Conference Agenda

Question: Exceptionalism vs. structural typologies

If we look at comparative statistics, Luxembourg very often has an exceptional position (and might be treated as a spike, not to distort estimations), so the question of exceptionalism is very plausible. In the literature we find the discourse about American Exceptionalism, indicating a specific history and structure of education. The author was also tempted to coin the term ‘Austrian Exceptionalism’, because the Austrian educational structure shows very outstanding traits. The (temporary) Finnish PISA-Miracle has also plausibly tempted some authors to speak about exceptionalism in the Nordic region. Another line of reasoning and analysis has emphasized the differences and variability of at first sight similar ‘types’ of countries or systems, e.g., the comparison of collective skills systems, or the debates about the Nordic model, or comparisons of nations within the U.K.

The alternative to exceptionalism can be seen in types of structures. The creation of structures of course always needs a kind of balance between conceptual reduction and empirical representation; however, the impression is that this balance is often distorted by a strong focus on the conceptual reduction to the disadvantage of the empirical representations. This issue, of how to give more emphasis on the side of the empirical representations, is a main question behind this proposal.

Conceptual considerations: types of systems vs. idiosyncratic patchwork-assemblage

More systematic attempts to find comprehensive structures of lifelong learning, however, have failed to find some. Structures of lifelong learning are defined as structural combinations of the different parts and stages of education institutions from early to adult learning, including general and vocational education. Education research has mostly focused on certain stages, so we can speak of mirroring institutional segmentations in research. Thus we are familiar with structural categories at the different stages (e.g., institutional vs. family early education; comprehensive or tracked secondary education; more vocational or more general post-compulsory education; different structures of higher education; institutional structures of adult education are less analysed so far), however, not much attempts have been made so far to combine these structural categories at the different stages to comprehensive patterns (despite some ideas about that are quite common, and can to some extent be misleading, e.g., the combination of tracked secondary education and broad vocational education).

Skills formation as a comprehensive process of lifelong learning is carried by individual trajectories through the overall education structure, with the different parts of the structure concurring in certain patterns as a result of complex incremental historical processes, generated by various practices of the various actors – thus the overall education structures cannot be understood as designed systems, but rather as idiosyncratic conglomerates of various elements, linked by various kinds of interfaces driven by distributed practices. Main elements are the different kinds of institutions at the different stages of the overall structure, from the elementary (pre-primary) stage to the third cycle of higher education. Each stage can take different shapes (more uniform, or more diverse) and the interrelations between these elements can also be shaped differently, with different trajectories between similar institutions as well as similar trajectories between differing institutions.

The most variety exists in VET, and the main point of our perspective is that VET must not be understood as a separate alternative, but as a de facto integral element of the overall structure of skills formation which, however, can play its role in quite different ways.

Initial Vocational Education and Training (IVET) in Portugal is constituted by several training modalities (apprenticeship courses, professional courses, education and training courses), all school-based vocational education. IVET courses are directed to young people and, except for the education and training courses (CEF) that have wide-ranging pathways, give access to an upper secondary education diploma (grade 12) and to a level 4 EQF vocational certificate.

In Portugal, as well as in other countries, IVET is considered to be a second-class education (Martins et al., 2008). The low participation of IVET graduates in Portuguese higher education (HE) contributes to the stigma of IVET and is linked to the social image that IVET curricula are very easy and that trainees are 'dummies' (Doroftei, 2020).

The main form of access to HE in Portugal is through the National Access Contest, which is open to people who have completed upper secondary education (12th grade). The application is based on national access exams, which means that the content of each access exam is the same throughout the country. The national access exams are based on the content of the general education curriculum.

