Nägele, C., Esmond, B., Kersh, N., & Stalder, B. E. (Eds.). (2024). Trends in Vocational Education and Training Research, vol. VII. Proceedings of the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET). VETNET. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13624225
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Editorial | Editors | Papers | References of the editorial

Editorial — VET in an age of uncertainty

Professor Dr Bill Esmond    
University of Derby, College of Arts, Humanities and Education

This seventh volume of Trends in Research on Vocational Education and Training arrives at a significant moment for European VET and VET research. As researchers from the Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET) assemble for the 2024 European Conference on Educational Research (ECER) in Nicosia, policymakers and international agencies call on VET more than ever before to combat major problems of economic crisis and societal tension. Yet, each of these challenges also requires VET to change itself, moving beyond the foundations of its past success. This volume illustrates some of the ways in which VET research addresses these challenges, reporting examples of recent and ongoing work by members of the network.

The successes of European VET’s strongest systems in minimizing youth unemployment, especially during and after the recession that began in 2008, now lead to expectations that its role in (re-)training can overcome post-COVID educational disruption and economic dislocation, facilitating digital and green transformations at the heart of European hopes for the future (e.g. Cedefop, 2022; Council of the European Union, 2020; OECD, 2023). The stable skilled employment to which it once routinely guided European youth, especially in manufacturing occupations, has already given way to the more precarious, service-dominated labour markets of the 21^st century. Now, the educational and economic disruptions of COVID-19 coincide with a slowing or incipient reversal of globalization (Avis et al., 2021; Krzaklewska et al., 2023). VET is expected to support digital transformation and the supply-chains of ‘Industry 4.0’, as well as the ‘green transformation’ and transition to low-carbon economies. Yet these potential transformations require new skills, and often higher levels of qualification, which VET cannot always easily provide (Hämäläinen et al., 2015; Nygren et al., 2020). If requirements for higher levels of study and qualification require ‘academic’ foundations, VET’s preference for practical learning and assessment methods may prove inadequate, leading to alternative routes (Knight et al., 2022). As the sector offering the greatest access to migrant youth, VET is required to train and integrate recent arrivals to Europe, simultaneously providing solutions for export to countries in the Global South; yet migrant youth tend to access less valued transitions (Baethge & Wolter, 2015; Busse et al., 2023, Jørgensen, 2021), whilst VET’s strong national roots rarely transfer successfully into new terrain (Pilz & Wiemann, 2021; Vogelsgang et al., 2021). As war, civil conflict and populist politics spread internationally, VET is expected more than ever to promote civic participation and democracy. Yet its motivations for students, who have rejected or been rejected by general education, centre on its close connection to working life (Basler & Kriesi, 2019; Neuenschwander et al., 2024). Inclusion in VET is seen mainly in terms of the labour market, from which VET imports its gender-specificity and other aspects of hierarchy (Schmid & Garrels, 2022). In short, the strengths that VET acquired with difficulty during a time of growth and relative stability (Bonoli & Gonon, 2023) can diminish, or turn into their opposite, when tasked with these new and more exacting requirements.

These urgent concerns are captured in this year’s ECER Conference theme, ‘Education in an Age of Uncertainty: Memory and hope for the future.’ The conference draws on its 30 years of experience in examining educational problems theoretically and empirically, exploring these at a time when European identities and aspirations for the future are increasingly contested. This is nowhere more true than in VETNET, the biggest and one of the oldest ECER networks, a research community bringing together established and emerging researchers across Europe. The papers in this year’s Proceedings are based on abstracts that were accepted following a double-blind peer review, for presentation at ECER 2024. The final papers have been reviewed by the editors and VETNET board members, who have supported authors in revising and refining their contributions. They offer new insights into VET-related problems and developments across Europe and beyond.

Many of these papers address the challenges discussed above, sometimes in quite novel ways. Peters discusses the contribution of continuing education to the Bremen motor industry’s adaptation to ongoing transformations. Relatedly, VET’s relationship with changing labour markets informs Struck’s discussion of vocational identity, with very different responses from manufacturing and healthcare learners. Meyne reports a project promoting the use and teaching of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in adult and vocational education. Kraus and Freidorfer’s paper begins by asking whether transversal competences are necessary to such transformations but ends by returning to notions of Bildung and Beruf, which it argues could be understood as a response to the schism between general and vocational education. This approach suggests the kind of broadening of VET that is raised by questions of civic education: experiences broadening vocational education in Norway through engagement with civic education are reported by Syverstad and Kristiansen; relatedly, Duch examines democracy-related activities in Danish health and social care courses.

