Handbook of Technical and Vocational

Education and Training Research

Edited by

FELIX RAUNER
University of Bremen, Germany

and

RUPERT MACLEAN
UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Education, Germany

Section Editors: Nicholas Boreham, Peter Brödner, Jürgen van

Buer, Thomas Deißinger, Martin Fischer, Philipp Grollmann,
Winfried Hacker, Geoff Hayward, Uwe Lauterbach, Robert
Lerman, Morgan Lewis, Georg Hans Neuweg, Paul Oehlke,
Jeroen Onstenk, Jörg-Peter Pahl, Peter Putz, Felix Rauner,
Eugenie A. Samier, Georg Spöttl, Lorna Unwin, Anneke
Westerhuis

123
Editors
Prof. Felix Rauner Dr Rupert Maclean
University of Bremen UNESCO-UNEVOC
TVET Research Group International Centre for Education
Am Fallturm 1 Hermann-Ehlers-Str. 10
28359 Bremen 53113 Bonn
Germany Germany
felix.rauner@uni-bremen.de r.maclean@unevoc.unesco.org

ISBN: 978-1-4020-8346-4 e-ISBN: 978-1-4020-8347-1

DOI 10.1007/978-1-4020-8347-1

Library of Congress Control Number: 2008942082

c Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

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EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD

Series Editor-in-Chief:

Dr Rupert Maclean, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and
Training, Bonn, Germany

Associate Editors:

Professor Felix Rauner, TVET Research group, University of Bremen, Germany

Professor Karen Evans, Institute of Education, University of London, United Kingdom

Editorial Advisory Board:

Dr David Atchoarena, UNESCO International Institute for Educational Planning, Paris, France
Dr András Benedek, Ministry of Employment and Labour, Budapest, Hungary
Ms Diane Booker, TAFESA, Adelaide, Australia
Mr John Budu-Smith, formerly Ministry of Education, Accra, Ghana
Professor Michel Carton, NORRAG c/o Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies,
Geneva, Switzerland
Dr Chris Chinien, Workforce Development Consulting, Montreal, Canada
Dr Claudio De Moura Castro, Faculade Pitágoras, Belo Horizonte, Brazil
Dr Michael Frearson, SQW Consulting, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Dr Lavinia Gasperini, Natural Resources Management and Environment Department, Food and Agriculture
Organization, Rome, Italy
Dr Philipp Grollmann, Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BiBB), Bonn, Germany
Dr Peter Grootings, European Training Foundation, Turin, Italy
Professor W. Norton Grubb, Graduate School of Education, University of California, Berkeley,
United States of America
Dr Dennis R. Herschbach, Faculty of Education Policy and Leadership, University of Maryland,
College Park, United States of America
Dr Oriol Homs, Centre for European Investigation and Research in the Mediterranean Region, Barcelona,
Spain
Professor Phillip Hughes, Australian National University, Canberra, Australia
Professor Moo-Sub Kang, Korea Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Seoul,
Republic of Korea
Dr Bonaventure W. Kerre, School of Education, Moi University, Eldoret, Kenya
Dr Günter Klein, German Aerospace Centre, Bonn, Germany
Dr Wilfried Kruse, Sozialforschungsstelle Dortmund, Dortmund Technical University, Germany
Professor Jon Lauglo, Department of Educational Research, Faculty of Education, University of Oslo,
Norway
Dr Alexander Leibovich, Institute for Vocational Education and Training Development, Moscow,
Russian Federation
Professor Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, Washington, United States of America
Mr Joshua Mallet, Commonwealth of Learning, Vancouver, Canada
Ms Naing Yee Mar, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and
Training, Bonn, Germany
Professor Munther Wassef Masri, National Centre for Human Resources Development, Amman, Jordan
Dr Phillip McKenzie, Australian Council for Educational Research, Melbourne, Australia
Dr Theo Raubsaet, Centre for Work, Training and Social Policy, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Mr Trevor Riordan, International Labour Organization, Bangkok, Thailand
Professor Barry Sheehan, Melbourne University, Australia
Dr Madhu Singh, UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, Hamburg, Germany
Dr Manfred Tessaring, European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, Thessaloniki, Greece
Dr Jandhyala Tilak, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration, New Delhi, India
Dr Pedro Daniel Weinberg, formerly Inter-American Centre for Knowledge Development in Vocational Training
(ILO/CINTERFOR), Montevideo, Uruguay
Professor Adrian Ziderman, Bar-llan University, Ramat Gan, Israel
4 Handbook of TVET Research
Table of Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Introduction
Vocational Education and Training Research – an
Introduction
Felix Rauner and Rupert Maclean . . . . . . . . . . 13
Section 1.0: Genesis of TVET Research
Uwe Lauterbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.1 Genesis of VET Research: Case Study of
Australia
Philip Loveder and Hugh Guthrie . . . . . . . . . . 32
1.2 Research on China’s Technical and
Vocational Education
Jiang Dayuan, Yu Zhijing and Yao Shuwei . . . . 37
1.3 French Research on Vocational Training: A
Mirror of the Position and Structure of the Trai-
ning System?
Philippe Méhaut . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
1.4 On the Genesis of TVET Research in Ger-
many
Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
1.5 History of Vocational Education & Training
Research in the United States
Cecilia Maldonado and Sterling Saddler . . . . . 57
1.6 Overview of Research Concerning Vocatio-
nal Education and Vocational Training in Modern
Japan
Susumu Sasaki. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
1.7 UNESCO’s Research on TVET and Skills
Development
Keith Holmes and Rupert Maclean . . . . . . . . . . 68
1.8 Research on TVET and Skills Development
by Selected Intergovernmental Organisations and
Bilateral Agencies
Keith Holmes and Rupert Maclean . . . . . . . . . . 75
1.9 Steps towards International Comparative
Research in TVET
Uwe Lauterbach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Section 2.0: VET Research in Relation to
VET Policy, Planning and Practice
Anneke Westerhuis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
2.1 VET Research and Social Dialogue
Jonathan Winterton . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
2.2 Work – Education – Training:
An Interdisciplinary Research Approach
Manfred Eckert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
2.3 Occupations and Occupational Areas
A. Willi Petersen . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121
2.4 Vocational Education Research as an Inno-
vation Process
Ute Laur-Ernst and Georg Hanf . . . . . . . . . . . 129
2.5 Research on Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) in the Context of
European Cooperation
Pekka Kämäräinen and Martin Fischer . . . . . 135
2.6 Research and VET Reform Policy in
Transition Countries
Peter Grootings and Sören Nielsen . . . . . . . . . 143
2.7 Development Aid and VET Research
Godehard Köhne and Reinhard Stockmann . . 149
Section 3: Areas of VET Research
3.1 The Development of Occupations
Georg Spöttl and Morgan Lewis . . . . . . . . . . . 159
3.1.1 Occupational Research
Werner Dostal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
3.1.2 Sector Analyses
Georg Spöttl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
3.1.3 Historical Occupational Research
Falk Howe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
3.1.4 Prognostic and Prospective Vocational
Education and Training (VET) Research
Philipp Grollmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
3.1.5. Qualification Research
Otfried Mickler . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
3.2 Research in the Vocational Disciplines
Jörg-Peter Pahl and Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . 193
3.2.1 Business and Administration
Antje Barabasch . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 199
Table of Contents
3.2.2 EEE/ICT in Selected European Countries
Klaus Jenewein, Alison Shilela
and Len O’Connor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
3.2.3 Construction
Johannes Meyser and Ernst Uhe. . . . . . . . . . . 214
3.2.4 Agriculture
Martin Mulder. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
3.2.5 Health/Care
Ingrid Darmann, Regina Keuchel
and Florence Myrick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
3.2.6 Education/Social Pedagogy
Maria-Eleonora Karsten . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
3.2.7 Nutrition
Barbara Fegebank . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 238
3.3 VET Systems Research
Thomas Deißinger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 244
3.3.1 Comparative Research on Technical and
Vocational Education and Training (TVET)
– Methodological Considerations
Philipp Grollmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 253
3.3.2 Comparative VET Research – Methodologi-
cal Considerations, Results and Current Questions
Hubert Ertl and Dietmar Frommberger . . . . . 259
3.3.3 Historical VET Research. Case Studies
3.3.3.1 Research on Vocational Education History
in China
Qiding Yu and Zhen He . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 266
3.3.3.2 Vocational Educational Theory s Historical
Research on Vocational Education and Training
(VET)
Günter Pätzold and Manfred Wahle . . . . . . . . 269
3.3.3.3 Historical Study on the Western School
Model of TVET in Japan
Tatsuo Horiuchi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
3.3.3.4 Historical Research in Vocational Educa-
tion: A Case Study of the United States
Cecilia Maldonado and Sterling Saddler . . . . 279
3.3.4 National and International Reporting on
VET. Case Studies
3.3.4.1 National Reporting on VET – Case Study
of Australia
Philip Loveder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 284
3.3.4.2 Report on Vocational Education in China
Lin Sun . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 288
5
3.3.4.3 Germany
Heinrich Althoff and Elisabeth M. Krekel . . . . 292
3.3.4.4 VET Reporting: Case Study of the USA
Lisa Hudson and Karen Levesque. . . . . . . . . . 296
3.3.4.5 National and International Reporting on
VET. Case Study of the European Union
Friederike Behringer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
3.3.4.6 National and International Reporting on
VET – Case Study of OECD, ILO and the World
Bank
Simone Kirpal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 305
3.3.5 Development and Evaluation of VET
Courses
Thomas Deißinger and Jürgen Zabeck . . . . . . 310
3.3.6 VET Research on Pre-Vocational
Education. Case Studies
3.3.6.1 Vocational Guidance and Work Orientation
Heinz Dedering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 317
3.3.6.2 Prevocational Education: Case Study of
UK
Karen Evans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 324
3.3.6.3 Pre-Vocational Education in
the Netherlands
Jeroen Onstenk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 327
3.3.6.4 The Development and Study of
Pre-Vocational Education in Japan
Moriki Terada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 331
3.3.7 Further Education and Training Research
Rolf Arnold and Henning Pätzold . . . . . . . . . . 335
3.3.8 Vocational College Research.
Case Studies
3.3.8.1 Study of Higher Vocational Education
Research in China
Weiping Shi and Guoqing Xu . . . . . . . . . . . . . 342
3.3.8.2 Research on Vocational Colleges and
Schools
Günter Pätzold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 346
3.3.8.3 Vocational College Research: Case Studies
of the USA
Stephanie Riegg Cellini . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 354
3.4 VET Planning and Development
Jeroen Onstenk . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 359
3.4.1 Qualification and Curriculum Research
Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 364
6 Handbook of TVET Research
3.4.2 Competence and Expertise Research
Peter Röben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 371
3.4.3 Cooperation between Learning Venues and
Training Partnerships
Günter Walden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 379
3.4.4 Technical and Vocational Education and
Training Research for the Professionalisation of
Vocational Teachers
Philipp Grollmann and Waldemar Bauer . . . . 385
3.4.5 Vocational Education and Training and
Organisational Development in Companies
Gisela Dybowski and Agnes Dietzen . . . . . . . 392
3.5 Costs, Benefits, and Financing VET
Robert I. Lerman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 398
3.5.1 Costs and Benefits of In-Company
Vocational Education and Training
Günter Walden. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 403
3.5.2 National Systems of Financing TVET
Dieter Timmermann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
3.5.3 National Arrangements for Financing
Training in Companies
Andrew Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
3.5.4 The Wider Benefits of Learning
Leon Feinstein, Simone Kirpal
and Inés Arévalo Sánchez . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 424
3.5.5 The Contribution of TVET to Innovative
Practices
Klaus Ruth. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 433
3.6 Occupational Work and Competence
Development
Martin Fischer and Nicholas Boreham . . . . . . 439
3.6.1 Learning in Work Processes
– Competence Development
Peter Dehnbostel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 444
3.6.2 Work Design and Work Organization
Karlheinz Sonntag and Ralf Stegmaier . . . . . . 453
3.6.3 Organisational Learning
Michael Dick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
3.6.4 Work Process Knowledge
Martin Fischer and Nick Boreham . . . . . . . . . 466
3.6.5 Learning with Tutorial Working Systems
Matthias Becker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 475
3.6.6 Occupational Socialization
Walter R. Heinz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 481
3.6.7 The Development of Moral Judgement
Wolfgang Lempert . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 489
3.6.8 Vocational Identity
Sabine Raeder . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 496
3.6.9 Professionalisation
Harald A. Mieg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 502
3.7 Shaping Teaching and Learning in TVET
Lorna Unwin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 508
3.7.1 Curriculum Research and Development
Ulrike Buchmann and Richard Huisinga . . . . 511
3.7.2 Cross-Curricular Competencies
Katharina Maag Merki . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 517
3.7.3 Shaping and Evaluating Vocational Training
Offers
Peter Gerds . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 523
3.7.4 Shaping Learning Environments
Peter Dehnbostel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 531
3.7.5 Task-Oriented Learning
Falk Howe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 536
3.7.6 Self-Directed Learning – Conceptual
Clarifications, Theoretical Perspectives and
Modelling
Martin Lang and Günter Pätzold . . . . . . . . . . 543
3.7.7 Learning and Teaching Research
Gerald A. Straka . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 552
3.7.8 Research on Disadvantaged Groups
Arnulf Bojanowski, Peter Eckardt
and Günter Ratschinski . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 558
3.7.9 Media Research and Development
Antje Pabst and Gerhard Zimmer . . . . . . . . . . 565
3.8 Shaping Work and Technology
Peter Brödner and Paul Oehlke . . . . . . . . . . . 573
3.8.1 Work and Technology Research
Felix Rauner and Paul Oehlke . . . . . . . . . . . . 581
3.8.2 Participative Technology Development
Franz Stuber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 589
3.8.3 Participative Organisational Development
Franz J. Heeg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 593
3.8.4 Participatory Prototyping
Jürgen Friedrich . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 598
Table of Contents
3.8.5 Human-Computer Interaction
Karl-Heinz Rödiger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 605
Section 4: Case Studies of TVET Research
Philipp Grollmann and Geoff Hayward . . . . 613
4.1 Pilot Test MME: Innovation Project at the
Turning Point (BBF)
Ute Laur-Ernst . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 617
4.2 Using the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acqui-
sition to Describe and Interpret Skill Acquisition
and Clinical Judgement in Nursing Practice and
Education
Patricia Benner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 624
4.3 The Automotive Mechatronics Technician:
Steps in Research and Development towards a
European Occupation
Wilfried Kruse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 632
4.4 Production and Qualification
Fred Manske . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 636
4.5 Training and High Performance Work Sys-
tems: A Case Study in Synergy
Andy Smith . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 641
4.6 Youth, Work and Identity. Life Perspec-
tives and Interests of Young People – a Research
Project
Andreas Witzel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 647
4.7 Implementing Dual Vocational Education
in China: A Case of Transnational Innovation
Transfer through a German-Chinese Research and
Development Project
Zhao Zhiqun and Xu Han . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 656
4.8 The Assessment: Knowledge, Skills and
Competitiveness
Ewart Keep and Ken Mayhew . . . . . . . . . . . . . 660
4.9 Learning to Cook: Analysing Apprentice’s
Knowledge and Skill Construction in the Work-
place
Susan James . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 674
4.10 Transferability, Flexibility, Mobility as Tar-
gets of Vocational Education and Training – The
COST Action A11
Frank Achtenhagen and Susanne Weber . . . . . 683
7
Section 5: Research Methods
5.1 Methodological Aspects
Georg Hans Neuweg and Peter Putz . . . . . . . . 699
5.1.1 Subject-Related Research Approach:
Vocational Work and Education Processes
Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 703
5.1.2 Situated Learning in Communities
of Practice as a Research Topic
Christoph Clases and Theo Wehner . . . . . . . . 708
5.1.3 Distance and Proximity in VET Research
Lars Heinemann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 713
5.1.4 Shaping-Oriented Research and
Interdisciplinarity
Gerald A. Heidegger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 718
5.1.5 The Tacit and Implicit as a Subject
of VET Research
Georg Hans Neuweg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 725
5.1.6 On the Implementation of Basic Methods
in Vocational Training Research: (Observation,
Experimentation, Interviewing, Content Analysis)
Rainer Bremer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
5.2 Research Methods: Interview and
Observation Methods
Winfried Hacker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 738
5.2.1 Technical Interview
Manuela Niethammer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 740
5.2.2 Action-Oriented Specialised Interviews
Matthias Becker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 747
5.2.3 Task Analysis in Vocational Science
Peter Röben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 751
5.2.4 Expert Skilled Worker Workshops
Georg Spöttl . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 756
5.2.5 Knowledge Diagnosis
Winfried Hacker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 761
5.2.6 Assessing Vocational Competences
Bernd Haasler and John Erpenbeck . . . . . . . . 766
5.2.7 Situation Film
Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 774
5.2.8 Studies of Work
Jörg R. Bergmann . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 780
8 Handbook of TVET Research

5.3 Experimentation and Development

Peter Röben . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 786
5.3.1 Laboratory Experiments and
Quasi Experiments
Gerald A. Straka, Katja Meyer-Siever
and Johannes Rosendahl. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 790
5.3.2. Qualitative Experiments
Franz Stuber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 795
5.3.3 Experimental Research Designs (ERD) in
Vocational Education
Peter F. E. Sloane . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 800
5.3.4 Participative Development
Bruno Clematide . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 807
5.3.5 Interdisciplinary Development
Felix Rauner . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 813

5.4 Evaluation, Quality Development and

Assurance
Jürgen van Buer and Eugenie A. Samier . . . . 819
5.4.1 Evaluation Research
Gerald Heidegger . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 825
5.4.2 Participative Quality Assurance
Philipp Gonon . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 833
5.4.3 Output Orientation as Aspect of Quality
Assurance
Sabine Kurz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 839
5.4.4 Educational Controlling
Jürgen van Buer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 847
5.4.5 Benchmarking in Vocational Education
and Training
Susan Seeber . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 851
5.4.6 Programme Evaluation
Ludger Deitmer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 858
5.4.7 Knowledge Management
Michael Dick and Theo Wehner . . . . . . . . . . . 862

Indexes
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 873
Index of Names . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1053
Index of Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1081
T h e A uth ors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 5
Preface 9

Preface
Research on technical and vocational education and training (TVET research) is by now an internation-
ally established focus of ↑ educational research. The ↑ internationalisation of TVET research is expressed
by the annual conferences of the European research network VETNET, the research and development
programmes in the domain of vocational education conducted since the beginning of the European inte-
gration process, and the inclusion of this discipline into the international programmes of ↑ World Bank,
↑ OECD, ↑ ILO and ↑ UNESCO to promote the development of TVET systems, especially in ↑ developing
countries. Even though vocational education and training is important for the global economy because it
serves the qualification of skilled workers for the intermediary sector of the employment system, TVET
research is still largely shaped by national traditions of vocational education.
The insight that vocational education cannot escape the dynamics of internationalised technological and
economic development and that the establishment of international ↑ labour markets depends also on the
cross-border ↑ mobility of employees has led to a growing interest in TVET research. The editors of the
present handbook wish to make a contribution to support this development process and to promote the
discourse within the international community scientific community of TVET researchers. This project
was facilitated by the fact that the handbook had been published in German already in 2005. Of course
the internationalisation of the handbook necessitated a thorough revision of many chapters as well as the
inclusion of additional chapters and sections. The question whether the study and development of voca-
tional education can be considered a branch of educational research in its own right was answered in the
affirmative by the authors in the most convincing way. Accordingly one of the sections is exclusively de-
voted to ↑ research methods.
TVET research builds on the contributions of a number of different ↑ research traditions and disciplines.
These range from ↑ qualification research in industrial sociology to the didactics of the various ↑ voca-
tional disciplines. The core of TVET research has developed into an original and independent ↑ research
field that cannot be regarded as belonging to any other research tradition. Admittedly there are many
commonalities with pedagogy, labour studies, sociology, economics and engineering in terms of ↑ re-
search questions, methods and results. Basic research with a view to the further development of TVET
systems, occupations and occupational domains, and to the design and evaluation of vocational training
processes, however, belong exclusively to the core of TVET research.
The challenges for TVET research have increased with the acceleration of technological and economic
change and the readjustment of the relationship of internationalisation and ↑ localisation in the qualifi-
cation of employees. The latter can be viewed as the decisive factor for innovation and prosperity in the
international competition for quality. With regard to the manifold tasks of TVET research, including the
reflection of the foundations of vocational education, the shaping of vocational education and training in
↑ pilot projects or the monitoring of international ↑ TVET cooperation, this handbook aspires to be more
than just a reference book to provide guidance and lexical knowledge on TVET research. The handbook
is also intended as a tool that makes it possible to distinguish TVET research with all its domains in the
competition with other research disciplines.
This handbook is part of a library of handbooks on vocational education and training to enable the in-
ternational TVET community to fulfil their tasks and organise their work more and more in a profes-
sional way.
Parallel with the publication of this handbook, Rupert Maclean and David Wilson are publishing the In-
ternational Handbook of Education for the Changing World of Work (MACLEAN / WILSON / CHINIEN 2008).
This handbook consists of six volumes and stands out for an extensive portrayal of TVET taking into
consideration all its abundant aspects and regional or sector related peculiarities.
TVET research can bridge the gaps between TVET practice, ↑ TVET policy and educational research.
This means that innovations in vocational education and training can increasingly draw on the resourc-
es of TVET research.
10 Handbook of TVET Research

The present handbook with its 142 chapters is the collective work of 128 authors. Above all it is them to
whom the editors wish to convey their gratitude. The handbook is the result of an excellent cooperation
of one and a half years, to which all authors made valuable contributions not only with their texts, but
also with their suggestions and their readiness to adhere to the very strict time-schedule. Special thanks
are due to the section editors, who made an important contribution to the quality of the handbook by their
conceptual suggestions and by the editorial supervision of the chapters in their sections with regard to
style and content. With their help it was ultimately possible to present the first international Handbook
of TVET Research in which the ↑ research tradition related to vocational education and training is com-
prehensively documented with its ↑ research problems, methods and results.
We are well aware that this is no more than one more step towards the ↑ internationalisation of TVET re-
search, albeit a big one. TVET research now has a reference point that allows for a more systematic dif-
ferentiation and deepening of the international scientific discourse.
The organisation of the project was done by Brigitte Schweckendieck and Daniela Marschall. In addi-
tion to that, Ms Schweckendieck edited the voluminous indexes and created the printing template for
the work. Anne Kirkham and Wolfgang Wittig collaborated in the editorial revision of the chapters. We
also wish to thank the publisher, Springer International, for the attractive realisation of the handbook.
Without the support of the Institute Technology and Education of the University of Bremen and the
↑ UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre in Bonn this project could not have been realised.
We, the editors, are responsible for the gaps that remain and last not least for the shortcomings of the
handbook. We therefore wish to close with the invitation to the users of this handbook to send their cri-
tique and suggestions for improvements to us so that they can be considered in a future edition.

Bremen and Bonn, October 2008

Felix Rauner Rupert Maclean
 Introduction

Vocational Education and Training Research

– an Introduction
Felix Rauner and Rupert Maclean
Introduction
Vocational Education and Training
Research – an Introduction
Felix Rauner and Rupert Maclean
It was with the establishment of national and in-
ternational research institutions at the latest that
(technical and) vocational education and ↑ train-
ing research became a central area of ↑ education-
al research. The major steps in this regard were
the establishment of the German Federal Institute
for Vocational Education and Training Research
(BBF) (1970), which was subsequently named Fed-
eral Institute for Vocational Education and Train-
ing (BIBB), the French Centre des études et des re-
cherches sur les qualifications (Céreq) (1970), the
All Union Institute for Technical and Vocational
Education of the USSR in Leningrad (1963) and
the establishment of the Center for Research and
Leadership in Vocational and Technical Education
(↑ NCRVE) (1965) in the ↑ United States, which
was later (1977) promoted to the status of a Na-
tional Research Center. On the international level
one must above all mention the ↑ UNESCO Inter-
national Center for Technical and Vocational Edu-
cation and Training (UNESCO-UNEVOC) (2000)
and the European Centre for the Development of
Vocational Training (↑ CEDEFOP) (1975). The na-
tional and international interest in vocational ed-
ucation and training research is a consequence of
the direct connection of vocational education not
only with education policy, but also with econom-
ic and ↑ labour market policy.
Vocational education is considered a key factor for
improving or maintaining the competitiveness of
enterprises and national economies. For instance,
the Modernization Forum in the United States em-
phasises in its study “Skills for Industrial Modern-
ization” (1993):
“As the pace of economic and technological trade accel-
erates, the abilities of workers and enterprises to learn
and adapt becomes a core element in the global com-
petition among corporations and national economies”
(MODERNIZATION-FORUM 1993, 4).
Public vocational education and training research
is therefore as a rule closely linked to the mission
of ↑ VET planning and embedded into the VET di-
alogue between industry associations, trade un-
ions and the governmental departments responsi-
13
ble for vocational education and training (→ 2.0).
The differences regarding the role of the scientif-
ic VET discourse and its proximity to the overall
national system of educational institutions depend
on the extent to which vocational education is inte-
grated into the educational systems in question.
In countries where a relatively broad university
education of ↑ vocational schoolteachers is man-
datory, the corresponding pedagogical study pro-
grammes, which are differentiated into ↑ vocation-
al disciplines, constitute a research infrastructure
that allows for a professional design of vocational
education, learning and teaching processes. The
↑ internationalisation of technological and eco-
nomic development and the emergence of transna-
tional (skilled) labour markets – e. g. in the Eu-
ropean Union – have intensified the convergence
in vocational education (cf. GROLLMANN / SPÖTTL /
RAUNER 2006) and given considerable impulses to
the internationalisation of TVET research. The es-
tablishment of the United TVET Network on In-
novation and Professional Development (UNIP) is
a manifestation of this development.
The variety of ↑ research questions and ↑ develop-
ment tasks at the levels of vocational education
and training systems (macro level), the organisa-
tion and design of vocational training programmes
and institutions (meso level) and the analysis and
shaping of education and learning processes (mi-
cro level) leads to the integration of different sci-
entific disciplines and ↑ research traditions. TVET
research therefore can be organised only in an
↑ interdisciplinary way, notably through the ↑ par-
ticipation of disciplines like psychology, industri-
al sociology, sociology of work, sociology of edu-
cation, organisation theory, natural sciences, en-
gineering, pedagogy and economics. Didactical
and domain-specific competences are especially
brought in by vocational pedagogues as the latter
normally have a qualification in a vocational dis-
cipline and its didactics (→ 3.2).
Although the call for ↑ interdisciplinarity in the
study of complex ↑ research fields and topics is re-
peatedly stressed from a scientific and political
perspective, the practical realisation of ↑ interdis-
ciplinarity turns out to be difficult. However, it is
constitutive for TVET research to treat its research
subject as an original one and to provide a sub-
14
ject-adequate foundation of the ↑ research meth-
ods (→ 5.1). The founders of TVET research al-
ready formulated this claim in their call for the de-
velopment of a ↑ methodology for TVET research.
For instance, the first ↑ research programme of the
BBF included the
“development of methodological and terminological in-
struments for the activities of the instruments, taking
into consideration the interdisciplinary relationships”
(BBF 1971b, 6 [translated from German]).
Since the beginning of the 1970s the practice of
TVET research has taken shape and increasingly
been organised as an international scientific com-
munity. The European research network Voca-
tional Education and ↑ Training Research Network
(VETNET), which was established in 1997, as
well as the international network of ↑ UNESCO-
UNEVOC centres are an expression of this ↑ de-
velopment. However, the realisation of the claim to
clarify the methodological foundations of TVET
research fell short of the of the objectives set by
the founders of the state institutes for TVET re-
search. The present handbook wishes, among oth-
er things, to make a contribution to filling this gap
(→ 5; → 5.1).
The roots of the internationally established TVET
research date back to the Swedish reform pedago-
gy at the end of the 19th century, which succeed-
ed in presenting the topic “education for the world
of work” through its “pedagogical Slöj” at the five
successive world fairs between 1876 and 1904.
The achievements of these vocational pedagogical
traditions were even awarded a gold medal at the
world fair in Paris (REINCKE 1995, 7). An interna-
tional community of vocational pedagogues from
the Scandinavian countries, the ↑ United States,
Russia and Europe treated this pedagogy at the
interface between school and the world of work
not only as a topic of educational practice, but in-
troduced it also into the education of teachers and
thus made it a topic of scientific discourse (HOD-
SON 1901; LARSSON 1899). With regard to the devel-
opment of TVET research in Germany Lipsmei-
er emphasises the scientification of the reflection,
analysis and implementation of vocational educa-
tion in the context of the activities of the German
Committee for Technical Schooling (Deutscher
Ausschuss für technisches Schulwesen, DAT-
SCH) established in 1908 and the German Insti-
Handbook of TVET Research
tute for Technical Work Instruction (Deutsches
Institut für Technische Arbeitsschulung, DIN-
TA) founded by large-scale industry (LIPSMEIER
2005, 22). Already around the year 1900 an in-
ternationally comparative branch of ↑ education-
al research emerged, in which vocational peda-
gogues also participated. The centre of this com-
parative research was the “International Institute
for Teacher Colleges” at Columbia University in
New York where pedagogues like Dewey, Kandel,
Monroe and Kerschensteiner met (LAUTERBACH
2003b, 220 ff.).
The works of David Snedden in the early 20th
century on the development of ↑ vocational cur-
ricula had a far-reaching impact. His concept of
“Real Vocational Education” laid the foundations
of VET didactical research in the ↑ USA (cf. also
DROST 1967; SNEDDEN 1912; K LIEBARD 1999). This
was accompanied by a fundamental debate on the
function of vocational education, which continues
to shape the vocational pedagogical discussion and
TVET research to this day. The reduction of voca-
tional education to the dimension of qualification
according to the demands of the employment sys-
tem was expressed by the curriculum approach by
Bobbitt (1918). This approach viewed vocation-
al education for the industrial development in the
USA as a process that had to be organised accord-
ing to the rules of scientific management as for-
mulated especially by Taylor (cf. TAYLOR 1911). In
contrast to this, John Dewey represented a theory
of ↑ vocational pedagogy that situated vocational
education in the context of democratic education
(DEWEY 1916b).
It was already at the beginning of the 20th cen-
tury that tasks like the development of ↑ occupa-
tional profiles, the definition of ↑ specific domains
and skills for skilled workers and the development
of procedures to measure a candidate’s suitability
for a specific vocational training course were cov-
ered by TVET research. This feature links TVET
research to pedagogy as an action-guiding disci-
pline as well as to labour studies as a discipline
that aims at the analysis and shaping of work (EM-
ERY 1959; H ACKMAN / OLDHAM 1976; ULICH 1994).
In TVET research the development of occupations
and occupational profiles, of vocational curricu-
la and training media as well as training methods
Introduction
are among the central research and development
fields. ↑ Curriculum research and ↑ media research
are therefore organised as a combination of ana-
lytic and developmental research.
TVET research is distinguished from ↑ education-
al research especially by the contents and objec-
tives of vocational education as they developed
historically along with the occupation-based or-
ganisation of work. This includes the develop-
ment of occupations and domains, the change of
professional work and the analysis and design
of vocational education, qualification and learn-
ing processes. The vocational domains and their
changes therefore become a reference point for the
foundation of contents and objectives of vocation-
al education, which also entails the allocation of
entitlements for the employment system. Whereas
the Abitur certifies the qualification for university
studies, the conferment of entitlements at the end
of vocational training often refers to quite specif-
ic competences that enable the candidate to fulfil
professional tasks. Only the successful examina-
tion as a pilot leads to the licence to fly an aircraft.
If the trained pilot cannot demonstrate in the final
examination that he can transform the information
displayed by the artificial horizon into the correct
and situatively adequate operation of the aircraft
in terms of elevators, yaw rudder and speed, he
will be denied access to the ↑ profession of a pi-
lot. This is a particularity of all forms of vocation-
al education, which aims at the acquisition of pro-
fessional competence for the exercise of specific
occupations. With regard to the scientific study of
vocational learning this situation leads to particu-
lar challenges, e. g. concerning the ↑ decoding of
the knowledge and skills incorporated in the prac-
tice of professional work or the assessment and
evaluation of professional competences.
The term “vocational education” denotes the ap-
propriation of the entire range of skills that are
acquired within and for the employment sys-
tem. Qualification, competence and education are
therefore key categories that are presented in the
different chapters of this handbook. This means
that the relationships between socialisation and
education, general and vocational education as
well as ↑ vocational guidance and initial and con-
tinuing training are also treated as topics of their
15
own. It is for purely practical reasons that in the
present handbook TVET research is confined, fol-
lowing the ↑ legislation on vocational education
and training, to societal work in the employment
system to the extent that the relevant training does
not take place in higher education.
Unlike the system of general education, vocational
education and training is characterised by the cru-
cial importance of learning in the ↑ work process
(→ 3.6) as a dimension of intentional and informal
competence development.
TVET research also differs from (general) edu-
cational research because its focus is on the vo-
cational learning of adults, which means that the
theories of learning, cognition and development
that are important for the analysis and design of
education and socialisation processes of children
are only marginally relevant for TVET research.
What is important instead are development theo-
ries that can particularly be applied to the learn-
ing of adults (cf. HAVIGHURST 1972; ERIKSON 1966;
DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1987; LAVE / WENGER 1991).
Another particularity of vocational education is the
fact that countries with comparable levels of eco-
nomic development brought about highly differ-
ent systems of vocational education and training.
Vocational education is to a large extent shaped
by the cultural particulars of the nation-states.
Highly developed TVET systems with long-stand-
ing traditions, e. g. in the European countries, are
competing under the conditions of economic and
technological ↑ internationalisation with industri-
al cultures where occupational work and the re-
lated type of education have only little relevance.
This applies e. g. to ↑ Japan (GEORG / SATTEL 1992),
where accordingly no advanced TVET research
has emerged. The situation is completely differ-
ent in the ↑ United States, where there is a greater
openness in higher education towards real life and
practical contents. This has led to the establish-
ment of vocational programmes at universities.
Nurses, whose education e. g. in Germany takes
place at technical colleges, study subjects like
“nursing” in long-established faculties at Amer-
ican universities. As a consequence of a distinct
tradition of ↑ vocational study programmes the
↑ vocational disciplines and ↑ research traditions
in the domains of the personal service sector de-
16
veloped earlier in the United States than in coun-
tries with a clear demarcation of vocational and
higher education (vocational guidance; ↑ vocation-
al preparation).
Similar differences in the international context
are caused by the different modes of the transition
from school to work with regard to the first as well
as the second threshold (STERN / WAGNER 1999).
The investigation of transition problems at the
first threshold of the ↑ school-to-work transition
and the ↑ performance of literacy studies on the
basic competences of reading and writing as well
as on elementary skills in mathematics and natural
sciences have considerably grown in importance.
This aspect will be treated in the topics maturity
for training, ↑ vocational preparation and ↑ voca-
tional guidance.
TVET Research – an Interdisciplinary
Research Field
There is a particular affinity with regard to content
and methodology between TVET research and la-
bour studies. The difference lies in the ↑ domain-
specific diversification of TVET research. Whilst
labour studies, e. g. in the analysis and shaping of
skilled work, is above all interested in the aspects
of workload, health protection and work safety,
TVET research is primarily focusing on the con-
tents of work and training and also on the further
development of ↑ occupational profiles and ↑ vo-
cational curricula. The affinities and commonali-
ties as well as the differences between the two ↑ re-
search traditions have been pointed out in mani-
fold ways (→ 3.8.1).
Research in labour studies gave important impuls-
es for the field of “work and technology” research.
This term points at a programme of technology
and work policy that emerged from the policy of
work safety and “humanisation of work” (→ 3.8.1).
The “humanisation of work” programme includes
the aspects of qualification along the ↑ work proc-
ess as well as the analysis and shaping of work-
places, work contents and work processes with
regard to qualification (→ 3.8.1). The piloting of
qualification-adequate work processes is a distin-
guished task of the “humanisation of work” and
afterwards of “work and technology” research. In
the early 1980s the critique of the reactive practice
Handbook of TVET Research
of estimating and mitigating risks that technologi-
cal innovations (might) entail for the world of work
led to the initiative towards a “work and technol-
ogy” research to emphasise the aspect of shaping
(RAUNER 1988a). The technological and econom-
ic determinism prevalent at that time in industri-
al sociology, sociology of work and ↑ qualification
research was critically reflected upon (LUTZ 1988).
Donald MacKenzie and Judy Wajcman termed
technological determinism “the single most influ-
ential theory of the relationship between technol-
ogy and society” (MACK ENZIE / WAJCMAN 1985, 4).
For TVET research, which in Germany partici-
pated in the promotion of a “work and technolo-
gy” research and development programme via the
BIBB, this entailed the consequence of taking the
fundamental shift of perspective to the “shaping”
paradigm into consideration in the course of its re-
search and development activities. Since then vo-
cational education and qualification is no longer
interpreted as a mere dependent variable result-
ing from the demands of technological and eco-
nomic change – as qualification requirement – but
as a relatively independent variable in the inter-
play of technological innovation, the change of
work contents and forms as well as the qualifica-
tion of workers (→ 3.8.1). The analysis of the in-
terrelationship between work, technology and ed-
ucation at the levels of learning and training proc-
esses, training programmes and educational sys-
tems led to the rejection of a type of TVET re-
search that interpreted vocational education, fol-
lowing the tradition of technological and econom-
ic determinism, as adaptation to the changes in the
world of work.
This leads to a variety of linkages between sci-
entific disciplines and research traditions that are
occupied with these interrelationships. If one puts
↑ vocational pedagogy and ↑ vocational disciplines
(→ 3.2) in the centre of TVET research one can
distinguish five ↑ interdisciplinary fields.
Occupation research as a central field of TVET
research requires the cooperation of experts from
vocational pedagogy, vocational disciplines and
industrial sociology. The exclusive allocation of
occupation research to only one of these disci-
plines would be accompanied by a narrowing of
↑ research questions. The same is true of the close
Introduction
cooperation between occupation research and ↑ la-
bour market research. The occupational form of
work is perceived under this perspective as an as-
pect of the employment system and the markets
for skilled labour (KURTZ 2005; → 3.1.1).
When the analysis and shaping of professional
↑ work processes are also viewed under the aspects
of occupational socialisation (→ 3.6.6), develop-
ment of ↑ professional identity (→ 3.6.8; → 3.6.9),
professional competence development (→ 3.5.1;
→ 3.6.7) and VET didactics (→ 3.6), it becomes
clear that occupation research is a central topic of
TVET research.
Occupation research and ↑ qualification research
(→ 3.4.1) are closely linked fields of TVET re-
search since the development of occupations is
associated with the foundation and description
of ↑ occupational profiles and their characteris-
tic ↑ work tasks and qualification requirements,
which have to be studied in this context. Qualifica-
tion research, which is diversified according to oc-
cupations and occupational domains, requires the
cooperation of the relevant ↑ vocational disciplines
(→ 3.2). The latter typically build on the methods
of curriculum and expertise research.
↑ Curriculum research is in turn closely connect-
ed to qualification research. The core question of
curriculum research is the legitimation of educa-
tional contents and objectives in vocational edu-
cation as well as the systematisation of these con-
tents and objectives in ↑ vocational curricula and
training programmes. To this day subject-related
theories and concepts derived from developmen-
tal theory compete with such theories and devel-
opment concepts that justify training contents by
making reference to the objective features of sci-
entific knowledge or to actual qualification re-
quirements (→ 3.7.1). A particularity of curricu-
lum research and development in vocational ed-
ucation and training is the systematisation of pro-
fessional competence development as learning in
the work process.
The fact that skilled work is differentiated into oc-
cupations and the associated variety of technical
and vocational education and training renders the
establishment of a learning and teaching research
organised according to occupations and domains
quite difficult. Unlike general ↑ educational re-
17
search, which is in this regard above all concerned
with ↑ teaching and learning processes in reading,
mathematics and elementary natural sciences as
a part of ↑ literacy research, TVET research has
to distinguish between hundreds of different oc-
cupations. The existing research shows that this
puts particularly high demands on ↑ interdiscipli-
narity and ↑ research cooperation. The character-
istic learning in the work process, the organisation
and shaping of learning-supportive work environ-
ments up to the design of the human-machine in-
teraction also require the integration of expertise
from labour studies and engineering.
Research Methods
It is hardly surprising that a research that is ori-
ented towards ↑ interdisciplinarity is drawing, via
the agents in the scientific process, on the meth-
odology of various disciplines. The researchers
use their specific methods according to their dis-
ciplinary background and constitute their research
subject as a topic of sociology, labour studies, eco-
nomics, engineering or natural sciences. Qualifi-
cation research in the social sciences is an exam-
ple for this (→ 3.1.5; → 4.5). In ↑ domain-specific
qualification and competence research the crucial
point is to view the social and cultural rules that
shape professional agency together with objective
rules, the validity of which, e. g. in skilled work in
technical and mechanical trades, can be explained
only on the basis of natural sciences and technol-
ogy. The insight that professional agency and pro-
fessional competence are characterised by the
mastery of social and objective rules (cf. RÖBEN
2004a; MÜLLER 1978; HERITAGE 1984, 295 ff.) has
far-reaching consequences for the methodological
orientation of TVET research:
“The mastery of the interplay of objective and social
rules in the competence for professional agency neces-
sitates a transdisciplinary research approach” (RÖBEN
2004a, 20 [translated from German]).
To this day TVET research is characterised, be-
sides the recourse to the methods of empirical so-
cial research, by a pluralism of methods that build
on everyday situations and which are applied
above all according to criteria of practical plausi-
bility. This practice is more common in the most
heterogeneous ↑ research traditions than usually
18
assumed, for an explicit consideration of the prac-
tical methods only rarely takes place. An excep-
tion to this rule is Gerhard Kleining. Besides the
methods of natural and cultural sciences or ↑ hu-
manities he emphasised the methods of master-
ing everyday life as the ones “that so far have en-
abled the survival of mankind” (K LEINING 1995c,
12 [translated from German]). He summarises his
methodological reflections on the relationship of
everyday methods and scientific methods in the
thesis:
“Everyday methods are the basis of scientific meth-
ods. Qualitative and quantitative methods are everyday
methods abstracted in different ways” (K LEINING 1995c,
14 [translated from German]).
If this thesis is accepted it is a logical step to
present, after a period of diversification in TVET
research and on the basis of a methodological de-
bate and development in the past 15 years, a hand-
book in which TVET research is documented as a
combination of ↑ research fields with mutual ref-
erences among each other and with its variety of
concepts, strategies and methods that are increas-
ingly developed and adapted with a view to the re-
search topics.
The challenges for TVET research have increased
with the acceleration of technological and eco-
nomic change. Another challenge is the shaping of
the relationship between ↑ internationalisation and
↑ localisation in the qualification of workers, which
is the crucial factor for innovation and prosperity
in the international quality competition. With re-
gard to the highly diverse tasks of TVET research
between the orientation towards the foundations
of vocational education, the shaping of the latter
in ↑ pilot projects or the monitoring of internation-
al ↑ TVET cooperation, this handbook aims to be
more than just a reference work for guidance and
lexical knowledge on TVET research. The hand-
book is also intended as a tool that makes it possi-
ble to distinguish TVET research with all its do-
mains in the competition with other research dis-
ciplines.
Structure of the Handbook
The present handbook follows the structure of the
German edition. The organisation of the chapters
is based on the structure of TVET research as de-
Handbook of TVET Research
veloped there. It had to be taken into considera-
tion that some topics that refer to the organisa-
tion and shaping of national TVET traditions can-
not always be presented by means of comprehen-
sive articles. In these cases we use the form of na-
tional case studies. For instance, the topic of ↑ vo-
cational guidance is presented by means of case
studies from Germany, ↑ Japan, the Netherlands
and the United Kingdom. The agreement with the
publisher to take care of the internationalisation
of the German edition could largely be fulfilled
by means of the integration of additional chapters
and the cooperation with additional authors. Nev-
ertheless the handbook remains a work in which
the practice of TVET research as it has emerged
in Germany on the basis of an innovative system
of vocational training and the education of TVET
teachers at the master’s level plays an important
part also for the English version.
The first sections of the handbook present the gen-
esis of TVET research as well as overviews of its
↑ research questions concerning ↑ vocational ped-
agogy and the various ↑ vocational disciplines.
Moreover, TVET research is presented as a field
of international and comparative research.
Compared to research on general education, TVET
research is more intensively embedded in tensions
that emerge from the interests of the stakeholders
in vocational education as well as from the inter-
action between ↑ TVET policy, ↑ TVET planning
and TVET practice. The second section of the
handbook therefore features chapters that particu-
larly deal with the societal framework conditions
in the national and international context. Unlike
general and higher education, vocational educa-
tion regards education also as a dimension of cor-
porate ↑ organisational development and thus as a
human resource. In politics the economic and la-
bour market dimensions of vocational education
are no less important than the dimension of ↑ ed-
ucational policy. The research questions resulting
from this situation are treated in the chapters of
the second section.
A focal point of the handbook is constituted by the
section on fields of TVET research with its eight
sub-sections. The reception of the handbook in
practice will show whether there is a need for fur-
ther differentiation and supplementation. Various
Introduction
suggestions of the co-authors led to additions and
improvements already in this first edition.
For example, an additional chapter 3.5 on “Cost,
Benefit and ↑ Financing of VET” was included.
This chapter features contributions on TVET eco-
nomics. These range from the presentation and
discussion of methods for the measurement of
costs and benefits of vocational education to is-
sues of the ↑ wider benefits of learning.
The central research and ↑ development task of
↑ curriculum development is presented in six chap-
ters, which describe the ↑ research field from occu-
pation research, embedded into ↑ labour market re-
search, to specific forms of the study of occupa-
tions in sociology, pedagogy and the ↑ vocational
disciplines.
Research in the vocational disciplines is of crucial
importance in TVET research, for it is here that
the contents and forms of vocational education are
scrutinised on the basis of concrete occupations
and occupational domains. The vocational disci-
plines, which are differentiated according to do-
mains, face the difficulty that neither occupations
nor occupational domains are categorised accord-
ing to a generally accepted international classifi-
cation system (→ 2.3). It is true that in the interna-
tional practice of vocational education between six
and 15 vocational ↑ subject areas like health care,
construction industry, agriculture, manufactur-
ing or business administration have emerged. But
the different traditions of the occupation-based or-
ganisation of work and the related vocational ed-
ucation lead to considerable limitations concern-
ing the international comparability of research
findings in this field. This applies also to the cor-
responding vocational disciplines. In the present
handbook eight areas of research in the vocational
disciplines are treated, which does not fully cover
the range of vocational disciplines. For pragmatic
considerations the subjects agriculture, ↑ nutrition
and housekeeping were put together. This is justi-
fied to some extent by the structure of the value-
added chain.
The research field ↑ TVET planning and develop-
ment represents an area that also contributed to the
decision to recognise TVET research in the legis-
lation on vocational education and to establish it in
the form of state institutes. The topics considered
19
in this section directly relate to TVET planning
and to qualification and curriculum research. Oth-
er topics rather point to the corresponding basic
research like competence and expertise research.
The research field VET didactics includes chap-
ters that discuss questions of general VET didac-
tics. The ↑ domain-specific issues of didactical re-
search are assigned to research in the vocational
disciplines (→ 3.2).
The research field work and technology views
work, technology and education as mutually
linked cornerstones of a shaping-oriented research
field that has its origins in the “humanisation of
work” research. The topics treated here deal with
the different forms of workers’ ↑ participation in
the processes of shaping the world of work. This
includes the question of the qualification for par-
ticipation and co-shaping. In this research field
↑ interdisciplinary references to research in labour
studies become visible in particular.
Inspired by the Handbook of Qualitative Social
Research (FLICK 1995a) and the review of the pro-
posal for the present book a particular section
with research examples was included, which al-
lows for an illustration of TVET research and its
genesis. The selection of these chapters was less
based on representativity, but rather on original-
ity and innovations in TVET research. Vocational
education and ↑ training research is in a situation
in which the research projects that may have an
undisputed model character have yet to be identi-
fied. By means of the exemplary research projects
the breadth and variety of TVET research and its
epistemic and innovative potential for the scien-
tific process as well as for educational practice
will be documented. The chapters also represent
quite different methodological approaches. In all
of them the genesis, the epistemic interest and in
some cases also the innovative interest are dis-
cussed. The originality of the research concepts is
emphasised so that the scientific and practical rel-
evance of the selected examples for the develop-
ment of TVET research becomes clear.
In the final section the methods of TVET research
are reflected. In addition methods are present-
ed that have a particular affinity to the topics of
TVET research. The reason for limiting this sec-
tion to a narrow scope of research and develop-
20 Handbook of TVET Research

ment methods is in order to explain and illustrate

the relationship between research subjects and
methods by means of selected examples. Above all
the chapters in this section will stimulate a more
detailed reflection of the problems of the choice of
methods and their adaptation to the research sub-
ject, and they will encourage the development and
testing of new methods of TVET research. Vari-
ous ↑ research methods that have no specific con-
nection with TVET research are treated in a mul-
titude of publications, especially from the fields of
expertise and competence research, which were
not included in this handbook
 Section 1
Genesis of TVET Research
Uwe Lauterbach
Genesis of TVET Research
1.0 Introduction: Genesis of
TVET Research
Uwe Lauterbach
1.0.1 The Research Field of TVET
Research
An overview of the worldwide historical develop-
ment of technical and vocational education and
↑ training research (TVET research) is difficult
to write. The definition of the ↑ research field of
TVET research has always been determined by na-
tional definitions and structures, which in turn are
shaped by cultural traditions. A course of study that
counts as vocational education in one country may
be a part of higher education in another, and it may
be entirely absent in a third country because the
professional domains and hierarchies are organ-
ised differently. Suffice it to mention the example
of technicians, whose education is not only struc-
tured differently, but also takes place in different
parts of the educational system in England (col-
lege, university), Germany (higher secondary level
or non-university ↑ tertiary level), ↑ France (high-
er secondary level, lycée d’enseignement général
et/ou technologique) and the ↑ USA (↑ community
college).
An examination of the classification system ISCED
(International Standard ↑ Classification of Edu-
cation) for educational programmes (see the fol-
lowing section), which is used by the ↑ UNESCO
and the ↑ OECD for reporting on national educa-
tion systems, makes this differentiation easily vis-
ible (OECD 1999a; 2004c, UNESCO 2007). In or-
der to allow for an overview of national develop-
ments and to display worldwide trends the nation-
al fields of TVET in 176 states are listed and com-
pared in the ↑ UNESCO ↑ statistics (ELLIS 2004).
This task reveals the variety and systemic differ-
entiation of TVET already by the classification be-
tween ISCED 2 and 3 (lower and higher second-
ary level), ISCED 4 (post secondary non-tertiary)
and ISCED 5b (higher education). These educa-
tional tracks are highly different in their objectives
and most likely are not present in any one coun-
try at once. Whilst ISCED 2 is focusing on liter-
acy and basic vocational training and concerns
23
above all children and youth, study programmes
at the ISCED 5b level, which are mostly taken up
by adults as ↑ continuing education, presuppose a
very good secondary education and practical ex-
perience at a complex level. This intricate varie-
ty of national TVET systems entails consequences
for TVET research, for it has to be oriented first to-
wards the national situation and thus a determined
research field with associated ↑ research questions.
Whereas the structural differentiations between
countries are perceived in most cases, those de-
marcations of the research field that are related
to cultural contexts are more difficult for TVET
research between single national systems. It is
enough to mention the semantic differences of the
term TVET in the various languages. In the Ger-
man-speaking area berufliche Bildung is used as a
comprehensive term and denotes everything that
relates, regardless of the ↑ learning venue, to the
imparting (including informal self-learning) of
skills and knowledge directed towards the exercise
of a professional activity that is mostly defined by a
recognised occupation. In the Anglo-Saxon cultur-
al sphere, on the other hand, a more subtle differ-
entiation takes place. This refers to the occupation,
which may be classified, according to education-
al level (e. g. on-the-job training, secondary edu-
cation, higher education) or social standing as oc-
cupation, ↑ vocation or ↑ profession. How difficult
the definition of the research field can be already in
one and the same language is shown by the differ-
ent terminologies used by the UNESCO (technical
and vocational education and training, TVET) and
the EU (vocational education and training, VET).
If these terms are translated back into other lan-
guages, problems of delimitation may be the con-
sequence. This is, for instance, the case in France
where there is a distinction between formation
professionnelle and formation technique. Besides,
this distinction of technical and vocational edu-
cation also applies to the English-speaking coun-
tries.
In the globalised world of today the national
TVET systems are directly influenced by transna-
tional developments. This is why the demand for
international research and for the exchange of na-
tional research findings is increasing. How did the
↑ UNESCO as the ↑ UN’s educational organisa-
24
tion with its worldwide activities respond to this
challenge? At the 1974 General Conference of the
↑ UNESCO the field of political activities was de-
scribed as follows: (a) an integral part of general
education; (b) a means of preparation for an ↑ oc-
cupational field; (c) an aspect of ↑ continuing edu-
cation (LEHMANN 1988, 55). The ideological root
of this definition was the conviction that vocation-
al education is one way among many others to pre-
pare for professional work. In comparison to gen-
eral education, TVET was assigned less relevance.
Thus the ↑ research field was narrowly defined. In
the meantime this position has undergone a pro-
found change.
“These statements represent a broadening of TVET
from the narrow task of providing training for indus-
try- and occupation-specific skills to the broader task
of workforce development and ↑ lifelong learning for
sustainable development and citizenship” (UNESCO-
UNEVOC/BMBF 2004, 4).
The field of TVET is not only broadened and sit-
uated in the social and economic contexts, but at
the same time a reform of national TVET systems
in the light of the new conception and challenges
is called for.
“[T]here is an urgent need to renew TVET. This should
be the top priority for every country … This is a task
that can only be accomplished if a country can succeed
in articulating TVET with its system of education within
a framework of an overall sustainable development strat-
egy” (UNESCO-UNEVOC/BMBF 2004, 4).
This broad definition of TVET and its future tasks,
which are specified in detail in the results of the
Second International Congress on Technical and
Vocational Education (Seoul, Korea, 1999), out-
lines today’s worldwide research field of TVET.
1.0.2 International Standard Classification
of Education (ISCED 1997b)
The well-known fact that the national systems of
education and training are very different prompt-
ed researchers from universities and research in-
stitutes in the 1950s to initiate a discussion on the
standards that have to be applied in the interna-
tional comparison of educational systems. Their
aim was the further conceptual and methodolog-
ical development of international comparison in
order to generate internationally comparable da-
ta and results (ROBINSOHN 1992, 7 ff.). As a con-
Handbook of TVET Research
sequence of these stimuli the ISCED classification
was developed as a standardised description of na-
tional educational programmes (PORRAS-ZÚÑIGA
1994, 959 f.). The ISCED system was first used in
the 1970s for the compilation of worldwide ↑ statis-
tics on education. In 1975 it was approved at the In-
ternational Conference on Education in Geneva, a
regular conference of national governments within
the framework of the International Bureau of Edu-
cation (IBE) (http://www.ibe.unesco.org/), and at
the 1978 conference in Paris it was adapted with a
view to the standardisation of pedagogical statis-
tics. Further adaptations were necessary over time,
above all for the increasing variety of education-
al opportunities. The current ISCED classification
was approved by the UNESCO in 1997.
In order to allow for international comparability
of databases and classification systems within the
INES (Indicators of Education Systems) frame-
work (http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/international/
INES/), today the UNESCO, EUROSTAT for the
European Union (for the ISCED classification of
European qualifications and degrees see Eurydice
2004) and the ↑ OECD cooperate under the coordi-
nation of the OECD. The ISCED-97 system, which
was published in 1997 by the UNESCO department
of educational statistics, has been adapted and up-
dated in the meantime by the OECD. Under the ti-
tle Classifying Educational Programmes: Manual
for ISCED-97 – Implementation in OECD-Coun-
tries it was published in several updated editions
(OECD 2004c;). The OECD publishes detailed
manuals for the classification of national educa-
tional degrees (OECD 2004c). These overviews
allow for the internationally comparable catego-
risation of national educational programmes. For
the industrialised countries that are members of
the OECD, this educational reporting with indica-
tors (Education at a Glance) takes place in great
detail.
The following description summarises the clas-
sification system ISCED 1997. The description is
based on the original document of the UNESCO:
International Standard ↑ Classification of Educa-
tion ISCED 1997 (UNESCO 1997b).
Genesis of TVET Research
Pre-Primary Education (ISCED Level 0)
Level 0 comprises the age levels from 3–5 to 5–
7 years. This elementary education includes all
forms of organised and permanently institutional-
ised activities to support the willingness to learn
and the emotional and social development of chil-
dren. The term “institutionalised” draws a distinc-
tion between activities of institutionalised bodies
(elementary school, pre-primary school, kinder-
garten, nursery) and activities that take place in
private households and families. The typical entry
age is three years.
Primary Education or First Stage of Basic Ed-
ucation (ISCED Level 1)
Primary education starts at the age of five, six or
seven years and lasts four to six years (↑ OECD av-
erage: six years). Educational programmes at the
primary level normally do not require any prior
formal education. In those countries where basic
schooling comprises the entire period of ↑ compul-
sory schooling – where there is, in other words,
no division into primary and lower secondary lev-
el – the primary level is considered, for the pur-
pose of statistical classification, to be completed
after six years.
Lower Secondary Education/Secondary Edu-
cation First Stage or Second Stage of Basic Ed-
ucation (ISCED Level 2)
Level 2 features a system of specialised teachers
(specialists for each subject) and lasts until the end
of compulsory schooling. The educational con-
tents are expected to be designed in such a way as
to complete the basic education that started at Lev-
el 1. In this domain the ↑ basic skills are applied
and optimised. It is frequently at the end of low-
er secondary education that compulsory schooling,
where this practice is in use, also comes to an end.
In countries where the primary level is also part of
a common basic education the second level of the
latter should be assigned to ISCED Level 2. In cas-
es where that basic education is not officially di-
vided into levels the period after the sixth year (i.e.
the seventh grade onwards) should be classified as
ISCED Level 2. This level also includes special-
ised educational programmes for people with dis-
25
abilities and all types of ↑ adult education that are
similar to education at ISCED Level 2 in terms of
content.
Secondary Education Second Stage/Upper
Secondary Education (ISCED Level 3)
Upper secondary education serves general or vo-
cational education. A degree indicates the qualifi-
cation for work in a particular vocational domain
and/or for admission to a higher school. The age
level roughly ranges from 15–16 to 18–20 years.
It normally includes two to five school years. The
admission requirement is usually the completion
of Level 2 or a combination of basic schooling and
professional work experience.
Secondary education second stage can be prepar-
atory
– for the first phase of the ↑ tertiary level ISCED 5a
(university education) via ISCED 3a (like ↑ High
School Diploma, Baccalauréat, Abitur, Matura
etc.) and
– for the first phase of the tertiary level ISCED 5b
(practice-oriented tertiary education, e. g. study
programmes for technicians) via ISCED 3b (e. g.
apprenticeship training in the ↑ Dual System)
or closing, i.e. serve the preparation for the direct
enty into work via ISCED 3c.
In upper secondary education a greater specialisa-
tion than at ISCED Level 2 can be observed. Very
often teachers have to be better qualified and more
specialised than at Level 2. The entry age for this
level is usually 15 or 16 years. To be qualified for
admission to educational programmes at Level 3, a
person must have completed a full-time education
of approximately nine years (starting from the be-
ginning of ISCED Level 1) or acquired education
in combination with professional experience. The
completion of ISCED Level 2 or proof of the abil-
ity to master educational programmes at this level
are considered minimum requirements.
ISCED Level 3 also includes specialised education
for people with disabilities and adult education. Ex-
cluded from ISCED Level 3 are supportive meas-
ures for participants in Level 2 programmes who
did not achieve the learning objectives of these
programmes. These measures are not equivalent to
the programmes at ISCED Level 3 that were de-
26
scribed above. They have to be assigned, depend-
ing on their content, to ISCED Level 1 or 2.
Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary Education
(ISCED Level 4)
Level 4 is a transitional stage between the upper
secondary level and ↑ tertiary education, even if
from a national point of view a clear allocation of
programmes to Level 3 or Level 5 might be possi-
ble. ISCED Level 4 programmes cannot be viewed
as tertiary programmes as regards their content.
Very often they are not located considerably above
the level of ISCED Level 3 programmes. However,
they offer the possibility to extend the knowledge
of those who have completed Level 3. Usually par-
ticipants are older than those at Level 3. There is
no age limit. Programmes may last from half a
year to three years. There is a distiction between
ISCED 4a programmes, which prepare for ISCED
Level 5a or are an entry requirement for that level,
and ISCED 4b programmes, which do not give ac-
cess to ISCED Level 5, but serve above all to pre-
pare for entry into the ↑ labour market,
First Stage of Tertiary Education (not leading
directly to an advanced research qualification)
(ISCED Level 5)
ISCED Level 5 programmes are more sophisti-
cated than programmes of upper secondary edu-
cation (Level 3) or programmes of post-second-
ary non-tertiary education (Level 4). Admission
requirements are typically the successful comple-
tion of Level 3a or 3b, or comparable qualifications
at Level 4a. Level 5 programmes have a minimum
duration of two years. They do not lead directly
to a doctorate or a comparable advanced research
qualification (ISCED Level 6).
ISCED Level 5a
Higher education lasts three to five years. Level 5a
is in most cases completed by the acquirement of
a degree (Bachelor, Master, Engineer) at a univer-
sity of applied sciences or a university. This level
includes all research-oriented study programmes
that are not part of a doctoral programme. The
content of these programmes has a stronger the-
Handbook of TVET Research
oretical and scientific orientation than the pro-
grammes at Levels 3 and 4. Admission to this lev-
el requires the successful completion of Level 3a
or 3b or a similar qualification from Level 4a. All
university degrees are classified at the tertiary lev-
el in a comparative perspective in terms of type
of programme, position within the national struc-
ture of degrees or qualifications, and overall dura-
tion. Included are consecutive study programmes
like the American Master’s degree. The entire pe-
riod of study must be at least three years (full-time
equivalent).
ISCED Level 5b
Qualifications at ISCED Level 5b typically en-
tail shorter periods of study than those at Level 5a.
They are vocationally oriented, focus on practical
work and are directed towards immediate entry in-
to the labour market. Nevertheless there is some
theoretical foundation. The degree awarded is rel-
evant for the labour market. Direct access to the
↑ research programmes at ISCED Level 6 is not
possible. Admission requirements for Level 5b are
the completion of ISCED Level 3b or 4a in a spe-
cific discipline in combination with a vocational
qualification.
Second Stage of Tertiary Education (leading
directly to an advanced research qualification)
(ISCED Level 6)
This level is reserved for post-graduate studies tha
directly lead to an advanced research qualification
like the Ph.D. These programmes therefore focus
on further studies and original research and not
just on the attendance at advanced courses.
1.0.3 Determination of Consistency and
Continuity of TVET Research
through the Development of National
TVET Systems
The national development paths of TVET systems
are embedded into the respective historical proc-
esses. The field of TVET research relates to the
relevant domains of the TVET systems in ques-
tion. In the course of historical development the
↑ research field is continuously extended. The peri-
od covered may be only three decades (as in ↑ Aus-
Genesis of TVET Research
tralia) or last more than a century (as in Germany
and the ↑ USA).
In Germany Georg Kerschensteiner already in
1901 presented a ↑ comparative study of the TVET
systems of Bavaria’s neighbour states in order to
collect information for the further development
of the technical ↑ school system in Munich (K ER-
SCHENSTEINER 1901a). This way he established a
(comparative) research whose major epistemic in-
terest was the development of the domestic sys-
tem on the basis of understanding “alien” TVET
systems as an important department of TVET re-
search. In the ↑ USA the scientific investigation of
TVET also started at the turn form the 19th to the
20th century when the first schools and depart-
ments of education, whose primary mission was
the education of teachers, were established at col-
leges and universities.
On the other hand the example of ↑ France shows
that the “disesteem” of TVET, together with the
dominant supply of qualifications for the ↑ labour
market through the system of general education
(including university education, naturally led to
the consequence that an autonomous TVET sys-
tem and the corresponding research activities did
not develop as fully as was observed in Germany
and the Netherlands.
In all studies included here the monitoring and
support of the development of the national TVET
system is identified as the major reason for the gen-
esis of TVET research. What is crucial for the pos-
itive reception by policy-makers and thus for the
promotion of the continuity of this constellation is
the expected positive contributions of a developed
TVET system for the economic development and
for the welfare of a country. Moreover, the integra-
tive capacity of the TVET system with regard to
socially ↑ disadvantaged and marginalised groups
is emphasised.
The systematic and comparative view across na-
tional boundaries, i.e. comparative TVET re-
search, on the other hand, is chosen as a focal point
only in the studies on ↑ China, Germany, France
and ↑ Japan. Comparative TVET research is dis-
tinct from international TVET research in that the
latter in most cases only accidentally extends be-
yond the national boundaries and in that the sys-
tematic comparison is not given priority.
27
A further aspect of the founding periods in Ger-
many and the USA is typical of the worldwide
tradition of TVET research. The early research-
ers were neither TVET researchers nor vocation-
al pedagogues. They were educational researchers
in a wider sense and, in terms of scientific disci-
pline, predominantly “pure” social scientists (psy-
chologists, sociologists, political scientists) or ped-
agogues and philosophers, like John Dewey and
Georg Kerschensteiner.
Germany has a special position in the develop-
ment of TVET research because since the aca-
demic drift (relating to the education at universi-
ties) of the teacher education for the TVET sys-
tem a recruitment of graduates for academic ca-
reers and thus for careers in TVET research has
become usual. This situation led to the effect that
in Germany, unlike most other countries, a scien-
tific discipline of its own called “↑ vocational ped-
agogy” could emerge, which in the beginning was
present only in those places where TVET teachers
were educated at universities (LIPSMEIER 1972). In
the USA the research in TVET also has a long tra-
dition, but in the context of teacher education in
general and thus in the context of research in edu-
cation. TVET research in the USA can be traced
back to the second half of the 19th century. Since
then it has remained vital especially with the help
of federal funding programmes and less in vir-
tue of the results of an independent research dis-
cipline.
This situation, which is quite common, also leads
to the consequence that there is a lack of qualified
young researchers in TVET research. In ↑Austral-
ia this situation is currently being reviewed criti-
cally and support for researchers is advocated as
it can be predicted that the present generation is
“greying” and that young researchers in ↑ educa-
tional research rather specalise in one field and are
less inclined towards the multidisciplinary domain
of TVET research, which involves many societal
spheres.
Is it possible to overcome these problems by con-
stituting an independent scientific discipline TVET
research on the basis of a monolithic paradigm and
a homogeneous methodological concept? The es-
tablishment of TVET research as a ‘monopolist’ in
the domain of TVET can be justified neither from
28
the perspective of the philosophy of science nor by
considerations of research practice. Other social
sciences and ↑ humanities like sociology, psychol-
ogy, economics, law or philosophy, but also nat-
ural sciences and engineering have just as well a
research interest in TVET and its contexts in cul-
ture, society, economy and technology. Their self-
concepts will continue to be defined via ↑ research
objects and the epistemic interest. What is crucial
for the attribution of a research object to TVET
research is the pedagogical research interest as it
is explained in the definition of TVET research
(see the following section) that is used here. In that
sense pedagogical TVET research has a guiding
function, for it is this pedagogical approach that
integrates and concentrates the divergent interests
of researchers from a multitude of different disci-
plines.
1.0.4 TVET Research as Multi- and
Interdisciplinary Research: Epistemic
Interest, Research Fields and
Research Methods
Research in TVET has a multi- or ↑ interdiscipli-
nary structure and extends beyond the original
core, systems research, which mostly accompanies
the development of national TVET systems and
works out a philosophical classification and justi-
fication of vocational education, as well as beyond
methodological teaching research (teaching and
learning research), which is important for the pro-
fessional work of teachers at ↑ vocational schools.
TVET research nowadays is concerned with phe-
nomena of education and training that are direct-
ly or indirectly related to occupations, to the ac-
quisition of (vocational) qualifications, and to (pro-
fessional) work activities. It investigates the con-
ditions, processes and consequences of the acqui-
sition of these professional and general qualifica-
tions in the context of cultural, social, political,
historical and economic conditions, e. g. person-
al and social attitudes and orientations that appear
relevant for the ↑ performance of (professionally)
organised ↑ work processes in initial and contin-
uing training (including ↑ informal learning). The
systems of vocational education have to be situated
and viewed in the context of the entire education
Handbook of TVET Research
system (ACHTENHAGEN 1999; DFG 1990; LAUTER-
BACH 2003b).
This extensive definition of TVET research in-
cludes the various national ↑ research fields. These
in turn are retrospective when they concentrate on
the historical development of vocational educa-
tion, up-to-date when the philosophy of the TVET
system in question, its curricular structure or its
quality in relation to the current challenges are in-
vestigated, or prospective when the contribution of
a specific TVET system to the fulfilment of the ex-
pected future qualification needs is assessed. It is
the societal and economic contexts that deliver the
↑ research questions for ↑ qualification research,
↑ labour market research or ↑ transition research
(this sub-discipline is concerned with the transi-
tion – very often of particular social groups – from
general to vocational education and from there to
↑ further education or professional work).
TVET research as practice-oriented research sup-
plies the public, the stakeholders involved, TVET
planners and administrators as well as policy-mak-
ers with categorial interpretation schemes for the
↑ structuration of reality. This way TVET research
helps to prepare solutions for future reforms. The
definition of practical research objectives is close-
ly connected to the controversial question to what
extent TVET research actually can make a con-
tribution to the improvement of the TVET system
and offer solutions for the planning of practical ac-
tions. This functionalist paradigm of “change for
the better” has been a constitutive and dominant
part of theories from the beginning to this day. It is
this very functionalism that demonstrates the close
interrelationship between the current research top-
ics and the political circumstances. At present, for
instance, the quality of TVET in relation to the na-
tional TVET system or the autonomy of training
institutions are in focus.
“The particular […] question raised is: how does the
structure of a society, and in particular that of its schools,
which can be conceptualized as systems, contribute to
the viability of that society, its survival and ↑ efficiency:
in other words, what link is there between structure and
function?” (HALLS 1990, 36).
The ↑ research design of the studies is based on
fundamental theories and paradigms that refer
to specific concepts in the philosophy of science,
e. g. positivism, evolutionary theories, the func-
Genesis of TVET Research
tion of experiments in social research, induction
theory, world systems theory etc. (LAUTERBACH
2003b, 125 ff.). As TVET research, being an in-
tegrative discipline, discusses and adapts theories
from the ↑ humanities as well as the social sciences,
the discourse (regarding theories, methods and re-
search topics) that is present in the corresponding
disciplines will sooner or later take place in TVET
research, too. Whereas up to the 1980s there were
fierce fundamental arguments between different
scientific schools, the war of paradigms has since
then been replaced more and more by a communi-
ty of scientists who no longer concentrate on these
disputes, but use their research capacities to real-
ise scientific products. Husén summarised with re-
gard to the ‘realistic turn’ that the single denomi-
nations are not capable of answering ‘all’ questions
and that their results are prone to sustain conflicts
and to communicate an inadequate world-view
(HUSÉN 1988).
As regards the ↑ research field of TVET systems,
two approaches can be distinguished. In the first
one the TVET system is perceived and analysed
as a closed social system. The second theoretical
model situates the TVET system in the context of
social forces. By means of an ↑ interdisciplinary
↑ research approach the social, political and eco-
nomic functions that society assigns to the TVET
system are examined (cf. K AZAMIAS / SCHWARTZ
1977, 159 ff.).
The practice of research is dominated by projects
that follow a pragmatic realism and look into sin-
gle aspects of the national TVET system without
calling the latter into question. These projects are
in most cases commissioned by public bodies. The
paradigms that define the topics of these research
activities develop further or are linked to specif-
ic phases. Current research projects – besides the
comprehensive approaches of the ↑ UNESCO – re-
fer, for instance, to the ↑ mobility of citizens in the
European Union with regard to ↑ labour markets
and national TVET systems. Theories determine
the ↑ research questions, which is exemplified in
the EU by the replacement of the theory of conver-
gence of national TVET systems with the theory of
transparency of national systems. These theories
are in most cases the extracts of research projects
29
that were taken up by politics and led to a change
of strategy.
This proximity to society and politics generates
different paradigms for the national styles of TVET
research. Whilst in ↑ Australia a major ↑ research
problem is more oriented towards the ↑ econom-
ics of education, like “important questions around
the return on investment to enterprises from train-
ing”, in Germany or ↑ France there are, besides
many functionalist empirical studies, fundamen-
tal research approaches that look into the parity of
esteem of TVET in comparison to general educa-
tion at the systems level or into equality of oppor-
tunities (socio-economic status, gender) at the in-
dividual level. This also includes research activi-
ties that build upon a humanistic instead of a func-
tionalist paradigm. These investigate the societal
issue of ↑ work process oriented “skilled work”,
which is supposed to lead to the identification of
the skilled worker with his work, under many as-
pects which are also practically relevant, includ-
ing the context of the ↑ European Qualifications
Framework. TVET research in the ↑ USA also is
not confined to the functionalist research most-
ly commissioned by the federal government (de-
partment of labour, department of education). Re-
search also examines the relationship between so-
ciety and the TVET system as in the case of a pri-
ority programme on the dissemination of vocation-
alism, which “strengthened the field and helped to
make it respected among other educators, business,
industry and the general public”. In France, funda-
mental research questions like “socio-professional
integration of young adults has developed consid-
erably” are addressed as well. These are standing
in the tradition of French sociology of education.
In the context of ↑ internationalisation (↑ OECD,
↑ ILO, UNESCO) and the development of the Eu-
ropean Union research questions that relate to
these wider geographical and political areas gain
relevance besides the national aspects. Here it is
not only the research questions, which, as in the
EU, start from the mobility principle of the Euro-
pean treaties and cover various aspects like qual-
ity, competences, mutual recognition, the Euro-
pean Qualifications Framework etc., but also the
financial support of projects that more and more
30
suggests itself as an alternative to national fund-
ing schemes.
In the EU diverse national ↑ research traditions and
developmental stages of TVET research encoun-
ter each other. The European Centre for the Devel-
opment of Vocational Training (Centre européen
pour le developpement de la formation profes-
sionnelle, ↑ CEDEFOP) in Thessaloniki, Greece
(http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/), being the in-
stitution of the European Commission that initi-
ates and coordinates “European” TVET research,
documents these national traditions in its Europe-
an Reports on Vocational ↑ Training Research in
Europe (TESSARING 1998c; DESCY/ TESSARING 2001;
DESCY/ TESSARING 2005), which are published since
1998. The reports attempt to link these traditions
to research aspects that are relevant for the EU and
thus promote the establishment of a common basis
for a European approach in TVET research. The
first report Training for a changing society wit-
nesses to the fact that fundamental systemic ↑ re-
search questions were the starting point in this
context, too. In the meantime special problems are
addressed: Training and learning for competence
(second report), Evaluation and impact of educa-
tion and training (third report) and Modernising of
vocational education and training (fourth report).
Currently the fifth report is being prepared, which
will feature a Foresight study on themes and is-
sues. Since TVET has gained considerable impor-
tance in EU politics in the context of the ↑ mobility
principle (with regard to the ↑ labour market, initial
and continuing training, ↑ informal learning, ↑ life-
long learning etc.) and the objectives of the ↑ Lis-
bon declaration (2000), a multitude of projects
in TVET research is directly commissioned by
the Commission or by ↑CEDEFOP. Research ac-
tivites relating to the monitoring of the develop-
ment of national TVET systems in the context of
↑ TVET cooperation are pursued by the ↑ ETF (Eu-
ropean Training Foundation, Torino, Italy) (http://
www.etf.europa.eu/), an EU institution, within the
framework of cooperation with East European,
Asian and Mediterranean countries by its own re-
search and particularly by project contracts. Euro-
pean collaborative research activities are also pos-
sible within the framework of the EU’s ↑ Leonar-
Handbook of TVET Research
do da Vinci programme and its current Lifelong
Learning Programme phase from 2007 to 2013.
European TVET research is also stimulated by the
Seventh Research Framework Programme of the
EU (http://cordis.europa.eu/fp7/dc/index.cfm) and
by the support of scientific networks in the context
of COST (European Cooperation in the field of Sci-
entific and Technical Research) (http://www.cost.
esf.org/), an organisation of the European Science
Foundation (ESF) (http://www.esf.org). These two
initiatives refer to the entire range of research from
technology to social research, but can be used by
TVET research. Unlike the EU’s afore-mentioned
commissioned research, where many parameters
like ↑ research field, epistemic interest and meth-
ods are often already fixed in the call for tenders,
“independent” TVET research with its own project
ideas that reach beyond the functionalist frame-
work is given opportunities for realisation here.
The extension of the research field in TVET re-
search leads to the question of the dominant ↑ re-
search methods. Here a certain pluralism can be
found, too. Whereas in the beginning there was
a dominance of hermeneutical methods all over
the world – suffice it to mention John Dewey (ED-
MAN 1955; KONRAD 1998) – nowadays quantitative
methods of the social sciences prevail. The choice
of methods is the expression of a particular devel-
opmental level, a particular epoch of TVET re-
search, and it directly corresponds to the research
themes and thus to the type of studies. With the
turn towards pragmatic realism since the 1980s the
idea of ‘the one and only correct’ research method
was also abandoned. Whilst in a total analysis of a
TVET system mostly qualitative methods are used,
quantitative methods are clearly preferred when a
problem approach is at stake.
Moreover, one has to distinguish between studies
that focus on one country and studies that address
a topic or national systems in a comparative per-
spective. The complexity of the field of TVET re-
search and the structural impossibility to define
it more precisely also have the consequence that
methodological approaches are difficult to develop
and that their implementation in research practice
is quite complex. One can refer to the still miss-
ing international large scale assessments in TVET,
which could not be realised so far for this reason. It
Genesis of TVET Research
is also for this reason that comparative evaluative
and categorising total analyses of national TVET
systems, which were popular up to the 1990s, are
hardly ever conducted nowadays. A widespread
type of research are case studies, which investigate
various national phenomena on the basis of a clear-
ly defined research field and epistemic interest and
juxtapose the results.
Here the cooperation of different researchers from
various countries turns out to be particularly fruit-
ful for the results. For the purpose of describing
and analysing the state of development or the cur-
rent state of a national TVET system, the Europe-
an situation or any other geographical space, in-
dicator-based educational reporting (mostly in the
context of the entire national system of education)
is becoming more and more important. Suffice it
to mention the Conditions of Education (↑ USA)
or Bildung in Deutschland. A valuable tool is the
compilation of national data by Eurostat (http://
epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/) and Eurydice (http://
www.eurydice.org/), which has improved consid-
erably over the last few years. The European Re-
search Reports by ↑ CEDEFOP that were already
mentioned allow for a quick overview of the va-
riety of ↑ research methods used and the types of
studies.
1.0.5 Who are the Customers and Who
Carries out TVET Research?
This leads to the task for the agents who use the re-
sults of TVET research to prepare governance de-
cisions, to evaluate their effects or to optimise vo-
cational qualification processes. Besides the dom-
inant state institutions one has to name above all
the social partners (employer associations and
trade unions). Therefore the national, supranation-
al and international agents who are commissioning
research projects can be found almost exclusively
in the relevant institutions (like ministries of edu-
cation, ministries of labour, ministries of science,
European Commission etc.).
The tenderers are diversified with regard to TVET
researchers and institutions. As already explained
there are, besides “original” TVET researchers,
scientists from the most various disciplines. This
statement also applies to the institutions carrying
out TVET research. Besides classical university
31
institutes there are independent research institu-
tions and private consultants.
An intermediate position is assumed by institutes
that are run or funded by the state like the Fed-
eral Institute for Vocational Education and Train-
ing/BIBB (Germany), the ↑ National Centre for
Vocational Education Research/NCVER (↑ Aus-
tralia), the Centre d’études et de recherche sur les
qualifications/Céreq (↑ France), the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority/QCA in England or the
↑ National Center for Research in Vocational Edu-
cation/NCRVE or, respectively, the National Re-
search and Dissemination Centers for ↑ Career
and Technical Education/NCCTE (USA) etc. Be-
sides proper research they also contract research
projects and carry out research coordination (at the
mandate of the state executive) as well as docu-
mentation and ↑ reporting on TVET and TVET re-
search. Similar tasks are fulfilled by EU institu-
tions like CEDEFOP and ↑ ETF.
An important part for the internal discourse and
the external dissemination, and thus for the consti-
tution of the discipline, is played by the scientific
associations of TVET research. These have a long
tradition in the USA (↑ American Vocational Edu-
cation Research Association) and Germany (Deut-
sche Gesellschaft für Erziehungswissenschaft,
DGfE). At the European level it is the European
Educational Research Association (EERA). Like
the DGfE in Germany the EERA is an umbrella
organisation of researchers with different themat-
ic and methodological orientations. Both organi-
sations feature a commission, or, respectively, a
working group for TVET research. Given their di-
versity, TVET researchers are also represented in
other national and international scientific associa-
tions, especially in those of sociology, psycholo-
gy and political science, but always among general
pedagogues as independent associations or com-
missions for TVET research still do not exist in
many countries.
1.0.6 Results and Perspectives
TVET research has a history that cannot be de-
scribed as a closed development, given that the
categorisation in one single discipline like educa-
tion, sociology, psychology etc. is hardly ever pos-
sible. This constellation is typical. It also shows
32
that TVET research is often inter- or multidisci-
plinary due to its complexity, and that – apart from
research in established university institutes and re-
search centres – a multitude of agents is (often only
temporarily) active in this domain so that an over-
view of their research activities is almost impos-
sible.
Moreover, TVET research is often application-ori-
ented and funded via projects. Accordingly this
type of research is also attractive for consulting
firms and private consultants. This diversity is also
an effect of the proximity of TVET to the economy,
the ↑ labour market and thus to politics. Education
and TVET are in the focus at the national, suprana-
tional (EU) and international levels (↑ UNESCO,
↑ OECD) because it is hoped that their develop-
ment will improve the qualification of the popu-
lation and promote economic welfare. In order to
find out more about these processes, manifold re-
search activities are conducted. This policy-driven
research is supported by interested political insti-
tutions with increasing financial means from the
public budgets. At the moment this is done espe-
cially in the EU also with long-term funding per-
spectives. The agents within this scheme of com-
missioned research are quite different in terms of
motivation and status. It might well be that “se-
rious” sociologists, psychologists, economists etc.
who are recognised in their own scientific com-
munity occasionally perform studies in TVET re-
search.Sustainable perspectives with regard to the
development and cultivation of paradigms, theo-
ries and methods in TVET research can be devel-
oped rather at university institutes whose primary
mission is the edcuation of teachers for the TVET
system, and at research institutes whose statutes
prescribe that TVET is (also) addressed. Besides
these it is especially the national and international
scientific associations and the congresses they or-
ganise that can contribute to the constitution and
consolidation of a recognised discipline TVET re-
search via internal and external discourse. The
continuity of this discipline is particularly depend-
ent on the development of human resources. Up
to now this took place rather by chance in most
countries. Very often researchers came from one
of the other social sciences. If no undergraduate
programme is offered, the specialised education of
Handbook of TVET Research
young researchers as experts for the TVET system
should therefore be promoted. As was shown here,
the national, supranational and international con-
ditions for the project of consolidating TVET re-
search are particularly favourable at the moment.
1.1 Genesis of VET Research:
Case Study of Australia
Philip Loveder and Hugh Guthrie
This chapter describes the genesis and develop-
ment of research in Vocational Education and
Training (VET) in ↑ Australia over the last thir-
ty years from the mid 1970s through to the mid
2000s, a period of significant and dynamic change
in the vocational training landscape of this coun-
try. It traces the origins of research from the water-
shed Kangan Committee report of 1974 through to
the present national program of research and eval-
uation. Finally, there is a discussion on the future
of ↑ VET research in Australia that identifies some
challenges facing research in the system.
1.1.1 Origins of VET Research in
Australia: The Period from 1974–
1984
↑ Research in VET began, as with so many things
in vocational education and training in Australia,
with the Kangan Committee report of 1974. The
committee was established by the Whitlam Fed-
eral Government in 1973 to provide advice to the
then Minister of Education, Mr Kim Beazley (Sen-
ior) on matters related to the development of ↑ tech-
nical and further education in Australia. It was
chaired by Myer Kangan, the Deputy Secretary
of the Australian Department of Labour and a re-
nowned educator.
With the exception of ↑ curriculum development
research, itself hampered by limited funding, lit-
tle research into vocational education and train-
ing was being done in 1974 in Australia. Some oc-
curred in State/Territory education departments,
but the results of most of that research were not
published.
National research, conducted primarily in the
higher education sector, did sometimes have rel-
Genesis of TVET Research
evance for technical education. Research in the
schools sector was also significant. Research into
vocational education and training was, and was to
remain until the mid 1990s, a road less travelled.
Of particular relevance to the growth of a ↑ re-
search capacity was Kangan’s proposal for a three-
pronged attack to improve research effort in VET.
First, it recommended the setting up of an ‘Aus-
tralian ↑ Technical and Further Education (TAFE)
Technology Centre’. Its purposes were to ‘adopt
technology to vocational education, and research,
develop and produce learning and other education-
al aids by itself or through others.’
It was intended that it should also:
– Be a clearinghouse for research
– Disseminate information from abroad
– Commission relevant research
– Publish a journal
– Arrange for textbook publication
– Train researchers
This was the first conceptual thinking about de-
veloping a coordinated national ↑ research capaci-
ty in VET in ↑ Australia, initially to occur through
a dedicated centre.
(HALL, W. 1994) reported that while nothing came
of Kangan’s recommendation at the time it was
resurrected by the Committee of Inquiry into Edu-
cation and Training (the Williams Committee) five
years later (COMMONWEALTH OF AUSTRALIA 1979).
That inquiry recommended the establishment of a
National Centre for Research and Development in
TAFE, which would be given the task of conduct-
ing projects in areas such as:
– Planning and production of teaching materials
– Analysing skills for occupations
– Accrediting courses
– Classifying courses and awards
– Using technological aids in teaching
– Development of self-paced learning programs
The TAFE National Centre for Research and De-
velopment (later to become the ↑ NCVER) was fi-
nally established in June 1980, after the Conference
of TAFE Directors and the Chairman of the Tech-
nical and Further Education Council (TAFEC)
prepared a proposal for the Australian Education
Council (AEC) meeting in October 1979. At that
meeting a draft charter was accepted which made
provision for the review of the Centre after three
33
years. The Memorandum of the Articles of Asso-
ciation was signed by all Ministers of Education
in June 1981. The Centre was created as a compa-
ny registered in the state of South ↑ Australia and
limited by guarantee on 2 September 1981 and it
started its national operations in November of that
year.
Much of the early research activity of the new-
ly created TAFE National Centre was centred on
curriculum and materials development, training
standards and skills analysis, audit and competen-
cy-based ↑ training research. In fact, much of the
history of ↑ VET research in Australia parallels the
history of NCVER itself (see NCVER 2001a).
The second research thrust of the Kangan report
was to recommend the allocation of funds for re-
search quite separate from the funds needed for the
proposed technology centre. This finally became
a reality following the establishment of the Aus-
tralian National Training Authority (↑ ANTA) Re-
search Advisory Council (ANTARAC) in 1994,
following the 1993 report by Professor Rod Mc-
Donald and his colleagues from the University of
Technology Sydney, entitled: No small change:
Proposals for a research and development strategy
for vocational education and training in Australia.
In the report, they characterised VET research at
that time as a fragmented activity that was under-
funded and had little or no relevance to policy or
practice in the VET sector.
The publication of the report also coincided with
the establishment of the Australian National Train-
ing Authority (ANTA) in 1993 with a brief to over-
see the development of the sector. The presence of
this single agency meant that the report’s recom-
mendations for a large increase in national funding
for VET research could be acted upon quickly, in
contrast to the general Australian Research Coun-
cil (ARC) review of ↑ educational research in Aus-
tralia (MCGAW/ BOUD / POOLE ET AL. 1992), whose
recommendations for similar action were consid-
ered by a large number of agencies, none of whom
had sole responsibility for action (SMITH 2001).
The third research thrust was to recommend that
funds should be allocated for the training of tech-
nical college teachers in ↑ research methods. In
particular, this was seen as a way of building the
‘in-house’ research capacity as well as encourag-
34
ing practitioners to undertake their own action-
based research projects.
A second report on needs in Technical and Fur-
ther Education was published a year after the Kan-
gan report. This report suggested the setting up of
a ↑ statistics working party. This was done and, af-
ter a variety of name changes, provided the ante-
cedents of the present National Training Statistics
Committee (NTSC) in ↑ Australia.
1.1.2 Maturing of VET Research: The
Period from 1985–2005
The period from 1985 to the present, and especial-
ly since the mid 1990s, saw a significant increase
in the volume and scope of ↑ VET research occur-
ring in Australia. From the mid 1990s, the role of
the ↑ NCVER in particular changed from being the
major producer of research in Australia, increas-
ingly toward being a manager, knowledge broker
and disseminator of research on behalf of the sec-
tor. At the same time, it maintained its own active
research and also became the custodian of the na-
tional VET ↑ statistics collection program.
The report mentioned earlier: No small change
in 1993 was a watershed in facilitating increased
government funding into vocational training-relat-
ed research. Historically, universities and Colleges
of Advanced Education had little research interest
in the VET sector, especially as little funding was
available, directly from government or through the
Australian Research Council. Also, the Colleges of
Advanced Education (CAEs), traditionally the ed-
ucational training ground for VET teachers, had
little or no research mandate. Until the CAEs be-
came or were amalgamated with existing universi-
ties, therefore, there were few academic resources
upon which to draw. Most VET ↑ research capac-
ity, therefore, was either at the NCVER or in the
State and Territory Government Departments con-
cerned with vocational education and training.
Traditionally, research was not considered a ma-
jor role of the VET teacher/trainer, so little prac-
titioner research was happening either. With gov-
ernment money coming on stream earmarked spe-
cifically for VET research, universities in particu-
lar started to develop research concentrations fo-
cussing on VET, usually associated with teacher
training or ↑ adult education faculties or schools.
Handbook of TVET Research
Researchers competed for nationally-competitive
grants administered through ANTARAC until
1996 and NCVER thereafter.
The ANTA Research Advisory Committee
(ANTARAC), which had oversight for determining
research priorities and ensuring they were aligned
to ↑ policy and practice was established in 1994.
The work of the committee (and later the Nation-
al Research and Evaluation Committee – NREC,
a sub-committee of NCVER’s board in late 1996)
was the first time that a major, national approach
had been taken to closely define research needs for
the sector. ANTARAC played an important part in
starting to build a research culture and interest in
vocational education and training. This interest be-
gan to develop both in the VET sector itself, but al-
so in a range of universities.
In 1997, the NCVER was commissioned by AN-
TA and the federal government to manage the
new grants program and developed the first na-
tional strategy for research for VET to support it
(NCVER 1997). The strategy covered the period
from 1997 to 2000 and identified both priorities
for research and described approaches to be used
to effectively disseminate the outcomes of the re-
search. With responsibility for both the collection
of national VET statistics and coordination of re-
search in the sector, the NCVER was at the time
unique in the world.
Since then, there has been a further ↑ research strat-
egy, which was published in 2001 (NCVER 2001b).
This strategy was developed to support Australia’s
national VET Strategy at that time: ‘A Bridge to
the future: Australia’s national Strategy for Voca-
tional Education and Training 1998–2003’ (ANTA
1998). Since then annual research priorities have
been determined and published. Current priorities
support the present national VET Strategy: ‘Shap-
ing our future: The National Strategy for Voca-
tional Education and Training 2004–2010’ (AN-
TA 2004a). The board of the NCVER also has an
important role in advising the federal and state and
territory ministers on research priorities.
In 1997, the Australian VET Research Associa-
tion (↑ AVETRA) was founded. It was established
with initial financial assistance from the ↑ Austral-
ian National Training Authority Research Adviso-
ry Council and the National Centre for Vocational
Genesis of TVET Research
Education Research (NCVER). It is committed to
furthering the contribution of VET research to the
development of Australian ↑ VET policy, promot-
ing independent and significant ↑ research in VET
and promoting training in ↑ research methods for
those working in or with the VET sector.
At the same time, ↑ ANTA established a program
of national key centres for ↑ VET research to ena-
ble concentrations of expertise in VET to be fund-
ed to undertake three-year programs of research
into specific aspects of VET ↑ policy and prac-
tice. Three centres, at the University of Technol-
ogy Sydney, Monash University and the Universi-
ty of Tasmania, were initially funded in 1997, with
a fourth established at Melbourne University and
Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in 2000.
The work of the centres has been very important in
building ↑ research capacity in VET as well as in
exploring major issues in the VET sector such as
the economics of VET, ↑ workplace learning and
rural and regional issues.
Much of the research occurring during the ear-
ly and mid 1990s centred around research in-
to government and industry policy, the econom-
ics of training, ↑ labour market issues (especial-
ly research covering skills analysis, occupation-
al trends and industry skill requirements), profiles
of students and trainees and research into teachers
and trainers. On top of this, research into ↑ curricu-
lum development and delivery (pedagogy), a tradi-
tion of university faculties of education, was ongo-
ing (MCDONALD / HAYTON / GONCZI / HAGER 1993).
Research into VET in ↑ Australia is now increasing-
ly driven by the needs of the stakeholders of VET:
in particular, governments, policy makers and in-
dustry. The research themes relate more closely to
economic and social policy imperatives. With the
advent of national statistical collections and stu-
dent outcome and tracer surveys, quantitative re-
search as well as major ↑ longitudinal studies are
becoming increasingly commonplace in Australia
and allow the system to gauge the efficacy of par-
ticular policies and programs. The national VET
↑ statistics, surveys and research, for example, un-
derpin the Annual National Report of the VET sec-
tor produced by the federal government each year
and which is tabled in the Australian parliament.
35
More recently, there has been greater focus on par-
ticular clients of VET, in particular, Indigenous
Australians, and interest in international ↑ bench-
marking research to understand how well Aus-
tralia is performing internationally. Australian re-
search centres (including the ↑ NCVER) are in-
creasingly participating in important compara-
tive research with overseas counterparts, includ-
ing through the ↑ United Nations Education, Sci-
ence and Culture Organisation (UNESCO), the
↑ Organisation for Economic Cooperation and De-
velopment (OECD) and the ↑ International Labour
Organisation (ILO).
↑ Research in VET is now defined strategically
around ‘themes’, these being determined by key
stakeholders in the VET sector. Presently, the five
(5) research themes NCVER uses, and which is the
basis for consultation on research priorities, are:
– Students and individuals
– The ↑ VET system
– VET in context
– Industry and employers; and
– Teaching and learning.
Major syntheses of entire bodies of research are
now occurring increasingly in VET, while NCVER
has, for the first time in Australia, adopted a sys-
tematic review approach (based on the Cochrane
Collaboration approach in the United Kingdom) to
answering important policy questions by identify-
ing and critically appraising available research evi-
dence. In this way, the research can become a more
valuable tool for decision-making for policy and
practice (ANLEZARK / DAWE / HAYMAN 2005).
NCVER, with federal government funding, has in-
troduced a new ‘consortium’ stream to its VET re-
search program. This approach maximises scarce
resources and is intended to increase research pro-
ductivity and quality through collaboration be-
tween a number of institutions and key researchers
on topics addressed by each consortium’s work. It
is anticipated that this approach will be more re-
source efficient, and provide for longer term and
strategic research on issues of significance for the
VET sector.
Each consortium involves researchers drawn from
two or more organisations. The length of projects
is between two and two- and a half years, with a to-
36
tal of over $1.3 million allocated to the current two
projects around:
– Tailoring VET to future work skill needs; and
– Supporting VET providers in building capabil-
ity for the future.
( S ELBY S MITH / H AWKE / M C D ONALD / S ELBY S MITH
1998) examined the impact of research on VET
decision-making. From its earliest days the na-
tional managed program of ↑ VET research has
placed great emphasis on research utilisation and
dissemination by the VET sector. Agencies such
as the ↑ NCVER actively promote research to in-
dustry and the wider community through targeted
stakeholder forums, development of value-added
research products and services and special brief-
ings. To ensure maximum coverage and access to
research information, the world-wide web is be-
ing used extensively, including on-line forums and
‘webinars’.
NCVER, in particular, is adopting an increasing
knowledge broker role on behalf of the VET sec-
tor in ↑ Australia and works closely with a variety
of education and community partners to make for
a more dynamic training system (GUTHRIE 2002).
Special resources are now available for research-
ers including the NCVER-↑ UNESCO VOCED in-
ternational bibliographic database which has over
30,000 entries from many different countries.
1.1.3 Future Directions and Challenges for
VET Research in Australia
VET research has come a long way in Australia in
the last 30 years from just a few disparate concen-
trations of research activity to a coordinated major
program of research that links more closely with
VET ↑ policy and practice. Research now plays a
more important role in system improvement and
national reporting and will continue to have an
influence over teaching practice and quality im-
provement.
Having said this, there are still criticisms in some
quarters that VET research is still not having suf-
ficient impact on national and state ↑ training
policies. (SMITH 2001) reports that the traditional
12–18 month project-based model of ↑ educational
research neither suits the needs of the busy policy
maker who has to react quickly to changes in the
policy landscape, nor the more ‘practical’ needs
Handbook of TVET Research
of the ↑ VET practitioner. While at the same time,
shorter, ‘snap-shot’ research as Smith refers to it
only leads, inevitably, to conclusions that stress the
need for more research. The need for longer-term,
multi-sectoral and longitudinal research is becom-
ing more important in Australia, as is research that
links educational experience across general educa-
tion, VET and higher education and the workforce.
Policy makers require more information about the
strengths and weaknesses of our system, what hap-
pens to our graduates in terms of ↑ labour market
↑ participation and further study outcomes after
they complete their VET studies, and how the for-
mal training system is meeting the demands of a
changing society.
The way to ensure that research continues to ‘hit
the mark’ according to Smith is to ensure research
becomes more thematic, clustered around priori-
ties and key questions of importance to the VET
sector and which uses a range of methodological
approaches and involves the key stakeholders. The
current National Vocational Education and ↑ Train-
ing Research and Evaluation (NVETRE) program
managed by the NCVER as mentioned in the pre-
vious section, very much adopts the thematic ap-
proach emphasising the need to address issues of
importance to the sector and the broader communi-
ty. The way in which stakeholders prefer to access
research findings is changing as well. Research
‘products’ that synthesise a range of research and
provide evidence of the outcome of particular pol-
icy interventions is greatly valued. Replacing tra-
ditional research publications with shorter, more
targeted publications that can be easily accessed
and used in the sector, is being seen as an impor-
tant strategy in making better use of existing re-
search. Communicating the outcomes of research
will continue to present a challenge, however, and
ensuring that the key messages are in a form ac-
cessible to industry will mean using new and inno-
vative strategies to get the word out, such as stake-
holder forums and briefings.
Of significant importance to the future of ↑ VET
research in Australia is the need to train the next
generation of researchers. Many who have become
involved in VET research have come from careers
without much formal research training according
to Smith (SMITH 2001). On top of this, formal re-
Genesis of TVET Research
search training programs in the universities still
tend to produce specialised academic researchers
rather than the multi-skilled researcher that the
↑ VET system increasingly requires. Smith believes
few of these new graduates are equipped to make
a serious contribution to the field of VET research.
Despite efforts by professional researcher bodies
such as ↑ AVETRA to promote research within the
sector itself, there appears to be a dearth of ‘prac-
titioner-based’ research expertise. The result of all
of these factors has been a ‘greying’ of the ↑ VET
research community in ↑ Australia, and a key chal-
lenge will be to identify new pathways and develop
training programs that teach the research skills re-
quired for the future pool of researchers.
Finally, despite the significant inroads made, there
are still some lingering concerns around VET re-
search relevance and utilisation in Australia. In-
dustry is still looking for research that answers im-
portant questions around the return on investment
to enterprises from training. Issues around solv-
ing current and future skills shortages in indus-
try dominate the Australian training landscape as
do ways of fast-tracking VET trainees (especial-
ly apprentices) into the workforce to help meet the
skill shortages being experienced in the Australian
economy. VET research in Australia has, for some
time now, been demand-side driven, being advised
by extensive consultations with the sector; howev-
er, a considerable amount of research is still sup-
ply-side and investigator-driven. Ensuring that the
beneficiaries of the research have the opportunity
to communicate their own research needs is essen-
tial; however, actively engaging with the research
community itself and participating in the research
will be equally important in the future. In this re-
gard, the researchers themselves will continue to
play an important role.
1.1.4 Chronology of VET Research in
Australia
1974 Kangan Committee recommends setting up an
‘Australian TAFE Technology Centre’
1979 Williams Enquiry recommends establishment of a
National Centre for Research and Development in
TAFE
National TAFE Clearinghouse established
1981 TAFE National Centre for Research and Develop-
ment begins operations in November.
37
1985 Australian Journal of TAFE Research and Devel-
opment launched
1989 International conference on national research and
development in vocational education organised by
the TAFE National Centre and held in Adelaide
Australian conference of TAFE Directors initiates
the TAFE National Centre’s second review
1991 Statistics division established and TAFE National
Centre for Research and Development takes over
responsibility for annual statistics collection under
a contract from the Commonwealth Department of
Employment Education and Training.
Second review of the TAFE National Centre for Re-
search and Development conducted by John White
and Maratha Kinsman is completed.
1992 TAFE National Centre for Research and Develop-
ment changes its name to the National Centre for
Vocational Education Research (NCVER)
A conference on what future there is for technical
and vocational education and training was organ-
ised by NCVER and held in Melbourne
1993 Journal first published in 1985 changes name to
Australian and New Zealand Journal of Vocational
Education Research
‘No small change’ report published
1994 ↑ ANTA Research Advisory Council (ANTARAC)
established
1996 NCVER takes new responsibility for national man-
aged VET research and evaluation program under
contract from ANTA
The National Research and Evaluation Committee
(NREC) established, replacing ANTARAC
1997 First national research strategy for vocational edu-
cation in Australia published covering the period
1997–2000
2001 The second national research and evaluation strat-
egy for vocational education and training 2001–
2003 published
2004 – Annual national research priorities for VET –
2006 2004, 2005 and 2006
1.2 Research on China’s
Technical and Vocational
Education
Jiang Dayuan, Yu Zhijing and Yao
Shuwei
1.2.1 Theme and Visual Threshold
Although the ↑ vocational school as the symbol
of modern and contemporary technical and voca-
tional education’s (referred to hereafter as “TVE”)
38
coming into being in ↑ China had already emerged
in the middle of the 19th century, and the guid-
ing ideology of theoretic construction of TVE can
trace its roots back to the opinions of Huang Yan-
pei, the leading educator in the late Qing Dynas-
ty (→ 3.3.3.1), due to the influence of political fac-
tors such as chaos caused by war, it was not un-
til the end of the 1970s that research on TVE was
conducted on a large scale and became systematic.
Therefore, vocational and technical pedagogy (re-
ferred to as “TVP” hereafter) research on TVE is
regarded as a new branch of science in ↑ China (JI /
TANG / DONG 1995). Taking the above-mentioned
facts into consideration, the discussion of this spe-
cial topic will consider the aspect of changes in the
past 20 years.
As a science that studies the phenomena of TVE
and reveals the laws of its development, vocational
and technical pedagogy, is regarded as an impor-
tant branch of educational science as a whole. It
is a comprehensive discipline closely linked with
many disciplines (LIU / LI / DONG 1986). The objects
of its study can be summed up in three aspects:
1. The relationship between TVE, economic and
social development and scientific and technologi-
cal progress, that is, the external relationship; 2.
The relationship between various key elements of
TVE internally; 3. The objects of TVE (JI / TANG /
DONG 1995). However, different opinions on the
above definition have recently occurred. For exam-
ple, some scholars think that as another type of ed-
ucation, TVE is different from general education/
pedagogy and has the rich connotation of being a
↑ vocational discipline (JIANG 2006).
1.2.2 Important Research and
Achievements
Learn Eagerly from the West and Look
Towards the Future by Viewing the Past
At the beginning of the 1980s, the structural adjust-
ment of secondary education started by the central
government promoted the development of China’s
TVE on a large scale. Due to the separation caused
by the “Cultural Revolution”, people at that time
were very unfamiliar with the outside world. In or-
der to look for reference experience, some schol-
ars started to introduce theories and best practices
Handbook of TVET Research
of foreign TVE to China. Many translated works
were published during this time, such as Vocation-
al Education in West Germany (CHINA ENTERPRISE
MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION 1980) and The Histo-
ry of Technical Education of Six Countries (SOCI-
ETY OF JAPAN’S EDUCATIONAL HISTORY 1984) as well
as The TVE System of Seven Countries (LIANG /
JIN 1990). At that time the Suggestions on TVE of
the ↑ UNESCO was translated and had a large in-
fluence due to its authoritativeness. Comparisons
between Chinese and Foreign TVE compiled by
the Foreign Education Institute of Beijing Normal
University in 1991 made a breakthrough for the
style of the previous translation works, which had
mainly made introductions to countries, but now
started to have overall comparisons in mind.
With the continuous upsurge in the notion of “be-
ing oriented to the world”, some scholars tried to
foresee the future by referring to “tradition”. In
1985 the National Association of Vocational Ed-
ucation of China (NAVEC) sorted out and pub-
lished Selections of Education from Huang Yan-
pei. In 1991, The History of Chinese Vocational
Education by Wu Yiqi became the first Chinese
monograph on the history of TVE elaborating the
tradition of TVE in ancient China and the theories
and practices of modern and contemporary TVE.
In 1994, The History of China’s TVE by Li Lin-
tian reviewed the history of China’s modern and
contemporary TVE in an all-round and systematic
way (→ 3.3.3.1). In recent years, as one of the mon-
ographic series of books on research into the his-
tory of education in China, The History of Voca-
tional Education written by Wen Youxin and Yang
Jinmei (2000) has been published.
The Preliminary Construction of TVP
The theoretical construction focuses first of all
on sorting out the basic concepts such as defini-
tion, connotation, system, structure and function.
In 1984, An Introduction to Vocational Education
compiled by Gao Qi from Beijing Normal Univer-
sity was regarded as the first theoretical work on
TVE of the new China. In 1985, An Introduction to
Technical Education compiled by the Institute of
Educational Science, East China Normal Univer-
sity, systematically discussed the basic problems
of technical education and made a special analy-
Genesis of TVET Research
sis of the specific characteristics of technical edu-
cation. In 1986, Vocational and Technical Pedago-
gy by Liu Jiannong elaborated on integrated voca-
tional education and technical education and deep-
ly explored the relationship between employment
and educational structure. Afterwards more than
10 works on similar topics were published.
During this time, Contemporary TVE in ↑ China
by Meng Guangping (1993) approached the inter-
nal connections and laws of TVE through summa-
rizing previous experiences in running schools on
the basis of best educational practice. The Princi-
ple of TVE by the ↑ CIVTE (1998b) had value as a
pioneering work because it absorbed the latest for-
eign research achievements and tried to start with
occupation analysis to make research on the basic
problems such as setting specialties and ↑ curric-
ulum development. Meanwhile, progress was also
made in the theoretical discussion in other fields
of TVE. Monographs on the study of psychology,
management and evaluation in TVE emerged.
After entering the 21st century, research on TVE
has been further broadened in terms of both
range and depth. A new batch of works on TVE
has emerged in large numbers, such as Vocation-
al and Technical Pedagogy by Zhang Jiaxiang/
Qian Jingfang and ↑ Vocational Pedagogy by Liu
Chunsheng/ Xu Changfa. In the field of compara-
tive education, Comparative TVE by Shi Weiping
(2001) made systematic and in-depth analysis on
the systems, mechanisms and development modes
of TVE in developed countries and areas. In 2002,
Liu Laiquan selected the important documents by
↑ UNESCO on TVE which have been created since
the 1970s and provided an authoritative global vi-
sion to the readers. The Study on the Development
of Britain’s Secondary Vocational Education by
Zhai Haihun (2005) examined both positive and
negative experiences during the evolution of sec-
ondary vocational education in Britain in the 20th
century. In addition, some valuable monographs
on discussing the economics, psychology and cur-
riculum of TVE have been published.
Researches of National Planning Projects
Since 1980, research topics on TVE have been in-
cluded in the national planning program of edu-
cational science. During the period of the “Sixth
39
Five-Year Plan”, a total of 6 issues of TVE were
included in the national planning projects of edu-
cational science, including 2 key state projects, i.e.
Study on the Education Problems in Rural Regions
and Study on TVE; during the “Seventh Five-Year
Plan” period, the number of projects increased to
10, including 2 key state projects, i.e. Study on the
Strategy of Vocational Education in Former Revo-
lutionary Base Areas, Areas Inhabited by Minori-
ty Nationalities, Mountain Area, Remote and Bor-
der Areas and Areas Inhabited by Overseas Chi-
nese and Research on the Strategy of China’s TVE
in 2000; during the “Eighth Five-Year Plan” pe-
riod, the number of projects increased to 31, in-
cluding 2 key state projects, i.e. Study on Huang
Yanpei’s Thinking on Education and Research and
↑ Experimentation of China’s Vocational Educa-
tion Reform Promotion through Learning from the
German ↑ Dual System (→ 4.7); during the “Ninth
Five-Year Plan” period, the number of projects in-
creased to 41, including 2 key state projects, i.e.
(WEN / YANG 2000, 302), Study on the Issue of Plu-
ralistic School Running System of TVE in the
Economically Developed Areas and Study and Ex-
periment on the Theory and Mode of the Develop-
ment of Rural TVE in China’s Central Area; dur-
ing the “Tenth Five-Year Plan” period, the number
of projects increased to 69, including 5 key state
projects, i.e. Study on the Strategy of ↑ Human Re-
source Development in the West, Study on the In-
teraction of TVE and Labor Access System, Study
on the Strategy of the Chinese Peasants’ Vocation-
al Education in the New Stage, Study on the Devel-
opment of TVE and Manufacturing Industry and
Study on the Development Mode of TVE of “In-
teractive City and School”.
Among these national planning projects, the re-
search topics on the development of regional TVE
and various kinds of TVE account for the majority.
There are also other special subjects such as higher,
secondary and primary TVE and TVE for handi-
capped children, ↑ comparative study on TVE, spe-
cialties setting, information network of TVE, TVE
and the ↑ labour market, links and communication
between TVE and general education. Generally
speaking, these projects stress, in particular, prob-
lems at the macro level.
40
Several Fields of Focal Attention
(a) Construction of the TVE system
Establishing a modern TVE system is an impor-
tant task of China’s educational reform. This is al-
so an important issue that TVE research has ex-
plored for more than twenty years. In 1983, The
Ministry of Education (MoE) entrusted East ↑ Chi-
na Normal University to conduct a special subject
research on the construction of the TVE system.
The main achievement was to set up three series
in the personnel structure, namely an engineering
personnel series, a technical personnel series and a
workers series; to set up senior skilled workers and
technicians in the workers series and to set up rele-
vant schools. This was the first systematic achieve-
ment of the exploration of the TVE system. Re-
searchers generally think that TVE is a complex
system that involves many aspects, such as school
education, short time training, teachers training
and management relating to each system. Among
all these systems, school education is the core part
(MENG / YANG / SUN / WEN 1993, 36–51).
The relationship between TVE and econom-
ic structure is one of the fields of public concern.
Some scholars suggest that economic structure is
the basis of various structures in the social sphere
and is in the dominant position. Therefore, the eco-
nomic structure must be taken as the basis of the
system and structure of TVE (JI / TANG / DONG 1995,
47). They suggested that the TVE system should
realize “four adaptations”, namely adaptation to
national economy and ownership, adaptation to
employment structure, adaptation to development
and change of industrial structure, and adaptation
to technical development (MENG / YANG / SUN / WEN
1993, 36–38). During this time, people gradually
accepted the idea of lifelong education. They real-
ized that TVE should be a form of education that
runs through people’s entire career rather than ed-
ucation that stops at an early stage (MENG / YANG /
SUN / WEN 1993, 51). Other people meaningfully
categorized the personnel structural theory which
is basic for establishing the TVE system and cat-
egorized it as “pyramid” type, “occupational belt”
type and “stepping” type (CIVTE 1998b).
After entering the 21st century, the Chinese gov-
ernment has called for the establishment of a mod-
ern educational and ↑ lifelong learning system. An
Handbook of TVET Research
upsurge of research on establishing a new TVE
system has quickly formed within the circle of
VET. The annual academic conference held by the
Chinese Society of TVE in 2003 with the priori-
ty of “building a well-off society in an all-round
manner and establishing the modern TVE system”
is the centralized reflection of this upsurge. Some
scholars reflected on the defects of the existing
TVE framework and believed that problems of un-
balanced arrangement structure and noncompre-
hensive development exist. The main manifesta-
tions are the unbalanced development between dif-
ferent areas as well as within areas, the unbalanced
educational safeguarding system of the group of
people being educated, the imperfect system that
establishes the VET and the fact that the pluralistic
pattern of systems for running schools have not ac-
tually been realized (ZHOU 2002). Other scholars
think that the major defects of the existing system
are that it expects to meet people’s lifelong needs
through one time education, which cannot com-
pletely meet people’s demand for study; that the
individual’s specific character and receptive abil-
ity are not taken into account; that its model for
running schools is too unitary; and that it depends
on a general educational system and does not ful-
ly reflect the special characteristics of the various
types of human talents trained by TVE (HUANG /
SHI / GUO / YAN 2004).
(b) Curriculum and teaching-learning process
In the 1990s, more attention was given to the cur-
riculum and teaching-learning process problem
that had puzzled people for a long time. An impor-
tant symbolic point was that the curriculum and
teaching-learning processes of TVE were included
in the national planning of research on education as
an independent key point. They include the follow-
ing: Study and Experiment on Curriculum Reform
and Teaching Materials Construction of TVE dur-
ing the “Eighth Five-Year Plan” period, Special-
ties Setting of ↑ Vocational Schools, Study and Ex-
periment on the Reform of Curriculum and Teach-
ing Materials of Specialties in ↑ Vocational School
and Theoretical Method and Experiment Research
on the Development of Curriculum Model of Var-
ious Levels and Types of TVE during the “Ninth
Five-Year Plan” period and Study on Mainstream
Genesis of TVET Research
Ideas of German Vocational Education during the
“Tenth Five-Year Plan” period.
The Study on Modern Curriculum of TVE (1995)
by Yu Li/ Guo Yang and Introduction to Curric-
ulum of Vocational Education by Zhu Xiaobin
(1997) are the early attempts at research on TVE
curriculum. Study on Curriculum Reform of TVE
by Huang Kexiao (1997) and Yan Xueyi proposed
the idea of “pluralistic integration” that uses the
advanced curriculum theory of foreign TVE for
reference extensively, while carrying forward the
advantages of the Chinese tradition. Principles of
TVE (1998b) by the ↑ CIVTE tried to jump out of
the framework of traditional curriculum structures
and started with an analysis of occupation and ed-
ucation and their relationship to establish a new
concept of TVE curriculum. During this time a
batch of research projects with broad experiment
scope, big influence and lasting time emerged. Ex-
amples include the study of a wide basis and flex-
ible module (JIANG 1997) and Study and Experi-
ment on Curriculum Reform and Teaching Materi-
als Construction of TVE undertaken by the Shang-
hai Municipal Education Commission.
After entering the 21st century, the dramatic so-
cial reform and TVE with profound changes have
hastened the birth of a large batch of new re-
search achievements. Theory, Strategy and Meth-
od of Specialties Setting of ↑ Vocational Schools
by Jiang Dayuan (2002) starts with ↑ vocation and
vocational characteristics to define specialties,
which is a breakthrough in the qualitative meth-
od of traditional disciplinary category. New Con-
cept of TVET by Zhao Zhiqun (2003) starts from
the mutual restricting relationship between tech-
nical development, work organisation and ↑ hu-
man resource development to introduce the com-
prehensive discussion and practice of action orien-
tation and ↑ work process systematic study. Jiang
and Zhao are also active advocators of the con-
cept of action orientation and promote the idea that
↑ curriculum design should take the work process
as the referential criterion (JIANG, D. 2002). Study
on Practice-oriented Curriculum of TVE by Xu
Guoping (2005) is a work with great influence re-
cently and suggests that the fundamental problem
of TVE curriculum is putting too much stress on
41
learning and the need to treat the working practice
as the core of the logic of TVE curriculum.
At the end of the 1990s, the “Program of Curric-
ulum Reform and Teaching Materials Develop-
ment in TVE Towards the 21st Century” started
by the MoE was an important reform and research
practice was directly promoted by the administra-
tive department of education (VOCATIONAL EDUCA-
TION DEPARTMENT OF MOE/CIVTE 2005). With the
great development of higher TVE, study on high-
er TVE and its curriculum also accelerated contin-
uously. Furthermore, the Chinese Society of TVE
organized research activities on the TVE curricu-
lum and teaching reform. They were also very in-
fluential and strongly promoted the research in this
field.
(c) Disputes over the “status” of TVE and hot re-
search topics in different stages
The dispute over the “status” of TVE has lasted
up to now. Some scholars disagree with the view
that vocational education and technical education
are two types of education, which are both inter-
related but different from each other. They main-
tain that vocational education should include tech-
nical education. Some people think that technical
education and vocation education are not one sys-
tem. Other scholars think that the connotation of
TVE should be recognized from the angle of life-
long education, to include preparatory, profession-
al and ↑ further education for obtaining employ-
ment. The biggest problem with calling TVE vo-
cational education is that it is not advantageous to
the training of technical personnel; and this is al-
ready very weak, therefore the general formulation
of TVET that is used by most countries should be
adopted (MENG 2005).
Over the last 20 years, with the social reform proc-
ess, some topics have become the hot points for re-
search at different stages. They include the inte-
gration of agriculture, science and education, the
relationship between TVE and ↑ labour market re-
form, ↑ higher vocational education and the inte-
gration of production, study and research.
42
1.2.3 Research Institutions, Research
Methods
Research Institutions
After the “Cultural Revolution” had finished in
1976, in order to resume ↑ educational research
work, the State Council approved the re-estab-
lishment of the Central Institute of Education-
al Science in 1978. The “Division of Education-
al System” was set up within the institute to fur-
ther research on the reform of secondary educa-
tion structure and TVE. This division was subdi-
vided into TVE and ↑ Adult Education in 1986. In
1991 the ↑ CIVTE was established (→ 3.3.4.2), and
the former division of TVE of the Central Insti-
tute of Educational Science was incorporated in-
to CIVTE.
Many state departments and commissions and the
administrative department concerned with indus-
try also have research institutions studying TVE.
Most provinces such as Shanghai and Liaoning
have independently established provincial level re-
search organisations dealing with TVE. Further-
more, most provincial institutes of educational sci-
ence, some higher educational institutions and sec-
ondary ↑ vocational schools have research institutes
(offices) of TVE as well. At present, there are al-
most 100 central, provincial and city level research
institutions of TVE with more than 500 full-time
research staff throughout the country.
The Chinese Society of TVE is a national civil ac-
ademic organisation. Under it there are 18 special
committees. They absorb more than 70 sub-soci-
eties of provinces and industrial departments, or-
ganizing and supporting mass research activities
on TVE. The long standing NAVEC always attach-
es importance to research on TVE. It has research
organisations, full-time and part time research
personnel and publications.
Research methods
Due to the understanding that “VTP is a sub-dis-
cipline of education science”, the establishment
and development of VTP in ↑ China is still based
on the theories of general education (ZHANG / QIAN
2001). In China, the following is widely accepted,
namely that ↑ educational ↑ research methods can
be grasped from three levels: 1. special methods
Handbook of TVET Research
applicable to a certain disciplinary field; 2. ordi-
nary methods applicable to all the sciences; 3. uni-
versal methodologies to understand and remould
the world, explore and realize the identity of the
subjective and objective world. ↑ Educational re-
search comprehensively uses the methods of the
second level to explore the educational phenome-
na under the direction of the methodologies of the
third level. It is on this basis that the great major-
ity of TVE researchers confirm and express their
methods (MA 2002).
Actually, a large proportion of research on TVE in
China is description of experience. But the effort
to reveal the linkage between phenomena and the
development process of things through describing
the characteristics of phenomena and then come to
a conclusion is not easy. Therefore, in recent years,
some scholars have attempted to develop a spe-
cific ↑ methodology for TVE research. They have
brought forward the methodological proposal of
“interplay between science and basis integration of ex-
perience and intellectual enquiries, combination of in-
duction and deduction, unification of history and logic”
and made several significant attempts (ZHOU
2002).
Over the last 20 years, “experimental research”
has received universal attention. In TVE many ex-
periments are not only used in the micro curricu-
lum and teaching field, but also widely applied in
the macro researches such as administration and
comprehensive reform.
As the importance and urgency of research on cur-
riculum and teaching is becoming increasingly ob-
vious, the concept that “a teacher is a researcher”
is gradually becoming universally accepted. Re-
search aimed at enabling teachers to conduct re-
search on education “in education”, “through edu-
cation” and “for education” is actively introduced
to research on TVE (LIU / ZHOU 2005). Some re-
gions such as Shanghai have trained a large group
of backbone teachers and promoted the develop-
ment of this cause through this concept.
We can say that almost all the present research
methods into TVE are transplanted from other dis-
ciplines. Although a large number of them are used
widely, the internal logic of their development has
not been established (LIU / XU 2002). The contin-
ual emergence of ↑ interdisciplinary subjects and
cross-cutting subjects make educational research
Genesis of TVET Research
more and more complicated and pluralistic devel-
opment takes place (MA 2002). Through the anal-
ysis of the research achievements of recent years,
we can see that the research methods of TVE al-
so have some obvious variation in trends: investi-
gation is applied more and more universally; ex-
periment is under further development; trace study
starts to receiving attention; systematic methodolo-
gy is introduced and used more and more frequent-
ly; intercultural research is beginning to be used;
modern technological means are widely adopted.
1.2.4 Problems and Prospects
Although recently the theoretical framework of
TVE has been provisionally constructed from re-
search achievements, the disciplinary system still
basically follows that of general education, and
the study of its special characteristics and logical
structure is insufficient; the study of many impor-
tant fields such as the psychological, sociological,
ethical, and economical problems of TVE has not
been established or is in the initial stage. Analysis
shows that at present the disciplinary framework
of VTP is basically empirical with two main for-
mats, firstly the disciplinary system of pedagogy,
secondly the practice of TVE. The former is mod-
elled on the existing system of educational science
and arouses wide dispute and will fetter the train
of thought of research; the latter reduces the theo-
retic level of the disciplines and influences the ex-
planatory ability of theory to account for the phe-
nomena of TVE (1998b).
Some people think that the disciplinary construc-
tion of TVP should first establish basic concepts.
Basic concepts such as “vocational education”
still arouse many disputes, which shows that the
study of TVE is still a long way away from “sci-
entific research”. At present, Chinese theoretic cir-
cles already have many understandings on the log-
ical starting point for educational science, but up
to now no profound analysis of the logical starting
point of disciplines related to TVE has been pub-
lished (LI / LU 2005). Other scholars inspect the dis-
ciplinary characteristics from the angle of knowl-
edge types and occupational activity and query the
current situation that puts TVE as one of the gener-
al educational disciplines. They think that the de-
velopment of vocational education should enable
43
the ↑ vocational discipline to become a proper dis-
ciplinary field that is “on an equal footing” with
general pedagogy (JIANG 2006).
From a broader developmental perspective, due to
the close relationship between TVE and society,
economics and employment, the “↑ interdiscipli-
nary” ↑ research field relating to TVE is expanding
day by day (→ 3.3.3.1). For example, from the an-
gle of ↑ human capital theory, the study of the con-
tribution of TVE to economic growth, and its in-
fluence on input-output benefit, demand and sup-
ply, price mechanism, market competition and the
influence of some economic laws such as techni-
cal coefficients and marginal benefit to labour de-
mand; from the angle of sociology, the study of
the social function of TVE, relationships between
TVE and social roles, social hierarchy, social flow
and social psychology; from the angle of labour
science, the study of the relationship between TVE
and employment policy, labour regulations, labour
protection, labour remuneration and vocational
flow. Furthermore, the multi-disciplinary cross de-
velopment about educational theory as educational
culture and educational anthropology will also in-
fluence further trends profoundly.
1.3 French Research on
Vocational Training: A
Mirror of the Position and
Structure of the Training
System?
Philippe Méhaut
Research in the field of vocational training is rel-
atively underdeveloped worldwide and in this re-
gard contrasts with research in general education,
the contributions of which, particularly concern-
ing access inequalities or social inequalities, are
internationally recognized.
1.3.1 The Relative Underdevelopment of
French Research?
In order to understand the state of French research,
one must first of all be familiar with the character-
istics of the French vocational education system.
44
Compared to countries with an apprenticeship tra-
dition, the French ↑ initial vocational education
system was developed late and has remained so-
cially and economically undervalued. Indeed, the
French system is traditionally represented as be-
ing meritocratic and as privileging general educa-
tion (VERDIER 2001). Vocational education is the
“poor relation” of the education system. The ap-
prenticeship training system was dismantled in the
19th century as a result of the abolition of the trade
guilds and corporation during the French Revolu-
tion. It was slowly reorganised again at the begin-
ning of the 20th century, but not until the 1950s
was a structured system – which contained ap-
prenticeship and technical learning centres – re-
built under the authority of the Minister of Educa-
tion (TANGUY 1989). But the system was unstable
(it declined again in the 1960s and 1970s) and was
quantitatively dominated by general education (not
until the 1990s did young people with vocational
qualifications outnumber those with general edu-
cation qualifications) (CHARLOT / FIGEAT 1985; TER-
ROT 1997; M ÉHAUT forthcoming). And to charac-
terise vocational training one often refers to “ori-
entation related to ↑ school failure”: the best pupils
are directed towards general education with a view
to continuing their higher education, while those
with poorer results are progressively directed to-
wards vocational training. This has probably had
some impact on the state of research in this field:
few researchers have focused their attention on vo-
cational training as a subject of research; until re-
cently state incentives concerned themselves more
with general than with vocational education; in-
terest in vocational training only started develop-
ing 40 years ago (TANGUY 1983). This new interest
has been stimulated by the creation of professional
Baccalaureats, which have resulted in the develop-
ment of the ”vocational education track” function-
ing side by side with the general education track.
A report conducted at the beginning of the 1980s
(CARRAZ 1983) underlined how little developed re-
search in vocational education there was: less than
15 articles out of the one thousand published in so-
ciology journals were related to vocational train-
ing (French journals of sociology and labour soci-
ology). Similarly, economists showed little inter-
est in the subject and there were no scientific jour-
Handbook of TVET Research
nals that specialised in professional training (TAN-
GUY 1983). Although things have changed since the
1980s, the fact remains that research in this field
is underdeveloped, particularly if one compares
↑ France to Germany or Holland. In a study of Eu-
ropean projects and networks, Manning (2006)
counted 11 French participants in the Vetnet net-
work between 1998 and 2003 (compared with 53
English participants, 31 German participants, 28
Finish participants, 34 Dutch participants...). The
study also shows that France is under-represent-
ed in the 29 European projects analysed (projects
of the type ↑ Leonardo, Socrates, FP4 or 5). Oth-
er countries in Mediterranean Europe are also un-
derrepresented and their difficulty with the Eng-
lish language does not fully explain this phenom-
enon. In fact, the situation seems to reproduce the
“↑ societal effect” which was highlighted by Mau-
rice, Sellier and Silvestre (1982) in their compar-
ative research on France and Germany. To under-
stand the differences between the blue-collar po-
sitions in the two countries, they showed that one
needed to grasp on the one hand the structure of
the educational system (strong vocational educa-
tion in one country, not in the other), the work or-
ganisation and ↑ mobility patterns and, on the other
hand the relationship between these three fields.
1.3.2 A Problem of Definition and Scope
A second characteristic of the French system is the
compartmentalisation into initial education and
↑ lifelong education and training. The system of
↑ initial vocational education functions mostly un-
der the authority of the Ministry of Education and
has been progressively decentralized under the re-
gional authorities since 1982, with frequent con-
flicts with other ministries, particularly the Minis-
try of Industry. As for lifelong education, this falls
under the Ministry of Labour. Since the 1980s, this
compartmentalisation of tasks has evolved, and
there has been a gradual transfer of responsibilities
to the Regions. There is little connection between
the two systems; similarly, research in initial edu-
cation has little connection with research in life-
long education.
This distinction between initial and lifelong edu-
cation is particularly marked in France, as well as
in other countries with a full-time schooling tra-
Genesis of TVET Research
dition. It is less relevant in countries with a ↑ du-
al system including promotional training of the
type known as “Meister” or “Techniker”, which
in France would be part of the “lifelong training”
system. It is not relevant either in countries with a
“commercial” vocational education system (↑ Aus-
tralia for example) that trains young people (who
in France would be in “initial education”) and
adults in the same manner.
Thus, French research in education is divided in-
to two categories: on the one hand, the works that
deal essentially with initial education (at school
or in apprenticeship, or increasingly as part of the
new so-called “vocationalism” that has developed
at university (MÉHAUT forthcoming); on the oth-
er, the studies of ↑ lifelong education and training,
that is about training designed for young people
who have left the initial education system (train-
ing of young unemployed people) and for adults.
Thus, for example “L’introduction à une sociolo-
gie de la formation” (“Introduction to a sociology
of training”) written by Y. Palazzeschi (1998) ex-
clusively discusses practices in “lifelong” educa-
tion. Although precise numbers in this regard are
not available, it is often said that research in “life-
long” education is more developed than research
in “↑ initial vocational education”. This was due to
the fact that research in initial vocational educa-
tion was relatively underdeveloped and also to the
fact that, in the past, lifelong education was val-
ued and considered as a means of social promo-
tion (DUBAR / GADÉA 1999; DUBAR 2002). Thus, be-
cause initial vocational education was underdevel-
oped, the ideal of social promotion via lifelong ed-
ucation was propounded.
To this first segmentation of research is added a
sub-segmentation per discipline. With some rare
exceptions (see below), no scientific communi-
ties are organized around the theme of vocation-
al education. Each scientific discipline develops its
own research on the different types of education.
Significantly, the directory of the CNRS research
laboratories (the largest research organisation in
↑ France) does not provide any identification key-
words for the themes of vocational education and/
or training. These keywords are only occasionally
provided as a sub-theme of research. Thus, stud-
ies about vocational training can be conducted by
45
researchers in economics, sociology, psychology,
law, political sciences... In universities, “educa-
tional science” became an autonomous discipline
in 1967. However, laboratory research in this disci-
pline remains underdeveloped, is not, for the most
part, internationally oriented, and is poorly ranked
by the academic community (CHARLOT 1993). Fur-
thermore, the research focuses mainly on the “gen-
eral” education system.
Finally, one could mention a third level segmenta-
tion; it is less visible nowadays, but was significant
in the past decades. It opposes studies dealing with
what would nowadays be called the non formal or
informal aspects of vocational training, that is, for
example what was known as “popular education”
related to the associative or activist movement of
the 1960s and 1970s. The recent debates concern-
ing lifelong education have led to new oppositions
but also to new connections between the “voca-
tional” world and the other worlds of education.
1.3.3 The Institutions and Organisations of
Research in Vocational Education
Pioneering institutions have played an important
part in the development of research. This is, for ex-
ample, the case with the CNAM, which carries out
research in the field of ↑ adult education (it is one of
the missions of the institution), including studies
on ↑ adult pedagogy and on the characteristics of
the different groups concerned. Another institute,
the INETOP, was founded in 1928 and is linked
to the CNAM. The research it conducts is centred
on the psychology and guidance of students and
adults. It publishes a newsletter in which studies in
labour and educational psychology are presented.
But it was only toward the end of the 1960s that
research in the field gained real momentum and
structure.
The creation of the Céreq in 1971 and its subse-
quent growth are of great significance. Operating
under the shared authority of the Education and
Employment ministries, this research centre has a
mission to produce prospective studies on employ-
ment and work, on the professional integration of
young people, and on the functioning and evolu-
tion of the vocational training system (both initial
and continuing) (DUCRAY 1971). Its tasks are simi-
lar to those of its German counterpart, the BIBB,
46
although it has no competence with regard to cur-
ricula and pedagogy, and focuses more on studies
and research. Ever since its foundation, the Céreq
has relied on a network of associated centres (6 in-
itially, 18 today) located in university research lab-
oratories (in ↑ economics of education and labour
initially, but now including sociology, educational
science, management and political science, among
others.). The Céreq employs approximately 80 re-
searchers, and 50 university researchers collabo-
rate with Céreq on a regular basis in its research
and projects. It is probably France’s largest and
best-organised community of researchers dedicat-
ed to the subject of vocational education.
The National Institute of Research in Pedagogy
(INRP), which also has partner teams, has, as its
name indicates, competence in the field of peda-
gogy. Its main orientation indicates the primacy
of general education. In 1983, G. Vergnaud un-
derlined the low volume of and lack of cohesion
in the research on the didactics of vocational and
technical subjects, whether subjects taught as part
of vocational training or of general education. In
2005, the INRP presented 23 completed studies on
the subject of technological pedagogy and one on-
going study. These included works related to the
teaching of technological disciplines in primary
and middle school.
Alongside the network institutes – and sometimes
linked with them in accordance with the discipline-
based segmentation mentioned above – there are,
within universities and the large research organ-
isations, a number of laboratories that do devote
resources to research in education: roughly more
than 200 research organisations could be said to
be concerned with the whole field of the research
in education (from historical sciences to psychol-
ogy, management, economic and educational sci-
ences). They mainly belong to universities and are
often very small. And within these organisations,
vocational education is under represented, existing
more as projects taken on by one or two research-
ers, and seldom as a central research theme of the
laboratory. A recent trend is the development of re-
search activities within the university institute for
teacher training. Some of these are more and more
involved in the field of vocational education.
Handbook of TVET Research
1.3.4 The Support and Financing
Organisations
As in other areas of research in ↑ France, the edu-
cation and research ministries provide both finan-
cial (human resources) and structural support to
the laboratories and institutes. But in view of the
relative underdevelopment of research in the field
of vocational training, particular attention must be
paid to contractual financing and to the incentive
systems, which tend to be highly dispersed and
very unstable.
In the mid 1970s and early 1980s, large-scale calls
for tenders for studies in education, training and
the ↑ labour market contributed to the development
of research in these areas. Within the CNRS and
the Research Ministry, two ↑ interdisciplinary or-
ganisations played an essential part, between the
mid 1980s and the early 1990s, in the development
of research in the subject of vocational training.
In particular, they promoted research on learning
processes (didactics in vocational teaching, ap-
prenticeship in the workplace, the role of the new
educational technologies, the articulation between
the training system and enterprises...). The dis-
appearance of these organisations opened a void
that was only filled when, at the very beginning
of the 21st century, the ministry of research issued
new calls for tenders for research on education
and training. But this policy was dropped again in
2005. This instability is not conducive to continu-
ity in research or to an accumulation of scientific
knowledge. On the contrary, it contributes to the
underdevelopment of this field of research.
Beside this financial support for research, the gov-
ernment finances, or used to finance, more applied
studies, often used to support decision-making.
It was the case with the Labour Ministry, which
through its working group on vocational educa-
tion, used to finance experimental studies on life-
long education, including works on didactics and
learning processes. The creation of a Department
of Research, Studies and ↑ Statistics, covering both
research on employment and research on vocation-
al education, has led to a slowing down of the re-
search on vocational training, promoting, instead,
economic and statistical studies centred on the re-
lationship between unemployment and education.
Within the Ministry of Education, the department
Genesis of TVET Research
in charge of relations with employer and employ-
ee representatives have a research budget through
which studies concerning the creation of and
changes to vocational diplomas are financed.
1.3.5 The Main Research Themes
It would be impossible in this chapter to provide a
complete and systematic overview of all the stud-
ies conducted. We shall content ourselves with pre-
senting some of the permanent and central lines of
research and with suggesting some possible new
orientations and questions.
Studies have often addressed the question of in-
equalities in the educational system. Largely in-
spired by the sociology of the 1960s and 70s, these
studies have aimed to understand the differentiat-
ed processes of access to general education and to
vocational education, the phenomenon of social re-
production, and the inequalities of access to life-
long education. They are relying more and more on
panel data econometric modelling.
Research on the socio-professional integration of
young adults has developed considerably (TAN-
GUY 1986). This is a French specificity that is part-
ly explained by the significant lack of connection
between the world of education and the world of
work, and by the high unemployment rate among
young people. The Céreq has played a major part
in promoting research, particularly through its sur-
veys on the integration and trajectories of young
adults, the results of which are made available to
the scientific community. Although they are not
limited to the field of vocational training, these
studies generally aim to analyse the differences
of access to employment and the different trajec-
tories of young people according to the disciplines
studied and the types of training received. Some
of these studies concur with those more classical
studies of the ↑ economics of education that aim
to evaluate the ↑ efficiency of the ↑ human capital,
and with the studies conducted in ↑ France on the
comparative ↑ efficiency of general education and
of vocational training.
Seen as highly centralised and administered ac-
cording to State regulations, the French system
was, for a long time, wrongly seen (TANGUY 1989)
as being homogenous. Little interest was shown in
the strategies of different stakeholders and in the
47
differences between training institutions. Sever-
al factors have contributed to opening and devel-
oping this area of research: the realization that it
was necessary to take into account the “differen-
tial effects of training institutions” (and of class)
to understand the inequalities of access to educa-
tion and the different outcomes of education; the
gradual decentralization of the system has intro-
duced new actors and more leeway (increasing role
of the worker and employer representatives in life-
long education, the role of the Regions...); the de-
velopment of a quasi market in the field of life-
long education and the reinforcement of competi-
tion between the different initial education institu-
tions and of the autonomy of universities. A grow-
ing amount of research addresses the consequenc-
es of decentralization, the evaluation of region-
al policies, the different strategies of training in-
stitutions, the involvement of trade unions and of
employer associations. These themes are also dis-
cussed in studies that focus specifically on lifelong
education, its financing and modes of regulation.
The organisation of labour and its evolution, that of
activities and of the knowledge mobilized at work
have become important areas of research in France
(for a critical review of the research conducted be-
tween 1970 and today, see IRIBARNE 2001), and can
be approached from macroeconomic and social
perspectives (the models of ↑ labour organisation,
the crisis of Taylorism-Fordism), they may also be
approached from the standpoint of sector or ↑ pro-
fession (work in such or such an industrial sector,
the work and skills of people working in the elec-
tronics industry...), or from a technological and or-
ganisational perspective (introduction of numeri-
cally controlled machine tools, of e-mail...). The
controversies between researchers remain strong
(IRIBARNE 2001), even though, in the last decade,
the topic “employment-unemployment” has tended
to overshadow that of work. Many of these stud-
ies are not strictly related to vocational training,
but rather, are more directly related to the sociol-
ogy of labour, ↑ ergonomics or management. But
several of these studies precede the creation or re-
modelling of professional branches. The goal is,
for many of them, to evaluate the future evolution
of ↑ professions and competence, the nature of the
knowledge required for the different professions
48
(MINISTÈRE DE L’EDUCATION 2001). The rise of em-
ployment in the service sector, the discussions con-
cerning the notion of competence, but also the in-
creasing interest in the informal forms of knowl-
edge and ↑ skill acquisition at work have given a
new orientation to research, a research that used to
focus mainly on the industrial world.
Finally, another category of research, which we
shall call research into ↑ vocational didactics, tends
to concentrate on learning processes and condi-
tions. As underlined by Vergnaud (1983), the aim
is not merely to optimise knowledge transfer, but
also to explore and understand the very structure
of knowledge as well as the processes and concepts
at play. If the didactics of “general” subjects is rel-
atively developed, few studies in ↑ vocational di-
dactics have been undertaken. On the one hand,
research tends to concentrate on general disci-
plines. On the other, there aren’t enough guidelines
to structure the research. In the last twenty years,
however, studies have been conducted on various
learning situations at work, about dual vocational
training systems, about the use of new education-
al technologies. The main goal is to understand the
processes of transition from experience (or prac-
tice) to conceptual understanding. Although these
studies are concerned with “lifelong” education,
they also suggest new approaches to the topic of
“initial education”, particularly through their crit-
icism of discipline-based approaches and of the
underestimation of the importance of ↑ informal
learning.
1.3.6 Conclusion
This short overview, beyond painting a slight-
ly pessimistic picture of French research, leads to
two suggestions.
Any area of research, whatever it might be, cannot
be explored without taking into account the state
of the economic and social practices associated
with it. Here, the state of development and the eco-
nomic and social status of vocational training are
determining elements.
But one cannot ignore the dynamics within the
various disciplines or the organisation of ↑ tertiary
education and of research, which are not entirely
dependent on these practices. In ↑ France, the high
compartmentalization of research within social
Handbook of TVET Research
science, the compartmentalization and instabili-
ty of institutional and financial support (and this
does not only apply to the field of vocational train-
ing) are an obstacle to the emergence and above all
to the accumulation of studies that would provide
a sufficient volume of knowledge likely to gener-
ate scientific legitimacy and to produce results that
could be accumulated and understood by the ac-
tors of the system.
1.4 On the Genesis of TVET
Research in Germany
Felix Rauner
1.4.1 Introduction
In the German edition of the present handbook An-
tonius Lipsmeier (2005) presented the pedagogical
dimension and Jörg Pahl (2005) the occupation-re-
lated dimension of the genesis of TVET research
in two complementary chapters. These were sup-
plemented by a description of the genesis of TVET
research in the GDR by Dieter Grottker (2005).
Readers interested in a more thorough study of the
emergence of German TVET research are there-
fore advised to consult these articles in the Ger-
man edition of the handbook (RAUNER 2005).
TVET research in Germany is institutionalised at
the national level in the Federal Institute for Voca-
tional Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für
Berufsbildung – BIBB). Qualification and employ-
ment research is located at the Institute for Em-
ployment Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und
Berufsforschung – IAB), a research institution of
the Federal Employment Services. Besides these
national institutions TVET research takes place at
universities where it is operated by pedagogical in-
stitutes and departments responsible for the edu-
cation of ↑ vocational schoolteachers. In addition,
TVET research is represented by numerous exter-
nal research institutions from the fields of social
sciences and labour studies. Among these the So-
ciological Research Institute (SOFI) in Göttingen,
the Institute for Social Research (ISF) in Munich,
the Fraunhofer Institute for Labour Economics and
Organisation (IAO) in Stuttgart as well as the So-
Genesis of TVET Research
cial Research Institute (SFS) in Dortmund and the
Institute Labour and Technology (IAT) in Gelsen-
kirchen deserve particular attention. In the context
of their ↑ research programmes, which emphasise
sociological and work analytic aspects, these in-
stitutes also address questions of vocational edu-
cation and training. Two academic associations
represent TVET research in the strict sense. The
TVET section within the German Society for Ed-
ucational Science (DGfE) constitutes a scientific
community of the German TVET teachers, which
investigates vocational education from a pedagogi-
cal point of view. The working group of technical
disciplines (AG GTW) of the German Society for
Labour Studies (GfA) represents the technical ori-
entation of ↑ VET research in the technical ↑ voca-
tional disciplines. Research in the nursing sciences
has been established relatively late in comparison
to the international development.
1.4.2 The Genesis of TVET Research at
Universities
TVET research at universities is closely linked to
the university education of ↑ vocational school-
teachers and to the respective professorships in
VET and in the ↑ vocational disciplines and their
didactic theory. University education of TVET
teachers in Germany has its origins in the industri-
al regulation policies of the principalities of Baden
and Württemberg in the early 19th century. The
establishment of vocational schools for the train-
ing of skilled workers, and of vocational colleges
and polytechnics, the predecessors of the techni-
cal universities, were an expression of this region-
al innovation policy. In the polytechnic at Karl-
sruhe, which later developed into the Technical
University of Karlsruhe, vocational schoolteachers
have been educated since 1834. In 1857 a special
course of study was established for the first time
(BRECHMACHER / GERDS 1993, 43 ff.). Other German
states only followed this example at a much later
date. The scientific education of teachers at univer-
sities, according to a widespread opinion held by
industrial associations, trade unions and the DAT-
SCH (Deutscher Ausschuss für technisches Schul-
wesen – German Committee for Technical School-
ing), was thought to lead to a theoretical bias in
professional education. This would be inconsist-
49
ent with the aim of practice-oriented profession-
al training (LITT 1929). It was only in the first half
of the 20th century that university programmes for
prospective TVET teachers leading to the degree
of Diplom-Gewerbelehrer were set up in Thur-
ingia, Hamburg and Saxony. The establishment of
university education for teachers in the large do-
main of business and administration was less prob-
lematic. From the beginning of the 20th century
up to the 1960s the education of TVET teachers
became disseminated by and large throughout all
German federal states (op. cit., 47 ff.). Immediate-
ly after its foundation the GDR built upon the tra-
dition of university education of teachers for voca-
tional schools in Thuringia and Saxony and estab-
lished a network of study programmes and peda-
gogical institutes for the major disciplines of vo-
cational education (see GROTTKER 2005, 43). It was
and still is a common feature of all these study pro-
grammes that they are completed with a “first state
examination”, a qualification at the level of a Mas-
ter’s degree, and prepare for a preparatory service
(Referendariat) of about two years. It is only by
passing the “second state examination” after the
preparatory service that candidates achieve profes-
sional aptitude and thus fulfill the requirements for
employment as teachers.
The academic tradition of the habilitation as a re-
quirement for the appointment of university pro-
fessors and the close connection between research
and teaching at German universities led, in the
course of the establishment of university educa-
tion for TVET teachers, to a distinctly pedagogical
style of basic research. In East Germany alone there
were five hundred Ph.D. theses between 1945 and
1989 (GROTTKER 2005, 36), divided into subjects
from medicine and economics (Humboldt Univer-
sity, Berlin), agriculture (Leipzig) and engineering
(TU Dresden, TU Karl-Marx-Stadt, TU Magde-
burg). From these emerged, among other things,
handbooks of ↑ teaching methods for the studies
of methodology and didactics in the fields of ↑ me-
chanical engineering, electrical engineering, tex-
tile manufacturing, technical chemistry and con-
struction (ibid., 43). The particular emphasis on
empirical studies of the change of qualification re-
quirements, above all in the technical trades, is the
result of the co-operation with the Labour Studies
50
Tab. 1: Universities with Study Programmes for TVET
Teachers and Dispersion of Vocational Disci-
plines at German Universities (HB – Bremen;
HH – Hamburg; MV – Mecklenburg-Vor-
pommern; Rh.-Pal. – Rhineland-Palatinate;
Saarl. – Saarland; SA – Saxony-Anhalt; SH –
Schleswig-Holstein)
Institute of the Dresden University of Technology,
which became especially known within the inter-
national community from the works of Winfried
Hacker (ibid., 42 f.).
“Man erforscht eine Praxis, um Praktikern sagen zu
können, wie Praxis sein soll. Arbeitsforschung erscheint
häufig als analytische Zergliederung des Produktion-
sprozesses, aus der ein Posttaylorismus zu entstehen
droht. Protokollierung der Arbeitstätigkeit zum Zweck
der Effektivierung geht in der DDR nicht mit einem
expliziten ideologiekritischen und sozialverträglichen
Technikszenarium einher. Die Arbeitspsychologie von
Winfried Hacker (TU Dresden) versucht gegenzusteuern
Handbook of TVET Research
(HACKER / TIMPE / VORWEG 1973; HACKER 1978). Hacker,
Nachfolger von Werner Straub (1937–67 Prof. für Psy-
chologie), entwickelt seit den 1970er Jahren eine breit
angelegte Arbeitswissenschaft, die auch international
Beachtung findet (HACKER / MATERN 1980). […] (HACK-
ER 1986a). […] ( H ACKER 1986a; H ACKER 1986b; […]).
Aus den Untersuchungen entsteht das Tägigkeitsbewer-
tungssystem (TBS), welches auch in der berufswissen-
schaftlichen Forschung angewandt wird (BERGMANN /
SKELL 1996, 210)” (GROTTKER 2005, 42).
(One investigates a practice in order to tell practition-
ers how practice ought to be. Labour studies very often
has the shape of an analysis of the production process,
which threatens to develop into some kind of Post-Tay-
lorism. Keeping the minutes of work activities was not
accompanied in the GDR by an explicitly ideology-crit-
ical and socially responsible technology scenario. The
psychology of work by Winfried Hacker (Dresden Uni-
versity of Technology) always made efforts to counteract
this. Hacker, successor to Werner Straub (professor of
psychology from 1937 to 1967), has developed an inter-
nationally acknowledged concept of labour studies since
the 1970s. The investigations led to the development of
the Activity Assessment System, which is also used in
occupational studies.)
Pedagogical research at West German universities
initially had a strong orientation towards history
and the ↑ humanities (see LIPSMEIER 2005). In 1971
a constitutional amendment allocated the frame-
work ↑ legislation on ↑ VET planning and ↑ VET
research at the federal level. The institutional em-
bodiment of this change was above all the BLK,
i.e. the Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildung-
splanung und Bildungsforschung (Federal and
State Commission for ↑ Educational Planning and
Research Promotion). This body set up a large pro-
gramme of ↑ pilot projects in vocational education
and training (GERDS / FISCHER / DEITMER 2002). It
was the objective of this programme to support de-
cision-making in ↑ VET policy and VET planning
as well as to initiate innovations in the domains
of school-based and in-company vocational train-
ing. The scientific monitoring of the pilot projects
initially followed the approach of conducting pi-
lot projects according to a quasi-experimental ↑ re-
search design in order to achieve decision-making
criteria that were based on scientific foundations.
Already in the mid-1970s this experimental ap-
proach was succeeded by a research practice which
regarded ↑ pilot studies as innovation projects and
Genesis of TVET Research
tended to view scientific monitoring as a form of
agency research (→ 4.1; → 5.3.3).
From the point of view of TVET research at uni-
versities the BLK programme poses a great chal-
lenge with regard to the development of methods
for empirical research on teaching and for ↑ evalua-
tion research (DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / PLOGHAUS 1994).
From 1989 on the BLK pilot projects were integrat-
ed into a new programme structure in order to im-
prove the transfer effects of the pilot studies and to
enhance the synergy effects between the projects
within one programme. The programmes conduct-
ed since 1989, namely:
– “Neue Lernkonzepte in der dualen Berufsausbil-
dung” (New Learning Concepts within Dual Vo-
cational Education and Training) (GERDS / FISCHER /
DEITMER 2002; ZÖLLER / GERDS 2003)
– “Kooperation der Lernorte in der beruflichen
Bildung (KOLIBRI)” (Co-operation of Learn-
ing Sites in Vocational Education and Training)
(EULER, D. 1999; EULER 2004a; 2004b)
– “Innovative Fortbildung der Lehrer an berufli-
chen Schulen (innovelle-bs)” (Innovative ↑ Contin-
uing Education for TVET Teachers)
– “Selbst gesteuertes und kooperatives Lernen in
der beruflichen Erstausbildung (SKOLA)” (Self-
directed and Co-operative Learning in ↑ Initial Vo-
cational Education and Training) (http://www.blk-
bonn.de/modellversuche/programme_ab_1998.
htm)
each included between 20 and 30 single pilot
projects and joint pilot projects. Usually these
programmes were coordinated by university in-
stitutes in order to secure the scientific monitor-
ing and coordination as well as the evaluation of
the pilot studies (GERDS / FISCHER / DEITMER 2002).
The ↑ participation of ↑ educational research at uni-
versities in these programmes made an important
contribution to the expansion of this discipline.
The research competences generated in these pro-
grammes could subsequently be employed in Eu-
ropean research and development programmes on
technical and vocational education and training
that were established later (SELLIN 2002).
The development of TVET research at universities
into a well-established research sector within the
academic system was only a question of time.
51
“In 1984 the University of Bremen established a research
centre on “Work and Education”, in which up to 40 re-
searchers collaborated over a period of ten years on the
basis of a programme developed and evaluated accord-
ing to the criteria of the DFG. The results achieved with-
in this research centre made their way into more than 50
publications (cf. ALHEIT 1994). In the project proposal
for the establishment of this research centre it was de-
fined as the central mission of the centre […] to arrive,
via the analysis of socialisation and education process-
es focusing on work and occupation as the essential con-
stitutive elements of the life contexts of the workforce
and of social reproduction, at a comprehensive concept
of education, which connects research and educational
practice in the two domains [of vocational education and
workers’ education, F. R.]” (A LHEIT 1994, 11 [original
text in German]).
From this emerged both the Institute Technology and
Education (ITB) in 1986 and the Collaborative Research
Centre’s 186 “Status Passages and Risks in the Life
Course” in 1988. A large part of the latter’s twelve years
of existence was devoted to questions of vocational so-
cialisation and qualification, which were addressed from
a distinctly subject-oriented perspective.
“The DFG programme on the empirical analysis of
teaching and learning processes in initial vocational ed-
ucation in the business sector (BECK / HEID 1996) is an-
other example of TVET research developing in the con-
text of university programmes for the education of vo-
cational schoolteachers. The VET section at the Dres-
den University of Technology with its temporarily more
than 70 researchers, which was closed during the Ger-
man reunification process, demonstrates that university-
based TVET research was assigned considerable prior-
ity in the GDR” (GROTTKER 2005).
The foundation of a working group on technical
↑ vocational disciplines in the GfA and its biennial
scientific congress have contributed to an extension
of empirical TVET research as well as to the ↑ pro-
fessionalisation of the education of TVET teach-
ers. The following four research areas are charac-
teristic of this ↑ domain-specific TVET research at
universities (BANNWITZ / RAUNER 1993).
(1) The development of occupations and ↑ occupa-
tional fields: this ↑ research field comprises ↑ re-
search problems and ↑ development tasks, methods
and outcomes that relate to occupation-based work
and its genesis (historical occupation research) as
well as to the development of the respective oc-
cupational fields and the occupations belonging to
these (see HOWE 2004; HERKNER 2003).
52
(2) Training contents, vocational education as di-
mension of analysis, design and evaluation of vo-
cational training and qualification processes – ped-
agogical TVET research (→ 3.2)
(3) Analysis, design and evaluation of ↑ work proc-
esses organised on the basis of ↑ occupational pro-
files, above all under the aspects of changing qual-
ification requirements and the implementation of
work models that facilitate learning: domain-spe-
cific qualification and expertise research (→ 3.4.1)
(4) Analysis, design and evaluation of work sys-
tems, especially in the domain of programmable
work systems: technical and scientific TVET re-
search. To this category belong, for example, ques-
tions of the interaction between man and machine
under the aspect of the tutorial quality of program-
mable work systems (cf. EICKER / PETERSEN 2001).
Pedagogical TVET research has addressed an in-
creasing variety of topics in the course of its de-
velopment.
– ↑ Historical research in this regard occupies par-
ticularly much space (→ 3.3.3.2). The works of
Stratmann (1992), Pätzold (1989), Kipp (2000)
and other educationists have led to an almost com-
plete account of the history of vocational education
in Germany. With regard to the impact of Nation-
al Socialism on vocational education and train-
ing there are detailed studies by Kipp/ Miller-Kipp
(1995) and Wolsing (1977). There is, however, still
a gap in occupation-specific historical TVET re-
search (→ 3.1.3).
– Curriculum as well as teaching and learning re-
search have undertaken a first step towards the de-
velopment of this research field with the DFG pro-
gramme on ↑ teaching and learning processes in
↑ initial vocational education in the ↑ business sec-
tor. The further deepening of this research requires
close cooperation between pedagogical and ↑ occu-
pational research (PAHL 2005).
– The dual organisation and design of vocational
education in the tradition of apprenticeship is one
of the most closely investigated topics (PÄTZOLD /
WALDEN 1999; EULER 2004a; 2004b).
– Contributions to the subject-related topics of
competence development and ↑ vocational identi-
ty as well as ethic competence were made espe-
cially by Wolfgang Lempert (2005) and the re-
searchers of the above-mentioned Collaborative
Handbook of TVET Research
Research Centre “Status Passages and Risks in the
Life Course” (HEINZ 2002b).
1.4.3 TVET Research outside the
Universities
Just as in other industrialised countries there was
an increasing demand for knowledge and methods
for the establishment of improved models of voca-
tional education and training in early 20th centu-
ry Germany.
A strong impulse towards the scientific drift of
the reflection, analysis and implementation of vo-
cational education and training was triggered by
the activities of the “Deutscher Ausschuss für
technisches Schulwesen” (DATSCH), which was
founded in 1908, especially by its “Abhandlun-
gen und Berichten” (“studies and reports”) (1910
sqq; see HERKNER 2003), and by the acitivies of
the German Institute for Technical Vocational In-
struction (“Deutsches Institut für technische Ar-
beitsschulung” – DINTA) that was established
in 1925 by the industry (see BUNK 1972; critical-
ly K IPP 1978). This was the period when the rel-
evance of psychotechnology for VET increased
(cf. ERISMANN / MOERS 1922), e. g. in the investiga-
tion of vocational aptitude and of physical and psy-
chological requirements for employees by Wundt,
Stern, Ruttmann and Münsterberg, but also the age
of the Taylorisation of work as scientific manage-
ment with its degradation of the worker as a con-
scious entity, which also included considerable ef-
fects on industrial qualification processes (cf. LIPS-
MEIER 2003).
It can be observed that in the 1920s there was at
least the publication of important works that gave
a boost to pedagogical TVET research, such as the
handbooks by Ziegler (1916) and Kühne (1922),
the “Handbook of Occupations” of the Reich-
sanstalt für Arbeitsvermittlung und Arbeitslosen-
versicherung (RAVAV 1930) and the career ad-
vice handbook of the Reich Employment Services
(REICHSARBEITSVERWALTUNG 1925), but also Feld’s
Grundfragen (“Fundamental Questions”) from
1928 or Dehen’s study on industrial ↑ vocational
schools (1928) may be numbered among these.
There is no justification for the view that pedagog-
ical theory and practice in the era of National So-
cialism, however intensive and linked to many con-
Genesis of TVET Research
crete results, may be qualified as TVET research.
This is not only due to its ideological bias, but also
to its hostility towards experience. The pedagog-
ical studies which intensively discussed this era
(cf. SEUBERT 1977; K IPP / MILLER-K IPP 1995) veri-
fy this judgement. Kell classifies the work done by
National Socialist VET institutions as thematical-
ly belonging to TVET research, but raises funda-
mental objections towards its acknowledgement as
research:
“Political objectives, subjective theories and at best sys-
tematised, accumulated ↑ experiential knowledge most
likely had a great influence on these works (K ELL 1999,
152)” (LIPSMEIER 2005, 22/23).
The Vocational Education and Training Act of
1969 established the Federal Institute for TVET
Research (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildungsfor-
schung – BBF), which took over the tasks of the
DATSCH and supplemented them with a distinctly
scientific programme. Besides this research mis-
sion it is predominantly through planning activi-
ties that the BBF supports and advises the federal
government, the education ministers of the feder-
al states to the extent that the latter have responsi-
bilities in the domain of dual vocational training,
but also the employers’ associations and trade un-
ions in the organisation, design and further devel-
opment of vocational education and training. The
activities of the BBF were initially diversified into
five areas of research and development:
(1) Structural research, which is occupied with the
fundamental questions of the ↑ VET system, and
with the qualification changes in the world of work
as far as the latter are manifested in changed qual-
ification requirements.
(2) ↑ Curriculum research. This ↑ research field was
meant to deal with the investigation and design of
professional learning or professional training proc-
esses. In the 1970s this area of responsibilities was
assigned the coordination of ↑ pilot projects in the
field of in-company vocational training.
(3) Qualifications and occupations research. Its
emphasis was and continues to be on the investiga-
tion of the changes in qualification requirements,
on which the modernisation and redevelopment of
occupations is based.
(4) ↑ Media research and development. In the tra-
dition of course-based industrial vocational train-
53
ing the BBF has taken over the responsibilities of
the DATSCH with regard to the development of
course materials for ↑ in-company training. This
shift was accompanied by research in the con-
text of the introduction of new media and learning
methods (→ 4.1).
(5) Adult and ↑ continuing education research.
The domain of continuing education is impeded
in its development by a multitude of regulations
and norms belonging to highly diversified legal
spheres. This is paralleled by different responsi-
bilities which are an obstacle to an effective devel-
opment of ↑ lifelong learning. Accordingly the re-
search on adult and continuing education is under-
developed in comparison to the research on ↑ ini-
tial vocational education and training.
(6) Costs and financing of vocational education
and training. In the course of the decline of ap-
prenticeship places for ↑ in-company training to a
level of less than five per cent the question of the
costs and benefits of vocational education has be-
come more important. It was especially the obser-
vation that the relatively high ↑ training costs (net
costs) in comparison to other countries with a dual
apprenticeship training system are by no means an
indicator for a high quality of the training, but rath-
er the opposite (RAUNER 2005), has increased the
interest in economic TVET research (SCHMIDT, D.
1995; LIPSMEIER 2005; PAHL 2005).
The genesis of TVET research in Germany shows
(LIPSMEIER 2005; PAHL 2005; GROTTKER 2005 and
→ 3.2) that, besides the scientific reflection of the
foundations for the design and organisation of VET
as the core mission for the BBF and later the BIBB,
its focus is also supposed to be on developmental
tasks like the preparation of ↑ training regulations
and media, whose value is expected to rise with the
growing knowledge of the aforementioned founda-
tions. In this regard TVET research is deeply root-
ed in the tradition of those disciplines that consid-
er research not as an end in itself, but as a means
external to themselves, typically a developmental
task. It is thus connected in particular to educa-
tional science (WENIGER 1953; K LAFKI 1991) as an
action-oriented discipline, and with labour stud-
ies as a science that aims at designing the world
of work (ULICH 1994; EMERY 1959; EMERY/ EMERY
1974; HACKMAN / OLDHAM 1976). In TVET research
54
the development of occupations and ↑ occupational
fields, of training curricula and training media as
well as training methods belong to the central are-
as of research and development. Therefore curricu-
lum and ↑ media research are structured as a com-
bination of analytical and developmental research.
Within a ↑ research programme of eleven themat-
ic fields that already had a broad design in the ini-
tial phase there was, in the areas of ↑ media devel-
opment and modernisation of training regulations,
a distinction between “work projects”, “problem
analyses”, “preliminary studies” and “main stud-
ies”. With the research area of “↑ methodology of
TVET research” the BBF emphasised its claim to
understand TVET research not only as a discipline
that acts within a framework defined by ↑ educa-
tional ↑ policy and practice, but also to develop this
discipline according to scientific criteria within the
academic system. The methodological groundwork
project on the “investigation of ↑ interdisciplinary
approaches to labour and occupational studies”, for
instance, pursued the ambitious goal of develop-
ing a toolbox for curricula and training regulations
(cf. BBF 1971a, 6). Even though basic research
was no longer explicitly defined as a research ar-
ea on its own subsequent to the transformation of
the BBF into the BIBB, fundamental issues of vo-
cational education continued to be explored by the
TVET research conducted by the BIBB. The treat-
ment of topics like “dicactics of modern vocation-
al education and training” (DEHNBOSTEL / WALTER-
LEZIUS 1995), “vocational education and ↑ organ-
isational development” (DYBOWSKI / PÜTZ / RAUNER
1995c) as well as “competence research” (FRAN-
KE 2001) are manifestations of a research practice
that regards the connection to the scientific proc-
ess as indispensable. The difficulty of maintaining
Fig. 1: Functional Relations between Ministries and Research Institutes (GROTTKER 2005)
Handbook of TVET Research
this orientation emerges from the dilemma of us-
ing the proximity to educational practice and ed-
ucational policy for access to the field and for the
implementation of research findings and to accept
in turn the necessary integration into the consen-
sual practice of the social partners and the minis-
tries (SCHMIDT, H. 1995, 490). From the perspec-
tive of a TVET research that has the opportunity
to develop under the conditions of institutional in-
dependence the Max Planck Institute for ↑ Educa-
tional Research formulated a programme for se-
curing a “free TVET research” similar to the work
programme of the BBF (LEMPERT 1973). The di-
lemma of this research programme, conversely,
consisted in the fact that the emphasis on auton-
omy and “free research” went along with a great-
er ↑ distance to TVET practice and ↑ TVET policy.
As a consequence this type of scientific orientation
entailed a proportionately lower degree of practi-
cal relevance for developmental issues in vocation-
al education.
Simultaneously with the development of “public”
TVET research in the Federal Republic the GDR
had already assigned high priority to vocational
education in its early years. From 1954 on, the po-
litical responsibility for vocational education was
assumed by the minister for labour and vocation-
al education.
In 1966 an office for vocational education was es-
tablished; and since 1970 an undersecretary has
exclusively been occupied with the cross-cutting
domain of vocational education and training. Vo-
cational education was thus defined as an inter-
ministerial affair at the cabinet level unlike any
other country. TVET research was institutional-
ised already in 1954 in the German Central Insti-
tute for Vocational Education (Deutsches Zentral-
Genesis of TVET Research
institut für Berufsbildung – DZIB) and from 1973
on, subsequent to some renamings, as a Central In-
stititute for Vocational Education (Zentralinstitut
für Berufsbildung – ZIB).
“The research co-ordinaed by the ZIB has the
following missions:
(a) conceptional support of ↑ TVET policy and
assistance for the state secretariat,
(b) contributions to the pedagogical theory of vocational
education and to teaching methods and
(c) international representation of the discipline
So the ZIB is participating in an international seminar
in Frankfurt on initial and continuing vocational educa-
tion and training organised by the Sozialdemokratische
Arbeiterjugend and the Deutscher Gewerkschaftsbund
(German Federation of Trade Unions) in 1981 (BARGEN /
EBERHARD 1982, 106). Research and development at the
ZIB are institutionalised instruments of TVET policy,
the connection between politics and science being con-
firmed by the four decisions of the Council of Ministers
from 1960, 1968, 1976 and 1983. Additionally an ideo-
logical determinant has to be observed as vocational ed-
ucation serves the goal of systematising the training of
apprentices, which leads to special tasks for the research
on teachers education (STORZ / GLATZEL 1979)” (GROTT-
KER 2005).
Grottker critically remarks that loyalty to the
USSR remained a benchmark of scientific and po-
litical maturity. A professorship was open only
to those candidates who underwent an additional
study programme in the USSR after their doctor-
ate (op. cit., 38).
1.4.4 TVET Research as an Independent
Research Discipline
Up to the 1990s university-based and public TVET
research in the BIBB and the IAB as well as socio-
logical career and ↑ qualification research had on-
ly few connections with each other. Even the ↑ pi-
lot projects on vocational education were organ-
ised as two separate programmes, namely, one
for school-based and one for ↑ in-company train-
ing. The scientific communities were largely sep-
arated into an educational branch focusing on the
school as a learning site, and a branch oriented to-
wards initial and continuing vocational training in
companies. A scientific community that assumes
an intermediary position between these two tradi-
55
tions is the branch of occupational studies, which
is established both at universities and at the BIBB
and which started early to engage, in its ↑ domain-
specific research, in the investigation and design of
vocational training processes across learning sites.
This community initiated the establishment of a
biennial VET congress, in which symposia organ-
ised according to ↑ occupational fields play a dom-
inant role.
„Die Gründung der ‚Hochschultage Berufliche Bildung‘
1980 in Bremen stellte einen weiteren wichtigen Ein-
schnitt für die Entwicklung der berufswissenschaftli-
chen Forschung und Lehre dar. Seither fand diese Kon-
ferenz in zweijährigem Rhythmus statt und hat für viele
berufliche Fachrichtungen einen Dialog zwischen der
einschlägigen universitären Forschung und Lehre sow-
ie der Berufsbildungspraxis und der Berufsbildungspla-
nung eröffnet. Zugleich haben sich die ‚Hochschultage
Berufliche Bildung‘ als eine Plattform erwiesen, bei der
Forschung und Entwicklung als ein interdisziplinär-
er Aufgabenbereich und als ein Gegenstand des Dia-
logs zwischen Wissenschaft und Praxis etabliert wurde.
Der berufswissenschaftlichen Forschung kommt dabei
schon wegen der berufsfachlich ausdifferenzieren Kon-
ferenzstruktur eine Schlüsselrolle zu. Die zunehmende
Beteiligung der außeruniversitären Berufsbildungsfor-
schung sowie der Repräsentanten der Berufsbildung-
splanung an den ‚Hochschultagen Berufliche Bildung‘
hat zur Weiterentwicklung der Berufsbildungsforschung
wesentlich beigetragen“ (PAHL 2005, 33/34).
(The foundation of the “Hochschultage Berufliche Bil-
dung” in Bremen in 1980 was another decisive step in the
development of research and teaching in occupational
studies. Since then the conference took place every two
years and opened a dialogue between university based
research and teaching and TVET practice and TVET
planning for many vocational disciplines. The “Hoch-
schultage Berufliche Bildung” also proved to be a plat-
form where research and development was established
as an interdisciplinary work area and as the topic of a di-
alogue between science and practice. Occupational stud-
ies already assume a crucial role because the conference
is organised according to vocational disciplines. The in-
creasing participation of non-university based research
and of representatives of TVET planning in the “Hoch-
schultage Berufliche Bildung” has made significant con-
tributions to the development of TVET research.)
Thus the way was paved for the establishment of
the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsbildungsforschung-
snetzwerk (AGBFN), whose mission is to bring to-
gether TVET researchers from different communi-
ties. Despite the development of this research net-
56
work and the establishment of TVET research as a
research discipline of its own within the DFG the
question of the adequate ↑ research methods for
the constitutive subject matter of this area was left
open. This question had already been discussed at
the early stages of the BBF. Its founders had em-
phasised with their first ↑ research programme,
which included the area “↑ methodology of TVET
research”, that it was indispensable to establish the
subject matter as an original one and the methods
as adequate just because TVET research depends
on the expertise of so many disciplines. Accord-
ingly one of the basic research projects calls for
the development of a methodological and termino-
logical set of instruments for the work of the BBF
considering the ↑ interdisciplinary connections (cf.
BBF 1971a, 6).
This ambitious goal was based on the misconcep-
tion that research could be organised according to
disciplines. It was only two decades later that the
idea of a research process depending on the exper-
tise of different disciplines became clearer (HEID
1995). This applies above all to research and ↑ de-
velopment tasks. It is hardly surprising that re-
search that is oriented towards ↑ interdisciplinar-
ity draws, via the agents in the scientific process,
on the methodological instruments of different dis-
ciplines. Scientists employ the discipline-specific
methods according to their own disciplinary back-
ground and constitute their subject matter as a topic
of the social sciences, labour studies, engineering
or the natural sciences. Sociological ↑ qualification
research is an example for this (→ 3.1.5; → 4.4).
In ↑ domain-specific qualification and competence
research it is crucial to observe the social and cul-
tural rules which shape professional behaviour in
their interaction with objective rules, whose valid-
ity, e. g. in technical work, can be established on-
ly by reference to natural sciences and technology.
The insight that professional agency and profes-
sional competence are characterised by the com-
pliance with social and objective rules (see RÖBEN
2004a; MÜLLER 1978; HERITAGE 1984, 295 ff.) en-
tails far-reaching consequences for the methodo-
logical design of TVET research:
The fact that professional competence includes the
ability to cope with the interaction of social and
Handbook of TVET Research
objective rules necessitates a cross-disciplinary
↑ research approach (cf. RÖBEN 2004a, 20).
The methodological debate was pushed for-
ward through the foundation of the BBF, but the
strength of this momentum soon decreased. It was
only through the awareness of the limited scope
of methods imported from other ↑ research tradi-
tions that the necessity of methodological innova-
tions was acknowledged (→ 5.1).
Chapter 5 of the present Handbook is based on
a methodological debate and development proc-
ess in TVET research that has been going on for
more than three decades. It is only after the estab-
lishment of subject-related development methods
(→ 5.1.1) that TVET research in Germany can be
classified as an independent ↑ research tradition
within ↑ educational research that is characterised
by its own ↑ research questions, methods and re-
sults.
1.4.5 Future Perspectives
The future development of TVET research in Ger-
many is closely connected to the further ↑ profes-
sionalisation of the pedagogical and ↑ domain-spe-
cific education of TVET teachers at universities.
It is an open question whether there will be a co-
operation between the universities and the feder-
al states in order to establish the variety of ↑ voca-
tional disciplines at the university level (cf. GERDS /
HEIDEGGER / RAUNER 1999). If this effort is success-
ful, then the infrastructure for TVET research at
universities will be improved, too. The discussion
as to how the vocational disciplines may make
their mark as the basis of a domain-specific aca-
demic education for TVET teachers, which got un-
derway after the international start-off conference
in ↑ Hangzhou in 2004 (HANGZHOU DECLARATION
2005) provides a good setting for innovations be-
yond the national contexts. The prospects for al-
so establishing TVET research as a sustainable in-
ternational research tradition have thus improved
considerably.
Genesis of TVET Research
1.5 History of Vocational
Education & Training
Research in the United States
Cecilia Maldonado and Sterling
Saddler
1.5.1 History of Vocational Education
Vocational education in the United States is com-
plex having been impacted by philosophical, edu-
cational, political, economic, and societal factors
since its inception. Vocational education is defined
as,
“a large and diverse educational enterprise, spanning
both secondary and postsecondary education. …[it] en-
compasses a tremendous number of programs designed
to prepare students for employment and for living”
(SCOTT / SARKEES-WIRCENSKI 1996, 2).
It has a very rich history. According to Gordon
(2003), vocational education developed as we know
it today in the early part of the twentieth century.
However, “causal factors of the vocational move-
ment in education occurred during the nineteenth
century, and the historical roots can be traced to
ancient times, with significant European connec-
tions” (2003, 1). Undoubtedly, the most important
period in the development of vocational education
in the United States occurred between 1900 and
1917 (LAZERSON / GRUBB 1974; GORDON 2003).
The Manual Education Movement
The evolution of vocational education came about
as a result of the manual education movement in
the late 1800s (LAZERSON / GRUBB 1974; GORDON
2003). Although John D. Runkel, president of
Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Calvin
M. Woodward, professor of mathematics and ap-
plied mechanics at Washington University in St.
Louis are credited for “popularizing manual ed-
ucation in the United States” (LAZERSON / GRUBB
1974, 4); the Hampton Institute in Virginia, which
opened in 1868 to educate African Americans,
was the first manual labor school established. Its
opening marked the beginning of the manual labor
school movement in America (GORDON 2003). The
school’s philosophy was “…that there was digni-
ty in all forms of work and that human beings, re-
57
gardless of race, could only truly appreciate that
which they had earned. Therefore, students were
expected to work for the school to earn their tui-
tion” (GORDON 2003, 10). It was during this period
that the purposes and goals of schools and educa-
tion were debated and it was thought that incorpo-
rating manual training in schools would produce
a truly democratic system with greater appeal to
students (LAZERSON / GRUBB 1974). It had a “multi-
plicity of themes – industrial ↑ efficiency, the prep-
aration of skilled workers, pedagogical reform –
it was tied together by several common assump-
tions about social change” (LAZERSON / GRUBB 1974,
7). The greatest contribution of the manual educa-
tion movement perhaps, was “its effect on the per-
ception of what could or should be taught in pub-
lic school. …more than anything, it changed the
conception of what might be legitimately taught in
the schools; once this was accomplished, the shift
to vocational purposes seemed a logical develop-
ment” (GORDON 2003, 12).
Influences of Industrialization
The influences of industrialization changed what
proponents believed about manual education, its
ability to influence social change and bring about
economic relevance.
“The economy did not need individuals who understood
the traditional crafts and the principles of production,
but men to run the industrial machine, supervise the as-
sembly line, and organize the corporation” (LAZERSON /
GRUBB 1974, 15–16).
Industrialization replaced man with machine and
at the same time, all of the social ills associated
with urbanization began to erode society.
“While Americans looked kindly upon the economic re-
turns of technological growth and industrial ↑ efficien-
cy, the social consequences were severe: urban chaos,
the withering of traditional institutions, the loss of once
revered values, conflict between the generations and
among social classes. Indeed, the central issue of Amer-
ican reform in the mid and late nineteenth century lay
precisely in the problem of promoting industrial growth
while limiting its deleterious social effects. The school
was seen as a major agent in this process. Knowledge
was power, a national resource in the search for prosper-
ity” (LAZERSON / GRUBB 1974, 8).
Because corporations had gained so much of the
power during this period, assumptions that edu-
58
cation should be closely tied to business and eco-
nomic needs were strengthened. The integration of
education and economic need became the impe-
tus for schools to turn toward vocational training
(LAZERSON / GRUBB 1974). Vocational education had
attracted the attention and support of almost every
group interested in education, including those with
political power, in the country. One result was the
formation in 1906 of the National Society for the
Promotion of Industrial Education (NSPIE). This
organisation coordinated support for industrial ed-
ucation among various interested groups. NSPIE’s
efforts ultimately “gained its greatest triumph –
passage of the ↑ Smith-Hughes Act granting fed-
eral funds for vocational education” (LAZERSON /
GRUBB 1974, 18).
1.5.2 Impact of Legislation on Vocational
Education and Vocational Education
Research
Economic, social, philosophical, political and edu-
cational problems facing society are often resolved
through the legislative process. As the ↑ United
States changed from a predominantly agrarian so-
ciety to a highly industrialized, technological soci-
ety impacted by social, political, religious and cul-
tural changes; the establishment of vocational ed-
ucation has helped manage some of these changes
and legislation has played a key role in its devel-
opment. Although the Smith-Hughes Act of 1917
had the greatest impact on the system of vocation-
al education as we know it today, other legislative
acts set the stage for what was to come. A few are
worth mentioning because of their impact on voca-
tional education.
The Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 (U.S. LEGISLA-
TION 1862; U.S. LEGISLATION 1890), also known as
the Land-Grant Acts, provided land for establish-
ing universities, called “colleges of agriculture”,
“colleges of mechanic arts”, or “colleges of agri-
culture and mechanic arts”. Their purpose was to
“promote the liberal and practical education of the
industrial classes in pursuits and ↑ professions of
living” (GORDON 2003, 41). According to Gordon
(2003), the demands for trained workers in agri-
culture, the principal resource in America, grew
between 1820 and 1860 when it was realized that
already established elite universities promoted the
Handbook of TVET Research
education of professionals in only four areas: law,
medicine, teaching, and the ministry. Congress’
response to the lack of opportunity for the mass-
es to be trained to solve “practical” problems was
the Morrill Act of 1862 and was the first legisla-
tion passed to support vocational education. The
Morrill Act of 1890 provided educational oppor-
tunities for African American students (GORDON
2003). It mandated that southern states open their
land-grant institutions to both White and Black
students or establish “separate but equal” facilities
for Blacks (cited in GORDON 2003).
The Smith-Lever Agricultural Extension Act of
1914 (PL 95) provided funding for the establish-
ment of cooperative extension work in agriculture
and ↑ home economics. It also completed the land-
grant “triumvirate – teaching, research, and exten-
sion” (GORDON 2003, 49). It was the first act that
established the 50–50 matching by states to feder-
al funding and “provided farmers and homemak-
ers needed training in demonstrations and project
work at the farm and in the home as vocational ed-
ucation of less than college work” (SCOTT / SARKEES-
WIRCENSKI 1996, 121).
The ↑ Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 (PL 64-347) is of-
ten associated by stakeholders as the beginning of
federal support for vocational education through
the provisions in federal funding. The federal gov-
ernment since then has had an active interest in ex-
panding vocational education. This act had many
provisions that helped shape vocational education.
The most important ones included the creation of a
Federal Board for Vocational Education; establish-
ment of federal-state-local agency ↑ partnership
for the purpose of establishing and operating pro-
grams in public institutions through the creation of
state boards; provisions for funding for studies, in-
vestigations, and reports for States to aid them in
the establishment of ↑ vocational schools and class-
es; appropriations for salaries of teachers, supervi-
sors, and directors of vocational education areas
(States were to pay half); and, teacher preparation
in the areas of agriculture, home economics, and
trade and industrial subjects (Smith-Hughes Act of
1917 Pub. L. No. 64-347 § 114, 39 Stat. 929).
The ↑ Vocational Education Act of 1963 (PL 88-
210) was also an important piece of legislation that
“marked a new era for vocational education....[and
Genesis of TVET Research
was] an essential program for the common wel-
fare and national defense of the country” SCOTT /
SARKEES-WIRCENSKI 1996, 128). Its major goals
were to
“…maintain, extend, and improve existing programs of
vocational education, to develop new programs of voca-
tional education, and to provide part-time employment
for youths who needed the earnings to continue their vo-
cational training on a full-time basis, so that persons of
all ages in all communities of the State – those in ↑ high
school, those who have completed or discontinued their
formal education and are preparing to enter the labor
market, those who have already entered the labor mar-
ket but need to upgrade their skills or learn new ones,
and those with special educational handicaps – will have
ready access to vocational training or retraining which
is of high quality, which is realistic in the light of actu-
al or anticipated opportunities for gainful employment,
and which is suited to their needs, interests, and ability
to benefit from such training” (VOCATIONAL EDUCATION
ACT OF 1963 Pub. L. No. 88-210 § 1 77 Stat. 403).
This act was also instrumental in broadening the
definition of vocational education as well as ex-
panding the delivery systems of vocational educa-
tion used today.
The Carl D. Perkins Vocational Education Act
1984 (PL 98-524) “amended the Vocational Edu-
cation Act of 1963 and replaced the amendments
of 1968 and 1976” (GORDON 2003, 86). The em-
phasis for funding changed from expansion of pro-
grams to improvement and at-risk populations.
There were two major goals for this act, one eco-
nomic and one social. The first was to improve the
skills of the labour force and prepare adults for job
opportunities (economic); and the latter, to provide
equal opportunities for adults in vocational educa-
tion (social) (GORDON 2003). This act was amend-
ed by the Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied
Technology Education Act of 1990 (PL 101-392)
and replaced by the Carl D. Perkins Vocation-
al and Technical Education Act of 1998 (PL 105-
332), which included provisions for research. Gor-
don (2003) states,
“A national assessment of vocational education activ-
ities was authorized to provide for an independent as-
sessment and evaluation of programs funded with Per-
kins dollars. The law authorized the U.S. Secretary of
Education to conduct activities in the areas of nation-
al research and demonstrations, as well as development,
capacity building, and technical assistance” (GORDON
2003, 101).
59
Although somewhat dated, a compilation of federal
legislation for vocational education published in
1966 states that legislative acts since the manpow-
er development in 1961 lists provisions which be-
came a common feature of federal laws subsequent
to this act. Of the fourteen points that were listed,
the following were related to the relevance of eval-
uation and research in the field.
(1) Provisions for research, ↑ experimentation, and
↑ pilot projects were permitted, encouraged, and
often required.
(2) Evaluation and detailed reporting were man-
dated (SWANSON 1966, 103).
Professionals in the field hope for continued sup-
port from the federal government for ↑ career and
technical education and the research endeavours
associated with it.
1.5.3 History of Vocational Education
Research
History of Educational Research
The formal study of education began at the turn
of the century with establishment of university
schools and departments of education. There was
a desire to create a “science of education” (LAGE-
MANN 1997, 5). Education was looked upon as the
vehicle for solving “social problems related to rap-
id demographic and economic change” (LAGEMANN
1997, 6). Foundations such as the Rockefeller’s
General Education Board (GEB) and the Carne-
gie Foundation for the Advancement of Teach-
ing (CFAT) were established to “foster more na-
tionally standardized systems of education” (cited
in LAGEMANN 1997, 6) and were the first to spon-
sor what was then termed major investigations (re-
search) in schools in various cities across the coun-
try (LAGEMANN 1997). A study conducted by Paul
Hanus, professor of the history and art of teaching
at Harvard and George D. Strayor, professor of ed-
ucational administration at Teachers College pro-
duced results that helped increase the course offer-
ings in education of the twelve leading universities
from 132 in 1900 to 1,636 by 1930 (cited in LAGE-
MANN 1997, 6).
It was also one of the first to use statistical meth-
ods to present “facts” rather than “opinion” (LAGE-
MANN 1997). ↑ Statistical analysis was adopted in
60
↑ educational research when Edward L. Thorn-
dike published his textbook in 1904; it was adopt-
ed in educational research courses across the coun-
try (cited in LAGEMANN 1997). During the next
few years, “special methods were invented to al-
low researchers to study different aspects of ed-
ucation…some of the methods involved laborato-
ry experiments; others involved questionnaires.
All of which provided data that, after being sub-
jected to quantitative analysis, contributed to the
rapidly developing ↑ knowledge base in education”
(LAGEMANN 1997, 7). Educational research became
an identifiable field of study in 1917 with its inclu-
sion as a distinct category in the Reader’s Guide
to Periodical Literature. About the same time the
research community in education emerged (LAGE-
MANN 1997). In general, the national ↑ commitment
to research in education began a half century be-
fore a commitment to research in vocational edu-
cation (CVERD 1976).
Research in Vocational Education
Most of the historical and research related infor-
mation presented in this section was detailed in a
1976 report by The Committee on Vocational Ed-
ucation Research and Development (CVERD). It
was the outcome of an assessment conducted by
this committee, formed in 1974 by the Office of
Education to perform two tasks:
(1) To review and assess the research and develop-
ment activities sponsored by the Office of Educa-
tion under the authority of the ↑ Vocational Educa-
tion Act of 1963 as amended in 1968 and;
(2) To recommend changes in research and ↑ devel-
opment policies and programs for the coming dec-
ade (CVERD 1976, v–vi).
The report directed by this committee “composed
of professionals from diverse parts of the vocation-
al education community – universities, R& D insti-
tutions, national organisations, and state and local
education agencies – as well as behavioral and so-
cial scientists and a labour union official” with the
hope of improving vocational education services
to individuals and society (CVERD 1976, vii).
Handbook of TVET Research
Historical Background
Although the ↑ Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 (PL 64-
347) and the George Barden Act of 1946 (PL 79-
586), had designated funding for supporting “stud-
ies and reports designed to improve the adminis-
tration and management of vocational education
programs” (CVERD 1976, 17) neither act provided
funding specifically for research and development
in vocational education. Such funding occurred af-
ter the Vocational Education Act of 1963 (PL 88-
210) was passed. This Act had “explicitly provided
substantial funding” (CVERD 1976, 17) for voca-
tional education research from 1965 through 1969
as specified in Section 4(c).
The ↑ Vocational Education Act of 1963 also pro-
vided funding for the creation of the ad hoc Ad-
visory Council on Vocational Education (the Es-
sex Council) which was tasked with reviewing
all vocational programs between 1963 and 1967
(CVERD 1976). It presented recommendations in
December, 1967. In general, the council was dis-
satisfied with the nature of research and the ad-
ministration of the research program (CVERD
1976) and the recommendations it presented were
eventually incorporated in the 1968 Amendments
of the Vocational Education Act (PL 90-576).
“The Essex Council recommended reducing adminis-
trative complexities, providing specific training for the
handicapped, authorizing work-study programs and res-
idential vocational schools, and increasing the emphasis
given to post-secondary and adult programs. The Coun-
cil recommended changes in federal-state relationships
in order to give greater latitude to the states in both pro-
gram planning and management. It was recommended
that ten per cent of the funds appropriated for vocation-
al education continue to be available for research-relat-
ed activities, including the support of state research co-
ordinating units and state research programs. The Coun-
cil also recommended that funds be allocated directly by
the Commissioner of Education to support research on
critical problems of national scope. The Council wanted
the administration, supervision, and coordination of the
research funds to remain in the vocational education di-
vision of the U.S. Office of Education in order that such
research might bear directly upon the needs of vocation-
al education” (CVERD 1976, 18–19).
Funds appropriated by the 1968 Amendments
Parts C, D, and I supported vocational education
research beginning in 1970. Part C supported re-
search, demonstration, and ↑ curriculum develop-
Genesis of TVET Research
ment and superceded Section 4(c) of the 1963 Act;
funds from Part D were used to demonstrate in-
novative vocational education or ↑ career education
programs in school settings; and, funds from Part I
were used to support curriculum development and
dissemination (Amendments to the Vocational Ed-
ucation Act of 1963 (U.S. LEGISLATION 1968). Ac-
cording to CVERD (1976), the U.S. Office of Ed-
ucation spent close to $250 million dollars to sup-
port almost 5,000 vocational education research
and development projects from 1965 to 1974. How-
ever, during that same period, at total of $284.4
million dollars was appropriated; this represented
less than 28 per cent of the amount authorized.
National Organisations and Their Impact on
Research
The National Society for the Promotion of Indus-
trial Education (NSPIE), was formed in 1906 by
businessmen interested in promoting industrial ed-
ucation. Their membership consisted of educators,
manufacturers, mechanics, businessmen, and rep-
resentatives of other occupations (GORDON 2003).
Their objectives included:
(1) Bringing to the public’s attention the impor-
tance of industrial education as a factor in the in-
dustrial development of America and to provide
opportunities for the study and discussion of the
various phases of the problem.
(2) Making available the results of experiments in
the field of industrial education.
(3) Promoting the establishment of institutions of
industrial training (GORDON 2003, 63).
As a result of their ↑ commitment to the study of in-
dustrial education and their strong leadership, this
organisation (which subsequently became the Na-
tional Society for Vocational Education) was in-
strumental in advocating for the appointment of
the National Commission on National Aid to Vo-
cational Education in 1914. Five other panels were
formed between 1914 and 1968 for the purpose of
studying vocational education intensively to pro-
mote growth in the movement in vocational edu-
cation. Five of the six panels were appointed by
the president of the ↑ United States. The six pan-
els were:
61
– Commission on National Aid for Vocational Ed-
ucation, 1914
– Committee on Vocational Education, 1928–
1929
– National Advisory Committee on Education,
1929–1931
– Advisory Committee on Education, 1936–1938
– Panel of Consultants on Vocational Education,
1961–1962
– National Advisory Council on Education, 1967
(GORDON 2003, 63).
Although each panel accomplished much, it is
most important to note that the work done by most
of these panels resulted in federal legislation or
amendments to legislation which supported voca-
tional education by increasing funding at the na-
tional level.
In 1926, the American Vocational Association
(AVA) was established after a joint meeting with
the National Society for Vocational Education
(formerly the National Society for the Promotion
of Industrial Education [NSPIE]) and the Voca-
tional Association of the Middle West. In 1998,its
name was changed to the Association of Career
and Technical Education (ACTE) and represents
some 40,000 members consisting of vocational ed-
ucation teachers, supervisors, teacher educators,
counselors, administrators, special support per-
sonnel, and graduate students (GORDON 2003). The
national organisation has several purposes which
include encouraging professional development for
its members; fostering excellence in programs; ad-
vocating for national policy that will benefit voca-
tional education; and, marketing of vocational ed-
ucation.
The American Vocational Education Research As-
sociation (↑ AVERA), established in 1966, consists
of members who specifically are interested in con-
ducting research related to vocational education.
AVERA members are also members of the Amer-
ican Educational Research Association (↑ AERA),
who also form the Special Interest Group (SIG) on
Career and Technical Education within AERA.
During AERA, this SIG conducts sessions on re-
search related to vocational education. The Jour-
nal of Vocational Education Research, a top tiered
journal in the field, is the publication that AVERA
sponsors (MCCRACKEN / PAUGH / SHANK 1994).
62
The ↑ National Center for Research in Vocational
Education (NCRVE) was established by the Office
of Vocational and Adult Education in the U. S. De-
partment of Education in 1988. Its mission was to
“rethink what vocational education should be and how
it can best be delivered.
It was to contribute to the renewal of vocational edu-
cation so it can give citizens, of all ages the skills they
need for successful, long term employment” (NCRVE
1988, 24). The Center ceased operations on December
31, 1999.
The National Research and Dissemination Centers
for Career and Technical Education are primary
sources of research-based information (which ed-
ucate about, through and for careers). It is a con-
sortium committed to providing innovative ap-
proaches to improving the practice of career and
technical education at local, state, and national
levels. The consortium partners include: The Uni-
versity of Minnesota; The Ohio State University;
The University of Illinois; Oregon State Universi-
ty; and the Pennsylvania State University. Together
they are committed to:
(1) Use practitioner-driven approaches in the plan-
ning, development, conduct, and evaluation of all
research, dissemination, and professional develop-
ment activities.
(2) Develop a program that is national in scope, re-
flecting the strengths and needs of diverse nation-
al, state, and local practitioners across a range of
geographic, socioeconomic, and cultural settings.
(3) Present a balanced research, dissemination,
and professional development program for second-
ary and postsecondary practitioners and institu-
tions (NCCTE 2006).
1.5.4 Summary
The story of vocational education research in the
↑ United States cannot be told without some under-
standing of the history of vocational education and
the legislation that supported its growth through-
out the years. Since the 1960s, or rather since the
passage of the ↑ Vocational Education Act of 1963,
there has been strong support for research and dis-
semination for vocational education in the United
States. Research has played a vital role in legiti-
mizing vocational education. Without it, justifica-
tion of its existence would be difficult.
Handbook of TVET Research
While the Morrill Acts of 1862 and 1890 provid-
ed the major impetus for the creation of the na-
tion’s land-grant colleges and universities, other
legislation was not only influential, but necessary
for the development of vocational education pro-
grams in the U.S. Such national legislation provid-
ed much needed funding for research leading to
the development of vocational education programs
for preparing professionals and developing and im-
proving curriculum. The development of organisa-
tions and groups, whose objectives included pro-
moting vocational education, research, and assist-
ance to the professional development of vocational
education professionals, strengthened the field and
helped to make it respected among other educa-
tors, business, industry and the general public.
1.6 Overview of Research
Concerning Vocational
Education and Vocational
Training in Modern Japan
Susumu Sasaki
1.6.1 Introduction
The subjects of this article are the technical school
before World War II, from the Meiji period on-
ward in particular, and the ↑ high school technical
course in the postwar period, as well as public vo-
cational training and in-company vocational train-
ing. The article surveys studies in ↑ educational re-
search concerning topics such as the details and
history of the ideology and systems that brought
about the aforementioned education and training
programmes, as well as their curricula and meth-
ods of teaching. Education and training in ↑ Ja-
pan have developed within narrow departmental
boundaries. The governmental authorities have
been ridiculed as being confined within barriers
that are less permeable than national boundaries.
These limitations also affect research. More spe-
cifically, vocational education and training is often
neglected in educational research without explicit
justification. This is due to the fact that researchers
tend to limit the meaning of “education” to those
Genesis of TVET Research
events falling under the jurisdiction of the Minis-
try of Education without being aware of it.
To be sure, there are exceptions. The study by
Hosoya (1944), the first research undertaken in
this field in Japan, not only considered vocation-
al education in schools, but also included gener-
al vocational training in its perspective. The Jap-
anese Industrial Education Society, which was es-
tablished in 1960 following a proposal by Hoso-
ya and others, directed the attention of researchers
to vocational education in schools as well as voca-
tional training outside schools. In addition, Hosoya
(1978), which expanded Hosoya (1944), continues
to be the most comprehensive source of research
concerning technical education even today.
This article, in line with the development of ex-
perience in school vocational education, as well
as in-company and public vocational training in
the period around World War II, will take a gen-
eral view of the corresponding research on voca-
tional education and training. Therefore, no spe-
cial efforts have been made to include the compar-
ative research on vocational education and train-
ing which were very popular particularly from the
1970s to the 1990s. Instead, Terada (2003) can be
referred to.
1.6.2 Research on Vocational Education
Research on Vocational Education in Schools
before World War II
(1) Start of the modern ↑ school system
– The “Education Code”, the first comprehen-
sive law concerning the school system, was enact-
ed in 1872, and the modern school education sys-
tem was established. The elementary general edu-
cation systems were unified into one elementary
school system. There is a theory that the concept
of the “Education Code” originated in the Nether-
lands, ↑ France, or the ↑ United States of America
etc. However, the commonly accepted theory to-
day is that the concept was a result of blending the
systems from several countries, making it uniquely
Japanese.
(2) Formulation of the “vocational education” con-
cept
– In the Meiji period, the “practical business” con-
cept formulated as an extension of the “practical
63
studies” concept meant the business of production
and distribution in the real world. Yukichi Fuku-
zawa, a well-known Enlightenment thinker, at-
tached great importance to the “practical business”
concept from an early stage. In the midst of such
an ideological trend, a propensity to learn from
Western technology and ideology was established.
Yukichi Fukuzawa called the education which in-
cluded the education of commerce and economics,
“vocational education”, and contributed greatly to
its development.
(3) Research concerning the system and teaching
in ↑ vocational schools
– In prewar ↑ Japan, the phrase “vocation-
al education” was not commonly used, and the
phrase“practical business education” was used in-
stead. In accordance with the Vocational School
Order of 1899, all schools that offered vocational
education such as the technical school, apprentice
school, commerce school, agricultural school, fish-
eries school, and mercantile marine school were
appointed as vocational schools. The government
was keen to establish technical schools to adopt
the modern technology which did not exist prior
to the modern era. The Law for Subsidizing Vo-
cational Education Expenses from the National
Treasury was enacted in 1894 under the initiative
of Kowashi Inoue, the Education Minister. This
law played a major role in the expansion of voca-
tional education which is significantly more expen-
sive than general education (K AIGO 1968).
– It is a well-known fact that, in the Meiji period,
the so-called industrial illuminators contributed
to the development of vocational training (MIYO-
SHI 1995). In particular, studying the advancement
of Western technology was hugely popular. In the
early days of the technical schools, there were
many subjects from the traditional industries such
as dyeing and textiles; however, subjects that teach
modern industrial technologies such as machinery
and electricity also quickly came into being (MIY-
OSHI 1989b). According to the statistical data from
the Ministry of Education, throughout almost the
whole period of the vocational schools’ existence,
70 % or more of their graduates obtained employ-
ment in the area of expertise they had gained in the
schools. These graduates were making a great con-
tribution to the development of modern industry.
64
– The curriculum of a vocational school consisted
of so-called general education subjects such as Jap-
anese language, history, mathematics, and physics,
and the subjects and ↑ practical training concern-
ing the ↑ vocation which the school taught. The
standard curriculum set by the Ministry of Edu-
cation did not exist for the vocational schools, nei-
ther did the system of government authorisation of
textbooks; therefore, the curricula were extremely
diverse, each technical school having a unique cur-
riculum (ABE 1936).
– Toward the end of World War II, the fact that
standard textbooks began to be published for the
vocational schools’ major subjects contribut-
ed greatly to the improvement and unification of
standards in industrial education (HARA 1968).
Research on Vocational Education after World
War II
(1) Research on the ↑ school system reform and vo-
cational education in the postwar period
– The education reform after World War II changed
the school system to the 6-3-3-4 system, and ex-
tended the duration of ↑ compulsory education to
age 15. The decision was made to provide all ar-
eas of vocational education and training to those
15 or over. The schools for the junior ↑ high school
graduates were unified into one high school system
only, and the vocational course, one of the courses
in high school, came to take over the role formerly
played by the prewar ↑ vocational schools.
– Although the percentage of students who went
on to high school was between 50 % and 60 % in
the 1950s, this percentage rapidly increased there-
after, exceeding 90 % in 1973. The dropout rate
was under 20 %. The majority of students made it
to graduation. This is probably a phenomenon not
seen in Western countries.
– Although the percentage of the number of stu-
dents in a high school vocational course was ap-
proximately 40 % around 1960, the decline of the
vocational course in subsequent years led to a de-
crease to below 25 % in the 1990s (SASAKI 2000).
In recent years, among the number of students in
the vocational course, the technical course has
most students.
– Additional information concerning high school
vocational education courses and employment in
Handbook of TVET Research
the postwar period can be gained from referring to
Terada (2003; 2004).
(2) Research on the details of vocational education
in high school
– Unlike the prewar period, the high school offi-
cial curriculum guidelines, which all regular cur-
ricula were based on, were also applied in full
measure to vocational education such as industrial
education, and the screening system was also ful-
ly applied to the textbooks concerned. The curric-
ulum for the high school vocational course allocat-
ed just above half of the class hours to general ed-
ucation such as Japanese language, social studies,
mathematics, and science, thereby ensuring com-
mon ground with the high school. In the vocation-
al course, the number of hours allocated for pro-
fessional education concerning the chosen field of
↑ vocation belonged to the optional subject hours
within the framework of the high school curricu-
lum system (SASAKI 1989), and took up just below
50 % of the overall class hours even including the
↑ practical training hours.
– The education provided by the technical course
has traditionally put an emphasis on technical
drawing and practical training. For example, the
official curriculum guidelines for the technical
course revised in 1951 stipulated that the curric-
ulum was to be structured around practical train-
ing, and all subjects concerning the chosen field
were to be treated as subjects related to the prac-
tical training. Jun Hasegawa (1949) had consider-
able influence in drawing up these official curric-
ulum guidelines. He published “Shokugyo Bun-
seki”, the work he translated from “Trade and Job
Analysis” 2edn. 1947 by Verne C. Fryklund. This
work introduced new and unfamiliar educational
methods in ↑ Japan, summarised as occupation and
operation analysis for vocational education.
– The federal subsidy set up in accordance with
the Industrial Education Promotion Law enact-
ed in 1951 played a major role in the expansion of
facilities and equipment of the high school voca-
tional course (SATO 1996). According to Masayasu
Hasegawa et al (1976), the standard of subsidy in
accordance with the Industrial Education Promo-
tion Law greatly affected the way experiments and
practical training were conducted in schools.
Genesis of TVET Research
– Information on the absurdities of the current high
school vocational education such as the low level
of the students’ academic ability and the practical
actions needed to overcome such problems can be
gained by referring to: Saito et al. (ed.) (2005).
(3) Research concerning the coordination between
the part-time/correspondence course high schools
and technical education
– In 1961, the so-called coordination system was
established in which learning achievements at
specific accredited vocational training institu-
tions were credited as part-time or correspondence
course high school units. This system that linked
school education and vocational training has at-
tracted the attention of many researchers (MIYACHI
1978). ↑ In-company training institutions of large
enterprises have particularly benefited from utilis-
ing this coordination system.
(4) Research concerning ↑ miscellaneous schools
and ↑ professional-training schools
– Reflecting the tendency in ↑ Japan to put a high
value on “academic qualifications” where graduat-
ing from what are referred to as “regular schools”
carries great significance, there was a strong tenden-
cy for education researchers to overlook schools in
the “miscellaneous” category which cannot grant
an accredited “academic qualification”. However,
in 1976, separately from the system for miscella-
neous schools, the system for specialised-train-
ing schools which carry out vocational education
in a more systematic and organised manner than
the miscellaneous schools was revived (KURAUCHI /
K AMIYAMA / SEKIGUCHI 1977; HAN 1996). Among
specialised-training schools, schools that take in
↑ high school graduates are called professional-
training schools. The professional-training schools
have seen remarkable development, to the extent
that approximately a third of the high school grad-
uates have been advancing to professional-training
schools since 1990 onwards. However, almost all
specialised-training schools are private schools. It
is a typical example, which suggests that the gov-
ernment is blatantly enforcing the policy of reduc-
ing the public investment for vocational education,
thereby forcing vocational education to be carried
out at private expense.
65
1.6.3 Research on Vocational Training
Research on Vocational Training before World
War II
(1) Terms related to vocational training
Although various words such as “technician train-
ing”, “apprentice system”, “master mechanic train-
ing”, “apprentice training”, and “indenture” were
being used before World War II, the word “voca-
tional training” was never used prior to the enact-
ment of the ↑ Vocational Training Law in 1958. In
that context, the Vocational Training Law had a
significant impact on the academic world. The Vo-
cational Training Law was changed to the “Human
Resources Development Promotion Law” in 1985;
however, in the academic world, the status of the
word “vocational training” has changed very lit-
tle.
(2) Research concerning the history of vocational
training before World War II
– As a result of the Meiji Restoration, the freedom
to choose one’s occupation was established. The
apprentice-hiring restriction seen in some fields
of occupation until the last days of the Tokugawa
shogunate, and the guilds that restricted the busi-
ness of those who were not members, completely
collapsed. The governmental factories and mines
in the early Meiji period, which took the lead in
bringing in modern technology through foreign
technical experts, had a significant influence on
the private sector. A lot of the vocational training
conducted there was literally “learning” by watch-
ing someone perform an example and imitating it
(SUMIYA 1970).
– Unlike school education, vocational training has
never been a reason for the government to adopt
any special measures until the 1930s, and basically
it was left up to the private sector.
– Governmental factories such as the governmen-
tal ironworks and the arsenals, which were the fac-
tories under direct military and naval control, of-
ten disregarded profitability, and brought in the lat-
est technology. As a result, military arsenals had
a tremendous influence on the vocational training
world. For example, some workers who had gained
experience and skill founded modern factories af-
ter retirement. On the other hand, the theory that
the craftsmen who emerged from the indigenous
66
industries supported the provincial machine indus-
tries in the Meiji period is also drawing attention
(SUZUKI 1996).
– From 1920 onward, labour turnover decreased
and the permanent employment system began to
take root in large companies. Some large com-
panies started conducting in-company vocation-
al training. It was also a move toward holding re-
serves of skilled workers, who tended to be scat-
tered around, within the company (SUMIYA 1971).
In addition, one of the points which made prewar
Japan considerably different from the Western
countries was its small ratio of organised labour
to total labour force. The practices such as trade
unions’ regulation of demarcation or regulation of
the wage rate according to the degree of proficien-
cy (equivalent to vocational qualifications in the
West) were not born.
(3) Research on vocational training from the view-
point of labour policy
– In the latter half of the 1920s, the nation became
aware of the fact that agricultural communities no
longer had the reserve capacity to absorb the un-
employed. In turn, measures undertaken to coun-
ter unemployment were being initiated for the first
time in modern history. As part of this undertak-
ing, public vocational training institutions began
to be established in the name of “↑ vocational guid-
ance”, although these institutions were extremely
few in number (SASAKI 1987).
– In the 1930s, shortage of master mechanics be-
gan to be felt mainly in military industries, and
training courses began to be established within
the public vocational training institutions (TANA-
KA 1986). There arose what is referred to as the
“master mechanic dispute” over how master me-
chanics should be trained. The dispute was as to
which type of master mechanics were more in de-
mand: single-skilled mechanics or multiskilled
mechanics (K IUCHI 1936). It attracted public atten-
tion that the master mechanic issue was being ar-
gued among a diverse range of people for the first
time in the history of capitalism in ↑ Japan.
– Under the National Mobilization Law of 1938
which was a delegated legislation under full pow-
ers, the government enacted the “Skilled Techni-
cians Training Order for Factory Establishments”,
and made it compulsory for factories and mines
Handbook of TVET Research
etc. in the private sector to train a specific number
of skilled technicians. This was the start of the
standard vocational training of 3 years for a wide
range of fields. The first work written by Hosoya
introduced at the beginning of this article observed
this trend. However, this system collapsed toward
the end of World War II.
Research on Vocational Training after World
War II
(1) Reorganisation of vocational training after de-
feat in the war
– After defeat in the war, labour relations were de-
mocratised at the command of the occupation forc-
es, and many trade unions came into being in a
short period of time (OOKOUCHI 1955). Postwar Ja-
pan’s trade unions were organised on a company to
company basis, and they have shown very little in-
terest in education and training of the workers up
to this day.
– The occupation forces virtually prohibited min-
istries and agencies other than the Ministry of Ed-
ucation to have a training institution. Consequent-
ly, the training institutions such as those under the
former Ministry of Communications and Minis-
try of Railways plunged into a devastating state
(YAMAMOTO 2002).
– Japan had not had the tradition of supervisor
training; therefore, TWI (Training Within Indus-
try), an internationally leading standard supervi-
sor training system introduced through the occu-
pation forces, rapidly spread among a wide range
of industrial fields with the support from the Min-
istry of Labor (publication of the magazine “TWI
Kenkyu”). TWI training deserves attention for in-
troducing to management the concept of a foreman
(the front-line supervisor) which did not exist in
Japan up to that time, and for creating the trend to
value the establishment of the foreman system in
the company (KOGA 1978).
(2) Formulation of a framework for the ↑ Vocation-
al Training Law and its research
– The Vocational Training Law enacted in 1958 in
the context of the postwar revival of nationalism
and the progression of technological innovation
was the first independent law concerning vocation-
al training in Japan. The enactment of this law not
Genesis of TVET Research
only marked an epoch in vocational training in Ja-
pan, but also brought about far-reaching influence
on research. The important characteristics of the
Vocational Training Law include the following: (1)
It took the initiative in placing vocational training
courses into the public vocational training scheme
which was previously centred around countering
unemployment; (2) It actively promoted ↑ in-com-
pany training without keeping it as a mere regula-
tion to protect apprenticeship; (3) It established the
system for the government to test technical skills
(KOGA /K IRINOKI / SUMIYA / YOSHINAGA 1978).
– There are two types of public vocational train-
ing institutions: the institutions which have tradi-
tionally been set up by local governments, and the
institutions which are funded by unemployment
insurance (renamed “employment insurance” at
a later stage). The former had traditionally put an
emphasis on training for ↑ career change; howev-
er, after the enactment of the ↑ Vocational Training
Law, both types of institutions expanded the train-
ing courses targeting new graduates. The training
standards for the training courses in public voca-
tional training are set by the Ministry of Labour.
Compared to the technical ↑ high school curricu-
lum, there are only a few general education sub-
jects, and the emphasis is predominantly placed
on ↑ practical training. However, only a few criti-
cal analyses of the curriculum are known (TANAKA
1986).
– The system of national testing of technical skills
established in accordance with the Vocational
Training Law has no Western equivalents. The ap-
plicable types of occupations only include indus-
try-related occupations, and distribution-related
occupations are not included. Unlike official cer-
tification, passing or not passing a technical skill
test does not directly lead to business or employ-
ment restriction. The test results are not reflected
in the wage rate, since both the companies and un-
ions are opposed to linking the test with the wage
rate.
(3) Formulation of a framework for the Human Re-
sources Development Promotion Law and research
into its time period
– The Vocational Training Law adopted ↑ lifelong
learning as its slogan in 1985 and was completely
reorganised into the Human Resources Develop-
67
ment Promotion Law. As a result of this change,
the public vocational training institution was re-
named the ↑ human resources development institu-
tion.
According to Kazutoshi Tanaka, the transitions of
the courses offered in public vocational training in
the 1970s and 2000s show that the training for new
graduates has been reduced, and the training for
career change more than doubled, and the train-
ing for those currently employed rapidly grew to 6
times as much as before (TANAKA / OOKI 2005).
(4) Research on in-company vocational training
– The Vocational Training Law categorised all
types of vocational training other than public vo-
cational training as in-company vocational train-
ing. The in-company vocational training covers a
broad range of areas, it has become extremely ac-
tive particularly since the high economic growth
period (KURAUCHI / MIYAJI / NAKAMURA 1963; 1965).
According to a large-scale fact-finding survey con-
ducted at the beginning of 1970, all steel manu-
facturers had an in-company vocational training
system without exception. However, while on-the-
job training is assigned to all workers, the train-
ing which takes more than a year including off-the-
job training is mostly assigned only to those in key
positions and those with maintenance responsibili-
ties (JAPAN FEDERATION OF STEEL WORKERS’ UNIONS
1973). Most of the ↑ in-company training is organ-
ised according to each company’s unique objective.
For example, the training is integrated as part of
labour management (MICHIMATA 1978). There are
no known comprehensive, at least governmental,
↑ statistics of in-company vocational training, part-
ly due to the lack of any applicable official regula-
tions. Research concerning in-company vocational
training is considerably behind other research even
today.
68
1.7 UNESCO’s Research on
TVET and Skills Development
Keith Holmes and Rupert Maclean
1.7.1 Introduction
This chapter provides an overview of the engage-
ment of the ↑ United Nations Educational, Scientif-
ic and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and four
UNESCO Institutes and Centres in research on
TVET and skills development. We begin with the
work of UNESCO as a whole and then review the
research of those UNESCO Institutes and Centres
most active in this field. Current trends, including
research ↑ partnerships and networks, and some
emerging challenges for national and international
research are then considered.
UNESCO was founded in 1945 with the aim of
building a harmonious and prosperous world com-
munity in the aftermath of World War II. As an
↑ intergovernmental organisation, UNESCO com-
prises 191 Member States and 6 Associate Mem-
bers. The preamble to UNESCO’s constitution fa-
mously states, “That since wars begin in the minds
of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenc-
es of peace must be constructed” (UNESCO 1945,
preamble). The constitution defines ↑ UNESCO’s
main purpose as,
“To contribute to peace and security in the world by pro-
moting collaboration among the nations through educa-
tion, science, culture and communication in order to fur-
ther universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and
for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which
are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without dis-
tinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter
of the United Nations” (UNESCO 1945, Article 1).
Education was always a major priority for UNESCO
and this took on special meaning with the ↑ United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights
adopted in Paris in 1948. Article 26 states,
“Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be
free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stag-
es. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Techni-
cal and professional education shall be made generally
available and higher education shall be equally accessi-
ble to all on the basis of merit” (UNITED NATIONS 1948,
Article 1).
In 1962 UNESCO’s General Conference adopted a
Recommendation Concerning Technical and Vo-
Handbook of TVET Research
cational Education. This normative instrument
was revised in 1974 and further revised and updat-
ed in 2001 taking account of two UNESCO confer-
ences on TVET (held in Berlin in 1987 and Seoul
in 1999) and the Convention on Technical and Vo-
cational Education (1989). The Revised Recom-
mendation (2001) uses ‘technical and vocational
education’ as a comprehensive term,
“referring to those aspects of the ↑ educational
process involving, in addition to general educa-
tion, the study of technologies and ↑ related scienc-
es, and the acquisition of practical skills, attitudes,
understanding and knowledge relating to occupa-
tions in various sectors of economic and social
life” (UNESCO 2005a, 7).
To fulfil its mandate to create the conditions for di-
alogue among civilizations, cultures and peoples,
UNESCO works as “a laboratory of ideas and a
standard-setter to forge universal agreements on
emerging ethical issues. The Organisation also
serves as a clearinghouse – that disseminates and
shares information and knowledge – while help-
ing Member States to build their human and in-
stitutional capacities in diverse fields. In short,
UNESCO promotes international co-operation
[…] in the fields of education, science, culture and
communication” (UNESCO 2003b, 2). Each of
UNESCO’s functions involves research:
(1) Prospective studies: what forms of education,
science, culture and communication for tomor-
row’s world?
(2) The advancement, transfer and sharing of
knowledge: relying primarily on research, training
and teaching activities.
(3) Standard-setting action: the preparation and
adoption of international instruments and statuto-
ry recommendations.
(4) Expertise: provided to Member States for their
↑ development policies and projects in the form of
“technical cooperation”.
(5) Exchange of specialized information.
(UNESCO 2000a, 24)
In the 1980s, UNESCO conducted, and dissemi-
nated, several influential studies on TVET includ-
ing The Transition from Technical and ↑ Vocation-
al Schools to Work: Problems, Current Efforts
and Innovative Approaches and Measures for Im-
proving the Transition (UNESCO 1983) and Pol-
Genesis of TVET Research
icy, Planning and Management in Technical and
Vocational Education: A ↑ Comparative Study
(UNESCO 1984). An extensive collection of re-
search, policy and technical documents on TVET
and skills development is available online (http://
unesdoc.unesco.org) and on the CD-ROM Educa-
tion, Work and the Future (UNESCO 2003a).
UNESCO Member States have defined TVET as
a priority programme area. Even when, due to
international attention to basic education in the
1990s, TVET had less donor support, UNESCO
maintained the view that TVET can play an es-
sential role in promoting socio-economic devel-
opment, with benefits for individuals, their fami-
lies, local communities and society in general. In
fact the World Conference on ‘↑ Education for All:
Meeting Basic Learning Needs’ at Jomtien in 1990
included in the definition of ‘basic education’ the
content “required by human beings to be able to sur-
vive, to develop their full capacities, to live and work
in dignity, to participate fully in development, to im-
prove the quality of their lives, to make informed deci-
sions, and to continue learning” (UNESCO 1990a, 3).
The fifth target dimension proposed to countries
was the “expansion of provisions of basic educa-
tion and training in other essential skills required
by youth and adults, with programme ↑ effective-
ness assessed in terms of behavioural changes and
impacts on health, employment and productivity”
(UNESCO 1990b, 3).
The two major ↑ UNESCO conferences on TVET
each involved extensive preparatory meetings and
research. The ‘First International Congress on the
Development and Improvement of Technical and
Vocational Education’ was held in Berlin in 1987.
This congress was instrumental in the launch,
in 1992, of UNESCO’s International Project on
Technical and Vocational Education, named ‘UN-
EVOC’. The ‘Second International Congress on
Technical and Vocational Education’ was held in
Seoul, Republic of Korea, in 1999. Then at the
World Education Forum, in Dakar in 2000, skills
development was included as one of the six ↑ Edu-
cation for All (EFA) goals: “ensuring that the learn-
ing needs of all young people and adults are met
through equitable access to appropriate learning
and life skills programmes” (UNESCO 2000b, 8).
In 2004 an International Experts’ Meeting ‘Learn-
ing for Work, Citizenship and ↑ Sustainability’
69
took place in Bonn. In each conference, UNESCO
concerns such as capacity building, gender equity,
↑ disadvantaged groups, non-formal education and
international understanding featured prominently.
These conferences have together significantly in-
fluenced research and policy agendas in TVET and
skills development worldwide (→ 1.8; → 2.7).
1.7.2 The Contribution of UNESCO
Institutes and Centres
↑ UNESCO has created specialized Institutes and
Centres to augment its research and expertise in
education and other fields. These ‘Category I’ In-
stitutes and Centres are established as an integral
part of UNESCO, upon recommendation of the
Executive Board, on the basis of a formal decision
of the General Conference. They operate at arms’
length from the UNESCO Secretariat (although
they report to the Director-General) and they
have a specific mandate for research and capaci-
ty development. They also have an integral role in
UNESCO’s work as lead international agency for
↑ Education for All and for the ↑ UN Decade of Ed-
ucation for Sustainable Development. Their activ-
ities include, “producing and disseminating informa-
tion; research and analysis; tracking trends, monitoring
progress and assessing needs; policy dialogue and devel-
opment; capacity-building and reform; and technical as-
sistance and training” (UNESCO 2004b, 3). UNESCO
Category I Institutes and Centres working in edu-
cation are presented in Table 1.
Most of UNESCO’s research on TVET and skills
development has been conducted by four of these
Category I Institutes and Centres. These are: the
↑ UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL);
the ↑ International Institute for ↑ Educational Plan-
ning (IIEP); the ↑ UNESCO-UNEVOC Interna-
tional Centre for Technical and Vocational Edu-
cation and Training and the ↑ UNESCO Institute
for Statistics (UIS). Selected research activities on
TVET and skills development are presented here
to illustrate the modalities, potential and challeng-
es facing such work.
UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning (UIL)
The UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning was,
from 1951 to 2006, the UNESCO Institute for Ed-
ucation (UIE). It “supports the development of adult
70
Tab. 1: UNESCO Category I Institutes and Centres working in education (UNESCO 2004b)
and lifelong learning, literacy and non-formal educa-
tion in all regions of the world, with special emphasis on
those people who are disadvantaged or living marginal
lives” (UNESCO 2004b, 8).
The Institute carries out its work through research
and technical assistance as well as through semi-
nars for decision makers and training workshops
for practitioners (ibid.). UIL conducts research
on the recognition, validation and accreditation
of ↑ informal learning and has recently contribut-
ed to a publication in the UNEVOC book series
on Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the Informal
Sector: Integrating Education and Training for De-
cent Work, Empowerment and Citizenship (SINGH
2005). This volume contains the findings of studies
commissioned by UNESCO and ↑ ILO on educa-
Handbook of TVET Research
tion, training and skills formation for decent work
in the informal sector. The Institute has also con-
tributed several chapters to the UNEVOC Inter-
national Handbook of TVET (CHINIEN / MACLEAN /
WILSON forthcoming).
International Institute for Educational
Planning (IIEP)
The International Institute for Educational Plan-
ning has built a strong reputation for research on
education and development since its formation in
1963. True to its mandate, IIEP’s TVET research
has focussed on planning, finance and governance
issues (→ 3.3). IIEP studies aim to support civil
servants working in education and training by pro-
Genesis of TVET Research
ducing new knowledge to guide planning and po-
licy-making. Publications include The Planning of
Technical and Vocational Education and Training,
(K ING 1985); Planning Human Resources: Meth-
ods, Experiences and Practices (BERTRAND 1992);
Financing Vocational Education: Concepts, Ex-
amples and Tendencies (ATCHOARENA 1996); Tech-
nical Education: A Dead End or Adapting to
Change? (ATCHOARENA / CAILLODS 1999); Revisit-
ing Technical and Vocational Education in Sub-
Saharan Africa: An Update on Trends, Innova-
tions and Challenges (ATCHOARENA / DELLUC 2002)
and The Role of Agricultural Colleges and Univer-
sities in Rural Development and Lifelong Learn-
ing in Asia (ATCHOARENA / HOLMES 2005). In 2003
IIEP launched a programme of research on the re-
form and governance of public TVET (see HOL-
MES 2003). As part of this programme a country
study has been conducted on The Governance of
↑ Further Education and Training (FET) Colleges
in South Africa (MCGRATH / ADAMS / HANNAH ET AL .
forthcoming). IIEP has also contributed chapters
to the UNEVOC International Handbook of TVET
(CHINIEN / MACLEAN / WILSON forthcoming). As well
as conventional publications, research findings
are disseminated through ↑ IIEP’s website (http://
www.unesco.org/iiep), conferences, workshops,
journals, newsletters and training courses.
IIEP’s Buenos Aires office was established in
1997 to strengthen the training of ministry offi-
cials in Latin America in fields related to ↑ edu-
cational planning and management. Research on
TVET and skills development, with particular at-
tention to social justice, is one of its areas of ex-
pertise. As well as conducting studies on educa-
tion, work and social insertion for ↑ disadvantaged
youth, IIEP Buenos Aires has developed RedEtis
(http://www.reditis.org.ar), a regional network for
research and the diffusion of knowledge between
researchers, civil servants, heads of education and
training institutions, non-governmental organisa-
tions and others.
UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre
for Technical and Vocational Education and
Training
The ↑ UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre
in Bonn was inaugurated in 2002. UNESCO-UN-
71
EVOC aims to assist Member States achieve high
quality, relevant, lifelong and cost-effective tech-
nical and vocational education and training for all.
The Centre works for (and with) policy-makers,
education managers, teachers and learners. Like
the other Category I Institutes and Centres its ac-
tivities span multiple modalities, such as network-
ing, knowledge-sharing, publications, interagency
collaboration and ↑ partnerships, advisory services
and training. The most prominent of its networks
is the UNEVOC Network of more than 220 spe-
cialised TVET institutions in more than 150 coun-
tries (UNESCO-UNEVOC 2003, 27).
The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre
aims to promote best practices and innovations in
TVET and education for the world of work, with
special reference to meeting the needs of ↑ devel-
oping countries, countries in transition and coun-
tries in a post-conflict situation. UNESCO-UN-
EVOC has developed an extensive publications pro-
gramme, with the international publisher Springer
(Dordrecht, the Netherlands). The UNEVOC In-
ternational Library of Technical and Vocational
Education and Training is a series of publications
that provides comprehensive information about
many “cutting-edge” aspects of TVET. The Inter-
national Library consists of a Book Series, Tech-
nical and Vocational Education and Training: Is-
sues, Concerns and Prospects; National Profiles
of TVET Systems; UNEVOC Annotated Bibliogra-
phies of TVET; the International Journal of TVET
Research and UNEVOC Discussion Papers. This
current handbook on TVET research is part of the
International Library as is the six-volume Inter-
national Handbook of Education for the Changing
World of Work (MACLEAN / WILSON / CHINIEN 2008)
The Book Series is intended to meet the needs of
those interested in an in-depth analysis of current
developments. It presents best and innovative prac-
tices and explores controversial topics, often us-
ing case studies. There are currently five volumes,
with more in the pipeline:
Vol. 1: Vocationalisation of Secondary Education
Revisited (L AUGLO / MACLEAN 2005) is a cutting-
edge contribution to the debate which has occurred
for some time on the pros and cons of secondary
education becoming more closely and explicit-
ly related to preparing young people for the world
72
of work. The book provides concrete examples of
the vocationalization of secondary education, with
particular reference to sub-Saharan Africa.
Vol. 2: Meeting Basic Learning Needs in the In-
formal Sector: Integrating Education and Train-
ing for Decent Work, Empowerment and Citizen-
ship (SINGH 2005) is an anthology which brings
together features and facts about basic learning
needs and the skills of people working and living
in the informal economy. It presents case studies
from different countries which examine education
and training strategies for meeting these learning
needs.
Vol. 3: Training for Work in the Informal Micro-
Enterprise Sector: Fresh Evidence from Sub-Sa-
hara Africa (HAAN 2006) portrays the grave prob-
lems facing education and training systems vis-à-
vis informal sector workers, even as policy-mak-
ers look at holistic solutions that take into account
principles of ↑ lifelong learning and innovations in
informal, non-formal and formal ↑ adult learning.
This book reports a growing awareness that educa-
tion is a human right of fundamental significance
to promoting decent work and humane living con-
ditions.
Vol. 4: The Transformation of Vocational Edu-
cation and Training (VET) in the Baltic States:
A Survey of Reforms and Developments (BÜN-
NING 2006). The newest member states of the Eu-
ropean Union – among them the Baltic states – are
now involved in the ↑ Copenhagen process and are
a source of enormous human potential that can
greatly enrich Europe. The reforms in VET and its
structures are the subject of critical debate in this
book.
↑ UNESCO Vol. 5: Identities at Work (BROWN /
KIRPAL / R AUNER 2007) brings together international
theory and empirical research that deals with con-
tinuity and change of identity formation process-
es at work, under conditions of modern working
processes and ↑ labour market flexibility.
Vol. 6: Work, Subjectivity and Learning (BILLETT /
FENWICK / SOMERVILLE 2006) provides international
perspectives on the role of individuals’ subjectivity
in securing effective work practices and learning
for work and throughout working life. It empha-
sizes the need to go beyond considerations of in-
stitutional arrangements in vocational education to
Handbook of TVET Research
consider how individuals construe, construct and
engage with learning through these arrangements.
Books currently in preparation, with contracts
signed with Springer, are:
– Pavlova (2007): Empowering Individuals for the
Future: Technology Education and TVET for Sus-
tainable Development
– Johnson/ Maclean/ Sadlak/ Hollander (forthcom-
ing): Vocational Content in Mass Higher Educa-
tion? Comparative and International Perspectives
in response to the Challenges of the ↑ Labour Mar-
ket and the Workplace
– Fien/ Maclean/ Park (in press): Technical and
Vocational Education and Training for Sustainable
Development: Opportunities and Challenges
Future topics to be covered include; education of
adolescents and youth for academic and vocation-
al work; financing education for work; women and
girls in TVET; harnessing ↑ ICT’s in support of
TVET; planning education systems to promote ed-
ucation for the world of work; recognition, evalua-
tion and assessment; education and training of de-
mobilized soldiers in post-conflict situations; and
↑ school-to-work transition.
A comprehensive series of 130 National Profiles
of TVET systems in selected countries have been
prepared, to be published as National Profiles of
Vocational and Technical Education and Training
in Selected Countries (GROLLMANN / L AUTERBACH /
MACLEAN forthcoming).
UNEVOC’s Annotated Bibliographies are a se-
ries of reviews of literature in TVET published be-
tween 1998 and 2003. They are intended to serve
as a representative sample of the type of research
taking place in the field of TVET, to aid others in
their research, and to inform policy-makers and
practitioners. The following Annotated Bibliogra-
phies are available in print and digital format:
(1) Technical and Vocational Education and Train-
ing (TVET) for Sustainable Development
(2) Women and Technical and Vocational Educa-
tion and Training (TVET)
(3) Youth Unemployment – Meeting the Needs of
Youth
(4) Exploitative Work – Child Labour
(5) Occupational Health and Safety
The International Handbook for the Changing
World of Work (MACLEAN / WILSON / CHINIEN 2008)
Genesis of TVET Research
is a major project intended to provide ready and
widely available access to sources of information
about many aspects of TVET. The handbook is in-
tended to reflect best and innovative practice in
TVET, using case studies as examples, and aims
at promoting an improved dialogue between re-
searchers, policy-makers and practitioners.
UNESCO-UNEVOC also has an active pro-
gramme of regional and international meetings on
research related topics. The proceedings are of-
ten published as reports, for example, The Bolo-
gna Declaration and Emerging Models of TVET
Teacher Training in Germany (BÜNNING / SHILELA
2006). In July 2006 a meeting of TVET part-
ner agencies was held in Vietnam on the contri-
bution of TVET to the ↑ UN Decade of Education
for Sustainable Development. Another UNEVOC
meeting, in collaboration with ↑ NCVER (National
Centre for Vocational Education Research, ↑ Aus-
tralia), KRIVET (the Korea Research Institute for
Vocational Education and Training) and CPSC
(Colombo Plan Staff College for Technician Ed-
ucation, the Philippines), took place in Adelaide
in October 2006 on ‘TVET is an ageing society’
(K ARMEL / MACLEAN 2007).
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
The ↑ UNESCO Institute for Statistics is a crucial
link in an international network of experts and in-
stitutions dealing with ↑ statistics in UNESCO’s
fields of competence. The Institute’s four main ac-
tion areas are:
(1) the collection, production, analysis and timely
dissemination of policy-relevant statistics, indica-
tors and related documentation at the national, re-
gional and global levels;
(2) the development of statistical methodology for
the collection of data which are reliable, cross-na-
tionally comparable, robust and feasible to col-
lect;
(3) assistance to Member States to help them im-
prove their statistical and analytical capacities;
(4) the provision of analytic and data support serv-
ices (UIS/UNESCO 2002, 8).
UIS is increasingly involved in cross-national re-
search on TVET and skills development as the
need to monitor progress increases. There are two
73
major issues here: first, the lack of availability of
national data, and second, difficulties in the com-
parability of data collected (see ELLIS 2005). The
techniques of data collection and analysis used to
monitor general education cannot be simply trans-
ferred to TVET, with its greater complexity and
its multiple types and levels of provision (→ 5.4.1).
The UIS and the ↑ UNESCO-UNEVOC Interna-
tional Centre have jointly undertaken, with inputs
from the University of London Institute of Edu-
cation, a mapping of TVET statistics on a world-
wide basis and will shortly publish ↑ Participation
in Formal TVET Programmes Worldwide: An In-
itial Statistical Study (UNESCO-UNEVOC/UIS
2006).
1.7.3 Research through Partnerships and
Networks
UNESCO’s research on TVET and skills devel-
opment is often conducted in modalities that dif-
fer from those of academic research institutions. It
often involves collaborations between colleagues
within UNESCO and with external research part-
ners such as other international organisations, gov-
ernment ministries and universities. In 2008, UN-
EVOC is organising a meeting on multiple litera-
cies and TVET in partnership with the Universi-
ty of Oxford. UNESCO’s research is characterised
by the Organizations’ values and policy orienta-
tion and it is often informed by policy dialogue,
workshops and regional and international meet-
ings (→ 2.1).
Internal Partnerships
A successful internal partnership project that com-
bined technical assistance with research was ‘As-
sisting the Design and Implementation of EFA
Skills Development Plans: Skills Development to
Meet the Learning Needs of the Excluded’. This
involved collaboration between the UNESCO’s
Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational
Education and ↑ IIEP. The technical assistance as-
pect involved reinforcing institutional capacities to
support policy formulation in Lao PDR, Mali, Ne-
pal and Senegal and the research aspect involved
country-based teams conducting studies of current
programmes and activities targeting skills develop-
74
ment for excluded and marginalised groups. This
phase of the project, which was funded by Den-
mark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, cul-
minated in an inter-regional seminar and a publi-
cation Promoting Skills Development (UNESCO/
IIEP 2004).
Other examples of partnerships within UNESCO
include the contribution made by the UNESCO-
UNEVOC International Centre to a major article,
Vocational Education: The Come-Back? in ‘Edu-
cation Today’, the newsletter of UNESCO’s Educa-
tion Sector (UNESCO 2005b, 4–7). Collaboration
also takes place between UNESCO Institutes and
Centres, such as the guest editing by UNESCO-
UNEVOC of a Special Issue of the International
Bureau of Education journal, ‘Prospects’ on Ori-
entating TVET for Sustainable Development (MAC-
LEAN 2005).
External Partnerships
Growing recognition of the value of inter-sec-
torality in TVET is generating new partnerships
between organisations at national and interna-
tional levels. For example, the Education for Ru-
ral People (ERP) flagship ↑ partnership was joint-
ly launched by the Food and Agriculture Organi-
zation (FAO) and ↑ UNESCO at the World Sum-
mit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
in 2002 (see www.fao.org/sd/erp). This initiative
builds awareness of the importance of education
for rural people as a crucial step in achieving the
Millennium Development Goals. UNESCO-↑ IIEP
and FAO have produced a joint series of publica-
tions, including Education for Rural Develop-
ment: towards new policy responses (ATCHOARENA /
GASPERINI 2003) and organised several regional
meetings.
Collaboration between UNESCO and the ↑ Inter-
national Labour Organisation (ILO) is well es-
tablished in TVET with, for example, a joint
UNESCO-ILO working group. It has also been
agreed to conduct a series of learning and skills
policy reviews and this is reflected in both agen-
cies’ work plans and budgets (RIORDAN / MACLEAN
2003). There is also some cooperation between
UNESCO and the ↑ Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD), for exam-
Handbook of TVET Research
ple in connection with the International Standard
↑ Classification of Education (ISCED).
Research Networks
The University Twinning and Networking
(UNITWIN)/ UNESCO Chairs programme has,
since its launch in 1992, fostered relations between
UNESCO and the academic community world-
wide. The main participants are universities and
research institutions, in partnership with NGOs,
foundations, and public and private sector organi-
sations. The UNITWIN programme involves train-
ing, research and the exchange of academics and
it offers an ↑ interdisciplinary platform for knowl-
edge sharing in all areas of UNESCO’s work, in-
cluding TVET research (HADDAD 2005, 5).
1.7.4 Conclusions
In recent years most of UNESCO’s research on
TVET and skills development has been conduct-
ed by UNESCO Category I Institutes and Centres.
This amounts to a considerable body of interest-
ing work, much of which is on topics of crucial im-
portance, consistent with UNESCO’s mandate for
intellectual cooperation, its core values and ↑ UN
priorities such as the Millennium Development
Goals, ↑ Education for All and Education for Sus-
tainable Development. Whilst recognising the im-
portance of TVET’s economic roles, UNESCO’s
TVET research is characterised by a broad vision
of TVET and skills in relation to the holistic de-
velopment of individuals, communities, societies
and the relations between them. As this chapter
has shown, UNESCO’s TVET research has a wide
geographical coverage, from global to local, in all
continents of the world, particularly, but not exclu-
sively, in ‘developing’ regions.
This area of research has much potential for the
future and UNESCO has proven to be an effective
bridge between research, policy, planing and prac-
tice (→ 2). There are, however, many challenges in
this complex and rapidly evolving field. ↑ Research
capacity in TVET in ↑ developing countries is of-
ten weak and countries remain overly dependent
on external expertise. At regional and internation-
al levels the task of developing appropriate qualita-
tive and quantitative methods to monitor progress
Genesis of TVET Research
in TVET has only just begun. In the context of
trends towards decentralisation, it is important that
central decision makers understand stakeholders’
perspectives at the local level (→ 5.3.4; → 5.3.5).
Unfortunately, the resources available for research
and capacity building in TVET and skills develop-
ment do not correspond to the high expectations
on TVET to deliver multiple strategic development
outcomes. However, UNESCO is not acting alone.
Its modalities of research, often through partner-
ships and networks, are cost-effective and help to
stimulate policy debates that deserve to be taken
up by the research community at large.
1.8 Research on TVET and
Skills Development by
Selected Intergovernmental
Organisations and Bilateral
Agencies
Keith Holmes and Rupert Maclean
1.8.1 Introduction
In the post-World War II period many newly in-
dependent states believed that the development of
technical and vocational skills could help reduce
economic dependence. As in other domains of
↑ development policy, support to TVET has varied
in response to wider policy trends both within and
beyond the sub-sector. These trends in themselves
reflect knowledge and beliefs about the types of in-
terventions most likely to deliver social and eco-
nomic development. Debates have raged in aca-
demic and development assistance communities
about the relative priority that should be given to
general education and TVET, and about the rela-
tionship between the two.
Although the level of international interest in
TVET slumped in the 1990s, due to doubts about
the returns on investment in TVET and a preoc-
cupation with basic education, most ↑ intergov-
ernmental organisations and donor agencies now
believe that TVET and skills development have
an essential role to play. This renewed interest is
due to a convergence of several factors includ-
75
ing: the contribution of skills development to so-
cial cohesion and poverty alleviation; shifting glo-
bal patterns of blue-collar employment; the need
for bridges between education and work; and the
growing expectations of primary school leavers
(BAH DIALLO 2005, 1).
In low-income countries the emphasis of TVET is
often on ↑ basic skills, literacy and skills for liveli-
hoods in the informal economy and in agriculture.
However, in the context of global social and eco-
nomic restructuring and discourses about “↑ life-
long learning” and “↑ knowledge societies”, there
is an increasingly vigorous debate about the reform
and governance of TVET and its contributions to
development. Both “developed” and “developing”
countries stand to gain from international cooper-
ation. Development agencies are now committing
significant financial resources to TVET and yet
there are questions about how such funds should
be used. Several intergovernmental organisations
and many bilateral donor agencies are thus direct-
ly engaged in conducting research on TVET and/
or commissioning TVET research.
Conceptually, administratively and politically,
TVET is more complex than general education.
TVET systems and institutions are often expect-
ed to pursue competing educational purposes and
to serve competing interests. As well as training
for work, they are also expected to equip learners
with basic literacy and numeracy skills, support
personal and social development and offer routes
into higher education. In many countries TVET
overlaps rather awkwardly with the ↑ school sys-
tems and higher education systems. Articulation
with other parts of the education system and the
↑ labour market is often hampered by the fact that
Ministries of Education generally share responsi-
bility for ↑ TVET policy with Ministries of Labour
and/or Employment.
This chapter reviews the evolution of research on
TVET and skills development in four intergovern-
mental organisations, the ↑ World Bank, the ↑ In-
ternational Labour Organisation (ILO), the ↑ Or-
ganisation for Economic Cooperation and De-
velopment (OECD) and the European Union.
↑ UNESCO’s work is reported upon in chapter 1.7
of this Handbook (→ 1.7), so will not be repeat-
ed here, however some of the analysis present-
76
ed in this chapter also applies to UNESCO’s re-
search. We then consider the contribution made by
some bilateral donors prominent in TVET: ↑ Aus-
tralia; Denmark; ↑ France; Germany; ↑ Japan; Nor-
way; Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Final-
ly, we conclude with the case for strengthening
TVET ↑ research capacity at all levels. It is beyond
the scope and length constraints of this chapter to
provide details of TVET research with regard to
all intergovernmental organisations and ↑ bilateral
agencies, the purpose being instead to convey the
essential flavour of the type of research being un-
dertaken and promoted. The selection of agencies
is not representative; it is to some extent influenced
by our professional networks and sources of infor-
mation such as Maintz (2004).
1.8.2 The Evolution of Research on TVET
and Skills Development by Selected
Intergovernmental Organisations
Historically, the extent of engagement by ↑ inter-
governmental organisations in TVET research cor-
responds closely to the level of international sup-
port for TVET itself (→ 2.7; → 3.3.4.5; → 3.3.4.6).
World Bank (http://www.worldbank.org)
The ↑ World Bank has exerted a huge influence over
social and economic policies in ↑ developing coun-
tries since its inception in 1944. The World Bank
is strongly associated with the structural adjust-
ment programmes of the 1980s and in advocating
increased private involvement in public services.
The World Bank, often acting in cooperation with
the International Monetary Fund, has been a major
lender to education projects and programmes since
the 1960s. In the 1980s and early 1990s the World
Bank conducted several widely known and influ-
ential studies. The findings of these studies have
informed the Bank’s financing decisions and had
a significant impact upon international and nation-
al education and ↑ training policies. Such decisions
are intended to achieve maximum returns, suppos-
edly for both donors and recipients; although in
practice many ‘developing’ countries spend much
of their income servicing debts.
In the 1960s and 1970s the World Bank’s ↑ TVET
policy was heavily influenced by proponents of
Handbook of TVET Research
manpower forecasting who stressed the need to in-
crease the economic relevance of education. The
Bank advocated the diversification and vocational-
ization of the curriculum to include technical and
work-related content. By the mid-1980s, about US
$600 million of multilateral funds per annum were
going to TVET, 45 per cent of which was provided
by the World Bank (WATSON 1993, 72).
In the 1980s ↑ human capital theory became in-
creasingly influential and World Bank researchers
applied ↑ cost-benefit analysis techniques to try to
calculate the economic rates of return on various
investment options (e. g. PSACHAROPOULOS / TAN /
JIMENEZ 1986). Research in Colombia and Tanza-
nia found that, despite developing superior ↑ cogni-
tive skills, graduates of diversified schools had no
greater success in finding jobs, and earned no more
than those from general secondary schools (PSA-
CHAROPOULOS 1985). Fully aware of Foster’s (1965)
critique of ↑ vocational schools, Psacharopoulos
(1986) argued that, despite the World Bank’s ear-
lier support for diversified schools, they were not
worth the extra finance involved and that diversi-
fied curricula should be abandoned (JONES 1992,
255).
The World Bank has played a major role in coor-
dinating and synthesizing the work and experience
of other agencies, producing a Policy Study on Vo-
cational and Technical Education (MIDDLETON /
SCHWARTZ 1986), and Vocational Education and
Training: A Review of World Bank Investment
(MIDDLETON / DEMSKY 1988) which helped to inform
the World Bank policy paper Vocational and Tech-
nical Education and Training (WORLD BANK 1991).
This policy paper signalled a dramatic shift away
from support to prevocational courses and second-
ary vocational education and towards general edu-
cation. This reflected what it called “an emerging
international consensus about the high costs of vo-
cationalization and the relative failure of school-
based vocational programs to achieve their intend-
ed goals” (ibid. 1991, 78–79). The policy paper ar-
gued that a skill base in general education is a pre-
requisite for skills for work. It called for a closer
relationship between training and productivity and
advocated new roles for governments in providing
professional services to training rather than pro-
viding training itself.
Genesis of TVET Research
“The key elements of this approach are strengthening
primary and secondary education, encouraging private
sector training, improving ↑ effectiveness and ↑ efficien-
cy in public training, and using training as a comple-
ment to equity strategies” (ibid. 1991, 2).
Two steps were envisaged, firstly addressing non-
TVET problems, such as improving access to gen-
eral, especially basic, education and secondly, the
reform of TVET, including evaluating the supply
of TVET in relation to changing ↑ labour market
demands (GILL / FLUITMAN / DAR 2000, 2).
In ↑ effectiveness of Lending for Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training: Lessons from World Bank
Experience, Canagarajah/ Dar/ Nording/ Raju
(2002) attempt to evaluate how the World Bank
performed in its lending to TVET in the 1990s.
The report primarily focuses on project implemen-
tation against World Bank objectives. The authors
found a lack of evaluative evidence on the ↑ ef-
fectiveness of different training interventions and
they highlighted the need for future research into
innovative and “good practice” approaches (ibid.
2002, 32).
In 2004, the ↑ World Bank released Skills Devel-
opment in Sub-Saharan Africa (JOHANSON / ADAMS
2004). This major study explores issues and de-
velopments in Africa since the 1991 Policy Paper.
It is based upon 14 thematic studies that include
20 country reviews and 70 case studies, conduct-
ed in collaboration with other international organ-
isations, including the ↑ UNESCO ↑ Internation-
al Institute for ↑ Educational Planning (IIEP) and
↑ ILO, national research centres and academics.
The report stresses the importance of ↑ TVET pol-
icy frameworks and of defining the role of govern-
ment in an appropriate way for the provision and
financing of skills development. It found that,
“The single largest gap to be filled is that of market in-
formation for monitoring and evaluation and policy de-
velopment… Regular indicators of relevance, cost, ↑ ef-
ficiency and social equity were not available” (ibid.
2004, 186).
Furthermore, it states that, “Building this capaci-
ty in relevant institutions and the culture of learn-
ing is an important role for government in Sub-
Saharan Africa” (ibid. 2004, 186). Despite recog-
nizing its importance, the World Bank is current-
ly conducting relatively little research specifical-
ly on TVET and skills development. Nevertheless,
77
the Bank continues to advocate TVET reform as a
means of improving economic opportunities and
reducing poverty.
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
(http://www.ilo.org)
“The primary goal of the ILO today is to promote op-
portunities for women and men to obtain decent and
productive work, in conditions of freedom, equity, secu-
rity and human dignity” (SOMAVIA 1999, 3).
Vocational training has always been important
to the ILO, yet, until the late 1980s, research on
TVET had a low priority within ILO headquarters
in Geneva (K ING 1991, 69). More research, how-
ever, had taken place in the regions, particularly
through the work of the Inter-American Research
and Documentation Centre on Vocational Training
(CINTERFOR). Created in 1963, CINTERFOR
coordinates technical cooperation among its mem-
ber institutions. Among other things it supports the
development of TVET institutions, by means of
the exchange of experiences between them, based
on research studies, information and documenta-
tion, as well as the transfer of methodologies and
vocational training technologies.
Since the 1980s, ILO has taken a more analyti-
cal approach, with publications on Rural and Ur-
ban Training in Africa (ILO 1988b) and Training
for Work in the Informal Sector (FLUITMAN 1989).
These stress the need for a reorientation of training
from preparation for wage employment towards
skills development for self-employment. The ILO
and World Bank jointly produced Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training Reform (GILL / FLUITMAN / DAR
2000). Indicative ILO publications include Train-
ing for Self-Employment through Vocational Train-
ing Institutions (GRIERSON / MCKENZIE 1996), Train-
ing for Economic Empowerment (ILO 2005a), Vo-
cational Training and Skills Development in the
Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers: A Prelimi-
nary Review (ILO 2005d) and Learning and De-
cent Work for All (MAYOUX 2005).
ILO’s programme on ‘Skills, Knowledge and
↑ Employability’ seeks “to promote greater invest-
ment in skills and training so that men and women
have enhanced and equal access to productive and
decent work” (RIORDAN / ROSAS 2003, 23). It aims
to support the improvement of ↑ training policies
78
and programmes, with special emphasis on strate-
gies that support the integration of ↑ disadvantaged
groups. Since the early 1990s ILO has promot-
ed and pilot-tested the introduction of core work
skills. These include learning a new job, team-
work, problem-solving and decision-making, and
skills for increased competitiveness, such as quali-
ty awareness and customer satisfaction. Core skills
introduced by this programme emphasized the em-
powerment of both the individual in society, ‘citi-
zenship skills’, and the world of work, ‘employa-
bility skills’ (ibid. 2003, 23). The ‘Skills, Knowl-
edge and Employability’ programme also conducts
research on apprenticeships, training strategies for
marginalized groups (e. g. BENNELL 1999), and the
training implications of technological changes in
the workplace (e. g. ASHTON / SUNG 2002).
ILO sees National Qualifications Frameworks
(NQFs) as one of the main ways to address the
challenges of skills recognition. National Quali-
fications Frameworks: Their Feasibility for Ef-
fective Implementation in ↑ Developing Coun-
tries (YOUNG 2005) outlines the critical issues in-
volved in implementing an NQF. ILO has also de-
veloped an infobase (http://www.logos-net.net/ilo/
nqf) containing comparative experiences of NQFs
(→ 3.4.1).
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and
Development (OECD) (http://www.oecd.org)
Membership of the ↑ OECD is restricted to rich
countries and its activities relate directly to these
countries’ priorities. In education this means ‘↑ life-
long learning for all’, and developing high skills
and qualifications relevant to the ↑ labour market.
This emphasis has led, for example, to large scale
studies of achievement in general education, such
as the Programme for International Student As-
sessment (↑ PISA) and studies of adults’ knowl-
edge, abilities and skills. Although OECD’s work
focuses on rich member states, some analysis of
TVET in non-OECD countries takes place within
OECD’s ↑ research programmes. The OECD has,
for example, conducted some research on work-
place training (→ 3.5.1), with Inservice Training:
Five Asian Experiences (SALOMÉ / CHARMES 1988).
OECD has also analysed inservice training in Bu-
rundi, Cameroon, Côte D’Ivoire and Zimbabwe.
Handbook of TVET Research
The OECD’s Development Assistance Commit-
tee (http://www.oecd.org/dac) is a useful source of
comparative research data (→ 3.3.1).
The OECD’s research attracts worldwide atten-
tion and thus influences TVET research conduct-
ed by other agencies. One example is the recent
OECD programme, ‘The Definition and Selection
of Competences’ (DeSeCo), which addressed the
↑ research question: ‘What competencies do we
need for a successful life and a well-functioning
society?’ The purpose of DeSeCo was to provide
a theoretical and conceptual basis for defining and
selecting ↑ key competencies and a foundation for
the continued development of statistical indicators
of individually-based competencies. It also aimed
to establish a reference point for interpreting em-
pirical results in relation to the outcomes of learn-
ing and teaching (OECD 2005a, 4). The final re-
port of the programme provides an input to debates
about which formal and informal competences
should be given priority when education curricu-
la and training programmes are being reformed or
reorganised (RYCHEN / SALGANIK 2003).
European Union (http://www.europa.eu)
Since the creation of the European Economic
Community in 1957, the integration of economic
and labour policies across Europe has been a stra-
tegic objective. The Copenhagen Declaration on
enhanced European cooperation in vocational ed-
ucation and training was adopted in 2002, with-
in the vision of the 2000 Lisbon Strategy. As part
of the ↑ Copenhagen process the European Cred-
it System for Vocational Education and Training
(↑ ECVET) aims to make achieved learning out-
comes more readily recognised across Europe.
The ECVET intends to make TVET qualifications
easier to read and compare, thereby increasing the
attractiveness of TVET and facilitating ↑ mobility
(EC 2005d, 4). European ↑ cooperation in TVET
is also promoted through the ↑ Leonardo da Vin-
ci programme, which supports projects to improve
the quality of training systems and practices across
Europe. There is also a European agency, ↑ CEDE-
FOP (Centre Européen pour le Développement de
la Formation Professionnelle) which conducts re-
search specifically on TVET and lifelong learning
in Europe. The coordination and integration of na-
Genesis of TVET Research
tional research efforts and capabilities in TVET is
encouraged through the European Research Area
(EC 2002b, 9).
The ↑ European Training Foundation (ETF), a spe-
cialist agency of the European Commission, oper-
ational since 1994, is orientated towards the devel-
opment of the education and training systems of
EU partner countries including transition and ↑ de-
veloping countries. ETF (http://www.etf.europa.
eu) aims to “help these countries to develop peo-
ples’ skills and knowledge to promote better liv-
ing conditions, active citizenship and democratic
societies that respect human rights and cultural di-
versity” (ETF 2006, 1). Although primarily work-
ing in pre-accession countries and countries in the
European Neighbourhood (→ 2.6) its research pro-
gramme on TVET and skills development is of
wider interest. ETF’s 2007 work programme in-
volves “a move from technical development activ-
ities towards new, more comprehensive process-
es aimed at policy development in the human re-
sources sector as a whole” (ETF 2007, 5).
Major research projects include cross-country ↑ la-
bour market studies; skills development for pov-
erty reduction; skills development for the knowl-
edge economy; university-enterprise relations;
qualifications frameworks; assessment studies;
↑ key competences for ↑ lifelong learning; impli-
cations of migration and transition from educa-
tion to work. In addition to thematic studies, ↑ ETF
has conducted many detailed country reviews of
TVET and labour market reforms. Indicative re-
cent publications include A Review of Internation-
al and National Developments in the Use of Qual-
ifications Frameworks (COLES 2006) Financing
Vocational Education and Training in the EU New
Member States and Candidate Countries (MASSON
2006) and Reforming TVET in the Middle East
and North Africa: Experiences and Challenges
(HAKIM / CARRERO PEREZ 2006).
Until recently European Union support to TVET
in developing countries was generally for the con-
struction and improvement of training centres.
Now, in common with most other regional and in-
ternational organisations, European Union ↑ devel-
opment cooperation now aims to help improve the
quality of training in partner countries and to en-
79
sure greater responsiveness towards labour mar-
ket needs.
1.8.3 The Evolution of Research on TVET
and Skills Development by Selected
Bilateral Agencies
Australia, AusAID (http://www.ausaid.gov.au)
In the education sector AusAID gives particular
focus to basic and technical and vocational educa-
tion and training. AusAID supports demand driv-
en approaches and activities to improve the access
of vulnerable groups to TVET. AusAID prioritises
development interventions in its neighbouring re-
gions of the Pacific and South East Asia.
Denmark, DANIDA (http://www.um.dk)
Since 1994 Danish support to TVET has been
characterized by a change of geographical focus
towards Africa and away from Asia. In 2001 Da-
nida drafted a new policy on ‘skills development’,
which is itself a broader concept than ‘TVET’. The
policy paper recognizes the contribution of skills
development to poverty reduction and cross-cut-
ting policy concerns (e. g. environment, gender,
human rights, good governance, democratisation/
↑ participation) and is linked closely to the Dan-
ish development strategy. It has resulted in a shift
away from providing support to specific techni-
cal training areas towards advice on organisation-
al and management issues. An Evaluation Report:
Danish Assistance to Vocational Education and
Training (DANIDA 2002) recommended that de-
cisions on Danish assistance should “be based on
in-depth country-specific analysis of needs and op-
portunities, including gender-sensitive analysis of
the demand for skilled labour” (ibid., 70) and this
has been agreed to (JENSEN 2002, 5).
French, DGCID
(http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr)
The Direction Générale de la Coopération Inter-
nationale et du Développement (DGCID) con-
centrates on poverty reduction and basic human
needs, economic and social development and the
promotion of democracy. Priorities of French ↑ co-
operation concerning TVET are: support to devel-
80
op education policies that are sensitive to sectoral
requirements and economically sustainable; and
building ↑ partnerships with civil society (employ-
er and employee associations), favouring the crea-
tion of ↑ continuing education funds (DGCID web-
site).
Germany, BMZ (http://www.bmz.de)
The German Federal Ministry for Economic Co-
operation and Development (BMZ) is responsi-
ble for Germany’s development cooperation. BMZ
commissions ↑ GTZ (German Agency for Techni-
cal Cooperation, http://www.gtz.de) and other bod-
ies, including InWEnt (an organisation for ↑ human
resource development, advanced training and dia-
logue, http://www.inwent.org) and SEQUA (Foun-
dation for Economic Development and Vocational
Training, http://www.sequa.org.np), to implement
Germany’s support to partner countries. Germa-
ny prioritises training for trainers, ↑ in-company
training and gender equity. ↑ GTZ provides serv-
ices ranging from targeting specific components of
the TVET system to holistic strategies to support:
employment-oriented qualification systems; cen-
tres for advanced technology training and servic-
es; qualifications of TVET management and teach-
ing staff; the development of curricula and pover-
ty reduction and reconstruction. InWEnt provides
assistance in the development of effective voca-
tional training systems and seeks to improve ex-
isting curricula in cooperating countries. SEQUA
supports projects of Western European enterpris-
es which contain components of vocational train-
ing, for example, the establishment of training cen-
tres, the provision of training equipment, the de-
velopment of curricula and the training of trainers
(MAINTZ 2004, 27).
Japan, Japan International Cooperation Agen-
cy (JICA) (http://www.jica.go.jp)
JICA is an executing agency for international co-
operation working under the direction of the Min-
istry of Foreign Affairs of ↑ Japan. Other minis-
tries are also involved in development assistance.
JICA understands the concept of “skills” in a ho-
listic way, comprising technical, social, spiritual
and intellectual components. It supports both the
Handbook of TVET Research
development of human resources for industry and
skills development for individual livelihoods and
micro-enterprises (JICA 2006, 1–2). In addition,
Japan supports TVET when promoting basic edu-
cation so that skills can be developed in relation to
local demand.
Norway, NORAD (http://www.norad.no)
The Norwegian Agency for Development Cooper-
ation (NORAD) is a directorate under the Norwe-
gian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Norway’s sup-
port to TVET projects includes youth enterprise
centres, pre-vocational training, teacher training,
traditional vocational skills training and skills de-
velopment courses connected to adult literacy ef-
forts. Norway also promotes skills training com-
bined with non-formal education to keep children
off the streets and to confront the issue of child la-
bour and skills training for marginalized groups.
Switzerland, Swiss Agency for Development
and Cooperation (SDC) (http://www.sdc.ad-
min.ch)
The Swiss Agency for Development and Coop-
eration (SDC) is, with other federal agencies, re-
sponsible for the coordination of development ac-
tivities, cooperation with Eastern Europe, and hu-
manitarian aid. TVET is one of SDC’s thematic
priorities. Vocational education and training and
skills development and the promotion of micro-en-
terprises are considered the key instruments. Fur-
ther details about the reorientation of SDC sup-
port to TVET are available in Skills Development
in Swiss Development Cooperation: Insight and
Outlook (SDC/KODIS 2001).
United Kingdom, Department for International
Development (DFID) (http://www.dfid.gov.uk)
As well as country programmes in the education
sector, DFID supports education research and its
communication to policy makers and practition-
ers. A series of DFID Educational Papers is avail-
able from http://www.id21.org/ed.html. Research
on skills development includes: Learning to Com-
pete: Education, Training and Enterprise in Gha-
na, Kenya and South Africa, (AFENYADU / KING /
Genesis of TVET Research
MCGRATH ET AL . 1999); The Impact of Training on
Women’s Micro-Enterprise Development (LEACH /
ABDULLA / APPLETON ET AL . 2000); and ↑ Globalisa-
tion and Skills for Development in Rwanda and
Tanzania (TIKLY / LOWE / CROSSLEY ET AL . 2003).
DFID has recently produced a briefing paper on
The Importance of Secondary, Vocational and
Higher Education to Development (DFID 2006)
and a practice paper on Technical and Vocational
Skills Development (DFID 2007)
1.8.4 Analysis and Conclusions
Given the general lack of TVET research conduct-
ed within university research centres, intergovern-
mental organisations and some ↑ bilateral agen-
cies make an important contribution to the litera-
ture. From the above survey it is evident that much
of this research is not straight academic research.
As for ↑ UNESCO (→ 1.7), the modalities adopted
by these bodies often include commissioned stud-
ies, papers prepared for experts’ meetings or work-
shops, consultations and evaluations that inform
policy development. Much of this work is not inde-
pendent but functional in nature and, understand-
ably, reflects the ideologies, interests, and method-
ologies, of the funding agencies. As King (1991,
77) observed, ↑ intergovernmental organisations
often promote research into issues or questions
in the hope of finding generalisable principles to
guide funding decisions across a wide range of
countries. Bilateral agencies tend to prioritise re-
search into countries with which they have had a
long-term relationship.
This review has stressed the influence of the
↑ World Bank on international trends in education
and training. It has also shown that intergovern-
mental organisations and bilateral agencies have
different specialized areas of interest and exper-
tise. These organisations are not primarily research
institutions and there is a two-way interaction be-
tween research and policy formulation. Current in-
ternational research on TVET and skills develop-
ment takes place in the context of ↑ United Nations
priorities including the Millennium Development
Goals, ↑ Education for All, Literacy, HIV/AIDS,
and Sustainable Development. There is also grow-
ing interest in the role of TVET in fragile states
and crisis situations of emergency and reconstruc-
81
tion. The research conducted by these organisa-
tions does not claim “neutrality” or independence
from macro-policy objectives or political influenc-
es. Indeed, it is characterised by a strong policy-
orientation and rapid dissemination to internation-
al and national decision-makers.
Whilst some international trends, such sector
wide approaches and the shift in terminology
from ‘TVET’ to ‘skills development’ have swept
through many bilateral agencies, there are notable
differences in their thinking and practice. These
have their roots in different philosophies of educa-
tion and the role of the state. ↑ France, for example,
stresses the social functions of vocational educa-
tion (→ 1.3) and prioritises state-to-state support to
formal TVET, whereas Switzerland, on the other
hand, prefers to support non-formal TVET, gener-
ally preferring to work through civil society organ-
isations (ATCHOARENA / DELLUC 2002, 86–87).
This review demonstrates a growing interest in the
potential of research on TVET and skills develop-
ment by both intergovernmental organisations and
↑ bilateral agencies. They are increasingly keen to
learn from comparative experiences and to avoid
repeating past failures. There are multiple pressing
issues facing TVET policy-makers and research-
ers, such as the transition from school to work; re-
forming the institutional framework to finance and
govern TVET (including trends towards decentral-
isation); and promoting competency-based train-
ing and learner pathways between general and vo-
cational qualifications (ATCHOARENA 2001, 2–3).
Each of these areas requires high level technical
expertise supported by valid research findings.
Yet, despite the scale of the challenges and a high
level of demand from agencies and national gov-
ernments, technical expertise is lacking and inter-
national and comparative research on TVET and
skills development is under-resourced. The chang-
ing roles of agencies and the state, from simply
“providing training” to the complexity of “creat-
ing a supportive environment”, also necessitates
strengthening ↑ research capacity at all levels.
Policy research benefits from direct country expe-
riences which ensure that it is ‘in-tune’ with re-
alities on the ground. Yet, given the political and
economic interests underlying agency research,
and the inter-sectoral nature of TVET challeng-
82
es, more independent, critical and inter-discipli-
nary research is required (→ 5.3.5). International
research on TVET and skills development could
be more open to multiple perspectives and research
paradigms and more sensitive to contextual and
cultural differences (CROSSLEY/ WATSON 2003, 142).
Perhaps due to the relative strength of intergovern-
mental organisations and bilateral agencies in this
arena their studies do not benefit as much as they
should from academic peer review. This is prob-
lematic when such important studies are conduct-
ed in relative isolation from theoretical, methodo-
logical and philosophical debates with deep policy
implications.
1.9 Steps towards International
Comparative Research in
TVET
Uwe Lauterbach
1.9.1 Definition and Scope
This aspect is of particular importance in the Ger-
man-speaking countries owing to the traditional
distinction between general and technical/voca-
tional education and training. In most countries,
there is no need to consider research in TVET as
an academic discipline with the focus on initial
TVET in the upper secondary level of the ↑ school
system simply because, although secondary edu-
cation differentiates between general education
and education in TVET, the higher education sec-
tor and the highly diverse ↑ continuing education
sector are also involved in providing technical and
vocational qualifications. In many countries, such
as the ↑ USA and the United Kingdom, these sec-
tors play a dominant role. The increasingly high
skills demanded in many occupations have also led
to an “upgrading” in the status of TVET, inducing
post-secondary TVET institutions and the higher
education sector to offer a more attractive range of
courses and also enhancing the status of continu-
ing education overall.
As a consequence, the general restriction of the
TVET system, which is concentrated in the sec-
ondary education sector, can no longer be upheld
Handbook of TVET Research
as the primary focus of comparative research in
TVET on an international scale. In justification of
that position, it is sufficient simply to consider the
↑ US American and Canadian ↑ community colleg-
es, the Australian ↑ TAFE colleges, the colleges of
↑ further education in the UK or the many similar
newly created college types in the transition coun-
tries of Central and Eastern Europe and in the de-
veloping and newly industrialised countries, or
even the fact that those attending such institutions
are referred to as “students”, although in the Ger-
man frame of reference these colleges would be re-
garded as “full-time ↑ vocational schools” and the
persons attending courses there would consequent-
ly be referred to as “pupils”, although in an inter-
national comparison they belong to the category
of “students”. In some countries, such as the USA,
these sectors actually play a dominant role in ini-
tial and continuing TVET. One of the elementa-
ry tasks of international comparative research is
therefore to document and accept the different cul-
tural ↑ contextualisation of such terms and defini-
tions. In order to obtain clarity as to what consti-
tutes “Research in TVET” as a research subject,
the different systemic national definitions, scopes
and references first have to be disclosed and prob-
lematised.
1.9.2 Definition
The difficulties that occur in the definition of
TVET as an internationally accepted ↑ research
field when distinguishing it from the higher educa-
tion system and adult education are further aggra-
vated by the fact that different cultures set different
limits on the definition of what constitutes TVET.
This is evident from the English term “vocation-
al education”. That term is used to refer to voca-
tional education in the industrial/technical sector
with the focus on in-school education. Vocation-
al education is distinct from “vocational training”,
which refers to on-the-job training at a company,
and which connotes manual and “simple” voca-
tional activities. In some countries, this also ap-
plies to “vocational education”. Although the two
terms are sometimes used synonymously, they fre-
quently have the above negative connotations. In
addition to “vocational education”, the term “tech-
nical education” is also used. It refers to activities
Genesis of TVET Research
which traditionally place a stronger emphasis on
“theory”, and covers ↑ vocations such as laborato-
ry technicians and other technical specialists, ac-
countants and business management specialists.
Neither the Anglo-American nor the Romance
language areas have one catch-all term which cov-
ers the entire concept of education in TVET, not
to mention the Asian language areas, where the
whole concept of TVET first has to be defined. As
English is the dominant language in the interna-
tional scientific community, we shall restrict this
comparative analysis to the English and American
contexts for pragmatic reasons, although it is im-
portant to remember that there is an inherent risk
in communication in this lingua franca that the
subtle differentiation that results from the different
↑ cultural contexts is lost.
When referring to the sector which is defined
by the term ‘berufliche Bildung’ in the German-
speaking countries, we shall therefore use the Eng-
lish term “Technical and Vocational Education
and Training” (TVET). This is also the definition
adopted by the ↑ UNESCO. The EU, on the oth-
er hand, refers only to “vocational education and
training” (VET). Moreover, the definition of the
terms used in English as the lingua franca have led
to different uses in the course of the supranation-
al dialogue at EU level and the national references.
The German expression of “berufliche Bildung”,
for instance, is not translated as TVET but as “pro-
fessional education”, while a TVET institution is
referred to as a “professional college”. The English
term “↑ profession” also covers a wider scope and
encompasses all the ↑ vocations for which train-
ing and education are available in a formal TVET
system, i.e. it also covers “simple” manual occu-
pations such as that of roofer, butcher etc. The is-
sue is even more confused when one considers the
synonymous terms in use for an American “profes-
sional school”, which provides medical training for
future doctors, and a Danish “professional school”,
which provides technical training and is actual-
ly more like a ↑ community college. However, al-
though these examples could be continued indefi-
nitely, they also show that the terms in the lingua
franca English have been adapted to suit the dif-
ferent cultural groups. Moreover, the “technical”
English, which is currently evolving as a commu-
83
nication basis in the EU appears to be a “foreign
language” even to a native speaker of English.
1.9.3 Contextualisation and Cultural
References
The cultural context is also decisive for the ques-
tion of whether “technical education” is also re-
garded as VET. To obtain clarity in that respect, we
have to refer to the individual national education
systems (in most European countries, the higher
secondary level distinguishes between “general”,
“technical” and “vocational” education sectors,
although this ultimately depends on the national
background. This contextualisation with the dif-
ferent national cultural, social, political, historical
and economic framework conditions as well as the
social values which are significant for TVET can-
not be disregarded in any international or intercul-
tural studies Teichler 1995).
It is obvious that such misunderstandings can oc-
cur during international comparisons if the na-
tional TVET systems are not regarded as a cultur-
al projection (GEORG 1997b, 157 f.): almost every
international ↑ OECD study on the education sys-
tems contains the remark that some countries, such
as Germany, have too few students compared with
most other countries. This statement on the cultur-
al ↑ contextualisation of national education phe-
nomena also applies to the concept of ↑ v ocation.
If the definition of “research in TVET” referred
to this, and if we were to examine how highly dif-
ferent cultures distinguish between the occupation
for which the person has been trained and the em-
ployment that he actually performs, the definition
of the ↑ research field would be even more blurred.
Compared with the general German term “Beruf”,
for example, English differentiates between “occu-
pation”, “vocation” and “profession”.
However, the consequence of this dilemma cannot
be to plead that research in TVET should therefore
be conducted only on a national scale, with the ar-
gument that that is the only way to succeed in de-
fining the decisive parameter of culture, as refer-
ring to a specifically defined political-geographi-
cal territory. International comparisons would be
possible but pointless, as the individual cultural
context provides the frame of reference for the ex-
amined phenomena. There are arguments against
84
these static paradigms of cultural relativism (EP-
STEIN 1988, 7 ff.) such as social and technical
changes which have evolved during the course of
historic processes as a result of confrontation with
unfamiliar and alien concepts (ROBINSOHN 1970) or
the need for comparative research as the result of
international pressure to modernise the different
national TVET systems.
1.9.4 Justification for International
Research in TVET
That is the interpretation that has to be given to at-
tempts to provide national, supranational and in-
ternational foundations for research in TVET. In
Germany, this process is already well advanced, as
is evident in the approximate definition prepared
by the Senate Commission for TVET Research at
Colleges of Higher Education in the Federal Re-
public of Germany of the German Research Foun-
dation (DFG).
“Research in TVET examines the conditions, processes
and consequences of the acquisition of specialist quali-
fications, personal and social attitudes and orientations
which appear significant for the execution of vocational-
ly organised work processes” (DFG 1990, 1).
This definition encompasses initial and continuing
TVET in all fields of learning, in some cases al-
so in the university sector. It also embodies the at-
tempt to give equal ranking to general and TVET
education (BECK 1995, 457 ff.). If the discourse
with respect to qualification and skills or work and
occupation does not provide a basis for the defini-
tion of “research in TVET”, which also specifies
the boundaries with other disciplines, this prag-
matic definition is suitable for defining the bound-
aries of the ↑ research field of national and inter-
national comparative research in TVET. Howev-
er, if it now appears that the major obstacles have
been overcome, that is overly optimistic with re-
gards to the question of those disciplines which are
active in this research field. There are no grounds
which would justify an exclusive right on the part
of Berufs- and Wirtschaftspädagogik (BWP) [edu-
cation in TVET, ↑ educational research in TVET]
to conduct this research. Representatives from
various specialist disciplines all conduct research
within the sector of TVET, within ↑ work process-
es and the ↑ labour market. Those countries which
Handbook of TVET Research
do not prescribe a university degree for teachers in
the TVET sector consequently have no frame of
reference for BWP, which in the German-speaking
area integrates this field of research.
This also explains why there is as yet no related in-
ternational journal which serves as a platform for
scientific discourse. The findings of (comparative)
research in TVET are simply included in those
journals which publish the current status of inter-
national research in Comparative Education (CE),
such as “Comparative Education”, “Comparative
Education Review” or “Internationale Zeitschrift
für Erziehungswissenschaft” [International Jour-
nal of Education].
Does this mean that international comparative re-
search in TVET is superfluous? The need men-
tioned above, which results from the central func-
tion of organised work for human existence alone,
as well as the interest in research which does not
stop at national borders, and the relatively discour-
aging alternative of leaving this field solely to pol-
iticians, are justification enough for internation-
al comparative research in TVET. These reasons,
which derive from an interest in obtaining interna-
tionally relevant findings, are distinct from those
which emphasise the aspect of “comparison” as
the constituent feature of comparative research in
TVET but fail to take into account that the com-
parative method is standard in many scientific dis-
ciplines (LAUTERBACH 2003b, 269 ff.).
1.9.5 Historic Discourse and BWP as
Reference Discipline?
In view of the virtually endless variety of research
disciplines in the field of vocational education, the
question arises as to whether BWP can be regard-
ed as the basic discipline of comparative research
in TVET. This follows the arguments propound-
ed by Lipsmeier et al., which claim that Compara-
tive BWP has its own separate root, distinct from
the internationally dominant CE, and refers to the
complexity of the research subject matter “Econo-
my and Technology” (LIPSMEIER 1969, 146). These
efforts to establish this as a separate discipline,
embedded in BWP, still continue. This endeav-
our to achieve separation can be explained by the
need to create a clear-cut profile for the relative-
ly new discipline of BWP, one which distinguish-
Genesis of TVET Research
es it from the dominant sector of general educa-
tion, but which can simultaneously also be attrib-
uted to the fact that there was no demand for inter-
national ↑ comparative studies or other national ex-
perience simply because the experts were (or are
still) convinced that the “↑ dual system” was the
best TVET system worldwide (GONON 1998, 93 f.)
so that there were simply no adequate “counter-
parts” (GEORG 1995, 67) available for scientific dis-
course. The position of Abel (1962), who repeat-
edly stressed the link between comparative BWP
as the core of comparative research in TVET and
CE appeared to be an exception that was, however,
non-representative. A brief look at the research ac-
tivities of outstanding proponents of BWP, on the
other hand, reveals that the international discourse
with representatives of CE were not extraordinary
but were in fact always the norm. The experts re-
garded themselves as members of this scientific
community. In the late 19th century, when plan-
ning the ↑ further education system in Munich,
Kerschensteiner accordingly – following the logic
of the ↑ melioristic function of comparison (LAUT-
ERBACH 2003b, 110 ff.) – conducted studies in the
neighbouring countries to obtain ideas for coping
with the task in hand. He was in long-term con-
tact with the Center of International Comparative
Education at the International Institute of Teachers
College at Columbia University in New York, with
colleagues who included Dewey, Kandel and Mon-
roe. Kerschensteiner was not an unknown quanti-
ty in the international education scene, as is clear
from the many lectures he gave in the ↑ USA and
in England, where he was quoted by Sadler, the
Nestor of CE (LAUTERBACH 2003b, 220 ff.). One of
the principal driving forces behind the internation-
al discourse conducted by the educationalists was
the concept of “new education”.
Following the decline of CE caused by the Na-
tional Socialists, post-war Germany again opted
for the holistic tradition of CE with enthusiastic
support from the American military government.
The idea of establishing a separate field of com-
parative research in TVET was not on the agenda.
On the contrary, the findings of comparative re-
search were used on the whole to support reforms
and to re-establish entire educational systems. The
TVET sector was dominated by comparative stud-
85
ies with an idiographic and melioristic focus, the
findings of which referred not only to the German
situation, but, like the Ware expertise, could also
supply ideas for reforming vocational education in
the USA. Alongside this research, which focuses
on the educational theories of comparison, inter-
national comparative research in the sector of edu-
cation in TVET and with a sociological, economic
and psychological background, without reference
to any specific comparative research discipline in
TVET, (LAUTERBACH 2003b, 279 ff.) has also been
carried out.
Abel, too, was against the concept of separate com-
parative BWP, although he conducted many inter-
national comparative studies. The motivation giv-
en for that research was ↑ vocational education the-
ory and the equal importance of general and vo-
cational education, which derived from that the-
ory. His comparative research was a combination
of both internal and external studies, in that, for
instance, he linked research into the development
of occupations which focused on the situation in
Germany with the theory of international develop-
ments in the formalisation of informal education
within the scope of the evolution of vocational ac-
tivities into clearly circumscribed ↑ vocations, oc-
cupations and ↑ professions (ABEL 1962).
After Abel, the international dimension of BWP
was increasingly relegated to marginal status in
Germany. As explained above, this could be at-
tributed primarily to the conviction that there was
no need to consider Germany’s unique “↑ dual sys-
tem” in comparison with other countries. Typical
phenomena of that period were the system compar-
isons with the creation of models, the methods of
which were usually not elaborated to any great ex-
tent and the results of which “coincidentally” pro-
vided arguments in favour of the German TVET
system.
1.9.6 Internationalisation and Comparative
Research in TVET
It was not until the 1990s that international com-
parative research in TVET was again regarded as
being of central importance. The impetus comes
predominantly from supranational (European Un-
ion) and international contexts.
86
The determinant factor for the promotion of educa-
tion in TVET and research in TVET on the Europe-
an level is the central importance of qualified edu-
cation for the development of social and economic
resources as well as ↑ mobility within the Europe-
an employment system. Mobility has been a preva-
lent research topic since the foundation of the Eu-
ropean Coal and Steel Community (1951) and has
been the focus of repeated studies. Since the estab-
lishment of the “↑ Leonardo da Vinci” programme
(1994), it has been a central research topic. Mobil-
ity has many different facets and also serves as the
key topic for all manner of activities by the Euro-
pean Commission. The continuing development of
the European Commission’s plans for the ↑ Euro-
pean Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the Eu-
ropean Credit ↑ Transfer System in Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training (ECVET) also generates the
need for new research. In addition to ↑ Leonardo
da Vinci (and the subsequent programmes) the EU
framework ↑ research programme is also available
for more in-depth and more elaborate research. The
vocational education agencies of the EU (↑ CEDE-
FOP, ↑ ETF) will also provide impetus for research
within the scope of the activities of the Europe-
an Commission, together with overviews of the
state of the art of (comparative) research in TVET
in Europe (TESSARING 1998b; DESCY/ TESSARING
2001). Apart from these programmes, the nation-
al governments are investing in this international
dimension, which is also within the framework of
international ↑ cooperation in vocational education
and training with developing and newly industr-
ialised countries. International organisations such
as the ↑ OECD, ↑ UNESCO, the ↑ World Bank and
the ↑ ILO are also involved. One topic that is be-
coming increasingly important in terms of the im-
portance of the quality of individual skills for the
economic ↑ efficiency of national economies is the
↑ efficiency of the national TVET and ↑ continuing
education systems. One of the central tasks of re-
search in TVET is to provide cogent research con-
cepts for large-scale assessment studies in interna-
tional research bodies. In view of the complexity
of the subject matter, ↑ interdisciplinary coopera-
tion is advisable.
Handbook of TVET Research
1.9.7 Leading Discipline and Interest in
Findings
These framework conditions give reason to believe
that we are about to reach a ‘golden’ age of inter-
national comparative research in TVET. Howev-
er, much still has to be done before that can be the
case. One crucial item involves the debate to es-
tablish the leading discipline. Does sociological
CE with an empirical focus, or a multidisciplinary
and/or interdisciplinary ↑ research approach, hold
more promise for the future? The pamphlet DFG
Denkschrift Berufsbildungsforschung [Research
in TVET] substantiates the value of interdiscipli-
nary studies (DFG 1990, 22 ff., 92 ff.). The argu-
ment refers to comparative research in education
and is dominant in the United Kingdom and the
↑ USA.
“This extended dimension also links the educational sci-
entific approach with questions which derive from soci-
ology, economics, political science and psychology (in
particular cross-cultural psychology). Other orientations
lead to cultural science and law” (MITTER 1996, 501).
By analogy with the conception of comparative
research in education, comparative research in
TVET also conducts interdisciplinary and ↑ com-
parative studies on the international development
of vocational education at different levels – such
as the system, the problem and the function lev-
el. The topics concentrate on vocational education
in the context of social development, in particular
the economy and ↑ labour market as well as other
framework conditions, but also examine the indi-
vidual, as in the case of teaching/learning research
and large scale assessment.
As regards the question of what distinguishes this
from CE, the answer is not to be found in the par-
adigms, theories and methods of comparison, but
in the interest in the research findings, which focus
on the field of vocational education on the basis of
TVET theories and specialist topics, such as com-
parative research into the equal status of general
and vocational education.
The complexity of this research area is undisputed,
as underlined by the matrix put forward by Tessar-
ing (1998a, 9 ff.) with respect to the key issues of
research in TVET in the EU. This is further inten-
sified if it is extended to include also informal and
non-formal education in TVET.
Genesis of TVET Research
In the course of project execution, it therefore
makes sense to seek the discourse with other dis-
ciplines from the social science and ↑ humanities
sectors, beginning with BWP as the basic disci-
pline. The consequences of these findings for in-
ternational/intercultural comparative research in
TVET are “connected” structures which support
that process, i.e. the close interlinking of BWP and
comparative BWP and the interdisciplinary re-
search in the sector of education in TVET within
the framework of (comparative) research in TVET.
Moreover, a combination of internal and external
focus, in other words, linking the focus of research
on the scientists’ “own” national system with that
of international comparative research always has
to be of relevance. Kerschensteiner and Abel also
advocated that position, and thus correspond to the
type of research scientist meant by Holmes (1974)
et al. when describing the fundamental principles
of research practice and the usefulness of com-
parative research for educational practice. In con-
trast to these research scientists who proceed from
the basis of their own national situation, there are
other research scientists who opt for an interna-
tional focus, and who “look in” from the outside:
their studies, such as large-scale assessment (com-
parison of educational ↑ performance by IEA and
↑ OECD), trend analysis or the formation of theo-
ries such as the world ↑ system theory, all affect the
national debates on general and vocational educa-
tion to a greater or lesser extent.
The ↑ interdisciplinary link with reality is an essen-
tial criterion for the scope of the research in educa-
tional practice, education management and educa-
tion policies (ACHTENHAGEN 1999, 100). Compara-
tive international research projects already exhibit
interdisciplinary cooperation. That is not only the
result of the complexity of education in TVET as a
research topic, but reflects those disciplines which
conduct research into education in TVET within
the different countries and which form internation-
al networks. These research findings are transfera-
ble because, here again, the internal study remains
linked with the external approach with respect to
specific problem constellations. This constitutes
the long overdue replacement of models that are
created on the basis of artefacts in the comparison
of TVET systems (LAUTERBACH 2003b, 257).
87
These changes force the “true comparative re-
search scientists”, who have, to date, claimed a
monopoly on international comparative research
on the basis of their sound empirical approach, in-
to the defensive (LAUTERBACH / SELLIN /CEDEFOP/
DIPF 2001, 349 ff.; Lauterbach 2003b, 283). In-
ternational comparison in the field of research
in TVET represents a theoretical concept that is
now in common use for the examination of ‘inter-
nal’ national problem areas. This means it is now
more aligned to the international standard in ↑ ed-
ucational research, where the ↑ research field is no
longer the exclusive prerogative of any one disci-
pline.
1.9.8 International Communication
Platforms
It is vital that this process is backed by ↑ communi-
cation platforms that enable documentation of the
research findings and also promote discourse be-
tween the research scientists and educational prac-
tice.
As explained above, comparative research in
TVET is an integrated discipline in which some
scientists deal only sporadically with the research
field, while others are concerned with it as a per-
manent research topic. The situation is similar for
the relevant university institutes and independent
research institutes in the public and non-profit sec-
tor, as well as commercial advisory bodies. The re-
lationship to the basic discipline and its scientific
societies is particularly problematic. In the field of
psychology alone, there are a number of scientific
societies that conduct comparative research, which
also focuses on vocational education. This princi-
ple also applies to the field of sociology, certainly
at the national level and even more so as regards
the various international societies. The above list
could be continued indefinitely for other disci-
plines such as economics. For those reasons alone,
the scientific community cannot be restricted to
the EU as the political and geographical unit. The
national scientific societies are integrated into the
overall worldwide system, with the focus on Eu-
rope, North America and Asia/↑ Australia.
In view of the complexity of the research structures
of research in TVET as outlined above, in terms of
pragmatic considerations, concentrating the inter-
88
disciplinary discourse in (comparative) research
in TVET in Europe appears advisable. Moreover,
discussion and debate between the professional so-
cieties of the different disciplines should be sought
and worldwide dialogue cultivated. To ensure sus-
tainable results, it would also be important to in-
clude North America, ↑ Japan, Korea, ↑ China and
Australia, South America and Southern Africa
over the long term.
Apart from the EU, other important bodies for the
development of (comparative) research in TVET
are other international organisations such as the
Council of Europe, the ↑ International Labour Or-
ganisation (ILO) as well as subordinate organisa-
tions and departments of the United Nations Or-
ganization (UNO), in particular ↑ UNESCO and
its centres for technical and vocational education
and training UNEVOC, the Human Development
Research Department of the ↑ World Bank and the
↑ OECD.
International scientific societies and supranational
organisations could be used to promote European
comparative research in TVET from the following
two aspects:
– On the one hand, the ‘comparative’ researchers
in TVET could actively participate in scientific so-
cieties (e. g. CESE, World Council/WCCES, IEA,
ATEE), in particular at scientific conventions;
– On the other hand, the findings of compara-
tive research which relate directly to education in
TVET could be published through an international
network with an internet platform.
A suitable instrument for this purpose would be
the VETNET, which is operated by the European
Education Research Association (EERA), which
was founded in 1994. The aim of the EERA is to
promote ↑ educational research in Europe by form-
ing networks. There are specialist networks for the
individual ↑ subject areas, such as Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training (VETNET). Research find-
ings are presented at the biennial European Con-
ference on Educational Research (ECER). In the
past, these presentations have not adequately re-
flected the state of the art of the key thematic sub-
jects, owing to the highly diverse ↑ participation by
the national capacities. Moreover, in view of the
regional composition of VETNET inside Europe,
it can reasonably be assumed that the organisation
Handbook of TVET Research
has, as yet, failed to attract participants from the
Southern European countries to the necessary ex-
tent. Despite these current deficits, however, the
EERA is a suitable platform for European (com-
parative) research in TVET. Also worth mention-
ing are the laudable attempts made by ↑ CEDEFOP
to promote (comparative) research in TVET. There
are a number of platforms and forums that docu-
ment research findings. It is, however, noticeable
that as yet no systematic attempts have been made
to seek links to non-EU research bodies or to cul-
tivate connections with international and national
scientific societies that conduct studies in the field
of TVET. The function of a European clearing
house for the findings of (comparative) research in
TVET, along the same lines as ERIC in the ↑ USA
or the literature database FIS Bildung in Germa-
ny, would be useful for the promotion of compar-
ative research in TVET. Supplementary ↑ quality
assurance to back the research findings could eas-
ily be achieved by staging special thematic confer-
ences. Another central concern of comparative re-
search in TVET, the reference to educational prac-
tice, would also be satisfied by the social-↑ partner-
ship conception of ↑ CEDEFOP.
Before these projections can be implemented at
the European level, this has to be preceded by na-
tional efforts. At this point, reference is made to
the work of “Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsbildungs-
forschungsnetz (AG BFN)” [Working Group on
Research Networks in TVET] in Germany. This
↑ interdisciplinary cooperation has successful-
ly generated elemental theories and methodolo-
gies in the field of comparative research in TVET.
The participating research scientists would then no
longer have to refute the allegation of accidental
eclecticism of their theories and methodologies.
Abbreviations
ATEE Association for Teacher Education in Europe
BWP Berufs- and Wirtschaftspädagogik [education
in TVET, educational research in TVET]
CE Comparative Education
CEDEFOP Centre européen pour le développement de la
formation professionnelle, [European Centre
for the Development of Vocational Training]
CESE Comparative Education Societies in Europe
DFG Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [German
Research Foundation]
ECER European Conference on Educational Research
Genesis of TVET Research 89

