The adoption of dual Vocational Education and Training in Spain: Analysis of descentralised decision-making in educational policy transfer

This paper examines the adoption of dual VET in Spain as a process of educational policy transfer. Using Phillips and Ochs’ (2003, 2004) policy transfer spectrum and decision-making classification and Perry and Tor’s (2008) model of transfer forms, the study relies on semi-structured interviews with key decision-makers in the Spanish central government and the Autonomous Communities of the Basque Country and Andalusia. Findings indicate that EU diffusion activities facilitated adoption, involving first-order learning. Initially, adoption at the central level was uninformed, driven by quick-fix decisions, but later shifted to informed transfer through second- and third-order learning, enhancing realism. In Andalusia and the Basque Country, decision-making consistently adapted to the real context, progressing from second- to third-order learning. Ultimately, this analysis concludes that dual VET adoption at the central, Andalusian, and Basque levels falls between ‘negotiated under constraint’ and ‘borrowed purposefully’, though not at the same point.