The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training E-Book

David Guile

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Serie: Wiley Handbooks in Education
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 1358

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

A collection of the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training written by international experts The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an in-depth guide to the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training (VET). With contributions from a panel of leading international scholars, the Handbook contains 27 authoritative essays from a wide range of disciplines. The contributors present an integrated analysis of the complex and dynamic field of VET. Drawing on the most recent research, thinking, and practice in the field, the book explores the key debates about the role of VET in the education and training systems of various nations. The Handbook reveals how expertise is developed in an age of considerable transformation in work processes, work organization, and occupational identities. The authors also examine many of the challenges of vocational education and training such as the impact of digital technologies on employment, the demand for (re)training in the context of extended working lives, the emergence of learning regions and skill ecosystems, and the professional development of vocational teachers and trainers. This important text: * Offers an original view of VET's role in both the initial and continuing development of expertise * Examines the theories and concepts that underpin international perspectives and explores the differences about the purposes of VET * Presents various models of learning used in VET, including apprenticeship, and their relationship with general education * Explores how VET is shaped in different ways by the political economy of different countries * Reviews how developments in digital technologies are changing VET practice * Discusses the challenges for universities offering higher vocational education programs * Draws on both recent research as well as historical accounts Written for students, researchers, and scholars in the fields of educational studies, human resource development, social policy, political economy, labor market economics, industrial relations, sociology, The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an international perspective on the topic of VET.

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Notes on Contributors

Acknowledgments

1 Introduction to the Handbook

Structure of the Book

Toward a Prospective VET Research Agenda

References

Part I: VET as an Evolving Concept

2 VET, Expertise, and Work

Introduction

The Continuing Power of the Retrospective Skills‐Based Approach to VET

Continuity and Change in the Work Process

Conceptualizing Expertise

A Potential Framework to Develop Expertise in VET

References

3 Vocational Education and the Individual

Introduction

Some Premises

Institutional Origins of Vocational Education Systems

Purposes of Vocational Education

Personal and Social Dimensions of Educational Purposes

Processes of Vocational Education and Training

Vocational Education Curriculum Development, Enactment, and Experiencing

Conclusion

References

4 VET, HRD, and Workplace Learning

Introduction

Developments Since the Second Half of the Twentieth Century That Have Significantly Affected VET

Competency‐Based Training (CBT)

Effects of Neoliberal Economic Agendas

Workplace Learning Research—A Late Twentieth‐Century Development With Strong Significance for VET

Implications of Workplace Learning Research Findings for Contemporary VET

References

5 Does Vocational Education Still Need the Concept of Occupation?

Introduction

Socioeconomic Change and Implications for the Relevance of Occupation

Changing Relationship Between Occupation and Forms of Skill Formation

Conclusion

References

6 Knowledge, Competence, and Vocational Education

Introduction

Bernstein's Theory of Knowledge

How CBE/CBT Excludes Students From Access to Knowledge

The Move to CBE and Learning Outcomes in North America

Conclusion

References

Part II: The Political Economy of VET

7 Political Economy of Vocational Education and Training

Introduction

Human Capital Theory

Labor Demand and VET

Institutions and VET

Understanding Change

New Directions: Capabilities, Vocational Streams, and Adaptive Capacity

Conclusion

References

8 The Politics of Vocational Training

Introduction

Conclusion

References

9 The Industrial Relations of Training and Development

Introduction

Market Failure and the Regulation of Training and Development: Situating Industrial Relations

Industrial Relations and Training in Britain: Toward a New and Modern Role for Trade Unions

The Industrial Relations of Training in Comparative Perspective: European Developments

Conclusions

References

10 Measuring Performance in Vocational Education and Training and the Employer's Decision to Invest in Workplace Training

Introduction

Why Employers Invest in Training

Measuring the Performance of Workplace Training

How Firms Can Moderate the Performance Effects of Workplace Training

Conclusions

References

11 Excluded Within the Inclusive Institution: The Case of Low‐Skilled, Low‐Wage Security Employees

Introduction

Low‐Wage Workers as “Stakeholders” in the Developmental State

Lack of Access to Skills‐Upgrading Opportunities

Failed Attempts to Raise the Skills and Wages of the Security Sector

Conclusion

References

Part III: Arrangements for VET

12 The Contested Evolution and Future of Vocational Education in the United States

Introduction

Historical Context

Expansion of Vocational Education to the Postsecondary Level

Expanding Access to Postsecondary Vocational Education

The Contemporary Conversation About Vocational Education

The Newest Reform: Career Pathways

Concluding Remarks

References

13 The Future of Vocational Education in Canadian Secondary Schools

Introduction

Jurisdictional Tensions in the Governance of Education and Training

The Development of High Schools

Preparing Youth for Work: Conceptions of Vocational Education

New Vocationalism, Unified Curriculum, and Hybrid Qualifications

New Vocationalism in Canadian Schools?

Challenges and Promising Approaches in Secondary School Reform

Conclusion and Recommendations

References

14 The Interrelation of General Education and VET: Understandings, Functions, and Pedagogy

Introduction

General Education and General Subjects in Danish VET

EUX—A New Understanding of General Education?

