International Journal of Vocational Education Studies
The International Journal of Vocational Education Studies (IJVES) publishes current findings on vocational education and training (VET), focusing on the analysis and further development of VET. The journal aims to strengthen the international academic exchange of selected research results from different countries, thereby networking the international community. The journal and its articles are intended for the academic community as well as decision-makers in the field of VET. The goal is to make research results from vocational education studies accessible to an international audience and to inform about current developments in VET. The journal acknowledges that VET in different countries is studied not only from an educational perspective but also from other disciplines, such as political science, sociology, and economics.
Book Review: Esmond, B., Schmees, J. K., & Wedekind, V. (2026). Emancipation and Vocational Education: Skills, Bildung and the Subject.
Copyright (c) 2026 Falko Schmidt https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Curriculum Enactment by Vocational Teachers in Norwegian VET
This article explores how vocational teachers in Norway enact the revised national curriculum (The Subject Renewal Reform – LK20) within the two-year school-based part of the 2+2 model in upper secondary vocational education and training (VET). Drawing on data from interviews with vocational teachers in three vocational education programmes, the study investigates how vocational teachers interpret, adapt, and translate the intended curriculum into pedagogical practices, analysed through the perspective of curriculum enactment theory. Using the framework of the curriculum as intended, implemented, and enacted, combined with perspectives on professional judgement and curriculum making, the article analyses the tensions and affordances embedded in curriculum enactment processes, focusing on how vocational teachers negotiate policy changes while asserting their professional agency. The findings indicate that vocational teachers’ professional judgement plays a pivotal role in mediating national policy intentions and local realities, and that local adaptation is shaped both by school cultures and workplace collaborations. The study contributes to the understanding of curriculum implementation as a dynamic, context-dependent process also in VET. The knowledge contribution highlights the enacted curriculum as a key analytical lens, making provisions for vocational teacher agency and professional judgement in situations of considerable tension, increased requirements, and multiple stakeholders.
Copyright (c) 2026 Nina Aakernes, Hedvig Skonhoft Johannesen, Jorunn Dahlback, Inger Vagle https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
The Influence of Parents on Adolescents’ Vocational Aspirations
The family background, especially the parents, plays a significant role in vocational development and occupational achievement. To date, very little is known about the influence of family background on occupational ambitions or goals. This study aims to explore how parents and their educational background influence the status (prestige) of adolescents’ vocational aspirations. Therefore, we surveyed students of lower secondary education in Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. Aiming to explain variances in the students’ occupational ambitions, we analysed path models based on the Social Cognitive Career Theory (SCCT) by Lent et al. (1994). Our data support basic assumptions of the SCCT. Thus, we could verify the impact of students’ past performances (grades) on their occupational ambitions, mediated by self-efficacy and outcome expectations. In addition, we found that family background, mothers in particular, influences occupational ambitions.
Copyright (c) 2026 Adele Schulze Niehoff, Laura Arndt, Melanie Baumgarten, Robert W. Jahn, Raphaela Porsch https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
From Passive Recipients to Active Agents
Learners are often the last to be consulted in international vocational education reform, yet they are the first to experience its shortcomings. In the construction sector across West Africa, young people are expected to perform as skilled workers despite training that frequently fails to connect theoretical instruction with practical application. This paper critically examines how learners respond to fragmented dual vocational education systems, especially in contexts where donor-supported structures have deteriorated following project withdrawal. Drawing on a gender-disaggregated cross-sectional survey of 161 learners (122 male and 39 female) enrolled at a public technical institute in southern Ghana that was initially supported through German development cooperation, the study explores how learners navigate systems in which dual training exists more in form than in function. Using the concept of bounded agency, the research demonstrates that learners construct alternative learning pathways by securing informal attachments, relying on peer networks, and developing self-directed career strategies. While male learners report higher levels of confidence in workplace transitions, female learners face more significant barriers in gaining access to sites, receiving mentorship, and having their skills recognised. These findings reveal gendered asymmetries in the learner experience and expose the deeper limitations of donor-driven training models. Learners’ informal coping strategies do not represent disengagement from the dual system but instead reflect intentional adaptation in the face of structural neglect. This suggests that fragmented training systems do not erase learner ambition but shift the burden of coordination onto young people themselves. The study concludes that recurring issues such as weak employer engagement, symbolic certification, and gendered exclusion are not incidental but symptomatic of transfer logics that fail to sustain local ownership. It calls for institutional reforms that include learner-centred accountability, gender-sensitive placement strategies, and sustained private sector participation that extends beyond the donor cycle.
