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The purpose of this article is to develop knowledge about the experiences of technical vocational education and training teachers in Norway during the covid-19 school closures in the spring and autumn of 2020. Data has been obtained through an electronic questionnaire with open, text-based answers. 18 vocational teachers participated in the survey, which shows that the closure had major consequences for vocational students in the technological education programs. The home school’s narrow framework conditions made it difficult to replace the school’s practical workshop and hands-on training. The study shows that the closure has triggered major differences in how vocational training was carried out. While some students only participated in digital home school, other students were able to have more practice in firms and enterprises than in ordinary school life. Excluded from school, training firms, and leisure activities, many students felt lonely and passive and some were eventually in danger of dropping out of school. The study shows that the vocational teachers took extensive responsibility and worked hard to find relevant and practical tasks for their students in the crisis that arose. One-to-one conversations between teacher and student as well as a close school-home collaboration became decisive for the students' experience of social and professional belonging. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this article is to develop knowledge about the experiences of technical vocational education and training teachers in Norway during the covid-19 school closures in the spring and autumn of 2020. Data has been obtained through an electronic questionnaire with open, text-based answers. 18 vocational teachers participated in the survey, which shows that the closure had major consequences for vocational students in the technological education programs. The home school’s narrow framework conditions made it difficult to replace the school’s practical workshop and hands-on training. The study shows that the closure has triggered major differences in how vocational training was carried out. While some students only participated in digital home school, other students were able to have more practice in firms and enterprises than in ordinary school life. Excluded from school, training firms, and leisure activities, many students felt lonely and passive and some were eventually in danger of dropping out of school. The study shows that the vocational teachers took extensive responsibility and worked hard to find relevant and practical tasks for their students in the crisis that arose. One-to-one conversations between teacher and student as well as a close school-home collaboration became decisive for the students' experience of social and professional belonging.

Being an adult, deciding what to do with your life, and trying to understand the consequences of educational choices can be difficult. Vocational education and training (VET) programmes within the Swedish municipal adult education (MAE) offer an opportunity to learn a vocation, and last 6–18 months. This study aims to explore how adult VET students perceive desirable vocational habitus and is based on 18 interviews comparing students from two vocational MAE programmes in assistant nursing and floor laying. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the beginning of the students’ training and data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The results show that choosing a VET programme is a process of choosing what you want to do for work but also who you want to be. However, whether or not students see themselves as suitable is contrasted between how they perceive their future vocation and what the vocational community expects from them, which in turn affects their learning process and development of a vocational identity. Noticing the discrepancies between students’ perceptions and vocational expectations can both reduce the risk of losing students during training and reduces the risk of reproducing unequal ideals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to learn about Finnish VET representatives’ perceptions of inclusion. Discussions and research on inclusion in education have mainly concentrated on the comprehensive school context, although vocational education and training (VET) students may have multiple, intersectional experiences of disadvantage. Our data included representatives (N=53) from five different Finnish VET sectors. Through semi-structured interviews, we investigated their interpretations of inclusion. We applied an abductive approach in our analytical process that followed the principles of qualitative content analysis. Our findings indicated that the definition of inclusion is ambiguous. At the administration level, inclusion was related to ideology, whereas teachers spoke about special education practices. Work-life representatives connected inclusion to the principles of communality, and students appreciated this understanding and individual solutions in their studying and workplace learning. This study supports the view of earlier studies and addresses a need for shared understanding and values to engage with inclusion in practice. The VET sector would benefit from discussions and training in inclusion and inclusive principles, where the study works as an initiator. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Being an adult, deciding what to do with your life, and trying to understand the consequences of educational choices can be difficult. Vocational education and training (VET) programmes within the Swedish municipal adult education (MAE) offer an opportunity to learn a vocation, and last 6–18 months. This study aims to explore how adult VET students perceive desirable vocational habitus and is based on 18 interviews comparing students from two vocational MAE programmes in assistant nursing and floor laying. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at the beginning of the students’ training and data were analysed using inductive thematic analysis. The results show that choosing a VET programme is a process of choosing what you want to do for work but also who you want to be. However, whether or not students see themselves as suitable is contrasted between how they perceive their future vocation and what the vocational community expects from them, which in turn affects their learning process and development of a vocational identity. Noticing the discrepancies between students’ perceptions and vocational expectations can both reduce the risk of losing students during training and reduces the risk of reproducing unequal ideals.

