Vocational Education And Training Policy Research Articles

Europe à la Carte? Swiss Convergence towards European Policy Models in Higher Education and Vocational Education and Training

In the last decade, European education has experienced far‐reaching transformation through the international initiatives of the Bologna process in higher education (HE) and the Copenhagen process in vocational education and training (VET) for enhancing European cooperation. This study investigates the mostly underresearched effects of these initiatives on Switzerland to discern whether Swiss HE and VET policies have converged towards European models, and which mechanisms were influential. It combines research on Europeanization and convergence and uses process‐tracing based on expert interviews and document analysis. Results reveal that Swiss HE policy strongly converged towards the Bologna model, while the development of a partial convergence of VET policy towards the model of the Copenhagen process can be observed. The study demonstrates the impact of domestic politics on shaping Europeanization effects and reconstructs the processes through which the initiatives took effect through transnational communication.

National Qualification Frameworks: from policy borrowing to policy learning

This article takes up the issue of the internationalisation of Vocational Education and Training (VET) reforms, expressed in the way policy instruments such as National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) are introduced in the European Training Foundation's (ETF) partner countries. There is an international debate and different perspectives regarding NQFs. These perspectives have largely talked past each other. The article brings together these perspectives and highlights the issues at stake in this field. Through the analysis of ETF interventions in different regions, the article makes a case for new approaches of intervention, namely policy learning, that aim at enabling national stakeholders and that are conducive for home‐grown VET policies. The discussion is broad in scope, not only because the article reviews developments in qualifications frameworks across‐regions, but also because it highlights the complex interaction of the global and local development when introducing NQFs and the impact of such reforms on VET systems.

Differences in the Organisation of Apprenticeship in Europe: Findings of a Comparative Evaluation Study

This article presents a comparative analysis of governance structures in the dual vocational education and training (VET) systems of Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland. First a theoretical framework for the classification of plural systems such as dual apprenticeship training is discussed. It is argued that governance in VET can be described according to the coherence of the system on the one hand and the rationale of agency on the other. Moreover, it is assumed that four ideal types of governance can be distinguished. A methodology is presented to implement this framework in data collection and analysis and as an evaluation tool for expert workshops. The study recommends a consistent legal framework regarding the cooperation of learning venues and the establishment of an evaluation and feedback scheme in the shape of an assessment during the training process. In order to efficiently coordinate VET practice, VET policy and VET research, the establishment of a ‘VET innovation system’ is suggested.

Methodological and Theoretical Approaches to the Study of Governance and Policy Transfer in Vocational Education and Training

This introductory article offers not only a synthesis of methodological approaches, methods, conceptual considerations and theoretical frameworks that are introduced in the various articles in this special issue, it also reaches beyond this collection in referring to interdisciplinary approaches to the study of vocational education and training (VET) governance. The latter are specifically intended to assist in analysing the role of the individual, political groups or networks in governing VET and potentially determining a VET policy transfer process. The author explains how the study of governance is directly connected to the study of policy transfer and specifically introduces categories derived from the behavioural science in order to substantiate the thesis that existing governance studies have not paid attention to the essential category of the human or social factor.

European vocational education and training: a prerequisite for mobility?

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the internationalisation of nearly all spheres of society and the process of European integration will be leading to the development of a European vocational education and training (VET) architecture.Design/methodology/approachThe analysis of the “Copenhagen process” is based on the EU documents on the realisation of a European Qualifications Framework and a credit transfer system.FindingsThe result of the study shows that the strategy adopted by the European Union for the establishment of a European area of vocational education is confronted with a dilemma. The European Qualifications Framework is highly abstract since any reference to real educational programmes and qualifications and any concrete provision for the transition and for the transferability between educational levels and sectors (vocational and higher education, initial and continuing training) was avoided in order to adhere to the anti‐harmonisation clause. The result is an abstract, hierachically structured one‐dimensional qualifications framework that lacks any reference to existing VET systems and that contradicts all scientific insights from VET research and knowledge research.Practical implicationsThe implications for VET policy are far‐reaching. A European area of vocational education can be established only on the basis of European open core occupations and an open VET architecture, which ensures that vocational education becomes an integral part of national educational systems. The qualification of employees for the intermediary sector can be realised only as a European project.Originality/valueThere are only a few contributions available that undertake a conceptual analysis and critique of the European Qualifications Framework.

