Search Results for
"Vocational education"

This study investigates the impact of project-based learning (PBL) on the perception of professional competence in Early Childhood education (ECE) among pre-service teachers in Spain. A total of 586 students from four Spanish universities participated in a pre-post test design using the ECPP-FIM scale to measure the impact of the PBL approach on the perception of professional psychomotor intervention skills of ECE. The PBL approach involved close collaboration with preschools, providing students with hands-on experience designing and implementing movement-based activities in natural contexts. Descriptive and inferential statistics, including ANOVA, were used to analyse the data. Results indicate substantial improvements in the perception of professional competence across all five areas of the ECPP-FIM scale. Moreover, students from vocational education backgrounds showed consistently higher pre-and post-test scores than those from other academic pathways. Findings support the effectiveness of PBL in bridging the theory-practice divide and emphasize the importance of integrating real-world experiences in teacher training. To conclude, this study highlights the key characteristics that an ordinary university subject should incorporate to enhance the perception of professional competence. © 2025 Universidad Autonoma de Madrid. All rights reserved.

vocational education aims to prepare students to enter the workforce. This study aims to develop guidelines for the development of soft skills among vocational students in courses related to the medical and comprehensive healthcare industry by qualitative research methods. Data were collected by interviewing eighteen key informants from six companies consisting of six executives, six human resources officers, and six workers to examine the essential soft skills of vocational graduates in courses related to the medical and comprehensive healthcare industry matched with professional standards and industry requirements, and interviewing thirty-one key informants from four vocational institutes consisting of three administrators, eight teachers, and twenty students to study the current state of students’ soft skills development. The results of both were synthesized as the soft skills development guideline among vocational students in courses related to medical and comprehensive healthcare industry. Findings showed that key essential soft skills among vocational students in courses related to medical and comprehensive healthcare industry are social skills (communication and teamwork), thinking skills (creativity, analytical thinking, and problem-solving), and emotional skills (stress management, anger management, and self-control), which are the foundation of other soft skills. vocational institutes should encourage the value of soft skills for teachers and students through official meetings, activities, and events, incorporating soft skills into classroom activity through participatory learning, organizing relationship-building activities between students, developing professional teachers with proficiency in teaching soft skills, and assessing students’ soft skills by assessing their portfolio and designating soft skills as part of the student’s learning achievement. © 2025 Kasetsart University.

Next to the amount of education attained, the type of training shapes labor market outcomes. In this line, the chapter provides an overview of research on the relationship between vocational education and work. vocational education has been shown to facilitate a smooth transition from the educational system to the labor market. However, the initial advantage enjoyed by vocational graduates diminishes over the life course. There is discord about whether it even turns into a penalty for late-career workers. The authors argue that discrepancies in findings stem from differing definitions of vocational education within specific research traditions. They delineate three approaches to measuring vocational education: (1) at the macro-level of VET institutions; (2) at the meso-level examining links between fields of study and labor market positions; and (3) at the micro-level of specific programs. The authors recommend that future research includes an in-depth discussion on the definition of vocational education, the identification of causal effects, and the expansion of research beyond Western Europe to better understand how national contexts influence the labor market effects of vocational education. © Maarten H.J. Wolbers and Dieter Verhaest 2025.