The Functions of General Education in Relation to the Main Challenges in VET

The Pedagogy of Integrating General Education and VET

Concluding Remarks

References

15 The Sustainability of the Dual System Approach to VET

Introduction

The Cultural Imprints of VET in Germany: Dualization and Vocationalization of Apprenticeships as Parallel Historical Processes

Working Principles and Structural Facets of the Dual System in Germany

Sustainability of the Dual Training Approach in the Context of Academization

Comparative Perspective

Conclusion

References

16 Duality and Learning Fields in Vocational Education and Training: Pedagogy, Curriculum, and Assessment

Introduction

The Concept of Duality in Germany VET

Influences on the Development of VET Pedagogy and Assessment

Pedagogy and Curriculum

VET Assessment

Looking Ahead

References

17 VET Teachers and Trainers

Introduction

Working for the Poor Relation

VET Teachers and Trainers and Their Relationship to Economic Demands

The VET Workforce

Training and Professionalism

Teacher Education for VET

Context and Former Role

Conclusion

References

Part IV: VET as a Developing Practice

18 The Learning Potential of Boundary Crossing in the Vocational Curriculum

Discrepancies, Transfer, and Boundary Crossing

Boundary Crossing: A Theoretical Framework

Learning Mechanisms at Stake in Boundary Crossing

Boundary Crossing: Empirical Examples

Boundary Analysis as a Heuristic Toward Curriculum Redesign

Discussion

References

19 Designing Technology‐Enhanced Learning Environments in Vocational Education and Training

Introduction

Potential of TELEs in VET: A Connectivity and Boundary‐Crossing Perspective

Applications of TELEs in VET: Tools to Integrate Learning and Teaching Across Different Learning Settings

Digital Simulations

Research and Future Directions for TELEs in VET

References

20 VET as Lifelong Learning: Engagement With Distributed Knowledge in Software Engineering

Introduction

Epistemic Practices and Objects in Professional Learning

Software Engineers Learning With Distributed Knowledge: Case Studies in Higher Education and Work

Engineering Students' Learning

Early‐Career Engineers' Learning

Conclusion

References

21 Innovative Work‐Based Learning for Responsive Vocational Education and Training (VET): Lessons From Dutch Higher VET

Introduction

The Dutch Vocational Education System

The Role of Work‐Based Learning in Regional Innovation

Innovative Work‐Based Learning in Practice: The Thermion Case

Lessons for Organizing Responsive VET

References

22 Capturing the Elusive: How Vocational Teachers Develop and Sustain Their Expertise

Introduction

The Development of Expertise and the Nature of Vocational Knowledge

Researching the Development of Vocational Expertise

Developing Expertise Through Teaching Observations

Learning Through the Observation Process: The Feedback Discussion

Examining How Vocational Teachers Maintain and Refresh Occupational Expertise

Codifying and Transporting Vocational Knowledge and Expertise

Discussion

Concluding Remarks

References

Part V: Challenges for VET

23 The Challenges VET Faces Through Its Intersection With Social Class, Gender, Ethnicity, and Race

Introduction

Understanding Inequalities Through a Comparative Life Transitions Approach

Agency at the Intersection of System‐Worlds and Life‐Worlds

What Is It Possible to Change Through Institutions of Vocational Education and Training?

Conclusion

References

24 The Contribution of Vocational Education and Training in Skilling India

Introduction

Historical Milestones of VET in India

Vocational Training Institutions in India's Education System

Policy Approach for Vocational Education and Training

Challenges and Opportunities for VET and Skill Development in India

Conclusions

References

25 Vocational Education and Training in Economic Transformation in China

Introduction

The Structure of VET in China

Vocational Training

Economic Transformation and the Challenges for VET

Political Measures in VET During Economic Transformation

Changes to the Private Return to VET

Problems Facing China's VET System

Research on VET in China

Conclusion

References

26 Working with Historical, Cultural, and Economic Logics

Introduction

The Competing Logics of VT

Historical Milestones in VET and VT in Argentina

Reconfiguration of Stakeholders and Their Conceptions About VT Policies

Conclusion

References

27 The Evolution of Learning Regions

Introduction

Learning Regions

Path Dependency, Relational Variety, and Regional Branching

Using an LR Approach to Critique VET and Skills Policy in the United Kingdom

Conclusions

References

Index

End User License Agreement

List of Tables

Chapter 2

Table 2.1 Prospective expertise and VET: Toward a framework for devel...

Chapter 8

Table 8.1 The variety of skill formation systems in advanced industri...

Chapter 9

Table 9.1 Funding and Outcomes for All Union Learning Fund Rounds (1–...

Table 9.2 Training, Representation, and Voice, 1998–2011: Reporting M...

Chapter 10

Table 10.1 Costs and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training From the Fir...

Table 10.2 Average Costs and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training per...

Table 10.4 Average Costs and Benefits of Apprenticeship Training per...

Chapter 11

Table 11.1 Profiles of the Five Security Employees.

Chapter 12

Table 12.1 Career Pathway Characteristics.

Chapter 15

Table 15.1 Dimensions of the German dual system.

Chapter 16

Table 16.1 Learning field 5 from the vocational school curriculum for...

Table 16.2 Content and structure of the final examination in the “ind...

Chapter 25

Table 25.1 Share of the Contributions of the Three Strata of Industry to the Inc...

Table 25.2 Impact of VET on Employment Possibility and Income Return (2003–2013)...

List of Illustrations

Chapter 7

Figure 7.1 A schematic representation of the capabilities approach: core cate...

Chapter 11

Figure 11.1 Singapore's unemployment rate, 2006–2016.

