Dual Vocational System Research Articles

Optimized planning of nursing curricula in dual vocational schools focusing on the German health care system

We investigate a problem in vocational school planning for nurses in countries with a dual vocational system, which closely combines theoretical and practical education and is highly regulated by federal legislation. The apprentices rotate through vocational school-blocks followed by assignments to hospital units, where they receive practical education. This program is regulated in high detail. Hospital units offer some slots for apprentices but expect just enough apprentices to be trained and educated. We create two mixed-integer programming models to optimally solve the underlying planning problems of (1) scheduling classes to theoretical and practical education blocks and (2) assigning apprentices to hospital units. The first model determines the number and length of school- and work-blocks on a class level, where its result is input to the second model, which finds individual unit-assignments for every apprentice fulfilling detailed curriculum requirements. Furthermore, it tries to exploit the units' educational capacities as well as possible. To solve the second model, we develop a heuristic decomposition procedure that enables good feasible solutions in short time. Our computational study is based on real-world data of our cooperation partner and provides valuable insights for management. The dataset consists of manually created schedules over the full 3-year program horizon and information on hospital units and their respective capacities. We test different parameter settings for our heuristic procedure and how they influence solution quality and runtime. Finally, we test, if students can be enabled to request individual vacations and evaluate benefits and drawbacks of different degrees of flexibility.

School-to-work transition and vocational education: a comparison across Europe

Purpose Youth unemployment is one of the major problems that the economic systems face. Given this issue, the purpose of this paper is to assess whether school-to-work transition is easier for individuals with secondary vocational education compared to general secondary education. The authors want to explore which vocational systems across Europe produce better effects. Design/methodology/approach The authors use data from a module on “Entry of young people into the labour market” from the 2009 and 2014 European Labour Survey and they estimate multinomial probit models, allowing for violation of the irrelevance of the alternative assumption. Findings The authors find that in countries with the dual vocational system, vocational education improves employability both in the short and medium run, whereas in countries with a school-based vocational system, results are mixed and, only in some cases, the effect of vocational studies is significantly positive. Research limitations/implications Sample size for short-run analysis is a bit small in a few countries (Austria and Germany). Moreover, even if the authors have reason to believe that the methods adopted are mitigating the omitted heterogeneity issues and robustness checks are run on these aspects, these issues cannot be fully excluded. Practical implications The authors provide policy implications, showing that dual vocational systems can improve school-to-work transitions and that vocational structure is particularly effective in this case. Social implications The authors provide information on which education model may offer better chance in terms of labour outcomes. Originality/value Given the relevance of youth unemployment, the authors provide valuable information on how to mitigate this problem. The use of cross-country comparisons offers great insights on which vocational systems appear to be well-suited to enhance employability.

Gobernanza de la formación profesional dual española: entre la descoordinación y la falta de objetivos

La Formación Profesional (FP) dual está en la actualidad en fase de desarrollo en España, representándose como una opción política atractiva para facilitar la transición hacia el empleo de los jóvenes y adaptar sus competencias a los requerimientos productivos. En este contexto, la cuestión de sus estructuras de gobernanza suscita interés, dado que de éstas depende, en buena parte, la eficacia y el éxito de un sistema que requiere una coordinación eficaz entre los distintos agentes con interés en la formación. Este artículo proporciona unas dimensiones de análisis para entender y clasificar los sistemas de gobernanza de la FP dual, analizando a partir de éstas el incipiente sistema español, regulado en 2012, que se compara, a su vez, con los casos de dos países europeos, Dinamarca y Alemania, en los cuales la FP dual está institucionalizada desde hace décadas. Se trata, no obstante, de una comparación asimétrica dado que Dinamarca y Alemania se utilizan como elementos de contraste con el caso español, el cual es analizado con mayor profundidad recurriendo, además de a un análisis normativo, a un trabajo de campo basado en grupos de discusión. El artículo concluye evidenciando que el incipiente sistema español de FP dual actual tiene un amplio margen de mejora en el terreno de la gobernanza, requiriendo un marco legal más coherente y dotado de mayor consistencia, una mejora sustancial de la coordinación entre las distintas administraciones y actores involucrados, un reforzamiento del papel de los representantes de los trabajadores y una definición más precisa de los objetivos perseguidos.

Support from teachers and trainers in Vocational education and training: The pathways to career aspirations and further career development

Transition from school to work is a challenging period for young people with learning difficulties. In the dual vocational system of Switzerland, teachers at vocational educational and training (VET)-schools, as well as trainers at VET companies, provide important support. We were interested in the different pathways from this support to apprentice's career aspirations and further training. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse data from a longitudinal study in four occupational sectors. Results show that VET-teacher support is directly and indirectly related to career aspirations at the end of the apprenticeship, whereas VET-trainer support influences career aspirations only indirectly. Domain specific constructs (ability self-concept at VET-school, skill variety at the VET-company) and self-esteem are important as intermediary variables. Ability self-concept at VET-school had a strong influence on further education three years after the apprenticeship.

Is Occupational Mobility in Germany Hampered by the Dual Vocational System? The Results of a British-German Comparison

We compare occupational mobility in Germany and Britain and focus on the effects of the German dual vocational system. Based on a comparison of mobility rates for different occupations within each country and between the two countries, we find that mobility is particularly low in German apprenticeship occupations and conclude that the dual system impedes occupational changes. However, German mobility rates are also lower in non-apprenticeship occupations, and only a small part of the overall low mobility rate in Germany (almost three times lower than in Britain) can be attributed to the apprenticeship system. We conclude that institutions such as employment protection are more important for explaining cross-country differences in mobility. Moreover we find evidence for the claim that occupational mismatching at the beginning of working lives is more widespread in Britain.