Conference Agenda

In recent years, vocational education and training (VET) research has increasingly addressed the social and civic role of educational institutions. This development is particularly visible in European research contexts and debates within ECER networks, where questions of social cohesion, democratic participation, and sustainable development have gained prominence. Beyond their role in skill formation, VET institutions in Europe are increasingly expected to contribute to societal integration and to respond to external political, ecological, and economic challenges (Moodie, Wheelahan & Kost, 2024, Kost, Mou & O’Shea, 2024).

While European research has produced important conceptual advances, empirical evidence on how VET institutions process broader societal impulses remains limited. Moreover, comparative perspectives beyond Europe are often underdeveloped, despite the fact that European VET systems are themselves embedded in global political and economic dynamics. Research from the Global South therefore offers an important lens for reflecting on European assumptions and theoretical frameworks (Alphonsus & Schmees, 2025, Pozzer & dos Reis Neuhold, 2025).

Against this background, the project aims to advance a theoretically grounded and empirically informed understanding of the social role of VET institutions that is relevant to European VET research while drawing on comparative insights from South America. The first phase of the project focused on the development of a conceptual framework that provides a shared analytical language for describing and comparing the social role of VET institutions across contexts (presented at ECER 2025). This framework builds on theoretical traditions that are well established in European educational research.

First, governance theory (Maag Merki & Altrichter, 2015; Altrichter et al. 2007), widely applied in European education research, is used to analyze actor constellations and coordination mechanisms shaping institutional responses to societal demands. Second, network theory (Granovetter, 1973; Powell & DiMaggio 1991) informs the analysis of institutional embeddedness in local and transnational networks, a topic of growing relevance in European VET systems. Third, new institutional theory (Meyer & Rowan, 1977; Scott 2014) provides a lens for examining normative expectations and legitimacy claims surrounding the social role of VET institutions, which are central to European policy discourses on education and training.

Building on this completed theoretical work, the project has entered its empirical phase. The empirical study addresses the following research questions:

• How are vocational training stakeholders institutionally integrated into the education and employment system, and what options for action do they have with regard to social integration?
• How do vocational training stakeholders perceive their role, and where do they see potential for development?

• To what extent do cross-national patterns of social roles of VET institutions emerge that are analytically relevant for European VET debates?

Empirically, the study focuses on six South American countries—Colombia, Chile, Uruguay, Paraguay, Argentina, and Brazil. This comparative design allows for an analysis of how VET systems outside Europe respond to challenges that are also highly relevant in European contexts, such as ecological and digital transformation, social inequality, and changing governance arrangements.

VET research has been mainly associated with the world of work, waged labour and the labour market. However, VET is so much more than this and can be mobilised in the recognition of the dignity of labour thereby contributing to the pursuit of social justice (Billett, 2005). Yet McGrath, (2023:132) argues that ‘formal VET is complicit in unsustainable practices that were integral to industrialisation and the emergence of the Capitalocene…’ pointing out that in colonised parts of the global south it ‘produced a form of vocationalism tied to the extractive logic of colonial capitalism’. Nevertheless, as he recognises there remains the possibility of moving beyond such relations, re-imagining VET so that it addresses a re-working that can encompass sustainable practices (and see Special Issue 2018).

VET is a site of struggle and contestation as are those debates that examine the capitalocene which similarly call for a re-imagining or re-working of capitalism so that it can move beyond its reliance on fossil fuels. Writers such as Malm & Carton (2024), Huber (2020) and Moore (2015) argue that fossil fuels are so thoroughly entwined with capitalism and its accumulation strategies that their resolution would necessitate the total transcendence of these relations. In contradistinction, such a stance could be softened by an acknowledgement of the fractions or divisions within capitalism. This can be seen in the tension between various forms of capitalism such as finance, fossil fuel, platform, extractive and advanced manufacturing, rentier capitalism and so on. The attempted resolution of these tensions is apparent in the call by capital’s organic intellectuals for a re-working or re-imagining of capitalist relations that go beyond debates focused on the varieties of capitalism, but which would still articulate with these.

There is a literature that seeks to manage and move beyond neo-liberalism which posits a more progressive notion of capitalism, whether this be in terms of an orientation that seeks to soften the excesses of neo-liberalism or indeed by the introduction of an ecological sensibility. In this instance the writings of Rajan (2011, 2019), Carney (2014, 2021), Lagarde (2014) and Chalmers (2023) will be discussed. These writers call for the development of an inclusive capitalism that can revive communities and their associated values thereby transcending the fault lines that threaten the world economy. Here, there is a resonance with social democracy, pluralism and stakeholder capitalism, though it should be noted that such arguments are rooted in a stance reflective of what could be described as that of the ‘liberal’ elite.

The paper places these currents alongside recent interventions made by the British Labour government (elected in 2024) and the state’s engagement with progressive currents within capitalism, exploring constructions of skill, VET and social justice. These latter concerns lie at the heart of the paper. The radicalism of the 1945 post war Labour government has been used as a leitmotif for prime minister Starmer’s politics of change (2024).

The paper addresses two key questions:

1. Is English VET policy framed by social democratic sensibilities and if so, are there currents that go beyond these in a more progressive direction?

2. Is there potential for VET to move beyond a narrow instrumentalism rooted within a discourse of economic growth and waged work?