Figure 11.2 CET participation by education level.

Figure 11.3 Age and education profile of the private security industry employ...

Chapter 12

Figure 12.1 Career pathway example: An Associate of Applied Science degree in...

Chapter 19

Figure 19.1 Schools and workplaces as two interacting activity systems.

Chapter 21

Figure 21.1 VET in Dutch education and training.

Figure 22.2 Innovative WBL as catalyst for university–business collaboration.

Chapter 23

Figure 23.1 Numbers rating social characteristics as “of considerable importan...

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

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The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Trainingby David Guile (Editor) and Lorna Unwin (Editor)

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The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training

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Notes on Contributors

Vibe Aarkrog is Associate Professor in VET Pedagogy at the Danish School of Education, Aarhus University, in Aarhus, Denmark. Her research and publications concern the interrelation between the school‐based and workplace‐based parts of dual programs, transfer of training and learning, practice‐based teaching, simulation‐based learning, assessment of prior learning, and student dropout.

Sanne Akkerman is Professor of Educational Science at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. Her research interests include boundary crossing, dialogicality, identity, and interest development across contexts. In 2011, she published (with Arthur Bakker) a review study on boundary objects and boundary crossing in the Review of Educational Research, and guest‐edited a special issue on learning at the boundary in the International Journal of Educational Research. More recently, she expanded the boundary‐crossing framework to a multilevel conceptualization in an article with Ton Bruining in the Journal of the Learning Sciences.

Carmela Aprea is Professor of Business and Economics Education at the University of Mannheim, Germany. Her research interests include connectivity and boundary‐crossing approaches in VET, learning and curriculum research in VET, technology‐enhanced learning in business and economics education, and resilience of VET teachers. She is the first editor of the International Handbook of Financial Literacy (Springer, 2016) and a member of the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD) International Network on Financial Education Research Committee.

Arthur Bakker is Associate Professor at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, where he focuses on mathematics, statistics, and science education as well as vocational education. He worked with Sanne Akkerman on a project on boundary crossing between school and work, which led to a review study in the Review of Educational Research (2011). His research interests include boundary crossing, interest development, embodied design, design research, and learning theories. He is associate editor of Educational Studies in Mathematics. A book on design research in education for early‐career researchers is forthcoming.

Stephen Billett is Professor of Adult and Vocational Education at Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia, and Australian Research Council Future Fellow. He has worked as a vocational educator, educational administrator, teacher educator, professional development practitioner, and policy developer in the Australian vocational education system, and as a teacher and researcher at Griffith University. He is a Fulbright scholar, National Teaching Fellow, recipient of an honorary doctorate from Jyvaskala University in Finland, and elected Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences of Australia.

Debra Bragg is director of Community College Research Initiatives at the University of Washington in Seattle, and founding director of the Office of Community College Research and Leadership at the University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign in the United States. Her research focuses on youth and adult transitions. She has led many research projects on career and technical education and has received funding from the US Department of Labor and numerous philanthropic foundations. In 2015, she was named a Fellow of the American Educational Research Association. In November 2016, she received the Distinguished Career Award from the Association for the Study of Higher Education.

Janet H. Broad is a Lecturer in Education and Professional Development at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. She is a teacher educator for the Further Education (FE) sector. Her research interests include the professional development of vocational teachers, both at the initial stages of their development and in their continuing professional development; the development of expertise; and the understanding of vocational knowledge. Her 2016 paper on vocational knowledge was awarded “Highly Commended” by the Journal of Vocational Education and Training. She is currently researching engineering pedagogy in project‐based collaborative learning at UCL with Dr. Ann Lahiff.

John Buchanan is Chair of Discipline, Business Analytics, at the University of Sydney Business School, Sydney, Australia. He has had a long‐standing research interest in the evolution of the labor contract, working life transitions, and the dynamics of workforce development. His current role involves using data science to support the effective reform of vocational education in Australia. He is also helping to link Business School research and education activity with the transformation of health and well‐being in Western Sydney. He has produced many scholarly and policy research publications, the latest as editor (along with Chris Warhurst, Ken Mayhew, and David Finegold) of the Oxford Handbook of Skills and Training, published by Oxford University Press in 2017.

Marius R. Busemeyer is Professor of Political Science at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. His research focuses on comparative political economy and welfare state research, education and social policy, public spending, theories of institutional change, and, more recently, public opinion on the welfare state. His recent publications include Skills and Inequality (Cambridge University Press – winner of the 2015 Stein Rokkan Prize for Comparative Social Science Research), an edited volume (with Christine Trampusch) on The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation (Oxford University Press), as well as a large number of journal articles in leadings outlets of the discipline.

Alberto A. P. Cattaneo is Professor and Head of the Innovations in Vocational Education research field at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (SFIVET), Switzerland, where he also leads the Dual‐T project. His main research interests are in the integration of information and communication technologies (ICT) in teaching‐and‐learning processes, reflective learning in VET, instructional design, multimedia learning (especially the use of hypervideos), teacher education, and teacher professional competence development.

Crina Damşa is Associate Professor at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. Her research focuses on student learning, design of learning environments, and use of digital‐material resources in higher education teaching and learning. Her work highlights learning through collaboration, inquiry‐ and research‐based activities, and connections of course design with pedagogical and disciplinary perspectives. Recent publications highlight ways of introducing students to the practices and knowledge of various domains (software engineering, teaching, and law) and how design for learning can foster student engagement and agentic conduct.

