How community colleges and other TVET institutions contribute to the united nations sustainable development goals

ABSTRACT

Even though the importance of technical and vocational education is acknowledged in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by the United Nations in 2015, the university sector has dominated the discourse on the role of postsecondary educational institutions in sustainability. This comparative study widens the scope by highlighting contributions that community colleges (CCs) and technical and vocational education and training institutions (TVETs) are making to sustainability in several developed and fast-developing countries. It examines five independent case studies – conducted in Canada, Chile, China, Taiwan, and the United States – and demonstrates that CCs and TVETs are uniquely positioned to make substantial contributions and should be an important part of the sustainability discussion. It also explores special features that allow these institutions to play a vital role in addressing the SDGs. The findings show that the SDGs related to economic development and social justice were a priority in all five case studies, while the environmental SDGs were foremost in the two North American studies. The main barriers to sustainable development include the high cost of education, low completion rates, graduates’ inability to secure employment commensurate with their education, inadequate funding and the reputation of CCs and TVETs as second-tier institutions.

KEYWORDS:

• Community college
• TVET
• sustainable development goals

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Taiwan case study is part of a project involving global case studies of TVETs commissioned by Education International under the direction of Professor Leesa Wheelahan of the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto. Thanks are due to Professor Wheelahan for permission to use the project data in this paper.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Oleg Legusov

Oleg Legusov, Ph.D. candidate in higher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and International Student Advisor at Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Canada. His main area of academic research is international community college students’ transition to the labour market.

Rosalind Latiner Raby

Rosalind Latiner Raby, Ph.D., Senior Lecturer in the Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department of the College of Education at California State University, Northridge, United States, and Director of California Colleges for International Education, a non-profit consortium of California community colleges. She has published extensively in the field of internationalisation of community colleges and their global counterparts since 1984.

Leping Mou

Leping Mou, Ph.D. candidate in higher education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education. He is interested in research on whole-person education and general education through the lens of the capability approach in different traditions and social contexts.

Francisca Gómez-Gajardo

Francisca Gómez-Gajardo, Ph.D., Quality Management Director at Universidad Autónoma de Chile. Her main areas of interests are educational policy and development research.

Yanan Zhou

Yanan Zhou, Ph.D. candidate at China University of Mining and Associate Research Fellow at Jiangsu Institute of Architectural Technology. His main area of research is cooperation between community colleges and industry.