Promoting workforce excellence: formation and relevance of vocational identity for vocational educational training

Viola Katharina Klotz,Esther Winther,Stephen Billett

doi:10.1186/s40461-014-0006-0

Viola Katharina Klotz, Esther Winther + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1186/s40461-014-0006-0

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Abstract

Vocational learning comprises more than factual knowledge and procedures; the development of a vocational identity is a key aspect and outcome of vocational education provisions and assumed to play an integral role in how students learn and perform. Despite the salience of vocational identity however, the processes that contribute to its formation are far from fully understood. It is unclear whether and which elements of vocational education and training provision shape this process and if and to what degree forms of identity really support the actual vocational performance of a vocational learner. This study seeks to provide deeper understanding of the circumstances that enable different forms of identity to develop and how they direct learning and workplace effort. Using structural equation modeling with data from 504 vocational learners and correlation analysis with data from 187 industrial apprentices, this article proposes a model to account for key influences and the impacts of vocational identity formation for the commercial sector. The results indicate that vocational identity mediates and is closely aligned to the development of vocational engagement and competence. A free career choice and the provision of maximal functional integration into operating processes at the workplace are key factors underlying identity formation.

Highlights

The purposes of vocational education and training (VET) go beyond developing the technical capacities required to perform an occupation effectively or securing students’ employment (Baethge et al 2009; Renold 2009); they extend to the formation of students’ identity within and attachment to an occupation, as well as their integration into society through that identity (Baethge and Arends 2009; Drexel 2005)
Our results highlight that several VET characteristics exert important influences on vocational and workplace identity
We find that functional integration at the workplace (Billett 2004; Chan 2011; Hartigan-Rogers et al 2007; Henderson et al 2007; Lave and Wenger 1991; Newton et al 2009), free career choice (Bühler 2007; Heinemann et al 2009), and practical experience (Billett and Somerville 2004) foster the development of vocational identity

Summary

Introduction

The purposes of vocational education and training (VET) go beyond developing the technical capacities required to perform an occupation effectively or securing students’ employment (Baethge et al 2009; Renold 2009); they extend to the formation of students’ identity within and attachment to an occupation, as well as their integration into society through that identity (Baethge and Arends 2009; Drexel 2005). Skilled workers’ vocational identity is a crucial component of the German workforce, central to its ability to remain successful in an era of unprecedented global competition, because of its effects on vocational capacities, skill performance, and quality (Rauner 1999; Skorikov and Vondracek 2007). Vocational identity guides workers’ practices during the course of completing complex, demanding tasks, and it offers a sustainable source of intrinsic motivation that directs and secures individual engagement with the vocation (Rauner 1999). For both institutional and personal purposes, developing strong vocational identities is an implicit goal of German vocational education; in Switzerland, it is even explicitly included in the stated learning outcomes for the vocational education system (§50 BBG 2002)

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