Thomas Deissinger is Professor of Business and Economics Education at the University of Konstanz, Konstanz, Germany. His research interests are in vocational training policy, comparative research, didactical issues such as modularization, and the history of VET. He has published papers on the VET systems in the UK, Australia, and Canada. He is currently researching VET teacher education in Ukraine. In May 2016, he received an honorary doctorate from Kiev National Economic University.

Brian Durham is Deputy Director for Academic Affairs at the Illinois Community College Board in Springfield, Illinois, USA, which coordinates the 48 community colleges in Illinois, United States. Among other areas, he oversees program approval for the system, and he serves on the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board (IWIB), the IWIB Youth committee, and the IWIB Apprenticeship committee. He holds a BA and an MA in Political Science with an EdD from the University of Illinois Urbana‐Champaign, where he focused on Education Policy, Organization, and Leadership with a Higher Education concentration. His research interests include issues affecting community colleges, particularly as they pertain to closing equity gaps.

Karen Evans is Emeritus Professor of Education at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK, and Honorary Professor in the Economic and Social Research Council Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES), London, UK. She is also Honorary Professor at RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She has conducted major studies of learning and working life in Britain and internationally. She coordinates an Asia‐Europe Research Network for Lifelong Learning. Her recent publications include the book How Non‐Permanent Workers Learn and Develop (Routledge), which she coauthored in 2018.

Alison Fuller is Professor of Vocational Education and Work and Pro‐Director for Research and Development at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK. She has been researching and publishing in the field of workplace learning, education (work transitions, apprenticeship, and vocational education), and training for over 25 years. She is a project leader in the ESRC Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES), London, UK, where she is researching employee‐driven innovation in the healthcare sector, and also undertaking comparative international research for Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training) on adult apprentices.

Bärbel Fürstenau is Chair of Business and Economics Education at TU Dresden, Dresden, Germany. Her research interests focus on learning and teaching processes in initial vocational and technical education (both at schools and at the workplace), in further education, and in the field of personnel development. Specifically, she is concerned with developing and evaluating complex learning environments, such as case studies or management games. Furthermore, she analyzes how learning strategies such as concept mapping can support individuals in the development of complex knowledge. A very recent area of her research is financial literacy.

Soon‐Joo Gog is the Chief Futurist and Chief Research Officer at the Skills Future Singapore Agency, Singapore, and has held a number of posts in the Singapore government. She leads research and development projects in the areas of the future of work and future of learning. Her research interests include capitalism in the digital economy, new economy firms, skills ecosystems, and skills policies. Some of her more recent projects include the use of artificial intelligence (AI)‐enabled data to predict the impact of technological adoption on the organization of work and learning in workplaces, including in the gig economy. She was awarded her doctorate by the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK.

David Guile is Professor of Education and Work at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK, where he is also Co‐Director of the Centre for Engineering Education and a project leader in the ESRC Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES). He is interested in the changing relationship between work, technology, and education and the implications for professional, vocational, and workplace learning. He is coeditor with Professor David Livingstone, University of Toronto, of the Sense Publishers series entitled Education and the Knowledge Economy. His book, The Learning Challenge of the Knowledge Economy, was published by Sense in 2010.

Paul Hager is Emeritus Professor of Education at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. His major research focus has been the holistic seamless know‐how that characterizes highly skilled performances of all kinds. This has generated research projects on topics such as informal workplace learning, professional practice (“professional” in its broadest sense), the nature of skills and competence, and group practice. In 2013, Educational Philosophy and Theory published a special issue celebrating Hager's work. He is about to publish a book with David Beckett, provisionally titled The Emergence of Complexity: New Perspectives on Practice, Agency and Expertise.

Aimée Hoeve is Senior Researcher at the Research Centre for Quality of Learning at the HAN University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen in the Netherlands. Her research theme is designing learning environments and curricula at the school–work boundary in vocational and professional education, with a specific focus on workplace learning.

Claudia Jacinto is a Principal Researcher at the National Council of Scientific Research at the Centro de Estudios Sociales, Buenos Aires, Argentina, and is currently Coordinator of the Youth, Education and Employment Program (PREJET). Her research interests are in youth transitions from school to employment, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) and social justice, education and employment linkages, and the evaluation of skills development policies and programs. She has advised a number of international agencies, including IIEP‐UNESCO (the International Institute for Educational Planning–United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization), the International Labor Organization (ILO), Save the Children, Norrag (Network for International Policies and Cooperation in Education and Training), and UNICEF (United Nations Children's Fund).

Laura James is Associate Professor of Tourism Development and Regional Change at Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark. Her research interests include organizational learning and innovation, destination governance, regional policy, and tourism development. She has published in the fields of vocational education, regional studies, economic geography, human geography, and tourism and is currently working on projects about the development of food tourism in Scandinavia and about innovation in coastal tourism destinations in Northern Europe.

Wietske Kuijer‐Siebelink is a Lecturer at the Faculty of Health and Social Studies and Senior Researcher at the Applied Research Centre for Public Affairs, HAN University of Applied Sciences, in Arnhem and Nijmegen in the Netherlands. She is currently working in the domain of interprofessional collaboration and education and the development of innovative work‐based learning in health and social studies in the Sparkcentres initiative. She graduated as a human movement scientist in 2002 and was awarded her PhD in Medical Sciences in 2005.

