The linkage between the education and employment systems: ideal types of vocational education and training programs

Abstract

This article contributes to the literature by proposing a methodological approach that scholars in all research fields can use to develop high-quality explanatory typologies. We argue that every typology should be constructed using a systematic, transparent process and must have a strong theoretical foundation to validate its explanatory value. Drawing on Max Weber’s typology theory, we apply our approach to construct three ideal types of vocational education and training (VET) programs. By bypassing heterogeneous context conditions, our typological approach enables us to compare VET programs based on the criteria that are relevant to an explanation of youth labor market outcomes. We build on Niklas Luhmann’s theory of social systems, which helps elucidate the significance of the linkage between actors from the education and employment systems in VET. The first ideal type, with maximal linkage, entails equal power-sharing between both kinds of actors. We expect such a VET program to have the most favorable outcome. The other two ideal types, in which one system has all the power, result in either undesirable youth labor market outcomes, such as unemployment or skills mismatch, or lack of access to further education. © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Keywords

Author Keywords

vocational education and training (VET) Education system typology ideal types social systems theory

Index Keywords

Author Affiliations

Department of Management, Technology and Economics, Konjunkturforschungsstelle, Zurich, ZH, Switzerland

Funding & Acknowledgements

Gebert Rüf Stiftung

Grant: GRS-043/13

This work was supported by the Gebert Ruef Foundation [GRS-043/13]. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Gebert Ruef Foundation. We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their valuable comments and suggestions. In addition, for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article, we thank Thomas Bolli, the members of the Swiss Leading House on the Economics of Education, the participants of the Conference on Sociological Perspectives on Education at the Zurich University of Teacher Education and of the Congress on Research in Vocational Education and Training at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. For editorial help, our thanks go to Natalie Reid. All responsibility for remaining mistakes lies with the authors.

Universität Zürich, UZH

This work was supported by the Gebert Ruef Foundation [GRS-043/13]. We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Gebert Ruef Foundation. We thank the editor and anonymous reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their valuable comments and suggestions. In addition, for their helpful feedback on earlier drafts of this article, we thank Thomas Bolli, the members of the Swiss Leading House on the Economics of Education, the participants of the Conference on Sociological Perspectives on Education at the Zurich University of Teacher Education and of the Congress on Research in Vocational Education and Training at the Swiss Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training. For editorial help, our thanks go to Natalie Reid. All responsibility for remaining mistakes lies with the authors.

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The linkage between the education and employment systems: ideal types of vocational education and training programs

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