Vocational Upper Secondary Education Research Articles

Education and criminal behavior: Insights from an expansion of upper secondary school

We study the impact on long and short run criminal behavior from a large scale Swedish reform of vocational upper secondary education, extending programs and adding more general theoretical content. The reform directly concerns age groups where criminal activity is high and individuals who are overrepresented among criminal offenders. Using detailed administrative data we show that the reform led to a reduction in property crime, but no significant decrease in violent crime. The effect is mainly concentrated to the third year after enrollment, which suggests that being in school reduces the opportunities and/or inclinations to commit crime.

Cross-sector collaboration in upper secondary school vocational education: experiences from two industrial towns in Sweden and Norway

This study explores industry–education collaboration on vocational education and training (VET) in upper secondary schools in Sweden and Norway, with particular attention to the initiatives, organisation and operational management, and aspects of robustness and lock-in effects. The case studies include two upper secondary schools situated in manufacturing based towns, which are similar in size and industrial structure, and have the dual system of education. Pupils come from these towns and other places in the surrounding region. The research design is based on a mixed-method approach, including interviews and other sources of information from schools and industry. This covered organisational and operational levels, corporate motives and arrangements, industrial composition, labour market conditions, and other regional and national characteristics. The results demonstrated how shared goals of improving the reputation and quality of VET and meeting industries’ needs for skills formed in two distinct organisational models. These findings raise concerns about the robustness of these collaborations, since how changes occur in companies’ economic situations may affect their ability and motivation to participate in VET training. The authors conclude that the arrangements have had success but may create a lock-in-situation regarding the companies’ ability to restructure and develop new skills for new sectors.

From apprenticeships to higher vocational education in Denmark – building bridges while the gap is widening

Upper secondary vocational education in Denmark is based on the apprenticeship model, which is recognised as a valuable route to employment for young people, who are not aiming for higher education. However, the apprenticeship model has a major weakness: it does not provide eligibility for higher education. The purpose of this article is to examine this problem in a historical perspective. The article builds on a combination of policy studies, statistical cohort studies and interview studies. First, the article explores why progression from apprenticeship to higher education has become a major policy problem in Denmark. Secondly, it explores political initiatives taken to ‘build bridges’ to higher education. Thirdly, it examines the development of technical higher vocational education, which has been a main destination for the former apprentices. Lastly, it examines changes in the transition patterns from apprenticeships to higher education in recent decades and examines why the transition rate has declined. Explanations for the decline are identified at the structural, the institutional and the individual levels. It concludes by pointing at a dilemma behind the policies pursued: Trying to strengthen the links from apprenticeship to higher education involves a risk of weakening the current strong links to the labour market.

Effects of a settings-based intervention to promote student wellbeing and reduce smoking in vocational schools: A non-randomized controlled study

RationaleSchool dropout and health risk behavior such as cigarette smoking represent major problems among students attending upper secondary vocational education. Modifications to the social environment may promote educational attainment as well as health and wellbeing of young people. However, there is a need for more evidence-based intervention programs. ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of an intervention targeting the socio-environmental setting at vocational schools on student wellbeing and smoking. MethodsWe conducted a non-randomized controlled trial of 5794 students (mean age 21 years; 81% male) in 10 (four intervention and six comparison) large vocational schools in Denmark. The intervention involved changes in everyday school practices focusing on four themes: (i) introduction activities, (ii) daily class meetings, (iii) scheduled breaks and (iv) pleasant non-smoking environment. Outcomes were student wellbeing (four subscales: school connectedness, student support, teacher relatedness, positive valuing of the profession) and daily smoking measured at 10-week follow-up. ResultsWe found statistically significant between-group difference in school connectedness, but not in student support, teacher relatedness and valuing the profession. The intervention had no effect on daily smoking. However, we found a statistically significant interaction between baseline smoking status and condition. This interaction suggested that baseline occasional smokers in the intervention group had significantly reduced odds ratio (OR) of becoming a daily smoker compared to baseline occasional smokers in the control group (8% versus 16%; OR = 0.44). ConclusionThe positive effects on school connectedness and in preventing occasional smokers becoming daily smokers indicate that it is possible to tackle school-related wellbeing and smoking in a high risk population through settings-based interventions.

