Vocational education

Vocational education is education that prepares people for a skilled craft. Vocational education can also be seen as that type of education given to an individual to prepare that individual to be gainfully employed or self employed with requisite skill.^[1] Vocational education is known by a variety of names, depending on the country concerned, including career and technical education,^[2] or acronyms such as TVET (technical and vocational education and training; used by UNESCO) and TAFE (technical and further education). TVE refers to all forms and levels of education which provide knowledge and skills related to occupations in various sectors of economic and social life through formal, non-formal and informal learning methods in both school-based and work-based learning contexts.^[3][4][5] To achieve its aims and purposes, TVE focuses on the learning and mastery of specialized techniques and the scientific principles underlying those techniques, as well as general knowledge, skills and values.^[6]

A vocational school is a type of educational institution specifically designed to provide vocational education.

Vocational education can take place at the post-secondary, further education, or higher education level and can interact with the apprenticeship system. At the post-secondary level, vocational education is often provided by highly specialized trade schools, technical schools, community colleges, colleges of further education (UK), vocational universities, and institutes of technology (formerly called polytechnic institutes).