Sanath Kumar was a Research Fellow at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, from 1981 to 2013. His key areas of interest include elementary education and literacy, and vocational education and skill development. He specializes in large‐scale research studies and has been involved in consultancy projects for the World Bank and, in India, for the National Literacy Mission, the Ministry of Human Resources Development, and other state government agencies.

Ann Lahiff is a Lecturer in Education at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK, and a member of the Centre for Engineering Education (CEE) at UCL. Working with vocational practitioners, Ann's teaching and research have centered on the ways in which learning in and for the workplace can be understood and enhanced. She has focused specifically on the observation of vocational practice and the development of expertise. Current projects include Developing the Pedagogy of Project‐Based Collaborative Learning in Engineering Education and (with Lorna Unwin and Matthias Pilz) a comparative project on Apprenticeship in the Aircraft Industry in the UK and Germany.

Yunbo Liu is an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. She received her PhD from the Chinese University of Hong Kong in 2012. She teaches and conducts research in the economics of vocational education and training and educational finance. She has been involved in many education policy developments and reform initiatives, including the Balanced Development for Provincial‐Level Coordination and Higher Vocational Education initiative. She has published more than 20 articles and book chapters in these areas.

Samuel Muehlemann is a Professor of Human Resource Education and Development at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (LMU Munich), Germany. Previously, he was the Deputy Head of the Centre for Research in Economics of Education and a lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Bern, Switzerland. In 2013–2014, he was a visiting scholar at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment at the University of California, Berkeley, USA; and in 2009, he was a visiting academic at King's College London, UK. He is also a research fellow at IZA Bonn, Germany.

Tara Nayana was a Professor at the Centre for Public Policy, Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, India, from 1986 to 2017. Her key areas of interest include elementary education and literacy, technical education, and vocational education and skill development. She held a Fulbright Post‐Doctoral Fellowship and was a Member of the Knowledge Commission of the Government of Karnataka. She has been a consultant to the World Bank and, in India, to the British High Commission and the National Literacy Mission, Ministry of Human Resources Development.

Monika Nerland is Professor at the Department of Education, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway. She conducts research on professional learning in education and work, with a special focus on how ways of organizing knowledge and epistemic resources in expert communities provide distinct opportunities for learning and identity formation. She has conducted and led several research projects that investigated these themes comparatively across professions, including teaching, nursing, law, software engineering, and accountancy. She has coedited five books and published extensively in scientific journals on themes related to professional knowledge, expertise, and learning.

Loek Nieuwenhuis is Professor of Professional Pedagogy at HAN University of Applied Sciences in Arnhem and Nijmegen, the Netherlands, and holds a chair at Welten‐institute, a research center for learning, teaching, and technology at the Dutch Open University, Heerlen, the Netherlands. His field of research and publication is vocational and professional education and lifelong learning. His main interests are workplace learning and learning for socioeconomic innovation.

Damian Oliver is one of Australia's leading labor market and VET researchers and a researcher in the Center for Business and Social Innovation at the University of Technology Sydney, Australia. He has a PhD in Industrial Relations from Griffith University, Australia, and degrees in Economics and Organizational Communication. He has delivered research projects and provided advice for many organizations, including the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD), Eurofound, the Australian Departments of Employment and Education, and TAFE NSW (Technical and Further Education, New South Wales). His contribution to this Handbook is based mainly on research conducted while he was the leading Research Analyst and the Acting Director of the Workplace Research Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Kevin Orr is Professor of Work and Learning at the University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, UK. He worked for 16 years in further education colleges, and that sector remains the focus of much of his research. He is currently leading a 3‐year project that is investigating subject‐specialist pedagogy in initial teacher education for teachers of vocational science, engineering, and technology in colleges. His most recent book, which he coedited with Maire Daley and Joel Petrie, is The Principal: Power and Professionalism in FE, published by Trentham Books in 2017.

Matthias Pilz is Professor of Economics and Business Education at the University of Cologne and Director of the German Research Center for Comparative Vocational Education and Training, Cologne, Germany. Since 2010, he has also been Director of the Center for Modern Indian Studies at the University of Cologne. Prior to becoming an academic, he worked as a teacher at a Business College in Hannover, Germany, and was an advisor for European Union education projects in the district government of Hannover. His research interests are in international comparative research in VET, transitions from education to employment, and teaching and learning.

Mark Stuart is the Montague Burton Professor of Human Resource Management and Employment Relations and Director of the Centre for Employment Relations Innovation and Change (CERIC) at the University of Leeds, Leeds, UK. He has published widely on skills, restructuring, trade union–led learning, and the industrial relations of training. He is the past President of the British Universities Industrial Relations Association (BUIRA) (2014–2016) and former Editor‐in‐Chief of Work, Employment and Society.

Alison Taylor is a Professor in Educational Studies at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Her research over the past decade has focused primarily on experiential learning and youth transitions from school to work. She recently completed a study of high school apprentices, documented in her 2016 book, Vocational Education in Canada (Oxford University Press). Her current research explores experiential learning in higher education and student work.

Christine Trampusch holds the Chair of International Comparative Political Economy and Economic Sociology at the Cologne Center for Comparative Politics (CCCP), University of Cologne, Germany. She is a political scientist, and her research covers studies on the social and political foundations of labor markets and financial markets in advanced capitalist democracies. Her findings have been published in various international peer‐reviewed journals. Her edited book, The Political Economy of Collective Skill Formation (with Marius Busemeyer), was published by Oxford University Press.