EERA European Educational Research Association

ETF ↑ European Training Foundation
ERIC Educational Resources Information Centre
Institute of Education Science of the U.S. De-
partment of Education
EU European Union
IEA International Association for the Evaluation of
Educational Achievement
ILO International Labour Organisation
OECD Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development
TAFE Training and Further Education (College)
TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Train-
ing
UNEVOC UNESCO International Centre for Technical
and Vocational Education and Training
CRE Comparative Research in Education
VET Vocational Education and Training
WCCES World Council of Comparative Education So-
cieties
Further information on the (scientific) societies and
institutes mentioned above is available in Lauterbach
2003b and on the internet.
 Section 2.0:
VET Research in Relation to VET Policy, Planning
and Practice
Anneke Westerhuis
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
2.0 Introduction: VET Research
in Relation to VET Policy,
Planning and Practice
Anneke Westerhuis
2.0.1 Introduction
One can hardly think of a wider subject than the
relationship between ↑ VET research and policy-
making and the ↑ innovation of VET practice. It
deals with the contributions researchers have to
policymaking and the innovation of education. Are
they the ‘special forces’ policy makers and prac-
tice want to rely on to improve decision making
and obtain better outcomes? Is it the researchers’
role to answer policy inspired questions as a step-
ping stone to ‘informed’ policymaking in VET?
And is it the role of the ↑ European research com-
munity to contribute to the European integration
policy agenda? Why should it not operate at the
level of individual learners or at the level of the
individual communities? And are researchers still
working on national research priorities or are re-
search subjects becoming subjected to European,
or even worldwide trends?
This section covers some of the aspects of this
wide field, but understandably not all. The aspects
covered are:
(1) innovation of VET; redefinition of the links be-
tween policy and research agendas
(2) the impact of research findings on ↑ VET policy
making and VET practice
(3) changing roles of researchers, practitioners and
policymakers in research projects
(4) the impact of the EU on the ↑ body of knowl-
edge and the organisation of VET research
(5) VET as a ↑ research field; involving several sub-
ject disciplines as a prerequisite
2.0.2 Innovation of VET; Redefinition
of the Links between Policy and
Research Agendas
For a long time strong links between both agendas
were taken for granted, in particular for the inno-
vation of education. In the period directly after the
Second World War, for instance, research was seen
93
as an important ally of policy makers for the inno-
vation of education:
“the application of knowledge by political means – and
not responsiveness of government to private wants – be-
comes a test of good government. In this respect, the
problem of modernization becomes a constant struggle
over two conflicting principles of rule, namely, the pub-
lic interest as seen by the public and the public interest
as seen by the scientific elite” (APTER 1967, 433).
Links were organised in a communication chain
in which national policy stakeholders, the educa-
tion research community and schools were linked
in a strict order. In this order the outline of reform
was given by national policy stakeholders. Fi-
nanced from government budgets, innovation con-
cepts were subsequently worked out into opera-
tional models for innovating educational practice
by researchers, with some assistance from people
involved in the practice. The role of the teachers
in the schools was subsequently to try out and to
validate these operational models. This innovation
chain was fostered by a knowledge chain consist-
ing of successive Research, Development and Dif-
fusion. In this traditional RDD-model knowledge
production and knowledge diffusion were linear
processed. The first link of the chain consisted of
the research done at universities and research in-
stitutes. The research results came to the third link
of the chain, the schools, via an education support
structure, being the intermediary link in the chain,
responsible for the translation and concretization
of concepts. An apt metaphor is the ‘perforated
onion’, where knowledge from the core trickles
through the skins until the outer skin is reached.
In many countries this double chain is no longer
in place. The erosion started in the 1980s. All over
Europe tension grew between the public expecta-
tions of ↑ VET systems and the actual ↑ perform-
ance of these systems, while the belief that na-
tional governments are able to bridge this gap was
strongly reduced. Governing education from a na-
tional level was no longer seen as an effective strat-
egy (K ARSTEN 2006).
After a period of large scale mergers, the much
larger schools were given more autonomy. Schools
are now expected to take the initiative for reform,
to take a pro-active role and to develop a school-
based policy in the innovation of education. For
this reason, a substantial part of the government’s
94
budget for innovation has been transferred to
the schools in what is called an ‘innovation box’
(BRUIJN / WESTERHUIS 2004).
In Germany the most important reason for break-
ing up the chain was a decreasing lack of consen-
sus between the stakeholders in VET:
“In the late 1960s and early 1970s, the policy sector
placed its faith in an innovation strategy which treated
pilot schemes as “trial runs”. These were used for the
prototype testing of planned system reforms. (…) Partly
due to the bottom-up strategy linked with the tripartite
organisation and federal structure of the German voca-
tional education and training system, research is [now-
adays, AW] expected to produce deliberately divergent
concepts” (→ 2.4).
Controversies led to depoliticising the subjects of
↑ VET research, but also to a less effective research
agenda as political actors no longer resorted to ↑ pi-
lot studies for substantive modernisation of the sys-
tem and its institutions, despite the mounting prob-
lems at system level. The result is a scattered land-
scape with stakeholders pursuing their own priori-
ties. Agenda setting on the ↑ innovation of VET is
multidimensional now:
“The Federal and Länder governments subsidise their
own pilot studies in accordance with their priorities; oc-
casionally there is coordination between these two lev-
els. The social partners pursue their reform ideas with
appropriate innovation projects – usually separately,
sometimes jointly” (→ 2.4).
In a broader perspective however, the most impor-
tant force challenging the traditional chain are a
widening field of organisations commissioning
↑ educational research and a growing number of
research institutes, or better, institutes that offer
research services. There is no longer a chain, but
a loose and volatile network, that can be defined
in terms of supply and demand. There is an open
market for VET research:
“Much educational research – some of it highly signif-
icant for policy – is now conducted outside of the uni-
versities and of government. Not only do consultants in
the private sector play an enhanced role, but also think
tanks, political parties, trade unions and voluntary or-
ganisations appear to have grown influence” (LAWN /
R EES 2007, 53).
This striking quotation identifies in fact four dy-
namic forces:
Handbook of TVET Research
– the growing number of organisations regarding
themselves as stakeholders in education, e. g. in
VET
– the growing number of organisations and bodies
commissioning research
– the growing number of agencies offering consul-
tancy and research services to the private and pub-
lic organisations in this ‘↑ knowledge society’
– changes in the understanding of knowledge as a
multidimensional concept which can have differ-
ent shapes and different functions. See for instance
the introduction of the concept of ‘Mode 2’ knowl-
edge (GIBBONS / LIMOGES / NOWOTNY ET AL. 1994).
Obviously, there is no longer a shared and cohe-
sive innovation policy agenda as a focal point. The
EU (Lisbon) agenda, with its partial focus on ↑ par-
ticipation and the position of social partners, can-
not be regarded as a replacement for such an inno-
vation agenda. Different reactions to this develop-
ment can be traced across Europe.
One is that VET research should take the lead.
For Laur-Ernst and Hanf the role of ↑ research in
VET innovation includes identification, specifica-
tion and operationalising innovation needs as well
as generating and collaboratively shaping innova-
tions, their testing and evaluation. VET research
can act as an ‘anticipatory initiator’; VET research
has an indispensable contribution to make to re-
forms and the shaping of the future. VET research
will even be increasingly involved in generating
and supporting innovations on all levels. The nec-
essary conditions, boosting innovation compe-
tence, the creation of structures conducive to inno-
vation, the establishment of a positive atmosphere
for innovation in all institutions of vocational ed-
ucation, suggest, however, that there is not one fu-
ture for VET; there are many futures. When the
technocratic concept of implementing products de-
veloped in pilots into the variety of practices is re-
placed by the concept of learning organisations and
an emphasis on open planning, developing owner-
ship and the importance of process participation,
in fact skipping the pilot phase, agenda setting is
in essence multidimensional. Under these condi-
tions, agenda setting by VET research implies that
VET research has to organise its supporters (cli-
ents) themselves, or to respond to the demands of
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
schools, implying that agenda setting has become
the right of any individual VET school.
Another suggestion is to negotiate a policy agen-
da, shared by some, if not all stakeholders in VET.
See for instance de Vijlder’s suggestion to produce
a national VET innovation agenda as a shared re-
sponsibility of national and local policy mak-
ers (VIJLDER 2005). Another strategy is that gov-
ernments will take the responsibility for capacity
building to provide “high quality research-based
evidence and advice to Ministers and officials to
inform policy development”.
In terms of setting the research agenda the differ-
ences between the two strategies is that the first
one is an inclusive one, including as many stake-
holders as possible in the process of agenda setting
for ↑ VET research, while the latter is an exclusive
approach in limiting the influence on the agenda
setting to government. Obviously the risk of the in-
clusive strategy is that its outcome is either a com-
promise or a middle-of-the-road agenda, while an
exclusive agenda can be driven by immediate, if
not opportunistic, policy priorities only.
2.0.3 The Impact of Research Findings
on VET Policy Making and VET
Practice
Paradoxically, the relationship between ↑ educa-
tional research, policy making and practice is a
point of major and public concern. Compared to
other ↑ fields of research, like medicine, there is lit-
tle impact of research findings on practice and pol-
icy making. In 2003 the ↑ OECD concludes:
“…educational R&D was seen as fragmented, politi-
cised, irrelevant, and too distant from practice. (…) Fur-
thermore, the research was sometimes perceived as pro-
vincial and too little based on international experience
(…) Such a critique is still strong today (…). This is not
to say that educational researchers have not produced
new insights, but they have, in general, been less suc-
cessful in synthesising this knowledge for application
and action by practitioners and policy-makers” (OECD
2003a, 10).
The OECD is not alone in its critique. The al-
leged gap between education research and educa-
tion practice has a long history. Why do ↑ policy
and practice profit so little from research? Critique
is often based on a low opinion of educational re-
search and its lack of quality. For Kaestle, educa-
95
tional research has an ‘awful reputation’ (KAESTLE
1993); Levin and O’Donnell refer to ‘credibility
gaps’ (LEVIN / O’DONNELL 1999); and Lagemann re-
gards educational research as an ‘elusive science’
(LAGEMANN 2000).
The American National Research Council seems
more neutral in pointing to a ‘sharp divide be-
tween education research and the practice of edu-
cation in schools’ (SHAVELSON / COCKING / DONOVAN /
PELLEGRINO 2002). Based on an extensive literature
review, Broekkamp and Hout-Wolters summarise
the critique in four ‘core problems’:
– Results of educational research are ‘soft’, as they
are not based on hard and unambiguous evidence
– Educational research results lack relevance for
educational practice as the results are context spe-
cific in most cases
– People in educational practice (teachers) are not
convinced by the outcomes of education research
and don’t see the relevance of its outcomes for their
daily work
– People from educational practice (teachers)
hardly ever use research findings because they lack
the necessary competences (BROEKKAMP / HOUT-
WOLTERS 2006).
In analysing these core problems, Broekkamp and
Van Hout-Wolters don’t differentiate between tra-
ditional research concepts and applied or market
driven research. Nevertheless, the difference be-
tween academic and instrumental or applied re-
search is relevant in this context. Few academic re-
searchers, if any, will be accused of being ‘policy
entrepreneurs’ (MINTROM 2000); only as research-
ers working in commission. The use of this label
‘policy entrepreneurs’ for these researchers signi-
fies not a gap between research and practice but
a tight, even too tight, relationship! Is there still
a problem now that educational research has be-
come popularised and is a service offered by many
organisations? Is it not true that policy makers now
have a wide choice of agencies they can hire to do
research? Research is an object of market influenc-
es; in terms of supply and demand, ↑ evaluation re-
search is much in demand (LAWN / REES 2007).
Problems related to traditional research concepts
and problems related to applied research are quite
different and should be treated as such instead of
being piled on one heap. Problems related to tradi-
96
tional research concepts are for instance method-
ological problems in terms of the number of var-
iables to be taken into account, lacking resourc-
es of information for fundamental research, little
interest in the development and application of in-
novative methodologies, the practical irrelevance
of ↑ research questions and the fact that the re-
search community is not accessible for outsiders.
Researchers in applied research face the fact that
↑ educational research is a proliferating field with
a wide range of methodologies, research agen-
cies, and financial resources and is ruled by mar-
ket forces. This proliferation causes its own prob-
lems, not to be confused up with the problemat-
ic side of traditional research: fragmentation, little
interest in reviews and meta-research, no machin-
ery for the assessment of the quality of ↑ research
methodologies.
This issue of the impact of research findings on
policymaking and practice is also raised by the au-
thors in this section, although not as a fundamental
or as an unsolvable problem. Most of the articles
are written under the assumption that educational
research in general, and ↑ VET research in partic-
ular, can bring policy making and education prac-
tice a step forward.
Take for instance Winterton’s article ‘VET re-
search and ↑ social dialogue’. Winterton gives us
an insight into the subtle process of linking policy
and research agendas. With financial support from
the European Commission, the EU social partners
in 1993 commissioned a group of experts to study
ways in which social dialogue could serve as a fo-
rum for exchange of information and experience in
relation to continuing vocational training (CVT).
The experts were impressed by the importance at-
tached to CVT by the social partners, but could not
identify social dialogue in all of the cases ‘mak-
ing it difficult to identify the distinct value added’.
Nevertheless the debate on the findings concluded
a number of contributions that social dialogue had
made to improving CVT, among them the achieve-
ment of greater coherence between economic ↑ ef-
ficiency in training and equity for individuals. Ac-
cording to Winterton, the research marked the be-
ginning of the progress in European Social Dia-
logue on Education and Training. The research
had helped to get the social dialogue on the ↑ VET
Handbook of TVET Research
policy agenda as well as engaging social partners
in defining the (EU) research agenda. ↑ CEDEFOP
for instance began from then on to develop a clos-
er relationship with the social partners and estab-
lished a specific programme to support social dia-
logue over VET.
In their article ‘Research and VET Policy Reform
in Transition Countries’, Grootings and Nielsen
analyse the impact of the transition of a socio-eco-
nomic system on the position of VET research.
An abrupt change in the socio-economic dynam-
ics faces VET research with the necessity of defin-
ing new research areas and new institutional set-
tings. From the new perspective, existing research
topics have become obsolete and irrelevant, almost
by definition:
“There is very little modern and relevant VET research
in ETF partner countries. There seems to be almost a so-
ciological law behind this situation, at least in post-so-
cialist countries” (→ 2.6).
Grootings and Nielsen’s article gives a lively in-
sight into the consequences of such a change for
VET research. The article analyses what is neces-
sary to bridge this gap and to have a research com-
munity in place responsive to an education poli-
cy in line with the new ‘socio-economic reality’.
The gap between VET research, policy making
and practice in Transition Countries is definitely
of another nature compared to the gap defined by
the ↑ OECD. For Grootings and Nielsen it is not
a rhetorical question why a proper VET research
should be the basis for VET reform policy formu-
lation and implementation important for transition
countries. To have this type of research in place a
lot has to be done. For instance:
– the development of a new signal system between
↑ labour market needs and the supply of VET
through social ↑ partnership
– the introduction of a wider concept of VET re-
search relating curricular issues to labour markets
and work organisation issues and including the
quality of learning processes, integration of the-
oretical and practical learning, learner needs and
new learning theories, instead of an exclusive fo-
cus on internal VET issues, such as curricula, text-
books, teaching materials and in-service teacher
training
– the development of new institutional settings to
overcome the well defined demarcations between
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
the internal VET focussing on ‘technical matters’,
academic pedagogical research and policy orient-
ed research organised in institutes that had previ-
ously been linked to the Party.
Rebuilding is now donor-led. However, the lack of
resources characteristic for countries in transition
is not only financial. There is also a lack of concep-
tual resources for the rebuilding of the vocation-
al education and training system, creating a ‘huge
need for a local theoretical understanding of VET
reform policy formulation and implementation in
the transition countries’. For them this understand-
ing, and therefore research, is conditional for a
successful VET reform policy. Reform policy can
only be a success if there is cooperation between
↑ VET research, ↑ VET policy and VET practice.
A lack of professional research and development
capacity is an impediment to establishing a sound
basis in order to enable countries to develop their
own reform policies. In fact they plead for estab-
lishing a strong chain including policy stakehold-
ers, the education research community and educa-
tion practice, such as is now under strong pressure
in many Western-European countries:
“there is a necessity for creating local, critical research-
based guidance on a number of dimensions in transition
countries: on the input side to VET reform to ensure fit
into context, embeddedness and ownership, in relation
to processes to enable a better dialogue with universities
on issues such as new developments in learning theories,
and on the output side to continuously assess the results
and wider implications of donor interventions (…) by
way of stimulating the setting up of independent accom-
panying research bodies enabling the countries to assess
early on whether and to which extent reform elements
are functioning in the national context” (→ 2.6).
Köhne and Stockmann’s ‘↑ Development Aid and
VET Research’ in this section acknowledges the
differences between theory building, fundamental
research and applied research but they do not con-
sider them separated by a watershed. Their arti-
cle pleads for closer cooperation; for the benefit of
practice. Analysing VET cooperation between in-
dustrialised countries and the ↑ developing coun-
tries, they point to the fact that this cooperation has
a history of being shaped by applied research in
ex post evaluations of measures implemented and
by studies commissioned by national or interna-
tional organisations. Consequently, research find-
97
ings were published in internal reports and studies,
rather than ‘scientific publications’.
Köhne and Stockmann’s point is that only the con-
tributions of theoretical research and debate can
bring the outcomes (and therefore the impact) of
applied research to a higher level, for instance by
using techniques common in academic research,
like comparative research, however, in another
definition.
“The topic of “TVET research” in the strict sense is the
study of “the conditions, processes and consequences of
the acquisition of professional qualifications as well as
personal and social attitudes and orientations that ap-
pear to be relevant for the performance of occupation-
based ↑ work processes”. Instead of this definition of
TVET research, which is focusing on the epistemic in-
terest, a definition formulated for TVET cooperation
emphasises the benefit for the practice of vocational ed-
ucation: “TVET research has to clarify the foundations
of vocational education, to establish its contents and ob-
jectives and to prepare its adaptation to technological,
economic and social developments” (→ 2.7).
For Köhne and Stockmann a partial focus on ap-
plied and commissioned research has many dis-
advantages. Above all longitudinal analyses and
long-term scientific monitoring of TVET pro-
grammes, based on overarching systems of gener-
ally accepted indicators and a single methodolog-
ical framework, will be impossible. Indeed disad-
vantages arise from the fact that ↑ educational re-
search is now an industry with a great number of
competitors. For them, the gap between research
and practice will be solved only if TVET research
and funding institutions agree to a closer cooper-
ation. This will be to their mutual benefit, as this
cooperation
“could not only contribute to analysing central develop-
ment issues and using the results for the conception of
policy papers and the realisation of programmes, but al-
so leads to the consequence that vocational education
and training is again assigned greater importance in
↑ development aid’ (→ 2.7).
Should somebody be responsible for the organ-
isation of the research market? Is it enough that
research is a commodity or should mechanisms
for mediating and improving the relationship be-
tween education research, ↑ policy and practice be
in place? In particular the ↑ OECD has given much
attention to this subject over the past two decades.
One of the important reasons was that govern-
98
ments expressed the need to gear their reforms to
the developing information age and to aims of de-
veloping a learning society and/or learning econ-
omy. Governments are not only the clients of re-
searchers; they see themselves also as responsible
agents for improving ↑ research capacity, in partic-
ular in terms of academic and university based re-
search and its links to practice. For instance, when
a conference of ministers of education concludes
that the potential of education research is underde-
veloped in particular in respect of
– levels of investment and capacity in ↑ education-
al research and development
– links of research to practice through processes
of ↑ diagnosis, comparison and analysis
– innovations to create better links between re-
search, ↑ policy and practice
it is academic research they have in mind. This be-
comes explicit when the perception is added that
much educational research is inward-looking with-
in academic fields or that research projects often
lack the multi-disciplinary dimensions that are de-
veloping in some other fields of social research
(OECD 1995).
Although new and promising initiatives are tak-
en to improve links between research and practice
in particular (see for instance LAWN / REES 2007,
LENEY forthcoming), academic research is only a
segment of the research activities nowadays. So,
these initiatives will not solve the problem raised
by Köhne and Stockmann. They acknowledge
the fact that research is no longer exclusively pro-
grammed by universities and other academic re-
search bodies. Therefore, it is not enough to im-
prove links between academic research and prac-
tice in a one way system with academic research-
ers at the sending end and people from practice at
the receiving end of the communication line. Their
point is that there are now many funding institu-
tions commissioning research, also counting uni-
versities amongst their clients; a closer cooperation
between these institutions should be organised to
enable longitudinal analyses and long-term scien-
tific monitoring of VET programmes. As much as
interventions are needed on the ‘supply side’, they
are also needed on the ‘demand side’. Of course,
this is not easy and is a much neglected subject.
One could even claim that governments have cre-
Handbook of TVET Research
ated this supply side problem themselves by shift-
ing the dynamics of education development result-
ing in a wider range of stakeholders, scattering the
demand for research services to a wider set of or-
ganisations, VET schools included.
Researchers themselves are in a position to raise
the ↑ effectiveness and ↑ sustainability of VET, ac-
cording to Laur-Ernst and Hanf. Their article in
this section ‘vocational education as an ↑ innova-
tion process’ opens with the intriguing statement:
“the ↑ effectiveness and sustainability of initial and
↑ continuing vocational education and training are
closely interrelated with the capacity for learning
and innovation in institutions which carry out vo-
cational education research”. However, in order to
learn, perspectives have to be shared. People from
different disciplines and with different responsi-
bilities should communicate.
There is much to be gained from a closer coopera-
tion between academic research, applied research,
practice and policy making. Is it possible to organ-
ise this cooperation at a system level? One way of
doing this is to make it somebody’s problem. For
the ↑ OECD, governments are the first to be ad-
dressed to introduce, for instance, a coherent – na-
tional – approach to ↑ brokering. The choice for
brokering is significant as it implies that research-
ers and research institutes and the clients and com-
missioners cannot be forced to cooperate with-
in a national institutionalised framework; such a
framework can never be effective in times of an
ongoing proliferation of research institutes and re-
search clients. Brokering between research, policy
and practice can take several forms, varying from
series of seminars to systematic reviews or the es-
tablishment of research centres with a specific task
of communicating research findings to policy and
practice (LENEY forthcoming). Governments might
take the initiative in financing or even organising
mediating or brokerage processes via networks,
↑ partnerships or websites. Leney distinguishes
two types of research dissemination:
– Mechanisms, intended to bring together, sum-
marise or simplify the outputs of research to make
it more readily understandable and accessible to
policy makers and practitioners. This is called
transferability.
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
– Establishing networks, websites, and partner-
ships for sharing among stakeholders the knowl-
edge developed through research. For Leney, this
is dissemination in the strict sense (LENEY forth-
coming).
The difference between those two types is that in
the first type an – independent – agency is respon-
sible for the translation of research findings into
information that is understandable for ↑ policy and
practice. In the second type the translation is not
an act in itself, but will be the result of bringing
people together for dialogue and personal contacts,
making research easier for politicians and practi-
tioners to access and understand. Differences in
languages and frames of references are still major
impediments to raising the impact of research.
Taking this one step further would be to include
policy makers or people from practice in the re-
search process. In particular people from educa-
tional practice might benefit from this direct in-
volvement.
However, it is only realistic to acknowledge that
policy makers, practitioners and researchers will
have different priorities. It is not only that they
might have different expectations of the functions
of brokerage; their perspectives on matters at hand
might also be different. Brokerage is never about
the transfer of information only. Therefore, “the
notion of a seamless web integrating research, pol-
icy and practice may be questionable”. Whitty is
even more sceptical when stating that the relation-
ship between education researchers and govern-
ment policy makers is even inherently ‘one of con-
flict or at least a site of mutual misunderstanding
and even suspicion’ (WHITTY 2006, 160).
2.0.4 Changing Roles of Researchers,
Practitioners and Policymakers in
Research Projects
The voice of practice is hardly ever heard in edu-
cation research. Laur-Ernst and Hanf for instance
express in this section full confidence in the future
of VET research, as it will
“increasingly be involved in generating and supporting
innovations on all levels, in view of the growing pace
of change, interdependency and internationalisation of
the economy, the labour market and education. It has an
99
indispensable contribution to make to reforms and the
shaping of the future” (→ 2.4).
Their confidence is not unconditional, however.
Their addition to this conclusion is significant, im-
plying that continual improvement of the tools of
innovation – in a theoretical and a methodological
sense – is crucial. In particular the improvement of
tools for ↑ innovative action in social contexts and
boosting innovation competence are much need-
ed.
Although the 2003 ↑ OECD-report ‘New Chal-
lenges for ↑ Educational Research’ might reflect
accurately the mainstream of educational research
in terms of methodologies, there are promising ex-
amples of research projects in which educational
practice in particular gains from educational theo-
ry and research through the introduction of meth-
odologies that allow practitioners to participate in
research. Round tables held at the annual Europe-
an Conference on Educational Research in 2004
and 2005, organised by VETNET (Network on vo-
cational education and ↑ training research) for in-
stance, presented interesting examples from the
field of ↑ VET research (BRUIJN / WESTERHUIS 2004;
DEITMER /K ÄMÄRÄINEN / WESTERHUIS 2005). Both
round tables acknowledged a shift to action re-
search. It was concluded that action-oriented ↑ re-
search methodology has significant potential in
linking research and innovation in VET in a more
active way. By contrast to research conducted in
surveys and experiments, dividing the people in-
volved into clients, respondents and researchers,
the application of action research methodologies
enhances direct and interactive cooperation be-
tween researchers and practitioners in particular.
The key assumption of action research is that
‘knowledge’ is a multidimensional concept; knowl-
edge can have different shapes and different func-
tions. Conversely, acceptance of a knowledge con-
cept in which various knowledge sources stand
next to the academic one implies that knowledge
developed in and by educational practice is recog-
nized as a legitimate knowledge source. The mul-
tidimensionality of knowledge and of the process
of ↑ knowledge creation presupposes an ‘actor’ ap-
proach in which for example the work of Gustav-
son (2001) on action research is relevant. In explor-
ing the impact of research on innovation in prac-
100
tice, the position and function of the various actors
involved in the process of knowledge creation is
crucial (MANSKE / MOON / RUTH / DEITMER 2002).
The critique against academic standards of knowl-
edge is not new, see for instance the rhetorical
question of Lyotard (1984, 9): “Who decides what
knowledge is?”. In “The new production of knowl-
edge” Gibbons et al. (1994) refer to this ‘situat-
ed’ knowledge as Mode 2 knowledge. Their anal-
ysis of knowledge production and the distinction
between Mode 1 (academic) knowledge and this
Mode 2 knowledge offers a clear perspective on
the changing knowledge concept. Knowledge is
not only produced in academic settings, but also
in other knowledge-demanding contexts. The dis-
tinction between the two modes is more practical
than in principle:
“The only question may be whether they are sufficient-
ly different to require a new label or whether they can
be regarded simply as developments that can be accom-
modated within existing practices”. (GIBBONS / LIMOGES /
NOWOTNY ET AL. 1994, 3).
The value of knowledge is not defined at the basis
of requirements for codification but by the practi-
cal value, and is therefore context and use depend-
ent.
The different perspectives of involved parties are
not only concretized in the knowledge concept (i.e.
practical theory), but are made the driving force
for the process itself. The key element of the ad-
justed methodology is an organised community of
knowledge in which the different roles are taken
up by the participants in direct interaction. This
explicit actor approach is another key element of
action research, when the researcher acts as a con-
sultant, helping the stakeholders by ‘looking and
formulating’, ‘exploring and analysing’ and ‘re-
flecting and explicating’ (STRINGER 1999).
In terms of roles an actor approach towards devel-
oping practical theory for the purpose of innova-
tion will ask for a more elaborate set of roles com-
pared to the three roles of client, respondent and
researcher. For instance:
– roles in the creation of situated (local) knowl-
edge related to the educational practice
– roles in the translation of developed situated
knowledge in terms of a conceptual framework
Handbook of TVET Research
– roles in the execution of accompanying research
of the ↑ innovation process, in particular in the
identification of results and effects
An important question for action research is the
balance between the process and its outcomes. Al-
though this section does not focus on the role of
practitioners in research projects, it is one of the
major concerns of action research how its out-
comes can be accumulated in a system of knowl-
edge. How can action research contribute to theo-
ry building? For De Bruijn and Westerhuis this is
still the responsibility of the researcher as he or she
should take care of:
– the confrontation of the various experiences and
knowledge sources
– the creation of conceptual knowledge by con-
fronting and integrating (translated) situational
knowledge with formal knowledge representing
the state of the art’
– diffusion and transfer of (components) of new
practical theories to an ‘outside world’
However, is it enough to make individual research-
ers responsible for the transfer of situated knowl-
edge into theory building? From a system point of
view, in an interactive process with its focus on dy-
namics and interaction, the value given to continu-
ity in terms of the accumulation of knowledge in
theories is less imminent. Leney’s concept of ↑ bro-
kering, in fact an ↑ open method of coordination,
will not do for theory building. This is a conclu-
sion leaving several questions open, not yet fully
addressed, in particular with regard to the organi-
sation of knowledge accumulation between ↑ com-
munities of practice and the research community.
Is there any evidence of the benefit that practition-
ers gain from their active involvement in research?
One might consider that involvement in a research
program leaves it to the practitioner to transfer his
research experiences into practice. The presenta-
tion of Deitmer, based on experiences in the pro-
gramme coordination unit of the German VET-re-
lated innovation programme “Neue Lernkonzepte
in der dualen Berufsausbildung” (1997–2003), in
the VETNET 2005 Round Table at the European
Conference on ↑ Educational Research, conclud-
ed that there is a systematic difficulty of ‘translat-
ing’ evaluation results and outcomes into the eve-
ryday organization routines and that the effects are
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
not so far reaching as one may assume (DEITMER /
K ÄMÄRÄINEN / WESTERHUIS 2005).
Maybe in contrast to professionals in the medi-
cal field, teachers don’t operate in one-to-one sit-
uations. Research findings have to be implement-
ed in a much more complicated set of routines and
shared by a wide group of people. Therefore, it is
not enough to teach trainee teachers how to use
research outcomes as an individual, or to include
this ability in the list of occupational competenc-
es, nor to bring trainee teachers into contact with
research during their training. The Dutch National
Education Council (ONDERWIJSRAAD 2006) point-
ed out that there should be some support structure
and a system put in place to translate knowledge
into practice:
– One or more teachers – not just the school lead-
ers or an isolated expert – should be trained – and
appreciated – as internal knowledge creators
– Schools, becoming more responsible for their
own quality and reforms, should invest in ↑ knowl-
edge management and a systematic approach to-
wards ↑ knowledge creation.
Another form of relating research to practice is to
raise teachers’ and managements’ ability to evalu-
ate their daily practice from a wider perspective;
to learn to assess daily routines from a new per-
spective. In its most simple form this might include
to use a research instrument (for instance a theo-
ry driven questionnaire or observation form) to as-
sess a situation collectively. The outcomes provide
a common ground for discussion both on the simi-
larities and differences in assessing a situation and
the steps to be taken to improve this situation, in
terms of growing coherence in the way the groups
observe the situation and in terms of deciding on
the actions needed for improvement.
From this it is only a short step to the concept of
the ‘Critical Friend’. Swaffield defines the critical
friend as someone who not only sees the school
from a different perspective from those within the
school, but also assists them to bring the familiar
into a new focus. The ideas about a critical friend
being someone who helps others see more clearly
and become aware of what is there but hidden, res-
onate with other theories and models (SWAFFIELD
2002). In Costa and Kallick’s (1993) description, a
‘critical friend’ is:
101
“... a trusted person who asks provocative questions, pro-
vides data to be examined through another lens, and of-
fers critiques of a person’s work as a friend. A critical
friend takes the time to fully understand the context of
the work presented and the outcomes that the person or
group is working toward. The friend is an advocate for
the success of that work” (COSTA / K ALLICK 1993, 50).
It is not surprising that Swaffield sees an analogy
with the work of a consultant in Freudian terms.
The critical friend in a role of ‘raising conscious-
ness’, helps the patient (school) to become con-
scious of repressed (different or hidden perspec-
tives) emotions and drives (data). Indeed, also in
terms of ↑ research methodologies, the borders be-
tween ↑ educational research and other forms of
school support become very thin indeed.
2.0.5 The Impact of the EU on the Body of
Knowledge and the Organisation of
VET Research
In the Lisbon agenda the European Union has a
high profile and ambitious agenda for VET. It was
argued that this agenda is partial in prioritising
two issues only: (i) raising the ↑ participation of
VET and (ii) greater involvement of social part-
ners in VET. What is the effect of policies at Euro-
pean level on the organisation of ↑ VET research?
Kämäräinen and Fischer’s contribution to this sec-
tion, called ‘Research on Technical and Vocation-
al Education and Training (TVET) in the context
of European cooperation’ deals with the relation
between funding policies and the research agen-
da at EU level. The article analyses the evolution
of research in technical and vocational educa-
tion and training (TVET) in European coopera-
tion programmes funded by the European Union
between programme generations in terms of suc-
cessive themes and the shift in emphasis. The ar-
ticle concludes that cooperation grows and identi-
fies several effects of greater cooperation between
VET researchers as a result of these programmes:
– Overcoming conceptual barriers and promoting
European knowledge enrichment
– Development of a ↑ European research commu-
nity devoted to TVET research
– Contributing to European policy processes as a
challenge for TVET research.
For Kämäräinen and Fischer the European coop-
eration programmes are breeding grounds for the
102
development of an EU ↑ VET research communi-
ty, ready to deal with complex EU ↑ research ques-
tions. The history of the EU programmes prepared
the ground for this position. From their analysis it
can be concluded that not only did the communi-
ty develop in a social dimension, but it was also
successful in accumulating research findings in-
to a ↑ body of knowledge. After an initial period
when the ↑ idiographic function of research was
dominant, providing descriptions of ↑ VET system
in their respective national and culturally specif-
ic contexts, the ↑ nomothetic function of research
helped to find general rules within VET, result-
ing in the identification of the ↑ performance of
VET systems on different topics (functions). The
shift to the analyses of the functions of VET was
an answer to methodological problems faced when
looking for empirical evidence for competitive ad-
vantages of particular TVET systems; the ques-
tion ‘What is the best system becomes: What sys-
tem best performs a certain function?’ Finally, the
more recent evolutionistic function of research
helps to recognise contextual or universal trends.
↑ Research approaches with an evolutionistic func-
tion draw attention to the relations between con-
text-specific and ‘universal’ preconditions for de-
veloping TVET in Europe. Such approaches take
into account cultural diversity and a diffuse pres-
sure towards homogeneity among national TVET
systems through the process of European integra-
tion. From this perspective culturally specific de-
velopment processes could be related to each other
as parallel “system environments”. Thus, nation-
al TVET systems (or country-specific development
of qualifications) can be linked to more compre-
hensive interpretative frameworks.
The evolution of European VET research networks
is another outcome of this European level of agen-
da setting. Although they address the issue only su-
perficially, Kämäräinen and Fischer identify a shift
in this community from acting solely as a support
structure for EU policy-making to allowing for a
more independent role as well, for instance in giv-
ing rise to independent studies and commentaries.
It will be interesting to follow the development of
the ↑ European research community. The Europe-
an Commission is almost a monopolist in combin-
ing a ↑ VET policy agenda with a research agen-
Handbook of TVET Research
da; a position comparable to the position national
governments had until about the 1990s in a great
many European countries, described in the first
paragraph of this article. Are they going to share
this position with new European stakeholders? Is
the self organisation of VET researchers still a fea-
sible strategy in a Union with a great number of
member states?
Will the EU VET research community ever exceed
the status of a virtual community, whether or not
dominated by researchers from a limited number
of countries?
2.0.6 VET as a Research Field; Involving
Several Subject Disciplines as a
Prerequisite
Karsten identifies two types of knowledge: knowl-
edge that stimulates the process of accountability
in education and knowledge that stimulates the im-
provement and innovation of education (K ARSTEN
2006). The second type of knowledge is a much
broader scope. The first type tells us about the state
of the art in education, while the second type tells
us what works in education. This knowledge gives
insight into the nature of policy problems, how to
intervene, etc. Both types of knowledge share a
functional view of the contribution that research
could make to ↑ policy and practice. So far, this
view is also at the basis of the subjects dealt with
in this chapter: (i) the ↑ innovation of VET; (ii) the
impact of research findings; (iii) the changing roles
of researchers, practitioners and policymakers and
(iv) the impact of the EU on the ↑ body of knowl-
edge and the organisation of VET research.
However, VET research is more than an instru-
ment for policy makers and practitioners.
Researchers are not only the facilitators of an in-
novation agenda set by policymakers. There is also
a need for research that dedicates itself to less ob-
vious topics and less visible aspects of VET, chal-
lenging policymakers and practitioners to broad-
en their interpretation of reality. VET research in-
cludes detached and interpretative work as well.
One major characteristic of VET is its ‘belong-
ingness’ to different worlds; the world of educa-
tion, the world of the ↑ labour market and the world
of occupational development. Being part of many
worlds, a great many aspects of VET can only be
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
researched properly from a multidisciplinary an-
gle. From an academic point of view, VET is a re-
search subject in various academic disciplines. In
broadening our understanding of the dynamics
and the range of influences on VET, ↑ multidisci-
plinary research will also offer new points of ref-
erence to act on and to optimize the ↑ ↑ effective-
ness of VET.
Two interesting examples are included in this sec-
tion; Willy Petersen’s ‘Occupations and ↑ Occupa-
tional areas’ and Manfred Eckert’s ‘Work – Educa-
tion – Training: An ↑ Interdisciplinary ↑ Research
Approach’. For both authors it is evident that re-
searchers themselves have a responsibility in the
organisation of multidisciplinary research.
The ‘Occupations and Occupational Areas’, points
to the differences between the structures of occu-
pations and their classification into ↑ occupation-
al groups on the one hand and the ↑ classification
of vocational education and training into groups
on the other. More coordination between ↑ occupa-
tional research and vocational education research
in terms of aims and methods, as well as integrat-
ed research approaches is needed. Not for the sake
of research itself, Petersen sees a need to intro-
duce comprehensive and matched classifications
because
“the occupation and the education and training system
as interdependent systems are important bases to design
and develop both occupations and vocational education
and training” (→ 2.3).
For Petersen the development of the ↑ EQF qualifi-
cation framework proves his point, describing and
defining qualification levels first and the qualifi-
cation areas or domains relatively independently
from the occupation system only afterwards.
Manfred Eckert’s ‘Work – Education – Training:
An Interdisciplinary Research Approach’ obvious-
ly also pleads for multidisciplinary research. The
article explores two answers to the question ‘how
the qualification in and for work takes place’; the
education based approach presupposes that compe-
tences are promoted in ↑ systematic learning proc-
esses and through the acquisition of knowledge
(education), while the work based approach pre-
supposes that competences emerge from experi-
ence, informal and ↑ experimental learning (train-
ing). Both approaches have a long philosophical
and historical tradition, indicating different ap-
103
proaches to VET. However, in both traditions VET
is subjected to qualification, occupation and ↑ la-
bour market developments, and therefore an object
for qualification, occupation and labour market re-
search. For Eckert a multitude of ↑ research ques-
tions can only be answered by interdisciplinary
approaches; almost all aspects of VET deserve a
multidisciplinary approach. For instance the ques-
tion how VET should prepare for future develop-
ments:
“despite the prognostic deficits in occupation and qual-
ification research the future-compliance of vocation-
al qualification and the development of the demand for
qualifications are fundamental questions for ↑ TVET
planning. With regard to TVET practice this open refer-
ence to the future is multidimensional. On the one hand
the issue is about qualifications that meet the current
needs, on the other hand vocational qualification has to
be organised in such a way as to ensure transferability
with regard to new demands” (→ 2.2).
In this respect a major question is, what actually
can be regarded as fundamental for different oc-
cupations? Is this a question of various elementa-
ry practical activities and skills, or an issue of fun-
damental professional knowledge that facilitates
transitions?
Starting from a multidimensional concept of com-
petences (Competences also include ↑ domain-spe-
cific knowledge that aims, following the tradition-
al concept of education, at integrating the ability
to shape the environment and the ability to self-re-
alisation), Eckert concludes that competences can
be acquired close to ↑ work processes or through
systematic instruction or teaching: ‘In the area of
learning-supportive work organisation, theoreti-
cal reflection and teaching oriented towards pro-
fessional practice lies the point of intersection
where the work-, education- and training-related
approaches of TVET research find their synthesis
(→ 2.2).
2.0.7 Perspectives
The title of this chapter implies that ↑ VET re-
search finds its ‘raison d’être’ in its relevance for
↑ policy and practice. The chapter explored this
relevance from different angles. It can be conclud-
ed that the relations between VET research, poli-
cy and practice are objects of change; this includes
both the relations between policy and research and
104
between practice and research. From this analy-
sis it can be concluded that, in the eyes of policy
and practice, researchers are no longer members
of a ‘high priesthood’ (MCNIFF 2002) who know
all and know best. Surprisingly, this new position
is not caused by a low opinion of the relevance of
research. A growing army of researchers are hired
to produce functional knowledge for policy proc-
esses and the innovation of practice. More to the
point, the ↑ professional identity of researchers is
weakening. This loss of status of researchers is one
of the consequences of the knowledge economy. It
is no paradox that a loss of status of people work-
ing in traditional intellectual ↑ professions, like re-
searchers, coincides with the rise of the knowledge
economy. This is no coincidence as the knowledge
economy assesses knowledge almost exclusively in
terms of value for production. Knowledge no long-
er has a status of its own, but is valued for its ca-
pacity to improve; the production of knowledge is
under an industrial regime in its subservience to
improvement and ↑ efficiency (WILDE 2001; DRU-
CKER 1969). Knowledge production is not a ritual
produced by high priests, but a service performed
by knowledge workers.
Another consequence of the growing pressure to
produce directly applicable knowledge, is the wid-
ening of the research territory; nowadays the ter-
ritory of ↑ VET research is almost impossible to
demarcate. Demarcation problems arise in terms
of the scope of ↑ research questions as well as in
terms of methodologies and references made to
vested ↑ bodies of knowledge. Indeed, what counts
as ↑ educational research?
This analysis leaves the interesting question wheth-
er or not it will be possible to find new ways to
organise VET research as a ↑ body of knowledge
answering to high ↑ quality standards in terms of
↑ research methodologies as well as in terms of re-
search findings. Is it realistic to leave it to a re-
searcher to act as a central agent in knowledge ac-
cumulation and ↑ knowledge management? Will it
do to build (EU) networks to foster ongoing dia-
logue between researchers themselves and to build
supportive communities of researchers; to organ-
ise collaborative learning? What is the role of the
state being a client, a stakeholder in raising the
quality of (academic) VET research and in max-
Handbook of TVET Research
imising the transferability of research findings at
the same time? Or should we acknowledge as a
fact that VET research is turning into a (Europe-
an) service industry that has to come to terms with
the rules and regulations common in an open mar-
ket economy?
2.1 VET Research and Social
Dialogue
Jonathan Winterton
↑ Social dialogue, one of the pillars of the Euro-
pean social model, has contributed to the develop-
ment of vocational education and training (VET)
policy since the founding of the EEC, with the so-
cial partners making proposals and agreeing ac-
tion through joint opinions as well as contributing
to the development of legally-binding measures
(TRAVITIAN 1992). At the EU level, social dialogue
arrangements are defined in Article 118b of the Eu-
ropean Union Treaty: ‘The Commission shall en-
deavour to develop the dialogue between manage-
ment and labour at European level, which could,
if the two sides consider it desirable, lead to re-
lations based on agreement.’ Three social partner
representative organisations are involved: ETUC
(European Trade Union Confederation), UNICE/
UEAPME (Union des Industries de la Commu-
nauté Européenne/Union Européen des Arti-
sans et Petits et Moyens Entreprises) and CEEP
(Confédération Européenne des Entreprises Pub-
liques). The Economic and Social Committee, cre-
ated as a forum for social dialogue, drafted the So-
cial Charter in 1989 for adoption at the Maastricht
summit and the agreement reached by the social
partners on 31. October 1991 formed the basis of
the Social Protocol that was eventually adopted at
the Maastricht summit following the opposition of
the UK Government to the proposed Social Chap-
ter. The October 1991 agreement is generally seen
as the departure point, since when social dialogue
has been a central theme of the social dimension
of European integration (DØLVIK 1999; EC 2002a;
GOLD 1993; HALL, M. 1994). Most of the major
social welfare and ↑ labour market reforms have
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
been achieved through social dialogue (LOURDELLE
2002; SARFATI 2003).
For several decades the social partner institutions
have been in broad consensus over the promotion
of employment and training initiatives by the Eu-
ropean Commission (EC) although there has not
been such agreement over legislation and inter-
ventionist social policies (TEAGUE 1989) (→ 1.8;
→ 2.5). UNICE and CEEP traditionally opposed
↑ labour market regulation (TEAGUE / GRAHL 1992)
and successfully resisted EU-wide collective bar-
gaining (STREECK / SCHMITTER 1992; DØLVIK 1999).
The social partner working group on Education
and Training made considerable progress, con-
cluding four joint opinions within two years. The
EC similarly emphasised VET as an area where
social dialogue at the European level should play
a major role, noting that consultation with and be-
tween the partners on access to skills was advo-
cated in the 1997 Report on Access to Continuing
Training (EC 1997c). In part this reflects the ap-
parently consensual nature of training and devel-
opment, where employers and unions share a com-
mon interest in seeing the workforce maintain and
renew skills. Naturally inherent contradictions in
workplace relations inevitably impose limits to
reaching agreement over VET; and while all par-
ties are superficially ‘in favour of’ training, their
motives invariably differ and their interests are
not entirely congruent. For employers, the major
issue is having a workforce with the competence
to perform in accordance with business objectives
which must meet the increasingly competitive de-
mands of the global marketplace. For employees,
training represents a means of raising and accred-
iting skills and competences, which should pro-
vide a route to higher earnings, improved job sat-
isfaction and job security, as well as increased la-
bour market ↑ mobility. The representative bodies
– employers’ associations and trade unions – while
supporting these objectives of their members, al-
so have wider agendas. Employers’ associations
frequently view training as a strategic mechanism
to support job restructuring via multi-skilling and
functional flexibility, while the trade unions typi-
cally see training as a route to increasing employ-
ee autonomy, improving pay rates and maintain-
ing membership. It is these differences, rather than
105
the common ground, that demands social dialogue
over VET as a means of identifying issues for col-
laboration and resolving conflicts of interest. A tri-
partite approach, bringing the social partners to-
gether with state agencies to determine ↑ VET pol-
icy, can also help ease tensions between the short-
term needs of businesses to support immediate ac-
tivities, the medium-term needs of individuals for
↑ employability and the longer-term skill formation
strategy of the state. The necessity for such dia-
logue to take place also at enterprise and establish-
ment level is evident given the scale and pace of
changes in technology and ↑ work processes.
Despite the near universal consensus that ↑ social
dialogue has an important role to play in the devel-
opment and management of ↑ VET systems, this is
an area that has not been researched in a compre-
hensive, systematic and regular fashion. Most na-
tional VET systems, in Europe at least, have tradi-
tionally included tripartite bodies, usually at sec-
tor level, that determine standards for training;
they often also establish arrangements for funding
and on occasions actually organise and adminis-
ter training institutions. The consultation and ne-
gotiation that takes place in these systems has at-
tracted little attention from training specialists,
who are more interested in the substantive training
issues than the procedural routes by which deci-
sions are made, while industrial relations special-
ists, for whom the procedural matters are centre
stage, have for the most part regarded training as
somewhat peripheral to mainstream concerns with
wage determination. Exceptionally, there were iso-
lated studies of social dialogue over VET in indi-
vidual countries, such as that of Rainbird (1990) in
the UK during the period after the Conservative
Government had dismantled much of the tripartite
system. Paradoxically, interest increased in social
dialogue over VET in the UK from this time and
the TUC introduced new initiatives to promote bar-
gaining over training in the workplace (DUNDON /
EVA 1998; HEYES / STUART 1998; TUC 1994; 1995).
Similarly, research undertaken for the FORCE
Programme included country studies of contractu-
al policies concerning continuing vocational train-
ing (CVT), which demonstrated a significant role
for consultation and collective bargaining in this
area in the UK despite the general contraction of
106
bargaining coverage and trade union membership
(WINTERTON / WINTERTON 1994a; 1994b).
There is a substantial and long-established com-
parative literature on social dialogue arrange-
ments (CROUCH 1993; STREECK 1992; TRAXLER /
BLASCHKE /K ITTEL 2001) and a parallel literature
comparing different ↑ VET systems (ASHTON /
SUNG / TURBIN 2000; CALLOIDS 1994; CAMPINOS-
DUBERNET/ GRANDO 1988), but ↑ comparative stud-
ies of social dialogue over VET have been rather
rare. The aforementioned FORCE studies includ-
ed a certain amount of comparative analysis but
for the most part the emphasis was on individu-
al country studies (BLANPAIN / ENGELS / PELLEGRINI
1994). This was also the case with independent
academic studies, comparative analyses typical-
ly either only addressing a few countries (MÉHAUT
1992; WINTERTON 1998; 2000) or having a wid-
er focus on education and work (BERNIER /JOBERT /
RAINBIRD / SAGLIO 2002; JOBERT / MARRY/ TANGUY/
RAINBIRD 1997; MEGHNAGI 1997) or forms of capi-
talist regulation (HALL / SOSKICE 2001; LANE 1989)
and only dealing incidentally with social dialogue
over VET (→ 1.9).
2.1.1 Social Dialogue Support System on
Continuing Vocational Training
A major turning point in increased interest in so-
cial dialogue over VET came with the Council rec-
ommendation of 30 June 1993 to establish a So-
cial Dialogue Support System on Continuing Vo-
cational Training, organised by the Task Force
Human Resources, Education Training and Youth.
With financial support from the European Com-
mission, the social partners commissioned a group
of experts to study ways in which social dialogue
could serve as a forum for exchange of information
and experience in relation to continuing vocation-
al training (CVT). The experts produced a Com-
pendium of 30 case studies representing perceived
good practice in CVT largely based on documen-
tation available at the European level from work
under the action programmes, notably the FORCE
programme (UNICE/CEEP/ETUC 1994). The
case studies were presented around 10 themes that
were proposed by the experts and agreed with the
social partners. While the declared objective was
to assemble ‘a common platform of information’,
Handbook of TVET Research
these were essentially advocacy cases, chosen be-
cause they represented good practice and innova-
tion or had some other ‘exemplary value’. The au-
thors were impressed by the importance attached
to VET, especially CVT ‘at least in general terms’
by all governments and social partners, comment-
ing on the number of joint opinions that had re-
sulted from (European-level) dialogue in this ar-
ea. The enormous variation between countries in
the extent of formal mechanisms of social dialogue
and the variety in the roles played by the social
partners at national, regional, sector and firm lev-
els, was also noted, along with the ‘growing con-
cern and growing activity’ in this area. ↑ Social di-
alogue was not explicit in all of the cases making it
difficult to identify the distinct value added, but in
summarising the debates at the close of the semi-
nar at which the Compendium was presented Vin-
cent Merle (CEREQ) identified a number of spe-
cific contributions that social dialogue had made
to improving CVT, among them the achievement
of greater coherence between economic ↑ efficien-
cy in training and equity for individuals.
After consultation between the Social Dialogue
working group and the experts, the social partners
agreed to continue this work when the Task Force
was succeeded by the Directorate General Educa-
tion, Training and Youth and to produce a second
Compendium, which was compiled in 1996 with
30 new case-studies around the same ten themes
(UNICE/CEEP/ETUC 1996). In this second Com-
pendium the cases were contextualised within the
industrial relations and vocational training sys-
tems, which were described for all of the then 15
Member States with the aid of specialists nominat-
ed for each country. Whilst recognising the limita-
tions of a collection of sixty case studies, the two
compendia nevertheless demonstrated a decade
ago both the importance and diversity of social di-
alogue over VET. The value of the Social Dialogue
Support System on Continuing Vocational Train-
ing is evident from the progress made at that time
in European Social Dialogue on Education and
Training where the social partners identified four
priorities for their future work: ↑ lifelong learning;
guidance; qualifications; and resources.
This work stimulated initiatives by the European
Commission agencies involved in developing VET,
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
↑ CEDEFOP (Centre Européen de Développement
de Formation Professionnelle) in Thessaloniki
and the ETF (↑ European Training Foundation) in
Torino, both of which have social partner represen-
tation on their respective management boards. CE-
DEFOP began to develop a closer relationship with
the social partners (THEUNISSEN 1996) and estab-
lished its programme Agenda 2000 to support so-
cial dialogue over VET (AGA 1998). The ETF sup-
ported research in this area, commissioning Gier-
orgica and Luttringer (1997) to analyse the role of
the social partners in training at enterprise level.
Helge Halvorsen, on secondment to ↑ CEDEFOP
from the Norwegian employers’ association NHO,
was the first to attempt a systematic comparative
analysis of social partner involvement in the devel-
opment of training and presented his interim find-
ings at an ↑ ETF seminar (HALVORSEN 1998). Hal-
vorsen’s exploratory work formed the basis for a
subsequent survey administered by his replace-
ment at CEDEFOP, discussed below.
2.1.2 The Lisbon Summit and the
Framework of Actions
The next major turning point was the Lisbon Eu-
ropean Council in March 2000, which marked the
origins of a new European policy framework for
VET and ↑ lifelong learning, linking these to the
European Employment Strategy and establishing
the objective for the next decade of making Europe
‘the most competitive and knowledge-based econ-
omy in the world capable of sustainable growth
and better jobs and greater social cohesion’. The
Stockholm summit (March 2001) called for a de-
tailed work programme, establishing targets and
↑ benchmarks against which progress was to be as-
sessed. The Barcelona summit (March 2002) set
the further objective of making European educa-
tion and training systems a world quality reference
by 2010 (EC 2002a). In line with these objectives,
the Directors-General for VET in their autumn
2001 Bruges meeting agreed on further efforts to
enhance European-wide cooperation and in the
Copenhagen Declaration (30 November 2002) an-
nounced a strategy to support the development of
qualifications and competences at European level.
In the midst of these developments, in the run-up
to the Laeken summit (December 2001), the social
107
partners issued a joint statement calling for a new
independent approach based on voluntary agree-
ments and a joint work programme, to which the
Commission responded with a communication
recommending such an autonomous bipartite ap-
proach (EC 2002a). Since the Laeken Declaration
EU level social dialogue has been increasingly bi-
partite and independent from the Commission,
dealing with areas defined in the agreed work pro-
gramme and frameworks of actions followed up
with reporting and monitoring mechanisms anal-
ogous to the ↑ Open Method of Coordination used
with member states and the European Employment
Strategy. A Framework of Actions for the Lifelong
Development of Competencies and Qualifica-
tions was agreed by the social partners on 28 Feb-
ruary 2002 and presented to the European Coun-
cil in March 2002 (ETUC/UNICE/UEAPME/
CEEP 2002). The Framework of Actions, which
increased the role of the social partners in train-
ing initiatives and established mechanisms for an-
nual monitoring and evaluation across the EU, was
explicitly viewed by CEDEFOP as a step towards
more autonomous ↑ social dialogue in this area
(CEDEFOP 2004b).
The CEDEFOP survey, the most comprehensive
comparative research to date into social dialogue
over VET, was undertaken in response to these re-
newed efforts by the social partners at European
level to engage in autonomous actions to promote
learning and development in line with wider EU
objectives. The survey set out to explore the na-
ture and extent of social dialogue over VET across
Europe, to identify and disseminate good practice.
The main research instrument was a questionnaire
designed by staff on secondment to CEDEFOP and
administered as a mail survey (followed by tele-
phone and email) of all EU Member States (at that
time numbering fifteen) and two EFTA countries
between January 2002 and February 2003. The
survey was comprehensive in scope, dealing with
the legal framework and formal representation
structures concerned with establishing ↑ VET poli-
cy and social partner ↑ participation in VET activi-
ties, from ↑ vocational schools to training systems
and on-the-job training, both initial and continu-
ing. The survey was distributed to the CEDEFOP
Refernet national consortium leader in each coun-
108
try, typically in the national agency responsible for
VET or in the Ministry of Education. By February
2003, when the analysis began, returns had been
received from 14 countries, including two EFTA
countries and 12 of the then EU15. The survey was
analysed by the present author on behalf of CE-
DEFOP and supplemented by a review of relevant
literature and discussions with representatives of
social partner organisations at European level and
in some member states (WINTERTON 2003). A ty-
pology of ↑ VET systems used in earlier work was
adopted to explore the extent to which social di-
alogue over VET was influenced by two dimen-
sions: the focus of skill formation (workplace or
school) and the regulation of the VET system
(state or market). The nature and extent of social
dialogue was analysed in relation to ↑ VET policy
making, ↑ VET implementation and initiatives to
promote ↑ lifelong learning: the results are report-
ed below under these headings.
2.1.3 Social Partner Involvement in VET
Policy Making
In reviewing policies on lifelong learning in Eu-
rope, Heidemann (2002) noted that while govern-
ments generally define the framework, they invar-
iably ‘expect the social partners to be involved in
fleshing out the framework provided’. The ↑ CE-
DEFOP survey confirmed this view, demonstrat-
ing that the social partners have a formal role in
↑ VET policy making in all the European coun-
tries covered by the survey. In all cases this role
includes representation at national level; in the ma-
jority of cases also at sectoral level; and in many
cases also at regional and local (enterprise or es-
tablishment) level.
In those countries with a tradition of state regu-
lation, social partner representation is determined
by legislation, as is the case in 9 of the countries
involved in the survey. In Germany, social part-
ner involvement is legally defined in The Voca-
tional Training Promotion Law (Berufsbildungs-
förderungsgesetz) 1981, which regulates the re-
sponsibilities of the bodies involved in determin-
ing VET policy at the national level. The ↑ Vo-
cational Training Law (Berufsbildungsgesetz)
1969 defines the responsibilities of the 16 region-
al state committees for VET (Ländersausschüsse
Handbook of TVET Research
für Berufsbildung) and the Chambers (Berufsbil-
dungsausschüsse der zuständigen Stellen). The
Social Law III (Sozialgesetzbuch) III 1997 defines
shared responsibility for employment and ↑ labour
market programmes, including training, contin-
uing training and re-training. The main board of
the national level Federal Institute for Vocation-
al Training (Budesinstituts für Berufsbildung,
BIBB), its Standing Committee (Ständiger Auss-
chuss) and the Joint Committee of the Federal
States (Ländersausschüsse) comprise representa-
tives of central government, employers and trade
unions, plus representatives of the Federal States
(Länder). In ↑ France, the involvement of the so-
cial partners in VET policy making is defined in
various articles of the Labour Code, notably Book
IX, Article 910-1. The social partners meet the au-
thorities at national level to discuss VET issues in
the National Council for Vocational Training, So-
cial Advancement and Employment (Conseil na-
tional pour la formation professionnelle, le pro-
grès social et l’emploi). Trade unions are not for-
mally consulted before laws are drafted, but virtu-
ally all legislation pertaining to VET is approved
in inter-occupational agreements prior to adoption.
In Belgium the Law of 24 May 1921 gives employ-
ers and employees the opportunity to defend their
occupational rights, including the right to VET,
while the Law of 29 May 1952 created the Nation-
al Labour Council (Conseil National du Travail –
CNT), a joint body comprising an equal number
of inter-occupational employee and employer as-
sociation representatives. In Iceland, the new Up-
per Secondary School Act, No. 80/1996 sets out
VET policy: Chapter IX of the Act elaborates the
roles and responsibilities of both sides of industry
through a central Cooperation Committee for ↑ Vo-
cational Study and Occupational Councils (Starf-
sgreinaráð).
In countries with a tradition of voluntarism, nota-
bly the UK and Ireland, the law has been much less
prescriptive concerning social partner involvement
in VET policy. Heidemann et al. (1994, 11) com-
mented on the ‘almost total absence of ↑ social di-
alogue’ over VET in the UK, yet in both countries
the social partners play a major role in VET policy.
In Ireland the Labour Services Act 1987 defines
social partner involvement in developing nation-
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
al VET policy through two tripartite bodies: the
Training and Employment Authority (FÁS) and
the State ↑ Tourism Training Agency. In the UK,
the focus was on Industry Training Boards, estab-
lished as statutory tripartite sector bodies under
the Industrial Training Act 1964, but these were
replaced during the 1980s by a market-led sys-
tem in which the employers played the dominant
role (HYMAN 1992; RAINBIRD 1990; SENKER 1992).
Despite these changes, there was extensive social
partner involvement in training arrangements, al-
though no longer on a statutory footing, even in
sectors where union membership had virtually col-
lapsed (WINTERTON / WINTERTON 1994a); and since
the return of the Labour government in 1997, the
unions have played a major role in VET.
The Netherlands, with the socio-economic ‘pol-
dermodel’, can be seen as a hybrid between the
state regulated social dialogue ‘Rijnlands model’
and free market voluntarism, typified by the ‘An-
glo-Saxon model’. The poldermodel involves in-
tensive and elaborate negotiation between the gov-
ernment and the social partners, resulting in wage
restraint and employment growth. In the 1980s, the
social partners increased the level and scope of ne-
gotiations on ↑ employability and training and this
resulted in the ‘Wassenaar treaty’ (Akkoord van
Wassenaar) 1982 which is generally seen as a posi-
tive turning point in the development of the econo-
my. The Vocational and Adult Education Act (Wet
Educatie en Beroepsonderwijs) defines the vari-
ous means of formal communication and involve-
ment of the relevant actors; and the social partners
are formally represented on the boards of nation-
al VET bodies.
2.1.4 Social Partner Involvement in VET
Implementation
Citing research undertaken on behalf of the ETUC,
Heidemann (2002) concluded that since the end of
the 1980s, CVT in many member states and at the
EU level ‘has increasingly become a central focus
of social dialogue.’ Moreover, since 2000 ‘trade
unions and workforce representatives are going be-
yond strategic discussions and becoming increas-
ingly involved in the practical implementation of
further training’. These trends are endorsed by
the ↑ CEDEFOP survey, which shows that in addi-
109
tion to their role in the formal structures of ↑ VET
policy making, the social partners are involved in
all countries in various activities concerned with
the implementation of VET actions, particularly
at sector and local levels. In particular, the social
partners are involved in developing curricula and
new qualifications as well as developing on-the-job
training.
While the structures of ↑ participation vary accord-
ing to the degree of state regulation, social partner
involvement in developing curricula and qualifica-
tions is extensive irrespective of the nature of the
regulatory framework. In Germany, there are na-
tional ‘minimum’ curricula for VET, but compa-
nies are free to go beyond these and large compa-
nies frequently do so, creating additional qualifi-
cations to meet their own needs and supplement-
ing national qualifications. In ↑ France, the so-
cial partners can propose new curricula and qual-
ifications under the auspices of the joint adviso-
ry boards, the various higher education commis-
sions and the sectoral Joint National Employment
Boards (CPNEs, Commissions paritaire nationale
de l’emploi). In Denmark, the Minister of Educa-
tion determines the guidelines for each VET pro-
gramme based on the recommendations of the so-
cial partners. The social partners exert a direct in-
fluence in laying down the curricular ‘framework’
for VET programmes via the Advisory Council
on VET (Erhvervsuddannelsesrådet), the Nation-
al Trade Committees (Faglige udvalg), the Nation-
al Training Council (Uddannelsesrådet for arbe-
jdsmarkedsuddannelserne) and the CVT Commit-
tees (Efteruddannelsesudvalg). Via Local Train-
ing Committees (Lokale uddannelsesudvalg), the
social partners are able to ‘colour’ the local cur-
riculum according to local ↑ labour market needs.
Equally in Finland the social partners are consult-
ed in the elaboration of the national core curric-
ula and as members of the Training Committees
they have a further opportunity to influence curric-
ulum content. In Austria, the social partners have
an extensive role in implementation of VET and
are responsible for maintaining the adult education
schools (Fachhochschulen) which are virtually the
only providers of continuing vocational training.
In each of these respects they are either consulted
on, or responsible for, ↑ curriculum design and the
110
development of new qualifications. In Denmark,
local training committees, which include social
partner representatives, act as advisory bodies to
↑ vocational schools on adapting curricula to the
needs of local enterprises. In the UK, the unions
have also been involved in developing new qual-
ifications under the competence-based National
Vocational Qualifications (NVQs in England and
Wales, Scottish Vocational Qualifications, SVQs,
in Scotland). Occupational standards for qualifica-
tions were developed through functional analysis
organised by employer-led Industry Lead Bodies, a
role subsequently taken over by the Standards Set-
ting Bodies, and social partner involvement is es-
sential in this.
The social partners’ involvement in developing on-
the-job training varies with the form of regulation.
In the more regulated states, there is a legal right
to be involved, whereas in countries with more
voluntarist traditions, practice varies substantial-
ly between individual employers. In Germany,
the social partners are typically involved at com-
pany level in selecting trainees and training con-
tent. Works Councils in companies with more than
5 employees can request that the employer under-
takes a Training Needs Analysis. While the social
partners in Belgium and ↑ France have a similar
role in defining curricula, they are not involved in
recruitment of trainees. In Finland, the social part-
ners are involved in recruitment in sector VET in-
stitutions, but otherwise the national student selec-
tion system proposes students to the institutions,
who have the final say on selection. In the UK,
even under the Conservatives (1979–97) when the
overall scope of collective bargaining contracted
significantly, there was ↑ social dialogue over VET
at both enterprise and workplace levels, although
evidence suggests that the unions had only lim-
ited success in attempting to extend the bargain-
ing agenda to VET issues (CLAYDON / GREEN 1992;
TUC 1998) – although where they did, unions had
a positive influence on training at workplace level
(CLAYDON / GREEN 1992; GREEN / MACHIN / WILKINSON
1995; HEYES / STUART 1998; WINTERTON / WINTERTON
1994b). In several countries, VET arrangements
have become more decentralised since the 1990s,
making VET, and especially CVT, more respon-
sive to the transformation of industry and involv-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing the social partners in practical implementation
activities. In Sweden, the municipalities gained a
large degree of freedom to organise IVT at the up-
per secondary level, via local vocational councils
with employer and employee representatives. CVT
in Norway is largely developed at company level
with the involvement of the local social partners in
determining training curricula and, in some cas-
es co-financing of training. In France, the ↑ VET
system has become progressively more decentral-
ised through legal changes: Law 83-8 of 7 January
1983; Quinquennial Law No. 93-1313 of 20 De-
cember 1993; and the Labour Code, Article L. 910-
1. Under the regional vocational training develop-
ment scheme, regional employment and vocation-
al training coordination committees consult the re-
gional social partners.
2.1.5 Social Partner Involvement in
Initiatives to Promote Lifelong
Learning
The social partners are widely involved in ini-
tiatives to promote ↑ lifelong learning and to en-
courage take-up of learning opportunities at work.
For example, the Dutch Government and the so-
cial partners developed a national lifelong ↑ learn-
ing strategy, with the target for 2010 to increase
the ↑ participation rate in vocational education of
the population aged between 25 and 64 to the lev-
el of the two best performing Member States of the
EU. Vocational education institutes are becoming
knowledge centres for lifelong learning, for which
the social partners have a joint responsibility. The
tripartite Advisory Committee on Education and
the ↑ Labour Market (ACOA) is one of the bod-
ies involved in redesigning the Dutch qualification
structure to facilitate lifelong learning. Since the
1980s the number of collective agreements on edu-
cation and training has increased substantially and
research by Labour Inspection (SZW 2001) showed
that agreements on ↑ employability were included
in 86 out of the 117 agreements reviewed.
In many countries, the social partners are involved
in establishing arrangements for the funding of
VET and promoting access to learning. Levy-
grant arrangements are a common means of ↑ fi-
nancing VET and the social partners are involved
in so far as employers make contributions to funds
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
via the levy and claim grants in relation to training.
In some countries, employers’ associations have a
role in administering the system and on occasion
the unions are also involved. In Germany, the so-
cial partners decide (through tripartite arrange-
ments) on the funding of training schemes, includ-
ing apprenticeships, run by the Employment Serv-
ice at national, regional and local level. In France
the social partners may be involved in administer-
ing apprenticeship tax (collection and allocation at
the discretion of the enterprises) and establish col-
lection agencies for the mandatory corporate finan-
cial contribution which finances training for young
people benefiting from alternance work contracts.
In Denmark, IVT is funded via the Employers’
Reimbursement Scheme (Arbejdsgivernes Elevre-
fusion – AER), while CVT is funded through the
↑ Labour Market Institution of Financing of Ed-
ucation and Training (Arbejdsmarkedsuddan-
nelsernes finansieringfond).
Heidemann (2002) commented that in recent years
many countries introduced individual learning ac-
counts (as in the UK and Sweden) or training vouch-
ers (as in Austria and Germany) both to encourage
up-take of learning opportunities and to share the
costs of learning. In the UK, individual learning
accounts (which were closed down in November
2001 following allegations of fraud) became a focus
of ↑ social dialogue as employers made additional
contributions (over and above the state finance) on
the basis of individual or collective agreements. In
Germany, there are collective agreements in many
sectors concerning ↑ continuing VET funding and
programmes and Works Councils often make pro-
posals for paid leave (Bildungsurlaub) to under-
take CVT. In some large companies, the social
partners have negotiated agreements on learning
time accounts (Lernzeitkonten). Under a new col-
lective agreement for qualification (Tarifvertrag
zur Qualifizierung) in the metal industry of Baden-
Württemberg every employee was entitled to reg-
ular updating of skills based on individual ↑ per-
sonnel development discussions. In Belgium, the
Collective work agreement of 25 April 2001 con-
cluded by the CPNAE social partners for 2001–
2002, included a training section, valid until the
end of 2003, under which employers were obliged
to grant all employees at least four days of training
111
during the CCT period, two days in 2002 and two
in 2003. To achieve this objective, each enterprise
could join the CCT by submitting a training plan
to the relevant sectoral social fund. As well as the
benefits of expanding or updating employee skills,
subscribing to the agreement brought significant
financial advantages: training subsidies of € 37.18
per day per employee for companies that train their
workers (except for free CEFORA courses), onsite
CEFORA courses and price reductions in more
than 120 recognised training institutions. Under
the Inter-occupational Agreement of 22 December
2000, the social partners asked the various sectors
to launch at least one new collective work agree-
ment or extend an existing one, calling on sectors
to implement initiatives to determine the most pro-
ductive synergies and to strive for the optimal def-
inition of target groups, including older workers,
non-Belgian ethnic groups and the disabled.
The role of collective agreements in promot-
ing VET at local level is emphasised in sever-
al countries. In Spain, the Third Tripartite Con-
tinuing Training Agreement, signed in December
2000, defined the conditions under which compa-
nies could obtain government support for imple-
menting CVT in enterprises, one provision requir-
ing that the training plan is approved by the legal
representatives of the workers in the company. In
Portugal, integrated training plans are developed
from the training plans of individual companies,
then presented to the public authorities for fund-
ing. Worker representatives may be involved in de-
fining the training plan through a negotiated col-
lective agreement. In Iceland, the social partners
are involved in CVT at company level, where cur-
ricula and new qualifications are developed with-
out necessarily adhering to national standards. In
some sectors employers and employees subscribe
to a fund for this purpose. In Austria enterprises
are free to introduce training schemes without ref-
erence to national standards and company level
training plans are sometimes a subject of collec-
tive agreements. In ↑ France local training schemes
must adhere to national standards if national qual-
ifications are involved, but companies organise
additional CVT without qualifications and works
councils are consulted on such training schemes.
Industry level collective agreements in the Nether-
112
lands have established ↑ training levies in some 60
sectors, designed to harmonise ↑ training costs and
reduce poaching of skilled labour.
Arguably the most important social partner led in-
novation focused on increasing the take-up of learn-
ing opportunities, has come out of the UK, where
statutory support for ↑ social dialogue is absent.
Recognising serious skills gaps and shortages in
the economy, the Labour Government established
the Union Learning Fund (ULF) in 1998, with the
aim of using trade union influence to increase the
take-up of learning at work, while boosting union
capacity for delivering learning among trade un-
ionists. Much ULF activity was centred on Union
Learning Representatives – active union members,
normally lay officials, who provide advice, guid-
ance and support to colleagues in activities related
to learning and may negotiate with employers or
providers to increase access to learning opportu-
nities. Early evidence suggested that Union Learn-
ing Representatives were having a positive impact
on the creation and take-up of learning opportu-
nities at work (COWEN / CLEMENTS / CUTTER 2000),
particularly for low skilled workers and those at
risk of redundancy (WINTERTON 2001). The statuto-
ry backing that was introduced by the Employment
Act 2002 is of pivotal importance for improving
trade union ↑ effectiveness in influencing VET and
↑ lifelong learning opportunities in the workplace
(RODGERS / WALLIS / WINTERTON 2003).
2.1.6 Conclusions
The ↑ CEDEFOP survey showed social dialogue
and other social partner involvement, such as in
tripartite bodies, to be extensive and apparent at
all levels in ↑ VET policy making in Europe: na-
tional, regional, sectoral and local (variously in-
cluding enterprise, establishment and sub-regional
geographical area). Significantly, the social part-
ners are involved irrespective of whether the pre-
vailing socio-economic model involves legal regu-
lation (as in the majority of countries), voluntary
arrangements (as in the UK) or a hybrid of these as
in the formalised cooperation found in Finland and
the Netherlands. In addition to their role in the for-
mal structures of VET policy making, the social
partners are involved in all countries in various ac-
tivities concerned with the implementation of VET
Handbook of TVET Research
actions, particularly at sector and local levels. For
example, the social partners are involved in devel-
oping curricula and new qualifications, developing
on-the-job training and in encouraging the take-up
of learning opportunities. While the structures of
↑ participation vary according to the degree of state
regulation, social partner involvement in develop-
ing curricula and qualifications is extensive irre-
spective of the nature of the regulatory framework.
The social partners’ involvement in ↑ VET imple-
mentation at company level varies with the form
of regulation and the focus of ↑ VET systems. In
the more regulated states, there is a legal right to
be involved, whereas in countries with more vol-
untarist traditions, practice varies substantially be-
tween individual employers. In several countries,
VET arrangements have become more decentral-
ised since the 1990s, making VET, and especial-
ly CVT, more responsive to the transformation of
industry and involving the social partners in prac-
tical implementation activities. The role of collec-
tive agreements in promoting VET at local level is
emphasised in several countries, especially those
where the focus of VET is on the workplace. The
differences between the countries appear to be less
than might be anticipated from the different forms
of VET regulation (market versus state) and ster-
eotypical models of labour relations (Northern or
Scandinavian model, Southern or Mediterrane-
an model, Western or Anglophone model and the
Central or German model); there are similarities
that cross the labour relations typologies as well as
differences within them, which may be the result
of convergence occurring with transfer of good
practice (or may equally reflect the limitations of
the traditional typologies).
The Framework of Actions also stimulated more
trade union engagement in research on ↑ social di-
alogue over VET and lifelong learning, building
on earlier work by research institutions close to the
trade unions, such as Hans Böckler Stiftung, which
had previously published analyses of social dia-
logue over VET and lifelong learning (HEIDEMANN
2002; HEIDEMANN /K RUSE / PAUL-KOHLHOFF / ZEUNER
1994). Kerckhofs and André (2003) from the
ETUC investigated European social dialogue over
lifelong learning, mapping in particular progress
made in the sectoral dialogue bodies. European
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
social dialogue on VET and lifelong learning is es-
pecially important at sector level because of the
similarity of skills needs in a given sector across
member states, recently recognised in EC initia-
tives (EC, E. C. 2003b). Until 1998, European sec-
tor social dialogue took place in nine joint com-
mittees established by EC decisions, and in elev-
en informal working parties created by the social
partners themselves (SÖRRIES 1999). The EC initi-
ated a major institutional reform in 1998, replacing
the existing institutions with sector dialogue com-
mittees (EC 1998b), while the ETUC began co-or-
dinating collective bargaining through the Euro-
pean Industry Federations (LEISINK 2002; K ELLER /
SÖRRIES 1998). The distribution of dialogue across
sectors is very uneven; different policy areas are
covered and the outcomes vary (K ELLER 2005).
The Commission now recognises over 30 sec-
tor dialogue committees on the basis of the extent
of representation of the sector by the social part-
ners involved and their willingness to discuss and
agree joint opinions and binding framework agree-
ments.
Kerckhofs and André (2003) reported that be-
tween 1979 and 2002, these structures produced
over 200 joint texts, 48 per cent of them including
provisions relating to VET. While recognising that
such a quantitative historical overview provides
no indication of the impact of social partner joint
opinions or agreements, recent reports in the field
of VET from the sector committees indicate that
the focus is now more on direct actions or frame-
works for actions than joint opinions. While sector
bargaining has sometimes led to inter-profession-
al framework agreements (as with teleworking in
2002), Goetschy (2005, 418) notes that the reverse
has also occurred with the Framework of Actions
influencing several sectoral dialogue committees.
The trend is towards the development of Europe-
an sector social dialogue strategies on ↑ lifelong
learning; most European social dialogue sector
committees have discussed lifelong learning and
many have developed concrete actions.
Anders Vind from Landsorganisationen i Dan-
mark coordinated a study of trade union ↑ pol-
icy and practice on lifelong learning, comparing
Denmark, ↑ France, Germany and the UK (VIND /
DELAMARE LE DEIST/ HEIDEMANN / WINTERTON
113
2004). While the Framework of Actions offers a
platform for promoting trade union influence in
↑ lifelong learning policies, there is a need for fur-
ther elaboration of the strategy at European level
and for more detailed monitoring and analysis of
actions at national level. In Denmark, France, Ger-
many and the UK, the unions are actively seeking
new roles in promoting lifelong learning through
collective agreements on practical issues such as
time accounts, acting as ‘intermediaries’ at the in-
terface of individuals and learning opportunities,
participating in the ↑ quality assurance of VET and
encouraging a learning culture at work. However,
such initiatives at present are not strategically co-
ordinated at EU level, something that is increas-
ingly necessary with enlargement of the EU.
The enlargement of the EU presents a new chal-
lenge to ↑ social dialogue over VET because some
of the new and future member states have partic-
ular weaknesses in social dialogue structures and
processes as well as in ↑ VET systems and work-
force qualifications (→ 2.6). The weakness of so-
cial dialogue in some of the new and future mem-
ber states (LADO / VAUGHAN-WHITEHEAD 2003;
VAUGHAN-WHITEHEAD 2000), especially at secto-
ral level (GHELLAB / VAUGHAN-WHITEHEAD 2003) is
well documented. There is often a combination of
government reluctance to share power, employer
resistance to engage in dialogue and trade union
reticence to take on responsibility (DRAUS 2000;
MAILAND / DUE 2004; SARFATI 2003; WINTERTON /
STRANDBERG 2004), all of which must be addressed
if social dialogue is to continue to play a cen-
tral role in developing and implementing policies
across the EU (EC 2004). Some countries have an
urgent and dramatic need to raise workforce skills
in line with the Lisbon objectives, and in cases like
Turkey this is hampered by a VET system that is
ill-adapted to ↑ labour market needs (WINTERTON
2006a). The reform of VET systems will present
an enormous challenge to social dialogue in these
countries. In view of these challenges and the need
for the trade unions to develop new strategies to
promote competence development at work, the
SALTSA Programme of the Swedish Arbetslivsin-
stitutet recently commissioned a ↑ comparative
study of eight countries, including three new mem-
ber states and one candidate country, the results
114
of which will be published in 2007 (MAGNUSSON /
WINTERTON 2007).
2.2 Work – Education – Training:
An Interdisciplinary Research
Approach
Manfred Eckert
2.2.1 Preliminaries: Objectives of
Vocational Learning and Vocational
Qualification
Vocational learning always aims to enable peo-
ple to deal competently with the demands of their
work. Therefore skilled work is a particular point
of reference for vocational learning and vocation-
al training. The perspectives as to how qualifica-
tion for and in work shall take place are different.
The interest of the employees is to be empowered
by vocational qualification to succeed in the ↑ la-
bour market, to have the opportunity to transfer
between jobs thanks to ↑ mobility, to seize career
opportunities, to ensure a sustainable ↑ employa-
bility via their professional record, to build a so-
cial, personal and ↑ professional identity, and to be
secured against unemployment as far as possible.
This is possible only if comprehensive profession-
al, social and personal competences have been de-
veloped on the basis of a good school education
and a broad basic vocational training. From the
employers’ point of view the focus is on the opti-
misation of productivity and business processes as
well as on the improvement of global competitive-
ness. This entails a demand for workers who are
able to act successfully in learning organisations
and the corresponding ↑ innovation processes.
There is little controversy that vocational education
should always extend beyond the training of con-
crete skills for particular workplaces. In modern
and service oriented societies it aims at the trans-
fer of ↑ key qualifications or competences that are
future-proof and allow for broad opportunities for
action (ZOLINGEN 2002). The question is left unan-
swered whether these competences are supported
in systematic ↑ teaching and learning processes and
through the acquisition of knowledge, or whether
Handbook of TVET Research
they are generated by experience, by experience
oriented and ↑ informal learning. The acquisition
of systematic knowledge is a goal of the school, the
building of ↑ experiential knowledge takes place as
a process in the context of work. Training meas-
ures, on the other hand, aim at the direct applica-
bility of learning and the things learned, and they
can be organised as school-based courses or as
learning near the workplace.
2.2.2 Conceptual Clarifications
Work
On the one hand it is well known from everyday
experience what is meant by work. On the other
hand the conceptual clarification is extremely dif-
ficult. Work as useful human activity and as source
of material prosperity are widespread anthropo-
logical and economic ideas. At the same time work
is always performed under social and historical
conditions. The forms of the societal organisation
of work are the result of economic, technical and
social factors, and often the hierarchical division
of labour and the corresponding professional dif-
ferentiation stabilise social and societal structures.
“↑ Professionalism” as a form of this organisation
of work can lead to a concept of social inequali-
ty (LEWIS 2000; ZILVERSMIT 2004). In this context
work and the demand for workers and qualifica-
tions can be structured quite differently and sub-
ject to repeated changes due to the permanent pres-
sure for rationalisation and the global competition.
Processes of dequalification and selection can
emerge, but there can also be new demands on the
qualification levels. Work can promote potentials
for self-realisation, but can also further the aliena-
tion of man. Working power is both a shaping po-
tential and a commodity. Marxist philosophy has
worked out this contradictory character of work.
In ancient philosophy work – as the task of slaves
and thus of non-political beings (!) – was relat-
ed to the production of objects and artefacts. The
occupation of freemen, on the contrary, aimed at
the shaping of the polity, at good political agency
(ARENDT 1981). The latter required autonomy and
education. In TVET theory and in ↑ TVET poli-
cy this contradiction continues. Are the capacity to
optimally cope with workplace requirements and
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
the manufacturing of products according to tech-
nical rules the relevant issues, or is the thing that
at stake is the shaping of individual and collective
working and living conditions as well as of the po-
litical context (DEWEY 1916a; LAKES 1993)? What
is certain is that the coping with workplace require-
ments necessitates specific qualifications. This is
an important curricular point of reference for vo-
cational education. On the other hand each work-
place is an environment for experiences where not
only specific qualifications are applied, but where
also competences can be acquired and enriched.
Competences are subjective potentials for agency
that extend far beyond concrete workplace require-
ments. Their development is facilitated when work
is organised and shaped in a learning-supportive
way. In principle work experience in the enterprise
can also be analysed as a socialisation process.
Here the focus is on the personal development as
well as the social and professional integration into
the organisational structures of the company and
into the respective professional and technical ex-
pert groups. Finally the question remains whether
the experiences in the ↑ work process can also give
access to the dimensions of society and politics, in
which case work experience would simultaneous-
ly be a part of political education (HEYDORN 1972;
HEYDORN 1979; NEGT 1968).
Education
The separation of education and work that is root-
ed in the philosophical tradition has already been
mentioned. Up to the most recent European histo-
ry of education, this tension continued: Is “educa-
tion” the non-instrumental development of the in-
dividual, which is promoted in particular through
the acquisition of the ideal contents of the classi-
cal languages, of culture, and of art? Can natu-
ral sciences and modern languages also be edu-
cational contents? Is it appropriate to have voca-
tional, application-oriented training follow on-
ly after the completion of a phase of general ed-
ucation? Or is education possible also by means
of the imparting of knowledge that is relevant for
the context of professional agency and that might
even have been generated in this context? What is
crucial here is the answer to the question wheth-
er this is simple utilitarianism and the subordina-
115
tion of man to economic and technical processes,
or whether potentials for agency are released that
allow for the shaping of work and life, independ-
ence and autonomy alike (BLANKERTZ 1963; DEW-
EY 1916a; HYSLOP-MARGISON 2001; LITT 1961). This
contradiction is already featured in the dialectics
of enlightenment: Is enlightenment a process of
political emancipation, or of economic liberation
(HORKHEIMER /ADORNO 1971)? However sharp this
opposition has been accentuated in the past, there
are nevertheless numerous representatives of en-
lightenment thought who overcame this dichoto-
my and viewed economic and political liberation
together (for example: Benjamin Franklin). In
the concepts of business development and in the
course of the development of science and technol-
ogy integrative positions have always been main-
tained, too (BLANKERTZ 1969).
“Education” is often discussed in connection with
schools. The Teaching curricula of schools can be
detached from real contexts of application in terms
of their educational contents, they can be orient-
ed towards sciences or systems of knowledge, and
they can focus on personal development and ed-
ucation processes. They can make contributions
to moral education, compensate socialisation def-
icits, and realise political integration as an affirm-
ative or critical programme. ↑ Vocational schools
have been utilised for all these objectives. In prin-
ciple, schools offer the chance to impart contents
and to develop potentials for agency that reach be-
yond current societal demands and aim at coping
with the future. On the other hand schools always
also have the tendency to move away from the re-
ality of work and life and to lose their life-practical
relevance. Moreover, there is a danger of commu-
nicating “↑ inert” knowledge that can hardly be ap-
plied in practice. This way the school turns into an
artificial social world of its own with particular de-
mands, selection mechanisms and status-guaran-
teeing certificates, a social world that loses its con-
nection with reality and nevertheless is able to se-
cure social reproduction and the distribution of op-
portunities over generations – and thus maintains
its social attractiveness. In this context vocational
education programmes have been forcefully criti-
cised: They have been supposed to impede person-
al development, equality of opportunities and so-
116
cial advancement due to a “cooling-out” of educa-
tional interests (LEWIS 2000).
Modern teaching and learning arrangements in
general and vocational education in particular are
guided by constructivist philosophy (DOOLITTLE /
CAMP 1999). This means that they aim at action-
oriented and ↑ self-directed learning that is focus-
ing less on contents, and more on the forms and
contexts of learning. This might also entail a new
educational ideal that no longer emphasises sys-
tematic knowledge, but rather action competence
and competence development in specific profes-
sional fields of action and the corresponding ↑ com-
munities of practice (R AUNER / BREMER 2004).
Training
Completely unlike the concept of education, “train-
ing” aims at directly imparting action strategies
and techniques to cope with concrete work situa-
tions (BUCKLEY/ CAPLE 2000; TIGHT 2002). In this
context motor aspects can be in the foreground,
but verbal, mental and ↑ cognitive skills can be
trained as well. In almost all cases the acquisition
of applied knowledge is at stake (FRIEDE / SONNTAG
1993), as is the case in trainee programmes to pre-
pare young university graduates for work in large
enterprises. The concept of training is also used in
↑ continuing education when the issue is the acqui-
sition of concrete and suitably usable social, com-
municative or technical competences. In the prac-
tice of vocational education and training this con-
cept can be found when the imparting of modular-
ised competence profiles is at stake, which have,
for instance, become important in the Australian
TVET system as “trainingpackages” (DEISSINGER
2005b). Altogether it remains unclear whether this
must be regarded as the creation of behavioural
dispositions with a certain proximity to behaviour-
ist learning theories or as complex transfer proc-
esses which apply the knowledge stock acquired
in a vocational education programme or in a study
programme.
The notion of training also captures short modu-
larised programmes, which began to be developed
in Germany some time ago as “training modules”
(Qualifizierungsbausteine). Here the issue is about
partial qualifications which were taken from ↑ vo-
cational curricula and which are imparted sepa-
Handbook of TVET Research
rately in short periods of work experience in the
company. They are part of in-company ↑ vocation-
al preparation schemes for ↑ disadvantaged young
people and can help to open access to a proper
course of vocational training or to low-skilled em-
ployment.
However, the model of apprenticeship training in
the crafts, which was strongly based on the prin-
ciple of imitatio – the sequence of demonstration
and imitation – can also be regarded as a form of
professional training. The industrial training mod-
el, the courses in training workshops and learning
in workplaces combined with appropriate forms
of instruction, also has the character of system-
atic training. In principle it can be assumed that
whenever the emphasis is on vocational and practi-
cal learning in real workplaces or simulated work
situations, some kind of training takes place as
well. The objective is, on the one hand, the devel-
opment of action routines, and on the other hand to
become acquainted with action requirements and
problem solutions in the company, which qualify
for the demands of specific workplaces and are rel-
evant in this context. This shows the closeness of
the concepts of qualification and training. In voca-
tional education and training this type of learning
has been of great importance in the craft trades as
well as in the industrial sector. The concrete forms
of this vocational training, though, have changed.
Courses were gradually replaced by project and
action related forms of learning that combine the
practical aspect of vocational training and the in-
dependent development of appropriate knowl-
edge relevant for action. Therefore it is in princi-
ple questionable whether the aspect of training re-
lates only to manual, motor and behavioural learn-
ing or whether domains of experience are opened
up at the same time that offer starting points for
vocational theoretical learning. Finally it also has
to be considered whether the action potentials ac-
quired through training and experience lead to an
elaborate perception of work situations and de-
mands and can have as a consequence increased
proficiency in professional action.
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
2.2.3 On the Genesis of the Different
Approaches “Work, Education,
Training”
Work, Socialisation and Qualification
Vocational qualification and socialisation have
their historical roots in apprenticeship training in
the craft trades. This pre-industrial form of train-
ing inseparably combined technical qualification
with social integration into professional and socio-
economic status. ↑ Learning in the workplace and
in the social structure of the craftsman’s enterprise
was the core of the apprenticeship.
Besides this model of vocational education close
to the enterprises, which was common in Germa-
ny and England (GREINERT 2005), there emerged
in ↑ France and Russia the model of the produc-
tion school, which aimed to combine economic
and technical progress with vocational qualifica-
tions through exemplary and innovative produc-
tion (MEYSER 1996). In these two models two basic
forms of production-related vocational education
appear. In various European countries in-company
apprenticeship training was supplemented by ↑ vo-
cational schools in the 19th century so that a mixed,
so-called “↑ dual system” (STRATMANN / SCHLÖSSER
1990) emerged in these countries, which continues
to exist in part to this day. In this system forms of
learning in the ↑ work process are combined with
school-based learning, especially occupational the-
ory. As a consequence of this development we have
become aware of the fact that learning can take
place at different ↑ learning venues (MÜNCH 1977).
The three relevant learning venues are the school,
the training workshop and the workplace. They are
organised very differently and can open quite dif-
ferent substantial and methodological learning op-
portunities (PÄTZOLD / WALDEN 1995; EULER 2004a;
2004b).
As a consequence of the progressive use of technol-
ogy in work the opinion was held for a long time
that the shift to school-based vocational education
was unavoidable. It was supposedly only by means
of the transfer of training sequences into training
workshops and simulated arrangements for agency
and learning that the pedagogical shelter could be
won which was deemed indispensable for learning
processes. It was only with the concepts of “↑ de-
117
centralised learning” (DEHNBOSTEL / PETERS 1991)
and the didactics of action-oriented learning that a
reversal of the trend was initiated in the 1990s, and
this counteracted the scholastic drift in vocational
education and training. Now learning venues near
the workplace are in the foreground once again.
However, it must be in principle assumed that
qualified vocational learning is possible in schools
as well as in the workplace. Schools can supple-
ment their instruction with facilities for the simu-
lation of practical demands (training workshops,
training offices etc.) and internships. Company-
based, workplace related ↑ training places are ex-
tended with systematic qualification opportunities
via exercise rooms, training workshops and cours-
es. Despite many ideological controversies it can
safely be assumed that different configurations of
learning venues are equally appropriate for voca-
tional qualification. An important difference, how-
ever, is the financing of these opportunities for vo-
cational education. Schools are almost exclusively
financed by the state; ↑ in-company training places
are financed by the private sector. At the bottom of
the question as to which combination of learning
venues is the best for vocational education there is
often the problem of responsibility and financing.
Education
Practical vocational learning processes and expe-
rience in the world of work as they are provided in
businesses are hardly put under the label of “edu-
cation”. They serve the purpose of qualification or
competence development in the same way training
does. Traditionally the notion of education is more
associated with scholastic learning. However, this
is the result of a cultural-historically engendered
misconception of the socialising effects and the
development-supportive potentials of work.
Because of the interest arising repeatedly in more
practice-oriented school curricula, vocational
topics were incorporated (K LIEBARD 1999; DEW-
EY 1916a). In the 19th century secondary schools
specialising in natural sciences and modern lan-
guages developed beside the classical grammar
schools. By means of the establishment of tech-
nical colleges an improvement in vocational edu-
cation and training with a view to business devel-
opment was promoted in many places. Systemat-
118 Handbook of TVET Research

ic, school-based vocational or work related learn- ticular with regard to the training oriented concept
ing processes offer the opportunity to develop a of qualification.
workforce that is capable of fostering technolog-
ical or economic innovations. This idea affected Training
the ↑ school system as a whole. Low-level schools
Training is a modern concept that became impor-
always referred to the lifeworld of their students
tant with the emergence of modern industry and
and taught subjects that had the character of ↑ vo-
the corresponding demand for well-adapted, capa-
cational preparation. The grammar schools spe-
ble and socially integrated workers between 1880
cialising in natural sciences, modern languages or
and 1920. Besides the traditional apprenticeship
business studies were also established because of
training new forms of qualification had to be es-
the demand from society for a practical and voca-
tablished. In part qualification methods from the
tionally oriented educational canon. Among tech-
craft trades were adopted by the industrial sector,
nical colleges and universities of technology the
and in part the preparation for the world of work
French Ecole polytechnique must be particularly
also became a particular task for the school (ZIL-
emphasised as a forerunner. It had high education-
VERSMIT 2004). In both cases the focus was ini-
al standards and aimed at the transfer of sophis-
tially on the manual training of workplace relat-
ticated, scientific knowledge with the objective of
ed skills. Where this type of training was regard-
improving production. This model triggered the
ed as too narrow, new forms of vocational educa-
development of many similar technical colleges
tion emerged (SMITH 1999). The American discus-
that were oriented towards the theoretical foun-
sion was dominated by the opponents Prosser and
dation of practical work as well as the transfer of
Dewey. Prosser advocated a training oriented, so-
fundamental scientific knowledge. But this also re-
cially efficient and integrative preparation of the
veals a crucial, fundamental problem of vocational
working class youth in school. Dewey, on the con-
education and training. Are the occupation relat-
trary, developed a critical concept of work pedago-
ed contents to be imparted elementary and applied
gy, which aimed at personality development, prob-
parts of scientific knowledge, or is this a question
lem solving capacity, self-direction and participa-
of inductive knowledge building that systematis-
tion in the democratic society (K LIEBARD 1999;
es experiential learning from production, work and
ROJEWSKI 2002). According to this model the prep-
business processes and transfers these experienc-
aration for the world of work is part of a general
es in a school-based form? This contradiction has
education concept. German theorists of vocation-
not been definitively clarified to this day (GRÜNER
al education like Kerschensteiner also referred to
1978; RAUNER / BREMER 2004). It entails a conse-
this concept.
quence for school theory: It remains a disputed
issue whether vocational education is a develop-
2.2.4 Research Questions and Methods of
ment-oriented career trajectory beside university
Relevant Research Approaches
education or a “cooling-out” of educational inter-
ests. The latter could be the case especially when Work, education and training as points of refer-
vocational qualification opportunities are partic- ence indicate different approaches to the field of
ularly oriented towards socially ↑ disadvantaged vocational education and training, although they
persons and immigrants and aim at rapid integra- overlap in actual practice. In TVET research there
tion into employment. They neglect the individual are also fundamental ↑ research questions that are
claim to optimal support for all development po- overarching. In this context especially qualifica-
tentials and lead to early selection processes (LEW- tion, occupation and ↑ labour market research have
IS 2000). Aspects of a critical vocational education to be emphasised. Vocational qualification always
or work pedagogy and the consideration of the po- takes place in specific qualification bundles, which
litical, social and company-related ↑ participation are often put together in the tradition of occupa-
interests of employees are eclipsed, too. This dis- tions or ↑ occupational fields so that they follow the
cussion has been taking place in the ↑ USA in par- concept of occupations (DEISSINGER 1998). The
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
fact that the occupational structure changes per-
manently is an unavoidable consequence of eco-
nomic and technological change. Therefore it is
important for ↑ TVET planning to be able to es-
timate future developments. Prognoses of the fu-
ture development of qualifications and occupations
have always been attempted in the context of occu-
pation research. Their predictive value, however,
is limited because the framework conditions, the
economic and technological developmental trends,
can hardly be reliably estimated – and because
there are design options in technology and work
organisation whose forms are unpredictable (RAU-
NER 1988c). General developmental trends like the
emergence of a “service society” can be forecast
quite well, but they can hardly be transformed in-
to prognoses of the demand for qualifications. A
new approach is featured by the ↑ sector analyses,
which search for fundamental ↑ work tasks across
the ↑ occupational profiles of a “sector” in order
to have these tasks investigated by research in the
↑ vocational disciplines. Despite the prognostic def-
icits in occupation and ↑ qualification research, the
future-compliance of vocational qualification and
the development of the demand for qualifications
are fundamental questions for ↑ TVET planning.
With regard to TVET practice, this open reference
to the future is multidimensional. On the one hand
the issue is about qualifications that meet the cur-
rent needs. On the other hand vocational qualifica-
tion has to be organised in such a way as to ensure
transferability with regard to new demands. From
the employees’ point of view vocational qualifi-
cation has to open up opportunities for ↑ mobili-
ty, and it has to be connective in order to facilitate
a change of occupation if necessary. One possible
way to put this into practice is the organisation of
vocational education and training. On the basis of
comprehensive basic training a change of occupa-
tion is easier than on the basis of narrow and one-
sided specialisation. Research on basic vocation-
al training in this regard finds itself in various ar-
eas of tension. A ↑ central question is what actual-
ly can be regarded as fundamental for different oc-
cupations. Is this a question of various elementary
practical activities and skills, or an issue of fun-
damental professional knowledge that facilitates
transitions? Recently there has been a tendency to-
119
wards a complex model of professional, social and
personal competences. This presupposes compe-
tence-oriented forms of learning, which have to be
realised particularly through project-oriented and
self-organised learning.
Research Approaches to Occupational Work
Whenever work and ↑ work processes are in the fo-
cus of TVET research, a reciprocal relationship is
at stake. On the one hand there is the question how
people can be adequately qualified for work and
particular jobs. On the other hand work itself has a
potential for qualification and ↑ further education,
provided that it is organised in a learning-support-
ive way. By analogy to the concept of develop-
mental tasks (HAVIGHURST 1972) this depends on
providing forms of work organisation that shape
the room for manoeuvre, the complexity of prob-
lems, the autonomy in work planning, communi-
cation and cooperation, but also the offers of as-
sistance in such a way as to generate sophisticat-
ed and manifold demands that nevertheless can
be managed from a subjective point of view. This
leads to a multitude of ↑ research questions that
can be answered only by means of ↑ interdiscipli-
nary approaches. The analysis of work processes
is a task for labour studies, the transformation of
work process events into knowledge structures is
a task for research in the vocational disciplines;
and knowledge building through ↑ self-directed
learning processes in the context of the mastering
of work tasks is a process that has to be analysed
and interpreted by the psychology of learning and
agency. In this context it is often presupposed that
the work process or business process itself can be
shaped, but that in this shaped form it nevertheless
determines the workflow. A more accurate mod-
el views the work process as an intersection of ob-
jectifiable demands and subjective competences.
In this regard two dimensions should be distin-
guished. The external dimension of the work proc-
ess shows the latter’s course and visible results.
The internal dimension is precisely that basis of
explicit knowledge and implicit familiarity with
the situation (PAHL / RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2000; NEUWEG
1999) which comes into effect on the part of the
working person. It is characterised by the security
of the available operational potentials and action
120
routines (LEONTJEW 1982), but also by the ability to
surmount these routines and to adapt them to new
situations (VOLPERT 2003). This is the point from
which competence research starts, which attempts
to make these action potentials accessible (VONK-
EN 2005). This objective is in some sense based
on older work from research about professional so-
cialisation and professional biographies (LEMPERT
1998; HOFF / LAPPE / LEMPERT 1985). In these stud-
ies the socialising factors of work as a social phe-
nomenon were analysed very thoroughly and the
conditions for personal development and biograph-
ical stability were identified. It becomes more and
more obvious that the societal conditioning factors
of ↑ internationalisation and ↑ globalisation also in-
fluence the working conditions to a considerable
extent.
Research Approaches to the Context of Voca-
tional Education
To conceptualise vocational qualification as a mis-
sion of education is of particular interest to ↑ voca-
tional schools (PAHL 2004). In this context the edu-
cational standard extends far beyond qualification
for work demands since it aims at a comprehensive
competence development on the ↑ domain-specif-
ic, social and personal level. Two basic concepts of
school-based learning have to be distinguished: in-
ductive learning based on everyday experience and
work experience, and ↑ systematic learning based
on scientific knowledge. Science-oriented learning
looks for reference disciplines for occupations or
↑ occupational fields. The basic knowledge struc-
tures of these disciplines are adapted to the con-
ceptual horizon of the students by means of didac-
tic reduction (HERING 1959; AHLBORN / PAHL 1998;
GRÜNER 1978; SCHÖN 1983). An intermediate po-
sition is assumed by didactic strategies which are
oriented towards independent problem solving and
↑ self-directed learning (BECK / HEID 1996; BECK /
K RUMM 2001) and which aim at the overcoming of
↑ inert knowledge in favour of application-oriented
information. With this orientation vocational ped-
agogical teaching and learning research gained
considerably in importance (ACHTENHAGEN 1995).
Instruction designs and complex teaching-learn-
ing arrangements are intended to promote the gen-
eration of relevant knowledge. Constructivist ap-
Handbook of TVET Research
proaches in the psychology of learning (DOOLITTLE /
CAMP 1999; GERSTENMAIER / MANDL 1995) like “An-
chored Instruction”, “Cognitive Flexibility” and
“Cognitive Apprenticeship” stimulated this devel-
opment. In the agency field of ↑ vocational peda-
gogy, work and business processes have become
a ↑ new didactic point of reference, and they shape
the practice of teaching based on learning fields.
Pieces of information that are separated from each
other according to the systematics of science are
no longer in the centre, but application-oriented
knowledge that is directed towards actual situa-
tions. The challenge is to correlate the structures
of agency and knowledge. It is one of the central
and open ↑ research questions in the ↑ didactics of
vocational learning how these two structures can
be related to each other in such a way as to engen-
der good learning processes (FISCHER 2000).
Research and Training
Vocational training aims at concrete qualification
and is therefore on the horizons of ↑ qualification
research. The primary question is, How can differ-
ent qualifications be integrated into a meaningful
whole? Traditionally this purpose was served by
the occupational form of training. Modern quali-
fication concepts that leave out the notion of oc-
cupation have to find a new answer to this ques-
tion. As a consequence sector research again be-
comes important. The second eminent question is
the problem of qualification transfer. To what ex-
tent are qualifications that were acquired in ↑ spe-
cific training situations transferable to other ac-
tual situations? This question, however, can also
be inverted: To what extent are systematic train-
ing measures required in order to transfer ac-
quired knowledge to situations of agency or de-
mand? The scarcely discussed, but widely used ex-
amination training is a good example of this prob-
lem. In general there is the question how qualifi-
cation and training concepts for practical compe-
tences relate to the knowledge that is the precon-
dition for this kind of transfer. In transfer research
there is no doubt that knowledge acquired in com-
plex situations through action-oriented methods is
clearly better transferable than ↑ inert knowledge
that was acquired in receptive learning process-
es. It is not least ↑ metacognitive knowledge that
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
is important in this context, as it reflects on the
contexts of learning and knowledge building and
makes people aware of them. This shows that not
only the logical knowledge building process, but
also its structure in situations of utilisation can fa-
cilitate the learning and transfer process. If inter-
preted this way, the concept of vocational training
is clearly not connected to the idea of mechanical
and manual training and points in the direction of
qualified knowledge acquisition.
2.2.5 Problems and Development
Perspectives/Syntheses
In principle it can be observed that learning in the
↑ work process almost always combines elements
of training and competence acquisition with ed-
ucational demands. Intellectually undemand-
ing training that is exclusively oriented towards
strategies of behaviour or motion does not go far
enough. Instead the issue is how to become famil-
iar with professional demands as a basis of compe-
tence acquisition. Competences also include ↑ do-
main-specific knowledge that aims, following the
traditional concept of education, at integrating the
ability to shape the environment and the ability
to realise one’s self. They can be acquired close
to work processes or through systematic instruc-
tion or teaching. In the area of learning-supportive
work organisation, theoretical reflection and teach-
ing oriented towards professional practice lies the
point of intersection where the work-, education-
and training-related approaches of TVET research
find their synthesis.
2.3 Occupations and Occupational
Areas
A. Willi Petersen
2.3.1 Introduction
Occupations and their classification or systemati-
sations into ↑ occupational areas as domains of re-
search and development are subjects of ↑ occupa-
tional research. Occupational research shows that
the social context and research focus are important
121
for an understanding of occupations and their clas-
sification. E. g. in the context of questions about
the ↑ labour market, the evolution, progression and
↑ statistics of occupations and the concrete occupa-
tion profiles and jobs or the requirements and skill
needs of occupations are significant (→ 3.1.1).
However, vocational education research deals with
occupations as well, but predominantly under ‘vo-
cational’ aspects of requirements and qualifica-
tions within the occupational areas and with re-
gard to the development of curricula and vocation-
al education and training profiles and programmes.
↑ Research questions about classifications or sys-
tematisations of ↑ vocational training areas or dis-
ciplines and vocational education profiles are also
relevant. Therefore both occupational research and
vocational education research are engaged in the
phenomenon ‘occupation’ and questions of classi-
fication or systematisation of it. Nevertheless, con-
cerning the aims and research focus and the results
too there are beside overlaps also definite differ-
entiations.
Depending upon an objective ↑ research approach,
occupational areas and vocational training areas
are partly defined by very different national and
international characteristics. Moreover, terms like
area, field, group, class or domain and discipline
are often used synonymously in the context of oc-
cupation and ↑ vocation. In Germany, for exam-
ple, on the one hand there are over 30,000 titles
of known occupations (cf. STBA 1992, 3). On the
other hand, there are around 350 vocational train-
ing categories of regulated occupation profiles ac-
cording to the German ↑ Vocational Training Act
(BBiG), and an indefinite number of other voca-
tional training, ↑ further education and higher edu-
cation profiles or training and study programmes.
How and according to which criteria these occupa-
tions and vocational training profiles are classified
and systematized in areas or fields depends cru-
cially on the aims and purpose and the perspective
of research respectively. Classifications of occu-
pations and classifications of vocational education
and training profiles are therefore mostly different
because the results are based on different aims and
research approaches.
In the context of international questions, e. g. of
comparison, transparency or recognition of occu-
122
pation and vocational training profiles, it is of im-
portance that the relation and differences between
the occupation system and vocational education
and training system be taken into account. Interna-
tionally, a systematisation and comparison of oc-
cupations for instance is usually simpler, while this
is rather difficult and strongly dependent on the re-
spective vocational education and training systems
for the vocational training profiles. These show in
addition and more or less with the same problems
also the big debates about a European Skills and/
or Qualifications Framework.
Starting from some international results, this arti-
cle tries at first to find general objectives and ap-
proaches for classifications or combined systema-
tisations of occupations and vocational training in-
to groups or fields. Finally, the article shows re-
sults especially about the development of the occu-
pational and vocational training classifications in
Germany and which approaches to the classifica-
tions should be used.
2.3.2 Occupations and the International
Classification of Occupational Groups
Not just through the increased ↑ globalisation of the
↑ labour market in the last few years, occupations
and their classification and aggregation in areas,
groups or fields have been an international domain
of research and development. The “↑ Internation-
al Labour Organisation” (ILO) deals since around
1923 with such an “International Standard ↑ Clas-
sification of Occupations” (ISCO). One main goal
is to improve qualitatively international occupa-
tional and labour market research in their results,
reliability and statistical comparability (cf. HOFF-
MANN 1999). Based on international ↑ research co-
operation and broad acceptance the ISCO is also a
guideline and orientation for many national Clas-
sifications of Occupations.
The so-called ISCO-88, last updated in 1988a by
the ILO, is valid even today. This ISCO exhibits
a structure of ↑ occupational groups defined upon
four levels of aggregation. Beside the two compo-
nents “dictionary of occupation” and “value set for
the variable ‘occupation’”, two “dimensions” are
applied as criteria for the classification of occupa-
tions:
Handbook of TVET Research
“Two dimensions of the skill concept are used in the def-
inition of ISCO-88 groups: Skill level, which is a func-
tion of the range and complexity of the tasks involved,
where the complexity of tasks has priority over the
range; and skill specialisation, which reflects type of
knowledge applied, tools and equipment used, materi-
als worked on, or with, and the nature of the goods and
services produced” (ibid., 6).
For the “skill” definition it is important that in-
ternationally, and comparably in Germany too,
“skills” be understood as the ↑ occupational skills
that are required to carry out the tasks and duties
of the job, independent of the way these skills are
acquired or the formal qualifications achieved by
vocational training (cf. IAB 2000, 6). Occupations
therefore can be classified by the two “skill” crite-
ria whether or not a vocational training exists for
this occupation. Nevertheless, because the occu-
pational skills in many cases directly correspond
to the qualifications acquired in vocational edu-
cation and training or study programmes, there is
often a relation between the “skills” and “educa-
tion respective by qualifications” (Fig. 1). Insofar
as it is a relevant research aspect, it should be not-
ed that within the ISCO-approach the four respec-
tive five work-referred ↑ skill levels are defined in
direct correspondence with the international levels
of education, in which levels of vocational train-
ing and higher education are included: “The In-
ternational Standard ↑ Classification of Education
(ISCED) was used to define the ISCO-88 skill lev-
els” (HOFFMANN 1999, 6).
Fig. 1: Interdependence of skill and education level
At the same time and based on this approach of
levels there is a relation between the occupation
and education system defined and, as is pointed out
later, there should also be a coherence between oc-
cupational and vocational education research.
In the result, the ISCO-88 occupational classifica-
tion shows the following structure and number of
occupational groups upon four levels of aggrega-
tion (cf. ILO 1990):
– 10 Major groups,
– 28 Sub major groups,
– 116 Minor groups,
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
– 390 Unit groups.
The application of the classification criteria be-
comes clear from the first 10 main groups and
from the remainder of the occupational groups too
(cf. ibid.; HOFFMANN 1999, 7):
Tab. 1: ISCO-88 Major groups and skill level
These 10 Major and further ↑ occupational groups
show that the criteria “↑ skill level” and “skill spe-
cialisation” are mixed in the systematisation. The
skill level has, however, certain dominance as a
criterion.
For the occupational classification, very different
solutions are possible due to the high number of
occupational characteristics. Aspects of the qual-
ity and further development of ISCO-88 are there-
fore discussed also mainly in the context of inter-
national application and assignment. The research
itself often points to the difficulties and problems
of the development and updating of an occupation-
al classification accepted worldwide. These are
quite banal. “The limited resources devoted to IS-
CO-related work. About one work-year per year,
divided between two persons, is been allocated to
this work in the ↑ ILO” (HOFFMANN 1999, 16). In
addition, a methodological problem concerning
the use of the knowledge and results provided by
the countries is:
“Where do we find relevant information, given that few
national custodians have established systematic pro-
cedures for updating their NSCOs, and that those who
have do not necessarily inform ILO about their activ-
ities and findings? What are the criteria by which we
can judge whether a reported development is (sufficient-
ly) significant and widespread to be reflected in ISCO-
88?” (ibid.).
123
Nevertheless, even in the build-up of networks
with national experts problems arise:
“Available experience seems to indicate, however, that
many such specialists find it very difficult to evaluate
proposals which do not correspond closely to their na-
tional experience and procedures” (HOFFMANN 2001).
Despite this, the ISCO-88 is based in general on
the gathering and interpretation of national results
and research work and can only be developed fur-
ther in their interaction. Considering that there are
over 230 countries worldwide it is clear that on the
one hand some national results determine the IS-
CO-88 more strongly than others do. On the other
hand, for many and often less developed countries
without ↑ occupational research the ISCO-88 is the
only base for developing their own ↑ classification
of occupations.
Despite some problems, the international accept-
ance of the ISCO-88 shows up also in their open-
ness and support of region-specific adaptations.
Based on ISCO-88, diverse variations have been
developed: in 1992 the ISCO-88 (OCWM) for the
“ILO/UNDP Asian Regional Programme on Inter-
national Labour Migration”; in 1993 the ISCO-88
(COM) for the European Union; and in 1995 the
ISCO-88 (CIS) for the “Commonwealth of Inde-
pendent States” (cf. ILO/UNDP 1992; ELIAS / BIRCH
1994; HOFFMANN 1997; LAURIE 1998). Furthermore
and in the sense of coordination, consultation and
support services the ILO works and deals in many
countries more and more directly e. g.:
“National and regional training seminars were organ-
ized for China, Costa Rica, Kyrgyzstan and Thailand as
well as for CIS member states, South East Asian coun-
tries and South Pacific countries” (HOFFMANN 1999, 4).
Therefore the classification of occupations accord-
ing to ISCO-88 can be expected to become in-
creasingly relevant wordwide.
2.3.3 Occupational Groups and Fields by
International Comparison
A comparison of the classifications of occupa-
tions is a complex ↑ research field, such as the sur-
vey “Occupational Classification: concepts, meth-
ods, reliability, validity and cross-national compa-
rability” (ELIAS 1997) points out. This cross-na-
tional comparison also includes world regions like
the countries of the former Soviet Union, ↑ Aus-
124
tralia or ↑ China. With reference to ISCO-88, one
main problem of the comparison is that in the var-
ious languages there is an ambiguity in both the
interpretation and usage of the words occupation
and skills. The comparison therefore has focused
more on the respective progress of the national ac-
ceptance or the direct national adoption of the IS-
CO 88:
“Interestingly, China is now considering plans to intro-
duce a version of ISCO-88 as its national classification”
(ELIAS 1997, 19).
The ↑ classification of occupations in the Europe-
an Union is also based on direct comparison to the
ISCO-88. In the so-called ISCO-88 (COM) ver-
sion the preparations and developments includes
“the culmination of a series of lengthy and de-
tailed investigations in the twelve countries of the
EU, combining the knowledge of experts in occu-
pational classification in each country with practi-
cal considerations for coding occupational infor-
mation” (ELIAS / BIRCH 1994, 1). However, ISCO 88
and ISCO-88 (COM) show in principle the same
basic structure within the ↑ occupational groups.
Only a few of the occupational groups have been
modified for the European Union.
Some of the countries within the European Un-
ion have adopted ISCO 88 (COM) as their nation-
al classification, with slight variations. Other coun-
tries have developed a revised national occupation-
al classification; and countries like ↑ France and
Germany have national occupational classifica-
tions that do not link directly with either ISCO 88
(COM) or ISCO-88. The reasons for all the specif-
ic national occupational classifications are mostly
very different and lead especially to the problem
that the occupational groups and fields in the coun-
tries and international by are not comparable.
Direct comparison of the occupational groups and
fields with reference to ISCO-88 is therefore of
special interest. Because of the multiplicity of clas-
sifications and countries, the comparison focused
on here only concerns the very different approach-
es of the two examples ↑ USA and Germany.
The “Standard Occupational Classification
(SOC) System” of the USA
In 1998, a new Standard Occupational Classifica-
tion (SOC) System was developed in the USA. The
Handbook of TVET Research
SOC has the following occupational groups and is
compared with ISCO-88 (Tab. 2; cf. SOC 1998):
Tab. 2: Structure of the occupation groups of ISCO-88
and SOC USA
Reasons for the SOC approach are among others:
“The key classification principle chosen for the new
SOC was to continue the previous focus on work per-
formed (with “skills-based considerations”). ... The In-
ternational Standard Classification of Occupations was
not used because it was not flexible enough for U.S.
needs” (HERMAN /ABRAHAM 1999, 2).
Compared with the ISCO-88 there are within the
SOC not only other criteria for the creation of the
levels of aggregation. The structure of the new and
first 23 SOC Major groups is based predominant-
ly only on the criteria “skill specialisation”. Like
for the systematisation of the 10 Major groups of
ISCO-88, there is no mixed usage of the criteria
“↑ skill level” and “skill specialisation” in the oc-
cupational groups. For example, the SOC Major
group “Transportation and Material Moving Oc-
cupations” therefore include occupations at dif-
ferent skill levels like Airline Pilots, Co Pilots
and Flight Engineers as well as Truck Drivers or
Pumping Station Operators.
The classification of occupations in Germany
In Germany, two official classifications of occu-
pations have been used to date. First, the “Klassi-
fizierung der Berufe – Systematisches und alpha-
betisches Verzeichnis der Berufsbenennungen –
Ausgabe 1992“ published by the Federal Statistical
Office (StBA Statistisches Bundesamt) and second
the “Gliederung nach Berufsklassen für die Statis-
tik der Bundesanstalt für Arbeit – Stand: Septem-
ber 1988“ have been published by the Federal Em-
ployment Agency (BA BUNDESAGENTUR FÜR AR-
BEIT, 1988). Concerning the levels of aggregation
of the classifications the structure and number of
the ↑ occupational areas, segments, fields, groups,
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
regulations and classes, the difference in the two
official classifications is shown in the following
Tab. 3.
Tab. 3: Structure of the German StBA and BA ↑ classi-
fication of occupations
By comparison to the Major groups of the ISCO-
88 the “Berufsbereiche” of these classifications on
the first level of aggregation is based also on a mix-
ture of skill and occupational criteria. Neverthe-
less, the results are different as a comparison of the
10 Major groups of ISCO-88 with the concrete six
“Berufsbereiche” of the StBA classification for in-
stance points out:
The German approach of the 1992 revised version
of the StBA classification represents a further de-
velopment of the 1975 version. Although the new
approach of the ISCO-88 was well known, ISCO
did not have influence on the StBA classification
(cf. STBA 1992, 9). This applies also to the BA
classification of 1988, which beside some chang-
es in recent years is mainly based on the old StBA
classification of 1975.
The purpose of the BA classification within the
Federal Employment Agency classification is more
or less “only” for persons employed in jobs cov-
ered by social security. By contrast the StBA clas-
sification includes these persons as well as all oth-
er employed persons such as self-employed and
family members working in business, civil serv-
ants and service officials and clerical employees.
The up-to-date StBA and BA classifications there-
fore have, beside the differences, also many clas-
125
sification criteria in common particularly with the
“Berufsgruppen” and “Berufsordnungen” on the
third and fourth level of aggregation. In addition,
the difference between the classification of “Beruf-
sabschnitte” and “Berufsfelder” on the second lev-
el of aggregation is rather slight. On the one hand,
the “Berufsabschnitte” of the StBA classification
are defined as follows:
„Sie umfassen jeweils solche Berufe, die sich im Wesen
der Berufsaufgabe, in der Berufstätigkeit, in der Art des
verarbeiteten Materials oder anderer Hinsicht ähneln“
(STBA 1992, 13). (They include such occupations that
are similar to each other in the nature of the tasks, in
the activities, in the type of material worked upon, or in
other respects.)
On the other hand, the “Berufsfelder” of the BA
classification are nearly defined accordingly:
„Diese umfassen Berufe (i. d. R. Berufsgruppen), die
Gemeinsamkeiten aufweisen im Hinblick auf die Arbe-
itsaufgabe bzw. die Tätigkeit, die Art des verwendeten
Materials, das Berufsmilieu oder die allgemeine Arbeit-
sanforderung“ (IAB 2000, 8). (These includes occupa-
tions (usually groups of occupations) that have commo-
nalities with regard to job tasks or activities, the type of
material used, the professional environment or the gen-
eral work requirements.)
These definitions contain classification criteria,
which are mainly comparable to the “skill special-
isation” criterion of the ISCO-88. As, for instance,
the following concrete 20 ↑ occupational fields re-
veal, however, the criteria “skill specialisation”
and “↑ skill level” here used are mixed as within
the ISCO-88:
Concerning the mixed criterion usage, for example,
all electricity occupations like electrical installers
or electronics mechanics belong to the ↑ occupa-
tional field 8 “Elektroberufe”. The electrical engi-
neer, which is also an electricity occupation, how-
ever, belongs to the occupational field 12 “Tech-
nisch-naturwissenschaftliche Berufe”. The reason
behind this classification is therefore not only the
specialisation, but also the different ↑ skill level
compared to the classification of ISCO-88. Nev-
ertheless, the classification and usage of the crite-
rion is not overall homogenous because e. g. the
occupational field 1 “Agrarberufe, grüne Berufe”
includes agricultural occupations at all skill level
like agronomists as well as agricultural workers.
126 Handbook of TVET Research

In sum, a comparison of the occupation classifi- defined six “education levels” for the classification
cations shows on the one hand that the classifica- of education, which comprise vocational training
tions exhibit internationally a relatively uniform
and also higher education. The education levels 3
structure and number of ↑ occupational groups or
fields. This is no surprise, because in spite of all to 6 correspond to the skill levels of occupations in
the differences the national and increasing by glo- the ISCO-88. On the other hand, the education and
bal ↑ labour markets are from many occupation- therefore also the vocational training were clas-
al aspects comparable. Thus, the number of occu-
pational groups or fields worldwide is mostly, on sified at two levels of aggregation in the sense of
the second level of aggregation, approximately 20 “specialisation” into 10 groups and 26 fields:
to 35. On the other hand, the content wise struc- – 10 broad groups,
ture and classification of the occupational groups
– 26 fields of education (cf. UNESCO 1997a,
or fields show large differences. The differences
have their origin in particular in the different and 35 ff.).
mixed applications of the criteria “skill level” and The first 10 broad groups of education have the fol-
“skill specialisation”. Especially the very different lowing content structure:
application of the criterion “skill level” leads inter-
national by to a different structure and number of
occupational groups or fields. Moreover, there are
other significant problems, such as the internation-
al comparison of the ↑ statistics and development
of occupations and occupational groups (cf. e. g.
IAB 2000, 7).