The purpose of this study was to learn about Finnish VET representatives’ perceptions of inclusion. Discussions and research on inclusion in education have mainly concentrated on the comprehensive school context, although vocational education and training (VET) students may have multiple, intersectional experiences of disadvantage. Our data included representatives (N=53) from five different Finnish VET sectors. Through semi-structured interviews, we investigated their interpretations of inclusion. We applied an abductive approach in our analytical process that followed the principles of qualitative content analysis. Our findings indicated that the definition of inclusion is ambiguous. At the administration level, inclusion was related to ideology, whereas teachers spoke about special education practices. Work-life representatives connected inclusion to the principles of communality, and students appreciated this understanding and individual solutions in their studying and workplace learning. This study supports the view of earlier studies and addresses a need for shared understanding and values to engage with inclusion in practice. The VET sector would benefit from discussions and training in inclusion and inclusive principles, where the study works as an initiator.

Comparative measures of learning outcomes and professional actions are set out to indicate accountability of VET. Individualisation and fragmentation of education emphasise counselling of students as support for their learning. The purpose of the article is to identify how counsellor and teacher practitioners perceive opportunities and challenges in merging their pedagogical and fundamental conventions of their work with structures and frameworks of accountability constituting their practice. Theoretically the study is influenced by socio-cultural perspectives. The analysis follows an abductive approach, reporting on the results from ethnographic observations of guidance counselling (N=29) within VET and subsequent interviews (N=12). We ask how the tension between the immeasurable and measurable contextualises within counselling, and how counselling is construed by counsellors and teachers. The results suggest adherence to quality measures in VET exchanged processes of human interactions and agreements with assumptions of outcomes. The effort of reaching the measures led to failure in achieving the purpose of what the targets are meant to underscore, portraying a disillusion of control. Accountability addressed a critical point concerning responsibility and evoked professional ethical dilemmas for the practitioners. Certain categorised actions of counselling processes were made externally visible by documentation but depleted counselling as learning processes inwards. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Finnish initial vocational education and training aims for graduate employability by emphasising self-directed learning and workplace learning. However, little is known about what competencies teachers consider relevant for graduates, how teachers address competencies in their instruction and how they perceive the benefits of workplace learning. Therefore, this study aims to highlight teachers’ perceptions and their practices on these topics. This is a qualitative interview study conducted in cooperation with a large Finnish vocational education provider. Participants of the study were teachers in automotive engineering, electrical and automation engineering, mechanical and metal engineering, and building service technology. The data were collected with semi-structured qualitative interviews and analysed using qualitative, abductive content analysis. The research findings indicate that teachers consider fundamental domain-specific competencies and work-related attitudes paramount for graduates as these promote professional expertise and employability. Secondly, teachers prefer to teach domain-specific competencies. However, the emergence of self-directed learning demands that teachers be pedagogically competent. Thirdly, teachers deem workplace learning beneficial but also consider that school may offer more equal and versatile education opportunities for everyone. The research findings enrich the scientific discussion on vocational graduate competency needs and vocational teaching and support the development of vocational education systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Comparative measures of learning outcomes and professional actions are set out to indicate accountability of VET. Individualisation and fragmentation of education emphasise counselling of students as support for their learning. The purpose of the article is to identify how counsellor and teacher practitioners perceive opportunities and challenges in merging their pedagogical and fundamental conventions of their work with structures and frameworks of accountability constituting their practice. Theoretically the study is influenced by socio-cultural perspectives. The analysis follows an abductive approach, reporting on the results from ethnographic observations of guidance counselling (N=29) within VET and subsequent interviews (N=12). We ask how the tension between the immeasurable and measurable contextualises within counselling, and how counselling is construed by counsellors and teachers. The results suggest adherence to quality measures in VET exchanged processes of human interactions and agreements with assumptions of outcomes. The effort of reaching the measures led to failure in achieving the purpose of what the targets are meant to underscore, portraying a disillusion of control. Accountability addressed a critical point concerning responsibility and evoked professional ethical dilemmas for the practitioners. Certain categorised actions of counselling processes were made externally visible by documentation but depleted counselling as learning processes inwards.

