The collaboration between Swiss initial vocational education and training partners: perceptions of apprentices, teachers, and in-company trainers

Florinda Sauli

doi:10.1186/s40461-021-00114-2

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the Swiss initial vocational education and training (IVET) partnership from the perspective of several stakeholders on the ground. Collaboration between stakeholders is essential in dual IVET to connect school- and workplace-based learning and to ensure the quality of the entire system. However, such collaboration can be challenging, given the different epistemic natures of the school and the training company. Apprentices, that regularly cross the boundaries of vocational school and training company, often struggle to connect the learnings that they have acquired from both places. Adopting a boundary crossing perspective, we explore perceptions of IVET partnership in terms of challenges and learning opportunities for the stakeholders on the ground. We realized focus groups with apprentices, vocational teachers, and in-company trainers (N = 64) from several professional fields. The data were analyzed in an inductive and deductive manner, using a thematic analysis. The main results highlight that the participants consider the collaboration between stakeholders to be weak: the links between schools and training companies appear to be scarce and not supported by explicit or formal strategies. Further, the apprentices act as brokers, but they are often not supported in connecting school- and workplace-based learning. These results can provide new insights into how the IVET partnership could be designed.

Highlights

In initial vocational education and training (IVET) “dual systems” combine school- and work-based learning
The aim of this study is to investigate the perspectives of apprentices, teachers, and in-company trainers regarding the IVET partnership as well as to determine ways to improve the same
The results of this study indicate that five main themes can be identified: degree of formality in IVET partnerships, apprentices as brokers, teachers and in-company trainers as brokers, boundary objects and other brokers, and examples of networks

Summary

Introduction

In initial vocational education and training (IVET) “dual systems” combine school- and work-based learning. We adopt a boundary crossing approach because it focuses on those transitions between contexts that are socioculturally different This approach has already been used in the field of dual IVET to understand how apprentices can be helped in establishing connections between their practices at the vocational school and those at the training company (for example, see Akkerman and Bakker 2012; Caruso et al 2020; Flynn et al 2016; Sappa et al 2018; Tanggaard 2007). This approach is relevant for studying IVET partnerships wherein stakeholders from several intersecting practices (state, school, training company) must collaborate with each other despite their sociocultural differences. The research questions have been defined as follows: (1) How do apprentices, teachers, and in-company trainers describe the partnership between IVET stakeholders? (2) Which elements of boundary crossing that emerge in the stakeholders’ discourses could improve the IVET partnership?

Methods

Discussion

Conclusion