2.3.4 International Fields of Education and

Vocational Training in the Context of
Occupational Fields
Up to now, the classification and systematisation of
occupations and occupational groups or fields have
taken centre stage. Here the jobs and ↑ occupation-
al skills have been classified independently of the
way these skills are acquired or the formal qual-
ifications achieved by vocational training. It was
noticed nevertheless, that the occupational skills
in many cases correspond to the qualifications
acquired in vocational education and training or
study programmes. It is also of interest, therefore,
to enquire how education and training are classi-
fied and what relationships between the classifica-
tions exist or should exist.
International Fields or Groups of Education
For the occupational classification in the ISCO-88
mainly the criteria “skill level” and “skill special-
isation” were used. The “International Standard
↑ Classification of Education” (ISCED) used com-
parable criteria. On the one hand, the ISCED-97
In comparison and contrast to the 10 ↑ occupation-
al groups of ISCO-88, these educational groups
are not classified by the criteria “education level”.
Here only the criteria “specialisation” or “subject”
(“discipline”) are used. For instance, the educa-
tional group 6 “Agriculture” contains the accord-
ing education, vocational training, and higher ed-
ucation at all levels accordingly. The comparable
occupational group “Skilled agricultural and fish-
ery worker” of ISCO contains only agricultural oc-
cupations at ↑ skill level 2.
Comparison of the ISCO-88 and ISCED-97 there-
fore reveals, that the classifications are not in prin-
ciple coordinated internationally. Only a corre-
spondence between the skills and education levels
exist and show the interdependence of the occupa-
tion and education and training systems.
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
Fig. 2: Interdependence of the classifications of the
occupation and education and training sys-
tems
Because of the interdependence of the occupation
and education and training systems a goal must be
to improve the classifications in the sense of giv-
ing them more transparency and international by
coordinated frameworks. This presupposes inter-
nationally aligned and coordinated occupation and
education and ↑ training research, which, however,
does not actually exist.
European Fields of Education and Training
For Europe a new classification of “Fields of Train-
ing” under the joint guidance of Eurostat, the Sta-
tistical Office of the European Communities, and
↑ CEDEFOP, the European Centre for the Devel-
opment of Vocational Training, were developed
and published in 1999. This new “Classification of
Fields of Vocational Education and Training”, the
term “Manual of Fields of Training” being used for
short, has a strong link to ISCED-97; and the clas-
sification used the same approach only with the
criteria “specialisation” or “subject” (“discipline”)
(cf. ANDERSSON / OLSSON 1999, 6). Thus, the Euro-
pean Manual can be described as a sub-classifica-
tion of the ISCED groups and fields of education.
During the development process there was much
discussion about the approach to this European
classification. Two main approaches to the clas-
sification of training programmes into fields were
considered: by using the occupation and level ori-
ented criteria of ISCO-88 or by using the sub-
ject and content oriented criteria of ISCED-97.
Some European States recommended a classifica-
tion based on ISCO-88. But “most Member States
wanted a system linked to ISCED, and therefore
the subject content approach was chosen” (ibid., 8).
At the same time, however, the chance was tak-
en to improve the coordination of the occupation
and training classification system. This was for in-
127
stance a goal beginning in the 1980s when a first
European attempt to classify fields of training was
already undertaken (cf. BENNER, H. 1982). The
development of training fields with a link to the
old SEDOC register, used as the former Europe-
an frame of reference for occupational and voca-
tional classifications did not succeed, however, as a
recommendation and task of well coordinated oc-
cupation and education and training research (cf.
ANDERSSON / OLSSON 1996).
The up-to-date European “Manual of Fields of
Training” as a sub-classification of ISCED direct-
ly used in a simple way at the first and second level
of aggregation the 10 broad groups and 26 fields of
education as shown in the ISCED-97 (see above).
At the third level of aggregation, the European
Manual classified the 26 fields of education fur-
ther into
– 65 fields of training (cf. ANDERSSON / OLSSON 1999,
10 ff.).
The following excerpt shows that these fields of
training were based on the subject content ap-
proach only:
Fig. 3: European Fields of Training (excerpt)
Like the groups and fields of education these Euro-
pean fields of training comprise also education and
training at all levels. The fields of training there-
fore are partly very broad, as for example the de-
scription of the training field 525 “Motor vehicles,
ships and aircraft” indicate. This field includes
“the study of designing, developing, producing, main-
taining, diagnosing faults in, repairing, and servicing
motor vehicles […]” (ibid., 8).
128
Vocational Training Fields in Germany
Compared to the European fields of training, in
Germany there is no comprehensive classification
of training fields. Like the ↑ classification of occu-
pations in Germany there is also no link to the in-
ternational ↑ classification of education into groups
or fields.
Vocational education and training and their classi-
fication or systematisation into fields or groups in
Germany exist in two ways and are partly related
to the different level and groups of education and
training.
The first and simplest way to classify vocational
education and training at all levels is the direct ap-
plication of the German StBA and BA classifica-
tion of occupations (see Tab. 3). This means that
the whole spectrum of vocational education and
training profiles or programmes are classified in
the same way and structure as all occupations (cf.
BA 2006). Within the German StBA and BA struc-
ture, for example, there are 33 “Berufsabschnitte”
or 20 “Berufsfelder” and 88 respective 83 “Beruf-
sgruppen”, which are used both for the classifica-
tion of occupations and the education and train-
ing profiles or programmes. Compared to the Eu-
ropean classification there are 26 fields of educa-
tion and 65 fields of training and only some of the
German fields or groups are more or less identical
as the classification approaches are very different.
Since the whole spectrum of vocational education
and training can be classified in Germany along the
lines of the occupations, the classification is espe-
cially used also for around 350 vocational training
profiles as regulated occupation profiles according
to the German ↑ Vocational Training Act (BBiG
1969/2003). Beside all other vocational training
and further training profiles or study programmes
these 350 vocational training profiles are in par-
ticular classified into 69 of the 88 German occu-
pation groups (cf. BIBB 2004). This means at the
same time that not all vocational training profiles
exist for all occupation groups. Examples of the 69
occupation groups into which vocational training
profiles are classified are (cf. BIBB 2004):
01 Landwirte (Farmers)
02 Tierzüchter, Fischereiberufe (Animal breeders,
fishing occupations)
Handbook of TVET Research
…
14 Chemiearbeiter (Chemical workers)
…
28 Mechaniker (Mechanics)
…
31 Elektriker (Electricians)
…
The second German way to classify vocational ed-
ucation and training into fields or groups is based
more on a didactical approach and has a strong
link to the ↑ vocational schools within the ↑ dual
system of German vocational training. The du-
al system, which is described as dual as the train-
ing is carried out both at workplaces or on the job
and in vocational schools, is therefore one reason
for this specific way of classification. However, the
second classification way is used only for around
350 vocational training profiles as regulated occu-
pation profiles.
The background and goal for the specific classi-
fication or systematisation of vocational training
profiles into vocational fields is an official regu-
lation of training recognition of a one-year course
of basic vocational training, the so-called “Beruf-
sgrundbildungsjahr-Anrechnungs-Verordnung”
(cf. BGJAVO 1972). The basic vocational train-
ing year, either in the form of full-time schooling
or based on a cooperative arrangement between a
company and the school, provides basic vocational
knowledge’s and skills required for every ↑ train-
ing ↑ vocation in one particular ↑ vocational train-
ing field. The specific systematisation of these vo-
cational fields as a precondition of the regulation
of training recognition therefore needs related di-
dactical and curriculum oriented criteria, which
are more or less similar to those in the subject-
content approach. As a result, and within the up-
to-date regulation and recognition act of 2003 (cf.
BGJAVO 2003), the following 14 vocational train-
ing fields are defined:
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
This structure and number of vocational fields is
defined for vocational training profiles only for
which a common basic training is present. The
classification of these 14 vocational training fields
is thus limited also of only about the half of all vo-
cational training profiles. For the ↑ ICT vocation-
al training profiles, for instance there is no voca-
tional field.
The structure of these vocational fields in Germa-
ny is furthermore important for vocational teach-
er training (cf. KMK 1995). In addition and be-
cause there is a direct link between the vocational
fields and the structure of the study programmes
for vocational teachers there is an interdependence
between vocational education ↑ research fields too.
The problems and questions regarding the chang-
es and future structure of the ↑ vocational training
fields therefore should be itself a specific subject of
vocational education research.
2.3.5 Final Remark
The international classifications and systematiza-
tions, like the national, showed that the objectives
and interests and thus the results of the occupa-
tions on the one hand and the vocational education
and training on the other hand are not matched.
The occupations and their classification into ↑ oc-
cupational groups or fields and the vocational ed-
ucation and training and their classification into
groups or fields therefore have very different struc-
tures in most cases. However, there is a need for
comprehensive and matched classifications be-
cause the occupation and the education and train-
ing system as interdependent systems are impor-
tant bases with which to design and develop both
the occupations and the vocational education and
training (cf. PETERSEN / WARD / WEHMEYER 2004).
To improve and especially match the classifica-
tions in ↑ occupational research and vocational
education research their aims and methods must
be better coordinated and their approaches to re-
search more integrated. Nevertheless, how difficult
this is, is shown for instance by the development
of the new ↑ European qualifications framework
(EQF), which describes and defines qualification
levels first, and in a second step qualification areas
or domains – relatively independently from the oc-
cupation system. On the other hand, this applies in
129
the same way, e. g. to the development of the new
“Directive of the European Parliament and of the
Council on the recognition of professional quali-
fications”.
2.4 Vocational Education
Research as an Innovation
Process
Ute Laur-Ernst and Georg Hanf
The ↑ effectiveness and ↑ sustainability of initial
and ↑ continuing vocational education and training
are closely interrelated with the capacity for learn-
ing and innovation in institutions which carry out
vocational education research, influence it politi-
cally and make use of its results. When this trian-
gle of influence loses its impetus, the development
of vocational education stagnates and lags behind
the requirements of the economy and society. If
the aim is not just to maintain the vocational ed-
ucation and training system but to shape it for the
future, soundly justified changes are necessary on
all levels (see e. g. BIBB 2000; HEIDEGGER / RAUNER
1996; KOCH / REULING 1994). Within this interplay
of economy, ↑ policy and practice, applied prob-
lem-based vocational education research assumes
the role of an anticipatory initiator, a competent
contributor and a constructively critical evalua-
tor of ↑ innovation processes with an ↑ interdisci-
plinary thrust (cf. K LEINSCHMIDT / PAULSEN / RAUNER /
WENZEL 1978, for example). In this capacity it
draws upon the concepts and tools of both social
research and action research. However, it can only
fulfil its complex brief successfully if it constant-
ly develops itself and systematically improves its
own theory formation and methodology (see BEN-
TELER 1995).
2.4.1 On the Terms “Innovation” and the
“Innovation Process”
What constitutes an innovation relevant to voca-
tional education and training? What are the distin-
guishing characteristics of innovative processes in
vocational education and training? (This discussion
can be traced back to GUTSCHMIDT/K REIGENFELD /
LAUR ET AL. 1974,51 ff.). The term defies an une-
130
quivocal definition due to its relativity and “subjec-
tivity”, not to mention its current over-use. Prag-
matically, an “innovation in vocational education
and training” can be defined as anything which has
not previously existed in a given area of the system
or field of practice. It may be a new recognised oc-
cupation or an alternative didactic method, a for-
ward-looking structure for ↑ continuing education
and training or a new type of education and train-
ing provider. Thus, innovations in vocational edu-
cation and training can relate to the system (mac-
ro level), its administrative and executing institu-
tions (meso level) and the participating individu-
als and the concrete ↑ teaching and learning proc-
ess (micro level). They may, but need not necessar-
ily, be original; in other words, it is quite possible
that they already exist elsewhere, e. g. in a foreign
vocational education and training system or in an-
other educational institution. In the given location
at the specified point in time, however, they must
represent a change which is perceived by those in-
volved as a new and promising means of:
– improving upon the previous situation,
– eliminating a pressing problem, or
– opening up new options and opportunities.
Innovations are not just ideas but practicable, op-
erative models. They must be capable of being im-
plemented in practice, where they must have a de-
monstrable effect. Nevertheless, in the vocational
education funding landscape, singularity of inno-
vation is held to be undesirable. On the contrary,
innovation should ideally be transferable with ease
and suitable for broad implementation. Effective-
ly, however, to date a great number of innovations
have remained singular events.
Innovation processes take place in several phases,
from conceptual design to development to incorpo-
ration of the new approach into everyday practice.
How they take shape depends upon the particular
form and substance of the innovation, but they al-
so have independent characteristics: factors such
as the combination of participants in the innova-
tion process, the immediate context and the wider
context in which it is put into practice, the methods
applied in the process and the available resources
create a distinctive interplay of conditions in every
case (see LAUR-ERNST 1981b). Innovation process-
es vary considerably in their concrete detail. Nev-
Handbook of TVET Research
ertheless a certain amount of standardisation is
imposed by funding regulations, research guide-
lines and the current “state of the art” for shaping
such processes. These factors alter over time in re-
sponse to changing political, practical, empirical
and theoretical insights.
Thus a transformation in the “philosophy” and
structure of scientifically organised, practice-relat-
ed innovation processes can be observed over the
years: from the technocratic model in which a nov-
el, ready-made “product” is introduced into educa-
tional reality to a participatory model in which re-
searchers and practitioners develop the innovation
cooperatively and translate it into everyday prac-
tice; from the scientific planning model to the dy-
namic learning process involving all participants;
from product- to ↑ process-orientation. For innova-
tion processes in German vocational education and
training, there are a variety of “organisational tem-
plates”:
– The strong tradition of national ↑ pilot stud-
ies carried out by the Federal Government (cf.
DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / PLOGHAUS 1994), the Länder
(Federal States) and the Bund-Länder-Kommission
für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderung
(Joint Federation/Federal and State Commission
for ↑ Educational Planning and Research Promo-
tion (BLK); (for the essential background to this,
see BLK 1992),
– the trans-national ↑ pilot projects under Europe-
an Commission programmes, which began with
PETRA and continue to with today’s ↑ LEONAR-
DO DA VINCI II (→ 2.5),
– relevant R&D projects by well-known institu-
tions (e. g. the Federal Institute for Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training (BIBB), Länder and univer-
sity research institutes),
– innovation projects under measures to support
eastern Germany (QUEM or Regiokom), and
– international pilot projects to support voca-
tional education reform in partner and transition
countries (e. g. the TRANSFORM programme
with central and eastern Europe from 1991–2001;
Hoene/ Höhns 2001, http://www2.bibb.de/tools/
fodb/pdf/eb_50005.pdf).
In addition, the Federal Government and the com-
petent ministries keep setting up innovation pro-
grammes on such themes as “learning with new
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
media”, a “learning culture of competence devel-
opment”, “↑ lifelong learning” or “learning for sus-
tainable development”, which may not be geared
specifically towards vocational education and
training, but are certainly of benefit to it.
2.4.2 Areas of Tension and Potentials for
Innovation
Vocational education and ↑ training research in
Germany has been and is likely to remain an area
beset with tensions, thanks to the plurality of re-
sponsibilities for vocational education and training
under the ↑ dual system, among other things. Con-
flicting political positions, the heterogeneity of the
field of study, divergent stakeholder interests and
academic rivalries are determinants of ↑ innovative
action and give rise to ambivalent challenges. Re-
search has to deal with these.
Change in Innovation Policy
The state (Federal and Länder governments), em-
ployers’ organisations and trade unions have a con-
siderable say in what kinds of practice-oriented vo-
cational education and training research take place,
and whether and how the results will be utilised for
education policy purposes. In the late 1960s and
early 1970s, the policy sector placed its faith in an
↑ innovation strategy which treated pilot schemes
as “trial runs”. These were used for the prototype
testing of planned system reforms (e. g. the Kol-
legstufe (college-style upper secondary school)
in North-Rhine/Westphalia, the Berufsgrundbil-
dungsjahr (vocational training foundation year) or
the Berufsakademie (college of advanced (dual)
↑ vocational studies). If it succeeded, the innova-
tion – having passed rigorous scientific scrutiny –
would be incorporated directly into the regulatory
system. As a result, innovation projects and the ac-
companying research gained high political and so-
cial status, but this soon drew controversy.
Consequently, policymakers retreated from semi-
experimental pilot studies on the macro level and
shifted the emphasis to the less controversial mat-
ter of shaping ↑ educational processes on the mi-
cro level (cf. RAUNER 2002d). While this reorienta-
tion, dubbed the “realistische Wende” (watershed
of realism), depoliticised the content of vocation-
131
al education and training research, it left it with
an increasingly blunt set of instruments for tack-
ling structural and substantive reforms. Despite
the mounting problems (training place shortages,
rapid technical and organisational change, indi-
vidualisation and ↑ globalisation) and pressure to
innovate in the 1980s and 1990s, the political ac-
tors no longer resorted to ↑ pilot studies for sub-
stantive modernisation of the system and its insti-
tutions, but tended to opt for changes in practice
which were more marginal to the system.
Only in the second half of the 1990s, a certain
readiness to review constitutive system compo-
nents was observed (e. g. in the Federal Govern-
ment’s 1996 reform concept and in the recommen-
dations of the “Alliance for Jobs, Training and
Competitiveness” from 1998). This in turn gave
rise to some interesting innovation projects which
were implemented with success. One outcome of
the shift in innovation policy from a state man-
aged, top-down intervention towards a bottom-up
strategy is that vocational education and ↑ training
research gains greater latitude. Initiative and cre-
ativity are in growing demand but not necessari-
ly utilised for structural reforms. The Federal and
Länder governments (like the European Commis-
sion) create a very ambitious framework of sup-
port for innovations, but leave open the matter of
which results they intend to adopt and incorporate
into the regulatory system of vocational education.
They rely primarily on the transformational effect
of innovation projects at grassroots level, and on
their successful transfer.
A Miscellany of Singular Innovations –
Towards a More Strategic Approach?
Partly due to the bottom-up strategy linked with
the tripartite organisation and federal structure of
the German vocational education and training sys-
tem, research is expected to produce deliberately
divergent concepts. The Federal and Länder gov-
ernments subsidise their own pilot studies in ac-
cordance with their priorities; occasionally there is
coordination between these two levels. The social
partners pursue their reform ideas with appropri-
ate innovation projects – usually separately, some-
times jointly (e. g. on the modernisation of exami-
nations for apprentices in the metal and electrical
132
sectors). Moreover, the sphere of vocational edu-
cation practice (schools, companies, training cen-
tres) with their varied target groups, ↑ occupational
areas and structural issues require tailor-made so-
lutions, although the practitioners involved – un-
like researchers – are often not particularly inter-
ested in sound scientific foundations or systematic
dissemination of the results, perhaps even seeing
this as an intrusion or a competitive disadvantage.
There are a growing number of European ↑ pilot
projects both under the community initiatives
ADAPT/EQUAL and the action programme ↑ LE-
ONARDO; there are also other trans-national pilot
projects e. g. under the TRANSFORM programme
(on the issue of national transfer cf. LAUR-ERNST
1997). On this level, Germany has taken part in the
successful testing of models which are contradic-
tory to current national ↑ policy and practice (e. g.
the recognition of informally acquired competenc-
es, partial qualifications or ↑ modularisation).
Nevertheless, the broadest possible use is made of
European funding (for details, see the continually
updated information service of the National Agen-
cy – “Education for Europe” at BIBB www.na-
bibb.de). Thus, over the years, a diverse range of
one-off innovations have been funded. These co-
exist side by side – despite occasional incompati-
bility – and their effects had generally been limit-
ed (to a locality or a specific time). However, with-
in the last generation of programmes the “valor-
isation” (i.e. the sustainable transfer building on
achievements) of project outcomes became a ma-
jor issue. The European Commission created an
“Action Plan to Develop Innovation in Vocation-
al Training”, which was published in July 2002.
All projects starting from 2005 onwards had to in-
clude valorisation plans as standard. (EC 2007a;
http://ec.europa.eu/education/programmes/leon-
ardo/new/valorisation/doc/plan_en.pdf)
The thematic concentration now being undertaken
in almost all areas of funding undoubtedly stim-
ulates debate. For quite some time both national-
ly and in Europe, it remained relatively unclear
“where the journey will lead”. Rigidly uniform
concepts were altered with greater pluralism in
vocational education and training, the promotion
of innovation at national and European level gave
somewhat arbitrary and noncommittal signals.
Handbook of TVET Research
Since 1998 a new philosophy in the promotion of
innovations has been adopted: Federal govern-
ment and Länder have moved from a project orien-
tation to a programme orientation. The promotion
of model programmes is aiming at a better syn-
ergy of research and development activities; it is
stressing the transfer of ↑ pilot project outcomes
into mainstream VET and the ↑ sustainability of
innnovations in the system. The innovation pro-
grammes became more closely linked with poli-
cy priorities. New programmes were, for instance,
about: New learning concepts and the quality of
learning; Improvement of co-operation between
↑ learning venues; Qualifying teachers and train-
ers; Self-directed and collaborative learning (for a
review of the model programme approach cf. BLK
2005). In 2006 the Federal Government has estab-
lished think tanks for innovations in initial and in
↑ continuing VET.
This focussing of innovation activities has been
partly driven by the European education and ↑ train-
ing policy since the beginning of the third milleni-
um. With the setting of the common future objec-
tives of education and training systems, jointly by
the Commission and the Council of Ministers, pro-
grammes and activities on European (and nation-
al) level were geared towards policy priorities. The
objectives were transformed into the work pro-
gramme “Education & Training 2010” (EC, E. C./
DG, E. a. C. 2006; http://europa.eu.int/comm/ed-
ucation/policies/2010). All activities on the Euro-
pean level have to contribute to the overarching
goal of transforming the European Union into the
most dynamic and competitive ↑ knowledge soci-
ety (Lisbon agenda). The work programme came
with the ↑ open method of coordination between
the Member States. Member States agreed on
– commonly-defined yardsticks (indicators/
↑ benchmarks) enabling them to know where they
stand and to assess the progress towards the set ob-
jectives;
– comparative cooperation tools to stimulate ex-
change and dissemination of good practices.
This approach is stipulating a more coherent re-
form policy based on targeted innovations.
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
Research as an Agent of Change
It is still (unduly) common in higher education to
look askance at research which is relevant to ↑ pol-
icy and practice, and not strictly in line with the
classic paradigm of empirical analysis. There is
ongoing criticism of the constructive, competent
interference (not partisan involvement) of aca-
demics in the reality they intend to improve, com-
bined with simultaneous analysis and reflection on
the innovative (learning) processes they have ini-
tiated as well as the conditions in which they have
arisen – known in the past as action research and
now also called constructive research (see for ex-
ample HEIDEGGER /ADOLPH / LASKE 1997). With this
complex concept, vocational education research
mapped out new territory in the 1970s (→ 4.1),
paving the way for a complete rethink. This can be
exemplified by the shift in the “scientific process
monitoring” role in relation to ↑ pilot studies.
Whereas this was originally understood as an in-
dependent, external monitoring function, now it
has been aligned with the action research para-
digm and become an “agent of change”. Accord-
ingly, today there is a general requirement for:
active support of the ↑ innovation process by re-
search combined with a gain in scientific knowl-
edge which goes beyond the specific individual
case and ensures the transferability of innovation.
There is no denying that the research process does
not always succeed in striking a satisfactory bal-
ance between involvement and ↑ distance, between
solving practical problems and adding fundamen-
tally to the sum of knowledge. But in principle, ac-
tion research has proved to be a suitable approach.
Moreover, little is gained from a purist debate over
methods. Rather, what is needed is further creative
development of an integrative methodology for in-
novation research and a sustainable theory of con-
structive innovation in the public sphere (an issue
tackled by ZIMMER 1997, among others).
Often called for but still rarely practised in voca-
tional education research, ↑ interdisciplinarity may
be beset with tensions, but at the same time it har-
bours substantial, if so far unexploited, innovative
potential. Complex issues can only be understood
and answered by ↑ interdisciplinary means. Social
sciences research into training, for example, needs
a work-based perspective geared towards particu-
133
lar skilled occupations in order to supply usable da-
ta for new occupations or training plans (→ 3.4.1).
Pedagogic concepts are in need of restructuring
with reference to approaches from educational and
industrial psychology, if the aim is to support in-
dividual competence development. Likewise, it
must be appreciated that concrete vocational ed-
ucation practice has the characteristics of a com-
plex system; narrowly focused innovations are at
odds with this vision. For instance, a didactically
perfect learning concept is of little use to compa-
nies if it causes a noticeable increase in the costs
of ↑ continuing education. Successful innovations
imply an adequate balance between the action ar-
eas concerned and their goals. ↑ Interdisciplinary
research is indispensable.
2.4.3 Functions in the Innovation Process
The range of tasks for vocational education re-
search in the context of innovation processes in-
cludes (see BÄHR / HOLZ 1995):
– identifying, specifying and operationalising in-
novation needs,
– generating and collaboratively shaping innova-
tions, testing and evaluating them,
– implementation, transfer and dissemination,
and
– summative evaluation of the product and the
process as well as impact analysis.
All these tasks are in a dynamic interrelation-
ship within the innovation process and are linked
by multiple feedback loops. Innovation process-
es cannot be planned from start to finish but have
constant surprises in store. They call upon all par-
ticipants to demonstrate openness and flexibility,
social empathy, analysis from different perspec-
tives, creative solutions and compromises.
Identification, Specification and
Operationalisation
The departure point for an innovation is normally a
known and acknowledged problem area. Elements
which may assist with identifying and empirically
underpinning the need for innovation are the find-
ings of social sciences research, vocational educa-
tion and training ↑ statistics, focused ↑ sector anal-
yses, or insights from pure research. For some long
134
time, comparative international vocational educa-
tion research has been another source which has
been helpful for delineating the necessity for in-
novation in one’s own system. In view of the com-
mon criticism that vocational education research
is too slow to find answers, more emphasis is now
being placed on early identification, pro-activity
and working with scenarios (e. g. the national re-
search consortium FREQUENZ http://www.fre-
quenz.net; → 3.1.4). The basic data available must
be supplemented with targeted research in order to
define the need for an innovation more specifical-
ly and to prepare for its “location-specific” opera-
tionalisation. The process also takes account of po-
litical imperatives and practitioners’ interests. This
marks out the scope for research input to the in-
novation project, and helps to identify the demand
and the potential participants.
Generation, Collaboratively Shaping and
Testing
Initially a hypothetical concept is drafted, which
presents and explains the connections between the
problem to be solved and the proposal for solving
it (“the innovation”). This provides the scientific
and practice-related rationale for the innovation,
and outlines its essential features.
This “explication model” is not set in stone but
usually revised during the course of the process. It
also serves as the reference model for the dynam-
ic “action model” which defines the key concepts
and lines of action for implementing the innova-
tion. The central elements implied by the action
model are the ↑ innovation strategy, which for its
part is dependent upon the participants’ capability
and willingness to innovate, and formative (self-)
evaluation. The empirical data and the experience
gained enable feedback relating to both the inno-
vative product and the process; the aim of this is to
attain an optimum under the given conditions. Fi-
nally, testing must be carried out to obtain (empir-
ical) evidence of the superiority of the innovation
over previous practice, or all participants must rec-
ognise and acknowledge its positive effects. This
presupposes a set of jointly defined success indica-
tors/testing criteria.
The methods applied in development and testing
are predominantly qualitative: expert and partici-
Handbook of TVET Research
pant surveys, ↑ group discussions, interviews, (par-
ticipatory) observation and environmental anal-
yses. Systematic gains in knowledge via (semi-
) ↑ experimental designs in the course of ↑ pilot
studies and ↑ pilot projects, while they may be rare,
are by no means excluded.
Implementation, Transfer and Dissemination
Experience shows that practitioners are more like-
ly to greet innovation with resistance rather than
with enthusiasm – even if they have participated
in the project. After all it is they themselves, not
the researchers, who are having to change. Con-
sequently the actual attitudes of those concerned
and the wider context of the planned innovation
must be examined, continuously and openly, to
avoid false assessments of the degree of accept-
ance. Moreover, there is often a lack of system-
atic study of the potential interested parties; the
project participants are not generally representa-
tive of this group. This can result in false assump-
tions about the volume of demand. The most crit-
ical point is the constant insistence on “transfer”
(see ALBRECHT / BÄHR Berufsbildungsforschung in
Spannungsverhältnissen [Vocational education re-
search in conditions of tension] 2001; BIBB 2001;
NICKOLAUS / SCHNURPEL 2001). In the majority of in-
stances it does not work. What militates against it
is that many ↑ pilot projects take place under spe-
cial conditions (more resources, exceptional reg-
ulations). These often spawn innovations which
cannot be sustained in normal, everyday reality.
This also explains why an innovation may never be
anchored in routine practice once the funding has
ended, not even in its place of origin. That aside,
some projects finally turn to policymakers and the
educational administration for help. If these bodies
will not utilise their outcomes – despite the state
funding – then researchers are powerless. The in-
novation will go unutilised. Clearly the causes of
insufficient institutionalisation, dissemination and
effective transfer are many and varied. They are
located – often unrecognised or “repressed” – in
the quality and the benefit of the innovation itself
and the conditions in which it came about; in which
case, a better system of transfer management is lit-
tle help. In view of this situation, the question of
the political and/or practical transferability of the
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
innovation (including marketing) needs to be ad-
dressed more clearly and in a different way than it
has been so far (see EBERHARDT /KUNZMANN 1997,
for example, on innovation-related cooperation
ventures with central and eastern Europe).
A realistic and well-founded resolution of this issue
is part of the “transfer model” which is the third ef-
fective concept of an innovation project and, de-
spite wordy descriptions, is often not sufficiently
well thought through.
Evaluation and Impact Analysis
Formative evaluation is generally an undisputed
component of the ↑ innovation process. A mean-
ingful summative evaluation, however, is now on-
ly occasionally carried out (on the specific issue of
evaluation concepts see K ROMREY 1995). A review
of the longer-term effects and side-effects extend-
ing beyond the project or the overall programme is
extremely rare.
This is true of ↑ pilot studies at national level, and
it is only changing more recently. For a whole dec-
ade it was even more blatantly true of European
Commission programmes. With the change from
the second to the third generation of programmes
in 2000 the Commission, with its valorisation
strategy, introduced evaluation and impact activi-
ties involving disseminating and piloting the most
innovative practices, exploiting them, developing
them in different contexts and gradually incorpo-
rating them into the systems and ↑ informal learn-
ing processes. Since 2000 programmes start with
an ex ante evaluation following a decision of the
European Parliament and the Council. (EC 2007b;
http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/evalre-
ports/index_en.htm#trainingHeader)
Pilot projects frequently have positive and long-
lasting impacts which go unnoticed or are under-
estimated due to a narrow fixation on the “classic”
type of transfer. This calls for systematic impact
research. In its third ↑ VET research report, the Eu-
ropean centre for the development of VET (↑ Ce-
defop) has addressed this issue (DESCY/ TESSARING
2004) including both the foundations of evaluation
and impact research as well as examples of evalua-
tions of systems and programmes.
135
2.4.4 Perspectives and Challenges
In future, vocational education research will in-
creasingly be involved in generating and support-
ing innovations on all levels, in view of the grow-
ing pace of change, interdependency and ↑ inter-
nationalisation of the economy, the ↑ labour mar-
ket and education (LAUR-ERNST /K ING 2000). It has
an indispensable contribution to make to reforms
and the shaping of the future (see e. g. WIERINGEN /
SELLING / SCHMIDT 2003). Continual improvement
of the tools of innovation – in a theoretical and a
methodological sense – is every bit as necessary as
revision of the funding rules (greater differentia-
tion, more flexibility, greater share for research).
Over 30 years or more of action-research-based in-
novation processes, little has been done to move
this paradigm forward. There is a dearth of sys-
tematic (meta-)research and theoretical work on
↑ innovative action in social contexts. Innovative-
ness is also becoming a “crucial point” in voca-
tional education and training. The signs of this are
not yet evident enough. Unless innovation compe-
tence is boosted, structures conducive to innova-
tion created, and a positive atmosphere for inno-
vation established in all institutions of vocational
education, it will not be possible to meet the chal-
lenges of the future.
2.5 Research on Technical
and Vocational Education
and Training (TVET) in
the Context of European
Cooperation
Pekka Kämäräinen and Martin
Fischer
Context and Scientific Importance of the
Theme
This chapter presents an overview of the evolu-
tion of research in technical and vocational educa-
tion and training (TVET) in European cooperation
programmes funded by the European Union. In
this context TVET is understood as education and
136
training which aims to equip people with skills and
competences that can be used on the ↑ labour mar-
ket (TISSOT 2004, 160). The European cooperation
programmes that are taken into consideration have
been managed by the European Commission, Di-
rectorate General Education and Culture (former-
ly DG XXII, initially Task Force Human Resourc-
es, Education, Training and Youth) and Directo-
rate General Research (formerly DG XII).
The examination of TVET research in European
programmes and of the role of European coop-
eration for the development of TVET research is
based on the following starting points:
– From the early 1990s European cooperation pro-
grammes have been a major source of funding for
TVET researchers. Due to the European funding
it has been possible to promote TVET-related re-
search throughout the participating countries.
– The European TVET-related research activities
have been based on heterogeneous academic back-
grounds and have been brought together by the
programme frameworks. Therefore, an examina-
tion of the evolution of European programmes pro-
vides insights into characteristic themes and shifts
of emphasis between programme generations.
– The development of TVET-related research in
European programmes has been based on expecta-
tions to gain “European added value”. On the one
hand this can be related to creation of European
↑ knowledge bases and to development of TVET-
related research communities. On the other the
hand this can be related to the changing role of
TVET research as contributing to European policy
processes in the field of education and training.
2.5.1 The Role of TVET Research in
Different European Cooperation
Programmes
TVET Research in European Action
Programmes for Education and Training
In the early 1990s TVET research was promoted
within ↑ European action programmes that cov-
ered different target areas that linked the theme
‘training’ to European labour markets. The PET-
RA programme focused on ↑ initial vocational ed-
ucation and promoted studies on the role of TVET
in the transition from school to work. The FORCE
Handbook of TVET Research
programme focused on continuing vocational
training (CVT) and promoted sectoral studies on
the needs for CVT and on good practice. The Eu-
rotecnet programme focused on technological and
social innovations and provided a platform for ex-
changes between country-specific demonstration
projects. (For retrospective overviews of the ear-
lier action programmes see BAINBRIDGE 1994; NY-
HAN 1998)
From the year 1995 onwards the new European
legislation made it possible to include the entire
field of education and training in the impetus to-
wards European cooperation. This was reflected in
the launch of two European action programmes.
The action programme Socrates covered the areas
of general education (the strand Comenius), high-
er education (the strand Erasmus) and adult educa-
tion (the strand Grundtvig). The programme ↑ Le-
onardo da Vinci covered European cooperation in
different fields of TVET and in the interface areas
between TVET and higher education. Within the
Leonardo da Vinci programme the research-relat-
ed activities were brought together under a specif-
ic strand “Surveys and analyses” (latterly named
“European reference materials”). (See the docu-
mentation of the first conference of the Leonardo
da Vinci strand “Surveys and analyses”, DIETZEN /
KUHN 1998)
TVET Research in European Framework
Programmes for Research
The 3rd European Framework Programme for Re-
search (that was implemented in the beginning of
1990s) did not contain targeted research areas that
would have addressed the field of TVET. However,
the priority area for Forecasting and Assessment
of Science and Technology (FAST) promoted stud-
ies in ‘↑ human-centred production’ and in ‘social
↑ shaping of work and technology’.
The 4th Framework Programme of Research
(1994–1998) was equipped with a specific sub-
programme for Targeted Socio-Economic Re-
search (TSER). The TSER-programme had a spe-
cific priority area for promoting research on TVET
and its contribution to socio-economic develop-
ment in Europe. In this context it is essential to
note that the TSER programme provided funding
for thematic projects and for more overarching re-
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
search networks that covered several thematic ar-
eas. (For basic information on the 4th Framework
Programme, see CORDIS 1999)
The 5th Framework Programme of Research
(1998–2002) did not contain a specific support
structure for socio-economic research. Within this
programme TVET research was promoted under
the research area “Improving human research po-
tential and the socio-economic ↑ knowledge base”.
This research area was established as a transversal
area that complemented the work under the the-
matic priorities (e. g. the thematic programme for
Information Society). (For basic information on
the 5th Framework programme see the respective
websites 2001; CORDIS 2006a)
The 6th Framework Programme of Research put
the emphasis on creating new cooperation struc-
tures for the European Research Area. Therefore
the programme management tried to shift the em-
phasis to large-scale funding for Networks of Ex-
cellence and Integrated Projects. Thus the pro-
gramme sought to create European infrastructures
that bring together a critical mass of European re-
search in broadly defined ↑ research fields. (For ba-
sic information on the 6th Framework programme
see the respective websites 2006; CORDIS
2006b)
Integration of TVET Research into European
Programmes
The brief accounts on the changing programme
structures and on the preconditions for promoting
TVET research can be summarised in the follow-
ing way:
– During the first period TVET research was not
included in the research areas that were support-
ed by the European Framework Programmes for
Research. At the same time the separate action
programmes commissioned some TVET research
activities that were directly related to the focal
themes of the programmes. In these circumstanc-
es there were limited opportunities for develop-
ing a European TVET research culture. However,
a major exception in the respect is the evolution in
the sectoral studies of the FORCE programme that
laid the foundation for several successor activities
in European TVET research (On the development
137
of the sectoral studies, see Kruse in this handbook
(→ 4.3)).
– After 1995, TVET research was eligible for Eu-
ropean Framework Programmes and subject to
targeted support by the TSER programme. At the
same time the more overarching action programme
for TVET provided a basis for launching a broad-
er range of research themes and a wider variety of
project designs. (On the thematic variety of TVET-
related projects in the 4th and 5th Framework pro-
grammes see E & T Cluster (2003))
– After the TSER-period TVET research was ex-
pected to become eligible under the general priori-
ties of the European Framework Programmes. At
the same time the preparation of new frameworks
for European cooperation moved in the direction
of the European Research Area and towards an In-
tegrated Programme for ↑ Lifelong Learning.
2.5.2 The Variety of Approaches and
Interests of Knowledge in European
TVET Research
Following Hörner, four functions of Europe-
an TVET research were mentioned by Sellin and
Grollmann (1999, 77); accordingly Frommberg-
er and Reinisch (1999, 329 f.) have suggested the
same and also Lauterbach, Maslankowski and Mit-
ter (1995, 15) and some others:
– The ‘idiographic’ function of research provides
an illustration of TVET in its national and cultur-
ally specific context.
– The ‘↑ nomothetic’ function of research helps to
find general rules within TVET (FROMMBERGER /
REINISCH 1999 call this function quasi-experimen-
tal).
– The ‘melioristic’ function of research refers to
improvement of the practice of TVET in selected
cases for piloting. To ‘meliorate’ originally meant
improvement of farmland.
– The ‘evolutionistic’ function of research helps to
recognise contextual or universal trends in devel-
opmental approaches and in processes of change.
Research Approaches with Idiographic
Function
↑ Research approaches with ↑ idiographic function
describe TVET systems and the practice of TVET
138
within the European member states. Typically, a
national TVET system is assessed with respect to
the following questions: (DESCY/ TESSARING 2001,
8–12):
– How is a TVET system regulated, co-ordinated
and steered?
– How is vocational education and training finan-
ced?
– What is the relationship between general and vo-
cational education?
– How are ↑ vocational competences acquired and
certified?
– How are TVET professionals educated and sup-
ported by further training provisions?
Such research is funded by national resources as
well as by European institutions. Results have
been collected e. g. by Lauterbach et al. (1995–
2005), Koch (1998), CEDEFOP (2006d) and the
↑ European Training Foundation (ETF 2006.). Re-
search approaches with an idiographic function on
the one hand necessarily form the basis for other
research approaches, in particular for internation-
al comparative research; and they illuminate the
socio-cultural dimension of European TVET re-
search. On the other hand idiographic approaches
are confronted with special difficulties.
These difficulties are substantiated through the dy-
namics of TVET; these differ from the sector of
general education that is much more directly as-
sociated with the ↑ labour market and its variabil-
ity and with similarly fluctuating demands and the
requirements of private employers. Moreover, ↑ re-
search problems are also caused by the fact that
TVET has almost not developed categories by
which its dynamics could be formed as the object
of research (DREXEL / MOEBUS 2000). For this rea-
son idiographic research is in danger of becoming
out of date even before it has been published.
Research Approaches with Nomothetic
Function
The shift from idiographic to nomothetic ↑ research
approaches can be related to different project de-
signs or to different phases of work in trans-na-
tional cooperation. As soon as researchers com-
pare national TVET systems they will be confront-
ed with a search for general rules and principles.
Thus the question of standards for comparative re-
Handbook of TVET Research
search is put on the agenda. A number of meth-
odological and practical research problems are be-
coming obvious: A tertium comparationis that is
generally accepted is missing (FROMMBERGER / REI-
NISCH 1999; LAUTERBACH 2003b, 91 ff.) and, addi-
tionally, there is no TVET system that could be
used as a sort of European reference model. More-
over, up to now research has not given empirical
evidence for the competitive advantages of par-
ticular TVET systems. Although a connection be-
tween national qualification potentials on the one
hand and technical, organisational and economic
competitiveness on the other is assumed (cf. e. g.
GEORG 1997a). It is for methodological reasons
not even possible to quantify the effect of a par-
ticular TVET system for socio-economic devel-
opment as the amount of accountable factors can-
not be reliably isolated. (cf. TESSARING 1998b, 36;
BÜCHTEMANN / VERDIER 1995).
Attempts to solve these problems can be found in
so-called functional analysis. Greinert has present-
ed a functional-structural analysis, in the first in-
stance for characterising the German ↑ dual system
(GREINERT 1998), but then also for historical inter-
national comparison (GREINERT 2002). He suggest-
ed general functions of TVET systems (function
of qualification, allocation, selection, absorption,
utilisation and integration) which can be found in
all European member states despite their different
framework conditions. Hörner (1993, 19) speaks
in this context about functional equivalents which
make it possible to put heterogeneous phenomena
on one level with respect to their function.
As an example for comparative analysis with
↑ nomothetic function the topic of ↑ school-to-work
transition can be taken into account. On the basis
of several national and European research projects
remarkably different transition profiles were de-
tected: In Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and
Austria an unemployment rate of 8 % to 14 % was
found for adolescent school-leavers; in Belgium,
↑ France, Ireland and UK this rate lies between
18 % and 36 %; whereas it is climbing up to 49 %
in the Mediterranean countries (DESCY/ TESSARING
2001, 30). Following the TSER-project CATEWE
(A Comparative Analysis of Transitions from Ed-
ucation to Work in Europe, 2000) determinants of
these phenomena are seen in the respective nation-
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
al TVET systems on one hand and on the other
hand in variables like sex, social status and the na-
tional heritage of the youngsters concerned.
Apart from research that is explicitly labelled as
comparative, nomothetic approaches are focused
on ↑ research questions related to important di-
mensions of European TVET research such as the
dimension of ↑ TVET policy, the social-structural
and the socio-cultural dimension of TVET, the di-
mension of competence development etc. Selected
research projects in these areas are:
(a) The Socrates project “Paid Educational Leave
in Europe – a strategy for ↑ lifelong learning?”
(ARBEIT UND LEBEN 2000) which represents the di-
mension of TVET policy.
(b) The socio-structural dimension is e. g. repre-
sented through research focussing on the relation-
ship between TVET and social exclusion. Results
gained from 16 of such thematic European projects
are summarised in the so-called cluster project
“Social exclusion and equality in education” (n.
d.).
(c) The socio-cultural dimension of TVET has
been analysed in research projects which e. g. fo-
cus on the formation of ↑ vocational identity in
different ↑ cultural contexts (FAME CONSORTIUM
2004).
(d) Research results belonging to the dimension
of ↑ vocational competence development under-
stood as the acquisition of ‘↑ work process knowl-
edge’ (FISCHER 2000) were collected and compared
within a 10 nations network (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/
FISCHER 2002; FISCHER / BOREHAM / NYHAN 2004)
and empirically investigated under the conditions
of so-called learning companies (FISCHER / RÖBEN
2004).
Research Approaches with Melioristic
Function
In the ↑ European action programmes ↑ pilot
projects have received more support than research-
oriented projects (that have been promoted under
the programme strands ‘surveys and analyses’ or
‘European reference material’). Altogether, such
projects have generally been selected for European
funding with an expectation improving the nation-
al ↑ VET systems and current educational arrange-
139
ments or by promoting ‘European’ innovations to
be disseminated across different TVET cultures.
These aims emphasise a ↑ melioristic function of
the projects. Below, some examples will be given
on such projects:
– The ↑ Leonardo da Vinci project “Intequal” (and
its successor project “Duoqual”) studied the pros-
pects for combining general and vocational educa-
tion provisions via ‘dually oriented qualifications’.
The project studied different reform concepts, pi-
lot projects and established patterns for combining
‘academic’ and ‘vocational’ qualification goals.
The melioristic interest was emphasised by relat-
ing the cases to each other as curricular “schemes”
to be compared as different modes of implement-
ing similar ideas (see BROWN / MANNING 1998;
MANNING 2000).
– Within the framework of Cooperation in the
field of Science and Technology (COST) the Eu-
ropean Union finances cooperation activities that
are agreed between participating countries and
the COST secretariat. In this context the ↑ COST
Action 11 was carried out in the years 1997–2002
with a focus on the theme “Transferability, Flexi-
bility and ↑ Mobility as Targets of Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training”. The action was prepared in
the early 1990s with a feasibility study that ana-
lysed ↑ teaching and learning processes in TVET.
As a conclusion the authors outlined a framework
for promoting transferability of educational inno-
vations and flexibility and ↑ mobility in the culture
of teaching-learning processes (ACHTENHAGEN /
NIJHOF / RAFFE 1995; ACHTENHAGEN 2003). Accord-
ing to this framework the COST Action was con-
stituted on the basis of parallel working groups and
joint conferences. In this context the researchers
analysed the preconditions for promoting trans-
ferability, flexibility and mobility at different lev-
els of educational development and within differ-
ent national contexts (see the document on the fi-
nal conference of the COST A11, ACHTENHAGEN /
THÅNG 2002).
– The newest research area that has been charac-
terised by melioristic research interests during the
recent years is that of ↑ e-learning (see eLearning
Initiative n. d.). The related measures have been
shaped to cover all educational sectors but consid-
erable importance has been attached to issues that
140
are relevant to TVET and for work-related learning
(cf. FISCHER / GROLLMANN / ROY/ STEFFEN 2003).
Research Approaches with an Evolutionistic
Function
Research approaches with evolutionistic function
draw attention to the relations between context-
specific and ‘universal’ preconditions for develop-
ing TVET in Europe. Such approaches are based on
research hypotheses that take into account cultural
diversity and a diffuse pressure towards homoge-
neity (among national TVET systems) through the
process of European integration. From this per-
spective culturally specific development process-
es could be related to each other as parallel “sys-
tem environments”. Thus, national TVET systems
(or country-specific development of qualifications)
can be linked to more comprehensive interpre-
tative frameworks (cf. K ÄMÄRÄINEN 1996; HANF
1998; HARNEY/K ISSMANN 2000; MÜNK 2001).
Similar hypotheses and frameworks can also be
developed for analyses that focus on the demand
for skilled workers in different countries. An the
level of European comparisons such analyses date
back to the early 1980s. In these earlier analyses
the point of interest was to monitor how similar
technological changes and similar needs to pro-
mote new competences gave rise to different solu-
tions for organising the training of skilled workers
in the European countries that were analysed (cf.
SORGE / WARNER 1986; PRAIS 1995).
On the level of European cooperation such findings
were taken into account by a FORCE sectoral study
that analysed the relations between ↑ work process-
es and vocational training in the ↑ sector. The study
covered the old EU Member States (before 1995)
as well as ↑ Japan and the ↑ USA (RAUNER / SPÖTTL
1996). When comparing the results, one extreme
pole was provided by Greece where 14 different
↑ occupational profiles could be found in the car
service sector. The other extreme pole was provid-
ed by the ↑ US concept of the “all-round mechan-
ic”. The results of this European sectoral study
(and of the related trans-continental comparison)
were taken up by a follow-up project in the ↑ Leon-
ardo da Vinci programme. This latter project de-
veloped a European framework curriculum for the
occupational profile “car mechatronic” (see HEISE
Handbook of TVET Research
1998). The brief overview across different project
generations shows how the evolutionistic function
can be linked to different roles of research.
A second example of similar studies with a focus
on the development of TVET systems is provided
by the Leonardo de Vinci project “Post-16 strat-
egies and its successor project “Spes-Net”. At an
earlier stage the project identified four main strat-
egies for promoting parity of esteem (unification,
inter-institutional cooperation, linkages via de-
gree structures and enhancement of vocational
learning). Later on the analyses were continued
by exploring how the main strategies could be de-
veloped further with the help of complementary
sub-strategies. (On the project Post-16 strategies
see the main reports LASONEN 1996 and LASONEN /
YOUNG 1998. On the project Spes-Net see the final
report STENSTRÖM / LASONEN 2000.)
A third example is the Leonardo da Vinci project
“Europrof” that analysed the education and train-
ing of TVET professionals with a critical aware-
ness of the separation of subject disciplines, ped-
agogic competences and of work process-oriented
competences in the predominant models (BROWN
1997). In the successor project ‘Euroframe’ two
strands of work continued on the basis of the com-
mon conceptual change agenda. One strand de-
veloped a framework for research institutes and
degree programmes that can adequately support
the Europe-wide education of TVET profession-
als (GROLLMANN /K RUSE / RAUNER 2003). The other
strand analysed the prospects for European coop-
eration that is related to the continuing profession-
al development of TVET professionals (ATTWELL /
BROWN 1999).
A fourth example of an evolutionistic approach is
the joint project of ↑ CEDEFOP and ↑ ETF that fo-
cused on scenarios and strategies for TVET and
↑ lifelong learning in Europe. It sought to promote
the competences to monitor the future shaping of
TVET in the European member states and the re-
lated strategic choices. The scenarios were based
on three alternative assumptions concerning eco-
nomic and social development (cf. SELLIN 2002).
Later on, the work with the scenario project pro-
vided a basis for a common mapping instrument to
which different systemic components in European
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
TVET development can be related (GROLLMANN /
PATINIOTIS / RAUNER 2003, 9).
2.5.3 Different Aspects of the “European
Dimension” and Implications for
TVET Research
The expression ‘European dimension’ has been
used as a basic requirement for projects to be in-
cluded in European programmes. Below, three
aspects of the European dimension in TVET re-
search will be analysed:
– Overcoming conceptual barriers and promoting
European knowledge enrichment
– Development of a ↑ European research commu-
nity in TVET research
– Contributing to European policy processes as a
challenge to TVET research.
Overcoming Conceptual Barriers and Promot-
ing European Knowledge Enrichment
For TVET-related research the concept of Europe-
an dimension has a special importance because of
the diversity of the national TVET systems. This
diversity is embedded in the national terminolo-
gies and in the culturally specific concepts for the
phenomena in TVET. Yet, in order to get the capa-
bility to learn from other cultures it is necessary
to undertake in-depth studies and to combine dif-
ferent aspects of research work. However, in the
European projects this has often not been the case
due to the short life cycles of individual projects.
Therefore, the level of knowledge enrichment that
contributes to the European dimension has been
achieved in relatively complex projects and in
project histories that consist of different evolution-
ary phases. (On analyses of project histories and
of knowledge enrichment in European projects see
K ÄMÄRÄINEN 1998b, K ÄMÄRÄINEN 1998a).
Below, four kinds of project histories and corre-
sponding patterns of knowledge enrichment are in-
dicated as specific approaches to the European di-
mension in TVET research:
– The above-mentioned European project history
on ‘Post-16 strategies’ (LASONEN 1996; LASONEN /
YOUNG 1998; STENSTRÖM / LASONEN 2000) compared
different European strategies to promote ‘parity of
esteem between general and vocational education’.
141
From the perspective of knowledge enrichment it
is essential that the partners try to identify them-
selves (and their national TVET cultures) within
the framework of alternative strategies. In the next
stage the project used the framework as a basis for
analyses of the opportunities to learn from other
cultures. This project history represents a pattern
of trans-cultural knowledge enrichment across
different conceptual approaches to TVET research
and to the development of TVET systems.
– The main activities of the European research
network on “↑ Work process knowledge” were re-
lated to empirical analyses that document differ-
ent cases of collaborative management of com-
plex work situations on the basis of shared ‘work
process knowledge’ (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER
2002). In the later phases the network became a
nodal point in dialogue with parallel ↑ research ap-
proaches that focused on ‘↑ organisational learn-
ing’, on vocational ↑ curriculum development and
on the educational relevance of ↑ workplace learn-
ing placements (FISCHER / BOREHAM / NYHAN 2004).
This project history represents a pattern of connec-
tive knowledge enrichment across thematic areas
of research and related knowledge utilisation.
– The above-mentioned European projects on car
mechatronics (RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1996; HEISE 1998)
managed to ‘Europeanise’ the development of new
↑ occupational profiles and related training con-
cepts. Thus, the said projects worked together in a
cross-technological field with a perspective on in-
tegrative and ↑ work process oriented occupational
profiles. In different phases of the project history
this approach was developed and specified for the
occupational profile, for the curriculum concept.
The project history represents a pattern of genera-
tive knowledge enrichment with a focus on a spe-
cific area of research and on transfer between basic
research and knowledge utilisation.
– The above-mentioned Europrof project had re-
lated its analyses on the education and training of
TVET professionals to European dialogue on an
integrative change agenda (see ATTWELL 1998).
The final phase of Europrof and the work of the
successor project Euroframe were characterised by
an effort to link common guiding principles to cul-
turally adjusted and context-specific change agen-
das. The different strands of the Euroframe can
142
be interpreted as an effort to work with a Europe-
an main strategy and country-specific sub-strate-
gies parallel to each other (see GROLLMANN /K RUSE /
RAUNER 2003 and ATTWELL / BROWN 1999). In this
respect the project history represents a pattern of
transformative knowledge enrichment that takes
into account different preconditions for promoting
European innovations in the education and train-
ing of TVET professionals.
Development of European Networks and Re-
search Communities in TVET Research
Another aspect of the European dimension has
been the evolution of European networks and ↑ Eu-
ropean research communities in TVET research.
In the earlier phases of European cooperation the
research networks were based on personal connec-
tions between individual researchers and their in-
stitutes. After 1995 the new programmes provided
a basis for networks with a broader thematic spec-
trum and with mutual cooperation (e. g. the TSER-
funded network “Forum” (see FORUM 2000), the
↑ Leonardo da Vinci project “Europrof” and their
joint ↑ communication platform “REM/European
↑ VET research” that was used in 1998–2000).
This development in the networks provided the ba-
sis for the evolution of the VETNET network into
the umbrella community of European TVET re-
search. VETNET was established in 1996 as the
TVET-related section of the European ↑ Educa-
tional Research Association (EERA). Gradual-
ly the VETNET programme at the annual Euro-
pean Conference on Educational Research ECER
has become a central platform for knowledge shar-
ing on European TVET research (see VETNET
2006).
During the founding phase of the newer networks
Cedefop (the European Centre for the Develop-
ment of Vocational Training) participated in their
activities and organised a series of European sem-
inars to promote knowledge sharing across Euro-
pean projects. At a later phase Cedefop linked the-
ses activities to the development of web-based sup-
port services and of related publications under the
framework of “Cedefop Research Arena (Cedra)”
(see the respective website Cedefop Research Are-
na (2006a)). Parallel to these developments Ce-
defop established a regular European TVET re-
Handbook of TVET Research
search report that presented the main results of re-
cent European and national research (see TESSAR-
ING 1998b; DESCY/ TESSARING 2001).
Contributing to European Policy Processes as
a Challenge for TVET Research
The Lisbon summit of the European Union (in
March 2000) set targets for the development of Eu-
ropean Union by the year 2010 and provided the
basis for specific follow-up processes. In the edu-
cational follow-up agenda “Education and Train-
ing 2010” a major role is given for European frame
↑ work processes that prepare the grounds for Euro-
pean Higher Education Area (the ↑ Bologna proc-
ess) and for European Area of ↑ Lifelong Learning
(the ↑ Copenhagen process). (For more informa-
tion on the agenda “Education and Training 2010”
and on the educational framework processes, see
2006; website ec.europa.eu/education)
From the perspective of TVET it is worthwhile not-
ing that the Copenhagen process has put a major
emphasis on the development of a common ↑ Euro-
pean Qualification Framework (EQF) and parallel
to it a European Credit ↑ Transfer system for TVET
(ECVET). Recently, the European Commission
has finalised the EQF and presented it as a pro-
posal to the European Parliament and the Coun-
cil. Alongside this process the EU Member States
are expected to adjust their national qualification
frameworks to the EQF by the year 2009.
Regarding the role of European TVET research as
potential contributors to the new European policy
processes it is essential to note the following de-
velopments:
– Regarding the attainment of the ↑ Lisbon goals
in the field of TVET a major European follow-up
study was undertaken in 2004 to prepare the ba-
sic information for the meeting of the European
ministers of education. The “Maastricht study”
that was prepared by a broad consortium of TVET
research institutes and national agencies prepared
the ground for policy monitoring in several are-
as of developing TVET (see LENEY/AMMERMAN /
BRANDSMA ET AL. 2005).
– Regarding the preparation of the ↑ EQF and the
ECVET the European Commission has appointed
specific expert groups and has been using the work
of ongoing European projects. These contributions
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
have been seen to be controversial and have giv-
en rise to independent studies and commentaries
(As an overview on the preparatory measures and
related studies see GROLLMANN / SPÖTTL / RAUNER
2006).
– Regarding the support for the future develop-
ment of national and sectoral qualification frame-
works the European Commission is in the proc-
ess of setting up new support structures and relat-
ed projects. At the same time the national govern-
ments and the Social partners are launching their
own preparatory measures at the national level. For
TVET researchers these activities will provide the
challenge to analyse the relations between Europe-
an and national (or sectoral) qualification frame-
works and their role in future ↑ TVET policies in
Europe.
2.6 Research and VET Reform
Policy in Transition Countries
Peter Grootings and Sören Nielsen
2.6.1 Introduction
Countries in transition face tremendous challeng-
es. The lack of professional research and develop-
ment capacities is an impediment for establish-
ing a sound basis to enable countries to develop
their own reform policies. There is very little mod-
ern and relevant ↑ VET research in ↑ ETF partner
countries. There seems to be almost a sociological
law behind this situation, at least in post-socialist
countries. We see a clear parallel in the pre-acces-
sion phase of the New Member States in Central
and Eastern Europe. ↑ CEDEFOP in the late 80s/
early 90s opened its VET Research Forum (CE-
DEFOP 1992) to CEECs and the Soviet Union in
order to integrate them into ongoing discussions in
EU. But after the system changes there was eve-
rywhere a collapse of this ↑ research tradition. A
similar situation exists today in the Western Bal-
kans, Russia, Ukraine, Caucasus, Central Asia;
the Northern African MEDA countries are differ-
ent but they also have no genuine VET research
tradition (→ 1.7).
143
A more positive situation appears to exist today in
the new EU member states from Central and East-
ern Europe (STRIETSKA-ILINA 2000) where VET re-
search has to some extent responded to the chal-
lenges of transition and played a role in the VET
reform process, particularly in relation to concep-
tualising a system for ↑ lifelong learning. However,
VET research still suffers from certain weakness-
es: e. g. too limited a field of investigation, inade-
quate quality, poor methodological approach and
inefficient organisation in ↑ fields of research. Here
we will concentrate on the transition countries out-
side the EU.
What are the characteristics of the VET research
tradition of former Socialist countries and why
did it fail? Why is a proper VET research basis for
VET reform policy formulation and implementa-
tion important in transition countries? How has
the ETF supported the organisation of a more solid
↑ knowledge base in the partner countries? These
questions will be discussed in this chapter and in
a concluding section we will sketch opportunities
for re-integrating transition countries in the com-
munity of VET research.
2.6.2 The Heritage from the Past: the
Narrow Concept of VET Research in
Socialist Countries
The fundamental transformation of economic and
social structures has radically changed the func-
tion of the ↑ VET system. A whole new logic has
been established. With the closure of many work-
shops and the reduction of facilities within enter-
prises, schools are forced to take care of the entire
vocational education cycle. As a result, vocational
education has become more theoretical and costs
are increasing. In a market economy a new signal
system between ↑ labour market needs and the sup-
ply of VET must be established and mediated, in
most cases through social ↑ partnership. This re-
construction process is far from over in most coun-
tries. And this leads in effect to a completely new
research territory for VET. The heritage from the
past research tradition has found it very difficult to
adapt to this change.
Until the end of the 1980s research on vocation-
al education and training in what are now called
transition countries was mostly done in special-
144
ised VET research institutes that focused exclu-
sively on “internal” VET issues, such as curricula,
textbooks, teaching materials and in-service teach-
er training. These institutes were part of a central-
ised, top-down and sector-specific system. Some-
times industrial sectors had their own VET re-
search institutes. There was a clear division of la-
bour between VET research institutes and research
institutes serving other parts of the education sys-
tem. These institutes were usually not involved in
policy research; their work was of a technical na-
ture. Fundamental pedagogical research was done
at institutes that belonged to the Academy of Sci-
ences or one of its branches, and policy oriented
research came from institutes that were linked to
the Party.
Research on wider, VET related issues, interesting-
ly enough, often originated from Youth research
institutes linked to the Party’s Youth organisations.
From the 1970s on, youth problems received in-
creasing political attention. Generally, such prob-
lems were identified in terms of mismatches be-
tween the aspirations and expectations of young
people and the socialist society’s needs. A whole
new area of research developed, also of a compar-
ative nature, and depending on the country’s polit-
ical context, this research covered all issues rang-
ing from adapting young people’s aspirations to re-
ality towards advocating changes in society to ac-
commodate the expectations of the younger gen-
erations (→ 4.6). This research also spilled over to
other fields of social sciences, especially research
on education and work, both within the ministerial
related research institutes (Research Institutes of
Labour and Pedagogical or ↑ Educational Research
institutes) and within the academic research in-
stitutions (Institutes of Sociology) but rarely into
economic research (ADAMSKI / GROOTINGS 1989).
Often, however, specialised ↑ VET research insti-
tutes were untouched by these broader research
trends and there was hardly any cross-fertilisation.
They were also often considered to be too much
part of the socialist educational system, in which
vocational education for ideological and economic
reasons always occupied a favourable position, cer-
tainly compared to secondary general and academ-
ic higher education. This explains why, after the
transition, the traditional VET institutes in almost
Handbook of TVET Research
all countries have found it very difficult to adapt to
the systemic changes in the relationships between
vocational education, labour markets and employ-
ment systems. But even in those countries where
the VET research institutes continued to exist,
they have largely remained specialised on “inter-
nal” VET matters and have failed to relate curricu-
lar issues to those of the labour markets and work
organisation (→ 3.7.1). They remained focused on
the preparation of skilled workers and largely in
terms of input-based approaches (curriculum con-
tents, teaching plans, textbooks and teacher quali-
fications). Less attention has been paid to process
issues such as the quality of learning processes and
the integration of theoretical and practical learn-
ing. Only very recently, a learning outcome based
approach is emerging but largely in terms of rede-
fining educational standards (→ 5.4.3).
At the same time, international pressure to focus on
outcomes, relevance, ↑ efficiency and ↑ effective-
ness has also pulled VET research almost exclu-
sively towards serving – emerging and often non-
existing – labour markets and away from respond-
ing to the learning needs, aspirations and expecta-
tions of young people and adults. The – sometimes
very critical – parallel tradition of youth research
from the 1980s has all but disappeared from the re-
search agenda.
The overall result of these developments is that the
↑ VET system in many countries is not anymore
able to face, without considerable external assist-
ance, the challenges of systemic reform.
We can sum up the still existing challenges for
↑ VET research developments in transition coun-
tries as follows:
– The wider concept of VET research has hardly
yet been developed from the narrow “internal” tra-
dition
– VET institutes have faced serious problems to
get out of their ‘boxes’ after system changes
– The trend to focus only on ↑ labour market rele-
vance needs to be changed to include also learner
needs
– The need to catch up with new learning theories
and modern learner-centred approaches.
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
2.6.3. Knowledge-Based Donor-Led VET
Reform Implementation
Widespread impoverishment has been the conse-
quence of change in all transition countries. In-
stitutional impoverishment in vocational educa-
tion has led to the disappearance of innovative ca-
pacities within the educational system, in partic-
ular the vocational education part of it. VET sys-
tems have been forced to focus entirely on opera-
tional day-to-day provision of education and train-
ing at the cost of development. This was also the
result of the closing down of central support sys-
tems, for ideological and financial reasons, espe-
cially those for ↑ curriculum development and in-
service teacher training in vocational education.
The building up of new support structures to re-
place the former ones has been slow. So transition
countries today lack support structures for VET.
In the ↑ ETF Yearbook 2004 and 2005 (GROOTINGS
2004; GROOTINGS / NIELSEN 2005) we have analysed
wider aspects of the impoverishment of vocational
education and training, such as the need to distin-
guish between modernisation needs and systemic
reform needs. We have also addressed the neglect-
ed position of teachers and trainers and the need to
think in terms of a double role for them in order to
bring the reform of vocational education and train-
ing forward (→ 3.4.4).
There is a dramatic lack of resources, financial and
conceptual, to rebuild the vocational education and
training system. Instead, a specific constellation of
aid and cooperation is in place. The donor commu-
nity now greatly influences whether skills devel-
opment is taken up as a policy priority, what focus
these policies take and how they are being devel-
oped and implemented. The combination of indi-
vidual memories, institutional legacies and donor
policies, in most countries, means that the key is-
sue is seen by most national stakeholders to be the
absence of funds to purchase up-to-date teaching
equipment, renovate premises and pay decent sala-
ries, in short: restore an institution that used to be
doing just fine.
VET reform processes, however, are ongoing in all
transition countries. These are ↑ donor-led and de-
signed by international experts with foreign Tech-
nical Assistance dominating the implementation in
such countries. Here local education and VET ex-
145
perts are very often employed as local experts and
as a consequence there is a quite strong familiar-
ity with EU policy frameworks (in fact often high-
er than in EU member states) (→ 2.5) as well as in-
dividual, national Western European examples of
good practice. But these development activities are
externally defined, technocratic (done with anoth-
er purpose than understanding and recognition),
and normally carried out as short-time activities
having sharp deadlines. While these activities may
provide a living for local academics, they do not
lead to the building up of professional research ca-
pacities. Educational science, incl. VET, is theory
as well as practice, and develops both knowledge
about practice and theoretical knowledge. As prac-
tice, cf. teaching, learning and guidance, it belongs
to the education system, and as theory it belongs
to the scientific system. Expressed in the German
language this difference appears clearly: education
as Erziehung (practice) and as Erziehungswissen-
schaft (theory).
There is a huge need for local theoretical understanding
– or as a minimum a solid knowledge base – of VET re-
form policy formulation and implementation in the tran-
sition countries. Too often reform designs are not em-
bedded in the existing institutional structures and for
instance in the Western Balkans there are many exam-
ples of different ↑ VET system models being implement-
ed side by side, e. g. the GTZ German dual system with
social partnership and apprenticeships alongside Anglo-
Saxon output-steered modularised credit accumulation
systems (albeit without an adequate mechanism for rec-
ognition and accreditation in place). What is still lack-
ing is a local capacity to undertake a “two-pronged anal-
ysis” (GROOTINGS 1992) which implies making a distinc-
tion between
“(a) short-term policies to cope with the acute problems
arising during the transition period, and (b) long-term
policies to sustain progress once the situation has been
more or less stabilized”.
A national capacity to carry out such analysis could fur-
thermore provide the basis for effectively defining what
collaboration and/or assistance would be most appropri-
ate in the field of VET.
The new ↑ VET policies all attempt to make voca-
tional education more skills- and less knowledge-
based and have the focus on learning outcomes (in-
itially worded as skills and more recently as com-
petences) rather than on inputs such as curricu-
lar programmes and teacher and trainer roles. The
new policies also give priority to qualifications
146
rather than processes of teaching and learning.
However, a shift is now taking place, away from an
almost exclusive focus on outcomes towards a re-
recognition of the importance of learning process-
es. Most countries are seeking to re-establish the
balance between a learning outcome-based poli-
cy and policies that focus on assuring quality of
inputs and processes. Those countries that turned
to qualifications and national qualification frame-
works during the 1980s are bringing back an atten-
tion to processes. Those countries that did not in-
troduce strict outcome-based policies are now in-
cluding elements that have become part of national
qualification frameworks, such as pathways, trans-
parency and recognition (→ 3.3.4.5; → 3.3.4.6).
This recent change also includes recognition of the
role of teachers and trainers for quality education
and training (GROOTINGS / NIELSEN 2005). It gener-
ally means a move away from a narrow – behav-
iourist – “skills” approach towards a much broad-
er “competence” concept, rooted in constructivist
learning theory. The development of ↑ new didac-
tical practices is receiving attention as well as the
search for approaches to help people develop new
competences, such as the ability to learn, to cope
with uncertainty and to be entrepreneurial. The no-
tion of “skills development” as used in the interna-
tional donor community is therefore in many ways
at odds with current discussion and policy about
modern vocational education and training and cre-
ates confusion in the communication with the ed-
ucation community. It is therefore obvious that a
stronger local research foundation is needed for
mediation of these discussions which have wide-
going ramifications in transition countries.
In sum, there is a necessity for creating local, crit-
ical research-based guidance on a number of di-
mensions in transition countries – on the input side
to VET reform to ensure fit into context, embed-
dedness and ownership, in relation to processes
to enable a better dialogue with universities on is-
sues such as new developments in learning theo-
ries, and on the output side to continuously assess
the results and wider implications of donor inter-
ventions (which are often the only developments
taking place) by way of stimulating the setting
up of independent accompanying research bodies
(Begleitforschung) enabling the countries to as-
Handbook of TVET Research
sess early on whether and to which extent reform
elements are functioning in the national context
(→ 5.4.1).
2.6.4 ETF Instruments for Developing
Local VET Expertise and Stimulating
Local
The EU, through ↑ ETF, its specialised agency for
assistance to VET reforms in transition countries
in Eastern Europe, the former Soviet Union and
North Africa and the Middle East, has supported
the development of ↑ VET research infrastructures
since the early 1990s. This section will describe
some examples as well as the development in the
underlying approaches that has occurred during
this period.
(a) National Observatory Network
ETF has set up a ↑ National Observatory Network
to contribute to broadening the existing, narrow
“internal” VET ↑ research tradition and to over-
come the difficulties in transition countries to tran-
scend existing limitations of the VET ↑ research
field. When ETF started its activities in 1996, part-
ner countries’ policymakers and other key stake-
holders had limited awareness of the potential role
that VET could play in market economy develop-
ment and its links with the emerging ↑ labour mar-
kets. Statistical data on education, training and la-
bour were scarce and unreliable. These challeng-
es were common to more or less all partner coun-
tries.
The need to strengthen local capacities in gather-
ing and analysis of information was obviously ur-
gent, and ↑ ETF adopted the approach of creating
small reference points/units (↑ National Observato-
ries) to collect, analyse and disseminate informa-
tion on VET, introduce national stakeholders to ex-
amples of best practice from the EU countries and
provide support to ETF initiatives in their respec-
tive countries.
In the 10 years since the launching of this capacity
building project, the VET landscape in the partner
countries has changed, and with that the aware-
ness of policymakers that VET provision has to
be aligned with ↑ labour market needs. Since the
creation of the Observatories their functions have
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
evolved from information providers to a much wid-
er involvement in the reform process in the coun-
try. The type of reports and analysis has evolved
from being descriptive presentations of VET de-
velopments and key indicators on a common for-
mat towards becoming more country specific in-
depth studies and analyses on the VET sector in its
broader context, in support to current and future
EU external assistance in the countries.
In most of the 10 EU New Member States the Na-
tional Observatories have proven their value by
having become the leaders of the national con-
sortia of ↑ CEDEFOP’s Referent; many have al-
so become the host for ↑ Unesco’s Unevoc Cen-
tres. This and additional insertion into internation-
al networks will need to be expanded in the com-
ing years (→ 1.7).
(b) Peer Reviews – Focus on Capacity Building
in VET Sector Policy Assessment
Since 2002 ETF has organised peer reviews in 10
countries of South Eastern Europe (www.etf.eu.int
– Peer review reports on Albania, Bosnia-Herze-
govina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Kosovo, FyR Macedo-
nia, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Turkey)
as a follow-up to the ↑ OECD education policy
reviews that were undertaken between 2000 and
2002 (OECD 2003c). ETF staff has participated
in these reviews. Whereas the OECD reviews cov-
ered the whole education and training system and
policies, the ones organised by ETF have focussed
on the VET sector and the ETF teams involved
peers from the region and from the new EU Mem-
ber States to strengthen capacities in the region for
VET reform policy analysis.
The objectives of the peer review activity combine
those of classical policy peer reviews and of the
↑ peer learning approach to capacity building:
– Provide an external assessment of VET reform
policy initiatives to national policy makers
– Improve mutual knowledge and understand-
ing of ↑ VET systems, issues and developments in
South Eastern European countries
– Promote regional networking, exchange of ex-
perience and co-operation among VET experts,
stakeholders and policymakers
147
– Increase awareness and facilitate transfer of
VET reform experience from EU member states
and candidate countries
– Contribute to the EU aid programming cycle
– Intensify co-operation between ETF and nation-
al authorities/experts from the region.
In 2005 ETF has organised a regional peer re-
view on curriculum reforms, based on a cross-
country approach with a focus on the implementa-
tion of VET curriculum reforms in four countries
in South Eastern Europe and asking the question
why, despite so much international assistance, so
little national curriculum reform was taking place.
The peers, all coming from the region, were ↑ cur-
riculum development experts but did not all have a
background in policy development. An EU expert
facilitated the work of the teams (PARKES / NIELSEN
2006).
There has been a concentrated capacity building
objective in the peer review activity. The ETF ap-
proach to peer reviews can be considered as a com-
bination of traditional peer review and more mod-
ern ↑ peer learning but also as something of a tran-
sitional approach, away from an expert-driven
knowledge-transfer model towards participatory
forms of policy learning. A critical review of prac-
tical experiences may help us to move forward on
this (→ 5.3.4; → 5.4.5).
(c) VET TT Network – towards a Community of
Practitioners around Emerging National VET
Centres in South East Europe
The reform of teacher and trainer education has
lagged behind VET curriculum reform in many
countries (→ 3.4.4). As a response ETF in 2002 set
up a regional VET TTT network in South East Eu-
rope to support innovation in teaching and learn-
ing and to establish a platform for the participat-
ing countries in a period of vast transformation in
the region.
The Network carried out trans-national develop-
ment projects in 2003; in 2004 members have joint-
ly formulated a ‘Compendium of Innovative Prac-
tice in VET TT in South-East Europe’ (www.etf.
eu.int); and in 2005 authors from the Network have
produced a ‘Catalogue on VET Teacher Training
Systems in South-East Europe’ (www.etf.eu.int).
148
However, to achieve more permanent and sustaina-
ble capacities for innovation of teaching and learn-
ing there is a need to strengthen the participating
new national VET Centres involved in the VET TT
Network which have a potential leverage for car-
rying forward ideas and projects in this field. The
ambition is to support their capacity to continuous-
ly innovate and adapt their VET systems to chang-
ing conditions, initiate innovation of teaching and
learning, and enable them to take part in interna-
tional networking and project co-operation.
A new project will link ↑ ETF’s ongoing activi-
ties in the fields of policy learning, development of
teachers as professionals and stakeholders in VET
reform and other projects and will have a focus on
how international assistance can better contribute
to sustainable reform of national education systems
(→ 2.7). Education reform can only be sustainable
if reform policies are owned by local stakehold-
ers and fit into context. This implies that ↑ local
knowledge and initiative is a key source and start-
ing point for change. The project focuses on how
to organise policy ↑ learning platforms and envi-
ronments in and between the countries. The devel-
opment approach builds on new ↑ social learning
theory as opposed to the external “expert” mod-
el. The project will test the principle of participat-
ing in ‘↑ Communities of Practice’ (WENGER 1999;
WENGER / MCDERMOTT/ SNYDER 2002) to achieve
certain learning outcomes, to qualify the ↑ profes-
sionalism of VET Centre staff and to make them
stakeholders in reform (→ 5.1.2). The relationship
between knowledge and action must begin with ac-
tion, and the project will focus on “areas of pain”,
structured so that these are clearly operation-
al and targeted to address specific needs. Knowl-
edge about action at an operational level should
also lead to action at tactical and strategic levels
in the internal organisation of participating VET
Centres. Knowledge sharing will be integrated in-
to ↑ work processes that create value for the VET
Centres (→ 5.4.7). Other ongoing ETF projects
such as the one on National Qualification Frame-
works in CIS and MEDA countries have adopted a
similar approach.
Handbook of TVET Research
2.6.5 A Parallel to the Re-Integration of the
New Member States in EU Research
Networks?
This chapter started with the barriers to ↑ research
in VET in countries under transition. As was the
case with the CEECs (now new EU member states),
also in other transition countries the ↑ research tra-
dition and the VET institutional support structure
dried up with the pressures for economic and polit-
ical change. The “platform meeting” organised by
↑ CEDEFOP in 1991(CEDEFOP 1992) with rep-
resentatives of VET research institutes from the
Czech and Slovak Republics, Bulgaria, Hungary,
Poland, Romania and the Soviet Union also today
vividly documents the tremendous difficulties fac-
ing the research communities in the early stages of
profound transition.
A lesson to be learned from the CEEC experience
is that the EU funded ↑ Research programmes and
the Education Action programmes have estab-
lished a good basis for rebuilding a more consol-
idated knowledge-based approach to VET reform
(→ 2.5). In all EU countries today ↑ HRD reforms
are ongoing under the pressure from ↑ globalisa-
tion and informatisation, so this is a particularly
rich period for trying to find common solutions to
shared challenges.
Another source of inspiration has been the involve-
ment of new EU countries in ↑ CEDEFOP research
projects. These are not open to transition countries
outside the EU but there are good opportunities
for knowledge sharing across borders, cf. the role
played by Slovenia throughout former Yugoslavia,
and the Baltic States’ potential role in the former
Soviet Union.
An interesting ‘local’ development is the creation
of “The Balkan Society for Pedagogy and Educa-
tion”, including VET, established in 1999 and or-
ganised by Thessaloniki University. The Society
organises an annual conference on substantial is-
sues like e. g. in 2004 Quality in education (TERZIS
2004). It includes researchers from all South East
European countries who have organised a network
in the Balkans and for the Balkans with an aim to
develop their own approaches. This initiative may
also be seen as a wish to articulate a response to
the Northern European and Anglo-Saxon domi-
nance in current education policy discourses and
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
can maybe also be understood from a ↑ centre-pe-
riphery philosophy? There is a refreshingly critical
tone in many of the scientific papers – and prob-
ably the time has come where we should start to
learn from the particular discourses emerging in
transition countries and together organise plat-
forms for enriching policy learning.
2.7 Development Aid and VET
Research
Godehard Köhne and Reinhard
Stockmann
Up to the 1990s ↑ TVET cooperation between in-
dustrialised countries and the so-called ↑ develop-
ing countries was hardly influenced by reliable sci-
entific knowledge, let alone a specific ↑ theory of
vocational education and training. Instead it was
almost exclusively shaped by the ↑ experiential
knowledge and the pedagogical practice of West-
ern concepts of vocational education and training.
This is confirmed, inter alia, by the numerous pub-
lications on this topic, which in part had a consid-
erable impact on TVET cooperation, but can be re-
garded as contributions to theoretical discussion
and development only to a limited extent. The ma-
jority of these studies are ex post reports on meas-
ures implemented in the context of TVET cooper-
ation or internal reports and studies commissioned
by national or international organisations, which
were explicitly not issued as scientific publications
by the contracting bodies (especially the ↑ World
Bank).
It was only recently that a growing number of con-
tributions to the theoretical debate started to be
published in the context of basic research. The
relevance of comparative TVET research (→ 1.9)
for TVET cooperation expressed in these publica-
tions can be explained by the definition of start-
ing points, e. g. support of training for the informal
↑ labour market, which cannot be implemented by
means of vocational-pedagogical experiences an-
ymore. A much stronger reason for the growing
interest in comparative TVET research, however,
seems to be the observation that the further devel-
opment of national TVET systems is possible only
149
when the existing socio-cultural, political and eco-
nomic conditions of education and training in the
relevant context are taken into account (UNESCO-
UNEVOC 1989; K ING 1990; WORLD BANK 1991;
GEORG 1997c; 2005; FREELAND 2000; DEISSINGER
2001d; UNESCO/ILO 2002; SDC 1994). The in-
creased interest also appears to have been trig-
gered by the activities of international research
institutions like the European Centre for the De-
velopment of Vocational Training (↑ CEDEFOP,
since 1975), whose mission is to contribute to the
promotion and development of vocational train-
ing in the European Union, the international Net-
work for Policy Review Research and Advice on
Education and Training (NORRAG, since 1992),
whose “Working Group” is concerned with inter-
national ↑ TVET cooperation, or the ↑ UNESCO
International Centre for Technical and Vocation-
al Education and Training (↑ UNESCO-UNEVOC,
since 2000), which has the task of supporting the
member states, especially ↑ developing countries,
in the improvement of vocational training (→ 1.8;
→ 3.3.4.6).
2.7.1 Conceptual Classification and
Thematic Distinction
Development Aid, Development Policy,
Development Cooperation
The terms “↑ development aid”, “↑ development
policy” and “development cooperation” are often
used interchangeably in political practice, but are
clearly distinguished in political discussion. “De-
velopment aid” is a term for development-related
activities of national and international institutions
as well as non-governmental organisations. “De-
velopment policy” is a heading for the develop-
mental goals and fields of activity defined by the
political agents as well as for the programmes and
strategies that serve the implementation of these
goals. Finally, “↑ development cooperation” is the
practical aspect of development policy and in-
cludes the concrete projects and programmes or
measures agreed upon between national govern-
ments or between international organisations and
states (NOHLEN 2000, 219 ff.).
150
TVET Cooperation
The term “TVET cooperation” (alternatively:
TVET aid, ↑ TVET support) is not defined in a
similar way. It includes both the services provided
for this sector of development cooperation (“TVET
aid” according to the classification above) and the
objectives, support principles and support con-
cepts formulated for this sector (“TVET support
policy”) as well as the concrete training projects,
programmes and measures.
Comparative TVET Research
“Comparison” is a fundamental technique by
means of which differences and similarities of ob-
jects and phenomena can be detected. The topics
of comparison are single phenomena from a spe-
cific social sphere, which are viewed in the con-
text of their relations with other societal domains
(GEORG 2005, 188). As the method of comparison
is used in many scientific disciplines it is no con-
stitutive element of comparative TVET research
(LAUTERBACH 2005, 46).
The topic of “TVET research” in the strict sense
is the study of “the conditions, processes and con-
sequences of the acquisition of professional qual-
ifications as well as personal and social attitudes
and orientations that appear to be relevant for the
↑ performance of occupation-based ↑ work proc-
esses” (DFG 1990, 1 [translated from German]).
Instead of this definition of TVET research, which
is focusing on the epistemic interest, a defini-
tion formulated for TVET cooperation emphasis-
es the benefit for the practice of vocational edu-
cation: “TVET research has to clarify the founda-
tions of vocational education, to establish its con-
tents and objectives and to prepare its adaptation to
technological, economic and social developments”
(RADDATZ 1999, 62 [translated from German]). A
comprehensive unfolding and documentation of
the concept of TVET research has been achieved
with the publication of the German version of the
present handbook (2005).
The term “comparative TVET research” does not
differ from TVET research in terms of subject,
mission and objective, but it refers predominantly
to internationally and interculturally ↑ comparative
studies of specific phenomena of vocational edu-
Handbook of TVET Research
cation and training in different countries (GEORG
2005, 187).
Thematic Distinction
The following remarks on TVET research focus on
studies and analyses of development cooperation
that are concerned with the selection, planning,
implementation and the impact of projects and pro-
grammes of ↑ TVET cooperation on the one hand,
and the implications of such programmes for ↑ re-
search fields in TVET research on the other.
2.7.2 Objectives of TVET Cooperation as a
Topic of TVET Research
TVET research contributes to TVET coopera-
tion in manifold ways via feasibility, implemen-
tation and ↑ evaluation studies with a view to the
development of concepts and strategies. The fo-
cus of research is currently on the topics “↑ effec-
tiveness and efficency” and “quality and ↑ quali-
ty assurance” of vocational education. The inter-
est in these topics was triggered principally by the
↑ World Bank, which, being the largest funding in-
stitution in the domain of education, not only in-
fluences the policy-making of ↑developing coun-
tries and of multilateral and bilateral funding bod-
ies, but also dominates the related research activ-
ities (BENNELL 1996, 235). The publication of the
WB Policy Paper “Vocational and Technical Edu-
cation and Training. A World Bank Policy Paper”
(WORLD BANK 1991) not only marked the begin-
ning of a reorientation of the World Bank with re-
gard to TVET cooperation, but also gave rise to
or revived fundamental debates in education poli-
cy, which continue to the present day. Despite con-
siderable criticism (cf. LAUGLO 1991, 1997; MAD-
SEN 1991; LENHART 1993; A RNOLD 1994) the Poli-
cy Paper is considered the guiding framework for
the World Bank’s TVET cooperation with devel-
oping countries until now. Many of the guidelines
and approaches endorsed by the World Bank also
made their way by and large into the relevant pol-
icy papers of international, multilateral and bilat-
eral funding bodies (cf. AUSAID 1999; IDB 2000;
UNESCO/ILO 2002; DANIDA 2004; ADB (=As-
DB) 2004; on the funding bodies’ international
TVET cooperation strategy cf. MAINTZ 2004).
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
↑ effectiveness and ↑ efficiency
The major impulse for the (renewed) investigation
of questions of the ↑ efficiency and ↑ effectiveness
of vocational education was given by the privati-
sation of TVET advocated by the World Bank as
the “most effective and efficient way to develop
the skills of the workforce” (WORLD BANK 1991,
7), and by the corresponding hypothesis of the low
cost-↑ efficiency and the lack of market orienta-
tion and adaptability of public vocational educa-
tion and training. This position is endorsed by the
World Bank with reference to the results of nu-
merous studies performed in the context of a four-
year programme of research and consultation con-
ducted by the Education and Employment Divi-
sion of the Population and Human Resources De-
partment of the World Bank, which were published
as a summary in 1993 (MIDDLETON / ZIDERMAN /
ADAMS 1993). According to these studies the ↑ effi-
ciency and ↑ effectiveness of vocational education
and training organised by public bodies or govern-
ment institutions is very low. Moreover, the exten-
sive state regulation of (formal) vocational educa-
tion is viewed by the researchers as one of the ma-
jor causes for disparities in the training and ↑ la-
bour market. According to their position, vocation-
al training is doomed to miss the qualitative and
quantitative demand of employers whenever the
state defines training contents and provides train-
ing opportunities largely without referring back to
the private enterprises. The conclusion is that it is
not the state that has to define training needs and
contents, but the private economy as the major cus-
tomer of human labour. It is not a (public) supply-
driven training approach, but a (private) demand-
driven training approach that reduces discrepan-
cies in the training and labour market (MIDDLETON /
ZIDERMAN /ADAMS 1993, 51 ff.; GILL / FLUITMAN /
DAR 2000, 4 ff.).
In order to validate its support strategy the ↑ World
Bank conducted further studies, all of which ulti-
mately confirmed the result presented by Middleton
et al. (1993) – the low ↑ efficiency and ↑ effective-
ness of vocational education and training organ-
ised by public bodies or government institutions.
They also affirmed the recommendations derived
from these findings, namely, reducing publicly
funded training, intensifying the support for train-
151
ing run by private businesses, and diversifying the
co-financing by the beneficiaries (cf. SCHWEITZER
1994; PSACHAROPOULOS 1995; GILL / FLUITMAN /
DAR 1998; 2000; CANAGARAJAH / DAR / NORDING /
RAJU 2002). Other funding institutions and TVET
researchers arrived at approximately the same re-
sults and recommendations in their studies (see,
inter alia, UNESCO-UNEVOC 1996; ATCHOARE-
NA 1996; LITH 1998a; OECD 1998; SCHIEFELBEIN /
WOLFF / SCHIEFELBEIN 1998; ATCHOARENA / ESQUIEU
2002; WOLTER / SCHWERI 2003; DESCY/ TESSARING
2005). Unlike this, Tippelt (2000, 136) and Hea-
ly (2000, 25 f.) point out that an ↑ efficiency analy-
sis of educational investments is deficient when the
benefit is defined only as the additional earnings as
a result of a higher educational investment (→ 3.5).
The reason is that analyses of this type tend to ne-
glect additional social and individual results.
The limited explanatory value of ↑ efficiency anal-
yses is further limited by insufficient knowledge
on how skills and competences can be upgraded
most effectively and utilised for economic growth
and social ↑ well-being. Finally, limits are caused
by deficits concerning available data and not
least by the difficulty of defining proxy variables
or indicators that allow for the measurement of
the ↑ efficiency of TVET systems and programmes
(cf. BERGMANN 1996; LIPSMEIER 2001; BERGHE
1996; BERGHE 1998, 35 ff.), and by the problem of
proving the effects from the influence of ↑ human
capital while excluding other factors.
There are also objections against the view that in
order to increase the ↑ efficiency and ↑ effective-
ness of vocational education, a demand-driven
training model must be given priority over a sup-
ply-driven model. A demand-driven training, ac-
cording to its critics, pays attention only to the in-
terests of business, whereas a supply-oriented ori-
ented also takes the educational aspirations of the
individual into account. Another argument against
a purely demand-oriented training is provided by
the difficulties that training providers face during
the transition from a supply-driven to a demand-
driven model for a lack of instruments and an in-
adequate preparation of their staff. This is con-
firmed by Harris (2001, 233), who, in his commen-
tary on the transition in ↑ Australia, termed the role
and function of training professionals a “hot spot”
152
for TVET research. Another argument proposed
by the critics in favour of supply-driven training
is the observation that the demand for employees
can actually be stimulated by the supply of qual-
ified workers (SCHAACK / TIPPELT 1997, 9). Howev-
er, according to King (1990, 7), Lauglo (1993, 7;
1996, 10) and de Moura Castro (1995, 4) this argu-
ment is untenable.
In his further analysis of the two concepts, de-
mand-driven training versus supply-driven train-
ing, de Moura Castro (1995) shows the limits of
demand-oriented training and argues that voca-
tional training is not just a passive response to the
changing demands of employers. He advocates
both demand-driven and supply-driven training,
even though he assigns priority to demand-driven
training. In fact this bilateral approach cannot be
avoided according to de Moura Castro/de Andrade
(1997, 103), for the assumption that the total or the
greater part of training is taken over by the private
sector is unrealistic. Lauglo (1997, 114) is pointing
in the same direction when he argues that the criti-
cal view of public vocational education and train-
ing entails the risk of romanticising the private en-
terprises’ capacity and willingness to organise and
finance vocational education. These reservations
towards the private sector were already raised by
Schweitzer (1994, 4) with the thesis that the quali-
ty and extent of training provided by employers de-
pended crucially on the rate of economic growth,
the institutional climate in the country, and incen-
tives for investments in training.
In international ↑ TVET cooperation the demand-
driven training approach has received widespread
support despite the criticisms. Nearly all multilat-
eral and bilateral funding bodies adopted this ap-
proach as a guiding principle for ↑ TVET support
in the relevant sector concepts and sector policy
papers.
Quality
The question of ↑ efficiency and ↑ effectiveness in-
evitably put the question of the quality of vocation-
al education on the agenda of political discussion.
The ↑ World Bank (1999, 47, 7) defines quality, be-
sides access and delivery, as one of the “three pil-
lars of a good education system” and assigns a key
role to quality. Quality dimensions mentioned by
Handbook of TVET Research
the World Bank, without drawing a distinction be-
tween general and vocational education, are (the
shaping of) ↑ teaching and learning processes, mo-
tivated staff, and the development of relevant cur-
ricula. The quality of teaching and learning proc-
esses depends on whether the processes are well
matched to the requirements, results and output-
oriented, and whether they are continuously moni-
tored with a view to strong ↑ quality assurance. The
quality of motivated staff is based on solid initial
training and the regular engagement in ↑ continu-
ing education, on adequate pay and career oppor-
tunities. Relevant curricula are characterised by
their flexibility and adaptability, their contribu-
tions to social development and ↑ well-being, and
by enabling the acquisition of competences suf-
ficient for the global economy. The World Bank
did not operationalise these quality requirements
by defining indicators in terms of agreed varia-
bles for the concrete (usually quantitative, qualita-
tive and temporal) description of a state of affairs
(description of problems, aims or underlying as-
sumptions) (GTZ 1989, 56). The above-mentioned
policy paper names “indicators” (cf. WORLD BANK
1991, 53 ff., 2000), but these indicators have no re-
lation whatsoever to the quality dimensions. In-
stead, they capture input or output-oriented objec-
tives like educational expenditure relative to gross
domestic product or student entry rates by educa-
tional sectors and school types. Additionally they
do not comply with the understanding of indicators
as agreed variables. Even in the latest version of
the World Bank’s strategy paper (2005) quality di-
mensions and the corresponding indicators are not
specified or described more precisely.
The little systematic analysis of quality dimensions
and criteria as well as the lacking definition of
quality indicators for general and especially voca-
tional education give evidence of the World Bank’s
obviously low interest in this topic. The same ap-
plies to the regional development banks like the
ADB and the IAD. Unlike this, the ↑ OECD and
nearly all European organisations like ↑ CEDE-
FOP, Eurostat, Eurydice and ↑ European Training
Foundation give broad attention to the identifica-
tion of quality dimensions and features as well as
to the development of indicators.
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
However, in a detailed study of the indicators de-
veloped by the various organisations up to 1998
van den Berghe (1998, 27 ff.) comes to the con-
clusion that the major part of the educational in-
dicators available at the international level refers
to the system of general education and is descrip-
tive in nature (BERGHE 1998, 46). In order to as-
sess and improve the quality, indicators are re-
quired that should be carefully designed yard-
sticks with sufficient information on appropriate
↑ quality criteria and on the quality requirements
that have to be met (BERGHE 1998, 26). Examples
of this kind of indicator and methodological steps
for the development of quality indicators are given
by van den Berghe in his further discussion (BER-
GHE 1998, 50 ff.). Stahl/ Severing (2002) also have
analysed European concepts of quality assurance
in vocational education and training. They criticise
the fact that in the quality debate a considerable
transnational exchange of theories, concepts and
practical examples is still absent (STAHL / SEVERING
2002, 35). Moreover, the quality debate, according
to the authors’ conclusion, remains confined until
now to a discussion on systems of criteria and on
norms and ↑ quality management issues. It is on-
ly occasionally that a debate on the development
of specific substantial criteria for vocational-ped-
agogical practice takes place. Accordingly proce-
dures and criteria for the evaluation of teaching
and learning processes have hardly made their way
into the quality debate to this day (STAHL / SEVERING
2002, 44).
It is less aspects of quality, but rather issues of
comparability that are in the focus of a study by
Freeland (2000) on the OECD publication “Edu-
cation at a Glance – OECD Indicators”, which was
first published in 1992 and has been regularly up-
dated since then. A fundamental shortcoming of
this kind of study, according to Freeland, is that
their scope is too narrow as they cover almost ex-
clusively structures and features of the TVET sys-
tem whilst cultural particularities are largely ig-
nored. Besides, studies of this type have the ten-
dency to generalise data, which leads to the im-
pression that the countries in question are equal
and the data collected are comparable (FREE-
LAND 2000, 14). Freeland objects to this simpli-
fication, for in his view factors like the given re-
153
source allocation, skill endowments, government
structure, social and cultural composition and the
↑ labour market operations have a crucial influence
on the results of international ↑ comparative stud-
ies (FREELAND 2000, 17 ff.; see also K ING 1993;
GEORG 1997c; DEISSINGER 2001d). Methodological
problems of scope or coverage, categorisation and
measurement also have effects on the results. De-
spite these possible shortcomings Freeland argues
in favour of international comparative studies as
studies carried out on the national level only would
bring about considerably less information for de-
cisions in education policy. Freeland’s position is
supported by other TVET researchers like Tessar-
ing (1999) and, emphatically, Lauterbach (1995–
2005; 2001).
Discussions about quality aspects of vocational ed-
ucation and training are a major topic in ↑ TVET
cooperation on the European level (→ 2.5). The im-
petus was given by the strategic goal set by the Eu-
ropean Council in March 2000 in Lisbon to make
the European Union the most competitive and dy-
namic knowledge-based economy in the world by
2010 (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2000). To
achieve this goal the heads of state and chief ex-
ecutives of the Union called for a programme to
modernise the education systems and decided in
March 2002 in Barcelona to make the European
education and training systems a world quality ref-
erence by 2010 (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
2002b). The necessary measures will be based on
the three fundamental principles quality improve-
ment, facilitation of access for all and opening to-
wards the world. The call for quality improvement
in vocational education and training was affirmed
in the decision of the European Council of De-
cember 2002 and the declaration of the responsi-
ble European ministers on enhanced cooperation
in vocational training of November 2002. Since
then ↑ quality assurance, under the keyword “↑ Co-
penhagen process”, is a focus of European ↑ TVET
policy. In 2002 a permanent working group on in-
dicators and ↑ benchmarks was established, in 2003
a technical working group on quality in VET, and
in 2005 the European network on quality assur-
ance in vocational education and training.
A further proof of the current relevance of quali-
ty assurance in vocational education is the “Work
154
Programme 2006” of CEDEFOP (2006c). Accord-
ing to this programme the “achievement of high
quality and innovation in the vocational educa-
tion and training systems” is one of the four focal
points of the mid-term priorities 2006–2008. The
associated ↑ research programme “Quality Assur-
ance in Vocational Education and Training” aims
to improve cooperation in this domain by support-
ing the work programme of the newly established
European network on quality assurance in voca-
tional education and training, and by communicat-
ing, implementing and testing the Common Qual-
ity Assurance Framework (CEDEFOP 2006c, 39).
Special activities that are explicitly mentioned in
the work programme with regard to these prior-
ities and focal points are the projects “Statistics
and Indicators” as well as “Quality Assurance in
Vocational Education and Training” (CEDEFOP
2006c, 16; 39).
The ↑ OECD also increasingly directs its atten-
tion to the quality of education and training and
supplements its system of indicators with indica-
tors to record the ↑ performance of students and
the competences of teachers as well as the quali-
ty of ↑ teaching and learning processes (cf. OECD
1994; 2004c; 2006). Nevertheless indicators for
the quantitative measurement of e. g. ↑ participa-
tion in education, educational expenditure or ed-
ucational outcomes dominate, especially with re-
gard to general education. This applies also to in-
dicators that were developed in the context of the
“World Education Indicators” project set up jointly
by the OECD and UNEVOC in 1997 (→ 5.4).
In international TVET cooperation, quality is-
sues in terms of quality assurance and ↑ quality de-
velopment are still of relatively little importance
(ARNOLD / FABER / PRZYKLENK / WIECKENBERG 2001,
62). However, it has actually to be expected that
also in ↑ developing countries there will be an in-
creasing tendency to subordinate education to “ra-
tionalisation” (RIBOLITS 2006, 9) or “functionali-
sation” (GONON 2003, 15) in economic terms. Ac-
cordingly the interest in procedures and instru-
ments of ↑ quality assurance and development in
education and training can be expected to increase
in these countries as well.
Arnold, Faber and Wieckenberg (2001) investigat-
ed the question how a ↑ quality management sys-
Handbook of TVET Research
tem had to be organised that suited not only the
conditions of education and training providers, but
also the specific needs of ↑ TVET cooperation. The
aim was to develop a quality concept with a sim-
ple approach and a manageable set of instruments
(ARNOLD / FABER / PRZYKLENK / WIECKENBERG 2001,
62). As a result of their studies they worked out
a quality model and presented it to the public to-
gether with guidelines for its application (A RNOLD /
FABER / PRZYKLENK / WIECKENBERG 2001, 59–94; see
also ARNOLD 2002, 67–133). Thus an integrated
concept for the introduction and application of ap-
proaches to quality assurance in TVET research is
available for the first time.
2.7.3 Strategic Developmental Goals of
TVET Cooperation as a Topic of
TVET Research
Until recently “development” was equated with
economic development, and well trained skilled
workers were regarded as a prerequisite for bal-
anced economic development (cf. BMZ 1993, 29).
Accordingly development cooperation and TVET
cooperation were above all committed to the estab-
lishment of a viable economy. Since the worldwide
adoption of the Millennium Declaration of the
↑ United Nations in 2000 (UNITED NATIONS 2000),
however, the reduction of poverty is not only a pri-
mary goal of ↑ development cooperation; instead,
all measures and programmes have to serve the ob-
jective of poverty reduction.
Economic Development
For decades ↑ TVET support has been based on
considerations of ↑ human capital theory, whose
basic idea is appealingly simple: investments in
the acquisition of knowledge, skills and compe-
tences lead to higher individual benefits in terms
of income as well as corporate and social utility in
terms of increasing productivity and/or a moderni-
sation of society. In order to demonstrate the rela-
tionship between educational investments and de-
velopment predominantly macro- and microecom-
ic analyses are carried out. The greatest success
has been in confirming the relationship between
educational investments and income at the individ-
ual level. In developed countries as well as in less
Research in Relation between VET Policy, Planning and Practice
developed countries microeconomic studies show
that income rises with higher ↑ educational attain-
ments (cf. BÜCHTEMANN / SCHUPP /SOLOFF 1993, 16).
The effects of education and training on the eco-
nomic development of a country, on the other hand,
are still disputed, as is the question what macroeco-
nomic growth effects are associated with training
and to what extent the competitiveness of a national
economy is improved (cf. TIMMERMANN 1996, 212;
TIMMERMANN / GRAFF 1995, 339 ff.; VEICHTLBAUER /
SCHLÖGL 2001, 15; GEORG 2005, 95).
What is clear anyhow is that a simple causal mech-
anism according to which investments in educa-
tion and training promote economic development
and growth does not exist. Obviously other factors
have to come into play, e. g. a reliable system of
law with actionable legal sanctions; cultural ori-
entations like industriousness, openness to innova-
tions and entrepreneurship; a well-functioning ↑ la-
bour market with opportunities for qualified work-
ers; and, of course, an educational system that fea-
tures a sufficient degree of ↑ efficiency and ade-
quate access options.
These factors are hardly ever taken into consider-
ation in economic analyses. What is almost com-
pletely neglected is the meso level, the level of or-
ganisations and enterprises. Although this level
appears particularly important as it could estab-
lish a connection between the macro and micro
levels, the question of corporate benefits of edu-
cation and training is the one that is least investi-
gated (see BÜCHTEMANN / SCHUPP /SOLOFF 1993, 17).
This is astonishing especially because enterprises
should have a greater interest in the evaluation of
educational investments given a production culture
that relies intensively on ↑ human capital. Moreo-
ver, the founders of human capital theory, Mincer
(1958) and Becker (1964) were originally only in-
terested in the benefits of ↑ in-company training.
In order to analyse the effects of TVET co-oper-
ation, mainly programme evaluations are carried
out. As there is an extreme lack of valid and relia-
ble data in most ↑ developing countries due to miss-
ing or underperforming institutions for the pro-
curement of information, it is as a rule not possi-
ble to determine macroeconomic effects, but it can
be assessed whether the objectives of the projects
were achieved and what non-intentional effects
155
have occurred. Unfortunately at present there are
only a few effect-related studies with an accepta-
ble methodological standard. These can show that
the enterprises and trainees involved in vocational
training measures benefit from the latter, but that
large-scale systemic reforms are successful only
in rare cases. Existing structures can be changed
in accordance with the aims of the programmes in
question only superficially and in a few selected do-
mains (e. g. single occupations, sectors or venues)
(cf. STOCKMANN 1992; STOCKMANN 1996; GREINERT /
HEITMANN / STOCKMANN 1997; STOCKMANN / MEYER /
K RAPP /KÖHNE 2000).
Further results from ↑ evaluation research suggest
the conclusion that few programmes of TVET co-
operation so far reach the most impoverished parts
of the population. With regard to formal vocation-
al education and training this was to be expected
because it presupposes the very qualifications that
poor people lack. Nevertheless there are also stud-
ies that can demonstrate a distinct poverty-orienta-
tion of certain TVET projects (see DÖRRENBECHER
2001 for the Philippines).
From the available evaluation results some conclu-
sions for TVET co-operation can be drawn. Suc-
cessful projects and programmes are characterised
by the fact
– that they are in compliance with the aims of the
partners, their institutional and organisational ca-
pabilities as well as with the predominant socio-
cultural values, norms and structures,
– that they were piloted by field studies investigat-
ing the different levels and domains of support and
the connections between them,
– that they are equipped with adequate monitor-
ing and evaluation systems for the project manage-
ment,
– that measures are carried out at different levels
(e. g. consulting at the systemic level and ↑ pilot
projects at the implementation level).
Poverty Reduction
Since the beginning of this century both nation-
al and international ↑ development policy and co-
operation are facing a need for reorientation. The
worldwide adoption of the Millennium Declara-
tion of the ↑ United Nations in September 2000
and the Millennium Development Goals that were
156 Handbook of TVET Research

agreed upon in September 2001 in order to imple- of indicators; the definitions and methods of oper-
ment the declaration have created an unprecedent- ationalisation differ; and a single methodological
ed basis and political ↑ commitment for global de- framework is absent.
velopment policy. Since then numerous govern- Moreover, the question should be examined wheth-
ments and international organisations have orient- er the concentration of the research perspective on
ed their development policy and cooperation to- the costs of vocational education and on the de-
wards the achievement of the Millennium Devel- mand-oriented ↑ labour market approach as ad-
opment Goals (UNITED NATIONS 2000; 2001). vocated by the ↑ World Bank can still be justified
Given this background a programmatic reorien- in the face of mass unemployment and underem-
tation has to be defined for ↑ TVET cooperation, ployment, especially given the Millennium Goals.
which has experienced an unmistakable loss of im- The inclusion of impoverished economies, the so-
portance in comparison with earlier decades: nei- called informal sector, the expansion of the ↑ terti-
ther in the Millennium Development Goals nor in ary sector – which offers additional employment
the associated ↑ benchmarks is there any explicit opportunities especially to women – and the con-
reference to vocational education. A justification sideration of vocational education as a cross-cut-
for the support of vocational education is thus pos- ting theme in the course of institution building
sible only indirectly by assuming that vocational seem indispensable.
education contributes to the superior goal of re- Closer cooperation between TVET research and
ducing poverty (WORLD BANK 1999; BMZ 2005a; funding institutions could not only contribute to
BMZ 2005b; UNESCO 2006). analysing central development issues and using
To what extent this assumption is correct and how the results for the conception of policy papers and
the realisation of programmes, but also lead to the
programmes of TVET cooperation have to be or-
consequence that vocational education and train-
ganised in order to work as effectively, efficiently
ing is once again assigned greater importance in
and sustainably as possible are fundamental ques-
↑ development aid.
tions for vocational education and ↑ training re-
search. In this respect effect-related programme
evaluations with sophisticated methodological
designs seem to be more appropriate than mac-
ro and microeconomic studies, which so far pro-
vided hardly any insight into the effects of TVET
co-operation. What is missing is above all longi-
tudinal analyses as well as research projects on
the long-term scientific monitoring of TVET pro-
grammes. Any research on this topic furthermore
suffers from a shortage of reliable data. The set-
ting up of a reporting system on education as well
as the qualification of the necessary staff are as ur-
gent as the extension of existing systems to con-
tents from vocational education and training and
qualitative indicators, which also necessitates the
consideration of the different levels (micro, meso,
macro) of agency. In order to secure the compara-
bility of systems of indicators that allow not only
for the measurement of quantity, but also for the
assessment of the quality of vocational training
programmes, considerable efforts with regard to
information and coordination are still necessary.
At present there is no generally accepted catalogue
 Section 3:
Areas of TVET Research

3.1 The Development of Occupations

Morgan Lewis/Georg Spöttl
3.2 Research in the Vocational Disciplines
Jörg-Peter Pahl/Felix Rauner
3.3 VET Systems Research
Thomas Deißinger
3.4 VET Planning and Development
Jeroen Onstenk

3.5 Cost, Benefit and Financing VET

Robert Lerman
3.6 Occupational Work and Competence Development
Martin Fischer/Nick Boreham
3.7 VET Didactik
Lorna Unwin
3.8 Shaping Work and Technology
Paul Oehlke/Peter Brödner
Areas of VET Research
3.1.0 The Development of Occupations
Morgan Lewis/Georg Spöttl
3.1.0.1 Introduction
How (→ 3.1.1) occupations develop is a basic ↑ re-
search question because the phenomenon “Occu-
pation” (DOSTAL 2005) and the qualifications re-
quired for it are not the only solution for the tasks
to be completed by skilled workers in industry
and trade. There are alternative ways to attain
these qualifications and they are taken in practice.
Dostal, undoubtedly one of the most prominent re-
searchers on occupations, has referred to the com-
plexity and the ambiguity of the simple term “oc-
cupation” (cf. DOSTAL 2005, 105 f.). Luther’s work
(1483 to 1546) at the latest made the term occu-
pation, and the secular comprehension of occupa-
tion, subjects of public discussion and of numer-
ous interpretations ever since. Luther’s predomi-
nant achievement was that he used the words oc-
cupation and ↑ vocation for secular tasks (vocatio
externa), for an office, a status and for activities
in the world (cf. WOLF 1969, 154 f.). He thus over-
came the close bond between occupation and the
clergy in the sense of a “vocation” by God’s call.
A closer look at current developments obviously
reveals a “↑ professionalisation” of occupational
work (→ 3.3.3.2). This concerns not only the con-
solidation of higher ranking and ultimately aca-
demic occupations – as is often found in American
sociology. It is rather about a “professionalisation”
of “practical work” as a special form of ↑ perform-
ance within society. In this light, international dis-
cussion falls short in its reflection on “occupation”.
Occupation is mostly reduced to productive work
and ↑ employability without taking into consider-
ation the relevant social implications (→ 3.1.2).
The latter, however, are of special relevance in vo-
cational education and training: access to social
structures and competency development in order
to guarantee a co-shaping of society as a statement
of education.
The study of Vocational Education and Training
without ↑ qualification research is unimaginable.
Qualification research, on the other hand, has to
span work, industrial and handicraft skilled work
159
up to the development of curricula which also con-
siders the shaping of learning processes. All types
of determinism regardless of its nature must be
avoided. This line of argumentation is very impor-
tant as meanwhile vocational education and train-
ing discusses a work-oriented turning point in vo-
cational education as a matter of course (cf. GEORG
1996a, 637; FISCHER 2003a, 7). Thus the access to
↑ occupational profiles and curricula is well ac-
cepted (→ 3.4.1). The focus is laid on “one of the
pillars” as there are other parameters which are al-
so highly relevant for the shaping of ↑ occupation-
al profiles, such as the socially relevant demands
for education. In order to formulate a basis for the
shaping of Vocational Education and Training it is
important to discuss the challenges in the world
of work. Based on this, a common coherence be-
tween educational and employment systems and
other “external” factors can be determined. This is
one of the prerequisites for the development of oc-
cupational profiles which are socially acceptable
by reconciling educational interests and the inter-
ests of the “real society”. This statement, however,
is tantamount to the fact that the old logics of the
shaping of occupational profiles are exhausted and
have to be re-structured (→ 3.1.3).
Competency development for the ↑ performance of
↑ occupational tasks is the second central pillar of
occupation and vocational education. An occupa-
tion is determined by many dimensions and cannot
be reduced to performed work and specific voca-
tional qualifications. Such a reduction hampers vo-
cational education in the closer sense and must be
overcome by dealing with this issue as an ↑ inter-
disciplinary mission. It is not surprising, therefore,
that ↑ occupational research has not advanced for
many years because it cannot be performed mono-
disciplinarily. The existing social-scientific or oc-
cupational-scientific ↑ research methods are appli-
cable in a very limited way even though they have
often taken up these themes (cf. DOSTAL 2005,
105 ff.). Neither university-based vocational-ped-
agogical research nor scientific research has yet
160
been able to promote occupational research to a
specific position. It remains unclear whether cur-
rent, newly established occupational-scientific re-
search will succeed in reaching this target. Cur-
rently the following basic questions of occupation-
al research (→ 3.2) are being discussed:
– Analysis and systematisation of occupational
↑ work tasks and ↑ work processes as well as the
corresponding means of work;
– The shaping of occupations and the design for
↑ occupational fields;
– Working and learning and the shaping of their
interrelationship;
– Change in occupations and the layouts for oc-
cupations as well as the ↑ classification of occupa-
tions;
– Qualification and competency;
– The transition from general education schools to
vocational education and training and from educa-
tion to the working life;
– Change in work and occupations in a globalized
world and
– Early recognition of a need for qualification and
occupational prognoses.
This overall orientation of occupational scientific
research does not encompass all important themes
of vocational educational scientific research – i.e.
↑ status allocation, a sociological or philosophi-
cal and/or culture-specific reflection on occupa-
tions do not play a role. Nevertheless, important
fields are included that can be accessed via empiri-
cal approaches. The articles in this section demon-
strate this in an impressive way. Overall, vocation-
al educational, scientific research can be conceived
as research relying on empirical discussion of the
world of work, i.e. research trying to achieve quali-
tative-empirical access to industrial and handicraft
(skilled) work. The insights such research yields
can inform and advise vocational educational pol-
itics designed to shape the occupational profiles,
curricula, and learning and teaching processes that
are needed for qualification and competency de-
velopment (cf. BECKER / SPÖTTL 2006, 1 ff.).
Howe (2005) concentrates his discussion of ↑ his-
torical research on occupational fields and under-
lines the importance of occupational structures
and profiles. The question of the timeliness of oc-
cupations plays a central role. Surveys into the his-
Handbook of TVET Research
tory of occupational fields or individual occupa-
tions play a minor role in vocational ↑ educational
research. If occupational structures will continue
to be of great importance in the German-speaking
countries – and this is not yet foreseeable – it is ev-
ident that historically oriented research on occupa-
tional fields will still be pursued (→ 1.9). If this is
not the case and if other structures for the ordering
of initial and further training will be implement-
ed, e. g. via the ↑ modularisation and the Europe-
an Qualification Framework, very basic questions
on the relevance of occupational fields vs. clus-
ter methods or sector approaches would have to
be clarified. Particularly interesting links are pro-
vided by the historical vocational educational re-
search that has intensively discussed the develop-
ment of the dual vocational training system, indus-
try-typical training of apprentices, handicraft mas-
ter training and others and this has presented plen-
tiful results. If developments in occupational struc-
tures are to be maintained in the German-speaking
countries, research on ↑ occupational fields could
join in for the sake of continuity. Structural chang-
es towards an Anglo-Saxon orientation could lead
to a concentration of surveys that discuss the proc-
esses of change and describe the contrasts between,
what is new and different in a global strategy for
vocational education and training. In the first case,
vocational educational scientific and educational
scientific research will be of major importance be-
cause the (occupational) world of work and the in-
dividual are the centres of interest (BECKER / SPÖTTL
2006 and BUCHMANN / HUISINGA 2006).
3.1.0.2 The Vocational Educational Scientific
Approach
The vocational educational, scientific approach
deals with access to work, ↑ work processes,
change in work and the related implications. The
results can be used for conclusions with regard to
the need for qualifications, qualification and occu-
pation profiles, curricula shaping and the conse-
quences for learning processes.
The (occupational) educational scientific approach
to ↑ qualification research is based on the fact that
the perspective of insight into ↑ curriculum research
and ↑ curriculum development and/or ↑ curriculum
design must aim at the safeguarding of subject de-
Areas of VET Research
velopment and evolvement. This can, however, not
be guaranteed and societally accounted for with-
out the foundation of an empirically secured need
assessment of concrete work capacities. Socially
necessary work capacities are the result of com-
plex configurations based on technological, eco-
nomic, legal and social developments (→ 3.1.1).
It is likely that the “research on early recognition”
of a need for qualification will play a predominant
role in the future. There are at least two approach-
es:
(a) Prognosis and prospective vocational education-
al research (cf. GROLLMANN 2005a; LENEY/ COLES /
GROLLMANN / VILU 2004; SCHMIDT / STEEGER 2004;
SCHMIDT, S. L. 2003).
(b) ↑ Research approaches with a focus on ↑ voca-
tional educational science (WINDELBAND / SPÖTTL
2003a; 2003b SPÖTTL / WINDELBAND 2003, 2006;
HÖPFNER / SPÖTTL / WINDELBAND 2007).
Prognostic research and research on prospectivity
in vocational education began by dealing with the
future of vocational education in the 1960s. That
research aimed at providing an empirically secured
contribution to the planning of vocational educa-
tion. There has been a long-standing argument on
whether prognostic research is able to yield relia-
ble results for the future along with the necessary
future openness. Among the roots of prognostic re-
search may at least be counted classical ↑ educa-
tional planning and the educational economy, the
assessment of the consequences of technology and
economic and social scientific prognosis research
as well as industry sociological research and their
numerous varieties. Step by step this research ap-
proach has been criticized from various sides re-
sulting in a “prospective turning point” based on
an openness to the ↑ shaping of work and technolo-
gy and thus “relativising” the prognosis approach-
es (cf. MARTIN / RAUNER 1988).
A mixed form of the prognosis and prospective
approaches was common at the beginning of this
decade within the European network FREQENZ
that relied on the early recognition of a need for
qualification and the identification of new employ-
ment fields. The results of these studies ultimately
concentrate above all on trend estimations. At the
same time a vocational educational, scientifically
oriented approach to early recognition of a need
161
for qualification was developed which was orient-
ed towards an assessment of qualitative changes in
the ↑ labour market rather than to long-term trends
(→ 4). Mid-term changes were identified and thor-
oughly screened for content requirements with the
need for qualification. This approach aimed both
at fields with a need for qualification and the reac-
tion thereon with a view to the shaping of ↑ occu-
pational profiles. Thus it clearly goes deeper than
FREQENZ in terms of content challenges by fo-
cussing on domain orientation. The vocational ed-
ucational, scientific approach of early recognition
thus gains special importance as it delves consid-
erably deeper into the discussion of the object, ul-
timately the future relevant domains, than the
FREQENZ surveys and even sociological ↑ quali-
fication research. The difference with regard to so-
ciological qualification research results from the
different perception of the term qualification (cf.
MICKLER 2005, 130). Sociological qualification re-
search does not marginally deal with the quality of
work incorporated into the ↑ work tasks (→ 3.1.5).
Instead it concentrates on the technical and organ-
isational working conditions within a socio-tech-
nical system of an enterprise. With regard to the
analysis of the qualification requirements, indus-
try-sociological research adhered to Hacker (1973)
and eventually developed four kinds of require-
ments for work capacity: sensomotoric behav-
iour, perceptive experienced behaviour, require-
ments for thinking in a sense of diagnostic-plan-
ning behaviour, and work motivation (cf. MICKLER
2005, 131). The basic challenges of work can be
described with these tools; however, it cannot de-
scribe how the contents of an ↑ occupational profile
should be shaped. The question of the development
of occupations and occupational profiles is thus not
a question of development per se but an intensive
discussion of different ↑ research approaches and
their contributions to the development of occupa-
tional profiles.
162
3.1.1 Occupational Research
Werner Dostal
3.1.1.1 Development of Occupational
Research
Occupations, ↑ professions and trades have been
described and evaluated in art, literature and the
sciences for thousands of years. In traditional ↑ his-
torical research the relevance of occupations and
trades to historical events is mostly underestimat-
ed, but with the new trend of reflecting the eco-
nomic and social background of political events,
occupations and trades have attained a new rel-
evance. In Germany, there was a tradition of de-
scriptive occupational analysis in the early 20th
century (see e. g. MOLLE 1968) that showed the
need for a scientific framework for the allocation
of the phenomena which had been described. This
was the beginning of ↑ occupational research as an
↑ interdisciplinary field which cut across the scien-
tific landscape.
At first, the situation was very unsatisfactory.
The topics of occupational interest were covered
only as marginal elements within several branch-
es of research most of which were uncoordinated.
In 1967, occupational research was institutional-
ised in Germany as the Institute for Employment
Research (Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufs-
forschung, IAB). Parallel to it, vocational ↑ train-
ing research in Germany was institutionalised as
the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and
Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildungsforsc-
hung, BBF, later integrated into the Bundesinstitut
für Berufsbildung, BiBB).
In the early years, occupational research did not
have a solid basis in a shared understanding of its
topics.
“Systematical and comprehensive approaches for a sci-
entific analysis of the complex phenomenon of occupa-
tions and trades are not available up to now ... ‘Occupa-
tional Research’ is today only a global definition for all
those scientific activities which deal in any form with
questions referring to occupations at all or with specific
trades and professions” (FENGER 1968, 328).
In the period since those words were written, we
have experienced 35 years of occupational re-
search. Many theories and methods have been de-
Handbook of TVET Research
veloped and numerous findings presented (see
the overview on the results in MERTENS 1988 and
K LEINHENZ 2002). This article provides a short
overview of the concepts and findings of occupa-
tional research, concentrating on the details that
are relevant from an employment and ↑ labour mar-
ket perspective. The connection between occupa-
tional research, on the one hand, and vocational
education and training research, on the other hand,
is also addressed.
3.1.1.2 Definition of the Term “Occupation”
It is first necessary to clarify the meanings of
the different phenomena (see DOSTAL / STOOSS /
TROLL 1998): The notion “Occupation” in German
is much more comprehensive than it is in Eng-
lish. In German, it includes “Profession”, “Trade”,
“Job”, “Career” and “↑ Vocation”. So it is difficult
to transfer this German notion to a relevant un-
derstanding in English. A further problem arises
in that the notion “Occupation” has both vernac-
ular and technical, scientific usage. An analysis
of the available literature shows a specific multi-
disciplinary understanding of the multiple defini-
tions and interpretations of the several notions in
the field of occupations (see Survey 1 in DOSTAL /
STOOSS / TROLL 1998, 442). Belonging to an occu-
pation means not only playing a certain role in em-
ployment or having received specific professional
training, but far more importantly, it is central to
the allocation of the individual in society. Occupa-
tional and professional allocation seems to be a ba-
sic human right. The following aspects are of cen-
tral relevance:
– Freedom in the choice of an occupation as the
basis for the free development of the personality
(Basic Law in Germany, Art. 2 and 12)
– Occupation as a core element in the planning of
life (see CRUSIUS / WILKE 1979)
– Occupation and trades as instruments for struc-
turing society (BECK / BRATER / DAHEIM 1980)
– Occupation and ↑ profession stabilisation and ex-
trapolation of social patterns (HESSE 1972)
– Occupation as a basis for social allocation in so-
ciety (CRUSIUS / WILKE 1979)
– Guarantee of job status (previously a given in
German law, today this is no longer valid)
Areas of VET Research
– Occupation as a collection of values in an em-
ployment society (BECK 1996)
– Working life using professional competences
(MAIER 1996)
The multiple dimensions shaping occupation make
it impossible to come to a short and simple defini-
tion. A reduction to job tasks or specific profes-
sional competence is not sufficient. Gathering the
several descriptive elements relevant for a single
occupation in a modular form may show the com-
plexity of the occupation, but far more relevant
are the interrelationships of these elements, which
leads to a new quality. And only this comprehen-
sive understanding is able to give occupation its
special meaning, one which enables the individual
to find a personal and social identification. Occu-
pation in this definition is not just the sum of mod-
ular elements independent of each other, but main-
ly the integration , the cement which puts together
an organic structure and becomes a bearable an-
chor for the identification of the individual.
Out of the many dimensions which constitute oc-
cupation the most important will be quoted:
– Job tasks and activities
– Qualification, experience and essential compe-
tence
– Work procedures and techniques employed
– Relevant tools
– Materials and products influencing job ↑ per-
formance
– Area of activity in the plant
– Regional location and milieu of work and
– Branch of economic activity
– Position within the hierarchy of the establish-
ment
– ↑ Occupational status, ↑ professional status
– ↑ Mobility of entrance and leaving
In the ↑ occupational research of the IAB, occupa-
tion is defined by the following dimensions (see
HENNINGES / STOOSS / TROLL 1976; HOFBAUER / STOOSS
1977; STOOSS / TROLL 1988, DOSTAL / STOOSS / TROLL
1998):
– Integrated bundle of qualifications in a charac-
teristic pattern of knowledge and social compe-
tence.
– task areas relevant for these qualification pat-
terns and characterised by a specific combination
of tools, objects and work environment.
163
– scope of activity which is defined on the basis
of hierarchical position. It emerges from the func-
tional combination of the demand side (job, estab-
lishment) with the supply side (job holder). It is
fostered by occupational status, organisational unit
and the specific milieu of work.
– Allocation of the structural and evaluative as-
pects of an occupation in the patterns of society.
Early investigations of the multidimensional struc-
ture of occupation, its historical relevance and its
current pressure for adaptation to changes in em-
ployment and society revealed a complexity which
could not be served by such a global definition.
So it was necessary to simplify the definition and
concentrate on “the performance of job activi-
ties … as the dominant dimension of occupation”
(HENNINGES / STOOSS / TROLL 1976, 6). But the struc-
tural change of work caused by automation and in-
formatisation makes it difficult to recognize job
activities through observation. So additional ele-
ments, such as the following, became more impor-
tant (see DOSTAL / STOOSS / TROLL 1998, 447 ff.):
– Emancipatory function of a job
– Social and personal identification through occu-
pation
– Social stability as a result of closed ↑ professions
– Ethical aspects while performing a job
It becomes clear that occupation, when seen in the
broad sense, has a core function of describing tasks
and activities in an employment system with a high
rate of labour division, while also covering addi-
tional elements like social allocation and the ac-
ceptance of a specific professional responsibility.
These elements have deep historical roots (see e. g.
HESSE 1972) but there is a need to regularly update
and redefine the concept (DOSTAL / STOOSS / TROLL
1998).
The driving forces in labour and in society, e. g.
employers, associations, political institutions, la-
bour offices, vocational training establishments,
need aggregate notions and models on a low lev-
el of complexity. Only those simple but also sharp
definitions are suitable for orientation, action and
evaluation of employment and training. The notion
of “occupation” was able to perform this function
for a long time, especially in order to comprise the
complexity of labour for peripheral areas on a sim-
ple and understandable level. In career choice it is
164
especially important to evaluate the alternatives in
training and application of skills in a job chosen
for the future. The clearer the picture of a single
occupation, the better are the possibilities for a re-
sponsible occupational choice that includes a de-
cision about optimal vocational education. After-
wards this picture can facilitate the step from edu-
cation into employment and further orientation in a
career and in society as well.
Thus occupation is a central concept that applies to
individuals both in working life and society. Occu-
pations carry specific images, have their own rank-
ings, and send signals for income, evaluation and
development for individuals inside the employ-
ment system and outside as well.
3.1.1.3 Occupational Research as an
Interdisciplinary Task
The multiple notion of occupation does not allow
a single-discipline interpretation. In several ↑ re-
search traditions, occupation is allocated as a soci-
ological factor (see some recent positions in KURTZ
2001), but there are other relevant disciplines.
↑ Occupational research covers a whole scale, be-
ginning at the one end with research on vocational
education and training, at the other with research
on employment and the ↑ labour market. Both ends
have large capacities of personnel and funds while
occupational research, in between the two, has low
budgets. This situation results in a sort of gravita-
tion towards the ends which makes it difficult to
preserve autonomy for the core of occupational re-
search.
Research on vocational education and training
dominates with its long tradition of working on
occupational competence and with occupations in
general. On the one hand this research is concen-
trated in the BIBB (elaborating the concepts of the
Dual Vocational Education, which is dominant in
Germany), on the other hand it occurs in univer-
sity faculties for pedagogics of vocational train-
ing (education of the teachers for the ↑ vocational
schools). Both are active in occupational research
on qualifications and skills.
Compared to these big players no other scientif-
ic actors in the field of occupational research have
any quantitative significance in Germany. Some
work is performed in ↑ ergonomics, some in em-
Handbook of TVET Research
ployment research, some in psychology or in ↑ sta-
tistics. But at the core of occupational research in
Germany we find at best not more than about 20
scientists.
3.1.1.4 Central Topics of Occupational
Research
At present occupational research contains the fol-
lowing central topics:
Analysis and Classification of Tasks, Activities
and Tools
As performed in descriptive occupational analy-
sis, jobs can be characterised by the relevant tasks,
activities and tools used in different occupations.
This depends on analysis, classification and eval-
uation. The broad literature about work and voca-
tional skills, about the organisational structure of
employment and all further details of work in so-
ciety can be used as a basic stock of information.
Empirical work offers further knowledge. The in-
struments mainly used are observation and inter-
views. Interviewees are workers and employees,
who are asked about their own occupational ac-
tivities, and other people, such as managers, col-
leagues or customers. The results of such empir-
ical work are monographs on single occupations
that describe the multiple dimensions of work and
work environments. The new possibilities of multi-
media can bring a better understanding by includ-
ing audio visual elements.
At present the results of descriptive occupational
analysis can be found in the “BerufeNET” of the
German Federal Employment Agency (Bundesa-
gentur für Arbeit), presented on the internet (www.
arbeitsagentur.de) and in a large variety of special
publications. The step from descriptive matters to
research analysis begins with classifying, com-
pressing, evaluating and structuring these basic
data about occupations.
This sort of research attempts to make more com-
prehensible the details of the manifold landscape
of occupations. The customers for this research
are people making career choices, career advi-
sors, and teachers, as well as professional associa-
tions, placement agencies, social partners and pol-
icy makers. This information is very important for
Areas of VET Research
the design and further development of vocational
training.
To provide a better overview and to deal with the
large variety of occupations resulting from his-
torical development (→ 3.1.3), and fostered by the
growing specialisation and labour division in em-
ployment, occupations are classified in fields or
families, which show a certain homogeneity. These
↑ occupational fields are very useful in career serv-
ice and in vocational training. From the point of
view of ↑ occupational research it is impossible
to define those areas or fields independently from
certain purposes. Single occupations come and go,
arise and disappear, but their content and structure
do not change very much. On the contrary, ↑ occu-
pational areas or fields are in a continuous but im-
perceptible state of change. From the point of view
of vocational training those occupational areas or
fields are of far higher significance than single oc-
cupations and they characterise the stability of the
occupational landscape in the long run.
So occupational research serves two relevant ar-
eas:
– Further classification and structuring of sin-
gle occupations in standardised patterns (see e. g.
PARMENTIER / SCHADE / SCHREYER 1994),
– The aggregation of single occupations into larg-
er units like occupational areas or fields or “occu-
pational families” (see e. g. HARTZ 2002).
Classification and aggregation – both efforts are
performed mostly combined – are very helpful
for the evaluation of occupations in their organi-
sational and legal aspects. It is important to define
minimum skills in critical areas, as in medicine
or security jobs, for regulations which cover spe-
cific groups of employees with certain competenc-
es and for international comparisons. In personnel
management, in planning, and in administration of
personnel in enterprises or in public service, occu-
pational allocation is still relevant and helpful.
Status Allocation by Occupational Research
A further dimension of occupational research can
be found in the allocation of status. That means
the position of single occupations in the ranking
of jobs, qualifications, employers, income, labour
conditions, and in additional dimensions, which
are evaluated in the framework of society.
165
Qualifications and Competence
In occupational research, occupations and jobs
are predominantly classified on the basis of their
tasks and activities. But very often these dimen-
sions are replaced by qualifications and compe-
tences. This interface with vocational research is
served by occupational research through specific
activities: occupational research looks for bundles
of skill-sets from the point of view of job content,
and compares these bundles with adequate qualifi-
cation patterns (see further information in DOSTAL
2003). While research on vocational education and
training concentrates on the development of com-
petence for the individual, curricular organisation
and teaching, occupational research deals with the
application of competences on the job and the con-
sequences for ↑ status allocation.
↑ Occupational research shows a special sensitiv-
ity to innovative change in employment. New de-
mands for skills or competences on the job first
emerge within single elements of activity. Gener-
alization requires detailed knowledge of occupa-
tional structure and trends in labour division. Sur-
veys provide the basis for signals to vocational ed-
ucation and training to modernize and restructure
curricula and other elements of teaching (→ 4.1;
→ 3.3.5). The overview of occupations and ↑ oc-
cupational areas or fields respectively is the basic
pattern for all actors in employment and training.
It is an important result of competent occupation-
al research.
Decision and Threshold Oriented
Occupational Research
As discussed before, occupational research has to
give support to coping with two threshold points –
vocational choice, and transition from vocational
education to employment, see Mertens/ Parmentier
1988). Occupational research examines the behav-
iour of individuals and groups around these thresh-
olds. In vocational choice (first threshold) knowl-
edge is necessary about the “landscape” of occu-
pations, in order to make a competent choice. In
the transition from vocational education to em-
ployment (second threshold) information is needed
about the ↑ labour market and the employment sit-
uation of occupations. Occupational research fos-
166
ters these processes, and its findings provide infor-
mation for use in making choices, for counselling
and for ↑ specific training.
Dynamics of Occupations: Global and
Individual Change of Occupations
Occupations show dynamic changes. Change of oc-
cupations means the change of elements, the emer-
gence of new occupations, and the disappearance
of former occupations, as mentioned before. Oc-
cupational research aims through observing these
changes to find the driving forces, to put the diver-
gent events into a global structure, and to come to
a final assessment (see DOSTAL 2002 and WINGENS /
SACKMANN 2002).
Combined with these topics a special form of oc-
cupational research has emerged: Some new jobs
contain activities which were performed outside of
the employment system previously. This means a
certain form of ↑ professionalisation. In the serv-
ice sector in particular, new jobs have emerged that
were not known before. Some tasks and activities
are well known, but they had formerly been per-
formed in other combinations or in the household.
The emergence of new jobs, new occupations or
new ↑ professions is an important area of occupa-
tional research.
But there are also trends visible which show the
reverse. Some professional activities dissolve and
drop from the employment system. This is often
caused by new technologies, by changed skills or
by new social patterns. Traditional jobs are lost
and replaced by a certain technology or by work-
ing at home or self service. These developments
can be called de-professionalisation. Occupation-
al research has shown that both tendencies, pro-
fessionalisation and de-professionalisation may al-
ternate in the trend of development. Some occu-
pations arise and dwindle in a short period, they
are only relevant for a short time – or vice versa
– they lose their relevance for a short period and
come back again in a pattern which is only mar-
ginally changed.
The individual’s change of occupation is a well-
known phenomenon in employment. In the life-
long perspective change of occupation is a very
usual element in coping with sectoral or regional
structural impacts. Occupational research deliv-
Handbook of TVET Research
ers the measurement framework for the identifica-
tion and the evaluation of occupational change. In-
dividual occupational change has two dimensions:
Subjective occupational change is a sort of feeling
of the individual and can be identified through in-
terviews, but it is difficult to get a systematic clas-
sification to identify real occupational change. Ob-
jective occupational change is measured by the
change in a given classification. If an individu-
al changes from one group into another group of
occupations, it is reasonable that the occupation-
al “landscape”, defined by occupational research,
is influencing the final findings. If this pattern is
highly detailed, then occupational change is ob-
vious, but if the pattern is wide-meshed, then oc-
cupational change may be invisible. ↑ Occupation-
al research has to allow for applicable classifica-
tions and definitions for the necessary ↑ distance
between the several identified occupations.
3.1.1.5 Quantitative Occupational Research
While the previous considerations showed the
qualitative branch of occupational research, the
quantitative branch has very relevant for producing
results, which are needed for administrative meas-
ures, ↑ labour market information and public opin-
ion (DOSTAL / STOOSS / TROLL 1998).
Quantitative occupational research needs clear
and applicable classifications, which are the basis
for quantifying qualitative data gained by surveys
and interviews (for basic information about occu-
pational classifications see FRIELING 1980). Such
classifications are crucial for all quantitative re-
search. The clusters must be designed intelligibly
and selectively, the same cases must be assigned to
the same categories, different cases must be classi-
fied into distinctive categories. Classification work
(coding) must be organized and impersonal, that
means that different individuals must make the
same assignments for the same cases. Classifica-
tion work produces labels, which influence all fur-
ther research.
It goes without saying that a great number of clas-
sifications may be developed in occupational re-
search. Mostly they are very detailed, show several
levels and a hierarchical structure. Classifications
need a context of explanations and very clear defi-
nitions of categories. It is very important to find a
Areas of VET Research
single dimension, otherwise it will be difficult to
develop a comprehensive structure.
This is also the main problem in occupational clas-
sification: occupations are multidimensional, and
the classification itself must be multidimension-
al. The existing occupational classifications world-
wide contain job titles and cover structure in a
decimal classification order. Structure seems to
be predominantly influenced by job tasks, but of-
ten it is a mixture of further dimensions like sta-
tus or competence or level of qualification (this
can be found especially in the International Stand-
ard ↑ Classification of Occupations, ISCO, see ILO
1990), which overlays job tasks. This confusion of
several dimensions in one hierarchical classifica-
tion causes major difficulties and is no longer ac-
ceptable, but it is nearly impossible to change a
long-standing system. If a new classification is in-
troduced, it will be difficult to ensure consistency
and comparability of the data over time. The occu-
pational classification used in Germany has its ori-
gin in 1967 and has remained unchanged in its ba-
sic structure up to now. The ISCO is similar.
In principle, each scientific project needs to build a
classification to cover its ↑ research questions with-
out a loss of information. The dynamic character-
istics of occupations can be managed only with
dynamic classifications, that means open classifi-
cations with the possibility to allocate new items
in the resulting structure. With the powerful data
processing infrastructure currently available, oc-
cupational surveys should store job titles in their
full text, and carry out the classification work as a
further step following later. Then it is possible to
use these data for other research questions with a
different classification structure. The gathered da-
ta – maybe of long term empirical research – can
be reclassified with no information lost.
For the future we need several classifications for
the several dimensions of occupations. Each di-
mension, e. g. tasks, activities, tools, skills – lev-
el and type of subject – status, position etc., should
have its own classification, which can be used in an
integrative way. A singular approach to this con-
cept are the questions and classifications in the
German micro-census (www.destatis.de). Those
multidimensional classifications are operable only
with computers, while the former classifications
167
were designed for human processing. It is hoped
that the new ISCO which is being prepared for in-
troduction in 2008, will take these ideas into con-
sideration.
3.1.1.6 Loss of Relevance of Occupations?
With a dynamic labour environment and a change
in qualification policy which aims at global com-
petence as a basis for a high rate of flexibility and
a declining stability of occupational allocation,
the traditional term occupation is subject to crit-
icism. ↑ Professionalism is no longer relevant, oc-
cupations are only valid for marginal clusters, the
tempo of change in employment is growing and it
makes no sense to cling to outdated concepts. Now
and in the future we will have an open employ-
ment landscape with new opportunities away from
the classical interpretation of occupation and ↑ pro-
fession. Occupations and professions are too rig-
id for quick change, too narrow for an integrative
work situation and overloaded with additional el-
ements which interfere with the new demands of
a dynamic economy. The trend from an organisa-
tion designed for occupations to a process orient-
ed organisation will abolish any form of ↑ profes-
sionalism in the long run (BAETHGE / BAETHGE-K IN-
SKY 1998, 462 ff., 470). Professions and occupa-
tions are only valuable for orientation in vocation-
al education.
There are further arguments which weaken the
concept of occupation. The primary elements con-
structing occupation as tasks, activities and tools
lose their relevance, while secondary elements
like status, work milieu and autonomy come in-
to the foreground. This changed the understand-
ing of professionalism and occupational character-
istics and transferred the significance to fringe ar-
eas. This was the reason for new definitions like
the concept of pure tasks as a functional element
used mainly in projections of the shape of the la-
bour force. In the “virtual ↑ labour market”, a new
data basis for computerized placement by the Bun-
desagentur für Arbeit’s profiles of competence re-
placed occupational allocation.
Similar developments are visible in the process of
↑ globalisation. International models born in coun-
tries with a low level of ↑ professionalisation pen-
etrate the personnel policy of multinational en-
168
terprises, without regard to national occupational
structures.
There are further arguments, which all tend to de-
fine a reduction of patterns which are described by
occupations. This discussion seems to make any
research on occupations obsolete. But this conclu-
sion is precipitous and – if a complete definition of
occupation is regarded – is disproved. The more
complex and manifold the dimensions, the more
stable are the concepts of occupation and profes-
sion. In this case the loss of a single dimension
does not destroy the whole building (K LINKHAM-
MER 1999).
The declining stability of employment structures
and the growing ↑ mobility of job holders reduces
identification with employers and strengthens iden-
tification with occupation (see VOSS 1998). The
same can be found in the decline of family struc-
tures, regional allocation and religious groups. In-
dividual existence is based on the remaining con-
nections in working life and therefore on profes-
sional image.
In a society with these developments, ↑ occupation-
al research has the task of strengthening the term
‘occupation’ as an anchor for the identification of
the individual, especially in a time of such turbu-
lent change.
3.1.1.7 Occupation in Globalizing
Occupation seems to be a typical German phe-
nomenon. In a globalized world, occupation will
lose its meaning, or change its characteristics. It
is clear, that in most countries labour is structured
not by occupations but more by sectoral or status
terms. Occupational patterns, for Germany often
tied to the specific vocational education in the ↑ du-
al system, seem no longer relevant.
But in a more detailed view it can be shown that
the heterogeneity between countries is less differ-
ent in occupational terms but far more so in ed-
ucational terms. Occupations are very similar in
their real patterns, but education shows big differ-
ences. In most countries, vocational education is
concentrated in schools, and integration within the
employment system is only marginal. In Germa-
ny, the dual system for vocational education dom-
inates at the skilled worker level is and is mostly
allocated in the employment system – more than
Handbook of TVET Research
70 % of the young people leaving school get their
↑ occupational skill in this system, which is classi-
fied by occupations (TESSARING 1999). So the pre-
viously discussed model of occupation in the back-
ground of the German situation is reduced on this
dual vocational education system. If the model is
expanded into a comprehensive multi dimensional
structure, then the international patterns will be-
come very similar. Countries with a high rate of
self-employed workers show more natural occu-
pational structures, for the influence of the enter-
prises does not dominate the employment in its de-
tails.
The broad application of the ISCO classification
worldwide indicates the relevance of occupations
and ↑ occupational research, possibly in the field
of quantitative studies. As an example, the ↑ la-
bour market problems of the youth in most coun-
tries with vocational training that is not integrated
into the employment system may be a result of a
lack of longitudinal data about occupations. Occu-
pational research might contribute to a better eval-
uation of supply and demand in occupations, ↑ pro-
fessions and trades. Single sectoral analysis is not
able to cover these information gaps.
3.1.1.8 Occupational Forecasting
For long term career planning ↑ occupational fore-
casting with a time horizon of at least 40, possibly
50 years is necessary. An individual working life
lasts this long. But such forecasting has never ex-
isted, even in areas of stable employment. Occupa-
tional research is not able to elaborate forecasts for
such periods. As an alternative, occupational and
↑ qualification research has developed the “concept
of differentiated information” (CHABERNY/ SCHOBER
1988), an information pattern as a set of manifold
data taken from the areas of employment, educa-
tion, labour market and other relevant aspects. Ca-
reer planning can be fostered by these data, and the
quality of decision improved.
This concept also comprises aspects of flexibility
and substitution (K AISER 1988) which play an im-
portant role in an open labour market and are rele-
vant for the occupational decisions of the individu-
al. A total correspondence between supply and de-
mand is not possible in the labour market. There-
fore, job seekers must be prepared to offer com-
Areas of VET Research
promises.The same is true for employers. To fi nd a
good compromise market information is necessary
and very useful.
Occupational research has to respond to informa-
tion requirements on both sides – from the employ-
er and the employee. It has to gather data, to put
it into comprehensive models, comprised of the
vague elements and the fixed aspects, to find the
potential for flexibility and substitution. With all
these complex data in mind, it should be possible
to elaborate forecasts for single occupations and
for the structure of future employment on the one
hand and for the outcome of the educational sys-
tem on the other. Both can be integrated in a mod-
el for the future ↑ labour market with a time hori-
zon at a maximum at 20 years.
3.1.1.9 Summary
The huge amount of data gathered by occupational
research makes it easy not to get lost in this thicket.
Occupations have manifold dimensions, which are
more or less relevant. It is important to find a tol-
erable definition of the term “occupation”, which
represents the identification of the individual on
the one hand and the employment in its labour di-
vision pattern on the other hand. Some dimensions
based on vocational education and training may
not overlay the dimensions connected with em-
ployment.
The beginning of occupational consciousness is
defined by career orientation and choice, then con-
centrated in vocational education. Modern ideas
of continual occupational change imply a demand
for flexibility, addressed under the discussion of
so called “↑ key qualifications” (MERTENS 1974;
BUNK /K AISER / ZEDLER 1991). This means a sort of
“Joker”-skills, usable in all occupations. Occupa-
tional research has shown that individual identifi-
cation in an occupational role with a clear concept
has a higher relevance than early demands for flex-
ibility.
Based on these ideas, occupational research is
charged with the task of collecting and analysing
the manifold elements which are contained in the
term “occupation”. The interrelationship of these
dimensions, their real meaning and also their har-
mony with one another have to be taken into ac-
count in order to come to a clear and relevant im-
169
age of the complex model called “occupation”.
Then occupational research will be able to cover
the needs of all partners: identification of the indi-
vidual, planning of labour division in the employ-
ment system and a structural pattern in society.
3.1.2 Sector Analyses
Georg Spöttl
3.1.2.1 A Need for Structuration
Never before in the cultural history of mankind
have ↑ workplace structures and ↑ occupational pro-
files witnessed a swifter and more dramatic change
than in the post-modern period (from the 1970s on)
(cf. DAUENHAUER 1998, 9). Computer aided storage
and applications have transformed the entire of-
fice and communications technology. And there is
more to it than that: The reorganisation of work
and technology has become most important (cf.
SPÖTTL / HECKER / HOLM / WINDELBAND 2003, 55 ff.).
These technical and structural changes exert an
impact on work places that entails a reshaping of
qualificational profiles and thus of occupation-
al profiles. Nevertheless – and this is where ↑ sec-
tor analyses start to be of interest – these changes
make it difficult to clarify for what and how qualifi-
cation and occupational profiles have to be shaped,
as the previous “boundaries” have become blurred.
These boundaries have to be identified: are they
related to business, sectors, or technology? Tech-
nological boundaries can be partly dropped, al-
beit not entirely, as individual occupations are be-
ing fused into a so-called “transversal occupation”
across different technologies and adjacent fields of
technology. Typical examples on the academic lev-
el are the so-called industrial engineers who nor-
mally concentrate their studies on both machine
building and business management subjects. Me-
chatronic is a good example for occupational pro-
files as this occupation characteristically concen-
trates on transversal technologies. Technological
boundaries are considered to be very wide and thus
open (e. g. ↑ IT technology). Technological appli-
cations linked to the corresponding company and
work organisation, however, determine the context
170
of occupational ↑ work tasks and therefore have a
great impact on the challenges faced by a sector.
Occupational boundaries and occupational profiles
are subject to constant processes of change, which
entail the periodical new shaping of occupational
profiles. This in turn implies a closer look at sec-
tors, branches, sections – or similar fields – and the
changes occurring there.
The terms branch and branch occupations are en-
joying a great topicality. Although the term branch
is defined as a specialist area (DUDEN 2001, 148),
it remains vague as the basis for vocational educa-
tionalists and the boundaries of occupational pro-
files. Economic and business branches can be high-
ly variable and may be seen in a very wide or a very
close context as just specialist areas. In practice a
branch entails very diverse associations. Often the
entire electrical industry is called a branch or only
a segment thereof, such as the Hi-Fi branch. There
are a great number of other examples of a branch,
but these are inadequate for focusing research in-
terests and ↑ research objects. For vocational edu-
cational scientific and other ↑ research approach-
es, it is necessary to formulate a specialisation of
↑ research fields, which facilitates the access to the
concrete world of work. The precise determination
of sectors and sector analyses seems to be the ap-
propriate instrument.
3.1.2.2 Selection of a Sector and its Definition
A Variety of Sector Models
As a rule macro-economic classification struc-
tures are at the centre of interest for the discussion
on sectors. Within the framework of Fourastié’s
Three-Sector-Hypothesis – he describes the emer-
gence of the service society and at the same time
the decline of the industrial and ↑ knowledge soci-
ety (cf. HELMSTÄDTER 2000, 10) – Fourastié (1954)
defined:
– The secondary sector (producing industry)
– The primary sector (agriculture, forestry, fish-
ery)
– The ↑ tertiary sector (service sector) (cf.
FOURASTIÉ 1954).
Another sector classification very common in na-
tional economies is structured into economical
branches according to the main categories
Handbook of TVET Research
– Agriculture and forestry, fishery
– Producing industry
– Trade and transportation
– Service companies (cf. HELMSTÄDTER2000, 15).
There are numerous other sector definitions, such
as the definition according to economic subjects
(companies, state, private households and oth-
ers), which is used to achieve a total national ac-
count (cf. BECKS 1973, 84 f.), or the IAB model for
the analysis of services (cf. WEIDIG / HOFER / WOLFF
1999). It is of interest that the emergence of new
↑ information and communication technologies al-
so witnessed attempts to introduce a further “qua-
ternary” sector. This is no longer discussed today
due to the fact that the new information and com-
munication technology is used and applied every-
where and simply represents a transversal technol-
ogy. Therefore a further sectoral delimitation is
not recommended, as it would rather hamper the
dissemination and the study of its impact.
These examples already prove that sectors and sec-
tor terms may be differently proved, defined and
designed according to the involved practical tasks
and fields of interest.
For the sector term to be clarified here, it is impor-
tant to characterize a basis for ↑ fields of research
that can be accessed with a tolerable expenditure
and with a clear classification of the field of ↑ occu-
pational profiles. Sectors defined in this way, how-
ever, may be identical with occupational profiles.
While this could be the case, it is not compulsory.
The ↑ occupational field “metal” for example en-
compasses numerous branches and “sectors” such
as the automotive sector or the automotive serv-
ice sector, production and manufacturing technol-
ogy, machine building and plant engineering, steel
forming, and others. It is thus clear that the gener-
al conception of branches and/or sectors is wide-
ly defined and may rather be classified as an ana-
lytical category. In order to get to a deeper insight
for vocational ↑ educational research, an approach
to branch structures should be delimited as to sec-
tor structures or fields of production to be helpful.
Moreover a sector understanding in a double sense
should be worked out:
(a) On a macro level, fields relevant for vocation-
al education and training must be named which
eventually constitute a vocational educational sys-
Areas of VET Research
tem. Surveys on individual or all such fields on is-
sues such as political-economical relevance, de-
velopment directions, need for qualification, and
occupational profiles also contribute to gaining
an important insight into the development of vo-
cational educational systems and to utilising them
for a vocational ↑ educational policy. Relevant re-
search methodological accesses are widespread
and pursued by internationally oriented organisa-
tions such as the ↑ World Bank, the German Agen-
cy for Technical Cooperation (↑ GTZ) or national
ministries (cf. SPÖTTL 2000b; WORLD BANK 1997;
SCHMIDT, J. 2003, 82 ff.). The main objective is to
form a safe basis for the further development of
vocational educational systems. Normally quanti-
tative and qualitative data and information acqui-
sition is at the centre of interest. The qualitative
approach concentrates on system relevant devel-
opments in regions, industry, fields of technology,
schools, ↑ labour market etc. Nevertheless Dröge
(1995, 35) concludes that studies of this kind dom-
inate the structural characteristics of systems and
clearly neglect the process related aspects of “sys-
tem behaviour”. To avoid this error, ↑ sector analy-
ses must not be confined to a macro level if a con-
tribution to vocational ↑ educational research is to
be made.
(b) On the meso level it is crucial to go beyond the
reflection of structural interrelations – as is done on
the macro level. The “dimensions of skilled work”
must already be assessed, the change of tasks and
the contents of ↑ work tasks must be highlighted
and a first, target-oriented conclusion for the “new
configuration and further development of occupa-
tional profiles and vocational educational plans”
(SPÖTTL 2000a, 207) must be compiled without go-
ing into detail.
The sector comprehension on this second level
aims at classifying the surveys to an unambigu-
ously defined context in order to safeguard the va-
lidity of further surveys. Sector boundaries must
therefore be clearly visible and delimited. Contra-
ry to the widely defined macro level, which seeks
to identify structural interrelationships, the subject
of the survey is unambiguously defined in order to
reach context specific statements in a transparent-
ly described sector. In a further step and based on
vocational educational scientific ↑ qualification re-
171
search, the context relevant for the contents of oc-
cupational initial and further training – and this is
of special relevance – must be further assessed. As
for vocational education and training this always
includes a detailed discussion on the “shop-floor”
with all its implications.
Bringing to mind the fact that sector specific sur-
veys are still to assess the economic, structural,
qualificational, competency oriented and occupa-
tional relevance of ↑ research objects the question
has to be clarified how a sector is characterized if
the above mentioned analytical categories are not
suitable for this task.
Definition of a Sector for Vocational Educa-
tional Scientific Surveys
For a relevant methodical survey, a sector is char-
acterised by:
– A specialisation dealing with comparable and
similar tasks, marked by similar structures in the
fields of production and service;
– Data, ↑ statistics and studies which – nationally
and if applicable also transnationally – cover the
same specialization and which can be utilized to
assess sector specific developments;
– The definition of work tasks based on statistical
systematics (cf. NACE 2004);
– The discussion of products, customers, know-
how, service requirements, specialized tasks,
which do not differ structurally.
With regard to the automotive repair sector, these
characteristics serve to exactly define the relevant
delimitations. At first sight the “automotive repair
sector” comprises the entire production and sup-
ply industry as well as the service and repair trade
including filling stations, leasing companies, two-
wheeler companies, second-hand car dealers and
others. When the sector is viewed based on the
above definition, however, a differentiation can be
made into production and service, repair and trade.
The first category, the production, encompasses the
car manufacturers and their suppliers (they man-
ufacture products), whereas the second category
comprises service, repair and trade. Trade is men-
tioned here as it is directly linked to service and
repair units. The second category excels by a close
orientation toward the customer who is the direct
contractor. The second-hand car trade can also be
172
allocated (unless it is independent), as there is a
close objective relation between technology and
service and cars. Filling stations and leasing com-
panies are excluded. They specialize in sales and
leasing and cannot be structurally compared with
automotive service and repair or automotive trade
(cf. RAUNER / SPÖTTL / OLESEN / CLEMATIDE 1994).
The “Recycling Sector” calls for an entirely dif-
ferent practical definition. This term cannot be
found in established statistics and catalogues of
standards (e. g. NAICS (= North American Indus-
try Classification System) or ISIC (= International
Standard Industrial Classification of all Econom-
ic Activities) catalogue of standards – Ordinance
1999/42 (EU 1999), although it is mentioned in
the NACE classification. The very heterogeneous
recycling sector can only be defined based on the
Closed Loop Economy/Waste Disposal Legisla-
tion. Accordingly a different term must be chosen:
“closed loop waste economy”. This term implies
a notion of the prevention, the avoidance and the
utilization of waste. Thus it encompasses the sum
of the recycling process (closed loop), the waste
disposal economy and the closed loop (the com-
prehensive idea). The sector therefore includes the
collection, the separation, the reprocessing and the
production of products and secondary raw materi-
als eligible for marketing. In Europe the term com-
prises at least 13 branches such as used glass, used
paper, used cars, used wood, building rubble, used
textiles, used electronic devices and others (cf.
ENTSORGUNG ‘00 2000, 37/38). Incineration, sales
and landfilling thus also form part of the “recy-
cling sector”. As a matter of fact, however, other
↑ work processes are taking place than just those
in the above-mentioned case. Again only the sec-
tor specific definition opens up a clear-cut field of
research. In absence of this delimitation we run the
risk of allocating e. g. used cars and their disman-
tling to the automotive service and repair sector al-
though this is a typical case for recycling. Conse-
quently it is evident that surveys quickly draw the
conclusion that a car mechatronic would be per-
fectly eligible for car dismantling. The special lit-
erature mentions this phenomenon as so-called
“mirror occupations”. What is ignored is the fact
that there is a big difference in the prerequisites
for car mechatronics and “recyclers”. The “recy-
Handbook of TVET Research
cler” dismantles a car according to the stipulations
of the closed loop and waste economy legislation
whereas the car mechatronic carries out service
and diagnostic tasks and repairs – the exact oppo-
site of the tasks of a “recycler”. In this case the do-
mains of the two actors reveal different structures.
In sector-oriented surveys this fact becomes more
than evident.
3.1.2.3 Object of Research and Delimitation
to Other Fields of Research
An important advantage of the delimitation of
a sector as described above is that objects of re-
search can be unambiguously identified and their
relevance can be justified in depth. For example,
it is obvious that sociological studies of the auto-
motive or the recycling sector predominantly deal
with questions of development and current chang-
es in the sectors, with socio-technical character-
istics and perhaps even with the diffusion of ↑ in-
formation and communication technologies (ICT).
Such a broad focus results in simplified conclu-
sions about requirements and qualification meas-
ures. Vocational educational scientific analyses
on the other hand which start their surveys within
these clear and “homogeneous” sector structures
are able to assess the exact importance of dimen-
sions such as diagnostic work in the automotive re-
pair sector or the role of ICT in recycling plants.
Such analyses can determine both the practical
and the theoretical knowledge necessary to deal
with ↑ work tasks. The results can then be used for
closer investigation at which point case studies and
work process analyses should start in order to yield
reliable results for a work-oriented shaping of ↑ oc-
cupational profiles.
The true research interest of ↑ sector analyses is
thus the preparation of profound field surveys that
can identify specifics such as how diagnostic in-
struments are exactly configured, how they are
used depending on corporate and work ↑ organ-
isational developments and what are the conse-
quences for the qualification levels, vocational ed-
ucation, occupational profiles, training levels and
concrete qualification measures (cf. BECKER 2003;
BLINGS / SPÖTTL 2003; WINDELBAND / SPÖTTL 2003c).
Sector analyses are the starting point for a deeper
probe into the vocational educational scientific ac-
Areas of VET Research
cess of the world of work at the shop-floor level.
Such a problem should also include the executive
floors as they allow for a placement of more thor-
ough and more extensive studies at those places of
the sector that are most likely to yield new find-
ings for qualification requirements. They can help
to create the prerequisites to decode the “knowl-
edge incorporated into the practical occupational
life” (MARTIN / PANGALOS / RAUNER 2000, 27) in or-
der to incorporate it into the development of occu-
pational profiles and curricula.
This perspective presumes that both the macro
and the meso levels are accessed and that sector
studies – in spite of their analytical character – de-
fine their objects of research in a way that sectors
can be comprehensively accessed. In earlier stud-
ies, the so-called FORCE studies, (cf. KRUSE 1991,
1 f.; SPÖTTL 1992) have identified the objects of
research via sector studies (Kruse had drafted a
first concept for a sector study in the retail sector
and Spöttl optimised this concept for the automo-
tive repair sector). This research concept was also
applied in a recent ↑ Leonardo da Vinci research
project. The sector approach once again proved to
be successful. The following objects of research
can be identified:
– Delimitation and definition of a sector. The
boundaries have to be drawn in a way that an eco-
nomically relevant area with all its qualification is-
sues can be unambiguously assessed. Delimitation
is required most of all for areas that are marked
by completely different economic concerns and
modes of production. In addition it must be en-
sured that sector analyses are designed in a way to
safeguard a congruence of the field of analysis and
nationally available data.
– Reference to existing studies. A reference to na-
tional studies and experiences should be estab-
lished, above all if the latter are available and doc-
umented.
– Characteristics and structure of a sector. The
characteristics of a sector should be laid out with
reference to other sectors. Questions regarding het-
erogeneity or homogeneity, national structures, the
applied instruments, the objects of work, the com-
pany structures, the grade of specialisation and the
forms of work and work organisation should be an-
swered.
173
– Institutional and social context. The role of the
social partners (trade unions, employer associa-
tions, sector associations), the ↑ participation and
representation of workers in workers’ participation
committees and in initial and further vocation-
al training should be laid down. Furthermore the
legal situation of companies, their ↑ participation
in consortiums, the restrictions regarding opening
hours and working hours, the quality and warran-
ty regulations, the protection of the customers and
the situation of initial and further vocational train-
ing are of relevance.
– Employment and work in a sector. With regard
to employment and qualification: The employment
structure should be surveyed, including the chang-
es taking place over a number of years, the exist-
ing occupational structure and its changes, the sit-
uation of initial and further vocational training as
well as the process of ↑ personnel development as a
whole (proportion of women employed, part-time
employment, qualification structure, management
structure etc.).
– Changes, dynamics of change. Factors have
to be identified that are adequate to characterise
changes such as demographic developments, tech-
nological changes and innovation, business envi-
ronment, work organisation and forms of corpo-
rate organisation, computerisation, ↑ international-
isation, occupational structures, requirements for
initial and further vocational training. In addition
the change of tasks has to be assessed.
– Initial and further vocational training and re-
cruitment. The importance and the level depend on
the change of tasks. Statistical data, initial and fur-
ther vocational training concepts, financing, par-
ticipation of companies, chambers, trade unions,
schools, target groups, participation of the work-
force depending on their educational level, amount
of ↑ in-company training, etc. have to be assessed.
3.1.2.4 Research Methodological Specialities
and Overlapping with Other Fields of
Research
↑ Sector analyses serve as a general access to the
structures of a certain sector (as described in the
preceding chapter) and the dissemination of vo-
cational educational scientific case studies and
↑ work process studies. As an independent research
174
instrument they aim at the access of (skilled) work,
technology and vocational education and training/
qualification in a selected sector. ↑ Work processes
in an occupational context play a major role. This
is where sector analyses come close to ↑ ergonom-
ics (↑ studies of work), which was established as an
autonomous sociological ↑ research approach in the
1970s (cf. BERGMANN 1991, 169 ff.). This approach
concentrates on issues such as “according to which
rules and processes the day-to-day ↑ work process-
es are taking place in occupational contexts” (ibid,
269). Although this is not yet the objective of sec-
tor analyses it becomes relevant for more extensive
vocational educational scientific studies. An ide-
al overlap can be stated with regard to the discus-
sion of the ↑ research field of “work”. The “studies
of work”, however, comprise everything adequate
for the coping with ↑ work tasks. As already stated
in the literature (BERGMANN, J. R. 2003, 135), this
makes the generalisation of statements extremely
difficult. Due to this insight, sector analyses start
on a higher level in order to be able to place deeper
surveys into the work of world in a well-measured
amount. Therefore they differ from:
– The research on training ordinances, as the de-
velopment of ordinances is not yet valid,
– Work-scientific ↑ qualification research as analy-
sis, evaluation and shaping of work tasks is not yet
taking place, and
– Industrial sociological research, as this is not
clearly about the analytically relevant levels and
dimensions for the comprehension of the complex-
ity of the social structure of work in our society.
3.1.2.5 History and Research Tradition
In Europe, sector analyses based on a vocational
educational scientific background first played a ma-
jor role in the FORCE programme carried through
at the beginning of the 1990s. In Germany this
kind of analysis was next to unknown. In several
sectors – e. g. the retail sector, the automotive re-
pair sector, road transportation – the further devel-
opment of vocational education in connection with
the development of corporate organisation was to
be studied, however, without the so far usual de-
scriptive comparison of vocational education sys-
tems or a hypothesis-guided research. Therefore
sector analyses was developed as a – sort of new –
Handbook of TVET Research
instrument (cf. K RUSE 1991; SPÖTTL 1992; RAUNER /
SPÖTTL 1995a). In the meantime this instrument
has been established in vocational education sci-
ence and is applied as soon as a sector is still un-
known and has not yet been surveyed with regard
to Human Resources Development, or if a sector is
subject to considerable change which may be rel-
evant for qualification measures. ↑ Sector analyses
in the international context have meanwhile been
made in many projects guided by the author (cf.
SPÖTTL 2000a).
3.1.2.6 Perspectives for Development
Sector analyses aim at
– Pointing out a frame of reference where current
trends in individual sectors including their impli-
cations are shown. In the context of vocational ed-
ucation research the development of vocational in-
itial and further training is examined.
– The preparation of deeper studies, e. g. case stud-
ies and ↑ work process studies, so that the struc-
ture of a sector is clearly assessed in order to ex-
actly place deeper studies on selected issues. This
increases the chance to access valuable practical
and theoretical knowledge for ↑ curriculum devel-
opment and the shaping of ↑ occupational profiles
with the help of case studies and ↑ work process
analyses.
Sector analyses have developed into a highly ef-
ficient instrument for vocational ↑ educational re-
search and have proved to be successful in both
national and international studies. One great ad-
vantage is the fact that the design of the studies
is based on a vocational educational scientific re-
search interest and that the results are therefore di-
rectly applicable for the planning of vocational ed-
ucation and qualification development.
The reason for this is that the sector orientation
guarantees closeness to the world of work and en-
tails advantages such as orientation to practice, as-
sessment of experience knowledge and work-ori-
ented findings for the planning of vocational edu-
cation. This is where sector analyses clearly differ
from the intention of similar studies in neighbour-
ing sciences.
It is, however, crucial that this instrument is used
by researchers on vocational education and train-
ing who have a complete overview of the research
Areas of VET Research
interrelations and who also have previous knowl-
edge and experience in the sectors to be surveyed.
3.1.3 Historical Occupational
Research
Falk Howe
3.1.3.1 Introduction
In vocational education and training systems, it
is regularly asked whether ↑ training vocations,
↑ occupational profiles and ↑ occupational areas
(→ 2.3) have to be revised or whether it is neces-
sary to develop new training vocations.
In Germany, since the nationwide recognition of
training vocations in the 1930s (so-called trade
lists: RWIM 1934; DATSCH 1937), occupation-
al areas, occupational structures and occupation-
al profiles have been modified or renewed several
times. Because of the rapid technological and eco-
nomic change at the beginning of the 21st centu-
ry, the dynamism has seemed to increase. Thus the
German Federal Institute of Vocational Training
and Education (BIBB) emphasized that during the
last decade the system of recognised training voca-
tions went through the biggest modernization push
in its history (BIBB 2003).
Discussions about the development of occupation-
al ↑ training regulations and ↑ vocational curricula
are founded mainly in the same way. That is why
it is necessary to revise occupational areas and to
create new, “contemporary” occupational profiles:
Technical innovations have led to changed or novel
qualification requirements for expert work to which
training vocations had to be continually adapted.
In Germany, electrical engineering has proved an
exemplar of this paradigm (HOWE 2004).
This approach, technological determinism, is very
convincing at first and seems to be suitable to ex-
plain the genesis of training vocations and occupa-
tional areas. In addition, it is directly aligned with
the widespread and catchy idea of a quasi “natu-
ral” occupational development whereby the aris-
ing and dying off of occupations follow pre-fixed
ways and laws (cf. RAUNER 1998a, 159). Howev-
er, the appropriateness of this approach to analys-
175
ing social, economic and technical phenomena and
developments has to be criticised. Three decades
ago occupational sociologists rejected technologi-
cal determinism as insufficient (e. g. HESSE 1972;
Beck/ Brater 1977). Instead, models were devel-
oped that assume interrelations and interactions of
different fields of influence. Gradually, compara-
ble approaches also became accepted in vocation-
al education research (e. g. BENNER 1977, 48; POEL-
KE 1987, 27 f.; H EIDEGGER /JACOB / MARTIN ET AL.
1989, 123; GRONWALD / SCHMIDT 1996, 23; PETERSEN
1996a, 106; R AUNER 1998a, 14).
According to non-deterministic research-ap-
proaches, the central concern of ↑ historical occu-
pational research is to analyse the origin and the
development of ↑ occupational standards. In do-
ing so the classification and demarcation of occu-
pational areas and their associated training voca-
tions and occupational profiles are interpreted in
each case as a historical occurrence. The superor-
dinate interest is to identify outside effects, interre-
lations, breaks, interdependences, traditions etc. in
their history. But historical occupational research
pursues more than a historical interest: an under-
standing of the shaping of training vocations, oc-
cupational profiles and occupational areas in the
future profits from the critical consideration and
appraisal of chances, barriers and demands of their
genesis (cf. HOWE 1998, 2000).
3.1.3.2 Historical Occupational Research as
Desideratum
A survey of the international ↑ VET research shows
that studies of the history of training vocations, oc-
cupational profiles or occupational areas are a de-
sideratum (→ 3.1.1). Publications concerned with
their origin and development are sporadic and do
not claim to be a comprehensive historical investi-
gation. Indeed, publications such as festival or ju-
bilee writings of associations, federations, cham-
bers etc. (e. g. VEI 1927; ZVEI 1978; HEE 1995;
IEE 2005) offer suggestions for further ↑ historical
research. Also interesting are genealogies of occu-
pations and ↑ professions, mostly presented on the
internet (e. g. GENEALOGIES OVERVIEW 2005; AR-
CHITECTURAL GENEALOGY USA 2005; GENEALOGIES
AUSTRALIA 2005; AGRICULTURAL GENEALOGY AUS-
TRALIA 2005; GENEALOGIES UK 2005). But these
176
genealogies normally are just listings of occupa-
tional titles and renounce explanations. Accord-
ingly these occupational genealogies can only lead
to the first cornerstones for the historical occupa-
tional research that must be deepened in content.
However, from historical VET research (→ 3.2.2)
there are important and firm findings on which his-
torical occupational research can draw, e. g. relat-
ing to the development of vocational training sys-
tems, of apprenticeship in industry and craft and
of vocational education in schools (cf. e. g. HOFF-
MANN 1962; PÄTZOLD 1980, 1982, 1991a; GREINERT /
HANF / SCHMIDT / STRATMANN 1987; STRATMANN /
SCHLÖSSER 1990; K IPP / MILLER-K IPP 1995; GREIN-
ERT 1995b; GORDON 2003). In addition, histori-
cal excursions in publications of ↑ occupational
research can also deliver clues or suggestions for
historical occupational research (e. g. H ESSE 1972;
BENNER 1977; RAVAV 1927; 1930; MOLLE 1968;
FLYNN 1988). Neither historical VET research nor
occupational research, however, can answer the
↑ central questions of historical occupational re-
search, because they are limited to a general un-
derstanding of occupations. Therefore their re-
search results as a rule do not refer concretely to
particular ↑ vocations or ↑ occupational areas.
Fig. 1: Associated Fields of Historical Occupational Research
Handbook of TVET Research
3.1.3.3 Associated Fields of Historical
Occupational Research
The most important criticism of technology de-
terminism is the insight that ↑ training vocations
and ↑ occupational profiles are not coincidence but
“constructions”. The different and partly contra-
dictory interests of the parties involved in the con-
struction process are reflected in these construc-
tions as well as the different general conditions and
the state of the occupational area (cf. e. g. HESSE
1972, 31 ff., 93). Therefore, the approach of asso-
ciated fields is very suitable for historical occupa-
tional research (Fig. 1).
The field “occupational administration” repre-
sents the juridical bases, conditions and restric-
tions for the practice of vocational education and
training as a result of economic, educational, so-
cial and employment policy. The focus is on the
legal grounds of regulatory procedures concern-
ing the construction and recognition as well as the
abolition of ↑ vocations. The legal reference to the
proper realisation and supervision of vocational
training and education on the basis of occupation-
al training standards is likewise important.
The field “occupational construction” deals with
questions of the creation or abolition of occupa-
tional profiles and the demarcation of occupational
areas. Here it is interesting to find out what the reg-
ulation procedures look like and who the respon-
sible actors and integrated parties are. This also
Areas of VET Research
includes an analysis of the accepted general prin-
ciples, arrangements and criteria, the approaches
and methods that are used as well as the resulting
occupational profiles and ↑ vocational curricula.
In the field “occupational work”, changes in
skilled, expert work are taken into consideration.
First it refers to the objects of the work including
the working context. Second it refers to the work-
ing methods as the procedures used in the ↑ work
processes and the tools as working means. The or-
ganisation of the work and the demands which are
put on it from different sides are the third main as-
pect of this field.
These three fields of immediate influence on the
genesis of training vocations, occupational pro-
files and occupational areas interact with each oth-
er and are also influenced by the actual state of the
occupational system. The associated fields are em-
bedded in technical, social and economic changes
which reflect the general framework and have an
indirect effect on occupational development. On-
ly the differentiated consideration of the different
fields and factors of influence and their interaction
permits a sound investigation of the origin and de-
velopment of vocations and ↑ occupational areas.
From this perspective, ↑ historical occupational re-
search has to answer particular questions about:
– The first working tasks, assignments or activities
in the occupational area whose ↑ performance re-
quires new or changed skills, knowledge and com-
petence;
– The contents and purposes of the first initial ed-
ucation and the first further training in the occupa-
tional area;
– The causes and conditions at the time of the
appearance of occupations in this scope of func-
tions;
– The causes and conditions at the time of the es-
tablishment of a systematic training for skilled
workers or craftsmen;
– The reasons for elaborating new or for revising
existing ↑ occupational profiles, training curricula
and examination requirements in the occupational
area;
– The relevant laws, orders and regulatory decrees
referring to the construction, the recognition and
the abolition of ↑ training vocations or occupation-
al profiles;
177
– The authorities, organisations, federations and
individuals who deal respectively with the con-
struction of training vocations or occupational
profiles, and their intentions, interests and gener-
al models
– The technical improvements and innovations as
well as changes in the ↑ labour organisation and
their consequences for the occupational area and
the single training vocation or occupational pro-
file;
– The social, political and economic circumstanc-
es or basic conditions affecting the construction of
training vocations or occupational profiles;
– The approaches with which expert work or crafts
should be analyzed for a transformation into voca-
tional curricula;
– The regulatory procedures to elaborate a new or
changed structure of occupational areas as well as
to create suitable training vocations or occupation-
al profiles;
– The demarcation, contents and intended work
spheres of the training vocations or occupational
profiles;
– The experiences encountered with the enacted
training vocations or occupational profiles,
– The consequences learned from these experi-
ences for the advancement of training vocations,
occupational profiles and occupational area.
Answering these questions provides a basis for an-
alysing the essential factors which stamp the oc-
cupational genesis, and for identifying continu-
ities, problems and dilemmas, but also success
and proof in the occupational area’s history (cp.
HOWE 2004).
3.1.3.4 Genealogy as a Working Basis
An important result of ↑ historical occupational re-
search and at the same time a central working ba-
sis for further studies are genealogies that show the
temporal development of ↑ vocations (Fig. 2). Ge-
nealogies offer overview-like answers to the ba-
sic questions of when occupational areas and the
accompanying training vocations or occupation-
al profiles originated, how this system differenti-
ated over the course of time, which vocations were
abolished, summarized or divided even further
and how long the training vocations or occupation-
al profiles had continued.
178
A genealogy is based, primarily, on the analysis
of occupational registers and trade lists. Unfortu-
nately, these documents are only listings of job ti-
tles and, as a rule, give no information on occupa-
tional contents. Therefore, it is necessary to inves-
tigate and analyze ↑ training regulations, ↑ voca-
tional curricula and occupational reference books
as well as appropriate periodicals, theses, mono-
graphs and retrospectively collected editions (an
example of a method is offered in HOWE 2001b,
XX–XXIX).
3.1.3.5 Phase Division of Historical
Investigations
It is a challenge for ↑ historical research to identify
phases in the development of the object being in-
vestigated. Together the associated fields and the
development phases result in an investigation grid,
which helps to cope with historical occupational
research projects. Assuming that such a system is
given at all, it is obviously required to search for
the following phases in the development of a sys-
tem of ↑ training vocations and ↑ occupational pro-
files respectively:
Phase I: Emergence of Regional and Compa-
ny- Specific Training Vocations or Occupation-
al Profiles
In a first phase there is no standardised system of
training vocations, occupational profiles and ↑ oc-
cupational areas. No uniform instructions exist re-
ferring either to the trades in which a vocational
training can be graduated or to the teaching and
exam contents. ↑ Training regulations and voca-
tional curricula are made by companies or from in-
stitutions like chambers of commerce or employ-
ers’ associations which have an interest in the de-
Fig. 2: Genealogy of the Elektromaschinenmonteur (Electric Machine Assembler)
Handbook of TVET Research
velopment of skilled workers. As a result, appren-
ticeship is very regional and company-specific.
Example: Germany: Until 1933 no system of na-
tionally-recognised vocational training existed.
The Trade, Commerce and Industry Regulation
Act of 1869 and its numerous novellas had founded
VET ↑ legislation which led to a regional and com-
pany-specific practice of vocational training.
Phase II: Establishment of a Standardised Sys-
tem of Training Vocations or Occupational
Profiles
In the second phase, training vocations or occupa-
tional profiles are established that are valid for eve-
ry ↑ vocational school and every training company
nationwide. As a rule, occupations in which an ap-
prentice can graduate are listed at the same time.
The decision as to which institution, i.e. which
ministry, which authority or which federation is
responsible for the shaping, realization and exami-
nation of vocational education and training, is also
reached in this phase. Procedures and approaches
are developed about how the training vocations or
occupational profiles are to be constructed and the
decision as to who has to be included in this regu-
latory procedure is designated. Finally, to provide
a basis for regular vocational training, curricula
are published that fix the contents and objectives
of the apprenticeship.
Example: Germany: Until 1945 uniform and na-
tionwide recognised ↑ vocations were set up un-
der the authority of the Nazi regime. Authoritative
lists of occupations determined in which occupa-
tions vocational education and training could take
place.
Areas of VET Research
(Interim) Phase III: Affirmation or Revising of
the Standardised System of Training Vocations
or Occupational Profiles
The third phase, an intermediate phase, shows how
the standardised system of training vocations or
occupational profiles, which has been created thus
far, including the appointed responsibilities and
procedures, proves itself under changing social,
economic and technological conditions. Thus two
basic trends can be thought of: Either the system
is confirmed to a great extent, or there are more
or less extensive changes which especially concern
the demarcation of the occupational areas and the
contents and objectives of training vocations or oc-
cupational profiles. Finally, these changes can lead
to a break and the establishment of a new system in
principle (fall back to phase II).
Example: Germany: The education system set up
in the Third Reich was not seriously questioned af-
ter the Second World War. Rather the existing sys-
tem of recognised vocations with uniform and na-
tionwide binding training regulations was taken
over to a great extent.
Phase IV: Consolidation of the Standardised
System of Training Vocations or Occupation-
al Profiles
The proven responsibilities, functions and proce-
dures in the system of training vocations or oc-
cupational profiles are consolidated in the fourth
phase. In particular, this concerns the fields of “oc-
cupational administration” and “occupational con-
struction”, i.e. the juridical bases, conditions and
restrictions for maintaining the system as well as
the regulatory procedures are confirmed or made
as a rule.
Example: Germany: In 1969 the ↑ Vocational
Training Act was enacted. It codified the prescrip-
tions and regulations legislated in different laws
for vocational education and training in compa-
nies. With this step the consolidation phase of the
recognised system of ↑ training vocations was ini-
tiated.
179
Phase V: Reformation of the Standardised Sys-
tem of Training Vocations or Occupational
Profiles
The ↑ globalisation of national economies and
the ↑ internationalisation of ↑ labour markets have
caused the ↑ VET systems to face increasing pres-
sure for reform. Basically changed qualification re-
quirements have been declared. At the same time,
in accord with the ↑ Copenhagen process, there
are efforts to make vocational qualifications more
comparable within Europe. Therefore ↑ occupa-
tional standards and ↑ vocational curricula have to
be revised relative to their objectives and the ex-
amination requirements.
Example Germany: Since the second half of the
1990s there has been a continuing, unique reform
push in the recognised system of training voca-
tions. Clearly about half of all vocations approved
to date (through 2004) were updated or were even
newly developed at that time.
In general, the stated phases can be applied to sys-
tems of training vocations or ↑ occupational pro-
files. Thus they build a chronological base of his-
torical occupational investigations. Moreover, the
details of the occupations and ↑ occupational areas
to be investigated come into play only at the level
of the associated fields discussed above.
3.1.3.6 Relevance of Historical Occupational
Investigations
Beside its science-systematic considerations, his-
torical occupational studies have practical imple-
mentations for fields like occupational counsel-
ling, the employment service, occupational ↑ statis-
tics and job advertisements as well as work and so-
cial jurisdiction and occupational, labour and tar-
iff law. (cf. MOLLE 1951, V; HOBBENSIEFKEN 1980,
14; LIPSMEIER 1996, 41). Beyond this, there is the
unanimous appraisal that a reflected discussion on
up-to-date questions assumes a reconstruction and
critical reflection of historical developments or in-
fluences and their interaction with socio-econom-
ic and technical-economic changes. At this point
↑ historical research can lead to important insights
(cf. e. g. SCHLIEPER 1957, 9; STRATMANN 1970, 827;
PÄTZOLD 1980, 6 f.; BEHR 1981, 11; GEORG /KUNZE
1981, 7; PETERSEN / RAUNER 1996, 91).
180
With this enlarged perspective the following cen-
tral fields of application of results of the ↑ historical
occupational research are opened up.
Field of Application “VET discourse”
Findings of historical occupational research can
supply a specific input for actual discussions of
↑ VET research, planning and development as well
as ↑ VET policy. Internationally there are very dif-
ferent appraisals of how systems of training vo-
cations or occupational profiles and occupational
areas should be developed in the future. The dy-
namic is reflected in a wide spectrum of approach-
es, measures and suggestions of different quality
and outreach. Discussion of the basic questions of
whether and how training vocations, occupation-
al profiles and occupational areas should be con-
tinued profits from a consideration of the past ex-
periences of different countries with different con-
cepts.
Field of Application “Regulatory Procedures
and Occupational Standards”
The controversies that arise around the necessity
to develop new or to revise existing occupational
standards and the following negotiations around
their key points, contents and objectives are re-
markably unhistorical. Decision-making is often
supported by investigations like occupational anal-
ysis which refer to the existing occupational struc-
ture. Because the actual state of occupational are-
as has a decisive influence on their advancement, it
is fundamental to know the conditions and context
which led to the current situation (→ 3.4.1).
Field of Application “Criteria of Modern
Training Vocations or Occupational Profiles”
A characteristic of debates on the development of
new training vocations or occupational profiles is
the inability to define what are the constituent cri-
teria and quality features that constitute a stable
occupation. There is still no occupational theo-
ry that delivers ↑ quality criteria for the develop-
ment of modern, sustainable occupations. Histori-
cal occupational research can help at this point by
comparing the life cycles of ↑ training vocations or
Handbook of TVET Research
↑ occupational profiles. The confrontation of long-
lasting versus short-lived occupations can lead to
basic conclusions about the suitability of different
criteria for defining stable occupations.
Field of Application “Curricula for VET
Teachers and Trainers”
Historical occupational investigations are a pre-
requisite for developing curricula for the education
of VET teachers, lecturers and trainers in techni-
cal colleges and universities. Important objects of
these curricula are the contents of expert work in
the ↑ occupational area. With these deeper insights
into the origin and development of the training vo-
cations, occupational profiles and occupational ar-
eas, this research becomes an element of the teach-
er’s and trainer’s training. For those who are con-
fronted with the enacted education and training
contents and objectives in the ↑ vocational curric-
ula, it is essential to know how these have come
about.
3.1.3.7 Conclusion
In spite of the meaning and relevance of its find-
ings, historical occupational research is nowadays
still a distinct desideratum. Results of the few ac-
tual investigations, nevertheless, obviously prove
that there is no deterministic connection between
technical evolution, changed qualification require-
ments and occupational development. Specifying
the insight that training vocations or occupation-
al profiles are “constructions”, historical occupa-
tional research can work out how the varied ba-
sic conditions and the different interests of the par-
ties involved in the construction process have in-
fluence on purposes, contents and the creation of
new training vocations or occupational profiles as
well as on the time and course of regulatory pro-
cedures. Historical occupational research provides
evidence that training vocations or occupation-
al profiles, as an organising principle of the ↑ la-
bour market, were and can be shaped: The future
of training vocations, occupational profiles and oc-
cupational areas is not a problem of prediction, but
a problem of shaping.
Areas of VET Research
3.1.4 Prognostic and Prospective
Vocational Education and
Training (VET) Research
Philipp Grollmann
3.1.4.1 From Forecast to Prospectivity
Various methods and ↑ research approaches of vo-
cational ↑ training research concern themselves
with the future of vocational training. The objec-
tive of this research is to make a contribution to ra-
tional planning – i.e. planning based on empirical-
ly and logically verified arguments. Prognostic re-
search in the strict sense is supplemented by the de-
mand for a general orientation towards the future
and to an openness to future developments – pro-
spectivity – for research approaches that are ori-
ented to the design of training programmes (R AUN-
ER 1994). Even historical TVET research (→ 3.3.3;
HOWE 2000) has high relevance for the future, as it
has a general ↑ commitment to provide recommen-
dations regarding the design of (future) vocational
training and education practice.
Prognostic research differs from other approaches
in TVET research because the subject of research
is the future. There can, of course, be no empirical
substantiation for what will happen in the future.
Nevertheless, various scientific methods do exist
to obtain well-founded statements about the future.
A special form of the derivation context is always
necessary, which lends plausibility to conclusions
regarding the research topic of vocational training
in the future. This derivation context is reflected in
the questions and methods of the ↑ research design
used in each case.
Prognosis and Planning since the Late 1960s
Within the framework of establishing Federal Ger-
man vocational training research in the Bundes-
institut für Berufsbildungsforschung (BBF) [Fed-
eral Institute for Vocational Training Research],
today known as the BIBB, great importance was
attached from the very beginning to the planning
of vocational training. Especially in the research
conducted by Main Department 1: Structural Re-
search, Planning and ↑ Statistics, the strategic view
181
was anchored to the future. This task of vocational
↑ training research was also contained in the mean-
while annulled §§ 60–72 of the BBiG (Vocational
Education and Training Act) in its original version
dated 1969, which formed the basis of vocational
training research (ALEX 1999; SCHMIDT, H. 1995).
Since that time, forecasting the development of
system variables of vocational training as well as
of qualification requirements has played an impor-
tant role, as is documented in the issues of the rele-
vant scientific journals dating from this period (cf.
e. g. PORNSCHLEGEL 1968; SZANIAWSKI 1973). Thus
in an analysis of the guiding principle of scientif-
ic management in labour-market ↑ related sciences
and the reduced derivation context between the ac-
tual situation in business enterprises and qualifi-
catory targets in the training programme research
of the Arbeitsstelle betriebliche Berufsausbildung
[Vocational Training Office], the later Main De-
partment Head of Department 1 of the BBF em-
phasised the importance of forecasts as a constit-
uent input for the development of programmes
and curricula (PORNSCHLEGEL 1968). The results of
forecasts are here highlighted as an essential in-
gredient of the design of training programmes and
curricula alongside the normative grounds put for-
ward for training objectives and the results of sci-
entific studies of the ↑ labour market. Besides this
anchoring of forecasts in vocational training re-
search, from the 1960s until well into the 1980s
various other approaches relating to the plan-
ning and economics of training measures were al-
so introduced into such research. These originat-
ed in terms of the disciplines involved from a con-
text of socio-economic substantiation (BAETHGE /
GERSTENBERGER /K ERN ET AL. 1976); and they sup-
plemented the orientation of labour market re-
search and vocational research towards prognos-
tics (→ 3.1.1; BUTTLER / FRANKE 1992).
The Prospective Turn in TVET Research
The classical planning approaches and economics
of vocational training and education, assessment
of the development of technology, prognostic re-
search in economics and sociology and industri-
al-sociological research may be considered as the
roots of different varieties of future-oriented voca-
tional training research. Their diversity reflects the
182
fundamental target square of vocational training
with its four corners of work, technology, economy
and training. These ↑ research approaches came in
for growing criticism towards the end of the 1970s
and in the 1980s: on the one hand the low infor-
mation content of the studies was criticised and
on the other hand fundamental assumptions were
called into question (cf. GRÜNEWALD 1979). In par-
ticular the one-sided derivation context between
the “requirements” of the employment system
and training objectives was a target of criticism
(BECK / BRATER 1977). Education and training were
now viewed by most socio-economic research ap-
proaches to a greater extent as being an independ-
ent functional area of society
Within the framework of discussion concerning
“Socially-Compatible Technology Shaping” and in
the context of “Work and Technology” research,
the basic idea of “Qualifications to (Co-)shape
Work and Technology” (RAUNER 1988a) was intro-
duced into vocational training research. This ba-
sic idea also finds its origin in the critical assess-
ment of the above-mentioned, traditionally one-
sided, derivation context between technological
innovation and curricular reform. This one-sided-
ness is set against the concept of shaping technol-
ogy. The concept of shaping work and technolo-
gy highlights the instrumental limits of technolo-
gy and moves the focus onto the nature of the de-
velopment and use of technology as social proc-
esses (RAUNER 1988a). The intended and unintend-
ed effects and consequences of technology are to
be internalised in an emancipatory concept of ed-
ucation and training and curricular development.
According to this concept, the skilled work (Fa-
charbeit) itself potentially makes a major contri-
bution to the future of vocational training in its
interplay with the organisation of work and with
technology and its design. This concept later found
its way into the project “Berufe 2000” (see below
and MARTIN / RAUNER 1988). A form of vocational
training research that integrates the potential and
de facto contribution of skilled work into the shap-
ing of work organisation and technology – in other
words its fundamental freedom of design – into its
various approaches is designated by Rauner as pro-
spective TVET research (1994). Prospective voca-
tional training research is thus the complement on
Handbook of TVET Research
the research side of vocational training that is ori-
ented towards the design of TVET programmes.
3.1.4.2 Traditions of Future-Oriented TVET
Research
Economics of Education and Planning of
Training Measures – Governmental Macro
Planning
The scientific planning and ↑ economics of educa-
tion experienced a boom in the 1960s and 1970s.
In connection with the Sputnik shock, the attesta-
tion of the German education catastrophe by Georg
Picht (1964), and the alliance between conserva-
tive and emancipatory educational reform ideas,
a mood of a new beginning in ↑ educational poli-
cy was engendered that was subsequently reflect-
ed in a number of expert reports and commissions
of experts (cf. e. g. DEUTSCHER BILDUNGSRAT/BIL-
DUNGSKOMMISSION 1972). It was in this milieu that
the ↑ Manpower Planning Approach was devel-
oped, which had been imported to Germany from
the ↑ United States to harmonise the education and
employment systems. This soon reached its lim-
its (BLAUG 1970). In this ↑ research approach, the
derivation problem is solved by the statistical pro-
jection of retrospectively and/or currently observ-
able developments – e. g. growth rates in certain
↑ occupational fields or branches of business – and
their extrapolation, on the basis of which structur-
al planning in the educational system is then car-
ried out.
Various other approaches to ↑ labour market and
vocational research evolved into a critical assess-
ment of the rigid assumptions of this field of re-
search (EDDING 1995). The Manpower Planning
Approach in its pure form allows for no substitu-
tion and flexibility or ↑ mobility between individ-
ual specialised ↑ labour markets. Furthermore, in
some cases the effects of demographic develop-
ments such as the decline in the birth rate were
underestimated and the fundamental assumptions
regarding social behaviour, such as the choice of
training and occupation, were massively refuted by
empirical experience (FRIEDEBURG / OEHLER 1995).
The Manpower Planning Approach is compared
with the so-called ↑ Social Demand Approach
(BLAUG 1970). In connection with the recourse
Areas of VET Research
to basic individual rights of choice with regard to
training and occupation, the planning task here
is largely seen to consist of providing a sufficient
number of available openings in courses of train-
ing to be able to cater to the decisions of students
from schools and universities regarding the choice
of training. It is thus a question of a supply-ori-
ented approach. From the methodological point of
view, this approach is not based on the develop-
ment of branches of the economy but on observable
trends of individual decisions regarding the choice
of training programmes. The axiomatic theory of
the Social Demand Approach was highly compat-
ible with the programmatic theory of egalitarian
and emancipatory efforts to expand education and
training. This approach was therefore employed
above all in the field of universities and similar in-
stitutions of higher education, but it also soon ex-
perienced a repulse as a result of the phenomenon
of so-called “over-qualification” (TEICHLER 1974).
In the final analysis, the social demand approach
is based on the assumption of infinite flexibility of
the supply of labour.
Both approaches are only conditionally applica-
ble to vocational training, as the reduction to sup-
ply and demand cannot do justice to the diversi-
ty of protagonists and the inherent complexity of
qualitative curricular questions in (dual) vocation-
al training systems. More recent approaches in
the economics of education and training circum-
vent the planning problem by means of a maxi-
mum possible degree of individualisation of deci-
sions regarding the supply and demand of training
measures, e. g., through so-called “vouchers”, like
those first advocated by Milton Friedman.
Assessing Technological Development
↑ Technology Assessment (TA) originates in Amer-
ica. American technology assessment was institu-
tionalised in the form of an Office for Technology
Assessment, which acted as an informational serv-
ice to the U.S. Congress. The objective was to ob-
tain timely and scientifically substantiated answers
to technology-induced or project-induced political
issues (DEITMER 1985). In TA it seeks to weigh the
intended and unintended effects of the use of tech-
nology in order to obtain a rational basis for deci-
sions regarding the “Whether” and “How” of in-
183
troducing the technology in question. Besides the
ecological and economic consequences of the use
of technologies, as a rule the social dimension of
technology is also investigated. TA in its original
form is also very widely defined with respect to
the term “technology”. An ↑ interdisciplinary ba-
sis and attention to different spheres of social in-
terests with respect to the research topic and meth-
ods are, therefore, essential methodological fea-
tures of TA.
Various attempts on the part of different politi-
cal factions to establish TA in Germany at feder-
al levels have failed. (In the ↑ United States, after
two decades of work, the office closed in 1995.)
In Baden-Württemberg, TA was institutionalised
in 1990 through the creation of the Akademie für
Technikfolgenabschätzung. From the viewpoint of
vocational ↑ training research that is oriented to the
design of training programmes, two points of criti-
cism are directed against TA: in contrast to implicit
variant forms, TA is an approach that runs the risk
of objectifying the classical model of ↑ technical
rationality as a linear end-means relation. Moreo-
ver the planning and design problem is placed in
the hands of experts and is thus in confrontation
with the above-mentioned education and training
objective of the “Qualifications for Co-Shaping”
and of a ↑ participative development of technolo-
gy (→ 3.8).
3.1.4.3 More Recent Approaches
In current, future-oriented vocational training re-
search, it is possible to make a distinction between
interventional, shaping-oriented and analytical
methods. A further distinction can be made be-
tween observing and participative methods. These
differences are exemplified by the approaches de-
riving from the “Network for the Early Recog-
nition of Qualification Requirements, Frequen-
cyNet” sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Ed-
ucation and Research (BMBF) as compared to sce-
nario approaches. These are in some cases carried
out in conjunction with the ↑ Delphi method.
Early Recognition
Since the mid-1990s, early recognition has been
the guiding principle of the “FreQuenZ” network
184
sponsored by the Federal Ministry for Education
and Research: this stands for the Early Recogni-
tion of Qualification Requirements in the Network,
in which various research institutes are to contrib-
ute to the early recognition of qualification require-
ments through subprojects (BULLINGER /ABICHT
2003; BULLINGER / BOTT/ SCHADE 2004). Quite clear-
ly, this guiding principle of early recognition in-
dicates an increased modesty with respect to the
temporal planning horizon. Whereas in the past,
forecasting research worked on the basis of plan-
ning periods of between 5 and 15 years, the key
area of focus of the early recognition programme
is the identification of developments that are rele-
vant to the future but are already detectable today,
and for which it is possible to assume a relevance
for future vocational training. It is less a question
of forecasting probable developments than one of
identifying important processes of change in voca-
tional training and its context.
Thus the commission from the German Federal
Ministry for Education and Research states:
“... new fields of employment are to be identified, for
which hitherto no personnel qualifications exist”. In
this context it must be noted that under the conditions of
the dual system a course of training is generally not in-
troduced until a sufficient supply of openings for train-
ees becomes visible in business enterprises. This means
that early recognition relates to or should relate to an al-
ready completed but hitherto unperceived development
of qualifications possessed by certain persons within
companies or on the external labour market who have
received no specific (adequate) corresponding training.
The “requirements of practice” with regard to early rec-
ognition are therefore not oriented towards some point
in the future, but to the processes of the present, and
thus, in the end, to the current requirements situation”
(translated from ALEX 1999).
In this ↑ research programme, various methods are
used that serve to identify such acute processes of
change. Procedures and methods that are used in-
clude the identification of “trendsetters”, field in-
terviews at companies, analyses of situations-va-
cant ads or ↑ comparative studies at the internation-
al level. The various institutes within the network
are linked to each other via a virtual communica-
tions platform to be able to rapidly exchange data
and information. Moreover the ↑ communications
platform used also offers access points for interest-
ed parties with different perspectives. The differ-
Handbook of TVET Research
ent projects vary with regard to both their analyti-
cal or shaping orientation and their participative or
observational nature. Currently a network of the
early recognition of skill needs is also set up on the
European level (BULLINGER / SCHMIDT / SCHÖMANN /
TESSARING 2003).
Delphi
The ↑ Delphi method has established itself in var-
ious forms in social research. What the different
variants have in common is that they obtain rel-
atively precise judgements about diffuse topics
(HÄDER 2000; HÄDER / HÄDER 2000). The origins of
the Delphi method lie in the military sector, where
it is employed to support strategic decisions. The
method was introduced by the Californian RAND
Corporation, a private research institute, within
the framework of sponsored research in the 1960s
to investigate questions concerning the interrela-
tionship of technological and social development
in a broader context.
Major features of the Delphi method are a mul-
ti-level structure and feedback loops. In the case
of Delphi surveys, in principle the whole spec-
trum of sociological surveys can be used. The “de-
cision” regarding the methodological details de-
pends on the economics of the corresponding re-
search project, the subject matter, and the size of
the population of experts. One thing that all Del-
phi ↑ research designs have in common is that the
population of respondents is confronted with the
results of the first survey in order to participate in
further iterative rounds of questioning, so that on
this basis they have the opportunity to revise their
own answers if need be, to make them more pre-
cise or to be confronted with other questions which
still remain open.
In Germany, the last prominent occasion on which
the Delphi method was applied was the so-called
knowledge and education Delphi (KUWAN / WASCH-
BÜSCH 1998; STOCK / WOLFF / KUWAN / WASCHBÜSCH
1998; STOCK / WOLFF / MOHR / THITKE 1998) commis-
sioned by the Federal Minister for Education and
Research. The objective of this effort was to gain
insights into the structural development of knowl-
edge and correspondingly of the education and
training system up to the year 2010.
Areas of VET Research
Delphi investigations are frequently concluded
with scenarios. Scenarios were announced in ad-
vance for the results of the knowledge and ed-
ucation Delphi of 1998, but have so far not been
worked out. According to the distinction made
above, the Delphi method can be classified as a
participative method. ↑ Participation is ensured
through a high status of interest groups and panels
of experts as well as through the multi-level struc-
ture of the method. The Delphi study named above
has an analytical design, as no direct action strate-
gies were derived from it.
Scenario Method in Vocational Training
The first approaches for the scenario method origi-
nate from the school around the American futurol-
ogist Hermann Kahn (K AHN / WIENER 1967) in the
1960s. In its euphoria about scientific planning and
the future, this school sought methods that repre-
sented an extension of the conventional methods of
sociological forecasts. In particular, as an instru-
ment of strategic management planning, the sce-
nario method later proved its worth as a medium-
to long-term planning instrument. At big oil con-
glomerates such as Shell, the demand for strategic
instruments like the scenario method was awak-
ened by the shock of adjustment within the frame-
work of the oil crisis in the 1970s. Traditional plan-
ning methods had been based on the assumption
of stability over time. It was assumed that certain
boundary conditions of a decision or of a deci-
sion-making area would remain constant, or that
the course of development of a variable regarded
as a boundary condition remains constant. From
this starting point it was now possible to forecast
certain variables that were important for entrepre-
neurial planning (e. g. expected sales or demand
for a product).
All theoretical and practically implemented ap-
proaches employ scenarios to represent alternative
action-guiding schemes relating to the future of a
certain topic and decision-making area. The fol-
lowing quote reflects the common nucleus of all
planning activities carried out with the aid of the
scenario method:
“A scenario is generally understood to be the description
of the future development of a certain subject of fore-
185
casting in the case of alternative boundary conditions”
(HANSMANN 1983, 11–12).
A further fundamental characteristic of scenarios
is that their purpose is not to produce correct fore-
casts about the future, but rather to influence the
thinking of decision-makers and protagonists so
that they become aware of the different implica-
tions of certain possible paths of development in
order to be able to react flexibly. Scenario planning
is thus not a scientific method but rather a practi-
cal tool to help arrive at decisions with a margin
of uncertainty and to open up design and action
options. It can therefore be classified in the field
of participative methods. The paramount objective
is not the precise forecasting of developments and
data for certain variables but the creation and/or
honing of different action-guiding concepts about
possible futures of a defined topical area.
Shaping and Analytical Variants
The scenario method was applied for the first
time in the field of vocational training in Germa-
ny within the framework of the project “Berufe
2000” (HEIDEGGER /JACOBS / MARTIN ET AL. 1991).
In this connection, special attention was drawn to
the high utility of scenarios as pictures of possi-
ble or desirable futures in the process of “discur-
sive communications” and as an instrument of de-
sign-oriented planning of vocational training. Sce-
narios are also used in more recent approaches
of the early recognition of qualification require-
ments within the framework of industrial sciences
(WINDELBAND / SPÖTTL 2004).
In modern management literature, not only the
utility of the results, but above all else, the utility
of the process of drafting scenarios and of weigh-
ing possible action strategies is highlighted. These
processes help members of organisations to de-
velop joint ideas about organisation targets or at
least to find a common language and to communi-
cate possible problem areas or conflicting interests.
Scenario planning is thus – in modern terminology
– also a contribution to the creation and to mainte-
nance of a “learning organisation” (HEIJDEN 1996;
SCHOEMAKER 1995; SCHOEMAKER 1991).
Whereas in the case of the cited German projects
the focus was on the discursive development of
joint models concerning the future of TVET, in the
186
models originating from the ↑ human resource de-
velopment (HRD) context the question of the de-
sirability of alternative futures is not posed. These
approaches focus on the weighing of possible ac-
tion alternatives, strategies, against the background
of alternative and inherently consistent, plausible
futures. Action strategies that are suitable for the
greatest number of possible futures are designat-
ed as “robust”.
Procedure in Scenario Planning
As a rule, the procedure for building up a scenario
starts by visualising the different contextual con-
ditions and/or dimensions for the relevant topic ar-
ea and then vary in these individually in different
ways in a second step. Different constellations of
contextual conditions are then compressed to form
scenarios. Scenarios are thus ideal types about the
future in the Weberian sense. On the basis of these
scenarios, it is possible to check out strategies and
action alternatives for their ↑ effectiveness and to
give these concrete shape. Depending on the appli-
cation context and conditions, designing the sce-
nario can be carried out on the basis of extensive
scientific data collections (e. g. in ↑ Delphi rounds)
or only on the basis of the evaluation of already
available knowledge, e. g. secondary evaluations –
a method which for reasons of cost is suitable for
small organisations (LENEY/ COLES / GROLLMANN /
VILU 2004).
Based on the prior discussion there are two lines
of distinction regarding future-oriented TVET re-
search. Research can be classified according to two
criteria. It can be based on an analytical or an in-
terventional, shaping-oriented paradigm and it can
be participatory or non-participatory and observ-
ant. Examples can be found in the matrix below:
participatory Observant
interventional, manpower
Berufe 2000
shaping oriented planning
classical
HRD Business labour market
analytical
Scenarios research and
prognostics
Handbook of TVET Research
3.1.4.4 Can Prospectivity Replace
Prognostics and Planning in
Vocational Training Research?
According to the Dutch organisation develop-
er Kees van der Heijden, the optimum definition
of time periods for the planning of scenarios is to
be found where the quantity of possible relevant
uncertainties with regard to a planning object co-
incides with the quantity of variables that are ca-
pable of being forecast (Point S in Fig. 1). In his
opinion traditional forecasting methods (F = fore-
cast) are suitable as a well-tried tool for a shorter
planning horizon, while later periods of time – as
van der Heijden succinctly notes – are governed by
the principle of “Hope” (H).
Fig. 1: Different Periods of Time and Suitable Plan-
ning Methods (from HEIJDEN 1996)
Experience with traditional approaches of the
economics and planning of education and train-
ing indicates the limitations of classical prognos-
tics (→ 3.1.1). Only a few influencing and orienta-
tion variables of vocational training – such as for
example demographic development – can be fore-
cast with a relatively high probability of occur-
rence. Apart from this there is no solution for fu-
ture problem complexes in TVET that would de-
rive from the nature of the matter. The processing
and utilisation of future-relevant research results
with regard to design options is always specific to
the interests involved. Against the background of
the diversity of protagonists between supply and
demand in terms of qualifications, and the inherent
complexity of curricular and question complexes
relating to basic regulatory concepts and learning
between school and the business enterprise, this
Areas of VET Research
is an important pre-condition for rationalising the
discussion about designing the future of vocational
training. For this reason, the call for prospectivity
as a general criterion of quality for shaping-orient-
ed vocational ↑ training research represents a ma-
jor and necessary supplement to traditional plan-
ning methods and forecasting methods.
3.1.5. Qualification Research
Otfried Mickler
3.1.5.1 The Beginnings of Qualification
Research in Industrial Sociology
The development of qualification in ↑ work process-
es has been a focus of research in industrial soci-
ology for several decades. Early studies examined
the relation between technological development,
social organisation of work and changes in human
work (POPITZ / BAHRDT/JÜRES /K ESTING 1957).
In particular, Horst Kern’s and Michael Schu-
mann’s study “industrial work and worker con-
sciousness” (K ERN / SCHUMANN 1970) and their re-
sults on qualification stimulated the discussion
on ↑ educational policy during the reform-orient-
ed years of the 1970s. The study was conceptu-
alised as an automation study within the frame-
work of a large network project by the committee
for rationalisation in German economy (Rational-
isierungskomitee der deutschen Wirtschaft). Pri-
marily the study focused on changes of technical
forms of industrial labour and on the work- and
worker-awareness of industrial workers. Neverthe-
less Kern and Schumann’s industrial-sociological
results had a strong impact on the discussion on
vocational education during that time. They found
a trend towards polarization, meaning that even in
automated plants, manufacturing companies were
creating a large number of unqualified work plac-
es next to qualified ones. This finding led to a fun-
damental criticism of a concept that had had a
strong influence on educational policy during the
1960s. This so-called ‘upgrading-proposition’ as-
sumed a continuous upgrading of occupational re-
quirements, based on the growing complexity of
automated technologies and an increasing supply
187
of skilled and highly qualified workers in the ↑ la-
bour market.
A political implication of the declared trend to-
wards polarisation was that society could not re-
ly on dynamic technological change to create edu-
cational capacities. Instead, it was a political task
to support the workers’ demand for better qualifi-
cation and more education against the current ten-
dency of economic and technical change in indus-
try. Additionally this meant systematically inter-
vening into the structures of technology and divi-
sion of labour in order to create and maintain chal-
lenging fields of work for employees.
As the scientific interest of the study “industrial
work and worker consciousness” focused on oth-
er topics than vocational training, the results con-
cerning qualification were more a by-product of
the study. This is especially notable in the study’s
categories for describing qualification, having
been pragmatically generated out of categories
from ↑ ergonomics and sociology.
3.1.5.2 Foundation of Sociological
Qualification Research
Inspired by these results and supported by the
BIBB (Federal institute for vocational education),
the SOFI (Sociological Research Institute Göttin-
gen) started a new study with the name “Produc-
tion and Qualification” (Mickler/ Mohr/ Kadritzke
1977). Its task was to investigate the tendencies
that Kern and Schumann had selectively identified
more systematically, to survey several industrial
sectors with a high percentage of skilled workers
and to develop a new instrument in order to ana-
lyse qualification requirements.
One purpose of the study “Production and Qual-
ification” was to highlight a shift in qualification
requirements due to technological-organisational
changes in industrial manufacture. It was particu-
larly important to expand the ↑ empirical ↑ knowl-
edge base on the profile and the occurrence of ex-
isting skilled work. Secondly the study was to ex-
plore the causes and mechanisms of skill-related
job design in companies, so that it would be pos-
sible to estimate the skill-related potential of eco-
nomic-technological change.
For the first objective, it was necessary to execute
exact sociological qualification analyses of compa-
188
ny work places. For the second goal, the research-
ers conducted company case studies on important
technological-organisational innovations in manu-
facturing, and economic-technological analyses of
several industrial sectors. This was based on the
theoretical premise that in the long run it would
not be external institutions, like the educational
system, but the process of production itself and its
economic formation that would determine the po-
tential for qualification. Between 1973 and 1975
the authors of the study collected empirical data in
the following branches: printing (area of type set-
ting); furniture, precision engineering, construc-
tion, machine tools, car maintenance, and steel-
maintenance.
The Study’s Concept of Qualification
Two different notions of qualification were dis-
tinguished: Qualification requirements in compa-
nies and qualification as an individual’s knowledge
and abilities. Qualification requirements mean the
need for specific capabilities resulting from ↑ work
tasks and technical-organisational working condi-
tions. More specifically these are the technical, or-
ganisational and social skills and abilities of the
worker that are essential for accomplishing the op-
erationally-defined ↑ performance. These qualifi-
cation requirements also determine how the indi-
vidual qualifications acquired by training and ex-
perience come into use in the work-process. There-
fore, whether individuals can apply their learned
qualifications, working in companies is always a
process of learning and unlearning with far-reach-
ing consequences for the workers’ situation at the
work-place and for their status in the company and
the job market.
The Instrument for the Analysis
Following Kern and Schumann’s (1970) industrial
sociological categories and Hacker’s psychological
↑ action theory, the researchers developed an in-
strument for assessing qualification requirements.
It consists of two tightly related levels of analysis:
the ↑ analysis of ↑ work tasks and the ↑ analysis of
qualification requirements.
The authors conceptualised the categories for cap-
turing work tasks so that they could be matched to
Handbook of TVET Research
the categories of qualification requirements with-
out confusing tasks with qualifications and abili-
ties. The description of the work tasks was con-
crete and detailed enough so that psychologi-
cal preconditions for accomplishments could be
tapped, frequent but also infrequent and complex
tasks could be captured, and crucial differences
between different workplaces could be described
selectively. Furthermore the researchers devel-
oped three mediating variables, the factors subject
of work, means of work and work organisation,
which allowed the characterized tasks to be relat-
ed to the changes in industrial manufacturing and
to the dynamic in the work-task structures and in
the requirements of qualification (MICKLER / MOHR /
K ADRITZKE 1977, Vol. II, 30).
For the second level of analysis, the authors de-
veloped categories for the analysis of qualifica-
tion requirements inspired by Hacker’s (1973) ac-
tion-structure-analysis. Accordingly, they distin-
guished three constitutive types of requirements
on work capacity:
– Requirements of sensory-motor behaviour, i.e.
demands concerning physical movements, espe-
cially manual skilfulness.
– Requirements of automated perceptive behav-
iour, i.e. the ability to perceive signs containing in-
formation, to process these using learned judge-
ment patterns and to transfer the signs into action
(e. g. technical sensitivity)
– Cognitive requirements as demands on diagnos-
tic planning behaviour, i.e. the ability to grasp new
conditions in the ↑ work process and to accomplish
new tasks by methodical problem solving.
A last important dimension, requirements on work-
motivation, was added to the list, a dimension or-
ganised not hierarchically but parallel to the oth-
er three dimensions. It means the ability to adhere
to established norms during work and to translate
them into independent behaviour.
Results of the Study
The study “Production and Qualification” has con-
tributed several findings to research on qualifica-
tion (MICKLER 1981):
– The level of qualification in a business cannot
be deduced from the status of the manufacturing
technology. Economic and social processes in the
Areas of VET Research
operative application of technology and in the di-
vision of labour have to be considered as important
moderating variables.
– In most cases, companies did not connect techno-
logical-organisational innovations with an explicit
qualification policy, i.e. a decision for or against an
assignment of skilled workers. In addition, trade
unions and workers’ councils seldom resisted the
dequalification of job tasks. In subtle ways com-
plex work areas were disintegrated by standardi-
sation and simplification in the course of time, due
to cost-cutting or capacity-expanding productivity
goals.
– On the whole there was a tendency towards dis-
integration of complex work in manufacture, re-
gardless of diverging economic conditions and in-
novative trends in different industrial sectors. On-
ly in a few cases (e. g. in ↑ mechanical engineering)
was this trend compensated for by a simultaneous
increase of skilled work in setup and maintenance.
Only maintenance work, as a form of complicated
automation work, and assembly work in mechani-
cal engineering withstood a drastic simplification
of its functions.
– Comparative qualification analysis drew at-
tention to large differences in levels of ↑ industri-
al skilled work, which ranged from profession-
ally limited tasks in production work to new and
highly-qualified maintenance work. Furthermore
it highlighted the sizable heterogeneity of present-
day skilled work, varying from traditional me-
chanic to technical and abstract forms of skilled
work in automated production.
– With regard to methodology, the authors dem-
onstrated the usefulness of case studies in compa-
nies and of technological-economic branch-analy-
ses for the investigation of the dynamic and condi-
tions of technological-organisational ↑ innovation
processes. Using the new instrument for the regis-
tration of qualification requirements made it pos-
sible to specify qualification profiles of industrial
skilled work and their changes and to array these
along cognitive dimensions. It allowed substitution
of the previous common simple listing of several
kinds of knowledge and skills, “just to do some-
thing”, by systematic insight into the behavioural
dimensions of qualification types.
189
Criticism
However, in retrospect one should mention some
conceptual weaknesses of the study “Production
and Qualification”. The criticism has been made
that the study reduced the notion of qualification to
functional requirements of the operational ↑ work
process, and thereby ignored potential moderating
variables between qualification requests and real
qualification requirements, like qualifying and re-
cruitment processes. With hindsight, furthermore,
the limitation to manufacturing seems problemat-
ic. Even though the study examined work-set-up
and maintenance tasks, the growing area of tech-
nical and commercial white collar workers was not
included.
3.1.5.3 Qualification Research on the
Problem of Introducing New
Professions
The study “Workforce Structures between Pressure
to Change and Inertia” by Ingrid Drexel (DREXEL
1982) addressed some of the shortcomings men-
tioned above. Bound to the tradition of the Institut
für Sozialwissenschaftliche Forschung München
(ISF) (Institute for Social Scientific Research),
the study pursued a theoretical and empirical ap-
proach that conceives qualification and personnel
policy as moderating variables between issues of
companies and society. According to this notion,
changes in qualification requirements in produc-
tion are just one of several factors to which ↑ qual-
ification policies of companies react. Companies
also orient their policies by variables such as the
employment market, ↑ socially defined qualifica-
tion types (e. g. skilled worker, semi-skilled work-
er, technician), typical patterns of occupational ca-
reers of different types of workers as well as their
existing personnel structures.
Reason and Results of the Study
The focus of the investigation was the problems
that companies which traditionally employed
semi-skilled workers encounter when they imple-
ment new ↑ professions of skilled workers (e. g.
skilled chemical worker, skilled steel worker).
The companies were highly interested in replac-
ing semi-skilled workers by new production pro-
190
fessions. The traditional trainee-qualification did
not suffice any more due to extensive technological
change. However, there were large difficulties with
the implementation. There was a scarcity of well-
educated young people for the new training pos-
sibilities, because production work was regarded
as unattractive. Conflicts also arose with tradition-
al worker groups as semi-skilled workers felt their
careers threatened by young skilled workers.
Ingrid Drexel showed that typical occupational ex-
pectations and actual careers differed substantial-
ly between skilled and semi-skilled workers with
regard to gratification, opportunities for advance-
ment and work content. Over the course of time
these tendencies solidified into patterns of occu-
pational careers, so that companies could be char-
acterised as either skilled worker or semi-skilled
worker centred. One of Drexel’s conclusions is that
higher qualification requirements due to techno-
logical change did not, per se, promote the intro-
duction of new production professions, but large-
ly depended on traditional employment structures
in the companies. These structures, in turn, did not
exist independently from external social develop-
ments, like the local employment market and the
development of the vocational training system.
However, an alternative explanation for the ob-
served difficulties with the introduction of the
new production professions might be that the new
↑ work tasks did not correspond to the usual job
profile of a skilled worker, i.e. they were less chal-
lenging. This hypothesis could not be examined, as
the study did not assess qualification requirements
of the work places.
Evaluation of the Study
Drexel’s investigation expanded sociological ap-
proaches of ↑ qualification research to include two
crucial dimensions: the companies’ qualification
and personnel policy and broader social conditions
like the vocational training system. However, this
does not imply that industrial sociological qualifi-
cation analysis of technological-organisational in-
novations is redundant for the assessment of qual-
ification developments. In fact both sociological
studies indicated that an interlinking combination
of both ↑ research approaches and methods prom-
Handbook of TVET Research
ised to be especially fruitful for future ↑ qualifica-
tion research.
3.1.5.4 Later Industrial Sociological
Research
Two important investigations in the 1980s used a
methodology that combined the two approaches
described above. These two investigations, “Ende
der Arbeitsteilung?” (“End of the Division of La-
bour?”) (K ERN / SCHUMANN 1984) and “Zukunft der
Angestellten” (“The Future of White Collar Work-
ers”) (BAETHGE / OBERBECK 1986), dominated dis-
cussion on labour and education policies into the
1990s.
New Concepts of Production and Reprofession-
alisation of Work
An especially surprising result of the two studies
is the trend in the development of qualification.
Kern and Schumann found that in highly techni-
cal production areas unqualified work had been re-
placed by automation and the remaining produc-
tion work had been upgraded. They ascribed this
trend to a new strategy of rationalisation of com-
panies, which they labelled “new production con-
cepts”. Fundamentally new forms of rationalisa-
tion evolved: Companies sought to increase their
flexibility by computer-aided automation, never-
theless the contribution of production workers to
↑ efficiency gained a new appreciation and impor-
tance – qualification and professional competence
were sought after again. In line with this, Kern and
Schumann observed a trend towards an integrat-
ed use of the workforce in some central sectors of
industry (car industry, ↑ mechanical engineering,
chemical industry). Companies shifted the brain-
power that was necessary for the production from
the technical office back towards the shop-floor.
In particular they integrated tasks regarding pro-
gramming, quality control and maintenance with
the production work at the shop-floor. In this way,
new types of skilled workers emerged, e. g. sys-
tem-regulation in the automated plants of the car
industry – a process one could characterise as re-
professionalisation of production work (K ERN /
SCHUMANN 1984, 97).
Areas of VET Research
Systemic Rationalisation and Task Integration
Baethge and Oberbeck report comparable results
with regard to intensified application of comput-
ers in large service companies (e. g. banks, insur-
ance companies, retailing, public and industrial
administration) (BAETHGE / OBERBECK 1986). The
authors state that ↑ systemic rationalisation as a
new strategy of the companies led to an integrat-
ed organisation of work. Companies reduced the
previous intense division of labour by centralis-
ing all of their business activities with a client on
one staff member, an option made possible only
by new high ↑ performance computer systems and
databases. However, Baethge and Oberbeck al-
so point out that qualification requirements devel-
oped differently for groups of employees, depend-
ing on whether their tasks were market- or admin-
istration-centred.
For employees operating close to the market (ad-
vising customers, sales department, purchasing
department) use of technology and integrated or-
ganisation of work led to a complex qualification
profile. Although their action and decision mak-
ing style was now essentially determined by tech-
nical forms of information processing, the extend-
ed range of tasks and an enhanced realm of deci-
sion-responsibility upgraded professional knowl-
edge and challenged conceptional thinking in
many cases.
As far as the purely administrative employees
(e. g. accounting, inventory management) were
concerned, companies tended to reduce a strict di-
vision of labour. However, at the same time they
increasingly delimited administrative tasks from
market-related tasks, so that in the long term, ad-
ministrative employees had to face lower chanc-
es for a comprehensive professional profile. In
this way they incurred a vocational deadlock from
which there was no way out due to the solidi-
fied dividing lines to the market-areas (BAETHGE /
OBERBECK 1986).
In recent time several industrial-sociological in-
vestigators incorporated the notion of ‘subjectiva-
tion of work’ in their studies and consequential-
ly in their analyses of qualification profiles. These
new approaches to ↑ qualification research focus no
longer on the impact of technological and organisa-
tional conditions on qualification requirements and
191
qualification, but on the employees’ qualification
development. Particularly in new forms of work
and qualified service jobs, subjective potentials of
employees matter increasingly. Employees largely
have to organise their qualification by themselves
(BAETHGE / BAETHGE-K INSKY 2002). Therefore, sub-
jectivity is no longer primarily an interfering fac-
tor in the business-calculation, needing to be con-
trolled by the management, but has come to be an
important personnel resource, utilized by the com-
pany. This implies that employees are requested
to participate more strongly in the ↑ work process
and to become actors in their companies’ produc-
tion and ↑ innovation processes (MOLDASCHL / VOSS
2002).
Comparison of Recent with Earlier Sociologi-
cal Qualification Research
Early sociological qualification research paid little
attention to qualification deficits and consequential
necessities for qualification of several ↑ occupa-
tional groups. It focused on problems of dequalifi-
cation by rationalisation and on enhancing restric-
tive working conditions by qualification oriented
work design. More modern studies, in contrast, re-
port novel qualification requirements in produc-
tion and administration that can be related to sub-
stantial problems in qualifying for some groups of
employees and therefore demand an active quali-
fying policy by companies. These studies further
identify a danger of segmentation of large occu-
pational groups due to the potential for a partial
broadening of qualification requirements and a se-
lective personnel and qualification policy combin-
ing to lead employees to lower status in the compa-
ny and to occupational deadlocks.
Furthermore, recent studies no longer define mech-
anisms of qualification development via changes in
the economic conditions of companies and branch-
es, but elaborate the companies’ decisions for in-
novation and the management of formation proc-
esses more intensively. This requires a considera-
tion of the conflicting interests of different actors
in the companies concerning the dispute on alter-
native formation concepts with a focus on the com-
panies’ options in the formation of qualification.
192
3.1.5.5 Tasks for Future Qualification
Research
(1) Because previous studies have limited their
scope too closely to certain parts of the company, it
was not possible to capture shifts in requirements
(e. g. from the production to the technical office)
and the connected processes of promotion, that are
crucial for the development of qualification. Future
studies should broaden their areas of investigation
and concentrate more strongly on service areas in
and outside of the company.
(2) Besides the still important variables “technical
means” and “organisation of work”, new investiga-
tions should more strongly take into account con-
sequences of product development on changes in
qualification. Shifts in qualification requirements,
along with corresponding consequences for per-
sonnel and qualifying policy, can only be captured
adequately by tracing the impact of product-inno-
vation especially in the areas of development, con-
struction and planning.
(3) Past research has not succeeded in adapting the
instruments developed for the analysis of qualifi-
cation demands in production to qualified tasks of
white-collar workers in administration and tech-
nical offices. Instead existing work analyses of
white-collar work are confined to describing task
contents and to listing knowledge requirements
(BAETHGE / OBERBECK 1986, 187). Thus future re-
search should develop a concept of systematic as-
sessment and grading of the qualification-relevant
behavioural dimensions of qualified administra-
tive and technical work.
Technical and Vocational Education and Training
(TVET) research, which deals with the contents
and objectives, teaching and learning methods,
the organisation and the structures of programmes
and systems, requires a differentiation into ↑ occu-
pational fields and ↑ vocational disciplines from a
perspective that is historical, national and interna-
tionally comparative. The training processes for
the various occupations are not only fundamental-
ly different in their contents, but also differ essen-
tially in terms of the forms and methods of voca-
tional teaching and learning. Besides research in
↑ vocational pedagogy, ↑ occupational research and
sociological ↑ qualification research, which are all
Handbook of TVET Research
concerned with the general characteristics and reg-
ularities of vocational education and training, ↑ re-
search traditions related to specific occupations
and occupational fields have developed. Their ↑ re-
search problems, methods and results essentially
shape TVET research. These sub-disciplines and
↑ research fields of TVET research developed rel-
atively late, but their roots date back to the be-
ginning of the past century. The task analyses of
Gilbreth (1911) and Taylor (1913) can be regarded
as precedents of this kind of research.
The emergence of TVET systems and ↑ TVET
planning engendered a crucial need for scientif-
ic expertise for a ↑ domain specific research into
qualifications, curricula, teaching and learning.
The necessity of a research diversified according
to vocational domains was also established by the
adjacent disciplines. For instance, the founders of
the “↑ studies of work” (→ 5.2.8) point to the limits
of sociological research when the contents of work
and education come into play.
“The gap in the social science literature on occupations
consists of all the missing descriptions of what occupa-
tional activities consist of and all the missing analysis of
how the practitioners manage the task which, for them,
are matters of serious and pressing significance” (HERI-
TAGE 1984, 299).
It was only in the last few years that a genesis of
research in the vocational disciplines was present-
ed (HERITAGE 1984; PAHL 2005). This type of re-
search has been established particularly in Ger-
many in virtually all ↑ occupational fields since the
foundation of the Federal Institute for TVET Re-
search (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildungsforsc-
hung – BBF), the future Federal Institute for Voca-
tional Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für
Berufsbildung – BIBB). The genesis shows that the
necessity of research in the vocational disciplines
was also convincingly demonstrated by ↑ vocation-
al pedagogy (MÜLLGES 1975, 8 ff.; ABEL 1963, 3;
STRATMANN 1975b, 341 ff.).
Areas of VET Research 193

