Search Results for
"Vocational education"

This paper reflects on a large multisite funded VET research project conducted by a large and diverse research team. Reflecting on two of our case studies, from Uganda and South Africa, we consider both the need for broadening the VET research agenda to incorporate more research on non-formal sites of vocational learning and work, and the imperative of continued critical reflection on modalities of researching the formal sphere. What we offer is a very fallible attempt to open up the debate about the future of VET research further through, we believe, a critical reading of some of our failures as well as successes in trying to ground our research ethically, ontologically and axiologically and not just methodologically. We advocate, where possible, a radical embeddedness of VET research in communities, whilst acknowledging that this is applicable only to some parts of a comprehensive VET research agenda. We also acknowledge that employers and the state are also legitimate stakeholders who should be part of research but point to the need for a more critical reflection into the patterns of power implicit in researching with/on these constituencies. We believe that our reflection on our successes and failures in these two cases and the project as a whole offers useful provocations regarding ways of making VET research more reflective of diverse settings, less extractive from those being researched and more equal in the participation of members of the research team from the South. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

In this paper, we investigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on vocational education and training in Germany. We exploit rich establishment-level survey data to estimate the causal effects of the pandemic by applying difference-in-differences estimation, contrasting trends in outcomes between establishments that suffered to varying degrees from adverse economic impacts after the first lockdown. We find that, due to the pandemic, establishments have not become more likely to leave the training market but hired less new trainees and retained less of their recent graduates in the first two years of the crisis, on average. We also compare these effects with the effects of the Great Recession on training and find that both are remarkably similar. Our findings foster concerns that the pandemic increases future skills shortage in the labour market and dampens young peoples’ career prospects. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Automation and artificial intelligence, with their skill-biased characteristic, were estimated to benefit high-skilled workers while displacing the low-skilled. Their uneven distribution of technological dividends and costs led to calls for policy interventions. This paper aims to answer: ‘What kind of government and business intervention can deliver needed skills to large parts of the population?’ in facing automation challenges to labor markets by investigating Switzerland’s vocational education and training (VET) policy. This paper identifies its policy eco-system and argues that, while historically – embedded particularities are hard to replicate, the Swiss case still inspires us with cross-country implications. These implications are underpinned by a solid stock of social capital, which enables behavioral internalization and anticipated reciprocity. Viewing social capital as constructive rather than endowed, this paper argues that building social capital is a viable and practical approach to VET policy learning. © 2023 The European Association for the Advancement of the Social Sciences.

Phenomenon: Professional identity formation is a key component of health professional education. Changing expectations of healthcare requires more than competencies, but also an ingrained responsibility to patients, with our values and behaviors aligned with community expectations of patient-centered health professionals. Research into professional identity formation has focused on nursing and medical training, and, although allied health professionals make up one third of the workforce, research is uneven across these disciplines. Health professions educators from these under-researched disciplines have less guidance for how to support students’ professional identity, meaning students may graduate with less mature professional identities. This systematic literature review synthesizes the research on professional identity formation across nine similar allied health disciplines. The purpose is to guide health professions educators in the formation of professional identity in allied health students. Approach: We carried out a systematic literature review, registered on Prospero, following the PRIMSA framework, to find, appraise, and synthesize research on professional identity for nine allied health professions. We synthesized extracted data using a narrative synthesis with convergent qualitative meta-integration of qualitative and quantitative data. Results: Our database searches combined with ancestry and forward searching resulted in 70 studies that met inclusion criteria. Studies came from 17 countries, from seven of the included disciplines (art therapy, dietetics, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, podiatry, psychology, and speech pathology) and from undergraduate, postgraduate, and new graduate perspectives. We found professional identity was influenced by the places of learning (curriculum and clinical experiences or placements), interactions with people (relationships with academics, peers, supervisors, patients,and role models), and educational practices engaged (dialogue, reflection, processing challenges), each acting on the individual person (student or new graduate) who also brought unique characteristics and experiences. Insights: This model of influences can inform health professions education to enable students to develop and graduate with a stronger professional identity formation. © 2023 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.

This study aims to describe the role of dual education in improving students’ academic achievement and mitigating youth unemployment in Kazakhstan. To examine this issue, a survey was conducted among 496 students from technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions. The survey results were analyzed using SPSS program to address four hypotheses. Our survey showed that dual education students are more confident in their demands in the labor market, are more satisfied with the results of their studies, and have higher academic achievement than school-based education students. © 2024 Taylor & Francis Group, LLC.