Search Results for
"Vocational education"

Early School Leaving (ESL), or Early Leaving from education and Training (ELET), remains a critical challenge across Europe and globally, with profound implications encompassing economic disadvantages, social exclusion, and reduced life opportunities for individuals. This entry analyzes the authoritative definition of the phenomenon, explores the multifaceted causes that drive it, and outlines the severe professional, social, and psychological consequences of failing to attain a minimal credential. ESL is widely understood not as an abrupt event but as a complex, cumulative, long-term process of school disengagement that is influenced by a myriad of interconnected risk factors originating in childhood and early adolescence. Understanding the interplay between individual, family, and institutional factors is crucial for designing effective, coordinated policy responses. © 2025 by the author.

This study addresses an unexplored intersection of vocational education and training (VET), motor skill learning, craftsmanship and the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry as well as expertise sharing. Acquiring proficiency in craftsmanship involves not only theoretical knowledge but also a multitude of physical skills, such as chiselling, which are honed through repetition. Mastering these manual skills and combining them with knowledge of materials, such as wood, is essential for an effective executing of craftmanship. We developed an augmented reality (AR) prototype through the design case study approach to design a support for beginners, especially apprentices, in woodworking education where the connection between craftspeople and material is important for the end results. The prototype was evaluated by 28 apprentices inside and outside a woodwork shop setting. While participants praised the prototype’s 3D visualisations and interactive models, challenges in compatibility with woodwork shop environments were evident. Our findings highlight the importance of on-site evaluations in the craftsmanship context and the significance of direct interaction with real world materials. We provide a set of seven design guidelines derived from our empirical findings to inform the development of AR-based learning applications in craftsmanship. Our discussion opens up the question of the role of interactive 3D models for collaborative learning. The research extends AR’s impact in craftsmanship and AEC industry. Our study underscores the importance of expert knowledge in handling certain materials and the potential of AR to reshape work practices and visualisations, contributing to expertise sharing in this domain. © The Author(s) 2025.

Migrant construction workers make up a significant portion of the workforce in many countries and play a crucial role in alleviating the skilled labor shortage. Although vocational education and training (VET) is essential for equipping these workers with the skills needed to enhance workforce quality and bridge the skills gap, their intentions to attend VET (IAVET) remain relatively low. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior (TPB), this study investigates the antecedents of IAVET among migrant construction workers and explores the moderating role of work pressure. A questionnaire survey was conducted among 547 construction workers in China, followed by exploratory factor analysis, confirmatory factor analysis, and structural equation modeling. The results show that social support has a significant positive correlation with IAVET. Moreover, the three planned behavioral factors mediate the relationship between social support and IAVET, with the mediating effects varying depending on the level of work pressure experienced by workers. Notably, subjective norms (SN) emerge as the strongest mediator, while work pressure (WP) significantly moderates both the direct and indirect pathways, highlighting their critical roles in shaping VET participation intentions. These findings provide valuable insights into the mechanisms through which social support influences migrant construction workers’ IAVET, offering practical implications for improving workforce skills and addressing the skilled labor shortage in the construction sector and similar industries worldwide. Overall, the study strengthens the theoretical explanatory power of the extended TPB framework and offers actionable guidance for policymakers and construction enterprises to enhance migrant workers’ engagement in VET. © 2025 by the authors.

