subject matter of vocational education, Copa, 1992 ; Copa & Tebbenhoff, 1990 ) or within the context of academic preparation of practitioners, the approach taken here.

In HRD curriculum research, the frameworks most often applied are competency studies undertaken by McLagan ( 1989 , 1996 ) who identified a series of competencies and professional roles for successful HRD practice. Empirical studies repeatedly found that the curriculum of even leading HRD university programs in the country failed to address all or even the majority of required competencies and thus raised questions over their ability to prepare practitioners for several of the advanced and emerging roles in the field (Baylen, Bailey, & Samardzija, 1996 ; Dare & Leach, 1999 ; Leach, 1993 ). Most programs focused on content related to instructional design and development and neglected emerging roles of performance technologist, change agent, and manager of HRD. Kuchinke's ( 2002 ) investigation of the core curriculum of 55 leading HRD graduate programs confirms these findings, suggesting that the preparation of future leaders in the field can and should be improved, if the curriculum is to keep abreast of the demands of current practice. In particular, where the requirements of practice call for the ability of transformational thinking, to effect social change, and translate insights into the dynamics of power and politics into action, narrow curricula focused on the mechanics of the profession are likely insufficient. Here, institutional barriers often impede progress: With HRD programs located in Colleges of Education, the inclusion of subject matter that has traditionally been the domain of departments of organizational psychology, institutes of labor and industrial relations, organizational sociology, or management is difficult-despite the fact that the problems of professional practice rarely conform to disciplinary boundaries and require a cross-disciplinary approach. Another institutional barrier is the fact that Colleges of Education may view themselves as focused on schooling of children and youth instead of learning across the life span in the broader sense, and thus view the inclusion of action research and organization science content as foreign to the mission of a teacher training institution (this despite the fact that educational institutions are themselves organizations that have HRD functions and frequently profess the need for change and transformation).

Lynch ( 1998 ) summarized the state of vocational teacher education indicating that the implementation of the new vocationalism might be limited by current curriculum. Analyzing university vocational teacher education curriculum design, he found that graduates received industry- or business-based occupational experiences and subject matter specific course work, as well as instruction in working with at-risk and special needs populations, computer applications, student advising, and preparation to work with business and industry groups. The average course-taking pattern was deficient, however, in liberal arts subjects and academic areas, compared to other teacher preparation curricula. This might impede vocational teachers' abilities to work with colleagues on integrating vocational and academic courses and to teach basic skills in vocational education programs.

Notably absent from U.S. curriculum in both fields are the postmodern or critical perspectives that are not part of mainstream debate in either field. These perspectives still appear to come more often from outside than from within; examples in CTE are the works of Kincheloe ( 1995 ) and Giroux, ( 1988 ) but also more recently from Gregson ( 1996 ), Lakes and Bettis ( 1995 ), and Rehm ( 1999 ). In the organizational sciences, major critiques on the dominant functionalist and rationalist paradigm have been advanced by Aktouf ( 1992 ) and also more recently by (Calas & Smircich, 1999 ). These voices need to become much stronger and inform the discourse in the fields.

In the long run, both fields can grow only if academic programs are able to prepare their students to fulfill the roles and responsibilities required by clients and stakeholders as well as those claimed conceptually and theoretically. It appears that current academic programs might be in need of revision and improvement if, in fact, the preparation of practitioners for either field is to reflect the claims of a new type of vocational education and the broader reach of HRD practice.

Conclusion

Gray's central thesis was that CTE and HRD formed a common profession based on their shard mission, standards and ethics, intervention, and body of knowledge. While each field, according to Gray, laid claim to distinct characteristics, based on their respective institutional settings, substantial communalities existed between the two. In the preceding pages, I attempted to extend the analysis by reviewing the status of each field, definitions and scopes of practice, standards and ethics, and bodies of knowledge.

