Vocational education and training - VET

eachers have described the importance of competence which was not developed during teacher training. Instead, important competences were often developed in the previous profession or informal teaching activities. Vocational teachers seem to value and utilise their previous occupational worker identities to a high extent. This should be considered when teacher training or in-service training is designed to support individuals in developing their (new) teacher identity. 

The share of applicants to vocational programmes as first choice increased in the academic year 2017/18 for the first time since the 2011 reform, while the trend of a gradual decline continues.

The Swedish government has changed the university law to ensure every doctoral candidate is made an employee of the university with a salary. This should strengthen the position of foreign PhD students, who make up more than half of the country’s 19,000 doctoral candidates.

Vocational education and training (VET) is an important part of education systems around the world. VET systems differ widely between countries in how programmes are designed and delivered. Moreover, countries differ in terms of the types of providers that deliver VET. This report looks at the VET provider landscape in Australia, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden. It provides insights into the number of different providers by country, their focus areas and target populations. It describes how providers are different and how they overlap, as well as structures and initiatives to foster co-ordination between them.

This article reports results from a Learning study in which two university based researchers collaborate with a vocational teacher at an upper secondary vocational school. The analyses highlights concrete changes in the teacher’s teaching, and it is argued that the approach used in the study can lead to a development where we can find forms for teaching specific subject content within vocational education.

Higher vocational education is a post-secondary type of education at EQF level 5 and 6 that combines theoretical and practical studies and functions in close cooperation with employers and industry. Expansion of higher vocational education started in 2018. Until 2022, the number of yearly study places will expand by approximately 45%, from 30 000 to 44 000 and the number of students in higher vocational education is expected to increase from 50 000 to 70 000 in five years. Higher vocational education programmes can be studied part-time or full-time.