This article discusses the didactical challenges and opportunities of driving simulator supported teaching and learning, mediated through digital technology in vocational educational and training through the example of driving simulators. We highlight relevant research on simulator-supported teaching and the need for practice-based, empirically driven research. The study is part of a larger project that focuses on the implementation of simulator environments in three secondary schools in the natural resource programme. The data consists of three action research projects in two of these schools where vocational teachers, together with researchers, plan and implement teaching with driving simulators as a new technology in their practice. The article is an example of how action research can contribute to critical evaluation and development of teachers’ professional work during the implementation of new technology. Results from these projects are analysed using the TPACK framework. The vocational teacher has a central position to ‘master’ the digital tool. Issues about fidelity, transfer and progression are discussed in terms of concepts that are challenged when new technology is introduced. Here, the vocational teachers professional and content knowledge as well as the teacher’s didactic and technical competence are central for the development of new strategies when the conditions for teaching change fundamentally.

This essay addresses the issue that a neoliberal focus might have an adverse effect on a secondary vocational education student’s personal development and opportunities in higher education. Originating from neoliberal conditions, in upper secondary vocational education there is a strong focus on marketable skills with limited space for acquiring critical thinking and analytical skills, resulting in impediments concerning admittance to higher education as well as low success rates of those admitted. Also, talent development and differentiation are contested under these neoliberal conditions. It is argued that liberal pedagogy is necessary as a means to scaffold especially critical thinking skills and to foster talent development in upper secondary vocational education to cope with this issue and to create more equal opportunities for vocational students from various levels. In the concluding thoughts those involved are encouraged to reconsider preparation for post-secondary education related to admittance and study success.

This article aims to review the pedagogical research on simulation training in voca-tional education and training (VET) and to discuss the emerging teaching practice from a socio-material perspective on learning and practice. Literature reviews on research into simulation training with pedagogical interests show that there are three main themes: 1) the effect of technology-enhanced simulation training, 2) the fidelity and authenticity of simulation and learning, and 3) pedagogical consideration and under-pinnings. The article draws on a sociomaterial perspective on learning and practice to problematise and discuss the findings of previous research. This theoretical perspec-tive makes it possible to discuss how technology, educational practice and social rela-tions are intertwined and precondition each other.Through the lens of sociomaterial theory, the article discusses how the introduction of the new technologies brings about changes and expectations of what can be learned, how the teaching practices are enacted and how this affects the relationship between teachers and students.

This article explores how young apprentices develop vocational competence through apprenticeship in workplaces where technology is continuously changing. The article draws on results from a longitudinal study that followed seven apprentices enrolled in the media graphics programme in Norway through their two-year apprenticeships.The results showed how the apprentices developed vocational competence in the community of practice in the workplaces by taking an active part in the daily produc-tion, experimenting with different solutions, reflection, and by advice and discussions with their instructors and co-workers. However, the apprentices also had to deal with work tasks where the solutions were not yet known in the workplace. The article shows how the apprentices combined learning from colleagues with learning from other resources such as software courses and use of the internet. The results showed how the apprentices’ competence development can be a resource for the co-workers and can facilitate the development of the enterprise. Furthermore, these results pro-vide new perspectives on competence development in the community of practice. The study showed that the apprenticeship has an innovative potential and is an essential way for young people to develop vocational competence in a world of work where technology is continuously changing.