Among those addressing challenges for migrants and/or arising from migration, Vidmantas et al.’s comprehensive discussion of its effects, especially on labour markets, raises multiple important issues for European VET. In papers from a symposium on migrant transitions, others report studies of learning experiences: Laczik et al. report on young people with migrant backgrounds in English VET, drawing on learning careership theory; Keser Aschenberger on the lifelong learning experiences of Turkish migrant women, locating these in their life-course; Felder et al. discuss a pre-apprenticeship integration programme in Switzerland; Stalder and Schönbächler report the perspectives of those who were excluded from or did not complete this programme. Moving to perspectives from the global South, Hunink discusses the contribution transferring VET is expected to make to the economic progress of Latin America and its problematic outcomes in Costa Rica. Annen et al. explore the reputation and perceptions of the public Brazilian VET system, introducing a perspective from the Federal Institutes of Education, Science and Technology (FIs).

Others address more perennial problems of VET. Broek et al. discuss problems of lifelong learning and examine possibilities to integrate this into vocational settings. Engelage et al. revisit the recognition of prior learning (RPL) in Switzerland. Questions for teaching professionals are always important for VET studies. Here, Hiim and Sylte revisit vocational teacher education, Michek and Hloušková report their changing approaches to collaboration over time, whilst Hannes and Donovan discuss questions of trust, comparing approaches in England and Austria. More unusually, Arsenis and Flores discuss university students’ transitions from work placement to the graduate labour market, a question with no little significance for contemporary VET.

We are delighted to offer this collection of papers as a contribution to the international debate on these themes both during and after the ECER conference. We thank all contributors for their valuable contributions to this volume and, more broadly, to the dialogue across our network that continues across such events as the Crossing Boundaries and Stockholm conferences and in the pages of our journal, the International Journal of Research in Vocational Education and Training (IJRVET). We commend this edition of the Proceedings to a wider audience of researchers, policymakers and practitioners now wrestling with the problems facing our field. Finally, we extend a warm welcome to old and new VETNET members gathering in Nicosia or watching news of the conference from afar.

We look forward to continuing these discussions at future VETNET events.
We hope that this edition will again capture the interest not only of our VETNET community but also a wider audience.

Editors of Vol VII

Dr Christof Nägele, VETNET chair/link convenor of VETNET      
University of Applied Sciences and Arts Northwestern Switzerland, School of Education
University of Basel, Institute for Educational Sciences

Professor Dr Bill Esmond    
University of Derby, College of Arts, Humanities and Education

Dr Natasha Kersh, VETNET board member
IOE, UCL’s Faculty of Education and Society

Professor Dr Barbara E. Stalder, VETNET chair/link convenor
Bern University of Teacher Education

Papers in Alphabetic Order, 2024

Annen, S., Sailer-Frank, S., & Schiedeck, C. (2024). Federal institutes – Brazil’s chance for a broader variety of VET education? https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13235877

Arsenis, P., & Flores, M. (2024). University-to-work transition and work placements: Evidence of heterogeneous pay dynamics. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13384061

Broek, S. D., Van der Linden, J., Kuijpers, C., & Semeijn, J. H. (2024). Local level conducive socio-spatial environments for adults to engage in learning: Piloting an empirical exploration based on card-sorting. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236259

Duch, H. (2024). Pedagogy in vocational education with general and vocational perspectives – democracy as an example. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236351

Engelage, S., Baumeler, C., Salzmann, S., & Hämmerli, C. (2024). Recognition of prior learning in higher vocational education and training: Framework conditions and recognition practices at professional education institutions in Switzerland. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236613

Hautz, H., & Donovan, C. (2024). A crisis of trust? VET teacher professionalism in the context of standards-based reforms. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236664

Hunink, P. (2024). The significance of exams and certificates in vocational education and training (VET) in Costa Rica. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236693

Kammermann, M., & Laczik, A. (2024). A symposium on migrants’ transition to successful pathways and integration: Supportive mechanisms and barriers. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13237483

• Stalder, B. E., & Schönbächler, M.-T. (2024). Revisiting the pre-apprenticeship for integration: Who has access, who does not, and why? https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13237607
• Felder, A., Caprani, I., Kammermann, M., & Fedrigo, L. (2024). Transition of refugees into vocational training and guidance in companies. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13238155
• Laczik, A., Kersh, N., Dabbous, D., Bayrakdar, S., & Emms, K. (2024). The role of VET in supporting young migrants in England: An exploration of issues, challenges, and good practices. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13238452
• Keser Aschenberger, F. (2024). Pathways to integration: Understanding the educational trajectories and transformative learning experiences of Turkish migrant women in Germany and Austria. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13238683

