Conference Agenda

This study focused on industrial, technical, and factory schools in Europe, involves a detailed analysis of the differences and similarities in the development of technical education across various countries over different historical periods. The European technical and industrial education system has evolved in distinct ways in each country, shaped by factors such as the Industrial Revolution, the economic needs of each nation, and the public policies implemented to promote industrial development (Johnson, 2002). A significant part of this study focuses on countries that have played a crucial role in the formation and consolidation of technical education in Europe (Cordeiro, 2005). Among the main countries addressed are Germany, France, and the United Kingdom, among other European nations. The primary period for the creation of these schools’ dates back to the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when the Industrial Revolution drove an increased demand for skilled labour. However, the development of these institutions continued throughout the twentieth century, keeping pace with technological and industrial changes. To meet this need, industrial schools were established institutions dedicated to technical education and vocational training for the emerging labour market (Belhoste, 2003; Chappey, 2004; Deissinger, 2015; Green, 2013; Walker, 2016). Drawing this form of education as a reference, this communication aims to present the progress of a study that analyses the development of industrial schools and industrial education in Europe, with an emphasis on the historical trajectory and the influence exerted in the Portuguese context. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent European models influenced industrial education in Portugal in terms of curriculum and pedagogical processes. The theoretical framework examines various European studies on industrial education, with a primary focus on three countries: the United Kingdom, Germany, and France. In the United Kingdom, the focus was on economic transformations and the need for skilled labour as the main drivers of industrial schools in that country (Gear, 1999; Green, 1990; Kurian, 1994; Sanderson, 1995). In the German context, the framework was reinforced by the specificities of the dual model and its main diffusion to other European countries (Deissinger, 2015; Fürstenau, Pilz, & Gonon, 2014; Solga et al., 2014). Regarding France, we observe the historical development, the principles that originated the educational policies of the technical and industrial modality, its social perception, its international influence, and the continuous evolution of the French industrial education system (Delors, 1996; Aziz, 2013).

As all sectors, the sector of industrial footwear production faces the mega-trends of globalisation, digitalisation and sustainability. Many studies on these trends refer to the meta-level, an example might be the study conducted by Jeske et al. (2021), who stated for the German metal and electrical industry increasing “Qualification requirements for skilled workers” due to digitalisation (p. 378). Findings like the one quoted are published broadly for all three trends and many sectors and lead to enormous uncertainties among workforce (What does this mean for my workplace?).

To answer this question exemplarily for the sector of industrial footwear production, the project Innovative Skills for an Old Vocation (ISOV 2025) has been started in autumn 2024, running till autumn 2027. Research is undertaken in the three countries participating in the project: Germany, Portugal and Romania. In our previous projects ICSAS and DIA-CVET it was concluded that skilled work of colleagues qualified via Initial Vocational Education and Training (VET) can be described by 9 Spheres of Activity (SoA, ICSAS 2020) and the tasks of colleagues qualified via Continuous VET (CVET) or Higher Education (HE) by 13 SoA (DIA-CVET 2023). Some SoA like “quality assurance” appear in both lists, as colleagues from various educational levels are working in this SoA; thus skilled work in the whole sector can be described by 18 SoA.

Within the project ISOV a 4-dimensional matrix was developed, where the x-axis consists of the 18 SoA, and the 3 y-axes Y₁ (sustainability), Y₂ (globalisation) and Y₃ (digitalisation) of the dimensions respective sub-dimensions of the corresponding trend.

Following the thoughts drafted above, four research questions (RQ) have been raised:

* RQ1: Which are the potential dimensions and sub-dimensions of the three trends that could influence skilled work in one of the SoA?

* RQ2: Which of the potential (sub-)dimensions have a concrete impact on any of the 18 SoA?

* RQ3: Which of the 18 SoA are affected most by the (sub-)dimensions?

* RQ4: Can corresponding Continuous VET (CVET) courses close the gap between current skills of employed colleagues or job-seekers and future requirements as found whilst working on RQ2?

Vocational Education and Training (VET) is widely seen as a lever for tackling labour shortages, demographic ageing and skills mismatch in Europe, with robust evidence of positive employment and earnings returns to vocational tracks (Birkelund & van de Werfhorst, 2022; Brunner et al., 2023; McNally et al., 2022). Yet participation varies markedly across countries. This paper examines how upper‑secondary VET choices are made in four contrasting systems: Denmark (below‑average and declining participation), Spain and Estonia (below‑average but rising), and Croatia (consistently above the EU average) (Eurostat, 2025). Anchoring the analysis in youth transition regimes (Walther, 2006) and comparative stratification research on education‑to‑work linkages (Müller & Gangl, 2003; Shavit & Muller, 2000), we treat VET choice as system‑embedded rather than purely individual.

We combine this system perspective with a relational reading of student agency as context‑conditioned evaluation and selection among pathways (Emirbayer & Mische, 1998). In this view, VET participation will be higher where institutional arrangements offer recognised, permeable pathways with clear education–work linkages and perceived progression opportunities, and lower where vocational routes are weakly integrated or symbolically devalued (OECD, 2023).

