Comparative report on change in VET profiles - In-depth studies of how VET adapt to changes in the work field.

This working paper is divided into three sections with an introduction.

The earlier report “The Responsiveness and Proactiveness of VET – a comparative case study report of changes in VET on the occupational level” (D3.2) gave an account of the findings of all the 17 comparative case studies on change in vocational profiles. However, this present working paper (D3.3) goes in-depth through sections with research papers that all develop further central themes from our research.

Section 1 explores how three perspectives on vocational curricula are embodied in curricula in England, Germany and Norway.

The three perspectives are a Skills perspective, a Holistic Occupational Competence perspective and a Capability perspective. The countries show some differences in the relative emphasis of the three perspectives in national apprenticeship standards for heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC), with for instance the Skills perspective more evident in England.

Context is important, leading to larger differences in actual training. The paper also makes a novel contribution by operationalising what a capability perspective may imply for curricula analysis.

Section 2 compares the process of re-designing the health care worker/assistant nurse education from a school-based education to apprenticeship in Austria and Norway.

We find similar underlying reasons for these transformations, as both VET systems aim to respond to changing recruitment practices and attract young people to the workforce.

In Austria, sector-specific challenges have been the primary drivers of change, whereas in Norway, the transformation has occurred through a two-step process shaped more significantly by educational policies.

Section 3 presents a case study of how the process of adapting the industrial mechanic apprenticeship standard to technological change has enfolded in Germany.

The German governance system is consensus-based which can sometimes lead to slow adaption, but in this vocational field, we find that the social-partner led system has been able to respond rapidly to technological change, partly because a more dynamic practice ‘within’ formal procedures has been developed, without abandoning the broad competence approach.

The case study will form a basis for a later comparative analysis of the three countries England, Germany and Norway.