Both CTE and HRD are fields whose complexity is increasing in response to the rising complexity of the social, economic, political, and technological environments. Thus, no single definition or mission appears sufficient, rather it makes sense to speak of a multitude of perspectives that mirror the multi-faceted external environments. Both fields share a range of understandings that might be depicted on a continuum with narrow skill training (for the first job and at the workplace) on one end and broad developmental goals (for life-long learning and vocational development) on the other. Both short-term and long-term views appear needed: individuals depend on learning specific skills but also need to understand the broader context of their occupation. Organizations will not function without competence in the routine tasks they perform but also need to foster the ability to grow and adapt for the long term. Thus, a useful taxonomy for the fields might consist of competence of working within an existing system but also competence in working on the system, that is, to effect systemic change based on analysis, insight, and learning (Swanson, 1995 ). To implement change, however, a framework for a desirable future is required, and here the ability of developing a vision of a worthwhile and sustainable future is needed. Lastly, the rate of change seems to dictate that much competence needs to be acquired in the work situation throughout the span of an individual's career and the life of an organization. Thus, competence is gained, refined, shaped, and altered while working instead of exclusively during the preparatory stages of vocational development. This is expressed by the notion of life-long learning that has been embraced by various international organizations, such as World Bank, International Labor Organization, and United Nations organizations. Thus, four critical facets of the professional endeavor of CTE/HRD consist in learning for , at , through , and about work, and these facets are interdependent and mutually reinforcing. A single focus on education for work is no longer sufficient in a complex world, and this realization appears to be behind the many calls for a new vocationalism and a comprehensive definition of HRD. From a systems perspective, the prevailing lack of integration of CTE and HRD should be regarded as counterproductive: both fields are interdependent and form parts of a system of workforce education and workplace learning. Both share a common, yet not clearly articulated value base that draws on Deweyan progressive pragmatism and the search for inclusive solutions within sustainable economic and social environments, a value base that underlies the socio-technical and humanist tradition in HRD. To this integrated field, vocational education can contribute depth of analysis, a philosophy of care and concern, and a detailed vision of the goals and purpose of education-areas that are clearly lacking in contemporary, behavioristic-oriented organization research. Examples might include the notion of good work, research on the meaning of work, the role of work outside of formal employment settings, and the role of work organizations within a civil society. In turn, HRD can contribute breadth and proximity to organizational issues and decision-making and inform those who educate youngsters for a productive life. Initial attempts at formulating this synthesis include work by Miller ( 1996 ), Miller and Gregson ( 1996 ), and Lynch ( 1996 ). Both CTE and HRD need to be integrated into a system of workforce education and workplace learning that reflects the rapid changes in work systems, products, services, processes, and technologies. The system also needs to account for the changing expectations on work by different populations-defined by life-goals, and cultural and generational values-as well as to changes in career pattern and paths-including issues of education and development after work, i.e., after formal employment and career. Lastly, both CTE and HRD are presently deficient of adequate consideration of alternative epistemological approaches, in particular critical theory and postmodernity, to expand the discourse from the traditional Dewey/Prosser dichotomy that has dominated reasoning and scholarship in both fields.

While this appears to be an ambitious agenda in a time of diminishing resources and competing priorities, a coherent and integrated framework for work-related education and development might contribute to raising the visibility and status of both fields and reclaim the central role of issues of work and education in the public mind and the intellectual discourse. Here, views from abroad might be particularly insightful. In the international comparative context, the divide between CTE and HRD appears as a U.S. exception. In countries with stronger central workforce education policies and systems, like the UK, there are far closer ties between the vocational qualification system and HRD in business organizations. There, national entities such as the CIPD (Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, 1999 ) are a focal connection for bridging vocational education and the employment system, with prestigious national awards, such as the coveted Investor's in People ( 1996 ) award to businesses with progressive training and development practices and policies reinforcing public policy. There, a recent series of books and journal articles have addressed the issue of a comprehensive and seamless system of workplace learning, both in school and out of school and across the life span (for an essay review see McCormack, 2000 ). In less industrialized countries, vocational educators routinely provide the entire range of education, training, and development services to multiple age groups and in many institutional and organizational settings.

Gray's thesis of the tie that binds CTE and HRD requires a bold vision for a comprehensive and integrated system of learning that bridges school and organizations as places of learning and places of working. This system must be based on sound educational principles and values and enhance the productive capacity and potential of individuals, teams, organizations, and, ultimately, communities and societies.

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K. PETER KUCHINKE is Assistant Professor in the Department of Human Resource Education, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 355 Education, 1310 S. Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61821. e-mail: Kuchinke@uiuc.edu