Vocational Education

This handbook brings together and promotes research on the area of vocational education and training (VET). It analyzes current and future economic and labor market trends and relates these to likely implications for vocational education and training. It questions how VET engages with the growing power of human development approaches and with the sustainable development agenda. Equity and inclusion are discussed in a range of ways by the authors and the consideration of the construction of these terms is an important element of the handbook. It further addresses both the overall notion of system reform, at different scales, and what is known about particular technologies of systems reform across a variety of settings. Vocational learning and VET teacher/trainer education are discussed from a comparative perspective. National and comparative experiences are also shared on questions of equity and efficiency in funding in terms of those that fund and are funded, and for a range of funding methodologies. As well as reviewing existing gaps, this handbook is looking forward in identifying promising new directions in research and environment. Areas covered: The Changing World of Work | Editors: Margarita Pavlova and Salim Akoojee Skills for Sustainable Human Development | Editor: Lesley Powell Planning and Reforming Skills Systems | Editor: Robert Palmer Private Training Markets | Editors: Michael Gessler, Larissa Freund and Susanne Peters Vocational Learning | Editors: Karen Evans and Natasha Kersh Competence and Excellence | Editor: Kirby Barrick Measuring Learning and Instructional Performance | Editor: Esther Winther Supporting Learners | Editor: Joy Papier VET Teacher/Trainer Education | Editor: Volker Wedekind

The volume is devoted to the research of comparative vocational education and training, placing a special emphasis not only on theoretical development, but also on methodological approaches and on achieving excellent research outcomes by strictly concerning comparative studies in vocational education and training. This volume contains scientific contributions by renowned researchers of vocational education from all over the world.

A collection of the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training written by international experts The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an in-depth guide to the theories, practices, and policies of vocational education and training (VET). With contributions from a panel of leading international scholars, the Handbook contains 27 authoritative essays from a wide range of disciplines. The contributors present an integrated analysis of the complex and dynamic field of VET. Drawing on the most recent research, thinking, and practice in the field, the book explores the key debates about the role of VET in the education and training systems of various nations. The Handbook reveals how expertise is developed in an age of considerable transformation in work processes, work organization, and occupational identities. The authors also examine many of the challenges of vocational education and training such as the impact of digital technologies on employment, the demand for (re)training in the context of extended working lives, the emergence of learning regions and skill ecosystems, and the professional development of vocational teachers and trainers. This important text: Offers an original view of VET’s role in both the initial and continuing development of expertise Examines the theories and concepts that underpin international perspectives and explores the differences about the purposes of VET Presents various models of learning used in VET, including apprenticeship, and their relationship with general education Explores how VET is shaped in different ways by the political economy of different countries Reviews how developments in digital technologies are changing VET practice Discusses the challenges for universities offering higher vocational education programs Draws on both recent research as well as historical accounts Written for students, researchers, and scholars in the fields of educational studies, human resource development, social policy, political economy, labor market economics, industrial relations, sociology, The Wiley Handbook of Vocational Education and Training offers an international perspective on the topic of VET.

This book discusses what constitutes vocational education as well as its key purposes, objects, formation and practices. In short, it seeks to outline and elaborate the nature of the project of vocational education. It addresses a significant gap in the available literature by providing a single text that elaborates the scope and diversity of the sector, its key objectives (i.e. vocations and occupations), its formation and development as an education sector, and the scope of its purposes and considerations in the curriculum. The volume achieves these objectives by discussing and defining the concept of vocational education as being that form of education that seeks to advise individuals about, prepare them for, and further develop their capacities to perform the kinds of occupations that societies require and individuals need to participate in—and through which they often come to define themselves. In particular, it discusses the distinctions between occupations as a largely social fact and vocations as being a socially shaped outcome assented to by individuals. As people identify closely with the kinds of occupations they engage in, the standing of, and the effectiveness of vocational education is central to individuals’ well-being, competence and progress. Ultimately, this book argues that the provision of vocational education needs to realise important personal and social goals.

Across the globe, vocational education and training is characterised by a number of over-arching trends, including the increasing use of technology, the growing importance of information and communications systems, and changes to national demographics. At the interface between the education and training system and the world of work, VET faces the challenge of tackling these changes, of making a constructive contribution to solving the problems posed by the transition from education to employment, and of ensuring that the next generation has the skills it – and the economy – needs. This volume comprises thirty individual contributions that together add up to a comprehensive overview of the current situation in vocational education and training, its strengths and weaknesses, and its prospects. VET experts from Canada, the USA, India, China, Japan and Korea, as well as from a number of European countries, focus on their national context and how it fits in to the bigger picture. The contributions combine theoretical discussions from various strands of VET research with evidence from country case studies and examples from current practice.