Vocational education studies are a relatively young scientific discipline compared to other social sciences. However, the degree of professionalisation and institutionalisation of vocational education studies varies greatly in different countries. Internationally, the understanding and approaches of vocational education and training (VET) are very different. VET encompasses a wide range of informal in-company training, private and non-formal VET programmes, as well as state-organised formal VET systems. These approaches and systems follow very different principles and have diverse characteristics, both within individual countries and in international comparison. The extent of standardisation of frameworks and qualifications and the links to general education and higher education is very diverse internationally.

At the same time, a variety of reforms and innovations are taking place to further develop and upgrade VET. International trends lie, for example, in the competence orientation of curricula and teaching, permeability, vocational teacher training or the linking of school-based and company-based VET. In essence, existing system approaches are being changed to increase quality. This is intended to make VET an increasingly attractive educational option for young adults. The involvement of companies and the development of skilled workers also play a central role in the further development of VET in many countries.

With this journal, we would like to promote academic exchange on current developments in VET. In our opinion, knowledge about the many international developments in VET has been too limited so far. However, since the importance of VET is increasing significantly, the need for academic exchange is also growing. There is a lack of scholarly journals with which these research results can be systematically shared. Although the global development of VET systems is the focus of this journal, it is welcoming numerous foci of vocational education studies, i.e. philosophy of (vocational) education, didactics, or history of (vocational) education.

Open Access

IJVES is committed to the free availability of research and thus supports the global exchange of knowledge. All articles are freely accessible from the moment of publication. The publication of the articles is free of charge for the authors. All articles in the journal are published under the Creative Commons licence CC-BY 4.0. This licence allows to freely copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and to remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially. By submitting their manuscript, authors accept these conditions.

Editorial process

Contributions may be submitted in response to the current call for papers, or at any time as a contribution to the general section of the journal. They are first read by a member of the editorial office. If the paper meets the journal's formal and content requirements, it will be sent to the reviewers, one of whom will be one of the journal's lead editors. If at least one author of a submitted manuscript is in any way associated with one of the editors, the manuscript will be reviewed by two external experts. After receiving the receipt of the peer reviews, they are shared with the authors. Depending on the acceptance of the paper and the suggestions for revision/ questions for clarification, the authors edit the manuscript. The new version of the manuscript is handed in and read again by one of the lead editors. If all review comments have been addressed, the manuscript is then handed to the editorial office. If not, the manuscript is send back to the author for further revision. The members of the editorial office recheck the manuscript regarding the formal requirements of the journal. If there are any issues, the manuscript is sent back to the authors for a last revision. Afterwards the paper is released for publication.

 

Peer-Review Policy

All research articles in this journal have undergone rigorous peer review, based on initial editor screening and refereeing by at least two referees.

IJVES is a peer reviewed journal with a two-option system: The first option is a closed double blind peer review. The names of the reviewers are hidden from the authors and vice versa. Submitted manuscripts undergo a pre-review by the assigned handling editor. If successful, the manuscript will then be forwarded and reviewed by two experts. If it comes to a split decision, a third review will be invited.

The second option is an open peer review. The names of the reviewers are known to the authors and vice versa. Submitted manuscripts undergo a pre-review by the assigned handling editor. If successful, the manuscript will then be forwarded and reviewed by two experts. If it comes to a split decision, a third review will be invited.

Authors are asked to mention their preferred option when submitting a manuscript.

When evaluating the manuscript, we ask reviewers to provide feedback on the following points:

(1) The relevance of the contribution to the field of VET,

(2) the appropriateness of the methods used to answer the research question,

(3) the coherence and comprehensibility of the argumentation,

(4) the appropriateness of the content as well as the critical discussion of the literature presented in the paper,

(5) the discussion of limitations of the study, and, finally,

(6) the suitability of the article for an international readership.

The reviewer chooses from the recommendation options provided by the system (accept submission, revisions required, resubmit for review, resubmit elsewhere, decline submission). The reasons for this decision must be clearly stated in the submitted review. We encourage all reviewers to actively engage with the text by leaving comments directly within the document.

Important Notes for Authors

We want to provide potential authors with some important notes on our journal's philosophy. As mentioned earlier, we welcome papers from a variety of academic disciplines, as long as they address matters relevant to VET. Another important note is that papers should contribute significantly to the international conversation on VET. Be aware that you are addressing an international audience, therefore ensure that your paper is open to criticism from a broad, international community. 

Section Policy

IJVES publishes papers or essays in four sections:

  1. General Section: All topics are welcome, and submissions are accepted at any time.
  2. Thematic Section: The editors regularly publish calls for papers. Papers must be submitted by a specified date to be considered for this section. If you cannot meet the deadline, you might consider submitting the paper for the general section in a different issue.
  3. Reviews: IJVES publishes reviews on current or older literature that might be worth revisiting in VET and adjacent topics. Submitted reviews do not undergo peer review and are handled by the editorial office.
  4. Forum: Authors can publish essays on recent developments in VET. Essays for the forum are reviewed by one of the editors.