The aim of this study was to contribute to the understanding of the reasons for low or high academic motivation among practical nursing students at risk of dropping out from vocational education and training. The research data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 14 Finnish students, which were analysed by qualitative content analysis. The analysis identified six motivational sources. Two of these sources – Responsible agency and Completing out of necessity – were related to engagement in studying, whereas two other sources – Exhaustion from learning challenges and Tight-roping between competing responsibilities – were related to disengagement from studying. Emotional drive and Social orientation were ambivalent motivation sources, partly pushing towards engagement as well as to disengagement, depending on the circumstances. Overall, the complicated reasons for low or high motivation were found to be heterogeneous and, consequently, the ways to support students may also vary.

This article examines characteristics, practices and conditions within schools that enable vulnerable students to succeed in school. Research suggests that factors related to structure, educational organisation or the climate within schools may play a part in either pushing out or holding on to students whose personal characteristics may put them at risk of dropping out. The study is based on 25 qualitative interviews with students in the second year of vocational education and training. All the students had a low grade point average from lower secondary school, and the majority had an immigrant background from Africa or Asia. The analysis shows that practice-oriented learning from authentic work tasks provided meaningful connections between schoolwork and students’ career choices and opportunities to experience success and mastery. Furthermore, positive expectations and the active support of teachers as well as mutual motivation and support among classmates contributed to students’ sense of belonging at school. The study discusses the importance of schools supporting less school-oriented young people in connecting and identifying with school, both with the social environment and with the educational content and learning methods.

The article examines the role of formative assessment to occupational socialisation processes in retail apprenticeship in Norway. The analysis draws upon a qualitative study of managers and apprentices in the Sales Vocational Education and Training (VET). The Norwegian sales trade struggles to gain foothold. The skilled sales assistant constitutes neither an established social category, nor an employee category. Sales VET is directed towards a labour market sector depicted in terms of high turnover, traditionally valuing soft skills and personality over formal credentials. The article aims to extend understandings of apprentices’ subjective accounts of the assessment they are subjected to and coconstructing. Three different assessment practices integrated in the daily work are analysed. First, retail work centres on customer interaction. The feedback the apprentices receive from the customers, as a type of user-evaluation, provides rich and immediate learning resources. Second, the retail apprentices were thrown into tasks from day one, and are thus shown trust and given responsibility. This recognition by gradual access to more complex tasks serves as another type of assessment, implying increased self-confidence and sentiments of commitment. Third, the sales figures of each apprentice were transparently registered and monitored in the computer system of the shop, representing assessment as management control. By deploying the notion of assessment logic, the article argues that one is better equipped to grasp the interplay between learning, assessment, becoming and working in the retail sector. The interactive nature of customeroriented service work implies re-interpretation of the traditional assessment nexus of trainer – apprentice. The findings of the article show that the apprentices ascribed customer evaluation of great importance to their learning and becoming.

Dropout is a substantial and permanent problem in educational policy. As a consequence, dropout is a recurrent theme in educational research projects including a current Danish research project about dropout among young adults in vocational education and training and basic general learning for adults. Research into dropout mostly focuses on reasons for dropping out and only to a small degree on the students' considerations and decision-making processes in relation to dropout, the latter being the focus in this research project. Focusing on the student decision-making processes, the article presents the results of an empirical study based on interviews with 35 students who were considered to be at risk of dropping out. Four categories of decision-making process were derived from the empirical data: the stable course and the unstable courses which include three types of development: the positive development, the turbulent development, and the negative development. The decision-making process is guided by several factors. However, students' goal-orientation seem to be crucial in order to understand the structure and direction of the decision-making process. The types of development are discussed, concluding in implications for further research as well as for practice.

