Search Results for
"Vocational education"

Purpose – This study aims to develop and validate an Industry 4.0 (IR4.0) talent framework for Technical and vocational education and Training (TVET) students enrolled in work-based learning (WBL) programmes, ensuring they are equipped with relevant technical, cognitive, personal and ethical competencies. Design/methodology/approach – An exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was employed. In Phase 1, semi-structured interviews with 11 experts identified key talent domains. In Phase 2, a survey of 159 final-year WBL students from four Malaysian polytechnics was conducted. Data were analysed using principal component analysis (PCA) to validate the framework's domains and components. Findings – The study validated four distinct and unidimensional talent domains: Intellectual Talents, Proficiency in Work Talent, Individual Talent Potential and Ethical Professional Talent. PCA results confirmed strong construct validity across all domains, with high explained variance ratios and item fit indices, indicating the robustness of the framework. Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to Malaysian polytechnic students and may not fully generalise across different education systems or countries. Future research should include cross-country comparisons and longitudinal assessments of framework impact on employability. Practical implications – The framework provides TVET educators and policymakers with a structured model to revise curricula and align WBL programmes with IR4.0 industry demands, enhancing graduate readiness. Social implications – Adoption of the framework can address the national skills mismatch by fostering a future-ready workforce equipped with ethical, adaptable and innovative capabilities. Originality/value – This study presents a validated and holistic IR4.0 talent framework uniquely tailored for TVET-WBL contexts, integrating theoretical and practical insights to inform talent development in the digital age. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

Purpose – The internationalization of vocational education often pressures institutions to adopt global standards. However, direct replication without systemic adaptation can lead to implementation failure. This study investigates this challenge through a case study of an Indonesian Aviation vocational Higher education (AVHE) institution that implemented the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) Part 66/147 curriculum. It aims to dissect the mechanisms of failure to inform more effective, context-aware adaptation strategies. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods evaluation guided by the CIPP (Context, Input, Process, Product) framework was used. Data were triangulated from questionnaires with key stakeholders, semi-structured interviews, document review and secondary data including EASA examination results (N = 78 students) and graduate tracer studies. Findings – The evaluation revealed that a context-insensitive adoption strategy led to a cascade of systemic failures: a disconnect between international goals and local market needs (context), critical gaps in lecturer qualifications and structural incompatibilities between curricula (input) and inconsistent pedagogical implementation (process). This culminated in strikingly paradoxical outcomes (product): an exceptionally high graduate employability rate (94.8%) coexisting with a profound cognitive failure, evidenced by an 81% EASA examination failure rate. Originality/value – This study provides a granular, micro-institutional analysis of adaptation failure. It identifies and explains the “employability paradox” as a key outcome of decontextualized policy borrowing, offering a transferable diagnostic model and underscoring the critical need for systemic adaptation over replication for TVET institutions globally. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

Integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI) into language learning has substantially enhanced accessibility and engagement by offering interactive and adaptive experiences. However, many AI-driven chatbots lack contextual relevance, limiting their effectiveness for vocational high school students who require career-oriented language instruction. This study aims to develop and evaluate EduNetPro (education Network for Professional Learning), a multilingual AI-driven chatbot designed to enhance French language learning among vocational students by incorporating adaptive learning pathways, interactive exercises, and gamification elements. Adopting a Design-Based Research (DBR) approach, this study employs a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative assessments (pre-test and post-test evaluations) with qualitative analyses (student interviews and chatbot interaction logs) to assess EduNetPro’s effectiveness. The findings indicate a 24% improvement in language proficiency, with 80% of students reporting increased engagement and 90% highlighting the efficacy of real-time feedback. Despite these positive outcomes, the chatbot encountered challenges in processing complex dialogues, particularly those involving idiomatic expressions and context-dependent language, emphasizing the need for advancements in Natural Language Processing (NLP) models. This study contributes to the ongoing discourse on AI in education, demonstrating how chatbot-driven learning can address the unique needs of vocational students by providing contextualized, career-focused language instruction. Future research should further explore AI-driven emotional intelligence, enhanced personalization strategies, and long-term language retention to optimize AI-assisted learning environments. © 2025 by the authors.

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The inability of vocational electrical technology (VET) students to transit from school-to-work after graduation shows that the practical skills needed for employability are far from being achieved. This has caused an increased unemployment rate among VET students. Hence, this study ascertained the relationships between problem-based intervention via tasks-based conduit wiring scenarios in VET students’ practical skills acquisition (PSA). Specifically, this study determined the sequential mediation effects of intrinsic motivation and ability beliefs on problem-based and practical skills acquisition relationship. A cross-sectional study design was adopted for the study. Data was collected from 78 VTE students that gave their consent to participate. The outcome revealed that problem-based intervention is a positive and significant predictor of VET students’ practical skills acquisition tasks. The result also revealed sequential mediating effects of intrinsic motivation and ability beliefs on problem-based and practical skills acquisition relations. This study is unique in that it examines how intrinsic motivation and ability beliefs sequentially mediate the link between problem-based interventions and the development of practical skills in vocational electrical technology (VET) students. By addressing the critical gap in employability skills through task-based conduit wiring scenarios, it provides novel insights into enhancing school-to-work transitions for VET graduates. © 2025 The Author.