Copyright (c) 2026 Alexandra Bohra, Felix Meckmann https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
Vocational Middle Schools (VMSs) as Marginalized Part of the Swiss VET System
Dual VET is considered the unquestioned standard of VET at the upper secondary level in German-speaking Switzerland. This study sheds light on a hitherto rather marginalized and disputed part of the Swiss VET system: the Vocational Middle Schools (VMSs). In contrast to dual VET, there has been only limited information about and understanding of VMSs so far, because only a few research has been done on VMSs. Therefore, referring to the theoretical framework of the Sociology of Conventions and using the example of three German-speaking cantons, the study aims to investigate the vocational education policy disputes about the significance of VMSs in the political governance of the transition to upper secondary education in Switzerland. The results show the disputed functions and criticisms attributed to VMSs as part of the Swiss VET system and highlight how these positions are justified by the relevant actors. Overall, the results provide insights into how the status of dual VET as the unquestioned standard of Swiss VET is protected and reproduce in Switzerland. Furthermore, they emphasize that the sacrifices for this are made at the expense of VMSs, which are restricted by the canton’s (vocational) education policy. Looking beyond the borders of the Swiss case, the results affirm that the distribution of young people across various programs in an education system should be understood not only as the consequence of individual preferences and decisions but also as resulting from strategic steering interventions by a country’s (vocational) education policy.
The Transition from the Education to the Employment System in Japan — A Balancing Act between Continuity and Change
Japan’s ‘market model’ of vocational training shows continuities and changes: On the one hand it can be stated that the country’s transition from the school system into employment remains quite stable. On the other hand, especially demographic, societal and cultural changes lead to a higher academization rate with consequences for the secondary and tertiary vocational training institutions. Even universities and colleges more and more diversify their curricula with vocational compounds such as ‘employability’, ‘vocationalism’ and ‘career education’, trying to cope with less educated youth to ensure a smooth transition into the employment market. Moreover there are recent changes in the recruitment procedures of the companies, such as hiring mid-career employees that might lead to further changes in the ways of Japanese vocational training.
Political Participation of Business Organizations in the Construction of the Technical Vocational Education and Training System in Costa Rica between 1980 and 2021
This article focuses on the political participation of business groups in shaping the vocational education system in Costa Rica, covering the period from 1980 to 2021. Adopting a configurationist theoretical-methodological approach, the research was based on 14 semi-structured interviews, participatory observation and an analysis of historical documents. The research reveals how political-business groups linked to the attraction of foreign direct investment since 1980 have played a crucial role in defining the roles and functions of the Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) system in Costa Rica.The process of modernization and reform of the system since the 1980s wasnot onlylimitedtoideological discourse, butwasmaterializedthrough concretepolitical actions. This was translated into specific TVET policies that sought to transform curricula, financing, organization and relations between training institutions and transnational companies. In summary, the article highlights that during the last four decades, transnational business groups have played a decisive role in the configuration of the TVET system in Costa Rica, demonstrating their direct influence inthe formulation and execution of policiesthat have shapedtechnical-vocational education and training in the country.
About the Roles of TVET in the Brazilian System of Innovation
This paper employs Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) to investigate the discourses on modernization of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Brazil and its integration into the national innovation system. Two key aspects are explored: (1) how the roles of TVET organizations are represented in the innovation and TVET discourses in Brazil, and (2) how the roles of TVET graduates in innovation processes are represented in the innovation and TVET discourses in Brazil.The research framework draws from Cultural Political Economy(CPE) and the Critical Discourse Analysis. The analysis, based on the CDA approach of Fairclough & Fairclough (2011, 2012) is presented around three main layers: Discursive Practices, Discourses as Texts, and Discourse as Social Practices. Data collection methods encompass document analysis and interviews with experts in Brazil. The study finds that SENAI and the Federal Network advocate a radical approach, aiming to boost TVET’s role in Brazil’s innovation model, while SENAC takes a conservative stance, limiting the involvement of TVET institutions and graduates in innovation.