Kraus, K., & Freidorfer, L. (2024). Transversal competencies, general education and vocational culture. A cultural studies perspective, understanding critical thinking and problem-solving. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236702

Meyne, L., & Siemer, C. (2024). Social capital of actors in VET: an egocentric case study based on the AI pioneers project. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236742

Michek, S., & Hloušková, L. (2024). Collaboration of vocational teachers in VET schools in the Czech Republic. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13236847

Nägele, C., & Stalder, B. E. (2024). A research framework to organize and develop VET research. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13363158

Peters, S. (2024). Handling the transformation? Further training in the automotive industry. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13237050

Struck, P. (2024). Vocational identity – relevance and development in the VET system. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13237199

Syverstad, M., & Kristiansen, A. (2024). Holistic professional competence, with life skills on the agenda. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1323725

Tūtlys, V., Gessler, M., Saniter, A., Kühn, K., Winterton, & Kaminskienè, L. (2024). Skills shortage and recruitment of skilled workers in the EU countries: Development of local human capital or immigration? https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.13237349

References of the editorial

Avis, J., Atkins, L., Esmond, B. and McGrath, S. (2021). Re-conceptualising VET: responses to COVID-19. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 73(1), 1-23. https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2020.1861068
Baethge, M., and Wolter, A. (2015). The German skill formation model in transition: from dual system of VET to higher education? Journal of Labour Market Research 48, 97–112 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12651-015-0181-x
Basler, A., and Kriesi, I. (2019). Adolescents’ development of occupational aspirations in a tracked and vocation‐oriented educational system. Journal of Vocational Behavior 115, 103330. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2019.103330
Bonoli, L., and Gonon, P. (2023). Challenges, Future and Policy Orientations: The 1960s−1970s as Decisive Years for Swiss Vocational Education and Training. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 10(3), 340–360. https://doi.org/10.13152/IJRVET.10.3.3
Busse, R., Michaelis, C., and Nennstiel, R. (2023). To what extent do secondary effects shape migrants’ educational trajectories after lower-secondary education? Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training 15(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40461-023-00142-0
Cedefop. (2022). Making excellence inclusive. https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/blog-articles/cedefops-new-vet-knowledge-centre-0
Council of the European Union (2020). Council recommendation of 24 November 2020 on vocational education (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience (2020/C 417/01). https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/08b9af27-3465-11eb-b27b-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
Hämäläinen, R., De Wever, B., Malin, A., and Cincinnato, S. (2015). Education and working life: VET adults’ problem-solving skills in technology-rich environments. Computers and Education, 88(October), 38–47.
Jørgensen, C.H., Hautz, H., & Li, J. (2021). The Role of Vocational Education and Training in the Integration of Refugees in Austria, Denmark and Germany. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training 8(3), 276–299. https://doi.org/10.13152/IJRVET.8.3.2
Knight, E., Bathmaker, A-M., Moodie, G., Orr, K., Webb, S. and Wheelahan, L. (Eds.) (2022). Equity and Access to High Skills through Higher Vocational Education. Cham: Palgrave MacMillan. https://www.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-84502-5
Krzaklewska, E., Williamson, H., Stapleton, A., and Tillmann, F. (Eds.). (2023). Transitions on hold? How the Covid-19 pandemic affected young people’s transitions to autonomy. Council of Europe. https://pjp-eu.coe.int/en/web/youth-partnership/transitions-on-hold
Neuenschwander, M. P., Ramseier, L., & Hofmann, J. (2024). Adolescents’ effort in vocational education and training and upper secondary general education: Analyses of stability, determinants, and group differences. Journal of Adolescence, first online 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/jad.12293
Nygren, H., Virolainen, M., Hämäläinen, R., and Rautopuro, J. (2020). The Fourth Industrial Revolution and Changes to Working Life : What Supports Adult Employees in Adapting to New Technology at Work?. In M. Collan, & K. Michelsen (Eds.), Technical, Economic and Societal Effects of Manufacturing 4.0 : Automation, Adaption and Manufacturing in Finland and Beyond (pp. 193-209). Palgrave Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-46103-4_10
OECD. (2023). Youth Action Plan. https://www.oecd.org/employment/youth/The-Updated-OECD-Youth-Action-Plan.pdf
Schmid, E., and Garrels, V. (2022). Editorial: Inclusion in vocational education and training (VET). Nordic Journal of Comparative and International Education (NJCIE), 6(3-4). https://doi.org/10.7577/njcie.5073
Vogelsang, B., Röhrer, N., Fuchs, M., and Pilz, M. (2021). Cooperation Between Learning Venues and its Limits: The Hotel Industry in Cancún (Mexico). International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training 8(4), 67–89. https://doi.org/10.13152/IJRVET.8.4.4