This article discusses the contemporary discourse of 'quality' in upper secondary vocational education in Sweden. The study is based on a selection of government policy texts that preceded the reform of upper secondary education in 2011. The purpose is to present how the concept of quality gets its meaning, and to discuss this from a perspective of competence, knowledge and qualification in order to renegotiate the concept of quality. Hence, the article also discusses how an extended quality concept could contribute to a changed view of Swedish upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) from an economic, individual and social point of view, in terms of both content and attractiveness. A widened approach to quality in VET could lead to a change in the view of, and the discussion about, VET as such. Our purpose is to emphasize the importance of a broader understanding of how quality in VET can be understood and offer a more nuanced and expanded understanding to the contemporary discourse of VET quality, and thus offer opportunities for a more attractive VET.

As a derivative from Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT), where gaining insight into the circumstances of an activity is among its applications, this article pre-sents an approach to initiating and structuring activity system guided conversation where the intent is to strengthen stakeholder empathy and partnership in action. Whilst this paper is not, in-itself, an outcome of so-focused research, it is a sharing of insights accruing from ethnographic research largely in the vocational education and training (VET) arena and, in particular, ongoing exploration of the circumstances aiding and inhibiting Australian VET teachers including researching and drawing upon the research of others as part of their professional practice. In essence, this article posits that activity system – as derived from CHAT – guided conversation has much utility in achieving empathetic partnerships between stakeholders in an activity where their respective interests might otherwise be in conflict. Accordingly, the notion of the 'Hinge' is offered as a device to expand the utility of Activity Theory. The 'Hinge' being constructed by conversation agreeing the 'Object', which is the most influencing of 'Rule', 'Community' or 'Division of Labour' and then the nature of enabling 'Tool'.

Vocational education and training (VET) is under reform in many Nordic countries. This article explores uses of developmental work research (DWR) approach in reforming and transforming practices of VET. DWR was initiated in Finland in the 1980s to enhance understanding about learning in organizations. The aim of this article is to elaborate the approach by examining studies made in the field of professional and vocational education and training, and thus to examine potentials and shortcomings of the approach. Eight DWR studies in the field of professional and vocational education and training are summarized, and three of them are elaborated. Contributions of the studies cover new tools, conceptualizations and methods for VET. Shortcomings bring forth researcher's dual role and lack of evidence on sus-tainable development after study processes. In conclusion I state that DWR offers rich and solid theoretical and methodological tools for VET researchers. However, they need to develop concepts that combine different dimensions of research, and not to forget to elaborate their study results from societal and individual perspectives.

In this paper, we present a study that focuses on the vocational education and train-ing (VET) system in Norway and the part of the training undertaken in training es-tablishments. The purpose of the study is to examine whether the use of an electronic monitoring tool improves the apprentices’ learning- and work habits as well as their professional awareness. The study is twofold. Firstly, we used a quantitative design to illuminate the phe-nomenon of ‘volition’, as an expression of learning and work habits. In this part of the study 64 apprentices answered a questionnaire. Secondly, we conducted a quali-tative study in which three apprentices were interviewed about their experiences with the electronic monitoring tool and what it entails in terms of their learning and work habits, as well as their professional awareness. Findings indicate that the electronic monitoring tool helps to reinforce communi-cation between the apprentices and instructors. In addition, findings indicate that apprentices reflection and effort increases, which can be an important contribution to appropriate learning and work habits. In sum, our findings suggest that an electronic monitoring tool appears to con-tribute positively to both appropriate learning and work habits, as well as manage-ment of apprentices’ understanding of their future professional responsibilities.

