Conference Agenda

In recent years, VET in its dual organization model has attracted extraordinary interest worldwide (Markowitsch and Wittig, 2020). The resistance of countries such as Germany and Switzerland to the 2008 financial crisis placed their dual apprenticeship model at the center of international debates, making it a kind of “miracle recipe” that would not only provide skilled workers, but also help to control youth unemployment. The dual model is often referred to as an “anti-unemployment recipe” that could be transposed from Switzerland or Germany to other countries to solve the problem of youth unemployment (Jäger et alii 2016, Gessler 2019), including Spain (Cámara de Comercio de España, 2015; Carrasco et al. 2021).

But beyond these exciting declarations and glittering promises, we must ask what the true impact of the dual model on youth unemployment is. More precisely, the questions we would like to address in our contribution are the following:

- To what extent is it possible to establish a direct causal relationship between the development of the dual model and low youth unemployment?

- To what extent can the dual model actually be considered as a form of organization of VET that ensures a high level of integration of those who would otherwise be at risk of becoming unemployed?

- To what extent, according to given socio-economic conditions, school-based forms of VET are able to ensure the integration of young people in upper secondary education.

The questions asked here are complex and require nuanced responses (Stolz Gonon 2012). If we compare national data on youth unemployment and participation in dual-track programmes, we can see a certain correlation. However, further analysis requires caution in interpreting this correlation, as there are many factors influencing the youth unemployment rate (national economic situation, availability of full-time schools at upper secondary level, staying in the family etc.). (Marhuenda-Fluixá, 2018; Wolter et alii, 2018, p. 116)

At the same time, the dual model relies heavily on the participation of companies, which are more concerned with identifying motivated young people with strong profiles for training than with responding to social policy issues. Considering this aspect, it is questionable whether dual model is a better instrument to integrate as many young people as possible and in particular also young people with weaker profiles then full-time schools. (Imdorf 2016, Marhuenda 2019)

To better understand this apparent paradox, we will analyse in depth the integrative scope of VET in Switzerland and Spain. Switzerland is a country with a long tradition of the dual model and is currently the European country with the highest rate of young people in this type of training and at the same time it is among the countries with the lowest youth unemployment rates (Wettstein, Schmid, Gonon 2014). Spain is a country with a vocational training system organized around full-time schools, but for a decade now initiatives to develop dual VET have been taking place in order to react, officially, to the high rate of young unemployment (Martìnez-Morales & Marhuenda 2020, Marhuenda 2019).

It will therefore be interesting to ask whether, on the one hand, the Swiss dual apprenticeship model appears to be an effective tool for the integration of young people into upper secondary education and whether, on the other hand, data of the laste decade about VET in Spain suggest that the already well established full-time vocational schools have a hight capacity to integrate even without being dual. Two issues deserve our attention here: the contrast between dual and non-dual VET, and the labor market and active employment policies, including specific form of apprenticeship contracts.

Firms are important gatekeepers for the transition from school to dual VET (Kohlrausch 2012). The hiring decisions of firms structure the transitions and determine which youths enter the dual VET system. In recent years, two trends can be observed in the transition from school to vocational training in Germany: On the one hand, the transition is becoming increasingly difficult for young people with a lower secondary school leaving certificate or less (Kleinert/Jacob 2012), and on the other hand, the number of young people starting vocational training with Abitur (highest German school-leaving certificate which acts as university entrance certificate) is rising (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung 2022, p.177).

So far, little is known about the role of firms in these trends. This study addresses this gap. The aim is to investigate which firm characteristics contribute to the fact that graduates with Abitur or lower secondary school graduates are hired as apprentices.

The results of my analyses are of interest for all European countries with a VET system since it widens the knowledge about the mechanism driving inequality between apprentices. My findings help to understand how firms influence the inequalities between young people with different school-leaving certificates which are often linked to the individual social and migration background.

The qualification structure of a firm should influence which school-certificates newly hired apprentices have. Firms with higher levels of human capital are more productive (Crook et al., 2011) and should have higher requirements for the human capital resources and thereby productivity of their hired apprentices. Youngsters with Abitur who spend more time in school invested more and acquired more human capital (Becker, 1964), can signal with their certificate a higher productivity (Spence, 1973) and hence are more likely to meet the high requirements of highly productive firms.

Furthermore, firms search for apprentices who fit into their team, e.g. concerning their age (Imdorf, 2012) or their migration background (Imdorf, 2010). The fit between employees concerning their qualification background and hence their productivity might be a further dimension firms keep in mind when hiring apprentices. Employees with a university degree and apprentices with Abitur share the same school-leaving certificate and are more equal than employees with a university degree and apprentices with a lower or medium school-leaving certificate. Taking both argumentations together, I argue that firms with a share of employees with a university degree hire more apprentices with Abitur.

Recently firms in Germany suffer under unfilled training positions which makes it more difficult for them to secure their demand for skilled labour (Leber and Schwengler, 2021). Firms can meet this problem by withdrawing from dual training and hiring skilled employees from the external labour market. However, this startagy implies that the firms loos the advantage of dual VET and only works if enough skilled labour is available on the external labour market. Another possibility of firms is reducing the requirements for the school-leaving certificate.

The training strategy of firms influences training decisions. Theoretically one can distinguish two strategies: the production- and investment-oriented strategy (Lindley, 1975; Merrilees, 1983). I argue that firms following an investment-oriented strategy depend on apprentices not leaving the firm after training to secure their investments. However, apprentices with Abitur might leave the firm after training to study at an university. So, I assume firms following an investment-oriented strategy to hire less apprentices with Abitur. In contrast, firms following a production-oriented strategy are not dependent apprentices staying in the firm after their graduation. Instead that they prefer to hire school-leavers with Abitur because they are more productive, need less instructions and hence generate higher returns for the firms.

In many countries, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has a poorer reputation and is seen as significantly less attractive than higher education. In historical terms, in many countries the relationship between general and higher education on the one hand and TVET on the other can be seen as each side separating itself from the other. Each of the two education sectors pursues its own logic. The exclusive nature of higher education leading to a university degree for a small, privileged section of society has always contrasted with pragmatic TVET. The importance of the school leaving certificate that entitled the holder to enter university was inflated such that it became seen as a reflection of an educated person, while TVET was associated with practical skills and suffered a lower status.

Numerous approaches have been emerging in the area where TVET meets higher education. These concepts have not done away with the segmentation, but they can create new perspectives for putting the relationship between the two sectors on a new footing. The approaches represent a wide spectrum of options from creating new permeability between the two sectors and making it possible to transfer credits gained in one to the other, to the development of entire education courses that link TVET and higher education comprehensively (Wolter 2019).

The contours between the two education sectors are blurring. Vocational schools for instance are moving into the territory that was formerly the exclusive preserve of higher education institutions, while universities of applied sciences and even some universities are devising advanced TVET courses for the market, and competing with advanced TVET institutions (Dunkel/Le Mouillour 2013). In some European countries, these trends towards convergence are even more marked with universities offering advanced vocational courses, in some cases leading to well established qualifications (e.g. Executive MBAs) or even offering a vocational Ph.D. (Dunkel/Le Mouillour 2013). But also, in some countries hybrid institutions emerge. Observations in various countries indicate that new convergences and linkages are emerging between the sectors in countries with very different education structures.

The characteristics of TVET and higher education, and the borders and overlaps between the two have developed in very different ways if we compare nations. At the same time we can see a honing and differentiation of new borders being drawn and new linkages being created between TVET and higher education (see for instance Frommberger/Schmees 2021). This is the background to our question – to what extent could the status quo of this trend been analysed systematically and what objectives are pursued against the background of differing starting points? On the basis of the result this conceptual paper points out consequences for development cooperation.

We follow Euler’s approach of an area of convergence emerges between higher education and TVET (EULER 2021) to differentiate between the two education sectors outlined above, and the resulting emergence of an area of intersection or convergence. This approach shows that on the higher education side a modern version of the historic, traditional research-oriented university persists, while parallel to this, in some disciplines and faculties, higher education institutions with a stronger vocational orientation are emerging. This type of higher education tends to overlap to a significant extent in terms of goals and curriculum structure with the ‘exclusive’ end of the TVET spectrum where we find primarily training occupations in which the vast majority of trainees actually hold university entrance qualifications.

The 2018 Finnish VET reform introduced a single legislation for initial and continuing vocational education and training (IVET and CVET, respectively). For more than 30 years prior to this, the Finnish VET system had been organized based on two separate subsystems, both with their own legislation, steering mechanisms, funding, target groups, teachers, and specialized VET providers. In this article, I argue that although the 2018 reform succeeded in resolving some of the bifurcated VET system’s structural problems, the decision to combine IVET and CVET into a single system ultimately narrowed the structure and purpose of Finnish VET. Consequently, the newly reformed VET system views students primarily as future workers-in-training rather than citizens with equal educational rights, hence deepening social inequality (see Isopahkala-Bouret, 2014; Nylund & Virolainen, 2018; Seitamaa & Hakoköngäs, 2022).

The decision to combine IVET and CVET sparked considerable controversy when it was first announced. Proponents of the decision argue that there is an inherent synergy between IVET and CVET that improves cost-effectiveness by decreasing bureaucracy and eliminating partially overlapping costs. Critics of the decision charge that it has significantly weakened the status and autonomy of CVET and made steering and provisioning adult education far more difficult. The decision to create a single legislative framework for VET also has profound pedagogical ramifications: elements that were originally developed and intended mainly for adult learners, such as competence-based personalized learning pathways and the recognition of prior learning, were expanded to all learners. The 2018 reform also made work-based learning the primary pedagogical method, thus effectively bringing an end to the era of school-based VET in Finland (Virolainen & Thunqvist, 2017; Niemi & Jahnukainen, 2020).

This qualitative research paper uses critical discourse analysis to examine expert interviews conducted with 32 leading VET policy actors in Finland, including high-ranking civil servants, key stakeholders, VET providers, senior politicians, and researchers. The interview data is complemented with key policy documents to answer the following research questions:

1) How do experts make sense of the decision to combine IVET and CVET in the 2018 VET reform, particularly in terms of its effects on youth and adult learners?

2) How do experts connect the decision to combine IVET and CVET with broader political, structural and systemic tensions in the Finnish VET system?

3) How do experts see the future of Finnish VET in terms of its structure and purpose, particularly for youth and adult learners?

In the Dutch educational system, two traditional learning pathways to higher professional bachelor (or HBO) programmes exist: the regular VET route and the general secondary education route. The VET pathway starts from lower secondary pre-vocational school-based programmes at EQF level 2 (VMBO; nominal duration 4 years) and goes via middle-management VET programmes at EQF level 4 (MBO; 3-4 years) to higher professional bachelor programmes at EQF levels 5 or 6 (HBO; 2-4 years) (Cedefop, 2016). The general secondary education route can be described as an integrated lower and upper general secondary programme at EQF level 4 (HAVO; 5 years) leading to HBO.

In addition to these traditional learning trajectories, continuing learning pathways have been designed and implemented during the last decade in the Dutch VET column that combine characteristics of the two traditional trajectories and that are aimed at accelerating students’ learning trajectory and promoting their transition to HBO programmes (see e.g. Sneyers & De Witte, 2016; Mulder & Cuppen, 2018). Continuing learning pathways can be defined as sequential educational programmes combined into a new integrated educational programme (Biemans et al., 2016; 2019; 2020).

Examples of such continuing learning pathways in Dutch VET are the Talent Development Engineering programme (TDE) and the Green Lyceum (GL), which is offered by several agricultural (or ‘green’) VET institutes. These educational programmes can be described as accelerated, continuing pathways connecting VMBO and MBO levels and are specifically aiming at students who combine a relatively high cognitive ability to reach the HBO theoretical level with an outspoken affinity for practical, vocation-oriented assignments. The Dutch trend of designing and implementing continuing learning pathways is in line with the efforts many other countries are making to make pathways to higher vocational education more flexible and, thus, to promote students’ transitions between successive educational levels (see e.g., Catterall et al., 2014; Harris & Rainey, 2012; Aarkrog et al., 2018).