3.2 Research in the Vocational Disciplines

Jörg-Peter Pahl and Felix Rauner

3.2.0.1 Conceptual Clarification (4) Teaching and learning research including re-
search in vocational pedagogy.
Research in the vocational disciplines is based on
The investigation of ↑ domain specific implications
work organised along the lines of occupations and
for and by research and development methods is
on vocational education and training that relates to
another research field, which is, however, predom-
this organisation. Countries with a well developed
inantly a topic for ↑ interdisciplinary and cross-do-
TVET system typically have a vocational tradition.
main methodological reflection (→ 5.1.1; → 5.1.4).
Following the model of academic ↑ professions the
The particular character of research in the vocation-
intermediary level of the employment system in
al disciplines results from the high divergence of
these countries is structured according to occupa-
national vocational education and training systems
tions, which are in turn grouped into occupational
and the different patterns of the transition from vo-
fields or ↑ occupational groups (→ 2.3). There is a
cational to higher education. Countries with under-
distinction between terms that denote profession-
developed TVET systems and a high proportion of
al activities and those that denote training occu-
university students have to a large extent integrated
pations. The ↑ US Dictionary of Occupational Ti-
former vocational training programmes into uni-
tles (DOT) identifies approximately 1,700 occupa-
versity studies. For instance, clinical nurses in the
tions in the sense of work profiles, but only roughly
↑ United States and in some other countries are ed-
1,000 of these are recognised as training occupa-
ucated in special nursing programmes at univer-
tions. In countries with a developed system of ap-
sities in accordance with the Anglo-Saxon tradi-
prenticeship training the number of training occu-
tion of education (BENNER 1984). Around these
pations varies from between 200 and 300 (e. g. in
study programmes and institutes a university lev-
Denmark and Switzerland) to approximately 360
el of research in the relevant vocational discipline
(in Germany) to a maximum of 500 in other in-
has emerged. The same is true of many vocational
dustrialised countries. The clustering of occupa-
training programmes that were transferred into the
tions into occupational fields is justified by refer-
system of higher education (→ 3.2.7). The transfor-
ring to the ↑ professionalisation of TVET teachers,
mation of school-based into university-based voca-
the organisation of ↑ vocational schools and the es-
tional education was normally accompanied by the
tablishment of a basic training that covers entire
establishment of a research infrastructure related
occupational fields. It was at the UNESCO-UN-
to the profession in question. This infrastructure in
EVOC conference in 2004 in ↑ Hangzhou (↑ Chi-
turn serves as the basis for the qualification of fu-
na) that a recommendation for the establishment
ture researchers in doctoral and postdoctoral pro-
of twelve vocational disciplines was adopted for
grammes. Therefore in the course of the progres-
the first time on the international level (Tab. 1).
sive vocationalisation of higher education the de-
On this basis an international Master’s degree
marcation between vocational and higher educa-
for TVET teachers will be introduced (MACLEAN
tion research can be maintained less and less. The
2006; RAUNER / DITTRICH 2006).
extension of research in the vocational disciplines
Within research in the ↑ vocational disciplines
to higher education, to the extent that the latter is
there are four ↑ research fields, which are worked
directed to qualification for the ↑ labour market, is
on with varying emphases.
therefore the result. This tendency is also support-
These include, diversified according to occupa-
ed by the expansion of ↑ continuing vocational ed-
tional domains:
ucation and training, as its highest level has in the
(1) Occupation research meantime reached the level of university degrees.
(2) ↑ Qualification research The chapters in this section, however, adhere to the
(3) ↑ Curriculum research tradition of TVET research and concentrate on vo-
194
Tab. 1: 12 vocational disciplines (VEAL / DITTRICH / K ÄMÄRÄINEN 2005, 15–16)
cational education outside the academic system in
their accounts of research in the vocational disci-
plines.
3.2.0.2 On the Genesis and Development of
Occupational Fields
The development of occupation in a wider sense is
the subject of a number of disciplines:
– Socio-historical occupation ↑ research approach-
es occupation development as a specific phenom-
enon of societal development in a historical per-
spective.
– Sociological occupation research is concerned,
for instance, with the problem of ↑ deprofessional-
isation as a phenomenon of the changing world of
work.
Handbook of TVET Research
– Labour market research is, among other things,
occupied with making forecasts on the develop-
ment of occupations and occupational fields.
– The sociology of ↑ professions investigates e. g.
the relevance of professional work.
– Historical and systematic vocational pedagogi-
cal research is dealing with issues in vocational ed-
ucation related to the development and shaping of
professional identities.
Research in the vocational disciplines is address-
ing questions like the following:
– How do occupations and occupational fields de-
velop in the course of the change of work and pro-
fessional area?
– What are the constitutive features of a profes-
sion?
Areas of VET Research
– What consequences has professional work for or-
ganisational and ↑ innovation processes and struc-
tures?
– Which identification potential do specific occu-
pations have for trainees and employees?
– Which substantial differences exist between pre-
scribed ↑ occupational profiles and the jobs actual-
ly exercised?
– Is it possible to merge occupations into core oc-
cupations, and does it make sense to diversify oc-
cupations according to areas of specialisation?
– How is it possible to prevent the erosion of occu-
pations, particularly in dynamic economic sectors,
by means of an appropriate definition of an occu-
pation and the corresponding profile?
– How can historical occupation research, which
is underdeveloped so far, be improved? (see HOWE
2005).
The topic of ↑ domain-specific occupation re-
search, including ↑ sector analyses (→ 3.1.2), is the
investigation of the change of professional tasks,
the development of occupations and occupational
fields as well as the associated change of qualifi-
cation requirements. This extensive research ar-
ea encompasses the analysis of the technologi-
cal change and the development of the organisa-
tion of work in society (→ 3.2.1; → 3.2.2; → 3.2.3;
→ 3.2.4). In particular the cultural differences that
shape the national and regional sectoral spheres of
work are important (LASKE 1998). If one compares
the occupation-based organisation of work in an
international perspective, it becomes quite clear
that there are considerable differences in the lat-
eral and vertical bundling of ↑ work tasks in the
shape of occupations. This leads to the research
mission to establish design criteria for occupations
on the basis of sector studies and cross-profession-
al studies. Whereas sociological and socio-histori-
cal research tends to hold the view that profession-
al work is increasingly in conflict with the progres-
sive instrumental rationalisation of social issues
(GIDDENS 1992; GALL 1995; BECK 1993), TVET re-
search has developed criteria of modern ↑ profes-
sionalism (HEIDEGGER /JACOBS / MARTIN ET AL. 1991;
HEIDEGGER 1995; LAUR-ERNST / GUTSCHMIDT/LIT-
ZAU 1992; R AUNER 2000a, 338 ff.). Four criteria
are emphasised in particular.
195
(1) The context of work: this term is understood,
following the understanding that is common in the
craft trades, as a definable field of work that is con-
stituted by comprehensive tasks and that is char-
acterised by a topic which is clearly identifiable in
the context of the societal division of labour.
(2) The reversal of horizontal specialisation
through the introduction of core occupations (H EI-
DEGGER 1997b). The point of reference for core oc-
cupations consists of concrete work contexts, the
incorporated ↑ work process knowledge and the
potential for the development of ↑ professional
identity.
(3) ↑ Occupational profiles that are stable over time:
the definition of stable ↑ occupational profiles by
means of work contexts is an important contribu-
tion to the attractiveness and familiarity of occu-
pations. Technology oriented and mechanical oc-
cupations, on the other hand, face a loss of rele-
vance unless they are updated.
(4) Open and dynamic occupational profiles: the
concept of open and dynamic ↑ professionalism
continues to presuppose a concrete work context.
Nevertheless occupational profiles need to be rec-
ognised and adequate qualification processes ex-
perienced as exemplary for professional work.
Such profiles must also offer the possibility to ex-
tend them in the course of the ↑ organisational de-
velopment of enterprises, and they have to be open
for technological change.
The European research and development project
“Automotive Service Sector: Structural Change,
Initial and ↑ Continuing Vocational Education
and Training” (→ 4.3) was an exemplary research
project that brought about the basis for the cross-
national establishment of the “car mechatronic”
profile. Within the European FORCE programme
a methodology was developed for the ↑ perform-
ance of these sector studies. The topic of this
kind of studies is the technological and econom-
ic change in a clearly delimited sector of the em-
ployment system such as automotive service or re-
tail trade. Sector studies also investigate the struc-
tural change in the organisation of work and busi-
ness processes and the corresponding contents and
forms of initial and continuing vocational educa-
tion and training (→ 3.1.2). Two essential require-
ments have to be met. (1) International projects
196
of this kind have to involve researchers from all
countries participating in the study. This serves to
ensure that the implicit and explicit industrial cul-
tural dimensions that shape the change of technol-
ogy, work and training are captured in an intercul-
tural ↑ research design. (2) Research of this kind
is embedded into a ↑ social dialogue. This means
that the social partners of the sector in question
take part in the monitoring of the study, particular-
ly with regard to issues that directly or indirectly
affect the further development of ↑ lifelong learn-
ing and the formulation of the conclusions relevant
for ↑ educational policy and planning (HEIDEGGER
1995; RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1995c).
3.2.0.3 Qualification Research in the
Vocational Disciplines
The idea that context-independent theoretical
knowledge, the general capacity to solve prob-
lems and intellectual capacity ensure higher pro-
fessional ↑ mobility of skilled workers and a high
↑ flexibility of ↑ labour markets gave rise to a mul-
titude of research projects. The latter were based
on the then fashionable hypothesis that the accel-
erating technological change would lead to a de-
skilling of professional knowledge and to a corre-
sponding ↑ deprofessionalisation in the organisa-
tion of “skilled” work (K ERN / SABEL 1994; ANDER-
SON 1996; ZIEGLER 1996). In the meantime this hy-
pothesis has been refuted mainly by expertise re-
search. This discipline has demonstrated the im-
portance of professional knowledge for the devel-
opment of professional competence, thereby con-
tributing to the establishment of ↑ domain-specific
↑ qualification research.
“Postulates like the doctrine of the linkage of intellec-
tual success to formal strategies of thought can no long-
er be maintained […]. Positions of this kind do not com-
ply with the current state of the art in psychological and
pedagogical research” (GERSTENMAIER 1999, 67 [origi-
nal source in German]).
This is also true under the conditions of the grow-
ing discontinuity of careers. Professional compe-
tence, according to expertise research, is linked
to domain-specific knowledge. Qualification re-
search in the ↑ vocational disciplines is facing
mainly three tasks:
Handbook of TVET Research
(1) The criteria for the development of occupations
in the ↑ occupational fields have to be identified
and justified from a design-oriented perspective.
(2) Task analyses have to address the question
which professional tasks are the relevant ones for
the current and future development of occupations.
Task analyses also investigate what ↑ work process
knowledge is incorporated in these tasks.
(3) ↑ Work process studies in the vocational dis-
ciplines have to investigate the knowledge that is
necessary for the fulfilment of professional tasks
and for a participative ↑ organisational develop-
ment in the enterprise.
For these research activities strategies and princi-
ples of processual research are recommended, ac-
cording to which
– the representatives of the professional work
practice to be developed can express the experi-
ence and interpretation from their own profession-
al practice,
– results are condensed into a hypothesis only at
the end of an open research process, when the da-
ta collected and their interpretation have been pre-
sented to and discussed with the practitioners in-
volved in the study,
– the hypothesis is finally employed in the devel-
opment of an ↑ occupational profile and a vocation-
al curriculum.
The objective of ↑ work process analyses was and
still is to specify the work context that are charac-
teristic for a given occupation. These contexts are
specified according to (1) the subject of work, (2)
the methods, tools and organisation of profession-
al work, and (3) the expectations with regard to the
content and form of professional work. From this
type of research one has to distinguish traditional
task analyses, which have the objective of sub-di-
viding the work contexts into single tasks and to
assign training contents to these tasks.
Two concepts of ↑ domain-specific ↑ qualifica-
tion research have been taken up in international
TVET research. The first of these is the “↑ Design-
ing a Curriculum” (DACUM) method for the iden-
tification and analysis of professional ↑ work tasks
(GLENDENNING 1995; NORTON 1997). Whilst the
DACUM method sets the decontextualised tasks
as the starting point of ↑ curriculum development,
the method of identifying the characteristic work
Areas of VET Research
situations and structuring the latter according to
↑ developmental logic (in the sense of developmen-
tal tasks) is based on theories of professional com-
petence development (RAUNER 2002a, 450 ff.).
Becker and Meifort (2004) point out that there is
the associated problem of normative orientation.
The experts from trade unions and industry in-
volved in the development of occupations represent
the interests of their organisations in the TVET di-
alogue. Therefore the definition of occupational
profiles as well as training objectives and train-
ing contents is influenced not only by scientific cri-
teria, but also by political and practical bargain-
ing processes (MAAG MERKI 2001). The detection
of the interaction between politically induced and
defined norms on the one hand and the questions,
methods and results of qualification and ↑ curricu-
lum research on the other is regarded as a neces-
sary step towards achieving greater rationality in
occupation development.
3.2.0.4 Domain-Specific Curriculum
Research and Development
The design of vocational education and training
programmes as well as the systematisation of the
objectives and contents of initial and ↑ continuing
education requires a curriculum research that is
concerned with the following issues (→ 3.6.1):
– legitimation of training objectives,
– identification and formulation of the contents of
teaching and learning,
– systematisation of teaching contents,
– connections between teaching and learning,
– evaluation of curricula and
– evaluation and assessment of learning results,
the targeted professional competence development
and the contextual conditions of vocational learn-
ing.
A particularity of vocational learning is learning
in the ↑ work process. Professional work does not
only constitute the application, the employment
and the exploitation of skills, but is also accompa-
nied by the acquisition of new skills. Work process
learning in the sense of vocational education and
training follows a curriculum and features a sys-
tematic order of learning steps. The subject of cur-
riculum research in this field is the identification of
the didactic quality of ↑ work tasks and work sit-
197
uations, which are essential for the development
of professional competence. In addition curricu-
lum research is concerned with the ↑ decoding of
the ↑ work process knowledge (→ 3.5.4) incorpo-
rated in the practice of professional work, and with
laying the foundations for a systematisation of the
work situations that are characteristic for an occu-
pation or a vocational training programme.
Curriculum theory distinguishes between sever-
al criteria for systematisation. Expertise research
and TVET research suggest the employment of the
↑ novice-expert paradigm (BENNER 1984), the de-
velopmental theory by Havighurst (HAVIGHURST
1972) and the corresponding concept of ↑ situated
learning (LAVE / WENGER 1991) for ↑ curriculum de-
velopment. These approaches are opposed by cur-
riculum theories that view the systematisation of
work situations for work process learning as the
synthesising of elementary skills. This presuppos-
es the identification of these skills by means of in-
struments of ↑ task analysis (FERNER 1972; MCCOR-
MICK 1979).
↑ Curriculum research in the ↑ vocational disci-
plines has brought about various research and de-
velopment methods. In the domain of clinical nurs-
ing the research group led by Patricia Benner took
the 5-level novice-expert paradigm by Dreyfus as
the basis for identifying the work situations that
were paradigmatic for the training of nurses. The
work situations were systematised according to
↑ developmental logic and constitute, in the form of
case descriptions, the curriculum for the training
of nurses (BENNER 1984; BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA
1996; DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1996).
In the domain of education, an evaluation concept
for a curriculum for the education of nursery school
teachers was developed already in the 1970s on the
basis of Havighurst’s theory. This curriculum dis-
tinguished between four developmental tasks.
What this curriculum approach and Benner’s con-
cept have in common is that they are founded on
↑ developmental logic and allow for a subject-ori-
ented systematisation of learning steps and learn-
ing contents. These subject-oriented types of cur-
riculum research and development have been ap-
plied also to curricula for technical occupations
since the mid-1990s (→ 3.2.1; → 3.2.2). The ↑ DA-
CUM approach, which is popular especially in
198
TVET practice, has brought about the expert-work-
er workshop as a characteristic method (→ 5.2.4).
Expert-worker workshops are now firmly estab-
lished as a part of curriculum ↑ research methodol-
ogy. The DACUM approach, however, is criticised
for lacking a foundation in learning and develop-
mental theory (BREMER / RAUNER / RÖBEN 2001).
Across all vocational disciplines the discussion
continues about the relationship of the professional
knowledge represented by the scientific disciplines
and the ↑ work process knowledge that shapes pro-
fessional work. The answers to the question wheth-
er work process knowledge has a relevance of its
own in curriculum development are quite different.
However, the chapters in this section show that the
↑ decoding of the knowledge incorporated in the
practice of work, i.e. work process knowledge, is
of crucial importance for curriculum research.
3.2.0.5 Domain-Specific Teaching and
Learning Research and Research in
Vocational Didactics
In ↑ domain-specific teaching and learning re-
search the research interest is directed mainly to
the analysis, design and evaluation of vocational
↑ teaching and learning processes. The dimensions
of the didactical field (HEIMANN / OTTO / SCHULZ
1965) are thus taken as a topic for research and de-
velopment.
The target groups of vocational learning processes
vary considerably from occupation to occupation.
To a much higher extent than in higher education
the broad range of occupations allows for a high-
ly flexible access of school graduates to vocation-
al education. These school-leavers have very dif-
ferent competences and intellectual profiles (see
GARDNER 2002) as well as different professional
interests and inclinations. The interest of research
in the ↑ vocational disciplines is therefore to study
the performance record and the suitability of stu-
dents who are interested in a particular vocational
training programme.
It is the mission of research in ↑ vocational didac-
tics to investigate how the prior understanding
and the prior experience that the learners have at
the beginning of the training period can be trans-
formed into professional competences and devel-
oped further in the training process. Teaching and
Handbook of TVET Research
learning research builds on different learning and
development theories and also on a variety of mod-
els of competence development. To this date there
are no generally accepted scientific foundations in
↑ domain-specific teaching and learning research
(→ 3.7.7).
Another focus of domain-specific teaching and
learning research is the analysis and development
of vocational teaching and learning methods for
different occupations. For instance, ↑ experimen-
tal learning in laboratories and workshops has a
high didactical relevance in the domains of electri-
cal engineering and computer science, metalwork
and ↑ chemical engineering (→ 4.1). The method of
role-playing and its various derivatives in teaching
and training methods, on the other hand, are par-
ticularly important for the transfer of intrapersonal
and interpersonal competence in the education of
nursery school teachers. Research in teaching and
training methodology therefore points precisely to
the problems of quasi-experimental ↑ research de-
signs, for the justification of a teaching and learn-
ing procedure does not follow the immanent crite-
ria of a general TVET methodology, but is rather
derived from educational goals and contents.
The work on the pedagogical tradition of vocation-
al education and training took shape particularly in
the great manufacturing industry in the first half of
the 20th century and aimed at first to mitigate the
effects of Scientific Management (TAYLOR 1911).
Another characteristic of vocational learning is
learning to qualify ↑ work processes. While Lave
and Wenger, in their study on ↑ situated learning
(1991), point to the quasi-natural integration of ap-
prentices into the ↑ community of practice, work
pedagogy had started already in the late 19th and
early 20th century to develop methods of system-
atic ↑ practical training. In particular the pedagog-
ic Sjöld – a project of Swedish reform pedagogy of
the 19th century – that made an important contri-
bution to this development. This concept of work
pedagogy gained worldwide popularity. But the at-
tempt to transfer the forms and contents of work
into the sphere of schools on the grounds of reform
pedagogical considerations had the side effect that
the societal character of work was replaced by prac-
tical exercises on the simulation of work and tech-
nology (LARSSON 1899; REINCKE 1995). A similar
Areas of VET Research
practice emerged in industrial vocational training
at the beginning of the 20th century. Large num-
bers of training workshops were established for
course-based practical learning (PLOGHAUS 2001).
It was only with the reduction of Taylorist work
structures at the end of the 20th century that the re-
lationship between corporate organisatonal devel-
opment and vocational education and training was
demonstrated by TVET research (DYBOWSKI / PÜTZ /
RAUNER 1995b). This was accompanied by the de-
velopment and testing of process oriented train-
ing methods (R EGLIN / SCHÖPF 2005) and ↑ process
orientation in vocational education and training
(LOEBE / SEVERING 2005).
Research in ↑ vocational didactics, being involved
in the definition of educational objectives, tends to
emphasise the normative and substantial aspects of
vocational education. A crucial task is the justifi-
cation of a paradigm shift in vocational education
from adaptation to empowerment. The pedagogi-
cal idea of “empowering the trainees to take part
in shaping the world of work in social and ecolog-
ical responsibility” (KMK 1991a; RAUNER 1998b),
which has been part of the German ↑ training regu-
lations ever since the 1990s, is based on fundamen-
tal work of the ITB (RAUNER 1998b; HEIDEGGER /
JACOBS / MARTIN ET AL. 1991; HEIDEGGER 1997b). In
a number of ↑ pilot studies this guideline was trans-
formed into didactical action by teachers, the de-
sign of ↑ learning environments and ↑ vocational
curricula, and into appropriate methods of evaluat-
ing professional competence (HOWE / HEERMEYER /
HEUERMANN ET AL. 2000; HEIDEGGER /JACOBS /
MARTIN ET AL. 1991; GROLLMANN / SPÖTTL / RAUNER
2006).
3.2.0.6 Research Perspectives
It is not only the chapters in this section that show
that research in the ↑ v ocational disciplines and in
the different ↑ occupational fields is unequally de-
veloped. In countries with a well-developed struc-
ture of occupational domains and with an estab-
lished university level education of TVET teachers,
who have to study ↑ vocational pedagogy and a vo-
cational discipline, there is also some advanced re-
search in the vocational disciplines. This research
is supported by a system of ↑ TVET planning and
the associated establishment of state institutes for
199
TVET research. In this way the national ↑ research
traditions are supported and promoted. Whenever
vocational and higher education are combined in
specific occupational domains, there is a tenden-
cy towards the ↑ internationalisation of research in
the vocational disciplines. It can be expected that
the establishment of international standards for the
education of TVET teachers in internationally de-
fined vocational disciplines will also contribute to
this tendency. The authors of the present section
are aware of this situation and view the publica-
tion of their chapters also as an initiative towards
the establishment of international scientific com-
munities. At present the activities in most fields of
↑ domain-specific TVET research are largely influ-
enced by the highly different national TVET struc-
tures and the corresponding traditions of the educa-
tion of teachers and trainers. Nevertheless the on-
going processes of developing international struc-
tures for vocational education and training and the
establishment of bachelor and master programmes
as common standards for higher education increas-
ingly shape the education of TVET professionals.
This calls for a strengthening of TVET research in
the vocational disciplines.
3.2.1 Business and Administration
Antje Barabasch
3.2.1.1 Theoretical Framework and
Preliminary Remarks
This chapter provides an international overview of
research in vocational education and training that
is concerned with economic education in a broader
sense. The domain of business and administration
comprises research in a wide range of ↑ occupa-
tional fields such as production and distribution of
goods, ↑ human-centred services to the public and
the consumer, banks, administration, insuranc-
es, transportation, logistics, and ↑ tourism. Poten-
tial workers for the above-mentioned occupation-
al fields are trained and educated in many differ-
ent ways across different countries. Often business
education is relocated to universities where under-
graduate degrees provide occupational qualifica-
200
tions. Despite this general trend, Germany still of-
fers many occupational qualifications that can be
acquired in apprenticeships in the ↑ dual system.
Education and training for jobs in business and ad-
ministration is also provided at many different ed-
ucational levels and for different age groups.
Huisinga and Kell (2005) distinguish the research
on commercial activities according to five differ-
ent perspectives. They differentiate between the
perspective of organisation theory, the perspec-
tive of functional theory, the historical perspec-
tive, the economic perspective, and the perspective
concerned with the permeation of information and
technology. According to this classification, com-
mercial administrative work can be subcategorised
and further classified. The perspective of organi-
sation theory for example comprises the structur-
al and procedural organisation of business activi-
ties, which can be distinguished in strategic, dis-
positive, and operative activities. In the perspec-
tive of functional theory, commercial activities can
be divided into subtasks such as purchasing, mar-
keting, financing, documentation, personnel man-
agement, as well as buying or selling goods, and
bookkeeping. The historical perspective is con-
cerned with the changes in business activities over
the centuries leading to a time in which new forms
of vocational training with a strong service orien-
tation and new knowledge are required. The same
accounts for the last perspective, which focuses on
technological changes and new forms of sociali-
zation.
Research on teaching and learning in vocational
education in the domain of business and adminis-
tration comprises studies about teaching and learn-
ing arrangements, especially the implementation
of ↑ information and communication technology
(ICT), skills training, ↑ work process knowledge,
skill demands and requirements, the restructur-
ing of occupational descriptions, the establishment
of new occupations, or institutional arrangements
among the various education and training provid-
ers. Additionally, the body of research about stu-
dents’ and teachers’ perceptions regarding learn-
ing outcomes and learning/teaching arrangements
is increasing as well as research on race, class, and
gender questions in the specific field of economics
education. Since a variety of themes addressed in
Handbook of TVET Research
this chapter are already discussed in other sections
of the book, it will mainly provide an overview
about studies that are particularly concerned with
the many facets of education and training in busi-
ness and administration. Due to the large amount
of different work fields, required tasks, and train-
ing needs it is not possible to offer a comprehen-
sive summary of the research that might be avail-
able in those fields. The inquiry for appropriate
studies had its limitations because in many coun-
tries, occupation related research is done with-
in the framework of externally-funded research
projects for public institutions and outlined in re-
ports that are often only available in the national
language. In most countries, research in this field
falls under the auspices of research on economics
education, which is taught in ↑ high schools as well
as at colleges and universities. Vocational training
in trading is rarely an object of research. Research
on practical aspects of the ↑ profession is pursued
in the scope of human resource and ↑ organisation-
al development. For the categorization of availa-
ble research studies, I follow Bannwitz’ and Raun-
er’s (1993) classification of ↑ research fields in vo-
cational education and training but complement it
with a few more rubrics. Huisinga and Kell (2005)
outlined the fact that in the early 1970s, curricu-
lum theory formulated developmental models with
the following points of reference for the analysis
and construction of curricula:
(1) Educational norms, e. g. vocational training;
(2) Prerequisites and conditions of learning;
(3) Qualification requirements of professional
work;
(4) The structures of the disciplines;
(5) Legal and organizational preconditions (insti-
tutions);
(6) Options for designing vocationally oriented
teaching and learning.
These criteria among others guide researchers in
their inquiries about issues related to economics
and business education. In this chapter, various
↑ research approaches and fields of interest are out-
lined according to their focus on qualification re-
quirements and skill demands, the analysis, struc-
turing, and evaluation of training measures, meth-
ods and tools, the learners’ perspective, policy
Areas of VET Research
studies, and ↑ labour market outcomes. Neverthe-
less, some studies go beyond the developed frame-
work and are comprised by issues related to vari-
ous sections of this categorisation. In order to de-
termine new training ordinances, a large amount
of research and development projects were carried
out under the auspices of the Federal Institute for
Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) in Ger-
many (→ 4.8). At the end of the chapter, an outlook
on further research needs is presented.
3.2.1.2 Analysis of Research Directions and
Approaches – an Overview
Qualification Requirements and Skill Demands
in Different Fields
The European Centre for the Development of Vo-
cational Training, ↑ CEDEFOP, developed reports
about skill and training needs in ↑ banking and fi-
nancial services (CASTELLI 2004) as well as in
↑ tourism (STRIETSKA-ILINA / TESSARING 2005). The
first report is mainly concerned with the needs and
job profiles of the banking and financial service in-
dustries, with particular reference to ↑ ICT in Italy
and ↑ France. It contains information and sugges-
tions from companies, associations, and training
institutions that are intended to provide a source
for technical institutions to review and adapt rel-
evant courses; and it points out current deficits in
ICT training supply within the sector. The report
about skill needs in tourism highlights the latest
trends in the hotel, catering, and tourism sector
from an international perspective. Research and
analysis in the individual reports were pursued on
different levels: macroeconomic, regional, local,
sectoral, occupational, and on an enterprise level.
The report comprises contributions from 13 coun-
tries that focus on trends and skill needs in tour-
ism, new occupations in barrier-free tourism, tour-
ism wellness services, and revenue management.
The third part of the report provides some good
practice examples and recommendations for the
transfer of research results into policy practice.
Many studies have been conducted concern-
ing training needs in the tourism and hospitali-
ty industry around the world. Baum (2002) ana-
lysed the nature of work in the hospitality indus-
try, outlined the technical versus generic skill de-
201
bate in Scotland, and explained the education and
training process in the hospitality industry. THE-
TA, the Tourism, Hospitality and Sport Educa-
tion and Training Authority in South Africa, over-
sees job ↑ skill development for the ↑ tourism, hos-
pitality and sport economic sector. The organisa-
tion has developed a Sector Skills Plan for the pe-
riod 2000–2005 that includes training goals and
objectives based on surveys, interviews, and focus
groups undertaken with and among industry stake-
holders. The report outlines precisely the number
of tourism enterprises and employees in the coun-
try. It indicates in which sectors employees are
needed and which qualifications are necessary and
provides implications for skills policy and skills
provision (THETA 2004). Finegold, Wagner and
Mason (2000) conducted a ↑ comparative study on
national skill-creation systems and career paths for
service workers in the hotel industry in Germany,
↑ United States, and the United Kingdom.
A study undertaken by the Institute Technology
and Education in Bremen under the auspices of
Rauner and Bremer (2001) outlines methods of in-
novating occupational descriptions as well as the
optimisation of ↑ work processes in the industri-
al service sector. The study attempts to provide
some impulses for the reorganisation of occupa-
tional degrees and training programmes. Many
articles in the report are particularly concerned
with the development of guidelines for examina-
tions. Programmes for the occupation of industri-
al clerk (Industriekaufmann) were dealt with in
studies by Keck, Weymar and Diepold (1997) as
well as Paulini, Krischok and Schwarz (1999). The
authors of the first paper researched the learning
processes at industrial trade workplaces while the
latter examined several occupational descriptions
in regards to global and international skill and
service demands.
In Great Britain, Financial Services Skills Coun-
cil and Skills Mart Retail (Sector Skills Coun-
cil for Retail Sector), conducted reports on skill
needs in the business and administrative sectors
(2005b; 2005a; 2006). For the skill need survey,
a large number of public policy reports and ↑ sta-
tistics have been analysed. Additionally, five inter-
views were undertaken with learners and potential
learners as well as five interviews with employers.
202
The quantitative part of the study comprises stand-
ardized telephone interviews with 250 employers
and 250 employees. In this way, reliable data are
offered that indicate skill gaps and needs with-
in the business and administrative industries. Be-
cause of the inquiry skill needs such as ↑ informa-
tion technology (IT), verbal communication, or-
ganising, and planning were recognised. Identified
skill gaps include financial understanding/budg-
ets, IT, organising and planning, people manage-
ment, verbal communication, legislation and reg-
ulation knowledge, and information management.
The report further outlines perceptions of careers
in the sector. Finegold and Wagner (2002) have
examined training in the ↑ banking sector in Ger-
many. The authors have researched employer’s ex-
pectations and training decisions regarding the ap-
prenticeship of a bank clerk.
In connection with the realisation of new skill
demands a variety of studies focus on new em-
ployment and work fields. Rosenheck (2001) out-
lines new qualification requirements in commer-
cial occupations. His research is concerned with
the question: Will the contemporary occupations
still be valid in the future? The results indicate
that contextual knowledge will be less important
than key areas of ↑competence such as social and
methodological competence. In Switzerland the
occupational term commercial clerk (Kaufmän-
nischer Angestellter) comprises a wide variety of
different activities ranging from secretary work
and processing via ↑ human resource development,
marketing and distribution to accounting and fi-
nancing. One of the striking results of the study in-
dicates that social competence is increasingly im-
portant, which contradicts societal developments
towards entsolidarisation, desocialisation, and in-
dividualisation. For further research, Rosenheck
refers to the change of work organisation, which
directly influences occupational descriptions. Of
particular interest should be newly practiced man-
agement models. The development of ↑ ICT has a
direct impact on occupational ↑ work tasks. Inde-
pendent of those topics, it is also important to look
at societal changes such as values and skills among
young adults since they will determine the future
provision of qualifications. At the end of his re-
port, Rosenheck underscores the fact that educa-
Handbook of TVET Research
tion for the commercial trades should involve more
case studies as well as education for soft skill de-
velopment.
Bredow (2003) studied the education of service
competence among bankers in Germany and used
↑ expert interviews to learn more about the issue in
various new occupations and its implementation in
curricula. Other German studies were concerned
with the development of qualifications (BRÖTZ /
DORSCH-SCHWEIZER / HAIPETER 2006), or decision-
making, responsibility, and competence in the ↑ oc-
cupational field of banking (BÖHNER / STRAKA 2005;
STRAKA 2000a; STRAKA 2000b; STRAKA / LENZ
2005). Meierhöfer and Rosenheck (2000) have al-
so studied new forms of occupations. Many coun-
tries have established central authorities that over-
see ↑ skill development and skill demands in sever-
al industrial or ↑ business sectors. Their reports are
regularly updated and function as a foundation for
policy decisions. The data are often conducted as
commissioned research by independent research
institutes who gather data from a large number of
industry stakeholders but often also compile some
qualitative studies.
Analysis, Structuring, and Evaluation of Train-
ing Measures, Qualification- and Socialisation
Processes
Besides a variety of German studies, a few ↑ com-
parative studies that are concerned with training
programmes in different countries can be found.
The most recent study from Fulst-Blei and Ebner
(2005) emerged from a research project at the Uni-
versity of Mannheim in Germany. The purpose of
the study was to evaluate ↑ performance levels of
graduates in the programme of industrial sales rep-
resentative in Germany and a similar programme
in Wales. The objects of the inquiry were the com-
parison of the state of theoretical knowledge and
the ability of graduates to independently plan and
pursue different tasks. The results revealed that the
German graduates seemed to be better prepared
for their jobs. Nevertheless, the authors question
common plausibility expectations concerning val-
uations and categorisations. They argue that the
performance of educational systems has to be eval-
uated in a highly differentiated manner in order to
have an objective foundation for policy decisions.
Areas of VET Research
Richter (1996) also compared vocational degrees
in different fields in Germany and Great Britain.
Other authors have looked at ↑ self-directed learn-
ing in the education and training of industrial sales
representatives (SPEVACEK / PLASSMEIER / STÖCKL /
STRAKA 2000; STRAKA / NENNINGER / SPEVACEK ET AL.
1999).
Education measures for vocational teachers and
trainers have been researched as well. One point
of interest is to what extent teacher education pro-
grammes would support the development of moti-
vation-directed learning in the commercial trade
sector (STRAKA / NENNINGER / PLASSMEIER ET AL.
2001). Walstad (1994), Whitehead (1994), Myatt
and Waddell (1994) have researched economic in-
struction in the ↑ U.S., United Kingdom, and Can-
ada. Walstad’s assessment is very broad and looks
at enrolments, testing, coursework and economic
achievement, economic content, teacher education,
changes in instructional materials, and the role of
economists and organisations in expanding and
strengthening economic instruction. Although the
study is concerned with too many aspects at the
same time and remains superficial in the analysis
it nevertheless provides an overview about chang-
es in economic instruction since the establishment
of the U.S. National Task Force on Economic Ed-
ucation in 1960. Together with the studies under-
taken in the United Kingdom and Canada, it offers
a valuable overview of research topics in econom-
ics education.
Beck and Krumm (1994) conducted a study which
compared ↑ high school students at the age of
about 17 years in Austria, Germany, and in the
United States. They used the ↑ Test of Econom-
ic Literacy (TEL) in order to find out to what ex-
tent students in participating countries perform ac-
cording to predetermined standards. The results of
the study indicate that German-speaking students
fail to reach the objectives formulated in the cur-
ricula in the same way as their ↑ U.S. American
counterparts. Nevertheless, the Austrian students
gained the highest ranks. The authors further con-
clude that the comprehensive ↑ school system in the
United States seems to produce more homogenous
results than the divergent branches in Austria and
Germany. Kim (1994), who compared Korea and
the United States, has conducted a similar study
203
using the same instrument. One of his results is
that students in Korea struggle with fundamental
economic concepts and reveal a relatively low lev-
el of economic understanding. Other international
studies are concerned with comparative perspec-
tives on learning outcomes such as economic liter-
acy (BECK /K RUMM 1994; K IM 1994).
One of the German ↑ comparative studies exam-
ined the institutional and political embeddedness
of vocational education in business and adminis-
tration as well as the curricula design in Germa-
ny, England, and the Netherlands (FROMMBERGER
2004). The two-level analysis concentrates on
structural models of vocational education and their
orientations towards supply and demand. On the
second level, the author analyses the curricula. A
major part of the book addresses the methodologi-
cal constraints of comparative research as well as
theoretical models of curriculum analysis.
In many countries ↑ tourism education and train-
ing is offered at institutions of higher education.
Okumus and Yagci (2005) examined the institu-
tional facilitation of tourism higher education in
Turkey and provided recommendations for shap-
ing this sector in the future. Tourism education has
been transferred from vocational and high school
training to programmes at four-year colleges, and
associated with the change, a variety of problems
occurred such as wrong choice of locations, lack of
qualified teaching staff, insufficient facilities and
equipment, outdated curricula, and problems with
placing students in the industry as well as keep-
ing them there once they are qualified. The authors
suggest revising the curricula on all three educa-
tional levels (associate, bachelor, postgraduate),
offer programmes for specialised and functional
tourism degrees, and advocate more collaboration
between different institutions of higher education
and between universities, training institutions and
the industry.
In Germany, several studies have been conduct-
ed on ↑ decentralised learning at the workplace
(DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / NOVAK 1992). They concern
new forms of learning as well as ↑ work process
knowledge.
Only a few studies have been found that address
economics education in Eastern European coun-
tries. Kovzik and Watts (2001) have studied the
204
process of restructuring undergraduate econom-
ic instruction at Moscow State University. The is-
sues dealt with are training and retraining of facul-
ty members as well as the conflicts that result from
using Western versus locally developed textbooks
and Western versus Soviet style ↑ teaching meth-
ods and contexts.
↑ Research approaches, interests, and questions
vary in different countries depending on the de-
velopment of educational programmes in the field.
Many industrialized countries are interested in
program evaluations and comparisons in order
to learn more about the competitiveness of their
degrees and outcomes. Countries, which are still
struggling to establish programmes, are more con-
cerned with research that helps to improve educa-
tional arrangements and offers.
Analysis and Structuring of Methods, Tools,
Organization, and Expectations. The teaching
and learning context
The Journal of Hospitality, Leisure, Sport and Tour-
ism, which has existed since 2002, regularly pub-
lishes articles on teaching methods used in tourism
and hospitality training programmes (ARMSTRONG
2003; CAPSTICK / FLEMING 2002; CHO 2002; DALE /
LANE 2004; FEINSTEIN / PARKS 2002; HALL 2003; LO-
MINÉ 2002, MCGUGAN / MARGARET 2002; MCGUGAN /
PEACOCK 2005; SIGALA 2003). In Germany, much
research has been conducted about didactical
foundations for the development of learning and
teaching arrangements in economics education
(ACHTENHAGEN 1998, 2004a, 2004b; BECK 2000a,
2005; BECK /K RUMM 2001; BENDORF 2002; DUBS
1996a; WUTTKE 1999). The authors Stiller, Schopf,
Brandenburg et al. (2000) were interested in flex-
ibilization and ↑ quality assurance while similar-
ly establishing integrated comprehensive curricula
for ↑ vocational schools and training firms. A study
by Dumpert, Euler, Hanka, and Reemstma-Theis
(2003) focuses on social competence in custom-
er orientation as a didactical challenge. Of simi-
lar importance has been environmental education
(NEUSS 1995; K AISER / SIGGEMEIER / BRETTSCHNEIDER
1995). Another ↑ research tradition addresses
moral development in business education (BECK /
DRANSFELD / MINNAMEIER / WUTTKE 2002; BECK /
BIENENGRÄBER / HEINRICHS 1997; PARCHE-K AWIK
Handbook of TVET Research
1998). Tuomi (2004) provides an overview of the
structure of business education in Finland and ex-
plains how new pedagogical strategies are im-
plemented in the Edupoli adult education centre.
An often-researched topic is the use of a labora-
tory firm in business education (ACHTENHAGEN /
FÜRSTENAU / GETSCH ET AL. 1999; FRICK 2000;
STRAKA / GRAMLINGER / DELICAT / PLASSMEIER 2001).
Similarly important are studies about business
games in economics education (EGGER 1994). Oth-
er inquiries have been concerned with topics such
as the networking approach as a tool for measuring
and evaluating economic contextual knowledge
(WEBER 1995). With the internationalization of ed-
ucation and the globalization of markets, research
has increasingly focused on the development of in-
tercultural action competence (WEBER 2000). The
online journal bwp@ (www.bwpat.de) issue 10
published many articles about the use of laboratory
firms as a tool of action-oriented learning in busi-
ness education. Another cross-cultural study ex-
amined curricula in ↑ banking and finance school-
to-work programmes in Germany and the ↑ United
States (CLARK 2002). Clark used a qualitative case
design mainly based on observations to describe in
detail how curricula in the sector are international-
ized. International business and banking concepts
taught in the observed programmes were of partic-
ular interest. The Journal of Economic Education
publishes articles about teaching methods in the
field such as student journal and reflection papers
(BREWER /JOZEFOWICZ 2006), ↑ experimentation as a
teaching tool (DICKIE 2006) or qualitative versus
quantitative ways of measuring students’ knowl-
edge (BUCKLES / SIEGFRIED 2006; WALSTAD 2006),
and the Journal of Marketing Education focuses
on methods used in marketing education on vari-
ous educational levels (AMATO /AMATO 2005; FOR-
MAN 2006; H AGENBUCH 2006).
Analysis of the Student or Learner Perspec-
tive on Teaching Methods and ↑ effectiveness,
Training Programmes, Degrees, and Outcomes
Many studies focus on an evaluation of the stu-
dents’ experiences in a specific course or pro-
gramme (BROOKES 2003; HUANG 2005; K ANG / WU /
GOULD 2005; LEUNG 2003) or the perceptions of
teachers towards their teaching methods and re-
Areas of VET Research
lationship to students (TRIBE 2003). ↑ Vocational
identity among bankers has been a topic discussed
by Smistrup (2001, 2003). He describes the re-
sults of a single case study in which structural as-
pects of the social life in banks were researched.
A guiding question was: How do individual bank-
ers on the subjective level produce meaning in an
interaction with these structures? A survey among
120 Danish bankers all working in customer relat-
ed functions was conducted and supplemented by
15 thematic narrative interviews. Smistrup found
that several of the young employees in his study
expressed a strong identification with their bank.
The author concludes that vocational training as
well as young adults’ positive perceptions of hav-
ing successfully made the transition from school
to work life must play a foundational role. ↑ Voca-
tional identity is important for an employee in or-
der to cope successfully with stressful or conflict-
ing situations at the workplace. Schwadorf (2003)
has modified and extended theories about the de-
cision-making and responsibility process (berufli-
che Handlungskompetenz) and designed a study
that focuses on the individual view of the partici-
pants, their perceptions, definitions, attitudes, cog-
nitions etc. For her analysis, she used a large sam-
ple of 575 participants from different occupations
such as bank clerk, sales person, industrial sales
representative, or accountant. The results demon-
strate that different components of competence are
perceived in a differentiated way among the stu-
dents. Nevertheless, professional competence ap-
peared to be of central importance. Other studies
are concerned with the effects of learning cultures
on learning outcomes from a student perspective
(EBNER 1996).
Policy Studies, Labour Market Outcomes, and
Historical Research
One of the policy studies found has been conduct-
ed in the Netherlands. The effects of a law about
adult education and vocational education have
been examined in the case of a medium sized com-
mercial school in Winschoten (JELLEMA /K ERSTENS /
WAL 2001). The study was not only concerned with
the effects of the implementation of a new policy
but also with teachers’ and coordinators’ subjec-
tive apprehension of the function of their type of
205
school. One of the major findings was that voca-
tional education at the school was mainly viewed
as a general qualification while teachers were
sceptical about the reorientation of vocational ed-
ucation towards the demands of industry and the
↑ labour market.
Some studies have been identified that examined
the impact of training measures on ↑ employabil-
ity. Stadler (2006) researched the question: How
do employment prospects of elementary trainees
and apprentices differ? She used data that had been
generalized during the ↑ longitudinal study on el-
ementary vocational education by the Swiss Na-
tional Youth Survey TREE (Transition from Ed-
ucation to Employment, 2002–2004). The sample
consisted of 200 apprentices/trainees in the retail
sales and hotel sector at the end of their elementary
vocational training or apprenticeship. A historical
study conducted by Reinisch (2001) outlined the
development of commercial vocational education
from its inception until the second half of the 20th
century. Adams (1992) researched the historical
context of knowledge and theory development in
public administration. Horlebein (1989) outlined
the history of vocational education and training in
commercial fields from 1818 to 1984 in Germany.
Bruchhäuser (2006) published a study about the
history of business schools in Prussia in the years
between 1787 and 1806. Zabeck (1979b) also ex-
amined the history of vocational education and the
commercial sector.
3.2.1.3 Need for Further Research
Research on vocational education in the sector of
business and administration seems to focus mainly
on learning and teaching methods, and the learn-
er and teacher perspective on student outcomes,
learning effects, and educational programmes. On
a micro-institutional level, research is further con-
cerned with the organisation and facilitation of
various educational degree programmes and on a
macro-institutional level with the comparison of
skill demands, degrees, and educational require-
ments as well as state-wide structures of vocation-
al education and training. Missing is research that
focuses on acquiring and teaching the ↑ practical
knowledge of the workplace that needs to be dis-
tinguished from academic knowledge (HERITAGE
206
1984; DEDERING 1996; FISCHER / BOREHAM / NYHAN
2004; SCHÖN 1982). The actual practical knowl-
edge that should be taught in order to prepare stu-
dents adequately for their jobs would be a valua-
ble source for the reformation and new design of
vocational training programmes. Further, large-
scale studies analysing learning outcomes need to
be conducted in the different nations to provide a
foundation for the analysis of program ↑ effective-
ness. While a lot of research has been found in the
fields of ↑ tourism, ↑ banking, and economics ed-
ucation, there seems to be much less available in
other special fields of commercial and business ed-
ucation and training. In terms of the methods used
to research the field, qualitative studies clearly
seem to be preferred. In order to be able to develop
generalizing assumptions about the institutional
structure, organization, programmes, and learning
outcomes more quantitative data need to be col-
lected and analyzed. Finally, additional national
and international comparative research is needed
to learn more about the differences and similarities
in working, teaching, and learning in the field.
3.2.2 EEE/ ICT in Selected
European Countries
Klaus Jenewein, Alison Shilela and
Len O’Connor
3.2.2.1 Clarifications
Occupations in ↑ electrical-electronic ↑ engineer-
ing and information and communication technol-
ogy (EEE/ICT) belong to the same vocational field
in the German ↑ VET system (PETERSEN 2006). Vo-
cational fields are standarised according to the rec-
ommendations of the conference of ministers of
education (Kultusministerkonferenz – KMK). Sci-
entific communities such as the “Arbeitsgemein-
schaft Gewerblich-technische Fachrichtungen und
ihre Didaktiken (GTW)” (working group for in-
dustrial ↑ vocational disciplines and their didac-
ties) in the “Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissenschaft
(GfA)” (Society for Labour Studies) are involved
in the development of those academic disciplines
Handbook of TVET Research
which are the main subjects in the TVET teach-
er education.
3.2.2.2 EEE/ICT as Themes in Vocational
Education Research
This chapter considers the influence of ICT on the
vocational training and subsequent understanding
of roles in electrical and electronic engineering in
Germany and Ireland. Interesting comparisons can
be made between these two countries as the ap-
proach to training in this given discipline is so dif-
ferent in each context. In Germany vocational ed-
ucation and training is based on the ↑ dual system,
including significant elements of subject knowl-
edge acquisition normally gained in institutions of
higher education whereas the Irish experience re-
lies on a traditional apprenticeship model of train-
ing. Given these two different approaches to train-
ing it is interesting to compare how sophisticat-
ed technologies might be influencing expectations
and roles in terms of expertise in the electronic and
electrical occupations.
In Germany the ↑ EEE/ICT occupations i.e.
electrics, have been recognised as related are-
as within one vocational field since the 1960s
(→ 2.3). Training in this field begins with basic ge-
neric training which is regulated by the national
vocational education act and in national degrees
(HOWE 2000, 67). There are 14 designated occupa-
tions (Berufe) in Germany, whereas in Ireland 26
are recognised, the largest of which are electrical
and carpentry joinery. The national training and
employment authority (An Foras Aisenna Saoth-
air – FAS) administers vocational training through
the Standards Based Apprenticeship (SBA) sys-
tem, which are delivered jointly by FAS and the
Institutes of Technologies and employers. Appren-
ticeship has gone through something of a renais-
sance period in Ireland with the advent of a very
buoyant economy, the so-called ‘celtic tiger’, con-
sequently the number of registered apprentices has
reached an all time high of circa 29,000. Appren-
tices enjoy full employee status. Ireland has recent-
ly developed a ten level National Framework of
Qualifications and apprenticeship has been placed
at Level 6, which is sub ordinary degree level. Ap-
prenticeship in Ireland is a post secondary ↑ school
Areas of VET Research
system of training which has a technically focused
curricula and no general educational content.
At the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th
century the occupations in the field of electrics and
electronics were considered to be the two key dis-
ciplines in the vocational field of electrical occu-
pations in Germany although more recently the
field has expanded to include occupations in ICT
and media. In Germany the ↑ vocational discipline
is now referred to as ‘↑ electrical-electronic engi-
neering’ and ICT (↑ EEE/ICT) one out of 13 vo-
cational disciplines. (cp. PETERSEN / RAUNER 2000;
K NUTZEN / MARTIN 2000). Vocational teachers have
to study one of these disciplines as their main sub-
jects in the TVET teacher education at universi-
ties. The new curriculum framework (Rahmenstu-
dienordnung) for the vocational discipline EEE/
ICT encompasses the following areas of expertise:
production systems, building equipment, ↑ infor-
mation and communication technology, and me-
dia technology (UNESCO 2004a, 3). In contrast
to the German context, electronics and ICT are not
trades in Ireland and a qualification in these occu-
pations is normally obtained by completing a de-
gree course at a university or institute of technol-
ogy. Graduates would then be qualified to work at
the technician or engineer level. However the cur-
riculum for the trade of electrician includes a sub-
stantial element of electronics. Changes in technol-
ogy and work practices mean that each of the two
fields of engineering have a large area of commo-
nality. The introduction of ICT technologies has
had a profound effect on the development of cur-
ricula for the electrical craft sector. Current devel-
opments can be contextualized against a historical
backdrop in order to track the rapidly emerging de-
velopments in the field.
3.2.2.3 Background of the Electrical and
Electronic Occupations
In Germany research on skilled work in the
electrics and communications industry has always
been carried out from a socio-historical perspec-
tive, including ↑ practical knowledge requirements
and regulatory frameworks. Schmidt’s research
documents the development of electronics as a rec-
ognised skilled vocational occupation by consider-
ing the following aspects: the development, anal-
207
ysis and evaluation of vocational education cur-
ricula (SCHMIDT 1993; 1995; GRONWALD / SCHMIDT
1996).
The emergence of electronic occupation guilds at
the beginning of the 20th century and the recogni-
tion of the electronic crafts in the 1930s gave rise
to relatively stable job descriptions (HOWE 2002,
199) in both Germany and Ireland. In Germany the
electrical/electronic industry benefited from the
growing institutionalisation of vocational educa-
tion in the 1920s, finally culminating in a regulato-
ry framework and qualification, developed by the
“Deutsche Ausschuss für Technisches Schulwesen
DATSCH” and the “Reichsinstitut für Berufsaus-
bildung in Handel und Gewerbe”. More recently the
regulatory work of the “Bundesinstitut für Berufs-
bildungsforschung/Bundesinstitut für Berufsbil-
dung” (Federal Institute for Vocational Education)
was created under the aegis of the Ministry of Eco-
nomics and implemented in the Vocational Educa-
tion Act of 1969 (HOWE 2001b, 2004).
When one considers the current organisation and
design of skilled occupations in the field of elec-
tronics and electrical engineering in Germany and
Ireland it can be noted that the expansion of ↑ in-
formation technology has not resulted in a signif-
icant change in the description of ↑ occupation-
al task. This somewhat surprising result demon-
strates relative stability in the field of electrics de-
spite the exponential growth of the ‘knowledge
based’ or ↑ ICT driven industry. Although the cat-
egorisation of the electrical/electronic occupations
has changed quite often in Germany since 1972
(RAUNER 2003a), a relatively stable system of task
structures and job descriptions has been main-
tained. For this reason it seems inappropriate to
advocate modernising reforms in vocational ed-
ucational training, (HOWE 2004). An overview of
the alignment between training and qualifications
informs this argument for the German context.
3.2.2.4 Qualifications in EEE/ICT
A body of research into qualifications for the
field of ↑ EEE/ICT has been established in Ger-
many alongside the development of the regulato-
ry instruments governing this ↑ occupational field
(→ 3.4.1). The analytical instrument developed by
Pfeuffer (1972) refers to:
208
– Twenty-two skills and cognitive competences in
the field of material processing like filing, sawing,
turning and splicing;
– Twelve ↑ basic skills and cognitive competenc-
es for the realisation of tasks in the field of electri-
cal engineering, eg “working on and preparing of
lines and cables for energy transfer” and “produc-
tion of spools for units in high-frequency engineer-
ing”;
– Fourteen tasks in the area of assembling, run-
ning, and connecting for example “assembly
through riveting”, “production of force locked con-
nections”;
– Four tasks of measuring and ↑ controlling for ex-
ample “measuring of electric variables”, “control-
ling of electric function”;
– Four task areas of initiation, maintenance and
repairing (PFEUFFER 1972, 12).
Tab. 1: Development stages in the German system of electric/electronic and ICT occupations (Howe 2002, 102)
Handbook of TVET Research
With this analytical instrument, Pfeuffer captures
basic skills of material processing as well as me-
chanical processing of electric units, lines and ca-
bles. Use of this research instrument made a sig-
nificant contribution to the foundation of a basic
curriculum across the whole vocational field as
well as to the introduction of a staged framework
of qualifications in Germany (HEIDEGGER /JACOBS /
MARTIN ET AL. 1991, 157) resulting in the initia-
tion of a complex pathway. This development rep-
resents a new direction in vocational education in
that it reflects a move away from ↑ situated learning
(learning in qualifying occupational contexts) and
a move towards a staged framework of vocation-
al education, which is considered to be problem-
atic. In a series of extensive studies in the 1980s
and 1990s, Heidegger et al. addressed the question
of the newly emerging qualification requirements
Areas of VET Research
for this vocational field. Inter alia, an approach
for “gestaltungsorientierte Berufsentwicklung”
(shaping oriented ↑ curriculum development) was
established as the foundation for the modernisa-
tion of electronic occupations. The research uses
a scenario approach to explore the correlation be-
tween technological change, the changes in occu-
pational functions and knowledge, and new forms
of work organisation. The research concludes that
these changes are non-deterministic. As a conse-
quence of this research four corresponding scenar-
ios were developed to determine central points of
the future development in the shaping of technol-
ogy and its accompanying occupations, as well as
the shaping of vocational education and training in
industrial production.
In the Irish system the curricula for all the trades
in the SBA are based on a functional analysis of
the industry requirements of the trade. Prior to de-
veloping curricula, the National Apprenticeship
Advisory Committee (NAAC), which advises FAS
on all matters relating to apprenticeship, initiated
a functional analysis of the requirements of occu-
pational roles by conducting two surveys among
employers to establish the range and standards of
skills expected from crafts persons in each trade
(O’CONNOR 2004). Most of the curricula are cur-
rently being revised to take account of changes in
technology, work practices and health and safety
but this is not reflected in any changes of occupa-
tional titles. The education and training of crafts
people is not just the development of appropriate
curricula, but also the manner in which the learn-
er develops skills, knowledge and competences.
Enyon and Wall (2002, 320) argue that from the
academic literature one can see that the definition
of competence is complex. Apprenticeship is not
simply the acquisition of a series of discreet lev-
els of competence, but the development of cog-
nitive abilities that lead to effective and superior
task ↑ performance in the workplace. The content
of training is integrated in a manner which ensures
the learning of practical skills in the same learning
units as the pre-requisite theory, mathematics, sci-
ence, drawing and personal skills, which underpin
application (FAS 1997). Although this approach to
the curricula has been the subject of some disa-
greement, a critical aspect of any apprenticeship
209
system is that what is learned in the off-the-job el-
ement complements that which is learned in the
workplace. Training for electricians in Ireland re-
quires a substantial amount of training in electron-
ics together with cross disciplinary skills such as
electro-mechanical and electro-pneumatic skills.
In a study conducted by Drescher (1996) two di-
lemmas are identified characterising the electro-
servicing in automated processes in the area of net-
worked production. In case of a failure, the serv-
ice electrician needs to establish the cause of fail-
ure through all layers of the systemic technologies,
starting from the graphical user interface, compu-
ter- and network supported equipment and work-
ing systems to the level of IT-processed electronics
(aspects of ↑ diagnosis- and maintenance depth),
while at the same time keeping in mind the ICT-
supported cross linking between the production-,
planning- and ↑ controlling process (aspects of di-
agnosis- and maintenance denoting breadth in sub-
ject knowledge). For this reason a comprehensive
understanding of the links between the systems in
the area of electronic maintenance is challenging.
The need for the integration of computer- and net-
work based systems (→ 3.8.2), in training reflects
the need for skilled maintenance workers to have
the depth of knowledge as well as the breadth in
order to carry out diagnosis and maintenance tasks
(BREMER /JAGLA 2000; DRESCHER / MÜLLER / PETERSEN
1995; DITTRICH 2001). Research into the change of
tasks of skilled workers in the electrical/electron-
ic occupations in the area of automated equipment
and processes shows that system controllers and
maintainance crafts people have to display a high-
er level of competence in occupational processes
than in less automated processes contrary to the
widely held view that automation of autonomous
systems and the substitution of humans with ↑ ar-
tificial intelligence might reduce the need for high
level competences (DRESCHER 2002; EHRLICH 2002;
DITTRICH 2001, 2002; RAUNER 2001a).
This research has given rise to discourse about
the need for further research into ↑ domain spe-
cific qualifications in Germany (R AUNER 2002d)
although the Irish system of training for electri-
cians suggests that the dilemmas identified by
Drescher’s study may not be relevant in Ireland be-
cause of the breadth and depth of training required
210
in the apprenticeship system. The challenge for
trainers and educators in Ireland is to produce ap-
prentices who are equipped to engage in ↑ self-di-
rected learning and to engage in ↑ lifelong learning
to ensure that they can cope with the ever changing
technology in their trade. One of the occupations
currently being examined by the National Appren-
ticeship Committee on behalf of FAS is Structured
Cabling. This occupation is a growing area of sig-
nificant economic importance. It is concerned with
the installation and maintenance of ↑ ICT infra-
structure in buildings. While qualified electricians
have developed competence in this area, it is indic-
ative of the need for broad and in-depth training
of apprentices.
Current discussions in Germany similarly empha-
sise the need to include generic concepts of ↑ edu-
cation theory, foundations of learning theories and
the didactic concepts emanating from these. The
inclusion of this normative orientation links the
domain specific ↑ qualification research with other
development orientated and shaping oriented ↑ re-
search traditions, for example the ‘work and tech-
nology research’ (ULICH 1994; JENEWEIN /K NAUTH /
RÖBEN / ZÜLCH 2004; → 3.8; → 3.8.1).
A further focus of research in the vocational field
of ↑ EEE/ICT in Germany has included an evalua-
tion of the realignments of the industrial electrical/
electronic occupations since 1972.
In this respect the Federal Institute for Voca-
tional Education in Germany (“Bundesinsti-
tut für Berufsbildung” BIBB) has conducted ex-
tensive evaluation projects with ↑ participation
from external research groups (HEGELHEIMER
1979; DRESCHER / MÜLLER / PETERSEN 1995; BORCH /
WEISSMANN 2002; PETERSEN / WEHMEYER 2001).
The key findings of the ↑ evaluation study by
Drescher et al. (1996) were:
(1) More than 15 electrical engineering occupa-
tions in the industrial and crafts sectors overlap to
such an extent that it is reasonable to merge them
into two core occupations:
– machine and automatisation electronics techni-
cian,
– communication electronics technician (op.
cit., 418)
(2) The school curriculum and the curriculum for
↑ in-company training bear little relation to each
Handbook of TVET Research
other in terms of their content and aims. The rea-
son is that school-based learning is based on the
contents of electrical physics and electrical engi-
neering whereas in-company training is oriented
towards professional ↑ work processes. The pro-
posed solution to this problem is to take ↑ work
process knowledge as the common point of refer-
ence for an integrated vocational curriculum (op.
cit., 418 ff.). This proposal was taken up by ↑ TVET
planning in the course of the further development
of the electrical engineering occupations.
Since the 1990s research into qualifications in the
area of electronic trades emerging from Germa-
ny has engaged primarily with two levels, namely:
the identification of work processes in a custom-
er oriented operational context (cp. HÄGELE 2001,
136 ff.) and the electrical innovations in building
systems technology. The latter represents the larg-
est sector in electronic skilled work. The skills of
electrical installation workers show a fundamen-
tal change in tasks, which has increasing signifi-
cance for ↑ interdisciplinary co-operation with dif-
ferent occupations (cp. JENEWEIN / PETERSEN 2002).
Here, the classical task content still dominates the
operational processes of the electrician. Some re-
search (HÄGELE 2001) shows that changes in tasks
are manifested rather more slowly in job descrip-
tions than in educational content. In an extensive
↑ task analysis, Hägele identifies ten typical work
processes for electricians (Table 2).
The configuration, implementation, operation and
maintenance of automation facilities assume a ho-
listic view of building automation. “The limited
view of the technology” is rather damaging (DITT-
RICH 2001, 149). Whether the electrical engineer-
ing craft enterprises can manage this change of
tasks or whether they will lose this (vital) business
area to engineering offices and industry remains
to be seen (cp. K NUTZEN 1999; 2000; JENEWEIN /
PETERSEN 2002; BLOY 2002). Tab. 2: Typical work
processes of the electrician (HÄGELE 2001, 137)
Context is an important factor to consider in this
vocational field Samurçay and Vidal-Gomel show
the importance of context in this vocational field
(2002, 148). The authors make distinctions in the
investigation of electrical ↑ work processes pre-
senting potential risks. Three phases were differ-
entiated:
– ↑ Diagnosis phase,
Areas of VET Research
Tab. 2: Typical work processes of the electrician
(HÄGELE 2001, 137)
– Making-safe phase
– Repair phase (150).
The case study describes the management of the
working process knowledge and its relevance to the
development of competence, which is discussed in
the context of Piaget’s and Vygotsky’s theories of
the dialectic development of cognition (154). The
following elements are identified as necessary for
competent management:
– Learning through real working situations,
– Understanding the importance of working
processes,
– Integrating aspects of risk prevention and error
diagnosis in technical learning processes.
The authors counter the view of Taylorist work or-
ganisation, suggesting a preferred model of preven-
tive maintenance which depends in part on ↑ work
process knowledge (159).
211
3.2.2.5 Education and Qualification
Processes
Between 1971 and 1978 a countrywide ↑ pilot
project investigating learning and teaching me-
dia, the “Mehr-Medien-System Elektrotechnik-
Elektronik” project (MME) was conducted in
Germany. Subjects of this research included fifty
eight vocational education schools as well as more
than twenty companies in the electronics indus-
try (1971–1978) (→ 2.4). With this MME-project,
a new concept of initiating pilot projects com-
bined with vocational education and ↑ training re-
search has formed a new and important way of re-
searching vocational education. The impact of pi-
lot projects, based on quasi-experimental method-
ology, can be considered to have had a catalysing
effect on action research resulting in accelerated
changes and new approaches of researching in the
field. (GUTSCHMIDT/K REIGENFELD / LAUR ET AL. 1974,
127 ff.)
Within the scope of the scheme, facilities for learn-
er centered experimenting emerged for the follow-
ing ↑ subject areas: electrical engines, AC/DC
technology, digital and power electronics as well
as electrical protection measures. Another key as-
pect of the MME-pilot project was the research in-
to the significance of ↑ experimental learning and
the scientific orientation in learning processes. A
contribution by Adolph (1975) questions the oft
held view that scientific oriented learning means
learning a “theoretical” formal language, which
doesn’t necessarily relate to individual experienc-
es with technological systems and processes and
the ensuing skills acquired. He advocates distanc-
ing oneself from this view, preferring a rather for-
mal understanding of education, which is based on
the idea of subject knowledge acquisition and inde-
pendent learning processes. This reflects the cur-
rent position in Ireland where the focus is on au-
tonomous ↑ lifelong learning (O’CONNOR 2006).
Experimental learning as a basic form of vocation-
al learning has since been the subject of research
and development in the vocational field of ↑ EEE/
ICT (EICKER 1983) in Germany. In a significant
number of pilot projects, forms of experimental
learning and action learning were developed fur-
ther. Special importance from a didactical point of
view has to be accredited to the pilot project MCA
212
(cp. BEHNKE / SIEBALD 1987) because the concept of
design-oriented didactics in vocational education
was first tried in the vocational field of electronics.
The concept was later adopted by the federal states
of Germany in the conference of the ministers of
education (Kultusministerkonferenz – KMK) for
the learning in ↑ vocational schools (KMK 1991a).
This development found its sequel in a project for
shaping oriented ↑ learning strategies (“Gestalt-
ungsorientiertes Lernen”, cp. HEIDEGGER /JACOBS /
MARTIN ET AL. 1991; PETERSEN / RAUNER / STUBER
2001).
The development and evaluation of new methodo-
logical concepts and learning locations enabled a
revised approach to the traditional division of ↑ task
allocation between vocational schools and enter-
prises for the design of vocational learning proc-
esses. This aspect was picked up in nation-wide
pilot project research in programmes concerned
with the cooperation between learning locations.
For electrical/electronic occupations pilot projects
had particular relevance for ↑ work process orient-
ed ↑ curriculum design (HEERMEYER / HEUERMANN /
HOWE 1999) and the pilot project “Lernortkooper-
ation” (JENEWEIN / SCHULTE-GÖCKING 1997; SCHUL-
TE-GÖCKING 1999). The issues of work related edu-
cation and new methodological concepts for voca-
tional learning locations were closely scrutinised
for the trades of electrician (“Elektroinstalla-
teur”), sanitary, heating, air-condition and refrig-
eration engineering (“Sanitär-, heizungs- und kli-
matechnischen Handwerke SHK”). The task ori-
ented learning, in turn, has been put into practice
for the electronics in one ↑ pilot project concerned
with the development of customer orientated learn-
ing concepts (NICOLAUS /K ASTEN 1999, 116 f.). This
was further enhanced by proposals for the inte-
gration of general education in task process ori-
ented contexts (with the methods repertoire busi-
ness game, scenario method, future shop floor, and
↑ technology assessment – cp. ibid.). In his presen-
tation of forms of learning in simulated contexts
– instruction-, product- and project-oriented learn-
ing – and in real work environments Hahne (1999,
204) presents an overview of ↑ new didactical ap-
proaches in vocational education. A characteris-
tic is learning in authentic contexts with identi-
fied learning possibilities, for which Franke/Klein-
Handbook of TVET Research
schmitt name six different dimensions: problem
complexity, action possibilities, variability, inte-
grality, social support and value for training proc-
esses (1987, 47). Proposed instruction types for a
work-oriented education as an electrician are pri-
marily concerned with installation (fluorescent
lighting, sub-distribution of electric energy, elec-
trical installation of bathrooms) and ↑ development
tasks (motor control technologies, Europe Installa-
tion Bus EIB) (NICOLAUS /K ASTEN 1999, 116 ff.).
The approach to vocational training in this field in
Ireland starts from the premise that the totality of
learning must be structured to ensure that the to-
tal process of learning prepares the learner to cope
with ever increasing change. In order to achieve
this the learning package must develop within the
learner the capability to draw on his/her repertoire
of skills knowledge and competence to not only di-
agnose the source of problems, but also to effect
economic solutions to the problem. It is important
therefore that there is a clear link between the vo-
cational curriculum and the requirements of indus-
try. Heraty et al. (2001, 179) opined that increas-
ingly throughout Europe, countries are investing
heavily in ↑ lifelong learning, and are doing so in
the context of an ageing labour force, rapid techno-
logical change, increased challenges and competi-
tiveness as a result of the ↑ globalisation of firms.
research undertaken by Sneyd (2004) into appren-
tice learning indicates there is a significant and
discernable difference in ↑ performance between
apprentices who show evidence of independent
learning and those who are achieving better results
in examinations. Employers are concerned with
training for industry while educationalists take a
more holistic approach to the development of cur-
ricula (O’CONNOR 2006, 38). The concept of mas-
tery in the medieval guilds essentially meant the
crafts person knew everything there was to know
about his occupation. In modern times the word’
mastery’ does not have the same meaning as crafts
persons have to be life-long learners to keep pace
with new and changing technologies. This is es-
pecially true in the ↑ EEE/ICT sector where crafts
people have to be perpetual apprentices.
Areas of VET Research
3.2.2.6 Latest Developments
Latest developments in the field in Germany have
been characterised by the introduction of occupa-
tions in ICT in 1997 and by the rearrangement of
the crafts- and industrial electronics occupations in
2003 (JENEWEIN / PETERSEN 2003). Changes includ-
ed the abandonment of the differentiation between
basic and subject specific education. The differen-
tiation in core and subject specific qualifications is
a concept pursued in information and communica-
tions technology occupations for the first time. Re-
search in the vocational education sector responds
to these developments on two levels. On the one
hand, the issue of including information and com-
munications technology in the electronical sub-
ject specific work is taken up. Additionally the rel-
evance of information communications technol-
ogy-specific subject knowledge for the develop-
ment of work in classic electronics is researched
(STUBER 2000). On the other hand, work in the ar-
ea of re-orientation of the ↑ occupational field of
electronic engineering with an emphasis on “vo-
cational informatics” gains in importance (STUBER
2002). Here, the following issue is raised: Which
developments are common to both the occupation-
al subject specific work and in the information and
communications technology and media sector in
the traditional field of ↑ electrical/electronic en-
gineering? Furthermore, which didactical models
can one employ to meet the challenges posed by
these developments?
Cornerstones can be considered to be learning task
concepts, developed for the electronics occupa-
tions. The importance and links with these meth-
ods are discussed using the example of ↑ informa-
tion technology subject specific work in Stuber
2002, 166.
Despite the declining numbers of apprentices in
the crafts- and industrial electronics occupations,
the quantitative importance of training for oc-
cupations in EEE/ICT has not been reduced. On
the contrary electronics and ICT are increasing-
ly part of the key technologies of the 21st centu-
ry for all economic and public areas and can be
seen to be developing into a transverse discipline
(RAUNER 2003a, 108).
Much of the literature on the training of craftspeo-
ple refers to the need for training packages to keep
213
abreast of developing technology, new work prac-
tices and issues of health and safety. Hodkinson
(1998, 195) argues that workers need high levels
of education in order to continually adapt to new
and demanding work opportunities. However, less
thought is given to the early identification of ob-
solete skills and the culling of these training pro-
grammes, particularly from the college/school
based element of the programme. The challenge
for researchers is to undertake research to develop
a strategy for early identification of obsolete skills,
particularly in the electrical/electronics sector
where change is occurring so rapidly in industry.
The vocational-scientific research of the 1990s is
characterised by the orientation of vocational ed-
ucation on operational ↑ work processes. A whole
range of single projects is relevant for this discus-
sion. A structuring proposal for a new macro struc-
ture of the syllabus for commercial-technical occu-
pations was already provided in a report by Raun-
er, which covered basic education in electrical/
electronic engineering (1986, see also 1996a). The
previous sequence for vocational education con-
sisting of a scientific-mathematics based education
followed by subject-specific education relating to
electronic systems no longer forms the framework
for the curriculum content in a school of voca-
tional education in Germany. The ↑ novice-expert
paradigm (DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1992) and the con-
cept of developmental tasks (HAVIGHURST 1948),
four learning areas are constituted, which are ar-
ranged in the following sequence: orientation and
overview knowledge, context knowledge, detailed
knowledge and functional knowledge (RAUN-
ER 1996a, 98). These concepts have been contin-
ued by works relating to curricular design of work
oriented learning processes in the ↑ occupation-
al field of ↑ EEE/ICT (cp. PETERSEN / RAUNER 1995;
PETERSEN 1996b; R AUNER 1996a).
The evaluation project relating to the Hessian syl-
labuses (PETERSEN / RAUNER 1995) resulted in the
standardisation of syllabuses for the occupational
field of EEE/ICT (RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1995b). The re-
search and development schemes for the develop-
ment orientated design of education programmes
in the occupational field of ↑ EEE/ICT are ex-
pressed in an “integrated” vocational curriculum
214
in Germany (RAUNER / SCHÖN / GERLACH / REINHOLD
2001).
As a consequence the research results discussed
were partially put into practice at a curricular level
during the course of the rearrangement procedure
in 2003 (cp. K ATZENMEYER 2003, 116).
3.2.2.7 Perspectives
Research into teaching-, learning- and qualifica-
tion frameworks in the occupational field of EEE/
ICT has revealed notable changes over the course
of three decades. These changes have given rise to
new initiatives for new forms of learning such as ac-
tion-learning situated and ↑ experimental learning
and for the design of ↑ vocational curricula, even
going further than the occupational field. Howev-
er little systematic research has been undertaken
in the didactical areas of the acquisition of sub-
jective action orientated subject specific terms and
theories. A few attempts can be found in Rauner
et al. 1975; Hass 1979; Eicker 1983; Adolph 1984;
Horn 1996; Jenewein 1998; 1999; 2000; Raun-
er 2004b. This is also true for the development of
and research into higher education curricula for
studies in the commercial-technical science EEE/
ICT. The concept of the teaching-oriented sub-
ject science electronics (GRONWALD / MARTIN 1982)
proved unsustainable as the teaching methodology
for electronics developed in Dresden (ROSE 1982).
Consequently neither of these scientific approach-
es for defining the ↑ vocational discipline EEE/ICT
has been further developed.
The manner in which apprentices in the electri-
cal/electronic sector are taught is crucial to the fu-
ture of industry, provided curricula are continu-
ously updated, because what is taught must take
precedence over how it is taught, hence the neces-
sity to ensure the relevance of the training pro-
gramme. Curricula must be reviewed regularly
so that change is incremental, both for the inclu-
sion of new technology and the deletion of obsolete
technology, which presents a challenge for those
associated with industrial training.
Therein lays a central challenge for the continu-
ing ↑ professionalisation of the subject-specific de-
gree study of the commercial-technical ↑ subject
area of ↑ EEE/ICT. The framework study regula-
tions provided by the GTW (RAHMENSTUDIENORD-
Handbook of TVET Research
NUNGEN GEWERBLICH-TECHNISCHE WISSENSCHAFTEN
2004b) could provide an important orientation in
this respect (see also PFEIFFER 1998; HOWE 1998;
MARTIN / PANGALOS / RAUNER 2000).
3.2.3 Construction
Johannes Meyser and Ernst Uhe
3.2.3.1 Introduction
The German building and contracting indus-
try is extremely important as an economic sec-
tor, a source of employment, a setting for initial
and ↑ continuing vocational education and train-
ing, and an actor engaged in the creation of liv-
ing and working spaces. In Germany, the building
trade currently employs a workforce of 1.6 million,
consisting of two main producer groups, the build-
ing construction and building finishing trades. It
accounts for over 11 per cent of the gross domes-
tic product. The building and contracting industry
is also an important provider of initial vocation-
al training. Despite declining numbers in absolute
terms, more young people receive initial vocation-
al training in this industry than in most other sec-
tors. The training rate of 9.4 per cent is also higher
than the average for other sectors (cf. BMBF 2005;
BMWA 2005). This is explained in good part by
the levy-based financing of initial vocational train-
ing, which is a long-standing tradition in the build-
ing and contracting industry. Based on a voluntary
agreement between the social partners, all firms in
the industry have, since 1976, contributed a levy
towards the costs of initial vocational training.
The majority of the funding is then paid out by the
Sozialkasse der Bauwirtschaft (SOKA-BAU), the
German construction industry’s “leave and wage-
equalisation fund”, to the firms actually providing
initial vocational training.
Thus, vocational learning is a major priority in
the building and contracting industry. At the same
time, it is a permanent factor in competitiveness,
because efficient learning about innovations, ↑ mo-
bility, market opportunities, and any potential for
initiating and shaping development is crucial for
companies and individual employees alike.
Areas of VET Research
It is by no means easy to classify the German
building sector or neatly divide it from other sec-
tors. One immediate indication of this is the prolif-
eration of designations for the industry: Baugew-
erbe (building trade), Bausektor (building sector),
Baubranche (building industry), Bauwirtschaft
(building and contracting industry), Bauhaupt-
und Baunebengewerbe (building construction and
building finishing trades), and Hoch-, Tief- und
Ausbau (construction engineering, civil engineer-
ing and structural finishing), to name but a few. It
is also a major challenge to identify all the different
aspects of the construction industry. In addition to
work carried out directly on building sites, work-
ers from many sectors of industry are involved in
other ways, and many production, processing and
service trades have close links with building work.
Some examples are:
– Construction material, cement and natural stone
manufacturing,
– The construction machinery industry,
– Steel and light metal construction,
– Architecture and engineering practices,
– The housing industry and property manage-
ment,
– Facility management, technical building sur-
veillance and cleaning.
This brings the total numbers employed in the con-
struction sector to around 10 % of the entire work-
ing population in Germany (SYBEN 1999, 15 ff.).
A society displays its cultural and economic identi-
ty in its buildings, and the construction of buildings
is a basic human activity in all cultures and in all
eras. Nature is reconstructed and rendered acces-
sible for personal and social enrichment. Building
influences the development of cities and regions.
Another time-honoured tradition is that building
work is organised in line with occupational cate-
gories. However, it is striking that vocational re-
search in this field is still at an embryonic stage,
and the same phenomenon holds true for nearly all
the vocational fields which are thought of as “tra-
ditional” and “elementary” (e. g. agriculture, per-
sonal care, ↑ nutrition and ↑ home economics). This
stands in manifest contrast to the interest in “mod-
ern” vocational fields (such as metal technology,
electrical technology or chemical technology). In
the wake of major technological developments, the
215
work associated with recognised occupations in
these fields has incorporated wholly new content
and new forms of organisation and training; this,
in turn, has attracted considerable attention from
vocational education and ↑ training research.
3.2.3.2 Recognised Occupations, Vocational
Training and Company Structures in
Construction
Over the long history of the construction industry’s
development, a multi-level division of labour has
taken place. In order to describe the occupations
primarily involved with building, the term Berufs-
feld (↑ occupational field) must be understood in
a very broad sense, since in this case it spans the
planning, design, foundation-laying, construction,
furnishing and maintenance, structural finishing
and equipping of residential and commercial prop-
erty as well as the construction and maintenance of
roads, transport routes and utility systems.
Defined back in 1978, the year in which the Beruf-
sgrundbildungsjahr (one-year prevocational
course) was introduced, the category designated
Vocational Field IV: “Construction Technology”
(designated “Construction and Wood Technolo-
gy” between 1972–1978) only encompasses a sub-
set of all building occupations. In this vocational
field, consisting of 28 recognised occupations re-
quiring formal vocational training, 19 of the oc-
cupations are subject to the “↑ training by stages”
policy, which was introduced in 1974 and updated
in 1999 (BIBB 1999). Almost 90 % of all trainees
in the occupational field of “Construction Tech-
nology” take up initial vocational training in one
of these 19 occupations, particularly the occupa-
tions of mason, concreter, road builder, duct build-
er, carpenter, stucco plasterer and dry construc-
tion builder. A common basic training programme
spanning the entire vocational field is topped up
with a phase of specialised training. The first stage
is completed after two years, culminating in qual-
ification as a building construction worker, civil
engineering construction worker or construction
finishing worker. This is the basis for the second
stage, which leads to 16 individual occupational
qualifications.
Nine further construction occupations, such as
sealing operative, façade erector, roofer and ar-
216
chitectural draughtsperson are not covered by the
training-by-stages programme. Added to these
are the occupations not assigned to any vocation-
al field, although construction is certainly their
sphere of work (e. g. glazier, construction plant op-
erator, asphalt worker, scaffolder, chimney sweep
or surveying technician).
Workers from other vocational fields are also em-
ployed on construction sites, especially from Vo-
cational Field V: “Wood Technology” (e. g. join-
er and wood mechanic – building supply industry)
and Vocational Field IX: “Paint Technology and
Interior Design” (e. g. painter and varnisher, struc-
tural and property coating worker). They are main-
ly involved in finishing buildings, façade work, the
coating and cladding of concrete, steel or mason-
ry sections and the rehabilitation and renovation of
built structures.
There are also strong affinities with the occupa-
tion of plant mechanic for sanitary, heating and air
conditioning systems in Vocational Field II: “Met-
al Technology”. Similarly, the vocational field of
“Agriculture” has points of contact with “Con-
struction Technology”. Horticultural and land-
scape construction involves a diverse range of road
and walling work, for example, which would oth-
erwise be assigned to “Construction Technology”
occupations.
To ensure that basic education and training cov-
ers the entire vocational field, in-company ini-
tial training in the vocational field of “Construc-
tion Technology” (where the ↑ learning venue is
a building site) is supplemented with instruction
in inter-company ↑ vocational training centres on
quite an extensive scale: 16–20 weeks in the fi rst
year, ten weeks in the second year and four weeks
in the third year. In the vocational fields of “Wood
Technology” and “Paint Technology and Interior
Design”, inter-company initial vocational train-
ing is also carried out, though not on such a ma-
jor scale.
In recognition of the broad scope of construction
site work associated with recognised occupations
(more than 60 occupations with direct relevance to
construction work), the present article covers the
occupations classified within the German voca-
tional fields of “Construction Technology”, “Wood
Technology” and “Paint Technology and Interior
Handbook of TVET Research
Design”, plus the occupations allied to construc-
tion which were mentioned above. This satisfies the
demand for an open and dynamic interpretation of
Beruflichkeit (the principle of the state-recognised
skilled occupation) (PAHL 2001a, 17). Such a clas-
sification also coincides with the taxonomy in use
within the German discourse on subject-specific
didactics (KUHLMEIER 2003). The ↑ work processes
and organisational forms in all these occupations
exhibit substantial similarities, making it justifia-
ble to ask whether a reduction to core occupations
would be worthwhile for the purposes of initial vo-
cational training (UHE 2001).
Besides the diversity of occupations, the special
structures of the building and contracting indus-
try also influence learning. In Germany in the
year 2004, only 27 firms in the building construc-
tion trade had more than 500 employees, and on-
ly 0.3 % of firms had more than 200. Out of 76,612
firms in total, almost 90 % had fewer than 20 staff
members. It is therefore evident that the vast ma-
jority of all firms in the building industry are small
businesses (cf. STBA 2005).
Tab. 1: Companies in the building construction trade
in Germany, by company size (Source: FEDER-
AL STATISTICAL OFFICE (STBA) 2005)
This fact becomes even clearer when the distribu-
tion of workers across firms is taken into account.
Around two-thirds of all employees in the build-
ing construction trade work in small and medium-
sized enterprises (SME) with up to 49 members
of staff (cf. STBA 2005). The small size of firms
is thus a key feature of the building and contract-
ing industry and trades allied to construction. It in-
fluences the processes and forms of organisation
of work in recognised occupations, and also deter-
mines the nature of learning on construction sites.
Areas of VET Research
The size of the firm has implications for the tech-
nical equipment a company has at its disposal and
the kinds of orders it can take on. It influences the
skills required from employees, which are deter-
mined in any case by their specific branch of con-
struction work.
Tab. 2: Employees in the building construction trade
in Germany, by company size (Source: FEDER-
AL STATISTICAL OFFICE (STBA) 2005)
For example, the structural engineering branch is
populated almost exclusively by large-sized compa-
nies offering highly demanding technical building
services in building construction, civil engineer-
ing and road (and rail) construction. These charac-
teristically employ significant levels of technology
and a correspondingly qualified workforce.
In general building construction (predominantly
house-building), on the other hand, less sophisti-
cated technologies are used. The sizes of compa-
nies here are somewhat smaller. The building sites
are not generally such high-volume projects, the
number of workers is lower, and the levels of staff
expertise are not as high as in structural engineer-
ing.
Firms working in specialised building and civil en-
gineering offer insulation, demolition and façade
construction or duct and pipe system construction
works. Only some aspects of the work are tech-
nologically sophisticated. For the most part, larger
teams of staff with ↑ basic skills are employed.
The companies classified as other branches with-
in the building construction trade include roof-
ers, scaffolders, joiners, insulators, hydraulic en-
gineers and many others. The firms active in this
area are almost exclusively small companies which
only occasionally have to manage technologically
demanding tasks, but nevertheless stake their suc-
cess on highly qualified staff.
217
Structural conditions in the building and contract-
ing industry are very diverse, and differ consider-
ably from those in other industries. They affect the
skills required of the workforce, in terms of techni-
cal know-how, knowledge of machinery, tools and
materials, the complexity of independent decision-
making, and variations in working procedures and
forms of cooperation. These specific structures al-
so determine the learning content of work, with
the result that ↑ continuing education and training
needs necessarily vary within the workforce.
3.2.3.3 Research in Vocational Didactics
– Developing Learning Concepts and
Teaching/Learning Materials
Vocational research is commonly associated with
analysis of the ↑ vocational didactics of company,
inter-company and ↑ vocational school-based ini-
tial vocational training, and with the development
of corresponding initial training concepts and
teaching/learning materials.
The interrelationship between the work of the
skilled construction worker and the transfer of rel-
evant findings from vocational didactics was an ar-
ea of study taken up by Bloy in the former German
Democratic Republic in the 1970s (BLOY 1973). At
about the same time, Stähr and Wehmer at Dres-
den University of Technology (TU Dresden) were
developing the concept of Stationsausbildung (in-
itial training at stations) (STÄHR 1970). In cooper-
ation with the vocational education department at
the former Institut für Aus- und Weiterbildung im
Bauwesen (Institute for initial and continuing vo-
cational training in construction) in Leipzig, a col-
lection of teaching materials was created for the
practical elements of basic training for the con-
struction occupations.
From the time that it was established in 1970, the
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and
Training (BIBB) in the Federal Republic of Ger-
many engaged intensively in developing teach-
ing and learning materials for inter-company ini-
tial vocational training in construction. BIBB re-
worked a series of exercises initially devised by
the construction sector itself, a training-course
approach modelled on the metal industry’s basic
training course. This became known as the Weiße
Reihe or “white series”. It described tools, aids and
218
materials for individual construction exercises.
Explanatory notes were not provided, however. In
the mid-1970s, this was developed into the Graue
Reihe or “grey series”, which aimed to foster the
apprentices’ independent learning skills and there-
fore contained additional relevant instructions, ex-
planations and guidelines.
BIBB also supported the ↑ pilot project which ran
from 1977–1982 named Kooperation im Block-
system – Stufenausbildung in der Bauwirtschaft
(Cooperation in the Block System – ↑ Training by
Stages in the Construction Sector). With the ↑ par-
ticipation of the inter-company vocational training
facility in Simmerath/Eifel, companies were sur-
veyed to analyse the ↑ effectiveness and accepta-
bility of training by stages, block training and inte-
grated ↑ inter-company training phases, and to ex-
amine whether initial vocational training reflect-
ed company ↑ work processes (SCHWIEDRZIK 1986).
Likewise, in the 1980s and 1990s BIBB supported
studies on the initial vocational training and em-
ployment situation on construction sites (CLAUSS
1993). Data was gathered on typical occupation-
al activities, job requirements, and the physical
and psychological pressures of the workplace. Up
to that point, the particular working conditions on
construction sites – and hence key aspects of vo-
cational research in this area – had not been taken
into account sufficiently in the design of learning
processes. Instead, both in the German Democrat-
ic Republic and in the Federal Republic of Germa-
ny, initial training concepts and methods tended to
be modelled largely on the industrial occupations.
The Federal Republic of Germany’s earliest uni-
versity-based research on vocational didactics
in the field of Construction Technology began in
1980 when a professorship was established at the
University of Hamburg. Among other work, proc-
ess evaluation was provided for the development
of the new training occupation of waste technician
introduced in 1984 (UHE 1992), and the question of
the transfer of key skills in Construction and Wood
Technology was taken up (SAGCOB / UHE 1991).
At the Technische Universität Berlin (TU Berlin),
a ↑ subject area named Fachdidaktik Bau- und Ge-
staltungstechnik (Subject-related didactics of con-
struction and design technology) was only estab-
lished in 1993. Vocational research surveys were
Handbook of TVET Research
conducted here, for instance in association with the
development of instructional materials on environ-
mentally sound vocational training for the occupa-
tions of joiner, dry construction fitter, and painter
and varnisher (HASPER / HOFFMANN / SCHULTZ ET AL.
1996). Additionally, a learning-by-doing concept
was developed for inter-company initial vocational
training in the construction sector, which also con-
tains practical and learning assignments (MEYSER /
UHE 2006). Meanwhile, research-supported in-
structional materials have been developed for in-
ter-company initial training in all occupations in-
volving ↑ training by stages. These make the learn-
ing relevant to aspects of workplace practice, an
approach which is also becoming more highly re-
garded on the international scene. For example, us-
ing the learning-by-doing system to teach the in-
ter-company initial vocational training curriculum
is the core of cooperation with Dutch vocational
education experts in the construction sector. The
FAINLAB projects, promoting the acceptance and
integration of web-based and multimedia learning
in construction sector training, adhere to this same
principle.
Vocational and ↑ vocational didactics research at
universities is in need of further expansion, how-
ever. To date, there are only three university pro-
fessorships in vocational didactics for occupations
in the construction sector (at TU Berlin, TU Dres-
den and the University of Hamburg). Vocation-
al research in all these establishments concen-
trates on the application of vocational didactics in
school-based, workplace and inter-company con-
texts (UHE 1996).
By 1999, the restructuring of construction sector
occupations and the introduction of the concept of
the Lernfeld (topic area) meant that findings from
vocational research were being integrated system-
atically, and more thoroughly than in the past, in-
to the conception of ↑ teaching and learning proc-
esses and the development of instructional materi-
als. The stipulation of the practice-based learning
approach in regulatory policy gave rise to a full-
scale didactic reappraisal, part of which was to
make training clearly relevant to the work process-
es and forms of work organisation on construction
sites. Since then, vocational didactics has irrefuta-
bly been informed by vocational research.
Areas of VET Research
Research on teaching is another area which in-
creasingly explores such issues. Thus, for exam-
ple, Springer investigates curricular, methodolog-
ical and instructional strategies for improving the
“design competence” of painters and varnishers
at part-time ↑ vocational school (SPRINGER 2004).
Here, the practical importance of occupational
competence is brought out particularly through the
aspect of combining learning with working. The
↑ effectiveness of practical teaching concepts is al-
so investigated in a study by Wülker (2004). In the
context of initial vocational training for joiners, he
analyses the relationship between subject-matter-
structured and activity-structured learning ↑envi-
ronments, looking at knowledge acquisition and
motivation in both high-achieving and low-achiev-
ing learners. His empirical study is a tenacious
inquiry into the accumulation of declarative and
procedural knowledge necessary for the mastery
of practical ↑ vocational tasks. Equally consistent
efforts have been made, in the pilot schemes and
projects carried out since that time (e. g. DOMA-
ZI, IntergrA, NeWeBa, LoK), to develop practical
tasks and learning assignments which take into ac-
count the special features of ↑ work processes on
construction sites. These can be specified as fol-
lows (MEYSER 2003):
– mainly one-off building production (no mass
production),
– varied locations and site conditions (little work-
shop production),
– extensive work operations on the whole product
(little explicit sequencing of sub-operations)
– involvement of many trades,
– the skilled worker exercising independent qual-
ity control over ↑ work processes and outcomes,
– work in gangs (teamwork as the norm),
– considerable contact with customers (especially
when working on existing buildings),
– hazardous environment requiring various health
and safety at work measures.
For an analysis of the typical work processes,
therefore, it is necessary for researchers and voca-
tional training practitioners to work in collabora-
tion. Another important factor is that curriculum
leaders from universities, schools, business and
↑ inter-company training facilities and vocational
↑ educational planning participate in the Fachta-
219
gung Bau/ Holz/Farbe (↑ Conference of the con-
struction/wood/paint trades), held regularly as part
of the Hochschultage Berufliche Bildung (high-
er education conference on vocational education).
The conference volumes (BLOY/ HAHNE / UHE 1995,
2000; BLOY/ HAHNE / STRUVE 2000, 2002; BAABE-
MEIJER / MEYSER / STRUVE 2004, 2006) represent a
rich source of vocational research papers.
Further concentration and intensification of this
work has been facilitated since 1999 by the found-
ing of the registered association Bundesarbeitsge-
meinschaft für Berufsbildung in den Fachrichtun-
gen Bautechnik, Holztechnik sowie Farbtechnik
und Raumgestaltung e. V. (the German national
Working Group for Vocational Education in Con-
struction Technology, Wood Technology, Paint
Technology and Interior Design, shortened to BAG
Bau/ Holz/Farbe; chaired from 1999–2002 by
Bloy, Dresden; 2002–2006 by Struve, Hamburg
and from 2006 by Meyser, Berlin). Since 2003 a
cooperation venture has existed with the working
group gtw – Gewerblich-technische Wissenschaf-
ten und ihre Didaktiken (Industrial-technical sci-
ences and their didactics), set up by the ergonom-
ic research body Gesellschaft für Arbeitswissen-
schaft e. V. (GfA) in order to advance research in-
to industrial-technical work processes with a view
to developing forward-looking vocational training
concepts, designing training processes and profes-
sionalising the training of educators in the relevant
vocational fields (MITTEILUNGSBLATT BAG 02/2003
2003, 13). Joint development of degree course reg-
ulations has taken place (for construction technol-
ogy, wood technology, and paint technology and
interior design), with a particular emphasis on in-
tegrating ergonomic, economic and ecological is-
sues across the curriculum. Thus, the analysis and
design of work in recognised occupations, techni-
cal work processes and ↑ learning environments
have been incorporated into the content of aca-
demic training for vocational educators (R AHMEN-
STUDIENORDNUNGEN GEWERBLICH-TECHNISCHE WIS-
SENSCHAFTEN 2004a).
3.2.3.4 Vocational Research and Studies on
Construction Work
As yet, systematic and empirical studies on work-
ing practices and processes of organisation have
220
been rather limited in scope, due to the special
structural characteristics of the building and con-
tracting industry. Moreover, ↑ research methods
originally tried and tested under the working con-
ditions found in industrial workshops in large com-
panies (RÖBEN 2000b) cannot be adopted whole-
sale for the analysis of work in the construction
sector. The following special features have to be
borne in mind:
– the small-firm structure of the building indus-
try,
– the high hazard potential on building sites,
– the many firms involved in a construction
project,
– highly complex work which is not strictly occu-
pation-specific,
– tasks consisting of multiple sub-operations,
– frequent movement between different work are-
as within a firm,
– little possibility for long-term planning of the
tasks that arise during the ↑ work process,
– frequent moves from firm to firm for skilled
workers,
– in some cases, high numbers of casual migrant
workers.
In the meantime, however, studies in ↑ vocation-
al pedagogy and vocational research have adapt-
ed the methods pioneered, for example, in the met-
al technology sector (e. g. in-process observations,
expert surveys, ↑ problem-centred interviews, etc.)
in order to study work processes and conditions in
the construction sector.
For instance, Yan analysed the extent to which
“Experimental Statics” is an appropriate strat-
egy for acquiring ↑ practical knowledge (MING-
ZHONG 2003). This research investigated the im-
portance of having knowledge gained from first-
hand experience when using and applying building
statics software; the shift of expertise in structural
statics away from skilled construction workers to-
wards the higher-level structural engineers; and the
consequences of this kind of “deskilling” of con-
struction workers. In a Chinese-German empirical
↑ comparative study, Zhang carried out work on the
importance of vocational training measures to en-
sure the production quality of construction work
(ZHANG 2003). In a comparative European study,
Bünning analysed the consequences of a transfor-
Handbook of TVET Research
mation of occupation-based work for the training
of skilled construction workers, and produced a
case study on conditions in Great Britain and Ger-
many (BÜNNING 2000). Leidner analysed the con-
ditions and implications of initial vocational train-
ing in the building trade, where training is often
provided by journeymen, more or less as a sideline
to their formal occupations (LEIDNER 2001).
Vocational ↑ research approaches and analyses can
also be identified in research carried out in vari-
ous sector-related disciplines. For example, at the
Hamburg University of Technology (TU Hamburg-
Harburg), research was carried out in the Institute
of Applied Building Technology into the conse-
quences of an energy-optimised style of building
on initial and ↑ continuing vocational education
and training (HOLLE 2004), and into the impacts
of CAD/CAM use on work in small and medi-
um-sized enterprises in the carpentry trade (HER-
CHENHAHN 2004). At the University of Hannover,
research was carried out at the IBW (Institut für
Berufswissenschaften im Bauwesen – Institute for
vocational research in construction; Ehrmann) in-
to changing working procedures on building sites,
and forward-looking design of workstations for
manual work in carpentry firms (FIEBIG / LANGE
2000).
Other significant studies from a vocational re-
search perspective have been carried out in the
field of sociology of work, although for a long
time the construction industry was a “blind spot”
for sociological research (SYBEN 1992, 9). On-
ly a few studies addressed the working condi-
tions of building workers (JANSSEN / RICHTER 1983)
or took account of current developments in con-
struction technology. This was to change in 1989,
when Bauwirtschaft (Construction) was designat-
ed a research priority by the then Federal Min-
istry for Research and Technology. Subsequent-
ly, studies were conducted on the work situation
of foremen (MARWEDEL /KÖLSCH 2000) and exist-
ing processes of cooperation between foremen and
skilled workers (MARWEDEL / RICHTER 1996). Other
studies examined the ↑ labour market and condi-
tions of employment in the building sector (BOSCH /
ZÜHLKE-ROBINET 2000), and the impacts of struc-
tural change on skills (HOCHSTADT 2002).
Areas of VET Research
Syben gathered data on concrete working condi-
tions and the impacts of the growing use of infor-
mation and communications technology on work-
ers’ working practices (SYBEN 1992), as well as the
consequences of decentralisation, just-in-time pro-
duction and more flexible working on the skills
profiles required in training workers (SYBEN 1999).
A recent study examines future needs for skilled
workers and workforce skills, and sets out the de-
bate within the industry on the skills profile neces-
sary for skilled work (SYBEN 2002).
Addressing the area of ↑ continuing education and
training, BIBB recently carried out a study, com-
missioned by the Federal Ministry of Education
and Research, which should pave the way for new
structures for systematic continuing education and
training in the construction sector (IGBAU 2003).
The empirical data was obtained partly by means
of a multi-level analysis and was used, with con-
tinuing education and training needs in the con-
struction sector in mind, to document current
↑ work processes on building sites and forecast fu-
ture requirements (SYBEN / GROSS /KUHLMEIER ET AL.
2005).
3.2.3.5 Perspectives
Although a range of recent studies take up voca-
tional research issues, it remains the case that re-
search into work on construction sites is still in
need of substantial expansion. Many of the anal-
yses came about in connection with the develop-
ment of new learning concepts and instructional
materials. Certainly since the introduction of the
“topic area” (Lernfeld) concept, such studies have
been clearly related to issues raised by vocational
research. The objective of enhancing practical oc-
cupational competence led directly to a critical ex-
amination of work processes in construction occu-
pations. In step with this didactic reappraisal, the
learning concepts modelled on metal technology
training were replaced, and the special features of
work on construction sites were given greater em-
phasis. Future work in ↑ vocational didactics will
need to intensify such links with vocational re-
search.
To this end, the content and forms of work in rec-
ognised occupations on construction sites, the ob-
jects, methods, tools and forms of organisation,
221
must be more systematically analysed than in the
past, not least in order to identify the potential for
work processes which are conducive to learning.
In terms of content, research should focus partic-
ularly on building site logistics, new technologies
and construction materials, the significance of uti-
lising semi-prefabricated and prefabricated com-
ponents, and the influence of communications
technologies on building work and building site
management. A crucial area is the study of inter-
face problems in building production, particularly
in relation to work spanning many different trades.
Moreover, research is needed into how the award-
ing of contracts to subcontractors and the use of
migrant casual workers are influencing the proc-
esses and forms of organisation of building work
and creating unusual conditions. Likewise, ↑ con-
tinuing education and training in the construction
sector is increasingly becoming a subject of voca-
tional research.
Here, the methods of vocational research must be
matched to the special features of building work.
To ensure that they are appropriate for studying
work processes in the construction sector, famil-
iar methods must be re-examined and continuous-
ly developed.
3.2.4 Agriculture
Martin Mulder
3.2.4.1 Introduction
The world population is currently 6 billion people,
and it is estimated that in the year 2020 there will
be 8 billion people. This creates an enormous pres-
sure on secure food production, food safety, and
the environment. Not only population growth puts
this pressure on human and natural resources, but
the fight against poverty and under- and mal-nu-
trition also does the same. ↑ Agricultural educa-
tion prepares the future generation of leaders, re-
searchers, professionals, technicians and last but
not least, innovative farmers, who can collective-
ly meet the global challenges of sufficient food and
food security.
222
Agriculture is international by nature. It is also the
largest policy domain of the European Union. Eu-
ropean Agricultural Policy making is comprised in
the CAP, the Common Agricultural Policy.
“The Common Agricultural Policy has been the biggest,
the most contentious and the one with the largest budget
of all the Union’s policy areas. The EU has more pow-
er in agricultural policy than it has in any other policy
area and it has passed more legislation on agriculture
than in any other single policy area. The future prosper-
ity of the EU’s agricultural sector depends on its ability
to profit from the domestic and international opportuni-
ties that have emerged in recent years. The CAP has al-
ready gone a long way and has now the great potential
to become a truly European model of agriculture for the
21st century” (http://europa.eu.int/scadplus/leg/en/lvb/
l04000.htm, access 30.03.2006).
The figures relating to the agricultural sector in
Europe are colossal. The imports into the Europe-
an Union of agricutural and food products amounts
to US $69 billion. The exports from the European
Union of these products amounts to US $51 billion.
There are 14.5 million persons working full time
or part time on agricultural holdings in the EU.
And there are 30,000 agricultural cooperatives in
Europe which are employing another 700,000 per-
sons (Source: http://www.copa-cogeca.be/en/co-
pa_objectifs.asp, access 30.03.2006).
↑ Agricultural education is strongly related to the
food sector.
“The food and drink industry is one of the most impor-
tant industrial sectors, a major employer and exporter
in the EU. This sector is characterised by the diversity
in its types of activities and in the end products manu-
factured. The products covered can vary from bakery,
pastry, chocolate, confectionary products to modified
starches or different food preparations. The European
Commission is seeking to ensure the competitiveness of
the European food industries in the context of the Com-
mon Agricultural policy (CAP) and the EU’s obligations
in the World Trade Organisation (WTO)” (http://eu-
ropa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/food/, access 30.03.2006).
The food sector in Europe counts over 26,000 com-
panies, employing about 2.7 million people. The
food industry is the 3rd largest industrial employer
in the EU, with an annual turnover of 600 billion
Euro (http://europa.eu.int/comm/enterprise/food/
intro.htm, access 30.03.2006).
More than 70 % of the agricultural goods pro-
duced in the EU are transformed into food indus-
try products, many of them Non-Annex I-goods
Handbook of TVET Research
(NA I goods). The main product-groups of the
NA I sector are processed dairy products, frozen
fruit and vegetables change into confectionery in-
dustry products, various prepared foods and sauc-
es including pasta, ice-creams, soups, etc., non-al-
coholic beverages, alcoholic beverages and spir-
it drinks, tobacco-products and processed starch
products.
At the European level the agriculture and food sec-
tors are supported by the respective sectoral ↑ so-
cial dialogue committees. The framework for Eu-
ropean social dialogue is laid down in Articles 138
and 139 of the Treaty establishing the European
Community. Cross-sectoral participants in the so-
cial dialogue at European level are ETUC (http://
www.etuc.org/EN/, access 30.03.2006), the Eu-
ropean Trade Union Confederation representing
employees, UNICE (http://www.unice.org/Con-
tent/Default.asp?, access 30.03.2006), the Un-
ion of Industrial and Employers’ Confederations
of Europe representing 36 employers’ organisa-
tions in 22 member states, UEAPME (http://www.
ueapme.com/EN/index.shtml, access 30.03.2006),
the employer’s organisation representing the inter-
ests, at European level, of crafts, trades and SMEs
throughout Europe, and CEEP (http://www.ceep.
org/, access 30.03.2006), the European Centre of
Enterprises with Public ↑ Participation and of En-
terprises of General Economic Interest, which is
an international association of enterprises and or-
ganisations with public participation or carrying
out activities of general interest, whatever their le-
gal or ownership status. The European social dia-
logue consists of three modes: consultation (which
is done for instance by the ACVT, the Advisory
Committee on Vocational Training), bipartite di-
alogue (which takes place in the Social Dialogue
Committee and the Sectoral Committees) and tri-
partite concertation (for instance within the Tripar-
tite Social Summit for Growth and employment,
which is called ‘the troika’). In the field of agri-
culture the European social partners who are part
of the social dialogue are the EFFAT (www.effat.
org, access 30.03.2006) from the employees side,
and Geopa-Copa (www.copaprocesses for elec-
tricians (Table 2).ogeca.be, access 30.03.2006),
from the employers side. These social partners in
the field of agriculture have come to several opin-
Areas of VET Research
ions and agreements on vocational training and
employment in agriculture, such as the Europe-
an Agreement on Vocational Training in Agri-
culture (on 05.12.2003), the Joint Declaration by
EFA/CES-GEOPA/COPA on employment in ag-
riculture (on 30.03.1995), the Opinion concerning
training in agriculture (on 18.11.1993), the Opin-
ion with regard to training for agricultural work-
ers (on 26.11.1982), and the Opinion concerning
the vocational training of and cessation of farming
by agricultural workers in the context of the soci-
ostructural measures proposed by the Commission
(on 23.05.1979). In 2004 GEOPA held a confer-
ence in which the implementation of the European
Agreement on Vocational Training in Agriculture
was reviewed. What is interesting for ↑ agricultur-
al education is the new attention for sectoral vo-
cational education policy (WARMERDAM 1999) and
sectoral qualifications (http://communities.train-
ingvillage.gr/, access 30.03.2006).
In this contribution, the strong links between agri-
cultural research, education and extension are de-
scribed. It is stated that agricultural education and
extension are strongly based on agricultural re-
search. Next it is stated that agriculture needs to
be conceived of as a broad field, in which all sec-
tors of the economy come together. It is also shown
that there has been a lot of innovation, which re-
sulted in broadening agricultural education to-
wards fields like environmental studies, sustain-
able development, corporate social responsibility,
food and ↑ nutrition and public health. Subsequent-
ly, because of the fact that food is a basic need for
all human beings, it is stated that agricultural edu-
cation is also strongly related to issues like poverty
reduction and international development (→ 2.7).
Next, the distinction is made between initial and
↑ continuing vocational education and training. It
is shown that informal and non-formal learning
are important for skills development of present
farmers, and that formal agricultural education is
essential for fundamentally raising the knowledge
level of future entrepreneurs and employees in the
agri-food complex. Finally, the world of ↑ agricul-
tural education research is described.
223
3.2.4.2 Agricultural Education, Research
and Extension
Agricultural education has, for a long time, been
closely related to agricultural research. Together
with extension, they were the key ingredients of the
knowledge system for the development of agricul-
ture. Agricultural research produced new knowl-
edge, that had to be disseminated to farmers by ag-
ricultural extension services, and agricultural edu-
cation had to digest the relevant research results to
integrate those in the curricula for future farmers
and farm workers. Agricultural extension services
are provisions to support rural development, farm-
ing practices, and other ↑ human resource develop-
ment processes.
Agricultural research is supported by many insti-
tutions such as the CGIAR (http://www.cgiar.org/)
(The Consultative Group on International Agricul-
tural Research), at the ↑ World Bank in Washing-
ton, D.C. This institution supports ↑ research pro-
grammes in product groups like Cereals (Rice,
Wheat, Maize, Barley, Sorghum, Millet), Roots,
Tubers, Banana and Plantain (Cassava, Potato,
Sweet Potato, Yam, Banana and Plantain), Food
Legumes (Chickpea, Cowpea, Beans, Lentil, Pi-
geonpea, Soybean), Oil Crops (Coconut, Ground-
nut), Livestock, Forestry and Agroforestry, Fisher-
ies and Water Management.
Other relevant organisations are IFPRI (ifpri@
cgiar.org), the International Food Policy Research
Institute at CGIAR, and ISNAR (http://www.if-
pri.org/divs/isnar.htm, access 30.01.2006) (the In-
ternational Service for National Agricultural Re-
search). The program of ISNAR comprises three
major areas: institutional change, organization and
management and science policy.
Agricultural extension (BAN / HAWKINS 1996) is be-
ing privatized in many countries, especially in the
West, but also in non-Western countries (RIVEIRA /
ALEX 2004). This means that farmers have to pay
for the service, whereas in many countries it has
been free of charge, since educating farmers to
produce food in an efficient and effective way has
a high societal priority. This high priority was a
consequence of the need to produce sufficient, safe
and cheap food for the population. The numbers of
extension professionals indicate the importance of
the service. For instance, in India there are about
224
100,000 extension workers. They teach farmers in
all kinds of fields, such as animal diseases, plant
diseases, integrated pest management, sustainable
production, marketing, financial management and
technological innovation.
3.2.4.3 Diversity of Agricultural Education
Agricultural education differs significantly world-
wide (MOORE 2004; TAJIMA 2004; MULDER in
press). From a vocational education systems per-
spective, at the secondary level there are compre-
hensive ↑ high schools that teach agricultural sub-
jects as elective courses or tracks, specific schools
for vocational-agricultural education, and dual tra-
jectories with a school component and a compo-
nent of working and learning. This working and
learning component can be distinguished by two
modes: the internship mode and the apprenticeship
mode. Interns normally do not have a labour con-
tract, apprentices normally have a learning-work-
ing contract with an employer.
From a curriculum content perspective, animal
and plant sciences are the traditional fields of
study, and the majority of students were enrolled
in programmes within these fields. However, es-
pecially in industrial and post-industrial societies,
↑ agricultural education has diversified considera-
bly, in some cases to such an extent that the institu-
tions of agricultural education have problems with
maintaining the phrase agriculture or agricultur-
al in their name. Currently, only a small propor-
tion of the students in agricultural education are
enrolled in programmes that are directly aimed at
jobs and ↑ professions in the primary sector. Many
more are enrolled in environmental, food and ↑ nu-
trition (→ 3.2.7), biotechnology, geo-informatics,
consumer, farm management, business manage-
ment, economics, sociology, health and communi-
cation programmes to name a few. At the second-
ary level gardening, pet care, and equine studies
are quite popular. So it can be observed that ag-
ricultural education has broadened considerably,
and this process is still going on.
The diversification of agricultural education is
strongly related to the composition of the so-called
agri-food complex, the set of organisations and in-
stitutions that are collectively working for the pro-
duction and distribution of sufficient food that is
Handbook of TVET Research
safe and of good quality. The agri-food complex
consists of organisations and institutions in the
primary sector, trade (wholesale, business-to-busi-
ness and retail), industry (feed, machinery, bio-
technology), and services (logistics, auction, fi-
nancing, insurance, regulation and quality control,
risk assessment, chain control, consultancy).
Because of the fact that agriculture is direct-
ly aimed at an existential need of human beings,
there is also wide concern about malnutrition (in-
cluding obesity), hunger, poverty reduction (SACHS
2005) and the HIV/Aids pandemic (BRINKMAN /
WESTENDORP / WALS / MULDER 2007). There are
many international programmes to fight against
these major problem areas, and in agricultural edu-
cation there are also programmes that prepare pro-
fessionals for this field.
Apart from that, there is a distinction between ini-
tial and post-initial education and formal and ↑ in-
formal learning. Since this is a general character-
istic of all vocational education, this topic will not
be elaborated upon here, but it will be addressed in
the section on agricultural research.
3.2.4.4 Agricultural Education Research
↑ Agricultural education research is a small al-
though interesting sector-specialisation of ↑ educa-
tional research. It gets its legitimacy from the very
nature of agricultural education. Lots of discus-
sions have been held about the uniqueness of agri-
cultural education research. Whilst much research
that could be done in the field is mere educational
research applied to the field, the content-related re-
search is more specific, that means, research that is
related to the innovation of the agri-food complex.
Research in the field of agricultural education is
reported in different journals: the Journal of Ag-
ricultural Education and Extension (JAEE, ht-
tp://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/1389224X,
asp, access 28.08.2007), the Journal of Inter-
national Agricultural and Extension Education
(JIAEE; http://www.aiaee.org/journal.html, ac-
cess 30.03.2006), the Journal of Agricultural Ed-
ucation Online (JAE; http://pubs.aged.tamu.edu/
jae/, access 30.03.2006), and the Journal of Ex-
tension Systems (http://www.jesonline.org/index.
htm, access 30.03.2006). But of course every now
and then agricultural education research appears in
Areas of VET Research
one of the journals in the field of education, train-
ing, and ↑ human resource development.
There are several national and regional associations
of agricultural educators, such as the National As-
sociation of Agricultural Educators (NAEE) in the
↑ USA, the Asia Pacific Association of Educators in
Agriculture and Environment (APEAEN), and the
Agricultural Education Division of the Associa-
tion for ↑ Career and Technical Education (ACTE).
At the annual National Agricultural Education Re-
search Conference, the latest research is presented.
The Association of International Agricultural and
Extension Education (AIAEE) is an active associ-
ation that has regular conferences. The European
Seminar on Agricultural Extension and Education
(ESEE) is a bi-annual conference of researchers in
this field, although the extension part clearly dom-
inates, which is sometimes reflected in the varia-
tions of the title of the Seminar, being on Agricul-
tural Extension and Education or just on Agricul-
tural Extension Education.
The Netherlands is a country in which ↑ agricul-
tural education research has a strong tradition. The
chair group, Education and ↑ Competence Studies,
conducts a research program in the field of ↑ ag-
ricultural education. In 2003 a five year program
was finished. Part of it was on computer-support-
ed collaborative learning and work in agricultur-
al education. Lutgens et al. (2002), Verburgh et al.
(2002), Oene et al. (2003), and Veldhuis-Dier-
manse (2006) reported difficulties in the imple-
mentation of computer-supported collaborative
learning and cooperation amongst teachers. This
implementation seemed to depend on contextu-
al factors to a large extent. Only if the e-commu-
nication platforms were introduced in a setting in
which asynchronous computer-based communi-
cation was natural, did students and teachers per-
ceive added value. Only in these situations does
computer-supported cooperative learning have po-
tential. This for instance was the case during in-
ternships; the e-communication platform enables
efficient communication between students and stu-
dents and teachers. When this way of learning and
working was tested in situations in which face-to-
face contact was also possible, the added value ap-
peared to be limited. Similar results were found
by Stephenson et al. (2005). During the course of
225
the program, the focus was changed towards con-
tent-related competence development (→ 3.4.2),
which led to publications on competence-based
↑ human resource development in green educa-
tion (MULDER / WESSELINK /BIEMANS ET AL. 2003),
competence-based green education (WESSELINK /
LANS 2003), and learning questions, opportunities
and motives for workers in the agri-food (LANS /
WESSELINK / MULDER /BIEMANS 2003). Competence
needs to be understood in a wide sense here, un-
like the narrow meaning attributed to the concept
as described by Edwards/ Nicoll (2006). Mulder
(2004) formulated generic principles for compe-
tence-based vocational education that are found-
ed on a holistic education philosophy. Wesselink
et al. (2007) have elaborated these principles based
on a Dephi-study under a group of educational ex-
perts, and came to a matrix of principles by lev-
els of implementation. With this matrix program
teams of teachers can position the program in this
matrix, and decide upon further improvement of
the program.
Apart from that a lot of effort is invested in studying
the opportunity of developing longer-lasting edu-
cational trajectories for graduates from senior-sec-
ondary agricultural education (LANS / WESSELINK /
MULDER /BIEMANS 2003; LANS / WESSELINK /BIEMANS /
MULDER 2004), which led to initiatives to create
alumni learning networks at secondary agricultur-
al education level. This is a phenomenon with a
long history in certain countries, but it is certainly
not commonplace in the Netherlands.
Now the emphasis is on competence development
and green education, related to change in the agri-
food complex (MULDER 2002; MULDER / WESSELINK /
BIEMANS ET AL. 2003) and sustainable development
(BIEMANS / MULDER / WESSELINK ET AL. 2003). Three
projects are running, on the (1) experiential, (2) in-
spirational, and (3) assessment aspects of compe-
tence-based green education. The project on expe-
riences with competence-based education is aimed
at revealing discrepancies between the intentions
of developers of competence-based education and
students. The project on inspiration and compe-
tence-based green education is aimed at imple-
menting interesting learning arrangements in ed-
ucational institutions for green education which
are based on metaphors developed in research on
226
the learning of entrepreneurs. The intention is to
try to integrate more authentic learning approach-
es in initial education. The project on the ↑ assess-
ment of competence-based green education seeks
to point out major problems such as the quality
of the assessors, the limited context and content
↑ validity of the object of assessment (such as role
playing and simulated tasks), and time needed for
good assessment. Biemans et al. (2004) demon-
strated the pitfalls of competence-based education,
and ways to overcome them. Weigel et al. (2006)
analyzed the way in which the concept of compe-
tence is used in the development of vocational edu-
cation and training in England, ↑ France, Germany
and the Netherlands.
In Europe, ↑ agricultural education comes some-
times under the Ministry of Agriculture, and some-
times under the Ministry of Education (or minis-
tries with comparable names). The monographs
on vocational education and training in the mem-
bers states from the EU (e. g. Christopher 1999;
Circé 2000; Twining 2000) are not explicit on the
place of agricultural education within the structure
of education in the respective countries. The ques-
tion of which department in the government is re-
sponsible for agricultural education is not a simple
question either, since the structure of governments
in EU member states varies considerably.
In many cases, it is the concern of the Ministries
of Agriculture to have the relevant agricultural re-
search results implemented in the programmes
of agricultural education, but also in other parts
of the educational system. For instance, lifestyle
is one such concern, and the Ministry of Agricul-
ture in the Netherlands promotes healthy behav-
iour. It supports programmes in elementary edu-
cation to stimulate the eating of healthy food, with
program materials called ‘Taste Lessons’. There
are many more comparable initiatives. It is the de-
liberate intention of the Dutch Ministry of Agri-
culture to put emphasis on such content-related is-
sues when it comes to financing ↑ agricultural edu-
cation research. The context in which this research
is financed may change due to the re-arrangement
of the funds to stimulate innovation of agricultur-
al education. Therefore, projects that are being im-
plemented at the moment, all have a strong contex-
tual perspective, such as improving sustainable de-
Handbook of TVET Research
velopment, corporate social responsibility, entre-
preneurship and intercultural competence.
In France, the Ministry of Agriculture (Ministère
de l’Agriculture, de l’Alimentation, de la Pêche et
des Affaires Rurales) is responsible for agricul-
tural education since the start of agricultural ed-
ucation in 1848 (CIRCÉ 2000). There have been
efforts to harmonise agricultural education with
the educational sector that falls under the respon-
sibility of the Ministry of Education. In the field
of agriculture, there are 858 secondary schools
all over the national territory (overseas territo-
ries included) that teach agriculture. In higher ed-
ucation there are 25 schools (engineering schools,
four veterinary schools, one institute for teach-
er education and one school specialized in teach-
ing landscape). In higher education, the Minis-
try of Education is also in charge of three schools
of engineers in Toulouse, Dijon and Nancy.
In Germany the situation is more complex than in
France because of the composition of the nation in
Länder. That makes that the responsibilities for vo-
cational education and training are at different lev-
els, the state (Bund), and the Länder. Food safety,
public health and agriculture in general are part of
the responsibilities of the Federal Ministry of Con-
sumer Protection, Food and Agriculture. This min-
istry is also responsible for some initial and further
vocational ↑ training regulations as for farmers or
dairy masters. Responsible for occupation regu-
lations in the field of food-production is the Fed-
eral Minister of Economics and Labour. And the
Ministries of Culture (Kultusministerium) in the
Länder are responsible for the school-based and
company-based agricultural education.
In the United Kingdom the situation is complex
too. Structures in education and educational ad-
ministration differ for England, Scotland, Wales
and Northern Ireland. Each has devolved respon-
sibility for setting their own policy in these are-
as. However, the issues regarding education are the
same throughout the UK. England will be taken
as an example. In England, education in all are-
as up to 16 are the responsibility of the Depart-
ment for Education and Skills (DfES). Beyond 16,
the responsibility for funding and appraising of the
quality of provision for publicly funded providers
of agricultural education is again the responsibil-
Areas of VET Research
ity of DfES, but a number of other bodies are in-
volved in defining employers’ needs and setting
detailed curricula. Setting the detail of the curric-
ulum is the responsibility of the learning providers
themselves and various public bodies with respon-
sibility for setting standards for the quality of pro-
vision, of which the key one is the Qualifications
and Curriculum Authority (the QCA). The agri-
cultural and land-based colleges collectively have
an umbrella organisation – NAPAEO. The Depart-
ment for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
(Defra) also has some input in terms of influenc-
ing what information and skills need to be learned,
particularly by land-managers and farmers, as in-
deed does the UKs Food Standards Agency in the
area of food. Two Sector Skills Councils (SSCs)
within the UK also have a role here in setting the
skills agenda for specific sectors. These are ‘Lan-
tra’, for land-based businesses including agricul-
ture, horticulture and related areas, and ‘Improve’
for the food and drink industry.
In more general terms, the Ministry of Agricul-
ture in the Netherlands also promotes so-called
‘↑ knowledge circulation’. The classical notion of
transfer of knowledge by the Research-Develop-
ment-Dissemination strategy is abandoned, and
a new strategy of stimulating multiple-stakehold-
er cooperation processes is implemented. This is
organized in a Green Knowledge Cooperative, a
network organization of institutions who provide
green education. The emphasis in the Cooperative
should be on collective knowledge construction
which, at the end of the day, should help the com-
petence development of students and workers.
A special line of research which is strongly relat-
ed to the agricultural sciences in general, and to
the environmental sciences in particular, is the re-
search on learning for sustainable development.
There are many programmes and projects that are
and have been conducted, especially on the ques-
tion as to how to implement the issue of sustainab-
lity in the curriculum of various parts of education.
Corcoran/ Wals (2004) and Wals et al. (2004) col-
lected and presented a wealth of material on this
topic.
Finally the research on the sectoral approach in
skills or competence development can be men-
tioned (→ 2.1). The sector skills development strat-
227
egy is adopted widely in the United Kingdom, and
is implemented already for years in various coun-
tries with a strong bipartite or tripatite governance
of vocational education and training. Research
shows that the sectoral approach is promising, but
it also has a number of pitfalls (WINTERTON 2006b).
Sectoral vocational education policy had strong
pluspoints (WARMERDAM 1999), and is appreciat-
ed in vocational-agricultural education because of
its link with sectoral stakeholders, who can have a
powerful influence on the innovation of education.
However, in European projects on competence de-
velopment in the agri-food and environmental sec-
tor, no consistent relationships were found between
the level of the objectives of these projects and the
presence of social partner organisations in the
project ↑ partnerships (MULDER 2006).
To conclude this contribution, it can be said that
↑ agricultural education builds competence for in-
novation of the agri-food complex, innovation that
is badly needed for food security, food safety and
sustainable development, goals that are essential
for the world population. ↑ Agricultural education
research should support this, and has to be imple-
mented with and for the actors in the system.
3.2.5 Health/Care
Ingrid Darmann, Regina Keuchel and
Florence Myrick
3.2.5.1 Introduction
The ↑ occupational fields of health and care prima-
rily offer personal services involving one-to-one
work, namely both in a face-to-face and in a body-
to-body situation. This fact necessitates a specific
and ↑ interdisciplinary orientation of professional
science research.
Globally, the impetus toward interdisciplinary or
interprofessional education has emerged as be-
ing an integral component in fostering collabora-
tive health care. In particular there is considerable
momentum toward this trend in countries such as
Great Britain, Canada and the ↑ United States. As
recently as November 2005 an international con-
ference on interprofessional education was held in
228
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Represent-
atives from countries such as ↑ Australia, Canada,
Denmark, Italy, Great Britain and the Netherlands,
to name a few, met to discuss the importance of in-
ter-professional collaboration and the significance
of educating in this context for the health care
field. Clearly, much progress is being made in this
area as was evidenced in the work presented from
the different countries. Of particular note also is
the trend toward more authentic collaboration and
increased involvement of the recipient of health
care services vis-à-vis the individual and fami-
ly. This was also reflected by the many presenta-
tions in which community members and individu-
als shared stories about being a bona fide member
of the health care team and actively sharing in de-
cisions concerning their own care and treatment.
It is true that no explicit professional scientific re-
search has been carried out in the ↑ subject areas of
health and care. Nevertheless, some work can be
related to this area of research and will be summa-
rized in point 3. These studies provide fundamen-
tal knowledge concerning the description of skills
required in the health and care ↑ professions and
form the basis of research-based vocational educa-
tion and training.
3.2.5.2 Current Developments in the
Occupational Fields
The developments in the occupational fields health
and care are dependent on national scientific and
technological progress, above all in medicine and
the ↑ related sciences, on the change of health
and social situations as well as on basic condi-
tions provided by health policy and the economy
(cf. BECKER / MEIFORT 1993, 2002; MEIFORT 1991;
G ÖRRES / KOCH -Z ADI / M AANEN / S CHÖLLER-STINDT
1996; K RÜGER / PIECHOTTA / REMMERS 1996; RABE-
K LEBERG ET AL. 1996; RABE-K LEBERG /K RÜGER /
K ARSTEN 1991). Professionalization of the health
and care ↑ professions varies considerably, espe-
cially in European countries, with regard to rapid
developments in job requirements and skills nec-
essary in this sector. Against the background of
different education and health systems, in future
it will be important to further develop the field of
health and care, which varies according to coun-
try, within a European framework. Internation-
Handbook of TVET Research
ally, the development of this ↑ occupational field
should be examined in the context of its being
turned into a graduate profession. Actually, con-
siderable differences in development can be ob-
served here. While in the ↑ USA general elemen-
tary BA/MA courses and graduate courses lead-
ing to the degrees Doctor of Education, Doctor of
Philosophy and Doctor of Nursing Science were
already established at the beginning of the 20th
century, the European countries followed suit no
sooner than 30 years later. Great Britain did pio-
neering work concerning research and training in
nursing sciences, establishing the first course of
studies for undergraduate students in Edinburgh in
1956. A considerable upswing in nursing research
and training in Europe was brought about by the
so-called “Briggs Report” in 1972 with its cen-
tral message “Nursing should become a research-
based profession”. Along with Great Britain, Scan-
dinavia led the way in the development of nursing
science and research. Countries like Czechoslova-
kia (since 1961), Greece (since 1980) and Spain
(since 1982) can already look back over a long pe-
riod of academic research and training in nursing.
What is particularly interesting in this regard is
the academicization of teachers in Czechoslovakia
at such an early stage compared to other Europe-
an countries. At the time, it was primarily aimed
at developing the nursing occupations by raising
the qualitative standards of nursing education and
training, and from today’s perspective was gener-
ally representative of the academicization of nurs-
ing in the former Warsaw Pact countries.
The last European countries to turn nursing into a
graduate profession were, among others, Germa-
ny (1991) and Austria (2000) (EWERS 1998; SEIDL
2005). In Germany, especially, due to the strong
focus within nursing science on practical nurs-
ing skills, degree courses relating to nursing have
mainly been established at polytechnics or univer-
sities of applied science, but without it being possi-
ble to acquire basic nursing training there. To this
day, the academic training available is predomi-
nantly in the fields of nursing education and nurs-
ing management (BISCHOFF 2002). The relatively
low amount of nursing science degrees at universi-
ties has led to a situation in which doctoral degrees
Areas of VET Research
based on nursing research are still being taken in
the respective sub-disciplines, as a rule.
In retrospect, these differences in development
within Europe were a result of an early and little-
known strategy in support of academicization pur-
sued by the World Health Organisation. The proc-
ess was initially supported in three main linguis-
tic regions – in the English-speaking, Romance
and Slavic regions, whereas in other linguistic re-
gions such as the German, academicization of the
nursing profession began significantly later (cf.
SEIDL 2005, 2).
While the nursing profession continues to discuss
the need for graduate education, it is interesting
to note that other professional disciplines such as
physiotherapy and ↑ social work are now moving
toward masters’ level preparation as the required
entry level into those professions.
It is generally agreed today that qualified nursing
education requires research-based conceptions and
structures. An academic education is essential due
to the enlargement and enrichment of the occupa-
tional fields of action such as, for example, a rising
need for information, advising and coaching, case
management, prevention and rehabilitation, as-
sessment and the growing integration of non-medi-
cal health care professions in modern care concep-
tions. It remains to be seen to what extent raising
elementary nursing education to a graduate lev-
el, particularly in Germany, will be accompanied
by an extensive reintroduction of the caring pro-
fessions. It also remains to be seen to what extent
the development in Germany can, on the one hand,
catch up with the Anglo-Saxon structure of a very
differentiated step-by-step training, which has of-
ten been regarded critically by nursing teachers,
and which leads to an economically induced de-
professionalization.
A very different direction of professional devel-
opment is manifested by some current trends on
the employment market for the nursing and health
professions, in which innovative services in the
fields of recreation, leisure activities and wellness
are in demand. Abicht et al. (2001), for example,
note that “wellness”, as a further training subject
leading to formal qualifications, is broadening the
skill profile of the basic health ↑ professions (e. g.
masseurs, physiotherapists) in the field of preven-
229
tive health care and counselling, and also exhibits
some overlaps with the nursing skills profi le in the
field of prevention, rehabilitation and health coun-
selling. However, a critical view should be taken in
this context of the fact that such trends could ac-
celerate the current fragmentation of the nursing
and especially the health professions. These two
↑ occupational fields already encompass a broad
range of specific occupations, involving profiles
as diverse as geriatric nursing and dental technol-
ogy (BALS 1993). Whether such ↑ fragmentation of
these professions will remain a common feature, or
whether nursing and care as research, educational
and occupational fields will converge, will depend
to a large extent on the research, policymaking and
economic forces operating in this sector.
3.2.5.3 Object of Research and Development
in Research
This section deals with professional science re-
search and describes, above all, such studies ex-
amining the structuring of health and nursing care
situations by members of the caring professions.
Here the interest of research refers above all to the
establishment of explicit and implicit profession-
al knowledge and skills as a basis for appropriate
qualifying and ↑ educational processes (cf. R AUNER
2002d). In the occupational fields health and care,
research originating from the sociology of work
(e. g. the pathbreaking investigation by STRAUSS
1985 “Social Organization of Medical Work”),
the sociology of education (concerning the devel-
opment of personal services as careers for wom-
en cf. OSTNER / BECK-GERNSHEIM 1979; OSTNER /
K RUTWA-SCHOTT 1981; BISCHOFF 1992) and ↑ occu-
pational science (concerning psychological strain
and burnout in nursing cf. ARONSON / PINES /K AFRY
1983; EDELWICH / BRIDSKY 1984) has a far longer tra-
dition than professional science research. Unlike
professional science studies, these studies mention
questions of training and education or knowledge
of ↑ work processes in passing only and do not re-
late the two subjects.
On the whole, due to the considerable fragmen-
tation of the occupational field health, a qualify-
ing research today can at best be proved in the
occupational field nursing. Here, priority is giv-
en to research into knowledge of work process-
230
es or knowledge of relational processes in nursing
(WITTNEBEN 2003, 264), which makes the contact
and relational skills of the nurses as key skills the
focus of the ↑ curriculum development work. Par-
ticularly the interpretations of and the judgements
about the various situations found by the nurses are
of central significance. The work of professional
science research presented below clarify the spe-
cific skills required in the health care professions
and ideally impart the ↑ interdisciplinary paths of
knowledge of nursing science.
One of the most prominent studies in this field is
that of the ↑ US-American nursing researcher Ben-
ner (1984; 1994a) who has made the power of ↑ clin-
ical judgement or the “expertise” of the profession-
al nurses the centre of attention (→ 4.2). Benner
et al. (2000, 12) understand by power of clinical
judgement the various methods which enable the
nurses to understand the problems or interests of
the clients/patients, to observe important informa-
tion and to react sensitively and committedly. Fol-
lowing Polanyi (1958), Benner assumes that there
is an ↑ implicit knowledge about rules underlying
the actions of experienced nurses which cannot or
cannot comprehensively be explained by the nurs-
es themselves. Using Dreyfus’s model of gradual
↑ skill acquisition (DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1986; 2000),
Benner, having conducted an extensive qualita-
tive investigation, has established seven domains
of ↑ nursing practice (among other things helping,
advising and caring, ↑ diagnosis and patient mon-
itoring), each consisting of several single compo-
nents (e. g. the domain helping, consisting of the
domains simply being there, consoling and physi-
cal contact or supporting the relatives emotional-
ly and by giving information). She illustrates the
skills and the development of expertise in these do-
mains with the aid of narratives from professional
nurses. Benner’s intention to qualify nursing stu-
dents for the tasks occurring in nursing practice is
discernible. From the point of view of the German
debate, which is based on the philosophy of edu-
cation, this functionalism has its weaknesses (e. g.
WITTNEBEN 2003, 261). The German researchers
demand a stronger orientation towards the devel-
opment of personality and identity. Furthermore
Benner gives the impression that there are appro-
priate and “good” ways of resolving nursing sit-
Handbook of TVET Research
uations. The frequent impossibility of resolving
nursing situations rationally as well as the struc-
tural requirement of deciding between contradic-
tory requirements are being overlooked by Benner.
In contrast, the nursing scientists carrying out re-
search in the Federal Republic of Germany have
been concentrating more on the establishment of
nursing situations involving problems or actions of
the nurses including the inherent contradictory re-
quirements and the possible as well as the chosen
courses of action. By emphasizing not only the in-
corporated knowledge but particularly the less pre-
ferred possibilities of interpretation, they contrib-
ute to a broadening of the autonomy of the often
restrictive nursing practice (cf. OEVERMANN 1996).
Wittneben (2003, 268), too, uses narratives in or-
der to better comprehend the reality of the caring
↑ professions; but unlike Benner, she places more
emphasis on deficiency experience and, applying
her critical understanding of science, critically
questions the claims taken for granted in the da-
ta. As the basis for vocational education, the nar-
ratives are analysed within a system of nursing
science categories following a model of multidi-
mensional patient orientation (WITTNEBEN 1993;
2003, 14 ff.), and within a system of educational
categories, following a construct of formal nursing
ability (WITTNEBEN 1999; 2003, 234 ff.; K RÜGER /
LERSCH 1993). From these analyses, the learning
and development requirements of the students can
be deduced. Wittneben understands nursing di-
dactics as an integrative science which has to do
equal justice to the requirements of nursing sci-
ence for patient orientation, the requirements of
educational science for the development of the stu-
dents’ personality and the requirements of nursing
practice for hands-on learning (WITTNEBEN 2002,
2003). Further relevant studies in Germany such
as Darmann (2000), Stemmer (2001) and Kers-
ting (2002) and their results can be classed as pro-
fessional science research. In particular, the stud-
ies by Darmann (2000; 2002) on the development
of communicative competence and moral judge-
ment (→ .6.7) as the basis for the nurse-patient re-
lationship can be viewed as examples of nursing
research in Germany that focus on the profession
itself. Darmann (2000) applies ↑ qualitative ↑ re-
search methods to identify “key professional prob-
Areas of VET Research
lems” at the communication level within the care
relationship (cf. K LAFKI 1993), such as the “pow-
er of the carer”, or the “patient’s freedom of deci-
sion making”. These and other key problems char-
acterize the structure of the negotiation process
between the providers and recipients of care with
regard to care-related decisions, and highlight the
communicative requirements to be met in each
unique nursing situation. Darmann then extrapo-
lates the findings from her empirical work (2000)
to form a situational and experiential concept for
nursing training.
As with the other health disciplines, nursing has
tended to focus on ↑ empirical knowledge as the
only legitimate source of knowledge for the pro-
vision of nursing care and indeed for teaching stu-
dents what and how to provide that care. During
these last several decades in particular, different
ways of knowing and the knowledge required for
that knowing, however, have come to be embraced
by scholars in the nursing profession (CARPER 1978;
MUNHALL 1993; WHITE 1995). Such recognition
emanates from the belief that the human condition
cannot be fully understood through one particular
way of knowing, or one source of knowledge. Con-
comitantly, the approach to nursing care cannot be
based solely on one approach nor can the educa-
tion of nurses be provided from only one perspec-
tive. Thus, as with the development in the educa-
tion of nurses in Germany, so too is the education
of nurses in other parts of the world recognized
as being a complex endeavor requiring a variety
of pedagogical approaches that facilitate learning,
promote critical thinking and foster competence.
Thus strategies such as situated or context-based
learning (WILLIAMS / DAY 2006) (→ 3.6.1; → 5.1.2),
narratives, self-report, reflective journals and con-
cept mapping have assumed considerable promi-
nence in nursing curricula and have been found to
be instrumental in creating an environment of cu-
riosity and achievement (OERMANN 2006; MYRICK
2002).
In the curriculum revolution spawned in the ↑ Unit-
ed States (ALLAN 1990; BEVIS / WATSON 1989; BEVIS /
MURRAY 1990) a paradigm shift occurred that re-
sulted in a move away from the more traditional or
behaviourist model of ↑ curriculum development.
The move was thus toward the “caring” curricu-
231
lum, one in which students are bona fide or active
participants in their own learning (ROMYN 2001).
In other words, students are no longer incidental
to the teaching-learning process. Unlike the tradi-
tional approach which Freire (1997) described as
the ↑ banking concept of education in which stu-
dents are regarded as passive receptacles of knowl-
edge, the emancipatory model, also referred to as
the “caring” curriculum in the nursing education
lexicon, fostered authentic connection between the
teacher and the student. Students thus began to be-
come more visible and vocal in their curricular in-
put. Since the time of the curriculum revolution,
then, much progress has been made toward this
approach to nursing education. Specifically, the
emergence of emancipatory curricula in the United
States and Canada that illustrate a marked change
from the traditional approach is reflected by the
work of Banister/ Schreiber (1999), Diekelmann
(2001) and Heinrich et al. (2004). The ↑ emancipa-
tory approach thus promotes student-centred ped-
agogies, the development of new ↑ partnerships in
the ↑ educational process, classroom reformation
and attention to innovations in preparing future
nurses.
The works described above can be seen as a start-
ing point for a knowledge-based development of
curricula (→ 3.7.1). Most of the German training
curricula for nursing are not based on systemati-
cally ascertained data from hands-on experience,
thus it is not systematically guaranteed that the rel-
evant problems and structures of action arising in
real working life actually leave their marks on vo-
cational training. On the other hand, the empirical
analyses must not be understood as a replacement
for didactic decisions. The effort to go beyond the
utilisation-orientated and, in Germany, very heter-
onomous training contents and processes towards
a critically reflexive development of the personal-
ity is discernible in a lot of work concerning nurs-
ing didactics (e. g. ERTL-SCHMUCK 2000; OELKE /
MENKE 2002; WITTNEBEN 2003; concerning uni-
versity didactics GREB 2003).
3.2.5.4 Methodical Particularities and
Implications
In principle, the same applies to professional sci-
ence research as to research in general: the meth-
232
od of research is dependent on its object. So far,
mostly qualitative methods have been used (cf.
FLICK 1995a; K LEINING 1995b; STRAUSS 1994; LAM-
NEK 1993). The reason being that the implicit and
explicit knowledge of nursing experts has so far
hardly ever been researched. Furthermore, the
aim is not to establish basic knowledge of nurs-
ing rules, but to comprehend differing, if need be
even contradictory interpretations of working sit-
uations. Below, aspects of data capture and data
evaluation will be discussed with regard to the ob-
ject of research.
Questioning of professional nurses plays a key role
in the process of data capture in order to record
knowledge of ↑ work processes (→ 3.6.4) in the field
of nursing. Questioning as a method with which re-
searchers prompt the experimentees with the aid of
stimuli to explicate information, above all subjec-
tive perceptions, interpretations and judgements,
includes individual interviews (BENNER 1994a;
DARMANN 2000), questionnaires and ↑ group dis-
cussions (BENNER 1994a) or data capture by way of
self reports or narratives (BENNER 1994a; WITTNE-
BEN 2002, 2003). As regards the subject matter,
professional science research in the field of action
nursing above all focusses so-called “↑ critical in-
cidents”, “critical” meaning “leaving a lasting im-
pression” (cf. WITTNEBEN 2002; CORMACK 1991).
Benner (1994a, 201 f.) uses the term more exten-
sively, understanding a “critical incident” to be an
incident in the course of which nurses experienced
their positive self-efficacy in an exceptional way,
an incident in the course of which particular dif-
ficulties occurred, but ordinary and normal inci-
dents, too. She gives priority to positive practical
experiences.
By questioning professional nurses, researchers
can comprehend working situations from the nurs-
es’ point of view. However, as nursing situations
mostly include verbal and non-verbal interaction
with patients, relatives and colleagues and are thus
characterized by multiperspectivity, capturing the
perspective of the nurses alone does not suffice.
Thus, when choosing the sample, different groups
of people who are involved in the nursing situa-
tion have to be taken into account, at least, at any
rate, nurses and patients. If, for example, the pa-
Handbook of TVET Research
tients’ perspective is not included, relevant aspects
of nursing activity can possibly be ignored.
Besides varying the sample, it is advisable to vary
the choice of methods, too. The sympathetic or
non-sympathetic observation of nursing situations
broadens the subjective view of the persons in-
volved, which was determined through question-
ing, by showing them processes from an objective
standpoint. This is particularly important if ↑ im-
plicit knowledge is to be established which, as is
known, is only partially explicable by the persons
involved, but can, however, at least be partially de-
duced by interpreting observation reports and by
empathizing with the “skill of the expert” (cf. NEU-
WEG 1999, 382).
The methods of data evaluation are in line with ba-
sic methods based on the philosophy of science of
↑ phenomenology and hermeneutics. Phenomenol-
ogy aims to deduce and describe the phenomenona
and the structure of reality. If the possible and un-
derstood meanings of nursing situations are to be
elucidated, too, a hermeneutical approach is neces-
sary. Nursing situations can be interpreted on the
basis of theoretically gained categories.
What has so far hardly ever been discovered, with
regard to professional science research, is an ob-
jective hermeneutics (cf. OEVERMANN 2002; for
nursing science cf. K ERSTING 2002). It is, howev-
er, quite promising as this allows both the “objec-
tive meaning”, i.e. the diverse interpretations and
possibilities of action inherent in a situation, and
the meaning actually put into practice, to be es-
tablished.
3.2.5.5 Problems and Development Prospects
What all these studies in the ↑ occupational fields
health and care have in common is a change of per-
spective away from a merely specialized qualifica-
tion for a field of activity which is not very clear-
cut as regards content towards an ↑ educational
process emphasizing multiperspectivity and re-
flection on the basis of empirical findings concern-
ing the reality of working life. Against the back-
ground of the historical development of the system
of training and education in the personal servic-
es, the organisation of professional learning proc-
esses as professional ↑ educational processes is an
Areas of VET Research
important step towards a more professional caring
↑ profession.
Indeed, in nursing it was Bevis/ Watson (1989)
who began to recognize that the traditional ap-
proach to nursing education may not be sufficient
to provide the kind of critical reflection ability re-
quired of a nurse in these changing times. And,
in the ↑ United States in particular, nursing schol-
ars coined the phrase “curriculum revolution” to
reflect a shift away from the traditional mode of
teaching to a more emancipatory form of teach-
ing in which the student and teacher become learn-
ers together in the pedagogical process. A focus on
process and caring thus began to emerge, a process
in which students actually assume active and au-
thentic ownership of their learning (ALLAN 1990;
BEVIS / WATSON 1989; BEVIS / MURRAY 1990).
The summary analysis is that if the health and care
professions are to be further developed, it is essen-
tial that greater research efforts be made at both
national and international level in order to identi-
fy new fields of activity, situations requiring pro-
fessional action, the requirements that need to be
met, and the specific knowledge and skills of nurs-
ing and care professionals. Structural reforms of
national training and further training systems are
also being pushed through, and adapted to the dy-
namic challenges posed for forward-looking de-
velopment of the professions. Mutual recognition
of professional titles and qualifications at Europe-
an and ultimately at international level, based on a
core curriculum, for example, or in the context of
a ↑ European Qualification Framework (EQF), will
be indispensable in a convergent Europe.
3.2.6 Education/ Social Pedagogy
Maria-Eleonora Karsten
3.2.6.1 Implementation, Field of Research
and Connections to Adjacent Fields of
Research
The field of vocational schooling in ↑ social ped-
agogy as an off-the-job training has taken a spe-
cial role both in the system of vocational training
and in the teaching ↑ professions at university since
233
its implementation in the seventies. This has clear-
ly affected the development of vocational-scientif-
ic research.
In the context of the education reform from 1960 to
1970 the field of elementary education was struc-
turally and strictly defined as part of the educa-
tion system.
But this vocational field with its various profiles
of qualification in social pedagogy was differenti-
ated within the child and juvenile welfare servic-
es. The whole field of social and therefore the vo-
cational profiles extended parallel to the develop-
ment of social pedagogy as a main field of person-
al social services for children and young people
for 27 years, in accordance with the KJHG (child
and juvenile welfare services law 1990 east/1991
west).
Nowadays there are more than thirty types of non-
academic vocational qualification in social peda-
gogy below the specialized university level.
The establishment of the teaching profession for
vocational schooling in social pedagogy only
punctually followed this expansion until today. In
1978/79 the first course started at the university in
Bamberg; the second started in 1979 in Bochum,
and continued in Dortmund in 1982. In 1993 a
course of studies began in Chemnitz and moved to
Dresden in 2001. In Lüneburg the teaching profes-
sion for vocational schooling in social pedagogy
started in 1996, parallel to the teaching profession
of vocational schooling in economics. One special
characteristic of the studies in Lüneburg is the fact
that the two professions take courses in vocation-
al and economic sciences together so that contexts
of research may be discussed in ↑ interdisciplinary
ways. (K ARSTEN / MEYER / HETZER ET AL. 1999b;
SCHMIDT 2004).
In the same period, beginning with the establish-
ment of the colleges at the university level in 1970
as well as both the build-up and expansion of the
diploma in social pedagogy, research, which re-
ferred to the vocational fields of social pedagogy
as well as to their administrative-organisational
differentiation e. g. in youth welfare or in the man-
agement of social pedagogy, was implemented.
Strictly speaking, these research activities in the
fields of social pedagogy and ↑ social work might
also be regarded as research in the ↑ vocational dis-
234
ciplines. They are not considered in this chapter,
however, because they only refer to those ↑ labour
market segments that require academic qualifica-
tions. Also ↑ educational research with its priori-
ty on the upbringing of children is not considered,
because it mostly covers the perspective of the ad-
dressees and doesn’t pay attention to the actual vo-
cational actions of the jobholders.
The main focus of research in the ↑ vocational dis-
ciplines is on studies which examine the design
and the structure of situations in education and so-
cial pedagogy considering the aspects of qualifi-
cation and education. They discuss the explicitly
or implicitly existent know-how in the vocational
field (RAUNER 2002c) or bring its absence up for
discussion. Therefore research is confined to the
working field of educators working with children
of the ages 0–10.
According to the category of the professional juris-
diction, the field of education (working with chil-
dren and adolescents) may be divided into interac-
tive, face-to-face processes; into leading, adminis-
trative-organisational, advising, educating, further
studying processes as well as into subject- or voca-
tional related political functions. Therefore the fol-
lowing groups of female experts work in this vo-
cational field:
– (Female) educators (professional school edu-
cation), childcare-worker, social-assistants (↑ vo-
cational school education) (BEHER /K NAUER /
RAUSCHENBACH 1995),
– (Female) expert advisers: This vocational field
developed its own ways of qualification and certi-
fication according to form and content without sys-
tematic consultation of the adjacent working fields
(K ARSTEN 1996; IRSKENS 1996),
– Qualified (female) social pedagogy workers
(college at university level): in some federal states
in Germany as managers,
– (Female) educationalists (diploma in social ped-
agogy) with focus on pre-school education, who
operate in further studying programmes or work
for academic institutions or projects (R ABE-K LE-
BERG 1996),
– Teachers, either with or without special teach-
ing ↑ professions for vocational schooling in ↑ so-
cial pedagogy (K RÜGER 1991),
Handbook of TVET Research
– Lecturing (female) ↑ social workers with a focus
on elementary or juvenile education,
– Professors at university with a focus on either di-
ploma or vocational schooling in social pedagogy,
– Qualified (female) personnel working in politi-
cally-organised institutions or in trade unions,
– Qualified (female) personnel operating in either
local, supra-regional or national further studying
processes for educators,
– Qualified (female) personnel working in inter-
national institutions,
– Qualified (female) personnel working in ↑ day
care, foster care or foster homes,
– Qualified (female) personnel working in child
guidance offices,
– Self-employed (female) experts working in vari-
ous fields of management,
– Trainees working in different areas of social
pedagogy during their vocational schooling.
Generally, all these different kinds of working ar-
eas may be occupied by qualified female educators
(K ARSTEN / ZIMMERMANN 1999)
In job descriptions and memoirs (see e. g.
PFV 1994) these fields of job-activity are indeed
addressed, but talking about the job of an educator
still implies the picture of the specialist only oper-
ating in the directly interactively educational work
in the group. This is to be attributed to at least two
reasons:
On the one hand the social-administrative terms
of reference only focus on the actual face-to-face
activity of upbringing, education and support as
well as the corresponding financing forms, like the
KJHG which also centres this part of work in this
job; while the other working fields, named above,
are described separately rather as advanced train-
ing, consultation or training in general and there-
fore is added to other working fields.
On the other hand there are also people operating
in the working field of expert advising or vocation-
al schooling, who have a university degree or col-
lege degree at university level. As a result, the field
of education (working with children and adoles-
cents) is seen as only a part of their professional
self-conception without a real identification.
This differentiation of the vocational fields within
the range of education does not appear in the re-
search. That means that research and study possi-
Areas of VET Research
bilities of the formation of professional knowledge
within this field stay clearly behind the expansion
of the practical face-to-face work. Activities of
research institutes on the federal or national lev-
el could not compensate for this, particularly be-
cause their scientific aims were rather centered on
the direct practice development than on a system-
atic, structural feedback for studies, training and
research connections. This just started in recent
times. Rabe-Kleberg characterises the relation-
ship of educational-scientific research and practi-
cal face-to-face work in the field of education con-
cerning the elementary education as a “non-rela-
tionship” (RABE-K LEBERG 1996, 101).
The knowledge that was developed has a rath-
er normative and conceptional character without
using empirically analytical research, which is,
in relation to the context of the professional or-
ganization “already proved as considerable def-
icit” (ibid., 103). This evaluation only counts for
the former Federal Republic of Germany, while
in the new federal states – or more correctly: in
the elementary facilities during the regime of the
GDR – in the educating work itself, the structure
of both the vocational training and the counselling
were in fact arranged in a constitutive way, that
is, the normative orientation was enforced “top-
down”(MUSIOL 1998).
Historical studies for the development of education
as a profession regarding the educational-scientific
perspective (AMTHOR 2003), the perspective of re-
flection of professional formation (BEHER / LIEBIG /
RAUSCHENBACH 1998; FRIESE 2000; K ARSTEN / RABE-
K LEBERG 1979; RABE-K LEBERG 1993) as well as the
perspective of woman research according to the
determination of the characteristics of educating
as a female profession (K RÜGER, H. 1999) have a
substantially longer tradition. In these studies, and
in the more general social-pedagogical research
as well (OTTO / THIERSCH 2001) questions of profes-
sional vocational schooling and of education ↑ work
processes as well as the necessary knowledge are
usually implicitly discussed, without specifying it
for the central range of the educator work in day-
care centres.
235
3.2.6.2 The Subject of the Research and State
of Research
What follows, relevant vocational-scientifically
but nevertheless thematically restricted results of
research will be classified. The aim of research is
to create professional knowledge which includes
vocational-scientific information about vocation-
al work and knowledge. Moreover, it aims to de-
liver information on work requirements, structure,
curricula, ↑ practical training and forms of the
learning-teaching arrangements in the vocation-
al schooling of educators, the education of teach-
ers for vocational schooling as well as the corre-
sponding research. In order to achieve these aims it
is important to consider the general context of the
organization, the planning of the educating work
itself, the requirements which are necessary for
good quality, the variety of working fields with-
in the field of education as well as the professional
training and its social appreciation.
Compared to this, empirical research mainly con-
centrates on single aspects. In a consciously fo-
cused and therefore admittedly rough overview of
approximately 35 years, the research can be classi-
fied as follows.
Differentiating vocational field-referred research
in both historically chronological and field-re-
ferred aspects the accesses can be named as:
– Numerically studies dominate the field of re-
search, which analyse the situation of children,
their social background and their family condition.
These surroundings are considered a challenge to
the educational work which demands a general and
a specific knowledge and proficiency in the eve-
ryday work of educators. Striking the balance for
this development of the so called “model project
generation” (K ARSTEN / RABE-K LEBERG 1979) there
arose in particular the subject “of the universi-
ty congress discussing the “vocational education”
since the beginning of the 80s” (R ABE-K LEBERG /
K RÜGER / DERSCHAU 1983). Therefore this topic was
declared as relevant vocational-scientific knowl-
edge.
– At the same time, likewise realised in a predom-
inantly model-bound way, the first so-called “situ-
ation-theoretical” approach matured into a “situa-
tion-orientated” concept (ZIMMER 1983) and there-
fore gained a significant operation-based meaning.
236
From now on the ↑ profession of (female) educa-
tors and their actual working basis were described
as creating and designing arrangements of situa-
tions in a child’s life. Vocational knowledge fo-
cused on educational actions in current everyday
situations. This introduced a variety of moderni-
zation into work with children and thus into vo-
cational work, however without integrating these
new aspects into the vocational schooling or de-
veloping a necessary research for new strategies of
operating in the field of ↑ social pedagogy. For the
first and only time these aspects were integrated as
one topic of research in the project WERA (fur-
ther development of vocational schooling of edu-
cators with special consideration of reforming as-
pects and professional development in practical
work) (K RÜGER, A. 1999). This development and
research prove the statement, summarized in an
overview by Rabe-Kleberg 1996, that the chang-
ing reality, which was based on the initiation of the
researchers, was actually the topic of their scientif-
ic monitoring and evaluation.
– Analyses which had a vocational-scientific char-
acter were realised in an exemplary manner with-
in the model-framework of courses of lectures in
North-Rhine-Westphalia as a ↑ longitudinal study
for the evaluation of “tasks of development and
their realisation in the concept of vocational school-
ing of educators” (GRUSCHKA 1985; GRUSCHKA /
MICHELY-WEIRICH / H ESSE-LENZ / SCHOMACHER 1995;
K ARSTEN 2003).
Two studies and further designs based on these
studies, created the didactics of social pedagogy
as a substantial element of professional vocational
schooling and of the special teaching professions
for vocational schooling within social pedago-
gy at the university level (K RÜGER / DITTRICH 1982;
HABEL /K ARSTEN 1986). In both cases the constitu-
tive essentials of the dual theory-practice relation
is to be seen as the main focus, it has a constitutive
aspect in professional vocational schooling for ed-
ucators because the pupils learn at school and also
in practical social training. Gaining this combina-
tion of theoretical and ↑ practical knowledge cre-
ates the opportunity to learn how to learn, to edu-
cate oneself, to gain experience and to reflect on it.
With this combination it is possible to discuss both
the theoretical and the practical aspects of profes-
Handbook of TVET Research
sional socialisation and the socialisation within the
institutions of socialisation that take part in the lat-
ter.
The first batch of research was developed in the
context of the specification of ↑ profession, where
the majority of employees and trainees are women;
the second batch of research was developed in the
context of reflecting and testing university stand-
ards, which can be classified until today as “best
practice” for scientific learning (WILDT 2003).
– The 90s, likewise in a rough overview, were on
the one hand characterised by the continuation
of the West German perspectives of research al-
ready mentioned, which to a large extent concen-
trated on studies of professional vocational school-
ing and the image of educators expanded by the
development of quality conceptions and their first
implementations (TIETZE / ROSSBACH 1993 and
ANDRES / DIPPELHOFER-STIEM 1991; DIPPELHOFER-
STIEM /K AHLE 1995; NETZ 1998; CLOOS 2001;
MUSIOL 1998; LILL / SAUERBORN 1995). On the oth-
er hand the studies continued to analyse the char-
acteristics of vocational fields, where the majority
of employees are women and correspondent voca-
tional trainings in the synopsis of educating, social,
health, care, and housekeeping professions and re-
sumed their conclusions within concrete concep-
tions of new courses of studies (R ABE-K LEBERG /
K RÜGER /K ARSTEN 1991; K ARSTEN / MEYER / HETZER
ET AL. 1999a; K RÜGER, H. 1999; www.globalcare.
de 1999). In this context the main focus is on the
formation of professional knowledge based upon
the shared discussion of educating, health (WAL-
THER 2002), elderly care ( M EYER 2002) and house-
keeping professions. The topics are work and time
organization, integrating female managers of ↑ so-
cial pedagogy as well (HETZER 2004), vocation-
al-biographic adoption and structuring biograph-
ic processes (RIESEN 2004) and communication of
vocational teachers of the ↑ vocational school of
social pedagogy (MERTEL 2002). This ↑ qualita-
tive research realised within the framework of dis-
sertations, seen from the perspective of the theo-
ry of profession, helped to develop specific ways
of forming professions and specific knowledge of
professions. (K ROHS 2003)
Areas of VET Research
In addition to that, female managers were inter-
viewed about the topic of their vocational field in
an explorative federal study.
The 90s were also characterized by expertises
(RAUSCHENBACH / BEHER /K NAUER 1995), in which
vocational field-referred analyses and new concep-
tion fields of professional schooling referred di-
rectly to one another. These references finally en-
tered into the formulation of the framework guide-
lines of the KMK (2000c) after a six-year discus-
sion between child and juvenile welfare services
and education policy, education-scientific and the-
ory-of-profession research as well as single stud-
ies, e. g. on the internal perspective on the work
of vocational colleges (ELSENBAST/K RIEG / SCHEILKE
1999). In addition the first studies emerge for the
vocational schooling of educators and the train-
ing situation in the newly formed German states
(RABE-K LEBERG 1997; MUSIOL 1998).
– In reference to internationally ↑ comparative
studies (FTHENAKIS / OBERHUEMER 2002) the profes-
sional schooling status of vocational training for
educators was criticized. For ten years the request
has been made to upgrade the status from college
to university level. Currently it appears that the sys-
tem of vocational training has been rearranged.
– Substantial questions, like the gender-related
constitution of (female-) educators within the vo-
cational field of social pedagogy, as well as educat-
ing and education work with children, were, how-
ever, to a large extent, not considered. The same
applies to research and conceptions of quality de-
scription processes, e. g. in the KES- R Research
(TIETZE / SCHUSTER / GRENNER / ROSSBACH 2001). The
gender-related constitution of the female work-
ing field of day-care centres (K RÜGER, H. 1999) is
not considered, nor is the socialisation and gen-
der-related realisation that girls and boys (not
just children) grow up, and have to be educat-
ed and cared for. That implies however some-
thing different for both sexes even though the
same personnel, premises, time and pedagogi-
cal arrangements are available (K ARSTEN / BAIER /
HETZER ET AL. 2003; K RÜGER 1992; MÜNCHMEIER /
OTTO / RABE-K LEBERG 2002). Differences in the ed-
ucation of boys and girls will always produce dif-
ferent opportunities within the institutional frame-
work. The first problematisation and feminisation
237
of the ↑ profession of (female) educators and there-
fore their profession is discussed in the 12th Child
and Youth Report of the Federal Government.
– Likewise the first workload and stress-studies of
working in a ↑ day care facility identify the noise
of children as having a strong effect on the prac-
tical work of educators. In addition, the constant
bending-down due to child-adapted chairs and ta-
bles, requires a good physical constitution (BUCH /
FRIELING 2001). Although all employers have since
1996 been obliged to write endangerment analyses
for all kinds of jobs, there is hardly any appropri-
ate research into the working field of educators.
– The discussion about the ↑ professionalism of
educators restarted in the 21st century through
a broad education-oriented process and appro-
priate research (MÜNCHMEIER / OTTO / RABE-K LE-
BERG 2002). Exemplary may be the attempts of the
Scandinavian countries to create a professional
self-conception of a consistent, integrative educa-
tion from age 1 to 16 which integrates with an ex-
emplary structure of studying at university for ed-
ucators in Bozen/Brixen, north Italy.
– Currently educational concepts for day-care fa-
cilities are formulated on a broad basis in almost all
federal states in Germany (KMK 2000c). There-
in a specific understanding of education is devel-
oped for the child and the juvenile welfare services
(Conference of Youth Ministers 13./14.05.2004).
In addition to that, the ↑ Bologna processes are in-
tegrated in the development of courses of studies
to create alongside Bachelors and Masters studies
a mutual recognition of qualifications from profes-
sional schools and colleges of higher education. In
a specific manner either the modules taught at pro-
fessional schools of education will be checked and
thereby made admissible (e. g. ev. FH Hanover, FH
OOW East Frisia) or Bachelors studies with em-
phasis on elementary-pedagogy are created (e. g.
Alice Salomon Fachhochschule Berlin , FH New
Brandenburg).
This will have effects on the development of cours-
es of education and on vocational-scientific re-
search. In August 2004 eleven different attempts
at further development of the courses of education
were observed.
Such new ways of educating also allow a mutu-
al recognition of qualifications between the voca-
238
tional-field referred, scientific-oriented study ar-
rangements of vocational schooling at professional
schools and the teaching professions for vocational
schooling in ↑ social pedagogy. This is due to the
different ranks of graduation.
3.2.6.3 Current Position and Prospects
Several historical processes are responsible for the
special status of vocational scientific research and
development within the field of social pedagogy.
– Since the beginning of the educational reform
there has not been any nation-wide success in es-
tablishing practice-related research according to
the working field of education up to university
standard or that of a college at university level.
– The few locations of teaching professions for
vocational schooling at a university only recent-
ly developed into centres of vocational-scientif-
ic research. These centres of vocational-scientific
research just retrain their research potentials and
implement a research-oriented infrastructure, pro-
mote their youngsters to create a new scientific
generation and link their research to the general
vocational-scientific discourse.
– The research institutes in the field of practice,
change, evaluation and science need the systematic
connection to the basic oriented research networks
at universities; and the MA and BA study cours-
es need these links to reconnect the potentials of
change and development.
Finally the social, vocational and specialised polit-
ical processes of discussion have to be rearranged
in accordance with the new national and interna-
tional standards. Therefore German vocational ed-
ucation science must be adapted to create ways of
comparison with the European standard. A broad-
er analysis of the professional training of (female)
trainers and the embedding of research compe-
tences in the profiles of courses of studies is nec-
essary.
Although vocational training as an educator (fe-
male and male) both in vocational and profession-
al schools is the most important kind of vocational
training system according to the field of education
and social pedagogy, the described “arranged dis-
order” of the specific courses of education in the
different federal states creates a vocational-science
research with different emphases.
Handbook of TVET Research
During the last 35 years discussing educational
reform, research into the vocational field, the ad-
dressees, the formation of the ↑ profession and the
description of qualities followed the implementa-
tion of new conceptions. They include the corre-
sponding consequences in society, e. g. immigra-
tion, unemployment or the development of pover-
ty, German reunification and the adjustment of the
entire institutional structure.
It can be shown that nowadays all research loca-
tions as well as the political professional associa-
tions and trade unions share one field of research.
This allows for starting a second educational re-
form of the educational system for under 10-year-
old children. Thus the mutual recognition of qual-
ifications and modules of the different rankings in
the German vocational and educational training
system can be implemented.
Forums for this focussed development start to form
themselves. But it is today’s challenge as well as
the challenge of the future to start vivid and glo-
bal ↑ curriculum research in the ↑ vocational disci-
plines, including the required methods of evalua-
tion and further development.
3.2.7 Nutrition
Barbara Fegebank
3.2.7.1 Introduction
In Germany “↑ nutrition” is not an official sphere
of professions and trades; it is only a part of an area
named “nutrition and ↑ home economics”. In teach-
er training, nutrition in connection with ↑ food sci-
ence is either a part of home economics or exists
as a separate discipline in addition to home eco-
nomics. If we now focus on “Nutrition” it has to
be explained. The term “spheres of professions
and trades” already refers to different things and is
used in different contexts.
On the one hand “sphere of professions and trades”
stands for action fields of gainful employment. On
the other hand, the term represents the variety of
professional apprenticeships which have practical
and theoretical features in common with regard to
their crosscutting vocational requirements.
Areas of VET Research
In 1995 the Conference of the Ministers of Educa-
tion and Cultural Affairs (KMK) adopted the rec-
ommendations on the training and examination
of ↑ vocational schools in which 16 different ↑ vo-
cational disciplines were identified to correspond
with their respective ↑ occupational areas. Howev-
er, in the “prescription of counting the basic ap-
prenticeship” only 13 occupational areas are de-
clared. An unequivocal classification of the single
professions to the occupational areas has not been
carried out so far.
The German Job Agencies employ the term “oc-
cupational areas” as a generic term for different
professions. Classifying them into 22 occupation-
al areas the job agencies also consider modern vo-
cational developments, e. g. professions acquired
through the ↑ dual system or at schools and pro-
fessions for which a university degree is required.
Lastly, the term “occupational areas” serves within
vocational education schools to classify different
types of schools, e. g. vocational colleges in gener-
al, training colleges for ↑ nutrition, home econom-
ics, catering trade/restaurant industry, technical
schools for agriculture.
Therefore, it is rather difficult to describe voca-
tional education research corresponding to an “oc-
cupational area”.
If we take the officially declared occupational ar-
eas “nutrition and home economics”, “↑ tourism,
hotel and restaurant trade” as well as “agriculture,
forestry and horticulture”, to which mainly nutri-
tional occupations are assigned, as starting points,
we would have to take into account the mono-pro-
fession home economics, research in relation to
technical professions (see e. g. PAHL / RAUNER 1998)
and all working fields – from home economics to
agriculture, industry and trade to the service sec-
tor. Home economics professions – within which
exclusive research exists – often will be studied in
connection with social and nursing professions (see
e. g. BECKER / MEIFORT 1995, 282). Not all these can
be taken into consideration in this article.
Thus, while focusing on the occupational area
“nutrition” a limit has to be set, which allows us
to take into consideration the common crosscut-
ting requirements and particularities of the above-
named areas and disciplines. The particularities
are based on the genesis of the ↑ nutritional pro-
239
fessions and the foundation of the corresponding
disciplines at universities. Looking at the genesis
of nutritional professions, professional skills and
the quality of work received their special charac-
ters. The corresponding disciplines – especially
home economics as well as nutrition and food sci-
ence – are distinguished by ↑ interdisciplinary re-
search and therefore vocational education research
could be contained in these disciplines also, not
only in the vocational disciplines. Because there
are no independent “research-fields” (see RAUN-
ER 2002d, 448 f.) of vocational education research
in the vocational discipline home economics and
food science and their corresponding disciplines,
the following explanations present a few conclu-
sions from previous research activities rather than
future tasks and instructions. In connection with
this the focus will be on the historical and ↑ gen-
der dimension.
3.2.7.2 “Nutrition”: the Development of
Professions and the Occupational
Area
“Nutrition” is one of the most fundamental func-
tions of the individual and of small groups, so-
cieties, and mankind. It is the foundation of life.
Some of the nutritional functions are food pro-
duction through the cultivation of land, planting,
livestock-breeding and industrial processes, food
processing, selling of products as well as the pro-
curing of food through hunting, collecting, fishing,
harvesting and making it marketable, processing
the food for the end consumer, storage and waste
management (see FEGEBANK 2001). In the course
of history the fulfilment of the nutritional function
has changed a great deal. Civilisation and differ-
ent cultures have evolved. The demands for refin-
ing food, the development of table manners and the
establishment of catering services required a ↑ pro-
fessionalisation of nutrition. Consequently, various
new ↑ professions came into being.
Nutritional professions have the longest traditions
of all professions even though they did not have
profiles from the beginning (see FEGEBANK 1997).
Carrying out nutritional professions means both
complex and situational action and lineal ↑ work
processes. All this requires dealing with the bio-
spheres of water and land, with living beings such
240
as animals and plants as well as artefacts which
support these actions. The reference to the differ-
ent spheres of environment is one of the essen-
tial qualification requirements to those who work
in nutritional professions. Vocational education
research has to take this into consideration (see
FEGEBANK 2002).
From the very beginning, activities and areas of re-
sponsibility in the area of nutrition have taken up a
great amount of the human capacity for work. Ful-
filling the nutritional function has been and still
is an aspect of domestic activities. The nutrition-
al function plays an important role in agriculture
and is a main branch of food trade and the service
sector. Most activities related to this area are per-
formed as recognized professions. These develop-
ments are not only the result of economic and tech-
nical change but also of innovative forces in every-
day life situations (see THIELE-WITTIG 1992). Based
on the division of labour and specialisation certain
professional profiles developed, so that today ap-
prox. 30 nutritional professions can be classified as
professional apprenticeships.
In addition to that, housekeeping professions (ru-
ral and urban) as well as cross-cutting jobs such
as family server were established. These profes-
sions cover the activities inherent to many nutri-
tional professions and show a wide breadth. With
this, the problem of dividing and classifying pro-
fessions arises. Moreover housekeeping tasks and
activities are a part of the everyday life of all peo-
ple, so that they are carried out by non-experts al-
so.
Therefore, one of the most apparent ↑ research
questions is, What criteria need to be employed
to define a ↑ profession. This has been discussed
extensively with regard to the demand for recog-
nising “housewife” and “female farmer” as pro-
fessions. However, this debate has not been based
on a scientific foundation. In this context, the term
“profession” is a challenging historical dimension.
By reducing it to an acquired activity in today’s
perception essential connections would be left out.
Thus, “profession” as a subjective interpretation
and individual understanding of the entirety of
tasks and activities related to it moves into the cen-
tre of attention. This leads to the conclusion that
Handbook of TVET Research
work can be defined as the basic approach to lead-
ing ones life.
3.2.7.3 Work and Education: Essential
Categories of Vocational Science
Research
The term “work” developed in the course of time
through specialisation, industrialisation and the
division of labour from an activity of ↑ home eco-
nomic and agricultural work to a sphere of activity
that covers many areas.
From the very beginning people employed tech-
nical artefacts and processes to shape and utilise
the environment. In the first place these activities
were categorised as home economics and agricul-
tural ones. Only later did trade come into being
and, with it, enterprises developed.
Looking at it from an institutional perspective,
housekeeping is the most original type of work.
This work was shaped by the satisfaction of the
bare necessities of life, e. g. hunger and thirst.
Alongside the economic branch of home econom-
ics the agricultural branch developed by domesti-
cating animals, intensive cultivation of land, and
finally by the application of industrial business
methods: what is called “agribusiness” today. In
addition, home economics includes food process-
ing, the making of food and drinks into proper
meals and the selling of surplus goods. From a sci-
entific point of view, the modification of working
methods, the increase of profits and health issues
have been of major interest.
Parallel with everyday life work, the professional
type of work developed gradually due to growing
qualitative demands. The professional work was
supposedly of higher value.
In order to make the same product, housewives,
the trade and manufacturer co-exist. Therefore,
vocational education research has to deal with
questions about the quality of work outputs as well
as about specific vocational developments. Three
quarters of the food we consume today comes from
the industrial sector. Thus, the traditional, centu-
ry-old trades (e. g. cook, baker, and butcher) are no
longer required but chemists, food-designers and
food engineers are. Here, vocational education re-
search has to answer questions with regard to the
Areas of VET Research
food market, ↑ work processes and vocational eth-
ics.
One of the main principles of the labour society
is the division of labour. As far as nutritional pro-
fessions are concerned special attention has to be
paid to the gender specific division of labour. Fe-
male everyday life competence had been trans-
formed into professional competence by embod-
ying it within the law and institutions. Everyday
competences did not become superfluous, but they
became less valuable. The majority of women were
capable of producing and processing food and car-
rying out all tasks related to it. However, they had
not acquired these techniques on a professional ba-
sis and accordingly, they could not work on a pro-
fessional basis. This was – in most cases – reserved
for men. As an example for this development Büh-
ler outlines the gender specific cultural history of
cooking (see BÜHLER 1994, 539): tracing back the
professional term “cook” we will only find men-
tion of men, at least in the 18th and 19th century.
All the different types of cooks (e. g. court cook)
were male ↑ professions that required a specific ed-
ucation and training. Women were not allowed to
take up those kinds of professions. Searching for
women who worked in the kitchen we have to fol-
low a different route. Female activity in the kitch-
en has been associated with the terms “housemoth-
er” and “servant” in the 18th century as well as
“maid” in the 19th century and the current term
“housewife”. The field of activity also differs be-
tween men and women. For male cooks the job de-
scription is clear and the work is considered to be
carried out on a professional basis and requires a
previous education and training, whereas women
who work in the kitchen have to fulfil various tasks
according to status and wealth. It is not only the
preparation of food but also shopping for food on
the market beforehand and doing the washing up
after the meal. Female work in the kitchen can be
categorised somewhere between waged work and
unpaid housework.
Closely linked to the gender-specific division of la-
bour is the gender specific education and training
which has only been considered as part of the his-
tory of education in recent times. Hitherto, asser-
tions with regard to the history of education were
related to a male history of education whereas a fe-
241
male history of education has only gradually de-
veloped.
First, all-round education and training as well as
the vocational education and training were located
in the home which was organised by the families.
Historically regarded, female education remained
institutionally bound to the family much long-
er than the education of boys and young men. To
prepare them for their “natural role” women were
taught to carry out all the tasks in the household
and acquire additionally a certain degree of gen-
eral knowledge. In the course of history this had
led to a proper ↑ home economics education in the
1930s. ↑ Vocational schools introduced girls’ cours-
es alongside bakers’, butchers’ and cooks’ courses.
The term “girls’ courses” seemed sufficient to cat-
egorise the educational contents although a home
economics education covered many aspects of the
male ↑ nutritional professions (e. g. cooking, bak-
ing, buying and storing food).
Gender-specific education also occurred in the
field of ↑ further education up to university level.
One distinguished between male teacher and fe-
male teacher education as far as the choice of sub-
jects and the access to institutions of higher edu-
cation were concerned. Admission was granted to
women a lot later than to men. Whereas women
were in charge of rural and urban home econom-
ics, men studied trade and technical subjects. Since
“nutritional professions” can be trade and techni-
cal ↑ professions as well as service sector and home
economics professions, the character of work and
the capability to carry out a profession have be re-
evaluated. Glade and Zierau (1994) started work-
ing on the question whether privately produced
work (work in the household) can be recognised as
a kind of work carried out on a professional basis.
Nowadays, the education of teachers is not gen-
der specific as all education is equally accessible
to men and women. However, the long tradition of
gender specific education suggests that concepts
of male and female perspectives and perceptions
concerning nutritional professions have to be an-
alysed by vocational education research further in
the future.
242 Handbook of TVET Research