This paper explores and analysesthe evolution of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Palestine since 1860 and critically reflects on the main differences and changes of traditional and current TVET. Some of the initial differences include: (1) TVET goals and objectives and(2) approachesto connectlearnerswiththe realworld ofwork. Exploring TVET reformwill illustrate the regression of its current model concerning quality, relevance and responsiveness. The article is seeking to provide a deeper understanding of TVET development and changes throughout history through a critical sociological theory lens. It will also reflect on the current conditions in Palestine under the social, cultural, political and economic systems that have been affecting the TVET system and students’ vocational choices vs. academic choices
The Academisation and Europeanisation of Midwifery Training in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
The overall aim of the study is to examine the influence of EU steering instruments on national VET structures. Using the example of midwifery training it is to be determined whether and to what extent Directive 2005/36/EC leads to an increased academisation of VET systems. A comparative analysis is made of the extent to which the countries of Germany, Austria and Switzerland have adaptedtheir legal requirements for midwiferytrainingtothe demand ofthe EU Directive over the periods 2002 and 2022. Neo-institutionalism serves as the theoretical framework. With regard to midwifery training the results suggest convergences between the countries Germany, Austria and Switzerland onthe one hand and convergences betweenthe region of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and the EU Directive 2005/36/EC on the other hand. In addition to the purely formal requirements Directive 2005/36/EC also conveys institutional myths because although the Directive does not explicitly call for the academisation of midwifery training this will be academised in the countries of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland by 2022.
Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Different National Contexts
VET Teacher Training: A Comparison of University Programs in the U.S. and Norway
This article is a study of Vocational Education and Training (VET) teacher training in considerably different societal contexts. Vocational education teachers contribute to the growth and development of a country’s future workforce, as they bridge the gap between formal schooling and the workplace. Their training is critical, since their pedagogical knowledge and technical expertise can result in students prepared to enter their chosen field of employment. Through case studies analyzing qualitative data on 1) program entry requirements, 2) curricular and course components, 3) implementation of practical elements in the training and 4) definitions of formal qualifications, the researchers identify joint key elements in VET teacher training programs in the U.S. and Norway. The discussion highlights how quality VET teacher training programs play a pivotal role in bridging between the practical elements in vocational education and professional futures as teachers.
Copyright (c) 2024 Chris Zirkle, Eli Smeplass & Arve Leraand
Approaches to modeling and evaluating teachers’ digital competencies are often based on the TPACK model. However, in-depth analyses of the conceptualization of the model show that the specificities of the so-called dual subject matter of vocational education are not sufficiently represented. This article provides insights into the development and testing of an instrument for teachers’ self-assessment of digital competencies in vocational education. The instrument is based on the structure of TPACK but is adapted in various ways to reflect the specificities of vocational education. The aim of this article is to transfer a conceptual extension of the TPACK model into an initial instrument and to analyze it as part of an initial exploration.
Copyright (c) 2024 International Journal of Vocational Education Studies
VET Teacher Education – a Co-Constructive Design Process
VET (vocational education and training) teacher education is intended to foster professional competence and continuous learning for teachers throughout their careers. Even though teacher education in Germany is anchored in subject-specific sciences, subject-specific didactics (vocational), educational sciences, and practical experience, fragmentation and discontinuity persist. The article addresses these challenges in a systematic manner, integrating structures, content, and stages to achieve coherence. Using a case study from the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, we identify, understand, and propose solutions for improving coherence in VET teacher education. Through a design-based research approach, we propose prototypes for cross-stage and cross-institutional collaboration, emphasizing the need for such partnerships to address issues of coherence.
Copyright (c) 2024 Robert Hantsch & Harald Hantke
Vocational Education and Training for Sustainable Development
The topic of sustainability and the concept of Vocational Education for Sustainable Development (VESD) play a major role in dual vocational education and training in Germany, especially due to the modernised occupational profile items on environmental protection and sustainability introduced in 2020. This article presents didactic approaches to the design and organizational embedding of measures aimed at developing and expanding the skills of VET personnel related to sustainability. Furthermore, an outlook is provided on an implementation project in the training occupation of gardener, demonstrating how the content of sustainable management can be integrated with qualification programs for in-company and inter-company trainers.
vocational education for sustainable development
Copyright (c) 2024 Mareike Beer, Alexandra Ritters & Martin Thieme-Hack
Between Heterogeneity and Professionalization of TVET Teacher Education in Costa Rica
This article deals with the different forms of qualification and access routes to the teaching profession in TVET in Costa Rica and discusses the different requirements as well as the level of professionalization. This is done under the approach of describing the qualification of TVET teachers at the academic and non-academic level, the various access routes to the teaching profession in the TVET system and the discussion on the professionalization of teacher qualification in Costa Rica. The article concludes with a systematization of the characteristics of the forms of qualification and entry requirements in Costa Rica. This systematization allows us to derive the status of and the need for professionalization of TVET teachers in Costa Rica.