Lorna Unwin is Professor Emerita (Vocational Education) at the UCL Institute of Education, London, UK, and Honorary Professor in the Economic and Social Research Council (LLAKES) Centre for Learning and Life Chances, London, UK. She is also Honorary Professorial Research Fellow, School of Environment, Education and Development, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK, and a Trustee of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR). Her research interests include how people develop occupational expertise (both inside and outside the workplace), workplaces as learning environments, and the cultural, economic, and political history of vocational education and training in the United Kingdom.

Leesa Wheelahan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Leadership, Higher and Adult Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, where she holds the William G. Davis Chair in Community College Leadership. She is interested in pathways within and between education and labor markets, tertiary education policy, vocational education and training, relations between colleges and universities, social justice and social inclusion, and the role of knowledge in curriculum in vocationally oriented qualifications.

Serena Yu is a Senior Research Fellow at the Centre for Health Economics Research and Evaluation, University of Technology Sydney, Australia. Prior to this, she was employed at the Workplace Research Centre at the University of Sydney. Her research interests are public policy evaluation and applied microeconomics. Serena completed her PhD in 2015 at the University of Sydney, where she was awarded the Walter Noel Gillies Prize for Best PhD Thesis in Economics.

Zhiqun Zhao is a Professor and the Head of the Institute of Vocational and Adult Education of the Faculty of Education, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China. He received his doctorate from the University of Bremen, Germany. His research fields are qualification research and curriculum design in vocational education and training (VET), and implementation of professional competence assessment in vocational institutions. His latest international publication is Areas of Vocational Education Research, published by Springer. He has been involved in many research and exchange initiatives, including the International Network on Innovative Apprenticeships (INAP).

Acknowledgments

Compiling a Handbook of this size and scope necessarily takes time and depends for its quality on the willingness of very busy scholars to accept the invitation to participate. We would like to express our thanks to all the contributors to this Handbook for their generosity and patience. We also want to thank our Project Editor at Wiley, Janani Govindankutty, for her encouragement and advice.

1Introduction to the Handbook: Vocational Education and Training (VET) Theory, Practice, and Policy for a Complex Field of Inquiry

David Guile1,2 and Lorna Unwin1,2

1 UCL Institute of Education

2 Centre for Learning and Life Chances in Knowledge Economies and Societies (LLAKES)

From creating and repairing the first artifacts for personal and communal use through to the Internet of Things, the capacity of human beings to transform the world around them, for better or worse, continues to be shaped by their participation in social practices and learning, collectively and individually. Developing the expertise required to participate in work‐related activities engages people in diverse forms of learning in a wide range of spaces throughout their lives. These spaces include workplaces, workshops, classrooms, community and domestic spaces (including forms of transport), and the natural environment, and increasingly through interaction with digital technologies, including the Internet. For some people, the expertise they deploy for what they term work (whether paid or unpaid) may be very different from the expertise they deploy in their leisure time, whereas for others there may be a close connection.

Regardless of what drives an individual or a group of people to develop expertise, they will at some point participate in vocational education and training (VET). This participation will range across a wide spectrum: from programs providing an initial introduction for school pupils, to what is sometimes naively referred to as “the world of work,” through to bespoke training organized by or for employers and self‐taught activity. In this way, VET embraces programs using work as their pretext, although treating it as a largely generic or abstract construct; programs that have a specific occupational focus and may lead to a license to practice; apprenticeships that combine education and training both in and away from the workplace; and work‐based learning of various types and duration triggered by changes and innovation in work processes. As a result, the relationship between VET and actual work practice varies considerably. VET is a complex and challenging field of inquiry precisely because it cannot be easily defined.

By starting our introduction to this book with a deliberately unbounded perspective on VET, we want to signal the importance of viewing this field of inquiry through a lens that is wide enough to capture both the “systems” approach and the theories, practices, and ideas that lie outside it. Indeed, the very acronym VET is problematic because it immediately suggests this Handbook is confined to analyses of different national systems for organizing formalized, regulated, and often government‐funded VET programs. Even more limiting, the acronym is often exclusively applied to education and training for young people as they make the transition from school to the labor market. In this way, VET becomes situated in a policy silo separated from, and sometimes deemed inferior to, so‐called academic education. Understanding the differences between the ways that countries have conceptualized VET over time and created the institutions, curricula, and pedagogies they regard as appropriate sheds valuable critical light on how VET is evolving (see, inter alia, Michelsen & Stenström, 2018). It can also identify effective practices and processes that can be shared across countries and occupational fields. In addition, as an instrument of government policy or an institution within a national system of education, VET becomes answerable to important questions about social justice (e.g., unequal patterns of access and outcomes according to gender, ethnicity, and social class). Heikkinen (2001) offers two compelling arguments for the continued importance of national case studies in VET research. First, they “may challenge the dominant a‐historical discourse in vocational education, which only advocates permanent change, its inevitability and progressivity”; and, second, historical, state‐based perspectives can paradoxically contribute a “progressive conservatism” in relation to defending, respecting, and caring for longstanding practices (Heikkinen, 2001, p. 228).