3.2.7.4 Nutritional Professions in the ternational research (e. g. THIELE-WITTIG / FUNKE

Scientific Research Context 1999). From the mid-1970s onwards several scien-
tific disciplines have dealt with the private house-
The sciences that correspond to the nutritional
hold regarding it as a place of work and education.
professions are ↑ home economics, ↑ nutrition and
Questions of business administration as well as
↑ food science (see FEGEBANK 2001) as well as agri-
questions of quality, qualification and ↑ profession-
culture. Having recognised the need to publish re-
alism were the focuses of these research studies.
search results, home economics, nutrition and food
Stübler, the researcher who was head of the Feder-
science as scientific university subjects came in-
al Research Institute on Home Economics (1951–
to being. They are also the basic subjects in teach-
1974), made an effort to introduce the discipline
er training for the area home economics and nu-
work theory of the household (see e. g. STÜBLER
trition.
1979). The central issues to be dealt with in ↑ nu-
The sciences were first established at the Univer-
trition are natural-scientific and ecological ones. In
sity of Gießen in 1962 as the result of a “history
agricultural science the dominant ↑ research ques-
of education”, the history of teaching and learning
tions are also subject-related ones. The only sci-
for housekeeping. Following the Hessian Teacher
ence that analyses the correlation between work,
Education and Training Law on secondary school
profession and education is the science of home
teaching at vocational schools from 1958 (Hes-
economics although the results cannot explicit-
sisches Lehrerbildungsgesetz) “all prospective
ly be related to vocational education research (see
teachers had to attend classes at university for at
e. g. the essays in OLTERSDORF / PREUSS 1996).
least 8 semesters”. The students graduate with two
In the German Democratic Republic the Institute
separate examinations – one subject specific and
for ↑ Vocational School Methods, with its depart-
one in educational science in addition to vocation-
ment of food technology, was founded at the Uni-
al and work pedagogy.
versity of Dresden. Teacher training here aimed
With regard to “↑ nutritional professions” the
at “nutritional professions”. Vocational education
teacher training at Western German Universities
research was allocated to the subject related vo-
focused on subject specific studies. In addition, el-
cational commissions that conducted vocational
ements of educational science and vocational and
analysis including the design of qualification pro-
work pedagogy were part of the teacher training.
files as a basis to determine the requirements for
The reference to specific professions was not part
various skilled workers’ ↑ professions (see KÖRNER /
of the training and vocational education research
LUSKY 1993, 23).
did not exist.
Taking all this into consideration the question aris-
Nevertheless, the head of the Agricultural Ped-
es as to how vocational education research focuss-
agogic Institute (1954–1963) in Gießen, Prof.
ing on nutritional professions can be established
Hudde, who had been in charge of teacher train-
and implemented.
ing before, was appointed director of the newly es-
tablished Institute for Professional and Econom-
3.2.7.5 Fields of Vocational Education
ic Pedagogy in 1963. Prof. Hudde and his succes-
Research and Prospective Research
sor Prof. Bunk continued to publish several studies
Interests
on vocational education for agricultural and rural-
home economics (see essays in BUNK 1990). Vocational education research with a focus on the
Up to the 1990s vocational education research had sphere of nutritional professions can only be estab-
not been explicitly declared as a science in West- lished in the context of the teacher training at uni-
ern Germany. However, the science of home eco- versities. Taking corresponding subjects into con-
nomics has presented some research results that sideration, too, can help to achieve a multidisci-
can be useful for vocational education research. plinary approach and to cover a wide range of re-
Home economics research also includes educa- search questions.
tional and historical studies (e. g. RICHARZ 1991), The key research area in the teacher training ↑ vo-
women studies (e. g. TORNIEPORTH 1979) and in- cational discipline “↑ Food Science, Nutrition and
Areas of VET Research
↑ Home Economics” is ↑ sphere-orientated didac-
tics (see FEGEBANK 1998; 2004). As a topic of ac-
ademic education it is a topic for theory and re-
search about the qualifications of teachers in ↑ oc-
cupational fields, especially about constructions of
lessons in vocational schools. It includes general
didactical aspects, educational practice as well as
elements of special branches of science. The spe-
cial didactics therefore play the role of a mediator,
which searches for the relationship between the
reality of school and apprenticeship, ↑ vocational
pedagogy and the special branches of science (e. g.
Home Economics and Food Science). Sphere-ori-
entated didactics require sphere-orientated work,
which for its part is determined by didactical func-
tions, standard principles of didactic work and
given conditions of educational practice (the sys-
tem of education, of employment, kinds of school
etc.). The function “Describing the special branch
of science/s by subjects, technical terms, princi-
ples and methods by considering their transforma-
tion into processes of learning” has to be a matter
of priority. One of the main principles therefore is
“scientific orientation”. It is the basis of orientation
in coping with didactical tasks and of didactical
decision making next to the principles “Orienta-
tion of living situations and their connected behav-
iour” and “Orientation of vocational qualifications
and of scenes of learning”.
Among others the research areas in this sphere-
orientated didactics are for instance “the realities
at school and at work” (including the household),
and “vocational qualification”. As this concept was
a new one in academic teacher training it was nec-
essary in the 1990s first to conduct basic research
with a view to a theoretical framework for teacher
training at universities.
In the beginning “learning and teaching research”
was the central focus. Although there are some
“learning and teaching researches” present, their
results could not be put into educational practice,
e. g. research surveys on the introduction of “study
fields” at ↑ vocational schools in the area of ↑ nutri-
tion and home economics (see GRADEL 2003).
In contrast to that theoretical approach the test tri-
al DILL as part of the German BLK-Programme
to educate home-economists developed co-op-
erations of learning scenes of the dual education
243
and improved existing co-operations of full-time
school education.
The objectives of these measures were better
↑ quality standards of educational programmes,
improved professional capability and more flex-
ible assignments on the ↑ labour market (see AB-
SCHLUSSBERICHT 2003).
In connection with this project, study-field relat-
ed curricula with different modules for a standard-
ised qualification system in home economics were
developed (see BRINKMANN 2004). The develop-
ment of the curricula and the research on qualifi-
cation include the analysis of the scene and the sit-
uation of learning which should be significant to
↑ nutritional professions. In order to find out what
the qualification requirements for working in a ma-
jor household are, working field analysis is essen-
tial. Special attention is paid to the customer’s ori-
entation (FEGEBANK / HÄNDEL 1998).
The project “Research on Adaptive Qualifications
of Home Economics Specialists and Managers”
funded by Bavaria and the European Union also
centred on qualification. It analysed the discrepan-
cies between the patterns of the capacity for work
and the use of the capacity of work from which
the additional qualifications derived (see R EGIER-
UNG VON MITTELFRANKEN 2003). At the European
regional conference of the International Federa-
tion for Home Economics (IFHE) on “Advancing
the Recognition of Home Economics Professions
in Society” in May 1998 the status and standard
of ↑ home economics vocational training and ↑ pro-
fessions at school and in research was discussed.
Having taken the inventory of vocational educa-
tion and training in European countries this con-
ference was the catalyst for further co-operation
in that field.
Pure “nutritional professions” lack such a devel-
opment although first attempts have been made in
studying the learning field concept and to develop
the curricula for vocational education in the sphere
of home economics and nutrition (see e. g. BLK-
Programme and the test trail SELUBA, www.selu-
ba.de, Juni 2006 (BLK 1999–2002)).
Qualification and ↑ curriculum research cannot be
regarded as independent ↑ research fields. Howev-
er, some ↑ research questions were applied to “nu-
tritional professions”. Further research questions
244
concerning “nutritional professions” turn out to
be different in the context of service-sector orient-
ed work in comparison to technical professions as
Fegebank and Händel outline to some extent in one
of their articles (FEGEBANK / HÄNDEL 2000).
– Finally, the area of ↑ nutritional professions has
to take up specific research questions that cannot
be summarised as “human-machine-interaction”
or “industrial culture and technology transfer” (see
RAUNER 2002d). Fields of research here are rather
“interpersonal communication” as well as “culture
of ↑ nutrition”. Special emphasis has to be put on
the comparative analysis of the development and
3.3 VET Systems Research
Thomas Deißinger
3.3.0.1 VET Systems as Historical and
Cultural Entities
↑ VET systems cannot be described as “construc-
tions” of a specific reality, mainly triggered by po-
litical motivations or economic interests. Instead,
in order to understand how they function and how
they are “capable” of reacting to external demands,
they have to be looked at as “historical entities”.
Against this background, it is interesting, e. g., that
despite industrialisation as one of the major com-
mon features in modern history, differences be-
tween the German-speaking world and most other
countries in Europe in terms of a specific “appren-
ticeship culture” (DEISSINGER 2004) or “learning
culture” respectively (HARRIS / DEISSINGER 2003)
cannot be ignored. Their relevance for the current
debate on VET and its modernisation may even be
associated with ↑ globalisation and various develop-
ments on the European policy level which address
national VET systems in a specific way (→ 2.5).
These challenges get a national dimension in so far
as solutions appear only possible against the back-
ground of what may be called the “system refer-
ence” of a given VET system. This includes differ-
ent notions of what countries perceive as “educa-
tional” or “pedagogical” with respect to their VET
systems (→ 2.2) and also the realisation modes ap-
plied to link the idea of training for an occupa-
tion or a job to the notion of personality develop-
Handbook of TVET Research
forming of work places and on the customer’s ori-
entation. The effects of such developments on work
and life – which are inseparably bound to each oth-
er – also have to become the object of research in-
terests in order to adapt the teacher training to it.
According to the complexity and variety of re-
search questions a mix of different working meth-
ods is advisable: work field analysis and biogra-
phy research can be employed just as well as qual-
itative and quantitative social ↑ research methods,
empirical and statistical methods. Heuristics, criti-
cism and interpretation can be used when studying
historical sources.
ment of individuals (WINCH 2006). In this lies the
root of the separation of education from training
which applies to most national contexts and rep-
resents, besides industrialisation and its impact on
VET, the probably most relevant force behind the
“character” and value given to VET in a specific
national context.
VET systems have to be understood “in relation
to other societal institutions” including the ↑ la-
bour market, the economy, the system of industrial
relations and of course the system of government
(RAFFE 1998, 391). This also includes the way gov-
ernments have picked up educational ideas refer-
ring to VET (R EICHWEIN 1925/1963). A very good
example is the internationally unique positioning
of an educational institution at the core of the na-
tional VET system, which we find in the case of
Germany. Here, the corporatist framework estab-
lished by legal sanction in the late nineteenth cen-
tury was gradually submitted to governmental in-
terference during the 1920s and 1930s, although
the country did not establish a homogeneous train-
ing law until 1969. However, much earlier in the
development of what is called the “↑ Dual System”
(GREINERT 1994), compulsory attendance at the
part-time ↑ vocational school emerged as the sec-
ond principle underlying formalised vocational
training besides the framework of institutionalised
apprenticeships that was deliberately laid into the
hands of the chambers (DEISSINGER 1994). Fort-
Areas of VET Research
bildungsschulen (continuation schools) had been
made obligatory as early as 1869 when the German
trade law provided for compulsion but left it to lo-
cal communities to pass by-laws for this purpose.
The Trade Act of 1897, in contrast, saw it as part
of the newly defined duties of the guilds and cham-
bers to found and maintain continuation schools
for craft apprentices and it also stipulated that ap-
prentices had to be released from work to attend
such a school (SCHÖFER 1981, 176–178).
The most important change leading to the mod-
ern ↑ VET system was brought about due to the in-
fluence of what became known as “Classical Ger-
man Vocational Educational Theory”, especially
through Georg Kerschensteiner, who is histori-
cally seen as the “father of the German vocational
school” (WINCH 2006; Simons 1966). Simons re-
gards Kerschensteiner’s progressing “to the state
of action” and seeing “that his plans were put into
force” (SIMONS 1966, 124 f.) as the central momen-
tum in the evolution of the German compulsory vo-
cational ↑ school system which widened the so far
more or less company-based training into a “Dual
System”. The idea of bridging the gap between the
end of the elementary school and the beginning of
military service by establishing vocational schools
for school-leavers was based on the conviction
that “education for the ordinary man and wom-
an must be woven into the practical work of life”
(HIGGINSON 1990, 248). The continuation school
function was seen in the pedagogical complemen-
tation of workshop training and it was above all
Kerschensteiner who linked it to the idea of Beruf
or ↑ vocation, which in his eyes stood for the major
route to Menschenbildung (education of the indi-
vidual) – an ideal recurring back to the 19th centu-
ry educational movement and associated with the
concept of academic education (BLANKERTZ 1982a,
89 ff.). Kerschensteiner conceived of the individu-
al as essentially a social being, both with respect
to his occupation and to his citizenship within the
community. This meant a complete break with tra-
ditional educational thinking (SIMONS 1966, 28 f.).
While the Act of 1897 may be seen as a key event
in the history of the Dual System as far as ↑ in-
company training is concerned, Kerschenstein-
er’s Prize Essay delivered to the Erfurt Academy
of Sciences in 1901 (K ERSCHENSTEINER 1901b), in
245
which he laid down his pedagogical programme
for a reform of VET, must be seen to comprise
thoughts that were to be of revolutionary signifi-
cance for the German ↑ school system and the re-
lationship between education and work. Kerschen-
steiner saw that the necessary steps were taken to
establish obligatorische fachliche Fortbildungss-
chulen (obligatory continuation schools linked to
specific occupations) to replace the general contin-
uation school which was disliked by masters and
teachers and which apprentices experienced as a
nuisance and burden. Kerschensteiner was con-
vinced that the Berufsschule held invaluable ad-
vantages against an extension of the school leaving
age since it was cheaper and more efficient both
in social and educational terms. It is important to
understand that Kerschensteiner’s school reform
gained momentum because it was an educational
scheme which, although it had to be wrested from
the masters and employers who saw it as a rival in-
stitution interfering with ↑ practical training, com-
plied well with the idea of the Staatsbürger (cit-
izen) whom the country’s political élite wanted
and needed (BLANKERTZ 1969, 135–138). In es-
sence, the modern ↑ vocational school in Germa-
ny still follows the principles underlying the school
reform at the turn from the 19th to the 20th cen-
tury. However, there is no doubt that the ↑ Dual
System certainly has two sides: the one is that it
links education and work in a VET related way;
the other is that due to institutional and legal bor-
ders the two “learning sites” still appear separated
and only weakly linked from a didactical point of
view (EULER 2004b). This also refers to the links
between VET, ↑ pre-vocational education (gen-
eral education in schools) and higher education
(BAETHGE 2007).
The historical imprints which determine VET and
its social and economic framework, its cultural
foundations and its relationships with other edu-
cational subsystems are the crucial topic of ↑ com-
parative VET research (→ 3.3.1; → 3.3.2). One ap-
proach to addressing open issues in this area is the
concept of “learning cultures” which adopt a specif-
ic shape as “apprenticeship cultures” when attrib-
uted to the acquisition of vocational skills in work-
place ↑ learning environments (HARRIS / DEISSINGER
2003). With this premise in mind, looking at voca-
246
tional training in a merely institutional manner by
using, e. g., the function of the state as the crucial
tertium comparationis (GREINERT 1988), reduces
the potential of getting insight into these cultur-
al aspects. This is especially true for Anglophone
countries such as the UK or ↑ Australia where ap-
prenticeships have been revitalised or reframed in
recent years due to dissatisfaction with both school-
based skill formation as well as traditional on-the-
job training (RYAN 2001; DEISSINGER 2003). This
is quite opposed to Germany, where it is an appar-
ent phenomenon that the understanding of a sepa-
rate vocational pathway as “unique” and valuable
in itself is a trait which apparently sets the coun-
try apart from most other European societies (with
the exception of Austria and Switzerland). This
unique positioning, however, has traditionally pro-
voked criticism with respect to the organisation of
vocational training and general education “accord-
ing to separate criteria and systems of assessment”
including “limited possibilities for progression be-
tween them” (YOUNG 2003, 228; BAETHGE 2007).
On the other hand, it may be argued that academ-
ic and (non-academic) vocational pathways, in the
German case, are well rooted within disjunct but
interdependent subsystems and that their mutual
interaction obviously contributes to stabilizing the
“vocational track” in a stronger way than in oth-
er countries.
If one talks about “learning cultures” or “appren-
ticeship cultures” the notion of a number of com-
parative criteria springs to mind which help an-
ybody trying to understand obvious differences
in the organisation, the didactical and curricular
steering and the relevance of VET for career and
life perspectives of young people to learn more
about the visible contrasts which can be observed
in reality. They refer to the first level of ↑ compar-
ative VET research, which depicts the “system di-
mension” without already asking for the “back-
grounds”. This analytical approach may be called
a “multi-level” approach (SCHRIEWER 1987a). On
the “system” level different criteria may be used
to pursue a systematic comparison. The concept
of “learning cultures” represents such an approach
since it offers a methodology composed of five di-
mensions (HARRIS / DEISSINGER 2003). In the fol-
lowing, these criteria will be materialised by look-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing at Germany and ↑ Australia as two countries
with different notions and different realisation pat-
terns of VET:
(a) Strength of, and respect for, vocational edu-
cation: This dimension refers to the value giv-
en to VET in a specific national context, includ-
ing ↑ learning in the workplace within or without
an apprenticeship. It is obvious that the selection
mechanisms of general education and the range of
opportunities of young people to proceed to high-
er education have, besides the above-mentioned
cultural aspects, a strong impact on this facet of
a ↑ VET system. In the UK and Australia, e. g.,
vocational tracks have traditionally been regard-
ed much lower in value than school-based alter-
natives, partly due to the structural weaknesses of
work-based learning, but also due to a clear mental
separation of education and training. This meant
that
“education in occupational skills for those whose skills
are mainly manual has traditionally been seen as outside
the main stream of education” (HERMANN / R ICHARDSON /
WOODBURNE 1976, 33).
In the German context, on the other hand, indus-
trial training took up the corporatist framework as
well as the occupational orientation of the train-
ing process which has remained the pivotal trait
of apprenticeship up to the present day opening
up respected pathways for the majority of school
leavers. Both the extension of full-time ↑ vocation-
al schools and the critical educational movement
during the 1960s and 1970s (ZABECK 1975; DE-
ISSINGER 1998, 25 ff.) failed to really put the ↑ Dual
System at stake. Against this background, appren-
ticeships are culturally strong and avail of a long-
standing tradition of craft training dating back to
the Middle Ages (DEISSINGER 1994) while the gen-
esis of the modern vocational training system has
been the result of substantial state activities to re-
vitalise the ancient craft system.
(b) Knowledge and understanding of vocational
pathways: In Germany the vocational pathway is
well established and well known. The Dual System
with its “recognised skilled occupations” (→ 2.3)
still takes up more than half of all 16–19 year olds.
Unlike in most other European countries, with the
exception of Austria and Switzerland, apprentice-
ships in Germany exist in nearly all branches of
Areas of VET Research
the economy including the ↑ professions and parts
of the civil service. Small and medium-sized com-
panies are significant contributors to training op-
portunities (DEISSINGER 2001b). Apprentices come
from different educational backgrounds although
most have an intermediate or lower secondary
school certificate. In recent years, the number of
grammar school leavers taking up apprenticeship
training has remained more or less stable at around
15 %, a phenomenon which puts Germany down
internationally in terms of the academic drift of
young people. In Australia, vocational pathways
are, generally, poorly understood, except in those
families where there has already been an appren-
ticeship experience. The introduction of trainee-
ships, introduced to encourage ↑ early school-leav-
ers to enter the workforce and obtain skilled train-
ing, and then of New Apprenticeships in the late
1990s (HARRIS 2001), though for the purpose of
flexibility, has tended to make understandings of
apprenticeship even less clear. In fact, the Aus-
tralian “training environment had been constantly
changing and becoming more and more complicat-
ed” which led to a high degree of incomprehension
for anybody outside the training community (RAY
2001, 35).
(c) ↑ Financing of VET: Obviously, despite grow-
ing dissatisfaction with employer ↑ commitment,
the training market in Germany still “has the char-
acter of a suppliers’ market” (GREINERT 1994, 80).
Once a training contract has been signed this
means the principal financial responsibility is
placed upon companies for the training proc-
ess. The fact that the “system is financed princi-
pally by employers” (NCVER 2001c, 38) reflects
the principle of self-government which was re-
affirmed by law in the late 19th century. There-
fore, companies provide training opportunities on
a totally voluntary basis. However, public funding
of VET in general is becoming increasingly im-
portant due to the critical situation on the labour
and training markets (DEISSINGER / HELLWIG 2004).
This has emerged in a creeping “pluralisation” of
VET alternatives outside the Dual System and cer-
tainly shows the latter’s dependency on a function-
ing economic framework. In ↑ Australia, there has
been a strong welfare tradition, initiated as a re-
sult of and reinforced by the specific character and
247
size of the country. While undoubtedly there is
a community role in apprenticeships providing a
supply of skilled people to furnish quality goods
and services (Ray 2001, 16), it is also the case that
employers now can expect government funding for
training on a large scale. Here, a clear parallel to
the UK becomes apparent (RAY 2001) since the de-
velopment of “new” forms of apprenticeship train-
ing is linked to a strong financial steering func-
tion of the state while “traditional” apprenticeships
were solely a matter of employers.
(d) Prime focus of apprenticeships: The German
apprenticeship system – not least when looking to
its history – may be described as a “system of train-
ing rather than a system of employment” where the
wages of apprentices reflect the emphasis on train-
ing and apprentices typically are paid wages “that
are far lower than adult rates and apprentice rates
in Australia” (NCVER 2001c, 39). Training allow-
ances are the result of collective bargaining but
keep attached to the purpose of giving young peo-
ple a basic start into their working lives without
putting too much burden on employers. As the ap-
prenticeship system is seen to be neither part of
the school or education system nor a normal sphere
of work the “system reference” is clearly training
and recruitment for skilled work. The consequenc-
es of such a clear separation of pathways or subsys-
tems of course implies that lots of expectations rest
on the ↑ Dual System and frictions on the training
market can hardly be compensated without addi-
tional activities on the side of both state and fed-
eral governments. In Australia, the historical pur-
pose of apprenticeship has been to train artisans,
and it has been the main approach to training for
both the traditional crafts and the more contempo-
rary trade occupations. It is only recently that this
key role of apprenticeships has been challenged
and the ↑ general training role has come more to
the fore, as evidenced by the fact that often now the
system is administered within government portfo-
lios of education and training rather than industrial
relations.
(e) ↑ Quality assurance of ↑ in-company training:
In Germany apprentices enter a special training
contract which is subject to the 1969 ↑ Vocation-
al Training Act (DEISSINGER 1996). The company
is obliged to impart the competences laid down in
248
the ↑ training regulation or ordinance. The Voca-
tional Training Act (1969/2005) may be viewed as
the final stage of a post-war public debate on the
degree to which the Dual System as a whole should
be submitted to state influence. As a compromise,
the Act did not install a new training system in-
cluding the ↑ vocational school, but mainly “con-
solidated much previous practice under one Act”
(RAGGATT 1988, 175). This public emphasis, ex-
tending the scope of the Act to the “organisation of
vocational training”, makes it an issue of general
interest and social importance. The contribution of
the Vocational Training Act to systematising and
standardising the course of training can be seen
in the indenture, the degree to which skill require-
ments of trainers have become formalised and to
the question of how an apprentice in the Dual Sys-
tem has to be instructed and what knowledge and
skills have to be imparted to prepare a young per-
son efficiently for a skilled occupation. In ↑ Aus-
tralia, the quality of that training has always been
at the heart of the VET debate. Critical observers
(MITCHELL / ROBERTSON / SHORTEN 1999, 119) con-
tend that, with the advent of training packages in
the 1990s, “any quality assurance for program de-
livery and outcomes which might have been pro-
vided by the compulsory use of accredited curric-
ulum has been removed” from the ↑ VET system.
There is no doubt that ↑ CBT (competency-based
training), which follows a different “philosophy”
from the “occupational concept”, is responsible for
a training organisation which is much more “in-
dustry-led” or “employer-led” than “quality-led”
in a pedagogical sense (HARRIS 2001; DEISSINGER /
HELLWIG 2005).
3.3.0.2 Subsystems within VET and Their
Interrelations as Research Objects
The sphere of VET represents a complex, more
or less structured or systematised entity depend-
ing on how history and culture have shaped it over
the years. Looking at VET as a “system”, howev-
er, is a pedagogically narrowed perspective since
it leaves aside the didactical problem referring to
the definition of specific learning objectives in a
given course or programme, the functional and/or
intentional character of VET on the learning level
and the steering of learning and instruction in the
Handbook of TVET Research
context of purposeful ↑ learning environments di-
rected towards the acquisition of skills and knowl-
edge needed in a job or occupation. This means
that we have to distinguish the meaning of VET in
many ways:
(a) VET standing for a specific concept or philos-
ophy, a concrete programme or course as opposed
to a qualification or a set of qualifications respec-
tively
(b) VET structured along levels, entrance require-
ments, length of courses and qualifications ob-
tained
(c) VET linked up with other subsystems of the ed-
ucation system, such as school education, higher
education and ↑ continuing education or ↑ lifelong
learning respectively
(d) VET looked at in its positioning within the so-
cial and economic system of a given country, which
includes its overall status, its individual appeal, its
social and above all its economic acceptance (ac-
ceptance in the labour market) which it receives in
relation to alternative pathways of learning
(e) VET seen as delivery of skills and knowledge
in specific institutions, such as schools, colleges,
companies, training providers or higher education
institutions.
(f) VET seen as solely work-based, solely school-
based (college-based) or based on cooperative/al-
ternating/dual learning arrangements
(g) VET defined as a specific job- or occupation-
related programme or purpose respectively or as a
more or less general (generic) preparation for the
world of work
(h) VET as an instrument of social and economic
policy
Another most relevant perspective is looking at the
pathways and working mechanisms which deter-
mine the transition from school via VET to the em-
ployment sector. A basic description, which once
again has to be specified along the lines of vari-
ous national contexts dealing with the “borders”
between the subsystems involved in different ways,
may be the model of “thresholds” which helps to
understand the complex relationships between the
sphere where competences (skills and knowledge)
are created (e. g. a school or an apprenticeship)
and the sphere of application of these competenc-
Areas of VET Research
es (e. g. a workplace or an occupation). This mod-
el makes a distinction between “threshold one”
and “threshold two” which each stand for specific
problems of transition and integration respectively
(MERTENS / PARMENTIER 1988; JUNGMANN 2004; ZA-
BECK 1979a). While “threshold one” indicates the
transition process from pre-vocational school edu-
cation (e. g. a Realschule in Germany or a compre-
hensive school in the UK) to VET (e. g. an appren-
ticeship in the German ↑ Dual System or a course
in a ↑ TAFE college in Australia), “threshold two”
marks the borderline between VET and employ-
ment. The problem for any international compari-
son arises clearly when the assumption dominates
that this model applies to every country in the
world. The current “landscape” of traditional and
innovative VET pathways alone feeds doubts that
we no longer can put our trust in such a general
analytical framework applicable to various nation-
al and ↑ cultural contexts. The difficulty becomes
especially apparent if one tries to understand the
complex mechanisms linking up the education sys-
tem with employment. The first reservation which
has to be made refers to the different functioning of
↑ labour markets: While Germany, e. g., is still very
strongly characterised by “occupation-structured”
labour markets (→ 2.3; → 3.1.1), which in substan-
tial areas (machinery, crafts, commercial servic-
es) are interlinked with training occupations in the
apprenticeship system (DEISSINGER 1998), the UK
or ↑ Australia have more “open” labour markets,
which also applies to the ↑ US with its strong tradi-
tion of both “internal” and “unstructured” labour
markets (DOERINGER / PIORE 1971; SENGENBERGER
1987). This means that transition into employment
or career pathways are more or less independent
from formal qualifications and therefore rather re-
sult from membership to a company or the specific
demands of a given workplace.
A third perspective is the depiction of the relation-
ship of optional routes within VET including dif-
ferent links with other subsystems, especially pre-
vocational (general) education. Here initial voca-
tional training, e. g. through an apprenticeship, is
only one specific realisation of VET although this
depends on the given national context (see above).
If one looks at comparative methodology (→ 3.3.1),
e. g. Greinert’s distinction of three basic models of
249
VET (market, school-based, dual), it becomes clear
that here the focus is on institutional responsibili-
ties, cooperative structures and the role of the state
in shaping a ↑ VET system (GREINERT 1988). This
modelling of the “character” of VET systems al-
so looks at initial training in the first place and ig-
nores the complex relationships between different
subsystems of VET within a specific national con-
text. Although VET in the UK or England respec-
tively may be closely associated with the “market
model”, this by no means implies that VET is only
carried out in companies and that it follows a more
or less strong determination by purely econom-
ic considerations about the ↑ benefits of training
measures. Two reservations have to be made: First-
ly, the UK’s competence-based approach to VET
has led to more state involvement than ever before
in the ↑ history of VET in that country through a
“very tightly regulated assessment and accredi-
tation system that communicates (…) what is ex-
pected of the VET system” (HAYWARD 2005, 78).
Secondly, ↑ participation in school-based forms
of learning in VET has increased in recent years,
partly due to dissatisfaction with both the quality
of ↑ in-company training and the marginal role, the
volatile quality and the lack of career relevance of
apprenticeships in many branches of industry (RY-
AN 2001; RYAN / GOSPEL / LEWIS 2006).
For the German debate, the relationship between
school-based VET and training in the ↑ Dual Sys-
tem continues to linger on as a “critical topic”. Tra-
ditionally, there has always been an understand-
ing that company-based and school-based training
represent different pedagogical logics based on di-
verging paradigms of learning. Whereas VET in
schools (→ 3.3.8.2) is strongly associated with a
more or less unambiguous pedagogical ethos and
therefore not purely with socialisation and util-
itarian principles, training in an enterprise nor-
mally occurs within an economic environment
where normally a strong bias on non-education-
al purposes prevails (GREINERT 1994). This dif-
ference in character finds its expression in the fact
that, in the Dual System, the part-time ↑ vocational
schools use syllabuses which accommodate for the
core of the occupational curriculum as well as for
additional general education. While, historically
speaking, VET implicates the notion of post-com-
250
pulsory education for the ordinary school leaver it
is now more and more linked up with options to
qualify for entry into higher education. Neverthe-
less, the German full-time ↑ VET system is a good
example for the multifunctional character VET
can take. This means that vocational schools basi-
cally serve three functions which may be linked up
depending on the course and the institution offer-
ing it (K ELL 1996; DEISSINGER / RUF 2006):
– ↑ Vocational preparation (mostly one to two
years) which means enabling young people to go
for an apprenticeship by improving their stakes on
the training market
– ↑ Further education (mostly two to three years)
which means leading young people to achieve a
higher school qualification level (including, e. g.,
the university entrance qualification)
– Vocational training (mostly two to three years)
which means leading young people to achieve a
portable labour-market relevant occupational qual-
ification outside the Dual System
It is due to these ambiguities that there is a clear
borderline between the apprenticeship system and
the full-time vocational schools – although the dif-
ferent types of vocational schools are normally
joined together within one branch-specific phys-
ical entity, often called “Vocational School Cen-
tres”. Research carried out by the Federal Insti-
tute for Vocational Training (BIBB) has laid open
that VET in schools is often very heterogeneous
due to federal state specific programmes, entry re-
quirements and qualifications and that it lacks ac-
ceptance with companies (FELLER 2000). Even
“practice firms” as specific realistic instruction-
al settings fail to fundamentally solve this prob-
lem. Employers believe that only apprenticeships,
where they have the say, produce competences and
attitudes needed for real working tasks. While big
industrial companies mostly refuse the so-called
“assistant qualification” obtainable in a vocational
college (Berufskolleg) smaller and especially craft
firms seem more prepared to accept school-based
qualifications, above all when it comes to hiring a
young person for a commercial function. On the
other hand, a clear majority of firms see, even if
they concede that practice firms could be reasona-
ble alternatives to classroom teaching, the “social-
isation function” of an apprenticeship (→ 3.6.6)
Handbook of TVET Research
as more relevant and valuable for skill formation
and job preparation. Also, from a political point
of view, one of the “disappointing” results of a re-
cent study (DEISSINGER / RUF 2006) certainly is that
students themselves more or less “ignore” the fact
that they can go for portable qualifications when
attending courses at a vocational college: The
strongest motivation for them clearly is (i) to im-
prove chances on the training market when apply-
ing for an apprenticeship after the course and (ii)
to reach out for a polytechnic entrance qualifica-
tion (Fachhochschulreife) (DEISSINGER / RUF 2006,
122 ff.). These results underline the significant im-
pact of interrelations between subsystems with-
in national education systems even for the men-
tal representation of structures, pathways as well
as training and career opportunities among school
leavers (DEISSINGER 2006a; DEISSINGER / SMITH /
PICKERSGILL 2006).
3.3.0.3 Globalisation and European
Developments as Major Drives for
Current VET Systems Research
One of our issues has been the historical charac-
ter of VET. There is justified certainty that this
limits processes of modernisation and re-adapta-
tion of national systems facing similar challeng-
es as well as the change of “mentalities” or “sys-
tem references”. As a matter of fact, however,
VET has entered the public agenda as a central
issue of international ↑ educational policy which
is also reflected in the growth of “intercontinent-
al” research interest (e. g. MISKO 2006; K EATING /
MEDRICH / VOLKOFF / PERRY 2002). Despite the fact
that education and training differ from country to
country in terms of their structural and didactical
features VET reform for various reasons has be-
come an international challenge, a fact that is un-
derlined by the European Union’s ↑ commitment to
↑ Lifelong Learning as a global strategy for all Eu-
ropean countries and the proclamation of 1996 as
“The European Year of Lifelong Learning” (HAKE
1999). In its White Paper on “Growth, Competi-
tiveness and Employment” published in 1993 (EC
1993) the European Commission pointed out that
Lifelong Learning should become “the overall ob-
jective to which the national educational communi-
ties can make their own contributions”. Two years
Areas of VET Research
later, in the well-known White Paper on “Teach-
ing and Training – Towards the Learning Society”
(EC 1995a) the concept of Lifelong Learning be-
came associated with the idea of a “personal skills
card” for every European citizen which is to doc-
ument new knowledge and skills acquired both in
formal and non-formal ↑ learning environments.
At the same time, the borders drawn between the
various sectors of the educational and/or ↑ VET
system, including higher and ↑ further education,
are now seen as more and more permeable while
the perception of a mismatch of learning outcomes
with work requirements is supposed to lead to a
fundamental rethinking of traditional courses as
well as curriculum patterns. Therefore there is a
clear “voice” in VET from the side of the Europe-
an Union, stressing the importance of VET for the
economic and social cohesion of Europe, for so-
cial and economic progress and for the competi-
tive standing of the EU countries within the world
community. In this respect, the European Coun-
cil, in the year 2000, put forward the message that
Europe should become the most competitive and
dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world
(EUROPÄISCHER RAT 2000). It becomes manifest
from this “↑ Lisbon Declaration” and similar state-
ments (COPENHAGEN DECLARATION 2002; MAAS-
TRICHT COMMUNIQUÉ 2004; H ELSINKI COMMUNIQUÉ
2006) that VET is primarily seen as an instrument
of social and economic policy although the insti-
tutional responsibilities at the European level sug-
gest a distinctive educational focus. Notwithstand-
ing these reservations, European research on de-
scriptive features, structural information or statis-
tical indicators of VET systems has for many years
mainly been carried out in two strands: Firstly, by
European or worldwide operating agencies (→ 1.7;
→ 2.5), such as ↑ CEDEFOP, EUROSTAT, ↑ OECD
or ↑ UNESCO (e. g. CEDEFOP 1981; Kommission
der Europäischen Gemeinschaften/EUROSTAT/
CEDEFOP 1997; OECD 2003b), and, secondly, by
dishing out research projects to external research-
ers, such as universities. The ↑ LEONARDO DA
VINCI programme certainly has to be mentioned
in this context as its projects focus on VET in its
various dimensions, such as apprenticeships or the
relationship between formal and ↑ informal learn-
ing in VET. A great variety of projects have been
251
carried out within the framework of the LEON-
ARDO programme so far. It is supposed to pro-
mote ↑ mobility across borders and innovation in
the field of VET (EUROPÄISCHE KOMMISSION 2005).
While in the area of school education the OECD’s
↑ PISA studies (OECD 2000a) have more or less
influenced educational discourses, in VET “com-
petence” (though in different meanings) and the
associated topic of “standards” has emerged as
the overarching topic of both policy and research
worldwide (BILLETT 1999; HELLWIG 2006a; 2006b;
PILZ 2006; WEIGEL / MULDER / COLLINS 2007). Both
topics are linked to each other by a common “phi-
losophy”: This is the belief that the ↑ efficiency
and quality of an educational system, institution or
programme has to be measured against its “out-
comes”. In the case of the PISA studies student as-
sessment was carried out by looking at specific in-
tellectual ↑ performance indicators in general sub-
jects such as Mathematics or Science. Against this
background, it appears that educational systems
are looked at from a different perspective in that
they become growingly associated with their over-
all performance in terms of demonstrated com-
petences and learning results submitted to exter-
nal assessment (ERTL 2006b). In Germany, this
has led to a debate on the quality of the “three-tier
↑ school system” and the quality of learning and
teaching in German schools in general. One of the
discharges of this debate has been the introduction
of Bildungsstandards (educational standards) as
they were decreed by the German Education Min-
isters Conference in 2004 (KMK 2005; K LIEME /
AVENARIUS / BLUM / DÖBRICH / GRUBER 2003). These
educational standards allude to intended individ-
ual learning achievements or competences which
every student should obtain. Ertl holds that “with
the introduction of national standards, the concept
of competence has become a dominant issue in the
educational discourse” (ERTL 2006b, 628). How-
ever, there are more sources for this re-orientation
in educational and didactical thinking which tra-
ditionally has focussed on learning contents rath-
er than learning objectives. One of the roots cer-
tainly may be seen in the way the Anglo-Saxon ap-
proach to (vocational) learning (e. g. MISKO 1999)
– though highly contested (e. g. CANNING 1998) –
was welcomed in other countries trying to reform
252
their ↑ VET systems. In this context, competence
is thought of as a radical dismissal of traditional
learning along “inputs” and therefore differs from
the German understanding of “occupational com-
petence” (HELLWIG 2006a). Its most recent rele-
vance may be seen in the debate on the “↑ Euro-
pean Qualifications Framework” (EQF) and the
corresponding “National Qualification Frame-
works” (NQF) respectively (DEISSINGER 2006b;
YOUNG 2003). The EQF debate has to be seen in
the wake of the “Lisbon Declaration” stressing,
among others, the need for more transparency and
comparability of (vocational) qualifications across
the community. It is a cornerstone in what may
be seen as an ongoing chain of political and re-
search activities meant to open up wide access and
to improve performance, quality and attractive-
ness of VET all over Europe. At the same time,
VET, despite its specific social and economic sig-
nificance, is increasingly looked upon in a similar
way as higher education, which means that the so-
called “↑ Bologna Process” and the “Lisbon-↑ Co-
penhagen Process” have to be seen as two sides of
one medal as they follow similar principles of har-
monisation (within the legal framework of the EU
treaty) and as they clearly aim at transparency as
well as ease of transition and progression within a
permeable and unified education system (WINTER-
TON 2005; R AFFE / HOWIESON / TINKLIN 2005). This
includes the notion of a “European Credit Transfer
System” for VET (↑ ECVET).
In 2006, as a logical consequence of the “PISA
shock” and inspired and pressurised by the grow-
ing impact of the dynamics of European ↑ VET
policy, the first German VET PISA feasability
study (PISA-VET) came out which not only tries
to fill the research gap concerning the competence
issue and the empirical research deficits in the de-
bate, but also tries to pay tribute to the interna-
tional and European debate in the context of PISA
and EQF (BAETHGE /ACHTENHAGEN /ARENDS ET AL.
2006). The study is a good example of the grow-
ing relevance of “micro-level” ↑ research in VET,
focussing the didactical and curricular dimension
of VET (→ 3.4.1; → 3.7.6; → 3.7.7) and the prob-
lem of measurability of competences (→ 3.4.2;
→ 3.6.1; → 5.2.6). In this study, the specific prob-
lems and implications associated with the compe-
Handbook of TVET Research
tence debate are being outlined and it becomes ob-
vious that many unsolved problems still lie ahead
which derive from the particular character of VET
and its links with ↑ labour markets. The most im-
portant aspect here, however – and now we turn
back the page to what has been said above – is how
the different cultural imprints in VET systems
worldwide allow those responsible for reforming
and developing the goals, instruments, pathways
and the pedagogical foundations of VET to pur-
sue a supranational strategy which has implica-
tions for the “system reference” of the VET system
including what may be called “didactical culture”
(FROMMBERGER 2006b). Although a number of po-
litical measures have already been launched, more
research is needed focussing on two major issues:
(1) Are the reform steps that have to be undertaken
in the wake of ↑ CBT and EQF really beneficial to
improve the quality and status of VET? (2) What
are the “side effects” of VET strategies that more
or less ignore its cultural foundations in a given
country? These questions are formulated with re-
spect to Europe in particular where “different per-
spectives and starting points” reflect the respective
structural and cultural dimensions of each individ-
ual ↑ VET system (GENDRON 2005, 7).
The following chapters will focus on VET sys-
tems in different ways: First of all, the above-men-
tioned, though rather implicitly discussed, aspects
of comparison and comparability will be taken up
in the first two sub-chapters, followed by historical
reflections on ↑ VET research in different countries
and the various national and international report-
ing systems on VET. It becomes obvious that all
these sub-systems are strongly interlinked with the
VET system itself, also the way research on evalu-
ation issues is carried out in a country like Germa-
ny with its special VET tradition. Sub-chapters on
research issues and results in the areas of ↑ pre-vo-
cational education and ↑ further education as well
as college-based VET will conclude this interna-
tional chapter in the present handbook.
Areas of VET Research
3.3.1 Comparative Research on
Technical and Vocational
Education and Training
(TVET) – Methodological
Considerations
Philipp Grollmann
3.3.1.1 Conditions for Comparative TVET
Research
The increase in international co-operation and
economic entanglement are major factors for the
development of international comparative research
in TVET. International economic co-operation in
development work (e. g. ↑ GTZ in Germany or the
Worldbank on a global level) and the building of
supra-national organisations (EU, ↑ UNESCO etc.)
have been the major drivers for international co-
operation on the topic. Global ↑ mobility of capi-
tal and economic co-operation also reinforces the
need for information on the quality of “↑ human
capital” in potential countries of investment. Be-
sides, new methods of transnational governance,
such as the Open Method of Co-ordination in the
EU (LENEY 2004) need the support of scientific re-
search in order to produce the data and knowledge
necessary for processes of “bench-learning” and
political and practical decisions. Not only TVET
as such is of interest but also its contributions to
the wider societal and economic environment. Ma-
jor studies on this question have come to the result
that different styles of production, economic com-
petitiveness and national labour-market regimes
correspond to different ways of securing and pro-
ducing the skill and ↑ knowledge bases for produc-
tion (HALL / SOSKICE 2001: MAURICE / SORGE 1990;
SOSKICE / HANCKÉ 1996).
On the other hand there are also factors which have
inhibited the development of comparative TVET
research as an internationally accepted discipli-
nary delineation, with its own questions, method-
ologies and infrastructure.
Delineating TVET – a Methodological Problem
First of all, it has to be stressed that it is not the
specific mental operation of “comparing”– possi-
253
bly in a scientifically reflective manner – which
constitutes this strand of research, but rather a
fundamental assumption on the ↑ research object
“TVET”, i.e. that learning and its societal institu-
tionalisation are embedded into diverging cultur-
al or national traditions (HÖRNER 1991; 1997), and
that these differences in culture and tradition can
explain certain variations within the field.
This, however, presupposes that there exists a cer-
tain societal entity which can be identified as the
field of Technical and Vocational Education and
Training. In some cultures this term has a well de-
fined meaning and empirical connotations while in
other cultures it might be difficult to clearly de-
lineate the field (→ 1); this is because the differ-
ent functions integrated into TVET systems in
some cultures are spread through different societal
spheres, such as schooling and universities, ↑ la-
bour markets, ↑ social work, in-company organisa-
tion and other places of non-formalised learning.
Therefore, it might be appropriate to conceptual-
ise vocational learning in different cultures as the
main subject of research.
Some scholars have even argued that because of
specific methodological and epistemic hindrances
any attempt to compare vocational education sys-
tems has to fail and eventually produces scientif-
ic artefacts (GEORG 1996b, 1997b). The argument
is that ↑ labour markets, education and learning
and other relevant societal facts are so closely in-
terrelated that it is not possible to isolate the as-
pect of vocational learning and its institutionalisa-
tion from the overall society or culture. The use of
“Technical and Vocational Education” is a cultural
projection (see below) and TVET is not a valid cat-
egory for culturally sensitive research. This stands
in stark contrast to the rather pragmatic practice
of implicitly defining vocational education as the
sum of all individual pathways, educational pro-
grammes and institutions which lead to occupa-
tional positions for which an academic degree is
not required (RYAN 1991; STERN / WAGNER 1999).
In this chapter the possibility of comparing aspects
of societal traditions of TVET is a basic underlying
assumption. However, there are certain epistemo-
logical problems in conjunction with comparisons
in TVET which need to be reflected in compara-
tive research projects.
254
Traditions and Types of Comparative Research
in TVET
A review of the existing literature and the relevant
research reveals two main areas of research – part-
ly segregated according to discipline, partly inter-
woven. These areas involve
(1) research which deals explicitly with questions
of TVET in connection with the respective cultur-
al, national or societal context and
(2) research dealing with issues related to vocation-
al training which stems from the broader sphere
of international comparative socio-economic re-
search.
Research of the first type includes descriptive ac-
counts of TVET systems (LAUTERBACH / SPÖTTL /
FASSHAUER ET AL. 1995–2005) as well as historio-
graphic studies on the development of the TVET
function in different educational traditions (GREEN
1990; SCHRIEWER 1986; 1987b; 1993) or empiri-
cal or systematic studies more focussed on cer-
tain aspects of TVET systems (DEISSINGER 2002;
FISCHER / RÖBEN 2001 ; FROMMBERGER 1999; 2004;
GROLLMANN 2005b; HARRIS / DEISSINGER 2003).
In studies of the second type TVET or the rela-
tion between education and the labour market of-
ten play the role of one explanatory factor for the
object researched. Examples would be studies on
the ↑ school-to-work transition, ↑ vocational iden-
tities or the relationship between TVET and com-
petitiveness (K EEP / MAYHEW 1998; K IRPAL 2004a;
STERN / WAGNER 1999).
In addition, another distinction can be made be-
tween different epistemic orientations. Studies can
seek for the identification of universal characteris-
tics of TVET through comparison – e. g. trends in
↑ curriculum development on a global level. They
can also aim at the identification of cultural or na-
tional particularities – i.e. the special features of
TVET in a certain country or region or culture.
Research can be based on the aim of improving
practice, or research can be based on the notion
of a more analytically driven paradigm, i.e. iden-
tifying generalisable causal relationships between
different elements and variables within TVET sys-
tems (HÖRNER 1991; 1997). See the figure for a
summary of the different distinctions. In the fol-
lowing I will pay attention to some of the funda-
Handbook of TVET Research
mental problems involved in carrying out compar-
ative research in any of these directions. Particu-
lar attention will be given to the problem of typol-
ogies, the so-called “↑ nostrification” problem and
the significance of dealing in a reflective way with
the connection between language and cognition in
comparative research. From time to time examples
will be introduced from the sphere of ↑ teachers’
professionalisation.
3.3.1.2 Potential Fallacies in Comparative
Research
The Construction of Types – Levels of Analysis
In German academic TVET literature since the
mid-nineties a debate has been going on concern-
ing the question of comparing TVET systems and
the possibility of their typological construction
(DEISSINGER 2001a; FROMMBERGER / REINISCH 1999;
GEORG 1997b; LAUTERBACH 1994; 2003b; SCHÜTTE /
DEISSINGER 2000) which also reflects the interna-
tional academic discussion on the application of
the comparative method.
The classic example for this has become the ↑ ty-
pology of vocational education systems according
to Greinert, which he has continued to refine over
the years. Greinert first of all distinguishes three
systems of VET: the market model, the scholas-
tic model and the mixed model or ↑ dual system
model (a similar model can be found in LENEY/
THE LISBON-TO-COPENHAGEN-TO-MAASTRICHT CON-
SORTIUM PARTNERS 2005). The main criterion here
is the “role of the state”. Greinert re-developed
his model in the 1990s, which became oriented
along the premises of system-theory, and his con-
struction now refers to different types of “govern-
ing patterns of system-specific communication”.
He distinguishes three such governing patterns:
1. bureaucracy 2. market and 3. tradition. Oth-
er authors have pointed out the limitations of this
model (FROMMBERGER / REINISCH 1999). One of the
crucial criticisms is that this construction of types
represents a view of one dimension only. Regard-
less of whether Greinert is attempting to name real
types or ideal types in the Weberian sense (WEBER
1980), the dimension “governing patterns of sys-
tem-specific communication” would permit quite
different materialisations. For example, social wel-
Areas of VET Research
fare may be seen as a governing pattern, inclusion
or social ↑ partnership would be similar concepts.
A look at Northern Europe immediately brings
these two governing patterns to mind. The exam-
ples clearly illustrate just how close Greinert’s ty-
pology is to the morphology of the respective con-
figurations of state, i.e. how much they are based in
political science and how little they are specifically
suitable for vocational learning and teaching.
The works by Deißinger (1998) represent a fur-
ther development towards a multi-dimensional ac-
count. With two additional dimensions, on whose
basis types are then constructed, Deißinger adds
the didactical-curricular focus and the location of
the acquisition of qualifications during the proc-
ess of socialisation to arrive at three different ide-
al types. This constitutes the first attempt to intro-
duce central dimensions of a vocational pedagog-
ical perspective into the debate. Deißinger calls
these types “qualification styles” and distinguish-
es them as enterprise specific, knowledge orient-
ed and vocationally oriented. Quite obviously, he
again has the three dominant European systems of
TVET in mind (F, UK, D).
It is the comparison of systems which stands at
the forefront of the academic debate on compara-
tive TVET. In the German discussion the so-called
↑ dual system is normally taken as a benchmark
(FROMMBERGER / REINISCH 1999). The most consist-
ent critic and alerter of such “↑ nostrification” of
the structures and function of ↑ labour market, ed-
ucation and qualification in comparative TVET
research is Walter Georg, who has made several
references to the impermissibility of applying the
concept “vocational education system” as tertium
comparationis (e. g. GEORG 1997b). In this view,
comparative analysis can only give rise to insights
if
“(…) one takes into consideration the reconstruction of
the respective country-specific cultural and organisa-
tional-structural context” (GEORG 1997b).
On the discernment of this problem, which can
surely be assumed for most of the authors in the ac-
ademic literature on comparative TVET research,
it appears that up to now there has been a concen-
tration on the macro-level of vocational education
that has moved mainstream.
255
In industrial sociological ↑ training research, for
instance, case study approaches have been applied
intensively (HEIDENREICH / SCHMIDT 1991; SCHMIDT
1991). The system, the structure, the tradition – be
they specific to either nations or regions – consti-
tute the transparencies on which research results
generated by ↑ research questions and approach-
es focussing the micro-level must be interpreted.
For research in TVET it must be taken into ac-
count that the ↑ contextualisation cannot emanate
from a more-or-less “purely” educationalist view-
point, but needs to reflect the complex interplay of
the “triad” of vocational education, organisation
of the labour market and the firm, and innovation.
E. g. the British curricular ↑ modularisation which
is often seen as a role-model for curricular flexibi-
lisation has to be interpreted in conjunction with a
given culture of division of labour or in-company
↑ Human Resources Development respectively.
Calls of researchers to include the micro-level
when investigating the relation between educa-
tion and work in international ↑ comparative stud-
ies have up to now only scarcely been followed.
Comparative studies on teaching, learning and in-
struction as well as pedagogical ↑ professionalism
are still missing (SCHÜTTE / DEISSINGER 2000). Re-
search on industrial cultures has illustrated the im-
portant role of vocational training as a dimension
contributing to the development of technology.
To the same extent, though, technological devel-
opment also constitutes a dimension of vocation-
al training (RUTH 1995). This becomes evident, for
instance, in the different patterns of how trades,
occupations or vocational fields overlap or are sep-
arated by specific demarcations. Whereas Germa-
ny has created occupations in the area of sanitation,
heating and air-conditioning, the (part-) equivalent
in the ↑ USA would be HVAC, heating, ventilation
and air-conditioning as a simplified example.
Types, Levels and Dimensions
The controversial construction of types in com-
parative research serves different purposes and
their epistemic value can only be judged against
the cognitive interest. One of these purposes is the
use of ideal types in the formulation of hypothe-
ses (DEISSINGER 1995). Many of the types, espe-
cially those which are constructed solely on a sin-
256
gle dimension of the comparison, virtually extend
an open invitation to formulate “hypotheses” con-
cerning the reality of vocational education in oth-
er contexts. These may sometimes prove to be cor-
rect, but with a high degree of probability they may
equally well turn out to be false, or even down-
right misleading. It is for this reason that Uwe
Lauterbach refers to the danger of comparative re-
search creating stereotypes (LAUTERBACH / SPÖTTL /
FASSHAUER ET AL. 1995–2005). Deißinger empha-
sises the “heuristic function” of his ideal types,
which according to Weber serve the following pur-
pose:
“The concept of ideal types will help to develop our skill
in attribution in research: it is no hypothesis but it of-
fers guidance to the construction of hypotheses. It is not
a description of reality but it aims to give unambiguous
means of expression to such a description. For research,
the ideal-typical notion is an attempt to train the skill
in attribution: it is not a ‘hypothesis’, but it attempts to
steer the formulation of hypotheses. It is not a represen-
tation of what is real, but it attempts to lend the repre-
sentation a clear means of expression” (translated from
WEBER 1988a, 190).
The purpose of scientific research is not least the
reduction of complexity. To achieve that, typolo-
gies constitute an important tool of explanation.
The difficulty in TVET is the adequate dimension-
ing of such models of ideas. This can be illustrat-
ed by means of the following example taken from
a dissertation on the ↑ professionalisation of voca-
tional teachers in ↑ China:
“As opposed to the widely held belief in the West (that
China) is a socialist society with centralised planning
and decision-making processes, in the area of vocation-
al education this couldn’t be farther from the truth: with-
in the complex network comprising government agen-
cies, the Ministry of Education, the Foreign Ministry
and other authorities, vocational schools enjoy a high
degree of curricular autonomy in the creation of their
own vocations (in particular the design of new courses
of vocational training), up to and including legal issues,
coordination with local government […]. In the case of
new courses of vocational training for which no official
curriculum exists, the schools make up their own, which
are subsequently approved by the education authorities
[…]. So it is quite logical and not infrequent that differ-
ent curricula may exist in a town or a region – even with-
in a single school – and thus different syllabuses and ma-
terials may be deployed” (ZHAO 2003).
Handbook of TVET Research
Although it is obviously the state which occupies
the most important role in China when it comes
to the administrative dimension of vocational ed-
ucation, this example shows the importance – es-
pecially when the focus is on the every-day busi-
ness of teaching and learning – of taking the re-
spective level of administrative control into ac-
count. This is also clearly illustrated by the analy-
ses of the task profiles within vocational education
dealt with in this treatise and underscores the rath-
er weak coupling of micro and macro structures
in vocational education and their cultural context.
Another example for this problem is the interplay
between different actors within vocational educa-
tion in Germany. In other countries it is general-
ly assumed that the cooperation between employ-
ers and the representatives of the education sys-
tem within the so-called “↑ dual systems” is well-
nigh exemplary. Against this background it may
come as a surprise to learn that within the voca-
tional education system in Germany the concept
of “Lernortkooperation” (co-operation of learn-
ing sites) is deemed to be fallible and that its im-
provement has become an omnipresent topic in the
reform discussion surrounding vocational educa-
tion (see e. g. GROLLMANN / GOTTLIEB /KURZ 2003;
GROLLMANN / LEWIS 2003).
In summary, it is a necessary pre-condition for
any researcher in a comparative research project
in the field of TVET to constantly reflect on the re-
lationship between different levels of analysis in
conjunction with appropriate ↑ research methods
and the general hypothesis of transcultural vari-
ation across levels of social practice constituting
any comparison.
Externalising and Internalising Nostrification
– Epistemological Problems of the Global Dis-
course in TVET
Because of the conceptual problems encountered
in comparative research there is often a decou-
pling of comparative ↑ research designs from the
discourse in the respective disciplines, so that the
avenues towards research and research results are
frequently no longer developed and analysed in
congruence with the research topics of other sub-
disciplines and ↑ research fields. However, an im-
portant function of comparative research lies pre-
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 1: Traditions and types of comparative TVET re-
search
cisely in continually investigating to what extent
the research findings in neighbouring fields fulfil
their frequently implicit claim to universality and
to what extent ↑ benchmarks which are formulat-
ed on the basis of such research are either culture-
neutral or specific (FISCHER 2003b).
Both the compilation of data on the object of re-
search at the very outset as well as the evalua-
tion of results at the end reveal the ethnographic
significance attached to such a strategy. Some of
the items on the research agenda can be relatively
easily identified as being either national cultur-
al approaches; on the other hand, though, the re-
search agenda also always contains ↑ research ap-
proaches which were not formulated immanent-
ly culturally, but rather in debate with other tradi-
tions of research and practice. ‘Foreign countries’
as an argument (ZYMEK 1975) thus not only assume
a significant function in practice and politics, but
also in the genesis of scientific approaches with-
in socio-scientific discourses. This can happen ex-
plicitly by way of reference to respective “inter-
national” traditions of education – e. g. in the dis-
cussion surrounding the metamorphosis of ↑ voca-
tional schools in Germany into so-called region-
al centres of competence (e. g. KURZ 2002); partly,
though, it takes place implicitly when certain the-
oretical traditions and positions enter the nation-
al discourse in the absence of reflection on their
original context. Typical examples are the treatis-
es on the learning organisation; but also the recep-
tion given to Schön’s (1983) contribution to the Eu-
ropean discussion on ↑ professionalisation and vo-
cational learning.
These discourses now treat Schön, Senge, etc.,
with virtually ritual respect as “heroes” of progres-
257
sive reform agendas. In his critical analysis of such
“hybrid” discourses, the comparative educational-
ist Thomas Popkewitz illustrates this phenomenon
by using the metaphor of the “indigenous foreign-
er”:
“[…] I deploy the concept of the indigenous foreigner to
recognise how the local and the global overlay each oth-
er in the production of power. The concept of hybridity
rejects both universalism and particularism. The impor-
tance of the indigenous foreigner, then, lies not in the in-
dividuality of the person who is made the hero or hero-
ine per se, but in the hybridity of the discourses that or-
der the memory about progress and that divides remem-
bering from forgetting” (POPKEWITZ 2000).
With regard to the above-mentioned “↑ nostrifica-
tion problem”, this indicates that it not only hap-
pens when researchers associate their own cultur-
ally determined patterns with circumstances they
observe in other contexts: for example, when Ger-
man researchers refer to dual vocational training
in the ↑ U.S. by maintaining a “failure of an insti-
tution” (K REYSING 2002). It also happens when the
concepts observed in other contexts are applied to
one’s own culture. One can therefore distinguish
between an internalising and an externalising nos-
trification. Popkewitz applies the metaphor of the
indigenous foreigner to the pedagogical profes-
sionalisation discourse:
“While discourses of professionalization in education
embody different historical governing patterns, partic-
ular narratives about individuality, action and participa-
tion circulate globally. Today’s image of the profession-
al teacher is of one who is expected to collaborate, re-
flect and “construct knowledge” in a decentralized sys-
tem of education. The “new” teacher (and the child) is
an “empowered”, problem solving individual capable of
responding flexibly to problems that have no clear set
of boundaries or singular answers. The teacher is as-
sumed to possess a pragmatic individuality that is tied to
the contingencies of situations in which problems arise”
(POPKEWITZ 2000, 282).
He perceives this conceptualisation of pedagog-
ical ↑ professionalism to be grounded in the fur-
ther development of the Anglo-Saxon notion of
professionalism and distinguishes it from the tra-
ditional German approach, in which the hallmark
of the “professional” teacher is “Bildung” as an at-
tribute and a professional task. Hence, the underly-
ing problem boils down to the assumption that the
respective objects which are to be investigated, as
well as the formulation of the ↑ research approach-
258
es and the interpretation of the results, are seem-
ingly independent. In international comparative
research there is no independence of the research-
ing subject from the objects of research – which
applies to social research in general – and likewise
no independence exists between the individual ob-
jects, as the so-called quasi-experimental school
in comparative research in its vulgar form would
have us believe. In comparative ↑ statistics this di-
lemma is referred to as “Galton’s problem” going
back to the English statistician Francis Galton.
Thus, already at the level of the formulation of re-
search interests, one needs to be aware of the con-
text of their development. Already at this stage in
research a pre-definition will be made on the issue
which currents assert themselves: the more cultur-
al-specific or the universal. Due to the “↑ nostrifi-
cation problem” it is one of the greatest challeng-
es for comparative research to formulate questions
with an adequate relation of concreteness and ab-
stractness and to carry out the methodological ar-
rangement of investigations in an adequate rela-
tion between openness and closeness. This simi-
larly applies to the interpretation of research re-
sults. Such problems are additionally aggravated
by the language problem that inevitably arises in
the course of carrying out ↑ comparative studies.
Language and Culture Comparison
In an article in the German weekly newspaper
“Die Zeit”, the journalist Martin Spiewak (2001)
describes the concept of the private University of
Phoenix, Arizona (UOP). Judged as being a high-
ly successful university on the basis of high stu-
dent numbers as well as other key data, this insti-
tution is remarkable for its particularly high degree
of flexibility with regard to its adaptation to new
technologies, a high presence on the American
market for ↑ further education and ongoing foun-
dation of new “subsidiaries”. In his article Spiewak
points out that the lecturers at UOP refer to them-
selves as “instructors” and he attributes a down-
right emphatic significance in the depiction of the
↑ didactical concept of the institution to this fact.
Actually, in American English the term instructor
is used as a virtual equivalent of the term lecturer.
In vocational education at the Community Colleg-
es and in ↑ High Schools the term is quite common-
Handbook of TVET Research
place (MILLER / MILLER 1998). Albeit drawn from a
context of journalism, with regard to the language
problem which typically occurs in comparative re-
search, this example serves as a warning against
over-interpreting what at first glance may appear
to be a relevant language phenomenon.
As illustrated by Clement (1999), on the level of
language it is inevitable that cultural projections
are also transported. That language indeed influ-
ences perception to some extent, but not to the
point of “linguistic determinism”, has been proven
as result of a number of psychological experiments.
Interestingly, these research efforts point out that it
is especially the understanding and the processing
of abstract concepts and domains which are influ-
enced most by language. For example, the percep-
tion of time is influenced by language to a great-
er extent than the perception of colour (BORO-
DITSKY 2001). “Communication problems in the
global village” (1999) thus call for strong empir-
ical research orientation. An understanding with
regard to understanding on the level of language is
necessary. However, if not flanked by empirical re-
search, its full ramifications will lead to infinite re-
gresses and contribute little to cognitive progress.
Thus, the “meaning” of vocational education must
be reconstructed in interplay between abstract con-
ceptualisation and empirical facticity. As formu-
lated by Max Weber in his essay on the construc-
tion of types according to the culture critic and
leftist Hegelian, Friedrich Theodor Vischer, a suit-
able balance has to be found between “substance
husbandry” and “meaning husbandry” (translated
from WEBER 1988a, 214).
3.3.1.3 Comparative TVET Research a
Cumbersome Journey
Thus, according to what has been said above we
state that researchers in comparative TVET have
to cope with severe epistemological problems. The
general hypothesis of transcultural or national var-
iation underpinning comparative TVET research
requires the handling of topics such as
(1) TVET as a multi-level phenomenon of social
practices, that are sometimes only loosely cou-
pled;
(2) implicit claims for universal validity of TVET
and TVET related research and policy discourses
Areas of VET Research
(e. g. empirical ↑ educational research or transna-
tional policies);
(3) the problem of cultural projections (↑ nostrifica-
tions) as regards the formation of ↑ research ques-
tions as well as the interpretation of data and re-
sults
(4) a balanced ratio between linguistic and concep-
tual sensitivity and empirical research.
In addition comparative researchers need to clari-
fy whether they want to look out for similarities or
differences and whether they hereby follow a more
analytical or a more practical approach. The prac-
tice of comparative research in TVET therefore
needs constant discursive collusion between the
various partners involved in the research process.
This has been labelled the collaborative ↑ research
approach (ATTWELL 1998; SCHMIDT 1991; THUR-
LEY 1991). However, this cannot be a substitute for
comparative research but certainly is its social pre-
requisite. The social practice of ↑ research co-oper-
ation often has practical re-percussions within the
TVET field. If the cultural comparison remains an
academic exercise, merely, following this under-
standing:
“From a quasi experimental testing procedure for hy-
pothetical generalised relations of condition or effect it
is reconverted [the comparative method, author] to the
empirically bolstered development of a functionally or-
ganised equivalence area of alternative possibilities for
the effectuation of effects” (translated from SCHRIEWER
2000, 93),
it might remain meaningless to TVET-practition-
ers who are seeking for inspiration and reflec-
tion in order to shape their professional practice
through knowledge generated in other cultures or
through their comparison.
259
3.3.2 Comparative VET
Research – Methodological
Considerations, Results and
Current Questions
Hubert Ertl and Dietmar
Frommberger
3.3.2.1 Stages of Comparative Interest in
Education and Training
The comparison of educational phenomena has a
long history and can be traced back to reports on
educational practice written by visitors to foreign
countries in antiquity. These ‘travellers’ tales’,
which can of course still be found today, are char-
acterised by an emphasis on exotic details which
contrast strongly with familiar educational struc-
tures and practices. The main motive of these re-
ports are general curiosity, and therefore, system-
atic accounts are rare in this category.
From the 19th century onwards, travellers with a
specialised interest in education and training ap-
peared, motivated by the development of nation-
al systems of education in core European coun-
tries and the connected need for ↑ educational pol-
icy making at a national level. Therefore, educa-
tional politicians and experts visited other coun-
tries in order to produce more or less systematic
reports on educational ↑ policy and practice as ob-
served in schools and training institutions. These
reports often took the form of encyclopaedic de-
scriptions, rarely with explanatory powers. The re-
ports of the English educationist Michael Sadler
on education and training in Germany can be re-
garded as one of the most important examples in
this category. Some visits of educational ministers
in countries that achieved good results in the ↑ PI-
SA study are reminiscent of examples of 19th cen-
tury educational borrowing.
At the beginning of the 20th century the analysis of
historical and societal factors and forces that shape
education and training systems in foreign countries
became fashionable. This category of comparative
research assumed an interdependent relationship
between society and education: whereas education
was regarded as being shaped by societal struc-
tures, powers and preferences, education was seen
260
as being able to change society in the medium and
long term. Following this assumption, education-
ists and policy-makers started to see in education
and training an instrument to steer society and the
economy in a particular direction.
With the increasing importance of social science
approaches and methods in ↑ educational research
in the second half of the 20th century, compar-
ative work in the area of education and training
changed. Rather than relying on historical analyses
of the factors shaping education and training, em-
pirical methods are used to describe, analyse and
assess educational systems and outcomes. Educa-
tional administrations began to produce sophis-
ticated statistical reporting systems which com-
parativists started to investigate using quantita-
tive ↑ research methods, often developed in areas
of social sciences other than education (psychol-
ogy and psychometrics). The use of ↑ research ap-
proaches and interests developed in economics be-
came wide spread in describing and comparing in-
puts and outputs of education and training systems
in different countries. Recent large-scale compar-
isons of student achievement in large numbers of
countries can be regarded as a further development
in this category of comparative work (for more de-
tailed periodisations of comparative education and
training mainly from an Anglo-American perspec-
tive see for instance Noah/ Eckstein (1969), Jones
(1971), Epstein (1994) and Vos/ Brits (1990)).
3.3.2.2 Different National Research
Traditions
Education and in particular Comparative Edu-
cation is a common subject and question in most
countries all over the world. VET and in that con-
text also Comparative VET is, traditionally, more
a field of research in German speaking countries.
Meanwhile VET is increasingly a field of research
in more and more European Countries and all over
the world. For instance, the ↑ Organisation for Eco-
nomic Cooperation and Development (OECD) col-
lects an increasing variety of comparative ↑ data
on vocational education, progression and qualifi-
cations on an annual basis (OECD 2005b). Also,
the European Centre for the Development of Voca-
tional Training produces an ever increasing stock
of materials comparing ↑ VET systems, structures
Handbook of TVET Research
and practice in Europe and elsewhere (CEDEFOP
2006b).
Different national ↑ research traditions and con-
texts seem to adopt different foci for comparing
VET internationally. For example, whereas the
German ↑ comparative studies are mostly con-
cerned with the structures and practices of VET it-
self (see for instance the far-reaching debate about
↑ modularisation of training in the 1990s, frequent-
ly referring to National Vocational Qualifications
in England, Wales and Scotland, see for instance
DEISSINGER 1994; PILZ 1999; ERTL 2002), compar-
ative studies in the UK are mostly concerned with
the connection between training systems and eco-
nomic competitiveness. Examples of such studies
are the comparisons of German and English vo-
cational training undertaken by Prais (1981) and
Prais/ Wagner (1985), the comparisons of Eng-
lish training structures with the country’s main
competitors in Europe and Asia (undertaken by
1988, 1990 and 1992, concluding that England was
trapped in a ‘low-skills-equilibrium’ as opposed
to a ‘high-skills-equilibrium’ in countries such as
Germany), and more recent studies concerned with
the connection between training systems and ↑ la-
bour market structures (see for instance BROWN /
GREEN / LAUDER 2000; HAYWARD /JAMES 2004) or
the ↑ school-to-work transition (see for instance
EVANS / HEINZ 1994; BIERHOFF / PRAIS 1997; MÜLLER /
SHAVIT 1998). The differences in focus of ↑ com-
parative VET research conducted in the UK and in
Germany illustrates that comparative work is often
driven by nation- and system-specific agendas; the
aim of comparative research is, inter alia, to make
these differences accessible and to demonstrate the
impact of political agendas on the production and
interpretation of results of comparative work in ed-
ucation and training (see ERTL 2006a).
These different national research traditions seem
to be linked to the status and relative position of
comparative education (Vergleichende Erziehung-
swissenschaft, Education Comparée, Educación
Comparada, etc.) in various English, German,
French, Spanish, etc. speaking countries, and to
the degrees to which research into matters of com-
parative VET has developed into a (sub-)discipline
or not in different countries. A further issue is to
what extent VET is the subject of independent aca-
Areas of VET Research
demic research in different national contexts. The
fact that the German Association of ↑ Education-
al Research (DGfE) has a separate special inter-
est group in the area of vocational education and
training, whereas such a group is not in existence
in the DGfE’s British equivalent (BERA) is an
indication of the different status of research into
matters of VET in the two countries.
In the German-speaking context, there have been
attempts to establish ↑ comparative VET research
as a distinctive sub-discipline of comparative ed-
ucation (CZYCHOLL 1971; LAUTERBACH 2003a;
2003b), partly due to the division of Germany
after World War II and ongoing comparative re-
search into VET in the ‘other’ part of Germany
(CZYCHOLL 1971, 19). Czycholl traced the compar-
ative element in German research in vocational ed-
ucation back to the beginning of the 20th centu-
ry when scholars such as Georg Kerschensteiner
used comparative approaches to improve the un-
derstanding of the way in which VET in Germa-
ny had developed. He concludes, by pointing out
a discrepancy that exists between the need for
more comparative work (resulting from develop-
ment such as the ↑ internationalisation of trade and
the European integration process) and the lack of
agreed aims, concepts and methods of comparative
research into VET (ABRAHAM 1962, 176), that re-
search in this area is still at a ‘pre-scientific stage’;
an evaluation that still holds much truth 35 years
later.
Lauterbach (LAUTERBACH 2003a; 2003b) is particu-
larly concerned with the relationship between com-
parative education and comparative ↑ research in
VET and concludes that the discussion of research
areas, of distinctly comparative methods and the-
ories and of the motivation to do comparative re-
search in the area of VET has not been developed
progressively and continuously enough to warrant
the establishment of an academic (sub-) discipline
(for different views on the position of compara-
tive research in VET within academia in different
cultureal contexts see the contributions in BUSCH /
BUSCH /K RÜGER /K RÜGER-POTRATZ 1974).
261
3.3.2.3 Comparing in VET Research:
Methodology and Current Results
In the historical approach to research, the main fo-
cus lies in describing, explaining and understand-
ing the past. But besides that it is also intended to
draw conclusions and predict future developments.
Comparative research follows a similar line of en-
quiry and this is particularly true for compara-
tive research in VET: On the one hand we want to
know and understand the characteristics and struc-
tural models of VET in other countries. For that
reason it is important to have an understanding of
how these models have evolved. And with compar-
ative VET research current issues may be consid-
ered with a view to drawing tentative conclusions
and posing recommendations for future develop-
ments to ensure continuous improvement in plan-
ning and delivery of VET.
When adopting a ↑ historical ↑ research methodol-
ogy, the validity of using historical evidence to ex-
plain current issues remains contentious. This is
also true when conducting comparative research.
Originally ‘comparing’ ↑ VET systems means
↑ benchmarking, but in order to arrive at reasoned
conclusions with regard to benchmarking, a sound
understanding of the background and development
of the different models needs to be appreciated.
Such an appreciation enables the development of
criteria (‘tertia comparationis’) with which to ar-
rive at relatively objective and international con-
clusions.
So “comparing” in a broader sense not only means
to benchmark and to understand the structural dif-
ferences and similarities in VET in different coun-
tries but also to know and understand the devel-
opment and design of VET in different countries.
Strictly speaking it is essential to be able to un-
derstand VET before ↑ benchmarking it in differ-
ent countries or cultures. Only on the basis of un-
derstanding VET is it viable to define valid criteria
for comparing according to the objective of bench-
marking.
Thus in order to explain differences and similar-
ities and to benchmark, a theory or thesis which
can be applied to more than one national context
needs to be developed. To date the literature shows
that such a model has yet to be developed. The ta-
262
ble below shows the main areas in ↑ comparative
VET research:
These different questions raised in comparative
VET research are closely connected with the three
main traditions in comparative education as iden-
tified by Broadfoot (1999, 24): The empiricist ap-
proach produces detailed documentations of edu-
cational phenomena and the ways national systems
have developed for providing the organisation and
delivery of education and training processes. The
positivist approach attempts to apply ‘scientific’
↑ research methods to education and training phe-
nomena in order to generate generalisable findings.
The holistic approach focuses on the cultural fac-
tors and forces that underlie education and training
systems in order to explain and eventually com-
pare educational phenomena.
It also needs to be recognised that ‘VET’ is a very
general term with diverse meanings in differ-
ent countries. With comparative VET research it
is intended to define and understand these mean-
ings regarding one or more ↑ subject areas on the
basis of different ↑ research designs. But it is also
intended to learn from each other and to find an-
swers about better or worse solutions concerning
the ↑ performance of the system. In the following
we present some results in comparative VET re-
search according to specific questions (Tab. 1).
Results of Research Aimed at Describing VET
in Different National or Cultural Contexts
– Several country studies, according to the VET
system or parts of the VET system (see for in-
stance LAUTERBACH / SPÖTTL / FASSHAUER ET AL.
1995–2005; ROTHE 1995; KOCH 1998; ANDERS-
SON 2000; WESTERHUIS 2001; ATKINSON 1999).
Tab. 1: Questions and subject areas of Comparative VET Research
Handbook of TVET Research
Results of Research Aimed at Understanding
and Explaining VET in Different Countries
– Historical ↑ VET Research (see for instance
K IRSCH / BERTRAND 1991; LANE 1996; SCHRIEW-
ER 1995; GOUDSWAARD 1981; CHARLOT / FIGEAT 1985;
PELPEL / TROGER 1993; GREGSON 1995).
Results of research aimed at comparing VET
with a view to knowing and understanding dif-
ferences and similarities
– Developing typologies to compare VET systems
very broadly (see for instance GREINERT 1988;
GREINERT 1995a; DEISSINGER 1995; CLEMENT 1996;
FROMMBERGER / REINISCH 1999; BROWN / GREEN /
LAUDER 2000).
– Historical-comparative research (see for in-
stance K RAAYVANGER / ONNA / STRAUSS 1988;
DEISSINGER 1992; GREINERT 1999; FROMMBERG-
ER 1999; H ARNEY/ SCHRIEWER 2000; FROMMBERGER /
REINISCH 2004).
– Research on finding new ways of defining and
solving problems (see for instance FINLAY/ NIVEN /
YOUNG 1998; DEISSINGER 1998; PILZ 1999; GONON
1998; NIJHOF / STREUMER 1998; WIERINGEN /ATTWELL
1999)
The COST initiative (European Co-operation in
the field of Scientific and Technical Research)
can be regarded as a large-scale attempt to insti-
tutionalise collaborative comparative research on
a number of current problems common to VET
across Europe (see for instance MULDER / SLOANE
2004 and NIJHOF / HEIKKINEN / NIEUWENHUIS 2002).
Areas of VET Research
Results or Research Aimed at Comparing VET
by Referring to the Outcomes of Training Proc-
esses or the Performance of Trainees
To date there are no significant empirical results
regarding and comparing the performance of VET
in different countries. Results for VET, similar to
the Programmes of International Student Assess-
ment (↑ PISA) in ↑ compulsory education conduct-
ed by ↑ OECD, do not exist. Nonetheless within
the European context and EU ↑ VET policy bench-
marking is more and more a common way to com-
pare VET in different countries (see → 4). How-
ever, there are small-scale studies comparing the
outcomes of training processes. For instance,
Schmidt (1997) reports on an Irish-German co-op-
eration project in which Irish electricians and mo-
tor mechanics sat the corresponding German ini-
tial training examinations. As they achieved simi-
lar or even slightly better results than their German
counterparts it might be concluded that the train-
ing standards of both countries in these fields are
comparable.
In terms of its characteristics, comparative ↑ re-
search in VET can be located between the ↑ hu-
manities and the empirical sciences. While com-
parative research employs the methods and tech-
niques of the social sciences for explaining the so-
cietal and individual conditions and consequences
of VET, for answering questions regarding the rea-
sons for status quo in training and regarding ↑ so-
cietal effects and aims of training, comparative re-
search also uses historical and philosophical ap-
proaches (ANWEILER 1974). For an overview of
methodological issues, approaches and challenges
in comparative research in education, see the ty-
pology developed by Keeves/Adams (1994); for a
comprehensive list of the functions comparative
work can assume in education and training prac-
tice, see Phillips (1999).
3.3.2.4 Comparative Aspects of VET in the
European Context: Discussion of EU
VET Policy
From the 1990s onwards, the impact of EU legis-
lation (Art. 127 Maastricht Treaty) on vocational
education in European countries was widely dis-
cussed and was the topic of a number of sympo-
263
sia of educational conferences (see for instance,
ACHTENHAGEN /K ELL 1994). Reports on these sym-
posia often discuss national developments in VET
in the framework of wider European policies and
make implicit reference to developments in oth-
er countries. Sometimes, fairly vague themes are
formulated (such as ‘new developments in VET’,
‘modernisation of VET’) which allow contribu-
tors to present national ↑ policies and practice to
an international audience. Explicit comparison is
in these cases often undertaken by the conven-
ors of the symposia or by the editors of resulting
publications (cf. for instance ERTL / GRAMLINGER /
HAYWARD 2004).
Policy-making at the EU level is characterised by
the tension between two aspects: the historical de-
velopments of national ↑ VET systems and their in-
terrelation in the particular socio-economic con-
texts of different countries, and the joint efforts of
European countries to come to terms with the chal-
lenges of modernisation of VET (GEORG 1999). At
the end of the 1990s, the EU project in the are-
as of education and vocational training was dom-
inated by the restrictions posed by ↑ subsidiarity,
the principle of non-harmonization and what has
been termed the ‘programme approach’ criticized
for ineffective administration and disproportionate
bureaucracy (cf. ERTL 2002). The current EU agen-
da on education and training is initiating compara-
tive ↑ research in VET at various levels and poses a
number of challenges for this kind of research.
The EU education and training agenda is domi-
nated by the strategic aim for the European Un-
ion ‘[…] to become the most competitive and dynam-
ic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of
sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs
and greater social cohesion’ which was formulated in
March 2000 by the European Council of Heads of
State or Government (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION 2000, 3). The so-called Lisbon Conclusions
set out new aims for policy areas such as education
and training and a new style of policy formation
was developed, the so-called ↑ open method of co-
ordination ‘[…] as the means of spreading best practice
and achieving greater convergence towards the main EU
goals’ (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2000, 18; cf.
in detail Frommberger 2006a). This open method of
cooperation allows the Union to set guidelines for
policies in the Member States and to set timetables
264
for implementing policies. Also, the new method
allows the use of indicators and ↑ benchmarks for
the comparison of the ↑ performance of Member
States with worldwide competitors, evaluating the
progress of Member States through periodic moni-
toring and peer review, which constitute inherently
comparative exercises.
The Lisbon Conclusions prescribe three main ob-
jectives for Europe’s education and training sys-
tems: ‘the development of local learning centres,
the promotion of new ↑ basic skills, in particular
in the ↑ information technologies, and increased
transparency of qualifications’ (COUNCIL OF THE
EUROPEAN UNION 2000, 12 ff.). The Lisbon Conclu-
sions also define a number of specific targets rele-
vant for education and training, including increas-
ing investment, halving the number of young peo-
ple with only lower secondary education, defining
↑ basic skills for the ↑ lifelong learning agenda, cre-
ating more transparency in the recognition of qual-
ifications and periods of study and training, and
developing a common format for CVs (cf. COUNCIL
OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2000, 13 f.). In VET, the
EU Commission and Council have further detailed
the overarching objectives defined in the Copenha-
gen Declaration, applying a policy process that is
very similar to the one adopted in the area of ed-
ucation. This process has included the developing
of indicators and the setting of ↑ benchmarks for
the comparison of achievement in VET in Euro-
pean countries (cf. e. g., COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION 2004c). These targets are conceptualised
as measurable outcomes of education and training
systems which only make sense if the EU member
countries’ progress towards the targets is meas-
ured regularly and compared with each other.
Between April and October 2004, a Consortium
of research institutions conducted a study on be-
half of the EU on the progress of European coun-
tries on selected performance indicators in VET.
The Consortium reviewed key European and inter-
national publications (mainly from European bod-
ies such as the Commission and ↑ Cedefop, but al-
so from the ↑ OECD), reports from senior Direc-
tors General of the Commission from all EU Mem-
ber States and six other European countries and
specially conducted country reports on specific
themes ‘[…] to identify progress of the national
Handbook of TVET Research
↑ VET systems towards the Lisbon objectives and
priority benchmarks’ (MAASTRICHT 2004, 9).
The Consortium looked at issues such as the qual-
ity of initial VET, ↑ participation in ↑ continuing
VET, VET and social inclusion, expenditure on
and returns of VET, innovation in teaching and
learning, and ways of building competences for
a European ↑ labour market. The study concludes
that the Nordic countries are furthest advanced
in achieving the goals set out in the Copenhagen
Declaration, providing learners with good basic
skills and achieving the highest levels of participa-
tion in continuing VET. On the other hand, the so-
called ‘core European and Mediterranean Mem-
ber States’ (MAASTRICHT 2004, 3) have made little
progress in improving their ↑ performance.
The evolving Lisbon agenda is complex because
the Lisbon agreement seems to have triggered a
host of activities, some of which intensify projects
started in the 1980s or 1990s, and some of which
set out to tackle genuinely new areas of coopera-
tion. The Lisbon agenda can also be described as
multi-layered as it attempts to influence develop-
ments at all levels of training and education. For
instance, the aim to establish a ↑ European Frame-
work of Qualifications for Lifelong Learning
(EQF) (COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES
2005b) targets – at least in the first instance – the
macro-level of training, i.e. political regulations
regarding the definition of qualifications in differ-
ent Member States. The introduction of a common
format for European CVs (COMMISSION OF THE EU-
ROPEAN COMMUNITIES 2002) is aimed at the micro-
level of education and training that is to say at the
certification of the learning experiences of individ-
ual learners. Both initiatives must be seen in con-
nection with earlier, not fully successful EU pol-
icy aims. For instance, ↑ EQF can be regarded as
a re-launch of the ideas behind the SEDOC regis-
ter, which introduced five Community-wide levels
of vocational qualifications and certificates in the
1980s (EC DECISION 85/386 of June 1985). These
levels constitute the framework for mutual recogni-
tion and transparency of qualifications in the mem-
ber states (ZIMMERMANN 1993, 338; WIEGAND 1996,
262 ff.). In order to make the system operable, CE-
DEFOP initiated a comparability exercise which
resulted in SEDOC (Register of Occupations and
Areas of VET Research
↑ Professions in International Exchange) of more
than 200 comparable occupational activities. SE-
DOC was developed in co-operation with experts
from all member states. The register contained de-
scriptions of ↑ occupational profiles and the basic
requirements of occupations for the allocation of
diplomas, certificates and other evidence of qual-
ifications recognised by the respective member
states (SELLIN 1996, 21 ff.). In 1993, 209 occupa-
tional profiles were unanimously agreed upon by
the EU member states in co-operation with the as-
sociations of the social partners at European level.
Descriptions of the occupational profiles and com-
parative tables outlining training paths and quali-
fications have been published in the Official Jour-
nal of the EU (see PIEHL / SELLIN 1995, 213). SE-
DOC was further developed in the EC Programme
Comparability of Vocational Training Qualifica-
tions (SELLIN 1992). For the reasons for the lim-
ited success of the SEDOC Register in the mem-
ber states and later developments in the question of
recognition and comparability, see Scheerer 1998,
Bjørnåvold/ Sellin 1998 and Blitz 1999; also From-
mberger 2006a.
European credit transfer systems (ECTS in higher
education, ↑ ECVET in vocational training), as set
out in the Bologna and Copenhagen Declarations,
extend the EU activities aimed at the long-standing
ambition of facilitating the ↑ mobility of learners in
Europe. Mobility of vocational learners has been
facilitated by the framework programme for voca-
tional education and training ↑ Leonardo da Vinci
and by a host of predecessor programmes such as
PETRA (vocational training of young people and
their preparation for adult and working life), EU-
ROTECNET (European technology network for
training) and IRIS (training programmes for wom-
en) for some decades now (cf. ERTL 2002).
In conclusion, the post-Lisbon EU policy agenda in
education and particularly in VET can be regard-
ed as Europe’s reaction to the challenges posed by
‘[…] a quantum shift resulting from globalization and
the challenges of a new knowledge-driven economy’
(COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2000, 1). The evolv-
ing raft of EU policies based on the Lisbon Con-
clusions was described as a ‘turning point’ of edu-
cational policies in Europe (NÓVOA /DE JONG-LAM-
BERT 2003, 55). The emphasis of the policies on
comparative indicators and common ↑ bench-
265
marks, despite their limited impact on the ground
so far, will shape not only the cooperation of Eu-
ropean countries in VET but will also provide an
on-going stimulation for comparative research in
this area.
3.3.2.5 Some Questions
In the following we outline some open questions
and some ↑ fields of research in which more work
is needed in order to illuminate the practice and
theory of VET in different countries in a compara-
tive perspective:
– ↑ Comparative VET research concerning con-
tents and outcomes of training processes:
Which kind of knowledge, skills and competenc-
es do apprentices and students in VET acquire
in different countries and cultures? What are the
ways in which knowledge, skills and competences
are combined to further qualifications in different
countries? What are the values of qualification for
(international) ↑ labour markets?
– Comparative VET research concerning learning
and teaching in training processes:
How do apprentices and students in VET learn?
How are school and work-based learning processes
conducted in different countries? What is the rela-
tionship between school and work-based learning?
What is the role of teachers/trainers/instructors in
vocational learning processes?
– Comparative VET research concerning the
structures and systems in which training processes
take place:
What are the reasons for differences and similar-
ities of ↑ VET systems in different countries and
cultures? What are the reasons for the dominance
of instruction in school-based learning contexts
in some countries? Why does school-based-VET
dominate in ↑ France? What are the reasons for the
competence-based approach in VET in ↑ Austral-
ia? What different concepts of ↑ vocational compe-
tence influence ↑ VET systems in different coun-
tries (see ERTL / SLOANE 2005).
In general, systematic comparative VET research
seems to be at its beginnings rather than consti-
tuting an established (sub-)discipline within edu-
cational studies in its own right. Nevertheless re-
cent developments in ↑ VET policy, for instance at
the EU level, demonstrates that there is a political
266
agenda to benchmark national VET systems and
their outcomes against each other or against su-
pranational ↑ performance indicators. For this ex-
ercise, comparative ↑ research in VET seems es-
sential in order to lay the foundations of in-depth
knowledge about the rationales and processes of
different national training systems and practices.
3.3.3 Historical VET Research. Case Studies
3.3.3.1 Research on Vocational
Education History in China
Qiding Yu and Zhen He
As an independent branch of research, ↑ educa-
tion history itself has a history of over one hundred
year. However, the research on ↑ vocational educa-
tion history is comparatively lagging behind. In ad-
dition, most of the researches in this area are scat-
tered and only on same special topics. This might
be due to the lower position of vocational education
in the whole educational system. Until the end of
1980’s, with the implementation of the opening-up
policy in ↑ China, adjustment of educational struc-
ture and development of vocational education, the
vocational education became an important part of
the whole educational system and received more
attention. At the same time, the research on voca-
tional education history developed from informa-
tion collection to systematical research.
3.3.3.1.1 Important Research Achievements
Important research achievements can be found
from monographs. In addition, researches on his-
tory of some specific subjects, for example, the
technical history also touched upon the vocational
education occasionally.
Works on Vocational Education History and
Thinking
“China Vocational Education Development Histo-
ry”, written in the 1980s by Zhou Tanhui, an ex-
pert from Taiwan, is the first work in China about
China’s vocational education history. Zhou catego-
rised the period before the enactment of the edu-
Handbook of TVET Research
For instance, the interpretation of ↑ benchmarking
results has to be based on results of VET compara-
tive research. It needs to be seen whether the short
time-frames of ↑ educational policy-making (see
for instance the ambitious schedule of the Lisbon
agenda) will leave sufficient time for conducting
the necessary comparative work in VET.
cation system in 1862 by the Qing Dynasty as the
embryonic stage of the vocational education. He
also divided the development of the vocational ed-
ucation since 1862 (in Taiwan till after 1949) into
eight stages. From the perspective of background,
purpose, rule and management, course design,
teachers, funding and equipment and teaching
methodology, the work gave clear statement on the
establishment and development of the vocational
education system in ↑ China. It also pondered over
the history and current development of the voca-
tional education (ZHOU 1982).
“↑ China Vocational Education History”, written
by Wu Yuqi, summarised the emergence, develop-
ment and reform of vocational education from an-
cient time to modern time in China based on the
historical materials collected and combined his-
torical development with research on specific sub-
jects. Using the activities of the National Associa-
tion of Vocational Education of China (NAVEC)
as the main clue, he discussed the vocational ed-
ucation structure and system interlinked between
vocational education schools, vocational continu-
ation schools, vocational education given in nor-
mal schools, rural improvement and ↑ career guide,
which was gradually established by the NAVEC
(WU 1991).
The “History of China’s Vocational and Techni-
cal Education” compiled by Li Lingtian and Wang
Ping is a collection of valuable documents. It sys-
tematically summarized the policies, school reg-
ulations, courses, teachers, students and adminis-
tration of vocational education from Qing Dynas-
ty in 1862 to People’s Republic of China in 1988
with full and accurate historical records. Howev-
er, there is no deep discussion on ↑ vocational ed-
Areas of VET Research
ucation thinking and representative figures (LI /
WANG 1994).
Liu Guilin divided the contemporary vocation-
al education thinking to three parts in his disser-
tation “Research on the Thinking of Contempo-
rary China’s Vocational Education”. By analys-
ing the development of contemporary vocational
education thinking, he tried to find out the con-
nection between the thinking and practice of vo-
cational education. He also raised a new concept
that ‘the evolution of contemporary vocational ed-
ucation thinking is the process of exploring how
to adapt vocational education to Chinese situation
(LIU 1997).
All the above-mentioned achievements, especial-
ly the researches on vocational education history
after the establishment of the People’s Republic
of China, played an important role in summariz-
ing the development process of vocational educa-
tion. However, generally speaking, these achieve-
ments put more emphasis on the statement of his-
torical facts with a clear tendency of pragmatism.
All researches were from the educational perspec-
tive and none of them from a wider angle e. g. soci-
ology, economy and philosophy to comprehensive-
ly study the history on vocational education (VO-
CATIONAL EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF MOE/CIVTE
1995).
Works on Special Topics of Vocational Educa-
tion
The researches on China’s vocational education
can be found in some chapters of vocational educa-
tion books as well as spotted in some textbooks of
China’s ↑ education history, for example, a “Brief
Summary of China’s Education History” by Mao
Lirui (MAO 1984), “Comparative Vocational Edu-
cation” by Hao Xinsheng (HAO / YUAN / QIAN 1987)
and “Vocational Education Conspectus” by Gao
Qi (GAO 1984). The researches relating to ↑ voca-
tional education history is mainly brief statement
of historical facts. There is a big limitation to their
depth and range of content.
In recent years, many works on vocational educa-
tion history examined the current situation of vo-
cational education and pondered over problems
with it. Trying to look at the history and reality of
the vocational education through taking historical
267
experience for reference, some works are no longer
purely a collection of historical records but include
philosophical thinking based on previous research
achievements (WANG 2005; WU 1999; HU 1998).
Besides, specific studies on vocational education
history developed as well, including the research
on the historical evolution of certain vocational ed-
ucation institution (NING / LI 2002), research on the
history of imparted ancient vocational skills (ZHU
1997) and research on the vocational education
regulations and systems (SUN 2003; ZHANG 2005).
All of them included historical reviews and critics
of varying extents. This has reflected the common
rule in the development of research in Chinese ed-
ucation history, that is “general and extensive first
and then devided and detailed”.
3.3.3.1.2 Two Important Questions
Research on the Thinking of Important Figures
in the History of Vocational Education
The most conspicuous research of such is the re-
search on the thinking of Huang Yanpei. Almost
all books on contemporary vocational educa-
tion have given systematic and in-depth analysis
of the life of Huang Yanpei and his thinking on
vocational education, just like all the above-men-
tioned works on the history of vocational educa-
tion. In addition, when researches on ↑ China’s ed-
ucation history and history of educational ideolo-
gy touched upon vocational education, they talked
about Huang Yanpei and his thinking on vocation-
al education, for example, “Comprehensive His-
tory of China’s Educational Ideology” by Wang
Bingzhao (Six Volume) (WANG / YAN 1994) and
“History of China’s Educational Ideology” by Sun
Peiqing (SUN 1995). There are 160 papers in na-
tional journals relating to research on Huang Yan-
pei from 1994–2000. The key content included:
(1) the purpose of vocational education which is
to ‘help jobless persons getting jobs and persons
with job enjoying themselves more’; (2) the ‘pan-
vocational education concept’ of having socialized
and scientific vocational education; (3) the teach-
ing and learning principle of ‘using both brain and
hands’ and ‘combining doing and learning’; (4) the
professional ethical education of ‘loving the career
and serving the people’ (WANG / YAN 1994). The
268
NAVEC established by Huang Yanpei played a
crucial role in promoting modern and contempo-
rary vocational education in China. Therefore, the
research on NAVEC is comparatively more sys-
tematic (WU 1991; HUANG 1987).
Till now, al though there are researches on other
educators of vocational education like Zhang Qian
and Cai Yuanpei, the researches are relatively few
and sporadic. There are only 11 papers relating to
Zhang Qian from 1997–2004. Papers relating to
others are even less. What is worth mentioning is
that Zhang Lanxin did relatively systematic and
in-depth research on the thinking of Zhang Qian
(ZHANG 1995).
Two Disputed Issues in the History of
Vocational Education
The first issue relates with the two views on the or-
igin of the vocational education in China. The ma-
jority of experts believed that there was vocational
education in ancient China already. ‘It embedded
in social and family education’, … ‘The vocation-
al education in ancient China was just not an inde-
pendent part of education system as it is in mod-
ern time’ (WANG 2005); Others believed that on-
ly in modern industrial period, did China start to
have real vocational education. The ancient math-
ematics and musical education are rather special
education and can not be considered as vocation-
al education (LIU 1997). The arguments stem from
the different understanding of criteria, content and
characteristic of vocational education.
The second argument is about the first representa-
tive figure and institute in the history of vocation-
al education.
Wu Yuqi held the view that children from fami-
lies engaged in governing, farming, industry and
commerce in the period ruled by Qi Henggong
(?–643BC) and Guan Zhong (–645BC) were re-
quired to learn skills from their fathers and young-
er brothers from their elder brothers, which indi-
cates the emergence of vocational education char-
acterized by inheriting skills from fathers in Chi-
na (WU / YAN 1997); Li Lantian believed that Lu
Ban, Bian Que and Muo Zi in the period of Chun-
qiu Warring Period (770BC–221BC) were the first
representative figures of the vocational educa-
tion in China. People specialized in certain tech-
Handbook of TVET Research
nique like farming, warring strategy of Nongjia,
Bingjia and Fangjijia of that period also paid great
attention to the applied education such as produc-
tion and labour (LI / WANG 1994); Many experts be-
lieved that Muo Zi (about 468BC–376BC) was an
earlier representative figure of the vocational ed-
ucation in ancient China. Because his skills were
of great attainments and he conducted training ac-
tivities of passing on his skills to others. Howev-
er, there are still not enough historical materials to
support view (WANG 2005).
Of the earliest vocational education institute, Mao
Lirui held the view that apart from the Imperial
Learning which is of the nature of University in
the educational system of Han Dynasty (206BC–
220BC), School of Hongdumen, a school special-
ized in epistolary art and paintings should be con-
sidered as the earliest school of culture and art in
China or even in the world (MAO 1984). Recent-
ly, Zibo Vocational College pointed out that Guan
Zhong should be considered as the founder of the
China vocational education as he carried out a pol-
icy of ‘dividing people into four levels according
to their professions and having them to live with
those of the same ↑ profession’ in the process of es-
tablishing his empire. He divided people in country
Qi into four levels, namely government officials,
farmers, industry workers and businessmen. This
directly facilitated the emergence of the ancient
school of thought on vocational education. During
a period of 150 years of Qi, students of thousands
learned skills in fixed places, which could be con-
sidered as vocational training venue (ZIBO VOCA-
TIONAL COLLEGE 2005). Some other experts, how-
ever, believed that there was no real vocational ed-
ucation institute in ancient ↑ China.
3.3.3.1.3 Research Methodology on Vocational
Education History
Of the current researches on historical figures and
thinking, many researchers gave importance to the
research on famous representative figures. The re-
searches on Huang Yanpei, Zhang Qian and Cai
Yuanpei are already very deep and comprehensive.
This would certainly help to grasp the main think-
ing and development threads of vocational educa-
tion. However, the attention paid to common mass-
es who have been participating and promoting vo-
Areas of VET Research
cational education is very limited, and this has to
some extents lost the practical basis for researches
and made the researches less convincing.
While studying the thinking of famous represent-
atives of vocational education, many researches
started from the point of view of philosophy and
politics. Few researches did it from the point of
view of social background and psychology from
which the ↑ vocational education thinking was de-
veloped (MA / CHANG 2005). Besides, the unilat-
eralism of official materials restricted the under-
standing of historical events and persons. What is
lacking the most is field study in the nature of ev-
idence research that is to collect fresh evidences
from real life and focus on the contribution of the
common masses (HUANG, L. 2004).
3.3.3.1.4 Questions and Prospects
The range of research on the history of people
and thinking should be extended. Many educa-
tion practitioners and socialists like Lu Ban, Bian
Que, Muo Zi and Guan Zhong in ancient time and
Zhang Zhidong, Yan Fu, Chen Duxiu, Zou Taofen,
Tao Xingzhi and Yang Xianjiang of contemporary
time contributed to certain extent to the thinking
and development of the China’s vocational educa-
tion. Besides, normal people played positive role in
the historical development. It is only when the his-
tory of the vocational activities and roles are can-
didly analysed and verified that we will be able to
present a true historical picture.
Researches on special topics in the vocational edu-
cation need to be strengthened. Researches on spe-
cial topics in the vocational education are rather
weak such as on vocational education ↑ school sys-
tem, administration, management, course, text-
books, teacher, integration with industry, ↑ voca-
tional guidance and vocational training (appren-
ticeship) need to be more in-depth and systematic,
as well as the development history of each special-
ty and industry in vocational education, although
some books have touched upon on these aspects.
↑ Comparative studies of vocational ↑ education
history in China and other countries need to be
carried out. Education in ancient China was not
a closed system. There were many exchange ac-
tivities with other countries. The Chinese educa-
tion thinking and system affected other countries
269
and learned from other countries. The compara-
tive studies on vocational education by country
and region including the system and special topics
are very important. Currently, only “Comparative
Outline of Education History in China and Over-
seas” by Wu Shiying and Yang Guohua (1997)
touched upon the topic of ‘comparative study of
the development of modern middle-level vocation-
al and technical education in China and overseas’.
This is far from enough in view of content, range
and depth of research.
Research on the interaction between vocational
education and social-economic, political and cul-
tural development is required. Compared to gen-
eral education, vocational education has a closer
and more direct link with political, economic and
cultural development. For example, it’s worth stud-
ying the vocational education in the farming cul-
ture, the contemporary industrial process and eval-
uation of vocational education, the impact from the
advancement of technical skills on vocational edu-
cation, development of social psychology and sub-
culture and ↑ vocational education thinking. In fu-
ture, the research on ↑ vocational education history
should jump out of the limitation of pure and nar-
row pedagogy study so as to unveil the develop-
ment rule of the vocational education and to make
more contribution to the development of ↑ voca-
tional education theories and practice.
3.3.3.2 Vocational Educational
Theory s Historical Research
on Vocational Education and
Training (VET)
Günter Pätzold and Manfred Wahle
3.3.3.2.1 Conceptual Clarification
The concept of ↑ historical research on vocational
education and training (VET) refers to the value
of historical memory and critical reflection. The
quest for an educational-political and vocational-
pedagogical orientation in the present as well as
for the future has to be based on the ↑ history of
VET as being the sum of relevant experiences of
270
different social groups during the development
process of a labor culture.
If history serves as a master teacher or in better
words, if historical incidents are used for better
understanding and interpretation of current prob-
lems, the following premise is suitable: at all times
social, economic, political and cultural as well as
vocational training phenomena have also been his-
torical phenomena. Today’s society, its composi-
tion, its structures and institutions, its potentials
and opportunities as well as its problems and chal-
lenges are being handed down by history. Exist-
ing social structures certainly do not originate out
of themselves. They are influenced by the specific
historical interests of particular economic groups
within the changing terms of contemporary histo-
ry. They can also be altered by and through these
same interests. This connection between the past
and the present also applies for research on voca-
tional education and training. Just as other tasks of
society, it is affected by history. Its function and its
current condition as well as its prospects depend
on the one hand on social-economic conditions,
and on the other hand on configurations concern-
ing economics, interests, power and ↑ training pol-
icy, which have been developed through the histor-
ical process of constant changes.
Vocational educational theory can not be seen as
separated from history; it is rather deeply rooted in
it. Because of this, research on vocational educa-
tion and training has a deeply historical character
which means a non-historical perception is exclud-
ed. Today’s theory and practice of vocational edu-
cation and training adapt historical inputs which
refer in particular to individual qualifications. In
other words, they refer to the notion of occupation
and work as constitutive elements of human exist-
ence as well as to the notion of an adequate or-
ganization of vocational training (see STRATMANN /
KÜMMEL / PÄTZOLD 1982; PÄTZOLD / WAHLE 2000;
STRATMANN 1999; WAHLE 1999).
This complex matter is dealt with by historical re-
search on vocational education and training, which
dates back to the late 19th century (see DFG 1990,
89). Since that time historical research on VET as
an aspect of pedagogical science has been devel-
oped and differentiated into a specialized field of
research on economic job training and pedagogy.
Handbook of TVET Research
In particular since the early 1970s historical re-
search on VET has more and more been developed
within the vocational educational theory into an
academic discipline with a broad methodological,
theoretical and thematic horizon. Modern histori-
cal research on VET with all its variations and dif-
ferent approaches focuses on:
– the relationships between social organization
and legitimation of work-as-vocation which are
embedded in the historical process as well as the
transformation of these relationships,
– the history of institutionalization, formalization
and modernization of on-the-job training as well
as school-based vocational training,
– the development of vocational-training-oriented
and vocational-pedagogical theories, including the
different facets of their ideological characters,
– the construction of vocational educational theo-
ry as an academic discipline, respectively as a part
of pedagogical sciences.
The leading interest in the treatment of these mat-
ters and the connected ↑ research questions are by
no means antiquarian and concerned with the con-
struction of some kind of vocational education and
training museum full of dusty facts. Quite the op-
posite: ↑ historical research on vocational educa-
tion and training aims at providing an orientation
for current and future questions which refer to vo-
cational education and training. Accordingly, the
history of vocational education and training, in its
double function as representation and object of re-
search, is in a key position in respect of the per-
manent dealing with traditionally formative condi-
tions and persistent metamorphic tendencies of vo-
cational training. This programmatic approach has
a great significance for the imprint of historical-
vocational training and can be summed up by the
following expression of the famous German poet
Erich Kästner (1899–1974): historical research on
vocational education and training continually un-
earths a kind of “News from Yesterday”, which in
turn has to be integrated into current relevant de-
bates.
3.3.3.2.2 Differentiation between Research
Fields and Traditions
Historical research on VET is, as emphasized, a
part of the discipline of pedagogical science. Ac-
Areas of VET Research
cordingly its focus lies on pedagogically relevant
circumstances, or to be more exact: on the ques-
tion of how educational and pedagogical processes
in the domains of work, ↑ vocation and occupation
have been formed in different epochs. This leads to
a central problem, not only for historical research
on vocational education and training. Namely,
it has to be clarified what it means if vocational
training appears as a central aim of pedagogy, in
other words, if the term “vocation” is linked to the
terms of education and training. For this historical
analysis it is quite important to get additional in-
formation, but research is in no way limited on his-
torical research on vocational education and train-
ing. As always the complex relationship between
the individual and the world of work is affected,
there is way for analytical problems, aiming at
the respective problems of particular disciplines:
These are, among others, the disciplines of history,
sociology, in particular work and occupational so-
ciology or industrial and organizational sociology,
as well as (governmental) job market and ↑ occu-
pational research. There are also further academic
disciplines as well as areas of research and practi-
cal work, in which the complicated matter of “hu-
mans, work and occupation” is likewise very im-
portant. These are, for example, occupational and
work laws, occupational medicine and psychology,
job counselling or the politics of the job market. In
terms of semantic and/or concept-historical ques-
tions within this subject the disciplines of philoso-
phy and literary history are concerned.
Therefore, there are countless ↑ research fields
which are examined in respect of special research
interests of different disciplines. However, regard-
ing the content there are intersections between the
different research and praxis areas, which means
that there is no strict line in definition between
them. Even more, each discipline benefits of the
proceeds of the others, so in no way they lose their
respective independence, but rather keep it.
In this sense, historical research on vocational ed-
ucation and training is of high utility value for oth-
er academic and practical fields, so it is difficult to
separate all corresponding areas strictly from one
another, if it is not even unnecessary. This can be
illustrated by an example: in current sociological
discussion, among others, the subject of the end of
271
“occupation” as itself as the result of deeply reach-
ing changes in the world of work is a controversial
subject. With a similar tendency this problem al-
so arose during the industrial revolution. By this
time it aroused a debate about the displacement
of the traditional, corporatist concept of vocation
by the allegedly lifeless form of gainful employ-
ment in the factory. This was related, as today, to a
process of changes in work and occupational struc-
tures, with regard to the erosion of an ideological-
ly intensified and strengthened concept of occupa-
tion, as well as to the respectively connected social
and educational-political consequences. Indeed,
current sociological discussions on this subject do
not explicitly refer to occupational-therapeutical-
historical cognizances, but historical research on
vocational training can absolutely offer interesting
clues (see BAETHGE 2000; ECKERT 2003a; PÄTZOLD /
WAHLE 2000; PÄTZOLD / WAHLE 2003; SCHLÜTER /
STRATMANN 1985). This shows that it is at least
problematic to distinguish clearly between histori-
cal research on vocational education and training
and other areas of research and disciplines. Never-
theless, within the modern division of labor in the
academic establishment certain topics can be dif-
ferentiated: for example, studies of ↑ historical re-
search on youth focus on extracurricular activities
rather than on vocational duties of young people;
socialization processes, which have been imparted
by general-education schools, are seen as areas of
interest for historical school pedagogy; and ques-
tions which are related to occupation are dealt with
as being a central and primordial sphere for voca-
tional and economic pedagogy. Thus these differ-
ent disciplines within the educational science on-
ly conditionally refer to each other and according-
ly they use and develop their own basic theoretical
approaches. At the same time it is of importance
that original vocational and economical-pedagogi-
cal questions are very seldom, if at all, in the cent-
er of these disciplines. Meanwhile, the possibili-
ty of ↑ interdisciplinary collaboration is not neces-
sarily prevented; admittedly the still existing re-
straints are to be overcome. In contrast, the differ-
entiation between current research programs and
the conscience of ↑ research traditions is less com-
plicated.
272
Regarding content and emphases, the basic meth-
odological approaches and the programmatic ori-
entation differ enormously between older and con-
temporary historical research on vocational educa-
tion and training. In this context the 1920s can be
seen as a turning point, because at that time voca-
tional educational theory had been established as
an academic subject. All through this it has, with
respect to its objects of research, been affected by
the following self-conception: the focus laid on
the part-time ↑ vocational school, closely related
to the construction of academically-based training
for teachers of part-time vocational schools, which
was introduced at that time (see LISOP / GREINERT /
STRATMANN 1990; STRATMANN 1989, 177). This
constrained point of view has also been used in
historical ↑ VET research. It was farther constrict-
ed by the fact that only those educational ques-
tions were discussed which regarded male youth,
although gradually training opportunities for girls
opened up in handicrafts, industry and trade. Be-
cause ↑ vocation has not been seen as a valid life
prospect for girls, rather as a transition stage be-
tween leaving school and marriage or motherhood,
girls were a neglected factor (see BÜCHTER 2001;
LANGE 1996; MAYER 1992; MAYER 1998; SCHLÜT-
ER 1987). To the same degree older historical re-
search on VET forewent the analysis not only of
the changes of work and social milieus that were
embedded in the industrial process but also of the
connected political consequences for vocational
training. Even though this problem has been rec-
ognized by the Organization for Social Politics
(Verein für Sozialpolitik), historical research on
vocational education and training did not deal with
it exhaustively.
This was due to the narrowed perspective of the
discipline as well as to its methodical orienta-
tion. It based on a particular social-scientific ac-
cess and empirical-analytical as well as historical
social-scientific contextualisations were systemat-
ically suppressed. Instead, it concentrated in par-
ticular on laying out a history of the idea of vo-
cation itself. This was aggravated by the fact that
the concept of vocation in pedagogy had been used
more likely as a normative term than as a heu-
ristic one. Thus, Georg Kerschensteiner (1854–
1932), one of the most famous representatives of
Handbook of TVET Research
on VETclassical theories on VET, created a spe-
cific pedagogical idea for the concept of vocation
at the beginning of the 20th century, in which a
recourse to the corporate principle of “Vocatio”,
connected with an exemplary work ethic, creat-
ed an alliance with the modern image of the cit-
izen (see K ERSCHENSTEINER 1966/68; STRATMANN
1999, 631 ff.). This value-laden notion of voca-
tion outlived not only the era of national social-
ist dictatorship-although it was superceded by the
so-called “peoples’ (Volk) community” – but ex-
isted only slightly modified from the first decades
of the 20th century up to the end of World War
II (see BAUMGARDT 1979, 161; K IPP / MILLER-K IPP
1995, 539 ff.; SEUBERT 1977). Not until the mid-
dle of the 1970s did critical voices begin to arise
against such normatively in-line usage of the term
vocation and pleaded for a demythologisation (see
STRATMANN 1975a).
This very limited orientation of vocational edu-
cational theory had far-ranging consequences for
historical research on vocational training. Thus
one ↑ research field was exhausted in the tendency
towards a rather affirming and less critical recon-
struction of the traditional comprehension of ↑ vo-
cation. In addition to this history of ideas a history
of institutions raised that was mostly character-
ised by an abstinence of meta-theories (see HEID /
LEMPERT / ZABECK 1980). Moreover, up to the 1970s
the field of ↑ historical research on VET was fur-
thermore restricted. It concentrated almost exclu-
sively on training in the ↑ Dual System of VET,
primarily on commercial-technical vocations –
and thus implicitly on masculine trainees – and
in this predominantly focused on the ↑ vocational
school as the place of learning, less often on the
company.
This changed only recently, namely in the begin-
ning of the 1970s. Since then historical research
on vocational education and training operates with
relatively consistent ↑ research strategies and con-
tinuous activities. Last but not least because of this
the earlier narrowness of historical vocational-ped-
agogical research could have been overcome and
furthermore a change of perspective could have
been initiated. In this context, two aspects are of
particular interest. Firstly, since that time the ped-
agogical disciplines are oriented more strongly to-
Areas of VET Research
wards the social sciences, and related to this, vo-
cational educational theory in a historical perspec-
tive has a clear social-historical focus. Second-
ly, since the end of the 1970s countless incentives
have emanated from the so-called “new women’s
movement”. Thus female youth get more and more
addressed by vocational education and training.
After this renunciation from existing ↑ research
traditions the non-historical reception of vocation-
al-pedagogical theories as well as institutionally-
fixated perspectives were modified.
Older findings were, at least partially, corrected
by modern research contributions, which strive for
the reconstruction of a social ↑ history of VET and
its modernization. This demonstrates to what ex-
tent modern historical research on vocational ed-
ucation and training compared to the relevant re-
search traditions is limited and how it can be seen
today. Historical research both in the field of voca-
tional educational theory and vocational education
and training sets itself on a new and (self)-critical
contact with history. Last but not least, the current
condition and the standards of historical research
on VET are wide.
3.3.3.2.3 On the Themes, Concerns and
Methodological Orientations of
Modern Historical Research on VET
Over centuries work and occupation have been in
the focus of human thinking. In the perspective of
historical research on VET the following aspects
might be seen as in need of explanation: the chang-
ing relationship between vocational and training
systems in different eras, the traditions and chang-
es in on-the-job and school-based training as well
as the theories of how (vocational) training’s pat-
terns of legitimatization, in particular the transfor-
mation processes, impacted the self-conception of
those groups and institutions, which are relevant
in and for vocationally-respective training entities.
For this reason a quite extensive ↑ research field
opens up which offers wide research tasks. The
prosperity of those researches can be demonstrat-
ed not only by countless journals, detailed inquir-
ies and special studies, but also by the fact, that
77 individual contributions had been published in
the context of the vocational-pedagogical histor-
ical congress, which took place every two years
273
between 1987 and 1995. At the same time these
essays reflect the thematical emphases which the
current historical research on vocational educa-
tion and training is processing urgently, as well as
the methodological orientations which are relevant
in the process. So, to summarize, in current voca-
tional-pedagogical historical research the follow-
ing thematic aspects are favored: the reconstruc-
tion of ↑ theories of vocational education and train-
ing and the problem of their political instrumental-
ization, the connection between VET and industri-
al requirements (see WAHLE 2007a), the relation-
ship between VET and social change, as well as
the question of modernization of vocational edu-
cation and training. The most emphasized histor-
ical epochs are the 19th century, in particular the
Kaiserreich, somewhat less the National Social-
ist dictatorship (see, for example, HERKNER 2003)
and the so-called “Restoration Phase” at the end
of World War II. Relatively few treatises concen-
trate on the Middle Ages or the earliest aspects of
industrialization.
Within methodological access to single points of
focus there are mainly empirical, historical and
theoretical processes. If the methodological ac-
cess uses data analysis and interpretation (see, for
example, POELKE 1987; STRATMANN 1992, 399 ff.)
or if written, pictorial (paintings, photographs) or
filmed sources are systematically historically ex-
amined and interpreted with the help of herme-
neutical practices (see, for example, K IPP 2003;
WAHLE 2007b; WEISE 2001) or if an experimental
subject is explained by the help of specific theories
(for example sociological, see BAETHGE 1970, or
modernization theories as in STRATMANN / PÄTZOLD /
WAHLE 2003). In short: within all of the differ-
ent methodological backgrounds and their group-
ings of ↑ historical research on VET, research can-
not be characterized as either illustration or val-
idation research, regardless of the circumstances
depicted. That means that it doesn’t matter if the-
oretical points of reference for the respective work
are grounded in, for example, a social, economic,
cultural or modernization-theoretical background.
Such theories can be considered as heuristic points
of reference, which provide specific directions
for enquiry. Therefore, the heterogeneity of these
274
qualitative and quantitative source materials can
be seen as a big advantage.
This heterogeneity implicates, that historical case
studies of ↑ VET research really deserve their good
reputation for being factually multidimensional
and for showing complex facts of historical inter-
relations. In this sense the following research pro-
gram for modern historical research on vocational
education and training is constitutive: in demand
are concepts to which the analysis and interpre-
tation of the history of vocational education and
training and its theories can be applied, as part of
a social history of work, of patterns of organiza-
tion, of change in its basic parameters as well as
of ideological legitimation of all of the above. Ac-
cording to this, the various fields of analysis, meth-
ods and directions of interpretation all merge into
a single goal: to explain the historical-social reali-
ties of work, ↑ vocation, occupation as well as the
qualification and socialization processes which are
based on them.
3.3.3.2.4 Problems and Perspectives of
Development
The current status of modern research on the his-
tory of vocational education and training is, de-
spite its productivity and its incontrovertible suc-
cess, quite dissatisfying. Recently its usefulness is
more and more doubted, its work results are not ex-
tensively discussed and the representatives of his-
torical research on VET are on the defensive (see,
among others, K IPP 2000; SEUBERT 2000; K LUS-
MEYER 2000). This currently marginal existence
of historical research on VET is pointed out in re-
ferring to the contents of the 1995 “Handbook of
Vocational Training”. Among the 40 contributions
there is only one article about the history of Ger-
man vocational education and training (GREINERT
1995a), and only seldom do the other texts refer
to the relevance of the reconstruction of historical
circumstances of vocational education and train-
ing in terms of the handling of contemporary and
future challenges for VET. Consequently, the his-
tory of vocational education and training does not
seem to fit very well into the fields of current voca-
tional educational theory. Corresponding projects
and results are seldom well-received outside of the
small circle of historically-interested people. In
Handbook of TVET Research
fact, while historical research has not yet been de-
clared as obsolete, its contributions are very often
seen as unimportant to the discipline.
In addition to these problems, historical research
on vocational education and training is also cop-
ing with two further questions. The first question
is, with regard to its position and standards, how it
can successfully be positioned within the academic
establishment (compare REINISCH 2000, 35 ff.).The
second question deals with the discussion of a new
methodological concept and a reflective historical
base of research on vocational education and train-
ing (see HASFELD 1996, 1 ff.; GONON 2001; ZABECK
2000). In this context the newly strengthened cri-
tique of such approaches to research are quite im-
portant which allegedly promote vocational-ped-
agogical historical descriptions which are literal-
ized and show a ↑ distance from empiricism. This
critique warns of the danger of following a naive,
vocational-pedagogical historicism, of a selective
access to the problems and sources in the interests
of an engaged historical writing and of the dan-
ger of eventually using research results unreflect-
edly as argumentative support of the instrumen-
talization of training-political demands (compare
STRATMANN / PÄTZOLD / WAHLE 2003, 344 ff.)
Although these critical objections are quite mo-
tivating and worth of discussion, the richness of
such a vocational-pedagogical historical ↑ experi-
mentation concept is indisputable, which does not
limit its experimental power on vocational educa-
tion and training in the narrower sense but rather
promotes much broader social, political or cultural
results and discourse for ↑ historical research.
Historical research on vocational education and
training contributes to a deepened knowledge
about continuity and change in ↑ VET research and
practice, but this is only possible with adequate
material resources for scholarship. This is a seri-
ous problem that has still not been satisfactorily
solved. The more clearly this last question can be
solved, the better the chances are that historical re-
search on VET can rely on the connections it has to
earlier developments in pedagogical history which
were outlined in the 1970s as well as progress in
respect to future developments. However, there are
still fundamental ↑ research questions that remain
unsolved. In reference to that, there are at least four
Areas of VET Research
problem areas and fields of action – first of all the
status of vocational education and training of girls
and women as well as the changes they have expe-
rienced within different historical processes, sec-
ondly the analysis of pictures and films of signifi-
cant histories of vocational education and training,
thirdly the relevant social groups (such as social
partners, administrators) and fourthly research
on ↑ further education occurring on the job which
exceeds existing approaches (FAULSTICH / ZEUNER
2001). That means that studies need to be acquired
which are critical of the present leaderships and
ideologies and furthermore which continue to fur-
ther enrich scientific holdings in a socio-historical-
ly accented way. It is important to note that histori-
cal research on VET is necessary and should con-
tinue to be promoted, precisely because it is a cru-
cial foundation for VET as a whole – the results of
this research allow to come to informed decisions
in the present and in the future with regards to vo-
cational education and training.
Furthermore, the direct practical value of histori-
cal research on VET is pointed out by the Enquête-
Commission’s “Future Educational Politics – Ed-
ucation 2000” – the German Parliament’s survey
on the ↑ Dual System of vocational education and
training – which is published in the third edition.
3.3.3.3 Historical Study on the
Western School Model of
TVET in Japan
Tatsuo Horiuchi
In the latter half of the nineteenth century, ↑ Japan
actively pursued the transfer of modern technology
to fill the gap in the technological levels between
Japan and Europe. Japan invited many foreign
technical experts to key positions for the govern-
ment-operated industries which were fundamen-
tal in increasing national wealth and military pow-
er, as well as in promoting industries. Japan also
dispatched human resources overseas in order to
bring in the latest sciences. It is a well-known fact
that these foreign technical experts in government
employ and the Japanese who had studied overseas
have made a considerable contribution to Japan’s
275
industrial modernisation and organisation of West-
ern-model education (OGATA 1961).
Whenever the formation of modern TVET in Japan
was considered from the viewpoint of the transfer
of the Western ↑ school model, Yokosuka Kousya
organised by the French, the Kogakuryo managed
by the British, and Sapporo Agricultural College
run by the Americans have so far been the main
objects of study. This article describes the history
of the formation of modern TVET in Japan (NA-
TIONAL I NSTITUTE FOR EDUCATIONAL R ESEARCH 1974;
MIYOSHI 1979; 1999) with a focus on the field of in-
dustrial technology that played the central role in
the promotion of industries, and with the addition
of another school to the object of discussion, name-
ly, ↑ Tokyo School of Mechanics, which was found-
ed by the Japanese based on the Western model.
3.3.3.3.1 Training of Engineers and Master
Mechanics at Yokosuka Kousya
Under the military pressure from the countries of
Europe and America, ↑ Japan’s feudal government
decided to open up the country. The naval forces
were launched to strengthen the nation’s defens-
es, and a plan was made to construct a naval ar-
senal in Edo Bay. This plan took a definite form
by the agency of the French envoy. The decision
was made to build a naval arsenal for the purposes
of repairing and building marine vessels, as well
as the teaching and learning the industry. For this
project, L. Verny, a naval engineer who was on as-
signment in the Empire of ↑ China (Qing) at the
time, was invited. He established a concept of the
in-company “school” for teaching and learning of
the industry. This was the beginning of what was
later reestablished with the name “Kousya”, known
as Yokosuka Kousya. It is one of the examples of
the earliest introduction of the Western model of
education to Japan. The original proposal of estab-
lishment for Yokosuka Ironworks (which later be-
came Yokosuka Dockyard) conferred and agreed
upon between the French envoy and Japan’s feudal
government in January 1865 concisely states the
objective of “Kousya” education as follows:
“The Japanese government, toward the goal of enabling
the nationals to take over the French in the operation of
shipbuilding in due course, will establish a school with-
in the dockyard in order to train up human resources as
276
engineers and technicians … its curriculum is to follow
the school regulations of the French naval forces in its
entirety”(YOKOSUKA NAVAL ARSENAL 1915).
The above contents are supplemented by a docu-
ment from the French Foreign Ministry from the
same time period (February 1865).
“The Japanese government will select young men with
education and intelligence from the samurai class for
the purpose of training engineering students (Elèves In-
génieurs). These students will work at their main job
with the chief interpreter in the mornings, and will en-
gage in the lessons of the Naval Academy of Noncom-
missioned Officers (école de maistrance) in the eve-
nings. They will receive as much supplementary lessons
as their work would allow from the engineers. Similar-
ly, young mechanics will be selected by European mas-
ter mechanics to be trained as master mechanic students
(elèves contre maîtres). The mechanics will work at the
factory in the mornings. In the evenings, they will take
technical drawing and science classes based on the train-
ing program used at the Naval Academy of Noncommis-
sioned Officers at French arsenals”(Correspondance
Politique Japon 1865).
As is clear from this document, the ↑ school mod-
el for “Kousha” which took on the alternating pat-
tern of a half-day of work and a half-day of school
is the Naval Academy of Noncommissioned Offic-
ers (école de maistrance). In addition, apart from
training engineers, “Kousha” was also attempting
to train human resources who would not end up as
“technicians” but “master mechanics” by using the
curriculum of the Naval Academy of Noncommis-
sioned Officers. However, Verny, who headed the
project team, again set forth the proposed plan for
training engineers and master mechanics at sepa-
rate schools. According to the organisational plan
for the shipbuilding school (Ecole des construc-
tions) from February 1867, the shipbuilding school
to be founded in Yokosuka would provide a three-
year course to the students who have passed exam-
inations in basic French language and entry-level
sciences. The subjects taught are described as “in-
cluding all branches of sciences associated with ship-
building, however, from what is taught at the schools be-
longing to the Ecole polytechnique, metallurgy, forti-
fication, and gunnery will be excluded, and from what
is taught at l’Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures,
metallurgy and applied subjects that are purely industri-
al, textile science for example, will be excluded”(TANA-
KA 1983, 200–201). In other words, the main sub-
jects were “all branches of sciences associated
Handbook of TVET Research
with shipbuilding”. However, some courses (met-
allurgy, fortification, gunnery, textile science, etc.)
were left out. Furthermore, in another document
written by Verny (March 1867), the school of mas-
ter mechanics (l’Ecole des contre-maîtres), which
trains leading mechanics by teaching technical
drawing, mechanics, and geometry three hours per
day, was provided with the shipbuilding school.
Out of these two schools, the model for the ship-
building school was the Applied School of Naval
Engineering (Ecole d’application du génie mari-
time), which is one of the “schools belonging to the
Ecole polytechnique” Verny himself once attend-
ed. However, by teaching a broad range of scienc-
es by using some of the subjects offered by l’Ecole
Centrale des Arts et Manufactures which teaches
a broad range of applied sciences associated with
industries, Verny aimed to train leading engineers
equipped with cyclopedic knowledge, not engi-
neers simply specialised in shipbuilding. In es-
sence, the school that Verny considered was not a
transfer of a simple school model, but the school
which was geared for ↑ Japan’s industrial and edu-
cational conditions at the time.
3.3.3.3.2 Training of Engineers at the
Kogakuryo
The Kogakuryo was set up under the Ministry of
Public Works for training the human resources re-
quired for the promotion of industries such as min-
ing, railroad, and communications. In contrast to
Yokosuka Kousya, all the members of the staff in-
itially invited were British. Dr. W.J.M. Rankine
from the University of Glasgow, Scotland, who
was a pioneering presence in engineering, took on
an instrumental role in this matter.
In “The Kogakuryo Curriculum and Statutes” laid
down in February 1874 after the arrival of the Brit-
ish teachers, the original model of engineer train-
ing was set forth as follows:
“the students are to board at the school and study for six
years. For the first four years, the students are to stay at
the school and study for six months of every year, and
they are to spend the remaining six months on-site, each
student learning the engineering skills of his choosing.
The students are to spend the remaining two years en-
tirely on-site, working. In this manner, academic study
at school and practical work on-site are alternated. Con-
sequently, each student is able to gain on-site experience
Areas of VET Research
in the second half year for the skills learned at school in
the first half year” (KYU-KOUBU DAIGAKKOU SHIRYO HEN-
SAN K AI 1978, 195).
Stating the curriculum that consists of two years’
preparatory course, two years’ professional course,
and two years’ on-site work, the above statutes
show a ↑ sandwich-style training model, alternat-
ing fieldwork and schooling. The most distinctive
characteristic born by this school founded to train
the “industry officers” who would enter the serv-
ice of the Ministry of Public Works is that all the
teaching posts were taken up by the British (ini-
tially nine of them, joined, in 1881, by J. Cond-
er who taught “architecture”), including H. Dyer,
who assumed the role of Principal. In other words,
specialist engineer training was aimed at divid-
ing the engineering skills into civil engineering,
↑ mechanical engineering, communications, archi-
tecture, field chemistry, mining engineering, and
steel casting from the beginning of the curriculum,
as the statutes state, “each student is to pursue a
course of his choosing”.
H. Dyer, who drew up the curriculum, was origi-
nally a mechanic in a suburb of Glasgow. He has a
unique history of attending evening classes at An-
derson College during his apprenticeship, then, ar-
dent for further learning, entering the University
of Glasgow (winter school and summer ↑ practical
training), and receiving the tutelage of the engi-
neer Rankine.(MIYOSHI 1989a, 62–64)
There are two theories about the Kogakuryo’s
↑ school model. One theory is that the Kogakuryo
was modeled after the University of Glasgow
where H. Dyer once attended (K ITA 1981). The oth-
er theory is that the Kogakuryo was modeled after
the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zu-
rich in which H. Dyer was showing a keen inter-
est prior to his arrival in Japan (NAKAYAMA 1974,
211). However, the result of the investigations such
as the international comparison of the above cur-
ricula led to a persuasive theory that these curricu-
la offered by the above technical colleges with the
objective of training leading engineers in govern-
ment service were arranged according to the Brit-
ish-style experientialism for the Kogakuryo (MIY-
OSHI 1979, 290).
277
3.3.3.3.3 Training of Master Mechanics at
Tokyo School of Mechanics
In 1872, the “Education Code” was issued to put
the modern ↑ school system into place. However, in
the early Meiji period, leading-edge vocational ed-
ucation was mostly outside the jurisdiction of the
Ministry of Education, and thus beyond the scope
of the “Education Code”. In this regard, the ↑ To-
kyo School of Mechanics which was established in
accordance with the 1880 Education Order was the
first full-scale vocational education institution un-
der the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of Edu-
cation. It was the first step toward the measures to
place all institutions offering vocational education
in agriculture, commerce, and other disciplines un-
der the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education.
In the midst of an impasse in the promotion of
industries and a financial crisis, the reasons for
founding Tokyo School of Mechanics were multi-
ple as follows: (1) to counter poverty in the general
public, (2) to remedy the existing apprentice sys-
tem, (3) to teach the principles of industrial man-
agement, (4) to restore the industries, (5) to cre-
ate a model for other schools for mechanics, and
(6) to train teachers. The concept for this school is
thought to have been established by Ryuichi Ku-
ki, Arata Hamao, and Seiichi Tejima, who were
administrative officers for education at the time,
based on the investigations and information con-
cerning industrial schools particularly in the Unit-
ed Kingdom, Germany, and ↑ France (Industrial
school, Gewerbeschule, and Ecole d’Arts et Mé-
tiers).
According to the “Statutes of Tokyo School of Me-
chanics” established in 1882, a level of training
higher than the training of general mechanics was
aimed at, as it is written,
“this school is a place for teaching a wide range of tech-
nical arts essential for the purpose of training those who
will in due course become teachers at schools for me-
chanics, or alternatively become master mechanics, or
production managers” (Article 1).
The curriculum consists of one year’s preparato-
ry course and three years’ regular course (chem-
ical technology course and machine technology
course). The professional theory and ↑ experimen-
tation were taught at the respective regular cours-
es (TOKYO KOGYO DAIGAKU 1940, 94–98). Further-
278
more, in addition to the workshop practice on cam-
pus, off-campus field practice was also conducted.
The principal and the ten teachers were all Japa-
nese at the time of the school opening (1882).
In 1890, the school was renamed as “Tokyo School
of Technology”, and Seiichi Tejima, who was fully
conversant with vocational education, became its
second Principal. He clarified the school’s purpose
as “chiefly training those who will in due course
become master mechanics or industrial teachers”,
and reorganised the curriculum. The course term
for the regular course remained as three years, but
the decision to assign one year’s field practice af-
ter graduation was made. These reforms were de-
signed to enable organic cooperation between the
school and industrial circles in order to train hu-
man resources required for the cultivation of pri-
vate industry, as well as to develop the graduates’
competence as master mechanics (TOKYO KOGYO
DAIGAKU 1985, 133–134).
3.3.3.3.4 Conclusion
The formation of modern TVET in ↑ Japan con-
sidered from the viewpoint of the transfer of the
Western ↑ school model can be summarised as fol-
lows:
In the countries of Europe and America in the lat-
ter half of the nineteenth century, the trend to fo-
cus on TVET using the school format grew as an
important part of the industrialization policy. Ja-
pan also welcomed that trend, although her ap-
proach in following the trend was different from
some countries such as the United Kingdom, who
relied on on-the-job training, and relegated vo-
cational education to specialist bodies in the pri-
vate sector, and Germany, who organised voca-
tional education from a low level depending on
the provinces and the demand for the industry. Ja-
pan, who started the high-level vocational educa-
tion to train the nation’s elites, closely resembles
the French model. The advanced-level in-company
school set up under the guidance of the French in
Yokosuka Dockyard which played a central role in
increasing national wealth and military power as
well as promoting industries, was its very first in-
stance. In addition, the Kogakuryo which was es-
tablished by the British a little later was an engi-
neer training system that integrated the ↑ theory-
Handbook of TVET Research
centered training in the countries of the European
continent and the ↑ experience-oriented training in
the United Kingdom. However, it developed into a
school more similar to a polytechnic in the conti-
nental nations that focus on government engineer-
ing training, and was taken over by the Imperial
College of Engineering at a later stage.
On the other hand, “Kousha” at Yokosuka dock-
yard, as an in-company school, organised the ed-
ucation stratified in line with the places of work,
such as engineers and master mechanics. All lev-
els of education adopted the system which had aca-
demic and practical work in equal proportion, with
an emphasis on practice. Although the Kousha had
the system which was based on the French Naval
Academy of Noncommissioned Officers (école de
maistrance), its engineer training was restructured
as a course of study which combined the Applied
School of Naval Engineering (Ecole d’application
du génie maritime) and l’Ecole Centrale des Arts
et Manufactures. Lastly, the ↑ Tokyo School of Me-
chanics was organized by the Japanese themselves
based on their detailed investigations and experi-
ence concerning both domestic and international
vocational education. Although its school model
is difficult to determine, the Tokyo School of Me-
chanics was similar to the industrial schools in the
United Kingdom, Germany, and ↑ France in par-
ticular, in order to train the leading mechanics or
master mechanics in private industry. Therefore, it
can be concluded it was a compound model.
In summarising the above, none of the ↑ Western
school models that were transferred at the forma-
tion of modern TVET in ↑ Japan was an easily-
categorized or simple model, but all of them can
be described as ↑ compound school models which
were geared to the national policy of increasing na-
tional wealth and military power as well as pro-
moting industry.
Areas of VET Research
3.3.3.4 Historical Research in
Vocational Education: A Case
Study of the United States
Cecilia Maldonado and Sterling
Saddler
3.3.3.4.1 Introduction and Historical
Background
The growth and interest in ↑ educational research
was the result of the introduction of statistical meth-
ods in educational research by Edward L. Thorn-
dike in his 1904 textbook (LAGEMANN 1997) which
ultimately led to the acceptance of educational re-
search as a viable field of study in 1917 (LAGEMANN
1997). However, the interest in research in voca-
tional education did not take root until more than
50 years later (CVERD 1976) with funding from
various legislative acts.
Although the ↑ Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 (PL
64 347) and the George Barden Act of 1946 (PL
79-586), had designated funding for supporting
“studies and reports designed to improve the adminis-
tration and management of vocational education pro-
grams” (CVERD 1976, 17, neither act provided fund-
ing specifically for research and development in
vocational education. Such funding occurred af-
ter the ↑ Vocational Education Act of 1963 (PL 88-
210) was passed. This Act had “explicitly provided
substantial funding” (CVERD 1976, 17) for voca-
tional education research from 1965 through 1969
as specified in Section 4(c). Funds appropriated
by the 1968 Amendments of the Vocational Edu-
cation Act parts C, D, and I supported vocational
education research beginning in 1970. Part C sup-
ported research, demonstration, and ↑ curriculum
development and superceded Section 4(c) of the
1963 Act; funds from Part D were used to demon-
strate innovative vocational education or ↑ career
education programmes in school settings; and,
funds from Part I were used to support curriculum
development and dissemination (U.S. LEGISLATION
1968).
Research in vocational education prior to the es-
tablishment of The American Vocational Educa-
tion Research Association (↑ AVERA) in 1966,
now called Association for ↑ Career and Techni-
279
cal Education Research (ACTER), “was very dis-
cipline specific” (BURGENER cited in MCCRACKEN /
PAUGH / SHANK 1994, 10), but leaders in vocation-
al research felt that “the barriers and restrictions
within and between disciplines needed to be bro-
ken down” (Burgener cited in McCracken/ Paugh/
Shank 1994, 10). These leaders felt that little re-
search other than the establishment of services was
supported by Section 4(c) of the Vocational Edu-
cation Act of 1963 and they advocated for
“vocational research to be its own entity as a powerful
and growing ancillary force to move those services into
the occupational realities of the future” (BURGENER cited
in MCCRACKEN / PAUGH / SHANK 1994, 10).
Although the 1968 Amendments of the Vocational
Education Act supported the funding of research
in vocational education, the reality of that fund-
ing was something of a challenge. The American
Vocational Education Research Association (AV-
ERA) made ↑ commitments to improve the funding
for research in vocational education by authorizing
Dr. Arthur Lee, in 1970 to prepare a policy state-
ment proposing the need for stabilizing federal vo-
cational education research funds and to discuss
such actions with leaders in the field (MCCRACKEN /
PAUGH / SHANK 1994). Over the next several years,
this organization continued to advocate in Wash-
ington, D.C. the need to allocate 10 % of the funds
appropriated in Part C of the 1968 Amendment
for research; however the President vetoed those
appropriations. Dr. Lee identified two problems
with respect to funding research: some states ob-
jected to a percentage of allocated funds for pro-
grammes used for research (MCCRACKEN / PAUGH /
SHANK 1994); and, Congress opposed appropriat-
ing a flat percentage for research (MCCRACKEN /
PAUGH / SHANK 1994).
“Between 1965 and 1974, the U.S. Office of Education
spent close to $250 million to support 5,000 vocational
education research and development projects” (CVERD
1976, 19).
Some of the types of projects under Section 4(c)
and Part C state projects included: applied or fun-
damental research (32 % of Section 4(c) funds);
and, 37 % supported experimental, developmen-
tal, or ↑ pilot projects (CVERD 1976). Part C funds
were also used to support experimental, develop-
mental, or pilot projects. Funding went from 68 %
in 1971 to 100 % in 1972 and 1973. In 1974 how-
280
ever, only 31 % of Part C supported such research.
The other 68 % supported research (loosely used
to describe projects classified as demonstrations,
evaluations, dissemination, or research coordinat-
ing unit activities) (CVERD 1976).
In 1974, a committee on vocational education re-
search was organized specifically to perform two
major tasks for the U.S. Office of Education:
“… to review and assess the research and development
activities sponsored by the Office of Education under
the authority of the Vocational Education Act of 1963
as amended in 1968; and to recommend changes in re-
search and development (R&D) policies and programs
for the coming decade” (CVERD 1976, v).
At that time, millions of dollars had been spent
on thousands of projects yet, “…the last ten years
had not had documented, widespread impact” (CVERD
1976, 1) . The committee found deficiencies in the
system and concluded that those deficiencies were
the result of “… a lack of coherent policy, administra-
tion, and leadership in vocational education R&D pro-
gram” (CVERD 1976, 2). Some of the descriptions of
the research we include in this chapter will come
directly from the results of this committee’s work
which was published in 1976.
Describing research in vocational education is
a complex task simply because of the broad na-
ture of the field. ↑ Research methods and results
of projects before 1974 were not, according to the
committee, well documented (CVERD 1976).
Projects, deemed research at that time, were clas-
sified by this committee by title only; making it
difficult to determine exactly the methodologies
utilized. Studies were primarily descriptive rather
than experimental and often focused on program
evaluation or development of new programmes
(CVERD 1976). Additionally, there has not been
another committee to assess research in ↑ career
and technical education since that report was pub-
lished in 1976. There were, however, several ar-
ticles published which describe research practices
in the field. For example, Rojewski (1997) report-
ed the findings of an analysis conducted of the re-
search published in the Journal of Vocational Ed-
ucation Research (JVER) between 1987 and 1996
and Zhang 1993 and Gordon 2003 looked at the
use of statistical significance in research in voca-
tional education. This chapter will describe how
research influenced policy in the 1900s; and re-
Handbook of TVET Research
port the findings of the committee charged with
assessing research in the field as well as the find-
ings reported by Zhang, Rojewski and Gordon in
their studies.
Objectives of Vocational Education
Part of the problem of describing research in vo-
cational education has been the changing focus of
vocational education, now called career and tech-
nical education. When the ↑ Smith-Hughes Act of
1917 was passed, the primary objective of voca-
tional education was “to prepare students for jobs
in order to meet the labor market needs of the
American economy” (CVERD 1976, 2). In the
1960s, a second objective was added:
“to increase the employment options available to each
person…and, a third implicit objective was motivating
students to learn basic academic skills” (CVERD 1976,
9).
In the 1970s, with the passage of the Education
Amendments of 1972, 1974 and 1976, the objec-
tives expanded to include students with disabili-
ties, ↑ disadvantaged students, bilingual students,
postsecondary students, and students in non-tra-
ditional occupations (GORDON 2003). The Carl D.
Perkins Vocational Education Act of 1984 (Per-
kins I), Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Applied
Technology Education Act of 1990 (Perkins II),
Carl D. Perkins Vocational and Technical Educa-
tion Act of 1998 (Perkins III) have had a great in-
fluence on vocational education. The goals of Per-
kins I were program improvement and services for
at-risk populations. Perkins II and III changed the
way we look at vocational education today. The
goals were to teach skills and competences neces-
sary to work in a “technologically advanced soci-
ety” (GORDON 2003, 278) and focused for the first
time on the integration of academic and vocation-
al education and the tech prep programmes. It al-
so emphasized articulation agreements between
↑ high schools and postsecondary institutions, ac-
countability, and expanding uses of technology
(GORDON 2003). Lynch (2000) best summarized
the changes which occurred in vocational educa-
tion from the early 1900s through recent legisla-
tion. He stated that
“It seems increasingly clear that we have almost come
full circle with federal direction of vocational educa-
Areas of VET Research
tion. The post-turn-of-the-century legislation was enact-
ed to prepare more students with the type of education
it was thought they would need to run farms and facto-
ries in the 20th century. Today, Perkins III challenges us
to prepare more students with the contemporary educa-
tion they will need to work successfully in ever-chang-
ing, technologically sophisticated, and internationally
competitive workplace. In essence, today’s workplaces
call for an increasingly educated work force for the 21st
century” (LYNCH 2000, 10–11).
Only recently was the Carl D. Perkins ↑ Career and
Technical Education Improvement Act of 2005 ap-
proved. This bill will continue to improve career
pathways for students from high school to post-
secondary institutions and into the workforce. Ac-
countability will play a bigger role, especially for
community colleges where they will be expected
to create programmes in fields where the demand
for a prepared and skilled workforce is high.
The Influence of Research on Legislation
Research often influences policy. Early advocates
vested in establishing a vocational system prima-
rily utilized studies to influence legislation. Many
of the reports published by committees commis-
sioned by government, business and industry and
other stakeholders were influential in getting many
of the legislative acts passed. Reports such as The
Massachusetts Commission on Industrial and
Technical Education (1906) and the Report of the
Sub-Committee on Relation of Children to the In-
dustries (1906) are examples of those published
by the Douglas Commission. Other stakeholders,
such as professional organisations and labour un-
ions also influenced legislation when their reports
entitled, Report of the Committee on the Place of
Industries in Public Education by the National
Education Association (1910) and the Reports of
the Committee on Industrial Education by the Na-
tional Association of Manufacturers (1905; 1912)
were presented to Congress.
Advocates representing various stakeholder groups
demonstrated to both federal and state govern-
ments the necessity for establishing and support-
ing vocational education. But the most influential
report was the Commission on National Aid to Vo-
cational Education (1914) whose findings and rec-
ommendations were incorporated in the ↑ Smith-
Hughes Act of 1917. This act established the sys-
281
tem of vocational education as we know it today.
Although the collection methods were not de-
tailed, the overall objectives of this report were to
establish the current and projected need for voca-
tional education and training and provided an un-
derstanding of the obligation to provide vocation-
al training as a joint responsibility of both the state
and the nation (HAWKINS / PROSSER / WRIGHT/com-
piled by JOHN CHESTER SWANSON 1966).
3.3.3.4.2 Focus of Research in Vocational
Education (1960s–mid 1970s)
After the passing of the ↑ Vocational Education
Act of 1963, allocations for the funding of research
were made available. But, research in vocation-
al education was still mostly focused on studies
which justified the establishment of programmes
and the development of the curriculum. There was
no set methodology utilized. Research in vocation-
al education
“is the product of legislative encouragement and meth-
odological influence from research conducted in the
fields of educational psychology, general education and
agriculture” (FINCH / HILLISON 1990, 228)
and that
“the influence of research methodology on vocational
education research is as varied as its legislative counter-
part” (FINCH / HILLISON 1990, 225).
They discuss the influence of correlation studies
in the late 1800s, descriptive studies during the
1920s and rudimentary uses of experimental re-
search by researchers in other fields which even-
tually appeared in early vocational education re-
search (FINCH / HILLISON 1990). However, “more
sophisticated ↑ experimental design and ↑ statistics
were drawn from the field of agriculture” (FINCH /
HILLISON 1990, 226). Later, interest in ↑ qualitative
research evolved in vocational education.
A committee was formed in 1974 to measure the
impact of the research conducted in vocational ed-
ucation. The purpose of establishing this commit-
tee was discussed earlier. They reported that a re-
view of the research from 1965 to 1974 showed
that research focused around the following prior-
ity areas.
– ↑ Career development and guidance
– Students with special needs
– Characteristics of students
282
– Teacher Education
– Instructional techniques
– ↑ Curriculum development
– ↑ Labour market supply and demand informa-
tion
– Administration of vocational education
– Evaluation of vocational education programmes
(FINCH / HILLISON 1990, 83).
These conclusions were drawn from a review of a
variety of sources including evaluations of voca-
tional education, visiting ten research coordinating
units, the holding of hearings, interviewing per-
sonnel from the U.S. Office of Education, and con-
ducting a mail survey and a series of telephone in-
terviews (CVERD 1976, 112). Specific methodolo-
gies were not provided for the studies reviewed.
3.3.3.4.3 Study of Statistical Sophistication in
Vocational Education
Zhang (1993), in his article The Determination of
Statistical Sophistication of Research in Vocation-
al Education examined the status of statistical so-
phistication in research on vocational education in
the 1980s. His objectives for the study were to:
(1) describe the statistical techniques used and de-
termine the statistical sophistication of research;
(2) describe the problem areas studied;
(3) determine the relationship between the statisti-
cal sophistication of research and the problem area
studied;
(4) describe the methodological strategies used;
(5) determine the relationship between the statisti-
cal sophistication of research and methodological
strategy used;
(6) determine changes over time in the statistical
techniques used, the statistical sophistication lev-
els, the problem area studied, and the methodolog-
ical strategy used in the 1980s (ZHANG 1993, 7).
He looked at a stratified sample of quantitative ar-
ticles (n=118) from four respected journals in re-
lated vocational education areas published be-
tween 1980–1983 and 1986–1989. Although not
all of the findings will be reported here, some of
the demographic information and two of the ma-
jor findings will be discussed because they are rel-
evant to this chapter.
Handbook of TVET Research
There were a total of 30 different statistical tech-
niques which were identified in the sample. About
5 % (n=67) of the sample articles were classified
as “basic” or “understood by average readers who
have completed a typical graduate level course in
↑ statistics” (ZHANG 1993, 9). Twenty-five per cent
(n=30) were classified as “intermediate” or “un-
derstood by average readers who have complet-
ed two typical graduate level courses in statistics”
(ZHANG 1993, 9); and 18 % (n=21) were considered
“advanced” or
“understood by average readers who have passed two
typical graduate courses in statistics and at least one ad-
vanced course in statistics” (ZHANG 1993, 9).
The most frequently used techniques by clusters
were found in descriptive correlations (Pearson r,
Spearman rho, Kendall’s tau, Kendall coefficient
of concordance, etc) and ANOVAs (one-way and
factorial ANOVA, one-way ANCOVA); and the
least frequently used techniques were found in re-
gressions (simple linear regression, multiple lin-
ear regression) and nonparametric (factor analy-
sis, MANOVA/MANCOVAs, discriminant analy-
sis, path analysis, etc.) (ZHANG 1993, 12). The ar-
ticles were primarily focused on the curriculum
(38 %); teachers (25 %); settings (23 %) and stu-
dents (14 %); a significant relationship between
the problem studied and the statistical sophistica-
tion was found. The study also found that 57 % of
the sample articles used surveying as the primary
methodological strategy; 29 % used field study and
ex post facto research; 13 % used field experiment;
and very few used the laboratory experiment strat-
egy (ZHANG 1993, 12).
Zhang concluded that the majority of the research
in vocational education could be described as basic
while only a few could be described as advanced;
that statistical sophistication was related to both
the problem area and methodological strategies;
and, the sophistication of research from the ear-
ly 80s to the late 80s did not change (ZHANG 1993,
14).
3.3.3.4.4 Review of Research Published in
JVER (mid 1980s–mid 1990s)
Rojewski (1997), in his editorial, discussed the
review he conducted of the types of articles pub-
lished in the Journal of Vocational Education Re-
Areas of VET Research
search (JVER) from 1987–1996 (volume series
12 through 21). The JVER publishes refereed ar-
ticles that examine research and research-related
topics in vocational education and the preparation
for work (JVER 1997). In this review, he found
that 160 articles were published in 40 issues dur-
ing the specific time period previously mentioned.
Approximately two-thirds of the articles published
during this period represented a quantitative re-
search paradigm, while only slightly more than
10 per cent reflected qualitative methods. The re-
maining articles were categorized as “other” (RO-
JEWSKI 1997). Topics dealt with by the articles fo-
cused on content/area (21.9 %); student focused
considerations (10.6 %); timing/career sequencing
considerations (11.3 %); location/siting considera-
tions (8.8 %); instructional methodology (8.8 %);
and articulation/generalization (38.8 %) (ROJEWS-
KI 1997, 144). The specific methodologies were not
discussed.
3.3.3.4.5 Gordon Study
Gordon (2001), in his study, surveyed a random
sample of 113 members of the American Vocation-
al Education Research Association (↑ AVERA) to
obtain baseline information regarding their per-
ceptions of statistical significance tests and
“to serve as a framework for promoting further discus-
sion of controversial statistical issues among career and
technical/workforce education researchers” (GORDON
2001, 8).
The Psychometric Group Instrument was used to
measure perceptions. The purpose and objectives
of the study were to:
(1) explore current perceptions of ↑ AVERA mem-
bers regarding statistical significance tests;
(2) determine perceptions of AVERA members re-
garding selected statistical issues, such as score re-
liability and stepwise methods (GORDON 2001, 8).
Some of the demographic characteristics of the
sampled group include: 77 % were males and 93 %
had earned a doctoral degree; 82.5 % worked in
university settings, 7.5 % in school districts, 5 % in
business and 5 % in other settings. Sixty per cent
of the respondents revealed that they had over
15 years of experience in ↑ educational research.
Findings showed that “respondents who were most
comfortable with and interested in statistical issues
283
(quantitative methods) may have been likely to respond
to the survey” (GORDON 2001, 13).
Gordon noted that there were members who only
use qualitative methods and these members may
have been less likely to respond to the survey. In
general, the findings suggest that the controversy
surrounding the use of significance tests has raised
some consciousness among AVERA members and
over 70 % indicated a need for adequate work-
shops on emerging statistical techniques and ↑ re-
search methods. In addition, most respondents dis-
agreed with the proposition that significance tests
should be banned; and, that their general views re-
garding statistical testing were consistent with pre-
vious research. The researcher recommended “that
future AVERA researchers be encouraged to always in-
terpret statistical tests, always interpret effect sizes and
the replicability of the results should be empirically in-
vestigated” (GORDON 2001, 16).
3.3.3.4.6 Conclusion
While the description of the research reviewed
in this brief chapter provides an overview of the
types of research that have been conducted in vo-
cational education in the ↑ United States, it certain-
ly does not begin to cover specifically the method-
ologies, ↑ research questions and findings of spe-
cific studies in each related area in the field. The
broad nature of the field makes it almost impossi-
ble to provide a comprehensive review of all of the
research. The purpose of this chapter has been to
provide an overview of the types of research con-
ducted in vocational/↑ career and technical edu-
cation in the ↑ United States and to provide some
historical background for establishing a research
agenda in the field. Our hope, however, is that you
understand the close relationship that research in
vocational education has had to legislation and that
in many cases, the research agenda has been driv-
en by legislation and the funding priorities deter-
mined within each act. In some regards, research
has been the foundation for the system of vocation-
al education as we know it today.
As we see a resurgence of interest in vocational
education or career and technical education, the
burden of proving, through research, the value in
this system of education becomes critical to future
funding. It most certainly will be a key to the prep-
aration of a skilled workforce for the 21st century.
284
3.3.4 National and International Reporting on VET. Case Studies
3.3.4.1 National Reporting on VET
– Case Study of Australia
Philip Loveder
Vocational education and training (VET) is a key
mechanism through which nations achieve the
skilled work forces necessary for economic and
social progress (→ 2.1). In ↑ Australia it is a com-
plex sector delivering very diverse programmes in
very flexible ways.
The progressive deregulation of the VET market
during the last two decades has created opportuni-
ties for private providers to train, issue nationally
recognised qualifications and competitively tender
with public providers for government funding of
↑ training places especially in those niche markets
commensurate with their technical specialities.
National policy attaches a high priority to meeting
industry requirements and to accurately inform-
ing and evaluating policy analysis (→ 2.6), meas-
uring skills uptake and improving system planning
across a plethora of public and private providers
and ensuring a consistent approach to the collec-
tion and reporting of training activity.
3.3.4.1.1 A Planning and Reporting
Framework for VET
Fully national reporting on VET in Australia is a
relatively recent phenomenon, commencing osten-
sibly around the same time as the development of a
national vocational education and training system
in 1992. Prior to this, much of the responsibility
for VET was with the State and Territory (provin-
cial) governments; and reporting occurred at the
jurisdiction-level. The need for reporting is in part
due to a need for public accountability for public
funds, but also as a way of ensuring system im-
provement.
In September 1996, the Ministerial Council of the
Australian National Training Authority (↑ ANTA)
established the Performance Review Committee
(PRC) as part of new national arrangements for
↑ performance measures, data collection and man-
agement, research and evaluation. This commit-
Handbook of TVET Research
tee developed the principles for a set of ↑ key per-
formance measures for vocational education and
training and established a set of long term key per-
formance measures for VET. The early work of the
committee also involved developing the transition
arrangements toward an outputs-and-outcomes
based ↑ VET system (ANTA 1997).
The Australian National Training Authority was abol-
ished as of June 30th 2005 and its roles and responsibil-
ities assumed by the Australian Department of Educa-
tion, Science and Training.
VET in Australia has also been driven over this
period by a series of national strategies. Of partic-
ular importance was the strategy entitled: Bridge
to the Future: Australia’s national strategy for vo-
cational education and training 1998–2003 (AN-
TA 1998). This strategy expressed the collective
↑ commitment by all Australian governments (state
and national), in ↑ partnership with Australian in-
dustry, to a truly national vocational education and
training system.
The strategy analysed economic, industrial and so-
cial forces (→ 2.2) for change and their implica-
tions for vocational education and training over the
five years of the plan. It set out a vision for VET,
aligned with five key objectives. These objectives
were (1) equipping Australians for the world of
work; (2) enhancing ↑ mobility in the ↑ labour mar-
ket; (3) achieving equitable outcomes in VET; (4)
increasing investment in training; and (5) maxim-
ising the value of public vocational education and
training expenditure.
A further (and the present) national strategy is en-
titled: Shaping our future: ↑ Australia’s nation-
al strategy for vocational education and training
2004–2010. This has four (4) objectives underpin-
ning it:
Objective 1 – Industry will have a highly skilled
workforce to support strong ↑ performance in the
global economy
Objective 2 – Employers and individuals will be at
the centre of vocational education and training
Objective 3 – Communities and regions will be
strengthened economically and socially through
learning and employment
Areas of VET Research
Objective 4 – Indigenous Australians will have
skills for viable jobs and their learning culture will
be shared.
Any strategy must have a way to measure its ↑ ef-
fectiveness, and this is achieved through: Shaping
our future: Mapping the future: a forward plan for
Australian vocational education and training ↑ sta-
tistics, 2004 to 2010 which is a forward five year
plan for the maintenance and future development
of a world-class statistical collection in VET (AN-
TA 2004a). There are three (3) objectives under
this strategy:
– provision of a comprehensive and high quality
information base to support policy development
and research and evaluation in VET
– to use that information base to underscore pub-
lic accountability and measurement of the nation-
al ↑ VET system, including the ↑ key performance
measures
– to maximise the opportunity for the information
base to be analysed by exploiting data linkages and
making the data more widely available in a variety
of formats.
Underpinning both the national strategy and the
objectives, are a set of Key Performance Measures
(KPMs) used to measure the ↑ effectiveness of the
system in delivering against its various targets.
These KPMs were built on the ↑ SMART princi-
ples (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant
and Timebound) and related to the fundamen-
tal business and key strategic issues of the sector.
These KPMs are particularly important in relation
to national reporting using the national statistical
and survey data. The present KPMs include:
KPM 1: Student ↑ participation and achievement in
vocational education and training
KPM 2: Student employment outcomes and satis-
faction with vocational education and training
KPM 3: Employer engagement and satisfaction
with vocational education and training
KPM 4: Vocational education and training out-
comes for Indigenous Australians
KPM 5: Community engagement and satisfaction
with vocational education and training
KPM 6: ↑ efficiency ↑ performance.
285
3.3.4.1.2 Statistical Collections Underpinning
the Reporting Framework
In November 1990, Australian Ministers commit-
ted their agencies to a comprehensive and radi-
cal program of statistical reform resulting in the
Australian Vocational Education and Training
Management Information and Statistical Stand-
ard (↑ AVETMISS). The standard was endorsed
by all Australian Governments in mid 1993. The
Standard is the first professional specification of
information standards for vocational education in
Australia and is overseen by ↑ NCVER (NCVER
2004b; 2004a). The data collections and sur-
veys underlying the standard provide a signifi-
cant amount of the measurable data for each of the
KPMs for reporting purposes.
The Data Collections
The AVETMIS Standard comprises two key com-
ponents – the VET provider and the New Appren-
ticeship collections. Generally speaking students
in the smaller New Apprenticeship collection will
also be a subset of the larger VET provider col-
lection.
Apprenticeships and Traineeships Collection
Information is collected from the formal con-
tracts of training of apprentices and trainees by
each State and Territory Authority. Data is extract-
ed from local systems and then submitted to the
NCVER on a quarterly cumulative basis beginning
from 1st July 1996. The data from this collection
supports reporting under ↑ KPM 1 – Student par-
ticipation and achievement in vocational education
and training.
In any given quarter key information submitted in-
cludes:
– Learners and Students
– The Training Provider
– Training Contract Transactions, including com-
mencements, cancellations and completions, their
dates of effect and the occupational outcome ad-
dressed by the qualification.
– The Employer, including their size, legal name
and the industry they are involved using the Aus-
tralian New Zealand Standard Industrial Classifi-
cation (ANZSIC).
286
– Qualifications or Courses
VET Provider Collection
Information is collected from ↑ technical and fur-
ther education (TAFE) institutes, some universi-
ties and a range of private training providers who
receive government funding. The data from this
collection supports reporting under KPM 1 – Stu-
dent participation and achievement in vocational
education and training.
It is an annual collection of training activity in a
calendar year.
In any given year key information is obtained
about:
– Learners and Students
– Qualifications or Courses
– Units of Competency or Modules
– The Training Provider
– The Training Provider campus or delivery loca-
tion
Financial Collection for Publicly Funded VET
NCVER also collects financial information for vo-
cational education and training in ↑ Australia. This
includes information on revenues, expenses, as-
sets, liabilities and cash flow. This data supports
reporting under KPM 6 – ↑ efficiency perform-
ance. The data is ‘adjusted’ to improve the accura-
cy and comparability of the ↑ efficiency measures.
Process for Information Collection and Sub-
mission
Validation software developed by the ↑ NCVER is
distributed to States and Territories for validation
prior to data submission. States and Territories ex-
tract information from their systems and training
providers to the AVETMIS Standard.
NCVER re-validates the data on submission and
various data quality checks are performed and
feedback given to the states, with on some occa-
sions, possibly re-submission of data.
National Surveys Program
A second important part of the collections sup-
porting the national strategy is a program of na-
tional surveys for VET. The data from the nation-
Handbook of TVET Research
al surveys program supports reporting under KPM
2 – Student employment outcomes and satisfaction
with vocational education and training, KPM 3 –
Employer engagement with vocational education
and training and KPM 4 – Vocational education
and training outcomes for Indigenous Australians.
NCVER is responsible for managing this suite of
surveys on behalf of the Australian Department of
Education, Science and Training (DEST). These
include the following major surveys:
Student Outcomes Survey
The student outcomes survey is carried out each
year by NCVER and provides valuable data on
outcomes for VET graduates and module compl-
eters. This is a survey of approximately 300,000
TAFE and non-TAFE students involving question-
naire design, up to 4 mailings, telephone non-re-
sponse and booster surveys, web surveys and com-
plex automated reporting to all states and approxi-
mately 80 institutes. Information from the survey
includes:
– graduates’ characteristics
– course information
– employment outcomes
– employment prospects and outcomes before and
after course of study
– earnings and other employment related out-
comes
– further study
– satisfaction with various aspects of their course.
Survey of Employer Use and Views of the VET
System
A regular survey of employers, conducted bi-an-
nually since 1997. Employers are asked about their
views on, perceptions of, and satisfaction with the
↑ VET system in ↑ Australia. This survey will be
repeated in 2007.
Survey of Indigenous Students
In 2004, NCVER undertook the first ever survey
of Indigenous VET Students in Australia. In to-
tal, 785 Indigenous people were interviewed in
70 different locations across the country. The sur-
vey reported on reasons for undertaking the study,
Areas of VET Research
whether the training met their needs and the bene-
fits derived from participating in training.
Down the Track Survey: TAFE Outcomes for
Young People Two Years on
Using results from the 2002 Student Outcomes
Survey, NCVER conducted a follow-up longitudi-
nal survey of a cohort of students in 2004, and ex-
amined outcomes over time for young people aged
15–24 years who undertook ↑ technical and further
education (TAFE) training in 2001. In particular,
the survey investigated changes in employment,
wages and ↑ skill level, further study outcomes and
other benefits reported from the training
3.3.4.1.3 Other Collections
Beyond the NCVER collections, there are also oth-
er data from agencies such as the Australian Bu-
reau of ↑ Statistics (ABS) who conduct surveys and
collections such as the Survey of Education and
Work (Catalogue: 6227:0), the Survey of Educa-
tion and Training (Catalogue: 6278:0), which both
occur every four years; and the Training Expendi-
ture and Practices Survey (Catalogue: 1136:0) and
the Census which collects some information on ed-
ucational ↑ participation and achievement.
On top of these, the ABS in 2006 will conduct an
Adult Literacy and Lifeskills Survey as part of the
international round of adult literacy surveys being
coordinated by the ↑ Organisation for Economic
Cooperation and Development (OECD). Enumera-
tion would be in the second half of 2006, ten years
after the 1996 Survey of Aspects of Leaning.
The Australian Department of Education, Science
and Training (DEST) also manages a collection:
Training and Youth Internet Management System
(TYIMS) that collects New Apprenticeship com-
mencement data provided through Commonwealth
New Apprenticeships Centres (NACS).
3.3.4.1.4 Reporting and Dissemination
Processes
VET activity is reported in a variety of ways. Un-
der its obligations to the Australian government,
↑ NCVER produces a range of publications that are
used by policy makers and institutions to advise
287
decision making. Greater use of the web is being
made for very detailed tabulations.
In addition to this, data cubes and specified tables
are available and fully accessible on the NCVER
website. NCVER also provides an ad hoc requests
service for small statistical queries as well as cus-
tomised data sets for agencies such as the Austral-
ian Department of Education, Science and Train-
ing (DEST), universities, research centres and in-
dustry skills councils.
At the national level, the major way that activity
is reported is with the Annual National Report of
the VET Sector: Volumes 1–3. This set of three
volumes is prepared in accordance with the leg-
islative requirements of the ↑ Australian National
Training Authority Act 1992 (ANTA Act) and in-
cludes an assessment of the ↑ performance of the
VET sector during a given year (DEST 2005). The
report contains both qualitative and quantitative
volumes, with Volume 1 providing a general over-
view of VET operations during the year; Volume
2 comprises reports from each jurisdiction on their
performance against the nationally-agreed prior-
ities; and Volume 3 reports on progress against
the ↑ KPMs established by the sector and contains
detailed ↑ statistics and other information on the
performance of the national system against the
KPMs.
The consolidated report provides information on
the operation of the national system, its achieve-
ments and challenges, and the outcomes for the
system’s clients. This report is tabled in the Aus-
tralian Parliament each year at the Spring sitting.
As the responsibility for VET is one shared be-
tween the national and State/Territory govern-
ments, the states (provincial) governments will al-
so have individual ↑ VET plans that contain certain
targets (→ 5.4.5) that these jurisdictions individu-
ally wish to meet.
In order to support ↑ Australia’s international ed-
ucation data obligations, NCVER also prepares a
special statistical report to the ↑ Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD)
(→ 3.3.4.6) each year reporting on Australian vo-
cational education and training activity compared
with the International Standard ↑ Classification of
Education (ISCED).
288
3.3.4.1.5 Current Reporting Issues and
Developments in Australia
A key reporting issue that has arisen, is that be-
cause there are only formal arrangements in place
to collect information on training for those provid-
ers in receipt of the recurrent VET funded budget,
the national VET Provider collection is under-re-
porting the full vocational effort especially by pri-
vate providers, in which case it is difficult to build
a true picture of the skills available or required.
Presently, there are efforts between governments
and agencies representing the private training mar-
ket (such as the Australian Council for Private Ed-
ucation and Training (ACPET) and the Austral-
ian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI))
to include private provider delivery in the nation-
al collections, which will allow the ‘whole of the
VET effort’ to be reported. At present there is a
proposal to call for voluntary submissions of da-
ta from private providers and enterprise registered
training organisations. In the first instance, reports
will be published on the characteristics of students
and courses that lie outside the scope of public
VET activity (ANTA 2004b).
Matching across data collections with common
individuals will allow the system to make better
use of information and has been identified as a
program priority. For example, recent changes to
the AVETMIS standard has allowed the system to
identify apprentices and trainees undertaking off-
the-job training with a public provider.
Another reporting issue relates to the ability to
track longitudinal student flows. There are pres-
ently separate schools, VET and higher education
statistical collections, which do not always allow
for easy identification or tracking of individuals
between collections, making it difficult to under-
stand the true nature of student destinations. Mov-
ing toward a unique student identifier is a develop-
ment being pursued in several states and territories
as this would allow the proper tracking of student
pathways through matching collections over time
across sectors.
An emerging challenge for the collection and re-
porting of training ↑ statistics has been the intro-
duction of a new key performance measure (↑ KPM
5) – Community engagement and satisfaction with
vocational education and training. Improving in-
Handbook of TVET Research
formation about training activity for regions and
communities has been designated as a priority for
the VET sector in Australia. Obtaining informa-
tion on whole regions and communities presents
some difficulties as traditionally data collections
have focussed more on the individual, and extend-
ing this out to a regional perspective will require a
different approach.
It is important to note in concluding this chap-
ter that, in some respects, the VET sector led the
way in Australian government reporting during
the 1990s. The model used by VET is one that has
been adopted by other sectors, especially some of
the social services. Having said this, there are still
important improvements to be made to the way
that the sector collects and reports data, and espe-
cially in its ability to understand the ↑ participation
and achievement of particular demographic groups
in Australian society.
3.3.4.2 Report on Vocational
Education in China
Lin Sun
The Report on Chinese Vocational Education is a
reference book. It systematically sums up the de-
velopment and issues during the reporting period
(it is published once a year or every two years) so
as to provide information for formulating a mac-
ro policy of vocational education and conducting
↑ statistical analysis of and summing-up of expe-
rience on the development of vocational educa-
tion. It aims at: analysing the demand for vocation-
al education from social and economic develop-
ment and industrial restructuring; researching on
the development trend of national vocational ed-
ucation; summing up the national experience and
experience of local special features of vocational
education; focusing the discussions on key issues
concerning the current development of vocation-
al education; and formulating policy recommenda-
tions for future reform and development of voca-
tional education.
Areas of VET Research
3.3.4.2.1 The Origin and Development of the
Report
The ↑ Report on Vocational Education is the result
of Sino-German technical cooperation on voca-
tional education. In 1990’s, the Chinese and Ger-
man Governments undertook extensive coopera-
tion in the area of vocational education within the
framework of technical cooperation, aiming to
learn from the advanced experience of German vo-
cational education and reform in order to improve
the Chinese vocational educational system.
Advanced vocational educational concepts and
scientific approaches are needed to guide the es-
tablishment of a scientific and rational system of
vocational education that accords with the Chinese
situation. In 1991, the German Government via
↑ GTZ funded the setting-up of the Central Institute
of Vocational and Technical Education (referred as
↑ CIVTE hereafter). One of the main tasks of the
CIVTE is to “conduct research on policies and regula-
tions in the light of the development needs of Chinese
vocational education and to offer consultancy services
to the government”(CIVTE 1994).
One of the main channels for accomplishing this
main task is to learn from the experience of the
German “Report on Vocational Education”, con-
duct statistical analysis of the development of vo-
cational education and conclusive research on
macro policies and to deliver policy consultancy
services for macro management decision-making
(→ 4.9).
In 1994, the CIVTE started its research on and
compilation of the Report on Vocational Educa-
tion. This work was pioneering as annual research
on the development of ↑ educational policy had
been very rare in the sphere of Chinese ↑ educa-
tional research and sciences. The Report was in-
itially circulated as an internal document and of-
ficially published in 2001 as a yearly or biennial
publication. It is now playing a more and more im-
portant role in helping the vocational educational
administrations to formulate and enforce policies,
and the vocational educational scientific research
units to conduct their researches. Since 2002, this
job has been designated a task jointly organised
and accomplished by CIVTE; the Ministry of Ed-
ucation will build on this to gradually establish an
289
annual monitoring system for vocational educa-
tional development.
Right now, this research report is becoming a use-
ful reference tool for facilitating the formulation
of macro policy for vocational education. It con-
tains data, information and recommendations that
give a real picture of vocational education in ↑ Chi-
na, thus serving as an important basis for policy
advisory input to vocational education as well as
important information for research on vocational
education. At the same time, this work has indi-
rectly promoted scientific research into vocational
education in China with more and more provinc-
es paying attention to research and development of
vocational education, thus gradually establishing
healthy interaction between policy formulation as
regards vocational education and scientification re-
search into vocational education. Since 1997, an-
nual research on the development of vocational ed-
ucation in Shanghai, Liaoning, Beijing, Hunan and
other provinces has been conducted one after an-
other.
3.3.4.2.2 The Report Structure and Contents
The Chinese ↑ Report on Vocational Education
consists of 4 parts, they are:
Part One, Executive Summary of the Develop-
ment of Vocational Education
It mainly covers: (1) the status quo of the social
and economic development and current policy
with a focus on the development trend and poli-
cy adjustment concerning industrial structure, em-
ployment structure and policy on labour and em-
ployment as well as the impacts on identifying the
key issues and train of thought; (2) statistical ↑ data
on vocational education of various types and levels
and the description of the reform and development.
Take 2001–2003 for example, this part includes in-
formation on the increased amount of vocational
education and training of various types and levels;
the status quo and problems with the privately-run
vocational education; vocational education in ru-
ral areas and the western part of ↑ China; teaching
resources of vocational education; funding for vo-
cational education; recruitment and employment;
teaching reform and international cooperation; (3)
290
review and comments on the reform and ↑ devel-
opment policy of vocational education including
comments on important meetings, documents and
the impact of policy implementation.
Part Two, Thematic Report
A task force was organised for managerial staffs
in vocational educational administrative units and
researchers at vocational education institutions to
conduct specific research on key issues concerning
vocational educational development. The thematic
reports of 2001–2003 were about the ↑ higher voca-
tional education during the first three years of the
21st century; the status quo and development trend
of vocational and adult education in promoting the
training for rural emigrant labourers; research on
↑ human resource development in the West and the
development of vocational and adult education; re-
search on the certified qualification system and the
development of vocational education; implemen-
tation and impact analysis of the three vocational
education programmes in the “Action Plan of the
21st century to Rejuvenate Education”; status and
role of vocational education in the life-long educa-
tional system and learning society; research on the
development and training involved in international
vocational education etc. They covered areas such
as senior vocational education, emigration of rural
labourers, vocational certification system, regional
economic development and vocational education,
international development of ↑ vocation education
and changing trends. The focus of the thematic re-
port is on the new situation and new issues related
to reform and development in this area as well as
the development trend of international vocational
education so as to increase the academic and prag-
matic features of the research report.
Part Three, Local Report
In view of the imbalanced economic development
in China, the Report sums up and analyzes rep-
resentative cases in economically developed ar-
eas, developing areas and under-developed areas
in order to make the report more targeting, com-
parable and referable in line with the principle of
differentiated guidance for different situation. For
instance, the Report of 2001–2003 contained re-
Handbook of TVET Research
ports prepared by educational administrative units
or vocational ↑ educational research units from 19
provinces, cities and autonomous regions on lo-
cal development of vocational education, prob-
lems, lessons learnt and special features. The main
contents are: (1) the social, economic and politi-
cal background for the local development of voca-
tional education; (2) general information on the lo-
cal development of vocational education of various
types and levels including the changing number of
junior, middle and senior vocational education fa-
cilities, the recruitment and employment, teaching
resources and financial input; policy measures for
the development of local vocational education in-
cluding important meetings and documents; man-
agement systems, school-running systems, invest-
ment systems, reform and development concern-
ing teachers’ capacity building, important policies
and cost-↑ effectiveness analysis for urban and ru-
ral development of vocational education; (4) spe-
cial development features of local vocational edu-
cation and the introduction of experience.
Part Four, Annex
This includes important policies and documents in
relation to vocational education from leading ed-
ucational administrative units and other relevant
agencies, and key activities of vocational educa-
tion within the period of the Report (VOCATIONAL
EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF MOE/CIVTE 2005).
3.3.4.2.3 Organisation of the Report
The compilation of the ↑ Report on Vocational Ed-
ucation was initially undertaken by ↑ CIVTE inde-
pendently. Since 2002, the Ministry of Education,
in view of the needs for formulating macro policy
for vocational education, treated this job as a spe-
cial task and gave it to both the Vocational Educa-
tion Department of MoE and the ↑ CIVTE (chief
editor). According to the requirements of the Min-
istry of Education, each province, city and pre-
fecture should conduct statistical and policy re-
search on the development of vocational education
to summarize the development, issues and experi-
ence of local vocational education and then sub-
mit all these to the CIVTE in a form of a report.
The general part in the Report and all the manage-
Areas of VET Research
rial and organizational work relating to the com-
pilation were done by the CIVTE. Each year, the
CIVTE proposed a number of key, a hot issues re-
lating to the development of Chinese vocational
education and then invited managerial staffs and
researchers from vocational educational adminis-
trative units and scientific research units to com-
pile thematic reports. In addition, the CIVET also
involved other research departments in the CIVTE
in this job through various means. For example,
opinions were widely solicited on the report con-
tents each year among agencies such as the Nation-
al Association of Vocational Education of ↑ China,
academies of higher learning, and educational and
scientific research institutes in order to win sup-
port and attention from all walks of life.
The basic statistical data in the Report on Voca-
tional Education is mainly from The National Sta-
tistical Yearbook and the National Statistical Year-
book of Education. The data analysis is mainly a
short-term comparison between the same year and
the previous year. Those data that are not repre-
sentative nation-wide will be analyzed through a
typical case. For example, the data of the graduates
employed was collected through a typical case sur-
vey among recruiting units and employment ↑ sta-
tistics from local ↑ vocational schools. The policy
part in the Report is mainly based on important
conferences and documents about vocational edu-
cation in the same year to describe and analyse the
current policies and impact from implementation.
As a report of the Ministry of Education, it is re-
quired that explanation and illustration of the poli-
cies in the Report need to comply with that of the
Ministry of Education.
3.3.4.2.4 Issues and Prospects
The current Chinese ↑ Report on Vocational Edu-
cation is basically a data aggregation and a collec-
tion of documentations; several issues relating to
guiding thoughts which emerged in the process of
compilation have not yet been sorted out:
Issue one is about the attribution, namely is the re-
port a government working report or a research re-
port. Since the tasks, nature and approaches of the
two chief publishers, the Vocational Education De-
partment of MoE and ↑ CIVTE are quite different,
291
there have therefore been repeated debates on the
orientation, contents and structure of the Report;
Issues two is about the function, namely what key
issues should be addressed by the Report on Vo-
cational Education in relation to the employment
and the development of vocational education? At
present, the main contents of the Report are lim-
ited to the ↑ statistics of the development of voca-
tional education and the analysis and summing-
up of the status quo, policy and hot issues. Since
the survey of the ↑ labour market and the forecast
of employment needs are missing, its contribution
to addressing the key issue of a smooth transition
from school to work is far from enough.
Issue three is about the content and structure of the
Report. So far, there has not been a formal decision
on the basic framework of the Report, and the con-
crete issues such as format, structure and length
of the main contents, and report preparation are
rather casual. The issue needing to be addressed
here is how to pay attention to specific and typi-
cal local issues while giving an overall description
of the vocational education of the whole country;
how to link the ↑ statistical analysis with ↑ qualita-
tive research such as whether the latest theoreti-
cal research and result of reforms in the teaching-
learning process should be included in the Report
or not.
In addition, it is imperative to establish a complete
organisational and administrative system for the
compilation of the Report on Vocational Educa-
tion. At the moment, there are no compulsory spec-
ifications on the reports published in the Report on
Vocational Education in the existing laws and reg-
ulations. The compilation of the Report on Voca-
tional Education is a routine job and the Govern-
ment should formulate regulations for the organi-
sational structure, job and responsibility sharing,
personnel and funding issues in order to ensure the
completion of this job, especially to establish a re-
liable data source for the statistics and documents
used in the Report. In the light of much geograph-
ical diversification, to include more local contents
in the Report is also a feasible development trend
so as to mobilize the enthusiasm of local research
units of vocational education (SUN 2002).
A well-documented and more influential report on
vocational education should not only cover the in-
292
ternal development of the Chinese educational sys-
tem, but also analyse the change of social environ-
ment beyond the educational system such as the
requirement for vocational education generated by
supply and demand in the ↑ labour market and the
structural change of ↑ professions. Data, informa-
tion and recommendations included in the Report
should be of valuable help to individual career de-
velopment and the relevant organisations in the ed-
ucational and labour sphere, and this is the future
target for the Report on Vocational Education.
3.3.4.3 Germany
Heinrich Althoff and Elisabeth M.
Krekel
The Report on Vocational Education and Training
provides Germany with a comprehensive system of
information on the state and anticipated future de-
velopment of vocational education and training. It
has been published annually as a report by the Fed-
eral Government since 1977. The first Reports on
Vocational Education and Training focused sole-
ly on depicting the supply of and demand for ↑ in-
company ↑ training places, but today the Reports
on Vocational Education and Training contain ex-
tensive analyses based on statistics and research
projects dealing with initial and ↑ continuing voca-
tional education and training.
Owing to the results of the PISA tests, among oth-
er factors, a national reporting scheme is currently
being set up in Germany that is meant to cover all
spheres of education, from the elementary sphere
through school and vocational education to higher
education and ↑ continuing education.
3.3.4.3.1 The Report on Vocational Education
and Training
The legal basis for the ↑ Report on Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training is § 86 of the ↑ Vocational
Training Act (BBIG 2005), which was extensive-
ly revised in 2005 (cf. in this connection: http://
www.bmbf.de/en/1644.php.) The Federal Institute
for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) was
founded in 1970. It conducts research, develop-
ment and counselling activities on the basis of the
Handbook of TVET Research
Vocational Training Act (BBiG) (cf.: http://www.
bibb.de/en/26173.htm). The BIBB is charged un-
der § 90 of the BBiG with helping to prepare the
Report on Vocational Education and Training. The
Board of the BIBB is to be involved in the prepa-
ration of the Report on Vocational Education and
Training.
The BIBB Board is the statutory advisory body
of the Federal Government on fundamental mat-
ters of vocational education and training. It makes
recommendations and takes a position on the an-
nual Report on Vocational Education and Train-
ing of the Federal Ministry of Education and Re-
search. Representatives of employers, employees,
the Federal States and the Federal Government are
represented with equal voting power on the BIBB
Board. The tasks of the Board are set forth in § 92
of the BBiG.
The Report on Vocational Education and Training
consists of two parts. In Part I the Federal Gov-
ernment evaluates the current situation on the job
market for training positions and the government’s
policy for resolving current education policy issues
is presented. When the draft Report on Vocation-
al Education and Training is presented, an internal
dialogue immediately begins in the BIBB Board
on priority issues of vocational education policy
and vocational education research and practice.
The different positions of the groups represented
on the Board are documented in the form of mi-
nority votes. The decision of the Federal Cabinet
and the position taken by the BIBB Board togeth-
er with the minority votes of the employer and em-
ployee representatives are also contained in Part I.
Besides extensive data and detailed findings con-
cerning the job market for training positions and
the structural development of vocational education
and training, Part II of the Report on Vocational
Education and Training contains data on the de-
sign of vocational education and training, on ↑ con-
tinuing vocational education and training and on
international aspects of vocational education and
training.
Various ↑ statistics form the basis for the analy-
sis of the structure and development of vocation-
al education and training in Germany. School sta-
tistics contain data on the number of school leav-
ers from schools of general education and hence
Areas of VET Research
Source: BBIG 2005
about the expected transfers to vocational educa-
tion and training as well. Using the employment
statistics in relation to the size or economic sector
of an enterprise, one can calculate the development
of ↑ in-company training in comparison to the de-
velopment of the employees and the development
of the enterprises providing training. (In Germa-
ny, trainees with a company training contract are
subject to social insurance coverage and are there-
fore included in the employment ↑ statistics.) Two
independent counts provide information on the
number of new in-company training contracts con-
cluded and on inventory and structure: that of the
BIBB for the period ending 30 September and that
of the Federal Statistical Office for the period end-
ing December 31 (FLEMMING / UHLY/ ULRICH 2005;
ULRICH 1999). The data base for both is the busi-
ness statistics of the relevant agencies, which nor-
mally are the chambers (e. g. Chambers of Industry
and Commerce, Chambers of Crafts and Trades).
The chambers are obliged under § 34 BBiG “to es-
tablish and maintain a registry of traineeships”.
In other words, every training contract concluded
293
between an enterprise (trainer) and a young person
(trainee) has to be submitted to the Chamber and
entered by the Chamber in the registry of trainee-
ships (cf. → 1.4).
3.3.4.3.2 Supply of and Demand for Training
Places: BIBB Survey for the Period
Ending 30. September
Pursuant to § 86 BBiG, the BIBB conducts a survey
every autumn among the relevant agencies (e. g.
chambers) on new training contracts concluded by
30 September and still in effect. The results of the
survey are available at the beginning of December
for the current year of training and together with
the business and placement statistics of the Federal
Employment Agency (BA) they are a central basis
for the training position balance-sheet of the Fed-
eral Government. The business and placement sta-
tistics of the BA contain important data on, among
other things, the number of young people who
have tried to get a traineeship through the BA, the
number of applicants not placed and the number
of traineeships vacant at the end of the placement
year (on September 30 of each year).
The overall supply of training positions results
from the number of new training contracts con-
cluded (BIBB survey for the period up to 30. Sep-
tember) in each year and the vocational training
positions still listed as open on 30. September at
the end of the financial year in the business statis-
tics of the Federal Employment Agency. The over-
all supply of 562,816 ↑ training places in the year
2005 is made up of 550,180 new training contracts
concluded and 12,636 unfilled apprenticeships.
The overall demand results from the number of
new training contracts concluded and the number
of still unplaced applicants registered with the BA
at the end of the financial year; this number stood
at 40,900 in 2005. Add this to the 550,180 new
training contracts concluded and we have an over-
all demand of 591,080 training places. The nom-
inal demand for vocational training positions in
2005 exceeded the supply by 28,264.
294
Fig. 1: Trends in demand for ↑ supply of training plac-
es 1992 to 2005 (Source: BMBF 2006, 15)
To get a more precise picture of the supply prob-
lems on the job market for training positions we
have to consult other data in addition to this “nom-
inal” training gap. There are many young peo-
ple who embark upon an alternative to ↑ in-com-
pany training (e. g. full-time ↑ vocational school
education, vocational training preparation) and
are therefore no longer counted among the un-
placed applicants but still wish to have in-compa-
ny training positions. These comprised 47,228 of
the applicants registered with the BA in 2005. Re-
sults from BIBB/BA surveys of applicants show
that the number of those seeking training posi-
tions is even higher (ULRICH /K REKEL / FLEMMING
2005; EBERHARD /K REWERTH / ULRICH 2005; ULRICH
2003).
3.3.4.3.3 Structural Development of Vocational
Education and Training: Vocational
Education and Training Statistics
The December 31. count of the Federal Statistical
Office qualifies as statistics pursuant to § 88 of the
BBiG. The period covered by this survey is one
calendar year (January 1. to December 31.). In ad-
dition to data on ↑ continuing vocational education
and training, the Vocational Education and Train-
ing Statistics provide extensive information for in-
company training (↑ Dual System) (cf. http://www.
bibb.de/en/781.htm), e. g. on
– Trainees: gender, citizenship, schooling, train-
ing occupation, training year, etc.
Handbook of TVET Research
– Trainers: gender, technical and pedagogical
qualifications
– Training counsellors: age, gender, educational
background etc.
Despite this broad data base, the Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training Statistics are of only limit-
ed scientific use (ALTHOFF 1984). This is not be-
cause of the lack of precision of the data obtained.
On the contrary, they are recorded far more pre-
cisely by the relevant agencies than would be pos-
sible through direct questioning of the trainees or
other persons required to submit information. It is
rather because of the condition indispensable for
research that the individual variables can be free-
ly combined depending on the scientific ques-
tions asked. Thus far the Vocational Education and
Training Statistics do not offer that possibility. In-
stead the data are collected in tables by the cham-
bers and passed on through the State statistical of-
fices to the Federal Statistical Office. The statisti-
cal offices can therefore no longer extract the tabu-
lated features and recombine them at will depend-
ing on the questions asked. Because of the aggre-
gate ↑ statistics on hand, the “contract dissolution”
or “examination result” feature, for example, can
no longer be combined with the “school education
background” feature.
In terms of regulatory policy, education policy de-
pends on the precise number of young people en-
tering in-company vocational education and train-
ing in particular after leaving general and ↑ voca-
tional schools. Only this number accurately reflects
the actual intake capacity of in-company vocation-
al education and training. The Vocational Educa-
Areas of VET Research
tion and Training Statistics, however, refer to con-
tracts and not persons (trainees) (ALTHOFF 1997).
For there is a gap of about ten per cent between the
number of young people entering vocational educa-
tion and training for the first time and the number
of contracts concluded, as can be seen from prima-
ry surveys. This results in part from young people
signing new contracts during their further in-com-
pany vocational education and training following
the dissolution of initial contracts. This means that
there are always more new training contracts be-
ing counted than there are young people newly en-
tering the training system. Hence primary surveys
also show that about one half of all young people
who dissolve their contracts continue with their
in-company vocational education and training
(BIBB 2005, 62, 78; BMBF 2003c, 96 f.).
Much the same thing applies to the number of
young people who drop out of in-company vo-
cational education and training. These drop-outs
cannot be correctly identified either. They com-
prise those young people who leave the in-com-
pany education and training system forever after
their contracts have been dissolved and those who
completely fail their final examination. It is basi-
cally impossible to clearly differentiate these two
groups within the Vocational Education and Train-
ing Statistics. The group of young people who leave
the training system forever after contract dissolu-
tion cannot be quantified with precision because
the Vocational Education and Training Statistics
do not offer the possibility of distinguishing them
from those young people who continue their train-
ing in a different occupation or company after dis-
solution of a contract.
The reason is again that the data is compiled on the
basis of training contracts rather than trainees. For
as soon as a contract is dissolved there is no long-
er a link to any new contract that may be signed.
Contract dissolutions therefore necessarily appear
in the Vocational Education and Training Statistics
as ↑ discontinuation of vocational education and
training even if the young people involved contin-
ue their ↑ in-company training in a different occu-
pation or enterprise (ALTHOFF 2003, 35).
The ↑ Vocational Training Act was reformed in
2005 and now includes far-reaching changes in the
Vocational Education and Training Statistics of the
295
Federal Statistical Office which will take effect on
1. April 2007. The possibilities of analysis will be
improved considerably, in particular through the
planned changeover from aggregate statistics to in-
dividual statistics. It will thus be possible in future
to conduct elaborate context analyses for the fea-
tures contained in the Vocational Education and
Training Statistics. It will then be possible for the
first time to establish links between examination
success in individual occupations or dissolutions
of contracts and the vocational background of the
trainees. In this way the revision of the Vocation-
al Education and Training Statistics will gain in
value for scientific analysis as well. Even when the
Vocational Education and Training Statistics have
been revised, however, it will still not be possible
to portray training careers in the case of trainees
concluding a series of contracts. Even after 2007
it will only be possible to identify drop-outs nom-
inally through a comparison of admissions and
completed courses of training. Better identification
would only be possible if each trainee were given
an individual identification number.
3.3.4.3.4 Conclusion
The BIBB survey for the period up to 30. Septem-
ber and the Vocational Education and Training
Statistics are two central sources of data for report-
ing on vocational education and training in Ger-
many. The current year of training is assessed on
the basis of the results of the BIBB survey for the
period up to 30. September in conjunction with the
business and placement ↑ statistics of the BA. More
detailed information and more discriminating rep-
resentations of the trainee structure are only pos-
sible, however, using the results for the period up
to 31. December, and only one year later. The sur-
vey ending on 30. September only distinguishes
between Federal States, employment service dis-
tricts, normal and shortened periods of training,
and gender. However, when using the data up to
31. December, assessments are possible relating to,
among other factors, age, school education back-
ground, training year and citizenship of the train-
ees as well. The results of the analyses constitute
an important basis for vocational education and
↑ training policy and will be published in the annu-
al Reports on Vocational Education and Training.
296
3.3.4.4 VET Reporting: Case Study
of the USA
Lisa Hudson and Karen Levesque
The views expressed in this paper are those of the au-
thors and do not necessarily reflect the position of the
U.S. Department of Education.
3.3.4.4.1 Vocational Education and the U.S.
Education System
The structure of data collection and reporting on
vocational education in the ↑ United States is driv-
en by the decentralised and individualistic nature
of the ↑ school system. As a result, the U.S edu-
cation system is missing two elements that make
describing vocational education relatively easy or
straightforward: ↑ uniformity, which helps to for-
mulate a standard definition of vocational educa-
tion; and formal programmes, which help to track
participants in vocational education. The uniform-
ity issue arises from schools’ strong tradition of
local control; the programme issue arises from
America’s philosophy of “letting a thousand flow-
ers bloom”.
Local Control. Uniformity is an issue because the
U.S. education system follows a strong tradition of
local control. At the primary and secondary levels
(↑ compulsory education), the education system is
comprised of about 14,000 locally controlled ed-
ucation agencies, with varying degrees of high-
er-level control by each of the 50 state education
agencies. This system mitigates against a standard
format for educational provision across the coun-
try. As a result, secondary-level vocational educa-
tion is structured, delivered, and defined in a myr-
iad of ways.
Uniformity is also an issue at the ↑ tertiary (“post-
secondary”) level, where vocational education is
offered primarily by state-run 2-year “communi-
ty colleges”, and by private for-profit tertiary in-
stitutions.
If baccalaureate study in applied areas such as en-
gineering and education were counted as voca-
tional education, 4-year baccalaureate institutions
would surpass private for-profit institutions as
the second largest vocational education provider.
However, in the U.S., these programmes are typi-
Handbook of TVET Research
cally not considered vocational. The 2006 Carl D.
Perkins ↑ Career and Technical Education Act (the
federal law that supports vocational education pro-
grammes), for example, defines vocational educa-
tion as preparation below the baccalaureate level
(cf. Section 3 (5) (ii)).
Each state determines the focus their community
colleges place on occupational training (vocation-
al education) versus academic preparation (that
is, transfer to a 4-year institution to earn a bacca-
laureate degree) and the specific vocational pro-
grammes offered. These decisions are typically
based on local ↑ labour market demands, as well as
on local and state educational traditions and phi-
losophies.
Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom. Although U.S.
schools may lack uniform definitions, they do share
common American values. Specifically, Ameri-
cans strongly resist educational programmes with-
in the compulsory years that would constrain a stu-
dent into one life path, such as preparation for a
single career. Resistance is particularly strong to
programmes designed as an alternative to college
preparation (as vocational education has tradition-
ally been viewed), because parents typically be-
lieve (realistically or not) that such a programme
would limit their children’s future. Thus, while
students can choose to take a variety of vocational
education courses in secondary schools, they typi-
cally do so on an ad hoc basis, with no formal en-
rolment in a vocational programme of study or for-
mal designation as a vocational education student.
As with almost anything one can say about the Ameri-
can education system, there are exceptions. For exam-
ple, there are about 900 full-time “vocational ↑ high
schools” in the U.S., enrolling about 9 per cent of sec-
ondary school students. However, students enrolled in
“comprehensive high schools” also take vocational edu-
cation. Another exception is “career academies”. These
schools, or schools-within-a-school, prepare students
for a specific career path (e. g. a technology academy, a
music academy). Notably, these programmes are usual-
ly designed so that students have the option of pursuing
tertiary education after completing their studies. Thus,
to the extent that career academy students pursue 4-year
tertiary study, the career academies are not “vocational”
as defined in the U.S.
In contrast, at the ↑ tertiary level preparation for
a specific career (e. g. engineering, law, nursing)
is an accepted part of the tertiary education land-
Areas of VET Research
scape and formal programmes are the norm. As a
result, a tertiary vocational education student can
be clearly defined as a student majoring in a voca-
tional field of study at the sub-baccalaureate level
(with the caveat that the student must first declare
a major, which typically is not required for initial
enrolment).
As will be seen, although the problems of data col-
lection in a decentralised education system are
easy to recognise today, when the ↑ U.S. first be-
gan to collect national ↑ data on vocational educa-
tion, policymakers were more naïve about the ease
of this data collection.
3.3.4.4.2 History of U.S. Vocational Education
Data Collection
(See HUDSON 2000 and HOACHLANDER / LEVESQUE
1993 for more detailed historical analyses.)
The U.S. federal government has supported vo-
cational education programmes since 1917, when
Congress passed the ↑ Smith-Hughes Act to help
schools train workers for the country’s rapidly
growing economy. In the 1960s, the focus of fed-
eral legislation shifted to ensuring equal access to
vocational education. With this shift came an in-
terest in collecting detailed national data to track
student ↑ participation in vocational education. As
a result, Congress instituted new requirements for
states to include information on vocational educa-
tion expenditures and student enrollments in their
annual reports to Congress. Vocational education
enrolments were to be broken down by race, stu-
dent disability status, and other student character-
istics, for all secondary, postsecondary, and adult
education students in each state.
To meet this data collection mandate, the U.S. De-
partment of Education asked each state to provide
the requisite data, after collecting the data from lo-
cal education agencies within the state. Problems
arose immediately, as these data requirements
proved to be beyond most states’ recordkeeping
ability. In addition, because of the diversity in how
states defined the relevant data collection items –
both across states and within a state over time – in-
consistent and noncomparable data were common.
After a few decades involving continual efforts to
improve this ↑ administrative records collection,
the data collection was stopped in 1983.
297
Many factors accounted for the problems with this
initial data collection effort, but the root cause was
simply that the data collection method was inap-
propriate for the task at hand. State ↑ administra-
tive records are designed to meet the unique needs
of states and localities, and thus reflect the edu-
cation conditions, policies, and structure of each
state, as well as their specific data-gathering for-
mats, capabilities, and requirements. The year-to-
year consistency desired by the federal govern-
ment, for example, may be of lesser concern to
states than the periodic modification of their data
collections to meet new priorities or reflect new in-
itiatives. Standardisation of data within a state may
also be made more difficult by variability among
localities; in states where education is primari-
ly locally run, states may simply be unable to en-
force standardisation in local data collection prac-
tices. Finally, the collection of data on all schools,
teachers, and students is costly and time-consum-
ing; most states can afford to collect such informa-
tion only for the most basic and critical features of
their education systems.
Thus, in 1984 Congress gave up on an administra-
tive records data collection, and instead mandated
a national data collection on vocational education
without the requirement for data from every school
and on every student. This legislation (and subse-
quent legislation) freed the Department of Educa-
tion from the constraint of using state administra-
tive records as their data source. Instead, the De-
partment’s National Center for Education Statis-
tics (NCES) could now collect ↑ data on vocation-
al education through ↑ sample surveys, a method
they had already been using to collect and report
data on education in general. The current legisla-
tion mandating the collection of vocational educa-
tion data, the Carl D. Perkins ↑ Career and Techni-
cal Education Act of 2006, makes this reliance on
sample surveys explicit:
As a regular part of its assessments, the National Center
for Educational Statistics shall collect and report infor-
mation on career and technical education for a nation-
ally representative sample of students. (Section 114(a)
(3)).
This sample-based data collection is currently
known as the Career/Technical Education Statis-
tics (CTES) system.
298