Vocational education and training is amongst the educational areas drawing the biggest attention by mass media and a key topic of political debate in Sweden. This is by no means surprising if we take into account that nearly half of Swedish youngster follows any of the vocational training lines offered at upper secondary education. But, is this a unique 'Swedish discussion'? Are there other international frame factors influencing and some how conditioning the discussion about the strategic importance of VET? If, so which are these frame factors? This paper attempts to give initial answer to these questions by contextualizing VET discussion in Sweden from an international perspective that includes social transformations from modernity to the so called postmodernity and the impact on work market demands. The paper present these new demands, as well as qualifications required. The chapter uses a wide range of references that includes Education For All (EFA) Global Monitoring Report of 2012 focused on the third goal of Education for All, that is to ensure that all young people have the opportunity to acquire skills. The urgency of reaching this goal has sharpened acutely since 2000 as a consequence of a global economic downturn impacting on unemployment. The paper intends to contribute to better understanding of the challenges as well to create awareness and encourage discussion in different contexts and levels, that is vocational school, VET teacher training, policy making and VET planning.

The topic of this article is literacy and writing practices in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). In Norway, TVET is organised as two years in school context followed by two years in enterprise. Based on a socio-cultural theoretical approach, the research question is: How is writing practiced in school and enterprise - as similar or as different practices? Writing skills are integrated in curriculum and part of vocational competences. Teachers and trainers are committed to work with and develop writing skills to students and apprentices. Different contexts may imply different writing practices by transfer and transformation from school to enterprises. My research shows that this is not the case, as writing in both contexts is mainly mediating learning outcomes from the school-based curriculum and not related to writing competences required in work life. The main purpose of writing practices is to assess and control skills and knowledge, related to vocational specific terminology and argumentation. Teachers and trainers appear to be main target group and not writing to different target groups in students' and apprentices' future working life as trained workers. These findings also indicate that generic or trans-contextual writing skills are not prioritized in neither of these contexts.

This article draws on data from a module on education for sustainable development (ESD) in vocational teacher education. There are two kinds of data: 47 group work projects, where the assignment was to design an ESD activity in upper secondary vocational education, and a web questionnaire (average response rate of 80 %). The purpose is to describe and discuss how ESD can take form in vocational teacher education, and how the students value the knowledge that they have acquired when working with the module. The results give a positive picture of many different pedagogical approaches of planning an ESD activity. The variety of the contents of the activities stretch from having specific vocational focus, to broader societal perspectives. The planned activities for the pupils also differ, from participating in classroom exercises to activities based on actionand student-based planning. The different pedagogical approaches are exemplified and discussed. The results from the questionnaire show that over all, the students are positive to the content of the ESD module and the work that is carried out within this part of the course. These results are related to previous studies with critical aspects of teaching ESD.

The Bildung contents and processes of vocational education and training is the focus of this article. This is something that has, for the most part, been treated on a philosophical level previously and where the intent here is to discuss how empirical research into vocational Bildung didactics can be conducted and what kinds of knowledge it can contribute. In the Bildung-philosophical discussion vocational education has historically often been contrasted with general Bildung and part of an empirical inquiry into vocational Bildung didactics is to surface the actual experiences of Bildung that vocational education and training can afford. The inquiry is based on an extensive explorative study of craft master Wolfgang B. and his vocational education biography. A part of this biographical study is presented in the article where the conversation centres on a vocational task he remembers and the various vocational Bildung affordances that can be found in his account. This leads to a more nuanced understanding of the concept of vocational Bildung and to a concluding discussion of the various ways in which this kind of empirical studies in vocational Bildung didactics can contribute to both research and practice.

This article aims to show the effects of the prevalence of the competence regime withinseveral sectors of vocational education and training in France. The first part of thearticle outlines the origin of the concept of competence and the evolution of its meaning.Later, the underlying theoretical and epistemological foundations are examined andtwo different paradigms are distinguished. The second part of the article focuses onambiguities and paradoxes of effect of competence approaches, in specific educationalprogrammes in the healthcare professions and social work in France. This study isbased on the analysis of a corpus of documents concerning French vocationaleducation and training that use a competence-based approach.