The central aim of the present study was to examine and compare student perceptions of different learning trajectories to HBO: the Talent Development Engineering programme (TDE), the regular VET route in the engineering domain, the Green Lyceum (GL), the regular VET route in the agricultural domain, and the general secondary education route. Moreover, we strive to relate these student perceptions of the different learning trajectories in Dutch VET to their transition data to HBO and their study success data in the first HBO study year. After all, a successful HBO career could be considered as the ultimate goal of these learning pathways to HBO. In this way, the present study aimed to contribute to knowledge on students’ perceptions of different pathways to higher professional bachelor (HBO) programmes and to lead to deeper insights in how students’ transitions to this educational level and their study success in HBO can be promoted through learning pathways with specific educational design features.

The study aimed to answer the following research questions:

1. How satisfied are HBO students from the different routes with their learning trajectory to HBO?
2. To what extent do students feel prepared in their previous educational programme with respect to study skills needed in HBO?
3. To what extent do students feel prepared for the theoretical subjects in their HBO programme?
4. To what extent do students feel prepared for the vocation-oriented aspects of their HBO programme?
5. To what extent do students feel supported in their previous educational programme in choosing a specific HBO programme?
6. To what extent are student perceptions of the different learning trajectories to HBO related to their transition to HBO and their study success in HBO?

At first glance, vocational and technical education in agriculture can be perceived as an obvious matter. It might be summarised as the educational process that include "the study of technologies and related sciences, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes, understanding and knowledge relating to occupations in agriculture" (Jones, 2013). Various occupations and related skill sets have been defined that can operate under agricultural value chains. However, it is a more complex exercise when it comes to identify these occupations economically in relation to labour market demands, to determine the occupational standards to finally decide who can practice these occupations and how how these individuals will be trained.

In the face of macro problems such as environmental concerns, food security, climate crisis and feeding the world population, what will determine the course in the coming years is the question of what competencies and skill sets the practitioners of agricultural activities or farmers should be equipped with. The overwhelming gravity and urgency of problems mentioned above make it difficult for all professional groups operating in agricultural systems to transfer the necessary scientific knowledge into practice swiftly and effectively.

The necessity of transferring scientific knowledge in a research-intensive field such as agriculture into practice and competing against time in this regard also concerns curriculum development studies related to agricultural training since the curricula need to be constantly reviewed and updated in terms of objectives, content, teaching-learning processes and assessment.

This study is situated in such a context. In the absence of VET programmes to train qualified and skilled workforce in the existing agriculture systems, a model for the development of a vocational and technical training curriculum in agriculture is necessary. As a preliminary step, the views of various stakeholders in agriculture were identified to provide a comprehensive dimension of needs assessment. The purpose of this study is to identify the views of the primary stakeholders of agriculture on agricultural vocational education and training in order to establish a wider model on which the curricula that are likely to be used in formal or non-formal education will be based. The findings of this study will be used as a dimension of needs assesment process to inform a model to develop VET curricula in agriculture. To this end, the answer to the following research question was sought:

How do the stakeholders define (i)needs, (ii)priorities, (iii)preferences and (iv)recommendations for the development of VET curricula in agriculture for northern part of Cyprus?

Particularly in efforts to link vocational education and training (VET) offerings more closely to the demands of the labour market, the approaches of competence-based education are gaining importance for the planning, implementation, and assessment of educational processes in vocational education and training worldwide (Argüelles & Gonczi, 2000, p. 9; Hodge et al., 2019, p. 28). At the same time, the concepts of competence-based VET also contribute to linking the didactic orientation to vocational requirements with pedagogical needs for learners’ development opportunities in training processes (Frank & Iller, 2013; Reusser, 2014). In this respect, the concepts of competence-based VET represent extensive didactic approaches for achieving quality development and upgrading vocational education. Despite their increasing concernment in the global reform efforts in the VET field, there have been few studies to date that could be used to make robust statements about the effects of these innovative approaches in vocational education processes, not to mention in a comparative perspective.

Against this backdrop, the focus of this contribution[1] was to address the research question of to what extent and how the competence-based approaches are actually enacted in the teaching and learning processes of the vocational curriculum in the selected countries, Russia and China. The reason for choosing these two countries is that both the Russian and Chinese VET systems are school-based and state-driven, although they have different structures. In addition, both of them are active in the process of introducing and implementing the competence-based approaches as a means to modernize their VET system. Therefore, the key concern from a comparison standpoint here was to identify the most notable contrasts and similarities between the competence-based approaches implemented in the chosen national contexts.

[1] This contribution is a part of an international research project (CodeVET) conducted in cooperation with German, Russian and Chinese universities, and represents a comparative study focusing on the investigation of the competence-based approach in the planning and implementation of educational processes in VET programmes of Accounting and Logistics in Russia and China. This project was funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and was completed on 31.10.2022.

What are the implications of the growth of programmes for high skills (at bachelor’s level) offered by vocational education providers? Over the last twenty years, new and different forms of higher education have developed beyond the university sector to meet the expanded educational demand from new and different students for high level skills in Europe, the UK, Australia and North America, among other places (Teichler 2008; Knight et al. 2022). Accordingly, this expansion of higher education by the entry of institutions with a tradition of offering vocational education and training is leading to a more diverse system. Yet diversity can create tensions and challenges to homogenous systems.

The paper considers these tensions and challenges through exploring empirically how the bachelor degrees in vocational institutions have been understood and valued by students in the context of Australia. The paper asks: 1. Why are students choosing degrees in vocational institutions? 2. What do students, providers and others in the system (including those offering guidance to students and other providers) perceive to be the distinctiveness of these degree offerings? 3. What worth or distinction do these degree offerings hold for students in a hierarchically organised higher education system?

The paper builds on the authors’ earlier work that has shown that the landscape of non-university higher education in Australia is different from that of university providers; the degree offerings are more like those found in the non-university sector or university of applied science provision in Europe, the UK and North America (Knight et al. 2022). These differences relate firstly, to which students and what courses they are following; secondly, the position of vocational institutions within a stratified field of higher education; and thirdly, the message system of higher education in non-vocational providers and its links to the notion of vocationalism. With more than 50% of the age cohort participating in higher education in its various forms the paper contends that there are important tensions and challenges for equity in such diverse mass systems of higher education, which appear unified in principle, but are significantly hierarchical and stratified in practice (Marginson 2016). The paper considers the equity question by exploring how institutions distinguish themselves in the competition for students and how students navigate and choose different institutional degree offerings. In other words, the paper’s focus is on what students in non-university higher education understand by distinction.

The paper’s starting point is that distinction is a term that is best understood through the concept of heteroglossia, that is, it can be understood in different ways (Bakhtin 1981) In applying the term in social science analysis, heteroglossia has come to mean recognising how different voices reflect and attach different meanings to similar linguistic terms. For example, Dorothy Smith (1998, 63) explaining why she draws on Bakhtin, rather than Foucault, states that heteroglossia enables her to ‘explore discourse as local practices in which people are active’. Bourdieusian analyses of distinction in education highlight a process through which tastes are ’markers of class” (Bourdieu 1984, 2). Thereby, the taste for the most elite universities in a globally differentiated system gives distinction to those dominant groups that invest in this form of education and ensures they retain their dominant position and the social reproduction of inequalities. In contrast, this study of non-university higher education in Australia shows that students and college protagonists’ understandings of distinction, were very different. Whilst they recognised the distinction or good taste associated with study at elite institutions, their taste was for the different form of higher education available in the non-university providers; that is a taste for a distinctive vocationally focused degree offering.

How to get more young people to choose vocational pathways education has long been an emphasis in educational policy in Europe as well as the and the Nordic countries (e.g., Cedefop, 2020a; Helms Jørgensen, et al., 2018;). Iceland is no exception, and for a better part of century there have been concentrated efforts from different stakeholders to increase VET participation at the upper secondary education level (Eiríksdóttir, et al., 2018; OECD, 2013b) and this emphasis is still present in the current governmental policy. However, most upper secondary school students in Iceland choose academic pathways leading to matriculation over vocational pathways (Statistics Iceland, 2022). The percentage of upper secondary students enrolled in VET has remained around 30%, which is lower than the EU average of 47% (Cedefop, 2020b; Statistics Iceland, 2022). Therefore, despite education policy and stakeholder efforts, VET participation has not increased (Icelandic National Audit Office, INAO, 2017).

There are varied explanations for the preference of academic over vocational education, but the issue relates the disparity of esteem between vocational education and academic education (Billett, 2014; Billett et al., 2022; Field & Guez, 2018; UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2018). Academic education usually enjoys a higher status than vocational education vocational education is often considered a dead-end in the educational system as it generally has a narrow focus and usually does not provide access to higher education (Billett et al., 2022; Eiríksdóttir et al., 2018; Helms-Jørgensen et al., 2018; Nylund, et al., 2018). Academic pathways at upper secondary schools and higher education following graduation are seen as the key to upward mobility. Especially as academic drift and increased demand and requirement for university education have made this pathway predominant (Field & Guez, 2018; Jónasson, 2003). Also, the emphasis on employability, market readiness, and individual responsibility in vocational education can influence future social positions and prospects (Eiríksdóttir, 2022; Nylund, et al., 2018). The lower standing of vocational education can manifest in different ways, for instance through lower participation, increased drop-out, or the view that it is better suited to students who do not have the academic abilities for academic pathways (Billett et al., 2020). Addressing the issue of parity of esteem between academic and vocational pathways as it relates to the educational choices of young people is difficult as the decision of what to study is a complex one and under the influence of a constellation of factors, such as personal issues, practical concerns, or societal influences (Eiríksdóttir, 2022).

The research aims to investigate the standing of vocational education at the upper secondary level in Iceland, in comparison with academic pathways, through applications and admissions patterns over time. The goal is to assess changes in these patterns for the two pathways over the past 17 years, both through analysis of applicant characteristics (age, gender, place of residence – rural vs. urban) and type of field or program (sector and degree awarded). Understanding who applies for vocational education and how the application and admission patterns have changed over time is the first step in figuring out (1) why students do or do not choose VET in upper secondary schools, (2) why stakeholder efforts to increase the standing of VET have failed, and (3) where to target future efforts.

The phenomenon of social selectivity is a problem, which occurs in various European countries. The presented paper investigates the situation in Germany – a country characterized by a strong vocational training system, which is aiming to include young people from different educational and social backgrounds. However, former research shows that the opportunities to gain high level school-leaving certificates in Germany are very crucially influenced by the social background of young people. The phenomenon of social selectivity within the general educational school system is perpetuated in initial vocational education and training via the different school-leaving certificates. This is visible in the strong correlation between high-level school-leaving certificates and training occupations with a higher social prestige. The individual social background indirectly influences the transition into initial VET through school-leaving certificates, which makes the transition to different VET positions socially selective (Beicht & Walden, 2015).