“Making schools practical”

PurposeTo provide information and insight into the potential of reforms in full‐time vocational education and training (VET) (practice firms in vocational colleges) in contrast with apprenticeships against the background of training market frictions in Germany.Design/methodology/approachStructural information on the German VET system; empirical study (2006) within a research project to illustrate the didactical and social benefits of practice firms.FindingsUnderlines that vocational colleges and practice firms within them are part of a “preparatory” system which predominantly serves further education needs and the follow‐up intention to undertake an apprenticeship; confirms preceding research which put them in line with the “typical” full‐time VET system.Research implications/limitationsLimitations are due to the focus on one type of full‐time VET and the specific conditions in the federal state of Baden‐Württemberg.Practical implicationsProvides useful information to understand the nature of VET in a given country; insight into the limitations of full‐time VET can help teachers to rethink co‐operation with companies in general.Originality/valueUseful contribution to rethinking VET policy and to understanding limitations in the wake of an implementation of new forms of vocational learning against the background of culturally‐rooted tradtions.

Achieving equity through ‘gender autonomy’: the challenges for VET policy and practice

This article is based on research carried out in an European Union Fifth Framework project on gender and qualification. The research partners, from five European countries, investigated the impact of gender segregation in European labour markets on vocational education and training (VET), with particular regard to competences and qualifications. The research explored the part played by gender in the vocational education and training experiences of young adults entering specific occupations in childcare, electrical engineering and food preparation and service, and of adults changing occupations. Empirical data from 244 interviews, observations in VET institutes and at workplaces and content analyses of job advertisements, curricula, brochures and other sources confirmed that ‘gender still matters’ from the viewpoint of the individual, in their experiences of skill formation and attribution, occupational choice and personal development. But empirical data also revealed ‘gender blindness’ in VET institutes and workplaces when it comes to considering, positively and constructively, the continuing significance of gender differences in vocational education and training and in work. This article undertakes a secondary analysis of key findings and identifies the need to create the conditions for strengthening ‘gender autonomy’ as the conclusion of most relevance to the United Kingdom’s VET and lifelong learning policy context.

Asking difficult (feminist) questions: the case of ‘disappearing’ women and policy problematics in Australian VET

Since the establishment of Australia’s first national vocational education and training (VET) system, policy that centres women has diminished, to a present‐day national scenario in where ‘woman’ is all but unspeakable in national VET policy forums. This article provides a contextualisation and partial tracking of this erasure, before juxtaposing the present problematic positioning of women with findings from research conducted over the last two to three years. It confirms that a process of re‐traditionalisation in gender roles is being enacted through enmeshing policy shifts, supported by the complicity of contemporary education policies and practice. Given the location of VET at the nexus of work, welfare and education policies, there is an ongoing need to advocate for gender‐sensitive policy initiatives with the potential to cross sectoral and institutional boundaries of education and training, industrial relations, labour force and welfare portfolios. Moreover, it is time to think hard about how to speak ‘woman’ and so do gender equity policy work in VET that centres ‘women’.

Work-based learning programmes and social capital

The twin pillars supporting contemporary lifelong learning theory in Britain – and also to some extent in the USA, Europe and Australasia (Field & Leicester, 2000) – are the development of vocational skills for economic competitiveness, and the fostering of social inclusion and cohesion. Clear and direct links are made between inclusion and economic prosperity in the ‘vision of a society where high skills, high rewards and access to education and training are open to everyone’ (DfEE, 2001, p. 6). However, although this policy does, to some degree, represent a break with the rampant neo-liberalism of the 1980s and 1990s in Britain (Hyland, 2002) – underpinned by (third way) values, which emphasise ‘economic efficiency and social cohesion’ (Giddens, 2000, p. 78) – the concept of economic capital always takes pride of place and there is a real danger that the social capital objectives of contemporary British vocational education and training (VET) may be neglected in the obsession with economic competitiveness. Since work-based learning (WBL) is now a central element in all current VET policy initiatives, it is suggested that attention to the systematic management and support of learning on WBL programmes can go some way towards achieving the important social objectives of lifelong learning.

Researching vocational education and training: where to from here?