3.3.4.4.3 The CTES System CTES system can effectively overcome the data-
quality problems that plagued the previous ↑ ad-
The CTES system is a derived data system. It col-
ministrative records data collection. Second, the
lects national data on vocational education not
CTES approach allows NCES to relate vocation-
through special surveys on vocational education,
al education to the larger education system and to
but through the inclusion of data items on voca-
other parts of the system. So, for example, terti-
tional education within NCES’ general-purpose
ary students who major in vocational fields can be
education data collections. Collectively these data
compared to students who major in academic fields
sources provide information on the vocational edu-
in terms of their backgrounds, persistence, and at-
cation system at the secondary and ↑ tertiary levels,
tainment in tertiary education.
and on work-related adult education and training,
Third, ↑ administrative records provide a limited
addressing the following questions at each level:
data set that at best yields counts of students, facul-
– What does the vocational education delivery
ty, courses, and other school features. In contrast,
system look like?
the wide range of cross-sectional and longitudinal
– What is offered?
surveys in the CTES system provides much rich-
– Who participates and what do they take?
er data for policy analysis and research purposes.
– Who teaches vocational education and how is it
With CTES, one can explore, for example, how vo-
taught?
cational education coursetaking interacts with ac-
– What is accomplished?
ademic coursetaking and with achievement, how
As indicated in Table 1, although NCES surveys
students who complete vocational education pro-
are the primary data sources for the CTES system,
grammes transition to the ↑ labour market or high-
data from other federal agencies are also used (The
er education, and how the qualifications of older
CTES website (http://nces.ed.gov/.surveys/ctes)
vocational education teachers compare to those of
provides more information on these data sourc-
younger teachers.
es). In a few cases, census data from administra-
The CTES system does, however, require strong
tive records are still used (i.e. the CCD collects da-
coordination within NCES, to ensure that the NC-
ta from all state agencies responsible for primary
ES data collections used by CTES contain the data
and secondary education, and IPEDS collects da-
elements necessary to address vocational education
ta from all tertiary institutions). These newer ad-
issues. To do so, CTES staff participate on each
ministrative records collections are based on long-
relevant data collection’s technical review panel
standing cooperative systems with states and terti-
(TRP). In addition, CTES maintains its own TRP.
ary institutions; they collect only limited data that
The CTES TRP is composed of vocational educa-
can be reliably reported in a standardized format.
tion experts, including practitioners, researchers,
Two other CTES data sources deserve mention.
and government representatives. The CTES TRP
The Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) and
advises NCES – through a contractor – on items
Postsecondary Education Quick Information Sys-
to be included in its data collections, priorities for
tem (PEQIS) allow for national ↑ sample surveys
analyses and reporting, and definitions for key
to be conducted on an as-needed basis, collecting
concepts such as vocational participants and clas-
information on specific topics not covered by ex-
sifications of vocational courses and programmes.
tant data. For example, in 1999 NCES conducted
The CTES TRP ensures that the CTES system re-
an FRSS survey and a PEQIS survey on schools’
mains relevant and current in its approach to data
vocational education offerings (PHELPS / PARSAD /
collection, analysis, and reporting.
FARRIS / HUDSON 2001).
The CTES system has three main advantages over
3.3.4.4.4 CTES Reporting
the previous data collection effort. Most important-
ly, CTES data collections are almost all national- The data collections in the CTES system pro-
ly representative sample surveys that use common, vide the raw data for analysis. The specific anal-
comparable definitions and data elements. It is be- yses conducted by NCES are determined based
cause of this ↑ uniformity in data elements that the on input from the CTES TRP and collabora-
Areas of VET Research
tion with the Department’s Office of Vocation-
al and ↑ Adult Education. To date, CTES dissem-
ination of these analyses has occurred exclusive-
ly through published reports. At the core of this
reporting system is Vocational Education in the
↑ United States, a periodic publication that pro-
vides a comprehensive summary of the condition
of vocational education at the secondary, postsec-
ondary, and adult levels, based on the most recent
data available. Three editions of Vocational Edu-
cation in the ↑ United States have been published
thus far (in 1992, 1993 and 2000), with the fourth
edition due out in 2006 (LEVESQUE / LAIRD / HENSLEY
ET AL. forthcoming). Between editions of this re-
port, NCES releases more focused reports on spe-
cific vocational education topics. For example, in
2005 the CTES program released a report on La-
bor Force ↑ Participation in Work-Related Educa-
tion in 2000–01 (HUDSON / BHANDARI / PETER / BILLS
2005) and on Trends in Undergraduate ↑ Career
Education (HUDSON / CAREY 2005).
In addition to providing data for NCES analyses
and reports, the CTES system also contributes to
the National Assessment of Vocational Education
(NAVE), a periodic study mandated by the U.S.
Congress in each authorisation of federal vocation-
Tab. 1: Data collection sources for the Career/Technical Education Statistics (CTES) system
299
al education legislation. (These mandates began in
1976, with subsequent mandates in 1984, 1990,
1998 and 2006.) For example, the ↑ high school
transcript studies have provided key data on sec-
ondary-level participation in vocational education,
and the ↑ longitudinal studies have provided a main
source of data on the economic returns to voca-
tional education, and on the relationship between
participation in secondary-level vocational educa-
tion and dropping out of school. The last NAVE re-
port was published in 2004 (SILVERBERG / WARNER /
FONG / GOODWIN 2004).
Finally, CTES data collections (like most NCES
data collections) are generally available to anyone
wishing to conduct research on vocational educa-
tion, including research centres, university faculty,
and practitioners.
3.3.4.4.5 CTES on the Web
The CTES program maintains a webpage
(http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/ctes/) on the NCES
website. Through this site, users can view and or-
der CTES reports. Web users can also find ↑ sta-
tistics on vocational education using a table finder
function on the NCES website (http://nces.ed.gov/
quicktables/). But if one is looking for a specific
300
statistic, both of these processes can be cumber-
some. In addition, the most recent data are not
available in these formats until they have been pub-
lished in a report, which typically occurs years af-
ter data collection. A system of web-based tables,
organised within a logical framework, would make
access to vocational education statistics more time-
ly and accessible.
A framework for the CTES ↑ web tables is current-
ly under development. Plans are for three sets of
tabular statistics (one each for secondary, postsec-
ondary, and adult vocational education), address-
ing the five general questions listed above. This
CTES web system will include estimates (percent-
ages or averages), population counts, and associat-
ed standard errors, as well as variable definitions
and course classifications. Tables will provide both
the most recent data from each CTES survey and,
for key statistics, trends over time. Building the
CTES web system is a long-term, continuous proc-
ess; the site is currently on-line with a limited set
of tables from a few recent surveys, with expansion
and updating occurring as new data become avail-
able. As is true for all CTES efforts, feedback from
data users is welcome and encouraged.
3.3.4.5 National and International
Reporting on VET. Case
Study of the European Union
Friederike Behringer
3.3.4.5.1 Education and Training in
the European Union: Between
Subsidiarity and Common Objectives
Across European countries, the structures of ed-
ucation and training systems differ considera-
bly (→ 3.3). The treaty establishing the European
Community conferred power to the Community in
some well-defined policy areas. For other policy
areas – including education and training – ↑ sub-
sidiarity prevails. Under the principle of subsidi-
arity every Member State of the European Union
retains full responsibility for the content and the
organisation of its own education and training sys-
tem. The Community’s policy in the field of edu-
Handbook of TVET Research
cation and training may include incentives and rec-
ommendations, excluding, however, any (formally
effectuated) harmonisation of the laws and regula-
tions of the member states (Amtsblatt der EU 1997,
Articles 149 and 150).
At the Lisbon European Council (2000), the Heads
of State and Government agreed upon a major stra-
tegic goal for 2010:
“To become the most competitive and dynamic knowl-
edge-based economy in the world, capable of sustain-
able economic growth with more and better jobs and
greater social cohesion”. The European Council stressed
that this would require a “challenging programme for
the modernisation of education systems” (COUNCIL OF
THE EUROPEAN UNION 2000, par. 2 and 5).
The European Council had never before acknowl-
edged to this extent the role played by education
and training systems as part of the economic and
social strategy and the future of the Union. A new
↑ open method of coordination (OMC) was intro-
duced to facilitate implementing the strategic goal
by improving the existing processes, coupled with
a stronger guiding and coordinating role for the
European Council to ensure more coherent strate-
gic direction and effective monitoring of progress
(COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2000, par. 37).
OMC is a soft-law approach in sensitive policy ar-
eas. It is a way of providing orientation towards
common objectives, and international peer pres-
sure is expected to increase momentum of national
reform processes. Within OMC, as it is applied to
education and training, the monitoring of progress
based on indicators and ↑ benchmarks plays a cen-
tral role.
Since 2000, reporting on education and training in
Europe has gained prominence. In principle, there
are two strands of reporting: First, monitoring of
↑ performance and progress of education and train-
ing systems in Europe, based on indicators and
common objectives established by the European
Commission and its institutions, working close-
ly with the member states. Second, reporting on
↑ VET research with the European Centre for the
Development of Vocational Training (↑ Cedefop)
playing a major role (→ 2.5; → 3.3.2). The first one
has a focus on indicators that have been negotiat-
ed and on national reports submitted by member
states. The second one aims at providing a state-
Areas of VET Research
of-the-art review and analysis of VET research in
Europe and beyond.
3.3.4.5.2 The Lisbon Goal and Reporting on
VET
As mentioned above, regular reporting at Com-
munity and national level is an integrated part of
the Lisbon process. This takes place in the context
of different schedules and with a variety of bodies
involved, including the agencies of the European
Union (e. g. ↑ Cedefop, ↑ European Training Foun-
dation (ETF)).
(1) First of all, there is the annual report to the
Spring European Council – the central annual re-
view of progress.
(2) In the field of education and training a sepa-
rate biennial reporting schedule has been set up –
the joint report of Education Council and Commis-
sion.
(3) Finally, there is a separate review of progress
concerning the Copenhagen Declaration, calling
for enhanced European cooperation in vocation-
al education and training (EUROPEAN MINISTERS OF
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING /EC 2002), to
be gradually integrated in the review of progress in
the field of education and training.
Reports to the Spring European Council
At the Lisbon European Council the pre-emi-
nent guiding and coordinating role of the Coun-
cil for the effective monitoring of progress towards
the new strategic goal was acknowledged, and the
Commission was invited to draw up an annual re-
port on progress on the basis of structural indi-
cators to be agreed upon (COUNCIL OF THE EURO-
PEAN UNION 2000, par. 36). The European Coun-
cil in Nice (2000) adopted a first list of structural
indicators comprising 35 key indicators. The list
was revised and amended in the following Euro-
pean Councils, and a shortlist of 14 indicators has
been agreed upon for a more concise assessment
of progress (EC, E. C. S. G. 2003; → 1.3.5). In the
long list of structural indicators (EUROSTAT 2005)
there are five indicators pertinent for education and
training
(1) Youth ↑ educational attainment (20–24 year
olds);
301
(2) Early school leavers;
(3) ↑ Lifelong learning (adult ↑ participation in edu-
cation and training);
(4) Science and technology graduates;
(5) Public expenditure on education.
The first of these indicators is included in the
shortlist, too.
However, these structural indicators only partial-
ly provide a solid foundation for reporting on VET
(cf. for a detailed discussion BEHRINGER / PFEIFER
2005). The first indicator, based on Labour Force
Survey (LFS), is not recorded according to general
or vocational education. There is no possibility of
estimating the share of VET based on data report-
ed by ↑ OECD, as the two sources lack comparabil-
ity. The definition of early school leavers as meas-
ured in LFS causes some problems, with a substan-
tial share of those classified as early school leav-
ers considering themselves to be students, in train-
ing or unpaid work experience in some countries.
↑ Participation of adults in education and train-
ing as defined for the structural indicator only re-
fers to a period of four weeks prior to the survey
(LFS). Almost certainly lifelong learning will be
underestimated, and most likely the underestima-
tion is biased. In addition, comparisons over time
and across countries are hampered by methodo-
logical changes (concepts and definitions) imple-
mented gradually by countries. And finally, with
the new definition of lifelong learning the infor-
mation collected relates to all education and train-
ing, not only to education and vocational training
relevant for the current or possible future job of the
respondent. Public expenditure on education and
training is based on data collected by UOE, but
it is not shown separately for VET, and informa-
tion on private expenditure on vocational educa-
tion and training is fragmentary. The last structur-
al indicator, focussed on graduates of ↑ tertiary ed-
ucation, is out of the scope of VET.
The conclusion of the mid-term review of the Lis-
bon strategy (2005) was a relaunch with priori-
ties on growth and jobs (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPE-
AN UNION 2005). The European Council contin-
ued to underline the importance of ↑ human cap-
ital as Europe’s main asset, and called for the im-
plementation of lifelong learning as a sine qua non
of the ↑ Lisbon goal. The new start for the Lisbon
302
strategy is reflected in the integrated guidelines for
growth and jobs adopted by the European Council
(EC 2005e). These guidelines frame the National
Reform Programmes submitted by member states,
setting out detailed ↑ commitments for action. Two
guidelines for education and training are included
as part of the guidelines of the employment poli-
cies of member states:
– Expand and improve investment in ↑ human cap-
ital;
– Adapt education and training systems in re-
sponse to new competence requirements.
The Commission’s Spring Report 2006 “Time to
move up a gear” (EC 2006) includes an assess-
ment of each Member State’s National Reform
Programme, a succinct general evaluation of Na-
tional Reform Programmes and structural indica-
tors (shortlist) for each Member State.
Joint Reports of Education Council and Com-
mission
At the Lisbon Council (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPE-
AN UNION 2000, par. 27) the Ministers of Educa-
tion were invited to “undertake a general reflec-
tion on the concrete future objectives of educa-
tion systems” and to present a broader report to
the Council in 2001. In 2001, Ministers of Educa-
tion agreed for the first time on shared objectives
to be achieved by 2010 (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION – EDUCATION 2001). The three strategic ob-
jectives are:
– Improving quality and ↑ effectiveness of educa-
tion and training systems;
– Facilitating access of all to education and train-
ing;
– Opening up education and training systems to
the wider world.
In Barcelona (2002) the Council of the European
Union adopted a detailed work programme on the
follow-up of the objectives of education and train-
ing systems for 2010 (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN
UNION 2002c). Eight working groups were set up
focussing on one or more of the 13 specific objec-
tives refining the three strategic objectives, as well
as a Standing Group on Indicators and ↑ Bench-
marks to assess progress towards the objectives
with the aid of indicators. Education Council and
Commission were invited to report to the Spring
Handbook of TVET Research
European Council 2004 on effective implementa-
tion of the work programme (COUNCIL OF THE EURO-
PEAN UNION 2002a, par. 43). The Education Coun-
cil in May 2003 agreed on establishing reference
levels of European average ↑ performance, without
defining national targets (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPE-
AN UNION – EDUCATION 2003). These agreed Euro-
pean reference levels to be reached by 2010 are:
(1) Youth ↑ educational attainment: At least 85 %
of the 22 year-olds should have completed upper
secondary education.
(2) Early school leavers: An EU average of no more
than 10 % of population aged 18 to 24.
(3) ↑ Lifelong learning: The EU average level
should be at least 12.5 % of adult working age pop-
ulation participating in education and training.
(4) Mathematics, science and technology: The to-
tal number of graduates in these fields should in-
crease by at least 15 % while at the same time de-
creasing gender imbalance.
(5) ↑ Basic skills: The percentage of low achieving
15 year-olds in reading literacy in the EU should
have decreased by at least 20 %.
The Education Council 2003 did not decide on
an EU reference level on investment in human re-
sources.
Four of the indicators forming the basis of the EU
reference levels are similar or identical to the struc-
tural indicators discussed above, and hence are not
related specifically to VET. The source of the in-
dicator on basic skills is an assessment of 15-year-
old students (PISA), most of whom are in general,
not vocational education.
The first joint report of Education Council and
Commission was submitted to the 2004 Spring Eu-
ropean Council (COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
2004a), with a view to biennial joint reports moni-
toring progress towards the objectives. Like in the
report on “the future objectives of education sys-
tems” subsequent reports underlined coverage of
both education and training. The joint report re-
views progress made towards the common objec-
tives and stresses the need to step up national and
Community action. The importance of indicators
and European reference levels (benchmarks) as
an instrument of ↑ OMC is emphasized. The se-
lection of indicators and benchmarks, however, is
less targeted at VET. Reporting based on indica-
Areas of VET Research
tors is complemented by a stocktaking of progress
against the priorities of the Copenhagen declara-
tion on “Enhanced European cooperation in voca-
tional education and training” (EUROPEAN MINIS-
TERS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING /EC
2002), i.e. development at European level of frame-
works (for a common ↑ quality assurance frame-
work, a single European framework for transpar-
ency of qualifications and competences, and cred-
it transfer in VET). The joint report calls for im-
provement of data and indicators, particularly for
↑ adult education and ↑ initial vocational education
and training.
Despite streamlining of reporting on the Lisbon
strategy after the mid-term review 2005, a separate
report on Education and Training 2010 work pro-
gramme is to be elaborated every two years. Dif-
ferent from the previous report, the draft joint re-
port 2006 and its Annex (EC 2005b; 2005c) are
partly derived from national reports submitted by
32 countries and structured on the basis of a guid-
ance note from the Commission, which requested
concise information relating to the major priority
areas of the 2004 Interim Report. These are:
– The relationship between national policies and
the Lisbon agenda;
– Investing more and more efficiently in education
and training;
– Implementing lifelong ↑ learning strategies;
– Reforms of higher education and VET;
– Developing the ↑ European dimension of educa-
tion and training.
Countries were asked to provide key information
concerning strategies or policies either already in
place or at the planning stage, specifying progress
made and main obstacles encountered, along with
measurable changes and trends. Cross-country
analysis aims at providing a synthetic account of
the main priorities, concerns, areas of progress and
results still to be achieved, expressed by the na-
tional authorities themselves. The assessment of
progress against the five reference levels of aver-
age European performance (↑ benchmarks) in edu-
cation and training constitutes another part of the
draft joint report.
303
Review of the Copenhagen Process
The Copenhagen declaration (EUROPEAN MINIS-
TERS OF VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING /EC
2002) envisages a biennial review of the process.
The first review took place in Maastricht 2004; it
was informed by a research report commissioned
by the European Commission (LENEY/AMMERMAN /
BRANDSMA ET AL. 2005). This research report un-
dertook an assessment of the contribution of VET
to achieving the ↑ Lisbon goal, based on
– Self-assessment reports completed by the Direc-
tors General for Vocational Education and Train-
ing (DGVT) of 31 European countries, using a
questionnaire designed by the research team;
– Independent reports on VET developments in
30 countries prepared by expert analysts for this
study;
– Analysis of reports and data at European and in-
ternational level.
Based on the conclusions of this comprehensive
study the Maastricht Communiqué (MINISTERS FOR
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING /EUROPEAN
SOCIAL PARTNERS /EC 2004) defined areas where
reforms and investment are necessary, and – for
the first time – identified priorities for action at na-
tional level. It was restated that adequate data and
indicators are a prerequisite to enable evaluation
of progress in making VET efficient, effective and
attractive, and priority should be given to the im-
provement of the scope, precision and reliability
of VET ↑ statistics. The second review of the ↑ Co-
penhagen process will be the subject of a minis-
terial meeting in December 2006, and again a re-
search report is being launched by the Commission
to provide background analysis for this review.
3.3.4.5.3 Reporting on VET Research
The European Centre for the Development of Vo-
cational Training (↑ Cedefop) is an agency of the
European Union. The objectives of Cedefop as ex-
plicitly stated in the Constituent Act, similar to
some other Community Agencies, comprise inter
alia research, dissemination and promoting coop-
eration. One element of the rationale for outsourc-
ing certain Community tasks to agencies is facili-
tating regular contact with stakeholders. A lack of
academic research on VET has been another rea-
304
son for establishing Cedefop. This underlines the
importance of both research and networking activ-
ities of Cedefop.
Since 1998, Cedefop has published three compre-
hensive reports on ↑ VET research to provide a re-
view of research in initial and ↑ continuing VET in
Europe, the main theoretical and conceptual ap-
proaches, empirical findings and the implications
for policy, practice and future research. These reg-
ular reports consist of a background report and a
synthesis report. The background report contains
contributions of renowned researchers on speci-
fied topics; it consists of two or three separate vol-
umes. The synthesis report presents the main VET
research issues, based on the contributions to the
background report as well as on ↑ Cedefop’s own
research, and draws conclusions for decision-mak-
ers and researchers. The focus of the reports is
adapted to emerging topics, as indicated in chang-
ing titles and contents:
– First research report (1998/1999), with a focus
on “Training for a changing society”;
– Second research report (2001): “Training and
learning for competence”;
– Third research report (2004/2005): “The val-
ue of learning: evaluation and impact of education
and training”.
The fourth research report (to be published 2007)
will investigate the conditions for achieving the
Lisbon-Copenhagen-Maastricht goals. It also aims
at identifying new and emerging research issues
beyond 2010.
In pursuit of its goals Cedefop is running or partic-
ipating in networks in close cooperation with mem-
ber states. ReferNet has been established by Cede-
fop to meet the growing demand for high quality
information on a wide range of developments in
VET in the EU. ReferNet is covering all EU and
EEA countries. It comprises a national consortium
in each Member State made up of organisations
representative of vocational education and training
institutions and bodies with VET ↑ research capac-
ity. Amongst ReferNet associated members at Eu-
ropean level are ↑ ETF and Eurydice. ReferNet has
several tasks
– Collecting information, updating online data-
bases, information services;
Handbook of TVET Research
– Providing cross-sectional and thematic policy
analyses; transversal knowledge; support for pol-
icy debate;
– Contributing to the development of a concerted
approach to research.
In close collaboration with ReferNet and other Eu-
ropean research networks (e. g. Vetnet) and asso-
ciations ERO (European Research Overview) car-
ries out its work. It provides ERO Base – a data-
base of research projects, research experts and re-
search papers. The Research Monitor, developed
as part of project work related to ERO, provides
an overview of networks of researchers in VET
(http://www.b.shuttle.de/wifo/vet/networks.htm).
Three networks with a general profile in ↑ HRD
and VET research in Europe are listed: ReferNet,
CEEC (focussed on Central and Eastern European
countries), and Vetnet. Vetnet, established 1997, is
concerned with research and development in the
initial and ↑ continuing VET. It is part of the Eu-
ropean Education Research Association (EERA).
The networks aim at promoting discussion, dis-
semination and cooperation and thus complement
other activities to report on VET research at Euro-
pean level.
3.3.4.5.4 Conclusion
Adequate data and indicators are a necessary pre-
requisite for monitoring progress towards defined
objectives, for evidence-based policies and for fur-
ther research. Regarding VET, even key data are
lacking, both on input as well as on outcomes, and
the urgent need for making adequate data and in-
dicators available has been reiterated. Progress
has been made, regarding extension of coverage of
countries. The third Continuing Vocational Train-
ing Survey (2006) as well as the ↑ Adult Education
Survey (2005–2007) are expected to fill some of
the gaps regarding ↑ adult learning. However, the
replacement of the European Community House-
hold Panel (ECHP) by the Community ↑ statistics
on income and living conditions (EU-SILC) is a
step backwards. EU-SILC does not collect infor-
mation on continuing training – while ECHP did.
Improvement of information on VET does not al-
ways necessitate new surveys. Better access to ex-
isting data sets for researchers would make better
use of resources and could improve reporting on
Areas of VET Research
VET. Disaggregating data on education and train-
ing according to general or vocational orientation
of the programme could be achieved by introduc-
ing this differentiation in existing questionnaires,
like LFS or the ↑ Unesco-↑ OECD-Eurostat (UOE)
questionnaire. This would significantly improve
reporting on VET, but also ↑ VET research.
3.3.4.6 National and International
Reporting on VET – Case
Study of OECD, ILO and the
World Bank
Simone Kirpal
Despite having received considerable attention dur-
ing the 1970s and 1980s at the international level,
investments and research interests in vocational
education and training (VET) and ↑ adult learning
severely declined during the 1990s due to disap-
pointing economic returns of programme invest-
ments in these areas. International organisations
instead increasingly shifted their attention and ma-
jor efforts to basic education, primary and second-
ary education in particular. More recently skills
development and adult learning – but also early
education (Early Childhood Education and Care
– ECEC) and school-readiness – have regained
significance in the context of policies of ↑ lifelong
learning, poverty alleviation, youth development
and social cohesion, all of which have been defined
as priority areas by donor agencies and ↑ intergov-
ernmental organisations during the past few years.
The debates about the role of VET in reaching the
↑ Lisbon goals defined by the European Commis-
sion (LENEY/AMMERMAN / BRANDSMA ET AL. 2004),
for example, exemplify how the interdependence
between skills development and economic growth
and/or education and work have regained a strate-
gic role in international policies.
This chapter gives an overview of the reporting
and programme strategies in VET undertaken and
implemented by selected international organisa-
tions, namely the OECD (Organisation for Eco-
nomic Co-operation and Development), ILO (↑ In-
ternational Labour Organisation) and the ↑ World
Bank. In the context of international policies, the
305
role of VET in a particular international organisa-
tion has to be looked at and understood from with-
in the self-understanding and function, or ‘mis-
sion’, of the organisation in question. As those
three organisations differ considerably in terms
of their roles, functions and aims as international,
intergovernmental bodies, the chapter starts out by
outlining the main objectives of each organisation
then to identify how and to what extent vocational
education and ↑ training policies and programmes
are being integrated into the organisations’ strat-
egies for fulfilling their objectives. The approach
taken will consist of elaborating differences and
similarities between the three organisational strat-
egies of making vocational education and train-
ing part of their policy and research agenda. As for
these organisations there exist strong interlinkag-
es between their VET research, policies and pro-
grammes this chapter complements chapter → 1.8
of this volume, which makes reference to the evo-
lution of TVET research in the ↑ OECD, ILO, the
↑ World Bank and other intergovernmental organi-
sations and ↑ bilateral agencies.
3.3.4.6.1 The Role of VET in International
Organisations’ Policy Priorities
The different aims and functions of the OECD,
ILO and World Bank are rooted in their history
and forms of representation. As specialised agen-
cies of the ↑ UN system the ILO and World Bank
are categorised as supranational bodies represent-
ing the majority of the world’s national states –
membership numbers of the World Bank Group
range from 140 to currently 184 member govern-
ments for the International Bank for Reconstruc-
tion and Development (IBRD), while in 2006 the
ILO had 178 registered member countries. Against
this background, the mandate of these organi-
sations is to establish worldwide guidelines and
standards within their respective political domain,
human and labour rights in the case of the ILO and
↑ development policy in the case of the World Bank
respectively. The OECD, by contrast, is represent-
ed by 30 industrialised, mainly European coun-
tries. It does not have the status of a supranation-
al body, but can instead be considered an intergov-
ernmental ‘permanent conference’.
306
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD) (www.oecd.org)
The OECD emerged from the former OEEC, which
was established after World War II to implement a
common concept for the reconstruction of Europe
and to facilitate cooperation amongst its mem-
ber states. Concretely, it was formed to adminis-
ter American and Canadian aid under the Marshall
Plan for the reconstruction of Europe after World
War II. The objectives of the OECD are primarily
to support economic growth and prosperity of its
member countries. While more recently the OECD
has started to move beyond focusing on its member
countries, its major concern rests with setting its
analytical sights on countries with an established
or emerging market economy.
Concerns about VET within OECD policies has to
be evaluated against OECD’s main objective of de-
veloping analytical instruments such as statistical
indicators and ↑ benchmarks to compare, support
and enhance economic growth. Generating inter-
national comparative background information, data
and indicators on ↑ educational attainments (which
selectively also make reference to vocational pro-
grammes) (OECD 2005b), employment or health,
for example, as well as national reporting by means
of individual country surveys and reviews thereby
are major methodological tools. The OECD’s In-
ternational Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) in par-
ticular makes reference to skills gaps and access to
job-related training, among others (OECD/Statis-
tics Canada 2000). The more recent Adult Literacy
and Life Skills Survey (OECD/STATISTICS CANADA
2005) analyses the relationship, match and mis-
match between job tasks and (observed) skills and
how skills are used at the workplace under consid-
eration of emerging demands of knowledge-based
work environments. Those international compara-
tive surveys, statistical indicators and country sur-
veys are used to identify emerging economic is-
sues and trends and to help governments and poli-
cy-makers adopt strategic orientations.
With broadening its ↑ commitment to ↑ develop-
ing countries the OECD has undertaken some ma-
jor national studies of work-based learning and vo-
cational training in selected Asian and African
countries (→ 1.8 for details) and has more recent-
ly started to engage in providing a conceptual ba-
Handbook of TVET Research
sis and identifying indicators for assessing individ-
ual competences and learning outcomes. This en-
gagement in supporting the development of ↑ com-
petence assessment tools is embedded in OECD’s
lifelong-learning policy, which has evolved as a
major policy goal over the past three decades, but
received a more vigorous emphasis and conceptu-
alisation in 1996 (OECD 2001b; 2004a). ↑ OECD’s
efforts towards ↑ VET policies, programmes and
research are embedded in the overall framework
that OECD’s ↑ lifelong learning policy establish-
es. The concept of ↑ lifelong learning is based on
a cross-sectoral approach and comprises all forms
of formal and ↑ informal learning (and the recogni-
tion of it) over the lifecycle. It emphasises the cen-
trality of the learner, thereby shifting the attention
from the supply side (i.e. training providers and
formal institutions) to the demand side of meet-
ing learner needs (OECD 2004a). Furthermore the
concept confirms the multiple goals of education
and its ↑ wider benefits such as personal develop-
ment and social cohesion (→ 3.5.4 for details).
Implementing this approach has wide-reaching
“implications for key parameters of education and train-
ing policy: for its objectives; for the structure of provi-
sion; for the content, quality and relevance of education
and training; for resource provision and management,
and for the roles and responsibilities of different part-
ners and stakeholders” (OECD 2004a, 2).
In terms of initial and continuing vocational train-
ing and ↑ adult learning prioritising a lifelong learn-
ing concept gives trainers in companies as well as
training institutions a new strategic role and sup-
ports their ↑ professionalisation.
Although well-defined at the policy level, the prac-
tical implementation of lifelong learning at nation-
al level (‘moving from rhetoric to reality’) still en-
counters major obstacles, because the monitoring
of country ↑ performance on lifelong learning is
hampered, above all, by lack of data. Thus, OECD
increasingly engages in identifying assessment
tools of competence development and learning,
which are generated through work-based and other
informal settings of learning. Shifting the focus to
the growing significance of experience-based and
informal learning (compared to formal vocational
training programmes), the German Federal Insti-
tute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB)
investigated how vocational experience-based
Areas of VET Research
learning could be better supported. This study
formed part of a larger OCED initiative (with du-
ration from 2000 to 2005) in which 25 countries
participated. The main objective of this initia-
tive was to identify the “Role of National Quali-
fication Systems in Promoting ↑ Lifelong Learn-
ing”, i.e. to what extent national qualification sys-
tems influence the volume, distribution and qual-
ity of lifelong learning (BEHRINGER / COLES 2003).
Through developing, testing and transferring mod-
el approaches towards reforms in initial and ↑ con-
tinuing vocational education and training, the aim
of the background studies was to analyse to what
extent experience-based learning could be estab-
lished more firmly alongside formal learning proc-
esses and how reforms of the vocational qualifi-
cation systems in the past few years impacted on
mechanisms relevant for lifelong learning. Sever-
al sub-projects focused on process-oriented initial
and continuing VET; VET in learning organisa-
tions and experience-guided learning (PÜTZ 2000;
REULING / HANF 2004) to enhance more systemat-
ically on-the-job experience as a source of ↑ vo-
cational competence development; and the link-
age between individual, social and ↑ organisation-
al learning processes along with ↑ self-evaluation
on the part of the individuals involved (OATES /
REULING / HANF 2004).
International Labour Organisation (ILO)
(www.ilo.org)
The mandate of the ↑ International Labour Organi-
sation is to promote social justice and internation-
ally recognised human and labour rights. Found-
ed in 1919 on the basis of the Treaty of Versailles
it became the first specialised agency of the ↑ UN
in 1946.
The ILO formulates international labour standards
in the form of conventions and recommendations
to set minimum standards of basic labour rights
such as freedom of association, the right to organ-
ise, collective bargaining, abolition of forced la-
bour and equality of opportunity and treatment. It
further provides technical assistance to develop-
ing, industrialised and transition countries in the
fields of employment policy, labour administra-
tion, labour law and industrial relations, working
conditions and occupational safety, among others.
307
Producing and monitoring labour ↑ statistics is an
important methodological tool to implement these
goals and objectives.
With this agenda, vocational training and rehabil-
itation have always been priority areas of ILO’s
work. This has led increasingly to considering vo-
cational training and ↑ human resources develop-
ment as strategic components of both economic
policies – as a result of its impact on labour pro-
ductivity and the competitiveness of firms – and
social policies in terms of ↑ labour market integra-
tion, ↑ employability and social inclusion. In de-
veloping and implementing TVET research, doc-
umentation and programmes ILO’s Employabili-
ty and Skills Department (EMP/SKILLS) as well
as the Inter-American Research and Documenta-
tion Centre on Vocational Training (CINTER-
FOR), which was founded in 1963, are the two
most important players. While CINTERFOR, with
its more pronounced regional focus, coordinates
technical cooperation and transfers TVET knowl-
edge and methodologies between its member in-
stitutions, EMP/SKILLS rather assists individu-
als to increase their employability chances through
training, skills development and education with
the aim of enhancing their income-earning oppor-
tunities and ↑ mobility. Through the vehicles of ad-
vocacy, knowledge development and services to
ILO constituents, EMP/SKILLS promotes the im-
provement of ↑ training policies and programmes
worldwide by placing special emphasis on train-
ing strategies that support the integration of ↑ dis-
advantaged groups in the labour market.
ILO’s TVET strategies and programmes are char-
acterised by (i) being closely linked to human re-
source development thereby requiring close co-
operation with enterprises and employer associa-
tions, and (ii) a new orientation towards skills de-
velopment for self-employment instead of more
formalised training to prepare individuals to seek
gainful (dependent) employment (GILL / FLUITMAN /
DAR 2000; GRIERSON / MCK ENZIE 1996). While the
first component builds upon international life-
long-learning approaches (VARGAS ZUÑIGA 2005)
and ILO’s unique tripartite structure with workers
and employers participating as equal partners with
governments (ILO 2005b), the second component
takes account of the particular needs in terms of
308
skills formation and creating employment and in-
come generating opportunities in ↑ developing
countries (ILO 2005c; 2005d; MAYOUX 2006).
In response to its strategy of enhancing employ-
ment opportunities for young and disadvantaged
people, the ILO launched two major initiatives:
With its ‘InFocus Programme on Skills, Knowl-
edge and ↑ Employability’ (CHAMBERS / LAKE 2002;
WHITE /K ENYON 2001) and the joint ↑ UN/↑ ILO/
↑ World Bank Youth Employment Network initiat-
ed in 2001, the ↑ ILO strengthened its efforts at in-
ternational level to improve the situation of unem-
ployed youth. Both youth employment initiatives,
which acknowledge the central role of skill for-
mation, were accompanied by a series of research
papers and case studies (see for example CURTAIN
2000; O’HIGGINS 2001; SARR 2000). In addition,
the programme on Training for Rural Economic
Empowerment (TREE), which was developed by
the ILO and which is implemented regionally, em-
phasises the central role of knowledge, training and
skills development for generating employment op-
portunities and growth for poor and disadvantaged
individuals in developing countries. The TREE
programme thereby presents a tool or methodolo-
gy to identify, design and implement training and
post-training assistance programmes for (self-)em-
ployment and income generation at the local level,
following a demand-driven approach that takes ac-
count of the local conditions and needs. National
Qualification Frameworks (NQF) also play a cen-
tral role in this strategy (YOUNG 2005).
Concerning the other priority area, which focus-
es on the linkage between training and human re-
sources ↑ development policies, the ILO has pro-
duced a major report on “Learning and Training
for Work in the ↑ Knowledge Society” (ILO 2002).
Based on national-level questionnaires, the re-
port draws attention to how recent HRD legisla-
tion, ↑ policies and practices reflect new approach-
es in learning and training. It examines the shift
towards economies and societies increasingly re-
lying on human knowledge and skills in producing
goods and services and the role of education and
training to enhance productivity, economic com-
petitiveness and social cohesion. Against the back-
ground of principles of contemporary human re-
sources development and training policies, laws
Handbook of TVET Research
and practices, the report reviews countries’ reforms
of their systems of basic education and initial train-
ing to identify ↑ policies and practices, which en-
courage more and better learning and training op-
portunities for employed and unemployed workers
to maintain their employability. Other studies have
examined national experiences and approaches on
the recognition of prior ↑ learning in the workplace
to validate workers skills and enhance their em-
ployability (DYSON /K EATING 2005).
The World Bank (www.worldbank.org)
As a major lender to education projects and pro-
grammes, since the 1960s, the ↑ World Bank has
been greatly involved in supporting investments in
TVET in ↑ developing countries. From the 1960s to
the late 1980s, a large share of the Word Bank’s ed-
ucation lending portfolio was directed towards vo-
cational education at secondary and post second-
ary levels. Whilst most of these loans were used
to finance costly and complex vocational training
systems, ↑ evaluation studies and papers increas-
ingly questioned the cost ↑ effectiveness and ↑ sus-
tainability of such an approach, which proved to be
ineffective particularly for low-income countries
and countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (MIDDLETON /
DEMSKY 1988). As a consequence, a World Bank
policy paper in 1991 recommended shifting the
Bank’s focus on training from that of strengthen-
ing the public supply of training to providing pol-
icy advice and supporting institutional capacity
building, TVET reforms and non-formal training.
This shift also meant that the World Bank started
to pay more attention to the responsiveness, ↑ ef-
ficiency and quality of training provisions and to
more strongly support private training providers.
In line with international consensus, this policy
paper decidedly marked the shift away from voca-
tional programmes towards strengthening gener-
al education, primary and secondary education in
particular (cf. CANAGARAJAH / DAR / NORDING / RAJU
2002; World Bank 1991; → 1.8 for details).
Abandoning direct investments in TVET pro-
grammes to a significant degree, more recent
World Bank strategies of considering TVET in
policy formulations and targets consist of support-
ing projects or project components of training and
skills formation through youth development pro-
Areas of VET Research
grammes. Since the 1990s, by addressing skills
development within programmes that are primari-
ly geared towards reducing youth unemployment,
improving ↑ school-to-work transition and enhanc-
ing employability, the World Bank has pursued an
approach similar to the ↑ ILO. The already men-
tioned joint ↑ UN/ ILO/ World Bank Youth Em-
ployment Network underpins the cooperation of
both organisations in these areas.
With its pronounced focus on poverty alleviation,
the World Bank’s regional youth development pro-
grammes aim at improving the ↑ employability of
at-risk youth from poor families through enhanc-
ing young peoples’ vocational and life skills. Job
training, internships and additional education are
thereby regarded as key strategies to facilitate
young peoples’ transition into the ↑ labour mar-
ket. In the Dominican Republic, for example, a re-
cently launched major Youth Development Project
seeks to provide young people with work experi-
ence and technical skills on the one hand, and to
expand ‘second chance’ education programmes to
complete formal education through night class-
es on the other hand. Combining vocational train-
ing with general education programmes is there-
by seen as a particular strength of this approach,
reconciling both educational areas by acknowledg-
ing their mutual benefits. In addition to focusing
on private and public sector employers, the project
pilots training courses and internships that pro-
mote entrepreneurship and self-employment. Sim-
ilar programmes are supported in other regions
such as the Job Creation and ↑ Skill Development
initiative in the Middle East and North Africa Re-
gion (MENA). With a focus on linking skills de-
velopment with ↑ human resources development
the Egyptian Skills Development Project address-
es the low investment of employers in training and
up-grading the skills of their workforce. It is de-
signed to help Egyptian employers of small and
medium firms identify their human resource and
skill training needs as a way to further improve
their productivity and competitiveness. All those
programmes have in common that they increas-
ingly emphasise the development of skills through
non-formal training and learning. Case studies and
reporting on national experiences have shown that
this strategy is particularly beneficial for low-in-
309
come countries and countries in Sub-Saharan Af-
rica (JOHANSON /ADAMS 2004).
With a different focus the ↑ World Bank also in-
creasingly invests in programmes that address is-
sues of training and skilling needs required by
innovations in ↑ information technology and an
emerging ↑ knowledge society. While identify-
ing core competences and skills that are required
in the knowledge economy, at regional level close
linkages are created to VET and the role of em-
ployers and institutions.
3.3.4.6.2 Conclusions
Though the title of this contribution suggests it,
this review shows that a systematic form of inter-
national reporting on VET within international or-
ganisations – herein illustrated by the case of the
↑ OECD, ILO and World Bank – does not exist.
Whilst TVET investments, programmes and pri-
orities in all three organisations are underpinned
by more or less extensive research, commissioned
studies, case studies and analytical evaluation of
country experiences, these tend to be driven by
policy interests and priority areas rather then regu-
larity and established academic standards or indi-
cators. Thus, reports and studies need to be inter-
preted and valued against the purpose they follow
in the light of each organisation and its particular
role, aims and objectives.
The most systematic form of reporting exists with-
in the OECD, which seeks to generate internation-
al comparative data and indicators on ↑ education-
al attainments and employment, among others.
OECD’s periodical surveys selectively also make
reference to TVET in the industrialised and some
transition and ↑ developing countries. However, al-
though increasingly being concerned with develop-
ing indicators for assessing individual competenc-
es, skills and learning outcomes, the data obtained
only fragmentarily make reference to TVET, and
thus still remain far from presenting a systematic
↑ reporting on TVET.
Commonalities between the three organisations
can be identified in the adjustment of their poli-
cies and ↑ research strategies of TVET during the
1990s towards acknowledging the prioritisation of
↑ lifelong learning and employability, and self-em-
ployment and individual skills in developing coun-
310
tries in particular. This has led to shifting the focus
from (i) formal to informal and non-formal learn-
ing; (ii) public to private training provision; (iii)
the supply side (i.e. training providers and formal
institutions) to the demand side of meeting learn-
ers needs; (iv) technical skills to broader life skill
sets; and (v) a restrictive economic perspective on
skills to strengthening its wider individual and so-
cial benefits. Whilst interest in TVET declined
during the 1990s at international level, skills de-
velopment and ↑ adult learning have regained sig-
nificance in the context of prioritising policies of
↑ lifelong learning, poverty alleviation, youth de-
velopment and social cohesion. This has led to
more systematically integrating TVET-related re-
search and programmes into areas like youth de-
velopment programmes, ↑ human resources de-
velopment or income generation through self-em-
ployment requiring cross-sectoral and ↑ interdisci-
plinary perspectives and programme implementa-
tion.
3.3.5 Development and Evaluation
of VET Courses
Thomas Deißinger and Jürgen Zabeck
3.3.5.1 VET Courses as Historical Entities
and Research Objects
The need to modernise vocational education and
training (VET) systems along a “future-proof”
strategy has emerged as a central issue of ↑ educa-
tional policy, both at home and abroad. Although
intensity, speed and decisiveness alter from country
to country, it appears that modernisation for various
reasons has become an international phenomenon
or problem, a fact that is underlined by the Europe-
an Union’s ↑ commitment to “life-long learning” as
a global strategy for all European countries (KOM-
MISSION DER EUROPÄISCHEN GEMEINSCHAFTEN 1996).
As a consequence, the borders drawn between the
various sectors of the educational and/or train-
ing system, including higher and ↑ further educa-
tion, could become more and more permeable as
the perception of a mismatch of learning outcomes
with work requirements urges a fundamental re-
Handbook of TVET Research
thinking of traditional courses as well as curricu-
lum patterns. In contrast to these modern dynam-
ics, the problem of integrating young people into
the structures of social and economic life in former
times was part of a natural process determined by
the ongoing change of generations. When “division
of labour” (SMITH 1776/1993) began to replace or
complement the archaic forms of subsistence, oc-
cupations and ↑ work processes emerged as inde-
pendent patterns for the production of goods and
services and the process of skill formation became
part of what Brunner (1956, 17) labelled the “ba-
sic tendency of European history towards rational-
ity”. In contrast to higher education, however, the
pedagogical concept behind vocational reproduc-
tion was “imitatio” which became institutionalised
in the corporations of the medieval world. In Eng-
land, e. g., in 1563, the Statute of Artificers for-
malized the system of guild apprenticeship by es-
tablishing what has been described as a national
manpower and employment policy (PERRY 1976, 6;
DEISSINGER 1994). Having served an apprentice-
ship under a properly qualified master was made
the central prerequisite for obtaining “freedom of
the trade” within a city or town. The rules which
determined this selection in most cases did not in-
clude the standardisation of training contents. The
latter obviously were the product of practices with-
in the community of the trade or occupation, which
meant outside state regulation and the “curriculum
of the occident” (DOLCH 1959/1982). It is interest-
ing, though, that despite this general development
in all European societies, differences between the
German-speaking world and most other countries
in Europe in terms of a specific “apprenticeship
culture” (DEISSINGER 2004) strike the eye of the
historical observer: This includes the insight into
what different societies perceived as “education”
and how they linked the idea of training for an oc-
cupation or a job to the notion of personality devel-
opment of individuals (WINCH 2006). In this lies
the root of the separation of education from train-
ing which applies to most national contexts.
For the German context it is remarkable that, al-
though the vocational educational movement
with Georg Kerschensteiner and Eduard Sprang-
er (BLÄTTNER 1965; WINCH 2006) rehabilitated the
idea and ideal of the vocationally educated indi-
Areas of VET Research
vidual, there was no real rehabilitation of the spe-
cific pedagogical aspiration of the term Bildung or
“education of the invididual” (PAULSEN 1895). With
the institutional development of both the general
and the vocational education systems (the prima-
ry school or Grundschule and the vocational part-
time school or Berufsschule are obvious products
of this process) the term Bildung became more and
more influenced by a technical or political under-
standing of “educational courses” and their insti-
tutional foundations. It may be claimed that edu-
cational courses function as social institutions by
developing a specific “identity” without staying to-
tally inflexible or unaltered in the face of external
challenges. The results of such a “behaviour” may
be termed “development” without stating that they
emerge in an “organic” manner. When we bring to-
gether “development” and “evaluation” in this ar-
ticle, we look at expedient functions of educational
institutions and the courses offered by them as well
as at their potential to re-define or revise them in
an appropriate manner (→ 2.4). This, of course, in-
cludes purely pedagogical objectives as they were
put forward in the educational debate of the 1960s
and 1970s, or with Humboldt’s educational reform
at the beginning of the 19th century (BLANKERTZ
1969; DEISSINGER 1998, 25 ff.).
We have used the term “apprenticeship culture” to
point out that vocational training systems are deter-
mined by a specific “philosophy” or “intrinsic log-
ic” which have to be understood “in relation to oth-
er societal institutions” including the ↑ labour mar-
ket, the economy, the system of industrial relations
and of course the system of government (RAFFE
1998, 391). With this premise in mind, looking at
vocational training in a merely institutional man-
ner by using the state function as the crucial ter-
tium comparationis (e. g. GREINERT 1988) reduces
the potential of getting insight into what really di-
rects VET. In Germany, the understanding of a sep-
arate vocational pathway as “unique” and valuable
in itself sets the country apart from most other Eu-
ropean societies (with the exception of Austria and
Switzerland). This unique positioning, however,
has traditionally provoked criticism with respect to
the organisation of vocational training and general
education “according to separate criteria and sys-
tems of assessment” including “limited possibili-
311
ties for progression between them” (YOUNG 2003,
228). On the other hand, it may be argued that aca-
demic and (non-academic) vocational pathways, in
the German case, are well rooted within disjunct
but interdependent subsystems and that their mu-
tual interaction obviously contributes to stabiliz-
ing the “vocational track” in a stronger way than in
other countries (DEISSINGER 1998). Although the
↑ dual system of apprenticeship training (Duales
System), being the main VET pathway, emerged as
a culturally fixed but functionally flexible frame-
work, from which courses for outdated skilled oc-
cupations could be removed without negative side
effects, new skilled occupations could be integrat-
ed and existing occupations could be adjusted to
social, economic and technical changes (→ 3.1.1).
The structure of decision-making committees con-
sisting of four equal parties and the principle of
consensus, which is valid for institutional struc-
tures and contents of vocational training, restrict
the influence of partial interests as they prevent
one-sided interpretations of evaluation results (DE-
ISSINGER 2001c). Both the development of the ap-
prenticeship system and of ↑ VET courses outside
the dual system actually took place before an inde-
pendent ↑ VET research was established (→ 1.4).
The ↑ vocational full-time school (it was named
Berufsfachschule in 1973), which prepares stu-
dents for an occupation, has adjusted itself perma-
nently to current changes without systematic eval-
uation until today (→ 3.3.8.2). When the Confer-
ence of Ministers of Education and Cultural Af-
fairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Ger-
many (Kultusministerkonferenz) established the
Berufsfachschule in 1971 for “assistant occupa-
tions” (Assistentenberufe), there was no anticipat-
ing or accompanying evaluation. The same applies
to VET courses at the Fachschule (1975), which
extends vocational knowledge and skills and leads
to high-level vocational certificates (e. g. as tech-
nician) and also to general school-based qualifica-
tions leading into the ↑ tertiary sector. Other exam-
ples are the Fachoberschule (since 1969), where
the admission to universities of applied science
(Fachhochschulen) can be acquired, and the vo-
cational grammar schools (1967), which have their
origins in the Wirtschaftsoberschule (1926).
312
3.3.5.2 The Pragmatic Function of Empirical
VET Research
In Germany, in the 1960s, a ↑ VET research scene
emerged as such by bringing together various
strands of singular empirical research activities in
a more or less homogeneous context (DFG 1990).
At that time, the research community was above
all eager to criticise the dual system of apprentice-
ship training (LEMPERT 1974) without looking ex-
plicitly at the integration aspect let alone the use of
theory-based ↑ research approaches. Although the
educational debate of the 1960s revealed a number
of problems due to the company-based nature of
the system and also pointed to its dwindling im-
portance in the face of polarised ↑ labour mar-
kets, the German National Committee for Edu-
cation (Deutscher Ausschuss für das Erziehungs-
und Bildungswesen) “defended” the apprentice-
ship system by stating its success and function-
ality (DEUTSCHER AUSSCHUSS FÜR DAS ERZIEHUNGS-
UND BILDUNGSWESEN 1964a, 131 ff.). This also hap-
pened without an empirical foundation of the ar-
guments in favour of or against the traditional ap-
prenticeship system. Although the original inten-
tion to use ↑ evaluation research was to compare
pretended objectives with real achievements, the
political instrumentalisation of evaluation research
soon became apparent: In consequence, the func-
tion of research changed to feeding arguments in-
to pre-set political decisions within the context of
↑ educational policy, especially with respect to new
institutional or didactical features. One of the se-
rious challenges of evaluation research until now
is the methodological “protection” of research re-
sults against political instrumentalisation by estab-
lishing well-accepted standards of research prac-
tice (SANDERS 2000). One of the approaches is re-
search based on “↑ system theory” (PARSONS 1976;
LUHMANN 1996).
By a system theory approach underlying evaluation
research is meant that evaluation aims at describing
reality, such as educational courses or institutions,
by investigating and assessing relevant objects ac-
cording to their purpose or functionality. Such a
↑ research design is able to select those empirical
data which can be related to the problem which has
led or leads to the establishment of already exist-
ing or new educational courses and which help to
Handbook of TVET Research
illuminate whether they contribute to solving the
underlying problem or challenge. This includes the
possibility that evaluation research can also be di-
rected to revising an already operating scheme or
institution because it has failed to meet the expec-
tations underlying its foundation (→ 5.4). The rel-
evance of evaluation research is given in all con-
texts where research can help to detect illusionary
expectations, deficits in the legitimation of targets
or wrong assumptions referring to effects associat-
ed with educational innovations. All results of this
kind of research, however, must aim at identifying
research issues in a manner which makes sure that
evaluation not only leads to reliable results but also
contributes to posing new issues and questions of
research (SANDERS 2000, 67 ff., 167 ff.).
In a ↑ system theory perspective the education sys-
tem, with its differentiation of courses, educational
targets and certificates, can be described as a “sub-
system” within the social system, seen as a func-
tionally structured entity (PARSONS 1976). The sub-
system absorbs inputs (above all as alimentations)
from society and at the same time is supposed to
fulfil tasks (outputs) for other subsystems. ↑ VET
courses can be seen as institutions which have to
be organised (or organise themselves) in concord-
ance with their function within the social system.
This means that (i) they have to be attractive for a
specific sector on the demand side of the educa-
tional system (e. g. school leavers and their aspi-
rations to take up specific qualifications) and that
they produce an output apt to reproduce society
by providing marketable qualifications (external
functionality); and that (ii) they fulfil these tasks
by using learning arrangements which are appro-
priate to the purpose resulting from their function
as pedagogical institutions (internal functionali-
ty). Against this background, any course innova-
tion in the area of VET requires a matching of dif-
ferent interests between different groups such as
the government, companies, chambers or trade un-
ions – the setting which is typical for the German
situation, including the fact that 16 federal states
are involved in VET in schools. The most serious
challenge in this policy context is to convince the
relevant people and institutions that a new project
or scheme is supposed to yield better pedagogical
and/or social returns than the established system.
Areas of VET Research
For example, the school-based Berufsgrundbil-
dungsjahr (vocational foundation year) was estab-
lished and promoted by ↑ educational policy in the
1970s. In its Strukturplan (Structural Plan) the Ger-
man Educational Council (Deutscher Bildungsrat)
held that the first year of initial training should be
organised as a mandatory full-time course within
a vocational field (Berufsfeld) severed from pro-
duction and systematised in a way different from
traditional apprenticeship training (DEUTSCHER
BILDUNGSRAT 1970). The underlying idea was to
avoid the early “exploitation” of the apprentice and
to open up new opportunities for educational aspi-
rations even under the restrictive conditions of the
world of work typical for vocational training. Al-
though the realisation of the vocational foundation
year was a “cooperative” or “alternating” concept,
much closer to the ↑ dual system as originally in-
tended, the major purpose of the course remained
“education” rather than “qualification”, which be-
came apparent in the curricula and the learning
objectives which were “emancipatory” and there-
fore in accordance with the mainstream education-
al thinking of the time. From an evaluation per-
spective the question arises whether a primarily
pedagogical legitimation of a vocational course is
legitimate with respect to its “external functional-
ity”. Are the competences and qualifications in-
strumental for bridging the first year of training
and a subsequent apprenticeship? Are they, above
all, appropriate for enabling young people to enter
skilled employment successfully? What is the in-
terest and aspiration of school leavers when they
enter the vocational foundation year? Does it cor-
respond with their expectations towards vocational
training if they train in a “general” vocational field
first before they pick up a specific occupation? Do
they wish to be confronted with the world of work
or do they prefer to be instructed in the classroom
after graduating from general education?
Another more recent example of a policy aim-
ing at innovations in the German ↑ VET system
has been the implementation of “practice firms”
(Übungsfirmen) which have received much atten-
tion and structural support from the government
in the federal state of Baden-Württemberg. This
curricular and instructional innovation is directed
towards adding authenticity to the full time voca-
313
tional ↑ school model. Against the background of
the ‘training market crisis’ (DEISSINGER 2006a;
DEISSINGER / HELLWIG 2004), Germany’s govern-
ments, both at the federal and federal state level,
currently have to cope with the rising number of
participants in school-based ↑ vocational prepara-
tion courses as well as full-time students in VET
of whom only some 50 % attend courses leading to
vocational qualifications that are nationally porta-
ble on the ↑ labour market. For an improvement of
the status of these courses it is held necessary to
strengthen the work-related features of VET out-
side the ↑ dual system. This problem, once again,
reflects the traits of an “apprenticeship culture”
rooted deeply in social foundations and mental pat-
terns alike, which, e. g., are untypical for the Eng-
lish or Australian VET system (HARRIS / DEISSINGER
2003; DEISSINGER / SMITH / PICKERSGILL 2006). Prac-
tice firms are seen as pedagogical tools supposed
to make ↑ vocational schools practical and, in the
case of the two-year full-time ↑ VET courses in
“vocational colleges” (Berufskollegs), to increase
the marketability of the “assistant” qualification,
both with respect to skilled employment and a sub-
sequent apprenticeship course (FELLER 2002). Al-
though the revised German ↑ Vocational Training
Act (2005) provides for a wider scope of accredita-
tion modes in the responsibility of the federal states
(FEDERAL MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND RESEARCH
2005) the question remains whether, from an edu-
cational and social perspective, practice firms pro-
mote the ↑ employability of young people by de-
veloping skills in realistic ↑ learning environments
which are able to simulate problems and work ac-
tivities normally typical for workplaces in compa-
nies. Hereby, pedagogical expectations of the prac-
tice firm concept refer to the presumed benefits of
an innovative learning arrangement which puts
both the teacher and the student into different roles
by requiring a new understanding of the relation-
ship between teaching and learning as opposed to
normal classroom settings of lessons in business
administration or economics, i.e. learning arrange-
ments which help to overcome the ‘dualism of
thinking and acting’ (TRAMM 1994) and therefore
follow the concept of ‘activity orientation’ (Hand-
lungsorientierung) now seen as the dominant and
314
most innovative pedagogical concept within the
current VET debate (CZYCHOLL 2001).
The practice firm concept can also be evaluated
by looking at it from a ↑ system theory perspec-
tive (DEISSINGER / RUF 2006). While there seems to
be a clear pedagogical value in the perception of
students and teachers when learning and teaching
in the practice firm setting (internal functionality),
the impact on external stakeholders appears mod-
est (external functionality). Chambers and compa-
nies still believe that socialisation during an ap-
prenticeship producing real working experiences
cannot be equalled by a full-time model of VET.
Against this background, it is very likely that only
‘↑ sandwich models’ – dualising learning by com-
bining internships or reduced periods of appren-
ticeship training with full-time vocational cours-
es in a Berufskolleg or a similar institution – may
in future function as partial or full substitutes for
an apprenticeship. This, of course, puts strain on
the practice firm concept and its political and ped-
agogical legitimation. One of the consequences, in
fact, could be that the practice firm concept is no
longer seen as a socially and economically best so-
lution to “make schools practical” (DEISSINGER /
SMITH / PICKERSGILL 2006).
3.3.5.3 Evaluation as a Corrective for
Innovative VET Projects
Evaluation may be defined as serving two func-
tions of scientific endeavour: (1) to bring into fo-
cus the empirical reality of educational institu-
tions and educational activities and (2) to allow
for an assessment of intended effects against the
background of the conditions for their realisation
(→ 5.4). Therefore, the focus of scientific evalua-
tion should be the ascertainment and assessment
of empirical results according to defined targets.
Furthermore, evaluation functions as a critical in-
strument with which to prevent an expertise fol-
lowing practical experience from causing damage,
to raise the awareness for risky actions and to rec-
ommend the correction of objectives and/or treat-
ments with regard to predictable effects. This task
is not easy to achieve under the circumstances un-
der which evaluation is usually prepared and initi-
ated. In most cases evaluation is not supported by
externally funded researchers, but by project fund-
Handbook of TVET Research
raisers pursuing certain interests. Research there-
fore is actually often used to give the impression
that the agenda of ↑ educational policy is evaluat-
ed and if there are significant deficits the agenda
ought to be corrected. This is especially the case
in the area of ↑ pilot projects. Persons with a strong
ideology resistant towards research findings can
therefore sustain their resistance for many years
(→ 5.1.3). However, if evaluation were really un-
dertaken without critically reflecting the objec-
tives of projects and if evaluation focused solely
on external and internal functionalities in a tech-
nical sense, it would fail to fulfil the requirements
of pedagogical research with its specific premis-
es. Being a cognitive pragmatic discipline, ↑ edu-
cational research has to provide valid information;
furthermore, it is important to provide pedagogi-
cal guidelines and support. Thus, educational re-
search is an instrument for evaluation having its
own criteria, which do not replace criteria defined
by project fundraisers, but function as a corrective
additionally.
Evaluation approaches (→ 5.4.1) are clearly locat-
ed within a historical and systematic context. Ac-
cording to the ↑ theory of educational institutions,
they must therefore be regarded against the back-
ground of a complex institutional context in which
political objectives, the demand for qualifications
and pedagogical as well as anthropological ideas
have to be treated as “real forces” (reale Antriebe)
(REICHWEIN 1925/1963, 89). Evaluation in educa-
tional research assesses whether solutions to cur-
rent problems can be found or have already been
found. The concept of the Berufsakademie – offi-
cially called “university of cooperative education”,
but better translated as “↑ vocational academy”
(DEISSINGER 2005a) – may be seen as an example
of higher education policy emphasising the func-
tional aspect of education and training. In Baden-
Württemberg Berufsakademien provide vocation-
al training outside the “normal” ↑ tertiary system.
Vocational academies can now look back on
26 years of expanded institutional structures and
growing capacity of and ↑ participation in a new
kind of “academic apprenticeship system”. In the
early 1970s, many enterprises feared that due to an
expansive ↑ educational policy young people with
practical talents would prefer to go to grammar
Areas of VET Research
school and enter higher education. Politically, there
was a consensus on the objective to qualify school-
leavers from grammar schools both in theory and
in practice for higher positions in business enter-
prises. Since the model should become a regular
institution through the accreditation by the Feder-
al and State Commission for ↑ Educational Plan-
ning and Research Promotion (BLK) the support
of research was needed. The evaluation of ↑ voca-
tional academies was undertaken at a critical ↑ dis-
tance from practice and linked to the requirements
of external and internal functionalities. Thus, the
evaluation aimed at specifying the understanding
of an “academic ↑ dual system”, identifying deficit
arrangements and stabilising suitable institutional
and curricular regulations. The critical analysis of
the location of these institutions within the educa-
tional sector envisaged by their founders played an
important role. The diploma issued at the vocation-
al academy should be equal to the degrees from
universities and universities of applied science.
This led to false expectations about the future ca-
reer pathways of leavers from vocational acade-
mies and a kind of “image problem”. Accompany-
ing research had to interfere as a corrective and
urge caution that vocational academies would on-
ly prove and save their identity if the higher educa-
tion sector actually strived for differentiation (ZA-
BECK 1975, 114; ZABECK / ZIMMERMANN 1995). Al-
though not automatically a loved child of the high-
er education system of Germany, the success rate
of the vocational academies is actually higher than
that of the university: The “drop-out quota”, i.e. the
percentage of first-year students who fail to quali-
fy, lies around 10 %. Graduates in general are also
seen to have good chances of finding a job. These
integration effects were confirmed by the study of
Zabeck and Zimmermann (1995): Both integration
into the job and integration into the apprenticing
firm are reported to be working well although un-
employment rates are not significantly lower than
among university and polytechnic graduates. De-
spite these undoubted advantages, the “system”
keeps striving for parity with universities – risk-
ing, also by a misleading official name, compari-
son with institutions with a more scientific profile
and the loss of status as a vocationally orientated
institution (DEISSINGER 2005a).
315
3.3.5.4 The Contribution of Pilot Projects to
the Development of VET Courses
In the German context, since the early 1970s var-
ious decisions and agreements of the federal gov-
ernment and the Länder consolidated the estab-
lishment of ↑ pilot projects (Modellversuche) as an
instrument of ↑ VET policy. ↑ Educational policy
and administrative authorities regard pilot projects
as models of exemplary practice, supposed to be
useful to legitimate, specify and substantiate in-
tended innovations. Institutions undertaking pi-
lot projects are responsible for providing basic ev-
idence of the viability of the research objectives.
Right from the start, the intended purpose of pi-
lot projects was to transfer validated innovations
into institutions of the educational sector. This
transfer made it necessary to describe general
frameworks and treatments of the practice mod-
elled (K LEINSCHMITT / RATH / ZABECK 1981). There-
fore pilot projects were generally accompanied by
researchers although there were no standards for
their acceptability or for applied methods. There
was no doubt that pilot projects should be evalu-
ated according to the underlying political objec-
tives. As a consequence, the emerging term “eval-
uation” was adopted and the association was abet-
ted that pilot project research should become ori-
entated towards the principles of empirical social
science (RHYN 2001, 186). Since this is not always
the case pilot projects lack a common understand-
ing of methodological standards (TRAMM / REINISCH
2003). In the context of policy, practice and sci-
ence (TERHART 2003b) there are researchers who
claim successful results for themselves, although
they should actually analyse these results from a
critical ↑ distance (BECK 2003; SCHOLZ 1977).
There is no doubt that ↑ policy and practice of pi-
lot projects have so far benefited a lot from the in-
volvement of educationalists providing important
target-oriented suggestions (PÄTZOLD 1995b). Their
involvement in the currently relevant debate on ed-
ucational issues, their knowledge of historical and
systematic interrelations and their ability to make
problems transparent and develop respective solu-
tions prevented many projects from an early fail-
ure. Researchers who accompany pilot projects
(EULER 2003a, 201) have to know that they change
the initial conditions of the outcome irretrievably,
316
which impairs new findings within the project. To
avoid this it seems useful for the development of
courses to draw a clear distinction between execu-
tive and responsible authorities. The so-called Kol-
legschule Nordrhein Westfalen (KULTUSMINISTERI-
UM NORDRHEIN-WESTFALEN 1972), which was estab-
lished in the early 1970s, can be taken as an ex-
ample opposed to this premise. In contrast with a
↑ system theory approach, policy and science have
acted in mutual collusion, although it was never
clear whether science was subordinated by policy
or whether policy was directed by politicised sci-
ence. At the beginning there was the political deci-
sion to establish comprehensive schools (1967) and
linked to that was the decision to restructure the
upper secondary stratum of the VET sector. The
Ministry of Cultural Affairs established a “plan-
ning committee” to prepare the Kollegstufe. It cre-
ated a framework and only within this framework
the model should remain “open” (ibid., 13). The
main issue, in consequence, was a double qualifi-
cation embracing the general admission to higher
education and at the same time a vocational qual-
ification within a skilled occupation according to
the ↑ Vocational Training Act (BLANKERTZ 1982a).
The ideological nature and the lack of practical
relevance were obvious from the outset (ZABECK
1973, 31). Researchers involved in the planning ac-
tually did not assure through an anticipating eval-
uation and by applying profound knowledge that
the political objectives could be achieved with the
means provided. Furthermore, there was no clari-
fication whether the integration of vocational qual-
ifications into a school-based concept was in ac-
cordance with vocational training ↑ legislation.
The project was bound to fail because illusions had
not been removed from the outset.
It is only rarely that innovative approaches lead
to fundamentally new concepts of ↑ VET cours-
es. More often, partial revisions of established
schemes lead to the development of pilot projects.
They have to deal with two questions: The first
one is when the pilot project finishes, the second
one is how successfully achieved results can be
implemented in a regular institutional context. If
there is a significant deviation of the research re-
sults from the target the accompanying researchers
should recommend the cancellation of the project
Handbook of TVET Research
and abstentionfrom changes. However, in many
cases, specific premises determine ↑ pilot project
research. The approach to improve cooperation
within the ↑ dual system through a “cooperation
of learning sites” (Lernortverbund) can be taken
as an example (EULER ET AL. 1999). In the back-
ground there is an understanding of VET that on-
and off- the job training periods should be distrib-
uted between the learning sites according to their
didactical appropriateness for each learning site.
The theoretical basis of this pilot project is ques-
tionable; there are undesired side effects; and the
experience with the implementation has not been
satisfactory so far (PÄTZOLD / WALDEN 1995; 1999).
Brandtstädter concludes that results from evalua-
tion seldomly lead to a revision of decisions in ↑ ed-
ucational policy (BRANDTSTÄDTER 1990, 225). The
critical suggestions resulting from the ↑ evaluation
study on ↑ vocational academies mentioned above
were not followed by consequences either (ZA-
BECK 1996). Educational policy and administrative
authorities obviously tend to carry through and
stick to what they have already decided. Against
this background, Rauner suggests a new defini-
tion of pilot projects as a research instrument: pi-
lot projects should no longer legitimate, nationally
secure, test or even initiate reforms. They should
rather be an instrument of contribution and sup-
port in the realisation and implementation process
created by political and administrative decisions
(RAUNER 2003b, 403). Only if pilot projects fit into
the structures of the educational sector and accept
what has already been decided may they be suc-
cessfully integrated into innovations and unlikely
to fail due to lacking connections to policy or ad-
ministrative authorities. Currently, the implemen-
tation of the concept of ‘learning fields’ (Lernfeld-
konzept) developed by the Conference of Ministers
of Education and Cultural Affairs seems to take
place in the opposite, conventional way (RAUNER
2003b, 406): The educational authorities claim
that this innovation will be carried through admin-
istratively and pilot projects are only considered to
underpin the innovation scientifically (BRUCHHÄUS-
ER 2003, 501). If pilot project research followed
this suggestion, it would contribute to research be-
coming merely a dependent tool of policy. Under
these circumstances, pilot projects would certainly
Areas of VET Research
lose their critical function of evaluation in the con-
text of the development of new ↑ VET courses or
learning arrangements. Against this background,
both distance-based ↑ evaluation research and pilot
project research still have to look out for the con-
3.3.6 VET Research on Pre-Vocational Education. Case Studies
3.3.6.1 Vocational Guidance and
Work Orientation
Heinz Dedering
3.3.6.1.1 Definition and Practical
Implementation
↑ Vocational guidance and ↑ work orientation is
generally considered to be a type of ↑ pre-vocation-
al education and to be a task for the general edu-
cation system. This learning field provides pupils
with the facility for concerning themselves with
basic matters and the contexts of ↑ vocation and
work. The term “vocational guidance and work
orientation” refers to two different tasks:
Vocational guidance deals with the choice of oc-
cupation. This relates, on the one hand, to the vo-
cational training and employment market situation
(the objective side of the vocation selection proc-
ess), and on the other hand to the tangible voca-
tional requirements and expectations in addition to
the pupils’ expressed general life expectations (the
subjective side of the vocation selection process).
In other words, we are dealing with preparation for
the choice of occupation. This special vocation ori-
entation, interpreted in its stricter sense, is aimed
at the development of vocational selection compe-
tence. With this, we mean the ability of the per-
son to decide on his/her first vocation in a justifi-
able manner during the selection process. Specific
vocational orientation in the German ↑ school sys-
tem is supplemented by the vocational advice of-
fered by the employment agency or job centre (vo-
cational education, for example about vocational
requirements, current vocational training and em-
ployment possibilities, career paths and perspec-
tives for development).
317
ditions for successful innovations in the education-
al sector and at the same time clarify their theo-
retical and methodological premises (NICKOLAUS /
GRÄSEL 2006).
Work orientation relates to the complex working
world including the sectors of technology, econom-
ics, household and career. It is intended that learn-
ers obtain general working expertise with which
they can understand and form their working world.
This process includes motivation and the ability to
extend and intensify the expertise gained during
their lives. Subjects included in work orientation
are principally all forms of work – including ac-
tive work (housework etc.) and community work
(voluntary social activities) in addition to gainful
employment. In most cases, work in gainful em-
ployment and preparation for career roles are in
the foreground. In this case, work orientation is
also described as general vocational orientation
in its widest sense. Vocational and work-oriented
course contents in Germany are available as early
as the primary school (and in the associated spe-
cial needs school) during social studies. Vocation
and work orientation are mostly developed in the
German Hauptschule (secondary modern school)
and comprehensive schools, in addition to the
German Realschule (lower-level secondary mod-
ern school) in a weaker form, in the form of ↑ pre-
vocational education courses or subject combina-
tions. Independent courses for vocation and work
orientation are only seldom available in German
grammar schools (grades 5 to 10). In most cases
this is merely a component of one or more other
subjects (social sciences/politics, geography, his-
tory etc.). In German grammar school sixth forms,
vocation and work orientation is taught in subjects
such as applied economics and applied technolo-
gy in addition to ↑ interdisciplinary courses (“vo-
cational and educational orientation”). In addition,
vocation and work orientation takes place in the
form of industrial placement, which is carried out
318
in all types of German schools within the general
education system.
Work-oriented course contents can also be found
in the vocational training sector. This has a sup-
plementary function, in comparison to special-
ised education and ↑ further education, because
the position of working people within the social
and technical system, primarily at operative work-
places and in operative working processes, is dealt
with. This normally takes place together with spe-
cific vocational theory and practice, but also some-
times in self-contained courses (for example, the
vocational college in North Rhine Westphalia has
courses in the theory of industrial economics). Ac-
cordingly, academic questions about work-orient-
ed vocational training are dealt with in the con-
texts of vocational educational and further ↑ educa-
tional research. They will not be further dealt with
in this article. Since work-oriented vocational ed-
ucation and ↑ vocation and ↑ work orientation tran-
scend the vocational boundaries within the gener-
al education system (work-oriented general educa-
tion), it is expedient to place both subjects on a uni-
form curricular and didactic basis and to integrate
them into an integrated work-orientated education
system (cf. DEDERING 1998).
3.3.6.1.2 Major Research Topics
↑ Vocational guidance and work orientation can be
traced back in terms of the history of ideas to the
upbringing and educational concepts of the educa-
tionalists in the Age of Enlightenment during the
17th and 18th centuries. In the literature, referenc-
es are often made to the educationalist theories of
Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi (1746–1827) which
on the one hand connected with the ideas of edu-
cational utopians (e. g. those of Rousseau) and of
educational realists (e. g. those of Comenius), and
which on the other hand was based on first-hand
experiences gathered during educational work with
orphaned children (cf. PESTALOZZI 1899–1902, esp.
Vol. 18). In view of developing industrialisation,
Pestalozzi considered it necessary for young peo-
ple to be prepared for the working world and gain-
ful employment. His main concern was the com-
bination of learning to work with the aim of all-
round education (of “head, heart and hand”). Pes-
talozzi’s use of these theories meant that he dis-
Handbook of TVET Research
tanced himself from the then-current practices of
the industrial schools, which were primarily char-
acterised by economic heteronomy (cf. DEDERING
2004). Pestalozzi’s educational notions were taken
up once again by the reformation-oriented educa-
tional sciences at the beginning of the 20th century
in the form of the work-oriented school, and were
then further developed. The work-oriented school
emphasised an education leading to independ-
ence through autonomy of the pupils. In Germa-
ny, these theories were especially shaped by Georg
Kerschensteiner (1854–1932) (cf. K ERSCHENSTEIN-
ER 1954; 1961), in addition to Hugo Gaudig (1860–
1923) and Paul Oestreich (1878–1959). Kerschen-
steiner understood education for work to be gener-
al ↑ vocational preparation (habituation of working
methods, and carefulness, thoroughness and pru-
dence in addition to awakening of enthusiasm for
work), which was intended to produce a civic ed-
ucation at the same time. The work produced by
the people was at the centre, and this was accom-
panied by a process of thought. Kerschensteiner’s
work-orientated school consisted of the independ-
ent subject of “handicrafts” and of employment
classes as a principle (in other subjects). The work-
oriented school ideas from the time of the Wei-
mar Republic were taken up and put into concrete
terms during the reform discussions about voca-
tional and employment orientation in the Federal
Republic of Germany (cf. DEDERING 2002, 18), but
the decisive impetus was caused by another event,
namely the “youthful vocational privation” (Feder-
ation of German Trade Unions, DGB 1952). This
was caused during the middle of the 1950s first and
especially by a lack of vocational training and em-
ployment places, but then further developed with
the reduction in work available and lack of quali-
fications for the introduction of modern, automat-
ed production processes in the West German econ-
omy into an extended qualification crisis. The vo-
cational and employment-oriented research initiat-
ed concentrated, because of this, on the following
main development points:
Fundamental Concepts
The German Committee for Educational Matters
produced a report on the German Hauptschule
(comparable to English secondary modern schools)
Areas of VET Research
in 1964 and recommended that ↑ pre-vocational
education should be introduced as an “independ-
ent form of teaching” within the Hauptschule sys-
tem (cf. DEUTSCHER AUSSCHUSS FÜR DAS ERZIEHUN-
GS- UND BILDUNGSWESEN 1964b, 41 ff.), which trig-
gered a wide academic discussion over the concep-
tual basis of this new subject. Numerous proposals
were put forward for this (cf. ZIEFUSS 1996, 7 ff.),
which can be fundamentally differentiated by the
following aspects:
– With regard to the mandate of pre-vocational
education, the concepts either demonstrate a dis-
tinct educational, theoretical and political position
(e. g. an ↑ emancipatory approach to pre-vocational
education), or the educational, theoretical and po-
litical implications of pre-vocational education and
the working world remain unreflected (e. g. in the
functional and technical approaches).
– With regard to the subject matter of pre-voca-
tional education, the concepts are intended for one
or several content areas, which (at least in most
“early” approaches) are taken from the associated
specialist knowledge (technical, employment, eco-
nomic, home economic and textile studies etc.) in
most cases. In the course of further development
of pre-vocational education it became obvious that
its concerns could not be derived directly from the
sciences, but must be acquired directly from the
world of work and daily life. Practically-oriented
contents should be examined to see whether they
are academically tenable.
– With regard to the functional organisation of
pre-vocational education, the doctrines offer four
solutions: (1) pre-vocational education as an in-
tegrational subject, whereby the integrative ide-
as are considerably dispersed (from extending the
contents of a core subject (mostly technology or
economics) up to the imparting of technical, eco-
nomic, social and ecological issues and conditions
found in the working world in their changing re-
lationships), (2) pre-vocational education as a –
mostly cooperative – composite of several part-
subjects (technology, economic and ↑ home eco-
nomics theory amongst others), (3) elements of
pre-vocational education as a component of other
subjects, whereby the economic aspects are most-
ly derived from social sciences (politics etc.) and
the technical aspects mostly from scientific sub-
319
jects and (4) vocational and work-based choices in
↑ interdisciplinary activities. Whereas in the initial
years of pre-vocational education, the conceptual
efforts were primarily aimed at the first two or-
ganisational forms, the third and fourth solutions
were increasingly incorporated in development
work after the proposals made through the curric-
ulum concept (with subjects of technology, eco-
nomics, home economics and careers) by the con-
ference of education ministers in 1987 (cf. KMK
1988, 3 ff.).
– With regard to the methodical principles in ↑ pre-
vocational education, the concepts make prefer-
ences either for a primarily theoretical-reflective
learning (especially for the teaching of economics)
or a primarily practical learning (especially for
the teaching of technology). Up to now there have
been no conclusive proposals made for the neces-
sary connection of theory and practice through the
use of problem and “hands-on”-based methods.
– With regard to the scholastic anchoring of pre-
vocational education, concepts have been created
which were aimed at both the type of school and
level of education. The concepts developed up to
the beginning of the 1970s were aimed mostly at
the German Hauptschule and Gesamtschule (sec-
ondary modern and comprehensive) systems. Af-
ter this time, concepts were also put forward which
were aimed at the entire secondary school stage
up to A-levels (German Sekundarstufe I) (cf. the
new proposals put forward for a core curriculum in
2003) and including A-levels (German Sekunda-
rstufe II) (cf. DEDERING 2001, 201 ff.). An agreed
basic curriculum for work-oriented education now
exists in grades 1 to 13 in all general and ↑ voca-
tional schools (cf. DEDERING 2000).
Curriculum Analyses
A first wave of curriculum analyses was carried
out during the 1970s and 1980s, in which almost
all the “old” (western) federal states issued curric-
ula, guidelines or assistance for pre-vocational ed-
ucation. A second wave started at the beginning of
the 1990s and was related to the curricula publica-
tions which had been revised, especially with re-
gard to changing structures in the working world,
and to the curricula which had been primarily add-
ed in the “new” (East German) federal states.
320
Horst Ziefuß has carried out an extensive apprais-
al. It contains an analysis of the forms of organisa-
tion, objectives and problems, contents and learn-
ing aims, systematic references and didactic con-
cepts in pre-vocational education curricula in all
federal states (cf. ZIEFUSS 1992; 1995, 485 ff.).
In addition, Ziefuß has submitted a summarising
observation of the insights and interests (change
of work and technology, the advance of ↑ informa-
tion technology, increased significance of informa-
tion for career choice etc.) related to the change
in didactic approaches (loss of importance of the
project method, central importance of working job
placements, relationships to situations etc.) and for
the recognition and rectification of difficulties in
pre-vocational education (insufficient integration
of subjects in a sustainable compound system, ad-
verse situations in favour of theoretical moments
during teaching) (cf. ZIEFUSS 1996, 40 ff.).
Professionalisation Models
In the 1960s and 1970s, teacher training for pre-vo-
cational education was only a marginal subject of
vocational and work-oriented research. It oriented
itself largely to the federal state-specific pre-voca-
tional education concepts for schools. In addition,
colleges often went their own way in respect of the
organization of studies. With the efforts made to-
wards further development of pre-vocational ed-
ucation from 1980 onwards (revision of curricu-
la, KMK materials), and especially with the set-
ting up of pre-vocational education study cours-
es in East Germany after reunification in 1989, the
training and ↑ further education of pre-vocational
education teachers was considered somewhat more
during academic discussion. This resulted in the
proposal of two models by the German Gesells-
chaft für Arbeit, Technik und Wirtschaft im Un-
terricht (GATWU 1992, equivalent to Society
for Work, Technology and Economics in Teach-
ing): a double training concept (with technology
or ↑ home economics and dietary studies) and a tri-
ple training concept (with additional economics).
Both concepts intended to use a high content of
integrated study of industrial economics and so-
cial sciences, in addition to the didactics of pre-vo-
cational education and school practical placements
(cf. GATWU 1992; regarding criticism and further
Handbook of TVET Research
development of the models, cf. K AHSNITZ 1993).
The concept of a course of studies in work-orient-
ed education, by Arnulf Bojanowski, Heinz Ded-
ering and Gerald Heidegger, is aimed at extend-
ed ↑ professionalism in the ↑ profession of pre-vo-
cational education teachers insomuch as it intends
to provide preparation for extra-scholastic fields of
activity (vocational orientation, independence etc.)
(cf. BOJANOWSKI / DEDERING / HEIDEGGER 1984, 2 ff.;
1996, 865 ff.). As a survey carried out by Horst
Ziefuß shows, teacher training for the education-
al sector of ↑ pre-vocational education is frequent-
ly characterised in most colleges by separation of
the subjects of economics, technology and home
economics theory. Many college lecturers are still
fighting for independence of their subject in both
college and school as they were at the outset of
pre-vocational education, although the experience
gained with the complexity of the working world
confirms the “old” assumption
“that the ‘entirety’ of the structures and contexts
shaped by the working world cannot be represent-
ed in individual subjects separated from one another”
(ZIEFUSS 1998, 9).
Examination of Polytechnic Education
In West Germany, the approaches used by poly-
technic education in the old East Germany exerted
“an extraordinary fascination” from the very be-
ginning.
“The cohesive educationalist and didactic concepts of
introducing all pupils of every age to the basic phenom-
ena of work and technology are convincing, and the con-
tinuous practice during implementation of this concept
was also convincing. This fascination is also based on
the fact that the ‘West’ did not have an equivalent alter-
native available at the time” (WIEMANN 1991, 10).
This meant that polytechnic education was not
just an issue in the literature (cf. e. g. K LEIN 1962;
MARKERT 1972, 136 ff.; DEDERING 1979, 243 ff.),
but was also present at international events, e. g. at
the international Haus Sonnenberg (cf. WIEMANN
1991, 10). Since German reunification, there have
been increased efforts to deal with the East Ger-
man polytechnic (cf. e. g. LACKMANN / WASCHER
1991). They are based substantially on inside
knowledge and the experience gained by academ-
ics in former East Germany. This work should be
Areas of VET Research
deployed for the further development of vocational
and ↑ work orientation.
Reception of International Approaches
Whereas any vocational and work-oriented re-
search carried out was mainly restricted to Ger-
many up until the beginning of the 1990s, the po-
litical changes which have taken place in both Ger-
many and Europe (German unification, European
Union, opening of East European countries) have
meant that such research has taken far greater ac-
count of approaches from other countries since
this time. Accounts of ↑ vocation and ↑ work orien-
tation in Western Europe (cf. BRAUER-SCHRÖDER /
SELLIN 1996; HÖRNER 1996a, 693 ff.; ZIEFUSS 1996,
130 ff.) and in Eastern Europe (cf. BOJANOWSKI /
DEDERING 1991, 47 ff.; HÖRNER 1996b, 663 ff.) are
in the foreground. Research is also being carried
out into the vocational and work-oriented educa-
tional system in countries outside Europe, for ex-
ample in the ↑ USA (cf. RAUNER 1996b, 721 ff.)
and in the Third World (cf. DRÖGE / NEUMANN 1996,
747 ff.). This work shows a high degree of dissimi-
larity between approaches. There are large differ-
ences, both within the Western European and East-
ern European countries. It can be noted, however
that the Eastern European approaches are aligning
themselves with those in Western Europe after the
political turnaround in the east.
3.3.6.1.3 Empirical Investigations
A considerable number of empirical investigations
into ↑ vocational guidance and work orientation are
available. In the main, such investigations consist
of circumstantial analyses and ↑ pilot projects.
Horst Ziefuß et al. carried out a large circumstan-
tial analysis in the form of a questionnaire at the
beginning of the 1980s. 1045 teachers from West
Germany (including West Berlin) were inter-
viewed about their assessment of the pre-vocation-
al education sector (cf. ZIEFUSS / HENDRICKS / REUEL
1984). Ziefuß supplemented this analysis with a
qualitatively applied study 10 years later, which
was carried out across the whole of Germany (cf.
ZIEFUSS 1995), and was based on the question of
how teachers assessed the curriculum for pre-vo-
cational education in their federal state and how
321
they applied it to their tuition. Those interviewed
emphasised the necessity of the following meas-
ures (cf. ZIEFUSS 1996, 69):
– Extension of pre-vocational education into all
forms of schools in both classes of German sec-
ondary stage education (Sekundarstufe I and
Sekundarstufe II);
– Pre-vocational education as a compulsory sub-
ject;
– Better teacher training;
– Further development of specialised didactics,
for example through limitation and unification of
contents;
– Increased consideration of developments in the
working world; and
– Extension of works visits and industrial place-
ments in conjunction with vocational orientation.
A new survey was carried out which looked at
the possibilities and limits of school reforms in
the work-oriented education sector in 2002 (cf.
DEDERING 2004, 249 ff.). Department conferences
in 172 general and ↑ vocational schools across the
whole of Germany were surveyed. Whereas more
than half of those surveyed estimated the chances
of reforms within their own schools as “probably
high”, almost two thirds considered the chances of
reforms in the general German education system
to be “probably low”. Other circumstantial anal-
yses were restricted to the ↑ pre-vocational educa-
tion situation in individual federal states (cf. for
example, DEDERING / FEIG / WEITZ 1982, 79 ff.). Em-
pirical investigations were also made into the indi-
vidual sectors or elements of ↑ vocational guidance
and work orientation.
Firstly, references were made to the (mostly old-
er) surveys about experiences made with industrial
placements. In 1977, Hans K. Platte commenced a
nationwide questionnaire sent to education minis-
tries, trade unions, employers associations and var-
ious companies in addition to teachers, pupils and
parents about the aims associated with industrial
placements, and developed “exemplary industrial
placement deployment plans” (cf. PLATTE 1981) on
the basis of the results ascertained (the vocation-
al aspect of industrial placements was particular-
ly emphasised).
Secondly, mention should be made of investiga-
tions about the complexities of “vocational choice
322
and vocational selection preparation”. For instance,
a new study carried out by Kleffner et al. supplied
information about the vocational selection attitude
showed by young persons (cf. K LEFFNER / LAPPE /
RAAB / SCHOBER 1996). This is of interest insofar
as the following conclusions can be made about
vocational selection preparation. When ques-
tioned about influences on their vocational se-
lection, the young persons surveyed named par-
ents and relations in first place, and then industri-
al placement, vocational advice, friends and their
school in descending order (cf. K LEFFNER / LAPPE /
RAAB / SCHOBER 1996, 21). One of the consequenc-
es, which should result from this conclusion is that
vocational selection lessons should be restricted to
vocationally-oriented contexts, and that informa-
tion about correct vocational selection should be
left to the other institutions involved.
Thirdly, attention should be drawn to some work
carried out in the field of school textbook content
analysis research. The school textbook study car-
ried out in Bremen in particular should be men-
tioned. It investigated the presence of contents re-
lating to the subject matters of work/↑ profession,
economics and technology (their quantitative rela-
tionship to other contents, their qualitative depic-
tions, their academic suitability and their didactic
treatment) in secondary school (Sekundarstufe I)
textbooks (cf. BÖNKOST/ OBERLIESEN 1997).
↑ Pilot projects (and similar ↑ research approach-
es such as trial projects) have been carried out on
various aspects of ↑ vocation and ↑ work orienta-
tion; these are only valid for such projects. The de-
velopment and trying out of curricula or of cur-
riculum elements (teaching units, teaching forms,
media, ↑ learning target tests, teaching location as-
sociations, teacher training et al.) were in the fore-
ground. In most cases, the projects were located in
one or several model schools.
One of the main emphases of the pilot projects was
vocational selection preparation. The German Fed-
eral Employment office in addition to the various
state employment offices, the Education Ministry
and several individual schools initiated approach-
es in this field, especially during the 1970s. The
following attempts in particular are of importance
because they specify tried and tested teaching and
Handbook of TVET Research
learning arrangements which are important for vo-
cational selection preparation:
– The industrial placement project (as an ↑ inter-
disciplinary activity in the teaching location asso-
ciation) functioning as a general and critical vo-
cational orientation (cf. FELDHOFF / OTTO / SIMOLEIT/
SOBOTT 1985);
– The pilot project for integrative vocational se-
lection preparation (combination of vocational se-
lection tuition, works visits, vocational advice, use
of media, visits to the vocational information cen-
tre and an industrial placement) (cf. SACHS / BEINKE
1997);
– The “girls and vocation selection” project (cf.
LEMMERMÖHLE-THÜSING ET AL. 1991–1993);
– Attempts to create cooperatively drawn-up vo-
cational orientation across the various types of
school in the German Sekundarstufe I (cf. DAM-
MER 1997).
Since 1999, in the context of the “School – Econ-
omy/Working Life” programme promoted by the
German Ministry for Education and Research,
↑ pilot projects for the development of new ways of
vocational orientation and improvement of youth
working skills are being carried out. Schools, sec-
ondary educational establishments, companies,
trade unions and district councils are cooperating
in these projects (currently numbering 46). Some
of the projects are cooperating in cross-state net-
works, and “therefore include a wide range of cooper-
ation all partners and types, target groups and thematic
points of emphasis [...]” (cf. FAMULLA 2001, 4). The pi-
lot projects are being supported and evaluated by
academic consultants (cf. FAMULLA 2001, 5).
3.3.6.1.4 Deficiencies and Problems in
Research
This outline of theoretical and empirical research
into vocation and work orientation shows that a
wide-ranging selection of efforts are being made
into the funding and further development of this
curriculum. However, this cannot merely be as-
sessed as positive. The downsides of ↑ vocation-
al guidance and work orientation research are the
differences in academic and theoretical positions
which are proving almost impossible to bring into
line for a “single common curricular factor” and
which are leading to “profile weaknesses” in voca-
Areas of VET Research
tion and work orientation (GMELCH 1991, 21). The
subject is dominated – at least in the older research
– by a “cultivation of one-sidedness” (ROPOHL
1997, 282), e. g.:
– Suggestions made for isolated technology, eco-
nomics and home economic tuition;
– An understanding of ↑ pre-vocational education
which is restricted to vocational selection prepara-
tion;
– A concept of ↑ vocation reduced down to gainful
employment;
– A concept of technology reduced down to engi-
neering terms; and
– An understanding of working practice in the
sense of simple technical work in the school work-
shops.
Such one-sided ↑ research approaches are not ca-
pable of comprehending the practical and theoret-
ical contexts of work, or of providing integrated
concepts of vocational and work-oriented educa-
tion. They are also unsuitable as a sole basis of ori-
entation for teaching. Any ‘elaborated’ concepts,
which are responsible for providing vocation and
↑ work orientation with their theoretical further de-
velopment, are very different to these approach-
es. Attention should be drawn, for example, to the
concept of a school-oriented pre-vocational educa-
tion (cf. HIMMELMANN 1985, 227) and the didactic
approaches of pre-vocational education between
working and free time (cf. ZIEFUSS 1985, 242 ff.).
The attempts towards an overall concept for pre-
vocational education such as the compilation of
technology, economics and work as an overall
concept of material culture (cf. ROPOHL 1992, 6 ff.)
should be mentioned, as should the reference to
concrete, complex working situations (which have
been generally extended for work-oriented educa-
tion in the meantime) (cf. DEDERING 1998). These
research approaches, however, are fated not to be
given sufficient attention from the ‘practical side’
In general, an increase in academic ignorance can
be noted since the turnaround in practical teach-
ing during the middle of the 1970s in the field of
↑ vocational guidance and work orientation. Ziefuß
even talks of an “academic enmity in the pre-voca-
tional education discussion” (ZIEFUSS 1996, 36). In
any event, the influence of academics on vocation-
al guidance and work orientation is limited. Direc-
323
tions followed by pre-vocational education, for ex-
ample, are determined in the main by groups fol-
lowing social interests:
“Pre-vocational education has just undergone a political-
ly-determined discussion which certainly did not benefit
its further development” (JENZEN 2002, 181).
Only in recent times have academic ideas and pro-
posals for vocational guidance and work orienta-
tion been given increased attention in educational
practice. Integrated concepts, such as those being
used for curricular development in Brandenburg
and Bremen, are increasingly being reverted to.
3.3.6.1.5 Research Tasks
Intensive endeavours in all ↑ research fields are re-
quired for better profiling of the learning field of
vocational guidance and work orientation and its
anchorage as a compulsory subject for all schools
(cf. GMELCH 1991, 29). Firstly, the academic and
theoretical basics of research must be carried out
with the aim of clarification of the didactic self-
conception of vocational guidance and ↑ work ori-
entation. Secondly, curricular action research re-
quires consistent alignment to the elimination of
current image problems in vocational guidance
and work orientation, and thirdly the empirical ef-
fect of research in this area of learning must first
be attributed a reasonable status. Historical and
comparable research between separate countries
could broaden the extent of enlightenment. In gen-
eral, the entire subject must be approached so that
the still-young ↑ research tradition in the field of
vocational guidance and work orientation is solid-
ified and continued in a forward-looking manner.
This can only be achieved through cooperation
with the referential and educational sciences in ad-
dition to school practice and the economy. How-
ever, there is still a problem in that there are only a
few budding academics, and that therefore the fu-
ture of vocational guidance and work-oriented re-
search is in serious jeopardy. In order to safeguard
this, the recruitment of new, younger academics is
of the greatest importance.
324
3.3.6.2 Prevocational Education:
Case Study of UK
Karen Evans
Whether ↑ pre-vocational education improves
young people’s prospects in education, training and
the ↑ labour market has been at the centre of a long
standing debate in the United Kingdom. Moves to
‘vocationalise’ the curriculum are typically seen to
have entered the educational agenda in the UK in
the mid-1970s, with a prime ministerial speech de-
claring that a primary function of education was
to fit children ‘to do a job of work’ (CALLAGHAN
1976). The debate about the place of ↑ vocational
preparation in fact goes back to the mid-nineteenth
century (see → 3.3.3.2) when advocates of ‘practi-
cal subjects’ in the school curriculum met resist-
ance not only from those expressing more liber-
al goals, but also from working-class parents, who
had a different conception of what education for
their children should be about (BALL 1979). The
liberal position won the debate, and continued to
do so in the 20th century as the principle of enti-
tlement of all young people to a broad general edu-
cation was upheld in the comprehensive reforms of
the state education system (PRING 2004).
↑ Labour market changes and increasing unem-
ployment in the 1970s set in train a series of ‘ini-
tiatives’ designed to give education a more practi-
cal orientation, but as previously this was to be ap-
plied only to a section of the population – those
young people deemed to be ‘less able’. The ‘Youth
Training Scheme’ (YTS) initially evolved from a
scheme for combating youth unemployment. De-
spite the obvious collapse of the youth labour mar-
ket, the origins of the failure of young people to get
jobs was argued to lie in the classroom. The role of
state-funded schools as student-centred liberal in-
stitutions with little direct response to employment
labour market needs was challenged (WILMS 1988)
as the Government introduced its ‘Low-achievers’
project, and then the Technical and Vocational Ed-
ucation Initiative and the Certificate of ↑ Pre-Vo-
cational Education. All of these measures were,
in practice, forms of ↑ vocational preparation for
young people in the lower attainment bands. The
‘mainsteam’ curriculum was largely untouched by
the call for greater vocational relevance. ‘A’ levels
Handbook of TVET Research
in England were unchanged, while the supposed-
ly unified General Certificate of Secondary Educa-
tion was again stratified into upper and lower grade
bands to distinguish the more able from the lower
attainers held to be more suited to vocational prep-
aration activities.
The fundamentally selective nature of vocational
preparation was one of the criticisms levelled at it
(e. g. HOLT/ REID 1988; COLES 1988). Another re-
search-based criticism was that comparison with
the ↑ USA and ↑ Japan showed that vocationalising
the curriculum will not give employers the work-
force they need (ASHTON / MAGUIRE 1986; RAFFE
1988). A further criticism was that education
needs no vocational justification – personal devel-
opment and fulfilment, a rich and varied curricu-
lum across the whole range of arts, sciences and
technical subjects should be available to all chil-
dren (PRING 1987).
Did the early forms of the pre-vocational curricu-
lum achieve their aims of improving the ↑ employa-
bility of school-leavers? Much research was carried
out to evaluate specific initiatives such as TVEI,
UVP and CPVE (e. g. BARNES /JOHNSON /JORDAN
ET AL. 1987; BRIDGEWOOD / HINCKLEY/ SIMS / STONEY
1988; RAFFE 1988) but these were not able to dem-
onstrate conclusively the value or otherwise of vo-
cational preparation to the young people who ex-
perienced it. What differences did the programmes
make to young people’s attitudes to work and VET,
and their ↑ labour market prospects in different ar-
eas? The Economic and Social Research Council’s
16–19 ↑ research programme was a programme of
research into the economic and political socialisa-
tion of young people that involved the follow up of
two cohorts of young people aged 15–16 and 17–
18 over two years in four contrasting labour mar-
ket areas in the UK: Swindon, Sheffield, Liverpool
and Kirkcaldy. Bynner and Evans (1990) made an
analysis of data relating exposure of young people
to prevocational curricula and showed that in the
most vocationally orientated schools, boys were
benefiting marginally in getting into full-time jobs
at 16, still an aim for many in the UK where ear-
ly labour market entry is culturally embedded.
Prevocational curriculum experience for school
leavers gave them more exposure to administra-
tive and clerical subjects and computing, but oth-
Areas of VET Research
er than a slightly stronger ↑ commitment to work,
there was no significant difference in their values
when compared with young people not engaged in
prevocational studies (see → 3.3.6.1). Only one at-
titude measure showed a significant association
with curriculum emphasis. Those young people in
the most vocationally oriented school were slightly
more committed to work than others.
Despite these unpromising results, the promotion
of various forms of prevocational education con-
tinued in the 1990s and 2000s, with the goal of
bringing prevocational learning to young peo-
ple with a wider range of abilities and moving the
initiatives away from their low status marginal-
ity. In England, work experience became a cur-
riculum requirement for all 14–16 year olds, and
a range of vocational opportunities for 14–16 year
olds have opened up. ‘Vocational’ subjects in the
General Certificate of Secondary Education, and
General National Vocational Qualifications, lead-
ing to Vocational ‘A’ levels and new Apprentice-
ships all provide options for young people lead-
ing towards higher level vocational education and
training or easing the transition from education in-
to work. More recently young people who have be-
come disengaged from the wider curriculum offer
in schools have been able to participate in the ‘in-
creased flexibility plan (IFP)’ which allows combi-
nations of work and education from the age of 14.
From this account, in can be seen that the terms
‘vocational’ and ‘prevocational’ education are
used loosely and interchangeably. In part, the ab-
sence of clear distinctions between them reflects
the fact that in UK there have been few pre-requi-
sites for entering vocational training. Prior qualifi-
cations are not essential to get onto the bottom rung
of the National Vocational Qualifications (NVQ)
ladder, which extends from a very basic level 1
through to high skills at the top. Entry at higher
levels does have prerequisites but these tend to be
applied quite flexibly, and no generalisations can
be made about employers’ attitudes towards em-
ploying young people without qualifications. Larg-
er employers require higher and higher level entry
qualifications, and most carry out their own fur-
ther training; but for small enterprises, attitude and
motivation are often still the most important pre-
requisites. One can say that the pre-requisite lies
325
with the employers’ evaluations, and some will ac-
cept young people with low levels of prior school
achievements if they consider them trainable for
particular tasks and roles. The vocational training
system differs from the academic system: there is
less emphasis on grades/qualifications; instead the
accentuation lies more on experience, perceived
‘trainability’ for the specific job, on inter-personal
skills and the development of ‘knowhow’. Personal
attributes and competences often count as much as
credits or qualification.
In the present context, we have argued (EVANS /
K ERSH 2006) that ↑ pre-vocational education may
be best considered as an ‘orientation stage’ for
those learners who do not have clear aims and
stand to benefit from: (1) learning about the wid-
er world of employment or vocational education
and training (2) developing or building on various
skills (including technical skills) as well as per-
sonal and social competences (3) ‘tasting’ or sam-
pling a range of vocational options. In addition,
prevocational programmes should be based on the
needs of young people themselves and of the socie-
ty into which they are entering, taking into account
their aspirations and their contributions to the wid-
er community.
We have seen from the above that the changing
employment situations of the late 20th century led
to a version of the ‘moral panic’ over the effects
of unemployment on young people’s motivations to
work. Although Britain was at that time the ‘un-
employment centre’ of Europe, these fears extend-
ed widely across Europe as youth unemployment
increased everywhere with fears that a genera-
tion would be raised lacking the ‘work-ethic’. In
fact, the decline of employment opportunities for
young people ‘tightened the bonds’ between edu-
cation and employment in a host of ways. The ex-
pansion of post-↑ compulsory education has pro-
duced new sets of structures and experiences be-
tween the end of the compulsory phase of school-
ing and first entry to the ↑ labour market, at ages up
to the mid-twenties. While new options and path-
ways are increasing in relative significance as tra-
ditional transition patterns become ‘fractured’ and
extended, disadvantage (see → 3.7.8) continues to
be concentrated in groups defined by class, gen-
der and ethnicity in particular localities (BANKS /
326
BREAKWELL / BYNNER ET AL. 1992; BALL / MAGUIRE /
MACRAE 2000).
‘↑ Lifelong learning’ solutions are proposed in
many countries (OECD 1997). These recognise
that formal educational systems can themselves
contribute to social exclusion, and aim to provide
alternative educational routes or ‘second chances’
for young people. Some of these are institutional-
ised versions of lifelong learning, sometimes seen
as the ‘sticking plaster’ responses to more deep-
seated structural problems. Other interventions
do not look to ‘lifelong learning’ as policy solu-
tions. These are interventions based on standard
↑ human capital approaches, which see strengthen-
ing of standard forms of front-ended education and
training as providing the best returns on invest-
ment (Type I below) or bringing ‘drop-outs’ back
in (Type II). Interventions which draw on lifelong
learning ideas (explicitly or tacitly) are Types III
and IV. (Tab. 1).
All of these types of intervention are found with-
in the UK and they are found in different combina-
tions throughout the European Union, as researched
by Evans and Niemeyer (2004). Type I approaches
aim for extension of the period of initial compulso-
ry education and increased ‘retention’ in the stand-
ard routes. All of the Northern countries have used
Tab. 1: Incorporating prevocational education into national systems: Types of intervention
Handbook of TVET Research
Type I approaches, although Belgium appears to
have been more successful in securing an effective
extension of the period of ↑ compulsory school-
ing than England. Type II approaches apply where
there are highly structured transition systems with
qualification hurdles which explicitly determine
labour market entry or exclusion from it (e. g. Ger-
many). Fitting more people into the existing front
loaded systems has been complemented in most
countries by Type III alternative routes. This aims
to expand the mainstream to incorporate the new
routes, to counter the negative effects of ‘second
class’ labelling and ensure their recognition. The
English approach to rebrand various prevocational
initiatives and establish them as part of a progres-
sion route into the higher level ‘advanced ↑ modern
apprenticeships’ is part of wider plans to expand
educational ↑ participation in the 14–19 age band.
Type IV approaches are found principally in the
voluntary and community organisations, third sec-
tor non-profit organisations which play important
roles in supporting ↑ disadvantaged young people
in many countries. These organisations may be
the lead provider of Type III programmes, or may
work in ↑ partnership with other providers in any
or all of the types of provision.
Areas of VET Research
While interventions of all of these types have
proliferated in the UK, the needs of young peo-
ple remain fundamentally the similar. They need
the chance to develop, over an extended period, a
wide range of interests and skills on top of which
VET programmes and employers can meet the
specific requirements for particular occupations
(see → 3.6.6). Many also need material and social
forms of support. Research in England has typi-
cally focussed on the policy frameworks for prevo-
cational and vocational programmes, the most re-
cent examples of which are taking shape within the
Nuffield 14–19 ↑ Research Programme. Research
agendas in Scotland and Wales have also focused
strongly on the analysis of policy frameworks and
their effects, and a growing amount of research fo-
cuses on ‘home-international’ comparisons which
outline the differences in prevocational and voca-
tional education policies in the countries of the UK
(RAFFE / COURTENAY 1988; RAFFE / BYRNE 2005).
While UK research has strengths in the policy anal-
ysis domains, research into the pedagogy of prevo-
cational programmes has been relatively weak
when compared with other European countries.
An analysis of pedagogical research in prevoca-
tional education in EU countries is given in Evans/
Niemeyer 2004. This shows how the well formu-
lated and dominant traditions of social and ↑ vo-
cational pedagogy in Europe have tended to com-
pete with each other in the prevocational domain,
and has argued that expanded versions of ↑ situated
learning theories inspired by socio-anthropologi-
cal perspectives hold promise for a more holistic
approach to pedagogical development. Emergent
UK socio-cultural research into work-based learn-
ing pedagogies has the potential to play a role in
the development of more holistic formulations rel-
evant to the prevocational field. Meanwhile, find-
ing the balance between anticipatory socialisa-
tion for VET and the world of work, and devel-
opment through the realities of the workplace it-
self, continues to challenge the policy, practice and
research communities in the United Kingdom and
the wider European Union.
327
3.3.6.3 Pre-Vocational Education in
the Netherlands
Jeroen Onstenk
3.3.6.3.1 Introduction
Pre-vocational education in the Netherlands is
probably the most discussed, but least understood
part of the Dutch educational system. More than
60 % of all youth is enrolled in pre-vocational ed-
ucation, but it has a bad public image and partly
a bad self-image as well. At the same time, it is a
fascinating and very innovative educational sector.
In the Dutch educational system, a clear division
is made between vocational education on the one
hand and general education on the other (CEDE-
FOP 2004a). The choice of one stream or the other
can occur at different stages of education. Unlike
in some other European countries (like ↑ France,
Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom) (→ 1.3;
→ 3.3.2.2; → 3.3.6.2), integration of, or at least
a closer link between, vocational education and
general education is not sought. The separation
between the two streams has become even more
clear cut in the past few years, since (in 2001) the
strengthening of the vocational stream, from ↑ pre-
vocational education through secondary vocation-
al education to higher professional education, be-
came a main policy objective.
3.3.6.3.2 Pre-Vocational Secondary Education
Education is compulsory in the Netherlands from
the age of five until the school year in which a pu-
pil becomes 16. Full-time ↑ compulsory education
is followed by part-time compulsory education,
where students are required to attend school for
two days a week until the school year in which they
reach the age of 17. Secondary education (voort-
gezet onderwijs, VO) is targeted at students aged
between 12 and 16 or 18 and can be divided in-
to two educational streams. 40 % of a year cohort
follows the general education stream after primary
education, in either the lower (5 year HAVO, sec-
ondary general education) or higher (6 year VWO,
pre-university education) pathway to higher edu-
cation. HAVO gives access to higher professional
education (HBO). HBO gives access to University.
328
VWO gives access to University, but a small pro-
portion of VWO-graduates enter HBO.
60 % of all students flow into pre-vocational sec-
ondary education (voorbereidend middelbaar be-
roepsonderwijs, VMBO). Pre-vocational second-
ary education lasts four years. It prepares for train-
ing in secondary vocational education (MBO).
The curriculum consists of general subjects as well
as, in the last two school years, vocationally ori-
ented subjects, which can be followed on at vari-
ous levels in various learning pathways. This type
of education is classified as ISCED level 2 (CEDE-
FOP 2004a).
VMBO is a relatively new type of education. It
came into being in 2001 when junior general sec-
ondary education (middelbaar algemeen vormend
onderwijs, MAVO) and preparatory vocational ed-
ucation (voorbereidend beroepsonderwijs, VBO)
were merged. The aim was to strengthen the posi-
tion of VBO in the system and improve the ↑ v oca-
tional preparation of students in MAVO. The inte-
gration is consistent with the fact that the majori-
ty of MAVO students already transferred to MBO
(upper cycle).
VMBO consists of four types of learning path-
way:
(a) theoretical learning pathway. Those qualifying
from the theoretical learning pathway can transfer
to MBO (level 3 or 4) or continue their education
in the fourth year of HAVO;
(b) mixed learning pathway. This is similar to the
theoretical learning pathway but is more vocation-
ally oriented;
(c) vocationally oriented learning pathway to pre-
pare for MBO courses level 2, 3 or 4;
(d) vocationally oriented learning pathway to pre-
pare for MBO courses level 1 or 2.
The vocationally oriented pathways offer four fields
of study: technology, care and welfare, economics
and agriculture. There is a growing number of in-
ter-sectoral and multi-sectoral curricula.
In addition, there is a specific practical pathway
for low-achievers, which is geared towards direct
preparation for the ↑ labour market.
Almost all VMBO students go, after completion
(or not) of VMBO, into senior secondary voca-
tional education (middelbaar beroepsonderwijs,
MBO). A growing number of students in MBO
Handbook of TVET Research
level 3 or 4 after graduation go on to higher profes-
sional education (hoger beroepsonderwijs, HBO).
Senior secondary vocational education is the pivot
in this so-called vocational column.
As educational careers can in fact be very varied
and often do not take the official pathways the sys-
tem prescribes, there is an ongoing stream of re-
search into actual ↑ educational careers and moti-
vations (ESCH / NEUVEL 2005; BRUIJN 2006)
Population
Although the majority of all youngsters go to VM-
BO, its public image is low and dominated by the
presence of ↑ problem youth. As VMBO schools
take in all youngsters with lower abilities, and
as there is no lower type of secondary education,
these schools are often confronted with young peo-
ple that have serious motivational, intellectual or
behavioural problems. It cannot be denied that
problems often surface at VMBO schools and that
there are many pupils who need extra attention.
At these schools you will find the most vulnera-
ble group of pupils and this is one of the reasons
that many school heads, staff members and pupils
in VMBO are concerned with the negative impact
that news of these problems is having on the im-
age of VMBO. This image, however, ignores the
opportunities that VMBO offers to the majority of
the pupils and the many positive developments in
the VMBO sector.
For ↑ problem youth there is a support structure.
Schools can get extra funds to give students ex-
tra support (in dealing with psychological, social
or study problems). A growing number of students
are getting extra support, especially students from
ethnic backgrounds in the lower vocationally ori-
ented pathway (OCW 2005). Most of these pupils
come from weaker socio-economic environments,
nowadays often coinciding with ethnic groups.
For these pupils, extra effort is necessary in order
to give them a fully fledged place in our society
through secondary education. Truancy as an ex-
pression of such problems is a reality, as is the risk
that in more serious cases the pupil will give up
and drop out of school early. In the large and mid-
sized cities, especially, there are schools with rela-
tively large groups of pupils for which these prob-
Areas of VET Research
lems are accumulating. This makes these schools,
generally VMBO schools, vulnerable.
Notwithstanding the bad public image, one re-
markable result from research is that students as
well as teachers in VMBO in many cases are sat-
isfied with the content and quality of their educa-
tion. There are more complaints about the transfer
to MBO (OCW 2006; LAKS 2005).
In policy as well as public discussions on the di-
rection of secondary education, great emphasis is
placed on the need for further development and in-
novation of VMBO. The differences between VM-
BO pupils with respect to background, capaci-
ty, learning style, motivation and the support re-
quired for special needs are larger than they are
at other types of schools and are increasing. Al-
so, many social problems enter VMBO schools to-
gether with the pupils. Providing tailored educa-
tion in VMBO is therefore even more important.
Investments in VMBO will serve both to strength-
en the knowledge economy and to improve so-
cial cohesion and inclusion in society. VMBO is
profiting from the greater policy freedom that all
schools have been given. Tailored programmes are
especially important in VMBO because there are
enormous differences between pupils and their re-
spective capacities. Also, in comparison with oth-
er school types, the risk of early school-leaving is
greatest in VMBO. So a lot of research is done to
investigate causes for drop out and early school
leaving as well as to design methods to support and
motivate youngsters to stay at school, at least until
getting a starting qualification (REBELGROUP 2006;
STEEG / WEBBINK 2006)
3.3.6.3.3 Research and New Developments
As part of the general trend for decentralisation
in the Netherlands, recently VMBO schools have
been given more freedom in the area of ↑ curric-
ulum design, course programmes, dual courses
combining study and work experience, the struc-
ture and testing/completion of education, total
teaching time, special needs support structure and
continual learning lines.
329
Smooth Transfer within Vocational Education
Since 2001 there is an active policy to promote the
vocational column (VMBO-MBO-HBO) as a ma-
jor route to higher education in order to reach the
Lisbon-objectives (→ 2.5). Promoting educational
careers by a well established vocational education
route is necessary to respond to the demands of
the ↑ knowledge society. In addition to streamlin-
ing formal requirements, special efforts have been
made to coordinate the contents of the courses and
develop continuous pathways to ease vertical pro-
gression. Furthermore, a new pedagogical-didac-
tical approach for all sectors in vocational educa-
tion needs to be developed to create smooth trans-
fer, and will be designed to respond to this devel-
opment (BRUIJN 2003). The ↑ educational career of
the student is at the centre of this policy and bet-
ter cooperation between government departments
concerned with youth should guarantee a lower
drop-out rate. ↑ Pre-vocational education needs ex-
tra emphasis and support to improve its quality and
image.
VMBO courses will require further strengthening
as the corner stone of the vocational education sys-
tem. There is agreement that the disconcertingly
high percentage of ↑ early school-leavers has to be
firmly tackled. Most do not leave school at VMBO
itself, but in (not) transferring from pre-vocation-
al to vocational education. Policy statements stress
that by holding onto as many young people as pos-
sible and enabling them to participate in the labour
process, the Netherlands can improve its competi-
tive strength. It will also prevent a group of young
people from being left out of and left behind by
the rest of society. The realisation of a good con-
nection between VMBO and MBO is especial-
ly important because, through this, school drop-
out rates can be reduced. Here educators empha-
sise that the risk of a pupil dropping out of school
is greatest in the basic vocational programmes of
VMBO and the next stage at levels 1 and 2 in the
Regional Training Centres. Talents are also not
optimally utilised and appreciated if the work ex-
perience gained by these young people cannot be
recognised in a basic qualification at the level of
MBO-2. Targeted actions to improve this connec-
tion, collaboration or continual programming, or
330
to recognise each other’s acquired competences,
can produce a lot of good results
Early School Leaving
Early school leaving is a major concern in the
Netherlands. In 2001, about 47 000 youngsters (un-
der 23 years old) left school without a basic quali-
fication (one equivalent to the successful comple-
tion of a vocational education and training course
at level II of the qualification structure of senior
secondary vocational education, see → 4.5) or to
the diploma of senior secondary general education
(HAVO) or pre-university education (VWO).
Priorities in the coming years are to keep the
working and learning career of students in view, to
further strengthen cooperation in the regional net-
works, to give educational institutions more free-
dom to experiment with tailor-made programmes
for these youngsters in line with the youth unem-
ployment action plan, to give better support to stu-
dents and to increase their responsibility for their
own careers.
New Contents
The ↑ vocation part of pre-vocational education
is divided in four sectors: technical, agricultural,
economical and caring. There is, however, a grow-
ing number of inter-sector and intra-sector pro-
grammes. The backgrounds to this are develop-
ments in the employment structure as well as great
attractiveness for young people, especially those
that do not yet know what they want to become.
Schools will be given greater freedom to develop
the course programme and to achieve a good link
to MBO – e. g. by analogy to the first stage of sec-
ondary education – by coming up with a more gen-
eral description of the exit qualifications. It will be
made possible for schools to offer broader inter-
sector and intra-sector programmes aimed at the
regional ↑ labour market – while retaining the civ-
il effect and guarantees for transferring to the Re-
gional Training Centre.
New Didactics
To be able to provide tailored education, VMBO
has recently been given a measure of freedom in
the regulations concerning curriculum planning
Handbook of TVET Research
programming, dual courses combining study and
work experience, the continual learning line, the
structure of education, the examinations, the teach-
ing time, the special needs support structure in
VMBO and the lump sum funding of employment-
oriented training. There are innovative, attractive
programmes for more challenging pupil-oriented
education that correspond with the reformed first
stage of secondary education and the new qualifi-
cation structure in MBO. Schools should be able,
as a result, to give further shape, within a firm and
spacious framework, to lively, strong and inno-
vative VMBO and employment-oriented training
that fits with the pupils’ needs and takes into con-
sideration the post-secondary education and the la-
bour market in the region. VMBO is characterised
by the introduction of ↑ new didactics, ↑ learning
environments and learning concepts like problem-
based learning and natural learning (compare new
VET didactics → 3.7). The principles behind these
concepts are (SANDEN 2004b):
(a) learning is an active process;
(b) one can learn from experience;
(c) knowledge already existent is activated;
(d) learning is dependent on the context in which
one learns;
(e) the motivation of the learner is essential.
The new ↑ didactical concepts aim to gain and de-
velop competences by putting the learner at the
centre. There are many examples of modern, at-
tractive programmes that link teaching closer to
professional practice, for example by so-called
workstation structures and by using modern equip-
ment. Teaching subjects are restructured so that
they are more focused on competences (SANDEN
2004a). This is both to make ↑ pre-vocational ed-
ucation more attractive for students and to corre-
spond better with developments at the Regional
Training Centres. In collaboration with the busi-
ness community, learning is brought into a much
closer relationship with professional practice in or-
der to bring about more and better combinations of
training and professional activity.
Research data reveal a more positive image of VM-
BO than is presented in the popular media. A re-
search project involving 4000 students that started
VMBO in 1999 shows that these students are very
enthusiastic in their final year of study about their
Areas of VET Research
education and more specifically about their work-
related learning (HARMS /KUYPER / WERF 2005).
They are satisfied with the balance and relation-
ship between theory and practice. Theory is of-
ten not much appreciated, but is seen as useful and
necessary. Many students are prepared to reflect
on their activities on their own level. Educational
concepts with a strong emphasis on active and au-
thentic learning have a positive effect on the mo-
tivation and ↑ commitment of students (TEURLINGS /
WOLPUT/ VERMEULEN 2006). They often have con-
tradictory feelings about the new educational con-
cepts. On the one hand, students find it hard to be
quiet and sit in a classroom, passively listening to
a teacher for a long time. On the other hand, they
find it difficult to deal with theory autonomously
and construct their own concept of the vocational
world. For this reason they sometimes prefer class-
room teaching by a strong guiding and explaining
teacher. (HAMSTRA / ENDE 2006).
One important caveat is that VMBO is threatened
by a serious teacher shortage in the very near fu-
ture. All kinds of new developments have been
started to ensure the enrolment of teacher students,
both young and experienced workers from differ-
ent trades.
Strengthening Learning in the Workplace
Regulations with regard to content and examina-
tions in pre-vocational education have been made
more flexible. Reforms in the course programmes
are strived for, among other ways, by linking the
learning process closer to practice in the respec-
tive ↑ professions (ONSTENK 2003). It is also neces-
sary, in the interests of the pupil, to be able to re-
spond quickly to the needs of the business commu-
nity and post-secondary education.
In 2001, the social partners and the Ministry of Ed-
ucation, Culture and Science signed an agreement
on learn-work trajectories to strengthen ↑ learning
in the workplace in preparatory senior secondary
vocational education (VMBO) and to serve as a
strong basis for a successful career in vocational
education at senior secondary or higher level. An-
other aim is to reduce the drop-out rate and to in-
crease the chances of youngsters to obtain a basic
qualification with education that puts more empha-
sis on working and learning in practice. This de-
331
velopment is the result of closer cooperation be-
tween the regional ↑ labour market authorities and
the companies and the schools providing pre-voca-
tional education. In 2003, this agreement was for-
malised by law. The dual training and work place-
ment routes in VMBO will be expanded in the
coming years (ONSTENK 2003).
Contacts with individual companies, business as-
sociations, the Chambers of Commerce or other
institutions at the local and regional levels are nec-
essary to find ↑ practical training positions or ap-
prenticeship jobs for VMBO pupils or to find posi-
tions for them doing social-service practical work.
Such positions can contribute to a further reform
of education. For example: pupils can run a shop
in a nursing home and thus gain relevant learning
experience. The knowledge centres for the profes-
sional and business community have a role to play
in the accreditation of companies providing ↑ prac-
tical training jobs and are signatories to a practi-
cal training agreement. At the central level, plans
can be established, e. g. with (the departments of)
MKB-Nederland, the association of small and me-
dium-sized enterprises (midden- en kleinbedri-
jf), or the Confederation of Netherlands Industry
and Employers (VNO-NCW, formerly Verbond
van Nederlandse Ondernemingen and Nederlands
Christelijk Werkgeversverbond) in order to create
practical training positions, apprenticeship jobs or
positions getting a social-service work experience.
This subsequently deserves to be developed con-
cretely at the regional level, i.e. around the school
or the schools that are looking for such positions.
3.3.6.4 The Development and Study
of Pre-Vocational Education
in Japan
Moriki Terada
3.3.6.4.1 Subject Definition: Pre-Vocational
Education in Japan
In ↑ Japan, phrases such as “↑ pre-vocational ed-
ucation” or “vocational preparatory education”
are seldom heard. This is due to a prevalent no-
tion in Japan that separates vocational education
332
from regular education. The notion is that only vo-
cational education schools (generally ↑ high school
vocational education related courses) are responsi-
ble for providing education for or concerning ↑ vo-
cations, while other schools, in other words stand-
ard and ↑ compulsory educational institutions such
as junior high schools and regular high schools,
are responsible for providing non-vocational (ac-
ademic) education. However, vocational education
and guidance have been offered regularly in Japa-
nese junior high schools and high school regular
courses in the past, and they continue to be offered
today.
In Japan’s general education system, pre-voca-
tional education is provided as part of ↑ vocation-
al guidance, that is, an educational activity cur-
rently referred to as “↑ Career Guidance”. It is al-
so provided in the specific general education sub-
jects that function as ↑ vocational preparation (i.e.
“Technology and ↑ Home Economics Education”
in junior high school, and ↑ career education sub-
jects such as “Industrial Society and Humans” in
high school). Some aspects of pre-vocational edu-
cation are also included in the cross-curriculum-
style “Integrated Learning Periods”.
This article takes a general view of the develop-
ment and current state of the research on pre-vo-
cational education in ↑ Japan after World War II
from the following aspects: (1) development of the
cases that have become the subject of research,
(2) formation of the core of research, (3) policy-
led and practice-oriented research, (4) methodo-
logical characteristics of academic research, and
(5) broadening of academic research subjects. The
study of the field of ↑ Home Economics is not in-
cluded in this article.
3.3.6.4.2 Research up to the Beginning of
the 1960s: Integrated Development
of Vocational Guidance and the
Vocational Study
– The first pre-vocational education after World
War II began in 1947 with the institution of “↑ Vo-
cational Study” in junior ↑ high school. The con-
tent of this subject was essentially preparatory and
not organised according to ↑ vocational disciplines.
In the midst of the conflict between the ideology
that emphasised vocational education and the ide-
Handbook of TVET Research
ology that emphasised vocational guidance, this
“Vocational Study” was restructured into two sub-
jects, “Vocational Study” and “Home Economics”,
in May 1949 based on the “Try-out Course” sub-
ject organisation scheme. In December 1949, these
subjects were again integrated into one subject
called “Vocational and Home Economics Studies”.
In the meantime, the Official Curriculum Guide-
lines of 1951 settled “Trade”, a vocational educa-
tion concept, as a basis for course organisation.
From the viewpoint of the “fundamental technol-
ogy and basic daily activities”, the guideline re-
vision in 1956 proposed pre-vocational education
across the six areas consisting of agriculture, fish-
ery, industrial technology, commerce, home, and
↑ vocational guidance (three to four hours week-
ly over three years). It resembled the structure of
Germany’s “Arbeitslehre” (work education).
This change in Japanese subject structure is very
important, for it marks a historic differentiation of
the research activities on vocational subjects (vo-
cational education) on the one hand and vocational
guidance on the other.
– The vocational guidance in that period is repre-
sented in the enlightening research by psycholo-
gists and Ministry of Education bureaucrats such
as Ando et al. (1951) or Sakamoto et al. (1953)
and their introduction of the American vocational
guidance approach. These works marked the very
beginning phase of the academic development of
the subject, and the topics of the research were the
reception and borrowing of the theory concern-
ing vocational aptitude seen in the achievements
of F. Parsons, the founder of vocational guidance
research in the ↑ United States of America, and the
National Vocational Guidance Association (NV-
GA). The vocational guidance aimed at “assisting
individuals in choosing a ↑ vocation, preparing for
it, obtaining employment, and making progress”,
and the guidance consisted of the following: Vo-
cational Understanding, Vocational Research, Vo-
cational Practice (trial process), and Vocational
Selection (called Vocational Selection Guidance)
(Ministry of Education 1947).
In terms of the subject of the research, the dissim-
ilarity between the United States of America and
Japan was postwar Japan’s heavy emphasis on the
employment placement function “Vocational Se-
Areas of VET Research
lection Guidance”. That important function was
assigned to school principals by the Public Em-
ployment Security Office (the Employment Secu-
rity Law of 1947). In turn, researchers added two
more areas to the four areas of vocational guid-
ance stated by the Ministry of Education, namely
Students’ Self-understanding and the Post-gradu-
ation Follow-up Guidance, and their research ac-
tivities covered the total of these six areas (MA-
SUDA 1959).
– In the meantime, unlike the vocational guidance
research which was supported by expert scholars
(psychologists), the research on “Vocational and
Home Economics Studies”, as part of the junior
high school general education, lacked expert re-
searchers. For this reason, Ministry of Education
bureaucrats, under the guidance of the research-
ers of educational studies in general (ANDO 1950),
or at times of their own initiative (SHIRAI 1952),
actively introduced ↑ vocational education theories
and curriculum organization methods from the
↑ USA without drawing a clear distinction between
the junior and senior ↑ high school levels.
In that environment, Jun Hasegawa introduced the
most complete curriculum theory for the school
subject of ↑ Vocational Studies (in the industri-
al field), and actually directed the drawing up of
the Official Curriculum Guidelines of 1951. He
also translated “Trade and Job Analysis (2nd ed.,
1947)” by the American author V. C. Fryklund.
(FRYKLUND 1949, Hasegawa translation).
The above work plainly indicates the strong voca-
tional orientation and the dominance of substantial
training-oriented contents in the general vocation-
al subjects at the time.
3.3.6.4.3 Research Concerning Technology
and Home Economics Education as
a Formal Discipline (from the 1960s
onward)
– The Japanese economy readied itself for rapid
growth as it entered the latter half of the 1950s.
Economic organisations, one after another, sug-
gested the expansion of vocational education in
senior ↑ high school educational systems as well
as the systematisation of science and technology
education in junior high school. The Ministry of
Education was making preparations for restructur-
333
ing “Vocational and Home Economics Studies” in-
to coeducational “Technology Education”. Howev-
er, as a result of the “rollback” from the ↑ Home
Economics teachers’ organisations demanding the
continuation of female Home Economics educa-
tion, and the intervention by politicians in this roll-
back, it is said that “Technology Education” be-
came “Vocational ↑ Technology and Home Eco-
nomics Education” literally overnight, on the night
of the 27th of July 1958 (K IYOHARA 1989, 931).
From around that time, the major part of the “new
graduates’ job market” has shifted from junior
high school graduates to senior high school gradu-
ates.
Technology and Home Economics Education was
structured as a cooperative compulsory subject
centering on the contents of the industrial physi-
cal production technology and Home Economics.
Therefore, all contents from Commerce, Fisheries,
↑ Vocational Guidance, and most contents from
Agriculture were excluded. Consequently, its na-
ture as a subject for general education (a non-vo-
cational preparatory subject) became particularly
accentuated.
– In that period in the history of ↑ Japan, there
were no expert research personnel studying voca-
tional education or technology education in uni-
versities or equivalent institutions, and the gap
was filled by general educational studies research-
ers and a number of practical-schooling advocates
(who supported vocational education and tech-
nology education research in the 1960s and 70s).
Since the 1950s, the “Production-oriented Edu-
cation Theory” that aimed at placing the produc-
tion technology education as a general subject had
been advanced by Kido (1950), Miyahara (1956)
and others. This move was a result of the influence
from the philosophies of the “Polytechnism” of the
then Soviet Union and the “Industrial Arts Educa-
tion” of the USA.
– Toshio Hosoya, who represents “the first gener-
ation of Japanese vocational education and ↑ train-
ing research“, academically led the start of ↑ Tech-
nology and Home Economics Education. Origi-
nally specialising in educational method studies,
Hosoya went on to set up the Japan Society of Vo-
cational and Technical Education (current mem-
bers: approx. 300) in 1960, together with a small
334
number of vocational guidance specialists and in-
dustrial psychologists. His subject theory aimed at
structuring vocational education and technology
education in particular as project learning (tech-
nical experience subjects), and thereby achieving
“the cultivation of logical thinking and nurturing
of practical skills” (HOSOYA 1969, 204), and this
theory continued to influence the subsequent Offi-
cial Curriculum Guidelines.
– Furthermore, the research activities of two pri-
vate research organisations (many of their leaders
had shifted over to universities in the 1970s and
80s as scholars and professors of vocational educa-
tion and technology education) made a significant
contribution to the practical development of Tech-
nology and Home Economics Education during its
establishment. One of them was the “Japanese So-
ciety for the Study of Technology Education” that
emphasised the difference between Home Eco-
nomics and Vocational Technology, and continued
to uphold the latter, basing its opinion on the mas-
tery of the “technological studies” and “technical
skills”. This society’s subject theory was systema-
tised in 1972 (HARA / SASAKI 1972). The other pow-
erful organisation, which was named “Society of
Industrial Education”, developed research on the
educational practice and subject groups by viewing
the coeducational Technology and ↑ Home Eco-
nomics Education from the perspective of “learn-
ing of skills during the process of labour” (SANGYO
KYOIKU RENMEI 1996).
– With the establishment of the Master’s courses
in national teachers colleges in the 1980s onward,
the research on Technology and Home Economics
Education finally reached the analytical and em-
pirical research phase. The research came to be
conducted by the researchers at the above teach-
ers colleges who were members of the “↑ Japan So-
ciety for Industrial and Technical Education” (es-
tablished in 1958), and usually holders of a Ph.D.
degree in agriculture or engineering, or those
who had completed the teachers college master’s
course. Their research was mainly on teaching
materials for fields such as metallurgy, mechanics,
electricity, and agronomics, as well as on the fac-
tor analysis of the development of technical learn-
ing and technical skills (Bulletin of the Japan So-
Handbook of TVET Research
ciety of Industrial and Technical Education, pub-
lished quarterly).
In the meantime, “the second generation”, who
worked as professors at non-teacher-training fac-
ulties of education in national universities, took
the initiative in ↑ curriculum research (MOTO-
KI 1973) and institutional history research (H ARA /
UCHIDA 1975) from the beginning of the 1970s on-
ward. In addition, a considerable number of young
educational studies researchers with doctoral train-
ing (“the third generation”) specialised in ↑ histori-
cal research (MORISHITA 1988) and comparative re-
search (TANAKA 1993), and published their find-
ings in the 1980s onward. The recently published
work by Kiyohara (1989) is a masterpiece of re-
search on the history of educational practice.
However, none of the above research concerning
Technology and Home Economics Education has
dealt closely with vocational education, or even
↑ pre-vocational education.
3.3.6.4.4 Research on Career Guidance and
Career Education
– ↑ Vocational guidance lost its relevance and
standing with the establishment of ↑ Technology
and Home Economics Education. From then on,
vocational guidance was offered not as a subject
but as part of “Classroom Activities” (by the class-
room teacher) that belonged to the extracurricular
education called “Special Activities”. It was also
decided for ↑ high schools that vocational guidance
was to be offered as ↑ Career Guidance.
– According to the nationwide survey by the Min-
istry of Education in 1973, it was revealed that on-
ly 10 to 15 hours on average were allocated for
Career Guidance classes per year in junior high
schools. Moreover, in terms of the contents, jun-
ior high schools supplied “adequate” information
concerning entrance into higher-level schools, but
the instruction of the information concerning ↑ vo-
cations and industries and the provision of instruc-
tive experience (i.e. field trips to workplaces) were
extremely inadequate. Ultimately, as the number
of students who went on to high school and uni-
versity continued to increase, Career Guidance
functioned as the employment agency in vocation-
al high schools, and as the “counselling on going
on to higher-level schools” and “advice on which
Areas of VET Research
school to try for” in junior high schools and gen-
eral high schools.
– The development of the career guidance move-
ment since the late 1950s and the ↑ career educa-
tion movement since the early 1970s in the ↑ USA
have influenced the vocational guidance and its re-
search in Japan. As a result, the Japanese Society
for the Study of Vocational Guidance (1953) was
renamed the Japanese Society for the Study of Ca-
reer Guidance in 1978.
The above society’s bulletin (Career Guidance Re-
search) was published annually from Volume 1
(1980) to Volume 15 (1994), then biannually from
1995 onward. Except for some articles on theories
based on educational sociology and educational
studies, almost all the volumes are devoted to re-
search concerning career motivation and career se-
lection by researchers on developmental psycholo-
gy and counseling psychology.
– In the context of regret over the guidance re-
search being biased in favour of going on to high-
er-level schools as above, and the escalation of the
problem of the transition from school to employ-
ment for youth as a social problem in the mean-
time, the opinion which advocates the shift “from
guidance to education” developed rapidly ever
since the latter half of the 1990s. In contrast to ca-
reer education in the ↑ USA that had the nature of
overall reform of general education and vocation-
al education at ↑ high school level in particular, in
↑ Japan, ↑ career education was introduced and rec-
ommended by ↑ career guidance researchers.
There are two researchers, Senzaki and Nobuchi,
who argued in favour of viewing career develop-
ment as an education problem. Senzaki (1979) con-
tinued to insist on the development of career guid-
ance into career education. Nobuchi raised career
guidance as the problem in the “ecosystem” of ed-
ucation (1998). The research group led by Senzaki,
at a later stage, put forward a suggestion for a “ca-
reer development education programme” which
consisted of four frames: “career design skills”,
“career information search and utilisation skills”,
“decision making (career selection) skills”, and
“interpersonal skills” (1998). This research report
paved the way for the term “career education” to
enter the regular Japanese vocabulary, as seen in
the document written by the Ministry of Educa-
335
tion, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in
the following year (1999). The “Japanese Society
for the Study of Career Guidance” was renamed
the “Japanese Society for the Study of Career Edu-
cation” (approx. 700 members) in 2004.
3.3.7 Further Education and
Training Research
Rolf Arnold and Henning Pätzold
The jobs people do and their occupations have always
shifted as a function of technological and societal
change. Similarly, as we know today, primarily from in-
ternational studies, the skills potential pooled in occu-
pations is not only the “outcome” of change but also a
central prerequisite of change. Hence what competence
development needs to provide are approaches to inter-
dependency which, rather than simply lamenting a “de-
cline” in occupations, can at the same time identify in
what new form (not organised conventionally according
to particular occupations) professional expertise will in
future manifest itself in global labour markets.
This article starts with an overview of the basic con-
ditions of modern TVET. From this we draw conclu-
sions for research, discussing areas of research as well
as methodological approaches with an emphasis on sec-
ondary analysis. We conclude by giving a prognosis
of future trends in ↑ further education and training re-
search.
3.3.7.1 Framework
From Vocational Education to Competence
Development
The prevalent method of production – with or
without tools, with or on a machine – determines
how people (can) work. It therefore determines the
system of different occupations within a society.
The occupations of carpenter and joiner, for exam-
ple, have only existed since the time that the tools
needed for woodworking have been available, at
least in rudimentary form, making woodworking
“with tools” possible. Similarly, all the forms of
occupation characterising industrial and technical
production today depend on the existence of ma-
chines. Hence the creation of an occupation is di-
rectly linked to technical development, i.e. the in-
vention of tools, machines and production process-
336
es. This becomes particularly clear when one looks
more closely at the time correlation between new
technical developments and the creation of occu-
pations. The invention of photography in 1840, for
example, was followed in around 1860 by the crea-
tion of the occupation of photographer. The occu-
pation of car mechanic was established around six
years after the invention of the motor car in rough-
ly 1900. There are similar correlations in numer-
ous other occupations.
An important consequence of this close correlation
between the dominant form of production in a so-
ciety and the system of occupations is the steep de-
cline in the industrialised countries in the number
of people employed in the agriculture and forest-
ry sector on the one hand and the steep increase in
those employed in the service sector on the other.
This clearly reflects the trend towards tertiarisa-
tion in modern industrialised societies, which the
French social scientist, Jean Fourastié, had already
described in 1949 in his famous book “Le grand
éspoir du XX siècle” (FOURASTIÉ 1949). In mod-
ern industrialised societies “manufacturing” and
“building” activities are performed by a decreas-
ing percentage of the workforce, while the major-
ity of people are engaged in “services in the widest
sense”. As a result of this trend certain occupations
are dying out (e. g. blacksmith) and others are be-
ing created (e. g. chemical technician, electronics
technician, automotive mechatronic → 4.3). The
number of occupations requiring specialist training
is steadily declining and existing job requirements
are altering. Hence the use of ↑ ICT has shifted the
job profile of bank employees, for example, away
from accounting functions and more towards cus-
tomer-service and sales functions. There has been
a similar change in job requirements for skilled
workers in the production sector: as well as spe-
cialist knowledge and skills in their specific tech-
nical subject, skilled workers are increasingly re-
quired to demonstrate non-subject-specific compe-
tence, which has a lot to do with the personality of
the worker in question, and with his or her autono-
my, creativity and ability to communicate.
The trend as far as the division of labour and job
requirements is concerned – at least for the core
areas of industrial labour – seems therefore to be
moving towards greater qualification, but with a si-
Handbook of TVET Research
multaneous increase in autonomy and responsibil-
ity. There is a growing obligation to technical and
vocational education and training and in-compa-
ny competence development to prepare trainees to
be able to respond to the future scope for action
and to take over responsibility. This also means a
change in the perspective from which vocational
education and competence development are seen –
which affects practice as well as research.
Both are facing a fundamental, although not total-
ly unexpected paradigm shift. There has already
been increasing debate in recent years, both in-
side companies as well as in the education com-
munity, about systemic approaches to professional
competence development. In the world-wide con-
text these approaches have been situational, that is
to say oriented to the systems established in a par-
ticular country or region. This shift of perspective
also has fundamental consequences for the gen-
eral focus of technical and vocational education
and training and in-company competence develop-
ment. Increasingly they are oriented less towards
“models”, and more towards examining how com-
petence development is “embedded” in the com-
pany and microsocial context (→ 3.4). It is appar-
ent that requirement profiles tied closely to partic-
ular occupations are gradually disappearing. Craft
skills are tending to lose importance as a selection
criterion, whereas in modernised areas personali-
ty-related qualities and key skills (MERTENS 1974;
PRATZNER 1978) are growing in relevance.
The changes to the division of labour and occu-
pational requirements have a quantitative as well
as a qualitative dimension. It is therefore also nec-
essary to examine how skills requirements on the
different levels of an employment system are most
likely to develop in the future. Projections of fu-
ture skills requirements indicate that in modern
societies roughly two thirds of the work performed
by people in 2010 will be in the infrastructure and
service sectors. The information sector, i.e. activ-
ities related to acquiring and processing informa-
tion, will also expand in the future (→ 3.1.4).
From the historical perspective the demand for
“↑ education for all” or “teaching all things to
all men” (COMENIUS 1967, 5) built a ground from
which the beginnings of formalised technical and
vocational education and training mark the start
Areas of VET Research
of Europe’s industrialisation. In the 19th century
there was a direct link, particularly for vocation-
al training, to industrial promotion: the aim was to
train the workforce specifically to raise technolog-
ical standards, quality of workmanship and hence
the market opportunities for domestic production
(also with respect to foreign countries). Similar
considerations characterise the beginnings of Ger-
man co-operation in the field of vocational train-
ing with Asian, African and Latin American coun-
tries. Many projects took as their slogan: more in-
dustry and jobs through more occupational pro-
motion, whereby a positive relationship was often
assumed between professional training, the crea-
tion of industry and new jobs.
Yet such assumptions have frequently been proved
wrong in the past. In particular it has become ap-
parent that general technical education is more
likely to have a positive effect on the ↑ labour mar-
ket and the ↑ industrialisation process, while spe-
cialised skills, unless they are applied immedi-
ately, are lost again and have no effect on the la-
bour market and employment. It has also emerged
that there is no need for “speculative training in
advance” since the qualification process can pro-
ceed in tandem with the establishment of produc-
tion and manufacturing facilities.
Today in the international debate on the econom-
ics and science of education, there is a more sober
consideration of the relationship between compe-
Fig. 1: The Changing View of Competence Development
337
tence development (↑ human capital), employment
and economic development. In the background are
the heterogeneous shapes of educational and eco-
nomical systems in the world, which do not follow
the industrialisation paradigm and the concept of
catch-up development in most ↑ developing coun-
tries. Competing approaches to explaining the in-
terrelationship between education, labour markets
and employment have been replaced by an integral
approach based on the assumption that an analysis
of this interrelationship:
– Must also take into account the social demand
for education and training programmes,
– As well as the job supply (“manpower ap-
proach”),
– It must also equally consider flexibility and
↑ mobility aspects (What substitution potential and
mobility potential do the jobs have, e. g. what key
skills do the workers bring with them?),
– As well as the segmentation processes which are
just becoming evident in the jobs markets in ↑ de-
veloping countries (How does the link between ed-
ucation/competence development and job place-
ment manifest itself in the different jobs mar-
kets?).
The problem that arises from this for in-company
competence development is that ↑ human resource
development involves many different functional
links which make clear answers and strategies dif-
ficult. The relationship between initial and contin-
338
uing training on the one hand and employment on
the other is not straightforward but is characterised
by numerous interdependencies. In-company com-
petence development has to balance these connec-
tions, i.e. help shape and develop them.
3.3.7.2 Bridging Adult Education and
Vocational Education
The relation between ↑ adult education and vo-
cational education varies deeply from country to
country. The typical age for the start of vocation-
al education itself differs and is of obvious signifi-
cance for that relationship. Furthermore vocational
education and training have shown the tendency to
extend along the lifespan of individuals. Therefore
the idea of adolescents as a “typical” target group
for vocational education does not seem to be rel-
evant anymore. In ↑ vocational schools for exam-
ple the average age of the students tends to diverge.
Moreover, vocational schools and other organisa-
tions of vocational education are more and more
obliged to serve a broadening market of training
demand which, too, leads to a variety of ages and
backgrounds of experience on the students’ side.
Though some countries still keep up a strong sepa-
ration between vocational education and adult ed-
ucation it nowadays seems more adequate to per-
ceive at least the most part of the former as a part
of the latter. This of course has a strong impact
on research in this area. While vocational educa-
tion research was often related to adolescents leav-
ing school and entering a certain kind of vocation-
al training, apprenticeship etc., it now turns out
that vocational education, as well as education in
general, has to be seen as a lifelong process with
different stages connected by a complex system
of dependencies. This of course is even more rel-
evant with regard to ↑ further education and train-
ing. Concerning research it should be stressed that
there is a wide variety of theoretical concepts as
well as empirical approaches in adult education,
which are still not reflected enough in the field of
vocational education. Implications of that situation
are:
– Vocational education research must no longer
take the adolescent for the “typical” subject of re-
search.
Handbook of TVET Research
– Vocational education research must widen the
time horizon. Processes of vocational education,
including the development of a “↑ vocational iden-
tity” (→ 3.6.8), require a wide focus to be observed
correctly.
– The application of the methods of adult educa-
tion research are to be taken into account for any
vocational education research (→ 5). This espe-
cially holds for methods of ↑ qualitative research,
which have a long and fruitful history as far as
adult education is concerned.
The adult education perspective, besides other as-
pects, stresses the utilisation of a constructivist ap-
proach to learning (REECE / WALKER 2003, 91 f.),
which already plays a big role in adult education
research and proves fruitful especially with re-
spect to competence development and transforma-
tive learning (MEZIROW 1991).
3.3.7.3 Consequences for Adult Education
Research
Of course the dramatic changes in the profession-
al world in general as well as in ↑ further educa-
tion and training in particular are not without con-
sequences for research. Especially the emphasis of
competence development (→ 3.6) leads to an im-
mense shift of perspective. Briefly said, it seems
that a large part of further education research has
focussed upon the wrong topic. The traditional
orientation towards qualification concentrated on
conditions of training and learning, which led to
the ability to perform certain actions related to a
specific area of work. With the concept of com-
petence this perspective is widened. Not only is
it satisfactory, if somebody is able to perform the
action. It is also necessary that he or she is will-
ing to do so and, furthermore, recognises the cir-
cumstances which require the particular action.
To act in a competent way means to know how to
do something, but also when to do it. The obvious
implication for research is that it is not enough to
test if a trained person is able to perform an ac-
tion in a test situation as this wouldn’t prove much
about how he or she would act in “real life”. More-
over, the competence concept introduces a modi-
fied view of learning aims. Competence learning
aims at the ability to make adequate decisions and
Areas of VET Research
therefore the importance of single qualifications
generally decreases.
From the aspects given in Fig. 1 one can draw
four conclusions regarding further education and
↑ training research.
The transformation of the perspective towards an
orientation to cross-occupational content means a
shift in the research on curricula and learning aims
(→ 3.4.1). While in former times the development
of critical attitudes towards certain concepts and
procedures in industry and service may have oc-
curred as a side effect, such attitudes are now cen-
tral. But critical of course doesn’t mean to question
any decision once made in a company and to per-
manently reorganise one’s own workplace. An em-
ployee is rather expected to develop a continuous
“constructive scepticism” about his environment,
to take chances of improvement without disturbing
overall activity. This requires the ability to form
clear opinions about changing situations and there-
fore goes far beyond the ability to “do something
correctly”. This aspect becomes even more impor-
tant as competences will be of cross-occupational
use, which means, they will be adaptable to differ-
ent workplaces in different companies and even in
different ↑ professions.
The lifespan perspective emphasises that vocation-
al training as well as further education are no iso-
lated activities but are to be seen from a biograph-
ical perspective. Further education follows previ-
ous learning and training activities and – what was
long overlooked – are themselves rather links in a
chain of educational and training efforts. There-
fore further education has not only to foster ↑ voca-
tional competence but also to prepare for succeed-
ing training. This brings up the question of ade-
quate possibilities to prologue the effects of cer-
tain trainings and courses and is therefore relat-
ed to research on sustainable learning. A partic-
ular branch of this research deals with electronic
media as opportunities to integrate follow-up ac-
tions into the ↑ work process (EC 2001). Also the
lifespan perspective brings into focus certain char-
acteristics of ↑ adult learning which render tradi-
tional learning theories inadequate. Therefore re-
search on learning might be related more closely
to contemporary concepts of adult learning (see
LANGEMEYER 2005a).
339
The third change leads from ↑ occupational pro-
files to more complex systems of demand, involv-
ing not only the profile itself, but also regional
conditions, social and economical circumstances
and much more. In this case further education re-
search has not only to deal with the question of
the anticipation of demand with respect to tech-
nical development, but also with respect to those
other factors, including the task of preparing for
change itself. Obviously it hereby becomes much
more complicated to anticipate learning aims for
future employees, and research has to incorporate
much more of the findings of other social scienc-
es, especially sociology, to develop a concise pic-
ture of future trends in ↑ further education. This al-
so includes a shift from a rather didactical research
perspective, asking, how something is taught suc-
cessfully, to a more social perspective asking, what
precautions are to be taken to secure that what is
taught will be useful to the employee as well as the
employer.
Finally the system perspective accentuates de-
pendencies between further education in general
and surrounding conditions. Moreover, research
in this area has virtually discovered new actors of
learning, namely organisations and even regions
(see EC, E. C. 2003d). This research faces a com-
pletely new unit of analysis. The challenge is now
to develop analytical systems which on the one
hand allow one to come up with the specific situa-
tions of single regions, and on the other to lead to
comparable results going beyond the particular lo-
cal or regional circumstances.
3.3.7.4 Resources of Vocational Education
With the growing attention given to vocational ed-
ucation as a key factor of economical development
the different resources of research also come in-
to view. There are several resources of national
as well as international origin which offer valua-
ble material regarding questions of vocational ed-
ucation. At first sight they can be divided into re-
sources, which primarily serve aims of monitor-
ing (as national vocational education reports or the
↑ OECD’s education at a glance) and material relat-
ed to specified ↑ research questions. The national
and international efforts for ↑ educational research
can thereby serve several purposes. Obviously
340
they are often the starting point for any research
project as they bundle much of the large scale re-
search efforts conducted in a certain area. Moreo-
ver, there is often the possibility to obtain the raw
data of such projects to deal with according to re-
search questions. As the data collection for large
scale statistical research as well as for qualitative
data usually is very costly, this secondary analysis
is highly desirable. Furthermore, it has been shown
that not only empirical data from surveys etc. but
also qualitative data is a promising basis for sec-
ondary analysis (CORTI / WITZEL / BISHOP 2004). The
following table (Fig. 2) gives an exemplary view
of some of the major resources for ↑ data on voca-
tional education.
Whereas Fig. 2 only gives an overview, there is an
unmanageable variety of sources for data, espe-
cially when the national sites, monitoring systems
etc. are taken into account.
3.3.7.5 Suggestions and Recommendations
for Specific Development and
Research Projects
In the accelerated or “reflexive modernisation”
(BECK / GIDDENS / LASH 1995) societies, the devel-
opment of ↑ lifelong learning is accompanied by
an extensive need for clarification, which is relat-
ed to both the basic theoretical issues as well as
the practical aspects. This dual perspective should
also be stressed, since only a theoretical position-
ing with respect to the modernisation processes of
↑ continuing education and lifelong learning can
prevent the detailed empirical analysis from be-
coming the image creator and thus the legitimis-
er (see ARNOLD 1996a, 55 f.) of the mentioned ex-
traneous implementations of lifelong learning (see
LENZEN / LUHMANN 1997).
In this sense, in a summary that highlights some
aspects and is inevitably incomplete, the follow-
ing areas and issues can be identified for forward-
looking research and development projects:
Theoretical and Systemic Positioning of Fur-
ther Education Research
– What expectations (manifest and latent) do the
actors in the ↑ further education and training mar-
ket “hope for”?
Handbook of TVET Research
– What are the underlying interests, demands and
needs of these expectations?
– What (manifest and latent) functions does fur-
ther education and training “promise” to the indi-
vidual, the enterprise and the society?
– What happens with the realisation of these
“promised” functions as well as with the “real” ef-
fects of further education and training?
– How can comprehensive and universally appli-
cable standards and ↑ quality assurance systems be
defined and implemented within the framework of
the “functional symbiotic” (Luhmann) integration
of further education?
Overcoming the “Fixation on the Institution”
Perspective
– What en-passant forms and informal strategies
of competence-developing learning are already
being applied by adults in extra-institutional learn-
ing processes and with what results?
– How do these informal types of learning corre-
late to previous education, previous learning expe-
riences the background of professional demands
and experiences as well as to sex and age?
– Through what “measures”, “supporting struc-
tures” as well as concomitant forms can these in-
formal forms be optimised in a sustainable man-
ner?
– What consequences does the issue of the occur-
rence and the evident ↑ effectiveness and expan-
sion of informal ↑ adult learning (coaching and fa-
cilitating concepts) have on the institutions and
professionals of ↑ continuing education organisa-
tions?
Acquisition and Application Research Based
on Constructivist Learning Theories
– What learning types, ↑ learning strategies and
learning attitudes are typical of “autonomous” (au-
todidactic) learning?
– How do the types of learning activities and the
types of learners “interact” in adult learning?
– What learning arrangements correspond, and
to what extent, to the criteria for sustainable adult
learning?
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 2: Research Resources
– How can these criteria be effectively integrat-
ed to the varying forms of further education and
training offers, programmes and applications?
– How sustainable is the learning achieved by dif-
ferent participant groups in learning arrangements
for ↑ self-directed learning (away from the “one
best-mode” concept)?
Research on the Transformation of Mental
Models (Interpretation Learning) and Organi-
sational Structures (Organisational Learning)
– Through what didactic arrangements can reflex-
ive and transformation processes (of premises) be
initiated and supported?
– How can the corresponding learning opportuni-
ties for learning at the workplace be implemented
or arranged?
– How can virtual (multimedia) arrangements be
designed for reflexive and transformative learning
processes
– What professional requirements arise for in-
company continuing education and further train-
341
ing as well as for human resources management
or for executives on site (in the different depart-
ments)?
Empirical and Analytical Research on Motiva-
tion, Demand and Effects
– What conditional factors constitute moti-
vation for further training and “decide” about
↑ participation in ↑ further education and training?
– How do the members of different social envi-
ronments utilise the opportunities of self-directed
competence-developing learning?
– In which topic areas and fields of competence is
the need for further education and training partic-
ularly marked or even increasing?
– How do further education providers determine
the demands which serve as the basis for planning
their educational offers and programmes?
– How do continuing education providers “guar-
antee” the quality as well as the ↑ effectiveness and
↑ sustainability of their offers?
342
3.3.8 Vocational College Research. Case Studies
3.3.8.1 Study of Higher Vocational
Education Research in China
Weiping Shi and Guoqing Xu
↑ Higher vocational education came into being in
↑ China at the beginning of the 1980s and well es-
tablished its position in Chinese higher education
by the middle of the 1990s and started its great ex-
pansion at the turn of the century. The research in-
to higher vocational education has never stopped in
the past 20 years, during which more than a hun-
dred books on higher vocational education have
been published. With a careful search of the index
of China Journal Net, we have found that there are
7,476 articles on higher vocational education, out
of which 70 % were published after 2000. This in-
dicates that most of the research has been under-
taken after 2000 and development of higher voca-
tional education has already attracted the wide at-
tention of Chinese society (WANG 2004). The his-
tory of higher vocational education research is rel-
atively short, but we can still classify the develop-
ment of this research into three periods or stages
according to its focus (→ 1.2; → 3.3.2). This study
is based on an overview of books, papers and na-
tional research projects on higher vocational edu-
cation over the past 20 years, with special focus on
the research after 2000.
3.3.8.1.1 First Stage (1980s–2000) With Its
Focus on “What is Higher Vocational
Education?” “Why Should We
Develop It?” and “How Should We
Develop It?”
Research on the Development Drive for Higher
Vocational Education
Why higher vocational education initiated in the
1980s were widely accepted and began to devel-
op in the 1990s in ↑ China, became the focal point
of the research during this period. It was crucial to
understand the necessity and conditions to devel-
op higher vocational education in the Chinese eco-
nomic, social and educational context of the 1990s
before its actual fast development. Many scholars
Handbook of TVET Research
attributed the demand for higher vocational educa-
tion to the economic development, which required
the upgrading of knowledge and skill structure of
those working in the front line of production and
services. Weiping Shi had generalized such drives
for higher vocational education development into
three factors: (1) economic reason – development
of science and technology and its wide application
in production and services requires the quality im-
provement of workers at large in order to meet the
needs of economic development for more highly
skilled workers; (2) social reason – in the light of
the serious unemployment situation, to expand the
size of higher vocational education can postpone
the time of first employment for some school grad-
uates so as to relieve the employment pressure in
the ↑ labour market and avoid the social problems
which might be caused by the high rate of unem-
ployment; (3) educational reason – in the context
of increasingly severe competition for entering the
traditional universities, to develop higher vocation-
al education can provide another alternative for the
school graduate so as to meet the needs of ordinary
people for mass higher education. This view held
by Shi was relatively rational and later was com-
monly shared by the academic community in Chi-
na (SHI 1998a; 1998b; 1998c).
Research on the Intension of Higher Vocation-
al Education
In 1994, several articles were published in Chi-
nese Vocational and Technical Education, one of
the leading journals of TVET in ↑ China, discuss-
ing the intention, implementation and development
of ↑ higher vocational education, which indicates
the great concern about these issues at that time.
It was quite crucial to understand the intention of
higher vocational education before its actual great
expansion started:
Jintu Yang et al. thought “Higher vocational edu-
cation is mainly higher technical education”. Their
argument was based on the talents structure theo-
ry. Social talents can be divided into four catego-
ries: theoretical talents, engineering talents, tech-
nical talents and skilled talents; while higher voca-
Areas of VET Research
tional education is mainly to train the technicians
with practical skills and the technologists or front-
line managers with specialized expertise. This
kind of vocational college could be run either by
the government (central or regional), by the indus-
try (sectors or enterprises), by social organisations
or private institutions, or in the form of ↑ partner-
ship with foreign investors or cooperation between
various kinds of institutions so as to mobilize all
the resources available in society to develop higher
vocational education. This is a relatively complete
view of the conception of higher vocational educa-
tion and the manner of its development. As to the
name of such a higher institution for vocational ed-
ucation, the more popular view at that time was
to call it a “technical college” or a “university of
technology”, for the reason that this kind of colleg-
es served mainly to train the frontline technicians
or managers; and this was usually understood as
“technical education” and such names could eas-
ily be understood by the international community
(YANG / MENG / YAN 1995).
Wei Ping Shi thought that higher vocational edu-
cation should take “higher education” as its “fam-
ily name” and “vocational education” as its “giv-
en name” based on his fundamental research on
higher vocational education (SHI 1998a). Xinxiang
Lu’s view was also quite popular during this peri-
od. He defined higher vocational education as: (a)
a kind of education to train technical talents in-
cluding academic education for diplomas and tech-
nical training for certificates; (b) the academic ed-
ucation for diplomas could be as high as an asso-
ciate degree, bachelors degree or even up to post-
graduate level, and ↑ China currently should main-
ly provide higher vocational education at associate
degree level; (c) the technical training for certifi-
cates should mainly be for vocational and techni-
cal qualifications of various kinds, covering large
areas of working (LU 1998, 29).
In addition to this fundamental research, there
were also ↑ comparative studies of higher vocation-
al education and its linkage with secondary voca-
tional education during this period. The compara-
tive research mainly focused on the introduction
of the successful experience in Taiwan and abroad.
The research was necessary at a time when Chi-
na began its development of higher vocational ed-
343
ucation and “education borrowing” was the major
aim of such a comparison. The research projects of
the National Educational Science Planning in this
period mainly focused on issues like the position
of higher vocational education and its linkage with
secondary vocational education and with general
education, and the basic rules for technological ed-
ucation and its special features.
3.3.8.1.2 Second Stage (2000–2004) With its
Focus on the Talents Training Model
and School System Reform
After 2000, higher vocational education in China
started its great expansion. In the process, it was
commonly recognized that the development of
higher vocational education should change from
expansion to quality improvement. In light of this
context, the training model and major construc-
tion; in another words, the talents training models
of higher vocational education based upon college-
industry cooperation, became a focal point of the
research during this period. This trend of research
continued up till 2004 (→ 1.2).
From 2002, MoE held three national conferences
on the production-learning-research combination
and cooperation, after which “service-aimed, em-
ployment-oriented, production-learning-research
combined” became the basic principle and wide-
ly recognized pathway of higher vocational edu-
cation development. Production-learning-research
combination was the hottest topic of the discussion
and research during this period. The book Only
Pathway: Guideline of Production-Learning-Re-
search Combination for ↑ Higher Vocational Ed-
ucation remarkably reflects the fruitful results of
this research (HEDME/CSHE 2004).
One-third of all higher vocational education re-
search during this period was about the issue of
production-learning-research combination and co-
operation. These studies were undertaken from the
different perspectives of comparative, historical,
empirical and economic. In a word, the theoreti-
cal research and practical approach had been ade-
quately carried out using the talent training model
of higher vocational education from different per-
spectives. Yao Huang concluded that it was a spe-
cial feature of vocational education to implement
the production-teaching combination, which was
344
also the successful experience of vocational educa-
tion development in China and the basic model and
development trend of vocational education in the
international community (HUANG, Y. 2004). This
was also true to the production-learning-research
combination as the widely recognized talent train-
ing model for higher vocational education.
Another focal point for higher vocational educa-
tion research during the period was the issue of the
↑ school system. Several Requirements for Further
Enforcing Vocational Education jointly issued by
seven ministries of the central government point-
ed out that the two-year system should become the
basic system for higher vocational education and
this should earnestly be implemented within two
or three years. This government demand imme-
diately started a national debate. Some scholars
thought that it could help higher vocational edu-
cation in China to form its specific feature if its
schooling was to be reduced from three years to
two years, which could change its talent training
model and improve its curriculum system. They
argued that the introduction of a two-year system
could break through our traditional system so as to
form a new system of curriculum and create a bet-
ter training model for higher vocational education,
leading to success in training of the applied tal-
ents. But other scholars were worried that chang-
ing from three years to two years might have a
negative effect on higher vocational education. It
might lower the social status of higher vocational
education, increase the pressure on employment,
make it difficult to meet the training target, de-
mand more improvement of teachers’ quality, and
raise the running costs for higher vocational col-
leges. The more popular view was that the length
of higher vocational education should be decided
by the actual time required to meet the training
target for respective majors and it should be varied
rather than unified.
Another controversial issue concerning the
↑ school system was whether we should have a kind
of higher vocational education at four-year under-
graduate level. Many scholars argued that current-
ly our highest level for higher vocational educa-
tion in ↑ China was still confined to associate de-
gree level and was not right according to interna-
tional practice. It was of historical significance to
Handbook of TVET Research
introduce a kind of higher vocational education up
to Bachelor degree level in China. Some suggest-
ed that this could be achieved by upgrading a few
existing colleges of higher vocational education in
a better condition with good quality while others
thought we should newly establish some four- year
colleges of higher vocational education at under-
graduate level which later could be developed up to
postgraduate education. Some scholars pointed out
that the process of such upgrading should be strict-
ly controlled so as to ensure the quality of those
newly established colleges of technology. In order
to avoid losing control over this upgrading proc-
ess, some scholars suggested that it should be es-
sential to establish the proper standards for quali-
fying to be a four-year college of technology and
the standards should be different from those for a
traditional academic university, and thus the devel-
opment for such standards should be taken serious-
ly in the research into higher vocational education
(SHI / XU 2003).
There was another discussion about the talent
training target of higher vocational education. Be-
fore 2004, an agreement had already been reached
about what kind of talents higher vocational edu-
cation should train, namely technology application
talents. This agreement was broken after the Nan-
jing Conference in July of 2004 when the talent
training target of higher vocational education was
re-defined as high-skilled talents. The redefinition
certainly conformed with “employment-oriented
vocational education” recommended by the MoE.
Some thought that skilled talents usually involved
practical routine work whose qualification was rel-
atively lower than the technology application tal-
ents and that they could well be trained by second-
ary vocational education. But others argued that
mainly high-skilled workers were required by so-
ciety and that secondary vocational education was
hardly qualified to accomplish such training tasks
due to its current students’ quality and training fa-
cilities, and therefore ↑ higher vocational education
should undertake this responsibility. The training
target of higher vocational education should also
include high-skilled workers, which should be its
main task for the present. Jintu Yang and Guang-
ping Meng organized a few field studies in enter-
prises of different sectors or industries, based upon
Areas of VET Research
which they redefined the training target for high-
er vocational education. They thought that higher
vocational education should not restrict its training
target to “technology application talents”; instead
the main function of higher vocational education
should be to provide higher technological educa-
tion and therefore it should mainly train techni-
cians and technologists. They also argued that (a)
not all the higher education at associate degree lev-
el was higher vocational education in nature, (b)
for a certain period of time in China, higher voca-
tional education would mainly remain at the asso-
ciate degree level, (c) higher vocational education
should not restrict itself to this level (YANG / MENG /
YAN / HUANG 1999). This view, moreover, has been
commonly accepted.
Comparative research into higher vocational edu-
cation during this period was also developed. For
example, the book Contemporary Higher Voca-
tional Education: from an International Perspec-
tive, covered its historic development, current pro-
vision, specific features and management system
(JIANG, H. 2002). International ↑ Comparative
Study of Higher Vocational Education pointed
out that the upgrading of higher vocational educa-
tion institutions would make the vocational system
more perfect; higher vocational education would
become an important part of lifelong education;
and the relationship between higher vocational ed-
ucation and social/economic development would
be closer (HUANG 2003). Ying Kuang’s Compar-
ative Study on the Development and Change of
Higher Vocational Education conducted a rela-
tively complete research in area of higher voca-
tional education comparison (KUANG 2005).
3.3.8.1.3 Third Stage (2004– …) With Its
Focus upon Curriculum Construction
for the Future of Higher Vocational
Education
Since 2004, the focus of higher vocational educa-
tion research has changed to the curriculum and
instructional model. It has been commonly recog-
nized that curriculum is the key to all the issues in
higher vocational education and that only the cur-
riculum could finally clarify the issues about the
position, training model and major construction of
higher vocational education. The aim of higher vo-
345
cational education could be explained and should
be realized by its curriculum. The Appraisal for an
Excellent Curriculum initiated by the MoE and the
strong desire for specific features in higher voca-
tional education was the direct drive for this cur-
riculum reform. How to become free from the in-
fluence of the subject-based curriculum model in
traditional universities and put more emphasis on
the practical ability training for students, became
the focus of this curriculum study during the pe-
riod. Many papers entitled “study of the ↑ practi-
cal training system in higher vocational education”
could be included in this approach.
As the direct drive for this curriculum reform was
to acquire specific features for higher vocational
education in ↑ China, scholars in its favor tried to
establish a kind of higher vocational college cur-
riculum with a Chinese flavor. Many colleges of
higher vocational education started their practical
approach to the project-based curriculum. Guo-
qing Xu pointed out that the project-based curric-
ulum should be set and organized by task items
based on a systematic analysis of the working sys-
tem; and therefore it was relatively comprehensive,
complete, independent and different from the cur-
riculum module based on skill units, and it should
become the chosen direction of curriculum re-
form for higher vocational education (XU 2005)
(→ 3.6.4).
Another important project in this period is Guid-
ance for Major-Setting and ↑ Curriculum Develop-
ment in ↑ Higher Vocational Education. The au-
thors tried to develop a new curriculum model and
a new way of ↑ curriculum design for higher voca-
tional education, based on the existing model prof-
iting from successful experience abroad, especial-
ly ↑ Australia. They pointed out that the curricu-
lum design for higher vocational education should
meet the needs of industry and should be employ-
ment-oriented and vocational competency-based;
and this kind of curriculum could be called VOC-
SCUM for short (GAO / BAO 2004).
3.3.8.1.4 The Features and Prospects of Higher
Vocational Education Research
The research into higher vocational education in
China is relatively fruitful though its history is rel-
atively short. In addition to the research mentioned
346
above, there is also some research covering oth-
er areas of higher vocational education, for exam-
ple, the teaching staff development, practical train-
ing base construction and so on. The features of all
this research could be generalized as follows.
Research Closely Linked to the Development of
Higher Vocational Education in China
Research into higher vocational education has
been divided into three fundamental stages in this
chapter. The three stages are also the three criti-
cal periods of higher vocational education devel-
opment in China and the focal research issues for
each stage are also the major concerns of higher
vocational education development of the period so
that the research is almost consistent with every
step of its development. Many issues in practice,
such as the position of higher vocational education,
the change of its ↑ school system and its curriculum
reform, could immediately attract the attention and
cause hot discussion in the academic world, which
is the healthy side of higher vocational education
research in China.
The Research is not so Balanced, with a More
Practical Approach, and Less Theoretical
Study
Most of the research on higher vocational educa-
tion is empirical and practical in the form of con-
clusions from experience or working reports. The
theoretical standards need to be improved, espe-
cially for the construction of a theoretical system
for higher vocational education. Many research-
ers are more interested in the vocational nature of
higher vocational education rather than its nature
as higher education, which could be explained by
the relatively short history of higher vocational ed-
ucation research.
A Relatively Independent Research Team of
Higher Vocational Education Has Already
Come into Being
It is quite important to have an independent re-
search team of higher vocational education. Fortu-
nately this independent team is taking shape along
with the scholars from other areas of research who
Handbook of TVET Research
also care about the development of higher voca-
tional education. For example, most of the voca-
tional colleges have established “Research Insti-
tutes of Higher Vocational Education” or “Re-
search Institutes of Higher Education” and many
universities have established “higher vocational
education research courses” in their Doctor’s or
Master’s Degree programmes, in which a special-
ized group of researchers on higher vocational ed-
ucation have been trained. In general, this research
team of higher vocational education is still rela-
tively weak compared with other areas of research
in education and this professional team needs to be
further strengthened in future (→ 1.2).
In conclusion, higher vocational education has al-
ready become an important part of higher educa-
tion as well as the important direction of vocation-
al education development in ↑China. The practice
of higher vocational education development de-
mands strengthening its theoretical research and
practical approach. The future of higher vocation-
al education research in China needs better devel-
opment of its research team and academic institu-
tions and to further upgrade its standard of theoret-
ical studies while still sticking to its good tradition
of linking theory with practice.
3.3.8.2 Research on Vocational
Colleges and Schools
Günter Pätzold
3.3.8.2.1 Definition of Term
As a school of Secondary Level II the vocational
college is a part of the overall educational system
in Germany. It continues the training of Second-
ary Level I, imparting the necessary professional
basic and specialized training for recognized ↑ vo-
cations, and is, as well, related to an extended gen-
eral education within the scope of the ↑ Dual Sys-
tem of training (compare K ELL / LIPSMEIER 1976;
LEPPER 1983). The ↑ vocational school has a signif-
icant share in teaching the competence to act ca-
pable. The conference of the Ministers of Culture
(Kultusministerkonferenz, KMK) sees the voca-
Areas of VET Research
tional college as an “independent place to learn”
by which is meant to
“enable qualified people to accomplish professional
tasks and to cooperate in shaping the business world and
society with social and ecological responsibility” (KMK
1999).
In order to reach this goal, the vocational college
is asked to “adjust the lessons to specific pedago-
gy task that emphasizes orientation towards ac-
tion” (KMK 1999, 9) Beyond that, the vocational
college should also deal with core problems of our
time in the context of general as well as specific
vocational lessons.
The vocational college is, numerically seen, the
most significant form of ↑ professional training
schools. While realizing its educational responsi-
bility, it stays mostly programmatic and takes, with-
in the law, an inferior position to internal training
within companies (compare EULER 1998, 31 ff.).
The courses of education are subdivided into dif-
ferent school types: technical, economic and ad-
ministrative, ↑ nutrition and housekeeping, pub-
lic health and social affairs as well as agricultur-
al economics.
Vocational colleges in North Rhine-Westphalia
include the basic training school year which re-
quire courses for students without company con-
tracts (compare PÄTZOLD 2001). In this basic train-
ing year students receive a basic education related
to their vocational field as well as a general prepa-
ration for work. The basic training year fulfils no
more requirements of the reformed vocational ed-
ucation system than those recommended by the
German Education Council (Deutscher Bildung-
srat) in the year 1970 (compare GREINERT 1984).
Quite often, basic training courses turn into wait-
ing loops. Forms of ↑ vocational schools do not on-
ly include vocational colleges. Occupational train-
ing schools as well as specialized ↑ high schools
and other types of spezialized schools are also
consistent parts of the vocational ↑ school system.
The vocational college act of 8. January 1998 in
North Rhine-Westphalia united the professional
schools and college schools into vocational colleg-
es. They had to combine professional training, or-
ganization and curriculum with the possibility of
achieving general organizational school diplomas
(compare LANDESINSTITUT FÜR SCHULE UND WEITER-
BILDUNG 1997; VERORDNUNG 1999).Vocational high
347
schools, technical high schools, specialized high
schools and specialized academies can be found in
different states of Germany. Professional schools
are naturally related to the general school system,
the system of ↑ social work for youth, the ↑ further
education system and the system of internal edu-
cation. But they still form their own unity. Partic-
ularly the vocational schools depend on the condi-
tions under which companies do their training. Be-
cause of the corporatist regulation of ↑ professions,
the civil law of the freedom of agreement and
company finances companies decide who will be
trained and in what branch of profession the train-
ing will take place. Education of specialized class-
es is connected to the internal training signposts of
its region. ↑ Compulsory schools are bound to open
classes for all students who have reached the age
of 18. That means that special offers are organized
for those who do not have an internal training con-
tract with a company.
Dynamic changes in quality requirements of the
occupational system led to new challenges for vo-
cational schools. They need to react flexibly in
terms of school organization and ↑ vocational ped-
agogy, which, as experience shows, do not yet have
a tension-free relationship. The curriculum which
determines the fields of vocational education for
these vocational schools and colleges is enacted by
the KMK and is adjusted and corrected national-
ly with corresponding local training programmes
while others transform them into their own cur-
ricula. This leads to the result of different state-
specific preconditions. The states are responsible
to develop and issue the curriculum of other are-
as (Catholic and Protestant religious studies, eth-
ics, German, communication, sports, health, pol-
itics, business management) for non-commercial
↑ vocations (compare KUTSCHA 1982). One can talk
about vocational school research if the school is
being examined as an institution with regard to its
history, its different conditions, functions, expec-
tations, influences, problems and results. You do
not only have to empirically examine the observ-
able and graspable behaviour of teachers, the crea-
tion of teaching situations, the interaction between
pupil and teacher in order to empirically substanti-
ate its organizational, structural and curricular is-
sues, but you also have to include expectations of
348
different groups at the macro, meso and micro lev-
el as well as present and future challenges for the
dual educational training system (duales System
der beruflichen Bildung). It has to be considered
that nationwide guidelines for professional schools
have meanwhile led to a significantly distinctive
characteristic for the general educational school
system (compare HARNEY/ RAHN 2000).
It is important for TVET research to under-
stand that there are different types of profession-
al schools representing certain specific fields for
research and formulation, for example: the inte-
gration of professional and general education, the
school “substitute ability” of the dual training sys-
tem, the de-specialization of professional training,
the networking between school and company sup-
porters as well as the coupling of school careers
with the ↑ further education sector. Teachers at vo-
cational schools are trained for and appointed to
all school types.
TVET research can’t be seen as separate from the
general educational system. Its subject-producing
activity has to include facts of professional organ-
ized work as well as internal training situations. A
limitation to simple teaching research would be in-
adequate. Until the middle of the 1960s there was
only a rudimental developed theoretical and em-
pirical research in the Federal Republic of Ger-
many. There were just sporadic initiatives from
groups of federations, unions, teacher organisa-
tions and other actors from inside the ↑ vocational
school (compare BERKE / BLATT/ FOCKS ET AL. 1985).
Most of them developed out of specific points of
view and thus were less systematic, less coopera-
tive and rarely oriented to standards of empirical
↑ educational research (compare DFG 1990, 10 f.).
However, one cannot consider that TVET research
exists as an independent and accepted ↑ research
field. The pedagogy of business and education hes-
itated to deal with the realities of training (ibid.,
12). Research on vocational schools is insepara-
bly linked with the development of vocational and
business pedagogy, which first started to emerge
from the task of training teachers for vocation-
al schools on the 20th century (compare GEORG
1982; STRATMANN 1994; PÄTZOLD 2002). This in-
fluenced the interests of research. But one has to
consider that the institutes of ↑ vocational pedago-
Handbook of TVET Research
gy which had been established for teacher training
were not equipped to fulfil research tasks until the
end of the 1950s. This changed when the training
of teachers for vocational schools was transferred
to the University. In the 1970s the implementation
of basic vocational education, the equalization of
general and vocational education, the school of so-
called ↑ young workers and the development of a
full time training system were of great importance
(compare GRÜNER 1984; GREINERT 1984). Today
matters of interest are how to learn location co-
operation, how to optimize teaching and learning,
the orientation of action and organizational con-
ditions as well as the process of developing voca-
tional schools into regional centres of competence.
This all got in the focus of the TVET research in-
terest. All aspects of research and creation focus
on the line in the educational training system con-
cerning the consistent points of intersection be-
tween schools, companies, other internal actors
and the ↑ labour market.
3.3.8.2.2 Research on Pre-Institutional
Development of the Vocational
Schools
So far there has not been any research which com-
pletely represented the history of the vocation-
al schools, even though the historical education-
al research has worked on a large number of relat-
ed facts. This cannot be fully laid out in this arti-
cle which rather seeks to contribute starting points
and lines of development. The vocational schools
emerged from the national education and trade
promoting institutions of the 19th century (com-
pare MEERMANN 1909; BLÄTTNER 1947 and 1965;
KÜHNE 1922; HORLEBEIN 1976; BLÄTTNER /K IEHN /
MONSHEIMER / THYSSEN 1960; LIPSMEIER 1966 and
1978; LISOP / GREINERT / STRATMANN 1990). The de-
velopment of vocational colleges and specialized
schools was an important precondition for the net-
working between part time vocational schools and
different forms of full time training programmes
which today is common in vocational school cen-
tres (compare SCHÜTTE 2003). The separation be-
tween higher and lower specialized schools based
on entrance regulations which was established be-
fore World War I was significant for the structur-
ing of vocational schools. As a prerequisite it led
Areas of VET Research
to the transformation of higher specialized schools
into specialized colleges, which resulted in a struc-
tural change of the college-system, as well as to the
establishment of a system of professional schools
out of separated vocational schools. It must have
been the “guild law” of Sachsen-Weimar of 1821
which for the first time verbalized a rule of release
according to which the master was asked to send
his apprentice to school – this can be taken as the
birth of the “↑ dual system” (compare STRATMANN /
SCHLÖSSER 1990, 25). This rule was tightened up
into law by the industrial code of 1869-71.
Industrialization with its growing theoretical ap-
proach of professional content in the relevant tech-
nologies increasingly forced this imparting of
knowledge at the newly developed location for
learning which was the school. Particularly tech-
nical drawing demonstrates this very clearly (com-
pare LIPSMEIER 1971 and 1978). Sunday schools
and the general further-education school of the
19th century, the forerunners of today’s vocation-
al schools, were mainly busy transferring, stabi-
lizing, applying and completing the subjects al-
ready taught in general ↑ compulsory schools. Be-
cause of that, subjects like German or calculation
were of major importance (compare KÜHNE 1922;
GRÜNER 1975; GREINERT 1975; MÜLLGES 1970 and
1979; PEISZKER 1949; ZIELINSKI 1963). The school
of ↑ further education was first of all meant to ful-
fil tasks of political integration. Its aim was not
strictly economical, at least not on referring main-
ly to professional qualification (compare GREINERT
1995b, 58).
Teaching at schools of further education was pri-
marily of general nature – only a small amount of
technical knowledge (mostly in technical drawing)
was imparted. Therefore, the general further-ed-
ucational school was relatively independent. Even
in the schools of further education in trade coop-
eration with companies was rare, although specif-
ic theoretical subjects gained more and more im-
portance. But this was often closely related to the
overall education of citizens. A linking relationship
between internal training and educational schools
was at best only one-sided since the further educa-
tional school tried to adapt itself to the interests of
craftsman training (compare LIPSMEIER 1971).
349
Only with the development of a training scheme
which was characteristic of industry and orient-
ed towards technological progress ↑ vocational
schools obtained a different functional determi-
nation (compare ABEL / GROOTHOFF 1959). In the
middle of the 19th century the industrial “Sunday
schools” differentiated themselves into schools for
“trade”, “business” or “rural training” which pre-
sented their organizational and curricular outline
(compare GREINERT 1975). The further-education-
al school was meant to integrate the petty bour-
geois and the proletarian (male) teenagers into the
middle class and its values and therefore, with the
help of an institutionalized form of socialization,
to fill the gap between underclass youth and bour-
geois society (compare GREINERT 1982). The fur-
ther-educational school itself can also be seen as a
result of and a reaction to the qualification move-
ment and its changes in handicrafts, in trade and
later on in industry. The ↑ classical vocational ed-
ucation theory (compare STRATMANN 1988) since
the 1920s gave the vocational school pedagogical
legitimation. Its didactic orientation towards the
↑ vocation formed the basis for an expanding ped-
agogical institution (compare PÄTZOLD 1989 and
1994), at first this happened without justifying per-
spectives and without “joining the proletarian’s in-
terest in emancipation” (compare GREINERT 1982,
122). In the middle of the 1920s, after the expand-
ing of the training which was characteristic for in-
dustry, qualification became the main function of
the vocational school. The constitution of the Wei-
mar Republic established the general ↑ compulsory
education, meant to be fulfilled by attending public
school for 8 years and after that by attending ↑ fur-
ther education school up to the age of 18, but in
reality this constitutional Act was not very effec-
tive. For the first time the requirement of attending
vocational school was established by the compul-
sory educational Act of the Reich in 1938. Com-
pared with internal training the vocational school
itself was degraded and enormously neglected dur-
ing the National Socialist period. Especially ↑ vo-
cational school teachers suffered from the fact that
their professional consolidation, which was devel-
oped in the 1920s, was interrupted (compare SEU-
BERT 1977; PÄTZOLD 1995a).
350
In the 1920s and 1930s the vocational school was
almost completely seen as an instance for qualifica-
tion and integration – first into a competent, skilled
worker and citizen (compare GEISSLER 1996) and
later, after 1933, into a skilled “German” labour-
er and a comrade of the people (“Volksgenosse”).
The vocational school got more and more into the
particular interests of the companies, later on in
combination with governmental decrees concern-
ing military business goals. General subjects were
pushed back. The Weimar Republic emphasized
the orientation towards vocational subjects (com-
pare GREINERT 1995b, 85). In the 1920s started a
cooperation debate on the subject of the construc-
tion of the curriculum. This debate was caused by
the organizational development of the “compulsory
vocational school” and its “de-politicization” and
“de-professionalization” (GREINERT 1995b, 80 ff.).
It reached its climax in a demand for synchroni-
zation of school and company in respect of time
and subjects.
During the period of National Socialism (compare
SUEDHOF 1934) the vocational school became near-
ly completely dependent on “business” (compare
WOLSING 1977; K IPP 1980; PÄTZOLD 1989). Its ed-
ucational tasks degenerated, as Otto Monsheimer
pointed out, into a “DIN (standardized) pedago-
gy of the Reich curriculum” (MONSHEIMER 1956,
73 ff.). According to this curriculum the impor-
tance of the technical classes of the leading voca-
tional school of commerce was reduced to a pure an-
notation of the internal training (compare GRÜNER
1984, 14 ff.). This traditional way of teaching had
already been foiled by the so called “Frankfurter
Method” (compare WISSING 1954; PUKAS 1988 and
1989) in the early 1930s which tried to reclaim al-
most full didactic independence for the teaching
within the ↑ vocational schools (compare PÄTZOLD
1994, 270 ff.). This was suppressed by the Nation-
al Socialists and gained in importance and influ-
ence only after 1945, when the order to educate in
vocational schools was once more extended and
the necessity of a pedagogical legitimation for the
vocational school became obvious.
By way of centralisation of administration and
management of all vocational schools in the Reich
Education Department in 1937 and their nation-
wide unification into “vocational and specialized
Handbook of TVET Research
schools” it became customary to speak of “vo-
cational educational schools” (compare LIPSMEI-
ER 1966). They were now recognised as the sec-
ond pillar of the general ↑ s chool system within the
public educational system and not only regarded
as a business-fostering facility, even though at that
time it was not possible to get an official certificate
or diploma. Only since the end of the 1970s the vo-
cational school is nationwide allowed to award a
belated “Hauptschule” diploma. Some states, such
as North Rhine-Westphalia and Baden-Wuerttem-
berg, even accepted the vocational school certif-
icate (with final examination on the training un-
dergone) under certain circumstances as a mid-
dle school graduation. After a series of changes of
ministerial responsibilities following the Second
World War the vocational schools fell under the re-
sponsibility of the Ministry for Culture, Education
and Church Affairs of each federal state.
3.3.8.2.3 Subjects of Curricular and “Actor-
Specific” Vocational School Research
Vocational school research, as a connection be-
tween empirical pedagogical research and norma-
tive, decisive pedagogical concepts, nearly did not
exist until the 1970s. Vocational school research
referred to basic types of pedagogic and didactic
behaviour of the leading actors and also sought to
define certain general organizational conditions
for them.
The results of that research were most of the time
only of hypothetical importance and aimed most-
ly at manners in school or during lessons as well as
on didactical solutions for teaching problems. Crit-
icism of the focus of the dual training system in re-
gard of method and content since 1970 has led to a
number of single ↑ pilot projects with the emphasis
on organizational and subject-didactical aspects
of vocational schools (compare PÄTZOLD / BUSIAN /
WINGELS 2002), particularly in the following sub-
jects of ↑ vocational science: ↑ key qualifications,
task-based approach, development and testing of
arrangements meant to support competent voca-
tional acting, professional environmental educa-
tion, cross-disciplinary teaching, new ↑ informa-
tion technology in business and administration,
multimedia learning, ↑ quality management and
self-organization. So far, results of this research,
Areas of VET Research
exploring mostly practical arrangements of some
vocational schools, even though they have an “in-
dependent education task” could not shape their
own didactics and curriculum. In the 1970s, TVET
research was connected with efforts of reforming
vocational education, initiating a social-scientific
view. The orientation towards socialisation by the
means of schools brought about an interest in the
experiences of pupils in the institutions of profes-
sional education.
It became evident that pupils experienced the sig-
nificance of the vocational school differently. Even
at that time, pupils who participated in internal
trainings and those who had a better educational
background appreciated the vocational schools less
than those who got trainings with different charac-
teristics and recruiting patterns (compare CRUSIUS
1973, 211; K RUMM 1978; MÜLLER 1980). In more
recent examinations, for example those of the DFG
(German Research Group) which focused on the
process of teaching and learning in the commercial
“first training” in revealing structures and legali-
ties of ↑ teaching and learning processes (compare
BECK 2000a; BECK /K RUMM 2001), it became evi-
dent that the vocational school was regarded to be
of value for that part of the final exam which lies in
the responsibility of the companies. But concern-
ing the motivation to learn and the pupil’s inter-
est in the teaching concepts, the company training
got a much better result than the vocational school
(compare WILD /K RAPP 1996). The support of au-
tonomy and competence is also better experienced
within the internal training (compare PRENZEL /
DRECHSEL /K RAMER 1998). The empirical analy-
sis of the North Rhine-Westphalian ↑ pilot project
“Nine hour long Day in ↑ Vocational School” con-
firmed that students appreciate school and compa-
ny differently. It is also confirmed that there are
different degrees of appreciation towards the dif-
ferent vocational school subjects. The ones relat-
ed to the ↑ vocation itself, mainly because of their
significance for the final exam, have a much high-
er acceptance. There are certain reservations to-
wards other subjects of the cross-disciplinary sub-
jects, doubling their relevance (compare TWARDY/
BEUTNER / BUSCHFELD ET AL. 2001). Also the para-
digm “Dependency or Autonomy” respectively the
relationship between internal training and school
351
training determines the development of the learn-
ing location known as the “vocational school” even
today (compare LIPSMEIER 2000).
The subject of “cooperation of teaching institu-
tions” (Lernortkooperation) (compare PÄTZOLD /
WALDEN 1999) combined with the subject of the
orientation on fields of study and a task-based ap-
proach become evident in examining all the varie-
ties on the level of curriculum: synchronised cur-
riculum, adjusted/coordinated curriculum, autono-
mous curriculum (compare NICKOLAUS 1998, 296).
Results of research on vocational schools demon-
strate that although cooperation activities on a po-
litical and administrative level work well together,
at the didactic level they are more sporadic. The
level of collaboration between trainers and ↑ voca-
tional school teachers is in general dissatisfacto-
ry (compare ZEDLER 1995; PÄTZOLD /DREES / THIELE
1998). Even if there is cooperation, it is not always
sufficient to fulfil vocational-pedagogical expec-
tations. In addition, cooperation is not really use-
ful in all situations; it can even be a sign of a suc-
cessful routinisation of the division of labour not
to cooperate. Considering a widespread rejection
of cooperation and inward-orientation at the inter-
nal training personnel in schools and companies as
well as a self-obsessed dynamic of the institutions
of teaching themselves, it is not surprising that are-
as of professional cooperation in the didactical and
methodical field of training are rare. Middle-sized
and small companies which conduct training see
the time they have to spend on cooperation activi-
ties as a kind of burden anyway. For big companies
with a highly structured training system the situ-
ation is different: they more often tend to cooper-
ate with vocational schools in didactic-curricular
and didactic-methodical dimensions than smaller
firms, at least as long as the quality of the vocation-
al-relates lessons meets their standards.
Cooperation of teaching institutions is closely re-
lated to the orientation on fields of study (compare
LIPSMEIER / PÄTZOLD /BUSION 2000). The orientation
on subjects which so far had been predominant
within the system of vocational schools has been
relativised. The starting point of vocational teach-
ing and learning is the orientation on the processes
of vocational activities and on situations in various
social areas. In 1996 the Conference of the Min-
352
isters of Cultural Affairs (1999) agreed that from
that day on the concept of orientation on fields of
study formed the basis for occupation-related in-
struction in vocational schools. Only after the in-
troduction of this concept it has become a topic
for TVET research. Fields of study for vocational
training are thematically oriented towards a formu-
lation of goals, contents and time frames, which al-
together create a unified structure for task and pro-
cedure settings. In fact, to realize the mandate of
education the vocational school is free to construct
tasks from a theoretical point of view, but the ques-
tion is how internal work and business processes
can be linked to the vocational school’s mandate
of comprehensive education: “… if the empirical
basis of the context of internal work and learning
processes has enough validity and can therefore be
the inducement and justification for the alignment
of ↑ teaching and learning processes in schools”
(DÖRIG 2003, 292). In addition, one can doubt if
the changes in the process-orientated task fields re-
flect the condition of each ↑ related science (ibid.,
345). Therefore, one has to agree that today’s voca-
tional schools in fact do have a contemporary edu-
cational programmatic, but that they are lacking an
all-embracing implementation of demanding di-
dactic goals, methods and organization forms for
instruction (compare EULER 1998, 137). A mod-
ernization of the work of vocational schools has
therefore to follow the implementation and evalua-
tion of this educational programmatic.
The orientation on fields of study correlates with
the expectation of an increasing acceptance of
↑ vocational schools on the part of companies that
conduct training. At the same time this orientation
allows vocational schools to become a micro-uni-
ty of the curriculum compilation. However, it can
still be doubted if the main curricular principles
of vocational training, that is the orientation on
science, personality and situation, can be harmo-
nized by this process. Problems which occur dur-
ing the process of realisation originate in the ri-
valry between the concept of fields of study and
the system of traditional subjects and accredited
school certificates as well as in the significance of
vocational knowledge necessary for the final ex-
ams which are operated by the responsible depart-
ments. Furthermore, the supporting or correspond-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing concept of task-based approach is so far not
of great importance in vocational-related lessons
in vocational schools. Predominant is still a top-
down style of teaching. Task-based teaching most-
ly takes place just out of specific characteristics of
knowledge within certain ↑ professions, e. g. in ↑ IT
projects or commercial process simulations (com-
pare NICKOLAUS 2000; MÜLLER 1998; PÄTZOLD /
K LUSMEYER / WINGELS 2003). Furthermore one can-
not assume that a ↑ didactical concept which com-
bines systematic structures of subjects and task-
based structures has already been elaborated or
implemented (compare LIPSMEIER 2000). This per-
mits research which analyses the deficits in the
curriculum situation from the perspective of the
historical development of the vocational school,
with the aim of drawing consequences for inter-
nal and external organisations (compare REINISCH
1995; PUKAS 1990; 1991; 1996; EICHLER /KÜHNLEIN
1997; FISCHER / UHLIG-SCHOENIAN 1995; HEIDEGGER /
ADOLPH / LASKE 1997; RÜDEN 2000; PAHL 2001b;
ZÖLLER / GERDS 2003; PÄTZOLD 2003b). Since 1998
the federal government and the governments of the
Länder have supported the “BLK” (Bund-Länder-
Kommission – Federal and State Commission for
↑ Educational Planning and Research Promotion)
↑ pilot projects which refer to the central prob-
lems and development areas, also in the vocational
↑ school system. These programmes are supposed
to contribute to an increase in and an assurance
of quality in development and evaluation. They
combine major themes of focus and innovative ap-
proaches of the participating federal Länder and
by that means offer a solid base of operations for
the transfer and dissemination of the results.
Meanwhile the “BLK” ↑ pilot projects “New Con-
cepts for Learning in Dual Occupational Training”
(compare DEITMER / FISCHER / GERDS ET AL. 2004),
“Cooperation of Learning Institutions within Vo-
cational Training” (KOLIBRI) (compare EULER
2003d and 2004a) and “Innovative Further Edu-
cation of Teachers in Vocational Schools” (INNO-
VELLE-BS) (compare SCHULZ /K REUTER /K RÖNING /
STAUDTE 2003; EBNER / PÄTZOLD 2003) – have con-
tributed to the modernization of the vocational
schools. ↑ Research fields of the BLK moderniza-
tion program “New Concepts for Learning in Dual
and Occupational Training” were among others: the
Areas of VET Research
further development of learning concepts, contents
and materials as well as making the organization
of construction more flexible to optimize the ↑ ef-
fectiveness of occupational learning. Furthermore
it contains the development of curricula which are
working-process-oriented, the improvement of co-
ordination between educational concepts of learn-
ing and test methods as well as the evaluation of
the ↑ effectiveness and quality of learning concepts
and teaching methods. Research fields and goal-
oriented questioning within the program sponsor-
ship KOLIBRI have been among others the devel-
opment of cooperative concepts for getting more
precise curricula, taking place on location which
means in schools, as well as the development of in-
struments for the judgement of methods and social
competence which accompany the training proc-
ess. There were also research fields of the devel-
opment of regulatory element-compatible concepts
for modules in connection with vocational ↑ fur-
ther education and the development of comprehen-
sive and far-reaching supporting approaches which
are related to different learning institutions in or-
der to assure the training success of special learn-
ing groups. The aim of the BLK programme IN-
NOVELLE-BS is the improvement of the qualifi-
cation of ↑ vocational school teachers in the second
and third phase of their professional training. Par-
ticularly those innovations which have been proven
in these ↑ vocational school ↑ pilot projects should
be transferred into the process of further education
of teachers as well as into the traineeship before
the second teacher’s exam. By this means theses
innovations should become more widespread and
better implemented.
Nowadays the vocational school is in a dif-
ferent situation than in the 1970s (compare
GRÜNER 1984, 97). Indeed, the “independent train-
ing contract” of the vocational school continues to
be postulated, but there are different critical re-
marks which are connected with differentiated
and in part empirically-founded requirements. Vo-
cational schools face, for example, the problem of
growing heterogeneity of the pupils with regards
to origins and training interests. In addition, the
average age of the students has risen so the stu-
dents are in the average now older than 19 years.
This shows
353
“a picture of a relatively non-homogenous adult-train-
ing institution, whose obligatory character and teaching-
program badly need revision” (GREINERT 1998, 130).
Well-meaning critics aim with their requirements
at “overcoming the deficiency in resource config-
uration, respectively neglect from political actors”
(EULER 1998, 134). Other requirements, like for
example the abolishment of the second day in vo-
cational school, the dispensability of cross-profes-
sional subjects, the process of making vocational
school teaching more consolidated or more flexi-
ble, determine in a considerable way the develop-
ment of the vocational school and aim at a change
of scope, organization and contents of vocational
school education. Vocational school education is,
against the background of a precarious situation
regarding ↑ training places, not infrequently con-
nected with a labelling of the vocational school as
a “barrier to training”. Indeed a linear causality of
a connection between changes in the organization
of teaching in vocational schools and an increase
in offers for training places can not be proved em-
pirically (ibid., 136).
Originally the vocational schools had claimed on-
ly those functions which had for al fairly long time
been regarded by the companies as being urgent
and which are also rarely questioned: the substan-
tiation, explanation, consolidation, broadening as
well as the systematization of the in-company goal-
oriented action aimed at the process of the produc-
tion of goods and services. Furthermore, as a re-
sult of the change in the organization of vocational
work training through the ↑ vocation has increas-
ingly become training for the vocation, so the con-
tents of training in companies and in schools do
more and more overlap. In this respect there is talk
of an “increasing erosion of the traditional man-
date of education of the vocational school” (GREI-
NERT 1998, 130). On the other hand a general har-
mony of goals between in-company and school-
based training is negated, so it is
“necessary to balance out business requirements, in-
dividual training expectations and social neces-
sities in the context of the resource problematic”
(NICKOLAUS 1998, 304).
The adaptation of findings which arise from the
process of development of vocational school cen-
tres could open up new vistas for the internal or-
ganization of vocational schools, for example how
354
to consider the individual problems of those in-
volved. By this means self-guided processes of
personal and organizational development could be
gained (compare LISOP 1998; PAHL 2001b). This
applies also to the newly emphasized urgency of
school programmes, ↑ quality assurance and eval-
uation in connection with “New Public Manage-
ment”. The decision which standards and which
way of realization of educational action a trainer
uses to back his or her quality valuation lies un-
der his or her responsibility and proves to be inac-
cessible and unpredictable with regard to central
guidelines (compare HEID 2000, 44). Regarding
the external organization there are considerations
to evolve vocational schools into “modern service
centres” (compare KUTSCHA 1999) or “centres of
regional competence” (compare R AUNER 1999b;
AVENARIUS 2001; DOBISCHAT / ERLEWEIN 2003; KURZ
2002) which should also realize the advance-
ment of innovation and the transfer of knowledge
(compare GERDS 1992a; ALLMANNSBERGER-K LAUKE
1996; Eckert/ ROST/ BÖTTCHER ET AL. 2000).
“As attractive and correct as such perspectives are, con-
sidering the current situation in the vocational schools
they remain abstract and do rather raise more questions
than offer medium-term realistic solutions. How should
a school that today, due to personnel material resource
reductions, already cannot accomplish its function, be
able to accomplish the even more and bigger tasks which
are inherent to a regional centre of competence and in-
novation? What can be realized is a new functional def-
inition of the vocational schools within the restructur-
ing of the entire educational system above the Second-
ary Level I” (BAETHGE 2003, 563).
What is now both desired and necessary is a sys-
tematic and empirical TVET research which aims
at finding and clarifying problems of compatibil-
ity between ↑ vocational school programmes and
everyday practice of vocational training (compare
DOBISCHAT / DÜSSELDORFF / EULER ET AL. 2003).
Handbook of TVET Research
3.3.8.3 Vocational College Research:
Case Studies of the USA
Stephanie Riegg Cellini
3.3.8.3.1 Introduction
In the ↑ United States, students pursuing vocation-
al college education face a choice between the pub-
lic and private sector. Public institutions, known as
community or junior colleges, by definition offer
a two-year associate’s degree as their highest de-
gree, but they also offer an array of short-term vo-
cational certificate programmes. Since 1901, these
colleges have played a central role in the education
and training of American workers and, because of
a wealth of government data on these institutions,
research on ↑ community colleges has been plen-
tiful. In contrast, very little is known about pri-
vate vocational colleges. These institutions, gen-
erally referred to as ↑ proprietary schools, techni-
cal institutes, or for-profit colleges, also provide a
range of postsecondary vocational and technical
programmes for U.S. students; but until recently,
high-quality data on these institutions was lack-
ing.
This chapter reviews the literature on both types
of institutions and highlights the central issues and
questions that remain unresolved. In section 2, I
review research on ↑ community colleges, high-
lighting the main lines of inquiry in recent years:
schools and students, ↑ labour market effects, and
↑ educational attainment. In section 3, I turn to
proprietary schools, comparing them to commu-
nity colleges. Again I review what we know about
schools and students, and I then address issues of
convergence and competition between the private
and public sectors. Next I turn to issues of finan-
cial aid and fraud in the private sector, and finally
school quality. Section 4 concludes.
3.3.8.3.2 Community Colleges
There are over 1,100 public community colleges in
the ↑ United States serving almost six million stu-
dents each year. With the exception of the District
of Columbia, every state has at least one commu-
nity college, with California and Texas support-
ing the most – at 110 and 67 community colleges,
Areas of VET Research
respectively (NCES 2003). The colleges are pri-
marily supported by the states, with state funding
sources comprising 40 per cent of total revenues
(MURPHY 2004).
Schools and Students
While each state’s community college system has
its own mission statement, virtually all communi-
ty colleges share two common goals. One goal is to
promote the transfer option, where students move
seamlessly into their junior year at a four-year col-
lege upon the completion of the first two years in a
community college. This is the traditional role that
community colleges were designed to fulfill when
the first so-called “junior college” opened its doors
in 1901 (BRINT/K ARABEL 1989). In the 1970s, how-
ever, community colleges sought to increase their
vocational offerings to compete with the grow-
ing proprietary school sector, establish a niche for
themselves outside of the four-year college market,
and promote economic growth through increased
worker productivity (BRINT/K ARABEL 1989; HONICK
1995). Today, a second, but equally important goal
of the colleges is to provide vocational training and
re-training for the state’s labour force, through an
array of short-term certificate programmes.
Community colleges attract a wide range of stu-
dents. Compared to students in four-year colleg-
es, community college students tend to be old-
er and are more likely to attend classes part-time
(64 per cent of community college students at-
tend part-time, compared to just 27 per cent in
four-year colleges). Moreover, a larger propor-
tion of community college students are minorities
– 35 per cent vs. 25 per cent in four-year colleges
(NCES 2003).
“Community college students are also more likely than
four-year college students to be the first in their fam-
ily to attend college and are much less likely to have
parents who graduated from four-year colleges (K ANE /
ROUSE 1999)”.
Since ↑ community colleges can be found in al-
most every city in the ↑ U.S., students often live at
home. Close proximity combined with the relative-
ly inexpensive tuition – typically one-half of tui-
tion at four-year colleges – makes community col-
lege education and training affordable for low-in-
come students.
355
Labour Market Effects
Building on a strong foundation of descriptive and
↑ historical research and following the literature
on four-year college education, economists study-
ing community colleges have focused primarily on
measuring the returns to community college edu-
cation. Kane and Rouse (1999) review the litera-
ture on this topic and find that each year of com-
munity colleges credit is associated with a 5 to
8 per cent increase in annual earnings. This figure
is remarkably similar to findings for a year of four-
year college credit – leading some analysts to con-
clude that “a credit is a credit” no matter where one
pursues their college education.
However, work by Grubb (1995) and Jacobson,
LaLonde, and Sullivan (2005), has suggested that
a credit may not be a credit when comparing vo-
cational and academic coursework in community
colleges. Both studies find higher earnings gains
for vocational programmes and courses. Grubb,
using data from the NLS72 and SIPP in the mid-
1980s, finds that vocational credits and degrees in
community colleges generate larger earnings gains
than academic programmes, though these results
vary a bit by data set, gender, completion of the
program, and field of study. More recently, Jacob-
son, LaLonde, and Sullivan found even stronger
evidence that vocational and technical coursework
generate higher returns than academic coursework.
Using a sample of displaced workers in Washing-
ton state and ↑ controlling for worker-specific unob-
served heterogeneity, they find that a year of cred-
its in quantitative and technical vocational cours-
es generate earnings gains of 14 per cent for men
and 29 per cent for women. In contrast, non-tech-
nical courses such as ↑ humanities and social sci-
ences showed earnings gains of just four per cent
and were not distinguishable from zero at conven-
tional levels. Though their sample is not represent-
ative of all community college students, it does in-
dicate that public community colleges are provid-
ing workplace-relevant skills that are valued by
employers. Despite their history as transfer insti-
tutions, and a bureaucratic structure that makes it
difficult to add programmes and courses to the cur-
riculum, this line of research suggests that public
community colleges are indeed successful when it
comes to vocational education.
356
Educational Attainment
The nature of the community college, with its dual
missions of transfer and training, has raised con-
cerns over the impact of these institutions on a stu-
dent’s lifetime ↑ educational attainment and there-
fore the overall education level of the population.
Brint and Karabel (1989) and Clark (1960) argue
that community college enrolment reduces a stu-
dent’s chances of completing a four-year degree,
even for those students who have the intention of
transferring. Interestingly, both authors blame this
problem on the fact that community colleges offer
so many vocational education and terminal degree
programmes. They suggest that students get side-
tracked (either actively by counsellors – according
to Clark – or perhaps on their own) into vocation-
al programmes and are diverted away from a four-
year degree. This begs the question as to wheth-
er community colleges are diverting students who
would otherwise pursue four-year college degrees,
or if they are (in the words of Brint and Karabel)
“democratising” education, by opening postsec-
ondary education and training to students who
would have otherwise ended their education after
↑ high school.
Rouse (1995; 1998) answers this question, show-
ing that high school graduates starting their col-
lege careers in community colleges experience no
change in the probability of attaining a bachelor’s
degree compared to students starting off in four-
year colleges. Still, if the argument put forward
by Brint and Karabel and Clark has some merit,
it may be possible for community colleges to ac-
tually increase the probability that students ob-
tain bachelor’s degrees in the future if they offer
fewer vocational and more academic programmes.
As it stands, however, in California, the state with
the strongest ↑ community college system, only
about four per cent of all community college stu-
dents in the state, or about 42,000 students, trans-
fer from community colleges to California’s public
four-year colleges each year (CPEC 2005). While
there are many possible explanations for this pat-
tern, it may indicate that students’ needs are better
met with non-transferable vocational programmes
and courses.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.3.8.3.3 Proprietary Schools
Private vocational colleges (hereafter referred to
as ↑ proprietary schools) in the ↑ U.S. vary great-
ly in their structure, size, course offerings, and tu-
ition – among other things. In fact, many proprie-
tary schools offer four-year and even graduate de-
grees, but for the purposes of this discussion – and
following recent literature – I focus on institutions
that offer two-year degrees and shorter-term voca-
tional certificates. In contrast to community col-
leges, there has been very little research on propri-
etary schools in the U.S. The main data set used
by researchers to study U.S. colleges, the Inte-
grated Postsecondary Education Survey (IPEDS)
does not collect systematic data on these institu-
tions, making even the simplest task of counting
the number of these institutions difficult at best.
Nonetheless, several descriptive studies based on
case studies and smaller data sets document some
of the unique characteristics of these schools and
their students, and in recent years, causal research
on these schools has begun with the introduction
of new sources of data. I review these lines of re-
search in the following sections.
Before turning to research on proprietary schools,
however, it is worth noting a bit about their history.
Honick (1995) details the development of private
vocational institutions in the U.S. Indeed, these
types of institutions were among the very first in-
stitutions of learning in the new world. Small pri-
vate ventures teaching navigation, business, build-
ing trades were popular in the Colonial Period
and were known to have existed as early as 1636
– the same year as the founding of Harvard Col-
lege (HONICK 1995). For the two centuries that fol-
lowed until the establishment of public community
colleges, for-profit ↑ vocational schools operated in
a market with no competition – with entrepreneurs
opening schools as demand for new skills evolved.
Even after the introduction of community colleges,
however, proprietary schools continued to grow,
with the G.I. Bill of 1944 proving a boon to the for-
profit sector. However, despite their popularity, al-
legations of fraud and abuse plagued these institu-
tions throughout their history. Today, these schools
capture the public’s attention more for their scan-
dals than for their education, a topic I return to in
the next sections.
Areas of VET Research
Schools and Students
With the lack of data on proprietary schools, gen-
erating an accurate estimate of the number of
schools and students nationwide is a daunting task.
Until recently, most studies of U.S. proprietary
schools relied on the IPEDS data (see for example,
APLING 1993 and BAILEY/ BADWAY/ GUMPORT 2001).
The IPEDS (and these studies) report approxi-
mately 2,500 private two-year institutions in the
year 2000, enrolling just 700,000 students (NCES
2003). However, more recent research shows that
the IPEDS data severely undercounts the number
of for-profit institutions and students. By focus-
ing on point-in-time fall enrolment counts and sur-
veying only well-established financial-aid eligible
institutions, the IPEDS neglects to account for a
large number of proprietary schools and students
(CELLINI 2005b).
Drawing on a new administrative data set of Cal-
ifornia’s two-year degree and certificate-granting
private colleges and reported in Cellini (2005b), I
find that there are over 3,800 proprietary schools
in California alone. With an average enrolment of
about 350 students per school, I estimate that 1.3
million students attend proprietary schools in Cal-
ifornia every year, suggesting that researchers and
the federal government are drastically underesti-
mating the number of students who receive train-
ing in these institutions.
Still, as I point out in that report, the IPEDS data is
the only current source of data on students in these
institutions. Though the institutions themselves
are not representative of the universe of ↑ propri-
etary schools, the IPEDS can shed some light on
patterns of student demographics, student serv-
ices, and school expenditures that are not availa-
ble elsewhere. Using the IPEDS for this purpose,
I find similar patterns to those reported by Apling
and Bailey, Badway, and Gumport. Noteably,
when compared to community colleges, proprie-
tary schools serve a slightly lower proportion of
part-time students and a larger share of black and
Hispanic students. Cheng and Levin (1995) also
examine patterns in student demographics. They
draw on data from the 1980 cohort of the ↑ High
School and Beyond survey, which follows high
school students six years after graduation. Though
they base their results on a very small group of stu-
dents who attended proprietary schools immedi-
357
ately after graduation, and do not perform signifi-
cance tests to validate their results, it is worth not-
ing that Cheng and Levin find patterns of attend-
ance similar to those reported by Apling (also for
the mid-1980s) on socioeconomic status and fam-
ily education: students in proprietary schools are
more likely to come from low-income and less-ed-
ucated families.
Convergence and Competition
As is evident in the discussion of schools and stu-
dents above, a dominant theme to come out of the
proprietary school literature is how these insti-
tutions compare to ↑ community colleges. Ques-
tions of whether these two types of institutions are
converging into one form, diverging, or compet-
ing with one another, have occupied researchers
in recent years. In 1995, a volume of New Direc-
tions for Community Colleges focused exclusively
on the question of whether proprietary schools and
community colleges were experiencing conflict or
convergence. Articles by Clowes (1995), Hittman
(1995), Prager (1995), Chaloux (1995), and Hyslop
and Parsons (1995) on various aspects of accred-
itation, missions, and policy support the idea of
convergence, while Moore (1995) and Hawthorne
(1995) argue that despite similarities on the sur-
face, significant dissimilarities between the sectors
do and should persist.
Bailey, Badway, and Gumport and Cellini address
the competition question in more detail. Both au-
thors find that course offerings and certificate and
degree programmes in community colleges and
proprietary schools exhibit considerable over-
lap, particularly in vocational fields. However, the
broader mission of community colleges encour-
ages more general education, while proprietary
schools emphasize more specific job skills. Still,
despite the overlap, Bailey, Badway, and Gumport
find that because of the small number of these pro-
prietary schools and students (again, based on mis-
leading IPEDS data), proprietary schools pose no
real threat to community colleges. Their in-depth
case study of a multiple-branch proprietary school
and local community colleges also indicated that
community college administrators generally did
not consider proprietary schools competitors. The
authors conclude that the existence and success of
358
proprietary schools is not likely to exert a signifi-
cant negative effect on community college enrol-
ments. In Cellini (2005a), however, I find some
evidence of competition. Using the California ad-
ministrative data set on proprietary schools and a
multivariate regression framework, I find that the
number of community colleges is negatively corre-
lated with the number of proprietary schools in a
county. Each additional community college is as-
sociated with approximately ten fewer proprietary
schools. Using fixed effects and regression discon-
tinuity methods to reduce endogeneity, I further
find that an exogenous shock to community college
funding causes a decrease in the number of pro-
prietary schools and a corresponding increase in
enrolment in community colleges, suggesting that
these two types of institutions may indeed be sub-
stitutes – at least for ↑ vocational students who can
find courses and degrees to fit their needs at both
types of institutions.
Financial Aid and Fraud
↑ Proprietary schools in the ↑ United States have
been plagued by scandal throughout their histo-
ry and today’s schools are no exception. Recent
headlines include, “For-Profit College: Costly Les-
son” (CBSnews.com Jan. 30., 2005), “A College is
Accused of Cheating in Aid Process” (NEW YORK
TIMES DEC. 6., 2005), and “New York Moves to
Limit Colleges that Seek Profit” (NEW YORK TIMES
JAN. 21., 2006), suggesting that financial aid fraud
and abuse is a central concern for the American
public.
Tuition at proprietary schools varies considerably,
but both Cellini and Bailey, Badway, and Gumport
estimate it to be between $5,000 and $10,000 per
year – making access to financial aid essential
for many proprietary school students. Indeed, the
news articles cited above generally report cases in
which students were encouraged to take out large
loans for their education, then the schools closed
or students remained unemployed long after grad-
uation.
Bailey, Badway, and Gumport confirm that pro-
prietary school students receive considerably larg-
er amounts of financial aid than community col-
lege students from both institutional sources and
other sources, such as the state and federal gov-
ernment. Breaking sources of aid down further, in
Handbook of TVET Research
Cellini (2005b) I find that federal Pell Grants ac-
counts for a large part of the difference in aid be-
tween proprietary school students and ↑ communi-
ty college students. It is likely that the structure
of the program provides incentives for proprietary
school entrepreneurs to recruit Pell Grant eligible
students. Since the formula accounts for the cost of
education, students attending proprietary schools
are not only more likely to receive grants than
their counterparts at low-cost community colleg-
es, but they also receive larger grants. Indeed the
Pell Grant may be a lifeline for many proprietary
schools. In Cellini (2005a) I find that when the Pell
Grant increases, proprietary schools enter the mar-
ket, and the pattern is particularly strong in low-in-
come areas. This finding supports the contention
of Moore (1995) that proprietary school entrepre-
neurs choose to open in low-income areas, then ac-
tively recruit Pell Grant-eligible students. Others
have suggested that these schools also raise their
tuition to extract the maximum value of the grant
(HONICK 1995), but I find no evidence of this be-
haviour (CELLINI 2005a).
Quality
The fact that proprietary schools react to the Pell
Grant might be desirable if it is the case that these
institutions provide high-quality training. If there
are positive economic returns from attendance,
then the recruitment of low-income students may
go far in increasing productivity and narrowing the
wage gap between traditional four-year college-ed-
ucated workers and those with less education. On
the other hand, some of the students cited in the
news articles above claim they received a poor-
quality education. Despite the importance of this
question of quality, to date very little research has
been done on the ↑ labour market returns to pro-
prietary school education. Angrist (1993) found
that veterans using G.I. Bill benefits for vocation-
al, technical, or on-the-job training, experienced
no earnings gains, while those identified as at-
tending college, did. The main problem with this
study, and others calculating returns to various ed-
ucational pathways, is the imprecise definition and
identification of community colleges and propri-
etary schools. For example, would a veteran who
completed a one-year vocational program in elec-
tronics at a community college be identified in the
Areas of VET Research
survey as attending college or receiving vocational
training? In most large-scale longitudinal surveys,
it is impossible to know.
A few other measures of school quality, however,
have been studied. Bailey, Badway, and Gumport
report that program completion rates are much
higher in proprietary schools than in community
colleges. Among two-year colleges in the IPEDS,
for-profits enrol only 3.8 per cent of students, but
they award 13 per cent of the total degrees and
certificates, albeit shorter-term certificate pro-
grammes rather than two-year degrees. The au-
thors’ case studies confirm that student retention
and completion are central concerns for proprie-
tary schools, but not very relevant for communi-
ty colleges. In Cellini (2005b) I present evidence
from California that suggests that both types of in-
stitutions have similar completion rates.
Despite the slight differences in vocational and ac-
ademic program offerings noted above, I find that
similar programmes in ↑ community colleges and
↑ proprietary schools require similar courses (CEL-
LINI 2005b). Bailey, Badway, and Gumport fur-
ther find that the specific pedagogy used in class-
rooms is similar at both institutions, but proprie-
tary schools tend to make greater use of labs and
practical applications. Finally, both studies find
that student services, such as counseling and ca-
reer services, are much more developed at propri-
etary schools. Students may be willing to pay the
higher tuition for more services and the personal
attention of a proprietary school.
3.4.0 VET Planning and Development
Jeroen Onstenk
3.4.0.1 New Challenges for VET Planning
and Development
↑ VET planning and development is an impor-
tant field of VET research. As a general observa-
tion it could be stated that relevant concepts, ap-
proaches and research issues since the1990’s have
been changing in response to changes in the ↑ VET
system itself (→ 2.5; → 3.3) as well as in societal
359
3.3.8.3.4 Discussion and Conclusions
Whether they are attending public community col-
leges or private proprietary schools, millions of
Americans pursue vocational college education
every year. With the availability of new data sets
on the private sector, researchers are starting to
unravel the mysteries of private sector vocational
college education and compare these institutions to
their counterparts in the public sector.
While students can find similar vocational certifi-
cate and degree programmes in both the private and
public sector, substantial differences exist between
community colleges and proprietary schools. Stu-
dents at proprietary schools are charged higher tu-
ition fees, and, for better or worse, they garner a
larger amount of financial aid. Proprietary schools
tend to be much smaller in size, enrol a larger pro-
portion of minority students, and put more em-
phasis on program completion and student servic-
es. Despite the gains in our understanding over the
past few years, however, important questions re-
garding vocational college education remain unan-
swered. Most importantly, what is the quality of a
proprietary school education? Do students attend-
ing community colleges and proprietary schools
see similar earnings gains for the same course of
study? We must also settle questions about whether
these schools compete for students, how the incen-
tives created by financial aid programmes impact
the behaviour of school and students, and whether
the industry requires more or less regulation. The
answers to these questions will have enormous im-
plications for the future of vocational college edu-
cation in the ↑ United States.
and ↑ labour market demands made to it (→ 2.4;
→ 3.1.5; → 3.6). This change could be summa-
rised as a multi level transformation process of
man power demand driven, reactive and reproduc-
tion oriented VET planning and ↑ curriculum de-
sign towards more open, dynamic, shaping and ca-
reer oriented approaches of organisational as well
as professional development in flexible VET sys-
tems (NIJHOF / HEIKKINEN / NIEUWENHUIS 2002; ON-
360
STENK 2005). This transformation is prompted by
changes in technology and organisation of work,
resulting in growing demands on both work con-
tent related competences and ↑ work process
knowledge (general competences, ↑ key qualifica-
tions, core skills) (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER
2002) (→ 3.6) as well as by changes in the econom-
ic structure, i.e. the rise of employment in servic-
es compared to industry. But there are also impor-
tant changes in the development of the education-
al system itself, i.e. the rise of school based voca-
tional trajectories or the opening up of new path-
ways from vocational to higher education (BRUIJN
2006). VET is expected to prepare students for life
in the broadest sense; rather than preparing them
for the immediate demands of the labour market
at a given point. The aim for planning and devel-
opment becomes to anticipate how employment
will evolve and to give individuals a knowledge-
base that will enable them to benefit from ↑ mo-
bility (K IRSCH 2005). This takes the form, for ex-
ample, of designing frames of reference for VET
based on cutting-edge, innovative practice rather
than on the demands typically made by companies
(→ 3.1.4; → 3.8).
This transformation process is going on in most
developed countries, but gets specific character-
istics depending on the presence of an elaborated
specific VET system. In countries with no well es-
tablished system of vocational education, like the
Anglo-Saxon countries, in the strict sense there
is no ↑ VET planning at all (→ 3.3). Nevertheless,
questions with regard to the role of education in
(re)producing a qualified labour force or to the re-
lationship between professional and ↑ organisation-
al development are becoming ever more important
as a result of the rediscovery of ↑ human capital
and competences as an economic asset in the glo-
bal competitive economy.
Major research areas, represented in this section,
are connected to relevant problem areas in the
VET planning and development process:
– Analysis of labour market development and cur-
riculum content
– New insights in the development of competences
and expertise
– Integration of learning places
Handbook of TVET Research
– Professional development of VET Teachers and
Trainers
– VET and ↑ organisational development in com-
panies
3.4.0.2 Labour Market Development and
Curriculum Content
A first relevant theme, which deals with the most
important planning question for VET, is the analy-
sis of contents of VET taking into account labour
market developments as well as curriculum needs.
There is an elaborated tradition of analysis of ↑ oc-
cupational profiles and trends as a source for train-
ing curricula, curricular frameworks and the re-
lated syllabuses for in-company as well as school-
based vocational education and training. Profiles
are always based on some form of investigation of
qualification requirements. All countries with (e. g.
Germany) or without (e. g. ↑ USA or England) ad-
vanced TVET systems have developed schemes of
↑ qualification research. Qualification typifies the
‘labour market’ facet of the relationship between
training and employment. The term carries the no-
tion of ‘skills’ but also the connotation of some-
thing that has been ‘negotiated’. In this negotia-
tion one could be confronted with a lifetime per-
spective of a qualification and whether it prepares
an individual in the short term for a particular job
or also prepares the individual for future develop-
ments, including possible career development and/
or sideways moves into a new occupation (→ 2.1).
If the occupation at which a qualification is aimed
is defined too narrowly, or the curriculum is too
strongly vocational, the qualified worker will not
be able to progress within the education system.
Conversely, a vocational qualification used to gain
access to higher education can lose part of its vo-
cational content and, hence, of its value on the ↑ la-
bour market (MÉHAUT 1997).
Rauner (→ 3.4.1) gives a short analysis of the his-
torical development of ↑ qualification research. Vo-
cational certificates or “qualifications” denote the
knowledge, skills and attitudes that are defined as
necessary for the ↑ performance of a specific set
of professional tasks. Technological, organisation-
al and economic developments call for an extend-
ed concept of qualifications, emphasizing the abil-
ity to reflect and to participate in shaping the con-
Areas of VET Research
ditions of work as well as one’s vocational career.
This includes the incorporation of ↑ key qualifica-
tions and ↑ work process knowledge, but can al-
so demand for a redefinition of the concept of oc-
cupation itself (→ 3.1.1; → 3.1.5). The analysis as
well as the translation into curricula is influenced
by the degree in which professional work is organ-
ised in occupations with a more or less recognised
status in the economic as well as labour relations
system (→ 2.3). In some countries there is a domi-
nance of strong forms of ↑ occupational identity; in
other countries this is much less developed. Wol-
bers (2005) identifies two labour market systems
in Europe: (1) internal labour markets systems and
(2) occupation based labour market systems. The
systems differ in their relations to the education
system. In countries with an internal labour mar-
kets system newcomers to the labour market start
their career in low qualified jobs, learning on the
job and following additional courses that will help
them to acquire the competences needed for a ca-
reer. The relation to the education system is rath-
er loose. The United Kingdom, ↑ France, Ireland
and Belgium are countries with an internal labour
markets system. In countries with an occupation-
based labour market system (Germany, the Nether-
lands, Denmark) it’s the role of the vocational ed-
ucation system to qualify young people for the la-
bour market.
Vocational education always needs some form of
analysis of incorporated competences and occupa-
tional profiles as a foundation of educational con-
tents and objectives with reference to the charac-
teristic ↑ work tasks and fields of agency in a par-
ticular occupation (→ 3.1; → 3.6). Newer forms of
qualification analysis have to be informed by re-
search into expertise development, showing the
need for integration and transformation of scien-
tific knowledge into ↑ practical knowledge (→ 3.2;
→ 3.6). That implies taking into account qualita-
tive changes as well as specific attention for ways
to organise and support integration and connec-
tions with learning experiences. ↑ Curriculum re-
search can no longer be seen as a straightforward
translation of occupational practice into education-
al content. Expertise research, showing the funda-
mental importance of ↑ domain-specific knowl-
edge for the transfer of professional action compe-
361
tences should be related to domain-specific quali-
fication and curriculum research (→ 3.2). The in-
ternational dissemination of the results and meth-
ods of qualification research has been made diffi-
cult by highly divergent systems of vocational ed-
ucation and training, but can now profit form the
growing involvement of vocational education and
training in processes of ↑ internationalisation. The
chances for a dissemination of results and meth-
ods in qualification research have become larger.
On the other hand, so have the challenges. Analy-
sis has to take into account that employment is di-
vided both horizontally (‘families’ of occupations)
and vertically (in a job hierarchy). New produc-
tion regimes (→ 3.8.0) and broader changes in the
economy, influence both demarcations and hence
cross traditional barriers between jobs and even
economic sectors. In many ways, ↑ vocations have
either disappeared, or are subject to deep changes
with respect to object, methods and social stand-
ing (→ 2.3).
3.4.0.3 Competence and Expertise Research
An important reference point for international de-
bates is a common understanding of new insights
with regard to competence and expertise research.
Röben (→ 3.4.2) discusses the enormous variation
in definitions of competence found in scientific as
well as VET oriented literature (ONSTENK / BROWN
2002). The debate on competences is enriched by
analysing the literature on expertise development.
In comparison to a novice, an expert is character-
ized by a specific quality of his or her knowledge
(BENNER 1984; → 4.2).
Very different disciplines and theoretical struc-
tures are used as basis for defining terms like skills,
vocational knowledge, competence or expertise. It
should be emphasized that competence does not
denote a simple set of skills, knowledge and atti-
tudes connected to specific tasks or circumstanc-
es, but should be seen as the capacity of an indi-
vidual to act effectively in a specific ↑ occupation-
al field. Competence is complex and can only be
revealed with relatively great effort. Mansfield/
Mitchell (1996) distinguish four dimensions: task,
task management, contingency management and
dealing with the work environment. Competence
to act can be seen as the willingness and ability of
362
the individual to act in an appropriately thought-
out as well as individually and socially responsi-
ble manner in a range of specific occupational, so-
cial and private situations. Competence is a multi-
dimensional concept, including specific vocation-
al knowledge and skills as well as ↑ work process
knowledge (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002).
For example, in the Netherlands a concept of core
competences was introduced in defining qualifi-
cations as ‘an individual’s abilities to tackle occu-
pational core problems in an adequate way’. Each
qualification should encompass four subtypes of
competences:
– Professional/craftsmanship and methodical
competences;
– Managerial/organisational and strategic compe-
tences;
– Social-communicative and normative-cultural
competences;
– Learning and shaping competences (ONSTENK /
BROWN 2002).
Multidimensionality is characteristic for the com-
petence concept. In meeting the nature of compe-
tences, not only should qualifications change, but
also the curricula preparing students need to meet
qualifications (→ 3.7). In adopting the concept of
competence based education, VET should pre-
pare its students to become a complete ‘profession-
al’, not only mastering the skill side of an occupa-
tion, but also familiarity with the social-dynamic
and cultural aspects of an occupation. From this
viewpoint the responsibility of VET is to guide
its students to develop an ↑ occupational identity
(→ 3.6.8). Identity learning should be the essence
of competence based VET. That implies a focus on
the internalization of the ‘habitus’ of occupational
practice, that is the ever-changing configuration of
interpretations individuals attach to themselves, as
related to the activities they participate in (GEIJSEL /
MEIJERS 2005).
3.4.0.4 Learning Places
The complexity of competence development as
well as the close relationship with developing vo-
cational practice, necessitates the integration of
different dimensions of vocational knowledge
(codified and theoretical as well as tacit and prac-
tical). Going from content to delivery, an impor-
Handbook of TVET Research
tant defining characteristic of vocational education
in almost all countries is the existence of differ-
ent learning places contributing to vocational de-
velopment (→ 3.7). Sometimes these are part of the
same system (as in ↑ dual systems), sometimes they
are sequential steps, as a process of more or less
organised inclusion (practical, work based learn-
ing) after a school based trajectory of theoretical
learning. This makes the integration of learning
experiences in different learning places a crucial
aspect in ↑ VET planning and development (GUILE /
GRIFFITHS 2001; 2003; ONSTENK 2003). Research
on connections between different learning sites,
processes and results is therefore an important as-
pect of VET planning and development. Walden
(→ 3.4.3) gives a case study of the German situ-
ation. He sees cooperation as an overarching top-
ic and relevant to a wide range of issues relating
to vocational training. Cooperation and connec-
tion between learning sites has to include mutu-
al references between theoretical and ↑ practical
knowledge acquisition, construction and develop-
ment, without reducing or subjecting one learn-
ing process to the other. This implies practical col-
laboration of teaching and training staff at differ-
ent ↑ learning venues involved in vocational edu-
cation and training in technological, organisation-
al and educational terms. Research into ↑ cooper-
ation between learning venues frequently focuses
on the relationships between quite specific plac-
es of learning, such as companies and ↑ vocation-
al schools or vocational schools and ↑ inter-compa-
ny training centres. Alongside the analysis of the
forms of cooperation practised, considerable sig-
nificance should be attached to the development of
approaches for extending cooperation and of suit-
able practice related cooperation models. In Ger-
many these relationships are investigated in aca-
demically monitored ↑ pilot projects, representing
both instruments of academic research and tools
for changes in practice. In other countries as well
there is a growing amount of research on improv-
ing the quality in terms of content and guidance of
work based learning, as well as strengthening con-
nections between school and work based learning.
In most countries vocational training systems are
becoming more important as well as more mixed
(BROWN / GREEN / LAUDER 2000). Traditional bar-
Areas of VET Research
riers between vocational and general or academ-
ic education erode, sometimes by making gener-
al education more vocational (as for example, in
very different ways, in England or ↑ France), some-
times by making vocational education more gen-
eral (as for example in the Netherlands). In coun-
tries with a traditional strong dual system there is
a strengthening of independent specialised ↑ voca-
tional school based systems, creating competition
for the apprenticeship system of training. In coun-
tries with a traditionally strong ↑ school system,
new forms of apprenticeship are promoted. This
implies an even bigger need for cooperation in or-
der to deliver theoretically sound and practical-
ly relevant training. New combinations of ↑ learn-
ing venues (such as between specialised vocation-
al schools and companies) should become a great-
er focus of research.
3.4.0.5 VET Teachers and Trainers
The variety of ↑ vocational curricula, demands
on expertise development as well as ↑ work proc-
ess knowledge make professional development of
VET teachers and trainers an essential problem
in VET planning and development. Growing de-
mands on quality and quantity of VET in most
countries make research into expected competenc-
es and training of VET teachers a hot issue. Profes-
sional development of VET teachers is lagging be-
hind (ATTWELL / BROWN 1999). While focussing on
the German situation with its distinction between
vocational teachers in vocational schools and train-
ers in companies, Bauer/ Grollmann (→ 3.4.4) an-
alyse some important issues of broader relevance.
The need for professional development is augment-
ed by the growing diversification in ↑ vocation-
al students (e. g. immigrants) as well as declared
policy objectives (Lisbon 2000 and beyond) aim-
ing for rising enrolment in higher education, which
put higher demands on professional and academic
accomplishments in VET. The authors identify a
great number of deficits and problems with regard
to vocational teacher training and professional de-
velopment. Although they mainly refer to the Ger-
man situation, themes with respect to the relation-
ship between vocational and pedagogical knowl-
edge and expertise are relevant in all countries
(→ 3.7). New insights in learning and expertise de-
363
velopment require a more sophisticated and var-
ied repertoire in didactic and pedagogical meth-
ods, tools and practices. Vocational teachers are ei-
ther trained and experienced professionals in their
↑ vocation or trained in general subjects like math-
ematics, language or history. In the first case, espe-
cially in ↑ vocational schools, becoming a teacher
implies the risk of not remaining up-to-date with
respect to technological, methodical or organisa-
tional changes in vocational practice. In the sec-
ond case, they often have no familiarity with the
↑ vocation, so have difficulty in connecting general
subjects to vocational issues.
Coming from a professional background, many vo-
cational teachers and trainers lack proper pedagog-
ical and didactical training, but even if they get any,
questions can be raised with regard to quality and
↑ effectiveness. In most countries there is no tradi-
tion of ↑ vocational pedagogies. And if there is, ac-
tual training practices vary considerably in taking
into account new insights in learning theory (i.e.
cognitive, constructivist and situated approaches).
The need for combining research into ↑ new didac-
tic and pedagogical designs with research into the
professional development of teachers and trainers
should be stressed (ONSTENK / BROWN 2002).
3.4.0.6 VET and Organisational
Development
Research on ↑ VET planning and development has
a double relationship with the economy and ↑ la-
bour market. On one level it has to deal with de-
mands with respect to the competences and qual-
ifications of the labour force (→ 3.1). On anoth-
er level it contributes to economic and organisa-
tion development, by identifying specific sets of
expertise and by developing learning and shap-
ing competences (→ 2.4; → 3.6.3; → 3.8). The ex-
istence of an elaborated system of high quality
(and high level) vocational education is important
in striving for an innovative high skills economy
(MAURICE / SORGE / WARNER 1980; BROWN / GREEN /
LAUDER 2000). Dybowski and Dietzen (→ 3.4.5)
deal with this relationship by analysing innovative
and dynamic VET as a strategic resource for inno-
vation both on the level of the economy as a whole
and on the level of companies. This discussion is
going on in all countries, with or without an es-
364
tablished ↑ VET system. The chapter gives some
lessons from Germany with regard to the role of
the so-called vocational principle (Beruflichkeit),
which traditionally characterised VET. Reported
research findings confirm the hypothesis that “new
↑ professionalism” (neue Fachlichkeit) is emerging
(ONSTENK / BROWN 2002). As work based learning
is an important, necessary – and in most countries
– growing – part of VET (RAIZEN 1994), an endur-
ing system of competence development can only
be achieved if there are accompanying changes in
organisational structures: development of appro-
priate structures for cooperation and communica-
tion in companies, strategic alignment of manage-
ment personnel, creation of clear recognition and
reward structures, and promotion and development
of working environments that foster learning (NY-
HAN 2002). On the other hand, competence devel-
opment can be seen as a basic prerequisite of any
technological, methodical or organisational inno-
vation in the company, as it ensures that the work-
force is equipped with the necessary capabilities
to support such a transformation. As individuals,
workers will need more ↑ work process knowledge
and reflective abilities like “organisational aware-
ness”, “↑ participation in processes of change” and
the ability to “define their own role”. They need
this to negotiate the compatibility of their personal
interests and career development with their occu-
pational practice and the interests of the company.
The conclusion that elements of occupation-specif-
ic, process and social competence should increas-
ingly be treated as an integrated whole is impor-
tant for all countries. The analysis of content and
relative importance of different components of oc-
cupational competence within the framework of
existing and emerging ↑ occupational profiles is
an important challenge for research in the area of
↑ VET planning and development. Mutual relation-
ships between VET, skills development and ↑ or-
ganisational development should be centre stage in
this research. This implies cooperation and com-
munication between different and in many re-
spects separated ↑ fields of research, i.e. manage-
ment, learning organisation and organisational de-
velopment, ↑ qualification research, expertise and
competence development research and career re-
search.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.4.1 Qualification and Curriculum
Research
Felix Rauner
3.4.1.1 Conceptual Clarification
The development of occupational profiles, train-
ing curricula, curricular frameworks and the relat-
ed syllabuses for in-company and school-based vo-
cational education and training is based on the in-
vestigation of qualification requirements. The term
“qualification” comprises the knowledge, skills
and attitudes that need to be transferred for the
↑ performance of professional tasks. Qualifications
denote the professional actions determined by the
design and organisation of work. They represent
thus the objective side of professional skills and
knowledge. This extension of the concept of quali-
fication leads to certain overlaps with the concepts
of competence and education. An extended con-
cept of qualifications emphasises the ability to re-
flect and to participate in shaping the conditions of
work. What underlies the concept of qualification
is the labour studies category of the complete pro-
fessional action: the connection of planning, per-
forming and evaluating professional tasks (HELL-
PACH 1922; EMERY 1959; TOMASZEWSKI 1981; H ACK-
ER 1986a; VOLPERT 1987c; BREMER 2005a). For the
investigation of qualification requirements this en-
tails the consequence that the characteristic work
settings of an occupation have to be examined.
Qualification research (DYBOWSKI / HAASE / RAUNER
1993, 139 ff.; K IRWAN /AINSWORTH 1999; GAEL
1988; BUCH / FRIELING 2004) is directed towards the
analysis of professional work organised in occupa-
tions and the incorporated competences, the devel-
opment of ↑ occupational profiles and the founda-
tion of educational contents, objectives and struc-
tures of vocational education and training with ref-
erence to the characteristic ↑ work tasks and fields
of agency in a particular occupation (BENNER 1997;
BECKER / MEIFORT 2004; RAUNER 2002e).
3.4.1.2 On the Genesis of Qualification
Research
All countries with advanced TVET systems nor-
mally also developed schemes of qualification re-
Areas of VET Research
search during the second half of the past centu-
ry. The distinguished status of qualification re-
search in Germany has its origins in the practice
of ↑ TVET planning research that was established
step by step since the beginning of the 20th centu-
ry. In this field, industrial associations, the emerg-
ing TVET research as well as the public authori-
ties responsible for vocational education and train-
ing work together. The Vocational Education and
Training Act (Berufsbildungsgesetz) of 1969 addi-
tionally strengthened this tradition. Qualification
research acquired a certain degree of legal validity
by the allocation of the missions of occupation and
↑ curriculum development to the newly established
Federal Institute for TVET Research (Bundesin-
stitut für Berufsbildungsforschung – BBF), which
was later to become the Federal Institute for Voca-
tional Education and Training (Bundesinstitut für
Berufsbildung – BIBB).
A crucial influence on curriculum development
is exercised by the various ↑ task analysis meth-
ods that were developed especially in the ↑ Unit-
ed States as a basis for competency based training
(↑ CBT). The first studies on this topic were con-
ducted in the U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army
in the 1950s (cf. MILLER 1953; DAVIES 1973). Be-
sides the application in the education and training
of skilled workers, the approach of task analysis is
also used in the design of work systems and the in-
teraction between man and machine (cf. FRIELING /
GROTE /K AUFFELD 2003; → 3.8.5). A more ad-
vanced type of task analysis as the basis of curric-
ulum development is the DACUM (↑ Designing A
Curriculum) method. The foundation of ↑ curric-
ulum design is a method for occupation and task
analysis. It is based on the identification of profes-
sional work tasks by so-called expert skilled work-
ers (SPÖTTL 2005) This method that was developed
by experts on Canadian TVET in the early 1960s
(GLENDENNING 1995) was later improved by Robert
Norton at the Center on Education and Training
(CETE) at Ohio State University and introduced
in many countries (NORTON 1997). The method of
experts and skilled workers workshops was taken
up and further developed by the Institute Technol-
ogy and Education, Bremen (ITB) in the course
of a design-oriented training approach (→ 5.2.4;
→ 3.5.1; → 2.4). This was accompanied by a fun-
365
damental change of perspective, which led to the
replacement of discipline-based training plans by
others, based on developmental theory. This is ex-
emplified by ↑ vocational curricula structured ac-
cording to ↑ developmental logic (RAUNER /K LEINER
2004). Knowledge research was introduced into
↑ qualification research via the concept of ↑ work
process knowledge. Work process knowledge in-
cludes the practical, theoretical, action-governing
and explaining knowledge (RAUNER 2002a, 33 f.;
BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002). In this con-
text ↑ practical knowledge is assigned a special
quality for professional ability.
Regulation-oriented qualification research or, re-
spectively, ↑ curriculum research as it is estab-
lished in Germany especially at the BIBB, aims
directly at the preparation of ↑ training regulations.
It is based on the work-analytical studies by Frank
B. Gilbreth (1868–1924) and also on the work-an-
alytical studies of the “Verband für Arbeitsstudi-
en – REFA e. V.” (established in 1924 as “Reich-
sausschuss für Arbeitszeitermittlung”, renamed
“Reichsausschuss für Arbeitsstudien” in 1935, for
further details see REFA 1972). The first steps to-
wards a work-analytical qualification research had
already been made by REFA and the VDI (Verein
Deutscher Ingenieure) in the 1920s REFA 1972,
17 ff.). It was only with the scientific time studies
of Taylor (1911) that a quick dissemination of work
analytic methods began. This also included the
employment of ↑ work analysis for the pedagogical
concept of work instruction (RIEDEL 1956).
Analyses of work were initially directed towards
staff assessment and differentiation of wages and
were only at a later stage directed towards work
instruction, aptitude and inclination ↑ diagnostics
in career advice and towards occupation analysis
(MOLLE 1965).
In the 1970s sociological and work analytical ap-
proaches to qualification research were devel-
oped (see PORNSCHLEGEL 1968; MICKLER / MOHR /
K ADRITZKE 1977; GRÜNEWALD / DEGEN /K RICK 1979).
There were, however, only few connections be-
tween curriculum research on the one hand and
social scientific qualification research on the other
(→ 3.1.5; → 4.4).
366
Tab. 1: Six Dimensions of Practical Knowledge (Rauner 2004a based on Benner 1997)
3.4.1.3 Qualification Research as
Transformation of Scientific
Knowledge
A quite common method of defining the con-
tents of vocational education and training is the
transformation of the discipline-specific knowl-
edge generated by the sciences into teaching and
learning contents for vocational training. Donald
Schön criticises this concept of deriving ↑ practical
knowledge from science:
“This concept of ‘applications’ leads to a view of profes-
sional knowledge as a hierarchy in which ‘general prin-
ciples’ occupy the highest level and ‘concrete problem
solving’ the lowest” (SCHÖN 1983, 24).
As this method is very common it will be dis-
cussed here although it does not, strictly speaking,
belong to the methods of ↑ qualification research
(SCHEIN 1973). The basic assumption of this ↑ re-
search approach is the thesis that social knowledge
is generated by the sciences, and that it is available
via their textbooks for all types of education and
training. Practical knowledge as it appears every-
where in professional work is interpreted from this
perspective as being applied scientific knowledge.
This widespread common sense theory that has
always shaped the attitude and conduct of TVET
Handbook of TVET Research
teachers and TVET planners has engendered man-
ifold methods and rules which seek to transform
theoretical knowledge into the language of users
in the domains of work, to exemplify it with ref-
erence to specific contexts, and above all to trans-
fer this knowledge by means of inductive learning
methods such as action-oriented learning. “Pure
mathematics” thus becomes, in the world of vo-
cational education and training, disciplinary and
occupation-specific “applied” or “professional”
mathematics. Technical matters in the vocational
domains of construction, ↑ mechanical engineer-
ing, computer science and electrical engineering
are interpreted and presented as applied sciences.
The fact that technology springs from an inextrica-
ble relationship between what is socially desirable
and what is technically possible so that technolo-
gy is essentially a reification of societal ends es-
capes from attention in this perspective. Under the
applied sciences approach technology therefore re-
mains confined to technical guidance (Technikleh-
re) that neglects this connection.
In this respect a fundamental importance is attrib-
uted to the ↑ novice-expert paradigm (DREYFUS /
DREYFUS 1986). A procedure based on this par-
adigm for the identification of the paradigmatic
Areas of VET Research 367