The United Nations' 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development underscores the significance of high-quality education and equitable learning opportunities. As a critical component of educational practice, teachers' professional competency development profoundly influences educational quality. Grounded in Social Cognitive Theory and Career Motivation Theory, this study explores the sustainable development of Chinese vocational undergraduate faculty’s professional competencies, focusing on the interactive effects of socio-psychological factors (e.g., motivation, cognition, group dynamics) and environmental factors (e.g., organizational support, resource availability) on career development. Employing a mixed-methods approach, a questionnaire survey was conducted with 267 vocational undergraduate teachers, supplemented by in-depth interviews with 21 faculty members. The findings revealed an average professional competency score of 3.81, indicating a moderately high level, with development influenced by both organizational environmental factors (perceived resource accessibility, institutional trust) and socio-psychological factors (self-efficacy, career identity, achievement motivation, group dynamics, research engagement, and experiential learning). Recommendations include enhancing achievement motivation, fostering organizational equity, and strengthening institutional trust to promote the sustainable development of teachers' professional competencies. © 2025 by author(s).

This article stems from a study that aimed to identify if gender influences participation in Erasmus+ International Mobility in vocational education and Training (VET) in Portugal. Methodologically, quantitative data on VET attendance and Erasmus+ mobility participation for 2014-2020 were analysed, corresponding to the first period of the Erasmus+ Programme covering VET. Additionally, two directors, two mobility managers, and four teachers from two vocational schools were interviewed. Findings reveal an underrepresentation of women in VET and participation in mobility that stems from the ‘genderisation’ patterns of VET’s subject areas. However, in contrast to the choice of a VET course, Erasmus+ mobility in VET seems to attract women more than men, as in this case, the figures of female participation are higher. In conclusion, although gender does not seem to determine participation in mobility, it emerges as an influencing factor, shaping it through previous processes, namely choosing VET and the course options. © 2025 Instituto de Estudos Sociais e Politicos (IESP), UERJ. All rights reserved.

Purpose – This tracer study analyses the long-term career trajectories and adaptive strategies of vocational agricultural education graduates in Nigeria, comparing their pre-graduation aspirations (from a 2017 baseline) with their current realities seven years post-graduation. It examines the extent of job placements, self-employment and the practical application of acquired skills, providing novel insights into how graduates navigate a challenging and evolving labour market in a developing economy. Design/methodology/approach – A mixed-methods research design was employed, following up with 102 purposively sampled graduates (49 males and 53 females) of vocational agricultural education from Nigerian universities who had participated in a prior 2017 study. Data were collected between September and December 2024. A semi-structured questionnaire gathered quantitative data on employment status, sector, self-employment trade and discrepancies between expectations and reality. Qualitative data on the perceived value and applicability of their vocational training were obtained through Zoom interviews with 87 participants. Quantitative data were analysed using frequencies and percentages in SPSS v.29, while interview recordings were transcribed and thematically analysed. The study was grounded in the constructivist theory and Prosser’s Sixteen Theorems. Findings – The study reveals a significant and sustained shift towards self-employment (45%) among graduates, notably driven by necessity rather than opportunity, particularly among females. A critical finding is the increased drift of graduates into non-agriculturally related sectors (65%), highlighting a profound disconnect between vocational training and labour market absorption in the intended field. Furthermore, a substantial proportion (35.7%) reported that their vocational skills were not applicable, citing curriculum content that failed to reflect current industry realities. This longitudinal perspective demonstrates how graduates “reconstruct” their career paths in response to rising unemployment challenges, often abandoning their field of training. Research limitations/implications – The reliance on the responses from the purposively sampled participants as respondents for the study could have implications for the generalizability of the findings. Additionally, the reliance on self-reported data and the potential recall bias from the 2017 study may have affected the collected data, particularly in the respondents’ responses. Furthermore, the specific socioeconomic context of Nigeria, as analysed in this study, may limit the transferability of the findings to other economies. Originality/value – This study offers original knowledge by providing a longitudinal seven-year follow-up on vocational agricultural education graduates in a major African economy. It moves beyond simply identifying the expectation-reality gap by detailing the adaptive mechanisms (e.g. necessity-driven self-employment and cross-sectoral migration) and gender-influenced adaptations. By applying constructivism and Prosser’s theorems to this extended timeline, it offers a deeper understanding of the efficacy of vocational training in dynamic, resource-constrained environments, providing a critical evidence base for urgent policy and curriculum reforms aimed at fostering genuinely impactful “learn-to-earn” pathways. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

Efforts to overcome the gap between graduate absorption capacity and market demand require collaboration between University-Industry (UI). So, collaboration between UI is important to improve the quality of graduates. This study aims to explore the success factors of UI partnerships, especially vocational education in improving the quality of graduates and field users. The research approach used is quantitative with a survey design. The research sample consisted of 450 participants including 173 lecturers and 277 industry practitioners with purposive sampling techniques. The PLS-SEM technique was used to test the structural model involving 10 variables, 50 constructs, and 25 hypotheses. The results showed that the success factors of UI partnerships can be explained by 72.90% to 93.20% of the partnership success indicators. Adaptability factors (93.20%), performance assessment (92.70%), facilities (92.20%), and continuous improvement (91.70%) are the main success factors, while the acculturation factor of industrial values has the lowest contribution (72.90%). The structural model can explain the impact of partnerships by 65.90% and 62.30% on the dimensions of UI partnership success. This study contributes to the adjustment, implementation, and standardization of industry-based curriculum needs, to increase the absorption of graduates in the industrial world. The novelty of this study lies in identifying specific factors that contribute significantly to the success of UI partnerships in the context of vocational education. © 2025, Penerbit UTHM. All rights reserved.