This study uses longitudinal analysis of the Taiwan education Panel Survey to explore background factors of educational tracking experiences among Taiwanese youth and their dynamic associations with job-education match, job satisfaction, and happiness. The sustainable careers concept (De Vos et al., 2020) views individuals as core actors, emphasizing personal, situational, and temporal dimensions’ influence on career sustainability, expanding school-to-work transition research (Blokker et al., 2023). However, existing studies often focus on adults and are cross-sectional, missing key youth changes and early educational experiences’ impact on careers. While educational tracking’s role in occupational choice has been explored, understanding of how job-education match affects job satisfaction and happiness, especially under different educational backgrounds, remains limited. This study’s longitudinal analysis aims to provide a comprehensive perspective for sustainable career theory and practice. Research shows job-education match, job satisfaction, and happiness are interrelated. Job-education match includes educational level, field of study, and skills/abilities matching, positively correlating with job satisfaction (Badillo-Amador & Vila, 2013; Santis et al., 2021). From strengths-use perspective, knowledge and abilities need an environment for application, with full utilization increasing work engagement, satisfaction, and happiness (Miglianico et al., 2020). Job satisfaction and happiness’s positive association is often explained by the spillover hypothesis, including top-down and bottom-up effects. Longitudinal meta-analyses show life satisfaction and happiness have cross-sectional associations and cross-lagged effects (Bowling et al., 2010; Karabati et al., 2019; Steel et al., 2019). This study analyzes these relationships using data from Taiwan. The impact of early educational experiences on later career development is worth investigating. Existing research on Taiwanese youth indicates that high school students’ post-graduation development is influenced by learning experiences and employment considerations. Key moments for youth to consider career development are during the educational tracking at high school levels and when facing graduation from university (Kuo et al., 2021; Wu et al., 2018). In Taiwan’s education system, the educational tracking at the high school level is a crucial stage in youth career development. vocational high school students mostly choose their major subjects upon graduating from junior high school, while students in academic high school choose their stream (liberal arts or science) after completing their first year, and decide on their specific university major when applying for higher education. This study employs longitudinal tracking to investigate how regret over high school track/major choices in the third year influences subsequent career development, addressing limitations of retrospective methods in existing research. It also focuses on youth with different educational tracking experiences, exploring how their subsequent career development trajectories differ. While previous studies have explored how educational tracking affects various work outcomes over time (Birkelund et al., 2022; Delaruelle et al., 2020; Verhaest et al., 2018), there remains a gap in research specific to Taiwan's unique educational and sociocultural context. Career exploration during university, especially actions to change or expand learning specialties (changing majors, minors, double majors, taking programs), is a crucial experience for future career development. Educational level is also an important factor. Although literature shows mixed results regarding the match between educational level and work, studies focusing on Taiwanese workers mostly indicate that higher education levels help improve job satisfaction and happiness (Chen et al., 2020). Therefore, this study uses longitudinal analysis to enhance understanding. The statistical analysis adopts the random intercept cross-lagged panel model (RI-CLPM) (Mulder & Hamaker, 2021), using data from the Taiwan education Panel Survey (TEPS) and its follow-up database (TEPS-B) SH sample, with 1,637 participants. It examines the associations between job-education match, job satisfaction, and happiness at three time points: ages 25 (T1), 30 (T2), and 33 (T3), incorporating relevant factors from the educational period into the model. In the model, job-education match, job satisfaction, and happiness are time-varying factors, divided into random intercepts at the between-person level to explore correlations, and within-person level to explore autoregression and cross-lagged effects. Educational tracking type, regret over chosen major in the third year of high school (data from high school period), educational level, and career exploration are time-invariant predictors of random intercepts, with gender included as a control variable. Additionally, the study examines whether different educational tracks in high schools (vocational vs. academic) show different effects on various paths and further observes by inputting two group samples into the model. The main findings are as follows: First, the random intercepts of job-education match, job satisfaction, and happiness are positively correlated among Taiwanese youth, similar to previous research findings. Those with higher job-education match have higher job satisfaction and happiness due to work content meeting expectations and knowledge and skills matching job requirements (Ilies et al., 2019; Kristof-Brown et al., 2005; Unanue et al., 2017). Second, job-education match and happiness show autoregressive effects across the three waves, while job satisfaction only shows autoregressive effects in the latter two waves. The autoregressive effect of job-education match reflects the profound impact of the educational stage on career paths. The autoregressive effect of happiness may indicate that increasing age and stable living environments can increase the stability of happiness. Job satisfaction shows no autoregressive effect from 25-30 but does from 30-33, reflecting more career transitions and exploration before 30, with less obvious job satisfaction stability. After 30, higher chances of finding ideal jobs and clearer career positioning lead to more significant job satisfaction stability (Wille et al., 2012). Third, except for happiness at age 30 positively predicting job satisfaction at age 33, other cross-lagged effects are not significant. This positive effect aligns with the top-down effect of the spillover hypothesis, i.e., overall life satisfaction extends to the work domain (Steel et al., 2019). However, the cross-lagged effects between job-education match and job satisfaction are not obvious, possibly because after entering the workforce, job content and responsibilities may increase, and expectations for working conditions become more complex. Fourth, overall, the moderating effect of educational tracking is not obvious, with only a few paths differing between ages 25 and 30. The autoregression of happiness T1 to happiness T2 is higher for those in vocational tracks than those in academic track; the influence of job satisfaction T1 on happiness T2 and job satisfaction T1 on job-education match T2 is higher for those in academic track than those in vocational track. This suggests that in the early career stage, the two educational track have their own characteristics. However, the overall total path effect difference is not significant, indicating that regardless of the educational track, the within-person career process experiences similar changes. Fifth, regarding predictor variables, factors such as educational level, third-year high school major regret, and career exploration during university have different effects depending on the type of educational track. Educational level has a significant positive predictive effect on job-education match in both tracks; however, while educational level positively predicts happiness in the academic track, it has no significant effect in the vocational track. Career exploration has a positive effect on job-education match for those in the academic track, but no effect for those in the vocational track. This study particularly notes that regretting the chosen track/major in the third year of high school negatively predicts job satisfaction and happiness, but only for vocational track participants. These students may lack occupational knowledge or career exploration when transitioning from junior high, yet must make choices determining their professional field at age 15. If they regret their choice, changing fields or retraining may be difficult, affecting job choices and satisfaction. Academic track participants who regret their chosen track (liberal arts or science) in high school can still select their desired major when entering university at age 18, impacting career satisfaction differently. This paper suggests these findings may reflect issues related to early tracking, warranting further investigation. Regarding research limitations, this study spans many years, and youth may experience job changes, socioeconomic conditions, and family status changes that affect their careers. However, for model simplicity, this study did not include these time-varying factors in the analysis, which future research could further incorporate. Although this is a longitudinal study, inferring causal relationships still requires more exploration, such as mediating effects of other variables or qualitative data support. The three waves in this study have unequal time intervals, limiting effect comparisons and making it inappropriate to constrain the model, leading to insufficiencies in inference and model simplification, so it is recommended that future studies use longitudinal data with equal intervals. The three main variables in this study all use single-item measures as observation sources, which cannot reflect complex constructs; future research should consider multi-item studies. This study treats educational level, career exploration, and educational tracking as time-invariant factors, unable to rule out potential changes for a small number of people between different waves. Understanding of the types of changes in different variables at different time points for participants is limited; future research could explore this through latent heterogeneity analysis to benefit practical work. © 2025, National Taiwan Normal University. All rights reserved.

