Perception of export intenders on relevant resources and competences for the internationalization of vocational education and training (VET) providers

Abstract

AbstractThe local market conditions for VET in Germany naturally affect the exportability of these educational products. In the rarest of cases, education and training products are transferable to foreign markets without any adaptation. The existing literature on international VET cooperation focuses on several transfer aspects as well as case studies of active exporters, investigating drivers and challenges of foreign engagement or analysing international business models. The perspective of resources and competences of VET providers going international has not been considered so far, failing to understand the relevancy of specific factors. This study analyses the required resources and capabilities of internationally active VET organizations (exporters) as well as those without any international experience, but intending to internationalize (intenders). Based on a literature review, this study applied four constructs of company resources and six constructs of competences necessary for conducting international business, each containing two to five indicators. Applying a quantitative research approach, data from 43 exporters and 37 intenders were collected to explore the most relevant resources and competences of both groups. Based on a ranking of all factors, a significant difference in terms of relevance perception was detected comparing both groups. Exporters rate relational resources, intercultural competence, physical resources, and product adaption abroad as much more relevant than export intenders do. Intenders, on the other hand, seem to rely heavily on their strengths in the national market and give high priority to organizational resources like quality management and strategy development for opening up international markets. These findings indicate that support programmes fostering the internationalization of VET providers should put more emphasis on the relevant resource and competence development that export intenders need.