This paper investigates whether social selectivity also exists with regard to adolescents’ work values, i.e. the importance individuals place on different job characteristics (Mortimer & Lorence, 1979; Johnson, 2001). Young people’s choice of an apprenticeship is determined by various factors such as their interests, social expectations, requirements in the VET system and market conditions (Ahrens et al., 2021). In the literature, two major value dimensions have repeatedly been identified. We also refer to this differentiation between extrinsic and intrinsic values (Mortimer & Lorence, 1979). Extrinsic values concern the rewards derived from the job but external to the work itself (e.g., income, prestige, and security). In contrast, intrinsic values involve rewards obtained directly from work experience (e.g., interest, challenge, responsibility, autonomy, and similar gratifying features). Intrinsic values can be differentiated further into two groups: The first one involves the use of abilities, expression of interests, and creativity. The second is a people-oriented set of concerns related to the chance to work with people and to be useful for society (Mortimer & Lorence 1979, p.1362). Sociodemographic aspects explain differences in these work values: A lower family SES is associated with higher extrinsic work values, whereas a higher SES relates to intrinsic and autonomy work values (e.g. Johnson, 2002). Research results regarding the effect of education are not consistent. Research also shows that work values undergo changes due to transitioning to work (Lechner et al., 2017). Our research aims to investigate the interrelatedness of different work values and the individual social background. We assume that selection and socialization processes can explain the variance of intrinsic, people-oriented, and extrinsic values among individuals in different vocational fields. Furthermore, we assume that young people select their training occupations based on their personal work values. Hence, when entering the labour market they attempt to choose a job that best gives them the rewards they perceive as most important. For example, people highly valuing extrinsic rewards select training occupations with a high potential to generate income, whereas individuals who prioritize people-oriented values choose occupations providing them opportunities to work with people. Regarding the interrelatedness of work values and social background referring to Mortimer and Lorence (1979) we assume that the importance of values in the process of occupational selection is greater at upper socioeconomic levels, because these individuals have higher qualifications and more social capital leading to a broader range of occupational opportunities (Mortimer & Lorence 1979, p. 1364).

This paper tries to answer the questions 1. whether individuals from a lower social background have different work values from those from a higher social background and 2. which other (not only individual) factors besides social background determine individuals’ ability to realize the fulfilment of their work values in their current job.

VET, and especially iVET, serves different values, based on national or regional traditions and the design of the educational different system. In some countries, VET is mainly seen as an educational offer to integrate people with low skills, which are hard to educate and train or who have physical or mental handicaps. In other countries, it is the first choice for most students, also for the very talented. In general, VET has the potential to integrate young people as well as lay the ground for a sustainable career for the very talented (Stalder, 2012). It is therefore not surprising that the standing of VET depends on a multitude of factors and differs significantly between countries and regions (Billett et al., 2022).
Students transition into VET either after the lower secondary or the upper secondary level. It is always a transition from school to VET. It is, therefore, important to look at how students move from school into VET. There is a plenitude of scientific work doing this with different perspectives (policy, economy, sociological, psychological perspectives etc.). An often-neglected topic is the role of teachers at school in career education. This discussion is often left to career counsellors, or teachers are asked to behave like career counsellors.
First, we will introduce the concept of career education in its historical context and how it relates to sustainable careers.
Second, we ask about the role of teachers in career education. We know that teachers either have no role at all in career education or that they are asked to help students find an occupation. The latter brings them into a role as career counsellors, which should not be the aim. Teachers remain better educators and do not become counsellors because this would overarch their professional role. However, it is surprising that in many papers on youth transitions into iVET or VET, teachers are explicitly or implicitly assigned to the role of a counsellor. We want to question this view and propose alternatives, also based on a model of how students move from school to work (Nägele & Stalder, 2017). We will discuss the role of teachers in career education.
Third, if career education becomes a goal for schools, what competencies should students develop? Often, the main question a student asks is, “What do I want to become?”. Is this a good question? Should it not be: “How do I learn to think and build a sustainable career?”. It is about sense-making and reflection, concepts borrowed from career counselling (Savickas et al., 2009) that need to be adapted to the educational context.
We will present the voices of students from within a system that serves, on the one hand, to integrate disadvantaged students into VET, as well as offer opportunities to the very talented students that would head towards general education in many countries. How does career planning in individuals start on the lower secondary level on how come they conclude to follow vocational education and not to go into general education? And what is the role of teachers in that process? We need to reflect on career education, and on how teachers can support their students in learning how to design their careers. This is a very different task from career counselling.

The paper is a case study about literacy school subject following competency-based curriculum in vocational education and training (VET). The analysis discusses vocationalism and labour focus which draw on ‘work relevant’ competencies – or ‘skills fetish’, as Wheelahan, Moodie & Doughney (2022) problematise competency-based education. Situated in competency-based qualification curriculum, we analyse how literacies manifest as (not) important and (not) useful knowledge during literacy lessons in VET, and how these perspectives associate gendered and classed meanings.The theoretical background of the paper lies on problematisations of theoretical knowledge in competency-based education (Wheelahan 2010), and sociocultural understandings on literacies as social practices (e. g. Barton & Hamilton 2000). We explore curriculum as it ‘realises’, meaning to comprise of everyday processes which intertwine institutional curriculum, its interpretation, interaction in the classroom, and students’ understandings (Doyle 1992). Two research questions guided our analysis: How does the curriculum for literacy realise during the lessons? How do literacies become framed during the literacy lessons?

In Finland, which is the context for the study, VET qualifications’ competency-base was reinforced in a policy reform in 2018. The qualifications should train students for vocational work but also ‘provide skills for active citizenship and tertiary study’ (§ 2, Act 531/2017). From the literacy point of view, the educational goal is to manage labour context specific literacy tasks but also gain agency in more decontextualised literacy settings and understand how these are related (cf. Ivanič, 2003). Currently, the focus of VET literacy curriculum is on situated practices in the world of work (e. g. using manuals, taking notes, jargon), (Finnish National Agency for Education, 2019). However, these situated literacies do not necessarily facilitate access in other complex textual worlds (e.g., reading/writing extensive texts, argumenting).

We draw on ethnographic fieldwork covering VET literacy curriculum, with upper secondary car mechanics and construction program students’ literacy lessons. These VET programs represent male dominated fields with low intake criteria and overrepresentation of working-class-based youth (Education Statistics Finland, 2022a; 2022b). A body of ethnographic studies conducted in such male-dominated fields rephrase students’ lack of motivation for schoolwork that stem from group situations and cultural beliefs of working-class ‘lads’ (Rosvall, 2015). In the Nordic educational policies, Mattias Nylund and colleagues (2018) found that core subjects (such as literacy, mathematics, and languages) are often not seen to be of interest to VET students. On the other hand, policies posit VET students as interested in their field of vocation and eager to start working life. The study suggests that these notions arise from ‘class prejudice’, related to VET students’ often working-class backgrounds. Our aim is to provide nuanced analysis on how literacies, including perspectives on them, are constructed during literacy lessons.

From our feminist ethnography perspective (Skeggs, 2001), educational interests and study do not happen in a vacuum but involve social meanings and hierarchies. Culturally, there is some incoherence with literacy situated in VET. Literacy associates with theoretical, and VET in general associates with practical, and these are often seen analogous with students’ educational interests. Overall, the dichotomy of theoretical and practical, and the relating dichotomised concepts, is persistent in upper secondary education in the Nordic countries. A choice between vocational and academically oriented general upper secondary education is often and stereotypically understood as a choice between ‘making’ and ‘thinking’. These dichotomies ground in classed stereotypes and simplified view on students, education and world of work (e. g. Lahelma 2009). Theoretical knowledge, represented for example by literacy, and its suitability for VET students is one layer of these dichotomies.

With the “European Green Deal”, environmental degradation and climate change gain increased political and public attention in Europe (European Commission 2023). Many institutions and enterprises have implemented sustainability activities, although tending to oversimplify “sustainability” by reducing it to environmentalist terms and efficiency of resources. However, both small and large organizations also need to address economic and social requirements in order to be “sustainable” in the sense of long-term success and responsibility. On the one hand, demand for alternative resources and products is rising, leading to changes in business models and market approaches. On the other hand, social movements such as „Fridays for Future” emphasize the changing value systems of young people, indicating that true corporate responsibility (both ecological and social) will be of increased importance for attracting qualified and motivated apprentices across Europe and beyond.

In Germany, education is understood to enable competences and sustainable structures (cf. Deutscher Bundestag 2017). Especially “vocational education and training for sustainable development” (VET-ESD) is promoted as a key factor, since a qualified workforce drives innovation and transformation. One example: the German transition to renewable energy (“Energiewende”) is significantly executed by qualified vocational workers (vgl. Hemkes et al. 2013). Considering the scope of the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals (https://sdgs.un.org/goals), every vocation can contribute to sustainability in specific ways. Every step of a value chain offers possibilities to promote – or impede – sustainable developments, from raw materials, production and logistics to services and waste/disposal tasks.

How can these complex and domain-specific capabilities be identified and operationalized for vocational education curricula? In German VET, a multi-stakeholder approach to deriving vocational curricula is applied. Whenever curricula for a certain vocational domain are developed or updated, a group of representatives of different stakeholders enters discussion, managed by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (“Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung”, BIBB). While arguing in the interest of their stakeholders, the representatives in such committees draw knowledge from work research, current expertises, and pilot projects. Due to this discursive mode, modernizing official vocational curricula can be a long and cumbersome political process. Vocational schools, on the other hand, have to address students’ and apprentices’ needs in a changing world as immediately as possible in order to fulfill their educational missions.

In order to address these challenges, a network of three vocational schools in Berlin partnered with Humboldt-University, the NGO EPIZ – “Center for Global Citizenship Education” and the Senate Department for Education, which is responsible for teacher training. As “Flagship Schools for Sustainability”, they aim to develop innovative school-specific curricula and learning settings for sustainability in their respective vocations, which are: social security clerks at Hermann-Scheer-School, gardeners at Peter-Lenné-School and mechanics at Georg-Schlesinger-School. The diversity of these vocations (administration, “green”, and industrial domains) represents that sustainability is indeed relevant in all vocations, but with very different aspects. It also offers the possibility to research similarities and differences in curriculum development, aiming at generalizable knowledge such as transferrable design principles, to be applied to other vocations and schools in the future. With this aim, the academic partners in the network structure these development processes as design-based research projects (cf. McKenny/Reeves 2018) with a continuous flow of information, knowledge and feedback. This paper will delineate the applied curriculum development strategy, which is based on successful prior projects in different domains such as trade and logistics (Casper et al. 2021) and food production (Kastrup et al. 2021). Results to be presented are analytical competence frameworks for sustainability in the selected vocations and exemplary learning settings designed by participating teachers, as well as “lessons learned” considering prerequisites and design-principles for similar endeavors.

Vocational students’ limited access to civic learning has been a continuing concern (Rosvall & Nylund, 2022; Wheelahan, 2015). Misinformation, disinformation and the growth of populism and neo-nationalism globally are making this question even more topical. Students encounter conflicting views on social media and may pose spontaneous questions to their teachers on various issues, such as how to respond to the climate crisis, migration, or matters of gender equality and equity (Cassar et al., 2021; Dadvand et al., 2022). What teachers do when faced with these kinds of controversial global issues plays a crucial role also in vocational education and training (VET) where critical thinking has been emphasised less than in the academic track (Rönnlund et al., 2019; Zuurmond et al., 2023).

In Finland, the school-based upper secondary VET is popular, with nearly half of the 16-year-old young people continuing their studies in the vocational track. Many adults also enter VET. When compared to the academic track, vocational students have more diverse backgrounds in terms of socioeconomic status, academic achievement, political attitudes, age, gender, mother tongue, or ethnicity. This heterogeneity provides an interesting research context for the focus of this paper, addressing controversial global issues in education.

Ethical and critical reflection as well as global responsibility feature among the ‘underlying values’ of all initial vocational qualifications in Finland. Yet, little is known about how VET teachers apply these values in practice. Recent studies have emphasised how Finnish VET teachers want to educate students for a good life, citizenship and social participation, fostering students’ growth more holistically beyond the immediate needs of the world of work (Löfgren et al., 2022; Ryökkynen & Räty, 2022). At the same time, teachers are struggling with the growing demands for efficiency, individualisation and fast graduation that constrain teachers’ possibilities to support students (Niemi & Jahnukainen, 2019).