Background and objective: This study was conducted to examine changes in perceptions, job competency improvements, program preferences, and satisfaction among middle-aged women following their participation in National Competency Standards (NCS)-based flower design programs, who faced the dual challenges of re-employment and the recovery of self-identity amid the constraints of career interruption. Methods: An online survey was administered to middle-aged women (aged 40-65) who had participated in NCS-based floristry programs offered by lifelong education and vocational training institutions in the Seoul metropolitan area between June 30 and July 27, 2025. The questionnaire comprised 30 items rated on a five-point Likert scale and covered awareness of the NCS, job performance competency, program perception, component preferences, and satisfaction. Additionally, in-depth interviews were conducted with three selected participants to provide qualitative insights that complemented the quantitative data. Results: Survey results indicated that although overall awareness of the NCS reached 52.2%, understanding of specific elements—such as learning modules (42.6%), competency units (39.8%), and the level system (37.5%)—remained relatively low. Job performance competencies were highest in material preparation (89.2%) but comparatively lower in creative design areas (70-79%). Perceptions of NCS-based floristry programs were strongly positive, with high agreement regarding job suitability for middle-aged women (94.0%), enhancement of professional competency (94.0%), increased employment opportunities (93.6%), and psychological stability (97.0%). Participants who held relevant certificates reported significantly more positive responses across all items (p < .001). Preferences for program components were also notably high, particularly for practice-oriented training (97.2%), instructor expertise (97.0%), individualized guidance (97.0%), and a comfortable learning environment (98.8%). Overall satisfaction exceeded 90%, and both recommendation intention (96.0%) and intention to re-enroll (96.0%) received highly favorable evaluations. Conclusion: The findings of this study suggest that NCS-based floristry programs contribute not only to the development of technical skills but also to psychological recovery and enhanced social participation among middle-aged women. Furthermore, improvements to future programs are expected to enhance participants’ understanding of the NCS framework, expand training in advanced creative competencies, reinforce industry-practice linkages and further improve the learning environment and instructor expertise. Ⓒ 2025 by the Society for People, Plants, and Environment.

Technical and vocational Secondary education (TVET) in Chile plays a strategic role in youth employability and regional economic development. In this context, the objective of the study was to analyze graduation rates in TVET programs in the Los Lagos Region, comparing the pre-pandemic period (2019–2020) with the pandemic period (2021–2022), with particular attention to variations across economic sectors. A quantitative, cross-sectional, and descriptive design was employed, analyzing graduation rates of 14,693 students enrolled in 25 technical specializations grouped into 11 economic sectors. The findings reveal an overall 18.2% increase in graduation rates during the pandemic, with sectors such as Administration and Commerce (+26.2%) and Programming (+57.1%) showing significant adaptability to hybrid and digital learning modalities. In contrast, the Agricultural sector (−7.8%) experienced a decline in graduation rates, underscoring the vulnerability of fields highly dependent on face-to-face instruction. Overall, the pandemic acted as a disruptive factor, generating differentiated impacts across TVET economic sectors. Although graduation rates increased, it remains essential to assess the quality and relevance of the competencies acquired. © 2025, Interciencia Association. All rights reserved.

This study maps and analyzes inequalities in vocational field of expertise choices among Indonesian vocational school students by gender and region. The research employed descriptive quantitative methods, including the Chi-square Test, Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), Heatmaps, Decision Tree Classifiers, Lasso Regression, and Quartiles. The research data were vocational school data in 39 regions and vocational school students in 2023. Gender differences influenced the choice of area of expertise in vocational schools. There were areas of expertise in the male domain or the female domain. The region categorization did not influence the number of male and female students or the choice of field of expertise. These results were due to a gendered distribution across vocational fields arising from social norms and peer-composition signals rather than from a regional inequality context. This research is poised to significantly influence policies that promote equitable gender representation among students in vocational fields at vocational schools. © 2025 Bumi Publikasi Nusantara.

The collaboration between higher education (HE) and education technology (EdTech) companies plays a vital role in developing digitallyembedded learning in the contemporary digital era. The partnership between HE and industry is widely recognized as a means to promote innovation. Moreover, it provides advantages to companies striving to fulfill client requirements. The HE-industry collaboration has garnered increasing attention in academic research. However, there is a lack of studies on the actors’ perspectives and on the required processes and other elements for conducting effective HE-EdTech collaboration in developing learning and teaching in HE. This study addresses this research gap by examining the interprofessional collaborative development process involved in the creation of video-supported collaborative learning. The qualitative research examines the factors of successful collaboration between HE and EdTech companies within the knowledge-building ecosystem framework, using ethnographic data. The findings indicate that the establishment of a knowledge-building ecosystem for the development of digitally-embedded learning in based on collaboration between key actors: teachers, teacher educators, EdTech companies, HE institutions, and students, the end-users and ultimate beneficiaries. The collaboration is manifested in open innovation, practice-based research, and research-based service development processes, and relies on goal setting, continuous dialogue, reflective assessment, commitment, and trust as key elements. © The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Research has consistently revealed that adolescents with a migration background are more likely to drop out from vocational education and training (VET) at the upper-secondary level than their native peers. While recent research has provided rich empirical evidence of mechanisms leading to dropouts from VET, little is known about such mechanisms for adolescents with a migration background. In our contribution, we assume that the difficulties that adolescents with a migration background face when entering the VET system are associated with a restricted range of occupational opportunities and, thereby, higher levels of career compromises in terms of the desired and attained VET occupation. Following previous findings on key dimensions of career compromise, we examine the relevance of compromises in the field of work and social status in explaining the higher propensity of adolescents with a migration background to drop out from their first VET position. Using logistic regressions and KHB decomposition analyses, our results underline that gaps in VET dropout rates between adolescents with and without a migration background can partially be ascribed to migration-specific compromises in the field of work between the aspired and attained VET occupation, while compromises in social status seem to be unimportant. © The Author(s) 2024.