work situations for the vocational training of nurs- sis of training contents and structures of vocation-
es was developed by Patricia Benner. In the shape al training programmes under the jurisdiction of
of case descriptions the characteristic work situa- the BBiG on the basis of statistical data, the rele-
tions, structured according to ↑ developmental log- vant publications and the training curricula.
ic, form the basis of the curriculum (BENNER 1997). “Im Zentrum der Curriculumanalyse stehen Fragen nach
In her research on the professional skills of nurs- der Berufsspezifik, der Berufsbezogenheit und der An-
es Patricia Benner distinguishes six dimensions of gemessenheit der in den einzelnen Berufen zu vermittel-
nden Qualifikationen [At the core of curriculum analy-
practical knowledge (Table 1).
sis there are questions of the specificity, the occupation-
Unlike scientific concepts, the aspects and scope relatedness and the adequacy of the qualifications to be
of the meaning of practical concepts are revealed transferred in the different trades]” (ibid., 47).
on the basis of experience. The practical con- Qualification application research includes above
cepts that people subjectively possess play a cen- all case studies that are expected to give informa-
tral part in professional work because they pre- tion about the modernisation and re-regulation of
dominantly shape the action-governing knowledge initial and continuing training programmes. Anoth-
(HOLZKAMP 1985, 226 f.). er focus of this research is the evaluation of mod-
ernisation and re-regulation projects (cf. BORCH /
3.4.1.4 Qualification Research as Basis WEISSMANN 2002; PETERSEN / WEHMEYER 2000).
for Occupation and Curriculum The results of the evaluation are used for improv-
Development ing the implementation of newly regulated occu-
The development and modernisation of ↑ occupa- pations, ↑ occupational groups and ↑ occupational
tional profiles and training curricula is considered fields as well as for the further development of oc-
a prerogative of TVET experts in the economic cupations and professional regulations. It is only
sectors. The public authorities responsible for ed- in rare cases that re-regulation and modernisation
ucation and the economy usually trust the domain procedures are prepared by comprehensive ↑ qual-
experts more than others to have the competence ification research projects since from the point of
with which to develop training curricula. Here a view of the involved social partners these are:
division of labour has emerged between the experts
of professional associations and qualification and
↑ curriculum research, according to which the cor-
nerstones for the design of occupations and the ba-
sic structures of ↑ vocational curricula are defined
by the experts of business organisations, whilst the
details are delegated to the researchers. Quite of-
ten these tasks are exclusively fulfilled by the busi-
ness experts, without the ↑ participation of TVET
research. During the establishment of joint appren-
ticeship programmes in the ↑ United States, for in-
stance, the contents of apprenticeship programmes
were defined by the representatives of the involved
enterprises.
Wolfgang Becker and Barbara Meifort draw at-
tention to the continuing development of qualifi-
cation research in Germany since the mid-1990s
(BECKER / MEIFORT 2004). They distinguish three
branches of qualification research, namely, qual-
ification state research, qualification application
research and qualification development research. Fig. 1: BIBB model of the development of proposals
Qualification state research comprises the analy- for training curricula (BENNER 1996, 59)
368
“im fein austarierten System der Kooperation von Staat
und Sozialparteien in der Ordnungsarbeit als unzuläs-
siger Eingriff der Forschung in die autonomen Aufga-
ben der Vertreter der Praxis zurückgewiese [rejected
within the delicately balanced system of cooperation
of the state and the social partners in regulation activi-
ties as an unauthorised intrusion of science into the pre-
rogative of the representatives of practice]” (BECKER /
MEIFORT 2004, 45).
Qualification development research was the reac-
tion of ↑ qualification research towards the accel-
erating technological innovations and the ensu-
ing changes in qualification requirements in the
mid-1990s (ALEX / BAU 1999). A research consor-
tium for the early ↑ diagnosis of qualification re-
quirements was established (BULLINGER 2000;
2002). There is a deep controversy on ↑ research
methods for the estimation of the future perspec-
tives of occupation-based skilled work. From a so-
cio-historical point of view the erosion of occu-
pation-based work in the course of continuing ra-
tionalisation appears to be the outcome of a law
of history. The research findings in occupational
sociology and labour studies seem to confirm this
hypothesis by empirical data. On the other hand
there is a clear preference in the political debate
on TVET reform in the 1990s to favour occupa-
tion-based skilled work and a related model of vo-
cational education and training over other types of
flexible work and education. This reform debate is
supported by the concept of open dynamic core oc-
cupations (HEIDEGGER / RAUNER 1997a; KMK 1997;
BMBF 1997).
Other forms of occupation research and assess-
ment (ORA) were developed and implemented in
the ↑ United States.
“The US Department of Labour developed a compre-
hensive system that provides information about nearly
Fig. 2: Rating Procedure for Professional Tasks
Handbook of TVET Research
1,000 occupations within the US economy: the occupa-
tional information network (O*NETTM). The basis of
this procedure is a model for the description of activities
(content model) that was developed by Mumford and
Peterson (PETERSON / MUMFORD / BORMAN ET AL. 1999).
Job incumbents from each occupation have to rate the
task structure of the occupations. Each task has to be
rated relating to the relevance, importance, and frequen-
cy with which occupational tasks are performed. In this
context the human resources research organisation (HR-
RO) developed and implemented a methodology to an-
alyse the task data. The rating methodology contains
three dimensions:
– relevance to the occupation. Specifically incumbents
were asked to indicate whether the tasks are ‘not rele-
vant’ to the occupation,
– importance to the occupation on a five-point-scale
with anchors of not important (1), somewhat impor-
tant (2) important (3), very important (4) and extreme-
ly important (5).
– frequency with which the tasks are performed on a
seven-point-scale with anchors of once a year or less (1),
two hourly or more (7)”.
This procedure is network-based. Experts from
the respective domains who can give evidence of
their status participate in the procedure and have
the opportunity to continuously analyse ↑ occu-
pational profiles, to evaluate them and to develop
them further. Professional ↑ work tasks that have
become outdated are excluded by this procedure,
while new tasks, e. g. professional work tasks in-
duced by technological innovations, are similar-
ly integrated through this procedure. Similar rat-
ing techniques are applied in the ↑ DACUM meth-
od. After the characteristic tasks of an occupation
have been identified by skilled worker-experts they
are presented to a greater number of training ex-
perts and weighted according to comparable cri-
teria. The occupation development procedure de-
veloped at the ITB includes a rating procedure that
Areas of VET Research
allows for a differentiation between core and mar-
ginal tasks (see Fig. 2).
3.4.1.5 Ergological and Sociological
Qualification Research
Ergological and psychological ↑ qualification re-
search is increasingly turning towards the subjec-
tive dimension of qualification requirements. Since
its arrival it developed a multitude of activities:
(1) For the analysis of job tasks: the Job Diagnos-
tic Survey (JDS), the subjective work analyses and
subjective task analyses. The investigation of reg-
ulation requirements and obstacles as well as the
stress related ↑ work analysis and the Task Analy-
sis Inventory (TAI) etc.
(2) For the assessment of job tasks: criteria of fea-
sibility, tolerability, reasonableness and satisfac-
tion; the task assessment system (Tätigkeitsbewer-
tungssystem – TBS) with the main categories of
organisational and technical conditions, degrees of
responsibility, ↑ performance requirements as well
as qualification and learning needs; the contras-
tive ↑ task analysis (Kontrastive Aufgabenanalyse
– KABA) for design recommendations for the sup-
porting application of information and telecom-
munication technology.
(3) For the design of work tasks: criteria of person-
al work design with extensible leeway for flexible
actions and autonomous decisions; promotion of
prospective work design, e. g. in the development
of programmable software systems or decentral-
ised manufacturing systems; concepts of task ex-
tension; alternative approaches to ↑ human-centred
work and technology design (cf. DYBOWSKI / HAASE /
RAUNER 1993, 139 ff.).
In this context Frieling points at the limited range
of standardised analysis techniques as they were
developed by Ernest J. McCormick (1979), Felix
Frei and Eberhard Ulich (1981), Walter Volpert
(1974) as well as other researchers in labour
studies. These instruments might well be used as
a means of structuring important aspects of the
↑ work process (FRIELING 1995b, 288), but the ab-
stract formulation of the items is inadequate for
the analysis and evaluation of concrete work con-
tents and their meaning for the employees (LAM-
NEK 1988; 1989). From this perspective the estab-
369
lishment of a working group dealing with techni-
cal disciplines and their respective pedagogical
practices within the Gesellschaft für Arbeitswis-
senschaft (GfA) is a consequent step towards solv-
ing the “problem of contents” in cooperation be-
tween labour studies and technical disciplines.
Sociological qualification research in its industry
and work sociological versions is oriented towards
the world of work under the aspect of the change
of work and its subjective handling as a societal
phenomenon. In the 1970s and 1980s in particu-
lar, studies on the transformation of skilled work
(cf. MICKLER 1981; K ERN / SCHUMANN 1984) led
to a considerable deepening of the debate on de-
qualification that was triggered by Harry Braver-
man’s publication “Labour and Monopoly Capital”
(BRAVERMAN 1977). Wolfgang Littek et al. point
out in their “Introduction to Industrial Sociology
and Sociology of Work” that sociological qualifi-
cation research has the aim
“von der betrieblichen Arbeitssituation ausgehend, ana-
lytisch relevante Ebenen und Dimensionen für ein Ver-
ständnis der Komplexität des sozialen Gefüges von Ar-
beit in unserer Gesellschaft herauszuarbeiten [to devel-
op, on the basis of the work situation in the enterprise,
analytically relevant levels and dimensions for an under-
standing of the social structure of work in our society]”
(LITTEK / R AMMERT / WACHTLER 1982, 102).
Sociological qualification research reaches its lim-
its whenever the ↑ work process knowledge em-
bedded in the work processes has to be decod-
ed. With his ethno-methodological “↑ Studies of
Work” (GARFINKEL 1986) Garfinkel attempts to
overcome this barrier where sociological research
with its traditional studies of occupation has failed
to achieve results for vocational qualification.
“The gap in the social science literature on occupations
consists of all the missing descriptions of what occupa-
tional activities consist of and all the missing analyses
the practitioners manage the tasks which, for them, are
matters of serious and pressing significance” (HERITAGE
1984, 299).
This way the major deficiency of qualification re-
search in the social sciences, the lack of methods
for the identification of the contents that define
professional work and training, is made explic-
it. Garfinkel’s method of the “↑ Studies of Work”
therefore aims also at the solution of this method-
ological problem. The research interest of this ap-
proach is directed towards:
370
– a detailed description of how the work is per-
formed,
– the identification of the specific knowledge and
skills necessary for this work, and
– the identification of the fundamental gap be-
tween the model version of a job task (theory) and
its actual ↑ performance.
This ↑ research approach is based on the assump-
tion that any work can be conceived of only as
practical activity and that the practitioner acquires
the ability
“Kontingenzen zu erkennen und sich auf sie einzustel-
len, Entscheidungen über den Verlauf der Arbeit nicht
schematisch, sondern von Moment zu Moment zu tref-
fen und im Umgang mit den situativen Unwägbarkeiten
und lokalen Konstellationen irgendwie die beobachtbare
Adäquanz und Effizienz seines Tuns zu bewerkstelligen
[to become aware of contingencies and to manage, some-
how, in dealing with the situative imponderabilities and
local constellations, the observable adequacy and ↑ effi-
ciency of his activity]” (BERGMANN 1995, 270).
It is this “somehow” that is put into the focus in
the “Studies of Work”. This way a ↑ central ques-
tion was posed for ↑ qualification research that
could not be answered by the methods of empir-
ical social ↑ research methods. The limited scope
of the “Studies of Work” as a methodological ap-
proach of qualification research is due to the fact
that the contents of work and training processes
are in their contents essentially inaccessible for so-
cial research.
3.4.1.6 Qualification Research in Occupation
Studies
Unlike qualification research in the social scienc-
es, qualification research in occupational studies
has an epistemic interest that is design-oriented.
This interest is directed towards substantial and
methodological design of education processes and
learning in the ↑ work process. Occupation-orient-
ed qualification research has its starting point in
the attempt to achieve an interpretive access to re-
ality, which is generated interactively through ex-
pert talks and, if necessary, through ↑ participation
in the work process. In action-oriented expert talks
the researcher, via his questions, suggestions and
interventions as well as possible work actions, is
involved in the situation to be analysed. He thus
constitutes a quasi-experimental reality whose
Handbook of TVET Research
scope reaches all the way into the work situation.
This way he can participate in the work reality and
shape it in such a way as to achieve a high level of
interpretation and understanding. Unlike the possi-
bilities offered by the sociological method of “thick
description” (GARFINKEL 1986), the occupation re-
searcher is familiar with the work situation and en-
ters the situation. The interview with the skilled
worker thus becomes a conversation among profes-
sionals. The professional and emotional openness
of the actors towards the researcher results from
the experience of a dialogue “among colleagues”.
The interviewee talks to a person he experiences
as professionally competent in a different way than
to a researcher who is alien to the respective occu-
pation. The researcher not only knows what the di-
alogue partner talks about (and what he does not
talk about) and what he is doing in his work situ-
ation, but he also can interpret the statements and
the actions of the interviewee with regard to their
manifold objective aspects and references. The re-
searcher perceives a statement not only in a for-
mal sense, but also in respect of its content and
sense as more or less meaningful, efficient etc. By
means of intervening research methods it is pos-
sible to realise a depth of field in qualification re-
search that cannot be achieved otherwise (→ 5.2).
In this context the authors draw attention to two
problems that can be mastered by qualification re-
search only with some practice.
Qualification research in occupation studies is,
however, confronted at this point with the problem
of self-evidence. If all actors in the research proc-
ess, including the researcher, conceive of them-
selves as members of one and the same ↑ communi-
ty of practice, those facts that are considered self-
evident “among professionals” tend to be neglected
or not to be made explicit. The reality to be investi-
gated becomes the reality of insiders. This can lead
to a more or less restricted research perspective if,
after the taking of an internal perspective, the re-
searcher loses the ability to maintain the ↑ distance
to the study situation necessary for understanding
and reflection. With a view to this problem has in-
troduced the metaphor of the researcher as a “pro-
fessional stranger” (AGAR 1980). The carrying out
of action-oriented professional talks and interven-
tions therefore must aim at constituting and cap-
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 3: Supervision Arrangement, e.g. Interdisciplinary Action-Oriented Professional Interview (R AUNER 2005,
245)
turing two realities at the same time, the reality
of the outsider and the reality of the insider. This
draws attention also to the different dimensions
of the relationship between work and subject that
have to be investigated here (Fig. 3).
In a supervision arrangement the occupation re-
searcher represents the reality of the insider,
whereas an industrial sociologist, a pedagogue or
ergologist represents the reality of the professional
stranger. This ensures that the balance and the ten-
sion of proximity and ↑ distance as well as the con-
sideration of the competences relevant for quali-
fication and the carrying out of work-studies are
represented in the research process.
3.4.1.7 Problems and Development
Perspectives
The central problem of sociological ↑ qualification
research as it emerged in the 1970s and 1980s as
a research area in the sociology of industry and
in the ‘work and technology’ research is the fact
that its research findings could contribute to oc-
cupation and ↑ curriculum development only to a
limited extent. The analytical quality of sociologi-
cal research led to a broad, politically oriented dis-
cussion on the relationship between rationalisa-
tion and the level of qualification requirements im-
posed on skilled workers (K ERN / SCHUMANN 1984).
The ethno-methodological “↑ Studies of Work”
developed by Garfinkel attempted to decode the
knowledge incorporated in practical professional
work (BERGMANN 2005). This way a fundamental
question was posed for qualification research that
the methods of empirical social research were un-
able to answer. A similar situation can be found in
expertise research, which can demonstrate the fun-
damental importance of ↑ domain-specific knowl-
371
edge for the transfer of professional action compe-
tences, but which has no methods at its disposal to
establish a domain-specific qualification research.
In the course of the ↑ professionalisation of TVET
teachers and the establishment of study pro-
grammes for ↑ vocational disciplines at universities
one can also observe the emergence of a domain-
specific qualification research (RAUNER 2004d).
The international dissemination of the results and
methods of qualification research is impeded by a
TVET landscape that is shaped by highly diver-
gent systems of vocational education and train-
ing. In this respect vocational education is funda-
mentally different from higher or university edu-
cation, which is largely represented by internation-
al scientific communities. However, since voca-
tional education and training has by now started to
be involved in processes of ↑ internationalisation,
among other things in the course of the UNESCO-
UNEVOC initiative towards a Master’s degree for
TVET teachers differentiated into twelve voca-
tional disciplines, the chances for a dissemination
of results and methods in qualification research
have considerably improved.
3.4.2 Competence and Expertise
Research
Peter Röben
3.4.2.1 Explanation of Terms
The definitions of competence found in the scientif-
ic literature are enormously varied (see ELLSTRÖM
1997). On the one hand, this is due to the differ-
ent disciplines and theoretical structures used as
372
the basis for defining the term competence. Sec-
ondly, competence does not denote a simple set of
circumstances, but a disposition of an individual,
which – as still has to be shown – can be revealed
only with relatively great effort.
Therefore, in what follows a certain system will
be chosen to approximate the meaning of the term
competence (a comprehensive treatment of the
various approaches and lines of discussion can be
found, for example, in ARNOLD 1997a; JENEWEIN /
K NAUTH / RÖBEN / ZÜLCH 2004; RÖBEN 2004a). The
system applied here looks at the term from four
perspectives
– the demand for competence,
– the supply side,
– the determination and
– realisation of competence.
I shall begin with a definition that is very wide-
spread especially in the field of vocational educa-
tion, i.e. the definition of competence to act put for-
ward by the German conference of ministers for
the arts and culture (KMK):
“[Competence to act] is viewed here as the readiness
and ability of the individual to act in an appropriately
thought-out as well as individually and socially responsi-
ble manner in occupational, social and private situations.
Competence to act unfolds in the dimensions of special-
ized competence, staff competence and social compe-
tence” (KMK 2000a, 9).
This make-up of the competence to act has already
been made the subject of pedagogical discussion by
Heinrich Roth (1971). In this connection three ar-
eas are addressed in which competence is to come
into effect: firstly, on the part of the subject who,
after all, is to develop skills with respect to things
and circumstances, himself and other persons. The
next area encompasses the situations in which the
skills of the subject are to develop, i.e. family, so-
ciety and company. A third area is contained in the
word “readiness” because this addresses an atti-
tude (motivation) of the individual, i.e. his or her
will to tackle challenges instead of avoiding or re-
jecting them:
“Competence refers to the motivation and ability of a
person to further develop know-how and skills in a field
independently such that a high level is achieved that
can be characterized as expertise” (BERGMANN / FRITSCH /
GÖPFERT ET AL. 2000, 21).
Handbook of TVET Research
One refers to expertise if the result of competence
development was successful. A professional expert
as the result of successful competence develop-
ment is of particular interest for vocational ↑ train-
ing research.
3.4.2.2 The Demand for Competence
Who demands competence and what is expected of
those possessing competence? At the top of the list
here are companies with modern forms of organi-
sation in which at the same time more has changed
at a faster pace and in a more profound fashion
in recent decades than ever before (see BAETHGE /
SCHIERSMANN 1998, 16). These changes are found
in new management concepts (e. g. lean produc-
tion, business process reengineering) and organ-
isational procedures (e. g. continuous improve-
ment process (CIP), Total ↑ Quality Management
(TQM)) by which “high quality, greater proximity
to customers, more rapid innovation and more in-
expensive pricing” (ibid., 21) are to be achieved si-
multaneously. Despite the diversity of the specif-
ic implementation of these concepts, one can as-
sume that all of them place greater focus on profes-
sionally qualified workers (meaning skilled work-
ers, technicians, master craftsmen as well as engi-
neers). This means that in companies the skills of
professionally qualified workers which contribute
to making the company organisation able to react
appropriately and quickly, also to unforeseen situ-
ations (special customer demands, altered market
situations, etc.), are increasingly fostered and de-
manded.
In the past the individual duties of professional-
ly qualified workers were defined as separate ar-
eas of responsibility on the basis of a rather Tay-
lorist division of labour; and unforeseen situations
occurred less frequently because the inside of the
company was systematically screened off from the
random workings of the market. Nowadays the ar-
eas of responsibility of professionally qualified
workers are less segmented and less isolated from
each other as well as with respect to the custom-
ers and thus the market. As a result, a stochastic
element reaches deep into company organisations
and a flexible and independent response to new and
unforeseen situations is required of professional-
ly qualified workers. However, the organisational
Areas of VET Research
ability to react flexibly to new situations cannot be
realised through a single ↑ organisational develop-
ment measure. Instead, a permanent development
process, which can be designated as ↑ organisation-
al learning, is required (regarding the concept see
ARGYRIS / SCHÖN 1978; regarding the empirical con-
tent see FISCHER / RÖBEN 2002a). Besides specialist
know-how and a specialised ability to act, ↑ partic-
ipation in organisational development is also de-
manded of the working individual. From the per-
spective of the requirement of companies to make
use of the skills of working individuals to a much
greater extent than previously, the qualification
concept applied to date proves to be inadequate in
that it focuses on certificates of institutional learn-
ing. However, competence does not mean having
a formal final qualification, but signifies that pro-
fessionally qualified workers act in an active, self-
controlled manner that is characterised by entre-
preneurial thinking in lean organisations. There-
fore, competence refers to a disposition of the sub-
ject, not a status based on possession of formal re-
quirements (ERPENBECK / ROSENSTIEL 2003a).
The impacts of the described corporate develop-
ments, which certainly manifest themselves differ-
ently in the various sectors, are nevertheless statis-
tically significant. For example, it can be seen that
occupational positions are enhanced with qualified
functions. The quantitative data of employment
↑ statistics indicate a growth in the significance of
(a) “qualified specialised work”,
(b) “specialised work with ↑ management tasks”
and
(c) “highly qualified work”.
If one sets the value of 1985 to 100, a figure of 117
was reached for (a), 110 for (b) and 122 for (c) in the
year 2000. The forecasts for 2010 assume a contin-
uation of this trend (data from BOLDER 2002, 655).
Another argument for the meaning of competence
developed here is furnished by the discussion con-
cerning ↑ lifelong learning. The conception that
used to be quite common among professionally
qualified workers, i.e. that the (institutional) learn-
ing process comes to an end with the acquisition of
a certificate, is now vehemently rejected by com-
panies. Social science studies show that the con-
stant readiness to learn on the part of professional-
ly qualified workers (based on intentional and in-
373
stitutional learning) – more the exception than the
rule in the past and usually bound up with the ex-
pectation of a professional career step – is increas-
ingly specified by many enterprises as a standard
for nearly all employees (BAETHGE / SCHIERSMANN
1998).
3.4.2.3 The Suppliers of Competence
As a consequence of this development, profession-
ally qualified workers today have to demonstrate
competence. In companies the necessity of dem-
onstrating competence is installed by virtue of the
fact that the competence of the staff is regular-
ly evaluated. For instance, superiors observe the
professionally qualified employees working under
them for a year and evaluate their observations ac-
cording to a system agreed upon in the company.
This does not take place in a concealed manner
by any means, but on the basis of a set of tools co-
ordinated with the works councils (an overview is
provided by ERPENBECK /ROSENSTIEL 2003b) that is
openly accessible to everyone and, furthermore, is
also applied to everyone (also to managers who are
also evaluated by their staff, e. g. by means of a so-
called 360° feedback, see SCHERM 2003). Thus, the
skilled workers know what is expected of them. In
an employee talk, which usually takes place on an
annual basis, the result of this observation is made
known, discussed and an attempt is made to reach
agreement on the evaluation and then, again joint-
ly, to draw conclusions regarding further compe-
tence development.
Vocational training (and this applies to initial and
further training) has therefore not only concen-
trated on imparting know-how and methods since
the reorganisation back in the 1980s, but has also
worked up concepts for competence development
of individuals, particularly in connection with the
↑ key qualifications debate (e. g. the concept of ho-
listic vocational training LIPSMEIER 1989). This
not only results from the requirements of compa-
nies, but only from the social (see the discussion
on the impacts of ↑ globalisation) and family-relat-
ed (e. g. due to the mastering of patchwork biog-
raphies) challenges, as is clearly indicated by the
KMK definition of the competence to act cited at
the beginning.
374
A decisive prerequisite for the development of com-
petence is an interest in the objects of the domain
in which competence is to be developed and thus a
readiness on the part of the individual to critically
appraise the objects, problems and processes of the
domain on a constant basis. If competence devel-
opment is not left up to the contingent interest of
an individual, a moral superstructure is needed to
foster the motivation of the individual for his or
her competence development. This can be initiat-
ed by the company and comes into effect, for ex-
ample, through the identification of the individual
with the company. This mechanism has been ob-
served at virtually all traditional German compa-
nies (e. g. Hoechst, Siemens, VW, etc.), but an ero-
sion of this principle due to massive dismissals and
corporate restructuring measures has set in during
the period of economic crisis. Another mechanism
that is still important for competence development
in Germany is ↑ vocational identity, which, howev-
er, is also subject to considerable erosion processes
(see, among others, LIPSMEIER 1998). An attempt
is made to counteract this mechanism with con-
cepts of competence development that endeavour
to impart vocational identity by conveying three
concepts for mastering technology, skilled work
and the rules of social organization of skilled work
(BREMER 2004a).
3.4.2.4 The Determination of Competence
In contrast to formal qualifications, certification of
which requires that knowledge and skills be dem-
onstrated in previously defined situations, empir-
ical demonstration of competence is significantly
more difficult. The best way to determine wheth-
er someone can solve problems or is able to cope
with unfamiliar situations is by observing the per-
son. This leads to the conclusion that competence
cannot in fact be certified, but can only be eval-
uated (see BERNIEN 1997, 19). Therefore, in com-
pany practice, as mentioned above, many meth-
ods for evaluating the competence development of
employees are tested and applied (an overview is
provided by ERPENBECK / ROSENSTIEL 2003b). Since
the determination of competence has to cope with
the same problems as the measurement of compe-
tence, reference is made to the essay of Haasler/
Erpenbeck (→ 5.2.6) for further details.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.4.2.5 The Development of Competence
To be able to develop the competences of an in-
dividual, a fundamental requirement must be kept
in mind:
“In contrast to the demand for adaptation, however, the
demand for independence on the part of the worker has
a fundamental restriction: independence cannot be pre-
scribed by others. It cannot be compulsorily imposed,
but depends on the willingness, voluntary nature and
own actions of the worker” (BRATER / BAUER 1990, 54,
quoted from ARNOLD 1997a, 266).
This means that all measures for competence de-
velopment have to focus on the subject’s own ac-
tions of the subject to be developed if they want to
be successful. This has far-reaching consequenc-
es for the learning culture: learners have to experi-
ence every competence-promoting measure as one
that they carry out in their own interest and whose
benefits are clearly perceptible for them.
However, knowledge of this precondition does not
constitute a basis for determining how to design
measures for competence development. To be able
to shape such measures, it is necessary to devel-
op a conception of what competence entails. If one
makes use of the literature for its determination,
however, a problem arises:
“Discussions on diverse competencies have one thing in
common with the never-ending debates over key qualifi-
cations: no one knows what they ‘actually’ are” (HEYSE /
ERPENBECK 1997, 8, quoted from BOLDER 2002, 651).
Without a precise definition of competence, this
term faces a similar fate as that of ↑ key qualifica-
tion, which degenerated into an empty word shell
due to the randomness of its use. Proof for this the-
sis is the construction of word combinations, such
as ↑ key competences, which do not coincidental-
ly bring to mind the key qualifications with which
Mertens conceived “theses for training for a mod-
ern society” in 1974. The risk of dilution of the
substance of the term competence is also based on
the fact that it is used to pursue a similar goal as
with the term key qualification. Mertens described
this goal right at the beginning of his well-known
essay:
“Training for existence in a modern society has three
dimensions: training for coping with and unfold-
ing one’s personality, training for establishing a vo-
cational existence, training for social behaviour”
(MERTENS 1974, 36).
Areas of VET Research
According to Mertens, the problem that was to be
eliminated through the “training” was the inability
of the education system to react in an appropriate
manner to the growth of knowledge in the various
vocational domains. Mertens infers from the cor-
rectly perceived problem a problematic solution:
“The solution lies […] in the search for common
third aspects of work and other environmental re-
quirements”. This refers to higher-ranking educa-
tional goals and training elements from which one
expects that they will enable the individual to de-
velop “changing special know-how” quickly and
smoothly. Instead of training a person for a certain
situation, the personality was to be developed for a
large number of situations through the well-known
key qualifications.
In the development of curricula for the develop-
ment of key qualifications, however, there is a risk
that as a result of an ↑ abstraction from the real
challenges which an individual has to tackle, ab-
stract skills, such as logical thinking, mathemati-
cal skills or the ability to procure information, will
be promoted. In one of the most prominent com-
pany implementation examples, the PETRA con-
cept at Siemens, in-house training concentrated on
formal key qualifications that were made the yard-
stick for each ↑ performance of tasks on the part
of the trainees, such as “organization and execu-
tion of the exercise”, “communication and coop-
eration”, “application of learning and mental work
techniques”, “independence and responsibility” as
well as “capacity to handle stress” (K LEIN 1990).
The concentration on skills that could be designat-
ed as meta-skills, because they cannot be learned
directly, led to a development that resulted in ne-
gating its starting point: due to the high number
of key qualifications – 600 key qualifications were
counted by Resse in 1995 (R ESSE 1995, cited ac-
cording to BERNIEN 1997, 27) – it becomes evident
that the general aspect in the many different “key
qualifications” was not perceived.
In view of this background, one can say that the
concept of key qualifications has failed, but nev-
ertheless the problem pointed out by Mertens re-
mains: training of the new generation of vocation-
al trainees must, on the one hand, guarantee that
concrete skills are conveyed enabling the workers
to meet the specific work requirements. Further-
375
more, however, development of the so-called me-
ta-skills is also necessary since otherwise it is not
possible to keep up with the rapid change in spe-
cific requirements.
In the vocational education and vocational re-
search debate today a distinction can be made be-
tween two important principles on which modern
curricula are based in order to achieve this goal:
orientation to a subject-related logic and orienta-
tion to a development logic.
In the concept of subject-based logic it is presumed
that general technical principles can perform the
function of ↑ key qualifications. In the ↑ occupation-
al field of electrical engineering, for example, one
should be able to derive the properties and modes
of operation of specific components and circuits
from the principles of electrophysics. Since the
principles of electrophysics do not change, but the
concrete components do, by learning electrophys-
ics one has created a “basis” that is suitable for re-
acting to changing demands. However, this educa-
tional principle conflicts with the reality of learn-
ing in that in the given training practice learners
evidently do not acquire any of the universally ap-
plicable principles, but rather “inert knowledge”
(GRUBER / RENKL 2000) that is not applied in coping
with the changing demands.
As an alternative to this, other curriculum develop-
ers attempt to reconstruct the process of develop-
ment from a beginner to an expert, examined em-
pirically via expertise research, through the curric-
ulum (BENNER 1995; RAUNER 1999a). Two require-
ments are to be met in this way. Firstly, the train-
ing period should be used for learning that contrib-
utes to building up professional competence to act.
Secondly, the competence to act should be expand-
ed to a skilled level through systematic extension
of the requirements.
The discussion of these two principles pursued in
the literature under the heading of systematic vs.
casuistic learning (e. g. BRUCHHÄUSER 2001) then
misses the mark if it denies the casuistry of the
first principle and the systematic framework of the
second. Even if subject-based curricula are orient-
ed to the systematic framework of the sciences on
which they are based, they cannot ignore the ne-
cessity of orientation to vocational work as well.
Every ↑ set of training rules and every basic curric-
376
ulum are always only a compromise between a sys-
tematic framework and work requirements.
On the other hand, the development logic approach
also pursues a systematic framework that is only in
part the framework of the science forming the ba-
sis. The results of expertise research still to be pre-
sented verify that an expert based on subject-based
knowledge and ↑ empirical knowledge develops
new stores of knowledge whose structure follows
a different logic from that in the subject-based sys-
tem (BROMME 1992, 45).
So how does the competence of an expert develop?
In an empirical analysis of an expert the study con-
centrates on the structures of the latter’s abilities
and perception. The will and readiness to apply his
or her skills as well as the constant endeavour to
continue learning are treated as prerequisites for
developing expertise.
3.4.2.6 Expertise
In comparison to a novice, an expert is character-
ised by a specific quality of his or her knowledge.
This quality will initially be defined on the basis
of the findings of expertise research on chess, but
furthermore also on the basis of examples that are
much more closely related to ↑ vocational compe-
tence to act than chess (GRUBER / ZIEGLER 1996; GRU-
BER 1999; 2001; CHI / GLASER / FARR 1988).
Here chess stands for domains in which experts
can easily be recognized by their outstanding
↑ performance. A chess expert, for example, beats a
novice not only in the game, but also in the psycho-
logical settings that were developed to determine
the special perception of experts in chess. Chess
experts are thus able to reconstruct a situation that
was shown to them for only a short time before-
hand with significantly more pieces than novices.
The explanation for this is not that the expert has a
better general memory, as could be presumed, but
that he or she has a better object-based memory,
i.e. one for chess positions. Although the number
of positions of the chess pieces is used to meas-
ure the difference between novices and experts,
it is not the individual positions that make up the
memory content, but the positions as a whole. Af-
ter all, the superiority of an expert manifests itself
only in meaningful configurations of chess pieces
that may also occur in actual games. In the case of
Handbook of TVET Research
meaningless positions, an expert does not remem-
ber significantly more than a novice.
On the chessboard an expert perceives a structure
that, unlike the position of the pieces involved,
cannot be perceived by everyone. Only if one has
the knowledge of an expert, is it possible to per-
ceive the structure. This knowledge is obtained
from different sources: on the one hand, from the
knowledge of the rules and, on the other hand,
from the ↑ empirical knowledge acquired in many
games. The rules here have the function of bound-
ary conditions, which cannot be violated, but they
do not supply any instructions on strategy and tac-
tics of the game. However, the sense and signif-
icance of a position result precisely from its re-
lationship to the goal pursued by the player. The
paramount goal is to win the game. But to achieve
that, subgoals have to be formed, such as setting
up attack and defence positions which, however,
cannot come into being independent of the actions
of the opponent. The significance of positions re-
sults only from the practice of pursuing, achieving
or not achieving these subgoals and at the same
time it points to the process of gathering experi-
ence in that knowledge of the rules (part of the ex-
pertise of chess players) is combined with experi-
ence. Action-guiding knowledge is formed in the
process of combining abstract knowledge (e. g. the
rules) with experience. This knowledge is applied
to actually play the game (and not, for instance,
to explain or comment on it) and it can be charac-
terised by the term ↑ implicit knowledge: it is ef-
fective for taking action, but its ↑ effectiveness is
based on the execution of the action and not on its
verbalization. Everyone possesses implicit knowl-
edge, for example when one recognizes faces. Usu-
ally one can recognize a face much better than de-
scribe or draw it. Here we refer to knowledge in the
sense that a person knows what someone else looks
like. However, his or her knowledge is not based
on knowing the exact positions of eyes, nose and
mouth, but their arrangement as a whole, name-
ly as a face. This ability to integrate details into a
whole is an accomplishment of the mind that al-
so manifests itself in the integration of detailed
knowledge into overall knowledge. This overall
knowledge will be referred to as a concept in the
following and knowledge that is based on the con-
Areas of VET Research
cept and the special relationship of the individual
element of knowledge to the whole will be called
conceptual knowledge.
Experts are characterised by the fact that they have
conceptual knowledge that not only has an effect
on the perception of structures (e. g. in chess), but
also on the ability to act (HACKER 1992; 1996).
In psychology the acquisition of competence (here
in the sense of skill or expertise) is viewed as the
transformation of declarative knowledge into pro-
cedural knowledge. This process is explained in
the so-called ACT model (ANDERSON 1982), for ex-
ample, that declarative knowledge is transformed
through processes of compilation of knowledge
(composition and proceduralisation of declara-
tive knowledge units) and fine tuning (GRUBER
2001, 313). This process can be illustrated on the
basis of studies in the field of medicine. During
their studies physicians acquire declarative knowl-
edge via various examination methods. Through
their experience with ↑ diagnosis in clinical or out-
patient practice their knowledge is altered quali-
tatively: the declarative, biomedical knowledge
is turned into a specific form of proceduralized
knowledge (so-called “illness scripts”). This new
type of knowledge enables physicians to make di-
agnoses quickly and effectively without calling to
mind extensive biomedical knowledge. On the ba-
sis of these results of expertise research, Schmidt
and Boshuizen (1993) have developed a theory that
explains how experience-based learning leads to
competence development. According to this the-
ory, several phases take place. In the first phase
causal, biomedical knowledge is collected regard-
ing diseases and their consequences. Through ex-
perience this knowledge is identified and so-called
“illness scripts” are built up. This knowledge is of
an episodic nature and displays a narrative struc-
ture. As competence is built up, declarative knowl-
edge does not disappear, however, but merely ceas-
es being the centre of focus.
During development of the competence of a phy-
sician the significance of the various forms of
knowledge change for the making of diagnoses.
The more experience a physician has, the less im-
portant the role of declarative biomedical knowl-
edge in the ↑ diagnosis. Instead, generalized, case-
related schemas are developed into which ↑ empiri-
377
cal knowledge and biomedical knowledge are inte-
grated. Thus, biomedical knowledge exists in “en-
capsulated” form. In these knowledge capsules bi-
omedical knowledge is no longer context-free, but
integrated into the case-related schema. In the case
of a diagnosis, these schemas are activated and ex-
amined, i.e. the diagnosis does not begin with con-
text-free knowledge of biomedicine. However,
context-free knowledge does not become superflu-
ous by any means, but is updated case by case, es-
pecially if the application of a schema leads to a
result that contradicts other knowledge about the
case to be diagnosed. Furthermore, this shows us
that the psychological description of the judgement
and conclusion of experts in the form of scripts and
schema must by no means be understood as signi-
fying that thinking is therefore superfluous and can
be replaced, for example by computers (↑ expert
systems). All attempts in this regard have failed up
to now and the decisive reason is that human ex-
perts assess the result of their script on the basis
of content. Experts in particular are characterized
by a critical attitude towards their own judgements
and conclusions.
The view that action-related knowledge is the re-
sult of the transformation of academic knowledge
is contradicted in parts of vocational ↑ training re-
search (RAUNER 2004b, 76 f.). Instead of a trans-
formation of existing knowledge, the original qual-
ity of ↑ practical knowledge is pointed out here and
“only minor significance is attached” to theoretical
knowledge, which is dismissed as “book knowl-
edge” (see ibid.). However, there are currently very
few vocational research studies that have explicit-
ly focused on the relationship between scientific or
academic knowledge and practical knowledge (for
chemistry, for instance, FISCHER / RÖBEN 2002b) and
a concept of knowledge based on vocational educa-
tion research that would enable a justified distinc-
tion between scientific knowledge, “book knowl-
edge”, specialized knowledge, practical knowl-
edge, ↑ work process knowledge (see → 3.6.; RÖ-
BEN 2001), etc. has not been formulated yet either.
Even the psychology of knowledge cannot be ex-
pected to be of assistance in this connection since
a concept of knowledge based on vocational edu-
cation research must primarily be oriented to the
content of knowledge while psychology predomi-
378
nantly focuses on the forms of organization of this
knowledge (see HACKER /JILGE 1993).
3.4.2.7 Expertise and Domain
Shanteau divides domains into two categories
that are distinguished on the basis of ↑ perform-
ance that is either easy or difficult to character-
ize. The category of performance that is easy to
characterise includes the domains of chess, phys-
ics and mathematics. It is easy even for non-ex-
perts of the respective domains to distinguish ex-
perts in these domains from novices. The situation
in the category of experts with performance that is
difficult to characterize is different: clinical psy-
chologists, psychiatrists, behaviourists, consult-
ants, judges, human resources managers (for staff
selection) and also medical specialists (according
to the study, SHANTEAU 1992). There is evidently
a relationship between domain and the extent of
the expertise, though this issue hardly a subject of
discussion in the field of psychology, however, be-
cause the inner structure of a domain is not a fo-
cus of interest of this discipline. By the same to-
ken, frequently a distinction is not made in psy-
chological studies between the theoretical knowl-
edge of the corresponding scientific discipline and
the knowledge of the experts, which is criticised
by Bromme (BROMME 1992). Bromme develops the
concept of categorical perception based on an ap-
praisal of a large number of studies on expertise
research and on his own studies on the expertise
of teachers: this refers to perception through the
application of knowledge, as has already been de-
scribed for the perception of chess positions. The
categorical perception of an expert is determined
by a more extensive stock of concepts that guide
the perception (BROMME 1992, 43).
In his examination of the special quality of expert
knowledge Bromme comes to an interesting con-
clusion:
“A remarkable result of expertise research is the par-
tial failure in the search for predictors of task perform-
ance success that are independent of knowledge. It is not
the number of anticipated moves in chess and not the
number of illness hypotheses elaborated that distinguish
experts from their comparative groups. Rather it is the
content of their considerations, perception of the prob-
lem and situation and their hypotheses” (ibid., 44).
Handbook of TVET Research
Some of the features described by researchers as
special signs of expertise manifest themselves in
experts only in the field of their expertise (the do-
main). However, experts also develop skills that
help them to act in a manner superior to novices
in fields that initially do not represent the core ar-
ea of their expertise. Studies by Dörner show that
although experts cannot solve problems not origi-
nating in their own domain at first glance, they can
arrive at superior solutions because they analyze
the problem better and plan their steps more me-
ticulously and question the results of their initiated
steps more critically (DÖRNER 1996). These results
contradict Becker’s view (2003, 246). Against the
background of an in-depth study on the diagnos-
tic work of motor vehicle experts, he comes to the
conclusion “that no meta-cognitive structures can
exist”.
Defining the domain proves to be one of the prob-
lems that expertise research has not been able to
solve thus far. Expertise researchers assume in ac-
cordance with Bromme that expert knowledge rep-
resents a
“more or less good reproduction of clearly giv-
en specialist knowledge of a scientific discipline”
(BROMME 1992, 45).
However, Bromme criticises the equating of the
specialized knowledge of a discipline with expert
knowledge. For example, he refers to the case-spe-
cific integration of the knowledge of different dis-
ciplines, which was found in the studies and, as
a special characteristic of an expert, is not abso-
lutely identical with field-related knowledge. Nev-
ertheless, one could view the integration of knowl-
edge not specifically related to a discipline as an
addition, though findings of medical studies con-
tradict this assumption of addition in that they sug-
gest that expert knowledge is a qualitatively new
kind of knowledge. Knowledge from a discipline
is transformed during the development into an ex-
pert, but hardly any studies are available at present
on the type of transformation. In addition, the term
transformation tends to suggest that it is known
how experts utilise and apply their knowledge for
their actions. The simple model of knowledge that
guides actions has been firmly rejected by Neu-
weg (NEUWEG 1999). Clarification of the connec-
tion between the store of knowledge of a natural or
Areas of VET Research
↑ engineering science, the related store of knowl-
edge of an ↑ occupational field and the knowledge
of an expert acting in this occupational field is one
of the original and current ↑ fields of research of
the ↑ vocational sciences (e. g. occupational field
of ↑ metalworking technology: BECKER 2003;
HAASLER 2004; electrical engineering: DRESCHER
1996; ↑ chemical engineering: NIETHAMMER 1995b;
RÖBEN / SIEBECK 2002; FISCHER / RÖBEN 2002b).
3.4.3 Cooperation between
Learning Venues and
Training Partnerships
Günter Walden
3.4.3.1 Definition of Terms
According to Pätzold (1999b), ↑ cooperation be-
tween learning venues is defined as
“the collaboration of teaching and training staff at learn-
ing venues involved in vocational education and training
in technological, organisational and educational terms”
(PÄTZOLD 1999b, 286).
In the view of the German Educational Coun-
cil, the primary definition of learning venues is
that they are “recognised institutions within the
scope of the public education system” (DEUTSCHER
BILDUNGSRAT 1974). As far as vocational education
and training in Germany is concerned, this refers
to companies, ↑ vocational schools, ↑ inter-company
training centres and other training centres. These
institutions themselves also house various, separa-
bly definable learning venues fulfilling different
educational functions. In the case of companies, a
differentiation has to be made at the very least be-
tween the workplace, the training workshop and
the teaching or instruction room. The use of the
term learning venue has, to some extent, been the
object of explicit criticism within the vocational
education and training debate (BECK 1984). It can-
not be denied that this term is not defined in very
clear terms and that very different legal, institu-
tional and organisational terms of reference apply
to potential learning venues. Notwithstanding this,
the use of the term learning venue directs atten-
tion to the important issue of where, “under what
379
conditions for which target groups with which
learning aims ‘the best’ learning can take place”
(MÜNCH 1995, 95). The result of this has been the
establishment of the concept of the learning venue
as the basis for broadly based research into learn-
ing venues, issues relating to cooperation forming
a particular object of this research.
Investigations into cooperation between learning
venues frequently focus on the relationships be-
tween quite specific places of learning, such as
companies and vocational schools or vocational
schools and inter-company training centres. Co-
operation between different companies providing
training is the origin of the term training ↑ partner-
ship (MEYER / SCHWIEDRZIK 1987). ↑ Training part-
nerships are a specific form of ↑ training alliance in
which the companies involved conclude their own
training contracts, but contract out to other compa-
nies those elements of training which they are not
able to provide themselves (SCHLOTTAU / RASKOPP /
BRANDES 2003, 2). ↑ Training partnerships are fre-
quently referred to as training consortia, where the
companies see themselves “as members of a con-
sortium in the legal sense of a syndicate pursuing
a joint and common purpose within the meaning
of § 705 of the German Civil Code (BGB)” (R AU-
NER 2003c, 8). In view of the extent of the provi-
sion the companies need to make in terms of co-
operation, the demands of this form of training are
higher than is the case with other types of training
alliance such as a local training initiative involv-
ing a lead company and partner companies, out-
sourced training or training associations. The pri-
mary aim of this paper will be to look at the co-
operative relationships between individual compa-
nies in terms of training alliances rather than fo-
cussing on a general consideration of the problems
relating to the support and organisation of training
initiatives. Having said that, however, it is likely,
in practice, that ↑ specific training alliance models
cannot always be definitely allocated to one of the
basic forms stated above.
Cooperation between learning venues is not strictly
limited to ↑ initial vocational education and train-
ing. It also applies in the case of continuing train-
ing. Vocational education and ↑ training research
in Germany in recent years has largely focussed
on issues relating to cooperation within initial vo-
380
cational education and training. Due to the com-
pletely different nature of the terms of reference
applying in continuing training, this chapter will
deal exclusively with cooperation in the field of in-
itial vocational education and training, as already
indicated by the use of the terms ‘cooperation be-
tween learning venues’ and ‘training partnerships’.
In line with the research work carried out in this
field, cooperation between training venues will be
mainly considered in relation to the various train-
ing centres and institutions involved in vocation-
al education and training. There will be a particu-
lar focus on the cooperative relationships between
companies, ↑ vocational schools (→ 3.3.8.2) and
↑ inter-company training centres and on those be-
tween companies themselves. The study is limited
to the situation in Germany.
3.4.3.2 Objects and Aims of Research
The objects of research in this field are usually
various aspects of cooperation between individu-
al ↑ learning venues and general functional defini-
tions of the role of cooperation within vocational
education and training. A consideration of the re-
search aims pursued enables the following differ-
entiation of thematic aspects:
– Basic theoretical principles of cooperation
The necessity of cooperation between learning
venues, the tasks assigned to the process and the
extent, content and form of the cooperation are
identified within the scope of vocational education
and ↑ training research. There is, however, no com-
prehensive and consistent theory relating to coop-
eration between learning venues.
– Cooperation in practice
Vocational education and training research carries
out studies into the existing range of cooperation
between learning venues, analyses the relevant
factors influencing this cooperation and considers
the issue of the effects of these cooperative activ-
ities on vocational training. This research focus-
es equally on identifying the differences between
various areas of vocational training, determining
the significance of varying initial conditions and
approaches and the individual analysis of selected
fields of vocational training.
– Extending cooperation
Normative ideas and practical findings emerging
Handbook of TVET Research
from cooperation projects, or deficits identified in
the course of the latter, form the investigative basis
of possible extension and improvement of cooper-
ation. This process also includes the development
of concrete proposals for the creation of appropri-
ate terms of reference for an improved level of co-
operation in practice.
– Development of practice related models
Vocational education and training research ulti-
mately develops practice related models to pro-
duce a good level of cooperation. This process in-
volves the consideration of the specific conditions
prevailing within the various areas of vocational
training.
The amount of literature available relating to the
individual learning venues involved in vocational
training and the various aspects of ↑ cooperation
between learning venues has now reached extensive
proportions (see EULER 2003d). A large number of
↑ pilot projects on cooperation between learning
venues have been conducted, for example, some
of these tackling very specific issues (EULER, D.
ET AL. 1999; HOLZ / R AU NER / WALDEN 1998). Lack of
space means that this chapter can only address the
most important ↑ fields of research and lines of de-
velopment within the area of cooperation between
learning venues.
3.4.3.3 History and Current Status of
Research
The following section will consider the research
carried out into cooperation between learning ven-
ues and training ↑ partnerships in terms of three
main thematic focuses. Firstly, a consideration of
the aspects of cooperation primarily relating to co-
operation between vocational schools and compa-
nies within the framework of the ↑ dual system of
vocational education and training will be under-
taken. This also includes cooperation between vo-
cational schools and inter-company training cen-
tres. This will be followed by a look at cooperation
between the companies themselves within ↑ train-
ing alliances. Finally, the possibilities of cooper-
ation at the level of regional vocational training
alliances will be dealt with. One thing to bear in
mind is that research work conducted on cooper-
ation cannot necessarily be automatically allocat-
ed to one of the above-mentioned ↑ research fields.
Areas of VET Research
The tendency is for there to be a considerable level
of overlap. The role of vocational schools is some-
times highlighted in this way in studies of training
alliances (as was the case in HOWE / HEERMEYER /
HEUERMANN 1998). However, many of the research
projects carried out can be allocated to one of the
three fields, at least in terms of their main thrust.
Cooperation between Companies and Voca-
tional Schools
The direct necessity for cooperation on the part of
the two major players within the ↑ dual system of
vocational education and training results from the
fact that both ↑ learning venues are pursuing a stip-
ulated goal – the successful conclusion of train-
ing. From this can be deduced that a certain min-
imum level of cooperation between learning ven-
ues will be required to enable such an aim to be
achieved (WALDEN 1996, 30). For this reason, the
role of issues relating to cooperation between com-
panies and ↑ vocational schools goes back to the
early history of the dual system (SCHMIDT, H. W.
2003; → 3.3.3.2). Cooperation between learning
venues made its first appearance as an object of
research in the 1970s, at a time when the intro-
duction of block scheduling into teaching at voca-
tional schools was putting the idea of more inten-
sive cooperation between learning venues on the
debate agenda and the level of cooperation in vo-
cational education and training was being subject-
ed to empirical study (SCHWIEDRZIK 1980; FRANKE /
K LEINSCHMITT 1979).
The period following this saw aspects of cooper-
ation between learning venues being expanded to
include a wide range of issues (PÄTZOLD 1990), in
the 1990s becoming the object of wide-ranging
empirical studies (PÄTZOLD / WALDEN 1995; PÄT-
ZOLD /DREES / THIELE 1998; PÄTZOLD / WALDEN 1999).
This process involved the establishment of a sys-
tematic correlation of cooperation between learn-
ing venues and the changing requirements of voca-
tional training and a modernisation of the system
of vocational education and training (cf. PÄTZOLD
1995d; 1999c; WALDEN 1996; 1999c). Particular
reference is made to the way in which the pursuit
of the joint aim of professional action competence
brought about a blurring of the edges between the
conventional division of functions between com-
381
panies and vocational schools (vocational school
= theory, company = practice), necessitating a new
arrangement to be established between the learn-
ing venues in the form of a greater level of cooper-
ation. New training goals such as holistic thinking,
the ability to work as part of a team and independ-
ence cannot be achieved at individual learning
venues in isolation, thus rendering greater ↑ coop-
eration between learning venues a necessity. The
rapid pace of change in working methods and pro-
cedures has also increased reliance on close con-
tact with working practice for vocational schools
wishing to provide up-to-date teaching.
A range of typologies has been developed to de-
scribe the status of cooperation between learning
venues achieved within vocational training prac-
tice and to identify the level of cooperation with-
in vocational education and ↑ training research.
Buschfeld and Euler (1992, 26 ff.) employ a se-
ries of intensity levels to differentiate the exchange
of information on the part of teachers and train-
ers on expectations, experiences and problems in
everyday training, the coordination of ↑ vocational
training action and collaboration on jointly agreed
projects. The typology developed by Pätzold
(1991b) is based on the underlying understanding
of cooperation on the part of the two partners in-
volved. A differentiation is made between types
of understanding which are pragmatically formal,
pragmatically utilitarian, didactically based and
training theory based. Only the last two named
can be viewed as instrumental in the creation of
cooperation projects based on vocational educa-
tion practice. Berger and Walden (1995) added to
these two theoretically derived cooperation typol-
ogies by developing a typology to describe identifi-
able patterns of cooperation within vocational ed-
ucation and training practice, basing their work on
an empirical study focussing on the criteria of fre-
quency of contact, scope of cooperation and con-
tent of cooperation. In ascending order of intensity
of cooperation, the following five types are differ-
entiated: no cooperative contact, sporadic cooper-
ative activities, continuous problem induced activi-
ties, continuously advanced activities and continu-
ously constructive activities.
Studies carried out on cooperation between learn-
ing venues in practice come to the unanimous con-
382
clusion that such cooperation does not in most cas-
es meet vocational training requirements. In his
critical review of the studies carried out in this ar-
ea, Eckert (2003b, 113) states,
“that high quality vocational training cooperation be-
tween training venues which has been thoroughly
thought through in didactic and training theory terms
represents very much the exception”.
Cooperation between companies and ↑ vocation-
al schools mainly occurs when ongoing issues re-
quire clarification or difficulties within the train-
ing process need to be overcome. Methodological
and didactic matters are of lesser importance on
most occasions. The process is dominated by con-
tacts which have been established with the other
↑ learning venue on an individual basis, as opposed
to organised types of cooperation in the form of
cross-venue committees and working groups. Al-
though really exemplary forms of cooperation and
forms of cooperation which adequately meet voca-
tional training requirements tend to be the excep-
tion, the situation in practice is characterised by
a wide range of directions and approaches, rath-
er than the pursuit of any kind of uniform pattern
(cf. WALDEN 1999b). Depending on the specific in-
fluencing factors involved, this gives rise to a wide
variety of approaches being adopted in vocation-
al education and training practice. The size of the
company providing training and the regulated oc-
cupation forming the object of training are thus of
considerable significance to the intensity of coop-
eration (WALDEN 1999b, 150).
Vocational education training and research has
identified considerable obstacles to intensive coop-
eration. A differentiation needs to be made between
structural, institutional and personnel factors in
this respect (WALDEN 1999a, 379). The structural
component applies to the reciprocal compartmen-
talisation of the systems of ‘companies’ and ‘voca-
tional schools’. The effect of this is that vocational
education and training within the ↑ dual system is
often structured along the lines of two parallel, au-
tonomous systems (EULER / TWARDY 1992). In insti-
tutional terms, the working conditions of trainers
and teachers are frequently not conducive to an in-
tensive form of cooperation. Finally, factors relat-
ing to personnel need to be mentioned, such as the
way in which trainers and teachers perceive their
Handbook of TVET Research
roles, no particular value often being accorded to
cooperation with the other learning venue.
The studies which have been carried out have
formed the basis for a range of proposals aimed at
bringing about an improvement in conditions for
an intensive level of cooperation between learning
venues (cf. in particular PÄTZOLD 1999a; WALDEN
1999a). Especially worthy of mention here is the
establishment of general conditions to support
trainers and ↑ vocational school teachers, such as
the provision of resources and time. Further plans
include the creation of new organisational forms
(in particular, joint working groups for trainers and
vocational school teachers, joint continuing train-
ing events and in-company work experience pro-
grammes for teachers). This also includes the es-
tablishment of coordinating centres for the initia-
tion and sustained integration of processes of coop-
eration (WALDEN / BRANDES 1995, 142). If ↑ coopera-
tion between learning venues is to meet vocational
training needs, the development of methodologi-
cal and didactic instruments to improve interaction
between learning venues will ultimately also be re-
quired. Particular reference should be made here to
the instrument relating to ↑ learning and working
tasks (HOLZ /KOCH / SCHEMME / WITZGALL 1998).
Proposals for the extension of cooperation between
learning venues are largely directed towards those
stakeholders responsible for vocational education
and ↑ training policy. There has been some reaction
from this quarter in the form of recommendations
(such as the recommendations put forward by the
board of the Federal Institute for Vocational Edu-
cation and Training in 1997) and initiatives aimed
at improving the level of cooperation. In Baden-
Württemberg, for example, the regional education
authority and the chambers of commerce and in-
dustry have appointed joint cooperation advisors
to take on responsibility for the organisation of in-
formation and continuing training events for train-
ers and teachers and for the formation of work-
ing groups. Support has been provided for a large
number of ↑ pilot projects, and these have ultimate-
ly led to the development and testing of practice
related concepts for an improved level of cooper-
ation between learning venues. The “kobas” pilot
project (Bau/ Stahl 2002), which was conducted in
Bavaria, represented a broad based attempt to in-
Areas of VET Research
stitutionalise cooperation between learning ven-
ues, the establishment of cooperation centres be-
ing one of the steps undertaken. Reference should
also be made to the programme of emphasis insti-
gated by the Permanent Committee of the Feder-
al Government and the Federal States on ↑ Educa-
tional Planning and Research Promotion: “Coop-
eration of ↑ learning venues in vocational training”
(KOLIBRI)’. These ↑ pilot projects looked at coop-
eration between learning venues within the context
of a range of important fields of vocational training
(EULER 2003b, 21).
The results obtained from vocational training and
research referred to thus far mainly relate to the
relationship between companies and ↑ vocational
schools. In principle, however, these findings can
equally be applied to cooperation between ↑ in-
ter-company training centres and their respective
partners (AUTSCH 1999). The following will deal
with aspects of cooperation between companies
themselves.
Cooperation between Companies
There has been cooperation between companies
providing training and their neighbouring compa-
nies in certain areas throughout the whole of the
history of ↑ in-company training. The basic prin-
ciple is for trainees to go to a neighbouring com-
pany to acquire training content which is stipulat-
ed within the ↑ general training plan, but which the
business processes of the company actually pro-
viding training finds it difficult to provide (RAU-
NER 2003c, 7). Within the context of the endeav-
ours being undertaken to eliminate the lack of ↑ in-
company ↑ training places, this cooperation be-
tween companies has become the object of public
interest and has been allocated the term of ↑ train-
ing alliance (MEYER / SCHWIEDRZIK 1987, 15). If oth-
er learning venues such as inter and extra company
training centres or schools are also included, the
training alliance is also referred to as a ↑ learning
venue alliance (MEYER / SCHWIEDRZIK 1987, 19).
As far back as the 1980s, there were wide-rang-
ing endeavours on the part of public bodies to in-
tegrate training alliances more closely into compa-
ny practice, with the aim of increasing in-compa-
ny provision of training places (see BMBW 1984,
for example). Public support for training allianc-
383
es is playing a significant part in the current cri-
sis on the training places market. One area where
training alliances have been promoted is within
the scope of the Federal Government’s Immediate
Action Programme for Training (R ASKOPP 2002).
The perceived advantages of training alliances are
two-fold. Firstly, in the case of companies hither-
to not capable of providing training because of a
lack of the level of specialisation required, ↑ par-
ticipation in a training alliance can create this very
training ability. Secondly, the reduction in ↑ train-
ing costs generates a generally positive effect on
companies’ willingness to provide training. Voca-
tional education and ↑ training research has main-
ly focussed on the identification of a typology for
training alliances, the development of practice re-
lated models and assistance and recommenda-
tions for companies, investigations into the extent
to which training alliances have established them-
selves within vocational education and training
practice and studies on the ↑ effectiveness of the
use of public funds invested.
It is likely that there are clear differences in the in-
tensity of the level of cooperation between compa-
nies within individual alliance models. It is prob-
able that the involvement of extra company insti-
tutions to deal with issues relating to coordination
and certain sections of training on behalf of the
companies will overshadow the actual cooperation
between the companies themselves. On the oth-
er hand, in the case of a consortium of companies
all with equal rights, also referred to as a training
↑ partnership, companies need to fulfil especially
high requirements in respect of inter-company co-
operation.
Notwithstanding the fact that public interest in the
further expansion of training alliances has been
concentrated on the quantitative aspect of the cre-
ation of additional training places, there has also
always been, since the very outset, a focus on the
quality aspect. Improvement of the quality of train-
ing as an aim of training provided within training
alliances has also gained more and more curren-
cy in public programmes of support (SCHLOTTAU /
RASKOPP / BRANDES 2003, 7). Here it is clear that us-
ing the respective areas of specialisation provided
by companies will enable quality of training to be
increased. Training alliances offer the specific op-
384
portunity of once again placing greater emphasis
on ↑ work process related qualification (HEIDEGGER /
RAUNER 1995). Rauner (2003c) in particular per-
ceives training which takes place away from the
workplace in extra company training institutions
and ↑ in-company training workshops as constitut-
ing a danger to quality of training and views the in-
tensification of ↑ cooperative training as an appro-
priate instrument for strengthening training within
↑ work processes.
Vocational education and ↑ training research is cur-
rently conducting investigations into a wide range
of aspects relating to ↑ training alliances (PAHL /
SCHÜTTE / VERMEHR 2003). The positive quantita-
tive influence of cooperative vocational education
and training together with the effect it has in pro-
moting quality have established it as an object of
academic interest and have meant that it is to some
extent viewed as the “standard model for the or-
ganisation of dual vocational education and train-
ing” (RAUNER 2003c). Investigations into the level
of acceptance of training alliance models in com-
pany practice (SCHLOTTAU / RASKOPP / BRANDES 2003)
have shown that companies which participate see
clear advantages (SCHLOTTAU / RASKOPP / BRANDES
2003, 7). A major advantage in this respect is the
better specialist qualification of the trainees. Nev-
ertheless, these advantages are also accompanied
by disadvantages (such as a lower level of identi-
fication with their home company on the part of
trainees within a training alliance).
Notwithstanding the intensive level of public sup-
port and the assistance in establishing training al-
liances which has been the result of vocational ed-
ucation and training research, such alliances still
represent the exception as far as ↑ in-company
training is concerned. Nevertheless, it is likely that
training ↑ partnerships, which involve a partial lev-
el of cooperation by companies, below the level of
that which would constitute an official training al-
liance, are considerably more widespread.
Regional Vocational Education and Training
Networks
A wider view of aspects of ↑ cooperation between
↑ learning venues and within alliances of learning
venues has recently been taken in the form of the
term ‘regional ↑ vocational education and train-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing networks’. This concept subsumes the wide
range of possible relationships between the various
stakeholders involved in vocational training. A vo-
cational education and training network consists
“of a group of institutions from a region dealing with
training and between which there is a range of relations
such as political influence, exchange of knowledge,
friendship or information technology relationships”
(WILBERS 2003, 417).
This represents another way of addressing the is-
sues of cooperation between different ↑ vocational
schools or between institutions promoting support
for the ↑ disadvantaged to go alongside the cooper-
ation between companies and vocational schools
or between companies themselves within the ↑ dual
system of vocational education and training (WIL-
BERS 2003). The main feature of this approach is
the attempt to use the development of appropri-
ate elements of theory and the analysis of com-
mon ground (and differences) existing within indi-
vidual types of network to obtain a deeper under-
standing of the object itself. There are theoretical
points of contact particularly in terms of a consid-
eration of the cooperation between companies in
respect of business economics (BACKHAUS / PLINKE
1997). It is still too early to be in a position to judge
whether this (more extensive) networking philoso-
phy will bear fruit in comparison to conventional,
more specific approaches to ↑ cooperation between
learning venues. The increasing significance of in-
formation technology in vocational education and
training and the possibility of establishing so-
called online communities (ZINKE / FOGOLIN 2004)
are likely to bring about a further increase in the
complexity of cooperative relationships, however,
thus raising the need for appropriate analytical in-
struments. The new technologies will nevertheless
facilitate the formation of supraregional vocational
education and training networks as well as just re-
gionally based organisations.
3.4.3.4 Methodological Features and Forecast
The general aim of vocational education and train-
ing research is to bring about an improvement in
vocational training practice rather than represent-
ing an end in itself. This particularly applies to
work relating to cooperation in vocational train-
ing. Alongside the analysis of the forms of coop-
Areas of VET Research
eration practised, considerable significance is also
attached to the development of approaches for ex-
tending cooperation and of suitable practice relat-
ed cooperation models. Academically monitored
↑ pilot projects have a particular role to play in this
process (→ 4.1). A pilot project represents both an
instrument of academic research and helps bring
about changes in practice. ↑ Pilot projects contain
both an explication and a planning model serving
as the basis for the new reality which is to be cre-
ated (ZIMMER 1997, 28). A pilot project leads to
a conflict of interests between realisation and re-
sults for those involved, presenting particular chal-
lenges in terms of the academic monitoring of the
project. It is not usually possible for academics to
make the transition to the role of an outside ob-
server. This means that particular significance is
attached to action-theoretical ↑ research approach-
es (→ 5.2.2).
In the field of cooperation between ↑ learning ven-
ues, the aim of bringing about improvement in prac-
tice is also very closely linked to measures taken
by those responsible for vocational education and
↑ training policy. This means that, as far as further
extension of cooperative approaches in vocation-
al training is concerned, there are fewer deficien-
cies in terms of academic findings than there are
in relation to implementation (BAU / WALDEN 2002,
148). An improvement in cooperation is, therefore,
in many cases dependent on the creation of suita-
ble terms of reference. Without suitable initiatives
on the part of those bodies responsible for voca-
tional education and training policy, it is not likely
that there will be any clear progress in the area of
cooperation, at least not in broad-based terms. The
extent to which cooperation between learning ven-
ues and training ↑ partnerships continue to form
the subject of vocational education and ↑ training
research (as they must) depends, therefore, on fu-
ture developments in vocational training policy.
In view of the slender resources, the ongoing
trend towards a pluralisation of vocational train-
ing (KUTSCHA 1998), shifting the balance be-
tween individual learning venues, bringing about
a strengthening of independent specialised ↑ vo-
cational school based systems and creating com-
petition for the ↑ dual system of training, is likely
to tend to increase further the significance of is-
385
sues of cooperation for good training. Vocational
education and training research needs to observe
these developments and evolve solutions for any
problems which arise. New combinations of learn-
ing venues which are developed (such as between
specialised vocational schools and companies)
should become a greater focus of research. This
process needs to involve close dialogue with voca-
tional education and training practice and policy-
makers. Alongside such specific research into co-
operation, a further task will be the integration of
cooperative aspects into the treatment of various
research issues within vocational training (BAU /
WALDEN 2002, 148). Cooperation is an overarch-
ing topic and relevant to a wide range of issues re-
lating to vocational training.
3.4.4 Technical and Vocational
Education and Training
Research for the
Professionalisation of
Vocational Teachers
Philipp Grollmann and Waldemar
Bauer
3.4.4.1 Traditions and Deficits of Vocational
School Teacher Research
The recruitment, training and work of vocation-
al teachers are core topics of research in vocation-
al and business education and training. In view of
the vast volume of literature on this subject mat-
ter, it is all the more astonishing that until today
there is neither a requirements or competency pro-
file that is sufficiently well substantiated by theo-
ry and is supported on a basis of empirical investi-
gations or a “job description” for vocational teach-
ers, nor have any comprehensive (empirical) audits
of the current position been carried out with re-
gard to the quality and the effects of the learning
processes initiated by vocational teachers. A Ger-
man bibliography with 476 entries from the years
1970–2000 that was compiled within the frame-
work of a recently completed research project on
“Concepts [sic!] of ↑ Vocational School Teacher
386
Training” (BUCHMANN /K ELL 2001) compares with
11 empirical investigations: since the academisa-
tion of the training of teachers at trade schools, the
greater part of the empirical studies on vocational
teachers that have appeared deal mainly with the
retrospective assessment of the first phase of teach-
er training on the part of graduated teachers.
“According to current empirical findings […] this course
of studies is fairly ineffective, its qualifying effect in
its special field is moderate and its beneficial influ-
ence on social and pedagogical competences is slight”
(LEMPERT 1998, 150).
Almost all studies identify two central points of
criticism:
– a relevance to practice of the specialised studies
that is felt to be deficient; in almost all cases the
respondent’s own practical experience as a skilled
worker or engineer was seen as being of greater
value for working as a teacher than studies in ped-
agogical sciences, and
– the lack of any interlinking of the academic
studies with the concrete professional and teach-
ing situations, so that hardly any pedagogical com-
petences relevant to working as a teacher were ac-
quired during the studies.
To what extent this criticism also still applies today
is difficult to say, as the larger-scale investigations
were conducted some years ago. However a Ger-
man “Teacher Training” commission set up by the
conference of ministers of education and cultural
affairs also confirmed a large research deficit for
the whole field of teaching today:
“One of the big deficits within the teacher training dis-
cussion […] is the fact that there is too little detailed
knowledge about its actual state and about the actual ef-
fects of teacher training” (TERHART 2000a).
Against this background, there is a challenge for
future-oriented empirical vocational school teach-
ing research to investigate the ↑ professionalisation
process of vocational teachers from two points of
view:
– the de facto development of the ↑ professional-
ism and competence of ↑ vocational teachers, i.e.
an examination of the working environment of vo-
cational teachers with regard to its effect on pro-
fessional knowledge and practical professional ac-
tivity as well as the effects and the quality of the
teachers’ work, and
Handbook of TVET Research
– the ↑ professionalisation process of vocational
teachers is an individual biographical development
in the sense of the effects of teacher training in all
phases with regard to the acquisition of practical-
ly relevant technical and (vocational) pedagogical
competences taking account of the different teach-
er training models.
3.4.4.2 Analysis of the Developed
Professionalism of Vocational
Teachers (Examinations of the
Working Environment)
The discussion about vocational pedagogical pro-
fessionalisation was for a long time reduced to the
scientisation of the courses of training or more ex-
actly of the academisation of studies to become a
teacher at a trade school. Whereas the older discus-
sion is still based on a classical professionalisation
model (cf. HESSE 1972), at present a way of looking
at things is gaining ground in the general theory of
professionalisation which, besides the social func-
tion of the ↑ profession, stresses the innate logic of
the interaction between clients and professionals
(OEVERMANN 1996; FASSHAUER 1997; KURTZ 1997).
According to this, professional activities are the
answer to existential requirements of modern so-
cieties, which can only be performed through pro-
fessional action. Thus in structural terms, the tasks
of imparting and maintaining central values and
standards of society that are absolutely indispen-
sable for its reproduction have been transferred by
society to the professions (relevance to central so-
cietal values).
The structural location of (vocational) pedagogi-
cal activity is institutionalised (vocational) train-
ing, education and qualification. Vocational ped-
agogical professionalism can to this extent be de-
scribed as a reflected routine of substantiated de-
cisions and acts that are by guided by the inten-
tion of supporting processes of vocational train-
ing, qualification, socialisation and identity devel-
opment and of individual personality development.
Between this professional task and the de facto so-
cial selection function of teaching work the result
is a professional practice that is determined by var-
ied and contradictory requirements, standards and
values, interests and wishes, hardly compatible so-
Areas of VET Research
cial roles and functional systems that are isolated
from each other (cf. LEMPERT 2000, 257).
The professional specialisation of these functions
gives rise to two central, irreconcilably contradic-
tory components of professional action (cf. OEVER-
MANN 1996; KORING 1989, 69):
– the scientific competence in a narrower sense
(special branch of science and educational science)
of the understanding of theories and of the proc-
esses of their design as well as of the logic of their
strict application, and
– the hermeneutic competence of the understand-
ing of a concrete case in the language of the case
itself.
What is constitutive for the general structure of
professional pedagogical action is thus the con-
tradictory unity of specialist scientific/analytical
and hermeneutic competence (OEVERMANN 1996,
126). Professional action is thus not distinguished
by the application of technological knowledge and
the dogmatic mastery of rules, but by understand-
ing of a particular case in the concrete pedagogi-
cal situation. Therefore scientific knowledge is pri-
marily reflection-based knowledge to assess peda-
gogical practice. In particular Donald Schön con-
cerned himself with these reflection processes in
his works. With the distinction between reflection-
in-action and reflection-on-action, he drew atten-
tion to the heightened importance that executing
the activity in the sense of routines and habitual-
isations has for the development of ↑ profession-
alism (SCHÖN 1987). In this sense professional
knowledge must be categorised on the side of prac-
tice and not of science (DEWE / FERCHHOFF / RADTKE
1992b, 83).
Translated to the professional field of action of vo-
cational teachers, who work in an area of varied di-
verging requirements and tasks in two subsystems
(industry and education), this means that the two
components of professional action are character-
ised by a twofold field of conflicting concerns: The
poles in the area of action move between the theo-
ries, models and contents of specialist science and
the specialist vocational work on the one hand as
well as the concrete cases in educational and voca-
tional practice and scientific findings and theories
about learning and doctrines on the other hand.
387
For this reason the objective of a task-specific the-
ory of ↑ professionalisation should be to recon-
struct the logic of vocational pedagogical action
and to empirically examine typical professional
action patterns on a field-specific basis (in differ-
ent pedagogical fields) that are necessary to ful-
fil their complex requirements and that have been
developed for this ↑ occupational group under
the existing structural and institutional boundary
conditions in a certain historical context (DEWE /
FERCHHOFF / RADTKE 1992a, 15 f.). This requires an
objective view of the specific tasks and require-
ments as well as the analysis of the subjective
representation of the tasks and the translation of
knowledge into pedagogical action.
The expansion of empirical ↑ vocational school
teaching research that this necessitates is thus
aimed at examining the working reality of voca-
tional teachers that has hitherto been left out of the
picture. On the basis of such analyses it is possible
not only to describe the ↑ profession of vocational
teachers factually in terms of the specific tasks and
fields involved but also to arrive at findings and in-
sights for professional teacher training.
Requirements to be Fulfilled by Vocational
Field Analyses
Investigations of the working reality of vocational
teachers should be designed as an empirical anal-
ysis of the working environment, as they are pre-
dominantly concerned with questions of content.
Such analyses should fulfil at least five require-
ments (HOLLING / BAMMÉ 1982):
(1) Relevance to reality: The conducting of empir-
ical analyses and a description of the profession-
al pedagogical reality of vocational teachers and
its production and realisation in the area of con-
flicting concerns between objective requirements
and tasks and subjective representation and com-
petence.
(2) ↑ Domain specificity: Data collection via the
structural, organisational-institutional bounda-
ry conditions, common ground and differences as
well as the manpower structures and their compo-
sition in the individual school types and vocational
fields.
388
(3) ↑ Triangulation of methods: Examinations of
the in-depth structure of the working reality and
of the teachers’ knowledge and activities make ex-
acting demands on ↑ research methodology and
would require a sensible combination of various
↑ research methods, but in particular the use of in-
terpretative, qualitative processes.
(4) Setting in relationship: The analysis is to bring
the different aspects together in one context as well
as to deal with the importance of the field of the
examination and look at what this implies for the
design of the vocational training system, of devel-
opment of the ↑ profession, of the curricula and of
vocational training processes and teacher train-
ing.
(5) Theoretical integration: The concepts and re-
sults of a professional field analysis should theo-
retically be integrated into the overall social con-
text (e. g. sociological, in terms of economic poli-
cy and in terms of educational and ↑ system theory
etc.). For the whole professional field of vocational
teachers this means that the function of the ↑ voca-
tional school in the social context, the importance
of training in vocational schools and of qualifica-
tion as well as the role of the teacher within social
reproduction must be dealt with.
These demands involve a great deal of time and ef-
fort and can certainly not be satisfied in individu-
al studies, but would on the contrary necessitate
whole ↑ research programme.
Research Objects
On the basis of the ↑ professionalisation models as
well as of expertise research it is possible to de-
rive the following interdependent topics for exam-
ination, which are at the heart of the professional
field analyses:
– the professional ethics of vocational teachers,
which include a professional moral, a self-percep-
tion, an understanding of the task in hand and an
understanding of education as well as a specific
relevance to the clientele (self-concept),
– the ↑ domain-specific knowledge of vocational
teachers regarding vocational training processes
(GERDS 2001), its structure, organisation and con-
tents as well as its genesis and the reference sys-
tems of these stocks of knowledge, and
Handbook of TVET Research
– the activities and ability of teachers and their
manifestation in professional cultures (TER-
HART 1996).
Professional Know-How
In the historical development of vocational teacher
training and the evolution of academised training
the question of the ↑ knowledge base is reflected
primarily in the discussion surrounding the guid-
ing principle of “technical expert versus teacher”.
The teacher know-how is in principle made up of
the knowledge learnt and experienced or used in
practice during formal teacher training. The spe-
cial aspect in the case of vocational teachers is that
as a rule they are confronted with different social,
scientific and practical reference systems within the
framework of their biography. For example a large
number of the technical and engineering teachers
on the one hand complete(d) studies in engineering
and/or as a teacher in which the specialist techni-
cal knowledge was a constituent, and on the other
hand as a rule they have extensive practical expe-
rience through an apprenticeship or through work-
ing as a skilled worker or an engineer (JENEWEIN
1994). Furthermore, vocational teachers work in a
more complex field in comparison with teachers in
general education because their subjects and thus
their knowledge base are characterised by a double
theory/practice problem. They work in an area that
lies between specialist theory and skilled work as
well as between school practice and work and/or
professional practice. In the language of psycho-
logical expertise and problem-solving research, it
is possible to speak of a doubly ill defined domain
(GROLLMANN 2004). Ill defined domains are distin-
guished by the fact that not only are the rules and
techniques to solve the problem that has to be dealt
with by the professional not clearly defined, but the
definition of the problem itself is subject to the pro-
fessional. This situation exists not only with regard
to pedagogical problems but also with regard to the
contents of the vocational training, for there is no
consensus about what competent skilled workers
should be able to do (FISCHER 2002).
Teacher cognition research has hitherto been able
neither to analyse nor describe what elements and
stocks of knowledge the actual teaching compe-
tence of vocational teachers is made up of, in other
Areas of VET Research
words how these different scientific, pedagogical
and practical stocks of knowledge and experience
that are related in terms of technical content amal-
gamate in the course of the professional develop-
ment of the teacher, as well as how the knowledge
that is produced in this context is cognitively or-
ganised and finally transformed into teaching ac-
tivity (BROMME 1992).
As teacher cognition research has not yet estab-
lished itself in the field of vocational training, it is
worthwhile taking a look in a context of research
theory and ↑ research methodology at US Ameri-
can research in connection with Pedagogical Con-
tent Knowledge (PCK). In this, a classification of
areas of content of the ↑ knowledge base of teach-
ers was presented that includes at least the follow-
ing categories: content knowledge, pedagogical
knowledge, curricular knowledge, pedagogical
content knowledge, knowledge of students, knowl-
edge of context and knowledge of educational
ends, purposes, values. This approach acts on the
premise that PCK represents a unique knowledge
base of the teachers. According to this, PCK forms
an amalgam from content-related (field-specific)
and pedagogical knowledge and lies crosswise to
the scientific disciplines (SHULMAN 1986; 1987).
Furthermore, the PCK approach has concerned it-
self especially with the question of how subject-re-
lated and curricular contents are transformed by
teachers in the teaching activity itself. Exactly this
subjective process of transformation initiated by
the activity of the teacher has hitherto been omit-
ted in the tradition of German specialist subject di-
dactics because the latter focuses rather on the spe-
cialist subject and/or the specialist knowledge and
its objective contents as well as on its didactic re-
duction.
In this logic, research into the knowledge base
and/or into “knowledge concerning the vocational
training process” can only be conducted ↑ domain-
specifically by vocational teachers (GERDS / BAUER
2003; GERDS 2001 GROLLMANN 2004) and should
unveil the specifics of this knowledge in compar-
ison with the curricular specialist discipline. The
examination of the teachers’ knowledge base thus
requires an analysis of the following categories:
– the contents of the knowledge base, their forma-
tion and genesis,
389
– the reference systems of the stocks of knowledge
(specialist knowledge, specialist subject didactics,
specialist work, educational science/↑ vocational
pedagogy etc.) and defining the relationships of the
various knowledge elements in teaching practice,
– the coherence and relationality of the knowl-
edge, in other words the closer interlinking (struc-
ture and organisation) of knowledge elements (sci-
entific systematics, close connection with experi-
ence and case-specific organisation of the knowl-
edge), and
– the factual adequacy of the knowledge (“spe-
cialist technical knowledge” versus “profession-
al knowledge”), which requires a normative refer-
ence system against the background of the objec-
tive task assignment.
Professional Ethics
↑ Vocational school teachers practise a profession-
al activity which they largely control and regulate
themselves. The responsible and appropriate fulfil-
ment of the tasks that have been assigned by soci-
ety requires action-guiding yardsticks and a bind-
ing obligation to internalised, professional-moral
maxims which must fulfil three central principles:
justice, thoughtfulness and truthfulness (LEMPERT
2000; OSER 1998). However no investigations of
the professional ethics of vocational school teach-
ers are extant. A more broadly defined term with-
in professional ethics, which concerns not only the
– in a narrower sense – moral dilemmas of voca-
tional teaching work but also the typical attitudes,
modes of perception and forms of behaviour, lies
at the interface between the subjective knowledge
dimension of professional vocational teachers and
their social integration into vocational pedagogical
professional cultures (TERHART 2000b). The feed-
backs between knowledge on the one hand and the
social conditions on the other hand are a central
topic of vocational pedagogical ↑ professionalisa-
tion research, as this is the only way to clarify the
activity of teachers.
Teachers’ Knowledge and Activity
The ↑ research programme Subjective Theories
concerned itself with the subjective pre-condi-
tions of the activity of teachers. This programme
390
poses the question of the principles according to
which the day-to-day activity of teachers comes
about (GROEBEN / WAHL / SCHLEE 1988). This ap-
proach acts on the premise that subjective theories
as complex aggregations of cognitions of the world
view and self-perception of the subjects in rela-
tion to a phenomenon represent relative, sustained
mental structures and, in exactly the same way as
objective theories, fulfil the function of explana-
tion, forecasting and technology. Some investiga-
tions substantiate the existence of subjective theo-
ries in the case of teachers and indicate that ped-
agogical practice is determined not through edu-
cational ↑ scientific theories but through subjective
theories developed in day-to-day activities (DANN
1994; TENORTH 1997).
However other approaches in research into peda-
gogical ↑ professionalism also pose the question
of action-guiding representations and categories
of knowledge. Thus in more recent research from
the “Shulman School” (a critical assessment of
this in BROMME 1995), it is especially substantiat-
ed that the individual representation of the corre-
sponding “technical” knowledge cannot be sepa-
rated from the procedural and declarative knowl-
edge relating to teaching methods and compe-
tences (HILLOCKS 1998). This analytical separa-
tion narrows the insight that exactly the nature and
organisation of the representation of the special-
ist technical knowledge considered relevant by the
teachers always also entails an implicit “pedagogic
theory”. These papers impressively illustrate how
strongly the understanding of the specialist subject
in each case influences the teaching methods and
strategies used. An example for ↑ vocational peda-
gogy is the dispute about the question of a division
of vocational pedagogical work into “subject mat-
ter theory” and “practice instruction” and the cor-
responding division of vocational pedagogical ac-
tivity profiles into a theory teacher and a practice
teacher (cf. RAUNER / DRECHSEL / GRONWALD /K RÜGER
1980). Gottfried Adolph (1980) has shown how
closely such a model is connected with traditional
concepts from ↑ engineering science on the “pro-
duction-typical action model”. The ↑ teaching and
learning processes that actually run have to do lit-
tle with technical-practical instruction guided by
the theory teacher and with independently con-
Handbook of TVET Research
ducted “theoretical” tuition. Subjective theories
that have developed in the course of personal de-
velopment and their professional socialisation thus
possess an action-guiding function and further-
more serve for the (subsequent) explanation and
justification of the teacher’s actions. In compara-
tive investigations it was for instance possible to
show that in different vocational pedagogical pro-
fessional cultures, the traditional “privacy stand-
ard” (LORTHIE 1975) of the professional ethics of
teachers is treated differently (GROLLMANN 2004),
and that the institutional context occupies a very
decisive role in the development of professional
know-how (ZHAO 2003).
The investigation of teaching activity should ana-
lyse at least the following dimensions:
– the developments and characteristics of the sub-
jective ↑ action theories in the professional biogra-
phy in relation to contextual conditions, as well as
– the representation, interpretation patterns and
justifications of vocational pedagogical activities
with regard to the teaching mandate and the edu-
cational objectives.
When researching these interrelationships, it is
in principle possible to resort to the whole stock
in trade of qualitative and quantitative social re-
search. In this context, with regard to the first com-
plex of questions, in particular the application of
methods of biographical research as well as of eth-
nographical ↑ research designs can be considered
in order to detect and describe the professional re-
ality. In respect of the second complex of ques-
tions, it is a case of research designs with a strong-
er psychological content (KÖNIG / ZEDLER 2002).
The objection of Lempert (1998) that in the case of
many research findings it is a question of a collec-
tion “[…], of global self-testimonies of respond-
ing students of vocational and economic pedagog-
ics as well as of practising teachers at trade schools
[…]” is in this context to be taken very seriously
and requires the consideration of both complexes
of questions in integrative research designs.
3.4.4.3 Analysis of the Professionalisation
Process of Vocational Teachers
The question of the adequate training of voca-
tional teachers has always been characterised by
the changed assignments of tasks to ↑ vocational
Areas of VET Research
schools within the framework of social and vo-
cational school policies and the resultant require-
ments to be fulfilled by teachers. In this process of
development, not only regionally specific models
of academic teacher training with different techni-
cal concepts have evolved but – at least this is oc-
casionally implied – also different types of teach-
ers (LIPSMEIER 1992; RAUNER 1993; BRECHMACHER /
GERDS 1993; STRATMANN 1994).
The present empirical findings with regard to (ac-
ademic) teacher training unavoidably raise the
question of what effects and/or what contribution
this training makes at all to the formation and de-
velopment of the teachers’ competences. With re-
gard to the second phase of teacher training – in
other words to the period spent working as a stu-
dent teacher after passing the first state examina-
tion – it must also be stated that this represents the
“forgotten” phase of teaching research.
For this reason, the “Teacher Training” commis-
sion of the conference of education ministers in
Germany recommended an intensification of re-
search into teacher training on the basis of “broad-
ly based evaluations of all processes and institu-
tions of teacher training in Germany” (TERHART
2000a, 153).
In the field of vocational training, the first step
should be a comprehensive analytical stocktaking
of all processes, institutions and phases as well as
their effects on the development of the profession-
al competence and identity of the vocational teach-
ers.
For the very controversial discussion about the de-
sign of the vocational training subjects, no empiri-
cal verification exists with regard to the superior-
ity of a specific model. In view of the present find-
ings however, a great deal speaks against the semi-
scientific engineering model and vocational peda-
gogics institutionally isolated from the respective
subjects. Only on the basis of broadly based, sys-
tematic and comparative evaluations of the effects
of the different models can the discussion about
the “right” teacher training concept that is strongly
swayed by conflicting interests and is in some cas-
es ideologically tinged be objectivised.
In this context the following complexes of ques-
tions need investigation:
391
– The contribution and effect of the different
teacher training models to the development of the
above-stated categories of professional ethics, pro-
fessional knowledge and teaching activity. Here it
is a question on the one hand of the conceptuali-
sation of the vocational subjects and on the other
hand of the design of vocational pedagogics;
– An analysis of the scientific traditions, styles of
thought and of communications of the disciplines
involved and the identification of integration meas-
ures and problem areas against the background
of the development of professional knowledge in
which at least two academic cultures must be inte-
grated (sciences and social research);
– The role of practical experience in business and
industry in developing the competences of future
teachers;
– The effects of the second or in-service phase of
teacher training in the area of conflicting concerns
between the assumption of professional pedagog-
ical tasks and functions and integration into the
public service;
– Socialisation effects and the evolution of pro-
fessional ethics and of a ↑ professional identity at
the phase of entering into the ↑ profession (“third
phase”). With regard to the design of professional-
ised teacher training, the following structural cor-
nerstones can be defined (cf. GERDS / BAUER 2003;
TERHART 2000a). Through experimental studies
and longitudinal analyses, finally the empirical
verification should be furnished that such reforms
do in fact also contribute to improving the quality
of the training of vocational teachers;
– A stronger coherence and co-operation of all
phases and institutions of teacher training in a
pool as an organisational prerequisite for a neces-
sary harmonisation and agreement of joint objec-
tives and contents as well as for the networking of
the learning processes that make systematic, situa-
tive and cumulative learning possible;
– An improvement of the frame of reference in
terms of content of the individual elements of the
courses of study and networking of the ↑ knowl-
edge bases (specialist science, specialist subject
didactics, educational science etc.) in courses of
study at universities;
– A stronger orientation of the vocational subjects
to occupational practice. A competence consist-
392
ing purely of specialist know-how supplemented
by specialist subject didactics no longer fulfils the
demands of ↑ professionalisation and the growing
social requirements. The development of a knowl-
edge of vocational training processes that is rel-
evant to daily teaching activities as the cardinal
point of teacher training as well as of the acquisi-
tion of action-guiding routines requires a stronger
relevance to the concrete working and education
processes in ↑ vocational schools and in practice
in business and industry while at the same time
maintaining scientific and professional standards
of teacher training.
A stronger accentuation of the design of situated
↑ learning environments and of reflected teaching
practice and evaluation in a close-knit pool of uni-
versities, training schools and institutions of ad-
vanced and follow-on training for teachers across
all phases and institutional boundaries. In this con-
text, the professional training of vocational teach-
ers consists in the qualification to plan, design and
evaluate ↑ situated learning environments and sit-
uations in order to promote self-organised learn-
ing as the core element of knowledge of the voca-
tional training process. This requires above all the
case-related practising and application of herme-
neutic methods, which make it possible to recon-
struct problematical vocational work situations in
an interpretative manner and in this way to pro-
mote actions and decisions that foster the learning
and development processes of trainees and learn-
ers (LEMPERT 2000, 257).
3.4.5 Vocational Education and
Training and Organisational
Development in Companies
Gisela Dybowski and Agnes Dietzen
3.4.5.1 Perspectives on Vocational Education
and Training and Its Alignment
with the Occupational Principle
(Beruflichkeit): A Provocative Debate
Vocational education and training (VET) and ↑ or-
ganisational development in companies are two ar-
eas that have grown in prominence as strategic re-
Handbook of TVET Research
sources for innovation, as a result of fundamen-
tal structural changes in businesses. Nevertheless
they remain highly provocative issues in the cur-
rent debate.
Well over a decade ago, the economic crisis of
1992/93 triggered a sociological debate about Ger-
many’s business context, centring on two key as-
pects:
– the bureaucratic and hierarchical organisation
of German industry had become somewhat inflex-
ible;
– the German ↑ occupation-based approach (Beruf-
sprinzip) including the inherent divisions between
occupations meant that the initial vocational train-
ing was tailored to discrete occupations.
Both tendencies were exposed as contributory fac-
tors to the crisis, most notably in a well regarded
essay by Horst Kern and Charles Sabel. Their anal-
ysis found that German industry’s problems of ad-
aptation resulted directly from internal and exter-
nal demarcation lines between occupational com-
munities and occupational families. The persistent
inertia and communicative inflexibility of the oc-
cupation-based approach (Berufskonzept) was also
found to be holding back innovation in German in-
dustry (K ERN / SABEL 1994).
Kern/ Sabel’s critique hinged on hierarchical and
bureaucratic structures, which were upholding the
distinctions between the many skilled trades in
German industry, but making organisational struc-
tures inflexible. Many agreed with this analysis.
All the same, controversies flared up over the wid-
er social implications of alignment with the ↑ oc-
cupational principle (Beruflichkeit) and general
conventionality of the German VET model in re-
lation to processes of ↑ organisational development
in companies. Other studies – likewise based on
international comparisons – stress the importance
of employment based on the occupational princi-
ple (Beruflichkeit von Erwerbsarbeit) as the vi-
tal bridge to organisational development (DREXEL
1995, 53). This analysis considers that the skilled
workforce potential built up by VET offers a range
of specific opportunities for structural innovation
and organisational development processes in com-
panies. This is because the key benefits of the ↑ du-
al system of VET include a form of occupational
socialisation whereby even skilled workers “with
Areas of VET Research
backgrounds in other occupations are put in a po-
sition” to build up “↑ experiential knowledge from
practical involvement in production” and an under-
standing of regulating, ↑ controlling, process-opti-
mising and problem-solving functions for which
they have not been formally trained (DÜLL 1995,
188).
Indeed, the mid-1990s witnessed the inception
of radical reorganisation processes, in companies
not just in industries staffed by the classic skilled
trades (particularly plant and ↑ mechanical engi-
neering) but also in the traditional mass employ-
ment sectors (especially the automotive and chem-
ical industry). These developments brought about
the opposite of what Kern and Sabel had predicted.
The achievements of these restructuring and re-en-
gineering processes were based specifically on the
utmost flexibility, flat hierarchical structures and
a transfer of ↑ quality assurance and process com-
petence responsibility directly onto the production
level, to be performed by a qualified and highly
skilled workforce (SCHUMANN 2003a). In spite of
this, there is a continuing debate about structur-
al transformation and its effects on employment
structures, including the consequences for skills
development and training needs. In the same vein
as Kern/ Sabel before him, today Martin Baethge
advances the hypothesis that the establishment of
process-oriented principles in the organisation of
companies and their work organisation is causing
“erosion of the occupation” since “retreating from
models of work allocation based on occupation-
specific skills” is “blurring” the contours and “di-
luting” the distinctiveness of occupations (BAETHGE
2002, 37). Many would counter this position with
the response that any blurring of boundaries asso-
ciated with the new principles of ↑ organisational
development and work design need not necessarily
be interpreted as eroding the traditional alignment
with the ↑ occupational principle (Beruflichkeit).
In fact, wider process-oriented work responsibili-
ties and closer cooperation could also open up op-
portunities for broadening or shifting the empha-
sis within the contours of an occupation, bringing
new challenges for VET (SCHUMANN 2003a, 108;
OLSEN 2001, 173). The GAB reform project on co-
operative dual training within the ↑ work process
(“Geschäfts- und arbeitsprozessorientierte, dual-
393
kooperative Ausbildung in ausgewählten Indus-
trieberufen mit optionaler Fachhochschulreife”)
(BREMER /JAGLA 2000), leading to initial vocation-
al qualifications in selected industrial occupations
with the option of qualifying for entry to higher
education) and proposals of a new paradigm for
the design of ↑ occupational profiles (LENNARTZ
1999; SAUTER 2002) have highlighted new ways of
refining and opening up the occupation-based ap-
proach (Berufskonzept), which now have to prove
their worth for the future.
3.4.5.2 VET and Organisational
Development in Companies as a
Subject of Vocational Education
Research
What these developments particularly underscore
is the overriding need to venture beyond the con-
text of sociological discourse and research on
structural change, work organisation and skills de-
velopment. The theme of “VET and ↑ organisation-
al development in companies” must also be made a
focus of VET and vocational education and ↑ train-
ing research (DYBOWSKI / PÜTZ / RAUNER 1995a). The
following will then be the main questions requir-
ing more complex analysis:
– Are the dynamic processes of innovation and or-
ganisational development in modern companies
compatible with a system of ↑ initial vocational
education and training geared towards universal-
ly defined occupational profiles? Or will the lat-
ter prove to be static provisions which stand in the
way of organisational development in the compa-
ny?
– The specific German solution is still based on
skills-profiles for recognised occupations as a
starting point for organisational development and
structural innovation in the company. Is this a sus-
tainable model for a new paradigm of process-ori-
ented organisation of companies and their work,
capable of withstanding conceptual reorientations
in VET?
In talks hosted by Volkswagen AG at the “Haus
Rhode” conference centre, in concert with the
Federal Institute for Vocational Education and
Training (BIBB) and the Institute of Technology
and Education, Bremen (ITB) (DYBOWSKI / HAASE /
RAUNER 1993), a first step was taken towards dis-
394
cussing these issues in greater depth with ↑ person-
nel development managers in large and small com-
panies, and with VET experts, social partners and
↑ VET researchers. One point emerged very clear-
ly: the theme of “VET and organisational devel-
opment in companies” designates an aspect that
academic practice has largely overlooked so far,
and one which reveals the limitations of highly
specialised ↑ work processes in research and de-
velopment. But in practice within companies, the
consistent separation of vocational education and
training on the one hand and organisational devel-
opment on the other remains firmly institutional-
ised, although the two interrelated activities are of
crucial importance to boosting innovation in busi-
ness and occupational terms.
What contribution does vocational education and
↑ training research make to more detailed and
comprehensive analysis of these relationships, and
to placing the theme within a perspective which
opens up new connections with other ↑ fields of re-
search and academic disciplines? This question
was increasingly being raised by academics and
practitioners, and directed to research institutions
such as BIBB and ITB. It prompted both institutes
to consolidate the dialogue between experts from
companies’ practice and academics from various
disciplines, with the aims of (a) identifying re-
search, development and regulatory needs regard-
ing the relationship between vocational education
and training and ↑ organisational development in
companies, and (b) mapping out potential research
and development needs which could lead to pio-
neering work in this field.
A dossier published in 1995 by BIBB and ITB
(DYBOWSKI / PÜTZ / RAUNER 1995a) presented nu-
merous articles which resulted from a conference
of experts on this theme, where the issues were
discussed at length. They focus on six priorities
which, on the one hand, substantially determine
the practical and innovative ↑ content of VET and
↑ VET research, and on the other hand, highlight
research and development needs relating to the in-
terplay of VET and organisational development
in companies from a diversity of disciplinary and
methodological viewpoints. The main dimensions
of these research proposals are:
Handbook of TVET Research
Organisational Development in Companies
and VET as a Subject of International Com-
parisons
Comparisons in various highly industrialised
countries show that – as a natural outcome of very
diverse traditions – a broad spectrum of vocational
training is pursued. Through analysis of their spe-
cific power to motivate innovations and develop-
ment processes in companies there is a prospect
of deeper understanding of the outset problems in
one’s own country and different ways of framing
the problems. Looking towards the ↑ European di-
mension of vocational education and training re-
search, it would also be interesting to enquire into
common traditions in the countries of Europe which
could be developed into socially-compatible yet al-
so competitive concepts (HEIDEGGER 1995, 43).
Interplays between Organisational Develop-
ment, Technology Design and Training
A further necessity seems to be the pursuit of an
↑ interdisciplinary approach in vocational educa-
tion and training research, closely linking analyses
on the relationship between VET and organisation-
al development in companies with studies on tech-
nological development, work design and parame-
ters of industrial culture. The emphasis needs to be
placed on structural approaches with an interdis-
ciplinary thrust. Studies on education structures
should be combined with analyses of technology
and work design, in order to discern trends in par-
ticipatory ↑ organisational development.
Innovation and Strategies for Training
Moreover, in the continuing development of re-
search and development priorities to shed more
light on the interrelationship between ↑ innovation
in companies and strategies for training, an inter-
disciplinary approach to vocational education and
↑ training research and pedagogy seems indispen-
sable. From this perspective, key impulses and in-
sights could be drawn from skills research. Unlike
qualificational research (Qualifikationsforschung),
however, VET and VET research must also consid-
er forms and processes for transforming the out-
comes of qualificational research (Qualifikations-
forschung) into appropriate “means of standardi-
Areas of VET Research
sation” (e. g. vocational ↑ training regulations and
curricula). Hence there is an urgent need for an ad-
equate set of research and development tools ca-
pable of overcoming the limitations of tradition-
al ↑ VET planning techniques and indicating new
routes and methods for anticipatory VET plan-
ning. At the same time, in the light of a growing in-
tegration of processes within companies, increas-
ingly urgent issues are the logic of traditional oc-
cupational/occupational-field divisions and the re-
quirements of more complex occupational compe-
tences. Other research gaps are articulated by the
need to obtain information on changes in compa-
nies’ work division, on the one hand, and the re-
lationship of in-company and inter-company in-
tegration of skilled labour organised according to
occupational categories, together with allied strat-
egies for training.
Fundamental Questions on the Relationship
of Pilot Projects and Organisational Develop-
ment in Companies
↑ Pilot projects pursue a concept of quasi-exper-
imental research and are inherently intended to
produce new insights for VET, VET management
and ↑ VET policy. Much is to be said, therefore, for
making additional use of pilot projects as a more
systematic instrument of ↑ organisational develop-
ment in companies and endeavouring to strength-
en cooperation with relevant research and develop-
ment programmes. Further synergies and research
capacities could also be created in the form of new
“network projects” between these programmes,
on the one hand, and pilot projects on the other
(DEHNBOSTEL 1995a).
Tension in Media and Training Concepts be-
tween Learning Technologies and Job Design
That Fosters Learning
The potential of media as vehicles for innova-
tion has received little attention, in relation to new
training content or indeed novel technologies and
innovations in the organisation of work. To attain
the full potential of new media as a tool for ↑ or-
ganisational development, it is crucially impor-
tant to (be able to) make more use of new learn-
ing technologies in the workplace. This will sup-
395
port ↑ decentralised learning and increase the flex-
ibility of learning schedules and venues. Even so,
there are still no
“integrated research approaches to the impacts of in-
teractive media use on the organisation of work, work
structures, acceptance of technology and social compat-
ibility” (ROSS 1995, 320).
Furthermore, this sort of research and develop-
ment priority offers a variety of opportunities for
↑ interdisciplinary research, particularly involving
engineering and industrial sciences.
Training of Vocational Educators for Learning
Organisations
Finally, the inclusion of VET in organisational de-
velopment processes in companies must also be re-
flected in certain logical consequences for the role
and functions of training staff. A largely unresolved
issue, however, is how to align training processes
for trainers with organisational development and
design them more systematically from the point of
view of content and methodology (PÄTZOLD 1995c,
369). Making these aspects a priority theme of vo-
cational education and training research promises
to bring about a practical gain for VET, but only if
accompanied by critical reflection on the changed
role of the ↑ vocational school teacher under the
system of ↑ learning venue cooperation. The exist-
ing initial and further training of vocational school
teachers also needs subjecting to more extensive
evaluation (GERDS 1995a, 382).
3.4.5.3 Overview of Relevant Research and
Development Work by ITB and BIBB
The research and ↑ development tasks defined in
the early 1990s on the theme of VET and organ-
isational development in companies (“Berufliche
Bildung und betriebliche Organisationsentwick-
lung”) outlined a programme and made recom-
mendations to researchers and practitioners which
have lost none of their relevance with the passage
of time, and have sparked off wider-ranging ini-
tiatives. Ground-breaking development work has
been accomplished in VET in the last 10 years.
The ↑ occupation-based approach (Berufskonzept)
has been reformed and far-reaching efforts have
been made to reform occupational training pro-
396
files. By differentiating initial vocational train-
ing routes, integrating additional qualifications in-
to initial training and opening out the organisation
of training into a work-process-oriented structure,
a dynamic and flexible structural concept of VET
has been established and developed. One of the
principal maxims for the modernisation of existing
training occupations and the creation of new ones
is to gear initial training concepts towards cus-
tomer-focused, process-oriented and service-cen-
tred forms of competence development, and to fol-
low the pedagogical principle of linking systemat-
ic job-specific (Fachsystematik) content with proc-
ess-oriented practices. ↑ Process-orientation as a
new guiding vision for companies restructuring
and training processes takes the relationship be-
tween vocational education and training and ↑ or-
ganisational development in companies to a new
level (DYBOWSKI 2002a, 5).
Beyond this, both the ITB and BIBB have illumi-
nated various facets of these relationships over the
last 10 years in their research and development
work, which can be outlined only briefly below.
In the course of ↑ pilot projects, both institutes have
endeavoured to forge stronger links between VET
and organisational development in companies and
to give a more systematic account of their inter-
dependence. As part of the scientific monitoring
of BLK (Federal and State Commission for ↑ Ed-
ucational Planning and Research Promotion) pi-
lot projects, the ITB pursued this theme primari-
ly from the viewpoint of VET processes in schools
and requirements in terms of ↑ organisation-
al development in ↑ vocational schools (FISCHER /
STUBER 1996; FISCHER 2000, 237). A series of pi-
lot projects supported by BIBB on the learning
organisation (“Lernende Organisation”) (BAU /
SCHEMME 2001) and on work-process orientation
in initial and ↑ continuing vocational education
and training (“Arbeitsprozessorientierung in der
Aus- und Weiterbildung”) (HOLZ /KOCH / SCHEMME /
WITZGALL 1998; BREMER /JAGLA 2000) highlight-
ed innovative routes for reorientating VET in re-
sponse to changing work and organisational con-
texts.
Likewise both institutes embraced this topic in
their research priorities. In the course of many
studies on the relationship between organisation-
Handbook of TVET Research
al development, technology design and training,
and particularly by establishing the ↑ research field
of computer-assisted skilled work (“Rechnerg-
estützte Facharbeit”), the ITB has exhaustively
engaged with the importance of skilled workers’
experience and work-process knowledge for the
design of VET, and with interaction and innova-
tion in companies (FISCHER 2000; FISCHER / RAUNER
2002b). Topics discussed include the implications
of the changing substance and form of skilled oc-
cupational practice in industry and the craft trades,
brought about not only by the convergence of com-
puter, media and network technologies, but also by
new organisational forms of work and learning in
companies. Considerable potential is thereby gen-
erated to restructure specific occupations and ↑ oc-
cupational fields, realigning them with the knowl-
edge needed in and for the ↑ work process. This
maps out a new dimension of research, which
should also provide substantial input and guidance
for VET practice. This theme will also be added
to the ITB’s international ↑ comparative VET re-
search. Within the research priority of European
vocational education and ↑ training research (“Eu-
ropäische Berufsbildungsforschung”), the empha-
sis is on analysing questions about the structure of
the interaction between work and education, which
turn attention to the matter of learning within the
work process. Secondly, in a project on modes of
↑ organisational learning and their importance to
VET (“Wege des organisationalen Lernens und
ihre Bedeutung für die berufliche Bildung”) which
makes reference to studies in four major Europe-
an companies, analysis focuses on the importance
of initial and ↑ continuing vocational education
and training as a precondition for organisational
learning in companies, and how this in turn is in-
fluenced in its form and substance by organisation-
al learning (ITB 2000, 158).
A similar line of enquiry was taken up – this time
at national level – in a BIBB research project
called BILSTRAT (“Betriebliche Innovations-
and Lernstrategien – Implikationen for berufliche
Bildungs- and betriebliche Personalentwicklung-
sprozesse”) looking at companies’ innovation and
↑ learning strategies and their implications for VET
and corporate ↑ personnel development processes
(DYBOWSKI / TÖPFER / DEHNBOSTEL /K LING 1999). The
Areas of VET Research
study looked at ten German companies from differ-
ent sectors, all of which had undergone long-term
restructuring. It enquired into changes in work and
learning patterns induced by restructuring proc-
esses, and their impacts on VET and company
↑ personnel development processes. Major aspects
of the research project focused on challenges and
strategies for handling a new interplay of changes
in organisational, process and skills factors with-
in companies. It also sought to pin down details
of the environment and prior objectives in which
any ongoing development of VET is rooted. This
project did not confine itself to highlighting future
desiderata of vocational education research. In fact
it also attempted to formulate formal recommen-
dations for the ongoing development of VET prac-
tice, which have gained considerable acclaim as
fundamental guidelines for numerous BIBB ↑ pilot
projects. Furthermore, this theme was offered up
for broad discussion at an ↑ interdisciplinary collo-
quium. As a result, further insights into this com-
plex problem area of VET were gained from the
perspective of other research and scholarly disci-
plines (DEHNBOSTEL / DYBOWSKI 2000).
Questions on the interrelationship of VET and ↑ or-
ganisational development in companies were also
the subject of a BIBB research priority dealing
with the early identification of skills developments.
It sought to make use of the experiemental knowl-
edge of organisational and ↑ human resources de-
velopment staff, work designers and change man-
agement consultants as a window to companies
skills developments. The objective was to sound
out the influence and impacts of innovation and
change processes on the development of ↑ skills;
also to gather information on whether changes in
companies and ↑ organisational development proc-
esses are coordinated with corporate training and
human resources development, and the extent to
which such activities are integrated in practice
(DIETZEN 2002; DIETZEN / SELLE 2003; DIETZEN /
SELLE / LATNIAK 2005). In the wake of organisation-
al change and restructuring, workloads are being
combined and allocated differently, giving rise to
new kinds of jobs with new skills requirements.
Consultants who take on organisational develop-
ment and process monitoring roles play a part in
shaping work procedures and organisational struc-
397
tures, and thus have the opportunity to identify and
evaluate processes of development.
In relation to new skills requirements, the research
findings confirm the hypothesis that a “new ↑ pro-
fessionalisation” (neue Fachlichkeit) is emerging
(SCHUMANN 2003a). It is apparent that the elements
of occupation-specific, process and social com-
petence are increasingly treated as an integrated
whole. Within the framework of existing ↑ occupa-
tional profiles, this can be made explicit by chang-
ing the weightings of different components of oc-
cupational competence, giving clear expression to
the interlinkages between VET, skills development
and organisational development.
The expertise of these experts provides an insight
into the contexts in which new skills requirements
are arising, as well as the conditions in which they
are addressed in companies. The latter setting, in
particular, makes it clear that skills development
and organisational development in modern compa-
nies must be seen as two contexts which are in-
divisibly linked. An enduring system of skills de-
velopment which sets out to put VET goals into
practice can only be achieved if there are accom-
panying changes in organisational structures: de-
velopment of appropriate structures for coopera-
tion and communication in companies, strategic
alignment of management personnel, creation of
clear recognition and reward structures, and pro-
motion and development of working environments
that foster learning. By the same token, skills de-
velopment is a basic prerequisite of organisational
transformation in the company because it ensures
that the workforce is equipped with the necessary
capabilities to support such a transformation. As
individuals, workers will need reflective abilities
including “organisational awareness”, “↑ participa-
tion in processes of change” and the ability to “de-
fine their own role”, on which basis they can ne-
gotiate the compatibility of their personal interests
with their occupational practice and the interests
of the company.
398
3.5.0 Costs, Benefits, and Financing VET
Robert I. Lerman
3.5.0.1 Basic Concepts in Cost-Benefit
Analysis
Educating all citizens is, rightly, accepted as a nec-
essary element of a modern, humane society. Vir-
tually no one asks whether the benefits of having
an educational system are worth the costs. In con-
trast, funding a major VET component raises ques-
tions about whether the benefits of VET outweigh
financial costs and the lost time students could have
spent on general education. Demands for proof of
VET’s cost-↑ effectiveness arise because spending
on education for specific careers is viewed as dis-
cretionary and because the state’s responsibility
for financing VET is often ambiguous. A common
view is that VET is basic job training that employ-
ers and perhaps workers should fund.
How one studies VET costs, benefits, and financing
depends in part on the question of primary interest.
Some deal with micro issues, such as: What is the
↑ rate of return on an extra year in VET relative to
an extra year in an academic program? What are
the average costs and benefits for students taking
and completing an apprenticeship in a specific oc-
cupation? What is the average return for companies
investing in VET? How do the returns vary across
industries and occupations? The macro questions
relate to the nature of a country’s ↑ VET system.
What is the optimal size of the VET system rela-
tive to the university sector? Should countries em-
phasize programmes leading to occupational certi-
fication or to academic certifications and/or modu-
lar skill standards? Does a major VET program re-
duce youth unemployment and other social ills rel-
ative to a more academically-oriented work prepa-
ration system? This section offers an overview rel-
evant to some of these questions, but leaves many
possible approaches uncovered.
General discussions about the value of VET and its
costs, benefits, and financing implicitly or explic-
itly draw extensively on the economics of ↑ cost-
benefit analysis and the concept of externalities.
Economic analysis emphasizes an activity’s social
costs (or the resources used up) and social benefits
(or the additional resources generated). Like oth-
Handbook of TVET Research
er investments, VET costs are incurred early while
a flow of benefits materializes over a number of
years. To make appropriate comparisons of costs
and benefits, one must discount future benefits
(and costs) back to the present using a relevant in-
terest rate. Alternatively, one can calculate the rate
or return on costs that would equalize the present
value of costs and benefits.
Social costs and benefits may or may not differ
from the monetary costs and benefits. In the case
of VET, some social costs are clear, such as mate-
rial costs valued properly at their price in the mar-
ket. Similarly, the wage paid for the time spent by
teachers equals social costs since it represents the
value they could have generated in another produc-
tive activity. Less clear is the cost of the time that
mentors and part-time instructors spend on VET;
conceptually, the resource costs should equal the
value lost by diverting them to training and away
from other productive activities. Sometimes ig-
nored is the social cost in lost production due to the
time trainees spend on VET. The main VET bene-
fits are the value of added production generated by
the trainees, both during the training and in the fu-
ture. Measuring both these benefits is often diffi-
cult, especially the added productivity of workers
in the decades after participating in VET. The po-
tential ↑ wider benefits, such as enhanced self-con-
cept and self-efficacy, are even harder to estimate
and to translate into dollar gains. Properly com-
paring costs (which largely occur during VET) and
benefits (which largely occur well after VET) re-
quires discounting future benefits and costs to de-
termine the present values of each. While studying
VET for society as a whole makes sense, it is al-
so appropriate to examine the costs, benefits, and
financing from the standpoint of the worker, the
firm, and the government separately.
↑ Cost-benefit analysis can reveal whether society
as a whole gains from VET, but the distribution
of benefits may be uneven, depending on financing
provisions. Here, the concept of externalities be-
comes relevant. If trainees and employers are the
beneficiaries of VET, they should bear the costs.
Areas of VET Research
But often, there are external benefits to third par-
ties, such as other workers or companies. The pres-
ence of well-trained workers in one occupation
may enhance the productivity of workers in oth-
er occupations. A plentiful supply of workers in an
occupation benefits not only those firms who hire
in the relevant occupation but also other firms who
benefit when their suppliers are more productive.
Finally, to the extent trainees have more self-effi-
cacy and less alienation, others are likely to bene-
fit from having healthy fellow citizens and from re-
duced crime. Given these externalities, VET will
be undersupplied if workers and employers bear
all of the costs. Some support from others – sup-
port typically flowing through the government –
can increase VET that is closer to the optimal lev-
el and cause many of those who benefit to share in
the costs.
Generalizations about costs, benefits, and financ-
ing are hazardous given the variety of struc-
tures and types of VET. In countries emphasizing
school-based VET, the state usually plays a signif-
icant role in financing despite the likelihood that
participants will capture most of the net benefits.
Employers typically bear a substantial share of
the costs of VET programmes with a heavy work-
based and internship/apprenticeship element.
The chapters in this section present the relevant
theoretical insights and empirical evidence about
the costs, benefits, financing, and broader benefits
of VET based on research from a variety of coun-
tries. Despite the similarities in the mix of produc-
tion across countries, training systems vary dra-
matically in the relative importance of VET, the
involvement of employers in VET, and in the sys-
tems for financing VET.
3.5.0.2 Human Capital Theory
Theoretical work pioneered by Jacob Mincer and
Gary Becker emphasizes the well-known distinc-
tion between ↑ general training (that increases
skills that have value both inside and outside the
firm) and ↑ specific training (that increases skills
useful only to the firm). Since general skills raise
the worker’s value both inside and outside the firm,
competition will drive out any premium the initial
firm might have gained from paying less than the
worker’s productivity. If the training firm does not
399
raise wages by the training-induced gain in pro-
ductivity, workers will move to another firm and
obtain wages equal to their higher level of produc-
tivity. Because all the productivity gains accrue
to the worker, firms will be reluctant to invest in
general skills. For this reason, responsibility for fi-
nancing training in general skills usually lies with
the individual and the state. Firms are more like-
ly to invest in skills that raise productivity within
but not outside the firm. In the case of firm-specif-
ic skills, benefits will usually accrue to the firms
making the investments in the form of increases
in productivity without a commensurate wage in-
crease. However, unlike the accounting treatment
of investments in capital equipment, investments
in training are treated as current expenses and not
as additions to the firm’s capacity and potential fu-
ture productivity.
Challenges to aspects of ↑ human capital theory
help justify added firm investments in vocational
training. Noting that employers do offer general
training to workers, Acemoglu and Pischke (1999a)
argue that employers have an incentive to finance
general training because of transaction costs in the
↑ labour market, such as matching and search costs
that make it difficult for workers to quit their jobs,
and costly for firms to replace their employees.
These search costs create a potential surplus that
can be gained by employers and/or workers when
they avoid turnover. The ability of firms to obtain
some part of this surplus causes the productivity
gain from added skills to rise faster than wages.
This wage-productivity gap presents an opportuni-
ty for employers to profit from their investments in
training, even in general training.
The classification of skills into general and spe-
cific downplays the most common type of skills
resulting from VET – occupation-specific skills.
These skills are general in that they raise produc-
tivity outside the firm but specific in that they are
applicable only to a limited number of employers.
Some human capital theorists recognize that fi-
nancing and liquidity constraints may limit worker
investments in general training. Workers may lack
the necessary cash and cannot use future earnings
gains as collateral for a loan. In work-based train-
ing, workers may be able to bear part of the costs
by taking a lower wage than they would have in
400
a non-training position. For other forms of VET,
governments typically deal with the liquidity prob-
lem by provide student grants or loans.
3.5.0.3 Relating Conceptual Issues to
Studying VET Costs, Benefits, and
Financing
These theoretical perspectives highlight some of
the complexities of VET and point to linkages be-
tween skill enhancement strategies, financing is-
sues, and the incidence of costs and benefits. They
illustrate why studies of VET costs and benefits
generally fall into two categories: (1) company-
based studies, which focus on the profitability of
investments in VET; and (2) worker-based stud-
ies, which deal with the ↑ rate of return to work-
ers. For work-based VET programmes like ap-
prenticeships, it is natural to emphasize industry
studies since employers typically bear most of the
costs and make the decision about whether to of-
fer paid apprenticeships. In school-based training,
the two main costs – foregone earnings of partici-
pating students and the costs of delivering cours-
es – are faced largely by students and the state. For
this reason, empirical studies of school-based VET
typically do little to incorporate impacts on em-
ployers; instead, they concentrate on the returns to
students and only sometimes take into account the
costs to students and to the government. For exam-
ple, the National Assessment of Vocational Educa-
tion in the ↑ US included estimates of the student
earnings gains but no information on the incre-
mental costs of VET (SILVERBERG / WARNER / FONG /
GOODWIN 2004). Few studies attempt to quantify
the impact on third parties, including other em-
ployers, workers, and society at large.
Conceptual and practical issues arise in trying to
estimate VET costs and benefits and use the results
for decision-making. The first is defining the coun-
terfactual, or what would have taken place in the
absence of vocational education. Answering this
question rigorously is extremely difficult. Com-
paring students or workers who go through a VET
program to those who do not is subject to the se-
lection problem, since those choosing VET are po-
tentially different than those who did not. One so-
lution, used in evaluations of US job training pro-
grammes sponsored by the federal government, is
Handbook of TVET Research
a social experiment, in which applicants are ran-
domly assigned to treatment groups (with access
to VET) or control groups (no access to VET). Ex-
perimental studies of this kind have been conduct-
ed in accordance with the Job ↑ Training Partner-
ship Act (ORR / BLOOM / BELL ET AL. 1996) and the
Job Corps (MCCONNELL / GLAZERMAN 2001). These
studies both estimated costs and benefits from the
standpoint of the participants, the government, and
the society as a whole. The Job Corps study was the
most comprehensive, taking account of benefits of
reduced crime and other social problems. Unfortu-
nately, experiments are expensive, take a long time
to implement, and it is difficult to estimate the po-
tential costs and benefits to employers.
A second fundamental problem is the ex post char-
acter of cost-benefit studies. They show the impact
of past programmes on past earnings and produc-
tivity gains. The results do not necessarily general-
ize for the future. A related issue involves the tim-
ing of studies. Learning about the ↑ ↑ effectiveness
of VET for today’s cohort may require waiting at
least 5–10 years. By that time, circumstances may
change.
Third, few if any studies consider the risks and un-
certainties of investments in a specific VET by em-
ployers, workers, on the government (LITH 1998b).
Like any investment, the costs are incurred well
before the full benefits materialize. Moreover, even
if VET in general generates benefits that exceed
the costs, people are investing in a specific course,
↑ occupational area, or form of training. The high
degree of heterogeneity in types of training, in oc-
cupational and industry fields, and in quality adds
to the uncertainty and makes generalizations haz-
ardous.
Fourth, the aggregate benefits and costs are ex-
tremely difficult to document with precision. Train-
ing an additional worker for an occupation increas-
es a nation’s capacity but achieving an increase in
the worker’s productivity will depend on the de-
mand side. Without adequate demand, the newly
trained worker may supplant another trained work-
er. To understand the broader societal benefits for
productivity, for reduced inequality, for structur-
ing the ↑ labour market, and for the design of prod-
ucts and processes, the researcher must examine
patterns across countries, a task requiring superb
Areas of VET Research
skills in interpreting and sythesizing trends and
the research literature.
3.5.0.4 Studies of Employer-Based
Programmes
The difficult evaluation questions are important but
should not immobilize researchers. It is particular-
ly important to study VET programmes sponsored
by employers. A first step is to clarify the concepts
of costs and benefits. Walden (→ 3.5.1) discuss-
es these concepts and relevant empirical evidence
largely from the standpoint of the company pro-
viding VET. In considering costs, one must choose
whether to allocate some of the fixed costs of the
business to VET or to focus on marginal costs,
the added costs associated with VET. Although
decisions about adopting VET should depend on
its marginal costs and benefits, some studies have
used costs that incorporate overhead expenditures
that would be undertaken in the absence of VET.
On the other hand, marginal costing sometimes ig-
nores some resource costs directly linked to VET.
Surely, some part of the wages of administrators of
company training and of part-time trainers repre-
sent the using up of real resources by the VET pro-
gram and thus should count as costs. The standard
approach is to use payments to trainees (including
mandated benefits) as a cost. Although clearly the
wages paid to trainees is a cost to the firm, it may
or may not capture the actual resource cost to so-
ciety, which is the opportunity costs of the train-
ees. If VET supplants standard education, then the
cost is the value of learning the trainee would have
gained in regular education relative to VET. This
magnitude is very difficult to determine. If VET
displaces work in a regular job, then the resource
cost is the lost output the trainee would have gen-
erated at his or her best alternative.
Whether to consider the value of the productive
work of the trainee as reducing the costs or as a
benefit is somewhat arbitrary. In either case, it can
substantially influence the balance of costs and
benefits. Walden points to two methods for esti-
mating the value gained from the trainee’s work.
One involves measuring the time trainees are pro-
ducing for the firm, their productivity relative to a
normal employee, and implied wage savings from
having the trainee do the work. A second is to cal-
401
culate the cost of what a company would have to
spend to produce the equivalent amount resulting
from the trainee’s work.
Additional benefits accruing to companies from
VET investments include reductions in recruit-
ment costs, higher productivity of internally-
trained workers, lower turnover, increased utiliza-
tion of capacity. Using data from surveys of Ger-
man companies engaging in training, studies cit-
ed by Walden conclude that training benefits more
than justify the marginal costs of training for the
vast majority of companies.
3.5.0.5 Variations in National Financing of
VET
Costs and benefits accrue not only to employers
but also to workers and the rest of society. The type
of VET will generally affect who bears the costs,
who reaps the benefits, and, in turn, who is respon-
sible for the financing. Timmerman (→ 3.5.2) con-
siders the linkages in describing the types of VET
and the ↑ financing of VET across countries. Sys-
tems differ in terms of philosophy (nature of qual-
ifications, method of instruction), governance (role
of state and companies), and institutional arrange-
ments (↑ vocational schools, training centres, single
enterprise training, and dual training systems).
VET approaches that are the most general and un-
linked to specific companies are the most likely
to require funding from the state and individual
workers. Thus, vocational schools are most likely
to rely on state financing, usually from general re-
venues. Systems emphasizing decentralized, on-
the-job training in specific skills require financing
from the firm. The ↑ US and Canada provide train-
ing which is often tied to a job. While this train-
ing uses appropriate equipment, it is least likely to
have general applicability. Asian firms finance ex-
tensive training for their workers in a range of ar-
eas related to the firm, giving long-term employees
flexible skills within the company. Training cen-
tres that benefit groups of companies are often fi-
nanced by a levy placed on all employers in the rel-
evant sector. ↑ Dual systems, such as those in Ger-
many, Switzerland, and Austria, depend prima-
rily on financing from individual companies, but
the state generally finances the theoretical instruc-
tion provided in vocational schools. The extensive
402
company financing in these systems for training
applicability beyond the firm is puzzling because
of the risk that other firms hire away workers after
they are trained. In explaining the phenomenon,
Timmerman points to in-training production, sav-
ings in recruitment costs, limited worker ↑ mobil-
ity, and the complementary nature of general and
↑ specific training.
National Efforts to Involve Employers in Fi-
nancing VET
Although national ↑ VET systems vary, most coun-
tries are eager to have employers provide sub-
stantial amounts of training to current employees
and to ↑ young workers entering the work force.
Brandsma and Smith (→ 3.5.3) discuss the inter-
national experience with alternative approaches to
encouraging employer-based training. They group
countries in four categories.
Under the laissez-faire systems operating in ↑ Aus-
tralia, Canada, the United Kingdom, and the ↑ Unit-
ed States, employers are free to train or not based
on business requirements. Even in these countries,
employers do provide training but few employers
offer long-term training leading to occupational
certifications (OECD 1999c). The training is often
short-term, highly specific, firm-related training
(LERMAN / MCK ERNAN / RIEGG 2004). In addition,
as of 1994, over three out of four US firms reim-
bursed workers for tuition at colleges and training
institutes and over 70 per cent provided training
in production equipment, computer literacy, team-
work, and cross training (LERMAN / SCHMIDT 1999).
High employer ↑ commitment systems operate in
the Scandinavian countries, with over 80 per cent
of employers in Norway and Finland provid-
ing training and over 50 per cent of workers par-
ticipating in a given year. In Denmark, joint un-
ion, government, and employer committees spon-
sor training programmes largely financed by the
government. They use extensive training plans for
55 sectors in the Danish economy. Sectoral pro-
grammes operate extensively in the Netherlands
as well, through public-private ↑ partnerships that
make training funds available to employers. The
social partners, including unions and employers,
participate in the planning and management of the
programmes through Collective Agreements. The
Handbook of TVET Research
concept of sectoral projects to structure local job
training is taking hold in the US as well (BLAIR
2002).
Where subsidies and other forms of encouragement
are insufficient, some governments have tried to in-
crease training by mandating employers to pay in-
to a training fund to which they can apply for train-
ing grants. An alternative mandate is that compa-
nies spend at least a specific share of their payroll
on training or pay into a training fund. Compul-
sory employer financing schemes have operated in
several countries, but they often generate consid-
erable resistance linked with high administrative
costs and confusion over, for example, what quali-
fies as training. Brandsma and Smith conclude that
stimulating ↑ employer training requires an insti-
tutional structure in which employers are major
stakeholders and help develop ↑ training policies
and programmes.
3.5.0.6 The Broader Benefits of VET for
Individuals and Communities
Another way to stimulate VET is to document its
significant benefits that accrue to individuals, both
in careers and in their social lives, and to the gen-
eral public. The literature on the impact of VET
on individual earnings is extensive. The results
no doubt vary with the nature of the program, but
even systems with limited employer involvement
appear to raise the earnings returns of participants.
In the US, Bishop and Maine (2004) find that tak-
ing four advanced CTE courses instead of two ac-
ademic and one personal interest course led to sub-
stantial gains in employment and earnings gains
eight years after normal ↑ high school graduation.
The benefits of VET extend beyond careers and
productivity and actually influence an individu-
al’s ↑ identity and ↑ social capital. Feinstein, Kir-
pal, and Sánchez (→ 3.5.4) discuss the mecha-
nisms by which these effects occur and cite empir-
ical evidence showing that VET raises self-esteem,
self-confidence, social skills, social contacts, and
the motivation to learn, and clarifies future career
prospects. These effects, in turn, improve physical
health and reduce depression, teenage pregnancy
and criminal activity. Some studies have also doc-
umented benefits to the community at large, in-
cluding lower rates of crime and the improved in-
Areas of VET Research
teractions between youth and the community. Cer-
tainly, the form and the quality of VET matter.
Programmes that include learning in the context
of a job appear most effective in improving identi-
ty and social capital.
The Broader Benefits of VET for Productivity
In addition to its primary mission of training indi-
viduals to become productive workers with quali-
fications in an occupation, VET can help workers
play a central role in shaping the production proc-
ess and in developing innovations. Ruth (→ 3.5.5)
argues that the VET is particularly important for
developed countries to make a successful transi-
tion from mass production to flexible production.
From this perspective, the continuing strong ↑ per-
formance of Germany in flexible production owes
much to its ↑ VET system. A body of empirical re-
search by Steedman and Wagner (1987; 1989) has
documented how the role of VET, especially ap-
prenticeship, contributes to raising productivity in
specific industries. The interactions between the
skills learned through VET programmes and pro-
ductivity-enhancing innovation are subtle but real.
Toward More Comprehensive Studies of VET
Benefits, Costs, and Financing
The array of available VET cost-benefit studies is
valuable but is not sufficiently comprehensive to
capture all the major impacts of a well-developed
system. Making the job difficult are methodolog-
ical and practical problems, such as the long fol-
low-ups required to estimate career impacts, the
detailed company-based research to estimate pro-
ductivity gains, and the multiple interactions be-
tween companies and workers that can cause mar-
ket effects to differ from the sum of individual ef-
fects. Nonetheless, research on individual impacts
and on system-wide effects is vital for a thorough
understanding of VET and how best to structure
the opportunities VET affords an individual and
a society.
403
3.5.1 Costs and Benefits of In-
Company Vocational
Education and Training
Günter Walden
3.5.1. Definition of Terms
Data relating to the costs and ↑ benefits of train-
ing is of key importance for the evaluation of the
↑ performance of a vocational education and train-
ing system (→ 3.5.2; → 5.4.1). As far as in-compa-
ny vocational education and training is concerned,
Germany can look back on a long tradition of cost
calculation. We begin with an explanation of the
relevant terms used within the scope of research
into the costs and benefits of in-company vocation-
al education and training.
Training Costs
In terms of economic theory, costs are defined as the
consumption of value caused by the production of
company goods and services (WÖHE 2002, 1083).
In order to calculate costs, quantity and value
structures are required. Costs are arrived at by
multiplying the quantity and value components
of the consumption of goods and services. In the
case of absorption costing, the deployment of per-
sons and materials required for training is meas-
ured and evaluated. An overview of the individual
cost elements which need to be taken into consid-
eration in the case of ↑ in-company training is pro-
vided in Fig. 1.
The basic model for the calculation of ↑ training
costs was developed in the early 1970s by the com-
mission of experts known as “Costs and Finance
of Vocational Education and Training” (SK 1974).
Since many companies do not calculate training
costs on a separate basis, a uniform data collection
system is used to measure the various cost-related
elements, which are then combined within a cost
calculation model.
Using the full costing principle creates the prob-
lem that, in addition to the extra costs directly re-
lated to training, some overhead costs are allocat-
ed to training despite the fact that the company
would have incurred such costs even if it did not
404
Fig. 1: Cost elements of in company VET (Source Beicht/Walden/ Herget 2004a, 22)
provide training. The full costing principle does
not, therefore, reflect the additional costs actually
incurred. Counting this cost is, however, like-
ly to be the crucial factor for a company deciding
whether to provide training or not (BARDELEBEN /
BEICHT / FEHÉR 1995, 23 ff.). Today, marginal cost-
ing is also used in addition to absorption costing.
Marginal costing disregards the costs of part-time
trainers, employees who are involved in training
to some extent as well as carrying out their nor-
mal duties. Part-time employees in training ↑ad-
ministration are also not included under the mar-
ginal costing method.
The decision as to whether absorption or margin-
al costing is the more appropriate depends on the
objectives of the cost analysis being undertak-
en. Particularly when drawing cost comparisons
with other parts of the German training system or
when making international comparisons, the fo-
cus is on adopting an overall view of consump-
tion of resources, which is best measured using
the absorption costing method. Marginal costing,
on the other hand, represents an effective meas-
ure of the additional costs incurred by a compa-
ny providing training (compare BEICHT / WALDEN /-
HERGET 2004a, 28).
A particular feature of the ↑ dual system of train-
ing (based both in companies and in ↑ vocation-
al schools) is that trainees generally also perform
productive, commercially valuable work during
Handbook of TVET Research
their in-company training. The trainees’ produc-
tive output reduces the company’s cost burden and
therefore represents returns on training which can
be deducted from total costs. For this reason, a dif-
ferentiation is always made between gross and net
costs in the case of ↑ training costs, the latter rep-
resenting the balance of gross costs and returns on
investment. The starting point for the calculation
of returns on investment is the assumption that the
productive work performed by trainees is of equal
value to companies as would be the alternative of
paying a normal employee to carry out the same
duties (equivalence principle) (see BARDELEBEN /
BEICHT/ FEHÉR 1995, 26). Measuring the periods of
time in which trainees are productive and their lev-
el of performance compared to a normal employ-
ee thus forms the basis for calculating returns on
training investment. An alternative method of cal-
culating these returns is by means of the so-called
substitution method. Substitution involves esti-
mating which human resources a company would
have to employ and the amount of overtime which
would be incurred if no training were provided at
all (BARDELEBEN / BEICHT/ FEHÉR 1995, 50 f.). This
procedure is, however, less significant in empiri-
cal research.
Areas of VET Research
Benefits of Training
The benefits to firms of ↑ in-company training are
not directly identifiable and do not lend themselves
to ready measurement. They represent a construct
which requires the operationalisation of empiri-
cal methods of data collection. In general terms,
the idea of benefits is viewed as having the same
meaning as “returns”, this term being used to re-
fer to the “returns on investment” from spend-
ing on training. In terms of in-company invest-
ment in training, however, the use of this termi-
nology is the object of some controversy (TIMMER-
MANN 1998). Timmermann takes the view that the
term “benefits” can only apply at an individual lev-
el, preferring to speak more generally of “effects”
at a company level. In the absence of any wide-
spread academic acceptance of this notion on the
part of experts working in the field, however, this
chapter will continue in its consistent use of the
term “benefits”.
Although the following deals exclusively with ben-
efits flowing to the company, training can also pro-
duce benefits for the trainees and for society. Ben-
efits gained from in-company training constitute
positive economic effects for the company, wheth-
er they are monetary or non-monetary benefits
(TIMMERMANN 1998, 82). Individual benefits ac-
cruing from training can be quantified in mone-
tary terms to a greater or lesser extent.
Those classifying ↑ benefits of training for com-
panies (see TIMMERMANN 1998; RICHTER 2000;
WALDEN / HERGET 2002) frequently differentiate be-
tween whether the training benefit occurs during
the training period itself or is a subsequent con-
sequence of training. Returns gained from pro-
ductive work of trainees represent benefits during
training and can be taken into account when cal-
culating gross costs, as already described. Bene-
fits during training further occur when a company
gains advantages from training activities as such
(examples of this being enhancement of reputation
externally, increased level of ↑ professionalisation
in the provision of in-company continuing train-
ing) (see WALDEN / HERGET 2002). Benefits gained
as a subsequent consequence of training only arise
for companies when trainees are actually taken
on as permanent employees at the end of their ap-
prenticeship. Implications for labour productivity
405
(and consequently for profits) and the costs which
have been avoided are the primary focus of inter-
est here. Since it is difficult to measure direct ef-
fects on labour productivity, benefits gained as a
subsequent consequence of training have been for-
mulated in indirect terms (WALDEN / HERGET 2002),
providing a basis for empirical research to be car-
ried out. This process essentially involves focuss-
ing on the costs a company would incur if it were
not to provide training (opportunity costs). The
following individual cost elements can be meas-
ured (WALDEN / HERGET 2002):
– Recruitment costs
These refer to costs incurred in seeking and em-
ploying skilled employees from outside the com-
pany (advertising costs, job interviews). Induction
and qualifications involve additional costs.
– Differences in the level of ↑ performance between
employees trained internally and those who have
obtained their qualifications outside the company
It is also probable that differences in the level of
performance between those employees trained in-
company and those recruited via the ↑ labour mar-
ket will continue to be apparent for a certain peri-
od of time beyond the induction period. The rea-
sons for such differences in performance are the
specific advantages a company’s own training pro-
vides. This means that, whilst there needs to be
compliance with existing ↑ training regulations,
qualifications can be geared towards specific com-
pany requirements. Trainees gain knowledge of
the particular features of a company’s production
procedures, service provision and ↑ work processes
at an early stage. ↑ In-company training also con-
stitutes in effect a very lengthy probationary peri-
od, affording companies the opportunity of select-
ing the best employees for employment on a per-
manent basis.
– Mismatches in hiring and turnover of staff
Recruitment via the external labour market also
brings with it the increased risk of making mis-
matches in hiring, potentially raising costs caused
by a higher level of staff turnover.
– Idle production costs
The avoidance of idle production costs, which oc-
cur when no cover for an existing skilled employee
can be provided for a given period, probably repre-
sents a major element of the ↑ benefits of training,
406
the evaluation of the actual value of such benefits
largely depending on the prevailing situation on
the skilled workers labour market. Idle production
costs can be very high, even potentially resulting
in cessation of production in extreme cases where
there is a severe shortage of skilled labour.
Since they are impossible to survey directly, the
measurement and evaluation of the types of ben-
efits described above present researchers with a
wide range of difficulties. A significant part of the
benefit companies gain from training is, for exam-
ple, distributed over an extended period of time af-
ter training has been concluded and the qualified
worker has been employed on a permanent basis.
For this reason, researchers have not yet succeeded
in completely quantifying the benefit of training.
3.5.1.2 Objects and Aims of Research
This chapter deals with research projects, which
have adopted a mainly empirical approach to the
aim of measuring ↑ training costs and the extent of
the benefits of training from a company’s point of
view. The schools of ↑ educational economics and
↑ human capital theory have established theoretical
principles for research projects relating to the cost
and benefits analysis of in-company vocational ed-
ucation and training. Particular reference should
be made to the work of Becker (1993) in this re-
spect. As far as in-company qualification activities
are concerned, he draws a distinction between the
development of specific and general human cap-
ital. Companies can only internalise returns on
training investments if specific human capital has
been developed which can only be deployed with-
in the company in question. General human capi-
tal, on the other hand, is transferable beyond the
bounds of the company. This process involves em-
ployees who were trained in-company being re-
cruited away by other companies which can of-
fer higher wages and do not have to bear the costs
of acquisition of qualifications. The fact that the
↑ dual system of vocational education and training
in Germany operates a system of generally regu-
lated occupations and also involves a considera-
ble amount of investment in general ↑ human cap-
ital on the part of companies makes it difficult to
reconcile the training behaviour observed in com-
panies with the implications of this theory. How-
Handbook of TVET Research
ever, weakening some theoretical assumptions,
such as the remuneration of workers on the basis
of the marginal product, opens up the possibility
that company investments in general human capi-
tal may be rational for the firm. An extended theo-
retical approach to the explanation of in-company
qualification activities has recently been presented
by Acemoglu/ Pischke (1999a). The scope of this
chapter does not permit a closer consideration of
the ongoing debate in the field of ↑ educational eco-
nomics (see BECKMANN 2002, for example).
The main focus of research on costs and benefits
of in-company vocational education and training
under consideration here is the collection of em-
pirical data relating to the level and structure of
↑ in-company ↑ training costs and the extent of the
benefit realised (or realisable) on the part of the
companies. Before the appropriate empirical sur-
veys can be implemented, an extensive range of
problems relating to technical issues of data meas-
urement and collection need to be resolved. Train-
ing cost data can be presented in terms of the ma-
jor structural features of in-company training (oc-
cupation, field of training). A further object of re-
search is to determine the main factors which in-
fluence the extent of the costs. A final and partic-
ularly significant task is to extend the basis of the
information used to provide an explanation of in-
company training behaviour by establishing a link
between the cost and benefit data. This can serve
as the basis for the investigation of specific hypoth-
eses and enables differences in company training
structures to be measured.
3.5.1.3 History and Current Status of
Research
Costs and benefit issues relating to training have
by no means always been investigated jointly in
the past, separate studies also having taken place.
Whereas the emphasis in the past was very much
on the costs aspect, recent times have seen the
main focus of research increasingly centring on
the benefits of in-company training.
Training Costs
A whole series of relevant investigations into the
costs of in-company vocational education and
Areas of VET Research
training in Germany have been carried out in the
past. In 1971, the “Costs and Finance of Vocational
Education and Training” expert commission (SK
1974) was the first to conduct a cost analysis based
on statistically representative company surveys.
The analysis conducted by this expert commis-
sion provided the theoretical and comparative ba-
sis for all ensuing empirical cost surveys relating
to vocational education and training carried out in
the Federal Republic of Germany. A German Par-
liament resolution of 14. October 1970 established
the basis for the setting up of an expert commis-
sion with the task of investigating the costs and fi-
nancing of vocational education and training in the
Federal Republic of Germany. The starting point
for the task was the complete lack of knowledge
of facts concerning the provision of training with-
in trade and industry. The results of the cost analy-
sis carried out by the expert commission were dif-
ferentiated according to regulated occupations and
important structural characteristics such as field of
training and size of company. The costs analysis
was accompanied by an extensive investigation in-
to the quality of in-company vocational education
and training. The expert commission used the da-
ta collected as a basis for the submission of reform
proposals for the financing of vocational education
and training. One particular proposal made by the
expert commission was for the establishment of a
vocational education and training fund, a sugges-
tion not taken on board politically and not imple-
mented.
Training costs also formed the object of two in-
vestigations which took place around 1980, insti-
gated by the Federal Institute for Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training (BIBB) (NOLL / BEICHT / BÖLL
ET AL. 1983) and the German Institute for Business
Research respectively (FALK 1982). The method of
data collection used in the BIBB investigation in
particular was closely based on the approach taken
by the expert commission. The results of the BIBB
investigation provided differentiation according to
45 regulated occupations, whereas the German In-
stitute for Business Research survey did not pro-
vide any sub-divisions based on occupations. The
cost surveys which followed the analysis carried
out by the expert commission did not take the
quality of vocational education and training into
407
account, partly because of limited research fund-
ing and technical issues of data collection. Cost
analysis questionnaires can be very extensive and
result in relatively long interviews. In the 1980s,
BIBB carried out an independent investigation in-
to the quality of in-company vocational education
and training instead, separating out the cost issue
(DAMM-RÜGER / DEGEN / GRÜNEWALD 1988).
BIBB conducted another representative investi-
gation into ↑ training costs in 1991 (BARDELEBEN /
BEICHT / FEHÉR 1995) and again in 1995
(BARDELEBEN / BEICHT/FEHER 1997) and 1997
(BARDELEBEN / BEICHT 1999). These investigations
did not, however, allow for differentiation accord-
ing to occupation. A further cost analysis was car-
ried out in 1995 by the German Automobile Asso-
ciation, which looked at its own branch of industry
(DEUTSCHES K RAFTFAHRZEUGGEWERBE 1998). There
were also investigations for Austria (LASSNIGG /
STEINER 1997) and Switzerland (HANHART/ SCHULZ
1998).
The most recent available data on costs of ↑ in-
company training relate to the year 2000 in the
case of Germany (BEICHT / WALDEN / HERGET 2004a)
and Switzerland (SCHWERI / MÜHLEMANN / PESCIO
ET AL. 2003). The data collection instruments de-
veloped by the Federal Institute for Vocational Ed-
ucation and Training for use in the German survey
also formed the basis of the Swiss investigation.
Both surveys were conducted in 2001.
Tab. 1 presents some of the main findings of
the German investigation (BEICHT / WALDEN /
HERGET 2004a):
Using the absorption costing method, which meas-
ures and evaluates all persons and materials de-
ployed in the training process, the figure arrived at
for average gross costs per trainee and year in Ger-
many is € 16,435. The productive ↑ performance
of trainees during training represents returns on
training investment, reducing the companies’ cost
burden, and is therefore deducted from gross costs.
Deducting these average returns of € 7,730 leaves
us with net costs of € 8,705.
There are considerable cost differences between
West and East Germany (see Tab. 1). Gross costs
(full costs) in the East are 29 % lower than in the
West, net costs being 32 % lower. The main reason
408
for this is the different level of training allowances,
wages and salaries.
There are also considerable variations in cost be-
tween fields of training. Trade and industry have
the highest gross costs, closely followed by the
self-employed sector and public service occupa-
tions. By contrast, gross costs are significantly
lower in agriculture and the craft trades. There is
also a considerable variation in returns on train-
ing, and this produces a different picture in terms
of net costs. The public service sector has relative-
ly low returns but the highest net costs. The lowest
net costs by some ↑ distance are to be found in agri-
culture, which also has the second highest returns.
The marginal costing method does not take the
cost of part-time trainers into account. This re-
sults in significantly lower costs. If marginal cost-
ing is used, gross costs are € 10,178 and net costs
€ 2,448. The marginal costs reflect the extra cost
burden incurred by companies by providing train-
ing, including the full costs of the resources used
up in the training process.
With figures on the average gross and net costs
(full costs), we can calculate the total cost of in-
company vocational education and training to
trade and industry in the year 2000. The calcula-
tions show that gross costs for all trainees in Ger-
many as a whole was € 27.7 billion, € 23.3 for West
Germany and € 4.4 billion for the East of the coun-
try. Net costs reached a total of € 14.7 billion na-
tionwide, € 12.4 billion in the West and € 2.2 bil-
lion in East Germany.
A whole range of factors, such as size of company
and the occupation itself, bring about considerable
variances in training costs. One occupation where
costs are particularly high is the ↑ profession of
mechatronics engineer, where gross full costs are
€ 29,335, in contrast to the equivalent costs for the
occupation of legal assistant, for example, which
are significantly lower at € 12,941.
As described above, it is the marginal costs and,
above all, the net marginal costs, which represent
the actual cost burden for companies conducting
their own vocational education and training. It is,
therefore, important to be clear what the influenc-
ing factors determining the cost level are. Multi-
variate analyses have been conducted and pro-
duced the following correlations (BEICHT / WALDEN /
Handbook of TVET Research
HERGET 2004a, 113 ff.). Firstly, the size of a com-
pany significantly influences the level of cost;
costs increase as the size of the company grows.
The way in which training is organised within the
company is another important factor. Training in
a training workshop results in much higher levels
of cost than is the case with other organisational
forms of training. As far as occupations and ↑ oc-
cupational groups are concerned, technical occu-
pations are more expensive than commercial and
administrative occupations. In general terms, the
highest costs are to be found in technical occupa-
tions (under the auspices of the chambers of com-
merce and industry) and ↑ IT occupations. Com-
mercial chamber of commerce and industry occu-
pations are in a mid-level position, craft trades oc-
cupations tending to produce lower costs.
As already mentioned, similar data collection
instruments were used in Switzerland to car-
ry out a cost survey for the year 2000 (SCHWERI /
MÜHLEMANN / PESCIO ET AL. 2003). This analysis,
however, only involved calculating costs on an ab-
sorbed cost basis. Whereas the gross costs are at a
similarly high level to that seen in Germany, the
figures relating to net costs are significantly low-
er. The main reason for these differing results lies
in the considerably higher level of wages and sala-
ries paid to skilled workers in Switzerland (used as
a reference criterion for the calculation of the re-
turns on the productive work performed by train-
ees), whereas training allowances are compara-
ble to those paid in Germany. The margin between
training allowance and skilled workers’ wages is
thus significantly higher in Switzerland than is the
case in Germany.
Benefits of Training
The first cost analyses only tackled the ↑ benefits
of training in terms of returns to productive work
during the training itself, while subsequent sur-
veys attempted to measure other aspects of ben-
efits from training. There was a particular focus
on the benefits arising at the end of the training
process, when trainees are taken on as perma-
nent employees at the end of their apprenticeship.
The cost analysis mentioned above, carried out by
BIBB in 1991 (BARDELEBEN / BEICHT/ FEHÉR 1995),
was the first to use a representative company sur-
Areas of VET Research
vey to include these types of benefits in the investi-
gation. Model estimates were created to anticipate
the level of the varying cost benefits of ↑ in-com-
pany training as opposed to recruiting new skilled
workers on the ↑ labour market. A direct evaluation
of the significance of the scope of individual bene-
fits was also drawn up by the companies.
A model calculation of savings made by an indi-
vidual company in terms of recruitment costs was
also drawn up by Cramer/ Müller (1994). Using
data provided by AEG, an evaluation was made
of the costs that would arise with regards to re-
cruitment, employee selection procedures, induc-
tion, updating qualifications, hiring mismatch-
es and staff turnover if the company did not pro-
vide training. Benefits were quantified in terms
of various assumptions and compared with costs.
Grossmann/ Meyer (2002) also calculated specif-
ic values for benefits of training using case stud-
ies as a basis.
The cost analysis carried out by BIBB in 2001 fo-
cused in equal measure on both benefits and costs
of training (BEICHT / WALDEN / HERGET 2004a). This
was the first investigation that enabled potential
recruitment cost savings to be created, by provid-
ing training which would be measured in a repre-
sentative way and compared with ↑ training costs.
The BIBB study also included direct evaluations of
the scope of relevant benefits surveyed by the com-
panies. In addition, the first ↑ statistical analysis
of the correlation between training activity and a
company’s economic success was carried out. The
following will deal briefly with the most signifi-
cant findings of the BIBB investigation (BEICHT/
WALDEN / HERGET 2004a).
Cost savings on the recruitment of skilled workers
from the external labour market created by provid-
ing training represent a major part of the benefits
of training. The BIBB study surveyed the factors
which make up the individual respective compo-
nents of this benefit and quantified them in mon-
etary terms. The individual costs measured were
those relating to advertising and conducting job
interviews, as well as the induction and qualifica-
tions costs in respect of the recruitment of skilled
workers via the external labour market. Potential
wage and salary differences between employees
409
who had been trained in-company and skilled em-
ployees recruited externally were also measured.
The average overall figure which emerges for re-
cruitment cost savings created by providing train-
ing is approximately € 5,800 per skilled work-
er needing to be hired. The most significant com-
ponent of this is the high induction costs of near-
ly € 4,000 which are incurred when an external
skilled worker is recruited. All the other cost ele-
ments have a far lower impact.
In addition, further aspects of ↑ benefits of train-
ing need to be considered (longer term advantages
in terms of the level of ↑ performance of employees
who were trained in-company, hiring mismatches
and idle production costs). These savings can arise
if the company provides training and enhance its
image by offering training. All such benefits are
probably of considerable significance, even if they
cannot be quantified. The situation prevailing on
the external ↑ labour market is the determining fac-
tor in determining the extent of potential idle pro-
duction costs in the event of a shortage of skilled
workers. The companies surveyed within the scope
of the BIBB study were asked to assess the number
of available skilled workers and the viability of de-
ploying the appropriate external skilled workers
for each occupation investigated. Only around one
in five of the companies surveyed described the
number and viability of employing workers avail-
able on the external labour market as either very
good or good. This means that an overwhelming
majority of companies would run the risk of high
idle production costs were they to decide not to
provide training.
The BIBB project also undertook a direct evalua-
tion of a whole range of benefits. The main thrust
of the companies’ assessments of benefits focused
on the advantages provided by ↑ in-company train-
ing in recruiting and securing new trainees. In ad-
dition, many (75 %) see training as the best way
of introducing future employees to the company
culture and of promoting identification with the
company (68 %). Training is perceived as being of
considerable economic significance. Over 70 % of
the companies express the view that well qualified
workers manifestly increase the value of the com-
pany, and as many as 64 % of companies believe
strongly that training represents a crucial element
410
Tab. 1: Average in-company training costs for 2000 as a whole and according to field of training
in a company’s future competitiveness. In addition
to the positive effects of the company’s own train-
ing system in securing the skilled trainees of the
future, many companies perceive that they enjoy a
greater level of prestige from their customers and
suppliers (49 %). A full 60 % also stress that the
function of training is not merely confined to its
role within individual companies but that training
also represents a common duty for trade and indus-
try as a service to society. The fact that overall ap-
proval ratings are very high for all aspects of ben-
efits clearly goes to show that the benefits of train-
ing represent a very complex issue and a wide va-
riety of aspects needs to be taken into considera-
tion when viewing the picture relating to benefits
as a whole.
The BIBB investigation uses net costs calculated
on a marginal costing basis to provide an overall
view of the correlation between costs and benefits
of training. The resulting figures show overall av-
erage costs incurred in the course of a three-year
apprenticeship to be € 7,344, compared with quan-
tified benefits (savings in recruitment costs) of
€ 5,765. Taking those elements of benefits not eval-
uated in monetary terms into account, the authors
conclude that it is generally cheaper for a company
to provide its own training than to recruit skilled
workers from the external ↑ labour market (BEICHT /
WALDEN / HERGET 2004a, 245).
Handbook of TVET Research
Considering the distribution of the net margin-
al costs across the whole of the three years of the
↑ in-company training reveals that 38 % of compa-
nies have either negative net costs or net costs of
zero. In other words, 38 % of companies incur no
cost burden at all in net terms during the period of
training (BEICHT / WALDEN / HERGET 2004a, 245).
The BIBB survey concludes that training results
in a positive cost-benefit ratio for the vast major-
ity of companies. In the case of 13 % of the com-
panies, however, calculations revealed an un-
favourable cost-benefit ratio (BEICHT / WALDEN /
HERGET 2004a, 250)
3.5.1.4 Methodological Problems and
Forecast
The cost analyses carried out by BIBB involved
a uniform, standardised company questionnaire,
which was used to interview heads of training of
larger companies – in the case of smaller compa-
nies the owners generally taking part. The surveys
were all conducted in the form of personal inter-
views (→ 5.2.1).
Some pieces of information required and on which
the cost model is based have to be estimated by in-
terviewees rather than drawn from systematically
recorded data within companies, thus posing a ma-
jor difficulty in estimating ↑ training costs. This is-
sue particularly applies to the case of the amount
Areas of VET Research
of time worked by part-time trainers. Compa-
nies do not generally keep records on how many
hours a skilled industrial employee, who is allo-
cated training duties on a part-time basis, spends
looking after trainees. The information tends to be
based on subjective assessments on the part of in-
terviewees and can be susceptible to being influ-
enced by what they feel constitutes good training.
The likely general tendency is for part-time train-
ers to err on the generous side and overstate times
allocated to training.
Recording and measuring productive ↑ perform-
ance by trainees is another difficult area to assess.
As a rule, no company records the periods of time
trainees are involved in productive activities. Es-
timates of the scope of productive periods and in-
formation on the level of performance of trainees
is therefore based on the subjective assessment of
the interview partners and is subject to a relative-
ly high amount of evaluation at a personal level.
Whereas the assumption can be made that train-
ing services provided by part-time trainers tend to
be overestimated, it is more likely that too low a
figure will be put on the productive performance
on the part of trainees (BEICHT / WALDEN / HERGET
2004a, 30).
A broadly based empirical survey of training costs
does not, however, offer any other easy alternatives
to existing procedures. Cost and time factors rule
out the possibility of asking companies to under-
take a more precise measurement of the training
services of part-time trainers and the periods of
trainee productive activity. Besides, the impossi-
bility of excluding the tendency to under and over-
estimate information would mean that this would
not constitute a guarantee of obtaining more re-
liable results. In principle, one way of achieving
better estimates might be to interview the trainees
themselves as well as those responsible for train-
ing within the company. Such a potentially con-
trol-oriented interview would, however, give rise
to resistance in many companies. It could also re-
verse the estimation biases. Trainees might put too
low a figure on the amount of support time pro-
vided by part-time trainers and overstate their own
productive performance.
Measurement difficulties arise in determining
training costs but are even greater when evaluat-
411
ing ↑ benefits of training. Companies do not keep
records on aspects of training relating to benefits
and indeed do not always have a clear idea of what
the benefits of their own training are. Researchers
have thus hitherto only succeeded in achieving a
rudimentary evaluation of benefits of training in
monetary terms. It is questionable whether signif-
icant progress on these measures will take place
in the near future. It is, however, possible to iden-
tify and measure the indicators which are relevant
to the benefits. Extrapolating from observed values
would enable differentiated hypotheses regarding
benefits of in-company vocational education and
training to be tested.
The prevailing difficulties in recording and meas-
uring data mean that representative costs and ben-
efits analyses inevitably involve considerable ex-
penditure of time and money. As a result, this type
of information has been collected only once eve-
ry ten years or so. With the processes involved in
vocational education and training subject to an in-
creasingly rapid pace of change, requirements for
valid current data will increase. It will be neces-
sary to conduct surveys at shorter intervals. An in-
crease in the number of cases studied would also
be desirable in making differentiated evaluations
possible (in respect of regional differences, for ex-
ample).
Only one survey has thus far made available ex-
tensive information relating to benefits of training
comparative to ↑ training costs. This survey can-
not constitute a basis for the evaluation of develop-
ments over a period of time. Little is known about
what level of stability costs and benefits of training
display in the short term or the interdependence
of specific combinations of factors relating to the
economy as a whole or to companies. These gaps
also indicate the necessity of conducting investiga-
tions at shorter intervals. More in-depth analysis is
also required to determine which other data sourc-
es contain indicators relevant to costs and benefits
and how these could be incorporated into supple-
mentary evaluations.
412
3.5.2 National Systems of Financing
TVET
Dieter Timmermann
3.5.2.1 The Opportunity Space of Alternative
Financing Provisions
Every discussion on financing TVET should start
by asking three questions. First: who are the po-
tential financiers and what are their potential
sources of liquidity? Second: must those who fi-
nance TVET also produce and offer it and must
those who produce and offer it also finance TVET?
Third: Must those who in the first instance sacri-
fice resources as well as liquidity finally bear the
financing burden?
Firstly: financers may be the learner or his or her
family, the employee or worker, the employer or the
company, any other organisation (for example em-
ployer associations or unions or parafiscal funds),
and the state. For each of them it can be stated that
they have basically only three sources of financing
liquidity: current, past and future income, where-
as the kinds of income may differ between the fi-
nancers due to their economic position. The survey
below will demonstrate and suggest that the space
of financing alternatives is limited and can be pre-
sented transparently.
The widespread impression of transparency of fi-
nancing TVET has mainly five reasons. Firstly,
↑ empirical knowledge about the size of the finan-
cial streams and the contributions of the diverse
financiers is highly selective. Secondly, in most
countries TVET is represented by a highly diver-
sified pluralism of institutions corresponding to
the pluralism of mixed financing solutions. Third-
ly, the diverse financing modes reach possible fi-
nancers and their financing sources in different
ways. However it seems safe to state that current
income is likely to be the main source of liquidi-
ty for all. Fourthly, different financing modes have
established different chains of financing streams
between the financers, and the chains differ as to
their lengths and structures. Fifthly, these financ-
ing chains are lengthened by the options of some
of the financers to shift part or all of their financ-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing burden to other financers if certain conditions
hold.
Secondly: It seems wise and necessary to distin-
guish between the production and offer of TVET
services on the one hand and their financing on the
other hand. Financing and producing TVET serv-
ices by the state are usually seen as one set of a
public good, and a similar view holds with respect
to ↑ in-company training and employer financing.
The dominant view is that the state must be the en-
trepreneur of TVET and owner of the system when
he is the (main) financier, and that he must be fin-
ancier as long as he is the owner and producer. A
similar understanding is found as to the employ-
ers or companies. This view of coupling TVET fi-
nancing to TVET production as well as to the re-
spective property rights is not at all imperative.
Decoupling financing and producing TVET opens
up the field for a number of combinations both of
which have been mostly ignored in the past.
Thirdly: The question as to who finances TVET
is at first glance not easily answered by pointing
out those who pay. Rather, the functioning of the
tax system as well as of the market and price sys-
tem create specific incidence structures, i.e. struc-
tures and processes of shifting and burdening the
financing contributions between the diverse actors,
who are not easy to identify. Due to these processes
the relationship between the incidence of the ben-
efits of TVET (Who benefits to what extent?) and
the incidence of costs and financing TVET (Who
bears the costs and the financial burden?) is ob-
scured rather than revealed. If employers or com-
panies have to pay for TVET they will try to shift
the burden to their clients, be it consumers or sup-
pliers, by raising the product prices or by putting
pressure on subscription prices. The degree of suc-
cess of shifting depends on competition constel-
lations in the markets for goods and services and
on the range of the employers affected by TVET
costs. Ultimately, most or all of the burden goes to
the consumers. If the state is involved in financing
TVET, the taxpayers are finally the ones who have
to bear that burden, depending on the incidence ef-
fects of the tax system. In the case of co- or mixed
financing modes requiring different financers to
contribute payments to TVET, the incidence of the
costs and financing burden becomes empirically
Areas of VET Research
Tab. 1: Financiers and Potential fi nancing (liquidity) sources
even more impenetrable. However, theoretically,
the message seems clear: whatever financing sys-
tem is chosen in any country, the consuming units,
i.e. the households (as the final taxpayers and as
the final buyers of goods and services) have to fi-
nance TVET. The inequality question then is not,
How is that burden distributed between wages and
profits or between labour and capital, rather the
question is, How is that financing or cost burden
distributed among the households in relation to the
distribution of the benefits of TVET between the
households. Another general message remains to
be pointed out: As the households have to sacrifice
parts of their (current, past or future) income (i.e.
of their consumption) in order to finance TVET, it
becomes clear that TVET is an individual as well
as a societal investment.
3.5.2.2 Alternative Modes of Financing
TVET: An Overview
TVET arrangements and systems are characterised
by a number of elements, which serve to describe
the features of and differences between them. The
main elements are, for example, the property rights
413
constellation, the allocation mechanism, the gov-
ernance system, the training institutions, the learn-
ing or ↑ training places, the status of the instruc-
tor and of the learner, the pedagogical philoso-
phy of instruction, and the financing mechanism.
Depending on the focus of observation, one may
distinguish between different types of TVET sys-
tems. For example, looking at the core of the qual-
ification concept, the styles and the components
of the qualification set may be centred around the
functions which the qualifications will have (see
the function-oriented model in England). A sec-
ond perspective may be the set of qualifications
that the TVET research findings recommend (as
seems to be the case in ↑ France, the science-ori-
ented model). Germany, Austria and Switzerland
seem to follow a vocation-oriented TVET model;
while the model in ↑ China, ↑ Japan and South Ko-
rea may be named as enterprise-oriented. Finally,
the major focus in the ↑ USA or in Italy seems to
be directed towards job requirements (the job-ori-
ented model).
A second approach may focus on the governance
system as has been proposed by Greinert (1995b).
414
Three different governance models are distin-
guished. One alternative is the “market system” in
which the state plays no or only a marginal role. The
main actors are private companies, private voca-
tional institutions and the individual trainees and/
or their families. The allocation mechanism is giv-
en by the market and the price system: the financ-
ing of TVET happens privately, i.e. by the train-
ees and their families as well as by the employers
or private companies. In the pure model, the state
has no function at all and it is not involved in fi-
nancing; the property rights are completely private
ones. The second alternative assumes market fail-
ure in TVET and therefore has confidence only in
the state. Property rights are public ones. And with
respect to financing TVET, the state is either the
only or by far the major actor in the field of TVET.
Planning, organisation, financing and ↑ controlling
alone are its duties. The third alternative leaves the
processes of TVET to the private actors. However,
the state acts in defining a governance framework
of regulations aimed at clarifying the space as well
as the borders of private actions. State ↑ participa-
tion in financing is not excluded (mixed system,
public-private ↑ partnership).
A third approach to distinguishing between TVE
systems would be to focus on the learning insti-
tutions (implicitly the property rights issue may
also come up here) with special implications for
learning places and arrangements. According to
this view, a distinction is made between ↑ voca-
tional schools (be they public or private ones, the
schooling model as it is seen for example in Swe-
den, in Spain or in ↑ France), training centres (like
in most Latin American Countries; they are para-
fiscal governance institutions apart from the state,
financed by levy-systems taking a certain percent-
age off the payroll of the employers as their financ-
ing contribution in order to run the centres), sin-
gle enterprise training (either in terms of the holis-
tic Asian approach or the job-related US approach,
both with TVET financed by the employers), and
dual training systems (which, in the German case,
already have three institutional columns: the voca-
tional part-time school, the single company and the
supra-firm training workshop). Dual training sys-
tems may show different degrees of organisational
strengths and different arrangements (for example
Handbook of TVET Research
vocational schooling combined with internships
in companies with or without training ordinances
on the one hand, the highly organised and refined
↑ dual system in Germany, Austria and Switzer-
land on the other). Here, mixed financing as well
as cofinancing of TVET by several actors (state,
employer, learner) is likely to happen. It should be
mentioned that in the literature there are even more
variations of TVET systems introduced than pro-
posed here (see, for example SCHAACK 1995). The
following sections will present and discuss four
basic models of TVET systems, which represent
most of the concrete TVET arrangements to be
found around the world. The focus of the presenta-
tion will be on the provisions.
3.5.2.3 The State Schooling Model and State
Financing of TVET
In this model, schooling includes TVET, either
in terms of full-time vocational schools being a
school-type of their own, or in terms of vocation-
al school tracks within comprehensive secondary
schools. France and Denmark, for example, have
developed the first variant, Sweden the second one.
The system is based on the fundamental conviction
that the market would produce a number of failures
and lead to a sub-optimal provision of TVET. Vo-
cational schools are the only or by far the domi-
nant learning place for the students as well as the
trainees. In principle, the system is able to satisfy
the total annual demand for TVET, however it usu-
ally requires the fullfillment of certain entrance
conditions, for example, graduation certificates
earned at the end of lower secondary schooling.
Often, there is already a basic (preparatory) vo-
cational learning embedded into lower secondary
education for pupil orientation purposes. The gov-
ernance system is created and run by the state, it
may be centralised or decentralised. Instructors at
the TVET schools are teachers, employed and paid
by state authorities. Their education and training
is also organised and controlled for by state insti-
tutions. State governance includes curricula devel-
opment and ↑ controlling by state institutions as
well as uniform equipment guiding lines. The fi-
nancing of the schools may come from tax reve-
nues, tuitions fees, or levy systems. Tax revenues
may stem from general taxes (if the non-affecta-
Areas of VET Research
tion principle holds) or from specific taxes raised
for education in general or especially for TVET.
The apprenticeship tax in ↑ France whose role and
impact is nearly negotiable is an example. It takes
0.5 % of employers’ payroll. However, employers
may avoid the tax by proving that they have invest-
ed at least a similar amount of money in TVET on
their own account.
The strengths of the schooling system lie in gener-
al (state-defined and controlled) training standards
and uniform training facilities as well as in a uni-
form instructor training and quality. Instructors are
usually pedagogically trained. Whether the quality
level of instruction and training is satisfying, is an
empirical question. When applicants meet the for-
mal entrance requirements, they have to be admit-
ted by the ↑ school system. The problems perceived
as to the model are manifold. Equipment, learn-
ing material and curricula may be old fashioned
(as, for example, was the case in former Soviet Un-
ion republics like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan or Uz-
bekistan, as well as in Laos). In times of weak eco-
nomic growth and low tax revenues, other societal
and political fields than TVET may be given pri-
orities in government spending. Apart from pro-
duction schools, which are found in a number of
Third World countries, within the schooling model
no economic returns from instruction and training
can be expected during the training period. The
training processes, but also the instructors as well
as the curricula tend to be far away from the firm
and workplace, which may place a theory burden
onto the education and training contents as well as
onto the graduates. This burden may produce ↑ la-
bour market risks and hamper the transition of the
trained from TVET into employment on the one
hand, and may produce high costs for the firm of
making newly hired trained workers acquainted
with the workplace requirements. These costs may
induce firms to undermine the schooling model by
offering their own training solutions by training-
on-the-job opportunities (which could also be ob-
served in Laos as well as in former Soviet Union
republics in the 90s after becoming independent
states). Apart from these possible shortcomings of
the state schooling and financing model, there may
be added some critical arguments from the public
choice theory (see, for example, GWARTNEY 1977,
415
60–67, 376–391) which may led to assumed “state
failure”. State failure may show up as the ration-
al voter ignorance effect, the special interest and
short sightedness effect, the lack of stimuli to act
efficiently, as political lags in decision processes,
and as informational, financial as well as legitima-
tion restrictions.
3.5.2.4 The Training-in-the-Firm (TIF) and
the Training-on-the-Job Model (TOJ)
In both variants, the transition from general school-
ing to TVET happens directly through work organ-
isations (firms or other private or public units) af-
ter graduation (usually after 12 years of school ed-
ucation). As applicants for training, the graduates
build a labour queue at the entrance doors of the
organisations waiting for a work contract with the
employer, i.e. trainees don’t get a special status as
trainees but in a formal sense they become workers
or employees on the basis of a labour contract. The
entrance conditions are defined by each employer,
depending on the qualification levels of the work-
places in question, and on the number of appli-
cants, their educational profile and on their quality
which the application documents (in particular the
schooling certificate) indicate. The training period
is defined by the working-in phase, whose length
and contents depend on the workplace require-
ments as to competence, the degree of difficulty
of the tasks to be performed, the competency level
the trainee imports into the firm, and the training
and work philosophy of the individual firm or or-
ganisation. The workplace is the dominant ↑ train-
ing place and there may also be some some train-
ing activities at workshops inside the firm or in the
form of theoretical instructions that are given there.
The degree of modernity of the training depends
directly on the modernity of the workplace and its
equipment. The Asian (in particular Japanese) var-
iant (the TIF variant) is firm related, i.e. the work-
ers or employees in their role as trainees are not
only trained to perform one special job at a certain
workplace but they are trained at a sequence of dif-
ferent workplaces so that they can acquire a broad-
er set of competences which render them flexible
and mobile within the company. They are aimed at
acquiring a holistic set of competences including
416
↑ key qualifications so that they can rotate between
different jobs and work divisions.
The TOJ variant, which is the dominant training
model in the ↑ USA, as well as in Canada, Italy and
many other countries (often recommended by the
↑ World Bank), is narrowly tied to the single job
which has to be at the allocated workplace. Nearly
every change of job or workplace or of workplace
technology implies new training activities, and it
may well be open to discussion whether this new
training is initially, or can already be considered
continuing, TVET. While it can be assumed that
the training equipment usually is modern and rep-
resents the actual state of the art, it must be stat-
ed that within this TVET model, the existence of a
curriculum, of a systematic as well as theory-driv-
en or theoretically-based TVET, and of pedagogi-
cally trained instructors is not very likely. Moreo-
ver, it seems highly unlikely that the move to oth-
er jobs, in particular the move to another job in an-
other firm, can be done without substantial addi-
tional training.
In both variants (TIF and TOJ), the firms or the
employers enjoy economic returns as well as bene-
fits from this type of training. Gary Becker (1993)
has argued that in the case of general TVET the
costs of training have to be borne by the trainee
because he/she will also enjoy the returns. Howev-
er, in the case of ↑ specific training he asserts that
the trainee and the firm share both the cost and
the return. As TIF and TOJ are specific training to
a different degree, the firms will bear part of the
cost of and enjoy part of the returns of training.
The last feature of the two variants that needs to
be mentioned is that they are located at the inter-
section of external and internal ↑ labour markets,
i.e. in a market system of training, which is charac-
terised by the allocation of training opportunities
by supply and demand decisions which themselves
depend heavily on prices and wages among other
things. In other words: there is no guarantee that
the training opportunities offered each year will
cover the demand for them so that school leavers
will forego TVET or the state has to jump in by of-
fering additional training opportunities in its own
institutions (for example ↑ vocational schools) or
by subsidising additional training facilities in the
employment sector.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.5.2.5 The Training Centre (Latin
American) Model
In almost all Latin American countries, a specif-
ic model of producing, governing and financing
TVET has grown since the late 1940s (for details
see DUCCI 1996). The ↑ industrialisation process-
es revealed a serious shortage of skilled workers
and employees, in particular at operational levels.
Manpower migrating from the rural areas lacked
the qualifications demanded by modern industry
and services, and the formal ↑ school system, in-
cluding vocational and technical schools, was un-
able to deliver the skills required. Governments,
employers associations and unions worked togeth-
er to establish specialised vocational training insti-
tutions which were and still are expected to meet
the qualification requirements of the developing
economy. These training centres are run by nation-
al training service organisations bearing different
names in the respective countries. Some are cen-
tralised, others are segregated according to eco-
nomic sectors (for example in Brasil SENAI or-
ganises TVET for the industry sector, SENAC for
the commercial sphere) or to regions. Further ex-
amples are SENA (Columbia), INCE (Venezue-
la), SENATI (Peru), INA (Costa Rica), INACAP
(Chile), SECAP (Ecuador) and INTECAP (Guate-
mala), to name a few.
The training centres run by these organisations
are organised, equipped and staffed like the Eu-
ropean ↑ vocational schools in Germany, Austria,
Switzerland or ↑ France. Some of the centres have
been founded and sponsored by European states.
The centres train following to self-made curricu-
la, and most instructors are full-time personnel,
having been specially trained in their subjects as
well as pedagogically. For a period of years the
training centres behaved like vocational schools:
the knowledge and skills trained were often felt
to be very distant from the qualification needs
of the economic sectors or of the companies. Of
course, the school-like arrangements did not cre-
ate returns from training, and the companies of-
ten complained of the lack of practical skills of the
trained and of the focus on theoretical knowledge.
This forced the companies, in addition to paying
the levy for financing the centres to bear high ad-
ditional costs for rather long periods of work-in ac-
Areas of VET Research
tivities for the graduates of the centres. The strong
critique by companies and employers associations
in the 1990s led the organisations as well as their
centres to turn their attention to the actual needs of
enterprises of various sizes, while the companies
opened themselves to the centres and the trainees
by offering internships of different lengths. The
price of that strategy is that the access to TVET in
these systems has become more selective, exclud-
ing early drop outs of the regular education system,
and that the focus of the training programmes has
switched to the immediate needs of the firms by
offering tailor-made courses, neglecting the medi-
um and long-term qualification needs. The dom-
inant financing mode of these National Training
Agency systems is the para-fiscal funds solution,
i.e. the agencies also serve as collective financing
mechanisms by collecting levies from their mem-
bers. The members may be all the firms in a coun-
try or in a region or in a sector. The duty to pay the
levy contribution comes either from national laws
or from national agreements between the social
partners, which are heavily involved in these sys-
Tab. 2: Components and Elements of the German Dual Training System
417
tems in any case. The levy is defined by a certain
percentage of the payroll to be paid to the funds.
The funds then finance the training centres. Re-
cently, there are changes in the fund policy in that
the companies are encouraged to start TVET on
their own. In that case they are freed from paying
the levy if they meet certain requirements as to the
size and quality of the training engagement.
3.5.2.6 Cooperative TVET and the German
Dual System as a Special Case
The idea of cooperative TVET starts from the ob-
servation that TVET may happen away from the
enterprise or within the enterprise. Away from
the enterprise means either training by vocational
schools (either state or privately owned and run) or
by training centres (the Latin American case). As
the discussion hitherto showed, that in-enterprise
training and training in schools or training cen-
tres serve different pedagogical objectives within
TVET, so it seems obvious to combine both train-
ing institutions in a cooperative way and to utilise
the synergy effects out of that cooperation, i.e. one
418
can speak of a dual training system in that two in-
stitutions are involved in a cooperative way: the
school (training centre) and the company. Each
partner has to pay for the ↑ training costs of their
activities. However, the degree to which these two
institutions are involved with respect to time and
money may differ considerably. Three constella-
tions may be thought of: (i) The school or the train-
ing centre is the dominant part(ner); the enterpris-
es offer only internships and practical work peri-
ods or add short systematic ↑ in-company training.
The majority of the training time (for example two
thirds) and of the training costs as well as of the fi-
nancing obligation is taken by the state or the na-
tional training agency; (ii) The schools and enter-
prises are equally involved in TVET with respect
to time (each partner fills 50 % of the total train-
ing time) and financing; (iii) The enterprise is the
dominant partner with regards to time (for example
two thirds of the total training time) and financing;
the vocational school or the training centres then
are junior partners. Generally, the training in the
enterprise may be guided by training ordinances
(curricula) or not; coordination between the two
learning institutions may or may not be required
and also realised. There are at least two financers
of TVET, but three are more likely: the state (fi-
nancing the public vocational schools or subsidis-
ing private schools), the learners (financing private
vocational schools or paying fees at public schools)
and the enterprises pay for their training activities.
In other words: mixed or co-financing is the domi-
nant financing mode.
The German ↑ dual system of TVET has some pe-
culiar characteristics, which will now be explained.
The objective of all training is defined as the voca-
tional ability to act competently in private and pub-
lic areas of vocational activities. A starting point
is the view that practical elements of a ↑ vocation
cannot be learned in a schooling environment but
only by vocational practice in the enterprise. Tak-
ing this seriously, and asking at the same time for
enrichment of TVET by a solid theoretical as well
as pedagogical education, a cooperative education-
al and training arrangement is imperative. A sec-
ond aspect of the dual system is that of the concept
of learning places. Within each of the learning in-
stitutions (↑ vocational school, training centre, en-
Handbook of TVET Research
terprise) several different learning places may ex-
ist which are defined by their geographical loca-
tion within the institution as well as by their ped-
agogical arrangement and by their contents and
learning conditions. The following survey presents
the elements of the dual training system in a trans-
parent way.
Components and Elements of the German Dual
Training System
Two institutional variants supplementing the du-
al institution system have developed over time, at
least in Germany, due to the growing specialisation
of producing goods and services: the supra-firm
training workshop and the ↑ training alliance be-
tween enterprises. As the focus on core businesses
has led to a narrowing of the range of occupations
and job-related activities within most enterprises,
in a number of cases the single enterprise has lost
activities which are part of the vocation (Berufs-
bild) and of the training ordinance. These activ-
ities and training contents can be trained within
a training workshop being established just to of-
fer that training (for example in the crafts sector).
Another way is the collaboration of two or more
enterprises which train in the same vocation but
show different specialisations. If these speciali-
sations fit nicely together the trainees can get the
training required by the curriculum. A central fea-
ture of the German dual system lies in the fact that
the vocational part-time schools educate according
to state-wide curricula, while the enterprises train
on the basis of national curricula for each training
subject, these curricula being called training ordi-
nances. The important point of these ordinances is
that they have to be applied nationwide. The reason
lies in the fact that the training aims at preparing
for ↑ vocations that have validity everywhere in the
nation independent of the question as to who trains
where. The philosophy behind that general valid-
ity is explained by the aim that every youngster
who will be trained, for example as an electrician,
should be able to perform his or her vocation at any
place in Germany, be it Munich or Hamburg. This
means that the skills acquired through training are
marketable, or in the words of G. Becker: the en-
terprise part of German dual training is ↑ general
training.
Areas of VET Research
The financing mode of the dual training system
is as follows. Neither the Federal Vocational Ed-
ucation Law nor the Crafts Order prescribes the
way in-company TVET is to be financed. In prac-
tice, single employer financing has been the dom-
inant financing mode from the beginning. During
the last thirty years, supra-firm financing modes,
financing by tariff-funds in a small number of
branches, co-financing of cooperatively training
firms and state subsidies for training firms, mostly
in the East German states, have not displaced but
supplemented single employer financing. The com-
panies can lessen their financial burden by shift-
ing parts or all of it either to their buyers or to their
suppliers or to their employees (the aspect men-
tioned in Section 1). Companies which train can
also deduct their ↑ training costs from their sales,
and thus reduce the size of profits and of the tax-
es on profits.
Nevertheless, many German firms shy away from
their own training although they do meet the train-
ing requirements as to personnel, equipment and
facilities. One of the arguments for retention is the
cost argument: training would be too costly. In-
deed, the average cost of a trainee is all but ne-
gotiable: in 1971, the average full gross cost per
year amounted to about € 3,500; in 1980 the figure
had risen to around € 8,500; for 1991 the amount
was given as € 14,700 (see BARDELEBEN / BEICHT/
FEHÉR 1995, 80); and in 2001 the average full gross
cost had risen to € 16,435 (see BEICHT / WALDEN /
HERGET 2004b, 20). The figures differ according
to the fields of training, the years of training, the
size of the training firms, the occupations and the
distribution of learning time between the learn-
ing places. Taking only the direct average train-
ing costs per year, it amounted to € 10,178 in 2001.
Deducting the returns from productive work of the
trainees during training (at the workplace) leads to
net full average costs per year of € 8,705 in 2001,
the net direct costs amounting to only € 2,448 (see
BEICHT / WALDEN / HERGET 2004b, 20, 22). Taking
into consideration the alternative of recruiting la-
bour from the external ↑ labour market instead of
internal training, then internal training, being the
internal recruitment alternative, avoids the costs
of external recruitment. These costs saved the op-
portunity returns have been estimated to amount
419
to € 5,765 per trainee and year (BEICHT / WALDEN /
HERGET 2004b, 90). Taking these opportunity re-
turns into account, the remaining average full costs
per year end up at € 2,940, and the average direct
cost per year changes into net returns of € 3,317. It
should be clear that these latter figures represent
calculatory sums as neither opportunity costs nor
opportunity returns show up as liquidity streams.
This may be the reason why enterprise representa-
tives tend to look at the full gross cost figures.
However, the puzzle of the German dual train-
ing systems then comes up: Why do companies
engage in general training and risk poaching, if
they bear the training costs? A number of expla-
nations are offered in the literature (see TIMMER-
MANN 2006, 9–54); (i) Training fi rms already en-
joy returns from general training during training;
(ii) the labour market does not function perfect-
ly, so the danger of poaching is neglectable due to
an asymmetric distribution of information about
the value and the quality of the qualifications pro-
duced through training; (iii) the training is a com-
plementary mixture of general and ↑ specific train-
ing so that external employers underestimate the
productivity level of the trained, and the training
firm pays a higher wage, which is still below the
productivity of the trained, without inducing the
trained employee to leave; (iv) the productivity ef-
fects of general training only unfold in connec-
tion with specific training elements and vice versa;
(v) the mixture between general and specific ↑ hu-
man capital is unique for each enterprise, therefore
general ↑ human capital becomes firm-specific and
less transferable to other firms; (vi) poaching is re-
stricted due to ↑ mobility costs for the trained; (vii)
the training engagement of enterprises creates rep-
utations for firms which may raise their attractive-
ness for highly productive trainees as well as ex-
ternal workers or employees; (viii) big companies
are able to develop internal ↑ labour markets which
turn ↑ general training into firm-specific training.
However, even if the puzzle seems to be solved by
one or more of these explanations, there is no guar-
antee that the demand of youngsters for training
will be met every year, because the system is sen-
sitive to business cycles in that in times of reces-
sion the offer of ↑ training places usually declines
independently of demand. Also the tendency of
420
the companies to restrict the number of trainees to
their labour needs endangers the dual training sys-
tem’s function of providing the whole employment
system as well as the labour market with qualified
manpower (see TIMMERMANN 2000, 134/135).
3.5.2.7 Brief Summary
The construction of TVET systems around the
world shows a great variety of concrete solutions,
which may refer more or less to one of the basic
models presented. The literature on TVET sys-
tems and their financing modes leads to the con-
clusion that “a best system” of finance and govern-
ance does not seem to exist, as each system has its
own shortcomings. This is apart from the fact that
the attempts to cope with one or other of the sys-
tems has strong limitations due to historical, cul-
tural and societal conditions (see SCHAACK 1995).
But this does not mean that national systems of
TVET cannot learn from each other.
3.5.3 National Arrangements
for Financing Training in
Companies
Andrew Smith
National arrangements for the financing of ↑ em-
ployer training are heavily influenced by each na-
tion’s economic and social structures. Although
national approaches are uniquely developed to suit
economic, social and cultural circumstances, it
is possible to identify common elements in poli-
cy approaches across economies – partly based on
shared cultural and social values. Gasskov (2001)
developed one typology of government-employer-
financing arrangements for training. He identified
five different approaches:
(1) Enterprises have no legal obligations for train-
ing (e. g. Canada, UK, ↑ USA, the Netherlands and
Sweden).
(2) Employers voluntarily take significant respon-
sibility for the financing of training (e. g. Germa-
ny, Switzerland and ↑ Japan).
Handbook of TVET Research
(3) Employers and unions set up training develop-
ment funds under collective industrial agreements
(e. g. Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands).
(4) Governments offer tax exemptions to enterpris-
es that train their workers (e. g. Belgium, Chile,
Germany, South Korea, Malaysia and Pakistan).
(5) Governments introduce compulsory financing
of training by employers (e. g. Denmark, ↑ France,
Ireland, South Korea, Malaysia and many South
American countries).
In this chapter we examine four mechanisms that
have developed world-wide to encourage greater
employer investments in training. Our categorisa-
tion is as follows:
(1) Laissez-faire systems.
(2) High employer ↑ commitment systems.
(3) Sectoral training funds.
(4) Levy schemes.
3.5.3.1 Laissez-Faire Systems
These systems apply in Anglo-Saxon economies of
↑ Australia, the UK, the ↑ USA and Canada. These
systems impose few regulations on employer train-
ing activities. Employers are free to train or not in
accordance with their perceived business needs.
The laissez-faire approach has attracted criticism
for leading to a low-skill equilibrium (FINEGOLD /
SOSKICE 1988), in which skill requirements are re-
placed by work simplification and deskilling in a
mass production environment. More recent com-
mentary has tended to expand on this theme, citing
the persistence of skills shortages in these coun-
tries as proof of market failure in training (HALL /
BUCHANAN / CONSIDINE 2002; ASHTON / GREEN 1996).
In the UK the laissez-faire approach is typified by
The Investors in People (IiP) programme. IiP op-
erates in a similar fashion to ISO accreditation in
the area of ↑ quality management, but with a spe-
cific focus on ↑ human resource development prac-
tices in enterprises. Those enterprises meeting the
IiP standard are permitted to use the IiP logo for
publicity. Although slow to gain ground, in recent
years the IiP programme has expanded quite rap-
idly. Since 1999, the number of enterprises recog-
nised under IiP has more than doubled from 13,748
to reach 37,035 in late 2004; and the percentage of
the workforce covered by the IiP standard has in-
Areas of VET Research
Tab. 1: Recognition in IiP by industry sector of em-
ployer (Source: DfEE 2001, 94)
creased from 15.5 per cent to 38 per cent over the
same period (www.iipuk.co.uk). However, the take
up of this initiative is uneven, being concentrat-
ed amongst large and, to a lesser extent, medium
sized firms. In a survey conducted for the Depart-
ment for Employment and Education in 2000, only
16 per cent of UK firms had been formally recog-
nised in IiP (DFEE 2001). Tab. 1 shows that recog-
nition is also concentrated in certain industry sec-
tors – particularly the public sector. The skewed
distribution of IiP recognition by size and industry,
however, reflects the skewed distribution of train-
ing to be found in most developed countries. It is
possible that IiP has achieved little in the improve-
ment of access to training.
This skewed distribution of training among en-
terprises has led commentators to remark that
IiP has been used to highlight those enterprises
that already invest significantly in training, rath-
er than encouraging firms that do not invest to un-
dertake more training of their employees (HOQUE /
TAYLOR / BELL 2005). However, among enterprises
that are involved with IiP, the scheme seems to ex-
ert a beneficial impact on the nature and quality of
the training they undertake. An evaluation of IiP
for the Institute of Employment Studies conclud-
ed that IiP had:
– Spurred employers to make changes to existing
practices that would not have otherwise occurred;
– Delivered improved training and skills that en-
hance business ↑ performance;
– Added value to the enterprise above the costs of
the scheme (HILLAGE / MORALEE 1996).
IiP appears to work in a similar fashion to ISO and
other forms of quality accreditation – it improves
internal processes for those already providing
training, but it is not clear that it increases overall
employer investments (EMBERSON / WINTERS 2000).
421
3.5.3.2 High Employer Commitment Systems
These systems occur in those countries covered by
Gasskov’s category of systems in which employers
voluntarily take a high degree of responsibility for
skill formation. There is a legal obligation on em-
ployers to train, but the training systems are based
on workplace-based training financed by employ-
ers.
In the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Fin-
land, governments have not adopted specific poli-
cies on ↑ employer training. Both countries report
a high level of employer training through the Euro-
pean Union’s Continuous Vocational Training Sur-
vey. In Finland, 82 per cent of employers provided
training in 1999, whereas in Norway the figure was
86 per cent. Moreover, employee ↑ participation in
employer provided training is high across small,
medium and large firms with over 50 per cent par-
ticipation by workers in training in small and large
firms and slightly less in medium sized firms.
These participation rates compare with an average
of 40 per cent for the European Union countries as
a whole (NESTLER /K AILIS 2002). As a result of this
high ongoing ↑ commitment to employer training,
the Norwegian and Finnish governments have fo-
cused on other aspects of working life. Both coun-
tries have long sponsored research and innovation
in the general ↑ quality of working life. Norwegian
firms have also been pioneers in the introduction of
autonomous team work and in the provision of em-
ployee benefits, such as family friendly workplac-
es, for a number of years. In Finland, the Work-
ing Life Development Programme has emphasised
the importance of high quality training and devel-
opment programme focussing on more productive
workplaces. Thus, training plays a major role in the
quality of ↑ working life programmes that operate
in both countries. In general, the consensus model
that exists in both countries has encouraged the de-
velopment of a widely recognised right to employ-
er training among both employers and employees.
This recognition underpins the high level of train-
ing provision.
In Denmark the system of VET was traditional-
ly based on a strong apprenticeship system. Un-
like the German ↑ dual system, however, the Dan-
ish apprenticeship system was based on govern-
ment regulation and financing of vocational train-
422
ing in a limited number of skilled trades. In the
mid 1960s, the adult vocational training (AMU)
system became the central feature of the Danish
system of VET. Financed by government but regu-
lated through joint government, union and employ-
er committees, the AMU system provides work in-
troduction courses for young people and the un-
employed, as well as training for semi-skilled and
skilled workers (OLESEN 1997). AMU provides
training for existing workers as well as for new en-
trants to the ↑ labour market and the unemployed.
It is an integrated system that is aimed at the con-
tinuing vocational training needs of existing em-
ployees as much as at the needs of new workers
and the unemployed. AMU training is financed by
government that pays the wages of those attend-
ing training in AMU programmes and is delivered
through a series of AMU colleges in Denmark
(NIELSEN / CORT 1999). The training programmes
offered through AMU are determined by the train-
ing plans drawn up for the 55 main industry and
commercial sectors on the Danish economy and
the emphasis throughout the system is on joint reg-
ulation by the social partners. The notion of joint
regulation operates very strongly at the firm level
with the inclusion of training provisions in most
collective agreements between employers and un-
ions. Since 1991, many collective agreements have
included the creation of training funds to finance
employees’ continuing training at both the secto-
ral and the individual firm level and the right to
one week training level per year for a large number
of employees. Much of the CVT offered by Danish
employers is firm-specific and provided through
the AMU system (OLESEN 1997). It is estimated
that about one third of the private sector work-
force is covered by these collective provisions for
training. However, the training funds in Denmark
are not large. They operate on a tripartite basis,
yet tend to fund only experimental and innovative
training approaches.
3.5.3.3 Sectoral Training Funds
Sectoral training funds cover industry sectors and
allow employers to provide training with fund-
ing provided by the training funds established by
employers and governments based on industri-
al agreements between the social partners. The
Handbook of TVET Research
Netherlands provides the clearest example of the
application of sectoral training funds nationally.
Following the principles of the Polder model, the
Wagner Commission in 1984 recommended that
the ↑ VET system should be administered through
a social ↑ partnership arrangement involving gov-
ernment, training providers and the business com-
munity. Since that time, the VET system has been
regulated through a series of tripartite committees.
From the tripartite approach grew the concept of
sectoral training funds established under collec-
tive industrial agreements in all the major sectors
of the economy.
These ↑ Training Research and Development
Funds (known by their Dutch acronym as O+O
Funds) have become the principal route for intro-
ducing social partnership arrangements into an ar-
ea of activity that is normally the preserve of em-
ployers (ROMIJN 1999). There are some 66 O+O
funds operating in the Netherlands under 134 Col-
lective Agreements. Most of the collective agree-
ments also specify other training provisions, par-
ticularly with reference to on-the-job training and
training for target groups in the workforce. The
O+O funds are managed by collective bodies with
employer and union representation. The funds are
based on levies of all firms covered by the col-
lective agreement under which the fund is estab-
lished. The levies vary by sector and range from
0.1 to 0.7 per cent of gross wages. Thus, the O+O
funds are an expression of the collective regulation
of training in the Netherlands. However, it is im-
portant not to overstate their importance in the fi-
nancing of training. The firms themselves provide
the bulk of funding for training in Dutch firms.
In 1996, the O+O funds only accounted for less
than 5 per cent of the total private expenditure on
CVT. Funding from employers accounted for over
50 per cent of expenditure on CVT with individual
expenditure accounting for the balance (HENDRIKS /
WESTERHUIS 1997). Not all the funds placed in the
O+O funds are spent on training, as administra-
tion costs sometimes consume a large portion of
the funds. The proportion spent directly on train-
ing varies from 5 per cent to 100 per cent. Howev-
er, overall Waterrreus (WATTEREUS 1997) estimated
that an average of only 40 per cent of O+O funds
are allocated directly to training.
Areas of VET Research
In other countries, the sectoral funding model has
been adopted by certain industry sectors. An ex-
ample of this approach is the construction indus-
try training fund in ↑ Australia which is operat-
ed in a number of states albeit in different forms.
The construction industry training funds are much
smaller than their Dutch equivalents and are typi-
cally funded by a levy of around 0.1–0.2 per cent
on building value. In many cases, these funds have
been used to support apprenticeships in the indus-
try and have not been used widely for training. It
is difficult to argue that the construction industry
levy has been very successful in raising training
expenditure in that sector when repeated surveys
have shown that employers in construction consist-
ently spend less on training than employers in most
other sectors (ABS 2003).
3.5.3.4 Levy Schemes
Gasskov’s category of the compulsory financing
of training by employers is found mainly in co-or-
dinated market economies (ASHTON / SUNG / TURBIN
2000), although a few examples of these schemes
exist in other countries, such as the now defunct
UK levy-grant scheme. The most commonly cit-
ed methods for increasing employer investments in
training are universal levy schemes. One example
involves a requirement that all or most employers
to pay into a training fund from which they can ap-
ply for funding to support training (i.e. levy-grant
systems). Another mandates that employers pay
into a fund if they do not meet a pre-determined
level of training expenditure (levy-exemption sys-
tems).
In Australia, the Training Guarantee Scheme
(TGS) was a form of levy-exemption scheme. The
TGS was not strictly a levy. Enterprises with pay-
rolls in excess of $200,000 were required under
the Act to spend at least 1.5 per cent of their pay-
roll costs on eligible training or pay the shortfall
to the Australian Taxation Office. Eligible training
was defined as structured and employment-related.
Specifically this meant that training must be part
of a recognisable programme that was employ-
ment-related. However, the TGS proved unpop-
ular with Australian employers. A key criticism
made by employer groups was that the compli-
ance costs of the TGS were excessive. Research by
423
Velten (1990) showed that many enterprises con-
sidered that the costs of keeping records and ensur-
ing that all eligible training was reported far out-
weighed the cost of paying the levy. Smaller busi-
nesses, in particular, expressed this view and there
was a widespread belief that many smaller enter-
prises simply paid the levy rather than incur the
costs associated with training. The TGS was also
attacked for its focus on the quantity rather than
the quality of training (NOONE 1991) and for insti-
tuting a regime based on punishment for non-com-
pliance, rather than rewarding enterprises that in-
creased their ↑ commitment to training.
A more successful application of the levy princi-
ple and one that explicitly addresses the issue of
equity in access to training opportunities is to be
found in Singapore. In order to encourage employ-
er investment in the training and development of
low skilled and low wage workers, Singapore en-
acted the Skills Development Fund in 1982. Em-
ployers are obliged to contribute a Skills Devel-
opment Levy of 1 per cent of the salary of work-
ers they employ earning less than S$1500 per
month or S$2 per hour, whichever is the great-
er. This ceiling has been raised since the incep-
tion of the scheme in order to bring more workers
into the scheme (LOW 1998). Employers and em-
ployees can recover the costs by taking approved
programmes under the scheme. These approved
programmes have usually been aimed at improv-
ing the overall educational level of workers rather
than at providing specific skills. Examples include
the Basic Education for Skills Training (BEST)
programme, aimed at bringing workers up to pri-
mary school leaving levels of education, and the
Worker Improvement through Secondary Educa-
tion (WISE) programme, which takes workers up
to secondary school leaving standard of education
(OSMAN-GANI / TAN 2000). More recently, the scope
of the SDF has been expanded to encompass spe-
cific skills programmes, particularly in the high
tech areas of electronics and computing. The SDF
funds have also been used increasingly to train old-
er workers. One in eight older workers were pro-
vided with an opportunity to train in 1995, com-
pared to one in twenty-five in 1988 (LOW 1998).
There is strong evidence that the highly targeted
nature of the SDF levy exerted a significant impact
424
of the ↑ skill levels and training activities of Singa-
pore. National investment in training amongst em-
ployers has reached 3.6 per cent of wages and sala-
ries and the Singaporean government aims to push
this up to 4 per cent (LOW 1998). The most pro-
ductive industry sectors appear to be those, such
as the computer manufacturing industry, that also
account for the majority of ↑ training places under
the SDF scheme.
3.5.3.5 Discussion
Governments have devised a plethora of arrange-
ments to increase employer investment in training.
Yet, most countries have struggled to manage the
demand side of training. Most training reform pro-
grammes have focused on expanding the amount of
training, trying to induce employers to take advan-
tage of new policies and increase their training ef-
fort. Policies have included making public training
institutions more responsive to employers’ needs.
This approach formed a major part of training re-
forms undertaken in ↑ Australia and in the Nether-
lands (BRANDSMA 2003). Others have involved the
use of competency-based training, the introduction
of new vocational qualifications frameworks and
reforms to entry-level training. In general, these
changes have exerted little impact on employer in-
vestment levels. At the same time, government at-
tempts to directly influence investments in train-
ing by employers have been quite limited. Govern-
ments are in a weak position to influence the be-
haviour of employers directly. Employers form a
major stakeholder in the polity and governments
are often reluctant to attempt to regulate their be-
haviour for fear of jeopardising future investment
in the country (FENNA 2004). For this reason, the
policies adopted by governments have often been
sporadic or have involved the voluntary ↑ partici-
pation of employers. Where compulsion has been
used, such as the British levy-grant system of the
1960s and 70s or the Australian Training Guaran-
tee, they have often been successfully resisted by
employers.
No country has yet developed a mechanism that
has significantly raised employer demand for high
levels of worker training. It appears that the ↑ ef-
fectiveness of mechanisms to increase employer
investment in training depends critically on the re-
Handbook of TVET Research
lationship that employers have to the policies. Uni-
versal and compulsory levies are unlikely to elic-
it much employer commitment beyond a reluctant
compliance with the schemes. Thus their impact
on overall skills levels in the workforce is likely
to be low. On the other hand, policies that involve
employers in their formulation and implementa-
tion are far more likely to gain employer ↑ commit-
ment. While the ↑ effectiveness of such schemes
to raise the overall level of workforce skills may
be questioned, policies that gain active employer
commitment are far more likely to have a positive
impact on skills levels than those that do not. As
noted above, models aimed at securing greater in-
vestment in training by enterprises are critically
shaped by local factors, policy traditions and par-
ticular moments of history. Thus policy responses
to the demand for training among employers dif-
fer across countries and are usually deeply root-
ed in local tradition and culture. Attempting to re-
create the more socially-engaged policies of Scan-
dinavian and central European countries in coun-
tries where tradition and culture favour less social
regulation (such as Britain or Australia) are like-
ly to fail. Certainly, the compulsion approach so
far has limited efficacy. It is only likely to succeed
in countries that have either a social charter that
would tolerate these arrangements or a governance
model that can effectively administer a compulso-
ry system.
3.5.4 The Wider Benefits of
Learning
Leon Feinstein, Simone Kirpal and
Inés Arévalo Sánchez
3.5.4.1 Introduction
Vocational education and training (VET) has the
potential to fulfil a range of purposes, including
immediate outcomes such as occupational qualifi-
cations, skills and the development of competenc-
es, cognitive development, psychosocial develop-
ment, social inclusion, membership of profession-
al groups and access to information. Other lists are
possible and much could be added to this one. The
Areas of VET Research
list, however, makes the point that the outcomes
of ↑ participation in VET are far broader than en-
hanced employment opportunities or a gain in in-
come and labour productivity. This very breadth of
outcomes means that conceptualising and investi-
gating the ↑ wider benefits of vocational learning
cannot be reduced to single factors or be addressed
easily within any single academic discipline. Fur-
thermore, different classifications of the ‘wider
benefits’ are possible. Schuller et al. (2001), for
example, set out five overlapping social domains
for exploration covering health, ageing, family,
crime and citizenship, while later work emphasis-
es health, ↑ social capital and cohesion, and fami-
lies. Other classifications have been used at differ-
ent times, reflecting different research and policy
priorities.
Distinguishing between the personal resources that
are gained or sustained through vocational learn-
ing and the wider benefits that follow can help to
structure the field. Personal resources emerge dur-
ing vocational learning or soon after it. They relate
directly to an individual’s experience of school-
based or work-based vocational learning. Techni-
cal skills attainment often function as formal ob-
Fig. 1: Types of capital and the benefits of learning (Source: Schuller/Bynner/ Feinstein 2004)
425
jectives and ↑ evaluation criteria of the vocation-
al training system. The wider benefits, on the oth-
er hand, are outcomes that may result over the life
course. They depend on the immediate outcomes,
but also occur through complex processes that may
take considerable time. These outcomes are of wid-
er individual, but also social or policy significance,
important for the economy or public welfare and
for public services other than education.
3.5.4.2 A Capital Approach to the Wider
Benefits
Applying a capital-based model of the immediate
outcomes and wider benefits of learning, the re-
sources gained through vocational education and
training can be expressed in terms of capital, dif-
ferentiating between ↑ human, social and ↑ identity
capital. While the term ‘capital’ is not unproblem-
atic (cf. SCHULLER / BYNNER / FEINSTEIN 2004), it em-
phasises the notion of a valuable investment that
yields a flow of benefits that increase social and
economic productivity. All three forms of capitals
– human, identity and social capital – can be en-
hanced, sustained or diminished by vocational ed-
426
ucation and training throughout the life course of
an individual. Fig. 1 (below) provides a simple pic-
ture of the complex life course processes involved
in transforming educational experiences into ben-
efits at the individual and social levels.
Human Capital
A cornerstone of economic research on labour pro-
ductivity and wage benefit of education has been
the ↑ human capital revolution in economic theo-
ry. It began in the 1960s, initiated in the work of
Schultz (1961), took great steps forward by Becker
(1975; 1991) in microeconomic terms and Romer
(1986), Lucas (1988) and Barro (BARRO / SALA-I-
MARTIN 1995) and others in macroeconomics, and
kept moving forwards recently in the work of Cun-
ha et al. (2006) on more sophisticated economic
models of human capital formation. The key point
here is that education generates a stock of human
capital that raises the productivity of workers in
the ↑ labour market. The added productivity, in
turn, leads to a wage mark-up for the more edu-
cated and skilled workers. The parallel story at the
macro level is of social benefits resulting from in-
creases in the average level of education that lead
to increased competitiveness of the economy and
higher GDP growth. There are also potential sp-
illovers at the micro level as more educated work-
ers enhance the productivity of co-workers or gen-
erate enterprise and technological advance with-
in firms.
In this framework, the economic returns to edu-
cation are understood as the result of the human
capital formed in the education process. Based on
a relatively firm theoretical and empirical founda-
tion developed over the last 40 to 50 years, the hu-
man capital approach considers education an in-
vestment that leads to economic security and in-
come gains for the individual as well as high la-
bour market productivity and increased economic
growth for the wider economy. A common view is
that the process by which human capital is formed
is fairly linear in years of education up to early
adulthood, i.e. an extra year of education during
childhood and early adulthood will almost uni-
versally lead to an increase in human capital en-
hancing productivity by similar amounts regard-
less of the stage of education. Thus, human capi-
Handbook of TVET Research
tal is commonly measured in terms of the number
of years of schooling, without consideration of its
quality (such as the curriculum, pedagogy or indi-
vidual learning experience). This is an important
distinction between human capital and the other
forms of capital discussed further below.
Research on skill-biased technological change
(NICKEL / BELL 1996) has promoted the recogni-
tion of the importance of ↑ tertiary education in
maintaining national competitive advantage. At
the same time, there are growing concerns about
skills gaps at the level of ↑ basic skills (BYNNER /
PARSONS 1997). One area that is generally played
down in terms of its benefits for personal income
gain is ↑ adult learning. The wage returns for ma-
ture students are lower than for younger students
(BLUNDELL / DEARDEN / GOODMAN / REED 1997; DALE /
EGERTON 1997; DOLTON / MAKEPEACE 1990; EGERTON
2001; FIELD 2000), perhaps because a shorter
number of subsequent working years and the high
opportunity costs of learning for adults lower the
gains in discounted lifetime earnings (COFFIELD
1997). Both reasons may partly explain why hu-
man capital is seen to be linear in years of school-
ing only through childhood and early adulthood.
This has led to a downplaying of the lifelong de-
velopment of ↑ vocational competence. We do not
yet have sufficient research evidence on the impor-
tance of adult vocational learning (see below) but it
is likely that taking account of the ↑ wider benefits
of human capital, especially possible inter-genera-
tional advantages of adult and family learning, vo-
cational learning may be particularly important for
adults. Thus, a focus on the wider benefits of learn-
ing may change our understanding of the relative
costs and benefits of learning at different ages.
Identity Capital
If human capital refers to those skills that are of
value in the labour market, another term is re-
quired to describe skills and attributes that are of
value in negotiating the many other aspects of life
that matter to individual, family and communi-
ty ↑ well-being. According to Côté (2005) ↑ iden-
tity capital represents attributes associated with
sets of psychosocial skills, largely cognitive in na-
ture, that appear to be necessary for people to in-
Areas of VET Research
telligently strategise and make decisions affecting
their life.
In the economic literature, the distinction between
human and identity capital is expressed as ‘hard’
and ‘soft’ skills or, alternatively, as cognitive and
non-cognitive development. The wide recogni-
tion in recent years that soft skills and non-cogni-
tive skills are also of value in the ↑ labour market
(BOWLES / GINTIS / OSBORNE 2001; GOLDSMITH / VEUM /
DARITY 1997; HECKMAN / RUBENSTEIN 2001) has led
to the inclusion of them in some definitions of hu-
man capital (HEALY/ COTE 2001). The term ‘↑ iden-
tity capital’ more strongly reflects the view that hu-
man capital is best retained as a construct relating
to the productivity gains from deliberate invest-
ment in education. Identity capital is not formed in
the same way but nonetheless may be supported,
enhanced or sustained by experiences of learning.
Notably, it may also be diminished or damaged by
negative experiences of education.
An individual’s self-concepts, self-efficacy, pa-
tience and ↑ resilience are key aspects of person-
al resources in terms of identity capital. Self-con-
cepts concern an individual’s perception of their
own abilities and worth. They depend on the in-
formation available to the individual and the cog-
nitive ability to process this information (MARKUS /
WURF 1987). Self-concepts are multi-dimensional
(SHAVELSON / HUBNER / STANTON 1976) relating, for
example, to academic capabilities, social capabil-
ities or general self-worth. A positive self-concept
promotes positive health behaviours, protects men-
tal health and helps individuals to manage chron-
ic health conditions (SCHULLER / BRASSET-GRUNDY/
GREEN ET AL. 2002; HAMMOND / FEINSTEIN 2004).
The costs of low self-worth amongst young people
include symptoms of depression, suicidal thoughts
and suicidal attempts, eating disorders (amongst
girls), victimization, teenage pregnancy and dif-
ficulties in forming and sustaining close relation-
ships (EMLER 2001). To the extent that use or abuse
of illegal drugs, drinking to excess and smoking are
considered acts of defiance on the part of adoles-
cents, high self-worth may afford protection from
these behaviours. Teenagers who have high self-
worth and believe that they are worth taking care
of will be less likely to use drugs to excess (MOD-
REIN-TALBOTT / P ULLEN / EHRENBERGER ET AL. 1998).
427
Self-concept impacts upon and is affected by oth-
er psychosocial factors such as self-efficacy, inter-
temporal preferences and resilience. If an individu-
al has a high regard for themselves generally and of
their abilities in particular, they will consider them-
selves capable (or efficacious), be more inclined to
persevere in the face of adversity (resilience), and
take care of themselves not only in the here and
now, but also in the future (inter-temporal prefer-
ences). Bandura (1997) describes self-efficacy as
an individual’s confidence in their ability to organ-
ise and execute a given course of action to solve a
problem or accomplish a task. Self-efficacy in rela-
tion to learning is an important determinant of mo-
tivation, which in turn leads to school engagement
and continued ↑ participation in learning (ECCLES /
LORD / ROESER ET AL. 1997). Participation in voca-
tional education has been found to motivate stu-
dents (SMITH / DALTON 2004), encourage further en-
gagement in learning activities (MCHUGH / FULLER /
LOBLEY 1993; KODZ / TACKEY/ POLLARD ET AL. 2000)
and increase self-confidence (ROSENFELD 1999;
SIMS / GOLDEN 1998). Parents’ and teachers’ per-
ceptions of children’s and young peoples’ compe-
tences and likely success are important influenc-
es on their efficacy beliefs as are an environment
that provides good emotional and cognitive sup-
port (ECCLES / LORD / ROESER ET AL. 1997).
Inter-temporal choices (also referred to as time
preference, patience or future orientation) re-
fer to “decisions involving tradeoffs among costs
and benefits occurring at different points in time”
(FREDERICK / LOWENSTEIN / O’DONOGHUE 2002). In-
ter-temporal choices are central to economic mod-
els of decision-making about behaviours that have
dynamic consequences. For example, choice about
whether to smoke, whether to quit, and when to
quit, are in part determined by time preference,
i.e. by the extent to which later outcomes are val-
ued at the time choices have to be taken. They are
also important in relation to decisions about stay-
ing on in education or about participation in crime.
A correlation exists between education (measured
by years of schooling or levels of qualifications
achieved) and time preference (FUCHS 1982): indi-
viduals who value future events highly are more
likely to stay in school, although the causal proc-
esses here are particularly complex.
428
Resilience is a construct describing positive
adaptation in the face of adversity (SCHOON /
BYNNER 2003). It refers to a process of positive
adaptation in response to adversity or trauma
(LUTHAR / CICCHETTI 2000). Socio-economic disad-
vantage, poor living conditions, overcrowding and
lack of material resources can be major sources of
adversity for children and throughout adulthood
(DUNCAN / BROOKS-GUNN 1997). The experience of
disadvantage early in life may, for less resilient in-
dividuals, weaken their ability to adapt to future
challenges. Protective factors, on the other hand,
fall into the three broad categories of attributes
of children, their families and the wider social
context (MASTEN / BEST/ GARMEZY 1990; GARMEZY
1985; RUTTER 1987). Thus, ↑ resilience is also un-
derstood as the phenomenon that some individu-
als show positive adjustment despite being exposed
to adversity (LUTHAR / CICCHETTI 2000). It is asso-
ciated with personality characteristics like self-
worth and efficacy, but it is also influenced by ex-
ternal factors, such as having a supportive family
and other sources of external support. Focusing on
personal attributes, Howard, Dyrden and Johnson
(1999) found that the following ‘internal attributes’
characterise the resilient child: autonomy, prob-
lem-solving skills, a sense of purpose and future,
and social competences, some of which also relate
to self-concept, self-efficacy and time preference.
Furthermore, Schlossberg, Waters and Goodman
(1995) suggest that the ability to draw upon social
resources and networks contribute to resilience,
leading to better psychological and physical health
outcomes (cf. also OGDEN 1997; WILKINSON 1996
for fuller discussions).
Social Capital
↑ Social capital is one of the key resources influ-
enced by education. While Putnam defines social
capital mainly in terms of citizenship and civic
↑ participation (e. g. PUTNAM 1999), the ↑ US soci-
ologist Coleman (1988) draws attention to social
capital as reflecting community strength such as
good neighbourliness, trust or reciprocity. General
and vocational education can provide access to so-
cial capital for the individual or change the type of
social capital to which the individual has access.
Handbook of TVET Research
The most basic form of social capital is bonding
social capital, which coalesces around a shared
identity and tends to reinforce the confidence and
homogeneity of a particular social group. Bridg-
ing social capital refers to horizontal social net-
works that extend beyond homogenous entities. It
involves cross-cutting networks amongst people
of various ethnic, cultural or socio-demographic
backgrounds. Linking social capital is character-
ised by connections with individuals and institu-
tions with power and authority and is theorised in
terms of vertical rather than horizontal networks
within the social hierarchy. While individuals of
lower socio-economic status and education rath-
er have access to bonding social capital, allowing
them to use their social networks as a protective
factor, they tend to have more restricted access to
bridging and linking social capital limiting their
access to resources not available in more local en-
vironments. Individuals of higher socio-econom-
ic status, by contrast, tend to have better access to
bridging and linking social capital allowing them
to tap into a wide range of productive resources.
The precise classification of what is bridging and
what bonding capital depends on the groups and
social networks formed by individuals and so is
not fixed or independent of the self-classification
schemes (identity) of individuals.
Putnam (1999) suggests that education and learn-
ing can be a valuable source of social capital for-
mation. At the level of primary education, learn-
ing can promote societal cohesion and strengthen
citizenship when individuals of all socio-econom-
ic backgrounds are enrolled in the public educa-
tion system. Learning experiences can, for exam-
ple, provide opportunities to gain and practice so-
cial capital skills (such as participation and rec-
iprocity); provide a forum for community activi-
ty and engagement; enhance opportunities to ex-
tend and deepen social networks; and support the
development of shared norms and values of toler-
ance, understanding and respect (HEYNEMAN 1998;
SCHULLER / BRASSET-GRUNDY/ GREEN ET AL. 2002;
SCHULLER / BYNNER / FEINSTEIN 2004). Thus, at the
individual level education brings benefits through
impacts on access to social networks while also
leading to possible tensions in bonding networks.
Peer groups are an aspect of the way education can
Areas of VET Research
influence social capital. Education and vocational
training influence the peer group memberships of
individuals both directly through effects on the na-
ture and range of social interactions and networks
experienced in school, HE, or ↑ adult ↑ learning en-
vironments, and indirectly through effects on oc-
cupation. The peer groups formed through edu-
cational experience influence norms and values
(→ 3.6.7) as well as providing direct network ben-
efits.
3.5.4.3 Empirical Evidence on the Wider
Benefits of Vocational Learning
There is a broad if incomplete empirical literature
on the economic benefits, as traditionally meas-
ured, of participating in vocational education and
training programmes. Far fewer studies have at-
tempted to evaluate the ↑ wider benefits in terms of
↑ identity and ↑ social capital. The selected six ex-
amples (below) give empirical evidence of impor-
tant wider benefits of vocational learning strongly
pointing at the importance of the quality of VET
provisions for the benefits expected to accrue to
participants. Notably, the wider benefits which
may flow from academic and other forms of learn-
ing do not necessarily apply equally to VET, which
typically takes place in very different contexts and
with very different forms of provision. Much de-
pends on these features of the learning experience
and so universal conclusions about VET or learn-
ing per se are inappropriate.
Smith and Dalton’s (2004) hypothesis that com-
plementing vocational education with work place-
ments increases students’ identity and social capi-
tal in their transition to adulthood was confi rmed
in various ways. Based on a sample of 446 Austral-
ian students aged between 15 and 19 years, who
engaged in VET as a complement to secondary
schooling, they classified the outcomes along the
two categories ‘dispositional outcomes’ (such as
confidence building) and ‘utility outcomes’ (such
as occupational outcomes) (SMITH / DALTON 2004,
9) and found that apart from job-specific skills,
students also increased their self-esteem and self-
confidence, motivation to learn (participating in
the work placement scheme affected their decision
to continue studying) and their enjoyment of the
vocational programme. Participating in the work-
429
based programme had helped the students to clar-
ify their future career prospects as well as it im-
proved their social skills at the workplace. The
work placement also helped them to establish im-
portant networks that proved useful after school:
more than 30 per cent of those who participat-
ed were offered a job where they had been placed
(SMITH / DALTON 2004, 8).
Another Australian study also gives evidence on
the wider benefits of ↑ participation in VET pro-
grammes. Based on a qualitative empirical investi-
gation with community members who engaged in
the provision of and participation in VET (train-
ing providers, employers, representatives of com-
munity organisations and learners) the study of
the Centre for Research and Learning in Region-
al ↑ Australia (CRLRA 2000) confirms the acqui-
sition of all three forms of capital through partici-
pation in vocational training programmes, particu-
larly as concerns the formation of skills, self-con-
fidence, social networks and motivation to work.
In terms of social capital, participation in VET
programmes positively affected individuals’ in-
teraction with the community by enhancing mu-
tual trust and through “raised levels of awareness
and caring for other members of the community”
(CRLRA 2000, 105).
In a ↑ longitudinal study, Lattimore et al. (1990)
tested the hypothesis that criminal behaviour re-
mits in individuals, who participate in VET pro-
grammes. Between 1983 and 1989, they followed
591 inmates who participated in the Vocational
Delivery System (VDS) programme implemented
by the Department of Correction of North Caroli-
na in the U.S. Prisoners were randomly divided in-
to two groups, experimental (E) and control (C).
The experimental group received additional sup-
port in terms of the evaluation of the individual’s
vocational aptitudes and interests, monitoring ac-
tivities, programme placement, job development
and in the provision of the programme’s services.
While both groups had access to VET with a dis-
tinction in the context in which it was provided and
the match obtained between the learner and the pro-
gramme, 88 per cent of the E group started a voca-
tional programme as opposed to a 77 per cent of
the C group. The comparison of the groups’ ↑ per-
formance outcomes revealed that 35 per cent from
430
the experimental group completed one or more vo-
cational programmes against 23 per cent of the
control group. Those who were arrested after re-
lease (around 40 per cent of the whole sample)
were more likely to be in the control group. De-
fining failure as recidivism by the individual, the
probability of being arrested decreased with time
spent out of prison and stabilised at 0.6 and 0.5 for
E’s and C’s respectively after twenty months out
of prison. These findings confirmed the initial hy-
pothesis, not just that VET brings the wider bene-
fit of reduced criminality but also that the form of
provision is crucial.
Using the UK 2001 National ↑ Adult Learning Sur-
vey, La Valle and Blake (2001) also provide evi-
dence on the ↑ wider benefits of vocational learning
under consideration of taught, self-directed, voca-
tional and non-vocational learning. Of the 6,459
people interviewed, in the previous three years (the
timeframe used to define learners) 68 per cent had
participated in vocational learning, while 59 and
60 per cent had undertaken taught or ↑ self-direct-
ed learning respectively. Participants in instructed
vocational learning reported improved knowledge
and skills (74 and 64 per cent respectively); hav-
ing met new people (29 per cent); more confidence
(33 per cent); encouragement to learn (23 per cent);
increased self-esteem (19 per cent); and enhanced
voluntary activity (4 per cent). Apart from the en-
hancement of ↑ social capital in terms of engage-
ment in networks and community activities ↑ par-
ticipation in these courses to a lesser degree also
brought about health-related outcomes.
In the German context, various empirical studies
have been undertaken investigating the relation be-
tween VET programmes and the development of
individuals’ moral judgement abilities. Those stud-
ies and their theoretical, practical and methodolog-
ical implications are presented in chapter → 3.6.7.
Though not exclusively referring to vocational ed-
ucation, work from the Centre for Research on the
Wider Benefits of Learning (WBL) at London Uni-
versity (FEINSTEIN / HAMMOND / WOODS ET AL. 2003)
is one of few attempts at quantifying the wider ben-
efits of adult learning. This research used the Na-
tional Child Development Study to investigate the
effects of adult learning on 12 outcomes that act as
proxies for health and social capital. For health the
Handbook of TVET Research
outcomes were smoking, alcohol consumption, ex-
ercise, life satisfaction and depression. For social
capital, the measures were: race tolerance, politi-
cal cynicism, support for authority, political inter-
est, civic memberships and voting.
In order to minimise selection bias WBL consid-
ered changes in outcomes rather than levels. In
other words, the analysis assessed the correlation
of participation in adult learning with changes in
adult health and social behaviours and found that
adult learning played an important role in contrib-
uting to the small shifts in attitudes and behaviours
that took place during mid adulthood. The results
held as statistical controls were added for demo-
graphic, educational, and other background fac-
tors, as well as for changes in life circumstances
during mid adulthood. However, this does not sug-
gest a one-way causal relationship. Evidence from
additional analyses rather suggests that participa-
tion in ↑ adult learning is one very important el-
ement in positive cycles of development and pro-
gression.
This study highlights the problem of ascribing
causality to correlational data. Another interest-
ing feature of the study is that it reveals substan-
tial differences in effect for different course types
with far fewer positive effects for vocational cours-
es (taken between age 33 and 42) than for academ-
ic courses, courses provided by employers and for
↑ informal learning taken primarily for pleasure
or leisure. These distinctions are crucial and also
complex. Vocational courses were defined in this
study as those leading to a vocational qualification,
not funded by employers. Yet, courses provided by
employers are likely to be vocational in nature.
Nonetheless, the key finding was that the wider
benefits associated with most forms of learning in
adulthood were much less apparent for VET. There
are a number of hypotheses that may explain this
finding, to do with differences in curricula, peda-
gogy, peer groups, advice and guidance and the se-
lection and matching of learners to courses. The
result may be due to differences in the selection
processes that lead individuals into different forms
of learning in mid-life rather than to differences in
the actual effect of different forms of learning (the
causality problem). These alternative hypotheses
have not yet been tested quantitatively.
Areas of VET Research
3.5.4.4 Methodological Considerations
The outlined theory and preliminary empirical
evidence indicate that there are important wid-
er outcomes of VET, as of other forms of learn-
ing. These benefits are not yet clearly understood
in terms of: (i) the mechanisms and processes that
generate them, (ii) the forms of provision that are
most beneficial, (iii) the evaluation and quantifica-
tion of their scale and value, (iv) the national and
social contexts that support or constrain them, (v)
the nature of the effects of VET at different ages
and for individuals undergoing different sorts of
transition or life pathways. These are substantial
gaps in knowledge, which further research needs
to tackle. Some methodological issues and impli-
cations relevant for the further extension of this re-
search agenda are set out in this section.
A Multi-Level Framework to the Wider Benefits
↑ Wider benefits manifest at several levels of soci-
ety. In conceptualising and empirically assessing
the wider benefits of learning, the London Cen-
tre for Research on the Wider Benefits of Learn-
ing (WBL) has increasingly adopted a multi-lev-
el framework considering different levels of social
aggregation: the individual, families, communi-
ties and the national level. At each level the wid-
er benefits of learning are conceptualised as ‘good
functioning’ and ‘↑ well-being’. While the meaning
of these items may differ at each level due to the
different nature of the units of analysis, there also
exist causal links and interdependencies between
them. Socially cohesive societies, for example,
tend to have high levels of equality at the nation-
al level, low levels of crime at the community level
and high levels of tolerance and pro-social behav-
iour at the individual level. On the other hand low
crime rates at the national level are in a sense the
result of an aggregation of individual level behav-
iours or community characteristics, although this
is an aggregation of a complex kind that is perhaps
better termed “integration”.
In WBL research the following indicators were
identified to assess the wider benefits of learning
at the individual level in terms of ‘good function-
ing’ and ‘well-being’: health (physical health, good
health behaviours and happiness) (FEINSTEIN 2002),
431
efficacy, confidence, using education in lifestyle
choices, social inclusion and race tolerance. The
effect of education on individual levels of race tol-
erance was seen as the individual level manifesta-
tion of what manifests at the social level as social
cohesion and promoting community level well-be-
ing (PRESTON / FEINSTEIN /ANDERSON 2005).
At the level of the family good functioning and
well-being partly mirror the individual level ben-
efits and reproduce them at a higher level of social
aggregation. Further, inter-generational effects of
education – the processes by which educational
benefits are transferred to the next generation with
major consequences for social ↑ mobility, equali-
ty, life chances and future economic productivity
– play a significant role as do parental beliefs, val-
ues, aspirations, well-being and parent-child inter-
actions (FEINSTEIN / DUCKWORTH / SABATES 2004).
At the community level, outcomes that indicate
good functioning and well-being include: commu-
nity cohesion; low levels of crime and anti-social
behaviour; trust and other aspects of ↑ social capi-
tal; and community economic success. In this con-
text the role and functioning of social networks
have been identified as an important determinant
of outcomes. Finally, at the national level, the wid-
er benefits of learning manifest as impacts on a
wide range of outcomes relevant to national poli-
cies, such as crime rates, health mortality and mor-
bidity rates, levels of social cohesion and engage-
ment with public life.
Other Methodological Considerations
While those identified indicators make it possible
to empirically assess the wider benefits of learn-
ing, some unresolved methodological problems
persist.
(1) Conceptual problems: in some cases we are
interested in estimating the effects of social lev-
el interventions (the effect of educational inequal-
ity, for example) on individual level outcomes such
as personal health or we may be interested in es-
timating the effect of individual level learning ex-
periences on social level outcomes such as social
capital. These relationships are complex conceptu-
ally and so difficult to model statistically, requir-
ing multi-level data often with national level varia-
432
tion, i.e. across a number of countries. These issues
present severe problems for empirical research.
(2) Measurement problems: sometimes the out-
comes that we may be interested in can be diffi-
cult to measure. Economic outcomes tend to have
a well-defined cardinal metric, i.e. in monetary
terms. Wider outcomes are not defined in terms of
such constructs and so measurement issues become
more problematic. For social and ↑ identity capital,
measurement techniques are developing and have
already progressed sufficiently far that, although
not trivial by any means, these problems are not a
barrier to research. Often more problematic is not
the measurement of the outcomes, but the meas-
urement of learning. Most studies assess education
in terms of number of years of schooling or the
qualifications gained. Yet for the identity and ↑ so-
cial capital effects of learning, what may matter
more is the quality or appropriateness of learning,
not the simple quantity of years of learning. Few
large sample studies measure the relevant aspects
of quality. Nevertheless, all the empirical studies
reviewed in this chapter point to the importance of
the quality of VET provision. Thereby, the role of
structured collaborations in the implementation of
VET, such as those between public VET providers
and local industries, has been emphasised as key
elements in successfully generating ↑ wider bene-
fits.
(3) The measurement of learning: related to the
previous point, it is important to identify the dif-
ferent implications that different forms of learn-
ing may have for achieving wider benefits. In part
this may be a distinction between vocational and
academic learning, between learning at different
ages and other structural or distal features of the
learning experience. However, learning may also
be distinguished according to more immediate or
proximal factors such as in terms of who provides
the learning, in what context, with what objectives,
to whom with what pedagogy, assessment mecha-
nisms, guidance and mentoring and so on. All of
these features influence the wider benefits of voca-
tional learning.
(4) Estimation problems: in statistical terms, learn-
ing experiences are not exogenous, i.e. the correla-
tion of a learning experience and an outcome is not
evidence of the precise effect of the learning ex-
Handbook of TVET Research
perience but may be due to a wide range of third
factors, often unmeasured in survey data. Having
access to experimental conditions and so estima-
tion of the precise magnitude of the wider benefits
is problematic. Qualitative studies are more appro-
priate in addressing the key aspects of vocational
learning that may impact on the outcomes of in-
terest, but do not provide representative samples
or quantitative measures of effects. To date, most
of the empirical evidence is to be found in case
studies, which describe people’s experiences, but
do not attempt to measure and generalise findings.
The best we have so far in terms of estimation of
causal effects is the studies that draw on rich lon-
gitudinal data to attempt to condition out or control
in statistical terms for the important confounding
variables (see, for example, FEINSTEIN / HAMMOND /
WOODS ET AL. 2003).
The previous points make clear that quantitative
research by itself will not be able to respond to the
evidence gap set out above, but that qualitative and
ethnographic research is also required. However,
by itself such research will also be insufficient for
addressing the question of the scale and value of
the wider benefits of VET. Quantitative issues are
vital in consideration of the development of ↑ VET
systems, as policy-makers will always look for as-
sessment of the costs and benefits of the various
interventions and supports available to them in the
expenditure of public funds. Therefore, alongside
qualitative investigation of these questions, we will
need better quality, large sample data, using lon-
gitudinal ↑ research designs that enable us to as-
sess the wider outcomes of learning, matched in-
to indicators of the extent and nature of ↑ partici-
pation in VET.
Another complication is that wider impacts may
vary, depending on the role of vocational educa-
tion in the broader system of learning. Where vo-
cational education is marginal, it may have little
positive impact. However, achieving scale in voca-
tional education may lead to large additional wider
benefits for youth as a whole.
3.5.4.5 Research Challenges
Theory and evidence that links education and VET
to economic returns is much more developed than
the links between education and training and wid-
Areas of VET Research
er outcomes. The benefits and purposes of learn-
ing, however, go beyond the enhancement of indi-
vidual and national economic productivity as they
generate valuable assets for the society and indi-
viduals “to enrich their lives and make them better
citizens” (WEISS 1995, 151). ↑ Identity and ↑ social
capital have been introduced as important mech-
anisms by which ↑ wider benefits are generated.
Both these kinds of capital are different from ↑ hu-
man capital and are not reducible to it. Therefore,
conceptual models of wider benefits are necessar-
ily more complex and require an inter-disciplinary
approach, including such disciplines or traditions
as education, economics, developmental psychol-
ogy and sociology. Insights and analyses from all
of these disciplines are necessary to conceptualise
and empirically assess the wider benefits of educa-
tion in general and vocational education and train-
ing in particular.
Research suggests that the wider benefits of
learning are wide-ranging and multi-level, span-
ning health, ↑ well-being, crime, social ↑ mobili-
ty, parenting and social cohesion. This has impor-
tant implications for pedagogy, curricula, selection
processes, teacher training, ↑ professionalisation,
advice and guidance and the interventions of dif-
ferent policies. Although the recognition of these
wider benefits of learning is long-standing, the evi-
dence for such benefits has been insufficiently pre-
cise to offer clear guidance to researchers and pol-
icy makers. While public expenditure and invest-
ments should, where possible, be supported by ro-
bust quantitative evidence, not all outcomes of val-
ue can be measured to the same extent. Research
on the wider benefits of learning therefore needs
to broaden the modelling and measurement of the
benefits of learning so that the wider outcomes of
education can be added to the evaluation picture.
Although there is recognition that the wider bene-
fits may be important, they have often been rather
vaguely specified. Underlying the evidence gap is
a conceptual gap that has severely limited the ca-
pacity for measurement and hence evaluation. The
productivity benefits of education are relatively
well understood and clear disciplinary foundations
exist for their analysis and quantification. The re-
search domains of the wider benefits of learning,
by contrast, are less mapped out and the appropri-
433
ate techniques are more inter-disciplinary and less
well established. More conceptual work is there-
fore needed to provide and consolidate the founda-
tions for the development of clear, testable hypoth-
eses. On the empirical side, both quantitative and
qualitative methods are useful tools to estimate the
wider effects and to test conceptual frameworks.
3.5.5 The Contribution of TVET to
Innovative Practices
Klaus Ruth
3.5.5.1 Outlining the Scope and Defining
Central Concepts
This article deals with the core concepts of inno-
vation and technical and vocational education
and training (TVET), and analyses their embed-
dedness in the globalization process by utilizing
the industrial culture approach. Special attention
is drawn to the interaction of TVET and innova-
tion – particularly under the varying impacts of
globalization on different countries and industrial
cultures. TVET will be understood as a system of
technical and vocational education that function to
supply of a qualified and skilled workforce to the
prevailing types of production of a country, region
or sector – or: to equip people with the skills and
competences demanded by the ↑ labour market(s)
(→ 2.5). To complete this coarse-grained defini-
tion it seems important to consider that the sys-
tems quality of TVET may vary considerably from
country to country, i.e. in some cases all the TVET
measures contribute to a coherent system whereas
in other cases the TVET “system” might be consist
of a set of particular measures, which and are con-
flicting and thus detrimental to a coherent system
(more details on the systems characteristics and
the cross-national differences will be given in the
subsequent chapters).
Innovation, the other key concept addressed in
this chapter, is nowadays understood as a process
of inventing, developing and commercializing new
products, services or processes, which are exploit-
ed to improve companies’ economic ↑ perform-
ance and competitiveness. Beginning with a com-
434
pany-bound Schumpeterian heroic entrepreneur as
a strategic actor, innovation is nowadays often or-
ganized within networks (DUSCHEK 2004), which
are arenas where a wide range of people with dif-
ferent educational backgrounds are gathered, e. g.
users and suppliers (compare HIPPEL 1988). In the
course of this chapter the potential role of skilled
workers and technicians as well as their possible
contribution to innovative practices will be tracked
down.
Globalization is perhaps considered as a fram-
ing concept for analyzing and comparing different
TVET practices and their interaction with innova-
tion. It urgently raises the question as to how pro-
duction is organized. And, since nowadays plenty
of global outsourcing is going to countries that do
not have a systematic and well-elaborated TVET
system, questions arise about which requirements
for vocational education and training exist in glo-
bal production spots like ↑ China, and to what ex-
tent do these new production regimes challenge
work and qualification/training in the industrial-
ized countries. A specific focus of interest lies on
the latest developments in TVET in the European
countries. This is mainly owing to the initiatives
to harmonize and establish a qualification transfer
framework, and the various initiatives to accredit
various forms of learning – ranging from ↑ infor-
mal learning, to several forms of ↑ e-learning and
the like.
The argument about the interrelatedness of TVET
systems and the building of innovative capacities,
which is brought to the centre in this chapter, is –
among other approaches – embedded in the con-
cept of “industrial culture” (RAUNER / RUTH 1996;
RUTH 2001). Industrial culture basically is a du-
al concept: on the one hand the term describes a
dynamic socio-economic, cultural and political
object that is in rivalry with the concept of ‘na-
tion’ – mainly because the values, the attitudes and
social institutions often do not match the nation-
al borders. For the purpose of international com-
parisons – a key objective of the approach – an in-
dustrial culture can take shape on various interde-
pendent levels: The macro level – in many cases
inappropriately identified with the national level –
the meso or regional, institutional or organisation-
al levels, and finally, the micro or individual level.
Handbook of TVET Research
The second aspect of this duality identifies indus-
trial culture as a research concept that splits up the
system’s coherence and assembles a set of analyt-
ical dimensions and variables that can be utilized
for international comparative empirical research.
In this view the following constituents of indus-
trial culture have proved to be significant: social
institutions (covering common cultural values and
attitudes as well as industrial relations, technical
styles, role models, etc.), industrial organisation
(the structure and organisation of industry, indus-
trial sectors or clusters), general and vocational ed-
ucation, industrial (and R&D) policy, and finally
psychological factors.
In the analytical perspective in particular, the var-
iables are recognized as interdependent, and fur-
thermore they constitute a dynamic rather that
static relationship. This dynamic interdependency
represents the context, which interacts with indi-
vidual industrial culture variables. Above all it is
the interrelatedness (or interdependency) between
context and variables that is the subject of com-
parisons (RUTH 2003). By utilizing some core ele-
ments of the industrial culture approach this chap-
ter will explore the relationship of TVET with in-
novation systems; particularly the question in how
far TVET measures and TVET research outcomes
do impact the innovative practices in different in-
dustrial cultures.
3.5.5.2 Sensing the Pressure
During the last few decades the global production
landscape as well as the modes of production have
changed and, thus, it can be assumed that the forms
of work and the requirements for skill and qualifi-
cations have also been affected by this general ten-
dency. In a general view we can observe several
sequential and in some cases concurrent produc-
tion concepts. (This is a generalised view that does
not consider the always existing differences, e. g.
the special type of production to be found in the
capital goods industry, e. g. machine tool sector).
Mass production is the dominant mode for manu-
facturing standardized durable quality goods like
cars and electric appliances. Second, flexible mass
production partially replaces inflexible mass pro-
duction (PIORE / SABEL 1984). Eventually the Toyo-
ta way of producing cars was labeled as lean pro-
Areas of VET Research
duction (WOMACK /JONES / ROOS 1990), which intro-
duced large-scale supplier networks and was the
take-off point for a far-reaching outsourcing wave.
The latest stage of development can be seen in the
massive shift of production to the “manufacturers
of the world” – mainly ↑ China, India and a few
other Asian countries. These developments – re-
markable in themselves – have impacts on the pro-
duction systems in developed countries, especially
on the production volume and the type of produc-
tion that remains in these countries instead of be-
ing “globalized”. Obviously, the manufacturing re-
maining in the developed countries of Europe, the
↑ U.S. and ↑ Japan can be characterized as knowl-
edge-intensive, high-performance production.
Going into the details of these production modes
is beyond the scope of this chapter, but some light
will be shed on the respective production modes’
implications for qualification in general and for
TVET in particular. This also raises the question
of the future shape of TVET, which can be as-
sumed to be a compromise/synthesis between the
demand, i.e. the requirements induced by the de-
velopments in production modes, and the direction
and outcomes of TVET research. How far these
outcomes of TVET research can contribute to new
innovative practices in production, work and qual-
ification will be addressed in the course of subse-
quent paragraphs.
3.5.5.3 First Subject Field: TVET and Its
Role in Different Production Models
Since innovation research deals more intensive-
ly with the driving forces for economic develop-
ment, competitiveness and the like, there is an in-
creased interest in the qualification and skill issues
of human resources. Michael Porter, for exam-
ple, emphasized in his “Diamond model of com-
petitive advantages of nations” the significance of
skilled labour as one important ‘factor condition’
among others such as capital and infrastructure,
and alongside other advance factors like demand
conditions, strategy and spatial conditions (PORTER
1990). In the “Diamond model” governments have
the opportunity to pro-actively influence all condi-
tions in order to improve the competitiveness of a
sector (or nation). Particularly in countries with an
existing system of technical and vocational edu-
435
cation and training, discerning government policy
can sustain the supply of a well-trained and skilled
labour force and thus contribute to the innovative-
ness of sector – and eventually to the competitive
advantages of nations.
Evidently, Porter’s model emphasizes – in the same
way as our concept of industrial culture sketched
in the introductory section – the relationship be-
tween skills and qualification on the one hand, and
innovation (or competitive advantages) on the oth-
er hand. This indication of a valid connection be-
tween vocational education and training and eco-
nomic ↑ performance is supported by the discus-
sions on “varieties of capitalism” (HALL / SOSKICE
2001). Based on the distinction between liberal
market and coordinated market economies, Hall
and Soskice emphasize the impact of the differ-
ences of various institutional and policy settings
on the economic performance of countries. Par-
ticularly, in analyzing the German type of market
economy (the “Rhine model”), the impact of the
vocational training system/skill formation system
on economic performance is highlighted. Bringing
Hall and Soskice’s as well as Porter’s arguments to
a broader common level, we can assume a relation-
ship between the underlying basic economic insti-
tutions (liberal or coordinated market) and essen-
tial cultural values, and types of ↑ labour markets,
skill formation systems and economic perform-
ance, innovativeness and competitiveness.
If we recall the emergence of the mass production
model with its two derivatives Fordism and Tay-
lorism in the U.S., we can observe production on
a semi-skilled or un-skilled level at a high degree
of specialization and compartmentalization (com-
pare for example BRAVERMAN 1974). In the context
of the U.S. the mainly college-based system of vo-
cational education and training did not “deliver”
to the core sectors of mass production, but rather
to other sectors such as machine tool production.
Interestingly, other countries like Germany have
not followed this path and did not rely so heavily
on semi- or unskilled labour. Thus, in the U.S. the
development of a vocational education and train-
ing system – as a nation-wide system – did not oc-
cur. While in Germany and other European coun-
tries, the ↑ VET system emerged as systems and
they flourished the continuously adapted and im-
436
proved VET system being able to support new pro-
duction modes like flexible mass production by
providing a sufficient number of well-trained and
educated workers. In the case of the ↑ U.S. the lack
of a distinct system of TVET must be claimed as
responsible for the comparatively weak perform-
ance of flexible mass production. But every coun-
try has the capability to learn and, with that, to im-
prove individual components of its VET system,
which might contribute to a re-shaping of an exist-
ing system – or be the starting point for establish-
ing a new system.
Considering an accelerated globalization we can
observe a bifurcation of the global production land-
scape: manufacturing and assembly of the labour-
intensive kind is shifted towards the low wage and
low labour-standard regions, whereas high-end
production remains in the developed countries.
Thus, we face an advanced state of a new inter-
national division of work: on the one hand high-
expertise jobs – ranging from science and knowl-
edge-based jobs to high-performance manufactur-
ing jobs at the shop-floor level (see APPELBAUM /
BAILEY/ BERG /K ALLEBERG 2000) – in Europe and
the developed economies in the West as well as in
↑ Japan. On the other hand low-end jobs based up-
on semi-skilled or low skilled, mainly manual, la-
bour in ↑ China, India and other Asian ↑ develop-
ing countries.
This bifurcation into high- and low-end production
systems has implications for the qualification sys-
tem, skill formation and thus for TVET systems.
Therefore TVET is becoming ever more important
as the developed countries’ sole way to secure em-
ployment through implementing a knowledge-in-
tensive production for an increasing share of the
workforce in Europe and similarly in the U.S. and
Japan. In a way the current phase of globalization
is the latest and strongest challenge to the inno-
vativeness of the “old” developed and industrial-
ized countries. Thus, TVET systems, practices, re-
form and research in vocational training and learn-
ing become more important in these countries. In
the following section some selected efforts and
achievements of mainly European countries will
be presented as striking examples of the attempt
to improve innovative practices through TVET re-
form.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.5.5.4 Second Subject Field: TVET and its
Impact on Innovative Practices
As a general consequence of globalization the
more advanced and developed countries can hard-
ly compete on costs with the new entrants on the
global arena. The obvious solution for the “old” in-
dustrialized countries lies in transforming their
manufacturing and services into high value-add-
ed and knowledge-intensive sectors. This evident-
ly requires a high ↑ skill level of the involved work-
force, which can be achieved by multifarious path-
ways, depending on the prevailing systems of vo-
cational education and training (VET). Independ-
ently of the ↑ VET system’s shape – broadly distin-
guishable into school-based and work-based sys-
tems – the challenges exerting pressure are simi-
lar and can be differentiated into path-dependent
and border-crossing initiatives. Path-dependency
means following the prevailing track of TVET in
a given country, e. g., a school-based system. The
TVET-related research and policy building based
on the research recommendations accepts the giv-
en framework and tries to develop new perspec-
tives and means within the framework or tries to
incorporate research from other contexts into the
existing context. A real challenge is presented by
the attempts to establish common systems of ac-
creditation and/or exchange across various coun-
tries (e. g. the European Qualification Frame-
work).
If we are reviewing the national and international
research strands in TVET we find that research in
TVET is allocated to various programmes which
are often the responsibility of different govern-
mental bodies – both on the national and supra-na-
tional levels. In the past this “dispersion” led to a
patchwork-like pattern of TVET research with little
coherence. In the case of European research, and
TVET research in particular, this would be over-
come by the integration of TVET into the Europe-
an Framework Programme of Research. But this
does not touch the transformation of research out-
comes into policy, e. g. the reform of qualification
and training systems. If we consider the situation
in the ↑ OECD we can observe that those countries
with a high level of regional independence (e. g.
federal states) have more difficulties in develop-
ing effective instruments for political reforms. The
Areas of VET Research
case of the U.S. exemplifies this very convincing-
ly: vocational education is a domain of the states
and local communities, whereas the federal gov-
ernment focuses on general education and on in-
ducements to encourage schools on regional and
local level to provide vocational education. Conse-
quently, the federal government has only weak in-
fluences on the contents and forms of VET, and as
a result, all over the country the shape and quali-
ty of VET differs considerably (cf. STASZ / BODILLY
2004). A similar situation appears if we look at
the European Union (including the acceding coun-
tries): there is a huge variety of VET systems, but
there is a political will to develop, improve and
“harmonize” the national TVET systems. The fol-
lowing remarks will focus on the recent develop-
ments in the EU, because it is typical of the sys-
tems that can be found globally, and it is further-
more a good case study of the difficulties arising
when efforts are made to transform research (re-
sults) into coherent policy action on a transnation-
al (and probably also on a federal) level.
Europe-Wide Activities in TVET Research and
Policy Implementation
The starting points for a review of the most re-
cent initiatives on TVET in Europe are the so-
called “Copenhagen Declaration” and the “↑ Lis-
bon Goals”. Even if they were not formulated be-
fore 2002 they are the basis for relating (and evalu-
ating) the research and policy activities of the Eu-
ropean countries during the last decade. The bot-
tom line of the Lisbon strategy is the attempt to
develop Europe by the year 2010 into “the world’s
most competitive and dynamic, knowledge-based
economic area”. This general goal is differentiat-
ed into a sub-set of dependent goals, such as creat-
ing more and better jobs and enhancing social co-
hesion within the countries. Additionally a higher
level of work forces’ ↑ mobility should be achieved.
On the policy level it is well accepted that educa-
tion and particularly TVET will play a crucial role
in attaining these goals. Probably the most promi-
nent concept, which is discussed and brought into
practice in a step-by-step way, is ↑ lifelong learn-
ing. The idea behind it is that learning should take
place throughout one’s whole life – with the pur-
pose of improving knowledge, skills and compe-
437
tence. The objectives go beyond the accumula-
tion of employment- and work-related competence,
but rather aim at active citizenship. This address-
es hitherto underestimated competence like entre-
preneurship and a higher level of self-determina-
tion in work etc. Along with lifelong learning is the
idea that many, if not all forms of learning should
be recognized. Additional fields of ↑ VET policy
and actions emphasize work practice as an essen-
tial skill component in order to achieve the goal of
reflective practitioners that can contribute to inno-
vative practices. And to finish this necessarily in-
complete list: new forms of learning, such as ↑ self-
directed learning, ↑ eLearning and synthesizing
(rather than sequentially summarizing) theoretical
and practical/↑ work process knowledge (see, for
more detail, LENEY/AMMERMAN / BRANDSMA ET AL.
2004).
An evaluation of the policy steps taken to reach
progress in TVET must consider the following cri-
terion: to what extent do measures contribute to
achieving the ↑ Lisbon goals? Evidently, it is not
easy to assess the impact of certain measures on
national ↑ VET systems as well as their potential
contribution to a mutual adjustment of the Europe-
wide differences in TVET systems. In order to get
a clearer view of the role of various measures of
reforming VET in Europe, and to make an assess-
ment easier, a typology of different possible (na-
tional) pathways to be followed in the technical
and vocational education and training is given be-
low.
When trying to draw a picture of the European
VET landscape, and particularly when putting em-
phasis on the different types of (initial) VET, we
can distinguish four fundamental types following
Leney (2004):
– Predominantly ↑ dual systems/apprenticeship
pathways (e. g. Germany, Austria),
– School-based mainly vocational systems (e. g.
Finland),
– School-based mainly pre-vocational systems
(e. g. Ireland, Italy) and
– Mixed systems of school-based and apprentice-
ship routes (e. g. the UK).
Even if, in particular cases, it might be difficult to
assign countries unambiguously to a single VET
type, the typology allows for a general assessment
438
of certain measures within a certain national sys-
tem and furthermore an evaluation of the contribu-
tion of certain measures to the mutual adjustment
of systems within the European zone.
In the following, a selected action field of TVET
with a number of interacting measures will serve
as an example for policy measures that are tak-
en to achieve improvements in the innovativeness
of companies, regions or industrial cultures. But
these measures can be implemented under varying
social, political, institutional – and thus industri-
al cultural – circumstances. The different impacts
on and interactions with the “contexts” will be em-
phasized when trying to evaluate and assess the ef-
ficacy of the measures.
Recognition of Non-Formal and Informal
Learning
In the following I will have a closer look at the rec-
ognition of non-formal and ↑ informal learning in
the context of lifelong learning (BJØRNÅVOLD 2001).
Most European countries face the necessity of
planning and implementing a system of recogniz-
ing the qualification that individuals have acquired
during their previous employments or other activ-
ities outside of the working life. Countries with a
dual system of vocational training need to devel-
op such means, because of an increasing number
of people who have not run through a formal sys-
tem of VET, and countries with a school-based
system have the difficulty to assess the qualifica-
tion and competence levels of new employees, who
do not hold certificates to prove their competence.
In addition, the increasing transnational ↑ mobili-
ty of the workforce requires some tools and meas-
ures to assess the competence of employees. Some
prominent cases where tools for assessing compe-
tence have been developed and used in practice are
the French Bilans de Compétence (DREXEL 1998a;
GUTSCHOW 2003), the system of NVQs in England
(ERAUT 2003), and additionally there are pilots in
Finland, in the Netherlands and many other Eu-
ropean countries (LENEY/AMMERMAN / BRANDSMA
ET AL. 2004, 91). It is obvious that the developed
tools differ considerably: they might range from
formal examinations to prolonged communicative
processes during which a joint competence profile
is developed. In the latter case, which is typical for
Handbook of TVET Research
the French type of ↑ competence assessment, the
request to assess competence is combined with
↑ career guidance and mentoring activities. Dur-
ing such a process a statement of the previously ac-
quired competence can be formulated, which itself
serves as the basis for career guidance. A skilled
and experienced person must carry out the latter
function as an advisor and mentor. These circum-
stances may lead to joint career planning, which
can be combined with a personal training and ed-
ucation road map. Potentially, the sketched proce-
dure can result in personal benefits for the employ-
ee (i.e. better career opportunities and thus better
work) and also for the company, since it can raise
its innovative capacities with better educated em-
ployees. Evidently, the benefits depend on the prac-
tical realization of the procedure; but in general
such cooperative processual competence assess-
ment measures are advantageous compared with
those based on formal examination. In addition,
the sketched procedure of a comprehensive Bilans
de Compétence is more suitable to those TVET
systems that do not have a ↑ career guidance imple-
mented in the TVET system. This can be assumed
for many (if not most) school-based systems.
Furthermore, the recognition of non-formal and
↑ informal learning can contribute to the accessi-
bility of higher levels of qualification and open up
new formal learning options for participants who
otherwise would not have been admitted to VET or
higher education programmes. Consequently, the
recognition of non-formal and informal learning
contributes to flexibility within the ↑ VET systems,
and supports the inclusion of new and hitherto not
taught and acquired skills and competences into
the competence portfolio of companies, sectors,
regions or nations. The increasing emphasis on
competence in many TVET reforms in the Europe-
an Union might serve as an example. Without go-
ing into greater detail about the debate on the val-
ue and relevance of key (or core) competence, we
can state that much crucial competence originates
from real-life work experiences and thus cannot be
taught context-independent in a school surround-
ing (ONSTENK 2001). In addition, such skills and
competence like entrepreneurial thinking, which,
for example, can be acquired by managing a fam-
ily, or communicative skills and leadership skills,
Areas of VET Research
are all typical objects for an assessment of non-
formal or informal learning. A crucial challenge
lies in the difficulty to re-contextualize the recog-
nized and assessed competence that was embed-
ded in different learning contexts.
With reference to the sketch of global trends de-
scribed above, the emergence of new, highly knowl-
edge-intensive production models in the “old” in-
dustrialized countries, which are thriving on an in-
creased innovative competence, require new skills
and competence or at least their re-composition in-
to new ↑ skill and competence portfolios.
3.5.5.5 Perspectives of TVET as a
Component of Innovative Practice
The implementation of new TVET practices all
over Europe as well as in many ↑ OECD countries
is mainly founded on ↑ pilot studies and experi-
mental reform projects. As such, these pilots are,
on the one hand, embedded in the specific VET
systems and practices, and at the same time they
contribute to the transformation of the prevailing
systems. The variety of innovative TVET practic-
es and policies corresponds to the variety of TVET
systems, innovation systems, and thus to the vari-
ety of capitalism. More specifically, a major bor-
derline follows the distinction between the school-
based and apprenticeship systems of VET. In order
to respond to the challenge of a new knowledge-
intensive production and innovation, new skills
and competence need to be implemented into the
3.6.0 Occupational Work and Competence Development
Martin Fischer and Nicholas Boreham
3.6.0.1 Conceptual Clarification and Definiti-
on of Key Issues
The relationship of professional work and com-
petence development has many different aspects.
First of all there is the fact that the design of work-
ing systems entails certain demands and require-
ments that must be met by the workers. These re-
quirements define the possibilities and limits of
competence development. Accordingly the design
of working systems plays an important part in the
analysis of professional competence development.
439
prevailing systems. Since the goals are very simi-
lar for most developed countries, particularly the
European countries, in most cases attempts to re-
form the TVET systems are focusing on similar
subjects (e. g. implementing new skills and com-
petence like entrepreneurial thinking), but the so-
lutions and paths followed are different. In sum-
mary, it may be said that the TVET measures for
dealing with the challenges of globalization are
path-dependent, therefore the variety of different
national TVET systems (or approaches) is main-
tained. Through the implementation of new skill
components, new learning approaches etc. into the
TVET systems, the foundations for dealing with
the challenges of globalization through achieving
the goal of implementing knowledge-intensive and
high-performance production systems are laid. Be-
yond the common finding of a growing impact of
TVET on (knowledge-intensive) production and
innovation in a general global perspective, we
can draw the conclusion that the variety of differ-
ent path-dependent measures to improve national
TVET systems contributes to the improvement of
different varieties of innovation and production –
thus the best strategy in TVET reform is to stick
to the TVET trajectory taken, and implement ap-
propriate measures to ameliorate the system and
strengthen its impacts on the innovation system,
rather than trying to copy successful measures of
↑ TVET policy implemented in other national and
industrial ↑ cultural contexts, but which are unsuit-
able to the particular system of TVET.
The shaping of work is closely associated with the
selection and design of the instruments the work-
ers have to use and comprises the company’s work
organisation (structural and process organisa-
tion). Concepts of ↑ organisational learning orient
the latter not only towards the fulfilment of ↑ work
tasks and the positioning of workers in the com-
pany, but also towards the ↑ promotion of learning
in the organisation, which entails the promotion of
professional competence development. Work de-
sign, technology and organisation therefore mark
440
important conditions for professional competence
development.
Studies on competence development processes,
however, show that the actual competence devel-
opment of individuals cannot be inferred from
the working conditions in a deterministic way.
This is at least suggested by analyses which were
concerned with the ↑ work process knowledge of
skilled workers and which showed that individu-
als acquired different competences despite compa-
rable working conditions. This result makes clear
that it is important for issues of professional com-
petence development what preconditions, attitudes,
motives and interests are brought into the ↑ work
process by the subjects. These preconditions, at-
titudes, motives and interests in some sense mark
the subjective dimension of professional compe-
tence development beside the objective working
conditions. They are formed in processes of voca-
tional socialisation and differentiated in process-
es of professional specialisation. Ultimately they
are manifested in the individual specific shape of
↑ professional identity.
3.6.0.2 Major Research Areas and Topics
In accordance with the complexity of the relation-
ship between occupational work and competence
development a multitude of scientific disciplines is
concerned with the topic: labour studies, work and
organisational psychology, pedagogical psychol-
ogy, work and industrial sociology, ↑ vocational
pedagogy etc., each with its own genesis and his-
torical development.
Labour studies and work psychology are con-
cerned with work design. Alternative models of
work design with different consequences for the
question of professional competence development
can be shown, for instance, in Taylor’s principles
of scientific management in contrast to principles
of semi-autonomous teamwork. Taylor’s scientif-
ic management led to the simplification of ↑ work
tasks and to the externalisation of work supervi-
sion. An effect for professional competence devel-
opment is the lowering of the level of demands for
work activities – this applies above all to the intel-
lectual level due to the reduction of decision-mak-
ing options for the worker, which goes along with
a new type of stress caused by the ↑ performance of
Handbook of TVET Research
monotonous residual tasks. Unlike this, the model
of semi-autonomous teamwork claims to be asso-
ciated with a variety of demands and also with a
variety of work tasks. Consequences for the pro-
fessional competence development of the working
person lie in the demand to know the factual foun-
dations for the decisions to be made and to com-
municate these to the team. Depending on the type
of work design one can identify tendencies either
towards the diminution or towards the further de-
velopment of the knowledge and skills necessary
for the performance of work. Information on the
current state of research is given in the chapter by
Karlheinz Sonntag and Ralf Stegmaier (→ 3.6.2)
in this volume.
Closely related to the notion of work design are the
work organisation in which the immediate work-
ing system is embedded and the technology used
in this working system. Technology has a two-
fold relevance for issues of professional compe-
tence development: on the one hand experiences
and knowledge for the adequate handling of an ob-
ject are available in a reified form in the instru-
ments of work – often workers have to decode this
experience and knowledge partially in order to
be able to use the instruments appropriately. On
the other hand technology, particularly computer-
based technology, can be designed in a learning-
supportive way, i.e. by making work-relevant in-
formation available. A tutorial quality of work in-
struments can be achieved which in turn generates
new opportunities for professional competence de-
velopment. The tutorial quality of working sys-
tems is treated in the chapter by Matthias Becker
(→ 3.6.5).
The work organisation in which the working sys-
tem including the work instruments is embedded
also features the above-mentioned fundamental-
ly different demands to competence development:
lower hierarchies allow for greater discretion-
ary power on the operative level and entail corre-
sponding competence demands, whereas the exter-
nalisation of the knowledge present in the opera-
tive field to the domain of operational work prepa-
ration leads to the opposite effect.
Actually the situation in the field of work design
is not as unequivocal as a polar comparison of al-
ternative design approaches might suggest. If one
Areas of VET Research
consults industrial sociological studies one can ob-
serve an increasing speed of corporate restructur-
ation processes (cf. DREXEL 1998b, 53), but not as
a permanent normative decision in favour of team-
work, semi-autonomous working groups etc. Mean-
while this was realised with regret by supporters
of teamwork like Peter Brödner (1998, 39 ff.). In
some cases – even in one and the same firm – this
can mean that Taylorist forms of organisation are
maintained, for instance when the issue is about
the optimal utilisation of machines (cf. WEILN-
BÖCK-BUCK / DYBOWSKI / BUCK 1996, 265). In other
projects it is crucial to enter the market with a new
product as soon as possible. This means: project
organisation, minimum bureaucracy, and for the
employees: teamwork, cooperation across hierar-
chies and ↑ professions, and an allocation of tasks
as agreed.
The lowest common denominator in a field of dif-
ferent rationalisation strategies can thus be formu-
lated as follows: in addition to the handling of work
routines skilled workers are expected to cope with
disruptions, unexpected events and new problems.
This is the genuine starting point for profession-
al competence development in the ↑ work process,
which gains more and more importance in compu-
ter-based production. As generic term for the work
situations sketched here we use the term “prob-
lem situation”, which includes disturbances in the
planned workflow and in technical devices as well
as any kind of new tasks for which there is as yet
no action plan on the part of the worker.
The cause for this lies also in the general change
of skilled work in companies (cf. FRIELING 1995a)
due to
– the implementation of new production technolo-
gies,
– the introduction of new products and materials,
– the change in work organisation and work
↑ structuration,
– new political conditions for business activities,
which emerge for instance from the legislation of
the European Union.
All these reasons lead to the conclusion that com-
panies in the productive sector are permanently ex-
posed to problem situations that have effects down
to the shop floor level.
441
From a learning theoretical perspective the “prob-
lem” constitutes in some sense the primary mo-
mentum for professional competence development
(SEIDEL 1976, 54 ff.). The question of what is im-
portant in this regard has been answered by Holz-
kamp and Seidel in the 1970s from the point of
view of German critical psychology in a very sim-
ilar way as Donald Schön in the ↑ USA, who had
analysed the activities of professional practition-
ers. Schön’s result is the following:
“From the perspective of Technical Rationality profes-
sional practice is a process of problem solving. Problems
of choice or decision are solved through the selection,
from available means, of the one best suited to estab-
lished ends. But with this emphasis on problem solving,
we ignore problem setting, the process by which we de-
fine the decision to be made, the ends to be achieved,
the means which may be chosen. In real-world practice,
problems do not present themselves to the practitioner as
givens. They must be constructed from the materials of
problematic situations which are puzzling, troubling and
uncertain. In order to convert a problematic situation to
a problem, a practitioner must do a certain kind of work.
He must make sense of an uncertain situation that ini-
tially makes no sense” (SCHÖN 1983, 39 f.).
“Making sense in the workplace” (BOREHAM 1995a)
is something every practitioner does, but it turns
out to be difficult when computers are being used
in the production process. This is due to the enor-
mous discrepancy between the action knowledge
to be used in the normal work situation and the
↑ work process knowledge to be activated in the
problem situation.
In the solution of problem situations a second mo-
mentum which is relevant for learning in the work
process comes into play, namely, learning in so-
cial interaction. In a study conducted by Michael
Eraut and his colleagues (1998) in Britain, the 120
interviewees from ↑ mechanical engineering, busi-
ness and administration and from the health sector
named two resources above all for learning in the
work process:
– First: “the challenges of work itself”, a mat-
ter that is largely identical with the emergence of
problem situations as discussed here.
– Second: “learning from other people”. Very of-
ten it is the collective solution of problem situa-
tions that engenders such learning opportunities.
Informal conversations about the work, howev-
er, as well as opportunities and occasions for so-
442
cial interaction that are deliberately created by the
companies also lead to this form of learning.
Such deliberately created opportunities and occa-
sions for social interaction, which aim at the ac-
quisition of professional competence, are frequent-
ly labelled with keywords like “↑ organisational
learning” or “learning organisation”. Measures of
this kind show that one wishes to stimulate compe-
tence development in the work process by means of
feedback, social interaction in groups, and media
support. These instruments support the ↑ perform-
ance of the work task as well as the correspond-
ing learning process. Such measures, however, al-
so reach beyond the support of individual learning.
At the same time they are expected to strength-
en the organisational ↑ knowledge base in the en-
terprise. It is attempted via methods of ↑ knowl-
edge management to utilise the learning outcomes
of the employees – in the ideal case: more knowl-
edge for the solution of operational problems – for
the enterprise. The chapter by Michael Dick in this
volume (→ 3.6.3) presents the theoretical back-
ground and empirical results on this topic.
Competence development in the context of work,
however, is not only influenced by the technical
and organisational conditions, but also by the sub-
jective preconditions that individuals bring into
the ↑ work process.
In their above-mentioned study Eraut and his col-
leagues come to the following conclusion:
“Adopting a learner-centred perspective showed that
formal education and training provide only a small
part of what is learned at work. Most of the learning
described by the interviewees was non-formal, neither
clearly specified nor planned. It arose naturally out of
the demands and challenges of work, solving problems,
improving quality and/or productivity, or coping with
change – and out of social interactions in the workplace.
The outcome of such ‘learning from experience’ was
the development of knowledge, skills and understand-
ing, although this was difficult to explain to others. Ef-
fective learning was, however dependent on confidence,
motivation and capability – prerequisites for employ-
ees’ selfmanagement of much of their learning” (ERAUT /
ALDERTON / COLE / SENKER 1998).
In the last sentence those elements of professional
competence are mentioned – confidence, motiva-
tion and capability – that were identified as prereq-
uisites for learning in the work process.
Handbook of TVET Research
The reasons for an actual competence development
in the context of work thus do not only have an ob-
jective side, which consists of the fact that problem
situations often cannot be solved without learn-
ing. They also have a subjective side. The subjec-
tive side is founded in the fact that a proportion of
the skilled workers has developed a ↑ profession-
al identity that views the autonomous solution of
problematic ↑ work tasks – and not their rejection
or delegation – as a part of the professional self-
concept.
It has to be assumed, especially when more than
one country is taken into view, that there is not just
one single form of professional identity which is
decisive for the question as to whether learning op-
portunities in the work process are perceived and
taken at all. A comprehensive empirical study in
Germany has identified quite different types of the
shaping of professional biographies.
In the context of the research project “Status
Passages into Employment” Walter Heinz, An-
dreas Witzel and colleagues (HEINZ / WITZEL 1995;
WITZEL /KÜHN 2000) conducted a ↑ longitudinal
study in which approximately 2000 persons were
recorded and interviewed. It became clear in the
course of the longitudinal study that the situation-
specific coping with the transition to employment
and the stages after completing vocational train-
ing revealed some common thread of the shaping
of biographies. Based on the “grounded theory”
(GLASER / STRAUSS 1967) an empirically founded ty-
pology was worked out, which included six bio-
graphical shaping modes, e. g. “paid worker habit”
or “personality development”.
In all of these types vocational learning was ac-
cepted at least in the sense of adaptive ↑ continuing
education, albeit within certain limits of reasona-
bleness in the “paid worker habit” type. Especially
those persons who had certain career aspirations
or strove for a gain in autonomy viewed compe-
tence development in the context of work as an im-
portant means for shaping their biography.
Occupation-related life-course research makes
clear that a professional biography is not just the
result of vocational learning inside and outside the
work process, but does also in turn influence these
learning processes as a shaping variable. With re-
gard to the issue of competence development in
Areas of VET Research
the context of occupational work this means that
an exclusive interpretation in the sense of learn-
ing psychology, which considers only the con-
ditions of learning in the work situation itself, is
certainly an overly narrow perspective. The ends,
interests and attitudes that the individuals intro-
duce into the learning process have to be taken
into consideration as well. A substantial compo-
nent of these ends, interests and attitudes is related
to the question what the societal construct of oc-
cupation means for life planning, and according-
ly, what developmental goals individuals have in
mind when they view and reflect the contents of
professional work. The chapters by Walter Heinz
(→ 3.6.6), Sabine Raeder (→ 3.6.8) and Harald
Mieg (→ 3.6.9) discuss these topics.
Up to this point objective conditions and subjec-
tive prerequisites for competence development in
the context of work have been discussed. But how
can the process of competence development itself
be described and what does it include?
The process of acquiring professional competenc-
es is often modelled, following Dreyfus and Drey-
fus, as a path that a beginner follows until he be-
comes an expert. Empirical studies on this topic
used Havighurst’s concept of developmental tasks
which come across a person’s path at a certain pro-
fessional stage and which have to be solved by that
person. Rainer Bremer’s chapter (→ 3.6.1) unfolds
the methodological problem and sketches develop-
mental steps in work and learning concepts that
were practised by the test subjects on their way to-
wards professionality.
One crucial type of knowledge acquired by pro-
fessional practitioners in different vocational do-
mains were identified by a European ten-country
network and labelled with the generic term ↑ work
process knowledge. The concept of work process
knowledge (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002;
FISCHER / BOREHAM / NYHAN 2004) is based on em-
pirical research into the competence require-
ments of modernized workplaces, especially those
which have undergone a transition from Taylorism
(strong hierarchy, top-down decisions, segmented
work roles and fixed working procedures) to more
organic structures (wider ↑ participation in deci-
sion making, flexible labour processes and the in-
volvement of all grades of employees in continu-
443
ous improvement). The essential claim that under-
pins the theory of work process knowledge is that
in the latter kind of working environment, employ-
ees need system-level understanding of the ↑ work
process in the organisation as a whole in order to
fulfil their responsibilities for participating in deci-
sion making, working across boundaries and con-
tributing to continuous improvement. The reason
is that their extended role requires them to under-
stand how their own immediate tasks intercon-
nect with operations carried out in other parts of
the organisation. This claim is based on empirical
studies of the ways of knowing that underpin flex-
ible work in modernized workplaces. The results
are summarised by Martin Fischer and Nicholas
Boreham (→ 3.6.4) in this volume. The focus is on
the question what understanding the subjects de-
veloped of the topic they learned – a question that
is treated in works from learning psychology ei-
ther implicitly or cursorily or not at all. This un-
derstanding achieved in the process of competence
development does not only include knowledge
which can be immediately used in an instrumental
way. It concerns the position of the working person
in the lifeworld of the company and includes mor-
al judgements. The development of moral judge-
ment is the topic of Wolfgang Lempert’s chapter
(→ 3.6.7) in this volume.
3.6.0.3 Perspectives
As already said in the beginning, competence de-
velopment in the context of occupational work is a
complex process, the study of which requires that
– the working systems-related, technical and or-
ganisational conditions,
– the individual preconditions as a result of occu-
pational socialisation and identity development,
– and the process of competence development it-
self and its components
are viewed in a differentiated way. From a meth-
odological point of view it is difficult to isolate sin-
gle factors as crucial for professional competence,
especially because competence in professional
work cannot be conceived of as a purely individu-
al achievement. Moreover, in the measurement of
professional competence the latter is in most cas-
es not directly registered, but inferred from oral or
written manifestations of the test subjects. But to
444
write or talk about competence is clearly a differ-
ent matter from practising it.
↑ Longitudinal studies could yield more informa-
tion about the constituents of competence devel-
opment processes. This kind of study might also
lead to deeper insights regarding the question as
to what relevance specialised knowledge, critique
and personal reflection have for professional com-
petence – a question that might easily be neglected
in the demand for and the promotion of work-rele-
vant competences.
3.6.1 Learning in Work Processes
– Competence Development
Peter Dehnbostel
3.6.1.1 Conceptual Clarification and
Categorisation
↑ Learning in the workplace is the oldest and most
common method of vocational qualification. It is
a type of learning that ideally includes cognitive,
affective and psycho-motor dimensions alike. The
workplace is also a learning venue, and the seri-
ous character of work particularly addresses ex-
periences, motivation and social relations. The
conditions and orientations of work-based learn-
ing are, to a great degree, dependent on historical,
cultural and sector-specific circumstances. In the
apprenticeship of craftsmen and in the tradition-
al bystander apprenticeship, in which the trainee
is associated with one skilled worker, operation-
al or occupation-specific work activities are, above
all, learned through imitation. The same is true of
trainees in adaptive forms of continuing training or
in certain work-based types of semi-skilled train-
ing. Learning in the work situation in the company
takes place via observing, imitating, collaborating,
helping and trying or simulation of the observed
activities. The learning outcome largely depends
on the supervising professionals in the workplace,
on the ↑ work tasks and on the disposition and mo-
tivation of the learners.
Throughout history, learning at work was exem-
plified above all by the principle of imitatio, which
is centuries old and was particularly relevant in
Handbook of TVET Research
the age of corporatist vocational training in guilds
(cf. STRATMANN 1967; BLANKERTZ 1982b; GONON
2002). A pedagogical and qualification-based
view was first taken upon the development of edu-
cational systems in the 18th century and then sys-
tematically in the course of industrialisation. Since
the emergence of new work and organisation-
al concepts in the 1980s, learning at work has ex-
perienced a fundamental change, which likewise
captures the aims, contents, forms and methods
of learning (→ 3.7.5). Learning at work is viewed
as a self-directed, process-oriented and ↑ lifelong
learning that essentially contributes to personality
development and ↑ professionalism, and that pro-
motes innovations and ↑ employability (STREUM-
ER 2001; DEHNBOSTEL 2002b; FISCHER / BOREHAM /
NYHAN 2004). There is talk about “learning in the
↑ work process”. The reference to the process em-
phasises that modern work, holistic and process-
oriented work is at stake, which requires new qual-
ifications and competence, and which renders a
work-related life necessary and possible in a previ-
ously unknown way. This learning is characterised
by ↑ process-orientation, subject-relatedness, self-
direction, demand-orientation, enhancing experi-
ential learning and the combination of formal and
↑ informal learning.
The delimitation and pluralism of learning con-
tents and learning forms in corporate and oth-
er work environments increase the importance of
learning at work, the issue being no longer just the
preservation or widening of skills, knowledge and
qualifications, but also the acquisition of a com-
prehensive professional competence that is neces-
sary for modern work processes. Learning in work
processes, from a methodological and conceptual
point of view, increasingly turns out to be part of a
competence development that strengthens techni-
cal, social and personal competence alike and of-
fers new opportunities for work-oriented concepts
of initial and continuing training.
Learning at work is thus, in principle, embed-
ded into the concept of competence development,
which is internationally established, but interpret-
ed quite differently in terms of content and con-
cept, especially with regard to the underlying
concept of competence. For instance, in the con-
text of the development of a ↑ European Qualifi-
Areas of VET Research
cations Framework (EQF) competence is defined
by the European Commission (2005a, 12) as the
ability, testified by an examination, of an individu-
al to use and combine, in a self-directed way, spe-
cific knowledge, skills and professional as well as
personal behavioural dispositions in a particular
context, i.e. a work or learning situation. The de-
velopment from qualifications and ↑ key qualifica-
tions to competence is delineated in other treatises
and definitions (cf. ARNOLD / STEINBACH 1998; ST-
REUMER 2001, 293 ff.; DEHNBOSTEL 2001b, 76 ff.;
NYHAN 2002). Generalising various definitions,
the concept of competence can be understood as
skills, methods, knowledge, attitudes and val-
ues whose acquisition, development and applica-
tion relate to the entire lifespan of a human being.
Competence development is viewed from the per-
spective of the subject, his or her abilities and in-
terests, and as a subject-oriented concept it also in-
cludes the dimension of education. The develop-
ment of competence as a process along the life-
course takes place in the world of work and in the
world of one’s overall life via individual learning
and development processes in different types and
forms of learning. The narrower concept of pro-
fessional competence refers especially to skills,
methods, knowledge, qualifications and attitudes
that form the basis for the professional, social and
human work activities of the individual.
3.6.1.2 Research Approaches to Learning in
Work Processes
Even though learning at work has a historical di-
mension, there is no explicit ↑ historical research
on this topic. Learning in the traditional appren-
ticeship of craftsmen and in vocational training
in guilds, however, is taken into consideration
in the research on learning in “↑ communities of
practice”. The concept of communities of prac-
tice, which originated from ethnographic studies,
(LAVE / WENGER 1991; LAVE 1993b; WENGER / SNYDER
2000) describes ↑ situated learning through activ-
ities and everyday behaviour within a communi-
ty of people engaged in practical activity. This
type of learning not only transfers knowledge and
skills, but also habits, attitudes and values. In con-
trast to relevant school-oriented theories of learn-
ing and teaching the assumption is that learned and
445
acquired knowledge cannot be abstracted from its
genesis and from the situations of its environment.
This means that the situatedness of learning is fun-
damental. Situated learning is clearly opposed to
instructed learning, although it may well be as-
sociated with organised learning and ↑ participa-
tion at work, but not with instruction (cf. LAVE /
WENGER 1991; STEIN 2001).
The current ↑ research approach, which exam-
ines the reflexivity of ↑ learning in the workplace,
builds on historical concepts and findings. Reflex-
ivity was already a core category of thought in the
work of John Dewey:
“Reflective thought consists in the active, continuous
and careful examination of something that is supposed
to be true, and in the light of the reasons that support
this view and of the further conclusions it is aiming at”
(1951, 6).
In his fundamental approach of integrating “ex-
perience and education” reflexivity is developed
theoretically and practically through experiential
learning. The term “experience” refers to the im-
mediate experience that is always preceded by an
action. This experience has to be embedded into re-
flections, and leads to knowledge if actions are not
carried out repetitively, but associated with prob-
lems and uncertainty. In changing ↑ work process-
es and environments this is what happens as a rule.
The sequence of action – experience – reflection
and its steady continuation in consideration of pre-
vious experiential and cognitive processes is con-
ceptualised by Dewey as “evolutive progress” un-
der the condition that the learners learn actively
and, if possible, in a self-determined way. Real-
ity is individually revealed through learning and
experiential processes on the basis of activity and
self-determination.
Dewey’s idea of experiential learning through re-
flexivity is explored more deeply by Schön in his
book: The Reflective Practitioner (1983). Accord-
ing to Schön, reflexivity is a dialogue between
thought and action that enables the practitioner to
cope with the complex problems associated with
his tasks. With regard to problem solving through
professional action Schön identifies two types of
reflection: reflection in the action and reflection
on the action. Reflection in the action allows the
practitioner to solve, by means of reflection while
the activity is carried out, those practical problems
446
for which his ↑ tacit knowledge is insufficient. This
type of reflection requires an awareness of one’s
own knowledge, but it does not necessarily have to
be verbally articulated by the practitioner. The re-
sult is a situatively-adapted action (SCHÖN 1983, 9).
The second type of reflection, reflection on the ac-
tion, is a step back or withdrawal from the flow of
action, with the aim of reflecting upon an action
already performed or actions yet to be performed.
The reflective consideration takes place by concep-
tually or figuratively capturing, saving and analys-
ing the activity. To this end, the knowledge around
the action is explicitly formulated and thus made
accessible for analysis and reorganisation. Grave
problems of action that can be attributed to short-
comings or errors in knowledge about action can
be fixed by a change in the knowledge in question.
Moreover the knowledge becomes communicable
and accordingly accessible for discussion and cri-
tique. As will be shown in the next section, this
research and development approach to reflective
learning in the work process is taken up and de-
veloped further in the concept of reflective action
competence.
3.6.1.3 Major Topics and Development Fields
Research on learning in the ↑ work process is above
all concerned with topics and development fields
that focus on the dimensions of competence theo-
ry and organisation of learning. Given the current
changes in learning in the work process it is clear
that the relevant processes of learning and compe-
tence development still require empirical and sci-
entific scrutiny. Nevertheless the following state-
ments are based on far-reaching research and de-
velopment activities, which, together with the anal-
ysis of new concepts of work and organization, re-
flect the current state of theoretical and ↑ practical
knowledge about learning in modern work proc-
esses.
It must be observed that the current transforma-
tion of learning in the work process can be direct-
ly attributed to the extensive reorganisation and re-
structurization processes in enterprises and organ-
isations, which has been going on since the 1980s,
and which are ambivalent in some aspects. On the
one hand ↑ globalisation, new technologies and in-
creased productivity are associated with massive
Handbook of TVET Research
job cutbacks, a higher workload and an increase in
more precarious employment. On the other hand
measures for dehierarchisation and decentralisa-
tion as well as for the creation of holistic and par-
ticipative forms of work appear to mean an actu-
al improvement in working conditions in terms of
more comprehensive tasks, greater variety, higher
degrees of freedom and greater options for shap-
ing the work environment. Whilst on the one hand
the disintegration of social relationships and the
diminishing of the potential for identification in
one’s work are observed, new social relationships
and broad competence development in modern
forms of work and organisation appear, on the oth-
er hand, to become possible. In any case enhanced
learning in new concepts of work and organisation
is a necessary prerequisite for the optimisation of
workflows, work results and services and for the
realisation of adequate qualifications.
Self-Directed and Work-Process-Oriented
Learning
The change of learning in modern work process-
es alters and extends the methodological orienta-
tion of learning. In research and development it is
predominantly characterised as self-directed and
work process oriented (cf. inter alia ATTWELL /
JENNES / TOMASSINI 1997; FISCHER / RAUNER 2002b;
EULER / LANG / PÄTZOLD 2006). ↑ Self-directed learn-
ing can be understood as the independent and au-
tonomous direction of learning processes. Learn-
ers determine the objectives and contents of the
learning, within certain limits, largely on their
own, and the same applies to the methods, instru-
ments and means for the regulation of learning.
The scope of action or the structural embedded-
ness of the learning situation in question within
workflows and work processes, however, is already
given or defined according to work-economic cri-
teria. As far as the scope and the environment are
concerned, self-directed learning is thus not auton-
omous learning, but is, instead, a targeted selection
and determination of learning opportunities and
learning paths (cf. WEBER 1996; DIETRICH 1999).
This also marks the crucial difference between
self-directed and self-organised learning: In the
case of self-organised learning the institutional
and organisational framework conditions of learn-
Areas of VET Research
ing are determined by the learners and are not –
unlike the case of self-directed learning – imposed
from outside. Learning in work processes mostly
takes place in agency and work situations without
a specific learning intention, which are determined
with regard to their objectives and the overarch-
ing organisational structures, but which neverthe-
less allow for independent and self-directed learn-
ing within the given scope, especially learning
through experience. In this context self-regulation
can refer to the individual as well as to a group.
Regardless of the learning-theoretical context,
processes of self-regulation in reorganised work
structures are constitutive for the functioning of
participative and networked forms of work. The
shaping of newly acquired rooms for manoeuvre
and disposition, the carrying out of continuous im-
provement processes, the application of integrated
↑ quality assurance procedures as well as the fulfil-
ment of target agreements increasingly takes place
in a self-directed way. Self-regulation processes of
this kind are the consequence of decentralisation
and de-hierarchisation in new concepts of work
and organisation. They are symptomatic for mod-
ern ↑ work processes and at the same time insepa-
rably linked to learning processes in the context of
work that are self-regulated in the sense discussed
above and that for the most part take place infor-
mally. Following the introduction of so-called new
methods like the guiding text method, the team
method and the project method, organised learn-
ing processes outside of work increasingly feature
a formal type of ↑ self-directed learning, which en-
ters into a synthesis with ↑ informal learning proc-
esses in the learning forms discussed in the next
section but one.
Work process oriented learning particularly em-
phasises certain contexts of work such as custom-
er orientation and business ↑ process orientation,
which are becoming more and more important.
This type of learning generates a ↑ work process
knowledge based above all on experiences that are
made by skilled workers in dealing with machines,
situations and persons and which enable them to
cope with complex work and problem situations in
their work routine. Work process knowledge as a
specific area of competence of skilled workers in-
447
cludes, among other things, the following charac-
teristics:
– It is “the knowledge that is directly need-
ed in the work process (as opposed to e. g. sys-
tematically structured professional knowledge);
– It is mostly acquired in the work process itself,
e. g. through experiential learning, but does not ex-
clude the application of theoretical knowledge;
– It comprises complete work processes in terms of the
definition of goals, the planning, the performance and
the evaluation of one’s own work in the context of op-
erational processes” (FISCHER / STUBER / UHLIG-SCHOE-
NIAN 2002, 157 f. [translated from the German]; cf. also
R AUNER 2002b, 123 ff.; → 3.6.4).
The orientation of learning towards work-proc-
ess knowledge, and the independent and self-de-
termined regulation of learning processes marks
a turning point for traditional qualification, which
consists of the transition from technical systemat-
ics to action and competence systematics. Quali-
fication turns away from narrow subject-specif-
ic learning fields to real, professional fields of ac-
tion within work and business processes. Initial
and continuing training with a subject-specific ori-
entation leads to professional factual knowledge
and useful working techniques, but scarcely gen-
erates a self-directed, process-oriented and reflec-
tive action-competence. The latter can ultimately
be achieved only via active ↑ performance in the
process of work. The actions have to be embedded
into clear options concerning aims and contents in
order not to fall prey to arbitrariness and random-
ness. Professional action-competence and compe-
tence development must be regarded as the deci-
sive goals in this respect.
Competence Development and Reflective
Action Competence
Building upon the conceptual definition of com-
petence outlined in the beginning, and combined
with the reflexivity dimension of learning at work,
the objectives of professional action competence
and reflective action competence are becoming
more and more important in modern work proc-
esses. What is crucial in this regard is the distinc-
tion between the concepts of competence and qual-
ification. The German Council on Education (cf.
DEUTSCHER BILDUNGSRAT 1974, 65) links compe-
tence as a – provisional – result of competence de-
448
velopment to the individual learner and his or her
ability to act autonomously and responsibly with-
in private, professional and social situations. Qual-
ification, on the other hand, means competence,
knowledge and skills with regard to their exploit-
ability, i.e. qualification is primarily defined from
the demand side and not from the subject’s point
of view. Building upon these positions the acqui-
sition of a holistic professional action-competence
has become widely accepted as a supreme goal in
vocational education and in continuing vocation-
al training in companies. More specifically, pro-
fessional action competence is defined as the uni-
ty of technical, social and human competence. In
the business context human competence is in most
cases understood as human resource competence.
Other competence concepts like methodological
competence, learning competence and commu-
nicative competence are part of the three compe-
tence dimensions or cut across them.
Competence development is supposed to generate
the professional action competence outlined above
and, beyond this, an action competence that allows
for the fulfilment of ↑ work tasks in the sense of
performance in the real work process. What is at
stake here is a “reflective” action-competence that
extends beyond professional action-competence
and that makes it possible to relate the individu-
al, self-directed application of acquired compe-
tence to actions and patterns of behaviour in a re-
flective way, as well as to the corresponding work
and social structures. “Reflective” action compe-
tence thus addresses the quality and authority of
the real ability to act.
Reflexivity means the conscious, critical and re-
sponsible estimation and evaluation of actions on
the basis of experience and knowledge. At work
this means, firstly, a detachment from the im-
mediate work events in order to scrutinise proc-
ess organisations, courses of action and alterna-
tives for action, and to situate them in relation to
one’s own experiences and agency knowledge.
Lash (1996, 203 f. [translated from the German])
explains how reflexivity is oriented in two direc-
tions:
“First, there is a structural reflexivity: the agents, who
are liberated from the constraints of the social structure,
reflect upon the ‘rules’ and ‘resources’ of this very struc-
ture, that is, on the social conditions of the existence of
Handbook of TVET Research
the agents. Second, there is a self-reflexivity, by means
of which the agents reflect upon themselves. In the case
of self-reflexivity the former heteronomy of the agents is
replaced by autonomy”.
Self-determination and personality development
are thus inseparably connected with the ability to
self-reflection and the recognition of social proc-
esses through one’s own judgement.
The potentials and limits of reflexivity are also de-
termined by the real working conditions and the
learning opportunities at work. This refers above all
to ↑ quality criteria of work that have been worked
out in recent analyses in labour studies, work and
organisational psychology, and ↑ vocational peda-
gogy (→ 3.7.5). These factors include the culture
of learning and working, the corporate and organ-
isational culture, learning-relevant dimensions of
work as well as individual development opportu-
nities or career paths. On the whole, these precon-
ditions and influential factors constitute a complex
conditioning framework for the generation of re-
flective action-competence.
Fig. 1: Conditioning Framework for Reflective Ac-
tion-Competence
Reflective action competence is a prerequisite for
being able to examine, through learning and re-
flection processes, given situations and traditional
views in professional action, to interpret them and
to evaluate them with a view to agency. When pro-
fessional action-competence is extended to action-
competence, it is, from the very beginning, linked
to the reflection of agency. Given the options of
modern business and organisation concepts, re-
Areas of VET Research
flective action competence always also means the
enabling of holistic professional work and of the
associated innovation and shaping ability in the
context of self-directed and work-process-orient-
ed learning.
Successful reflective agency in modern ↑ work
processes points to the connection of learning and
agency on the one hand and structures on the other.
The dualism of agency and structures can be found
in many social scientific propositions and studies.
Especially ↑ structuration theories (cf. ORTMANN /
SYDOW/ WINDELER 1997; GOLTZ 1999; WALGENBACH
2001) can help to explain the relationship between
action and structure with a view to analysis, the-
ory and application. They are based on the struc-
turation theory by the English sociologist Antho-
ny Giddens. According to this theory the above-
mentioned dualism of agency and structure need
not necessarily be regarded as contradiction or op-
position. Instead it is assumed that behaviour, ac-
tions and development processes in organisations
are neither determined predominantly by the con-
straints of the organisations nor unilaterally by the
will and the self-regulation of its members.
Reflective action-competence and reflective agen-
cy can be situated within this theoretical frame-
work. As the figure shows, action-competence and
the structurally determined working and learning
conditions are connected in professional agency.
The development of competence in real work ac-
tivities is working on the structures, which in turn
– and this is the recursive process that is typical
for ↑ structuration – work on the competence de-
velopment and contribute to shaping it. From the
point of view of structuration theory there is ac-
cordingly an interaction between learning activi-
ties and structures, or between action competence
and working and learning conditions, which needs
to be shaped deliberately.
Whilst traditional concepts of ↑ vocational pedago-
gy unilaterally emphasise the subjects under theo-
retical aspects of learning and education and as-
sign only little functional relevance to structures,
adaptive qualification in companies is dominated
by structural circumstances to which qualification
and competence development are subordinated.
In the face of the goal of “development of reflec-
tive action competence” in work-process oriented
449
learning, both approaches turn out to be one-sid-
ed and reductionist, for what is at stake is their in-
tegration and the consideration of the interdepend-
ence of learning or agency and structures. There-
fore the existing dualism of action and structure
has to be transformed into a duality that mediates
between individual learning processes for compe-
tence acquisition on the one hand and corporate
working conditions and organisational structures
on the other. A duality is achieved when actions
and structures positively condition each other in
recursive processes and have a supportive effect on
each other. Concepts of linking work and learning
and new forms of learning in the ↑ work process
aim precisely to establish this duality.
New Forms of Learning in the Middle of Work
A closer look shows that in modern work process-
es a distinction must be drawn between forms of
learning and forms of work, and between the cor-
responding types of learning (cf. JONG / THIJSSEN /
VERSLOOT 2001; DYBOWSKI / TÖPFER / DEHNBOSTEL /
K LING 1999, 201 ff.; DEHNBOSTEL 2002b; MOORAL /
SCHOENFELD /GRÜNWALD 2004). Learning forms
in work contexts have emerged, to a considerable
degree, only along with new work and organisa-
tion concepts. They are characterised by the com-
bination of informal and formal learning. Among
these learning forms one can name, among others:
coaching, learning sites (Lernstatt), ↑ learning is-
lands, ↑ work and learning tasks, and interactive
learning. More precisely these learning forms are
organisational forms of learning as they predom-
inantly relate to the organisational and structur-
al dimension of learning. A deliberate framework
is created in work processes in order to support,
demand and promote learning, for the most part
within the didactic and methodological aspects
Unlike this, learning in modern operational forms
of work like teamwork, rotation and project work
above all takes place as ↑ informal learning and not
as organised, formal learning. Informal learning
occurs in nearly all work situations that are associ-
ated with problems, and, in a particularly intensive
way, in the context of teamwork and team meet-
ings, for instance, or in continuous processes of
improvement and optimisation. It is a non-organ-
ised form of learning, but is nevertheless registered
450
with regard to its effects and indirectly scheduled
via the fulfilment of arrangements, regulations and
agreements on objectives. In the context of partici-
pative forms of work the decision is largely left to
the individual or the group how optimisation and
problem solving takes place. The crucial point is
that the agreed-upon outcomes and results are met.
One of the top priorities in work methodology is
that work environments be designed in a learning-
supportive way in order to facilitate the successful
implementation of agreements on objectives and
of ↑ participation processes as well as to improve
work ↑ efficiency.
Learning in modern work processes can thus be
reduced, in principle, to two different forms of or-
ganisation: forms of learning, which deliberate-
ly and systematically integrate informal and for-
mal learning, and forms of work in which learning
takes place informally and on the basis of experi-
ence. The distinction between these forms is not
always clear as the example of teamwork with in-
tegrated team meetings shows. This type of work
– especially regarding the further development of
teamwork concepts – is increasingly supervised by
professionally educated learning process support-
ers like the team coach (cf. RAUEN 2000; RÜCKLE
2000). This means that by means of team coach-
ing formal learning is deliberately introduced into
work so that ↑ informal learning is supplemented.
The relevance of informal learning is expressed
by the fact that according to empirical studies 60–
80 % of the ↑ practical knowledge or the knowl-
edge acquisition of a skilled worker are based on
processes of informal learning (cf. DOHMEN 2001,
7; DEHNBOSTEL / MOLZBERGER / OVERWIEN 2005).
This is a process of learning through experiences
that are made in and through work activities. In-
formal learning, unlike formal learning, typically
leads to a learning outcome without any prior in-
tention to achieve this result. This does not mean
that intentionality is altogether absent in the proc-
ess of informal learning. The case is just that it is
targeting at other objectives and ends and not at
learning options as such.
Informal learning is conceptualised in differ-
ent ways both in national and international con-
texts (cf. GARRICK 1998; MARSICK 2001; OVER-
WIEN 2002, 14 ff.). It is often also referred to as
Handbook of TVET Research
“casual” or “incidental learning”, and these terms
are used in a non-standardised way as well. There
is at least some agreement that informal learning
– Results from demands of work and activity and
is not institutionalised,
– Leads to a learning outcome that is the result of
coping with situations, dealing with job tasks and
the solution of problems,
– Is in general not professionally supervised by
pedagogues or learning advisers.
Informal learning, unlike formal learning, hardly
ever entails problems of transfer and motivation.
Moreover, it causes much lower costs than formal
learning in organised ↑ learning environments out-
side the ↑ work process. Informal learning is not
associated with a high social selection as is formal
learning. Nevertheless the dependence on the rele-
vant processes of work and agency does not suggest
that this type of authentic learning is always an ad-
vantage. What experiences are made at work, what
sensual, cognitive, emotional and social process-
es take place essentially depends on the job orders
and topics, the structural and process organisation,
the social relationships and the corporate culture.
Informal learning takes place more or less casu-
ally; it is usually confined to a one-sided compa-
ny perspective if it is not embedded, via networked
learning structures, into a context of learning and
education. Informal learning without pedagogical
arrangements, organisation and goal-orientation is
in danger of remaining situative, in which case it
contradicts the demands of comprehensive compe-
tence development.
Learning forms in modern work processes that
combine informal learning from work and from
the learning place in the context of active and par-
tially structured learning by linking it to or inte-
grating it into formal learning do not mean that in-
formal learning becomes formalised or loses its
characteristic features as authentic learning. These
forms of learning simultaneously aim at the quali-
fication demands of work and the individual com-
petence development. What they have in com-
mon is that workplaces and work processes are en-
riched under aspects of the systematics of learn-
ing and the pedagogy of work, and that targeted
competence development processes are made pos-
sible under technical, social and personal aspects.
Areas of VET Research
Learning forms like ↑ learning islands, learning
stations and ↑ work and learning tasks, which were
introduced into initial and continuing ↑ in-com-
pany training in the 1990s and which are by now
widespread, show how this combination of learn-
ing and working is successfully put into practice
in the midst of the work process (cf. DYBOWSKI /
TÖPFER / DEHNBOSTEL /K LING 1999, 238 ff.; DEHN-
BOSTEL 2001a; DEHNBOSTEL 2002b).
These forms of learning – which are also referred
to as ↑ decentralised learning forms – were de-
veloped and tested at the beginning of the 1990s
in the course of the BIBB pilot programme “De-
centralist Learning” that involved a number of
small, medium-sized and large enterprises (cf.
DEHNBOSTEL / MOLZBERGER 2004). The comprehen-
sive programme of decentralist learning was based
on the guiding principle of decentralisation and
differentiation of vocational education and train-
ing, and on the thesis that in modern work proc-
esses, which have a sophisticated technology, inte-
grative forms of connecting work and learning had
become necessary and possible.
One characteristic of the learning forms that com-
bine working and learning is a dual infrastruc-
ture. On the one hand it corresponds, as work in-
frastructure, to the relevant work environment in
terms of ↑ work tasks, technology, work organisa-
tion and qualification requirements. The learning
infrastructure, on the other hand, provides addi-
tional spatial, temporal, material and personal re-
sources. Learning is linked to work, but it is not
confined to experience-based learning processes
at work. Work activities and the associated reflec-
tions are interrelated with explicit aims and con-
tents of ↑ in-company training. As the following
figure shows, ↑ informal learning and formal learn-
ing are systematically linked on the basis of the in-
terplay of work infrastructure and learning infra-
structure.
451
Fig. 2: Dual Infrastructure of New Forms of Learn-
ing
The learning stations that are now established in
the German AUDI automobile factories give an ex-
ample of the functioning of new forms of learning
in the middle of work. They were developed in the
early 1990s in the context of the above-mentioned
pilot programme (cf. EHRKE / FABER / NOVAK 1992)
and have, since then, been further developed as
schemes of initial and continuing training direct-
ly embedded in the ↑ work process. In the begin-
ning they served for vocational training, and they
have been successfully used as a method of con-
tinuing vocational training since the mid-1990s.
They have been proven as path-breaking innova-
tions for in-company training and ↑ organisational
development. By means of the integration of work
and learning they make a crucial contribution to
meeting the competence requirements of advanced
work processes and to the systematisation of con-
tinuing training in the company. Learning stations
are designed in such a way as to accommodate the
increasingly holistic qualification requirements of
new work and organisation concepts. For instance,
the method of teamwork, which was introduced
in the automotive industry on a large scale in the
1990s, was tested in certain learning stations prior
to its realisation in the relevant work environment.
Continuous improvement processes, a ↑ quality as-
surance system based on current standards and on
an increasingly self-directed type of learning were
introduced as key elements of work in learning sta-
tions. The development and testing of the concept
have shown that learning stations in different pro-
duction areas such as assembly and tool manufac-
452
turing significantly contribute to meeting the crite-
ria of a sophisticated ↑ continuing education and to
implementing the concept of a learning enterprise.
The ability to act and the action competence of
workers are improved, and the integration of learn-
ing and work takes place on the basis of working
on real professional tasks. In the course of team-
work the learners acquire, in particular, personal
and social competence, such as autonomy, respon-
sibility and mutual acceptance. The social group
processes foster the awareness of one’s own skills,
strong and weak points and the handling of these.
Even though learning stations and new forms of
learning were established in single enterprises,
their dissemination and development essentially
depend on the question as to whether learning for
company needs cannot be organised better and in
any case more cheaply by means of new forms of
work such as teamwork, project work and job rota-
tion. The reason is that these organisation models
are also increasingly characterised by a systematic
recourse to targeted learning in the course of oper-
ations in order to achieve problem solutions and in-
novations, to enforce quality and to decide on dis-
positional options. Nevertheless the dissemination
of new forms of learning will surely continue to
increase, for experience indicates that they entail
some advantages in economic terms and with re-
gard to individual development (cf. SAUTER 1999;
HEIDEMANN 2001, 25 f.).
3.6.1.4 Perspectives
As shown above, learning in ↑ work processes not
only takes place in an increasingly self-directed
and work-process-oriented manner. It must also be
regarded as constitutive for competence develop-
ment and reflective action competence. The combi-
nation of learning and work that has to be put into
practice points, first of all, to the existing dualism
of work activities and competence development on
the one hand and work structures or working con-
ditions and conditions of agency on the other. This
constitutes an area of tension whose varying de-
grees of intensity depend on the relevant concepts
of work and organisation. In the case of Taylorist
working conditions it is almost impossible to over-
come this tension and the dualism of agency and
structure. The latter, however, can be transformed
Handbook of TVET Research
into a duality of agency and structure by the in-
terplay of work infrastructure and learning infra-
structure as well as the combination of formal and
↑ informal learning. This is indicated by the new
forms of learning in modern work processes dis-
cussed above. In the context of competence devel-
opment and reflective action competence in differ-
ent work situations and processes, this duality –
the mutual influence of learning activities at work
and the work structures – has to be checked regu-
larly and developed if possible.
In the context of the development and design of
concepts of combining work and learning, TVET
research is called to analyse learning in the work
process and to relate it to competence development.
The analysis, evaluation, recognition and certifica-
tion of competence acquired in the work process
is a fundamental research and ↑ development task
that to date is carried out insufficiently. What is at
stake is the recognition and accreditation of com-
petence development with regard to professional
career paths as well as the connection to the edu-
cational system as a whole and thus to programmes
of vocational and general education, including BA
and MA programmes. This task is all the more ur-
gent, for a comprehensive professional action com-
petence and a reflective capacity to act are scarcely
realised for business or other work-immanent rea-
sons, but at best when learning at work is directly
linked to educational programmes and certificates
of ↑ continuing education. Learning at work is still
shaped – even in the case of holistic ↑ work tasks
– by single-company orientation, randomness and
arbitrariness.
A variety of systems and procedures for compe-
tence measurement and evaluation has been de-
signed at the national and international levels. A
sufficient and generally accepted systematisation
of the competence analysis techniques developed
and used in initial and ↑ continuing vocational ed-
ucation and training, however, does not exist so far.
Helpful categories for this systematisation might
be the polar criteria of demand orientation and de-
velopment orientation. According to these, proce-
dures that focus on the individual and their person-
al development are distinguished from those that
analyse competence from the perspective of de-
mands or requirements. The classification between
Areas of VET Research
economically-determined work and the associated
qualifications on the one hand, and subject-orient-
ed competence development on the other, provides
the basis for the evaluation of competence analyses
in the context of differing interests.
The outcome orientation of the projected ↑ Euro-
pean Qualifications Framework (EQF) responds
to the demand perspective and would also, accord-
ingly, direct learning in work processes towards a
one-sided instrumental orientation. The EQF and
the European Credit ↑ Transfer System for Voca-
tional Education and Training (ECVET) obviously
create structures and conditions that reach far be-
yond the widely held opinion that only a transla-
tion and recognition framework for different edu-
cational systems and standards is being provided.
Surely the recognition of informally and extra-in-
stitutionally acquired competence and the transfer-
ability of qualifications in the EQF deserve approv-
al. But the one-sided outcome orientation and the
disappearance of holistic training programmes to
the benefit of fragmented learning units and mod-
ules entails the danger that learning in work proc-
esses and the associated competence development
cease to be based on the principle of occupations.
Therefore it is all the more important to ensure that
this principle is used as the basis of the National
Qualifications Framework (NQF) that is currently
under development.
3.6.2 Work Design and Work
Organization
Karlheinz Sonntag and Ralf Stegmaier
3.6.2.1 Introduction
The researching of work design deals with the
content and organization of employees’ day-to-
day physical, mental and interpersonal job tasks
(PARKER / TURNER 2002). Researchers in this ar-
ea examine which task characteristics are affect-
ing employees’ attitudes, personality, competence,
health or ↑ performance, and identify relevant
mechanisms (e. g. motivation, enhanced skills)
and contingencies (e. g. environmental uncer-
tainty) of these effects. Examples of key work de-
453
sign characteristics are autonomy regarding con-
tent, timing and methods of work, variety, com-
plexity and completeness of tasks, degree of feed-
back employees receive, and level of cognitive and
social demands (PARKER / WALL 2001; SONNTAG /
STEGMAIER 2007).
Assumptions such as the need for job simplifi-
cation and employee control, which often under-
lie contemporary approaches to work design can
be traced back to views emerging around the time
of the industrial revolution. It was Adam Smith
(1776) who regarded the division of labour (i.e.
breaking down complex into simpler jobs) as a
means to enhance labour productivity and worker
performance. Elaborating this idea, Charles Bab-
bage (1835) draw attention to an advantage inher-
ent in job simplification. Companies would need
only less skilled labour, which was cheaper and
could be more easily replaced.
Finally Frederick Taylor’s (1911) concept of Scien-
tific Management postulated the benefits of sepa-
rating planning and execution of work, breaking
down jobs into narrow tasks and removing deci-
sion-making responsibilities from the employee.
Following Taylor’s ideas, engineers and managers
were to enhance labour ↑ efficiency by determin-
ing the best way to execute tasks, thereby drawing
on findings of detailed time and motion studies.
Practices of job simplification gained wide accept-
ance in the industrial world and started spreading
from manufacturing to other domains such as ad-
ministration or service industries (PARKER / WALL /
CORDERY 2001). Despite job simplification’s grow-
ing popularity with company managers, studies on
the psychological consequences of simplified jobs
started to reveal negative effects. Simplified jobs
were found to be boring, tiring, dissatisfying, and
even damaging to mental health (BERGMANN, B.
2000; ZAPF / SEMMER 2004). To counter these neg-
ative effects, measures to ‘redesign’ work such as
job rotation, job enlargement, or job enrichment
were put forward. These practices were based on
the major theories of work design.
454
3.6.2.2 Major Theories of Work Design
Job Characteristic Model
Hackman and Oldham’s (1976) Job Characteristic
Model proposes that positive outcomes like moti-
vation and employees’ performance are influenced
by five core job characteristics, namely: skill va-
riety, task identity, task significance, autonomy,
and job feedback. These job characteristics are as-
sumed to lead to positive outcomes via three criti-
cal psychological states: experienced meaningful-
ness, experienced responsibility, and knowledge
of results. Empirical evidence strongly supported
the link between work characteristics and affective
outcomes such as job satisfaction or job motiva-
tion, whereas the results for the proposed link be-
tween work characteristics and work behaviour as
well as for the role of critical psychological states
were less consistent (FRIED / FERRIS 1987; PARKER /
WALL / CORDERY 2001; PARKER / TURNER 2002). The
Job Characteristic Model is particularly applica-
ble to employees who are high in growth and need
strength-appreciating challenges and opportuni-
ties for personal development at work (PARKER /
TURNER 2002).
Sociotechnical Systems (STS) Approach
Whereas the Two Factor Theory or the Job Char-
acteristic Model focus on the individual job, the
STS Approach considers the design of groups of
jobs. The STS Approach has its roots in the re-
search at the Tavistock Institute of Human Re-
lations in London during the 1950s (e. g. TRIST/
BAMFORTH 1951). A central proposition of STS the-
ory is that the social and technical subsystems in
organisations need to be designed in parallel and
optimized jointly. This requires focusing on the
design of tasks as central linkages of social and
technical systems (EMERY/ THORSRUD 1982). Fur-
thermore, STS has developed a set of socio-tech-
nical design principles (CHERNS 1976): work meth-
ods should only be minimally specified, variances
in ↑ work processes need to be addressed at their
source, and work roles ought to be multifunction-
al and demand multiple skills. These ideas finally
resulted in the design of autonomous work groups
with multi-skilled team members, autonomously
managing as many aspects of their daily work as
Handbook of TVET Research
possible. These groups should provide opportuni-
ties not only for personality enhancement but al-
so for ↑ performance improvements due to multi-
skilled employees’ enhanced flexibility (PARKER /
TURNER 2002).
Psychological Empowerment
Psychological Empowerment Theory (CONGER /
K ANUNGO 1988; SPREITZER 1995; THOMAS /
VELTHOUSE 1990) shifts the focus from the objec-
tive features of the job towards the subjective per-
ception of individual empowerment. The state of
empowerment is a cognitive and motivational as-
sessment of an individual’s impact, competence,
meaning, and choice at work. Empirical evidence
showed that the state of psychological empower-
ment is positively related to affective outcomes
like job satisfaction or work motivation (LIDEN /
WAYNE / SPARROWE 2000). The states postulated by
Empowerment Theory overlap considerably with
the critical psychological states from the Job Char-
acteristic Model. ‘Impact’ is similar to ‘knowledge
of results’; ‘meaning’ corresponds to ‘experienced
meaningfulness’, and ‘choice’ resembles ‘experi-
enced responsibility’. The forth assessment, com-
petence, addresses an employee’s confidence in
work-related abilities and is similar to Bandura’s
(1982) concept of self-efficacy. The Psychological
Empowerment Theory enriched the work design
literature by highlighting the idea that not only
task characteristics such as complexity or variety,
but also interpersonal and organizational factors
such as leadership or co-worker relations deter-
mine employee motivation and behaviour (LIDEN /
WAYNE / SPARROWE 2000; SPREITZER /JANASZ / QUINN
1999).
Action Theory
A highly elaborated theory concentrating on cog-
nitive aspects of work design is the ↑ Action The-
ory originating from German work psycholo-
gy (HACKER 2005; VOLPERT 1982; see FRESE / ZAPF
1994 for an overview of the relevant German lit-
erature in English). A central proposition of this
theory is that work behaviour is goal directed and
action oriented. Thus work behaviour starts with a
Areas of VET Research
goal, proceeds to formulating a plan, moves on to
execution and finally to processing of feedback.
Cognitive processes and knowledge representa-
tions play a key role in the regulation of actions
(HACKER 2005; VOLPERT 1982). Work behaviour
is regulated at different cognitive levels, reaching
from automatic processing (sensorimotor level of
regulation) to a meta-cognitive level (intellectu-
al or heuristic level of regulation). The operative
image system can be considered as action regula-
tion’s ↑ knowledge base representing an employee’s
knowledge of the linkages between conditions, ac-
tions, and results. An operative image system is
comprised of movement-oriented schemata, flexi-
ble action patterns, complex schemata, metaplans,
as well as heuristics (HACKER 2005).
Action Theory also states that competence devel-
opment, personality enhancement, and health pro-
motion are strongly influenced by working condi-
tions and task characteristics, especially by regula-
tion requirements and obstacles. Several task char-
acteristics such as control, complexity, variety, or
completeness of action have been identified as pre-
requisites for ↑ on-the-job learning and employee
↑ well-being (VOLPERT 1982).
The concept of completeness of action plays a piv-
otal role within Action Theory. It represents both
the completeness of the action process itself (all
steps from goal setting to feedback processing) as
well as the completeness of the hierarchy-of-action
regulation (in the sense that all levels of regulation
from automatic to meta-cognitive are used).
Based on Action Theory job analysis tools have
been developed to assess and evaluate job regula-
tion requirements and regulation obstacles (for an
overview see FRIELING / SONNTAG 1999). Job analy-
sis results indicate whether the work design fosters
personality enhancement or poses a risk to em-
ployee health and ↑ well-being. Furthermore, prac-
titioners can derive detailed implications for rede-
signing work from job analysis data.
3.6.2.3 Work Design Methods
Job Enlargement
Job enlargement provides a means to increase job
variety by expanding the job with additional tasks.
Usually the new tasks are similar to existing ones,
455
therefore job enlargement basically modifies the
quantitative dimension of work (ULICH 2005).
Campion and McClelland (1993) evaluated the im-
pact of two forms of job enlargement, namely task
enlargement and knowledge enlargement. Partic-
ipants of the study were 500 back office employ-
ees of a financial services company. The employ-
ees had to code information or enter product-relat-
ed information into a computer system. ‘Task en-
largement’ implied that the previously separated
jobs of coding or entering data were combined in
a ‘data-processor’ job. ‘Knowledge enlargement’
meant that an employee was no longer responsi-
ble for coding or entering information only for one
product but for several products. Campion and Mc-
Clelland (1993) demonstrated differing effects for
the two forms of enlargement. Whereas ‘task en-
largement’ reduced employee satisfaction, cus-
tomer satisfaction and ↑ work process ↑ efficiency,
while increasing the number of processing errors,
‘knowledge enlargement’ positively impacted job
satisfaction, customer satisfaction, and processing
↑ performance.
Sonntag and Freiboth (1997) discussed how the
introduction of semi-autonomous work groups in
two automotive companies led to job enlargement.
Traditionally, manufacturing and maintenance ac-
tivities were clearly separated, with ‘operators’ be-
ing responsible for production and ‘maintenance
workers’ handling errors and repairing machines
in case of downtime. Operators in semi-autono-
mous work groups now also had to take care of
errors and quality control. Therefore this redesign
was regarded as a form of job enlargement for op-
erators. Sonntag and Freiboth (1997) also report-
ed an increase in operators’ cognitive and ↑ social
work demands, indicating a need, accordingly, for
an update to training and development activities.
Job Enrichment
The goal of job enrichment as a method of work
design is to increase employee discretion and au-
tonomy as well as the completeness of their work
(ULICH 2005). In an enriched work environment
employees have the opportunity to participate in
planning and evaluating their work as well as han-
dling work related problems and errors. Whereas
job enlargement mainly consists of adding more
456
but similar tasks, job enrichment adds different,
cognitively and socially more demanding tasks.
A study by Parker (1998) provided empirical ev-
idence for a positive effect of job enrichment on
employee personality and competence. Employees
who had a higher level of autonomy and control
at work also scored higher on a measure of role
breadth self-efficacy (RBSE). Employees high on
RBSE act proactively and broadly define their role
and responsibilities at work. There was no impact
however of job enlargement on RBSE. Job enrich-
ment therefore is a way to encourage employees to
act proactively and engage in tasks even if they are
not part of their core work description.
Job Rotation
Job rotation increases job variety by allowing em-
ployees to move from one task to another. As this
requires several tasks and more than one employ-
ee, it is usually applied to teams or work groups
(PARKER / TURNER 2002). Depending on the types
of tasks available for rotation, its impact might be
comparable to job enlargement or job enrichment.
Campion, Cheraskin, and Stevens (1994) exam-
ined the effects of job rotation on several career-
related outcomes of employees in a pharmaceuti-
cal company. Job rotation frequency was positive-
ly related to promotions, salary increases, and em-
ployees’ ↑ skill development. Interestingly, young-
er employees especially took part in job rotation
programmes, as they probably saw this as a rele-
vant prerequisite for their career advancement.
Problem Solving Groups
Project teams, autonomous work groups, and qual-
ity circles are different forms of group-based work
design (a detailed classification can be found in
FRIELING / SONNTAG 1999, 435). Group-based work
is defined by the following criteria: a common
goal, more than two people working together for a
period of time, existence of several subtasks, role
differentiation in the group, and self-perception as
a group (ANTONI / BUNGARD 2004).
Quality circles are a form of temporary group
work, where employees meet regularly on a non-
mandatory basis to discuss work-related problems
and to cooperatively develop solutions for increas-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing quality at work (ANTONI 1990). These meet-
ings also provide a good opportunity to exchange
knowledge and information and foster collabora-
tive learning.
A large number of studies investigated the im-
pact of quality circles on a broad range of outcome
measures. Taken together these findings strongly
supported quality circles’ positive impact on eco-
nomic indicators (e. g. productivity, absenteeism,
quality measures) as well as on social indicators
such as motivation, satisfaction, or organizational
climate (ANTONI / BUNGARD 2004).
Marks, Mirvis, Hacket, and Grady (1986) reported
findings of a quasi-experimentation study showing
that ↑ participation in quality circles reduced the
negative impact of uncertainties related to restruc-
turing processes. Employees not taking part in
quality circles during the change processes expe-
rienced their work as less meaningful and reported
increased production downtime of their machines.
By now the concept of quality circles has been in-
tegrated into the regular design of work group ac-
tivities (ANTONI / BUNGARD 2004). Solving prob-
lems, improving products and ↑ work processes,
exchanging knowledge, and handling social con-
flicts are seen as part of core activities in a (semi-)
autonomous work group.
3.6.2.4 Work Design Efcfects: Empirical
Findings
It is important to understand how work design af-
fects different types of outcomes. These include
attitudinal measures like satisfaction and motiva-
tion, more stable variables like employee person-
ality and competence, and finally work ↑ perform-
ance at different levels ranging from the individu-
al to the organization. Empirical evidence mean-
while has been summed up in a number of reviews
focusing on the effects of work design on attitudes
and personality (BAITSCH 1998; BERGMANN, B.
2000; PARKER / TURNER 2002; SCHALLBERGER 2000),
on performance (PARKER / TURNER 2002), and on
safety, health, and ↑ well-being (SONNTAG 2001;
SONNTAG / BENZ / EDELMANN /K IPFMÜLLER 2001;
ZAPF / SEMMER 2004). Some of the key findings will
be discussed next.
Areas of VET Research
Effects on Performance
Reviewing the work design literature, Parker and
Turner (2002) concluded that much stronger and
more consistent effects of work design have been
reported for attitudinal outcomes such as job satis-
faction or work motivation than for result-oriented
measures such as job performance. Focusing, how-
ever, on more rigorously conducted studies does
provide empirical evidence for work design effects
on performance.
For example Griffin (1991) demonstrated that in-
creased skill variety and job autonomy were posi-
tively related to the job performance of bank tell-
ers 24 and 48 months after redesigning work. In
a similar vein Wall, Corbett, Martin, Clegg, and
Jackson (1990) reported that providing machine
operators with the discretion to correct and prevent
machine failures led to reduced overall production
downtime. As mechanisms linking increased op-
erator control and reduced downtime, Jackson and
Wall (1991) in a follow up study identified quicker
response time and improved error prevention.
The amount of feedback employees receive at work
can also impact their work performance. Leach,
Jackson, and Wall (2001) showed that increas-
ing feedback for cutting and packaging operators
(e. g. via regular discussions of results with man-
agers and public display of performance informa-
tion) reduced the number of call-outs to specialists
while simultaneously increasing the degree of ma-
chine utilization.
In summing up these findings, Parker and Turner
(2002) defined several mechanisms linking work
design and performance. They expect perform-
ance to increase, if an enriched work design leads
to greater employee motivation, improved knowl-
edge and skills, and an increased opportunity to
respond quickly and based on a broader role defi-
nition to variances in the ↑ work processes. Positive
effects of an enriched work design on ↑ perform-
ance should even be more pronounced for employ-
ees with high growth need strengths, a tolerance
for ambiguity, and a proactive personality working
on uncertain and highly interdependent processes.
These individual and organizational contingencies
are supposed to moderate the effects of work de-
sign on performance.
457
Effects on Employee Personality and
Well-Being
Kohn and Schooler (1982) provided empirical evi-
dence for a positive influence of job complexity on
employees’ intellectual flexibility. The authors al-
so demonstrated an effect with a reversed causal
direction, namely that an employee’s current intel-
lectual flexibility had an impact on job complexity
at a later point in time. Therefore the relation be-
tween work and personality should best be under-
stood as reciprocal (SCHALLBERGER 2000). Employ-
ees actively search for a job that fits their personal-
ity and even reshape their current job’s task and so-
cial boundaries to make it better fit their needs.
Parker and Sprigg (1999) examined the relation-
ship between control at work and employees’ role
breadth self-efficacy. Employees with higher levels
of control also scored higher on measures of role
breadth self-efficacy. This positive effect was even
stronger for employees with a proactive personal-
ity. Using a longitudinal design Axtell and Parker
(2003; PARKER 2003) were able to replicate con-
trol’s positive impact on role breadth self-efficacy.
Taking a closer look at consequences of lean pro-
duction practices, Parker (2003) reported that a re-
duction of work autonomy resulted in a decrease in
employee role breadth self-efficacy. Effects of job
autonomy were also reported in a study by Morge-
son, Delaney-Klinger, and Hemingway (2005).
Employees who had more influence on content and
organization of work acted more proactively and
their actions were based on a broader understand-
ing of their role.
Karasek (1979) investigated effects of work de-
sign on employee health. Especially those employ-
ees working in jobs with high demands and low
control (i.e. high strain jobs) reported more fre-
quent health problems such as increased depres-
sion or fatigue. This result was further supported
by Parker (2003), who reported that a decrease in
job autonomy led to increased job depression.
Sonntag, Benz, Edelmann and Kipfmüller (2001)
examined how personality and job characteris-
tics interact with respect to employee health and
↑ well-being during organizational changes proc-
esses. Employees with a high degree of self-effi-
cacy, who have much discretion at work (high con-
trol), manage to cope best with changes at work.
458
Whereas employees low on self-efficacy and low
on job control reported an increase in health relat-
ed problems following the restructuring process-
es (for a collection of tools to minimize negative
health effects during organizational change proc-
esses see SONNTAG / SPELLENBERG 2005).
Taken together, the above findings clearly demon-
strate that work design characteristics such as skill
variety, degree of feedback, complexity, job con-
trol or autonomy affect employees, their work be-
haviour and even organizational results.
3.6.2.5 Future Challenges for Work Design
Research
Demographic, technological, and organizational
trends have a major impact on the design of work
and its effects on employees. We will highlight
three major trends and discuss a number of ques-
tions that these developments pose for work design
research.
(1) The workforce in organisations is aging:
Demographic trends in all major industrialized
countries together with a legally prescribed pro-
longation of working life will lead to an increased
number of older workers in organisations (HEDGE /
BORMAN / LAMMLEIN 2005). From a research per-
spective it is interesting to ask whether the exist-
ing research findings about the effects of work de-
sign based mainly on samples of younger workers
also apply to an aging work force. For example, it
would be worthwhile finding out whether there is
a turning point at which an increase in autonomy
or task variety starts to have a negative impact on
older workers’ satisfaction, competence, health or
↑ performance (PARK 1994).
(2) The convergence of ↑ information and commu-
nication technologies enables new forms of work
design and organization:
Developments in ↑ information and communica-
tion technologies give employees ever greater op-
portunity to share and exchange information and
knowledge, or to solve problems collaborating al-
most unrestrained by the time and location of their
work (CASCIO 2003). This increased flexibility and
the reduced transaction costs enable new forms of
work design and organization such as teleworking,
outsourcing, call-centre based work, and virtual or
Handbook of TVET Research
open creation networks (FRIEDMAN 2005). It will
be a challenge for future work design research to
arrive at a balanced view of positive consequenc-
es (e. g. increase in autonomy) as well as negative
consequences (e. g. high cognitive demands, in-
creased uncertainty, IT-enabled forms of employ-
ee control) of these new forms of computer- and
network-supported forms of working and collabo-
rating within and across the boundaries of organ-
isations.
(3) The social and cognitive complexity of work is
increasing:
Employees in organisations are faced with an in-
creasing social and cognitive complexity. Flat hi-
erarchies, team work, and project work, leave em-
ployees with a growing number of social relation-
ships to handle, decisions to take and problems to
solve (PARKER / WALL 2001).
From the perspective of the organization, decen-
tralization of decision-making reduces organiza-
tional complexity. However, consequences of de-
centralization on the individual level are double-
edged. On the one hand the individual employee or
the team gains more autonomy at work, providing
opportunities for stimulating work and personali-
ty enhancement. On the other hand there is a sig-
nificant increase in cognitive and ↑ social work de-
mands, which employees have to flexibly cope with
(SENNETT 2000). If employees lack relevant knowl-
edge and skills unexpected negative effects of an
‘enriched’ work environment might occur. Future
research should therefore focus on the interaction
between work design and training activities with
regard to their impact on employees.
3.6.3 Organisational Learning
Michael Dick
3.6.3.1 Structure of the Chapter
In the first part, the concept of ↑ organisational
learning is introduced regarding its definition, ba-
sic elements, reasons and concept history. In the
second part, the perspectives of the most impor-
tant involved disciplines are set forth. The man-
agement theory does not only influence the inter-
Areas of VET Research
national perception of organisational learning, but
it also integrates the approaches of different dis-
ciplines. Strategic management, with its main fo-
cus on internal organisational resources, desig-
nates the behaviour within organisations and its
analysis, development and effect as a competitive-
ly-relevant resource. One central concept that can
be connected with the various learning theoreti-
cal schools is organisational routines. As dynam-
ic group manifestations, they are treated as ↑ or-
ganisational development, whereas information-
al routines are an issue of ↑ knowledge manage-
ment in a broader sense. Finally, the prerequisites
and effects of the concepts regarding learning, or-
ganisation and professional education are outlined,
in which some critical points are also presented.
Cohen/ Sproull (1996) or Dierkes et al. (2001), for
example, provided anthologies containing detailed
information about this topic.
3.6.3.2 Introduction
Definition
Organisational learning means the development
of the capability of an organisation to change ap-
propriately with its environment. This change in-
cludes the adaptation to or correction of existing
products, structures or processes. However, it goes
beyond that and can also mean changes in the cen-
tral business and internal condition, or even the
shifting of the organisational borders by means
of splitting, merger or cross-linking. Organisa-
tional learning applies only if the learning proc-
ess runs intentionally and into an anticipated di-
rection. It excludes changes from the outside or
those occurring coincidently. In this point, organi-
sational learning differs from concepts of organi-
sational change (AMBURGEY/K ELLY/ BARNETT 1993;
HANNAN / FREEMAN 1984; HAVEMAN 1992; LIEVE-
GOED 1973). The learning concept implies that a
subject of learning, which establishes the intention
and the direction of the learning process, can be
determined. Consequently, ↑ organisational learn-
ing is tied to an awareness of learning. Another
prerequisite for the opportunity of organisational
learning results from the concept of the organisa-
tion as a collective unit that distinguishes between
an inside, i.e. persons and objects belonging to
459
the unit, and an outside, i.e. anything not belong-
ing to it. Each change involves the organisation in
relation to its environment (ALDRICH 1979). On-
ly in this relation is it possible to formulate learn-
ing aims, evaluate learning results and recognise
changes. Therefore another basic element charac-
terising the concept can be determined: organisa-
tional learning is seen as a cycle, wherein aims are
set according to which actions are planned, per-
formed and finally evaluated. If the results of ac-
tion differ from the expectations, or if the aims are
not achieved, there is a need for correction. As an
adaptation or learning process, this correction can
affect the behavioural conditions, the behavioural
aims or the ↑ learning strategy themselves. Organ-
isational learning is extensively understood as an
analogy to the models of human behaviour – with-
out the person being explicitly named as the sub-
ject of learning.
The scope of the concepts here is wide in a similar
way as the behavioural concept in psychology and
comprises behaviouristic (CYERT/ MARCH 1963;
MARCH / OLSEN 1975), cognitive (collective knowl-
edge basis; DUNCAN / WEISS 1979; HUBER 1996), in-
teractive (ARGYRIS 1985; ARGYRIS /SCHOEN 1974;
DAFT/ WEICK 1984; TSOUKAS 1996), system-orient-
ed (PROBST/ BÜCHEL 1994; SENGE 1990/1994; WIM-
MER 1999) and situated positions (BROWN / DUGUID
1996). In an earlier typology, Maier et al. (2001),
Pawlowsky (2001) or Shrivastava (1983) provide
an overview along learning theoretical bases.
Organisational learning becomes necessary, be-
cause the environment of organisations is becom-
ing more complex and dynamic. Environmental
magnitudes that are relevant for events in and the
results of enterprises (market, technology, society,
information) are increasing; they mutually influ-
ence each other and change increasingly rapidly.
In industry, this development is characterised by
smaller and more varied series, shorter product life
cycles, increasing demands on service and strong-
er price and order fluctuations. In this case, techni-
cal and organisational measures will enable more
flexible production structures and smaller spans
of leadership. Structurally similar is the problem
situation in public administration. Growing and
new challenges confront a critical revenue situa-
tion: lack of global control mechanisms, socio-
460
demographic changes, social and cultural trans-
fer requirements or the creation of an innovation-
friendly regulatory framework. Overall, the pres-
sure of transformation on economically acting or-
ganisations is increasing and fundamental.
Concept History
The term organisational learning first came about
in the 1960s (CANGELOSI / DILL 1965; CYERT/ MARCH
1963; WILENSKY 1967), took its first conceptu-
al shapes in the 1970s (ARGYRIS /SCHOEN 1974;
DUNCAN / WEISS 1979; MARCH / OLSEN 1975), expe-
rienced its expansion and theoretical differentia-
tion in the 1980s, and was being edited popular-
ly and absorbed to the middle of the 1990s (BER-
THOIN A NTAL / DIERKES 2002). A milestone was the
publication of Peter Senge’s “Fifth Discipline” in
1990, which became a bestseller and has won and
secured, for the time being, the attention of the
practice to the concept. More or less at the same
time the concept was also increasingly brought in-
to discussion and absorbed in Europe, in the Unit-
ed Kingdom through “The Learning Company”
(PEDLER / BURGOYNE / BOYDELL 1991), and in Germa-
ny through “Die Lernende Organisation” (SATTEL-
BERGER 1991). Since the late nineties, the core con-
cept has appeared less in article titles, but still ex-
ists as a keyword. The concept diversified and was
completed with the concept of ↑ knowledge man-
agement (DAVENPORT / PRUSAK 1998; → 5.4.7; DICK /
WEHNER 2003).
Characteristic for the literature on this topic is the
self-critical reflection of the research situation. In
1985, Fiol/ Lyles stated, ”the organizational learn-
ing literature is full of multiple interpretations of
the concept” (805) while, in 1991, Huber lament-
ed the “general lack of cumulative work and the
lack of synthesis of work from different research
groups” (1996, 125). Another five years later,
Weick/ Westley articulated that there were “more
reviews of organizational learning than there is a
substance to review” (1996, 440). In the meantime
it essentially did not change. According to further
works of overview of the nineties, Pawlowsky as-
sessed:
“… the current growth of literature on organization-
al learning coincides with a sense of ambiguity, lack of
Handbook of TVET Research
consensus and even growing confusion. Attempts at in-
tegrative theorizing are the exception” (2001, 64).
In one literature review, 17 key publications were
extracted. The works of the group working with
James G. March achieved between 57 % and 64 %
of the citations in several successive years (Intro-
duction to COHEN / SPROULL 1996, xiv). It says some-
thing that the relation between independent, em-
pirically sustained approaches on the one hand,
and adapted, combined approaches on the oth-
er hand turns out to be too one-sided so far. One
proof for this in Germany are the numerous dis-
sertations, which theoretically and historically re-
construct the concept, incorporating and systemis-
ing an immense amount of the literature, but which
stay descriptive and refrain from going deeper em-
pirically (for economic theory HENNEMANN 1997;
management theory K LEINGARN 1997; sociology
K RANZ 2000).
3.6.3.3 Perspectives
The concept of ↑ organisational learning is as het-
erogenic as the disciplines and cultures involved:
noteworthy are educational science and profes-
sional educational science with their detailed edu-
cational concepts and a perspective to profession-
al and further training (ARNOLD 1996b; GEISSLER
1994), the ↑ organisational development, systemi-
cally oriented and interested in changing process-
es (→ 3.4.5; → 3.8.3), and work and organisational
psychology, which is rather oriented towards indus-
trial work (BAITSCH /JUTZI / DELBROUCK / HASENBEIN
1998; SONNTAG 1996). Also significant is the socio-
logical-organisational theory (GHERARDI / NICOLINI
2001), which is abstractly interested in the consti-
tution and establishment of the organisation itself,
business management, which conceives of learn-
ing and organisation for a specific purpose, as well
as management research, which, even more prag-
matically, tries to generalise managers’ course of
action.
Strategic Management
Economic theory and management research are
the areas that constituted the topic of organisation-
al learning first and which still dominate today.
From the perspective – assumed herein – of the ex-
Areas of VET Research
ecutive management, it is about seeking competi-
tive advantages and long-term increases in value
by investing in the enterprise’s unique identity and
inimitable knowledge assets instead of investing in
production facilities that easily become obsolete
(QUINN 1992). The share in activities, based on
the distinctive core competence, in all activities of
the enterprise would be more important as an in-
dicator than the market share. This concept comes
from a repeatedly approved criticism of the orien-
tation of classical management theory. This theory
affects (1) its one-sided orientation to the outside,
(2) the assumption that the strategic orientation of
an enterprise could objectively be reasoned by the
criteria of maximisation of profits, as well as (3)
the associated demand that each strategic decision
can be derived linearly and analytically.
Summarized, the assumption criticised is that
company development would be a change planned
by the strategic management. Various theoretical
alternative models pave the way to understanding
organisational learning and change as it dominates
today.
Re (1): Strategic management aims at securing
long-term competitive advantages. Thereby, it is
assumed that there is a general orientation cate-
gory that distinguishes four different categories
from each other according to how management
orients itself: strengths and weaknesses as inter-
nal characterisations of the organisation as well
as opportunities and threats as aspects of the en-
vironment (“SWOT-Analysis”). The analysis and
control by management points towards the use of
strengths and opportunities and towards minimis-
ing or avoiding weaknesses and threats. The re-
source-based view has its main focus, contrary to
the presently dominating orientation on the mar-
ket, on business branches, and branch structures,
and on internal resources, especially human re-
sources, as a competitive factor. External and in-
ternal conditions are to be analysed in a close mu-
tual relationship, since one produces the crite-
ria for the evaluation of the other. Thus, strategic
management takes on a circular perspective. It is
about determining the core competence at first, de-
veloping it in a well-directed way, and positioning
it correctly (PRAHALAD / HAMEL 1990). During this
task, the special quality of the capabilities and the
461
knowledge assets that form the core competenc-
es, inevitably become the focus of attention: “ca-
pabilities involve complex patterns of coordina-
tion between people and other resources” (GRANT
1991, 122; SPENDER 1996b). The knowledge-based
view results from the resource-based view (GRANT
1996; TSOUKAS 1996).
Re (2): The concept of bounded rationality of man-
agement decisions leads to a similar understanding.
The objective ability to reason is an ideal that fails
because of incomplete knowledge, the difficulty
to evaluate future incidents, as well as the limited
choice of decision alternatives (GIGERENZER / SELTEN
2001; SIMON 1996). Consequently, decision makers
reduce the complexity of their decision tasks, e. g.
through a selective perception or through habitual-
isation. Decision and management competence is
thus, at best, insufficient to be formally portrayed
and trained. They are based on subjective experi-
ence and socio-cultural tradition. A further devel-
opment of this approach directly leads to the first
mentioning of the term ↑ organisational learning.
The well-known “Garbage Can Model” (COHEN /
MARCH / OLSEN 1972) assumes that, in the case of
confusing decision situations (“organised anar-
chy”), the acting, the problems, and its solutions
coincidently meet each other on suitable or unsuit-
able occasions. Basically you can say that the op-
portunity of effective decision making only results
from the accumulation of experience, from learn-
ing by doing, or from reflecting experiences in de-
cision situations (BAECKER 1998b).
Re (3): Accordingly, the imagination of company
development as a planned change is also an illu-
sion. Not only the incomplete information, but al-
so differently motivated interest groups, power re-
lations and the lethargy of organisations obstruct
a well-directed change (HANFT 1996). Instead,
change is, analogous to the biological theory of ev-
olution, described as an evolutionary process (Pop-
ulation Ecology Theory; HANNAN / FREEMAN 1977;
1984). Mechanisms of the variation (e. g. through
new foundations), the selection (bankruptcy,
branch crises) are, at the same time, effective on
the level of entire populations (that means organi-
sationally comprehensive). In contrast, the protec-
tion and reproduction of successful strategies is al-
so necessary. These strategies develop as existing
462
experience, religious and control systems. So here
the competitively-relevant resources also refer to
the practice and action, since it is about building
up and supporting surviving-relevant competence
and routines (MCK ELVEY/ALDRICH 1983; NELSON /
WINTER 1982).
In summary, the critique of classical management
theory results, from different points of view, in the
behavioural analogy and the discovery of a reper-
toire of organisational rules and routines (K IESER /
BECK / TAINIO 2001).
Organisational Routines
The concept of organisational routines is defined
as a pattern of defined ways of behaviour between
people or between people and other resources.
Characterisations of routines are, amongst others,
their procedural or sequential quality, their relia-
bility, their non-verbal representation and the fact
that they are borne in organisations by several ac-
tors (COHEN / BACDAYAN 1996). Pentland/ Rueter
(1994) distinguish routines as automatic responses,
routines as an expression of effortful accomplish-
ments and routines as the grammar of action, and
which thus trace the way of an increasing differen-
tiation and change of the concept. At the time, rou-
tines were understood to be automated ways of be-
haviour through which opportunities of search and
selection were reduced. Learning the routines oc-
curs through the behavioural consequences. This
corresponds to the early understanding of organi-
sational learning, the acquisition of “standard op-
erating procedures” (CYERT/ MARCH 1963) or the
development of “individual skills” as capabilities
of a behaviour that is coordinated in a smooth se-
quence and which has proved to be efficient in a
specific context (NELSON / WINTER 1982). Since rou-
tines are executed partly without conscious atten-
tion, they constitute a link to the concepts of im-
plicated knowledge or ↑ tacit knowledge (see be-
low). The second connotation emphasises, in ref-
erence to Giddens (1984), that routines also rep-
resent active behaviour and contain opportunities
to choose. Thus, they can change or rebuild struc-
tures. ↑ Decoding and adaptation ↑ performances
are necessary in order to constantly adapt routines
to varying situations. This assumption corresponds
with the social-constructivist paradigm (BERGER /
Handbook of TVET Research
LUCKMANN 1967) that emphasises the active con-
struction and common negotiation of meanings.
With this, the collective dimension of learning is
indicated. In the mutual linking of individually
and commonly developed routines, the grammars
of action now arise. They abstract from concrete
situations and describe a basic structure of orienta-
tions of actions, which can be concretised in vari-
ous situations, similar to the use of language. Thus,
routines can be seen as opportunities of action or
as patterns that emerge as practised handling of all
relevant aspects of a task or a situation:
“an organized routine is … a set of patterns – enabled
and constrained by a variety of organizational, social,
physical, and cognitive structures” (P ENTLAND / RUETER
1994, 491).
This understanding approaches the model of the
↑ community of practice, which is based on ↑ activ-
ity theory (WENGER 1998b) or the model of activity
systems (ENGESTRÖM 1999b) as historically devel-
oped coordination structures (→ 5.1.2).
Organisational Development
Chris Argyris and Donald Schön produce their
concept of ↑ organisational learning by observing
a special kind of organisational routine. Defensive
routines are:
“actions and policies, enacted within an organizational
setting, that are intended to protect individuals from ex-
periencing embarrassment or threat, while at the same
time preventing individuals, or the organization as a
whole, from identifying the causes of the embarrass-
ment or threat” (ARGYRIS / SCHÖN 1996, 99 f.; cf. AR-
GYRIS 1993).
Such defence mechanisms consist of ambiguous
messages whose nature is disguised in such a way
that they are clearly portrayed. At the same time,
the ambiguity remains non-discussible and the ina-
bility to discuss the things that cannot be discussed
is defended against any discussion as well – the
result is a regressive multi-level cover-up (cf. AR-
GYRIS 2004). One example for this is when the co-
operation between people or divisions of a compa-
ny cannot take place, although – or even because
– all parties involved continuously emphasise its
great significance. The affirmative statement, “we
need to cooperate” can mean the end of each prac-
tical effort (detailed examples loc. cit.).
Areas of VET Research
Since the ambiguous messages and the defence re-
actions that cause them are not discussible, they
easily become independent and produce loops that
work well together. The actual message (the un-
derlying fears) becomes so cleverly disguised, that
something else, which is often the opposite of the
actual intention, is understood. Consequently, the
message does not reach those desired, fears are
confirmed, and there is even more reason to dis-
guise them. Peterson et al. (1995) described the mo-
tivational consequences in the concept of learned
helplessness. Systemic therapists called the mutu-
ally causing emergence of these consequences in
family systems as double-bind (BATESON /JACKSON /
HALEY/ WEAKLAND 1956). In organisations, such
communication patterns are not only found as con-
flicts between two people, but they also form com-
plex loops throughout the entire organisation. Such
mechanisms are neither natural nor deliberately
enforced from the outside, but are acquired by mu-
tual actions related to each other. In that respect,
one can speak of ↑ organisational learning.
By way of communicating, a hidden organisation-
al reality is created. Organisational actions always
relate to this hidden level. Rational reasons, legiti-
mized aims and tasks are thus only part of the mo-
tives causing the actions. Argyris/ Schön (1996)
call these reasons espoused theories. These are
theories that the actors preoccupy for themselves,
and which mostly represent a professional ideal or
an internalised norm. Theories in use, however,
explain the behaviour as it can be observed from
the outside. In distinguishing between both these
levels of action-leading theory, you can find anoth-
er source of organisational learning.
Used and favoured theories deal with the reality in
organisations or the reality concerning them out-
side the organisations. Even if there are always act-
ing persons – they act in relation to the organisation
– this is exactly what the theories represent. The-
ories, values and rules are being constructed, ap-
plied and handed on together. This is how they stay
valid independently from any individual (mental
models at SENGE 1990/1994). Respectively plausi-
ble is the observation that the defensive routines
stay, although the acting persons change. Most au-
thors, following Argyris/ Schön 1978), agree on
calling the efforts of changing these action-leading
463
theories double loop or type 2 learning. It stands
out from the single loop or type 1 learning, which
only consists of an adaptation of the action to ex-
ternal conditions. Double loop learning includes
the underlying theories. Through this, new orien-
tation criteria for acting can be developed; com-
mon frames of reference change. This learning
mode enables the interruption of negative action
amplifiers and control loops, and the practicing of
new routines.
Peter Senge considers learning processes in organ-
isations generally to be an adjustment of individu-
al and common orientations on the three levels: the
vision, the practical job-sharing, and the theoreti-
cal models. He describes the learning process with
the help of five disciplines; personal mastery (1)
concerns the work on personal visions, aims and
capabilities and describes an individual develop-
ment process from an integral perspective. Howev-
er, this discipline does not occur in isolation, but,
instead, personal visions are being combined with
the visions of other organisation members and,
consequently, are coordinated into common vi-
sions (2). This process is part of the organisation-
al daily routine. It forms a steady field of tension,
and in comparing the aims and available resourc-
es, shows which capabilities and methods need
to be developed. In the discipline of team learn-
ing (3), the acting parties agree to develop com-
mon and complementary competence, and organ-
ise themselves based on job-sharing. The problem
solutions that are successful in practice are gener-
alised again. By doing so, assumptions or theories
are developed that enable us to understand the re-
ality of the organisations and their environment,
and that determine our perception. In order to en-
sure a productive balance between the stability of
these assumptions and their changes in the proc-
ess of learning, they need to be reflected upon, i.e.
they deserve the collective work on mental mod-
els (4). In the fifth discipline, the system thinking,
these modes of learning are finally integrated into
a thinking that is directed towards correlations in-
stead of being directed towards single ideas in an
isolated way. This way of thinking also focuses on
constantly monitoring processes for a considera-
ble amount of time, since interventions in complex
systems seem staggered in time and place. Mem-
464
bers of a learning organisation should think in net-
worked contexts and learn to evaluate the conse-
quences of their own behaviour for the entire com-
pany.
Knowledge Management
The close and optimised coordination between
persons and structures, which we know as organ-
isational routines, are also subject to knowledge
management. This coordination raises the ques-
tion of what is being coordinated according to the
contents used and learned. Strictly speaking, the
routine is not the competitively relevant resource
but the knowledge within it, taking the effect as
the guideline for action. Knowledge management
concerns dealing with knowledge in all of its man-
ifestations within organisations (→ 5.4.7; Wehner/
Dick 2001). Generally, it is described as a task to
transform knowledge into and between systems of
activity (teams, departments, project groups etc.).
Thereby, we distinguish between three circular
and constantly proceeding transformation proc-
esses (DICK / WEHNER 2002):
– The transformation between knowledge and in-
formation or data generating context-independ-
ent information and/or data from the knowledge
gained through concrete task situations and thus
making those available as a basis for further situa-
tions of action;
– The transformation between tacit and explic-
it forms of representation of knowledge serving
amongst others ↑ knowledge creation as well as
– The transformation between individual and col-
lective structures securing continuity and tradition
on the one hand and making possible the subjec-
tive acquisition of culturally-borne rules, tools and
processes on the other.
These transformations can be understood as learn-
ing and acquisition processes on different lev-
els of activity – operation, action, system, cul-
ture. Instead of running autonomously, they inter-
twine. This shows that it is not easy to measure,
to formalise or to standardise knowledge. ↑ Lo-
cal knowledge is embedded in physical and socio-
cultural structures of systems of activity (e. g. or-
ganisations or production systems) and acquired
through participating in them. It is locally limit-
ed and hence not necessarily applicable to supe-
Handbook of TVET Research
rior coordination or other contexts (SCRIBNER /
DI BELLO /K INDRED / ZAZANIS 1991; WAIBEL / DICK /
WEHNER 2004). Especially because of its silent,
local and context-related characteristics, knowl-
edge is valuable for organisations (BLACKLER 1995;
SPENDER 1996a). For every ↑ knowledge manage-
ment this raises the question of the limits within
which knowledge can or should be transformed
and passed on. Limits of knowledge mark organi-
sational culture. Against this background, knowl-
edge management becomes more important to the
development of organisations. Pawlowsky (1998)
made an attempt to integrate different concepts
of knowledge management. He takes into consid-
eration levels of learning (individual, group, or-
ganisation, networks), modes of learning (cogni-
tive, dependent on behaviour and culture), types of
learning (the three loops: single, double and deu-
tero) and phases of learning (identification, gener-
ation, diffusion, integration, use). This integrative
approach is a framework for the learning capabil-
ity of organisations similar to the one of Schüp-
pel (1996) who, additionally, thoroughly examines
individual, structural and cultural knowledge and
learning barriers. It is becoming clear that analo-
gous to the explained learning phases one must also
make a distinction between two levels of ↑ knowl-
edge creation: a short-term action cycle between
planning, implementing and evaluating concrete
action ↑ performances and a long-term cultivation
cycle that comprises its creation, diffusion and –
mentioned less frequently – its clearance utilizing
a kind of “life curve of knowledge”. Scientific so-
ciological approaches might contribute to its un-
derstanding and they have until now been less con-
sidered in this discourse (KUHN 1962; MANNHEIM
1982; SCHÜTZ / LUCKMANN 1974).
3.6.3.4 Influences and Effects
Organisation Concept
Analogous to the described changes of the man-
agement perspective, the emphasis in organisation-
al theory shifted from organisational structure to
organisational change (MORGAN 1986). In this con-
nection, the systems theory of organisation is in-
fluential (BAECKER 1998a; LUHMANN 2000). Here,
organisations are understood as self-observing and
Areas of VET Research
self-reproducing systems in relation to the environ-
ment. This means a constant process of balancing
imbalance and target balance. The ↑ structuration
theory, coined by Giddens (1984), also points out
the organisations’ reflexivity, recursivity and devel-
opment capability (ORTMANN / SYDOW/ TÜRK 2000).
In addition to sociological approaches, psychologi-
cal ones that describe behaviour and development
processes at an organisational level are tackled in-
creasingly (KATZ /K AHN 1966; WEICK 1969; WIM-
MER 1999). These dynamics of the organisational
theory are a precondition of the concept of ↑ or-
ganisational learning and are boosted by the like.
They lead, inevitably, to the question of how or-
ganisations reflect on organisations as, in princi-
ple, a subject of learning is able to be aware of. It
is to be expected to that extent that the expansion
of the concept will contribute to distributed organ-
isations or company-independent ↑ communities of
practice (ORLIKOWSKI 2002; LEE / COLE 2003).
Learning Concept
Weick/ Westley (1996) question why organisation-
al theorists turn to the concept of learning at just
the same moment when psychology is departing
from it but – in contrast to the concept of change
and adaption – find it useful. It appears that, while
examining the learning concept throughout time,
that relevant authors viewed it from its behavioural
to cognitive, social, constructivist up to the situated
perspective and, in doing so, have not used ortho-
dox or excluding concepts (e. g. the groups work-
ing with March or Hedberg). From the very begin-
ning it has been characteristic that learning is seen
as a circular process in close interaction between
an organism/system and its environment. In spite
of different terms there is a conformity with the
distinction of a smaller cycle of adaptive learning
and a larger cycle of innovative learning. Another
characteristic is the great importance of learning
capability (deutero learning), for instance as will-
ingness to learn, assuming a perspective, putting
↑ distance, learning style, dialogue or feedback.
↑ Organisational learning is the most striking ex-
ample of stretching the learning concept, starting
from the behaviour to the cognition and the holis-
tic subject up to the activity system, i.e. the collec-
tively composed system. Its temporal stretching is
465
insinuated in the concept of ↑ lifelong learning and
its medial and methodic liberation in ↑ e-learning
and blended learning (→ 3.7.9). After all, the spa-
tial stretching takes place in the clearly apparent
trend towards a merger of the spheres work, learn-
ing and innovating all of which were separated be-
fore (BAITSCH 1998; BROWN / DUGUID 1996; FISCHER /
RAUNER 2002b; WENGER 1998b; → 2.4).
Professional Education
Professional education deals with how profession-
al agents should be educated appropriately. There-
fore, qualification and competence are examined
in more detail, as they are concepts linked with the
preceding ones (→ 3.4.2; BREMER 2005b). Decen-
tralised forms of organisation, ↑ participation and
group work broaden the basis for learning and ↑ in-
novation processes within organisations (DEHN-
BOSTEL 2002a; DYBOWSKI 2002b). Accordingly,
professional education does not only impart expert
knowledge, that anticipates the requirements for
professional action, but also prepares to deal with
a constant change. The skilled worker who aims
at more autonomy is to be integrated into the ho-
listic concept of personal development, skills and
transversal/↑ key qualifications. The establishment
of professional education within professional prac-
tice and the overlap with work psychology, which
is more empirical, have led to methodical concepts
that can be redefined as organisational learning
(cf. FISCHER / BOREHAM / RÖBEN 2004). For example,
↑ decentralised learning locations interlink expe-
rience and curriculum-based learning in a work in-
frastructure as well as in a learning infrastructure
(→ 3.7.4; DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / NOVAK 1992). Objec-
tives related to work such as operating ↑ efficiency
and quality and also individual learning objectives
are pursued. Thus, one hopes that experience based
and curricular knowledge can be considered equal-
ly, and can hopefully be integrated into profession-
al behavioural knowledge. Quality and problem-
solving circles which tackle the participants’ con-
crete problems and experiences claim something
similar (DERBOVEN / DICK / WEHNER 1999; → 5.4.2).
466
Comment
Often questions concerning organisational learn-
ing are dealt with broadly and basically. Critics
from a practical perspective say it is philosophi-
cally excessive and lacks details and concrete sug-
gestions for implementation (GARVIN 1993). In-
deed, this emphasises that there is a demand in
practice. However, it also indicates that so far the
practice of learning in organisations has not been
observed and reflected on sufficiently. Complex,
theoretically derived concepts that do not include
empirical operationalisations or suggestions are
dominant. On the other hand, empirical experi-
ences and models exclusively tailored to these ex-
periences (cf. Argyris; Senge) are not sufficiently
evaluated within other model concepts. Lastly, it is
difficult to establish a relationship between learn-
ing and collectives when the empirical implemen-
tation is limited to the experimental paradigm and
therefore only represents the individual under con-
trolled conditions. Context-related and explorative
studies which consider the socio-cultural and mi-
cro-political dimension and lead the programme
of organisational learning to concrete questions
would be necessary.
3.6.4 Work Process Knowledge
Martin Fischer and Nick Boreham
3.6.4.1 Introduction
The term “↑ work process knowledge” refers to a
dimension of occupational competence which is
often neglected in debates about vocational educa-
tion and training but whose importance has been
increasingly recognized in recent years. In brief,
work process knowledge is an understanding of the
work processes in an organization as a whole, as
opposed to the more restricted ↑ knowledge base
which underpins an individual task or narrow-
ly defined job within one department of that or-
ganization. At least three factors have contribut-
ed to the recognition that this knowledge is impor-
tant in contemporary organisations. First, in many
(although not all) sectors of the economy, global
Handbook of TVET Research
competition has been met by developing more or-
ganic ways of organising work. The early and mid-
dle parts of the 20th century witnessed the ascend-
ancy of an organizational type based on bureauc-
racy, an entrenched hierarchy, command-and-con-
trol management and strong boundaries between
functions. Decision-making was concentrated at
the top of the hierarchy and the remainder of the
employees followed fixed procedures imposed by
management. In response to global competition,
however, there has been a growth of industrial or-
ganisations with flatter management hierarchies,
integration of functions, multi-skilling and the del-
egation of more autonomy to (partially) self-man-
aging teams. This evolution has had major impli-
cations for the knowledge required by employees.
In the new kind of organization, the workers are
expected to work across boundaries and contribute
to continuous improvement in order to maintain a
customer focus, achieve quicker times to market
and increase productivity. In order to be able to do
this, they need to understand the ↑ work process
in the organization as a whole to a greater extent
than the employees of traditional bureaucratic or-
ganisations who only need knowledge to underpin
their own narrow jobs. Secondly, whereas voca-
tional education and training were previously ori-
ented towards specialist qualifications defined by
the providers of the training, there has been strong
pressure to orient them towards the actual require-
ments of work. When this work is carried out in
the types of organic organization just described,
there has been a move to base ↑ curriculum de-
sign on models of the total work process (includ-
ing the business process, production process and
labour process, as described below) rather than
on the academic disciplines and concepts that un-
derpin technical operations such as machining or
maintenance. Whilst knowledge of the latter kind
is not excluded from a ↑ work process knowledge
curriculum, it tends to lose the foundational status
it held in ↑ vocational curricula of the traditional
kind. Thirdly, it is now recognized that the knowl-
edge base that underpins the work of intermediate-
level employees such as maintenance technicians
extends beyond ↑ engineering science and includes
the knowledge which they construct in the ↑con-
text of their work – knowledge built from their own
Areas of VET Research
experiences within a ↑ community of practice. Re-
search into these occupations identifies work proc-
ess knowledge as an important constituent of this
knowledge base. As described below, disciplinary
and academic knowledge are not absent from this
knowledge base, but they lose their foundational
status and are put to use in a different way than tra-
ditional vocational curricula generally assume.
The modern concept of work process knowledge
has been developed by researchers in vocational
education and training. The term itself is a transla-
tion of the German Arbeitswissen which was origi-
nally proposed by Wilfried Kruse (1986). Kruse’s
original definition of the term was extended by the
European research network “Work Process Knowl-
edge in Technological and Organizational Devel-
opment”, a project which included research insti-
tutes from ten European countries (see BOREHAM /
SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002) and derived their ex-
tended concept of work process knowledge from
a range of empirical research projects in 22 indus-
trial sectors. According to this project, work proc-
ess knowledge has three main defining character-
istics:
– in terms of content, it constitutes an understand-
ing of the complete work process in the organi-
zation concerned. It can be contrasted with the
knowledge provided for the typical employee of a
Taylorist organization, which is generally narrow
and restricted to the minimum needed to perform
his or her narrow job. In contrast, “Work process
knowledge means an understanding of the entire work
process in which the respective person is involved, in
terms of its product-related, technical, work organiza-
tion, social and system-related dimensions” (K RUSE
1986). The knowledge of work processes in other
parts of the organization need not be specialized
but must be sufficient to enable employees to carry
out their own work with the wider picture in mind.
Given the contemporary requirement to work flex-
ibly across boundaries and engage in continuous
improvement, the whole organization and even its
suppliers and customers come into the picture.
– It is used directly in the ↑ work process, in the
sense that apprehension of this knowledge is an
instrumental part of work activity. “↑ Work proc-
ess knowledge is a form of knowledge serving as
a guide for practical work” (RAUNER 2002a, 25).
Such knowledge is contrasted with knowledge that
467
is systematically structured within academic disci-
plines, the significance of which derives from the
logical relationships within the ↑ body of knowl-
edge and not from its pragmatic implications.
Work process knowledge is also contrasted with
‘↑ inert knowledge’:
“Any knowledge can be judged active or inert in relation
to a given practice. It is active if possessing it enhances
↑ performance in that activity – for example, knowledge
of a music score is active knowledge for the musician
performing it, because it enables him or her to produce
the right notes. However, knowledge of the value of the
shares of a company in which the musician has no inter-
est is inert knowledge in relation to his or her musical
performance, as it does not have an impact on the way
the music is played. But the situation is reversed for a
stockbroker trading in the shares in question and having
no interest in music – knowledge of the musical score is
inert in relation to his or her day’s work buying and sell-
ing shares, while knowledge of the share price is active
in relation to that activity” (BOREHAM 2004b, 213).
– in most cases, it is constructed in the workplace
itself by synthesizing experiential and codified
knowledge. ↑ Experiential knowledge is acquired
by direct experience of work. Codified knowledge
is obtained from formal instruction, reference
texts, written operating procedures and other sym-
bolic sources. Empirical ↑ studies of work proc-
ess knowledge in a variety of contexts suggests
that it is constructed when an employee encoun-
ters a problem and reflects on the contradictions
between the guidance provided by codified knowl-
edge (e. g. a procedures manual) and what his or
her experiential knowledge (e. g. previous encoun-
ters with similar situations) implies. In these situ-
ations, employees have been observed to construct
an entirely new interpretation of the situation by
resolving the contradictions between the two. An
illustration of this can be found in the study of a
computer-based telephone debt collection agen-
cy (LAMMONT / BOREHAM 2002, 94–105). In this
study, new technology (an automatic direct dial-
ler and a database containing records of the agen-
cy’s dealings with debtors) served as a collective
memory for the workforce, and along with knowl-
edge of relevant legislation, provided the codi-
fied knowledge resources with which they solved
problems in the course of their work. However,
the debt collectors did not solve problems by ap-
plying the knowledge in the database. They inter-
468
acted with the debtors by telephone while consult-
ing the database, and by synthesizing the experien-
tial knowledge gained from these interactions with
the codified knowledge available in the database,
they constructed new knowledge of how to achieve
their immediate purpose – to persuade the debtor
to pay the money owed. These transactions were
recorded on the database and thus became codi-
fied knowledge. New cases generated more expe-
riential knowledge and new problems were solved
in the same way. The new technology enabled the
telephone debt collectors to co-operate with other
departments within the agency and in other parts
of the country, and thus the work process knowl-
edge they were building encompassed the agency’s
work process as a whole. This case illustrates how
new technology made the work process transpar-
ent and enabled knowledge of that process to be
shared by a wide range of employees, facilitating
flexibility and cross-departmental collaboration.
Two further aspects of work process knowledge
can be emphasized.
– this type of knowledge does not consist of Pla-
tonic ideas which exist independently of human ac-
tivity. To the contrary, it is embodied in human ac-
tivity as complexes of codified and tacit capacities
for interaction between humans and between hu-
mans and objects, manifested as customary prac-
tices and artefacts. Such knowledge can be regard-
ed as an integral part of activity. For this reason,
in a reappraisal of the idea of work process knowl-
edge Kruse (2002, 100 ff.) mentions two major at-
tributes which in his view characterize work proc-
ess knowledge: It is often manifested in a worker’s
feeling of confidence about his or her goals and the
means to attain them, and it is an integral part of
the skills required by workers in new production
and service concepts.
– work process knowledge is not simply experien-
tial know-how that is accumulated by carrying out
work over a number of years without reflection or
theoretical understanding. To possess ↑ work proc-
ess knowledge is to exercise human capacity for
critical reflexivity to the full – even Karl Marx not-
ed in his observations on the ↑ work process that the
worst human architect stands out from the best bee
in that he builds a construction in his mind before
he builds it materially: “The result that comes out
Handbook of TVET Research
at the end of the work process is the same as that
already imagined by the worker at the beginning,
i.e. that already existed as an idea” (MARX 1972,
193). Work process knowledge is not the kind of
direct work experience that reproduces the limi-
tations of the industrial method of production and
thus limits thinking. Rather, work process knowl-
edge transcends the conditions by constructing “a
view from the outside” (K RUSE 2002, 102). In the
acquisition of work process knowledge, given that
working conditions and workflows are historically
reconstructed, alternatives become conceivable
and opportunities for employee involvement are
developed. Kruse comes to the conclusion that this
self-directedness is extensively ignored in the di-
verse contexts in which the idea of work process
knowledge has been taken up so far. Instead, work
process knowledge tends to be seen as knowledge
that helps workers to come to terms with existing
working conditions. This misunderstanding is al-
so evident in the representation of work process
knowledge as ‘process competence’:
“Process competence means an understanding for how
processes take place and what they can be influenced
by, as well as a ‘feeling’ for where concrete informa-
tion and decisions are necessary, and where deliberately
affording room for manoeuvre has a favourable effect”
(HENNING / ISENHARDT / ZWEIG 1999, 22 ff.).
Following the project carried out by the Work Proc-
ess Knowledge network (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/
FISCHER 2002), the term was taken up in interna-
tional research contexts and also by the extensive
programme of German ↑ pilot projects designed to
improve the ↑ dual system of apprenticeship. “Ori-
entation to the work process” was a key programme
goal both in the BLK (Bund-Länder-Kommission
für Bildungsplanung und Forschungsförderung
–Federal and State Commission for ↑ Education-
al Planning and Research Promotion) pilot pro-
gramme “New learning concepts in dual vocation-
al training” (see DEITMER / FISCHER / GERDS ET AL.
2004) and in individual pilot projects such as
“Work and Business Process Oriented Vocational
Training (GAB)” (see BREMER /JAGLA 2000).
Thus to summarize, three distinct meanings are
associated with the term work process knowledge:
– The designation of the knowledge that (qual-
ified) workers need to acquire in order to meet
modern work requirements.
Areas of VET Research
– The designation of the knowledge that (quali-
fied) workers have actually acquired from the work
process in which they are involved and which is in-
tegrated with codified knowledge acquired through
off-the-job study and other means.
– The designation of the knowledge that from an
educational perspective enables the subjects to co-
shape work and technologies according to their
professional orientation.
In the following an attempt will be made to unite
these three different meanings.
3.6.4.2 Conceptual Considerations
Up to the mid-1980s, academic investigations of the
changing structure of skilled work – particularly in
computer-based production – focused primarily on
the assumption that it was becoming increasing-
ly abstract. Publications on research and practice
in the field of training took the aim of training to
be theory-based, systematically planned work ac-
tivities (KORNDÖRFER 1985). Accordingly, in the
development of training concepts, special impor-
tance was attached to the development of goal-di-
rected cognition as the support for practical action
(see, for example, BACHL 1986). This approach was
based on ↑ theories of action regulation (HACKER
1986a; VOLPERT/ OESTERREICH / GABLENZ-KOLAKOVIC
ET AL. 1983; VOLPERT 1992) and the Soviet cultural-
historical school of psychology (LEONTJEW 1979;
GALPERIN 1967). In this intellectual climate, the
traditional emphasis on experience-based learning
and the transmission of the customary practices of
crafts and trades was inexorably undermined.
In comparison to the view that computer-based
technology necessarily involves abstract, logi-
cal and systematic activity, industrial sociology
abandoned technological determinism (see K ERN /
SCHUMANN 1984; MALSCH / SELTZ 1987). The def-
inition of work was not based on the technolo-
gy it utilized but on the way production was or-
ganized and the degree of work rationalization
(SCHUMANN 2000). Now more than ever the ques-
tion was posed as to what competences skilled
workers acquire under different production con-
cepts, such as flexible specialization and Fordism,
and in particular how they acquire them.
In response to this question, the significance of
“experience” has been the subject of discussion
469
for many years. In this context this initially meant
“↑ empirical knowledge” as a sociological catego-
ry relating to experience of the production process
(see, for example, MALSCH 1984; 1987). However,
this term is unclear in one respect. After all, en-
gineers and operations planners also have experi-
ence. It is the content of the experience that is the
decisive difference, not the assumption that some
employees have experience and others do not.
In contrast to the possession of experience, em-
phasis is placed on the process of gaining expe-
rience in the concept of experience-guided work
(see BÖHLE / MILKAU 1988; BÖHLE / ROSE 1992). Like
Donald A. Schön (1983), whose concept of the “re-
flective practitioner” has gained some influence
in Anglo-Saxon countries, Fritz Böhle et al. em-
phasize that the competence of professional prac-
titioners exists above all in coping with unfore-
seen events and unique cases. At the same time,
it is in particular the feel for one’s work resulting
from practical experience that brings about self-as-
surance in one’s actions, thus providing the sub-
ject with orientation. However, this process – and
thus the acquisition of competences relevant to the
work to be carried out – is hindered by the lack
of transparency in ↑ work processes and inability
to perceive technical phenomena and processes di-
rectly.
The concept of experience-guided work has had a
significant influence in the field of work and tech-
nology research, where the term “computer-based
experience-guided work” has been used to denote
the working conditions that promote experiential
learning by skilled workers through the appropri-
ate ↑ shaping of work and technology (see MAR-
TIN 1995b; FLEIG / SCHNEIDER 1995; SCHULZE 2001).
It also stimulated a similar debate about voca-
tional education (see, for example, DEHNBOSTEL /
PETERS 1991; DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / NOVAK 1992). In
vocational education research and development,
the drive to promote experience-oriented learn-
ing was manifested in a range of ↑ pilot projects
(DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / NOVAK 1996).
This explicitly underlines the significance of ex-
perience for competent work-related action. How-
ever, from the perspective of vocational education
research the dividing lines between knowledge on
the one hand and experience or action on the oth-
470
er are of less interest than their possible context
or the context to be fostered. Experience already
comprises elements of language and is linked to
reflection about the world. Accordingly, extensive
exclusion of objectifying (generalising) thinking
from the field of experience proves to be inappro-
priate (FISCHER 1996).
The concept of ↑ work process knowledge is im-
portant in vocational ↑ training research because it
helps to avoid the misunderstanding that the skilled
worker’s knowledge is based on unelaborated expe-
rience. It also shows that the conceptual opposition
of experience and knowledge is false and mislead-
ing (FISCHER 2000). Whilst other terms are in use
which also try to avoid setting up a binary oppo-
sition between experience and knowledge, such as
“experience-guided action” and “↑ informal learn-
ing”, these terms focus on the “how” of compe-
tence development, whereas the term work process
knowledge involves the “what” –the content of this
knowledge – which enhances its value as a concep-
tual tool for ↑ curriculum design.
Work process knowledge refers to knowledge of
the components of the work process in an organ-
ization and their interaction. Aristotle (1982) ex-
amined these elements back in the third century
BC. He postulated four aspects that interact in a
work process:
– Causa finalis: the goal of the work (in the sense
of the anticipated outcome of the work), to which
all other aspects are subordinate.
– Causa materialis: the work object, the material.
– Causa formalis: the form in which the work ob-
ject is to be put.
– Causa efficiens: the working method including
the tools used.
Knowledge of these four elements of the work
process is still of great importance, even in mod-
ern work. High-quality work involves a causa fina-
lis, i.e. the target criteria that are linked to the out-
come, and resolution of problems such as mutually
inconsistent objectives. Nowadays, the causa for-
malis can be represented by a technical drawing or
operating procedure, the understanding of which is
imperative for ↑ performance of the work. The cau-
sa materialis encompasses, in the broadest sense,
the objects that are needed for the ↑ work process
and which undergo change during the work proc-
Handbook of TVET Research
ess. Finally, the causa efficiens is what gets things
moving in the work process. The focus here is on
knowledge of the working method applied, which
is imparted today in a variety of ways in terms of
technical, energy-related, chemical and informa-
tion-related aspects. ↑ Work process knowledge in-
volves knowledge about these aspects of a work
process identified by Aristotle a long time ago (see
FISCHER / RÖBEN 2002b).
Of course, the Aristotelian model has to be extend-
ed to include present-day work reality such as the
integration of work into the modern free market
economy as well as the division of labour or coop-
eration that is provided for within the framework
of gainful employment. An important theoretical
development is to incorporate the concept of work
process knowledge within ↑ activity theory. Draw-
ing on the Soviet school of historical-cultural ac-
tivity theory and Bateson’s (1973) concept of deu-
tero-learning, Yrjö Engeström (1987; 1999a) devel-
oped the concept of an activity system as the focal
point of the theory of expansive learning in work
(see e. g. LEONTJEW 1979; WYGOTSKI 1985). The ba-
sic idea is that learning takes place in a changing
mosaic of interconnected activity systems. An ac-
tivity system comprises the subject and the object
of the action (work outcome), the technical arte-
facts that mediate the subject and object as well as
the community to which the subject belongs, in-
cluding the rules and division of labour found there
(see Fig. 1). Within this framework, work process
knowledge means knowledge of all the elements of
an activity system as well as their interaction. It in-
cludes knowledge of the concrete work-related ac-
tion carried out by the subject as well as knowl-
edge of the object-specific, tectnical, organization-
al and socially determining factors to which the
concrete work-related action is subject.
Fig. 1 clearly shows that the top part of the triangle
in the graph (the subject-object relationship con-
veyed via technology) represents the Aristotelian
model of work while the lower section of the dia-
gram represents the integration of the work proc-
ess into social contexts. The inclusion of interre-
lationships that go beyond the subject-object rela-
tionship is necessary because work cannot be un-
derstood in the restricted terms of technical ac-
tions but must be contextualized by the norms of
Areas of VET Research
what the ↑ community of practice accepts as eco-
nomically valuable, taking into account the finan-
cial and competitive conditions encountered in the
free market economy.
Knowledge of the elements of an activity system is
not static knowledge. It is tied to the events that oc-
cur at the level of the reference points of the system
(subject, technology, object, etc.) and to the proc-
ess that takes place between these reference points.
Work process knowledge comprises and is updated
by what happens in an activity system and what ac-
tions follow these events.
However, two misunderstandings must be avoided
here. Firstly, it is not knowledge per se that con-
stitutes occupational expertise, but the coupling of
intentions and knowledge of conditions and meas-
ures relevant for action (HACKER 1996, 10). Sec-
ondly, a dialectical relationship between knowl-
edge and action must be assumed, not a one-
sidedly deterministic relationship. Therefore, the
role of work process knowledge in shaping work
must not be regarded as cognitive shadow action,
whose conscious and complete activation always
has to precede a practical action. Research on the
nature of the knowledge that shapes work activi-
ty shows that the process of integration of knowl-
edge into practical action necessarily takes place
implicitly (NEUWEG 1999) and that explicit proc-
esses such as verbalization in the course of the ac-
tion may impair the quality of the results of the ac-
tion (BOREHAM 1994). ↑ Work process knowledge
Fig. 1: Work process knowledge as knowledge about
the relations between the elements of an activ-
ity system (according to ENGESTRÖM 1987
471
is incorporated into the appropriate activity and its
appearance in codified form (when, for example,
it is verbalized) is a process of reconstruction, ei-
ther by the actors themselves or third parties. Thus
work process knowledge has both implicit and ex-
plicit dimensions (→ 5.1.5; Moser 2004).
3.6.4.3 Some Empirical Research Results
We will now flesh out this categorical framework
with selected results of empirical studies concern-
ing work and training.
The Need for Work Process Knowledge in In-
dustrial Contexts
In a recent study in the field of skilled metal and
electrical work, Martin Baethge et al. (1998, 4 ff.)
observe a significant change in the profile of qual-
ifications required for skilled industrial work. In
addition to the requirements of the traditionally
defined “manufacturing worker”, there are now de-
mands for “system regulators” and “problem-solv-
ers” who engage in detecting and resolving prob-
lems in the product and production process. The
successful fulfilment of these roles assumes the
possession of work process knowledge, which is of
especial importance where skilled workers have to
carry out planning and control duties within the
framework of in-company production workflows
(when, for example, work is organized by the cell
concept; see BRÖDNER 1985).
The concept of work process knowledge is also
useful for studying the competences skilled work-
ers have actually acquired through work. In one
study, skilled workers and trainees were asked to
outline the in-company flow of information and
materials. This revealed that some of the skilled
workers had acquired “knowledge of how produc-
tion is organized” (quoted from a participant), al-
though the tasks represented in the workers’ out-
lines were not part of their scope of responsibili-
ty (see FISCHER 1995b). In this study it became ap-
parent that the work process knowledge of skilled
workers was in most cases not merely knowledge
about individual duties, but also knowledge about
how the various sub-tasks are incorporated into
the whole-factory context. It included an under-
standing of the interrelationship between norma-
472
tive models of work organization (such as organi-
zational charts and operating procedures) and the
actual practices that take place within the compa-
ny, and also between the formal engineering speci-
fications of machines and the way they behaved in
the production process. This “context perception”
(see FLEIG / SCHNEIDER 1995, 8) or “context under-
standing” (see LAUR-ERNST 1990, 14) encompass-
es:
– the in-company workflows that are incorporated
into the work operations and technical processes,
– the specific characteristics of the materials, sys-
tems and equipment used in the company,
– the internal characteristics linked to the nature
of the mechanical, energy-related, chemical, ↑ in-
formation technology processes themselves, and
– the consequences in the life-world that may be
provoked by actions taken by the operators.
Other field studies of in-company maintenance
(FISCHER /JUNGEBLUT / RÖMMERMANN 1995; DRE-
SCHER 1996) showed that the work process knowl-
edge of skilled workers focused on the character-
istics of the equipment and materials used in the
company as well as the lived experiences within
the company in which the workers’ own actions
were incorporated. Similarly, Hartmut Schulze
(2001, 93 ff.) in a review of computer-based expe-
rience-guided work studies, emphasized the fol-
lowing features of experience-guided work in the
industrial-technical sector:
– optimal situation-based precision planning and
scheduling: e. g. optimal situation-based short-
term management of order processing;
– networked action: e. g. overcoming frictional
and information losses between departments along
process chains;
– foresighted process control: e. g. preorientation
in connection with critical situations through an-
ticipation of the machining process;
– compensatory process regulation: e. g. in the
case of NC machining perception of the tiniest dis-
crepancies between real and programmed paths
with the aim of avoiding collisions;
– production-oriented measurement: e. g. produc-
tion-oriented interpretation of ambiguous meas-
ured data;
– flexible and time-optimised malfunction man-
agement: e. g. correct interpretation of otherwise
Handbook of TVET Research
incorrect, incomplete or lacking fault indications
through recognition of similarities to previous
malfunctions;
– optimisation through experience optimisation:
e. g. search for common features between experi-
enced and new situations;
– innovative process improvement: e. g. exchange
of experience with colleagues and superiors in or-
der to expand one’s own horizon and as a safe-
guard.
The Construction of Work Process Knowledge
in the Workplace
The stimulus for the activation and acquisition of
↑ work process knowledge is the problem situation
experienced by the worker. This may include dis-
ruptions to the planned workflow and malfunc-
tions in the technical equipment as well as new
types of task for which the worker does not yet
have an action plan. For some of the skilled work-
ers involved in the study (e. g. in FISCHER 1995b)
this was reason not only to compensate for mal-
functions in one’s own workflow, but also to coop-
erate with other company departments and acquire
knowledge of company workflows. However, this
means that not only previously existing knowledge
is applied, but that new knowledge, too, results in
the context of the action – though by no means by
itself. Ulich and Baitsch (1987, 516) have shown on
the basis of a ↑ longitudinal study that the question
of whether work process knowledge is accumulat-
ed based on a problem situation depends on the in-
terplay of three critical aspects:
“(1) It is necessary that the worker becomes aware of
contradictions in the given work situation and that new
goals based on a newly developed or previously latent
motive in the work are formulated for this situation.
(2) To ensure that new goals can be developed, informa-
tion that can serve as the basis for devising alternatives
must be available.
(3) The practical execution of a new job that represents
elimination of these contradictions or meeting of the
new goals finally leads to the development of compe-
tencies”.
The question is, however, what kind of informa-
tion is used for a solution. Skilled workers invari-
ably make use of “pragmatic concepts” as they are
called by the research group led by Janine Rogal-
ski at the University of Paris VIII (see SAMURÇAY/
Areas of VET Research
VIDAL-GOMEL 2002, 156 ff.; ROGALSKI / PLAT/
ANTONIN-GLEN 2002, 145 ff.). On the one hand,
relevant theory is utilized pragmatically, although
sometimes-incorrect ideas prevail about the rele-
vant mechanical, energy, chemical and ↑ informa-
tion technology laws. On the other hand, as Felix
Rauner (RAUNER 2002a) was able to show on the
basis of a reappraisal of studies (by BENNER 1997,
among others), this ↑ practical knowledge contains
elements of a sensitivity for fine qualitative differ-
ences, contextuality, situativity, the experience of
paradigmatic ↑ work tasks, communication in the
↑ community of practice and meta-competence –
components of knowledge that traditionally are not
contained in the relevant theory.
However, the use of knowledge relevant for work
is not only a question of individual competence
but has to do also with the respective area of oc-
cupational responsibility. An analysis of differ-
ent fields of work indicates significant differenc-
es in the composition of the knowledge required
in the ↑ work process. For example, there is no cor-
responding scientific discipline for some occupa-
tions or ↑ occupational tasks that would be able to
determine the general laws of the subject and make
them the object of initial and further training so
that it is almost exclusively handed-down skilled
trade experience which is decisive for occupational
competence (e. g. for so-called bedding-in in ↑ me-
chanical engineering; GERDS 2002). Other occupa-
tions are not of a purely craft trade origin, but have
developed out of scientific subjects or were closely
linked to the latter right from the beginning (e. g.
occupations in electrical engineering and chemi-
cal technology). Here it is necessary to take the-
oretical knowledge into consideration in the work
as well and to integrate it into ↑ occupational skills
(NIETHAMMER / STORZ 2002; RÖBEN / SIEBECK 2002;
FISCHER / RÖBEN 2002b), even though (as shown
by BÖHLE / ROSE 1992; BAUER / BÖHLE / MUNZ ET AL.
2002) the importance of experience-guided action
cannot be disregarded even in high-tech fields.
The Construction of Work Process Knowledge
in the Workplace
↑ Work process knowledge is not acquired but con-
structed, and moreover constructed in the course
of work in response to a problem experienced by
473
the worker. It is constructed out of ↑ experiential
knowledge (such as the pragmatic concepts de-
scribed by Rogalski/ Plat/Antonin-Glen and theo-
retical knowledge (such as scientific principles) by
a dialectic in which the theoretical and experien-
tial bearings on the problem are resolved into ob-
ject-focused activity. The dialectical construction
of work process knowledge can be illustrated by a
series of studies of how physicians prescribe drugs,
or more exactly, how they adjust the daily dose of a
drug given as long-term treatment for a chronic ill-
ness (see BOREHAM 1989; 1994; 1995b; BOREHAM /
FOSTER / MAWER 1992). These studies reveal that
when making pharmacotherapeutic decisions, ex-
pert physicians combine theoretical knowledge
of pharmacokinetics (the science of how drugs
are distributed through the body) with personal
knowledge of clinical events and phenomena they
have accumulated throughout their own profes-
sional practice. In these studies, it was found that
when pharmacokinetic theory was taught in med-
ical school, the medical students could not make
effective decisions in classroom prescribing exer-
cises when they tried to ‘apply’ the theory direct-
ly to new cases. According to the theory of work
process knowledge, this was because they lacked
the experiential component needed to construct
a course of action. When expert prescribers were
studied, however, it was found that they used both
experiential knowledge and pharmacokinetic theo-
ry which they synthesized in a dialectic process to
construct work process knowledge. A three-term
model of prescribing was proposed in which the
physician uses his or her clinical experience to un-
derstand the patient’s problem, provisionally se-
lects a new dose using rules-of-thumb derived by
trial and error from previous experience, and then
reflects on whether it would be appropriate to pre-
scribe this new dose. The dialectic occurs in this
last stage and creates the psychological basis for
action (BOREHAM / FOSTER / MAWER 1992). The key
finding of this study was that, while the provi-
sional selection of a dose was made experientially
(by recognising the problem as a type that had oc-
curred before, and by using rules-of-thumb based
on previous clinical experience), the reflective part
of the process involved recalling scientific papers
in journals and reference material in standard text-
474
books – codified knowledge from the world of the
laboratory and the lecture theatre. This can be il-
lustrated by the following case. A physician used
rules-of-thumb which he had accumulated over
years of clinical practice to suggest increasing a
patient’s drug dose by 100 mg. However, while re-
flecting on the appropriateness of this therapeutic
intervention, he noted that the patient had an unu-
sually low body weight and recalled research pa-
pers which reported a positive correlation between
body weight and the optimal dose of that drug.
From this he inferred that the dose increment im-
plied by his rules-of-thumb might be too high for
this particular patient and reduced it to a 50 mg in-
crement. The conclusion of this study, important for
the definition of work process knowledge, was that
while the problem could not be solved by directly
applying the relevant pharmacokinetic theory, this
theory was crucial when synthesized with knowl-
edge compiled out of personal experience. Moreo-
ver, while the reasoning process itself was a dia-
lectical one in which experiential rules-of-thumb
were interrogated in the light of research-based
theory and synthesized into an understanding of
how to solve the problem, it was also necessary to
have a good knowledge of the overall ↑ work proc-
ess. The first term in the decision making model
– understanding the patient’s problem, which had
a major bearing on whether to increase the daily
dose or leave it at the same level – depended on un-
derstanding the cause of the patient’s symptoms,
and this in turn required a broader range of knowl-
edge, including the strategies by which the medical
↑ profession deals with this kind of chronic illness
(BOREHAM 1995b).
The Interplay between Individual and Organi-
zational Learning in the Construction of Work
Process Knowledge
Whilst ↑ work process knowledge is possessed by
individuals, in most employment situations the in-
dividual is a member of a ↑ community of practice,
engages in collaborative practices in the workplace
and shares work-related knowledge with his or her
co-workers. ↑ Work process knowledge is collec-
tively as well as individually owned, in the sense
of being embedded in the interrelationships, arti-
facts and practices of the workplace. The construc-
Handbook of TVET Research
tion of work process knowledge will consequently
involve both individual and collective activity and
the interplay between these levels of activity. Re-
search in an oil refinery by Boreham (2004b) and
Boreham/ Morgan (2004) studied artefacts such as
the standard operating procedures laid out in (elec-
tronic) manuals and analysed their social utiliza-
tion schemes – that is, the meaning of the artefacts
within the work culture. Collective activity based
on these standard operating procedures was an en-
actment of the social utilization scheme, and the
work process knowledge was constructed though
social practices which enabled dialogue to take
place between workers about the problems they
were encountering.
Some studies refer to networked action of skilled
workers in line with production workflows and
departments (FISCHER 1995b; SCHULZE 2001;
BAETHGE / BAETHGE-K INSKY/KUPKA 1998) and ex-
plain in this way that skilled workers have ac-
quired work process knowledge as an understand-
ing of the overall company ↑ work process. How-
ever, other studies (WAIBEL / ENDRES / WEHNER 2002,
396) point out that the acquisition and communi-
cation of knowledge relevant for work in the com-
pany may be a locally restricted phenomenon that
does not extend beyond the limits of a community
of practice (LAVE / WENGER 1991). This discrepan-
cy raises the question of the extent to which work
process knowledge is acquired individually or col-
lectively or stimulated organizationally.
Learning in social interaction – particularly when-
ever this form of learning is permitted officially
and de facto – opens up a way of acquiring work
process knowledge in companies. In some cas-
es, such learning is supported by structural meas-
ures of the company. In a recent empirical study
(FISCHER / RÖBEN 2004) on the question of wheth-
er and how the enterprises actually (and not on-
ly ideologically) introduce and design “organiza-
tional learning” it was found in all companies ex-
amined (large enterprises in the chemical indus-
try in four European countries) that skilled work-
ers were required to support familiarization and/or
training of colleagues. In all the enterprises exam-
ined, work process knowledge was made the sub-
ject of learning (FISCHER / RÖBEN 2004): The knowl-
edge necessary to operate the chemical facilities
Areas of VET Research
was analysed and documented by the skilled work-
ers themselves on the basis of all jobs and shifts.
Through organizational measures the companies
subsequently contributed to the communication
and dissemination of this knowledge in the com-
pany as well as to its incorporation into the train-
ing programmes.
In this way, learning in social interaction becomes
a major demand placed on the competence of
skilled workers, without eliminating competition
within and outside the company. For the “problem-
solver” type of worker Baethge et al. (1998, 5 ff.)
describe such demands as an understanding of
economic interrelationships that requires extended
knowledge qualifications. With regard to training,
the authors conclude:
“The job profile must have a broader theoretical basis,
the imparting of social-communicative skills and prob-
lem-solving competencies must be integrated into the
organizational and social context of the entire enterprise
and entire workforce”.
3.6.4.4 Perspectives for Shaping Work and
Education
Acquisition of knowledge about how to do one’s
work and about the product-related, technical,
work-organization, social, economic and ecologi-
cal context in which the work is incorporated is
important in vocational training for three reasons:
– As knowledge that is incorporated into practi-
cal action, it is implicitly responsible for ↑ perform-
ance (the work actually performed, differentiated
here from competence as the designation of per-
formance potential).
– As knowledge that can be abstracted from per-
formance, it can serve as a guide for practical ac-
tion even in situations the subject has not yet ex-
perienced and has not had any practice in coping
with.
– As knowledge that can be abstracted from given
action situations, it can transcend given reality and
involve the notion of another design of the working
world.
How can (prospective) skilled workers acquire such
knowledge? For the shaping of work Theo Weh-
ner et al. (1996; DERBOVEN / DICK / WEHNER 2002;
WAIBEL / ENDRES / WEHNER 2002) have further devel-
oped concepts of observation and group work in
475
order to foster knowledge transfer in and between
companies and help in overcoming the phenome-
non of locally bound interpretation patterns. In the
field of vocational training, recent reforms attempt
to structure curricular methods for the acquisition
of ↑ work process knowledge (see R AUNER 2002a).
The training is based on work process knowledge
that is incorporated into the ↑ performance of key
occupational ↑ work tasks. It endeavours to pro-
mote the acquisition of work process knowledge,
beginning with the question of what the main fo-
cus of the occupation is, then encourages the ac-
quisition of contextual and functional knowledge
and ends by imparting systematic and experience-
based in-depth knowledge according to the specif-
ic field (→ 3.5.1).
However, the acquisition of work process knowl-
edge not only involves in-company and curricular
approaches, but also biographical shaping strate-
gies that individuals pursue. Heinz et al. (in press)
were able to show on the basis of a ↑ longitudinal
study that the different empirically found types of
design of occupational biographies have signifi-
cant impacts on the Whether and the How of ac-
quisition of work process knowledge.
3.6.5 Learning with Tutorial
Working Systems
Matthias Becker
3.6.5.1 Tools and Working Systems as
“Tutors”
Work is accomplished with tools and working sys-
tems; learning is achieved with teaching mate-
rial and teaching systems. For a long time, work
and learning have been considered as contradic-
tions. The tradition of handicraft has never under-
lined this polarisation as distinctly as ↑ industrial
skilled work has, but the “scientification” of the
world of work (cf. BÖHLE 1992; GRONWALD 1993b;
TAYLOR 1911/1993) supports these separation ten-
dencies. It is therefore crucial for vocational ↑ ed-
ucational research to analyse the conditions, the
prerequisites and the shaping principles for an in-
476 Handbook of TVET Research