Studies on teaching controversial issues in VET are limited. In other educational contexts, addressing controversial issues has been seen to develop learners’ critical thinking and democratic competences when provided an open classroom climate for dialogue, dissent, and reflection on diverse views (Hess & McAvoy, 2015). Yet, particularly in pluralistic and polarising societies, teachers struggle with fostering this openness while ensuring the safety of marginalised or minority students (Pace, 2021). Although ways to organise VET differ between countries, these educational needs and challenges are widely shared across different socio-political contexts.

Our paper addresses the gaps in the literature with these two research questions:

(1) How do VET teachers describe their pedagogical approaches to addressing controversial global issues?

(2) What differences can be found between VET teachers’ pedagogical approaches to addressing controversial global issues?

Our study draws from research on teaching of controversial issues (Gindi & Erlich, 2018; Hess & McAvoy, 2015; Pace, 2021) as well as from critical global citizenship education stressing the need to question assumptions, learn from others, and encounter difficult knowledge (Blackmore, 2016). The paper contributes to the discussion on the civic aims of VET, and on how school settings can provide the time and space for students to also participate in debates on societal controversies (Rosvall & Nylund, 2022; Wheelahan, 2015).

Our research topic is observation-based and collaborative learning, forms of informal learning, among students preparing for an ISCED level 3 qualification, and among the students and adults they observe. We are looking for answers to the question of the extent to which this type of learning is present in the lives of apprentices. The target group of the survey is young apprentices in 3-year apprenticeship in Hungary and Poland, who obtain an ISCED level 3 qualification at the end of their studies, and who do not have direct access to higher education. We are studying this group of students because they often experience difficulties with formal learning, and teacher feedback suggests that informal learning can often be more effective for them. A further reason for focusing on them is that little attention is paid to lower secondary VET (Benke & Rachwał, 2022) where young people are often disadvantaged in many respects, many of whom drop out and often end up in vulnerable groups of workers after leaving shool.

According to Werquin (2008), informal learning can be part of the process of practicing cognition and mastery, including observing and assisting in task-related operations. It includes performing and practicing tasks with others, communicating about the task before it is performed, planning the task, discussing the main steps, distributing tasks, and finally discussing and evaluating the results.

Our research focuses on how students observe work-process by observing apprentices and experienced adults at work, watching professional programmes on television and the internet. We research also their communication and collaboration on work tasks and their joint practice based on apprentices' perceptions.

The theories of Connectivism Learning Theory, Situated cognition, and Social Learning Theory were invoked mainly as the theoretical background for the research. According to the Connectivism Learning Theory, learning occurs in a variety of ways and forms, through communities of practice, personal networks, and the completion of work-related tasks (Siemens, G. 2004, 2018). We derive our competence from forming connections. The extension of a personal network creates new ways for gathering new knowledge. Other people’s experiences become the surrogate for our new knowledge. The Connectivism Learning Theory emphasizes that the newest generation of students is generally strongly linked to social media and online collaborative tools. In recent years, a new group of learners appeared who are considered part of the 'digital native' or the 'net generation'. The human experience is infinitely varied, so there are many approaches to media and learning in particular (Downes, 2010). According to Situated cognition, learning happens within situational contexts. Students can acquire knowledge from observing others and making practice. Situated learning occurs in the context of the experience. Situational learning places great emphasis on relationships and interactions with others to build understanding. Situational learning works to develop the role of the student within the greater community (Brown et al., 1989; Lave & Wenger, 1991, Billett, 1996). Bandura's (1986) social learning theory of learning through model observation and imitation provides also useful theoretical background for studying learning from others. We also refer to Boschma (2005) who draws attention to the five dimensions of proximity, which he defines as cognitive, organizational, social, institutional, and geographical proximity. He claims that without proximity, two potential partners cannot learn from each other. At least one of the above five dimensions must be met for the process of learning from each other to take place. A similar finding is made by Lengyel (2012) who points out that the further apart two partners are from each other on the social network, the more difficult they can learn from each other.

Early leaving from education, including vocational education and training (VET) pathways, is a challenge for European policymakers and educators. In Estonia, most early leavers from education and training fail at the transition from compulsory primary education to general or vocational upper secondary education (Kallip & Heidmets, 2017). In VET, students mostly drop out during their first year of studies (Musset et al., 2019). Successful educational transitions are vital, as these have long-term consequences - early school leavers have a higher risk of unemployment, poverty or social exclusion (Kallip & Heidmets, 2017).

To address the described problems, Estonian vocational schools have since 2016 implemented the Choice of profession training (CoPT). It is an introductory transition program aiming to develop key competencies, provide positive learning- and work experience, and enable young people to familiarize themselves with different professions to support them in making informed choices in their further educational pathway (Kinkar et al., 2019). Starting as a project-based educational intervention, in 2019, CoPT became a permanent part of the vocational education system (Standard of Vocational Education, 2019).

CoPT can be seen as what Schmid (2020) describes as a preparatory VET program not leading to a specific qualification while offering studies in general subjects and guided opportunities to explore different specialties. The half-year program addresses the needs of those uncertain about their career choice and who have dropped out of school or need supplementary preparations for continuing their studies. There is no primary education requirement for students enrolling in CoPT. While the 30-credit point program does not provide a formal qualification, it develops learning outcomes equivalent to the second qualification level according to the European Qualification Framework (EQF). The curriculum must include at least 70% practical training in different specialities. The remaining 30% of the curriculum covers the core studies reserved for upgrading students’ knowledge in general subjects and developing the following key competencies: learning-, communication-, self-determination, performance-, information technology-, initiative, and entrepreneurial competence (Standard of Vocational Education, 2019).

Young people transitioning to VET can come from diverse backgrounds and have a wide range of needs and challenges. The transition is a significant event in a youngster's life, and it is essential that they are equipped with the key competencies necessary to navigate this transition successfully. The lack of maturity required for successful vocational training and insufficient personal and social skills contribute to the spectrum of risk factors in students’ transition to VET (Peinemann, 2019) and the teachers and specialists perceive the heterogeneity of the students in the transition programs often as a challenge (Jäppinen, 2012).

The number of young people participating in CoPT has increased almost tenfold (from 30 to over 300) since 2019 (HaridusSilm, s.a.). However, there needs to be more research about the youngsters encountering themselves in CoPT and the key competencies they need. Therefore, the study aimed to determine the CoPT coordinator’s perceptions of the learners in CoPT and about developing their key competencies. We chose the perspective of program coordinators, as according to our previous study (Roos et al., 2021), they have a central role in supporting CoPT learners in the program: in addition to coordinating the support network of many specialists (VET teachers, special education teachers, social pedagogues and others), they are often student’s primary trusted person in CoPT.

Two research questions emerged: (1) how do the coordinators describe a group of CoPT learners; and (2) which key competencies do they consider essential for those students’ development?

This work reflects the importance and responsibility of the school to respond to the needs of the entire school population. Specifically, a research paper is presented that focuses on the rural school setting, with the purpose of exploring inclusive education practices in this type of school.

Rural schools have great value for their environment since they constitute an important element within the institutional structure of a certain territory. In addition, families in rural communities generally collaborate in everything that the school makes them participate in. However, in order for this relationship of cooperation and complicity to occur, teachers must feel really committed to the social and natural framework that surrounds them and become aware of the need to incorporate it into their pedagogical work (Boix, 2014). Achieving this commitment of teachers is an important challenge for the management teams of rural schools with a high rate of variation of teachers since this fact poses an important handicap to design and carry out educational projects for the center due to the lack of continuity of the team that has to implement them.

The construction of an inclusive school, which ensures the presence, participation and success of all its students requires promoting, also in rural settings, changes in various fields: cultures, policies and practices. An inclusive school, which is oriented to an inclusive society, also needs to establish measures for the protection and training of people and groups that are in a situation of greater vulnerability and at risk of educational and social exclusion by reason of origin, ethnicity, language, economic and social situation, sexual orientation, gender identity or sexual characteristics, discrimination or violence, which are subject to exclusionary pressures or that encounter barriers in access, presence, participation and learning.

These changes should have teachers as an axis and engine. There are several studies on teaching competences (Cano, 2005). From an inclusive education approach, the competences we consider appropriate to train teachers are strategic competences, along with innovation and creativity, reflection and self-criticism (Fernández, 2013). For this, we have to take as a reference a permanent training and reflection of the skills to investigate, update, energize, employ creativity, lead, promote self-concept, open to change, etc. It is about improving the quality of education with equity, to respond to the demands of the educational field, through innovation processes and the implementation of projects and tasks based on active methodologies.

All these competences are related to the empowerment of teachers and shared teaching leadership, key factors for the improvement of teaching-learning processes, school results and the relational climate of educational institutions. Teacher empowerment must be enhanced and promoted by the management teams (González et al., 2019). All this involves training reflective and critical professionals in their daily tasks, capable of implementing changes to improve the center and its educational practice. It is about linking the teaching profession not only with a series of rights, but also responsibilities. Our proposal aims, from continuing education, to generate teacher empowerment through a better knowledge of their educational reality, the implementation of more innovative methodologies from action research, promoting the inclusion of all students in the center, reflection on practice, the preparation of a reception plan for new teachers, with the intention of generating a structure that enhances the sustainability of the project in the long term, enhancing the connection with the community environment.

The current project aims to identify examples of innovative and inclusive pedagogical practices and analyse how they cand be grouped into focal areas in VET excellence centres. The analysis is made in the frame of a large scale project: Governance for Inclusive Vocational Excellence (GIVE): 621199-EPP-1-2021-1-IT-EPPKA3-VET-COVE. www.thegiveproject.eu

Innovative pedagogies are focused on creating a stimulating and conducive learning environment that facilitate the learners to experience good, relevant and robust learning. When attempting to understand and define this concept, we notice a certain degree of fuzziness. Some opinions emphasize the creative and generative potential of teaching practices and environments, others are focused on the use of creative methods and techniques or, in some cases, on technology-enhanced learning (Ciolan et all, 2020), while other are focusing on evidence for impact.

Innovative and inclusive approaches are being used with increased frequency related to learning outcomes (knowledge, skills, attitudes, and values) that are needed for today's learners to thrive and shape the world, create and contribute to a better future of themselves and their communities. Short-term and long-term employability based on the resilience and creativity founded by the key competences are essential for each learner.

A good quality education that ensures the maximum valorisation of the individual potential of each student must be centered on the students, on their needs and their characteristics. The need to individualize the learning process is more obvious in the case of education for students belonging to vulnerable groups (learners with special education & training needs, learning disabilities, coming from disadvantaged areas, at risk of exclusion or with a migrant profile).

In the GIVE project we focused exactly on innovative and inclusive pedagogies in VET excellence centres, dealing with a number or even all the at risk groups mentioned above.

Our analysis is a two way process, starting concomitantly from two directions: literature review of different approaches and taxonomies and analysis of innovative practices from the field, attempting to ”meet in the middle” in trying to answer the questions: what works (and what does not work so well) in terms of pedagogical innovation in VET excellence centres focused on inclusion of vulnerable groups.

Among the analysed taxonomies, we investigated the OECD perspective (2018, 2019), Open University (2020, 2021, 2022), Istance & Paniagua (2018) etc.

In the practice identification and analysis, we focused on the four vocational centres of excellence involved in the GIVE project, under the leadership of Cometa Educazione from Italy and we have collected examples from these centres, but also from 5 companies, closely working with them.

In designing the possible future scenarios of education (2020), OECD identified the “Schools as Learning Hubs” as one of the evolutions of the learning ecosystems. TVET is often already a clear example of this scenario. In both IVET and the CVET area, links between VET centres and companies, and research centres in some cases, are standard way skills are identified in the market, integrated in the curricula and implemented in the training courses.