Whilst these questions are problematic they enable a consideration of Labour’s industrial strategy, its competitiveness agenda as well as its pursuit of Net Zero, relating these to state policy and VET. It also facilitates an examination of the wider European context in which such discussions take place and the on-going constructions of neo- and post liberalism.

This research aims to consider the value of income and wellbeing returns to adults following general compared to specific (Becker, 1993) education. It uses two comprehensive data sets in the UK over different time periods, one focusing on work-related training, and the other on gaining a Level 3 qualification as an adult.

Human capital theory finds that income returns to specific, or vocational, training are greater than for general, or academic, education (Ibid). Evidence from adult learning suggest that although there are limited income returns (Coelli and Tabasso, 2019), there are significant returns to wellbeing (Hammond and Feinstein, 2006), life satisfaction (Tett and Maclachlan, 2007), and confidence (Barton et al., 2007). However, there is limited recent evidence of these kinds of returns to adult learning, and where it has been measured, this is typically over long periods of time for older adults (e.g. Jenkins and Wiggins, 2015). There are also challenges of academic learning for adults with lower-level prior qualifications in terms of self-concept and identity (Schuller, 2004), although there is limited evidence on whether gaining qualifications as an adult affects those with lower or higher prior qualifications differently (Ruber, Ress and Schmidt-Hertha, 2018). This research aims to address these gaps in the literature, by providing recent data on returns to adults from academic qualifications, here Level 3, for those with lower-level prior qualifications, here Level 2.

This sits within a policy context of changing views of lifelong learning across Europe, where the EU and national governments are refocusing spending on adult education towards vocational learning (Rambla et al., 2020). In the UK, funding for classroom-based adult education has fallen by two-thirds from the early 2000s to 2024-25 (Farquharson et al., 2026), while increasing numbers of adults are undertaking apprenticeships (Pullen, 2024). Cedefop (2025) report a shift towards more targeted measures and vocational learning in lifelong learning, both across Europe and in individual nations, as adult learning becomes more focuses on work. This trend towards encouraging specific learning for skills in the workplace is tested in this research, with an assessment of income returns for those receiving work-related training versus those obtaining a more general qualification as an adult.

The challenge of supporting wellbeing in times of crisis and uncertainty is a global one. This research investigates the capacity of education to support wellbeing in adults, and whether general or specific education is more effective in promoting wellbeing. There is existing evidence particularly for adult learning, although this can often be informal and difficult to characterise neatly as academic or vocational. The data used here enables this clear differentiation and uses the same outcome measure in both cases to validate the research. Although the data for this project comes from two different time periods, this can highlight the impact of changes in policy, economies, and global security. This research draws on the context of different periods to ask questions about whether academic or vocational learning provides the best return for adults.

The presentation focuses on co-development project “Youth Employment and TVET in Kenya” (KenVET) of Tampere University of Applied Sciences (TAMK) in Finland and Finn Church Aid (FCA) with five Kenyan technical and vocational education (TVET) institutions during 2024-25. The project is connected to Government of Kenya proactive reforms in “Dual TVET” emphasizing enhancement of accessibility, quality and integration of practical learning promoting youth employment by TVET institutions collaborating with employers, entrepreneurs and industry. The thematic areas of the project lead by TAMK have been modern teaching technologies, individualized learning, and competency-based education and training (CBET).

KenVET has been a curriculum-based training project with combination of on-line and on-site learning for Kenyan teachers and trainers inviting and inciting all participants to a process of co-production of knowledge for promoting youth employment, implementing modern teaching technologies and principles of individualized and competency-based learning in TVET. Project started 2024 with TAMK professionals analysis of Kenyan policy documents on TVET and visit to Kenya. Three TAMK professionals and three FCA Kenya experts conducted together a short field study in five TVET institutions in Mount Kenya area. The curriculum for the training program was planned based on this field study and on TAMK’s professional teacher education program. It was organized in Moodle LMS with monthly webinars and learning tasks. 11 groups of 66 teachers and trainers implemented development works on modern teaching technology, competency-based and individual learning focusing on their own work with trainees in the institutions to promote youth employment and collaboration with employers. The process has been documented in the Moodle, in the project report of FCAKenya and in the Teams-channel of the process. The data of the process is multifaceted and plenty and the analytical approach in this presentation is to describe the process of the co-production of knowledge in the training and in conducting the 11 group works. A questionnaire for the Kenyan participants was conducted in the end of the training program documenting the the most valuable learning experiences for participants and the broader organizational impacts of the project.

The invitation for co-production of knowledge incited all participants to collaborate and contribute in the process. The development works conducted by the 11 groups focused mostly on the modern teaching technologies as (n) groups had chosen that theme. The orientation for co-production of knowledge shows also that the ideas started to grow and settle in the future plans of the participating institutions.

As the funding of the project ended at December 2025 the co-production of knowledge had to be cut. In the presentation in the ECER2026 we describe the process until that point and seek for possibilities to continue in future projects. The project and disscussions within the project network have raised the questions on how the process combines German Dual TVET, Finnish individualized, competency-based TVET and Kenyan and African perspectives of the FCA’s principle of “from learning to earning”. In the presentation answers to this question are to be discussed further.