There is a balance to be struck so that VET is not solely regarded as an instrument of government policy and/or an institutional component of a country's broader education system. Equal weight needs to be given to the conception of VET as a relational concept, which forms part of a dynamic interplay with the evolving organization and process of work, including the emergence of new occupations. The dominance of the systems‐based approach has meant that in much of the international research literature on education, VET has been separated from and positioned below “higher education” and “professional education,” despite their association with the development of expertise. This segmentation is perpetuated in policy documents issued by national governments and supranational agencies such as the Organisation for Economic Co‐operation and Development (OECD), World Bank, and European Commission.

In recent years, a number of studies have acknowledged the related nature of a range of challenges, including the ethical and practical implications of climate change for continued industrialization and economic growth, the impact of digital technologies on employment, the work and health concerns of aging populations, the challenges facing young people entering and making progress in the labor market, and continuing inequality across the global economy (see, inter alia, King, 2017; Olsen, 2009; Piketty, 2013; Standing, 2011). Placing equal emphasis on both continuing and initial forms of VET is being advocated as a necessary strategy to ensure people can adapt and refresh their expertise at different points in their lives in order to respond to changes in the labor market (see, inter alia, Bohlinger, Haake, Jorgensen, Toiviainen, & Wall, 2015; Field, Burke, & Cooper, 2013; Pilz, 2017). The predictions of the hourglass thesis that the growth in employment in advanced economies would increasingly occur at the top and bottom ends of the labor market have materialized to some extent in relation to Goos and Manning's (2007) polarization of employment into “lovely” and “lousy” jobs, with a corresponding squeeze in what are classed as “intermediate” jobs. Yet there is also evidence that this thesis is problematic in relation to its classification of jobs according to (a) definitions of skill based on educational entry requirements, rather than on the actual range of skills required and used in the workplace; and (b) wage distributions. Lerman (2017) asks, “Are the skills required for a master carpenter in some sense lower than those required of elementary school teachers with BA degrees?” (p. 182; emphasis in original). In addition, he explains that the wage measure does not capture the wide distribution and overlapping of wages within occupations. On these grounds, the predicted decline in what are classified as intermediate‐level jobs and the homogeneity of the terms lovely jobs and lousy jobs become less reliable guides to the changing nature of work.

In some occupational fields, including high‐status areas such as medicine and engineering, as well as in some service sectors, a more fluid division of labor is emerging. This has been stimulated partly by increasing project‐based and team‐based forms of working and also by the realization in work‐intensive environments that demarcations based on traditional hierarchies of who is “qualified” to perform certain tasks can and need to be challenged. This has resulted in some countries renaming VET, for example by (re)using the term technical education, and in the opening up of access for VET students to universities through the strengthening of VET qualifications and the creation of so‐called higher apprenticeships. There has also been a continuing debate about the concept and role of so‐called key competences in VET, and in education and training more broadly (alternative terms include generic, core, and transferable skills). Researchers have expressed mixed views as to whether they represent “an ineffective surrogate for general education and culture in vocational programmes” (Green, 1998, p. 23) or work in progress (Canning, 2007).

The European Commission (2018) has declared that lifelong learning should impart eight key competences, which “can be applied in many different contexts and in a variety of combinations” deemed necessary for a “successful life” (p. 14). These competences cover literacy; languages; mathematics, science, technology, and engineering; digital competence; personal, social, and learning competence; civic competence; entrepreneurship competence; and cultural awareness and expression. The latter four categories of competence in this list are sometimes referred to as “soft” skills. Warhurst, Tilly, and Gatta (2017) argue their emergence reflects a longstanding shift toward a “social construction of skill” led by the rise of service sector employment.

The OECD has enshrined the notion that work‐related cognitive and noncognitive competencies can be decontextualized and formally tested at an international level in its Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC). PIAAC assesses the proficiency of 16–65‐year‐olds in literacy, numeracy, and problem solving, which the OECD (2016) argues are the “key information‐processing skills” that adults need to participate fully in all aspects of life in the twenty‐first century (p. 22). Scholars who have critiqued PIAAC and other international large‐scale assessments such as PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) raise a number of concerns about the universalizing tendency of the OECD's interpretation of the concepts of competence and, more broadly, education (see, inter alia, Addey, Sellar, Steiner‐Khamsi, Lingard, & Verger, 2017; Avis, 2012; Hamilton, 2012; Lingard & Sellar, 2013; Takayama, 2013). Another problem is that the PIACC approach perpetuates the idea that learners automatically apply the skills they have developed in education in work contexts. This assumption overlooks processes through which skill is formed and developed contextually and, moreover, that when the organization of work changes, so do considerations about skill. Despite these concerns, the findings from the OECD's assessment surveys and the subsequent performance ranking of countries are exerting considerable influence on national governments. There has also been an attempt to develop an international assessment survey for VET (Achtenhagen & Winther, 2014).

Developments such as the renaming of VET, the inclusion in VET curricula of key competencies, or attempts to align VET with higher education are often transitory for a range of conceptual, political, and context‐specific reasons. They are usually well intentioned, but often fail to engage in a sustainable way with the underlying challenge—how to support the development of expertise in ways that are both sustainable and flexible enough to adapt to changing circumstances. Although there are significant continuities in the way work is organized and the way certain skills are developed, the division of labor is in a continual state of development in response to the forms of technological, economic, and cultural change associated with the rapid development of cognitive technologies and the digital linking of communication, resources, and logistics. As a result, the process of developing expertise in this new work context will create new patterns of and approaches to learning.