The “learning hub” solution has been promoted by several international initiatives as the core of platforms for developing and promoting excellence. Both the concept of “learning hub” and “excellence” can be different, although some golden threads can be highlighted.

This research aims at providing evidence of how such Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) are structured, developed, even supported and the perspectives of their role in the future VET sector.

Many international organizations have already proposed literature review on this topic, highlighting the dimensions of quality of training and relevance in terms of skills for the market, “addressing innovation, pedagogy, social justice, lifelong learning, transversal skills, organisational and continuing professional learning and community needs [including introduction of measures of] rationalisation, restructuring of governance, cost reduction, heightened accountability or greater competition” (ETF, 2020). In a nutshell, albeit inevitable differences among different contexts (ETF, 2020), Vocational Excellence can be considered a combination of two elements (GIVE, 2022b):

1. innovative and inclusive pedagogies;
2. agile, anticipatory and entrepreneurial functional governance

A preliminary study by the European Commission offered an interesting overview on the possible types of CoVEs, mainly from an institutional point of view, underlining also a specific taxonomy of categories of excellence, adapted to local and sectoral needs in terms of structures, stakeholders and activities (EC, 2019: 5):

“1. ‘purpose built’ or designated entities as part of national/regional arrangements for vocational excellence, and;

2. individual VET providers, functioning as CoVEs for a region, sub-region or sector”.

Beyond desk-research, several initiatives were promoted at international level to identify, promote and possibly scale-up excellent examples in VET. Among the others, UNESCO-UNEVOC promoted the Skills for Innovation Hubs (i-Hubs) in order to identify and support 10 pilot institutions worldwide which could be considered excellent in terms of organizational practices, institutions’ engagement with external stakeholders, learning and teaching processes; an evaluation process was implemented, Guided Self-Assessment (GSA), based on two tools: 1) Balanced Scorecard to assess and document, through quantitative and qualitative data, the i-hub’s internal readiness to innovate 2) Skills and Innovation Ecosystem Map to assess and document how favorable to innovation the i-hub’s ecosystem is (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2019).

The European Training Foundation, since 2020, has activated its ETF Network of Excellence (ENE) including almost 300 TVET centres based in its area of action (EU and neighbouring countries). The ENE includes VET centres with an enhanced range of activities and objectives over and beyond the provision of initial vocational training: for example, research, continuing vocational training, local economic development, greening of skills and technology transfer [aiming at being] engines for systemic improvement but their capacity to perform this role depends upon their character as organisations, the capabilities of their leaders and staff, their relationships with their ecosystems and their capacity to collaborate with other vocational schools and centres” (ETF, 2021).

Since 2019, the European Commission has been the stakeholder which, by promoting a specific program (EACEA 33/2019), has activated more than 20 CoVEs characterised by adopting a systemic approach through which VET institutions actively contribute to co-create skills ecosystems, together with a wide range of other local/regional partners, including activites listed under three clusters: Teaching and learning; Cooperation and partnership; and Governance and funding).

Integration and inclusion of migrants have been declared as a priority in many European countries. A recent study focusing on migrants’ integration in the Nordic countries concluded that they all face serious challenges in integrating immigrants into their labour markets (Calmfors & Sánchez Gassen, 2019). This symposium brings together research that examines integration and inclusion of migrants in education and work. Researchers from three European countries, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland, explore challenges and possibilities of successful inclusion of migrants in their studies.

The European Commission published an action plan 2021-2027 on integration and inclusion. Main actions include, for example, inclusive education and training from early childhood to higher education, focus on recognition of qualifications and continuing language learning. The action plan also promotes employment opportunities and skills recognition, especially in relation to women’s opportunities as well as promotes labour market integration (European Commission, 2020).

Various kinds of educational programs are available for migrants. However, their position at different levels in the labour market has become a subject of heated academic and political debate. The debate generally revolves around factors that affect the macro level structure such as employment of migrants and their descendants, economic costs and the benefits of migration and integration. The position of underrepresented groups in the labour market is typically explained as a consequence of either discrimination or lack of relevant social capital, language skills, job search strategies and job skills, just to name a few. Generally, studies in this area tend to focus on obstacles that migrants face in the labour market. However, we also need to focus on ‘successful migrants’, who have succeeded in entering education and their vocations and thus integrated in the labour market of their new host countries. In other words, what they have done differently in accessing their vocation, where many with similar backgrounds have failed. What kinds of educational pathways have been open to them? We need to get more knowledge about mechanisms that can contribute to a sustainable integration of skilled migrants via education and work.

The aim of this symposium is to examine these questions by focusing on social, linguistic, cultural, educational and labour market challenges and possibilities across these three different contexts. We start by examining historical changes in VET and migration in Sweden. Then we go on with focusing on how to get a professional driver’s license in Norway. The Swiss study explores a specific program, a pre-apprenticeship for integration, for migrants, and the last presentation examines facilitating factors to access one’s vocational career in Sweden.

Work place, workplace education and education - perceptions of knowledge requirement and skills for integration into Swedish labour market and society. A historical comparison of the mid 1900s and early 2000s Previous research supports an argument that in Sweden language education, language support and (vocational) education is central to successful integration. From a historical point of view, a natural question is: has it always been the case and if not what were the perceptions on work, education and integration and why was it different. Answering these types of questions extends our knowledge of relations between migration and societal change. In this investigation the relation work-vocation-education is of particular interest and how the changing character of this relation can be understood as part of integration politics. Even though the study focuses on the Swedish context, the analysis might be of relevance to other national contexts since the time period selected for comparison have seen similar development in the labour market from big industry to service sector and a pervasive digitalisation of practically all sectors. A common aspect of establishing discourses on migration is an assumption that learning language and knowledge of societal organisation along with a strong conviction that work leads to integration in society. Even though it is common it may vary in emphasis. We aim to investigates change in perceptions of (vocational) education, language and work as part of establishing discourses in the late 1900s and the early 2000s. Two clear features of change in the Swedish case are identified: 1) education has become more important and related to the general education system and 2) education in the 20th century promoted local social integration and served a purpose of promoting workers solidarity while 21th century education serves to promote the individual's future prospects and mobility.

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This study aims to examine how immigrants achieve professional driver license. Many of the professional drivers of taxi, public transportation and vehicles are second language users. We want to investigate the training experiences of teacher educators of professional drivers and driver instructors on how immigrant professional driving student attend training and gain professional license. Our perspective is on language/linguistic and cultural challenges within vocational drivers´ profession. The theoretical framework is based on vocational pedagogy and didactic strategies with special emphasis on connection between theory and practice. Furthermore, focus is on students’ learning process in connection to their ability to reflect on learning outcome and instructors’ and teacher educators’ mentoring in both classrooms and practical driving sessions. Due to the multicultural perspective, we employ theories on second language acquisition and learning as well as theories on intercultural competence and vocational pedagogy. The study will use individual interviews of teacher educators and instructors of driving schools, Additionally, we intend to analyze subject books, curriculum documents of educational institution at one university, and official documents of Road Traffic Department in Norway. The intention is to compare the intention of the professional driver education with realization in practice. This is an ongoing project, which infers that the results are preliminary at this point. However, we hypothesize that there are discrepancies between educational intends and practical strategies for dealing with multicultural students. We reckon that this can be explained by teacher educators and instructors lacking knowledge in intercultural competence and dealing with integrated second language integration of immigrant professional driver students.

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The Swiss labour market is highly structured and relies on standardised VET qualifications. Asylum migrants, particularly refugees and temporarily admitted persons without a recognised VET diploma or certificate, have thus struggled to find sustainable employment (Aerne & Bonoli, 2021). To support them in their endeavour to access vocational education and training, the Swiss federal government and the cantons have launched the pre-apprenticeship for integration PAI (Bundesrat, 2015; Scharnhorst & Kammermann, 2019). The PAI is a one-year pre-vocational programme that targets refugees, temporarily admitted persons, and late migrants from EU, EFTA and third countries aged 16 to 35. PAI programmes have been established in the service sector, industry, manufacturing, and agriculture (Kammermann et al., 2022). The introduction of the PAI programme is accompanied by a research project, which assesses and evaluates the implementation and impact of the PAI programme. In this contribution, we discuss the programme's outcome by investigating key factors contributing to participants' successful transition to regular apprenticeships. Drawing from findings from resource theory (e.g., Hobfoll et al., 2018) and training quality and career success in VET (Stalder & Carigiet Reinhard, 2014; Stalder & Schmid, 2016), we assume that the success of PAI participants depends on the quality of the learning environment (e.g., learning opportunities in the workplace and school, support from trainers and teachers) and on their individual and social resources (e.g., language skills, self-efficacy, support by significant others). We use data from the fourth PAI cohort, including a written survey with N = 432 PAI participants and 6 case studies that were run in 2022. Results show that participants highly appreciated the learning in the workplace and at school and felt well-supported by teachers and trainers. Two-thirds had secured an apprenticeship two months before the PAI's end. The others still searched for an apprenticeship place or said they didn't know what to do after the PAI. The pathways of the latter ones were thus very uncertain. Those who had secured an apprenticeship found their work more interesting, engaged more in learning and had better learning outcomes than those with an uncertain pathway. We conclude that the PAI programme is an essential and valid means to foster refugees' integration in vocational education and training, discuss particular challenges of the programme, and outline possibilities for further improvements.

Aerne, A., & Bonoli, G. (2021). Integration through vocational training. Promoting refugees' access to apprenticeships in a collective skill formation system. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2021.1894219 Bundesrat. (2015). Begleitmassnahmen Artikel 121a BV: Verstärkung der Integrationsmassnahmen für Flüchtlinge und vorläufig Aufgenommene (Bericht des Bundesrates vom 18.12.2015). Schweizerische Eidgenossenschaft. Hobfoll, S. E., Halbesleben, J., Neveu, J.-P., & Westman, M. (2018). Conservation of resources in the organisational context: The reality of resources and their consequences. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 5(1), 103-128. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-032117-104640 Kammermann, M., Stalder, B. E., & Schönbächler, M.-T. (2022). Fachkräftesicherung durch die Integrationsvorlehre. Ergebnisse zum Schweizer Pilotprogramm INVOL. BWP, 1/2022, 51–55. Scharnhorst, U., & Kammermann, M. (2019). Integrationsvorlehren – eine Flexibilisierung des Zugangs zur Berufsbildung für Geflüchtete in der Schweiz. BWP, 5/2019, 16-20. Stalder, B. E., & Carigiet Reinhard, T. (2014). Ausbildungsqualität aus Sicht von Lernenden und Betrieben in der Schweiz. In M. Fischer (Ed.), Qualität in der Berufsausbildung – Anspruch und Wirklichkeit (pp. 97-118). Bertelsmann. Stalder, B. E., & Schmid, E. (2016). Lehrvertragsauflösung und Ausbildungserfolg - kein Widerspruch. Wege und Umwege zum Berufsabschluss. hep.

