Learning from Europe and for Europe with David Raffe - insights into early years of European cooperation in vocational education and training research

Abstract

This article provides a picture on the contribution of David Raffe to European cooperation in the field of vocational education and training (VET). It is based on the experiences of the author and his colleagues on European events and projects in which David participated from the early 1990s until 2009. The Section 2 gives impressions of David’s contribution to the theme ‘Modularisation’ during the early years of European educational cooperation. The Section 3 gives insights into David’s role in the founding phase of the VETNET network (the European Vocational Education and Training Research Network) of the European Educational Research Association (EERA). The Section 4 takes a closer look at David’s contribution to the European cooperation project ‘Finding new strategies for post-16 education’ and to the theme ‘parity of esteem between general and vocational education’. The Section 5 discusses David’s role as a policy advisor and policy analyst at the level of European VET policies. The final section presents some concluding remarks on the way that David worked as a colleague and as policy analyst at the national and European level.