Vocational education and training (VET) systems throughout the world have undergone unprecedented change over the last 15 years. The policies of new vocationalism together with the emergence of new economic times have transformed VET. As a result many traditional VET policies and practices have undergone major changes in terms of their organisation and purpose. These changes are often spoken of as one response to the changing nature of work brought on by the impact of new technologies and globalisation on national economies. More VET research has also occurred as a response to the changes in VET. However, given the unprecedented nature of VET change it is perhaps timely to consider whether VET research itself has responded sufficiently to the challenges presented by these changes. This article examines this issue using concepts drawn from organisational theory to investigate recent VET research undertaken in Australia.

Further Education Participation, European Expansion and European Erasure

Abstract From within the context of the planned expansion of the European Union (EU) to include the 12 applicant states from central and eastern Europe and the predicted reduction of the European financial support given to the UK, the article draws on empirical data to explore the impact of the European Social Fund (ESF) on the further education sector and the process of widening participation. Despite the significance of the ESF in implementing vocational education and training (VET) policy, it has been consistently erased by both the Conservative and Labour administrations. Whereas this erasure can be traced back to Britain's membership in 1973, the focus of the article is on the period 1997‐2000, for Labour's Welfare to Work policies draw heavily on the financial support given by the EU through the ESF. It is suggested that, whereas the continued erasure of the Fund can be contextualised by the continued (and politically contentious) membership of the EU, its public erasure enables it to play a vital, flexible and unaccountable role in the VET policies of Conservative and Labour administrations.

The training gospel and the commodification of skill: some critical reflections on the politics of skills training in Aotearoa/New Zealand

In the last two decades the policy context of vocational education and training (VET) has undergone radical change and transformation. This has not been unique nor has it been particular to New Zealand, as can be witnessed by similar reforms in Australia, United Kingdom, Canada and the USA. Despite national and regional variations, and emphasis on the approach adopted by each of these countries, a common agenda has emerged over the aims, content and desired outcomes of VET policy. With reference to recent policy developments in New Zealand, this paper takes issue with some of the implicit assumptions and purposes of the contemporary training agenda. In particular, it will question the highskill/high value-added orthodoxy that underpins the training policies of the New Zealand state of the last decade.

Expansion of New Vocationalism and Realities of Labour Market: View from the Spanish periphery

This article presents an analysis of the recent vocational education and training (VET) policy in Spain. The article will argue that new vocationalism has played an important role as a rhetorical strategy to support the modernisation discourse of the state in education and to hide deficiencies in the correspondence between education and the labour market. To show this, the article is structured in three sections. The first one briefly presents the particular characteristics of mass schooling in Spain. Some points of historical information are provided to highlight the simultaneous process of consolidation and crisis of mass schooling in Spain. It is argued that the State had to face the democratisation of the access to education in times of fiscal crisis and heterogeneous demands coming from different social sectors. This theoretical and historical framework is used to look at policy documents and academic materials that show the central role of 'new vocationalism' in official education discourses and its rhetorical function to legitimise education policy. The article argues that VET discourses and policies have played a significant role as a symbolic production resource for coping with shortcomings and contradictions. Finally, in the third section, qualitative and quantitative data are given to show both the real dynamics of the Spanish labour market and the specific logic of both the State's VET policy and the employers' discourses in shaping what they expect from the education system and the type of skills they ask for. It is argued that, although some of the discourses stress an accelerated change in the production process and in the work organisation forms, empirical evidence shows the inconsistency of these discourse when looking at labour market regulations and the rise of less qualified jobs in the Spanish economy.

Paradise Lost and Paradise Postponed: Vocational Education and Training Policy in Germany and England

These two books complement each other in their studies of vocational education and training (VET) policy. Current German policy debate, like English VET policy in the 1980s, is haunted by the ghost of the apparently perfect performance of German VET in the 1980s and its role in producing a high skills high wage economy. The benefits of paradise were always unevenly distributed to ‘outsiders’, but the rewards for German male skilled workers were impressive. I wonder though whether the almost universal approbation of the German VET system at that time, by policy makers and commentators from other countries, was at least partly influenced by the fact that it was a system where those interested in VET were themselves considered important. They were not pushed to the margins as so often happens elsewhere. Here was a system where those interested in VET were treated with respect.