Does more general education reduce the risk of future unemployment? Evidence from an expansion of vocational upper secondary education

This paper investigates whether acquiring more general education reduces the risk of future unemployment. I study an educational reform in Sweden which prolonged the vocational programs in upper secondary school and gave them a considerably larger general content. The research design exploits variation across regions and over time in the implementation of a large-scale pilot which preceded the reform. I examine the students’ labor market experiences during the 2008−2010 recession, at which time they had reached their late 30s. I find no evidence that having attended a longer and more general program reduced the risk of experiencing unemployment. Among students with low GPAs from compulsory school, attending a pilot program seems instead to have led to an increased risk of unemployment. This pattern is strongest among male students and the effect is likely to be explained by the increased dropout rate which resulted from the change of the programs.

The labour market position of narrow versus broad vocational education programmes

This paper compares narrow, or specialised, and broad, or less specialised, upper-secondary vocational education (VE) programmes in the Netherlands with respect to their graduates’ position in the labour market. The data are from three cohorts of the Dutch VE Monitor, a survey of VE graduates 18 months after graduation. The programmes of the highest level—Level 4—of the school-based learning route are investigated. To separate narrow from broad programmes, a novel criterion is used, based on the argument that the match between education and a job within a narrow programme’s occupational domain is better than outside that domain and that, for a broad programme, such a match does not differ significantly between the programme’s domain and outside it. This study shows that graduates from narrow education programmes have a less favourable labour market position than graduates from broad programmes. They have a greater chance of being unemployed and are more often mismatched in their jobs, both horizontally and vertically. They earn less in any case, particularly if their job is outside their occupational domain or below their level. They consequently experience worse career opportunities and many are more dissatisfied with their jobs. To solve this problem, it would be better to focus on realising a shift in the influx of students from narrow to broad education programmes instead of broadening all narrow programmes. Besides this shift to broader programmes, offering broad variants of narrow programmes while maintaining the narrow, specialist variants could be highly allocation efficient.

‘Not all of us Finns communicate the same way either’: teachers’ perceptions of interculturality in upper secondary vocational education and training

This article examines teachers’ perspectives on interculturality and diversity within the context of upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) in Finland. Increasing diversity in VET education challenges teachers’ sense of interculturality and their readiness to interact with and treat the ‘other’ fairly. Compared to other European countries, Finland has much less experience with the inclusion of immigrants in VET. Qualitative data (interviews and open comments of VET teachers involved in social and health care training) were analysed through a template based on a critical and reflexive understanding of intercultural encounters. The results suggest the presence of cultural essentialism and cultural/national hegemony in teachers’ talk about their work with ‘diverse students’. There is also, however, awareness of positionalities and ideologies affecting communication as well as concern among VET teachers about equality and justice – two central issues which can lead to real and proper empowerment of all students in any educational context.

Shaping the Social: design of a settings-based intervention study to improve well-being and reduce smoking and dropout in Danish vocational schools.

BackgroundThe social environment at schools is an important setting to promote educational attainment, and health and well-being of young people. However, within upper secondary education there is a need for evidence-based school intervention programmes. The Shaping the Social intervention is a comprehensive programme integrating social and educational activities to promote student well-being and reduce smoking and dropout in upper secondary vocational education. The evaluation design is reported here.Methods/designThe evaluation employed a non-randomised cluster controlled design, and schools were selected to either implement the intervention or continue with normal practice for comparison. In the baseline survey conducted 2011–2012, 2,329 students from four intervention schools and 3,371 students from six comparison schools answered a computer-based questionnaire during class, representing 73 % and 81 % of eligible students, and 22 % of all technical/agricultural vocational schools in Denmark. Follow-up assessment was conducted 10 weeks after baseline and at the same time teachers of the intervention classes answered a questionnaire about implementation. School dropout rates will be tracked via national education registers through a 2-year follow-up period.DiscussionShaping the Social was designed to address that students at Danish vocational schools constitute a high risk population concerning health behaviour as well as school dropout by modifying the school environment, alongside developing appropriate evaluation strategies. To address difficulties in implementing settings-based interventions, as highlighted in prior research, the strategy was to involve intervention schools in the development of the intervention. Baseline differences will be included in the effectiveness analysis, so will the impact of likely mediators and moderators of the intervention.Trials registrationISRCTN57822968. Date of registration: 16/01/2013