This article investigates six pathways through which students possessing initial vocational qualifications can enter higher education in Norway. In Norway, vocational education and training (VET) tracks in upper secondary education are popular nationwide with the youth population, catering to almost half of every youth cohort. However, despite explicit goals to promote social mobility through education, there is evident reproduction of social inequalities in attraction to and completion of higher education programmes. This issue is of paramount importance for the welfare state context, given that students in VET tracks typically come from lower socioeconomic backgrounds compared to their peers in general education pathways. Therefore, prohibited permeability between VET and higher education undermines universal access to higher education. This study is designed in a threefold manner: First, the connection between VET and socioeconomic background is investigated, leading to the conclusion that underprivileged youth are overly represented in VET pathways. Secondly, we explore alternative routes to higher education available to vocationally qualified students in Norway; and thirdly, we present available data on to what extend these pathways facilitate access to higher education. We conclude that limited permeability is a social problem and discuss possible means to address the issue. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This paper reports a longitudinal study, organized around national surveys and institution-based case studies, of ‘enrichment’ in post-16 colleges across England and Wales. These institutions transect general and vocational education pathways, whose curricula are organized respectively around subject disciplines and employment skills. Drawing on social justice perspectives and understandings of curriculum theory and cultural reproduction, the study initially analysed enrichment practices positioned as additional to subject-based curricula. However, extending thematic analysis through cross-case comparison, the study uncovered an additional, complementary role of enrichment: in some specialist/general education settings, teacher-led, practice-based extensions of subject curricula, complemented by agentic networking opportunities, facilitated middle-class higher education transitions; vocational enrichment, responding instead to ‘learner support’ imperatives and socializing young people into employment routines, sustained the normative transitions to work that characterize vocational pathways. These distinctive complementary logics mirror the inequalities of epistemic access identified by curriculum theory, suggesting that these extend beyond formal curricula. On the other hand, some marginal practices, including broader, more critical preparation for adulthood and work, suggest possibilities to advance social justice, transgressing the academic/vocational divide. Whilst unequal societies persistently sustain this divide, activities outside formal curricula may support more agentic and socially just transitions to adulthood and working life. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are increasingly being adopted as an assessment tool by medicine and other health professions in a bid to enhance competency-based health professional education. EPAs are well-defined professional activities that can be entrusted to students to perform with varying levels of supervision. They were introduced to overcome some of the limitations of traditional assessment methods of competency such as individual skills assessment or Direct Observation of Procedures and Objective Structured Clinical Examinations. Could EPAs be beneficial in Australian and New Zealand optometric clinical education for advanced skills training and accreditation including the credentialing assessment of overseas educated practitioners? This paper discusses the historical context of how competencies were introduced and assessed in Australian optometry, the evolution of the concept of EPAs in medicine and other health professions, their design and implementation worldwide and whether EPAs could be adopted into optometric training and assessment in Australia and New Zealand. © 2025 Optometry Australia.

