Conference Agenda

In vocationomics, the learning process is considered as an integral one that happens at different locations, or, institutions such as schools and companies. Other, more common interpretations consider this kind of learning as a learning of theoretical content (at school) that gets applied at the workplace (in the companies) later on.

Besides the idea of implementing, if not to say of enforcing ‘cooperation’ between the organisations mentioned, we have seen in the last two decades two different theoretical approaches of explaining of what is going on and of how it can be made even more fruitful. These two new theories are the theory of connectivity (Guile/ Griffiths) and the theory of complementarity (Jongebloed) between school and workplace learning. Whereas connectivity theory postulates the necessity of building bridges, complementarity theory in its original form (strong hypothesis) denies exactly the possibility to do so. We will follow the theory of complementarity, but in a newly interpreted way (weak hypothesis): there is a gap, and the student-apprentices inevitably have to go the last part of the road all by their own.

This does not automatically mean, that teaching at school or instruction at the workplace cant help on the way at all: An understanding of vocational learning as two distinct processes, however, would discriminate two different processes of learning, one by systematic insight, the other by holistic experience. This said, an analytic view and can substantially contribute to the enlightenment of the nature of vocational education. It also would demand for a better understanding of learning transfer, because there would be two processes of learning, on easing the other.

Learning at vocational school and learning at the workplace each might enhance one another in both directions. We are though, not too well informed on this double phenomenon. And who could tell us better than the apprentices, who are at the centre of the duality of vocational education.

Notwithstanding the transfer gap and a whole set of organisational prerogatives, we have put a series of interviews into practice, asking apprentices on their perception of learning at vocational schools and learning at work in their enterprises. This simplified institutional approach (school/ company) may be considered as justified as we are at the point of departure only. We need to point out, that this study does not turn to the fact that students do make some experiences at school (as we know by the debates on the 'hidden curriculum'). And, of course, in enterprises, there is learning of systematic knowledge, too, whenever apprentices get instructed on a new job.

We were interested to find out, whether student-apprentices have the impression of a certain connectedness of the two learning hemispheres, whether they can possibly give explanations to this, what their perceptions are about learning at school and learning at the workplace at their own
company. In this pilot study, we have tested three different interview guidelines in regard of later use in a broader context. The main goal, though was to sort out, whether there is any possibility at all of detecting and perhaps describing the awareness or the understanding of the transfer character of learning in two different didactical loci.

Over the last decade, the vocational education and training systems of southern European countries have initiated a reform process to introduce the dual vocational training (VET) following the German model (CES 2023; Martín Artiles et al., 2019). This process has been driven by international organisations such as the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the European Union, which have recommended that the member countries implement or reinforce policies based on the dual model because of their benefits to reduce high youth unemployment rates, improve professional skills or transitions from school to the labour market (OECD, 2013; European Commission, 2013).

In Spain, the dual model in VET was launched at the end of 2012 with the approval of the Royal Decree 1529 developing the contract for training and apprenticeship and the basis for this model within the existing system of VET. At that time, dual vocational training was defined as “training which combined employment and educational actions and initiatives, aiming at the vocational qualification of workers in a system of alternation of work activity with the training activity” (p. 2). However, it is not until 2022 that the Law 3/2022 on the organisation and integration of VET is adopted, this law foresees that “all vocational training will have a dual character, while it will be carried out in the educational centre and the company” (Preamble), although “with different intensities depending on the characteristics of the training period in the workplace” (idem).

During this decade, the evolution of the number of apprentices, companies and educational centres that have participated in dual VET system has been exponential. Thus, in 2013 there were 4.292 apprentices, 513 companies and 173 schools, while in 2020/2021 there were 4.2923 students enrolled and 1.147 schools (CES, 2023). Except for Asturias, Cantabria, and Castile-La Mancha, where there is a decrease in students, the trend is a clear increase, being especially significant in Andalusia, the Canary Islands, Galicia, and Navarre.

In the case of Andalusia, the experimental development of the dual VET system began in 2013/2014 with 12 projects, 11 developed by public schools with 207 students and 87 collaborating companies (Consejería de Educación y Deporte, 2021). After its start-up phase, the dual model in Andalusia has expanded an in 2020/2021, almost seven of every ten people enrolled in dual vocational training were in Andalusia (CES, 2023).