Empirically, we use the VETprep large‑scale survey data from lower‑secondary students nearing transition in the four countries (Denmark: N = 1,724; Spain, N=1,583, Estonia N= 2,294, Croatia N= 777). The survey captures students’ intended post‑lower secondary pathway (VET vs. academic), educational aspirations, career clarity and certainty (Leierer et al., 2017), perceptions of VET (including status, employability, quality of work‑based learning and perceived progression), optimism, social and academic wellbeing (Lykkegaard et al., 2023), and socio‑demographic background. We estimate country‑specific logistic regression models predicting intended VET choice, allowing us to examine whether and how the determinants of VET participation differ systematically across European countries.

Preliminary analyses suggest that patterns of intended VET choice align closely with a regime‑based interpretation of vocational participation. Distinct constellations of correlates emerge across the four national contexts, indicating that students’ orientations towards VET are shaped by system‑specific opportunity structures rather than by uniform individual factors. In Croatia, where VET is structurally embedded and socially recognised, intending to choose a vocational pathway is closely associated with perceptions of employability and clear school‑to‑work linkages. These associations point to a context in which vocational routes are experienced as credible and purposeful pathways into employment. In Spain and Estonia, where VET participation has been increasing from comparatively lower levels, preliminary findings indicate that perceived permeability and progression opportunities—such as access to higher VET or tertiary education—are particularly salient in shaping VET intentions, alongside signals related to personal interest. By contrast, in Denmark, where academic pathways dominate the transition culture, higher academic achievement and tertiary‑oriented aspirations strongly predict intentions to choose an academic track. Here, concerns about the status of VET and uncertainty regarding long‑term progression appear to weaken VET intentions, even in the presence of widely acknowledged labour‑market returns to vocational education. Across all four countries, gender, socio‑economic background matter, but their direction and magnitude are system‑contingent rather than uniform. These patterns underscore that VET participation cannot be explained by individual attributes alone but must be understood in relation to nationally specific opportunity structures, signalling systems and transition cultures (OECD, 2023).

The paper makes two main contributions. Empirically, it demonstrates that the determinants of VET choice vary in predictable ways across European transition regimes. Conceptually, it reframes student agency as a form of relational, future‑oriented evaluation that is shaped by the coherence, status and permeability of available pathways. Policy interventions focused solely on changing individual motivation or aspirations are therefore unlikely to shift participation where institutional misalignment persists. Instead, sustained changes in VET participation depend on system‑level features that make vocational pathways credible, permeable and socially recognised.

Learning is important during apprenticeship as well as the time after graduation as a craftsman. How this is taking place can be seen in the light of individual dreams and ambitions as well as the possibilities in the venues the young person is situated in or is trying to create for himself in the years after this. Historically travelling as a journeyman has been a possibility for learning and further education for young craftsmen (Werner, 1981; Ericson, 1984). A practice related to the guilds as organizations, their need for human capital investment by keeping apprentices as cheap labour and the conditions of the geographic location (Werner, 1981; Candréus, 2024). Various crafts have different conditions for such practice, which however has been common in Western World (Werner, 1981; Logue, 1983).

This kind of travelling as a skilled worker has been an institutionalized way for youth in the transition to adulthood, “as ritual play with separation and social distance” (Adler, 1985 p. 351) whether in England, America, Germany or France. Through history there has also been a “obligation” related to the specific crafts to share knowledge across borders and contribute to the culture and development of the craft also in a more international sense (Werner, 1981; Ericson, 1984; Adler, 1985 p. 346).

Today traveling to see the world is a common everyday practice, possible for all and most often related to leisure activities (Ericson, 1984; Adler, 1985). Still some young people are travelling as journeymen today, even though there are not many of them and they differentiate from other travelers (Hartmann, 2021). In a Nordic tradition such a person is called ‘a naver’ which is a shortening of the word ‘Scandinaver’ and thus a notion relating to Scandinavia, as well as young nonmarried craftsmen without economic obligations (Apelgren, 2018). Historically young craftsmen’s choice for such travelling has been caused by a search for job in the lack of a welfare system in case of unemployment, but also by the opportunity to qualify to become a master, learn new skills, see the world and gain personal experience (Werner, 1981; Ericson, 1984). UNESCO has nominated this tradition as “intangible cultural heritage” in 2015, and even it has existed for 700 years there is limited research (Hartmann, 2021 p. 271).

By looking at empirical data about travelling as a journeyman - historical as well as more present - we are in search of knowledge of the motives for such travelling and learning also in a life-perspective, and especially for young craftsmen travelling today. A knowledge which can be seen as relevant, also for the interest in learning mobility in Europe (European Commission, 24th. September 2024). Thus, the focus of our research question is what motivates the young craftsmen for such travelling after VET in the light of learning, and what possibilities arise after the journey based on that?

The understanding of journeyman travelling is based on Bourdieu’s (2005) interest in practice as an interaction of structures and dispositions among the youth. Such structures relate to the craft, the practitioners and the educational setting in which the person creates meaning an identity (Jørgensen, 2009). The subject and professionalism are in a dual educational system, a combination of socialization in the internship and control by the labor market and the state. This leads to a reality in those structures but also to an interpretation, identity reaction and meaning making for the apprentices, so there are an objective and a subjective reality. In our interpretation the skilled worker choosing travelling already is part of the objective reality however the subjective reality develops during the travel.