We, the Japanese people have come to enjoy a long life expectancy.Various social phenomena have been recognized accordingly.For example, (1) the number of people who can work even at an older age is increasing, (2) disparity of the time required for mental maturity among young people is increasing.In other words, there seems to be a growing gap between individuals when they realize the importance of planning their own life and beginning to take actions.Currently, it is said that the prospective future for a child is likely to be determined by his/her parents' income. However, if this trend is left unchecked, it will lead to a great social loss and leave the problem to continue and grow in the future.There will be no future in a closed society where only a single life plan is available.
I have the opportunity of being a part of the Kyoto College of Graduate Studies for Informatics since April 2007, and I feel that the combination of vocational school and professional graduate school is extremely effective in removing these expected social constraints.This is because many students have realized the importance of their own life planning and have developed a certain awareness of their own aptitude.Students have a considerable sense of purpose in finding a professional job.It seems they are looking at their future with more options in mind than regular college students.
By collaborating with professional graduate schools, I would say that the new, desirable forms of vocational schools are about to take shape, which provides more future options to their students. Up to now, vocational schools have been the final stop of the academic path for their students. The change enables the students to start studying further when they recognize the option, and maintain their professional status for a reasonably long period of time. In addition, this will add multiple options to the considerably linear, single track life planning path of high school-college-graduate school.
As I have observed the presence of detail-oriented and well premeditated education here, I expect that collaboration between vocational schools and professional graduate schools will become more and more important.
Toshiharu Hasegawa