Copyright (c) 2024 Irina Rommel, Monserrat Vargas Méndes & Daniel Láscarez Smith
Assessing the Impact of Teacher Design Teams on the Professional Development of Vocational Education Teachers
Vocational students in European secondary education face a high dropout rate. Research shows that although general subjects are essential for preparing students for their future lives, increasing the time allocated to these subjects in the curriculum also leads to higher dropout rates (e.g., Hall, 2016; Hermann et al., 2013). The professional development of general subject teachers through active and long-term initiatives can improve their attitudes, beliefs, and instructional practices (Merchie et al., 2016). These changes can enhance vocational students’ engagement and motivation, thereby reducing early school dropout (e.g. Van Houtte & Demanet, 2016). This study explores the influence of Teacher Design Teams (TDTs) on teachers’ attitudes, beliefs, and instructional practices in general subjects for vocational secondary education. Throughout two school years, three TDTs have been investigated in the context of an interdisciplinary course. Data collection involved conducting interviews with nine teachers and collecting the designed curriculum materials. These data were analysed using thematic analysis. The results show that the teachers improved their instructional practices and particularly their digital skills. Teachers’ attitudes and beliefs also developed after the implementation of TDTs. The designed curriculum materials exhibited diversity with varying levels of consistency across the different components.
Copyright (c) 2024 Tina Gryson, Katrien Strubbe, Tony Valcke & Ruben Vanderlinde
Germany has a significant number of people who did not learn German as their first language. For this learning group, German can represent a challenge to achieving a successful vocational education, but even native German speakers can experience language difficulties; one approach to overcoming language barriers is language-sensitive teaching. Textbooks serve as a didactic medium for planning, initiating and supporting school learning processes, and this paper investigates the extent to which textbooks for business education at vocational schools are designed to be language sensitive. An analysis of a textbook from a language-sensitive perspective reveals that the majority of the text and tasks in the textbook have language-sensitive elements but that there remains potential for improvement at the word, sentence, text and visual levels of analysis.
Copyright (c) 2024 Junmin Li & Firat Deniz
Behavioral economics describe how preferences, experience, and individual characteristics relate to learning and choices, and therefore determine economic behavior. According to (economic) choice theories, patience is a key driving factor behind economic development as it affects economic behavior, as visible in health, crime, etc. Recent research sets up the relationship between patience and economic developments. It becomes clear that patience is strongly correlated to parameters like years of schooling, innovation, risk preferences and GDP per capita. We are interested in the connection between patience and the investment in initial and continuing vocational education and training (VET) in different European countries. This article examines whether there is a correlation between patience and the investments of the state and companies in vocational education and training (VET) in different European countries. We used a sample of European countries and correlated their values of patience (from the Global Preference Survey) with public investment in vocational training, with firm participation in vocational education and training and with enterprise expenditures on CVET. Our results indicate that there is a relationship between patience and the companies’ participation in training.
Copyright (c) 2024 Susanne Peters & Christine Siemer
Láscarez Smith, Daniel (2023): Political Participation of Business Organizations in the Construction of the Technical Vocational Education and Training System in Costa Rica between 1980 and 2021
Vocational Education and Training Systems Between School and Company
Copyright (c) 2025 Dietmar Frommberger, Silke Lange; Christoph Porcher
Between Selection and Inclusion in Vocational Education and Training
This article discusses inclusivness of Vocational Education and Training (VET) at Upper Secondary Education (USE). While inclusion has become a policy aim in compulsory education, it is not so clear that it is the case beyond post-16 education. In the case of VET, the demand of high quality standardized vocational qualifications challenges inclusion. The article addresses three different dimensions of inclusion: access to VET at USE, successfully achieving a qualification, and entering the labor market in a position according to the qualification achieved. We approach inclusion from a policy rather than a pedagogical perspective in section 2, and in section 3 our hypothesis about the inclusiveness of a school-based VET and a dual VET system are presented. In section 4 we choose Spain and Switzerland as examples of these systems, we show indicators, and we describe how both systems deal with the three dimensions of accessing, achieving a qualification and entering the labor market. The analysis concludes by stating that inclusion is particularly difficult because of the first dimension: it is in transition to VET in USE where both countries have more difficulties and could improve their inclusiveness. The problem is the same, but the reasons are different and these are explained in the text, addressing tensions between reputation and inclusiveness and the externalization of measures. Some considerations on comparative education also result from our analysis.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fernando Marhuenda Fluixá, Lorenzo Bonoli
Supporting Peer Feedback Formulation in a Video-Based Digital Platform in Technical Vocational Education
Vocational education and training (VET) students often have difficulties with formulating peer feedback for various reasons. This is a problem as only well-argued peer feedback positively affects learning. Thus, supporting peer feedback formulation is desirable. This study explores the effectiveness of a prompt consisting of evaluative markers and sentence openers on the quality of peer feedback formulation. 48 VET students in a technical domain in the Netherlands watched the same five videos on practice and then provided peer feedback to the performers. An experimental group (24 students) had access to evaluative markers and sentence openers to support feedback formulation. The control group (24 students) did not have access to these supports. The generated feedback was analysed on feedback quality indicators and compared using independent sample t-tests. The results indicated that prompt-based supports can improve the quality of student-formulated peer feedback. We discuss the importance of carefully designed prompts and how they can contribute to better peer feedback formulation.