This article summarizes the main results of a research on teachers working in secondary school VET in Chile by reviewing the principal features of teacher professional identity, including their beliefs and perceptions about teaching for job and their experiences in the context of the school settings in which they work. Empirical findings were collected from a survey of 490 teachers and 31 in-depth interviews. Analysis of these findings shows the emergence of a distinctive teacher professional identity. The identity emphasizes a practical teaching model that is associated with the application of a pedagogy of accompaniment, but which also demonstrates tensions and difficulties of interaction regarding the traditional academic school model. Teachers pointed out as common the weakness of institutional support, the weak link with employers and productive agents and the recurrent need to show their own individual initiative in order to face the challenges of training students. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

Australia’s demand for nurses is exponentially increasing as we are faced with a global pandemic, an ageing population, and an increase in chronic health conditions and mental health issues. This presents a significant challenge for the healthcare system by increasing the absolute number of people needing care. The Enrolled Nursing course can train nurses in 18-24 months and offers a solution to the nursing shortage. This training in Australia is delivered by the vocational education Training (VET) system utilizing a competency-based training approach (CBT). However, CBT is often criticised for failing to deliver the essential skills of communication. critical thinking, and clinical reasoning that are fundamental to mental health nursing. This discussion paper explores the current VET system in Australia to determine if it can adequately train Enrolled Nurses with the skills to work with mental health consumers and suggests that simulation-based education using Simulated Persons could provide one solution. © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This bibliometric analysis elucidates the evolution and impacts of Project-Based Learning (PBL) within vocational education, emphasizing its relevance in translating career goals and addressing educational gaps, particularly from 1993 to 2023. Analyzing 555 Scopus-indexed documents, this study utilized advanced bibliometric tools to uncover PBL's growing appeal and its innovative pedagogical integration into design thinking, challenge-based education, and multidisciplinary approaches. Our findings highlight PBL's significant outcomes, including its role in bolstering STEM curricula and fostering critical skill development, thus bridging the gap between theoretical knowledge and practical application essential for the workforce. Despite the documented benefits, our analysis also identifies substantial gaps in research, particularly the scarcity of longitudinal studies on PBL's long-term effectiveness and its comparative efficacy against traditional pedagogies within diverse educational contexts. The study underscores PBL's utility in vocational education as a transformative approach, aligning with dynamic career expectations and the requirements of the knowledge economy. By offering a detailed thematic evolution and pinpointing influential contributions, this research serves as a strategic guide for educators and policymakers, advocating for informed, future-ready educational strategies that embrace experiential learning to meet the evolving needs of students and the labor market. © Author (s)2025.