The aim of this communication is to describe, analyse and show the trends in the dual model in VET in the Degree in Early Childhood Education (belonging to the professional family of Socio-cultural Services and the Community) in the Andalusian Autonomous Community, especially its geographical distribution, the nature and ownership of the educational centres that provide this model, as well as the companies which collaborate in the process.

This research is part of a broader project entitled ‘Connecting Learning and Significant Work in Andalusia: comparative research of dual vocational training in the Degree in Early Childhood Education” (P21_00162) funded by the Andalusia regional government in which different universities participate. The aims are the following: a) analyse the experiences of the organisation participating in the dual model VET; b) carry out a mapping that allows to understand how the companies that collaborate in the training are distributed, c) analyse the connection between educational organisations and labour organisations and d) analyse the educational transitions that early childhood education students make towards higher education.

Hinchliffe (2022) cast a strong highlight on the founding fathers of German vocational education, with Kerschensteiner stressing the importance of a focus on the nature of work for developing citizenship. From here, Hinchliffe coined the concept ‘occupational democracy’, as opposed to ‘action-based democracy’. ‘…an “occupational democracy” is premised on the idea that personal self-development best occurs through being part of an occupational pursuit and tradition’ (op.cit., 487). Against potential accusations as being illiberal, Hinchliffe (op.cit., 481) argued: ‘Perhaps it is possible for free individuals of an independent cast of mind to regard themselves as citizens in the service of something bigger than themselves, with responsibilities to match’. Hinchliffe (2022, 485) traced action democracies back to Machiavelli’s Discourses. An occupational democracy he found realised in post-war western Germany. Drawing expressly on Kerschensteiner (1908/2022), Hinchliffe (2022, 281) called the ‘joy of work’ a necessary condition for a persons’ formation, and related it to the ‘joy of belonging to an occupation’. Hinchliffe even used the German word Beruf for occupation and explained (ibid.) that a Beruf supplies persons ‘with that wider context of networks and connectedness that a mere job can never provide’. ‘It is this social connectedness that work can bring about and which gives the individual the feeling that he or she actually counts for something’.

To think of democracy at the workplace may appear somewhat counter-intuitive. Educational research usually regards workplaces as sites of hierarchy and of production and profit-making. Moreover, as Rosvall and Nylund (2022, 16) noted (and this certainly holds not only for Sweden) educationalists and educational researchers have few possibilities to influence what goes on during workplace learning: ‘D[d]ue to the organisation of work placements in Sweden, mentors in those settings cannot be compelled, and may have little motivation, to provide courses or arenas that would enable students to discuss democratic issues at the workplace in a meaningful way’. However, from a labour law perspective, Estlund (e.g.,2003, 13) unfolded the unique potential of the workplace as ‘an especially promising incubator of the bonds of social solidarity and empathy that link the individual citizen to the broader diverse citizenry’. She argued that this potential can be strengthened by corresponding legislative prescriptions, and by trade union activism. This presentation, consequently, investigates a case of workplace learning where, unlike in Sweden and most other countries, a strong legislative regulation exists and where unions play an active role – the German dual system of VET. The presentation attempts to uncover the social relatedness of Beruf learners in Germany, at training sites and beyond, to explore the unique possibilities for democratic education in this context – seeds for an occupational democracy.

To do so, the presentation draws on the conceptual language developed by the British educational sociologist Basil Bernstein. This language permits researchers ‘in one framework… to show the inter-relationships between organizational and knowledge properties, to move from macro- to micro-levels of analysis,[and] to relate the patterns internal to educational institutions to the external social antecedents of such patterns…’ (Bernstein 1977, 112). Like Kerschensteiner/Hinchliffe, Bernstein (2000, xx) claimed that ‘people must feel they have a stake in society’, and also in the school, meaning that ‘not only are people concerned to receive something but that they are also concerned to give something’. Since Hinchliffe (2022), in line with Kerschensteiner, suggests that vocational learners can achieve this feeling of ‘counting for something’ by the social connectedness that work can bring about, the presentation investigates the social connectedness, the learners’ sense of belonging in the dual system, both from the legislative side and from narrations of dual system graduates about their experiences during training.