Copyright (c) 2025 Sietse Brands, Bas Kollöffel, Elwin Savelsbergh, Maaike Endedijk
Longitudinal Analysis of School-Workplace Cooperation in Vocational Training
School-workplace cooperation is a unique research field within the dual training system, where trainees’ subjective experience of this cooperation is crucial for investigating training quality. In this study, we tracked 458 industrial administrative assistant trainees throughout their entire training period and modeled changes in their experience of one organizational and two pedagogical dimensions of school-workplace cooperation over time and across individual trainees. Using a Latent Growth Model (LGM), we included both time-invariant and time-varying predictors to explain the growth dynamics of these dimensions of trainees’ experience of school-workplace cooperation. The results show that all three dimensions have unique growth dynamics over time and across individual trainees. The way predictors influence their growth also differs significantly from each other. Among the dimensions, the practical relevance of school learning shows a decline and is the most sensitive to predictors. The integration of specialized knowledge has seen an increase but can rarely be explained by factors included in this study. The transparency and organization of training dimension has remained relatively stable.
Copyright (c) 2025 Beifang Ma, Esther Winther
Deissinger, Thomas & Melnyk, Oksana (Eds.) (2024). Partnership-Based Governance and Standardization of Vocational Teacher Education in Ukraine.
Copyright (c) 2025 Fernando Marhuenda Fluixá
History of Vocational Education and Training
This paper throws light on the history of skills councils in Australia from their formal introduction in the 1990s to the present day. Skills councils are important elements of the vocational education and training system, providing two key, and linked, inputs into the vocational education and training (VET) system: they develop the competency standards underpinning the qualifications delivered in VET (Training Packages), and they provide information about industry needs for VET training. They are highly political, as stakeholder groups vie for control of the system; hence during the past thirty years there have been several reorganisations of the system. There has been little research on the topic. The paper describes the four main iterations of the skills council systems over time, using key documents, some no longer available publicly, as well as the author’s own experience in and with the system, and her own research, some unpublished, into the topic. To illustrate the political nature of the system, a case study is provided of the interventions over time by one of the three major economy-wide employer peak bodies. The paper ends with suggestions for further research, and an Appendix documents the major reports of the 2000s and 2010s, including brief summaries, to assist future researchers.
Boundary Objects Supporting Students’ Meaning-making During Work Placement in Norwegian Vocational Education
This study investigates the use of boundary objects in vocational education and training (VET) as an approach to address the challenge of meaning making of VET concepts, often experienced by pupils at school just as ‘definitions’ to be learnt by heart or to be memorized, hence becoming isolated knowledge instead of contextual applicable and meaningful. A problem that is well known in international dual VET education and research. As well it turns the focus on, for instance pupils, to potentially become co-brokers between the boundary of school and workplace, using boundary objects, reified as thematic assignments in and for both learning sites. In the interplay between boundary objects, advisors, students and teachers, affordances can be created helping to construct meaning and motivation in and for the pupils’ VET education.
Copyright (c) 2025 Monika Øgård, Stefanie Andrea Hillen
This paper provides a background to vocational education and training in Aotearoa New Zealand with a focus on the legacies that continue to impact the environment and conditions for a stable and viable VET system. Despite ongoing measures to reform and organise VET through legislative shifts and changes in administration and organisation, the sector continues to be unsettled and in flux. There are several embedded attitudes associated with vocational, trade and technical education that have thwarted efforts to develop a strong vocational and technical education system in Aotearoa, New Zealand over time and these have had an impact on efforts at reform. This paper examines some of the historical conditions that have led to the environment for VET as we now find it – underdeveloped, underfunded and in a constant state of reform.
Copyright (c) 2025 Lisa Maree Maurice-Takerei