There are other forms of access to HE, all of them with several constraints, like, for example, the “Access Contest for older than 23 years old”. In 2020, the Portuguese government ratified a new procedure for accessing to HE, specifically aimed at IVET graduates (PCM, 2020). However, this special contest depends on whether or not higher education institutions (HEI) are willing to open up places for it. What has happened is that the universities are refusing to take part in this special access contest, and the polytechnics are, as usual, more available to receive IVET graduates (Amorim, 2022a, 2022b; Silva, 2021). The law defines the fields of education and training of IVET courses corresponding to the fields of education and training of HE degrees for which IVET graduates can apply (CNAES, 2021). This means that an IVET graduate from another field of education and training cannot gain access to the desired degree through this special access contest. He/she will have to take the national entrance exams required for that degree (programme and IES). This situation may discourage IVET graduates from pursuing HE.

Having an HE diploma may enable upward social mobility. Access to HE is key as IVET students come mainly from families with low socioeconomic status (SES) (Alves et al., 2001; Doroftei, 2020). Furthermore, the Portuguese government aims to have at least 50% of upper secondary students attending IVET, and 60% of young people aged 20 attending HE (RP, 2019). Therefore, in order to make IVET attractive and to meet the Government’s goals, it must enable young people to pursue HE.

Access to HE is also crucial for changing the social image of IVET, for as Te Riele and Crump (2002, p. 258) state, “to bring VET in from the margins, and achieve parity of esteem with general courses, it must offer at least similar rewards, in terms of access to tertiary education (…)”.

The aim of this paper is to present the reasons that young people attending the final year of IVET evoke regarding their motivations to continue their studies, or not, in HE, and to discuss the results in the light of IVET’s social representations.

As part of the UK government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, there is currently huge appetite amongst policy makers to give Further Education (FE) a central role in addressing the regional divides that characterise the UK. UK FE colleges tend to recruit very locally and are often best equipped to deal with local skills shortages within particular regions, whereas higher education graduates are often more geographically mobile (resulting in a ‘brain drain’ from certain regions).

Our presentation will outline research conducted in collaboration with the UK’s Social Mobility Commission focussed on exploring the outcomes of the different educational paths followed by young people aged 16, and how these further vary according to social background and geography. It sought to answer questions such as, do those from more advantaged backgrounds see high returns regardless of their post-16 educational choices? How are the higher gains of some educational pathways (like attending an elite HEI) distributed according to class, gender and ethnicity? How does geography play into monetary returns, especially given the more localised employment trajectories of FE colleges? Are high returns from certain FE courses dependent on geography (and so on the strength of local and regional economies)?

Unlike graduate returns of which there has been considerable study (e.g. Hussain et al., 2009; Tomlinson, 2012; Naylor et al., 2016) there are few studies that have considered the returns of FE study. Moreover, the limited research to date (e.g. Buscha and Urwin, 2013; Bibby et al., 2014; Urwin and Cerqua, 2017) has tended to focus on comparing outcomes for individuals that complete FE programmes with those that drop out. This research sought to take a more comprehensive, real-world approach by exploring how the choice of different educational pathways (e.g. FE vs HE) by otherwise similar individuals (in terms of attainment and individual characteristics) impacts their later earnings. Moreover, the project’s foregrounding of geography enabled important consideration of how location further influences the typical returns gained from certain pathways.

This research makes an important contribution to knowledge of the outcomes of FE study in the UK, highlighting ways in which FE could better help address the UK’s regional divides, as well as offering potentially important insights into the increased role FE could play within other countries with large regional disparities in employment opportunities like Italy and Belgium (OECD, 2016). The research further challenges the sometimes-negative preconceptions about career prospects following FE study in the UK. Indeed, unlike countries like Germany where vocational pathways often command respect (Greinert and Fraser, 2007), the UK’s highly stratified post-16 education system often privileges HE and especially elite HE study over FE. As the theme of ECER 2023 suggests however, diversity in education is key. Whilst our findings support previous research (e.g. Wakeling and Savage, 2015) that study at an elite HEI typically leads to the highest returns, we also show how a diverse range of educational pathways can bring success and highlight less commonly privileged routes to social mobility.