Rates of Returns to Vocational and General Upper Secondary Education, and to Experience in Addressing the Hollow Middle in lndonesia, 2007

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Divergent Urban-rural Trends in College Attendance

Despite the massive expansion of higher education in China since 1998, the cohort trends of urban and rural hukou holders in college attendance have widened sharply. Prevailing explanations emphasize the advantages of urban students over rural students in school quality and household financial resources. We propose the structural exclusion hypothesis that underscores the unintended consequences of a state policy: the urban concentrated expansion of vocational upper secondary education. This policy makes the expanding opportunity inaccessible for most rural students but helps lower-achieving urban students remain in the “pipeline” for college. We conduct a crucial test of these explanations by linking provincial-level enrollment statistics with individual-level models of the urban-rural trends in college attendance. The data are drawn from the 2006 Chinese General Social Survey and official statistics for 28 college admission districts over 14 college admission cohorts (1989-2002). Findings suggest that the rising urban advantage originates from the virtually exclusive increase in opportunities for vocational education among urban students. As vocational education is mainly an option for lower-achieving students, the expansion of vocational education most benefits lower-achieving urban students. The widening differences between urban and rural hukou in college attendance therefore reflects the advantage given “marginal” urban students in access to vocational schools.

Education and Criminal Behavior: Insights from an Expansion of Upper Secondary School

We study the impact on criminal activity from a large scale Swedish reform of vocational upper secondary education, extending programs from two to three years and adding more general theoretical content. The reform directly concerns age groups where criminal activity is high and students who are highly overrepresented among criminal offenders. The nature of the reform and the rich administrative data allow us to shed light on several behavioral mechanisms. Our results show that the prolonged and more general education lead to a reduction in property crime, but no significant decrease in violent crime. The effect is mainly concentrated to the third year after enrollment, which suggests that being in school reduces the opportunities and/or inclinations to commit crime.

Navigating historical thinking in a vocational setting: teachers interpreting a history curriculum for students in vocational secondary education

In Sweden, history has recently become a compulsory subject in upper secondary vocational education and training (VET). The aim of this interview study with teachers was to problematize the transition between the ideals of history education in the curriculum and the everyday practices of history teaching. It investigated how the teachers assess the objectives of the history curriculum and how they relate the curriculum to their knowledge and conceptions of their students. This study complicates the phenomenon of academic subjects in vocational education and provides an empirical example to centre a discussion of the challenges associated with a history curriculum that seeks to acknowledge different orientations of history teaching. The teachers articulated potential problems that stem from the students’ capabilities and motivation. The objectives of the disciplinary and critical orientation assume factual knowledge, which, according to the teachers, the students do not have. In the interviews, the teachers showed that they seek to transform the curriculum to allow them to teach more substantive knowledge. Continuing citizenship education for students in upper secondary VET through compulsory academic subjects, such as history, might contribute less than expected to the individual’s process of becoming a citizen.

Making it real: The benefits of workplace learning in upper-secondary vocational education and training courses

In OECD countries, ‘real world’ upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) programs are used to engage less academically oriented youth in learning, while helping to prepare them for post-school work and/or further education. In general terms, VET programs with high employer involvement, such as apprenticeship schemes, are considered to be superior to classroom-based VET programs that are typically found in many English-speaking countries. In this study, we examine outcomes from a potential ‘third way’: classroom-based VET with a short-term structured workplace learning component. Using propensity score matching and PISA data linked to information from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, we find this model is associated with higher school completion rates and better employment transitions.

Vocational teachers' gendered reflections on education, teaching and care

In this article, we discuss teachers' reflections on the relation between teaching and care in the two most gender-segregated sectors of vocational upper secondary education in Finland, namely Health and Social services and Transport and Technology. We first discuss the concepts around education, teaching, taking care for and caring about students, using theoretisations of care and feminist pedagogies. Using teacher interviews and field notes, we then analyse teachers' ambivalence about care work in the context of teaching, placing special emphasis on care as a gendered task, and then discuss the ‘moral panic’ or ‘worry speech’ about young people in vocational education from the perspective of caring about. The findings are reflected through earlier studies in lower secondary schools. We argue that even if teachers in vocational education, especially male teachers, tend to feel awkward about caring work, they cannot avoid it, and they do care about their students and regard care as a general responsibility.

