Empirical Research in Vocational Education and Training最新文献

Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) has attracted wide attention with its potential to alleviate poverty and improve youth employment in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). However, no agreement has been reached on its impact on participants’ wellbeing and livelihoods. Most previous reviews were restricted to economic and employment-related outcomes through statistical meta-analyses and failed to examine participants’ comprehensive experiences. This systematic review investigated young people’s learning process and consequences of TVET participation in LMICs by reviewing qualitative evidence across 31 published and unpublished studies from 2000 to 2019. Adopting a framework thematic synthesis approach, this study revealed that TVET participation had a multi-dimensional impact on young people’s cultural capital (skills and knowledge, credentials and socio-emotional competencies), social capital (bonding, bridging and linking social relationships), aspirations, and health, beyond economic consequences. Participants’ mixed experiences were collectively shaped by multiple factors, including intervention features, intervention quality (curriculum and content, instructor and instruction, administration and management), learning environment (physical environment, instructor-learner relationship and peer relationship), individual characteristics, and social norms. Findings also indicated that disadvantaged youth particularly benefitted from TVET participation, which highlighted the potential of TVET to improve education access and equity. A framework was distilled from evidence synthesis to inform future research and practice that aim to design, implement and evaluate TVET in a way to enhance young people’s overall wellbeing in the developing context.

Australian vocational education and training (VET) policy makers have persistently proposed more user choice when reforming the national training system. Increasing alternatives by encouraging multiple providers to trade in regulated contestable markets remains the cornerstone of governments’ policies. However, despite policy intentions, students’ options are declining. Longitudinal quantitative jurisdiction-level statistics identify well-established trends of a reduced variety of providers, a smaller range of qualifications on offer and decreased public funding. These outcomes are occurring notwithstanding the continuous supportive policy environment for intensified competition and amplified choice. Rather than portray reduced choice as policy failure, this research makes novel use of large nationally consistent regulatory and enrolment data sets to provide evidence of successful public policy implementation that is approaching the end of the market life cycle. The results invite an exploration of issues that arise when VET markets are considered to be mature rather than unrealised aspirations. Choices provided in these fully-fledged markets that balance public and private provision are still necessary, but no longer sufficient, to meet national skills needs. It is argued that policy success is not permanent and should be revisited in light of contemporary economic alternatives to guide future VET policy making.

Interventions in emotional competences and scientific studies of emotional competence are flourishing in the educational context. However, we find very few programs in Europe involving emotional interventions in vocational education and training (VET) and a dearth of scientific contributions. Our purpose with this paper is twofold: a) we provide the state of the art on existing international scientific publications about emotional training interventions in VET and a summary of existing programs at the European level; b) by relying on the analysis of relevant cases in the educational literature, we provide guidelines about how scientifically-based interventions in emotional competences in VET could be developed. Ultimately, our goal is to open a discussion of emotional training as a novel domain of research for VET scholars and practitioners, and of how emotional competences could be introduced in a vocational curriculum.

The identification of effects of vocational education and training conditions on competence development in nursing education requires longitudinal studies. An important precondition is the availability of a test of nursing competence which is economical in use, measures a homogeneous construct throughout years of nursing education and across nursing specializations, and can detect increases in the required competence, hence allowing for sensitive testing. This article describes a cross-sectional study that aimed to optimize a computer-based test measuring nursing competence in care for the elderly—the TEMA test—through the selection of items on the basis of measurement error, differential item functioning, and item difficulty. Evidence of the test sensitivity of the optimized TEMA-L instrument is presented for the second and third year of nursing education. The total sample consisted of n = 133 German nursing students from clinical and geriatric nursing. The resulting instrument includes two test booklets consisting of 36 (WLE = 0.72) and 35 items (WLE = 0.70) respectively for the second and third year of training. The cross-sectional data indicate that the test likely has good properties for sensitive testing of nursing competence in a future longitudinal study. Hence, it might be used to study factors contributing to increases in nursing competence in German VET and serve as an example for similar studies in other countries. Limitations of the current study and related subjects of future research are discussed.

Against the background of digital transformation processes that are currently changing the world of work, this paper examines general digital competences of beginning trainees in commercial vocational education and training (VET) programs. We are particularly interested in factors influencing digital competence profiles. From survey data including N = 480 trainees in one federal state in Germany, we were able to identify three different competence profiles (based on the trainees’ self-assessment of their general digital competence). Initial descriptive analysis reveals differences between competence profiles of different training professions (industrial clerks and retail salespersons reach higher competence levels than salespersons). However, regression results indicate that these differences can be explained by differences in school leaving certificates. Contrary to prior empirical evidence, we find no significant effect of trainees’ gender. Finally, the frequency of certain private digital activities (e.g. using office programs, conducting internet searches) affects digital competence profiles. Implications for both VET programs and further research are discussed.

Despite high drop-out rates from vocational education and training (VET) throughout most countries and a long research tradition on potential drop-out reasons, little is known about the effects exerted on drop-out intentions by the quality of training. Furthermore, only rarely do scholars distinguish between different drop-out directions, and systematic insights on possibly differing causes are scarce. This study explores the factors influencing four directions of drop-out intention ('upwards', 'downwards', 'company change', 'occupation change'). Linear regression modelling is used to analyse survey data on the motivation, socio-demographic aspects and competency of 562 trainees as industrial management assistants in Germany and on how they perceived the training quality. The results show that different directions of drop-out intention stem from various factors, with training quality in general having the largest effect. Additionally, the findings indicate a two-tier-scheme of influence factors, 'core' and 'direction-typical' factors.