This study focuses on ‘successful migrants’, who have succeeded in gaining employment in Sweden in their previous vocational area. The aim is to describe factors on various levels – individual, organisational and national – that have facilitated migrants’ way back to work as well as their inclusion at workplaces. Although Sweden is the context, the findings are relevant for all countries that receive migrants. In policies and research, finding relevant employment is emphasised as key to integration for many reasons, including financial, well-being, and health (Ager & Strang, 2008), cultural competence (Ganassin and Johnstone Young 2020), and acceptance as a full-fledged citizen (Wehrle et al. 2018). Like other migrants, the participants in this study encountered difficulties on their journeys, but by focusing on the success factors that define them, we evade the one-sided story of marginalised and incapable refugees. Twenty migrants and five employers/mentors were interviewed. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the interviews (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The overarching theme of facilitating factors concerns language proficiency, individual factors, enabling frameworks, and supporting persons and networks. The migrants’ own ambitions and motivations, and the support they got in interpersonal encounters were especially emphasised as important. In the migrants’ narratives, a central theme in relation to the theoretical perspective was how to deal with threats to their social and professional identity in the new country. For them, maintaining a positive self-image was key to the strength needed to fight for a return to working life. People in the environment were important in this struggle – for positioning them as competent persons and for offering support. (Eliasson et al., 2022)

This presentation is based on an article: Eva Eliasson, Marianne Teräs & Ali Osman (2022): ‘Back to work’—factors facilitating migrants’ re-entry into their previous vocations, Journal of Education and Work, DOI: 10.1080/13639080.2022.2144168 Ager, A., & Strang, A. (2008). Understanding integration: A conceptual framework. Journal of Refugee Studies 21(2), 166–191. Braun, V.,& Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology 3(2), 77–101. Ganassin, S., & Johnstone Young, T. (2020). From surviving to thriving: ‘Success stories’ of highly skilled refugees in the UK. Language and Intercultural Communication 20(2),125–140. Wehrle, K., Klehe, U.-C. , Kira, M., & Zikic, J. (2018). Can I come as I am? Refugees’ vocational identity threats, coping, and growth. Journal of Vocational Behavior 105, 83–101.

One of the consequences of postwar industrial reconstruction in Italy, (at a time when new tools were needed to carry out vocational training mass campaigns), was the development of the Italian modern “industrial” educational audiovisuals.

In this paper we will study in particular the circumstances of the birth of a specific format of documentaries for vocational training: the so-called “work grammars” (grammatiche del lavoro), which were first developed in the mid-1950s, and are still used today, although they are referred to by other names, and have undergone the formal and structural transformations recently brought about by the digital revolution. Work grammars are, in their basic version, documentary films for vocational training, organised in a serial format in which each instalment covers a different aspect of the profession/technique being taught.

In the days of their birth, these new educational tools were “torn” between conflicting stylistic and didactic possibilities: on the one hand, the model of the previous Italian documentary film production, which was, however, deeply marked and compromised by the propaganda rhetoric of fascism (e.g. the documentaries by the State film corporation: the Istituto Luce), within which it had developed. On the other hand, various new influences from the international context, ranging from the British 'documentary film movement' to the American 'Coronet' films and the educational films by the USIS.

In this paper, we would like to attempt a clarification of how these circumstances have contributed to shaping a new educational discourse in the Italian audiovisuals for vocational training.

The research work will proceed on four levels:

1) The study of VET audiovisual policies and production in Italy, in the days when the “work grammars” were first issued.

2) The refinement of a system of formal (aesthetical, didactical, etc.) categories useful to develop a map, a reasoned inventory of the most relevant Italian VET audiovisuals in the 1950s/1960s, which is also useful for understanding the context in which the “work grammars” were launched, and to better define them.

3) The attempt to analyse the cinematic discourse of these films, through the study of the theories on educational and didactic cinema available in Italy at the time when the phenomenon of the “work grammars” was beginning.

4) The study of biografical elements of the main pioneering authors of this film genre.

Recognition of prior learning (RPL) is since years high on the agenda of European policies (cp. for example CEDEFOP 2019a, b, c) as well as of research in vocational training and education (VET) (cp. for example Velten, Herdin 2016). It is seen not only as a measure to reduce skills mismatch (cp. for example Eichhorst et al. 2019), but also, even more important, to offer career opportunities to people who, for what reasons ever, had no access to a fully recognized qualification (cp. Birke, Hanft 2016). Accordingly, the main target groups of RPL are unskilled or semi-skilled workers (cp. for example Matthes, Severing 2017; Flake et al. 2017) and most studies on RPL focus on European qualification framework (EQF) levels 2-4. In Portugal, RPL has been even restricted by law to these levels; only since 2022, RPL on higher levels is allowed due to an update of the respective law (cp. Portaria 2022). Thus, few experiences with RPL in continuous vocational education and training (CVET) are published (cp. CEDEFOP 2019a, b, c).

Against this background, one of the challenges tackled in the recent research and development project “Developing Innovative and Attractive CVET programmes in industrial shoe production” (DIA-CVET) is the question, whether an opportunity to apply RPL on higher levels in this sector exists. In a transnational comparative design, researchers from Romania, Portugal and Germany are working on the following three research questions:

* What are the measures of RPL that could be or are applied in CVET?

* How can these measures be classified?

* Which of these measures could support RPL in CVET in industrial shoe production in Germany, Romania and Portugal?

Given the rapid pace of technological and economic change, lifelong learning has become increasingly important. Recognition of prior learning (RPL) refers to the fact that a person develops knowledge and competences over the course of his or her life that can be recognised, accredited, and assessed (Bohlinger, 2017). RPL is desired by education policy (Schmid 2019); through it, social and economic integration should be facilitated and opportunities for further educational careers and mobility should be made possible (European Commission, 2001, 2009). The education system has the task of facilitating access to study programmes or shortening them, especially in vocational education and training and tertiary education (Andersson et al., 2013).

Both formally and non-formally as well as informally acquired competences are to be considered. Although the legal basis for RPL is in place in Switzerland, the crediting of non-formal and informal learning in particular is not yet implemented throughout the education system. At the level of professional education institutions (PEI), individual education providers have a great deal of room for manoeuvre, with RPL practices varying from study programme to study programme. Since these have not yet been systematically surveyed, the actual possibilities for RPL at PEIs are not very transparent (Authors, 2022).

This study examines how the state guidelines and regulations on RPL at PEIs are interpreted and implemented in Switzerland. Particular attention is paid to the question of the role played by non-formal (e.g., continuing education) and informal learning (e.g., work experience, family work and volunteer work), as these are more difficult to validate than formal learning. In addition, it will be shown which framework conditions in the educational environment and on the labour market have a beneficial or impeding effect on the crediting of educational achievements to PEIs.

Based on the current state of research (Cooper & Harris, 2013; Cooper et al., 2017; Harris & Wihak, 2017; Maurer, 2019; Pitman & Vidovich, 2013), we assume that RPL at PEIs takes place in different organisational structures shaped by national guidelines, professional associations and the labour market. Within this environment, educational institutions have room to create their own organisational policies and cultures, which can either promote or hinder RPL, depending on whether an organisation tends to stick to maintaining existing cultures or is open to new developments (Damm 2018).

The multifaceted field of French pragmatic sociology offers innovative explanatory and analytical approaches for a number of current processes in education such as standardization, quantification and datafication of education, conflicts and controversies over educational quality and equity, or the interplay of science, politics and practice in the establishment and transformation of educational arrangements (Imdorf & Leemann 2023). In terms of social theory, this approach, also referred to as Economics and Sociology of Conventions, emphasizes the competence of social actors to deal reflectively with uncertain situations and the importance of the plurality of widely accepted knowledge orders (including notions of justice, reality and quality of education). As such, convention theory in the field of education highlights social and moral structures and situational cultural orders (conventions) in the coordination of social actions between administrators, teachers/instructors and young learners who, with their agency, are positioned and exposed in situations characterized by tensions. Thereby, the pragmatic sociology of education has enriched research on Vocational education and training (VET) early on, first in France (e.g. Bessy 2006, Verdier 2013), later in German-speaking countries and Spain (Marhuenda-Fluixà 2022), and more recently in the Nordic countries (Imdorf 2022). The situatedness of this form of education between state and labor market makes it particularly suitable for convention-sociological analysis. VET systems around the world serve plural and often conflicting (economic, social and educational) aims which find their roots in different socio-cultural economic, that is in national and regional contexts (Bonoli & Gonon 2022).

The symposium aims at discussing the potentials and findings, but also the challenges and desiderata of a "pragmatic" sociology of VET and its further development. In the context of a traditionally school-based VET system in Spain, Paper 1 uses the sociology of conventions framework to identify the main actors in national policy reforms in three domains (formal vocational education policy, non-formal vocational training policy and labor market policy) and explain what their main justifications have been, as well as the compromises they have reached in order to advance VET policies since the 2008 financial crisis to connect better with labor market needs. Against the backdrop of a competition for high-performing pupils between schools and training companies at the upper-secondary education level in Switzerland, Paper 2analysis how VET can be positioned as an attractive educational pathway for high-performing pupils in different Swiss Cantons, that is how company-based VET can attract high-performing pupils. A special focus of the analysis is on steering strategies, measures and instruments actors of cantonal education policy and administration use to foster the attractiveness of company-based VET, and how these steering efforts are justified and criticized. Paper 3 problematizes the distinction made between merit and skills in educational research, with merit being referred to elite education or academic pathways into higher education and the notion of skills to practical know-how acquired through VET. In Sweden, this distinction not only obscures the worth and attention higher vocational education participants assign to their education. The paper further enables greater reflexivity amongst researchers to question their own conventions in ongoing debates about educational merit. The contributions reflect on different levels and contexts of VET in three countries which differ in terms of the underlying educational conventions.

The symposium will be chaired by Christian Imdorf, one of the leading experts for convention theory and VET in Europe. Papers will be commented by Philipp Gonon who is an international VET scholar with expertise in the convention theory. Altogether, the symposium provides insights in promising analytical tools to analyze the different aims and facets of post-secondary (vocational) education at the intersection of the educational system and the labor market.

Spain has had a school-based vocational education system since 1970. Despite it has been traditionally questioned, the reform introduced in 1990 brought in several features that contributed to change its perception and to overcome the claimed lack of connection to the labour market needs. Duly aligned with European Vocational Education and Training (VET) policies, a new compromise was reached where views of the administration of education, employer and trade union representatives have significantly contributed to the increased worth and prestige of formal vocational education (Martínez-Morales/Marhuenda-Fluixá, 2020; Martínez-Morales/Marhuenda-Fluixá, 2022) as well as to a rather controversial growth of funding and policies of Continuing Vocational Education and Training (CVET) and non-formal vocational training (Marhuenda-Fluixá, 2019). In this contribution to the symposium, I will use the sociology of conventions framework to identify the main actors in national policy reforms in three domains (formal vocational education policy, non-formal vocational training policy and labour market policy) and to explain what their main justifications have been as well as the compromises they have reached in order to advance VET policies in the country. I will do so by focusing on the reforms produced since the 2008 financial crisis, first led by conservative government and then, after the Covid crisis, led by a social-democrat government. Some of our recent work has used the theoretical framework of the sociology of conventions (Boltanski/Thévenot, 2006) to analyze VET policies and practices in different regards: VET international policies (Marhuenda-Fluixá, 2017), European trends and prospects in VET (Marhuenda-Fluixá, 2022) and the practice of vocational training in non-for profit organizations (Marhuenda-Fluixá/Molpeceres-Pastor, 2021). Before that, we had already researched with the same framework looking at the organizational dimension of non-formal vocational training (e.g. Bernad/Molpeceres, 2010). I will rely upon our previous work but will also consider policy documents by the actors involved (Government Departments of Education and Employment, Social and Economic Council, Employer Confederation, Trade Unions), as well as recent research conducted around the success of vocational education in the past decade (e.g. Barrientos, 2022). By doing so, I want to highlight whether the compromise between civic and industrial conventions that characterized the reforms in the last quarter of the 20th century has been altered and whether and how the power to negotiate of different actors, particularly trade unions and employers, has changed since the 2008 Great Financial Crisis and how firm are the current compromises.