Theoretical Background for Learning Outcomes Based Approach to Vocational Education

Due to the rapid development of technologies, changes in labour market and globalization, learning outcomes have become topic of debate in the European education policy. In this context knowledge, skills and competences an individual can demonstrate are more important than particular education programme or institution that has issued qualification. The concept of learning outcomes is seen as a tool for promoting international comparability of qualifications and mobility of labour force. This paper outlines the theoretical ideas that have formed the understanding and use of learning outcomes in vocational upper-secondary education. First, the taxonomy of educational objectives, which consists of three domains arranged in a hierarchical order – cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domain, – is described. This taxonomy is useful when learning outcomes should represent stages of various complexity or mastery. Second, three major learning theories – behaviourism, cognitivism and constructivism – are explored to clarify, which principles suggested by them could be applied in learning outcomes based vocational education. Third, learner-centred approach is explored as its principles may be supported by the use of learning outcomes. Both approaches require that students are active participants who want to learn and manage their own learning.

Making It Real: The Benefits of Workplace Learning in Upper-Secondary VET Courses

In OECD countries, ‘real world’ upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) programs are used to engage less academically oriented youth in learning, while helping to prepare them for post-school work and/or further training. In general terms, VET programs with high employer involvement, such as apprenticeship schemes, are considered to be superior to classroom-based VET programs that are typically found in many English-speaking countries. In this study, we examine outcomes from a potential ‘third way’: classroom-based VET with a short-term structured workplace learning component. Using propensity score matching and PISA data linked to information from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, we find this model is associated with higher school completion rates and better employment transitions.

Alternative courses in upper secondary vocational education and training: students' narratives on hopes and failures

Counteracting upper secondary dropouts is an increasingly common issue across the Western part of the world. In Norway, the government has developed different measures to counteract dropouts, one of which concerns alternative educational courses involving increased workplace practice. This article is based on interviews with eight students who participate in the alternative course. The narratives show an identity shift from being outsiders in compulsory education to being participants in the alternative course, something which inspires to learn and installs in the students a hope for the future. This article discusses how and to what extent the alternative courses respond to the purpose of education. We argue that even though the alternative courses respond to many features that may represent educational purposes, this is altogether not enough for the courses to qualify as education. For the courses to qualify as education, a tighter connection to the curriculum is necessary. If the educational system does not respond to the students' construction of new identities through enabling pathways towards more formal qualifications, the development of alternative courses with increased workplace practice might lead to an unintended result of further marginalisation, exclusion and social reproduction.

Citizenship and Educational Attainment amongst the Second Generation: An Analysis of Children of Immigrants in Finland

Citizenship acquisition is often viewed as an indicator of immigrant integration as well as an event that spurs integration further. Relatively little is known about the relationship between citizenship and integration for children of immigrants. This article examines the relationship between citizenship and educational attainment at approximately age 16 in Finland using register data. Results suggest that children of immigrants who are Finnish citizens have better educational outcomes than non-citizens, measured with three indicators of educational attainment. However, the Finnish citizens come from families with higher levels of educational and economic resources than non-citizens and this explains much of the relationship between citizenship and education. After controlling for intervening variables, second-generation students with Finnish citizenship are found to be more likely to choose general rather than vocational upper secondary education compared to their peers who have another citizenship. It is argued that this reflects a difference in educational attitudes between the two groups.

Making it Real: The Benefits of Workplace Learning in Upper-Secondary Vet Courses

In OECD countries, 'real world' upper-secondary vocational education and training (VET) programs are used to engage less academically oriented youth in learning, while helping to prepare them for post-school work and/or further training. In general terms, VET programs with high employer involvement, such as apprenticeship schemes, are considered to be superior to classroom-based VET programs that are typically found in many English-speaking countries. In this study, we examine outcomes from a potential 'third way': classroom-based VET with a short-term structured workplace learning component. Using propensity score matching and PISA data linked to information from the Longitudinal Survey of Australian Youth, we find time in workplace learning is associated with higher school completion rates and better employment transitions.

Assessment of vocational knowing : experiences from the Swedish pilot project with Upper secondary apprenticeship 2008-2011

In 2008, a pilot project with apprenticeship as an alternative pathway of upper secondary vocational education (USVE) started in Sweden. This paper is based on a follow-up study 2009-2011, funded b ...