Search Results for
"Vocational education"

This study examines the policy transfer process in vocational education, focusing on the re-introduction of apprenticeships in Slovenia following the European Alliance for Apprenticeship’s 2013 initiative. Policy transfer, defined as the adoption of models from other regions, involves multiple actors and can range from voluntary to coercive influences. The research highlights the challenges Slovenia faces in developing sustainable social partnerships within its vocational education, particularly apprenticeship, which shares several characteristics with Germanic vocational education systems. By using mixed-methods research combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques, the implementation of apprenticeships in Slovenia post-2017 was monitored. The study aims to identify conditions that could foster sustainable social partnerships and apprenticeship. The research confirmed that participatory research can become one of the key tools for more sustainable policy transfer. © 2025 by the author.

In this paper, the authors present the implementation of Project-Based Learning (PBL) in the vocational subject of Scripting Languages at a vocational high school of Information Technology. The research aimed to validate the effectiveness of the three-stage project-based model within the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics (STEAM) approach. The research sample consisted of 15 students, three of whom had Special Educational Needs (SEND). A combination of quantitative and qualitative methods was used to monitor changes in pupils’ performance, independence, and active engagement in the learning process. The results showed a slight improvement in average scores for pupils with SEND, increased independence, and more active participation in learning. Task differentiation strengthened team cohesion and promoted teamwork. The integration of PBL within the STEAM approach contributed to a deeper understanding of the technical curriculum and promoted complex thinking. Based on the findings and the comparison of results, we conclude that the systematic introduction of PBL within the STEAM approach in vocational education is a suitable tool for effective and creative programming instruction. © 2025 by the authors.

China’s manufacturing sector is undergoing rapid industrial upgrading, with automation driving demand for new occupational profiles and technical workers capable of managing complex production lines. Traditionally organized as a state-oriented labor regime, China’s skill formation system now faces mounting pressure to adapt. Drawing on extensive fieldwork conducted between 2017 and 2023 in the automation industry, this article examines three main pathways of skill formation—enterprise-based on-the-job training, conventional vocational education, and commercial training offered by professional institutions—and analyzes the distinct roles of the state, firms, and private providers in this process. This article argues that a purely state-led approach is insufficient to meet current industrial needs, advocating instead for a more balanced model that combines policy guidance with market participation to better align worker skills with technological advancements. The findings contribute to broader debates on the political economy of skill formation and underscore the need for further research on the institutional dynamics of workforce development in late-industrializing economies. © 2025 Chinese University of Hong Kong Press. All rights reserved.

As the global maritime industry faces increasing complexities due to geopolitical shifts, economic dynamics, sustainability challenges, and digital transformations, maritime vocational education must adapt to prepare professionals for these evolving demands. This analysis was carried out to explore how international relations (IR) perspectives, which encompass political, economic, social, cultural, and environmental factors, are integrated into maritime education programs. Previous research has highlighted the need for such integration but has also identified gaps in the practical application and systematic incorporation of global perspectives into curricula. The objective of this study was to assess the current state of IR integration in maritime education, focusing on how it influences curriculum design, professional competencies, and global collaboration. The research sought to answer how maritime education can better prepare students for the globalized maritime industry through a multidimensional approach to international relations. Using qualitative methods, including interviews with maritime professionals, educators, and graduates, this study examined the experiences and perspectives of stakeholders in maritime education. The results revealed that while there is some recognition of the importance of global perspectives, their integration remains fragmented, with significant gaps in digitalization, sustainability, and international collaboration. The findings underscore the need for stronger global partnerships, practical training opportunities, and curriculum reform to better align educational outcomes with industry needs. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how maritime education can evolve to meet the challenges of a rapidly globalizing and technologically advancing maritime sector. © 2025, Observare. All rights reserved.

Can the two Karls – Karl Polanyi and Karl Marx meet? Sociological debates tend to provide a negative answer and prioritize Karl Polanyi in current education and labor studies. This article poses an alternative approach by examining how the commodification of human life, the central postulation of Karl Polanyi, can be bridged into Karl Marx’s labor process theory where different forms of commodified student-labor will eventually end up in the production sphere, producing variegated internship and labor regimes. Using China’s vast vocational education system as an anchor to ground the theoretical dialogue, I contribute not only to raising an intellectual puzzle, but disclosing complex school-to-work phenomena that internship regimes, namely, the dual-despotic, market despotic or hegemonic, shapes the world’s largest young working class. By studying the complex configuration of the student-labor regimes, I argue that commodification process of human life could hardly escape the class perspective, as Karl Polanyi put it. © The Author(s) 2024