Barrientos, D. (2022). La relación entre formación y empeo en la FP dual. Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Bernad, J.C., & Molpeceres, M. A. (2010). Discursos emergentes sobre la educación en los márgenes del sistema educativo. Revista de Educación 341, 149–169. Boltanski, L. and Thévenot, L. (2006). On Justification. Economies of Worth. Princeton University Press. Marhuenda-Fluixá, F. (2022). Conflicting roles of vocational education: civic, industrial, market and project conventions to address VET scenarios. Hungarian Educational Research Journal 12(3), 248–262. Marhuenda-Fluixà, F. (Ed.). (2019). The School Based Vocational Education and Training System in Spain. Achievements and Controversies. Springer. Marhuenda, F. (2017). Vocational Education beyond Skill Formation: VET between Civic, Industrial and Market Tensions. Peter Lang. Martínez-Morales, I., & Marhuenda-Fluixá, F. (2022). Redefining education and work relations: vet overcoming the financial crisis in Spain. In M. Malloch et al. (eds.), The SAGE handbook of learning and work (pp. 602-619). SAGE. Martínez-Morales, I., & Marhuenda-Fluixà. (2020). Vocational education and training in Spain: steady improvement and increasing value. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 1-20.

In Switzerland, where upper-secondary education consists of general education middle schools as well as company- and school-based VET programmes, and where two-thirds of young people still choose VET, more young people enter the increasingly demanded higher education sector via a school-based educational pathway than via dual VET (Kriesi et al., 2020; Leemann et al., 2019). In contrast to many European countries, where the proportion of young people in upper secondary middle schools has increased and the proportion in VET has decreased, company-based VET has retained its dominant position in Switzerland, having strong support from civil society as well as from education policy (Kriesi et al., 2022). Against the backdrop of a competition for high-performing pupils at the upper-secondary level, an new focus of VET policy is on the question of how to attract high-performing pupils for company-based VET (Elsholz & Neu, 2019; Esposito, 2022; Steimann, 2022). In the context of the political governance of the transition from lower to upper-secondary level, the aim of this study is to examine how company-based VET is positioned as an attractive educational pathway for high-performing pupils in different Swiss Cantons. What steering strategies, measures and instruments do actors of cantonal education policy and administration use to foster the attractiveness of company-based VET? How are these steering efforts justified? What critique, conflicts and 'sacrifices' result out of these steering efforts? These questions are addressed using the theoretical approach of the Sociology of Conventions (Boltanski & Thévenot, 2006; Diaz-Bone & Larquier, 2022). The data basis consists of documents (education policy initiatives, reports, etc.) and qualitative interviews with representatives of education administrations conducted in four German-speaking cantons. The results stress two main strategies strengthening the attractiveness and reputation of company-based VET for high-performing pupils. On the one hand, the access to the vocational baccalaureate (entrance qualification for a university of applied sciences via the VET pathway) is made easier (abolition of entrance examination) and more flexible respectively. On the other hand, legitimized by cost arguments and fears of competition, sacrifices are made at the expense of educational programs competing with company-based VET: their access is made more difficult (e.g. introduction of additional admission requirements) or their expansion gets purposefully limited (capping of classes). Furthermore, a wide range of targeted information and marketing campaigns support these cantonal steering efforts, aiming to promote and strengthen the reputation of company-based VET as an attractive educational pathway for high-performing pupils.

Boltanski, L., & Thévenot, L. (2006). On justification. Economies of worth. Princeton University Press. Diaz-Bone, R., & de Larquier, G. (2022). Conventions: Meanings and Applications of a Core Concept in Economics and Sociology of Conventions. In R. Diaz Bone & G. de Larquier (Eds.), Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions (pp. 1–27). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-52130-1_2-1 Elsholz, U., & Neu, A. (2019). Akademisierung der Arbeitswelt—Das Ende der Beruflichkeit? AIS-Studien, 12(1), 6–18. https://doi.org/10.21241/SSOAR.64880 Esposito, R. S. (2022). Ausbildungsqualitäten—Andersartig, aber gleichwertig? Ein Vergleich konkurrierender Gesundheitsausbildungen in der Schweiz. Springer VS. Kriesi, I., Bonoli, L., Grønning, M., Hänni, M., Neumann, J., & Schweri, J. (2022). Spannungsfelder in der Berufsbildung international und in der Schweiz – Entwicklungen, Herausforderungen, Potenziale (No. 5; OBS EHB Trendbericht). Eidgenössische Hochschule für Berufsbildung. https://www.ehb.swiss/forschung/obs/themen-und-trends/spannungsfelder-der-berufsbildung-international-schweiz Kriesi, I., Leemann, R. J., & Schweizerische Akademie der Geistes- und Sozialwissenschaften. (2020). Tertiarisierungsdruck: Herausforderungen für das Bildungssystem, den Arbeitsmarkt und das Individuum. Leemann, R. J., Esposito, R. S., Pfeifer Brändli, A., & Imdorf, C. (2019). Handlungskompetent oder studierfähig? Wege in die Tertiärbildung: Die Bedeutung der Lern- und Wissenskultur. 2(2). https://www.sgab-srfp.ch/de/newsletter/handlungskompetent-oder-studierfaehig Steimann, O. (2022). Leitlinien der Wirtschaft. Bildungs-, Forschungs- und Innovationspolitik. Economiesuisse. https://economiesuisse.ch/sites/default/files/publications/Bildungs-%2C%20Forschungs-%20und%20Innovationspolitik.pdf

Building on pragmatic sociology, this paper analyses and offers a critique of how competences has been researched in the field of education. We first outline the boundaries between different conceptual frameworks on competence that, according to their scheme of interpretation, generate distinct problems. Empirically, our analysis is based on a bibliometric overview of educational research articles published in journals listed in Scopus. In particular, we formulate a critique of sociological and educational research for juxtaposing the competences of skill versus merit in relation to different kinds of educational pathways, where the former is seen to be a competence residing within vocational education, while the latter has been confined to elite education or academic pathways into higher education. Although merit has been constructed, valorised, and interrogated such that it has become an object of public debate, its relationship to the practically-oriented understanding of common vocational education and training has gone largely unnoticed. Contrary to the merit of academic tracks, research on vocational education and training emphasises skills and practical know-how. In the second part of the paper, we embark on an empirical examination, giving attention to Swedish higher vocational education participants’ articulation of their aspirations and the ambiguity around recognising merit in their experiences from training to work. We find that participants, in their pursuit of higher vocational education: (i) adjust their aspirations; (ii) adapt to what they believe the labour market requires of them; and (iii) assign value to non-merit. In sum, merit appears to matter for their trajectories in the way that it is juxtaposed. The value in paying attention to these accounts is that it opens up a space for us to examine the worth of what is/are adjacent to merit. Through this analysis, we attempt to illustrate how the concurrent salience and invisibility in sub-fields of educational research establishes a particular kind of social reality which has implications for the way that knowledge is used to shape research “problems”, policy and public sentiments around the politics of skilling and ongoing debates about merit. A critique in the way in which we examine merit (or not) in educational research is important, and is part of an important exercise for formulating meaningful ways to research what is valuable in learning and work for common actors. More importantly, it encourages greater reflexivity amongst researchers to question our own conventions.

Billett, S. (2014). The standing of vocational education: sources of its societal esteem and implications for its enactment. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 66(1), 1–21. Boltanski, L. (2011). On Critique: A Sociology of Emancipation. Polity. Diaz-Bone, R., & de Larquier, G. (2022). Conventions: Meanings and Applications of a Core Concept in Economics and Sociology of Conventions. In R. Diaz Bone & G. de Larquier (Eds.), Handbook of Economics and Sociology of Conventions (pp. 1–27). Springer International Publishing. Ellström, P.-E. (1997). The many meanings of occupational competence and qualification. Journal of European Industrial Traning, 21(6/7), 266-273 Sandel, M. (2020). The tyranny of merit. Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

This symposium collects four papers that look at relevant dimensions of vocational education and training (VET) for international comparisons. Papers will include conceptual considerations as well as empirical findings from different countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, the United Kingdom and the USA). Specific emphasis will be put on the concept of occupations (and related concepts such as vocation or profession) that is often neglected in comparative research on VET. Instead, recent comparisons have concentrated on the organisation of educational programmes and structures, the integration of general content into VET or mechanisms of systemic governance (e.g. Busemeyer &Trampusch, 2012, Nylund & Virolainen 2019 or Pilz 2016).

This type of governance research is, however, to a certain extent blind to questions that are directly focussing at other very relevant issues for educational research, such as the organization and practice of vocational teaching and learning in companies and schools or the subjective side of learning processes and its results. Whilst socio-cultural accounts of vocational and work-based learning and related concepts such as boundary crossing or the concept of tacit knowing have developed some significance in the international VET research discourse, they have only scarcely been tackled by comparative research. And this despite the fact that they constitute particularities that make VET distinct from general or academic education, and hence, are at the heart of vocational education (Cedefop 2017).

On the one hand, (comparative) VET research has to start from the assumption that it is different from other forms or programmes of education and therefore needs a common concept of “occupation” or “vocation”; on the other hand, the concept of occupation is questioned repeatedly. Some of the most important reasons for this are the discussion about the decreasing importance of occupations in life histories with quite different jobs, the decreasing importance of occupations in increasingly liberalized and flexible labour markets and the disappearance of entire occupations due to the rapid development of digital technologies.

The first contribution will introduce a framework that was developed in two Cedefop-Projects over the last six years and that is intended to provide a frame of reference for the comparison of VET-systems and concepts. It integrates three perspectives on VET: an educational system perspective, a socio-economic perspective and an epistemological-pedagogical perspective. In accordance with the three perspectives the symposium will include considerations from different disciplines and empirical fields of research and reflect on the significance of “occupation” as an important parameter of VET research. This includes sociological, educational and economic considerations. At the end of each contribution findings from all the contributions will be related to the framework.

The second contribution looks at the development of occupation as the reference system for VET in a Swiss-German comparison and relates it to overall developments in the vocational education and training systems of the two countries.

The third contribution represents a look at changes relevant to VET from the socio-economic perspective and is based on insights and theoretical concepts from a number of interviews that were carried out with eminent academic experts from different countries and disciplines in the relation between rapid technological changes and the way how work is organised.

The last paper will analyse the significance of the concept of “occupation” and “occupational practice” for the comparison of VET and how this integrates into the general framework. Specific emphasis will be laid upon the role of “occupation” and “occupational practice” as a “tertium comparationis” in comparative research.

Finally, a discussant advocating a psychological perspective on vocational education and "occupation" as a means of individual growth will round out the needed multidisciplinary view of “occupation” and VET.

Comparative research on VET in Europe has taken on a new dimension as a result of the enlargements of the European Union and increased educational cooperation since the mid-1990s (Clarke, Westerhuis, & Winch, 2021). Especially due to the accession of Central and Eastern European countries to the European Union, the variety of systems to be considered as well as the intensity of research has increased massively in the last two decades (Tūtlys, Markowitsch, Pavlin, & Winterton, 2022). To manage this increasing complexity various VET typologies have been developed (for excellent overviews see for instance Rageth and Renold (2017), Gonon (2016) or Bosch (2016)). However, putting national VET systems into prefabricated boxes runs the risk of overlooking national specificities of VET and of reproducing cultural prejudices. Apart from that, many typologies focus on a very limited set of dimensions of comparison. More open systems for the analysis or descriptions of countries’ VET systems tend to be the exception. The paper presents a new framework for comparing VET building on previous conceptual frameworks in particular on works by Moodie (2008); Rojewski (2009) and Billett (2011) and uses design principles of the ‘morphological analysis’ (Zwicky, 1969). The framework has been developed jointly by an interdisciplinary group of VET researchers over a seven-year period as part of Cedefop's research on the future of VET. It essentially consists of 50 dimensions to analyse VET systems, as well as parts of them, structured according to three overlapping main perspectives: an epistemological and pedagogical perspective, an education system perspective, and a socio-economic or labour market perspective. It is expected that the research paper presenting the framework will be published in spring 2023. The presentation will focus on the methodological principles of the framework, illustrate various applications and provide an outlook on a possible new theory of comparative VET research.