Competency-based training and beyond: action research and reflective practice in vocational education and training

This article [1] analyses data from a national research project evaluating the contribution of competency-based training (CBT) to outcomes in vocational education and training (VET) in Australia. In the light of this analysis, it is argued that practitioners have an important and developing role as practitioner-researchers in industry settings, engaging in reflective practice and, indeed, in forms of action research. Moreover, it is argued that CBT provides opportunities for practitioners to develop and incorporate different models of education and training, often alongside the ‘standard’ CBT model for the benefit of trainees and the enterprises in which they work. Some implications for VET policy, practice and practitioner education are explored.

Vocational education and training policy development for young adults in the European union: a thematic analysis of the EU trend of convergence towards integration, drawn from the brief presentation of the VET policies adopted in three member states

In this article the author looks at the extent to which European Union (EU) suggestions for Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy development for young people, are translated in the context of convergence, as the result of an international trend for adaptation of common policies towards integration. The article traces issues that describe the relation of VET to convergence and integration, and questions the feasibility of socioeconomic integration in the EU, by presenting a short thematic analysis of issues and trends in three Member States, that have conformed to a large extent to the EU policy framework for VET. It is suggested that integration, as a multidimensional process, relates more to the pressure exerted by adults on young people to conform to predetermined standards, whether in working or social life, and argues that if there is to be a change, there will be a need for new methods of integration into a society which is not fixed and immutable, but in fact in the process of upheaval and of being constantly restructured.

UK's VET Policy and the ‘Third Way’: following a high skills trajectory or running up a dead end street?

This paper critiques current government policy described as a ‘'Third Way’ in vocational education and training (VET). It argues that this approach to VET is likely to fail due to the competitive strategy, largely adopted in Britain, based on price rather than quality.

Vocational education and training and conceptions of the self

In this article it is suggested that many of those responsible for the development of Australian vocational education and training (VET) policy, and the teachers and trainers responsible for implementing education and training within the prescribed policy framework have an inadequate conception of persons (or selves). It is suggested that VET policy, and practice deriving as it does from these inadequate behaviourist conceptions is, thus, less successful and less moral than it should be. A number of conceptions of the self and of persons are given brief exposition in the article, and the concept of a socially extended self is supported. This concept of the person, it is argued, is incompatible with current competency-based training approaches that characterise VET policy imperatives and, to some extent, VET practice. VET practitioners, it is suggested, can and should develop richer conceptions of their students, particularly conceptions that provide an account of persons as social beings who may internally be multiplied along a temporal axis.

Regional community ‘empowerment’ and the competitive training market

Abstract This paper sketches some connections and gaps between ‘community’ and Australian vocational education and training (VET) policy in regional contexts. While ‘community’ and ‘regional community’ feature in current VET policy statements, such policies demonstrate both a lack of clarity about what constitutes regional community/communities and an absence of strategies to address the collective interests suggested within a community discourse. The question is raised as to whether current policy based increasingly upon market relations can support or enable the expression of collective, community-based interests. An increase in VET purchasing power for individuals and enterprises in regional areas is not an adequate strategy for ‘empowering regional communities’: there need to be mechanisms by which the collective and long-term Interests of a region's community members are considered, whether or not they have financial power as VET ‘clients’. Some current initiatives which may facilitate the engagement by regional communities with the VET system are discussed.

How Competency‐based Training has Changed the Role of Teachers in the Vocational Education and Training Sector in Australia

Most formal vocational education and training (VET) in Australia is now competency‐based. When competency‐based training (CBT) first became government VET policy in the early 1990s, there was heated and acrimonious debate about its desirability. During the last few years, debate about CBT has all but disappeared, and VET teachers and trainers have been struggling with the implementation of CBT with, often, little support, and certainly with little interest from the VET research community. A research project examined, in late 1996, the effects of CBT on teaching and learning. A number of creative responses to CBT were discovered, with a major effect of the change to CBT appearing to be an impetus for teachers to re‐examine what they do with their students. Despite changes in teaching methods, CBT nevertheless allows teachers to exercise their skills, although the skills needed are in some respects different from pre‐CBT teaching. This paper reports on the project findings, and looks at the changes in teachers’ activities and roles using definitions of teaching propounded by Fenstermacher, and Miller and Sellar.