There is a substantial international research literature covering the diverse and contested field of VET. This literature has emerged from different disciplinary fields and occupational contexts, and reflects a wide variety of conceptual and methodological approaches. As a result, it is scattered across journals and books, which attract their own readerships. Much of the literature reflects a westernized perspective, and so what counts as and is discussed in relation to vocational expertise, vocational learning, and occupational contexts is necessarily circumscribed (Catts, Falk, & Wallace, 2011; Heikkinen & Lassnigg, 2015). However, it is striking that one of the most influential theoretical developments in the field of VET—situated learning within communities of practice—emerged from anthropological studies of craft apprenticeships in West Africa (Lave & Wenger, 1991). This contribution critiqued the dominant cognitivist conception of learning in which individuals were seen as passive receivers of (codified) knowledge from designated experts (teachers and trainers). Lave and Wenger (1991), however, introduced the idea that learning was a social process. They placed the apprentice as a learner at the center of a relational process that was shaped by participation in occupational practice and contributed to the reshaping of occupational contexts. In doing so, they opened the eyes of VET researchers (and researchers in fields, such as economic geography, human resource development [HRD], and organizational learning) to other theories of learning or practice‐based theories that imply a social theory of learning. We return to this observation later. Situated learning theory has itself been critiqued, particularly for underplaying the in‐built conservatism of and power relations within communities, for the role of experts in challenging existing practice, and for valorizing participation at the expense of questioning what is being learned (see, for detailed reviews, Fuller, Hodkinson, Hodkinson, & Unwin, 2005; Guile, 2010; Hughes, Jewson, & Unwin, 2007).

This questioning of the nature of learning in the field of VET reflects the desire to conceptualize and gather empirical data identifying the dynamic nature of the ways in which expertise is developed, utilized, and reformed. Moreover, it demonstrates a fundamental dissatisfaction with attempts to align VET too closely with learning theories that continue to underpin the way (formal) general education is still organized in much of the world, or to reduce the complexity of learning associated with VET to rhetorical notions, such as “learning from experience” or “learning by doing” (Unwin et al., 2008).

There are multiple demands on VET. These include meeting the skills needs of employers and nation states, addressing concerns about providing a safety net for young people at risk of unemployment, and offering a vehicle for remedial education for young people and adults. Winch (2000) argues that “a prime aim of vocational education is personal development and fulfillment through work for all citizens if they so wish it” (p. 36; see also Gonon, 2009; Tyson, 2016). The more VET is required to fulfill and sustain the role of general education beyond formal schooling, the further it drifts away from the very source that ensures it can remain vital in people's lives and sustain the socioeconomic and cultural well‐being of society. VET and work form a symbiotic relationship. This means that VET can certainly provide the means for individuals to critique the nature of work at the same time as the means for individuals to shape work.

In recent years, there has been an increasing interest and growth in multidisciplinary research, and this has encouraged scholars to cross intellectual boundaries in an attempt to develop more integrated analyses of the complex and dynamic field of VET. This research feeds into a number of different debates about the role of VET in the education systems of nation states and in relation to rapid changes (and often neglected continuities) in workplace technologies and work organization. These debates are multifaceted. Sometimes, they have a speculative dimension with contributors arguing for fresh thinking about the concept of VET or subsidiary concepts that underpin VET (i.e., occupation). Sometimes, they have an avowedly critical stance vis‐à‐vis developments that contributors believe have a negative impact on VET, especially when those developments have been associated with what are regarded as flawed government initiatives to make VET ever more relevant to employers and learners.

In contrast, there has been a longstanding debate about the political economy of VET. Traditionally, this debate (in fields such as political economy, labor process, and industrial sociology) focused on the variety of historical, economic, social, and political forces that have shaped the dominant human capital conception of VET in different countries. This debate has, however, branched out in new ways in recent years as contributors have drawn inspiration from developments in political economy, for example varieties of capitalism and skills ecosystems, or from extant literatures that offer alternatives to human capital theory (HCT), such as in the capabilities approach, to rethink how to support the economic needs of individuals, employers, and nation states. Both debates have different degrees of influence on the modifications or changes that have occurred in the different national arrangements for VET, for example revisions to “systems” in response to technological change and increased amounts of general education in relation to concerns about citizenship.

The aim of this Handbook, therefore, is to provide a critical guide to the different ways in which VET has been and continues to be (re)conceptualized and (re)configured over time. To that end, we commissioned scholars working from different theoretical perspectives to write essays exploring a set of key themes that are central to debates about how the concept and practice of VET have developed over time and continue to develop in different ways both across and within countries.

Structure of the Book

We have structured the book around five broad themes:

VET as an evolving concept

The political economy of VET

Arrangements for VET

Developing practices in VET

Challenges for VET.

Using these themes provided us with a framework for assembling a Handbook with the necessary intellectual and empirical scope to consider the following questions:

Which theories and concepts can help us to understand the meaning of VET as a vehicle for the development of expertise, and how is that meaning evolving over time?

How have those theories and concepts contributed to the different ways in which VET is manifested around the world?

What is the relationship between VET and the political economy imperatives that drive policymaking in different countries, and what are the consequences for individuals, employers, and society at large?

How does VET develop expertise in an age of considerable change in work processes, work organization, and occupational identities; and how might it maintain a close relationship with work in general?