Billett, S. (2011). Vocational Education - Purposes, Traditions and Prospects. Dordrecht: Springer. Bosch, G. (2016). Typologien nationaler Berufsbildungssysteme [Typologies of national VET systems]. Zeitschrift für Berufs-und Wirtschaftspädagogik, 112(1), 15-36. Clarke, L., Westerhuis, A., & Winch, C. (2021). Comparative VET European research since the 1980s: Accommodating changes in VET systems and labour markets. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 73(2), 295-315. Gonon, P. (2016). Zur Dynamik und Typologie von Berufsbildungssystemen. Eine internationale Perspektive [On the Dynamic and typology of VET systems. An international perspective]. Zeitschrift für Pädagogik, 62(3), 307-322. Moodie, G. (2008). From vocational to higher education : an international perspective. Berkshire, England ; New York, NY: SRHE and Open University Press. Rageth, L., & Renold, U. (2017). The linkage between the education and employment systems: Ideal types of vocational education and training programs. Rojewski, J. W. (2009). A conceptual framework for technical and vocational education and training. In R. Maclean & W. D. (Eds.), International handbook of education for the changing world of work (Vol. 1, pp. 19-39): Springer. Tūtlys, V., Markowitsch, J., Pavlin, S., & Winterton, J. (Eds.). (2022). Skill formation in Central and Eastern Europe. Bern: Peter Lang. Zwicky, F. (1969). Discovery, Invention, Research through the Morphological Approach. Toronto.

The development of the notion of occupation (“Beruf”) as an organising principle of VET in Germany and Switzerland (and beyond) will be discussed. Specifically, dual apprenticeships, like in German-speaking countries and regions are closely linked to occupations. That is why in both countries around 230-320 different occupations are designed for learning and acquiring skills through VET. Specific organizations (in Germany employer and employee representatives and chambers, in Switzerland -interprofessional ad hoc-committees) are entitled to steer– together with firms, state and school representatives - the ongoing development and innovation of dual apprenticeships in VET. Professional associations play a dominant role in defining and shaping occupations and VET requirements and renewing the regulations for learning an occupation. Although occupations – in times of globalization, technical changes and in the context of economic uncertainties, in short in the knowledge economy - are not any more stable concepts, nevertheless they set standards and requirements in fulfilling a highly qualified work. Thus, debates if occupations loose their importance, are popping up from time to time, do not really fit to the fact, that while some occupations disappear, in the meantime others emerge. The contribution is based on an analysis of aims – that can be located in the framework for comparing VET- that are expressed by different actors within the reform discussions in the two countries. Occupations reveal to be quite an important reference for all actors in the field regarding the reform of a national VET system as a whole, but also for defining the required competences and skills for specific tasks and for the syllabus. Although the concept of occupation is quite fluid, occupations are crucial for the further development of dual apprenticeships because they link work qualifications in the firm with educational standards, forwarded by professional organizations and state bodies. These insights are also important for countries, which recently developed apprenticeships.

Bürgi, R., Eigenmann, P. & Gonon, P. (2022). Reshaping the Role of Professional Associations and the Federal State in Swiss VET: Ambiguous Reactions to the Knowledge Economy. In Emmenger, P. & Bonoli, G. (eds.) VET and the knowledge economy (65-75). Oxford: University Press Bürgi, R. and Gonon, Ph. (2021). Varieties within a Collective Skill Formation System: How VET governance in Switzerland is shaped by associations. In International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET), 8,1, 46-64. Deissinger, T. (1998): Beruflichkeit als organisierendes Prinzip der deutschen Berufsausbildung. Markt-Schwaben: Eusl. Gonon, Ph. (2017). Renaissance der dualen Berufsbildung durch Modernisierung. In: Schlögl, Peter, Stock, Michaela, Moser, Daniela, Schmid, Kurz & Gramlinger, Franz (Hrsg.): Berufsbildung – eine Renaissance? Bielefeld: Bertelsmann, S, 44-60. Gonon, Ph. (2017): Beruflichkeit: In: Berufsbildung- Zeitschrift für Theorie-Praxis- Dialog, 71,164, 1. Gonon, Ph. (2016). Beruf und Profession im Kontext der Expansion der schweizerischen Berufsbildung. In: Zimmermann, Th., Jütte, W. & Horvath, F. (Hrsg.): Arenen der Weiterbildung. Bern: hep Verlag, S. 190-199 Kutscha, G. (1992). 'Entberuflichung' und 'Neue Beruflichkeit' – Thesen und Aspekte zur Modernisierung der Berufsbildung und ihrer Theorie. In: Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspädagogik 88, 7, 535-548

This contribution is based on the analysis of a series of interviews (see as an example Latour 2018) with twelve leading academic researchers from France, the United Kingdom, Austria, the USA and Germany on the impact of digitalisation on the economy, work and society as a whole. The multiple perspectives expressed in these interviews constitute a widening of the discourse on the relationship between work and technology that can be made productive for the discussion on vocational education and training and the role of occupations. The interviews are available online as approximately 25-minute videos and took place in 2018 and 2019. They broaden the view beyond the common thesis of the substitution of human labour by digital technological solutions to various considerations regarding the actors, effects and opportunities resulting from technological change. The statements and present analyses are to be understood as theoretical markers of a strangely neglected field. Technical change is known to have an influence, but the mechanisms are seldomly explicated. They are also said to have an impact on occupations (see the economic substitution-idea (Frey/Osborne 2017), but occupations are only seen as statistical, time-irrelevant concepts. Thus, the analysis of theoretical approaches provides an insight into the effect of technologies on the structures of human-technology coexistence and their interdependencies, while it also points to very current specific conditions that are said to be capable of dissolving and altering even political and economic structures. This contribution to the symposium will be an extension to prior analysis of the interviews (Tiemann, Helmrich 2019) with a designated look at the relevance of the different approaches to comparative work on VET and the role of the concept of occupation, theoretically and statistically.

Frey, Carl B.; Osborne, Michael A. (2017): The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization? In: Technological Forecasting and Social Change (114) C, S. 254-280. Tiemann, Michael; Helmrich, Robert (2019): Auf dem Weg zu einer KI-Welt von morgen. Soziale, ökonomische und technologische Entwicklungen. In: Berufsbildung in Wissenschaft und Praxis (3), S. 19–22. Latour, B. (2018) ‘Theory-Interview on the Relationship Between Societal and Technological Change’, www.bibb.de/dokumente/pdf/a12_latour_kurz-transkript.pdf .

This contribution is based on reflections on the further development and the application of the framework presented by Symposium Paper I. Specific emphasis will be laid upon the role of “occupation” and “occupational practice” as a “tertium comparationis” for comparative VET research. In an analysis of concepts of curriculum and comparative research in VET we found that the literature that in many cases does not refer explicitly to the notion of occupation or vocation. It only does so in an implicit way. Sometimes approaches refer to theory and practice, however, given the close connection between the knowledge and the practice itself, which is a genuine feature of VET a simple theory-practice-divide is not useful (see also Dietzen 2017, 2020). Based on concepts and terms from the socio-cultural approach (Billett, 2017; Billett et al., 2018; Harteis, 2018) we examine if ‘occupational practice’ can serve as the major reference system for comparative VET. Concepts from this approach, such as situated knowledge, canonical occupational knowledge and vocational knowledge will be located within the framework for comparative VET. Situated knowledge is the knowledge that is required at certain workplaces or in specific organisations – the concept remains largely within the scope of the socio-economic perspective. Canonical occupational knowledge is the knowledge that is generally accepted as the knowledge required to practice a certain occupation and spans different perspectives from the framework. Situated and canonical occupational knowledge - can become ‘vocational knowledge’ by processes of learning, internalisation and identification located in the focus of the epistemological-pedagogical perspective. In the contribution the benefits and limitations of making “occupational practice” the major reference for comparative research in VET will be discussed based on examples from the prior contributions and with reference to other concepts from VET research that were analysed in producing the framework for comparative research mentioned in the first contribution.

Billett, Stephen (2017): Theorising occupational practice and its learning: Personal, institutional and brute factors. In: Peter Grootenboer, Christine Edwards-Groves und Sarojni Choy (Hg.): Practice theory perspectives of Education and Pedagogy. Dordrecct: Springer, S. 67–86. Billett, Stephen; Harteis, Christian; Gruber, Hans (2018): Developing occupational expertise through everyday work activities and interactions. In: The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance, 2nd ed. New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press (Cambridge handbooks in psychology), S. 105–126. Dietzen, Agnes (2017): Knowledge Concepts in Competence-based VET Research Perspectives on Cognitivist and Social-Constructivist Approaches. In: Martin Mulder (Hg.): Competence-based vocational and professional education, Bd. 23. Cham: Springer (Technical and Vocational Education and Training: Issues, Concerns and Prospects), S. 719–737. Dietzen, Agnes (2020): Implizites Wissen, Arbeitsvermögen und berufliche Handlungskompetenz. In: Rico Hermkes, Georg Hans Neuweg und Tim Bonowski (Hg.): Implizites Wissen. Berufs- und wirtschaftspädagogische Annäherungen. 1. Auflage. Bielefeld: wbv Media (Wirtschaft - Beruf - Ethik, 38), S. 87–107.

Research on VET for Sustainable Development: A shared/fragmented research framework? From the statement of intent to the contribution of evidence?

In a world undergoing multiple transitions, Vocational Education and Training has a critical role to play in the recovery and reshaping of education systems and labour markets worldwide. The new UNESCO Strategy for TVET 2022-2029, ‘Transforming Technical and Vocational Education and Training for Successful and Just Transitions’, takes into consideration the present and future priorities of individuals, economies, and societies (UNESCO, 2022a). It does also further captures UNESCO’s expectation that VET is critical for promoting a path to recovery and resilience building in the post COVID-19 pandemic era, and for accelerating progress towards Sustainable Development over the next years within the Education for Sustainable Development framework (ESD) (UNESCO, 2019).

In the pre-pandemic context, the Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) framework was more declarative than action-oriented in both the EU and the individual Member States. In the context of the ongoing pandemic, the EU and its Member States have ratified their commitment to ESD through the Berlin Declaration (2021). This opens up a window of opportunity to rethink European education in terms of sustainable development since, in addition to knowing how to respond to future sustainability crises, it is needed to make sure we avoid them. The main challenges facing Education for Sustainable Development are structured according to the main priority action areas of the ESD framework (in which the ESD framework is fundamentally specified in Transversal core Sustainability competences and ESD-specific learning objectives, highlighting goal 4.7)(UNESCO, 2022b).

Discussion focus

An overview on the experience and research on Sustainable Development from the different dimensions of sustainability (social, economic and environmental ones).

Vocational education and training (VET) is a multidisciplinary and multifaceted applied research field. Research is driven by practical, social, political, and scientific interests. The aim of the panel discussion is to give continuity to earlier discussions aimed to further elaborate an analytical framework on VET research. The framework aims to integrate current VET research, to identify research gaps and to develop a proposal on future research. A first draft of the framework has been discussed during the first VET Skills Week 2016, organized by the European Commission, and further developed at the Crossing Boundaries Conference 2017 in Rostock, and the second VET Skills Week 2017. Likewise, a discussion was also held as part of the sessions of the 2018 and 2019 and 2022 ECER conferences.

The framework organizes VET research along three analytical levels and three analytical foci.

The analytical foci highlight the role and needs of the learners or students, the trainers and teachers and the object or work process. They consider that VET is on education and training and on becoming a subject specific expert and a professional expert in a specific vocational area.

The analytical levels highlight the role of individuals (micro-level), schools and enterprises (meso-level), as well as educational policy and society (macro-level). They consider the interdependence of individual, and institutional actors.

This model aims at integrating not only different needs expressed by the participants with respect to their region or country, but also different scientific theories and methods. It reflects the country-specific status of VET, as well as it social and cultural embeddedness and historical context. It acknowledges that VET research is always embedded in a socio-political-historical context in a way that one solution cannot fit all needs.