Background: Pharmacy internships are an important part of pharmacy education in Poland; they are an integral part of professional studies. The first two internships are held after the third and fourth year of study during the summer break and last for four weeks. The study aims to analyze the didactic process of the pharmacy students taking place during the summer internship in community and hospital pharmacies in Poland. The analysis emphasizes the acquisition of skills built on the master-student contact, and the results are based on trainees’ feedback. Methods: The research tool was a questionnaire addressed to fifth-year pharmacy students who had previously completed summer internships in both community and hospital pharmacy. The survey contained 17 questions that sought to gain insight into their perceptions of the internship’s supervision and guidance of work by tutors and pharmacy staff, involvement in different workplace routines and comparison between formal education and everyday practice. The data collection was carried out in the academic year 2015–2016 among the ninth-semester pharmacy students from four Medical Universities in Poland. Information about internships performed in community and hospital pharmacies were collected separately. Results: The paper presents the results of selected questions related specifically to the legitimacy of summer internships and learning about professional responsibilities. Altogether 447 questionnaires, evaluating summer internships in both community and hospital pharmacies were collected. For the majority of students the summer internship made them aware of the profession; however, the internship in some pharmacies did not always provide them with all aspects of pharmaceutical practice. 14–40% of students admitted that their mentors did not introduce the internship program at the beginning of the internship. Only 35–46% of students performed drug formulations on a daily basis. Less than 30% of respondents indicated that drug formulary process in community pharmacies was the same as they have learned at university. Almost every day or very often students were involved in checking or spreading out the drugs delivered to the pharmacy from the wholesale institution. Only two universities conducted regular audits of the internship process by the supervisors (academic teachers). Conclusions: The summer internship of pharmacy students complements the opportunity to acquire practical skills in the training of future pharmacists. The quality of this didactic process should be subjected to constant verification. What is important is that pharmacists who are tutors of students participating in summer internships should obtain an academic support in the area of education and training, relevant to the professional preparation for the didactic process. Similar rules for summer internships should be developed, despite maintaining distinctiveness, across faculties. The students’ responses indicate varying levels of mentor involvement in the implementation of practical vocational training. What is worrying is the lack of substantive and practical supervision during the internship. © The Author(s) 2024.

This study focuses on the stories of four newly arrived women and their choices of vocational education and profession. The study highlights the women’s life courses and addresses how their vocational skills from their home countries can influence their choices of vocational education and profession, and how these skills are utilised in Sweden. The study also examines the cultural, social, economic, and symbolic capital that emerges from the women’s stories. Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of capital is used to explain the women’s choices of vocational education and profession, suggesting a connection between the capital that women carry with them and their private and vocational experiences throughout their lives. The result shows that the women’s choices of vocational education and profession are related to their previous life experiences and adapted to the efforts of the Swedish state to shorten the path to employment for adult immigrants through Yrkesvux, a combined education programme. Additionally, the women’s vocational skills from their home countries are mostly used through their own business activities in Sweden. Newly arrived women’s vocational skills are changing the existing history of women’s skills and adding tasks that traditionally have not existed in Sweden, for example carpet tying, facial threading, and oriental cooking and baking. These skills must be cared for by the Swedish education system, which is constructed and reconstructed in step with technological development and social change. Caring for new professional skills can, for example, be to create conditions for young people to learn and develop these skills for the benefit of society. © The Author(s) 2025.