Purpose – This paper aims to document early earnings trajectories based on the educational pathways travelled by students in Ontario, Canada, with a particular focus on the outcomes of those that opt for training in the trades. Design/methodology/approach – This study draws on a new administrative linkage to track the trajectories of over 61, 000 students from the Toronto District School Board as they enter post-secondary education (PSE) and then the labour market. It uses regression modelling to estimate early net disparities in earnings based on PSE pathways. Findings – We estimate that graduates from the “Red Seal” trades earn substantially more than counterparts emerging from college or university programs, even net of demographics and academic performance measured at the high school level. Originality/value – This study is the first in Ontario, Canada, to analyse early earnings trajectories across the full spectrum of post-secondary pathways available to students. It provides useful evidence-based insights that can inform future system design and reform. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

Preparing youth for the transition from school to work is a key labor market challenge in many countries. Across Europe, there are many educational pograms to improve youth’s school-to-work transitions. In Germany, youth with difficulties in their school-to-work transitions are channeled into prevocational programs to help them to enter vocational education and training (VET), which serve as an entry into the labor market. Using data drawn from the National Educational Panel Study (NEPS; N = 1,282 participants of prevocational programs), we (1) examined youth’s transition trajectories after their attendance of a first prevocational program and (2) how using institutional resources such as internships during the first prevocational program supports youth’s transitions to VET. Our findings of sequence and cluster analysis showed that approximately two-thirds of the participants had largely stable transitions to VET (i.e., transitions with a low risk of dropout), although many of these transitions were delayed by one year after leaving their first prevocational program. In contrast, one-third of the participants had at-risk transition trajectories and were at risk of being permanently excluded from the education and employment system. By conducting a multinomial logistic regression, we also found that attending long internships and attaining a higher school certificate during the first prevocational program was associated with a smooth transition to VET programs, and both factors “protected” youth from encountering difficult pathways with very low prospects of reaching VET programs after leaving prevocational programs. Moreover, mentoring during prevocational programs and the perceived degree to which the programs helped youth to form occupational aspirations were also associated with a lower probability of facing at-risk transition trajectories. © The Author(s) 2025.

China now hosts the largest vocational education system in the world. However, the Chinese vocational education system has evolved by adopting comparatively more advanced vocational education practices and models from other countries. Despite this, few studies have explored the evolution of vocational education in China between 1840 and 1895. To address this gap, this article examines the development of Chinese vocational education during this period through the lens of educational policy transfer, using Schriewer’s externalization theory as a guiding framework. It argues that, in the context of intense internal and external crisis, China’s vocational education between 1840 and 1895 was not directly introduced. Rather, it emerged through a process in which reformers successively externalized to ‘tradition’ and Western military and civil technology, thereby gaining supplementary meaning and legitimacy for its development. The study calls for further research that integrates comparative and historical approaches to examine how China has developed its own vocational education by selectively adopting and adapting foreign models. © The Author(s) 2025.

Background: The foundation for mental health is laid in childhood and adolescence. For young people, adolescence is associated with multiple developmental tasks. In this vulnerable phase of life, they often start a vocational training. Particularly during vocational training in the health and social care sector, adolescents are confronted with highly stressful situations, e.g., serious illness, death, or sexual harassment. In this study we aimed to explore adolescents’ experiences and perceptions affecting their mental health during vocational education and training. Methods: We performed five focus group interviews with a total of 41 vocational education and training students from different fields in the health and social care professions. Data analysis was based on Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) according to Smith. Results: We identified five superordinate themes and 17 subordinate themes. The personal circumstances and the pronounced shortage of staff throughout the health and social care sector play a major role for the vocational education and training students’ (VETs) mental health during their vocational training. In addition, vocational education and training students are confronted with various challenges that are atypical for their age (e.g. the death of a patient). They try to being able to maintain a balance between the stressful factors and the coping strategies available to them. This can improve as well as worsen mental health and well-being. vocational education and training students express the need to counteract the stressful factors of their vocational training with positive aspects of their lives. They try to find a bridge to the outside world again. However, they depend on the support from the vocational training school, the vocational training company, and their social environment. Conclusion: Today’s vocational education and training students are tomorrow’s skilled workers. Investing in their mental health can help reduce staff shortages in the long term and prevent mental health impairments in this vulnerable group. To this end, training institutions, companies and politicians should create appropriate framework conditions. © The Author(s) 2025.