tegration of work and learning by the shaping of gineering sciences, and is carried through in order
learning oriented working systems. to improve the ↑ ergonomics of work psychology
It is not easy to explain tutorial working systems. and work sciences (cf. TIMPE / ROTHE 1999; LANDAU /
Both parts of the term, “tutorial” and “working
ROHMERT 1987). The computer sciences and their
systems” are, in practice, differently defined. The
discipline of ↑ Artificial Intelligence looks at the
catalogue of standards, DIN EN 614, defines a
“working system” as follows: man-machine-interaction in terms of a comparison
“The working system encompasses the interaction of between human and machine learning (cf. PUPPE
one or more persons with means for work in order to 1992). Also the fields of learning psychology and
perform a system task within a work area, in the work pedagogical psychology deal with this topic (cf.
environment and under the conditions set by the work
tasks” (DIN EN 614-1). MANDL / GRUBER / RENKL 1995). This wide field of
In the narrower sense the term is used to define engagement in the issue of working systems within
those aids and tools (the means for work), which this perspective indicates the highly ↑ interdiscipli-
are applied by their users during the ↑ work proc- nary character of this field of research.
ess, i.e. a hammer, repair manuals and machines,
up to computer-aided diagnostic devices. Today 3.6.5.2 Man-Machine-Interaction and
these are usually dialogue-guided, computer-aided Ergonomics
machines and information systems as implements,
e. g. personal computers. In a wider sense a work-
ing system is a cybernetic entity within whose sys- The Perspective of Ergonomics
tem boundaries work is “taking place”, i.e. a work-
shop, an office or other rooms and areas which are Good ergonomics, in terms of an adaptation of
functionally linked in terms of work processes. working conditions to the human conditions of
A working system can only be called tutorial if it ↑ performance, are normally seen as a basic pre-
acts as a tutor (teacher, advisor) of its user, i.e. if requisite for a working system promoting learning
one can learn with or within the working system. (GEISER 2001). This means that the system is high-
As the term “learning” is differently defined – de-
ly ↑ user-friendly. A maximum performance can
pending on basing it on either behaviouristic or
be reached as soon as its use does not require any
constructivist learning theories – the property of
being “tutorial” can only be assigned by adding a learning process resulting in an “intuitive” use and
comprehension of theory. a “self-explanatory” system.
Working systems – or as they are widely delimitat- As this condition is only very rare in practice, above
ed by Ropohl – socio-technical systems or ↑ man- all the work scientific research concentrates on the
machine-systems respectively (ROPOHL 1975, 45) analysis of “learning in a context with the use of
exert a major influence on the acting opportuni- technical systems” (ibid., 131) with the aim of im-
ties of a human being. The man-machine-interac-
proving the ergonomic properties (see Fig. 1).
tion within such a system therefore has an enor-
mous practical importance as it considerably deter-
mines whether learning at the workplace or within
the ↑ work process is possible or not. This promi-
nence is even augmented with the increasing intro-
duction of computer-aided systems into the world
of work. Due to the late introduction of computer-
aided working systems, research work on man-ma-
chine-interaction is still comparatively young and
has only been intensified in vocational ↑ education-
al research since the late 1980s. In terms of ↑ con- Fig. 1: Research with the aim of improving the ergo-
structivism, this research plays a great role in ↑ en- nomic properties of a system.
Areas of VET Research
Perspective of occupation-oriented learning
contents
A completely different question is the focus of vo-
cational educational research (see Fig. 2): How
must a working system be shaped in order to best
support learning which is oriented to the object of
work? After all it is not the task of the skilled work-
er to just handle a working system but to make use
of it while coping with ↑ work tasks and in order to
solve occupational problems.
Fig. 2: Research with the aim of promoting the learn-
ing contents of a system.
Thus there is a decisive difference between ↑ us-
er-friendliness and the tutorial quality of a system.
Ergonomically flawless systems which blend in-
to the performance conditions of human beings or
which are adapted, are not automatically promot-
ing learning. In the light of the increasing permea-
tion of working systems with software, the shaping
of the communication and the interaction between
man and machine becomes the centre of interest.
Therefore research work often concentrates on the
dialogue properties of programmes. The ↑ ergo-
nomics standard EN ISO 9241 describes them as
having seven principles:
– Adequacy of tasks,
– Ability of self-characterization,
– Controllability,
– Conformity to expectations,
– Fault tolerance,
– Ability for individualisation,
– ↑ Promotion of learning (ISO 9241).
As for the promotion of learning it states:
477
“a dialogue promotes learning as soon as it supports and
guides a user during his learning how to handle the dia-
logue system” (ibid., 12).
With regard to occupationally oriented contents,
the adherence to the principle of promotion of
learning does not yet safeguard learning because
the description of the standard exclusively refers to
the use of the dialogue rather than to the speciali-
zation and corresponding learning processes to be
supported.
3.6.5.3 Surveys of the Promotion of Learning
through Working Systems
Surveys of the promotion of learning through
working systems are carried out with objectives
that may be seen between the two above-men-
tioned perspectives:
– Surveys on ↑ software ergonomics – on the “us-
ability” – concentrate on the adjustment of com-
puter programmes to the human work acting (in-
terfaces, shaping of the dialogues, physiological
principles, see AREND / EBERLEH / PITSCHKE 1999;
VÖLZ 1999; also see http://www.usability-forum.
com; http://www.stcsig.org/usability/)
– Surveys on the development and use of software
and ↑ e-learning systems such as ↑ computer-based-
training (CBT), ↑ Web-Based-Training (WBT),
virtual communities etc. for the support of learn-
ing processes (e-Learning; see also the field of top-
ics “learning within the network and with multi-
media” in the BMBV research and development
programme “Learning Culture Competency De-
velopment”).
– The survey on interactions with the dialogue
system and the virtual actions (simulations) repre-
sents a special feature (see MÜLLER / BRUNS 2002).
– Surveys on the ↑ interdisciplinary solution of
complex problems of the man-machine-interac-
tion on the basis of a system technical approach.
Increasing problems caused by the encapsulation
of machines lead to probes for approaches for a
socially acceptable shaping of technology with-
in the programme “Work and Technology” by the
BMFT in the 1980s and early 1990s (see FRICKE
1994; MARTIN 1995b) and the subsequent BMBF
programme “Innovative shaping of work – The fu-
ture of work” (BMBF 2002a). An important em-
phasis was laid on the retrieval of “sensual work
478
experience” and a trend towards workshop ori-
ented programming techniques for computer-aid-
ed production technologies (see SCHLAUSCH 1997).
As for the analysis of the ↑ promotion of learning,
the approaches of ↑ Artificial Intelligence (AI) are
increasingly coming to the fore (compare PUPPE
1992; SONNTAG / SCHAPER 1997; also see projects of
the Centre ↑ Man-Machine-Systems of the Techni-
cal University of Berlin, http://www.mms.tu-ber-
lin.de). In recent years the distributed artificial in-
telligence (DAI) in the form of “shaping of com-
petency-promoting ↑ multi-agent systems”, e. g. to
give support with diagnostic tasks for CNC-ma-
chine tools has become more important (cf. DFG-
project TI 188/6–1). The research tasks also en-
compass the question of the role of social interrela-
tionships for intelligent acting (↑ Field of research:
↑ Socionics) (cf. MALSCH 1998).
– Survey on the possibilities of integration of work
and learning with the aid of a method of shaping
of working systems, which promotes learning (see
the conferences on researching work and learn-
ing: http://www.oval.uts.edu.au/rwl4/ and projects
like worklearn: http://www.peda.net/veraja/
worklearn/). The documentation of the 11th and
12th HGTB Symposium on “Man-Machine-Inter-
action” (see EICKER / PETERSEN 2001) and on “IT-
aided skilled work” (PETERSEN / RAUNER / STUBER
2001) offers an overview of the research work of
the occupational specialisations.
The following chapters fundamentally deal with
the publications of this approach of research.
3.6.5.4 State of the Research
With the insight that experience knowledge (BÖHLE /
MILKAU 1988) and ↑ work process knowledge
(→ 3.6.4; → 3.4.4; K RUSE 1985; FISCHER 2000) play
an important and increasing role for occupation-
al work and the shaping of learning processes, the
question was raised how this may be safeguarded,
processed and made available to the skilled work-
ers (to be). Thus, Gronwald stated, with regard to
the development of a ↑ work information system
for the trades, that media are necessary “which
support the individual learning during the ↑ work
process” (GRONWALD 1992, 185). Such media have
to initiate and support the learning process of the
users for a skilled handling of work relevant in-
Handbook of TVET Research
formation (ibid., 187). Therefore it is less impor-
tant how explicit knowledge may be imparted with
the help of a tutorial working system. Moreover it
is crucial to examine how they can develop a com-
prehensive ability for acting.
During the 1980s and 1990s it was attempted to
safeguard and optimize the capacity to act in main-
tenance skilled work through the use of ↑ expert
systems (cf. STRIEBEL 1994; ZIEGLER 1994). These
working systems were supposed to inform, guide
and support the user as an expert would do it. How-
ever, it soon turned out that the use of expert sys-
tems rather hampered learning instead of promot-
ing it because:
(1) The advice and the conclusions of the expert sys-
tems could not be understood; the systems proved
to be not transparent (see FISCHER 2001a, 75),
(2) Neither the experiences of the skilled workers
with the development of knowledge data bases for
these systems were taken into consideration nor
were the skilled workers able to document their
experience knowledge in the systems,
(3) Coping with occupational ↑ work tasks called
for immediate work- and situation-oriented in-
formation whereas the explanation component of
the expert systems did not consider the context
of the work processes (see FISCHER /JUNGEBLUT/
RÖMMERMANN 1995), and
(4) the problems occurring in practice could not
be solved to a satisfactory extent by the available
information, as the malfunctions tend to develop
an increasingly individual character (see BECKER
2003, 145).
Categorical critics of expert systems doubt that
these systems will ever be able to support a human
being at an adequate level as they apply a knowl-
edge model which is entirely different from the hu-
man knowledge model (the model of mathemati-
cal logics) (DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1987). Several re-
search projects work on overcoming these identi-
fied weaknesses of expert systems (cf. BRUNS 1990;
DANIEL / STRIEBEL 1993); cf. PUPPE / ZIEGLER / MARTIN
2001). One of the most important points of con-
tact is the ↑ participation of the skilled workers in
the shaping of the systems. Whereas, formerly, on-
ly knowledge engineers were responsible for the
acquisition of knowledge, there are increasing at-
tempts to:
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 3: Prevalence of learning models in projects for the adaptation of employees to the technological changes.
Source: biat/ADAPT database evaluation based on 657 projects
(a) Open the systems for the knowledge of skilled
workers and involve the latter in the shaping (↑ par-
ticipation in shaping); and to
(b) Allow skilled workers to change and amend
certain system areas (participation in the use and
further development).
In addition there are attempts to provide different
kinds of user guidance depending on the compe-
tency levels of the users (BOURAUEL 1996; BECK-
ER 2003, 158 f.). This approach encompasses the
preparation of tutand models, which are meant to
adapt the systems to the use and learning habits of
the users (see PUPPE 1992). Recent research results
point at the fact that the adaptation of a working/
learning system to the user and learning habits of
the skilled workers is only likely to be successful
through a context-oriented processing of ↑ work
process oriented information. Projects repeatedly
stated that learning processes during work are ei-
ther occurring formally or are to a greater extent
initiated by “breakdowns”. Fischer explains:
“Workers act at the basis of their existing knowledge
without being concerned until they realize that they can-
not get on” (FISCHER 1999, 109).
Breakdowns are characterized by malfunctions,
interruptions, dead ends, situations of incomplete
information, non-existent or lack of communica-
tion, unforeseen circumstances and unexpected
situations.
479
What needs to be done is to cope with tasks and
solve problems. They are the reasons and the con-
tent references for the structuring of information in
tutorial ↑ work information systems. Fischer there-
fore concludes that surroundings promoting learn-
ing “(must) support the ‘man-problem area-inter-
action’ rather than just the ‘man-computer-inter-
action’” (ibid., 119). The breakdowns and barriers
(DÖRNER 1979, 10) as they are called by the psy-
chology of learning always contain learning con-
tents. A work process oriented structurization of
comprehensible information to overcome the bar-
riers at the same time leads to understanding and
to problem solving. Thus all systems with such
a structure are highly interesting for corporate
practical work, as learning during the work proc-
ess can be promoted rather than learning in addi-
tion to work. A tutorial work information system
based on such a work process oriented structuriza-
tion was developed and tested by Becker and Spöt-
tl with skilled workers in car repair workshops (see
BECKER / SPÖTTL 2001b).
3.6.5.5 Scope and Limits
Learning with tutorial working systems not only
requires good ergonomic properties and a shap-
ing of the system contents promoting learning, as
the latter task alone already represents a major di-
dactical challenge where less secure occupation-
480
al knowledge in a domain is concerned. Moreover
there is the need for a work organisation promot-
ing learning (see SCHREIER 2001a, 210 ff.; îShaping
of work, work organisation; → 3.4.2). In his sur-
vey of the application of a ↑ diagnostic system de-
clared as “tutorial”, Schreier has already identified
six shaping criteria:
(1) Flat hierarchies and on-site competency in or-
der to increase the freedom of decision making.
(2) Cooperative leadership style to increase per-
sonal responsibility.
(3) A work organisation oriented to work processes
allowing for a process oriented coping with tasks.
(4) A holistic coping with tasks with the least pos-
sible specialisation.
(5) Groups should be encouraged to learn “from
each other” by working and learning in teams.
(6) The previously-discussed participation of all
persons involved in the shaping of the means for
work and the work processes (ibid., 210 ff.).
The use of tutorial working systems often purports
to save costs for initial and further training (com-
pare STAUDT/K RIEGESMANN 1999; BECKER / SPÖTTL /
STOLTE 2001) as there is no travelling to a ↑ learn-
ing environment: the learning itself is organised in
a self-reliant way and the learning times can be re-
duced in favour of productive “learning and work-
ing times”. This is based on the hypothesis that fu-
ture further training cannot be distinguished from
productive work, neither in terms of time nor of
contents. However, surveys on the use of tutori-
al working systems for the integration of work-
ing and learning in the European Community in-
itiative ADAPT have shown that (more and com-
bined) learning models are necessary to safeguard
learning during the work process. 12 models were
identified:
(1) “↑ e-learning” models,
(2) Multiplier models,
(3) Shaping model “Future”,
(4) Network model,
(5) Reorganisation model,
(6) Facilitator model,
(7) Simulation models/projects,
(8) Knowledge model,
(9) Coaching model,
Handbook of TVET Research
(10) Self-learning centre,
(11) Seminaristic model,
(12) Problem solving model (ibid., 18 ff.)
A combination of these models, which takes the
advantages and disadvantages of their different
objectives, learning approaches and their learn-
ing and working environment into consideration,
has proved to be very successful (Fig. 3). Tutori-
al working systems combined with a learning ar-
rangement are very supportive. They can, prefer-
ably, be applied for the “problem solving model”
which promotes a situation-oriented learning with-
in the framework of coping with concrete corpo-
rate ↑ work tasks and the solving of problems dur-
ing the ↑ work process. Therefore they are espe-
cially suitable for diagnostic support systems.
With regard to comprehensive competency devel-
opment processes, they do not replace the teach-
er, the trainer or the instructor in any way. Tutori-
al working systems in terms of ↑ knowledge man-
agement rather help to interlink context-oriented
information in a meaningful way and to test and
reflect on it during the work process. On the one
hand the student follows the steps towards the solu-
tion of a problem delivered by the working system
(instruction) and interlinks the newly learned con-
tents with existing knowledge (For more details on
this see STARK 1999, 40). In addition to this, infor-
mation is retrieved from the working system dur-
ing the coping with the work tasks. It is situatively
integrated into the acting context and verified with
the aid of actions with regard to their ↑ efficien-
cy (construction). In this context Gerstenmaier and
Mandl call such systems “constructivist ↑ learning
environments” (GERSTENMAIER / MANDL 2001, 5)
and allocate them to a theory of situative learning.
Thus an important aspect of the man-machine-
interaction is addressed: apart from the ↑ context
orientation it is the sharing, the exchange and the
common production of knowledge in a group and/
or a community which is relevant for tutorial qual-
ity.
3.6.5.6 Problems and Development Prospects
Learning with tutorial working systems is basical-
ly subject to the same delimitations as ↑ self-direct-
ed learning as such (see NUISSL 1999). There is no
automatic learning process because of an existing
Areas of VET Research
tutorial working system. Apart from the necessary
motivation, the students are required to differen-
tiate between useful information, which promotes
learning and useless input and to enter a learning
process on their own. It will be also crucial in the
future to initiate learning processes by a didacti-
cal-methodical structuring of the contents. For this
structuring process, we have to find out which con-
tents when, and in which working or problem solv-
ing situation are likely to support learning by mak-
ing use of this system. Therefore research work
on the domain-oriented competency development
(see. RAUNER 2004d) is required. So far this has
not yet been carried through in a satisfactory way
in terms of necessary depth and concretion. The
key problem in this context is the ratio between ex-
plicit and ↑ implicit knowledge and the embedding
of the systems in working contexts.
As a matter of fact only partial aspects of the use-
fulness of research studies on work psychology,
knowledge construction and pedagogical psychol-
ogy as well as expertise from expertise research
are thus far known. However, example results from
the field of vocational ↑ educational research are
available.
3.6.6 Occupational Socialization
Walter R. Heinz
3.6.6.1 Introduction
Occupational Socialization is not just vocational
learning, it is much more: It is the process of de-
veloping attitudes, knowledge, motives, value ori-
entations and social competences which are used
by the individuals at work and across their em-
ployment biographies. This process concerns so-
cialization for an occupation (in family, school and
training), socialization in the occupation (↑ work
process and employment biography) and socializa-
tion besides the occupation (continuous learning,
retraining, coaching). Processes of occupational
learning and development pertain not only to the
qualification for work, they influence the person’s
identity formation.
481
At first sight, occupational socialization seems to
be an anachronistic field of theory and research in
the individualized service and ↑ knowledge socie-
ty. Many social theorists assume that individuals
turn to other life areas outside work because so-
ciety lacks jobs and the returns of education and
training are decreasing. After some thought based
on the research results which will be discussed and
the debate about social and political consequences
of mass unemployment, we see, however, that es-
pecially in a period of social transformation, occu-
pational work offers important psycho-social ex-
periences, development and action opportunities
– and not only risks. Occupational socialization
turns our attention to the processes – embedded
in economic, political and social structures – by
which the conditions of training, working and em-
ployment contracts become the object of individu-
al experiences and action strategies on the ↑ labour
market and in work organisations. In view of in-
creasingly flexible and insecure employment con-
ditions it is obvious that occupational socializa-
tion will gain in importance for the individual life
course because it contributes to a sustainable self-
design of employment biographies. Shaping one’s
own employment life is possible when self-reliance
concerning one’s occupational action competenc-
es is supported by social and material recognition
of the individual’s contribution to the maintenance
and integration of public and private life worlds.
If societies succeed in connecting occupational
knowledge, competence and self-esteem of the in-
dividuals with ↑ flexibility and security (“flexicu-
rity”), then economic ↑ performance will also be
promoted. This is also underscored by manage-
ment, at least in Germany, which regards the qual-
ity and supply of skilled workers as a crucial factor
of international economic competitiveness.
In this contribution, there are links to other sec-
tions of this handbook:
Work, education, qualification (→ 2.4)
Research on qualifications (→ 3.1.5; → 3.4.1)
Research on competence (→ 3.4.2)
Learning in the work process (→ 3.6.1)
Development of moral judgement (→ 3.6.7)
↑ Vocational identity (→ 3.6.8)
482
3.6.6.2 Occupation
An occupation defines the living conditions and
life chances and is characterized by a specific
profile of competences which consists of knowl-
edge, practical and social skills (BECK / BRATER /
DAHEIM 1980). Compared to other industrialized
service societies in Germany, occupation, voca-
tional training and employment opportunities are
closely related to each other and embedded in so-
cial institutions, specifically the ↑ Dual System of
Vocational Education and Training (VET), col-
lective agreements and structures of ↑ further ed-
ucation and training: “Occupation orients training
and employment” (DAHEIM 2001, 24). Occupation-
al activities in work organisations bring about sub-
jective motives, social relationships and achieve-
ment standards. Moreover, occupations determine
the social position as the interface between indi-
vidual and social structure. Out of these defining
characteristics results the meaning of occupations
as contexts of socialization and identity formation.
Therefore, an occupation can still offer a frame for
orienting life plans, however, only as far as the oc-
cupation serves as a vehicle for social status and
for realizing individual interests and competences.
In contrast to the thesis of the loss of meaning of
the occupationally based employment career (e. g.
BAETHGE 2001), we observe that first, new fields of
gainful activity are being integrated in the voca-
tional training and academic education systems;
second, a vocational training certificate is facilitat-
ing the change of firms or occupations; and, third,
a vocational qualification opens the access to the
system of further education and training.
However, today the ↑ occupational principle does
not serve anymore as a lifelong perspective, in-
dividuals rather have to navigate their pathways
through the ↑ labour market on their own by shap-
ing their employment biographies in a self-direct-
ed manner. In “flexible capitalism” (SENNETT 1998)
individuals are confronted with mobile work times,
tasks and locations, while continuous and stand-
ardized employment is losing ground. Whether
this will lead to a devaluation of the occupation as
a pattern of allocation and individual orientation in
Germany and if it will result in chronic discrepan-
cies between the training occupation and employ-
Handbook of TVET Research
ment, cannot be answered empirically (see KONI-
ETZKA 2002).
Three scenarios characterize the current discus-
sion: On the one hand Baethge (2001) argues that
a structurally induced weakening of occupational-
ly based work will lead to a transformation of the
system of Vocational Education and Training in-
to school-based and academic education because
process-oriented and cognitive demands will en-
force a logic of qualification which is based more
on knowledge and organisational requirements.
On the other hand, it is possible that competence
profiles with substantial ↑ flexibility of in-firm im-
plementation will develop out of newly designed
“core occupations” (RAUNER 2000b). Another sce-
nario is visible in the new occupational type of the
“entrepreneur of one’s own work capacity” (Arbe-
itskraftunternehmer; VOSS / PONGRATZ 1998) who
develops his or her individual occupation as a so-
lution of the contradicting relationship between
↑ occupational standards, insecure employment ca-
reers and cultural individualization.
More and more participants in the labour mar-
ket are confronted with the challenge, despite and
maybe just because of the declining continuity in
the employment system, to engage in a solid and
sustainable vocational education and training.
Without occupational socialization it will become
more and more difficult to explore employment op-
portunities under increasingly restrictive labour-
market conditions. In deregulated labour mar-
kets, occupational capital can only be assembled
by multiple employment experiences in connection
with flexible and self-initiated changes of the loca-
tion and time of employment. The drawback of this
development is that work conditions and employ-
ment biographies are under the pressure of impon-
derable decisions of employers who over and over
again impose on workers and those who are look-
ing for work compromises with the conditions and
returns of their occupational activities.
3.6.6.3 Socialization
Theory and research regarding socialization (cf.
HURRELMANN / ULICH 1991; HURRELMANN 2002) fo-
cus on the explanation and empirical analysis of
social processes which contribute to the formation
and change of personality structures. Contempo-
Areas of VET Research
rary theories of socialization look at the living and
working conditions which promote, respectively
restrict the development of a stable identity. Indi-
viduals unfold their psycho-social identity by con-
structively connecting their genetic-biological en-
dowment with the societal and material living con-
ditions: By actively and productively dealing with
their living conditions, individuals shape their bi-
ography out of activities in different areas and
stages of life. With the transformation of the in-
dustrial into a service society, multiple living con-
ditions, cultural images and life plans have been
constructed. In the service and ↑ knowledge socie-
ty, the model of an independently thinking and act-
ing individual, as the basis for a mentality of coop-
erative individualism, has become dominant (e. g.
MARR / FILASTER 2003). In this process, occupation-
al work is still the core of the reality principle be-
cause it is the medium for linking one’s achieve-
ment experiences with social recognition in the life
course.
The concept of socialization has undergone trans-
formations in the past few decades. Theories of
primary socialization and the internalization of
norms and values in childhood and youth have
been losing their dominance, whereas socializa-
tion today is understood as a lifelong process of
productively acquiring the social, cultural and ma-
terial reality (HURRELMANN 2002) through self-re-
flective actions which obtain the character of “self-
socialization” (HEINZ 2002b). These changes in
the theory of socialization follow the process of
social modernization, that is, the increasing au-
tonomy of individuals vis-à-vis direct social con-
trol and traditional values, the de-standardization
of the life course, which is linked to a more or less
ambivalent promise of more autonomy and self-re-
sponsibility.
3.6.6.4 Occupational Socialization: History
and Development of a Concept
The process of occupational socialization became
a field of research in the Social Sciences not be-
fore the end of the 1960s (LÜSCHER 1968; MOORE
1969). Starting points were the sociological con-
cepts social status, role and norms in context with
the formerly prominent theory of structural func-
tionalism. Occupational socialization was regard-
483
ed as a process that occurs within social structures,
a process that has consequences for both the social
personality and the social system. This theoreti-
cal perspective emphasized the occupational and
organizational role demands and rules rather than
the individual’s coping with these expectations.
Consequently, to become familiar with the role ex-
pectations that were linked to an occupation, was
regarded as a precondition for the ↑ occupational
identity. Together with social status and role, the
normative expectations were seen as crucial in the
theory of structural functionalism because the ex-
tent to which they were internalized by the em-
ployees was seen as an indicator of the individu-
al’s ↑ commitment to the ↑ work tasks. This implied
primarily the acceptance of work-time routines,
in-firm authority and achievement standards and
last but not least the readiness to become a loyal
member of the company. Thus, Moore (1969) de-
fined occupational socialization as the learning of
knowledge and abilities as well as the internaliza-
tion of general ↑ work orientations and the norms
specific of an occupation. Even then it was noted
that, because of the permanent change of the occu-
pational structure and of working conditions, oc-
cupational socialization will accompany the entire
employment career (see Adult Socialization).
Since then, the theoretical argument has shifted
from the emphasis on the training for work vir-
tues by control in the context of regulated work-
ing conditions to the ↑ self-organisation of occupa-
tional processes of learning in the context of risky
employment careers (see HEINZ 1995). The reasons
for this change in the notion of occupational so-
cialization, are grounded, on the one hand, on the
changing occupational structure from industrial
production to service work, on the other hand, on
the increased level of education and respective ex-
pectations concerning the scope of action in work
organisations, and last but not least, in a change of
the concept of socialization from a normative role
theory to an interaction and biographical perspec-
tive. This paradigm postulates a dynamic interre-
lationship between personality development, occu-
pational structure, work contexts and employment
experiences.
This theoretical transformation of the socialization
concept in Germany was driven by ↑ longitudinal
484
studies about socialization processes in the con-
text of vocational education and training (MAYER /
SCHUMM ET AL. 1981; K RUSE /KÜHNLEIN / MÜLLER
1981) and of employment activities (HOFF / LAPPE /
LEMPERT 1985). These studies first differentiated
blue-collar and white-collar occupations and did
not only accompany career development but also
the way adults dealt with their occupational expe-
riences. The results indicate that occupational so-
cialization leads to a sceptical as well as realistic
perspective of the world of work. This means to ar-
range oneself in one’s own interest with the work
conditions, occupational risks and chances and, at
the same time, to maintain one’s scope of action as
far as possible by flexible strategies of employment
and continuous training.
The short history of research on occupational so-
cialization shows that it makes sense to differenti-
ate this concept from occupational education and
qualification. Whereas occupational education and
training is a more or less methodical and systemat-
ic instruction and promotion of work orientations
and abilities, qualification is the acquisition of oc-
cupational knowledge and skills in the context of
↑ specific training- and learning arrangements. In
contrast, occupational socialization is an inten-
tional but also incidentally occurring process of
active acquisition of beliefs, orientations and com-
petences by which work experience and personal-
ity characteristics are being connected.
3.6.6.5 Socialization Prior to, by and besides
Occupational Work
Today, individual standards of motivation, quali-
ty of work and the employment biography focus
on the “normative subjectivation” (BAETHGE 1994)
of the relationship between the person and work
and develop through processes of occupational so-
cialization. For the analysis of these processes it is
useful to proceed from three related perspectives
(HEINZ 1995; LEMPERT 1998):
(1) Socialization prior to occupational work in
family and school which promotes the acquisition
of values, interests and abilities for certain ↑ occu-
pational fields. These processes lead to occupa-
tional choice, that is to finding an occupation and a
place of occupational training in the ↑ labour mar-
ket.
Handbook of TVET Research
(2) Socialization by the occupation. These process-
es focus on the experiences made in the organisa-
tion and ↑ work process which influence the per-
son’s attitudes toward the contents, conditions and
results of work. These experiences have conse-
quences concerning the whole living context in re-
gard to social and political attitudes, identity for-
mation but also in coping with stress at work and
its consequences on private life.
(3) Socialization besides occupation. Due to the
requirement to learn in a lifelong sequence, expe-
riences with ↑ continuing education, retraining and
unemployment as well as biographical ↑ counsel-
ling (for instance coaching) are becoming impor-
tant aspects of occupational socialization.
Studying processes of occupational socialization is
of great importance for the politics and practice of
VET if it can clarify how subjective work capaci-
ty, occupational beliefs and training requirements
get connected in the changing economic, technical
and organisational conditions of work. Of special
importance is the clarification of the relationship
between skills, personal and social competenc-
es which is subjected to different constellations of
learning in the wake of changing work conditions.
For quite some time the ↑ occupational skills and
the internalized normative orientations were the
focus of research. In view of the implementation
of new rationalization processes in work organisa-
tions and the cutting down of work places, self-re-
sponsibility, the willingness to develop one’s com-
petences and to participate in the development of
organisations gains in significance on all three lev-
els of occupational socialization.
3.6.6.6 Theories of Occupational
Socialization
For the investigation of socialization prior to, by
and besides occupational work it is necessary to
connect approaches from social, personality and
work psychology on the one hand, and the soci-
ology of occupations, organisations and the life
course (see HEINZ 1995; LEMPERT 1998) on the oth-
er. In the next section, elements of an integrative
theory about occupational socialization will be
sketched.
(1) Role theory: The sociological theory of roles
defines occupations from the point of view of so-
Areas of VET Research
cial norms and skill demands of companies. Occu-
pational roles are not just related to the company
but they also refer to societal standards of achieve-
ment and values which also concern the social sta-
tus of the employee. According to role theory, the
main objective for socialization is the social shap-
ing of motivation, abilities and orientations which
are instrumental for working in defined occupa-
tions. Thus, the outcome of occupational socializa-
tion is the social integration into the work process
through a high degree of association between indi-
vidual motives and the qualification and achieve-
ment requirements (cf. JOAS 1991).
(2) Subject-oriented theories: The interrelationship
between social structures and individual qualifica-
tions contributes to the societal constitution of oc-
cupations (BOLTE / TREUTNER 1983). In socialization
processes, different combinations of skills become
connected with the work capacities of individuals.
Learning a certain occupation, however, the access
to other combinations of skills are blocked or at
least made difficult. The reason for this is that the
access to occupational positions is subject to so-
cial selections which reproduce societal inequali-
ty, for instance, when manual skill profiles are be-
ing separated from symbolic and planning skills.
Thus, the subject-oriented notion of occupational
socialization concentrates on the question which
programmes of human development, in the sense
of options of subjective ↑ commitment to the vari-
ous occupations, are implied. Therefore, it is well
suited to analyze the extent to which individual
claims concerning work and biographical projects
are promoted or restricted by certain types of oc-
cupational work (cf. K EUPP /AHBE / GMUER ET AL.
1999).
(3) Psychological theories of learning and action:
Here the demands concerning the regulation of
actions which are embedded in the ↑ work tasks,
are emphasized. According to Hacker (1986b) and
Volpert (1987c), each work task can be classified
by the extent to which it provides opportunities to
regulate one’s activities. Accordingly, partial work
activities and restrictive conditions restrict the em-
ployees’ chances of developing their personalities,
to participate in the work organisation, and may
impact negatively on their psychological ↑ well-be-
ing. The ↑ action theory emphasizes that personal-
485
ity development can be promoted when all levels
of regulation in the work activities are implicated.
This concept is based on the cognitive psycholo-
gy of learning and human development and can be
supplemented by the notion of self-efficacy (BAN-
DURA 1997), because it adds the individual ↑ com-
mitment to the work activities. The subjective as-
sessment of self-efficacy in coping with the work
demands differ according to the levels of regula-
tion that are implied in one’s work activities. If in-
dividual goals can be achieved and self-efficacy is
perceived, which result from successful work ac-
tivities and social recognition, occupational self-
motivation is possible.
(4) Occupational habitus: When there is a close
connection between family, school and employ-
ment, the outcome may be an “occupational habi-
tus”. According to Windolf (1981), following the
social theories of Pierre Bourdieu (e. g. 1988), the
habitus is a stable system of internalized rules of
action which not only serve to adapt to the world
of work, but also influence social attitudes as well
as self-concept. Learning and practicing an oc-
cupation leads to a similar habitus; people share
patterns of thinking and evaluating as well as of
action. This concept has been used primarily in
connection with the occupational socialization of
members of the ↑ professions (e. g. medical doc-
tors, lawyers, architects), to characterize the tradi-
tional types of the wage worker and the civil serv-
ant.
(5) Interaction between occupational work and
personality: By socialization processes prior to,
by and besides work, people develop patterns of
identity which tend to be reinforced in interaction
with other members of the work organisations. Ac-
cording to Hoff (1994) personality development
has to be investigated from the perspective of so-
cial interaction, as mutual relationship between the
structures of training and work on the one hand
and the personality structures, shaped by pre-vo-
cational socialization on the other. Thus, past in-
teraction processes result in a range of interrela-
tionships between occupational work and person-
ality development. The formation and stability of
identity are influenced by the continuity and dis-
continuity of the employment career, the lifestyle
and the criteria for accepting or rejecting different
486
work conditions. The erosion of the standard work
conditions, the reduction of continuous full-time
employment as consequences of organisational re-
structuring and lay-offs, confront many employees
with the requirement to upgrade their skill profile
in order to minimize the increasing risks of their
employment biography (see BECK 1986; BROCK
ET AL. 1989). Important insights into the ↑ dynam-
ics of occupational socialization as a mutual in-
teraction between work experiences and person-
ality development resulted from studies conduct-
ed by Wolfgang Lempert’s research team (HOFF /
LEMPERT / LAPPE 1991). For characterizing the work
situation and its interaction potential the most im-
portant dimensions are the scope of action and the
extent to which work activities are self-directed;
depending on this context, personalities develop
different kinds of control consciousness and levels
of moral judgement.
(6) Occupational biography and self-socialization:
Due to increasing de-standardization of the em-
ployment career, actively shaping one’s occupa-
tional biography becomes the main challenge: To
take oneself as point of reference (KOHLI 1994).
Persons are required to search for new connecting
links for orientation on the ↑ labour market and the
restructuring of firms (HEINZ 2002b). In order to
cope with discontinuities in the work life course,
it becomes necessary to develop not only occu-
pational competences but also modes of shaping
one’s occupational biography which support the
person in responding to the changing work de-
mands and employment conditions. According to
a ↑ longitudinal study with young skilled workers
in Germany (WITZEL /KÜHN 2000), occupational
experiences and stock-taking are characterized by
different modes of shaping one’s biography: “sta-
tus arrangement”, “career-management” and “au-
tonomy gain”.
3.6.6.7 Changing Work Conditions and Skill
Profiles
With new ↑ information and communication tech-
nologies and flexible forms of work organisation
the focus of occupational socialization shifts from
skills and qualifications to subject-based compe-
tences of action because specific ↑ occupational
skills and abilities must be connected with knowl-
Handbook of TVET Research
edge concerning the ↑ work process, organisation-
al systems and social competences (DEUTSCHMANN
2002). Flexible work and insecure employment ca-
reers require that the person develops a series of
↑ key competences which overlap specific occu-
pations (see MERTENS 1974; HEINZ 1995): Person-
al flexibility as readiness to adapt to new learning
requirements and work contents; cognitive com-
petence as ability to solve problems by thinking
ahead and constructing hypotheses; technical sen-
sibility as coordinated knowledge about functional
relationships which permit adequate interventions
into the work process; self-responsibility as read-
iness to carry through ↑ work tasks in a responsi-
ble and independent way; and more and more im-
portant, an entrepreneurial mentality and having
the competence to take on risks and market one’s
competences.
For the employees, these competence profiles de-
termine how they assess the opportunities to use
their skills in changing work situations and em-
ployment careers and how they respond to stress
at work and risks of occupational discontinuity.
The company, however, expects that its employees
connect their occupational skills and knowledge
with organisational and management competenc-
es in order to efficiently coordinate work process-
es and customer relations. These potentially con-
tradicting expectations suggest that employees use
their extended and more risky scope of action in a
way that they anticipate changes of work and ca-
reer prospects and to make up for discontinuities.
This means to be able to function in flexible pat-
terns of cooperation and in different work envi-
ronments without permanent crises of orientations
and identity.
The spread of service work and especially of part-
time employment concerns particularly the occu-
pational socialization of women. The gender-spe-
cific division of labour in VET and in the employ-
ment system continue to channel the occupational
pathways of women, most of whom are employed
in the person-centred service sector. Their social-
ization prior to and by occupational experiences
concern occupational sectors which require a spe-
cial elasticity in reconciling family life and paid
employment (HOFF 1990). Companies act accord-
ingly and recruit primarily women for temporary
Areas of VET Research
or part-time employment which excludes them
from moving into higher level positions and ↑ con-
tinuing education and training (HOCHSCHILD 2002;
K RÜGER 2003).
3.6.6.8 Occupational Socialization and
Employment Biography
According to the sequence model, socialization
prior to, by and besides occupational work, learn-
ing processes accompany the entire occupational
biography: Starting with anticipatory socialization
in family and school, which inform occupational
choice, vocational or academic education, applica-
tions and selection for certain positions and work
places, up to retraining in the context of changing
↑ labour markets and work organisations, changing
occupations and companies, unemployment and
re-entering the labour market.
The work and career beliefs of the younger gen-
eration are based on the socialization experiences
in family and school as pre-occupational orienta-
tions. They influence personal interests and claims
concerning work and employment. Level of educa-
tion and occupational training in the ↑ dual system
in college or university focus on different ranks of
↑ occupational status. Occupational choice is sub-
ject to societal structures of inequality, though its
image suggests a decision concerning one’s occu-
pation according to wishes and capacities. This,
however, is only part of the story because the re-
lationship of socialization and selection on the la-
bour market remains implicit. The social determi-
nants of access to certain occupations and other
options are independent of personal wishes and ex-
pectations. They result from human resource strat-
egies of companies and the welfare and labour-
market policies of the state. In contrast to the as-
sumption that young persons keep to their prefer-
ences and unrealistic expectations, results of ↑ lon-
gitudinal studies (HEINZ /K RÜGER / RETTKE ET AL.
1987; K EUPP /AHBE / GMUER ET AL. 1999) document
that occupational choice quite often is character-
ized by an early exclusion of youth from many oc-
cupational sectors, according to their level of edu-
cation, their social origin, as well as gender. As re-
gards the transition into the employment system,
the biographical connection between occupation-
al wishes, vocational education and training and
487
employment has disappeared expecially for those
young people who do not qualify for academic
↑ professions. Youth’s transition experiences im-
pact on socialization processes which refer them
to a restricted range of options on the ↑ labour mar-
ket. Despite these experiences and a heightened
risk consciousness, young adults persist in their
life planning to obtain a qualified occupational
education and training; they emphasize that they
are in charge of the realization of these life plans
which are tied to labour-market ↑ participation. As
a recent longitudinal study in the ↑ US of youth in
transition from ↑ high school to adulthood shows
(MORTIMER 2003), regular and moderate part-time
jobs, which are practised besides school (teenage
work), promote self-esteem, time management, oc-
cupational exploration and even success in college.
Because there is no institutionalized VET in North
America, this kind of occupational self-socializa-
tion can be regarded as a functional equivalent for
the well organized and certified transition patterns
which are typical for German speaking societies
(HEINZ / TAYLOR 2005).
In Germany, VET is the linkage between compe-
tences, work and identity formation. As the core in-
stitution of vocational socialization, it is in charge
of transmitting skills and patterns of orientation
which may stabilize the employment career. In
contrast to the traditional fixation of VET on spe-
cific occupations which are marked off from each
other, templates of skills and work routines, now-
adays, content and practice of training are geared
more and more towards the acquisition of so-
called “↑ key qualifications” or competences. This
trend, for example, is visible in the stepwise inclu-
sion of modern service occupations into the sys-
tem of VET which offers a broad skill base togeth-
er with competences that overlap occupations. De-
spite all these reforms, a growing number of quali-
fied young job starters have to cope with the prob-
lem of developing options and strategies for the
transition into the employment system and adapt-
ing to precarious work. Studies that focus on eco-
nomic, educational and organisational frameworks
of the increasingly difficult transition between ed-
ucation and work underrate the activity potential
and agency which young adults perform accord-
ing to their respective modes of biographical shap-
488
ing when searching for employment and adapting
to unexpected work conditions via processes of
self-socialization. Moreover, they have to adjust to
job requirements which put a premium on social-
ly competent and efficient solving of problems, re-
quirements which the ↑ Dual System of VET has
integrated only quite recently (MÜNK 2002).
With the weakening of organisation of in-company
work, skilled employees are confronted with plan-
ning their employment future in due course:
“With the extended scope of skill utilization, the train-
ing occupations lose clarity and orientation for employ-
ment careers at the same time” (BAETHGE 2001, 61).
This does not apply to all ↑ occupational fields
because the new jobs in the ↑ IT, person-centred
and media service sectors are just beginning to be
turned into occupations with certified standards of
quality and competence profiles. Here, not only so-
cial competences but also ↑ occupational skills and
knowledge are necessary in order to demonstrate
and convince customers of the quality of products
and services.
After the transition into the labour market, occu-
pational socialization becomes more differentiated
because of increasing work experience. The degree
of matching of subjective claims and competenc-
es with the work content and environment become
central in this respect. This creates new criteria for
self-definition and opportunities to develop one’s
identity. As already mentioned, employees have to
deal with ambivalent work experiences in regard to
the technical and organisational rationalization in
manufacturing, services and administration. This
requires a flexible arrangement with changes as
well as the active shaping of work situations and
processes of (re-)qualification. Expectations and
beliefs that were acquired before entering an occu-
pation are still yardsticks of the personal interpre-
tation of work situations and occupational perspec-
tives, together with in-company work experiences
and labour-market events (BAETHGE / HANTSCHE /
PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988; BROCK ET AL. 1989).
As the well-known ↑ comparative studies by Melvin
Kohn and his team (KOHN / SCHOOLER 1983; KOHN /
SLOMCZYNSKI 1990) document, there is a stringent
relationship between social class and the structur-
al imperatives of occupational work. These imper-
atives are connected with the degree of occupa-
Handbook of TVET Research
tional self-direction, the position in the work or-
ganisation and with the risks and opportunities
in one’s employment career. The extent to which
there is autonomy at work activities is the crucial
background for the differentiation of value orienta-
tions, social and political attitudes and the self-es-
teem of the employed. Together with the evidence
of longitudinal research that studied the work ex-
periences of employees over a longer period, we
can conclude that the experiences with self-direct-
ed work lead to intellectual flexibility and to in-
dependent social orientations. This is also true for
the ↑ participation in work-related continuous edu-
cation whose meaningfulness is assessed accord-
ing to the criteria of the individual’s occupational
biography (BOLDER / HENDRICH 2000).
3.6.6.9 Perspectives of Occupational
Socialization
Due to the changing work conditions occupational
socialization is in a transition (BROCK ET AL. 1989;
SENNETT 1998; Heinz 2002b; PONGRATZ / VOSS
2003). The relationship between VET and occupa-
tional careers are being transformed; they become
individualized occupational biographies. Thus, the
investigation of occupational and biographical so-
cialization is not only of theoretical importance, it
also concerns the interrelationship of occupation-
al work and the person regarding the coping with
discontinuous life courses. In order to comprehend
these changes, the notion of occupational self-so-
cialization is introduced because of the more dy-
namic formation of identity and the increasing
pressure on self-management in the design of work
situations and employment careers. This means to
link the study of occupational socialization with
the life-course perspective and to analyze the mu-
tual relationships between occupational structure,
work requirements and personal competence de-
velopment in longitudinal design. Projects of this
kind permit a productive combination of qualita-
tive-interpretative and quantitative-standardized
methods (cf. K LUGE /K ELLE 2001). Such a research
perspective needs a long-term concentration of re-
search personnel and resources which is only pos-
sible in large institutes like the Institute of ↑ La-
bour Market and ↑ Occupational Research (IAB),
Areas of VET Research
the Max-Planck-Institute of ↑ Educational Research
or the German Youth Institute (DJI).
It may sound exaggerated to assume that the per-
manent change of work place, company and occu-
pation has become the norm. However, economic
and organisational rationalization of work and the
flexibilization of employment conditions have led
to new break points in the occupational biography.
In view of the negative consequences of those dis-
continuities on the possibility to participate in so-
ciety, sustainable socialization in regard to iden-
tity formation, labour-market integration and em-
ployment opportunities have become a core task
of lifelong education. For the analysis of occupa-
tional socialization this also calls for investigating
the reasons and consequences of discrepancies be-
tween the images of the “cooperative individual-
ist” and the “entrepreneurial self”, as well as be-
tween the persons’ opportunities for employment
and skill formation and the action competences.
3.6.7 The Development of Moral
Judgement
Wolfgang Lempert
3.6.7.1 The Subject and its Research Context
This chapter introduces and discusses investiga-
tions, which relate to the development of an indi-
vidual’s competence to judge morally and how this
competence can be fostered or inhibited through
processes of learning and work ↑ performance in
non-academic jobs. This places the focus on proc-
esses of social learning, which also influence other
forms of competence development, such as being
able to express compassion or to argue convinc-
ingly for something. The social conditions that en-
able the development of such kinds of competence
form an essential characteristic of vocational train-
ing and the work milieu as well as non-work relat-
ed contexts. Most notably they are an indication of
whether those work and non-work related contexts
function along hierarchical or rather along partici-
patory structures.
489
This chapter relates to a series of other contribu-
tions in this handbook dealing with the following
areas:
– ↑ VET Planning and development (see → 3.4)
– Occupational Work and competence develop-
ment (see → 3.6)
– Shaping teaching and learning in TVET (see
→ 3.7)
– Shaping work and technology (see → 3.8)
– Evaluation, ↑ quality development and assurance
(see → 5.4)
– Methodological aspects (see → 5.1)
– ↑ Experimental research designs (ERD) in voca-
tional Education (see → 5.3.3)
Being able to articulate a moral judgement does
not only influence how an individual acts in work
contexts, but also in other spheres of life. Hence,
moral judgements also – and even in the first place
– form part of research areas other than vocational
education research, research of developmental psy-
chology and îsocialisation research in particular.
Investigations that aim at assessing how individu-
als achieve the ability to formulate moral judge-
ments differ from the above-mentioned areas of
vocational education research in their orientation
towards a particular theoretical concept. This con-
cept was developed by the ↑ US-American philoso-
pher, psychologist and educationalist Lawrence E.
Kohlberg (1927–1987) and further elaborated by
numerous other social scientists (see KOHLBERG /
ALTHOF 1995/1996; OSER /ALTHOF 1992). From
research of developmental psychology and (al-
so compare with) socialisation research the field
stands out simply because it concentrates on occu-
pational contexts and work-related phenomena.
3.6.7.2 Notional Clarifications
I conceptualise ‘moral’ as the regulation, coordi-
nation and evaluation of acting according to social
norms that individuals establish and – although of-
ten disobeyed – members of the social group hold
on to and define as being ‘right’.
‘Right’ in this context means that individuals, who
accept those norms and act accordingly are re-
spected as a person by their peers and valued as a
member of the respective collective by others and
also in their own view.
490
Not accepting or disobeying such norms gener-
ates in other people expressions of disapproval and
contempt, which (typically) evokes a feeling of in-
feriority in the ‘sinner’ (see LUHMANN 1989).
‘Moral competence’ relates to the ability to sug-
gest solutions in cases of social conflicts and being
able to justify these solutions in ways that all those
involved as well as external observers can accept
them – given that all these people are willing to lis-
ten to rational arguments.
‘Rational’ arguments are arguments the univer-
sal moral principles of which everybody can agree
to – such as justice, thoughtfulness, truthfulness,
tolerance and respect for human dignity – which
are applied to other situations, contexts, people or
reactions and adjusted in a differentiated manner
(see KOHLBERG /ALTHOF 1995/1996).
According to Kohlberg, developing the ability to
express moral judgements follows a discontinuous
process over three levels – the pre-conventional,
conventional and post-conventional level – each of
which has two stages. Whether a higher stage can
be reached sooner or later depends on the contex-
tual factors and whether those are favourable or
rather unfavourable. The transition from the fourth
to the fifth stage – that is passing from the con-
ventional to the post-conventional level – typically
occurs after adolescence. The sixth stage is rather
of theoretical nature than an empirical reality. It
could hypothetically be observed if a ‘normal’ in-
dividual had not been taught any moral-philosoph-
ical principles at all.
Kohlberg’s model of developmental stages is based
on three extensive (see KOHLBERG 1958) ↑ longitu-
dinal studies, of which the longest covered more
then two decades. These studies provided the basis
for him to continuously adjust and modify his re-
sults. His definition of the six stages remains high-
ly controversial to date. He adhered, however, to
the definition of the three levels as well as to the
assumption that individuals can neither jump sev-
eral stages at once, nor can there be any backward
development. He also affirmed that all human be-
ings – beyond any transition phases or particular
contexts and situations – reason in a more or less
homogeneous way.
Since the unambiguous distinction between the
different stages remains controversial – and be-
Handbook of TVET Research
cause we only know more about the social condi-
tions that facilitate making the transition between
the three different levels, I would here only like
to briefly sketch those three major levels of mor-
al thinking: individuals at the ‘pre-conventional’
level tend to be egocentric and unable to differen-
tiate between subjective/individualistic and inter-
subjective/social principles. A socio-centric per-
spective dominates the ‘conventional’ level with-
out being able to differentiate between particular-
istic principles that are only valid for some social
entities, and universal, generally accepted princi-
ples that apply to everybody. This only occurs at
the ‘post-conventional’ stage. At this level individ-
uals are able to consider and balance both person-
al interests and social needs on the basis of gener-
al principles like justice, thoughtfulness and truth-
fulness.
3.6.7.3 Historical and Current Research
Kohlberg developed his stage model in his PhD
thesis, completed in 1958. He based his ideas on
a study of the Swiss development psychologist
Jean Piaget, which in 1932 had already been pub-
lished under the title “The Moral Judgement of the
Child” (PIAGET 1973). In this study, he described
the development of the child as a transition from
the original heteronomy – an orientation towards
following instructions and role models of authori-
ties – to a first sense of (see KOHLBERG 1958) auton-
omy in terms of independently constructing and
complying with simple moral rules. Kohlberg fur-
ther developed this concept by adapting it to youth
and adolescence. Later on, he, his colleagues, stu-
dents and followers applied and empirically tested
this stage model for all age groups and members
of different cultures – as indicated earlier quite
successfully. Only reaching a precise definition of
the different stages required making adjustments
and modifications, also from a theoretical point of
view.
Initially, Kohlberg investigated the development
of moral judgement and how it manifests in every-
day life, so to say ‘naturally’, without any pedagog-
ic influence or manipulation. Very soon, however,
he piloted some intervention measures in penal in-
stitutions and schools. Those could be considered
↑ pilot projects to systematically foster the devel-
Areas of VET Research
opment of moral judgement. In order to be able to
do so, Kohlberg needed to not just consider an in-
dividual’s psychological preconditions for moral-
cognitive development – that is an individual’s log-
ical – numeric intelligence and the ability to adopt
a social point of view – but also the social condi-
tions and barriers which one would expect to have
a significant influence on the moral development
if those were to be modified or altered. In brief:
in order to be able to purposely (re)direct an indi-
vidual’s moral development he was challenged to
not just describe an individual’s development, but
also to explain it on the basis of socialisation and
↑ education theory. Since the development of moral
judgement extends into adulthood it was also nec-
essary to consider vocational and work-related ex-
periences. Kohlberg took this into account, but on-
ly conducted four retrospective (see his studies)
case studies covering two medical doctors and two
lawyers (these remained unpublished, but are im-
parted through Ann Higgins). Four cases, howev-
er, would not be enough to generalise the results.
Even if retrospective enquiries cover larger sam-
ples, they are not adequate to assess the influence
and possible consequences of social contexts – in-
cluding occupational milieus – on moral think-
ing in a reliable manner. Rather it is necessary to
carry out ↑ longitudinal studies. To date, however,
those are rather scarce. This is not surprising if one
considers the required efforts such kinds of inves-
tigations involve. I will further report on four of
such longitudinal studies, two fieldwork projects
and two intervention projects. The two field stud-
ies represent two methodological alternatives with
their respective advantages and disadvantages,
while the (compare, here, with the studies) inter-
vention studies differ in the first place according
to their investigated sample groups in the ↑ educa-
tional process, that is apprentices compared strain-
ers.
Field studies: Kohlberg’s approach at explana-
tion as well as some subsequent assumptions of
other social scientists – I hereby would like to re-
fer to the studies of Garbarino/ Bronfenbrenner
1986) in particular – were taken up and combined
by the Max Planck Institute for Human Develop-
ment (‘Max-Planck-Institut für Bildungsforsc-
hung’) towards the end of the 1970s and tested, for
491
the first time, through an intensive ↑ longitudinal
study. The study covered the period from 1980 to
1987 and involved 21 young skilled metal work-
ers (HOFF / LEMPERT / LAPPE 1991). It was followed
by another more standardised longitudinal study,
which the University of Mainz conducted between
1989 and 1999 with 174 insurance clerk trainees.
With the help of this latter study it was possible to
further test Kohlberg’s model, resulting in its revi-
sion on the basis of theoretical arguments (BECK /
DRANSFELD / MINNAMEIER / WUTTKE 2002; BIENEN-
GRÄBER 2002). Both projects separately assessed
the influence of pre-vocational, vocational and pri-
vate social conditions on the development of mor-
al judgement.
The guiding hypotheses postulated that the devel-
opment of moral judgement could be fostered by:
– Manifest and severe social problems and con-
flicts;
– Reliable esteem;
– Relaxed communication;
– Participative cooperation;
– Appropriate ascription and acknowledgement of
social responsibility; and
– Room for alternative action and behaviour.
The studies of the Max Planck Institute helped
to substantiate these suppositions except that the
open discussion of social conflicts did not seem to
be a necessary condition for progressing in the de-
velopmental process. The study from the Univer-
sity of Mainz rather confirmed that high esteem,
but also the open discussion of social conflicts,
would particularly foster the development of mor-
al judgement. The other conditions, which were
assumed to potentially foster the development of
moral judgement, were found to have hardly any or
even contradictory effects, while due to theoreti-
cal difficulties the category ‘participative coopera-
tion’ was ultimately abandoned. Furthermore, the
studies revealed inconsistent forms of moral judge-
ments and surprisingly fast progressions and set-
backs, all of which contradicted Kohlberg’s theo-
retical assumptions and empirical findings.
The studies conducted by the University of Mainz
failed to reliably test the more differentiated hy-
potheses of Bienengräber, according to which the
five remaining theoretically-relevant social condi-
tions would not influence the competence to judge
492
morally in general, but only some particular struc-
tural elements of this competence (as well as some
of the psychological conditions of those structural
elements). Bienengräber developed his hypotheses
only after the empirical phase of data collection
had already started. Improving the reliability of
those studies had required modification of some of
the applied variables. This, however, was not pos-
sible, because such modification would have limit-
ed the comparability of the annual survey data.
That the results of both studies differed consider-
ably can probably be attributed to their different
methodological procedures (see → 3.6.7.5).
Although only weakly supported by the study of
the University of Mainz, one result of the studies
that the Max Planck Institute conducted seems to
be particularly relevant for vocational education re-
search: as some of the initial hypotheses suggest-
ed, the development of moral judgement in some
cases could primarily be explained by the charac-
teristics of the variables that concerned the voca-
tional training and/or work environment.
The two intervention projects were only indirect-
ly targeted at enhancing the level of moral reason-
ing. They are, however, worth mentioning, because
they led the way out of a one-way ↑ research strat-
egy that the direct reference to moral judgement
was in danger of taking. The moral psychologist
Fritz Oser from Fribourg initiated and led both
studies.
Schläfli (1986) documented in detail the first
project, a two weeks intensive course with 50 ap-
prentices of a major Swiss bank. The control group
was comprised of 21 apprentices of the same com-
pany. Both courses were characterised by a series
of ↑ learning targets and concrete steps to achieve
those targets. Those were – as already mentioned
– not directly related to the assessment of develop-
mental progress in terms of moral judgement, be-
cause the project partners did not assume that such
a progress could be achieved within weeks. Rath-
er it would take several years before the impact of
such an intervention displayed. Consequently, the
emphasis was placed on some basic intrapersonal
prerequisites that could easily be communicated to
potentially foster the development of moral judge-
ment. The following strategies were applied:
Handbook of TVET Research
– Explaining and exchanging information on rele-
vant mental, social and moral dimensions (for ex-
ample, concerning Kohlberg’s stage model).
– Structured and guided discussions relating to a
work-based or private, realistic or hypothetical di-
lemma – that is, experienced or invented unsolva-
ble conflicts.
– Realisation and comparisons.
– Assessing and critically reviewing personal val-
ue structures.
– Open group and plenary discussions.
– Map exercises, role-playing and other group ex-
ercises.
Those strategies can be interpreted as a means of
trying to create an enabling environment that fos-
ters the development of moral judgement, but of
which the ↑ effectiveness is yet to be verified. As-
signing responsibilities, however, was one element
that was fully considered.
Despite the intensive courses’ relatively short du-
ration, four out of three project targets could be
achieved. Even at a second point of intervention,
which took place a half year later, the participants
showed a more pronounced awareness and ability
to manage conflicts and to engage in discussions
and problem-solving. They also showed a stronger
interest in social and general higher values than in
the pre-tests, which took place before the intensive
course. All participants had also changed their at-
titudes towards the course in that they now appre-
ciated the course, while in the beginning they were
rather indifferent or even disapproving.
The second îintervention study was aimed at en-
hancing the ability of Austrian teachers to man-
age conflict situations in class. Latent or open con-
flicts should not only be better handled, but also
resolved. Among other objectives, it was expect-
ed that students would increase their communica-
tion skills and learn more effectively due to a more
peaceful classroom setting. Oser’s (1998) pub-
lished final report of this study carried the some-
what inscrutable and provocative title “Ethos – the
humanisation of success”. Like all the other stud-
ies, this advanced training course for teachers was
also conducted, scientifically monitored and evalu-
ated during the 1980s. It was based on comprehen-
sive preparatory studies with Swiss teachers and
students to test the interview procedures, guide-
Areas of VET Research
lines and questionnaires. These preparatory stud-
ies brought new insights concerning:
– The kinds of conflicting responsibilities, which
teachers experience in their working life, namely
justice, thoughtfulness and truthfulness.
– The kinds of decisions teachers can resort to in a
conflict situation.
These preparatory studies helped to develop a scale
of five different forms of decision making:
(1) Avoidance: Renouncing any kind of reaction
and rejecting any kind of responsibility.
(2) Safeguarding or delegation: Accepting respon-
sibility, but only to a minimum degree by acting
according to the least minimum requirements as
specified by law, for example.
(3) Unilateral decision: The teacher decides on
his/her own, without consulting with the students
or even considering their opinions.
(4) Discourse I: The students are invited to partici-
pate and express their ideas, but are not allowed to
decide.
(5) Discourse II: After a discussion there follows
some kind of reconciliation by voting. The vote of
the teacher does not rank higher and cannot over-
rule the students’ votes.
The role of the teacher, then, is to assess the weight
and scope of potential conflicts and opt for the
most adequate form of decision making respec-
tively (number 1–5). Rather than actively interven-
ing, the teacher instead facilitates the discussion
and decision-making process.
Although an agreement can probably only be
reached when following ‘discourse II’, this proce-
dure seems to be particular appropriate in the case
of severe conflicts that do not over-challenge the
students. However, teachers tend to underestimate
the students’ capacities for problem solving. Typi-
cally they are not aware that the students are quite
familiar with most kinds of conflicts at school.
Moreover, some ‘trust in advance’ can have a moti-
vating effect that positively influences the students’
learning, ↑ commitment and sense of responsibili-
ty. According to Oser, determining what kind of
decision-making procedure is the most appropri-
ate one presents a challenging task to teachers. It
requires their sure instinct, which can, however, be
fostered through training (see below).
493
Teachers should be encouraged to follow some ba-
sic rules of discursive moderation of discussions,
because most likely this will not only enhance the
communicative skills of the participants, but – in
the long run and even without any intention of pro-
voking such an outcome – also their ability to ar-
ticulate moral judgements. Challenged by contro-
versial arguments that account for their equal sta-
tus and different developmental stages students
tend to support each other, as long as the teacher
ensures that everybody has their’s say, can express
their opinion (in the first person), stick to the topic,
actively listen to and avoid interrupting others, re-
spect the opinion of others, try to get clarification,
etc. A disciplined method of discussion will also
fulfil all of the social requirements for providing
an enabling environment as specified earlier.
Getting back to Oser’s report: if, with such an
approach, the social conflicts can be resolved in
a way that all those participating (or concerned)
are happy with the solution, the learning outcomes
are also likely to improve, because the conflict no
longer attracts the attention of the learners. The ti-
tle of Oser’s book itself “Ethos – the humanisation
of success” alludes to this hypothesis. Concretely
expressed, the learning process can be supported
if the teacher displays some form of ethos. Accord-
ing to Oser, such a form of ethos is neither based
purely on experience, nor does it emerge from ↑ in-
tuition, which some teachers have more than oth-
ers due to hereditary genes, internalised norms,
externalised forces or specific role models. Rath-
er it is based on ↑ professionalism, which can be
learned.
Oser tried to empirically test these suppositions by
implementing a training course with 89 Austrian
teachers, which was designed as a ↑ pilot project.
The participating teachers spread across four dif-
ferent courses. Of those courses one was ethos-
and discourse-oriented, another emphasised a di-
dactical method that would support the students’
independence, one course combined both elements
and a final one was designed as a control group.
Each course consisted of ten sessions, which were
organised as follows: starting with a daily school
situation, analysis, discussion, modelling alter-
native solutions through role playing and dealing
with different tasks that could be linked to one’s
494
own experience of school practice. Each group ap-
plied different methods and social practices.
The central hypothesis suggested that in the ethos
group the orientation towards discursive methods
would rise notably. The results of the final testing
supported this assumption. Even when assessed
several months later the ethos group showed bet-
ter results than in the pre-tests and than all the oth-
er groups at any given point of intervention. More
details on the final overall assessment of these re-
ported studies are presented later in this chapter
(see → 3.6.7.5).
3.6.7.4 Methodological Specificities and
Implications
The development of moral judgement is typically
assessed by confronting individuals with a stand-
ardised dilemma relating to different spheres of
life. The dilemma consists of confronting an indi-
vidual with at least two conflicting norms or mor-
al principles, which are further specified by stand-
ardised follow-up questions to scrutinise the par-
ticipants’ reactions. With the help of an evaluation
manual these reactions are documented and an-
alysed later on. Each dilemma presented is clas-
sified according to a scale, which makes it possi-
ble to combine the different results into one value.
This one value can represent the results in different
formats expressed, for example, by an arithmetic
mean, a mode or the highest developmental stage
that can be represented by a particular statement of
any of the participants. The moral judgements that
the participants expressed – the so-called ↑ per-
formance – is classified and linked to the partici-
pants’ underlying ability and competence to judge
morally.
The existing assessment tools vary, in the first
place, in terms of:
– The areas and contexts that the dilemma ad-
dresses;
– How close the presented dilemma is to conflicts
that the participants actually experience;
– The degree of standardisation of possible re-
sponses. These can vary from open to semi-stand-
ardised or fully-standardised responses or multi-
ple-choice tests.
– Whether the dilemma and follow-up questions
are presented orally or in a written format. The ex-
Handbook of TVET Research
treme examples would be interviews on the one
hand, and standardised questionnaires on the other
hand.
The latter two differences in particular imply a dif-
ferent level of validity; only open interview ques-
tions encourage the participants to use their full
range of moral-cognitive competences and to sug-
gest and justify a conflict solution that, in their
view, all participants can agree to. By contrast,
making a decision by marking alternative, stand-
ardised responses primarily appeals to the partic-
ipants’ comprehension of the dilemma and, even
most likely, only to their preference for a stage-
specific justification.
The most commonly applied assessment tools are:
(1) The Moral-Judgement Interview (MJI) devel-
oped by Kohlberg and his associates. It exclusive-
ly relates to dilemmas of private life, which are
quite remote from experiences of daily life. The
response possibilities are open and not standard-
ised (see KOHLBERG /ALTHOF 1995/1996). For this
interview procedure an evaluation handbook cov-
ering two volumes is available. It comprises liter-
al examples of stage-specific justifications of sug-
gested solutions that refer to a concrete dilemma.
This catalogue of stage-specific examples and jus-
tifications can be compared with interview sec-
tions and, under the condition of satisfactory lev-
els of correspondence, be interpreted according to
Kohlberg’s stage model (COLBY/KOHLBERG 1987).
(2) The questionnaire on socio-moral reflection de-
veloped by Gibbs and Widaman (1982; also SRM
– SF by GIBBS / BASINGER / FULLER 1992). It is simi-
lar to the MJI, but the responses are written down.
As well as the MJI, this questionnaire supports the
assessment of moral judgement by categorising in-
dependent or even creative expressions as the abil-
ity to judge morally in a given conflict situation. It
can, however, only be considered an adequate tool
when dealing with participants, who are able and
skilled to express their views in writing.
(3) The Defining-Issues-Test (DIT) developed by
James Rest (1972); and
(4) The Moral-Judgement-Test (MUT) developed
by Georg Lind (1980).
The last two assessment tools are multiple-choice
tests that assess preferences for stage-specific jus-
tifications.
Areas of VET Research
The assessment and evaluation tools of the ↑ lon-
gitudinal studies and their related preparatory and
↑ pilot studies (on the development of moral judge-
ment of teachers and students) that were intro-
duced further above (see → 3.6.7.3) had to be de-
veloped by the project partners themselves. This
is due to the fact that the researchers involved in
these studies were, first of all, interested in how
the individuals of the investigated sample groups
deal with characteristic dilemmas of their daily
life and work environment. With the MUT being
the only exception, the assessment tools available
so far neither presented dilemmas of daily life nor
of the work context. The same applies to the re-
lated evaluation tools: The example expressions
and statements that appear in the evaluation manu-
als are dilemma specific. Since it is not possible to
transfer or adopt them to other dilemma situations,
they cannot be used to analyse arguments and jus-
tifications that relate to other contexts (see SPANG /
LEMPERT 1989).
3.6.7.5 Problems and Prospects
The empirical and analytical investigations and in-
tervention projects presented thus far introduced
possible alternative ↑ research approaches, but also
pointed to some apparent problems. This suggests
that the linear continuation of previous research
can be considered to be somewhat problematic and
that some re-orientation is required and needed.
(1) So far we only know very little about the condi-
tions that foster the development of the ‘right’ type
of moral judgement based on general, consent-
oriented principles. Moreover, realising what is
‘right’ does not, as such, lead to and guarantee ad-
equate action. We do not know which internal and
external factors help to translate insight and under-
standing into concrete actions. Shedding light on
this process should be one of the first tasks of fu-
ture research on moral judgement.
(2) The overall findings and results of the empir-
ical and analytical investigations presented are
rather poor despite the great efforts and time, ma-
terial and personal resources involved. Investigat-
ing the socio-genesis of (vocational) moral atti-
tudes could postulate a methodological dilemma
that is difficult to resolve and that may be consid-
ered quite common in psycho-social research con-
495
texts. In some cases we might have a relatively
small sample and non- or semi-standardised meth-
ods and assessment tools, which support an inten-
sive qualitative investigation based on interpretive
understanding and analysis. The study, conducted
by the Max Planck Institute with skilled workers
represented this approach, which typically produc-
es findings of high validity and to a great extent
compatible with theoretical assumptions, but not
representative. In other cases – like the study with
apprentices conducted by the University of Mainz
– the samples are larger, data collection is highly
standardised and the findings are more (quantita-
tively) representative, but still cannot be general-
ised due to their low validity. The future will show
whether it is possible to gain greater insight with
ever-smaller samples, or smaller insight with ever-
larger samples, or whether these are specious alter-
natives and whether we ultimately have to come to
an intelligent combination of both ↑ research tra-
ditions as has been achieved in research into life
course and biography (see K LUGE /K ELLE 2001).
(3) As concerns vocational practice, the research
results, however, should not be undervalued. The
observed problems of empirical ↑ research strate-
gies are in the first place problematic in terms of
conforming with Kohlberg’s stage model of moral
judgement and adopting it to vocational and work-
related contexts. The described ↑ pilot projects as
such, however, are rather sound. The complexity
of the intensive course for bank clerk apprentices,
for example, was not even expected to confirm a
direct effect on improving the participants’ stage
development in the Kohlberg sense. Rather it had a
significant and lasting impact on other dimensions
such as the establishment and acceptance of rules
and habits of discursive practice. The objective of
the teacher training course went in a similar direc-
tion by emphasising how a discursive habit can be
initiated in severe conflict situations in school and
how a regulated discursive approach can help to
resolve such conflicts. As already mentioned, the
‘ethos group’, which concentrated on improving
the teachers’ professional competence in initiating
and guiding a moral-oriented discourse in school
classes, scored higher than all other participating
groups. In these studies, Kohlberg’s stages of de-
velopment did not at all form part of the courses’
496
contents, targets or learning objectives. Here, the
stage model was only used as a diagnostic tool to
test possible connections and correlations between
particular target variables.
(4) Based on these reasons, and because the defi-
nitions of the six development stages of the model
are rather controversial, it would be advisable only
to apply Kohlberg’s psycho-developmental model
for particular investigations of basic research. This
means not to apply Kohlberg’s evaluation scale any
more to any kind of supportive interventions and
only to carefully use it for psychological and ped-
agogical research. It seems much more appropri-
ate in the framework of educational and vocation-
al practice and vocational education research. Re-
lating to vocational learning practice the ability to
engage in a discursive process should be strength-
ened more than the development of moral judge-
ment would, because the first one is much easier to
identify than the latter, and by focusing on devel-
oping discursive competence the ability to judge
morally is also enhanced without putting an extra
effort into achieving this. Discursive competence
seems to be more flexibly applicable, while at the
same time resulting in an equally effective poten-
tial for problem solving and conflict management.
But this competence is more universally applica-
ble and hence more relevant in terms of concrete
actions.
The competence of moral judgement and discur-
sive competence can be considered forms of com-
municative competence. When it comes to investi-
gating and supporting this competence, a new pri-
oritisation should strengthen the discursive, dia-
logue-oriented competence instead of the mono-
logue-oriented ability.
3.6.8 Vocational Identity
Sabine Raeder
3.6.8.1 Vocational Identity in the Context of
Change
Due to the current changes in the world of work
and the increasingly necessary flexibility, identity
has re-emerged as a subject for discussion. Critics
Handbook of TVET Research
like Richard Sennett (1998) doubt that people suc-
ceed in developing a sound identity, if they face the
demand to act highly flexibly in their working life.
Sennett points to the fragility and aimlessness of
individual schemes of life, which are determined
by economic development and uncertain employ-
ment opportunities. Such a critique is implicit-
ly based on the assumptions of classical identity
theories like that of Erikson (1959). These assume
that a self-definition achieved in adolescence is a
prerequisite for an identity construction remaining
coherent during adulthood. Identities that contin-
ue to develop through adulthood do not conform
to the normative assumption of lifelong continu-
ity and are therefore not perceived as sound. Con-
trary to these traditional assumptions researchers
like Keupp et al. (1999) and Rattansi and Phoe-
nix (1997) regard the development of such identity
constructions as necessary and as opening up new
opportunities.
In this chapter I aim to define ↑ vocational identi-
ty as the result of a lifelong process of interaction
between work and identity (cf. HOFF 1994). Stabil-
ity and continuity in one’s occupation are not sup-
posed to be prerequisites for the development of a
sound identity. Consequences derived for VET re-
fer to such processes of defining one’s identity and
relating to work. On the one hand, VET should of-
fer assistance in the continuous process of rede-
fining one’s ↑ vocational identity and reorienting in
the field of occupation. On the other hand, it should
indicate options of linking occupation and educa-
tion to one’s identity definition.
In this chapter I present four approaches towards
researching vocational identity: social identity, life
context, biographical and psychological approach-
es. All approaches capture important aspects of
identity in work contexts, but none succeeds in in-
tegrating all relevant aspects to a comprehensive
approach. My aim is to show the strengths and lim-
itations of all the approaches and to argue for more
integrative research.
3.6.8.2 Definition
The terms ‘identity’ and ‘↑ vocational identity’ are
applied in a variety of contexts. In order to present
an unambiguous definition, despite the existing va-
riety in the use of these terms, I refer to a psycho-
Areas of VET Research
logically motivated concept of personal identity
and derive vocational identity from this concept.
One of the advantages of the psychological defi-
nition is that it focuses on the person and personal
experience, while other approaches concentrate on
the interrelation of person and work context with-
out clearly picturing the individual. The psycho-
logical approach permits the analysis of work-re-
lated self-perceptions.
Frey and Hausser (1987) understood personal iden-
tity as the “self-reflexive process of an individual”
(4). In this self-reflexive process individuals de-
velop a structure based on their experiences and
establish relations between these experiences. A
“system of relations” (7) called identity develops.
An isolated self-related cognition or self-descrip-
tion is therefore only one aspect of the whole iden-
tity.
Hausser (1995; see also RAEDER / GROTE 2007) sug-
gested a structural model of personal identity com-
prised of three dimensions: self-concept, self-es-
teem and ↑ locus of control. The dimension self-
concept is further divided into the aspects:
– Biographical continuity,
– Ecological consistency,
– Consequence in the relation of attitudes and be-
haviour,
– Authenticity in the relation of emotion and be-
haviour,
– Individuality and
– Equality.
As defined by Hausser, vocational identity relates
to one sphere of life and is therefore one part of a
whole personal identity. This structural model is
embedded in a process model, defining identity de-
velopment as a continuing process of generalisa-
tion and specification of identity-relevant experi-
ences. The frequently-voiced critique that identity
development is understood as a process that ends
with adolescence (i.e. K EUPP 1997) can thus be tak-
en into account. Identity development can be ex-
tended to adulthood.
In the context of changes in work and careers the
dimension ↑ locus of control and the aspects of the
self-concept biographical continuity and ecologi-
cal consistency prove to be important. The dimen-
sion of locus of control refers to decision and con-
trol in ongoing processes. The aspects of biograph-
497
ical continuity and ecological consistency reflect
Erikson’s main identity concerns. In the context of
work-related changes, the golden thread of occupa-
tion does not guarantee continuity any more. Con-
sistency between spheres of life is questioned, if
people are confronted with contradictory behav-
ioural demands in different life contexts and if they
are urged to focus on their occupation, e. g. invest-
ing time for enhancing their qualification. Paral-
lels between these identity dimensions and the di-
mensions chosen by the empirical approaches to
be presented will be shown. Starting from Hauss-
er’s definition of identity I seek to show the variety
in concepts and empirical approaches researching
↑ vocational identity.
3.6.8.3 Social Identity Approaches to
Vocational Identity
Social Identity Theory (e. g. ELLEMERS / SPEARS /
DOOSJE 2002) captures vocational identity as iden-
tification with an ↑ occupational field or affilia-
tion to a social or professional group (e. g. DICK /
WAGNER 2002). Identification represents the social
identity component. The terms vocational identity
and identification or ↑ commitment are used syn-
onymously. They serve to describe the relation be-
tween person and occupation.
The European research team FAME defined voca-
tional identity as identification with the job and the
↑ profession (BROWN /K IRPAL / RAUNER 2007; K IR-
PAL 2004b). The acronym FAME stands for Vo-
cational Identity, ↑ Flexibility and ↑ Mobility in
the European ↑ Labour Market. The FAME team
analysed vocational identities while considering
the context of vocational education and training,
historical development and economic features.
The sample consisted of employees and employ-
ers from seven European countries. The study re-
sulted in a continuum of forms of work identities
leading from a classical to a flexible, individual-
ised work identity. The classical form was char-
acterised by high identification with the compa-
ny and the work task. People of the classical form
perceived work-related changes as a threat owing
to a lack of personal resources like qualification,
motivation or self-esteem. People belonging to the
flexible identity form made use of flexibility and
competence development for achieving their goals.
498
Commitment towards the company or the occupa-
tion was subordinated to these goals. Many study
participants developed forms of adaptation to flex-
ibility demands lying between these poles of the
continuum. The FAME team recommended that
VET should support people in developing trust in
the acquired skills and in assuming responsibili-
ty for one’s own career development (→ 3.6.1). Be-
sides professional skills, VET should train meth-
ods skills and social skills, enhance process-relat-
ed learning and provide support and orientation in
learning and developmental processes.
In their skill-related approach Mieg and Wo-
schnack (2002) regarded vocational identity as
the subjective perception of work skills. Mieg and
Woschnack surveyed environmental experts con-
cerning their professional experiences and exper-
tise. Applying Hausser’s conceptual dimensions
of self-concept, self-esteem and locus of control,
they measured cognitive, evaluating and deductive
components of professional skills (→ 3.6.9). The
authors depicted a process that is related to the per-
son and to the occupation, but confined to skill-re-
lated aspects. The system of relations of Frey and
Hausser (1987) was analysed in certain aspects
and not in reference to the whole person.
These social identity approaches towards voca-
tional identity have succeeded in providing a thor-
ough description of the context in which person-
al identities develop and in showing how context
and identities relate to one another. Such knowl-
edge about continuous processes provides crucial
information for VET, which may be applied in or-
der to assist people to manage their own identifica-
tion process with their profession and work. Corre-
sponding recommendations were developed in the
FAME project. VET has to consider that changes
take place as a consequence of individual devel-
opmental processes as well as a response to exter-
nal demands.
3.6.8.4 Life Context Approaches to
Vocational Identity
Baethge, Hantsche, Pelull and Voskamp (1988) an-
alysed the identity of adolescents in the transition
from education to occupation (→ 4.6). The authors
developed four types of life styles, which show
the relative importance of different spheres of life
Handbook of TVET Research
in adolescents’ lives. The resulting types are: the
work-oriented ↑ life concept, the life concept with
balance between work and private life, the fami-
ly-oriented life concept with subordinated impor-
tance of work and the leisure-oriented life concept
with substantial ↑ distance to work. The authors
define the individual life concept as being synony-
mous with identity. From a psychological perspec-
tive, the personal interpretation of the life concept
would be necessary for understanding personal
identity constructions.
In their research on the ideal type of the “entreploy-
ee”, Pongratz and Voß (2003; VOSS / PONGRATZ
1998) emphasised that changes in work and in atti-
tudes towards work affect personal identities. They
conceptualised the ideal type within the dimen-
sions of self-control, self-commercialisation and
self-rationalisation. Self-control refers to the ne-
cessity to self-reliantly plan, control, and monitor
one’s work. Self-economisation requires the “en-
treployee” to actively produce his work potential
and to sell it to internal or external clients. Self-ra-
tionalisation signifies the self-determined organi-
sation of time allocation between work and private
life. Limits between spheres of life have to be han-
dled flexibly and working time may spill over in-
to private time. In their qualitative study of 60 em-
ployees of six companies Pongratz and Voß found
15 people who corresponded to the ideal type of
the entreployee. These people aimed to optimise
their ↑ performance, to autonomously develop their
potential for the ↑ labour market and to flexibly
manage the time allocation between work and pri-
vate life. Pongratz and Voß do not focus on identi-
ty, but show how vocational identities are embed-
ded in the changing work contexts.
Billett (2007) analysed the diverse and contradic-
tory goals of employers and employees concerning
employees’ ↑ participation in a life-long learning
process. He focused on the individual’s motivation
to start such a process. The five individuals who
participated in this study adapted well to trans-
formations in their working life. They succeeded
in developing their sense of self through changes
in their working life and through the interplay of
work and private life. Owing to the small sample
Billet managed to highlight the personal accounts,
which contained identity-related information like
Areas of VET Research
the subjects’ sense of self in the learning and adap-
tation processes.
These life context approaches to ↑ vocational iden-
tity show parallels to Hausser’s identity model and
the self-concept aspect of ecological consistency.
The authors address the compatibility of behav-
ioural demands in different spheres of life: Bae-
thge et al. (1988) as the main theme of the identity
types; Pongratz and Voß as self-rationalisation and
its competitive time allocation between spheres of
life; Billet as focuses on spheres of life – equally
emphasised in ecological consistency.
The results of these studies provide information
on the interaction between external demands and
personal reactions. VET should provide a platform
for communication and personal exchange in order
to strengthen the individuals’ resources for deal-
ing with such demands and finding orientation in
such processes.
3.6.8.5 A Biographical Approach to
Vocational Identity
Based on a biographical approach in a ↑ longitu-
dinal study with adolescents, Heinz (2002a) elab-
orated a typology of six modes of biographical
agency belonging to three categories. The category
Status Arrangement consisted of people who em-
phasised continuity in their career characterised
either by high loyalty to the employer or by look-
ing for job security and a reasonable salary. This
category included the modes of Company Identi-
fication and Wage-Worker Habitus. The catego-
ry of Advancement Ambition consisted of people
who either intended to climb the career ladder or to
gain responsibility without aiming at the next ca-
reer step. The respective modes are those of Career
Orientation and Optimising Chances. The catego-
ry of Autonomy Gain described people who con-
centrated on their development with a focus ei-
ther on their own personality or on setting up their
own business. This category subsumed the modes
of Personal Growth and Self-Employment Habit-
us. These six career types varied in their experi-
ences of discontinuity and flexibility in their life
course. People belonging to the modes of Person-
al Growth and Optimising Chances decided for a
temporary time-out for travelling or learning lan-
guages. People belonging to the modes of Career
499
Orientation and Optimising Chances invested time
in further training or higher education. People be-
longing to the mode of Personal Growth used pe-
riods of unemployment for a vocational reorienta-
tion. Women belonging to the modes of Company
Identification and Wage-worker Habitus interrupt-
ed employment for their family. Heinz presented
one of the few ↑ longitudinal studies. He succeeded
in showing from this longitudinal perspective how
lifestyle and personal desire to make sense of one’s
life interrelate.
The study does not explicitly refer to identity. Par-
allels to the identity dimensions exist due to the
continuity, which is constructed in the course of
one’s career, the compatibility of work and ↑ com-
mitment to non-work activities and the ability to
influence and control one’s ↑ work biography. Con-
trary to a psychological approach, these dimen-
sions are filled with an autobiographical account
instead of a psychological description.
By analysing people’s biographies embedded in
their life context the study offers information for
understanding vocational identities. It shows indi-
vidual development after apprenticeship. Such a
longitudinal design allows for assessing how meas-
ures implemented by VET influence work biogra-
phies and vocational identities.
3.6.8.6 Psychological Approaches to
Vocational Identity
Holland, Daiger and Power (1980) presented the
probably best-known concept of ↑ vocational iden-
tity. They defined vocational identity as “the pos-
session of a clear and stable picture of one’s goals,
interests, personality, and talents” (ibid., 1). Hol-
land et al. distinguished between six identity
types: realistic, investigative, artistic, social, en-
terprising and conventional. Each type is charac-
terised by vocational interests, life goals and val-
ues, self-beliefs and problem solving style. Work
environments correspond to each identity type.
Holland et al. assumed that an optimal fit between
vocational identity and work environment leads to
job success and personal satisfaction. People are
supposed to remain in a congruent occupation de-
spite career changes and work flexibility (GOTT-
FREDSON 1999). Holland’s concept has been wide-
ly applied in vocational counselling. It is based on
500
the normative assumption that clarity of vocational
interests implies higher personal maturity. It fur-
ther assumes that an optimal fit between identity
and work may be achieved. It therefore restricts the
developmental options to one’s identity type. The
concept allows the analysis of the interrelation be-
tween person and work, but it is not as specific as
the social identity approaches.
Identity States
Marcia (1980) expanded Erikson’s (1959) concept
of identity as a phase specific developmental task.
Contrary to Erikson, Marcia assumed that identity
states are not confined to a particulare age and that
someone may pass through a state repeatedly. Thus
identity develops throughout the whole course of
life. People may simultaneously experience differ-
ent identity states in different spheres of life. Mar-
cia focused on occupational choice and position in
working life as well as attitudes towards religion
and politics. He distinguished four identity states:
achieved identity, foreclosure, diffuse identity and
moratorium. He described individuals of these
four identity states in the following way:
“Identity Achievements are individuals who have expe-
rienced a decision-making period and are pursuing self-
chosen occupation and ideological goals. Foreclosures
are persons who are also committed to occupational
and ideological positions, but these have been parental-
ly chosen rather than self-chosen. They show little or no
evidence of ‘crisis’. Identity Diffusions are young people
who have no set occupational or ideological direction,
regardless of whether or not they may have experienced
a decision-making period. Moratoriums are individuals
who are currently struggling with occupational and/or
ideological issues; they are in an identity crisis” (161).
Although Marcia assumed that identity is continu-
ously being reflected upon, he regarded the identi-
ty achieved as the goal of a successful identity de-
velopment. Marcia’s theory therefore normatively
judges identity states.
The Development of Work-Related Locus of
Control
In a ↑ longitudinal study Hoff, Lempert and Lappe
(1991) analysed the development of work-related
↑ locus of control in a sample of skilled workers.
The authors regarded locus of control as a part of
Handbook of TVET Research
one’s personality. Instead of measuring it quantita-
tively, they concentrated – corresponding to identi-
ty research – on the individual development of lo-
cus of control and its integration into the concept
of self. The authors distinguished deterministic lo-
cus of control – internal (events are determined by
the person), external (events are determined by the
situation) and fatalistic (events are determined by
chance or fate) – and interactionist locus of control
(events are determined by an interaction of person
and situation). At the beginning of the study in-
ternal locus of control, additive-deterministic lo-
cus of control (e. g. events are either determined by
the person or the situation) and interactionist locus
of control were equally distributed in the sample,
while few participants expressed a fatalistic locus
of control. In the second wave six years later fatal-
istic locus of control had vanished and five partici-
pants had adopted an additive-deterministic or in-
teractionist locus of control. The authors conclud-
ed that coexisting individual options and situation-
al constraints as well as experiences of conflict fos-
tered the development of an interactionist locus of
control. Hausser (1995) integrated this concept of
an interactionist locus of control into his identity
research. Hoff et al. presented a very focused ap-
proach. They therefore succeed in combing iden-
tity-relevant information with the concise descrip-
tion of the work context as a setting for identity de-
velopment.
Continuity-Oriented and Flexible Identity
Types
Based on those of Hausser’s (1995) identity di-
mensions important for ↑ career changes – i.e. bi-
ographical continuity, ecological consistency and
locus of control – I developed a typology of work-
related identities (RAEDER / GROTE 2004). The ty-
pology was based on qualitative and quantitative
data. The sample consisted of adults from vari-
ous ↑ occupational groups and educational lev-
els. Through a process of communicative valida-
tion (LECHLER 1982) identity was understood in the
qualitative part of the study as subjects’ self-per-
ception. The typology comprised a Continuous, a
Job-Centred, a Critical-Flexible and a Self-Deter-
mined Type. The Continuous Type was character-
ised by the most prominent “golden thread” which
Areas of VET Research
led through the ↑ work biography. The Job-Cen-
tred Type reported the lowest consistency between
the spheres of life often caused by a dominance of
working life. The Self-Determined Type showed a
high internal locus of control, i.e. attributing con-
trol to personal factors, opposed to the interaction-
ist locus of control, i.e. attributing control to situ-
ational and personal factors, which was predomi-
nant in the other types. The identity types differed
in their position in working life. Comparably many
people with a continuous career, as well as manag-
ers, appeared in the Continuous and Job-Centred
Type. In the Critical-Flexible and Self-Determined
Type there were more employees without manage-
rial functions, more employees working in highly
flexible companies and more people who had had a
career change. Opposed to all other types, the Crit-
ical-Flexible Type negatively assessed the flexibil-
ity demands of employers. The results highlighted
the fact that the widely postulated high individual
flexibility does at present not enhance a successful
career. Combining identities and work perceptions
implies an interrelation. The cross-sectional sur-
vey, however, does not allow conclusions about re-
ciprocal interaction processes.
Compared to the first three approaches presented
in this chapter the psychological approach captures
the person and the individual development more
concisely. The dimensions of work and education
remain however – except for the study of Hoff et al.
(1995) – rather abstract. The results emphasise that
VET should offer occasions for discussing such in-
teractions and for reflecting on the personal conse-
quences of stability and change related to work. It
should attempt to mentally prepare people for such
reflection processes.
3.6.8.7 Methodological Issues and
Implications
Many of the studies cited were examining ↑ voca-
tional identity by means of interviews and were re-
lying on small samples. They therefore succeeded
in capturing the references to work and private life
holistically. This is a clear advantage compared to
studies with standardised questionnaires limited to
few identity relevant aspects (cf. HAUSSER 1995).
The methodical approaches insufficiently consid-
ered the conceptual aspects of self-perception and
501
developmental process. It has to be assumed that
the categories for structuring and interpreting the
data selected by the research do not correspond to
categories that the individual would choose for a
self-description. I showed that people accept the
theoretically developed identity categories for de-
scribing their identity (RAEDER / GROTE 2007), but
they probably would choose other means of de-
scribing themselves. There is little knowledge
about the processes of specification and generalisa-
tion, which lead to the development of the individ-
ual identity concept. Longitudinal designs, which
are the method of choice for understanding iden-
tity development were only applied by Hoff et al.
(HOFF / LEMPERT / LAPPE 1991) and Heinz (2002a).
↑ Research designs in future studies should focus
on improving these limitations.
3.6.8.8 Future Directions
In the context of flexibility of work and education,
occupation is assumed to be formed during the
whole course of life. Periods of unemployment and
voluntary or situation-contingent processes of new
orientation may appear. The question how this af-
fects the interrelation between identity, work and
education has not yet been answered by the exist-
ing studies.
Additionally, VET is requested to make options
and prospects for the individual development of
↑ vocational identity visible. Supporting the devel-
opment of the work-related self-definition VET de-
fines alternatives and provides prerequisites, e. g.
professional skills. Such specified options of defin-
ing oneself and one’s occupation help people to im-
agine themselves in a certain occupation or a cer-
tain occupation in their life. The changeability of
this self-definition in the course of life and career
should be taken into account.
It is necessary that measures implemented in VET
and addressed to participants in learning process-
es, which are not yet subject to changes, are eval-
uated. Such an evaluation has to rely on ↑ longitu-
dinal studies in order to assess the impact of these
measures.
502
3.6.9 Professionalisation
Harald A. Mieg
3.6.9.1 Professionalisation as a Notion and a
Social Phenomenon
↑ Professionalisation, in a strong sense, denotes the
transformation of an occupation into a ↑ profes-
sion, that is an occupation with a certain autonomy
in defining and ↑ controlling the standards of the
work of its members. Professionalisation in a wide
sense denotes the transition towards paid work that
is subject to binding ↑ quality standards. In this
wide sense, people and activities can be profes-
sionalised, gaining in ↑ professionalism.
Professionalisation is a main subject of the An-
glo-American sociology of professions that devel-
oped at the beginning of the 20th century. One of
the first milestones was the book by Carr-Saunders
and Wilson (CARR-SAUNDERS / WILSON 1933). The
discussion had long been occupied by the focus on
the medical and legal professions and the attempts
to define professions in contrast to occupations
(→ 2.3). Today, this approach is considered fruit-
less. Not later than the work by Freidson (2001),
research in the sociology of professions turned to-
wards the notion and phenomenon of profession-
alism. Freidson understands professionalism as a
third organisational logic of work besides the mar-
ket logic and the logic of planning or bureaucratic
administration. In contrast to market and planning,
professionalism means the ↑ self-organisation and
self-regulation of experts. Today, Eliot Freidson is
considered to be the main scholar on professions
and the main advocate of today’s professions (FRE-
IDSON 1983; 1986; 1994; 2001).
From a historical point of view, we have to dis-
tinguish two forms of professionalisation: on the
one hand professionalisation “from within”, with
the occupation being the driver and owner of the
process of professionalisation. On the other hand
professionalisation “from above” with the occupa-
tion being subject to governmental regulation. In
England and the ↑ US, the ↑ professions typically
developed “from within” and gained a strong so-
cial status. In Germany and ↑ France, we find the
Continental pattern of ↑ professionalisation: the
main occupations had been shaped “from above”
Handbook of TVET Research
by state defined education programmes and regu-
lations for occupational work. The Anglo-Ameri-
can and Continental forms of professionalisation
were most pronounced in the 19th century (CONZE /
KOCKA 1985). Without taking into account their
historical roots, we would have difficulties under-
standing the difference between the Anglo-Ameri-
can professions and the German freie Berufe or the
French professions liberales. From the historical
perspective, professionalisation is an open-ended
process (cf. MIEG 2003) or a historically traceable
strategy with which an occupation tries to “raise its
economic and social status in a capitalist market
and class society” (SIEGRIST 1985, 329, translated).
Theories of professionalisation have to explain
why particular occupations – the professions –
have gained a relatively extended autonomy. This
autonomy becomes obvious in the control of work-
ing conditions, for instance
– The power to define occupational education
– The control of market entry
– The power to define, organise and evaluate the
quality of work.
The power to define and evaluate their own stand-
ards for work is the core characteristic of profes-
sions. Industrial production and craftsmanship are
subject to various regulations or specifications re-
garding the quality of the outcome. The self-reg-
ulation of professional work is realized not only
by standards, but also by professional contests and
a profession’s influence on the filling of qualified
posts.
Even though the definition of professions is con-
troversial, there are some general conditions for
professionalisation. Knowledge of these condi-
tions allows delimitation of the set of professions
and shows directions for theorizing (MIEG 2003).
These conditions are:
(1) First of all, there are specific tasks which in-
volve a high degree of uncertainty and require spe-
cialized knowledge. For instance, the medical pro-
fession is concerned with explaining and curing ill-
nesses of the human body. Andrew Abbott shows
in his book “The system of professions” (ABBOTT
1988) how occupations compete with one another
for jurisdiction on certain tasks, applying abstract
knowledge on causation and cures.
Areas of VET Research
(2) Secondly, there is a socially central value in-
volved in these tasks. The medical profession can
refer to the value of health, the law profession to
justice, environmental professionals to nature pro-
tection. As with the values of health and justice,
reference to a socially shared value can be used to
define and legitimize particular professional work
and its particular rewards.
(3) Thirdly, there is a growing body of academic
knowledge. Not all professions have evolved from
universities, particularly not the English law pro-
fession. Today, an abstract, academic ↑ knowledge
base is indispensable for professional work, the
reason being that the lifetime of concrete, techni-
cal knowledge is shortening dramatically. In con-
trast, abstract knowledge – for instance on func-
tional relations of the human body or of natural
systems – survives for longer times than concrete,
technical knowledge.
(4) Fourthly, there is a national professional asso-
ciation. Professions are organized ↑ occupational
groups. To first found a local professional associa-
tion and then a national professional association is
seen as one milestone in the process of profession-
alisation (cf. WILENSKY 1964). A profession forms
a guild-like “community within a community”
(GOODE 1957).
Processes of professionalisation play an important
role in vocational education. We can ask:
– Do new professions develop? For instance in the
↑ IT business or in the field of environmental serv-
ices? (e. g. LEAL FILHO 2001)
– How can we explain the current “appeal and
attraction of the concept of ↑ professionalism”?
(EVETTS / MIEG / FELT 2006) Is the self-control of
professionals a new form of decentralized occupa-
tional control? (FOURNIER 1999)
– What is the relationship between professional-
ised work and volunteer work? Can we profession-
alise volunteer work? (MCCURLEY/ LYNCH 1989;
MIEG / WEHNER 2004)
– Do ↑ professions provide new anchors for profes-
sional identities in a world of de-regularized work?
(HELLBERG / SAKS / BENOIT 1999)
– What is the relationship between professional-
ised science and society today? (KURZ-MILCKE /
GIGERENZER 2004)
503
3.6.9.2 The Anglo-American Family
of Theories of the Sociology of
Professions
The Anglo-American sociology of professions
is historically dominated by the discussion on
two diverging theoretical approaches: on the one
hand functionalism, that is linked to the works of
Parsons (PARSONS 1939; 1951; 1968) and Goode
(GOODE 1957); on the other hand the power ap-
proach, that can be considered as a reaction and
counter-concept to functionalism. The power ap-
proach is linked with the works of Johnson (JOHN-
SON 1967; 1977) and Larson ( LARSON 1977).
Functionalism is based on the idea that professions
take over socially important tasks and therefore
obtain certain rights and obligations. From this
point of view, the medical profession takes care of
the health system, the juridical profession the law
system, and so on. As to the rights of professions,
we find certain autonomy and salaries above av-
erage. As to the obligations, we find certain “al-
truism” or service orientation: according to Talcott
Parsons, a profession guarantees “socially respon-
sible uses” (PARSONS 1968, 536).
From the power-approach perspective, professions
are essentially economic-social monopolies, as
they control certain ↑ occupational fields. Accord-
ing to Johnson (1977), professions are character-
ized by their power to define the types of clients’
needs as well as the types of services involved.
Professions render their clientele dependent on
their services. From this point of view, profession-
al altruism is an ideology and serves to legitimize
collective ends of ↑ occupational groups of the new
middle class.
Besides these two lines of theorizing there is the
professional-client interaction approach. From this
point of view, ↑ professionalism is characterized by
the type of professional action. Therefore the inter-
action between professional and client becomes rel-
evant and professional action is considered as peo-
ple professing. The focus is now on how the pro-
fessions present themselves towards their clients
or audience. Hughes uses the expression: “Profes-
sionals profess” (HUGHES 1965, 2).
Within the boundaries of the Anglo-American so-
ciology of professions, there have been several at-
tempts to define ↑ professionalisation and to find
504
empirical evidence for professionalisation as a
process. Wilensky considered professionalisation
as a sequence of seven steps (WILENSKY 1964):
(1) a job becomes a full-time occupation;
(2) establishing a training school;
(3) establishing a university program;
(4) founding a local professional association;
(5) founding a national professional association;
(6) creation of a state license;
(7) creation of a code of ethics.
Taking up this line of research, Abbott showed that
the sequence can change depending on the partic-
ular level of political organisation, including the
local, municipal level, the state-level, and the na-
tional level (ABBOTT 1991). International compari-
sons taught us to understand professionalisation as
a pattern with lots of variants (cf. TORSTENDAHL /
BURRAGE 1990; BURRAGE / TORSTENDAHL 1990).
Hall (1968) examined the correlation between the
grade of professionalisation of occupational groups
and the individual need for autonomy of the mem-
bers of these occupational groups. He could show
that members of professions with high professional
autonomy like physicians worked in organisations
with less bureaucratic structure than members of
professions with low professional autonomy such
as nurses or accountants. Accordingly, members
of groups with high professional autonomy experi-
enced more conflicts with bureaucratic structures.
However, thirty years of research on role conflicts
of professionals within bureaucratic organisations
have not yielded consistent results (cf. MIEG 2001).
Even today there is evidence for an influence of
the grade of professionalisation of an occupational
group on the ↑ professional identity of its members
(MIEG / WOSCHNACK 2002).
Dietrich Rueschemeyer analysed the relationship
of power and knowledge, particularly the power
of “groups in control of a certain ↑ body of knowl-
edge” (RUESCHEMEYER 1986, 104). Since “the rap-
idly increasing use of knowledge is characteristic
of the modern world”, Rueschemeyer proposes that
↑ professionalisation should be understood “as the
development of institutional forms for this vast-
ly expanded use of knowledge” (104). Moreover,
he considers the concept of professionalisation as
a means of integrating the Anglo-American mar-
Handbook of TVET Research
ket-based view of ↑ professions with the Continen-
tal bureaucratic administration-based view.
Today, there is some consensus on considering
knowledge as the base of modern societies and
the driver of occupational change. Some schol-
ars propose to understand professions as knowl-
edge-based occupations (cf. EVETTS 2003) – which
would mean a far-reaching generalisation of the
concept of professions, compared to the tradition-
al understanding.
3.6.9.3 The Continental Family of Theories
of the Sociology of Professions
When speaking of the Continental family of the-
ories of the sociology of professions, we have to
keep in mind that there are no direct equivalents
to professions in Continental Europe. In ↑ France,
“professions” denote occupations in general, in
German the word “Profession” is used to state
one’s membership of an occupation but does not
denote a certain class of occupations. The Con-
tinental equivalents of Anglo-American profes-
sions are professions liberales (France) and Freie
Berufe (Germany) which mean “free” occupa-
tions. The term “free” stems from the seven lib-
eral arts: grammar, dialectic, rhetoric, arithmetic,
music, geometry and astronomy. Since the Roman
times, the study of liberal arts was only open for
free and wealthy citizens. In the medieval univer-
sities, it became the core curriculum and prerequi-
site for the study of theology, medicine or law.
In Continental Europe, sociological theories
on professions – or occupations in general – are
closely linked to general sociological theoriz-
ing. Durk heim, studying the moral base of socie-
ty (see DURKHEIM 1992), considered ↑ professional-
ism as a form of moral community based on occu-
pational membership. Max Weber, studying eco-
nomics and society (see WEBER 1972), considered
“freie Berufe” like lawyers, physicians, artists, as
a privileged occupational class with a high poten-
tial for influencing the economic policies of polit-
ical and other associations. Today, there are sev-
eral individual contributions to the sociology of
professions with their roots in European sociolo-
gy. In particular, we see a growing appeal of the
discourse of professionalism in work and organ-
isations (EVETTS / MIEG / FELT 2006). The analysis
Areas of VET Research
of this appeal of professionalism (e. g. FOURNIER
1999) is based on Foucauldian concepts of legiti-
macy (FOUCAULT 1979) and of the control of auton-
omous subjects exercising appropriate, “normal”
conduct (FOUCAULT 1980). With respect to profes-
sions as systems, Foucault (1979) argued that the
development of particular forms of expertise was
a crucial element in the formation of governmen-
tality from the 16th century onwards. Fournier
(FOURNIER 1999) shows how today the use of the
discourse of professionalism in a large privatised
service company of managerial labour serves to
inculcate “appropriate” work identities, conducts
and practices. She considers this as “a disciplinary
logic which inscribes ‘autonomous’ professional prac-
tice within a network of accountability and governs pro-
fessional conduct at a distance” (FOURNIER 1999, 280).
This interpretation can also assist in understand-
ing the appeal of professionalism as a mechanism
of occupational change in the modern world.
In the context of modern German sociology, a re-
vised model of professionalisation has been devel-
oped by Ulrich Oevermann. The model focuses on
the professional-client interaction, and its core idea
is: “professional practice is dedicated to and pro-
voked by the function of vicarious crisis manage-
ment” (OEVERMANN 2001, 3). In other words, the
professional helps the client to master some kind
of serious personal problems. Oevermann claims
that there are exactly three sorts of crises and cri-
sis management that are amenable to profession-
al help:
(1) the creation and maintenance of somato-psy-
chic-social integrity (e. g. medical ↑ profession,
↑ social work, psychotherapy…)
(2) the maintenance of justice and the law (e. g.
lawyers)
(3) creation and examination of the validity of lia-
ble empirical, normative, ethic, aesthetic and logi-
cal knowledge (e. g. scientists)
Oevermann also claims that these “three focus-
es of ↑ professionalisation” are exhaustive, dis-
junctive and necessary from a functional point of
view (OEVERMANN 2001, 15). According to Oever-
mann (1996) there are ↑ occupational groups such
as teaching and social work that need further pro-
fessionalisation; moreover, there are occupation-
al groups such as engineers that are as a matter
505
of fact professionalised but do not require profes-
sionalisation from a theoretical point of view. Oev-
ermann’s theory is as influential as it is disputed
within German sociology of professions (cf. MIEG /
PFADENHAUER 2003).
If there is any single thread running through the
international sociological discussion on profes-
sionalisation, combining Anglo-American and
Continental versions of the sociology of profes-
sions, then it is social closure (MURPHY 1988): pro-
fessionalisation results in institutionalized forms
of the separation of experts from non-experts.
3.6.9.4 Integration of the Psychological
and Sociological Perspectives on
Professionalisation
The study of individual development of special
skills and specialized knowledge is the domain
of the psychology of expertise (cf. CHI / GLASER /
FARR 1988; ERICSSON / CHARNESS / FELTOVICH /HOFF-
MAN 2006; → 3.4.2). Typical examples are playing
chess at master level and medical diagnoses. The
psychology of expertise makes use of an undiffer-
entiated notion of the expert according to which
experts are high performers or – from a differen-
tial point of view – the 10 per ent best-performing
members of a group (ERICSSON / SMITH 1991). There
are some robust results of research of the psychol-
ogy of expertise:
– Expertise is ↑ domain-specific, that is skills and
knowledge in one domain are – in general – not
transferable to other domains.
– Expertise does not depend on general abilities
such as intelligence or memorizing capacities.
– There is a ten-year rule: in general, the devel-
opment of expertise requires ten years of ↑ spe-
cific training or: “deliberate practice” (ERICSSON /
K RAMPE / TESCH-ROEMER 1993).
In sum, we see a domain-specific adaptation of ex-
perts to a domain (cf. MIEG 2001). Thus, expertise
consists in specialized, experience-based struc-
tures of perception and behaviour. Today, the ex-
pert work has been institutionalized, the main ver-
sion being professionals and professions. Or in the
words of Andrew Abbott:
“Professionalism has been the main way of institution-
alizing expertise in industrialized countries” (ABBOTT
1988, 323).
506
Abbott analysed professional work and described
the following sequence (see Fig. 1):
(1) ↑ Diagnosis: “assembles clients’ relevant needs
into a picture and then places this picture in the
proper diagnostic category” (41).
(2) Inference: “takes the information of diagnosis
and indicates a range of treatments with their pre-
dicted outcomes” (40).
(3) Treatment “Like diagnosis, treatment imposes
a subjective structure on the problems with which
a profession works” (44).
Fig. 1: Components of professional work (ABBOTT
1988)
According to Abbott, inference is the main com-
ponent of professional work (see also SCHÖN 1991)
that represents the core of professional autonomy.
Inference, says Abbott, is a “purely professional
act” (ABBOTT 1988, 40). A professional can easily
outsource ↑ diagnosis and treatment to specialists.
In fact, a normal doctor who runs his or her own
surgery uses the help of specialized firms or co-
workers for the analysis of blood and tissue. And
in some cases the doctor will prescribe treatments
that have to be executed by others, e. g. nurses or
the parents of a sick child. However, the inference
of a particular medical treatment from a particular
diagnosis is the doctor’s job. In complicated or un-
usual cases, the doctor can delegate the inference
to a colleague (not a subordinate!). But the delega-
tion of all inference problems would be the end of
the doctor’s practice. Hawkins (HAWKINS 1992) and
Freidson (FREIDSON 2001) speak of “discretion” in-
stead of “inference”. The inference component al-
so includes discretion with regard to methods that
should be applied. We can expect that profession-
als run into conflicts with collaborators whenever
they feel restricted in their discretion to make pro-
fessional inferences (for evidence see MIEG 2000).
We have to keep in mind that acting as an expert is
not only based on specialized knowledge and work
but also on an attribution of an expert role to the
particular expert by non-experts (cf. MIEG 2001).
The core of this role is the attribution of compe-
Handbook of TVET Research
tence. Using Figure 1, we can distinguish several
expert roles (cf. MIEG 2000; 2006), for instance
– Professionals: they are responsible for the whole
task as sketched in Fig. 1.
– Researchers/analysts: their core responsibility
is the correctness of analyses (diagnosis compo-
nent).
– Formal experts/decision support experts: they
support decision making, focusing on the infer-
ence component.
In this context ↑ professionalisation means that ex-
pert roles are extended and now encompass the
whole process of professional work (as in Fig. 1).
Obviously, professionalisation comprises more
than just expertise and expert roles. As Fig. 2
shows, we have to distinguish several levels:
(1) the individual level with regard to the specific
individual competence (or expertise);
(2) the group level with regard to the particular
↑ occupational group or professional association;
(3) the task level with regard to the degree of inher-
ent autonomy
Specific research themes result from connecting
these levels, such as:
– The sort of professional qualification (→ 3.1.5;
→ 3.4.1)
– The question of ↑ professional identity (→ 3.6.8)
– The phenomenon of interprofessional competi-
tion
As has been discussed in the previous two chap-
ters, professionalisation – at the level of an occu-
pational group – is accompanied by social closure.
Professionalised groups not only tend to estab-
lish internal working standards but also to defend
the power of their particular domain of discretion
against claims from other occupations.
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 2: Systematisation of the field of research on pro-
fessionalisation
3.6.9.5 Abstraction and Interprofessional
Competition
According to Andrew Abbott (ABBOTT 1988), ↑ pro-
fessions have to be seen within a system. The sys-
tem is centered around work and consists of pro-
fessions and their links to particular tasks. Abbott
calls the link between a ↑ profession and its tasks
jurisdiction. The professions compete with one
another for control of particular tasks. The “cur-
rency” of this competition is knowledge (ABBOTT
1988, 102). Abbott claims that interprofessional
competition is based on a specific kind of knowl-
edge, namely abstract knowledge:
“For abstraction is the quality that sets interprofessional
competition apart from competition in general” (8–9).
Viewing professional work connected to ↑ abstrac-
tion is not unusual in the sociology of the profes-
sions (compare STINCHCOMBE 2001). It is in line
with Hughes, who speaks of “detachment” in pro-
fessional work: “having in a particular case no per-
sonal interest such as would influence one’s action
or advice, while being deeply interested in all cas-
es of the kind” (HUGHES 1965, 6). Similarly, Par-
sons speaks of the “intellectual component” of
professional work (PARSONS 1968, 536), whereas
Freidson refers to “formal knowledge” (FREIDSON
1986).
According to Abbott, ↑ abstraction takes on two
forms. First, abstraction can be reduction in the
sense of lack of content, that is, “abstract which
refers to many subjects interchangeably” (ABBOTT
1988, 102). For instance, psychology claims that
alcoholism is a personality disorder, thus falling
507
into the domain of general psychotherapy. But,
by abstraction, alcoholism may also be seen as
a mere medical problem or a problem of public
administration.
Abstraction in the second sense is formaliza-
tion saying “that knowledge is abstract that elab-
orates its subjects in many layers of increasingly
formal discourse” (ABBOTT 1988, 102). Formali-
zation means that a ↑ profession provides a formal
system for the interpretation of a particular sort of
problem. The language of modern medicine can be
seen as such a formal system, providing a ↑ diag-
nostic system for tasks such as appendectomy. For-
malization strengthens the jurisdiction of a profes-
sion.
“No one tries to explain particle interactions without
mastering the abstract knowledge of physics. More prac-
tically, no one offers insurance companies advice on un-
derwriting without having mastered actuarial theory”
(103).
The first form of ↑ abstraction, reduction, may be
regarded as an offensive mechanism in the com-
petition of professions. By reduction, a profes-
sion may claim jurisdiction for the treatment of
new types of problems. The second form, formal-
ization, may be considered as a defensive mech-
anism, preventing possible intruders from taking
over jurisdiction, by establishing high professional
standards. Recent studies on the emerging market
of professional environmental services show that
indeed interprofessional competition is shaped by
competing knowledge bodies of different grades of
abstraction (MIEG 2002; MIEG /DE SOMBRE 2004).
3.6.9.6 Conclusion: The role of abstract
knowledge in vocational education
Today, abstract knowledge plays an important role
in defining both the body of academic knowledge
and directions of future research. As professions
are knowledge-based, professions and ↑ profession-
alisation are closely linked to academic vocational
education (cf. MIEG /DE SOMBRE 2004). In general,
abstract knowledge can be characterized by
– A longer life-time: concrete knowledge becomes
obsolete much faster than abstract knowledge
– Continuity: abstract knowledge makes it pos-
sible to connect concrete professional work to
persisting general professional knowledge (cf.
HUGHES 1965, 6)
508
– Competitiveness: abstract knowledge helps to
define and open new fields of professional work,
for instance genetic consulting as a domain of bi-
ologists
– A potential for legitimatization: abstract knowl-
edge that has become part of socially shared cul-
tural knowledge can help to publicly legitimize
professional work and high incomes, e. g. the in
case of psychoanalytic therapy.
3.7.0 Shaping Teaching and Learning in TVET
Lorna Unwin
3.7.0.1 Introduction
As this handbook shows, technical and vocation-
al education and training (TVET) represents a di-
verse, dynamic and complex field of activity in-
volving individuals who may still be in ↑ compul-
sory schooling through to mature adults engaged
in re-training, updating their skills, or continuous
professional development. TVET takes place in a
wide range of settings, including workplaces of all
shapes and sizes, workshops, and classrooms. Due
to the development and accessibility of new ↑ in-
formation and communication technologies, those
settings now include the new spaces, such as trains
and aeroplanes, in which busy people both carry
out their ↑ work tasks and learning associated with
their continuing professional development (see
FELSTEAD /JEWSON / WALTERS 2004; WHITTINGTON /
MCLEAN 2001). VET’s diversity is also a reflection
of the different needs and requirements of the in-
dustrial, commercial, and service sectors of a na-
tion’s economy and, increasingly, the global forces
that are posing serious challenges to existing VET
practices and policies. The ways in which VET
programmes are delivered vary from one coun-
try to another, but there are many shared concerns
about how to ensure that knowledge and skills can
be developed as effectively as possible.
This chapter introduces a section of the book
which focuses on the organisation of VET teach-
ing and learning. It begins with a discussion of ter-
Handbook of TVET Research
Today, there is a symbiotic relationship between
universities and professions. Professions need uni-
versities for professional education; universities
constantly re-work the ↑ knowledge base for pro-
fessional work. Universities need professions to
propel and practically test academic knowledge.
Professions embody the “↑ distance between idea
and practice” (LUHMANN 2002). Professionalisa-
tion is an important form for transferring, market-
ing and transforming university-based knowledge
systems
minology and then briefly examines some of the
key debates in the literature. The chapter argues
that, due to its complexity, VET teachers, trainers,
and policymakers need to draw on a wide range of
teaching and learning approaches, and be highly
adaptable in order to keep pace with the changing
nature of their subject matter and, importantly, the
needs of their learners.
3.7.0.2 The Language of Learning in TVET
TVET represents a landscape of international lin-
guistic richness, but sometimes differences in ter-
minology can be confusing. The most obvious ex-
amples of difference relate to the use of the terms
‘didactics’ and ‘pedagogy’, and to the term ‘com-
petence’. We begin with a discussion of the terms,
‘didactics’ and ‘pedagogy’. These terms are not,
of course, confined to TVET as they apply equal-
ly to other domains of education, but it is impor-
tant to begin with some discussion of their use as
they are sometimes cited as reflections of deeper
differences between those countries that use one
term rather than the other. The term ‘didactics’ is
most commonly associated with Germany and the
Nordic countries, whilst ‘pedagogy’ is more com-
monly used in Britain, ↑ Australia and the ↑ United
States and some other English-speaking countries
(see NORDKVELLE 2003; TERHART 2003a; SIMON
1994). The term is also used in French, where it
Areas of VET Research
becomes ‘didactique’, whilst in Russian, it is ‘di-
daktika’. The use of the term ‘didactics’ has been
traced back to German scholars in the 17th century
who combined the word ‘didaskein’ (meaning to
point at or demonstrate) with the Greek ‘techne’,
and also incorporated the Platonic concept of ‘di-
alectics’. Despite the inclusion of the notion of di-
alogue between teacher and learner, however, the
term ‘didactics’ has come to have a negative mean-
ing in Anglo-American ↑ educational research
and practice. Hamilton (HAMILTON 1999, 135) ar-
gues that this reflects definitions such as those giv-
en in the Oxford English Dictionary, that equate
the term with ‘formalist educational practices that
combine “dogma” with “dullness”’. Hence, in Eng-
lish, teaching that is seen to be too teacher-centred
and in which learners are expected to sit and lis-
ten rather than actively engage with the subject, is
described as being ‘too didactic’. In other words,
the emphasis is on the transmission of knowledge
to the learner, rather than on a two-way dialogue
combined with active ↑ participation.
As Hamilton (1999) explains, however, the term
‘pedagogy’ is actually very close in meaning to the
Continental European usage of ‘didactics’. This is
because both terms embrace a much broader sense
of the learning process than might be conveyed by
the term ‘teaching’. Both terms are concerned with
the organisation of curricula, with the need to con-
sider the nature of the learner, and with a sense
of ‘becoming’. This latter concept is very impor-
tant for TVET as it captures the sense that learn-
ing to perform technical and vocational skills in-
volves also learning about the history and culture
of a particular ↑ occupational field, acquiring a
sense of pride in the products of that occupation,
and a desire to pass on expertise to the next gen-
eration. Ironically, the term ‘pedagogy’ has a trou-
bled history in Britain, due to the historical ambiv-
alence towards the training of teachers in the 19th
and early 20th centuries (see SIMON 1981). With re-
gard to TVET, this situation has been perpetuated
for far longer. Unlike some other European coun-
tries, for example, employers in Britain can still re-
cruit apprentices without having recognised train-
ers in their workplaces, and it was only in 2002
that all teachers in ↑ further education colleges, in-
cluding those responsible for TVET, were required
509
to gain a nationally recognised teaching qualifica-
tion (see HUDDLESTON / UNWIN 2007; FULLER / UNWIN
2003).
Whilst the term ‘didactics’ has a long and gener-
ally stable history, the term ‘pedagogy’ began to
be much more widely used in Anglo-American cir-
cles in the 1970s following the publication of the
work of two academics: the London-based soci-
ologist, Basil Bernstein; and the Brazilian radical
educator, Paolo Freire. Bernstein (1971), who was
greatly influenced by German educational think-
ing, argued that teaching was as much about the
transmission of social codes as about methods and,
hence, revealed the inter-relationship between ed-
ucation and politics. Freire (1970), whose early re-
search was on the use of adult literacy to radicalise
peasants in Brazil, laid the ground for the concep-
tualisation of pedagogy as a vehicle of liberation.
From this developed associated theories of ‘femi-
nist pedagogy’ and ‘critical pedagogy’. Although
Bernstein and Freire did not specifically address
the field of TVET, their work continues to be high-
ly relevant as it asks all teachers and trainers to
critically reflect on their practice and question the
purpose and ethics of their endeavour (see, inter
alia, GRACE 2007; YOUNG / GAMBLE 2006).
The term ‘competence’ is also relevant to this in-
troductory chapter because it has evolved to mean
more than a measure of whether an individual has
acquired sufficient expertise to be able to perform
a task or series of tasks to the satisfaction of their
employer or an examiner. In ↑ Australia and Brit-
ain, the term ‘competence’ has acquired a special
meaning in TVET through the introduction in both
countries of a competence-based approach to vo-
cational qualifications (see, inter alia, R AGGATT /
WILLIAMS 1999; BOREHAM 2004a; HAGER 2004).
This approach takes the view that vocational qual-
ifications should consist of a series of statements of
competence derived from a functional analysis of
the tasks involved in specific jobs. If an individual
can demonstrate they have achieved the required
level of competence (as set out in the statements) to
the satisfaction of an examiner, they can be award-
ed the qualification without having to attend a
course of instruction. If they can demonstrate they
have achieved the required level as set out in some
of the statements, then they only need instruction
510
in the areas in which they are not currently compe-
tent. This outcomes-based and assessment-driven
approach to TVET has been highly controversial
in both Britain and Australia, but policymakers
have been persuaded to invest heavily in its pro-
motion and expansion. As a result, TVET teachers
and trainers have had to adapt their teaching to the
competence-based model.
In addition to the concept of occupational or job-
specific competence, many countries throughout
the world (including those in the European Union)
have developed lists of so-called ↑ key competences
(see WEIGEL / MULDER / COLLINS 2007). These are al-
so referred to as ‘generic’, ‘transferable’ and ‘core’
competences (or skills) and include, for example:
ability to communicate; use numbers; use ↑ infor-
mation and communication technologies; solve
problems; make decisions; work with other peo-
ple; and reflect on one’s own learning. The general
rationale used to support key competences is that
individuals now need to demonstrate their flexibili-
ty and adaptability to employers in order to sustain
jobs within a globalised economy (for a critique,
see, inter alia, BROWN / DUGUID 2001). Job-specif-
ic expertise is not enough (see K RISTENSEN 2001;
K ÄMÄRÄINEN 2002). Again, the inclusion of key
competences within TVET curricula and assess-
ment regimes poses considerable challenges for
teachers and trainers. Hodkinson (1998, 199) has
argued that aligning the organisation and content
of teaching and learning too closely to the rhetoric
of economic change is highly problematic: ‘Educa-
tion and training are seen as systemic production
processes, using the metaphor of the assembly line,
with its inputs, processes and outputs. Quality and
↑ efficiency are dominant concepts’.
A major criticism of the competence-based ap-
proach, and particularly of ↑ key competences, is
that knowledge and skills cannot be abstracted
from their context (see BILLETT 2003). This leads
us into the next section of this chapter.
3.7.0.3 Teaching and Learning in Context
The publication in 1991 of Lave and Wenger’s slim
volume, ↑ Situated Learning, has proved to be a
major turning point in the history of ideas related
to teaching and learning, and is of particular rele-
vance to TVET as it raised the status of the work-
Handbook of TVET Research
place as a site for learning. The book can be regard-
ed as a landmark in the gradual shift away from
the transmission and acquisition model of learn-
ing to one based on ↑ participation and learning as
a social process (see, inter alia, BECKETT/ HAGER
2002). Beckett and Hager summarise the acquisi-
tion model as one in which the individual mind is
‘steadily being stocked with ideas’ and where the
focus of learning ‘as a product is on the stock of
accumulated ideas that constitute a well furnished
mind’ (ibid: 97). This model still dominates much
of publicly-funded education, including TVET, in
many countries. It is attractive to policymakers be-
cause learning can be measured through formal
tests and examinations and countries can measure
their stock of qualifications against international
league tables.
The ‘situated’ theory advanced by Lave and
Wenger, however, argues that individuals learn
through active participation in a social group, as,
for example, in the workplace. As novices, indi-
viduals (for example, apprentices) learn by engag-
ing in real tasks within a ‘↑ community of practice’,
coached and mentored by ‘old timers’ or experts,
and so move from being what Lave and Wenger
call ‘legitimate peripheral participants’ to full ex-
perts over time. The individuals share in the ‘cur-
riculum’ of the workplace (including the commu-
nity’s social practices, rules and rituals) and so ac-
quire a sense of pride in what is collectively pro-
duced (see FULLER / HODKINSON / HODKINSON / UNWIN
2005 and ERAUT 2000a for a critique).
One of the criticisms of Lave and Wenger’s work
is that their empirical research was based on very
atypical communities whose activities and circum-
stances do not easily equate to workplaces in ad-
vanced economies (HUGHES /JEWSON / UNWIN 2007).
The Finnish academic, Yrjo Engeström (2001;
2004), whose work is based on socio-cultural ↑ ac-
tivity theory, has built on Lave and Wenger’s con-
cept of situated learning to develop what he calls
a theory of ‘expansive learning’. He argues that
learning through participation is too static for the
needs of contemporary workplaces and economies
and that what is needed is a theory of learning that
leads to change and transformation. This will in-
volve individuals crossing boundaries to work and
learn in different ways and to share in the crea-
Areas of VET Research
tion of artefacts as part of joint problem solving
activities.
The recognition of the importance of the work-
place as a site for learning has long been a part of
TVET, dating back to the medieval origins of ap-
prenticeship. When nation states developed TVET
institutions to provide classes in vocational theo-
ry and allow trainees to practice their skills away
from the pressures of the workplace, the problem
of how to integrate the on and off-the-job learning
components of TVET programmes became very
prominent (see, inter alia, FULLER / UNWIN 1998;
K IVINEN / PELTOMAKI 1999). In many countries to-
day, this problem has been compounded by the in-
creasing reluctance of employers to provide places
for apprentices and other learners wanting to en-
gage in some form of ‘dual’ approach to TVET.
This might also include, for example, higher edu-
cation students who would benefit from spending
time in industry. An obvious way round this prob-
lem is to create simulated workplace environments
within TVET institutions. These can be very suc-
cessful, but they can become divorced from the dy-
namic realities of workplaces whose primary func-
tion is not learning (as in the case of the simulated
environments) but producing goods and services.
3.7.0.4 Researching the Issues
The chapters in this section of the book explore
many different factors involved in the organisation
of teaching and learning in TVET settings. They
highlight the ways in which concepts and theories
related to the ↑ policy and practice of TVET are
constantly being debated within and across nation-
al boundaries. Crucially, the chapters reveal how
TVET has to balance the cultural traditions of na-
tion states with the demands emanating from a glo-
balising economy. At the same time, rapid develop-
ments in new technologies present new challeng-
es to TVET teachers and trainers in terms of how
they might provide learners with greater opportu-
nities to take responsibility for their own learning,
whilst, at the same time, trying to sustain the col-
lective dimension of learning as part of a commu-
nity. As such, TVET provides a highly fruitful and
stimulating field for research, whether at the mac-
ro, meso or micro levels, and for comparisons to be
made within and across nation states.
511
3.7.1 Curriculum Research and
Development
Ulrike Buchmann and Richard
Huisinga
3.7.1.1 The Current Frame of Reference
The production and distribution of knowledge are
subject to profound processes of change in mod-
ern societies. Such processes manifest themselves
in various segments of society and of the econo-
my, e. g. as an increasing orientation to science in
production (cf. e. g. HUISINGA 1996; ABELSHAUSER
2005; 2006) or in the necessity of transdiscipli-
nary work on dealing with social and technolog-
ical problems and issues (cf. e. g. HUISINGA / LISOP
2002, 2005; BUCHMANN 2003; 2004; 2007). The
consequences include: fluctuations in (qualifica-
tion) standards and with regard to the structural
logic, the values, control mechanisms and regula-
tions, and not least the merits of knowledge and
of allocated forms of knowledge. This applies to
both general and specialized subject matter and to
general and vocational education. Existing struc-
tural problems of adaptation between the educa-
tional and employment systems (cf. K LOSE 1987)
and mismatches on the ↑ labour market (cf. EN-
TORF 2000) have thus intensified. In this context,
↑ educational policy is called upon to distribute and
direct access to existing and new forms of allocat-
ed knowledge.
At first glance, a certain justification can hardly be
denied the current tests of academic ↑ performance
– first and foremost PISA (cf. PISA report 2001;
BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND ET AL. 2001). Such
tests are simply an expression of the need to deal
with the changes mentioned above and especial-
ly with the successive distribution of knowledge
that has only been shaped by chance circumstanc-
es. The primary goal has been to minimize the en-
suing sources of conflict and friction. According to
the PISA report, this goal should be accomplished
by means of ↑ controlling output in the educational
system – explicitly by means of standardization –
but without having systematically investigated is-
sues of knowledge distribution in advance.
512
This is the point where ↑ curriculum research and
development become engaged in the debate, inso-
far as they are oriented to personal development
and differentiate such development temporally,
methodically, and with regard to content in the
light of overriding goals. The foundation of these
approaches to research and development, i.e. cur-
riculum theory, is thus nothing other than Bildung-
stheorie, which provides the basis for determining
what is to develop in educational activity, and how
and for whom this is to come about. In principle,
then, it is possible to ensure that the current de-
bate on control mechanisms conforms to the rec-
ommendations of the German Educational Coun-
cil. The council maintained that curricula should
be developed by specifically combining prepara-
tion for scientific study with the relevant structures
and processes of societal work – in contrast to the
mainstream practice of increasingly instrumental-
izing and subordinating educational policy and the
education system for purely economic purposes. A
curricular approach to education which is input-di-
rected and the standardization of outputs are a pri-
ori mutually exclusive due to the divergent epis-
temological interests (and the corresponding con-
ceptions of man).
The design of curricula which function as control
mechanisms of the production and distribution of
knowledge is a demanding task for academic work
which requires a fully new approach in light of
converging markets and societies under the condi-
tions of globalization. The terminological renais-
sance of the concept ‘curriculum’ in the current
usage of the protagonists – contrary to the usual
terminology of the last 30 years (such as syllabus,
syllabus design, learning objectives, etc.) – sup-
ports the assumption that, with a view to the com-
plex problems demanding international solutions,
there is at least some idea of the limitations of the
widespread output specifications oriented to singu-
lar forms of utilization.
Nevertheless, the (nearly) everyday practice of de-
signing curricula at the international level is fre-
quently enough carried out solely on the basis of
pragmatic considerations and normative criteria.
Thus, high-risk forms of social friction are inev-
itable.
Handbook of TVET Research
There is an urgent need here of forward-looking
solutions which bridge the gap between reality and
the constant formulation of approaches that have
not managed to register these developments. Such
forward-looking positions and instruments were
actually developed in the context of the curriculum
revision initiated by Robinsohn during the 1970s
(cf. ROBINSOHN 1981; HAMEYER 1983; HAMEYER /
FREY/ HAFT 1983), but without having been imple-
mented in any lasting way in the practice of design-
ing curricula up to the present time (cf. HUISINGA /
BUCHMANN 2003; RAUNER 2004d; → 1.4; → 5.1.1;
→ 3.4.1).
The correlation between theoretical positions and
↑ educational policy’s principles of distribution is
the basis for an urgently necessary understand-
ing of how and for whom the ↑ educational proc-
ess is now to be devised. Yet, one requirement here
is a debate at the societal macro-level on the new
modalities of distribution through which access to
certain segments of knowledge are to be regulated.
Generating adequate courses of study on the basis
of the range of instruments now available and to be
expanded if necessary is, then, a subordinate step
in the curriculum process.
As a result of the systematic disregard for these
curricular demands, referential theories, and for
the corresponding instruments during the last thir-
ty years, supervising the national and internation-
al production of knowledge has not only more or
less been left to chance, but also gravely endangers
the reproductive function of institutions of the pub-
lic education system. The international attempts to
establish control mechanisms since the end of the
1960s demonstrate that in this way chance has be-
come an ideologically charged pattern.
3.7.1.2 Developments in the Current Practice
of International Curriculum Design
At the supranational level, perspectives developed
in the North American and European context have
traditionally proved to be of special significance
for designing the learning process.
North American Perspectives
A major theme of debates on the international
scale has to do with the changed demands on em-
Areas of VET Research
ployees in the context of a globalized, comprehen-
sive ↑ labour market which involves increased risks
of friction due to intensified adaptation problems
and, as a consequence, can produce considerable
mismatches on the labour market. In this sense,
the issue of knowledge distribution, as directed by
the educational and training process, is also fore-
grounded internationally. Such shifts in responsi-
bilities can be exemplified by the following phe-
nomena:
Demands for integrating vocational education in-
to pre-employment and supplementary education-
al institutions;
Here, contextual learning is not understood as the
imparting of ↑ practical knowledge and of prob-
lem-solving competence, but, instead, as a form of
appropriating academic knowledge, i.e., theoreti-
cal knowledge which is to be imparted in a way di-
rectly oriented to its application. Still, a fundamen-
tal orientation to individual academic disciplines
persists. With respect to ↑ tacit knowledge and tac-
it skills (POLANYI 1966; 1985a), the focus is on a
form of knowledge which has a paradigmatic sig-
nificance for ↑ occupational skills.
In this context, the development of ↑ vocation-
al curricula is carried out by means of pragmat-
ic approaches which are directly oriented to ↑ work
processes and aim to facilitate the rapid utilization
of qualifications in production processes. Two ex-
amples can illustrate what is meant:
The O*NET content model designed by Mumford
and Peterson in 1999 is perceived as a multi-per-
spective approach which is to provide the follow-
ing qualification-related information (cf. BUCH /
FRIELING 2004):
–Experience Requirements (Training);
– Worker Requirements (↑ Basic Skills, Education,
Cross-Functional Skills);
– Worker Characteristics (Abilities, Occupational
Interests, Work Values, Work Styles);
– Occupational Characteristics (↑ Labour Market
Information);
– Occupation-Specific Requirements (Work-relat-
ed Knowledge, Skills, Tools, Equipment);
– Occupational Requirements (Generalized Work
Activities, Organisational Context).
Here, a classificatory scheme has been devised
which permits the systematic evaluation of skills,
513
with eight levels of evaluation in each case. Fur-
thermore, it is determined whether these skills
represent a prerequisite for the work activity. The
knowledge structure is organized hierarchically
in accordance with activity-related knowledge re-
quirements. In this way, 33 domains of knowledge
emerge from 11 clusters.
The required knowledge characteristics are deter-
mined with this scheme. In preparation for profes-
sional work, the required educational and train-
ing qualifications, the necessary level of education
and the corresponding professional certificates,
and professional work experience are to be doc-
umented. In this way, ↑ work tasks and activities
are intended to provide a content-related impetus
for ↑ vocational curricula. As a rule, these are then
worked out by experts in collaboration with their
superiors.
Another internationally influential approach to de-
veloping vocational curricula has become known
by the label “↑ DACUM” (Developing A Curricu-
lUM). The DACUM approach is intended to facili-
tate the analysis and description of needs and skill
profiles. According to its express self-image, the
following three “logical premises” are taken into
consideration in this approach:
(1) Expert workers are more capable of describing
and defining their job reliably than anyone else. In-
sofar as they do their job in the context of normal
employment, they can be called “expert workers”.
Foremen and managers know about the work their
employees do, yet, they lack the expertise urgently
required for a more thoroughgoing analysis.
(2) The most effective way to describe a job is to
define areas of responsibility and the tasks and in-
dividual steps involved. But the worker behaviors
accessible and the knowledge of such behaviors do
not suffice. Expert workers are able to explain their
knowledge and skills, i.e., to train others to be ex-
perts.
(3) The knowledge, skills, abilities, and attitudes
required for the work are now regarded as varia-
bles (“enablers”) of work successfully carried out.
They are so significant that considerable care is
taken to appropriately identify them.
For ↑ DACUM, a group of five to twelve occupa-
tional practitioners forms the decisive source of in-
formation for the analysis of ↑ work processes. In
514
two to three-day meetings under the guidance of
a DACUM facilitator, this group develops a needs
analysis or a DACUM chart listing tasks, general
knowledge, abilities/skills, behaviors, tools, equip-
ment, materials, as well as future developments.
These lists represent the empirical basis for “com-
petency-based education (CBE)” and for the “in-
structional development” based on CBE. The de-
velopment of the profile is furthered by modera-
tion techniques which take recourse to meta-plan-
ning techniques such as brainstorming, clustering,
comparing, evaluating, etc. An open experiential
exchange between the occupational practitioners is
ensured by the facilitators, who take care that the
major categories of analysis are used precisely and
unambiguously.
In the instrument of analysis labeled “System-
atic Curriculum and Instructional Development
(SCID)” the complete scope of this construct be-
comes apparent. Within this overall design, thus
not within DACUM itself, preliminary conditions
such as markets for labour, goods, and services; in-
stitutional circumstances relevant to training; and
the didactical and methodological treatment of im-
parting competences are taken into consideration.
The exclusion of content from the curriculum de-
bate;
With recourse to work done by Doyle/ Westbury
(1992), it can be maintained that the content of
learning processes only began to be taken into
consideration by the academic discipline of edu-
cation in the ↑ U.S. along with the further devel-
opment of cognitive psychology and specialized
didactics. These developments, however, were
greatly influenced by a constructivist outlook. At
the beginning of the 1990s, Doyle and Westbury
stipulated that there was a resurgence of interest
in Dewey (1916a) in American education after the
discipline had engaged in a long period of nearly
exclusive appeal to psychological work on school
subjects, and especially to Thorndike and Judd
(cf. SHULMAN 1974), for theoretical reflection. This
may very well be the case with respect to certain
specific subject-matter curricula (cf. e. g. BENNER /
TANNER / CHESLA 1996) (→ 4.2).
The (formal and nominal) emphasis on compe-
tence development as the aim of the learning proc-
ess.
Handbook of TVET Research
In international educational discourse, the concept
of competence is used just as frequently as inde-
terminately. With reference to VET in an interna-
tional context, it is primarily the English-language
concept of ‘competence’ with its specific meaning
which has had a marked influence on the debate
(cf. CLEMENT 2003). The ‘competence-based ap-
proach’ or ‘competence-based education and train-
ing’ (CBET) can only be understood as a curricu-
lum strategy which aims at an encoding of intend-
ed abilities and facilitating dispositions. Attempts
are then made to achieve these codified elements
of learning as goals of work-related, experience-
related, and school learning processes and, if ap-
plicable, the elements are then evaluated and cer-
tified as the results of such processes. In the final
analysis, they are standards which, as individual
curricular elements and predetermined outcomes,
are derived from existing ↑ occupational profiles
and assigned to various (primary) units of learning
(units, modules) which, in turn, are to be related to
complex operational functions and tasks. The re-
sponsibility for the success of the learning process
lies predominantly with the learner, and the learn-
ing process itself is subordinate to the successful
learning outcome. For the educational standards,
the content-related specifications are, at the most,
only of secondary importance.
European Perspectives and Approaches
In light of the European attempts at establishing
control mechanisms of curricula during the last
quarter of a century, it is obvious that all of these
attempts were not aimed at designing students’ ed-
ucational careers in the traditional institutions of
the (public) educational system, but, instead, were
focused on external processes of knowledge pro-
duction. Among such attempts, the following are
especially noteworthy:
– the (formal) demand for ↑ lifelong learning,
brought forward by the ↑ OECD and ↑ UNESCO
during the 1970s and especially influential in Eu-
rope (cf. FAURE 1973, OECD/CERI 1973);
– the emphasis on self-responsibility in the de-
mand for a self-organized and self-regulated
learning process in widely divergent general and
specific contexts (cf. e. g. DOHMEN 1998);
Areas of VET Research
– the frequently emphasized necessity of ↑ e-learn-
ing (cf. e. g. EULER 1989) for more effective use of
learning time and minimizing costs.
In order to ensure freedom of movement within
the European education and ↑ labour markets and
the comparability of processes of knowledge pro-
duction, debates on aspects of control mechanisms
have centered on issues of standardization in their
treatment of traditional educational institutions –
including the public ↑ school system in the Federal
Republic of Germany. Such debates have resulted
in the (further) development of the following struc-
tures:
– a harmonization of degrees (EQR);
– the establishment of a credit system (↑ ECVET).
At a formal level, these control mechanisms facili-
tate interconnections between the following goals
in VET: transparency, comparability, permeabili-
ty, support for ↑ mobility, reevaluation of ↑ infor-
mal learning processes, individualization and ra-
tionalization of courses of study, creation of a ba-
sis of trust between educational providers and their
clientele at home and abroad, and quality control.
In addition other, implicit goals can be identified,
including the following: optimum exploitation of
work capacities without the existing nation-specif-
ic, largely opaque ability profiles in the (western)
European context; the integration of the existing,
predominantly public educational institutions in-
to a European education market to promote a Eu-
ropean education (service) industry; the conver-
gence of the various systems with the end result of
a uniform European educational system (cf. DRE-
XEL 2005, 59–78).
Within the European context, curricular control
mechanisms are put into practice in two main
ways: pertaining to organisational and structur-
al aspects, and, to a certain extent, content-related
curricular control mechanisms:
The structural control mechanisms focus on mod-
ularizations in nonacademic and, more recently, al-
so in academic institutions of education and ↑ fur-
ther education. The term ↑ modularisation refers to
widely divergent models of opening up courses of
study and making them more flexible with respect
to organisational, temporal, and content-related
structures (cf. FROMMBERGER 1999) (→ 3.3.2). An
example of modularized vocational education has
515
been implemented in Great Britain with the system
of National Vocational Qualification (NVQ). NVQ
provides for the individual compilation of various
partial certificates in a ‘qualification portfolio’ and
facilitates access to employment already on the
basis of partial certification. In the modularisation
model used in Denmark and the Netherlands, the
degree also functions as the sum of the partial cer-
tificates obtained. But these are mandatory com-
ponents assigned specifically to certain courses of
training, and, in this sense, these models are more
moderate variants of modularisation.
In contrast, a concern with content-related cur-
ricular issues seems to be a perspective that is
not pursued at the international level (cf. DOYLE /
WESTBURY 1992) and could perhaps even be de-
scribed as a typically German phenomenon (or, at
least, as one in the tradition of the history of ide-
as). Yet, this phenomenon has become increasing-
ly widespread in methodological debates since the
reforms of the 1970s. In any case, content-related
issues became more significant with the guidelines
on developing VET curricula set up by the Con-
ference of Culture Ministers (KMK 1996; 1999).
Here, designing VET curricula was understood as
part of a comprehensive curriculum which applies
to various ↑ learning environments and relates to
work activities and in-company commercial proc-
esses, thus allowing an orientation to science to be
complemented by an orientation to ↑ work process-
es.
Current ↑ curriculum research takes its starting
point for its frame of reference and for its legitima-
tion from the theory of modernization and trans-
formation (cf. CLAUSEN 1996). As this research is
financed by ↑ educational policy authorities, two
complementary institutional structures deserve
mention here: a program of the Federal-State Com-
mittee entitled “Neue Lernkonzepte in der dualen
Berufsausbildung” (New Approaches to Learn-
ing in the ↑ Dual System of Vocational Education
and Training) and involving a total of 22 individ-
ual projects (in operation from 1998 to 2003), and
the 1996 recommendations of the Conference of
Ministers of Culture and Education for structuring
curricula on the basis of learning fields. Within the
context of this interplay, the program of the Fed-
eral-State Committee was assigned the role of im-
516
plementing leaning field theory to design curricu-
la. Limited space prohibits a further discussion of
how far the state (Länder) institutes involved ac-
tually performed this function. To date, there has
been no systematic presentation of research find-
ings on curriculum theory from the Federal-State
Committee projects that would also have taken the
recommendations of the Culture Ministers’ Con-
ference into consideration.
The connection to educational policy would justi-
fy a closer examination of the ideas of the Confer-
ence on structuring learning fields, although these
are exclusively concerned with vocational educa-
tion in schools. Yet, no curriculum research under
the auspices of the Federal Institute of Vocational
Education has been undertaken in this area. Con-
tinuing vocational education has also been largely
ignored in this context.
Since the recommendations of the Culture Minis-
ters’ Conference in 1996 at the latest, structuring
curricula on the basis of fields of activity (learn-
ing fields) has become a topic for curriculum re-
search in vocational education and training. What
in the Conference’s view was fundamentally new
here was the replacement of former school subjects
that were said to be exclusively oriented to the sys-
tem of the relevant academic disciplines. Parallel
to this development, the extremely detailed cata-
logs of content aiming at exhaustive mastery of
school subjects were to be replaced by outlines
that were primarily oriented to imparting an over-
view and understanding of the system that could
serve as a model. In this view, the open-ended de-
sign of framework syllabi necessitated later revi-
sion only if fundamental changes in the vocation-
al qualifications required were to occur. Further-
more, such syllabi were said to incorporate the ex-
perience of learners and broaden the scope for de-
cision making on the part of specialists and edu-
cationalists with respect to implementation at the
level of the schools and of the states. Thus, formu-
lations of goals along the lines of ↑ vocational com-
petences and the conscious relinquishment of tax-
onomies of learning objectives now replaced the
formerly usual descriptions of learning objectives
that were characterized by frequent repetitions and
assigned in a very detailed way to the respective
content (cf. HUISINGA / LISOP 1999).
Handbook of TVET Research
In structuring curricula by way of ↑ modularisa-
tion, the main emphasis is on combining funda-
mental and supplementary building blocks of ed-
ucation and training and, thus, on their variabil-
ity and flexibility with reference to temporal and
content-related aspects. The basic variants of mod-
ularisation currently under debate encompass the
following three perspectives: the supplementation
model develops from temporal sequencing; the
fragmentation model develops from the combina-
tion of agency and certification; the differentiation
model is more strongly oriented towards curricular
considerations. Practical consequences have be-
come apparent in the Federal Institute of Vocation-
al Education’s pilot programmes on further quali-
fications and in the debate on regulations focusing
on § 46 of the Berufsbildungsgesetz (↑ Vocational
Training Act).
The variability of the control mechanisms is based
on various traditions concerning ↑ curriculum de-
velopment and its theoretical basis. German cur-
riculum development in VET is based on a didac-
tic curricular understanding which is fundamen-
tally characterized by the selection and organisa-
tion of subject-specific content and areas of learn-
ing. To put this another way: whether learners are
able to develop the required dispositions depends
on the adequate selection and logical organisation
of content in the curriculum. Thus, this curricu-
lar perspective is both input and output-oriented.
In contrast, the international approaches favor an
explicit output orientation with their focus on the
identification and certification of application-ori-
ented abilities.
With regard to the competences to be developed,
stress should be placed on the specific character-
istics of the German concept of Kompetenz, which
is noteworthy because of its goal-related perspec-
tive on the processes involved in VET, a perspec-
tive that aims at ability and competence for ac-
tion in the sense of a ↑ specialized competence.
At the same time, this ability to act and evaluate
with reference to specific subject matter is indis-
solubly linked to a distinctive form of self-direct-
edness and to a competence in societal and politi-
cal issues. Competence development understood in
this way aims at enlightenment and emancipation
through the process of education. In contrast, the
Areas of VET Research
concept of competence in the international con-
text is directed toward the simple characteriza-
tion of desired behaviors and activities (as FROMM-
BERGER 2006b, 126 also maintains) (→ 3.3.2).
Precisely the current problems outlined above re-
quire a perspective on and approach to curricular
design whose foundation can be provided for by
the German theoretical conceptions of curricula.
For these conceptions go far beyond the problem-
solving potential of formal curriculum strategies.
3.7.2 Cross-Curricular
Competencies
Katharina Maag Merki
3.7.2.1 Background
The concept of competence is one of the most in-
tensely discussed constructs in vocational train-
ing and ↑ further education today (CLEMENT 2002).
Its ascent has been propelled in part by far-reach-
ing changes in society and the working world, as
well as by increased globalization, the advent of a
knowledge-based society, and the fundamental re-
organisation of work (ERMELING 2001). The crucial
importance of individual competences is reflected
not only in the sweeping socio-economic chang-
es currently creating a need for greater flexibili-
ty at the individual level, but also in recent find-
ings on teaching and learning, in the increased
emphasis on educational standards, and in interna-
tional developments in (vocational) educational re-
search. Some of the most important of these re-
search projects include the ↑ OECD “PISA” pro-
gram (Programme for International Student As-
sessment), “DeSeCo” (Definition and Selection
of Competences), and the ongoing work toward a
“↑ European Qualifications Framework for ↑ Life-
long Learning” and the“European Credit Transfer
System for VET”.
Although there exists broad unanimity about the
crucial societal changes taking place, consensus
is lacking both on the concept of competence it-
self and on the question of which specific compe-
tences are needed to successfully master the de-
mands of particular life situations. At the latest
517
with Mertens’ (1974) investigation of the concept
of ↑ key qualifications, there has been intense dis-
cussion of whether ↑ cross-curricular competences
are equal or perhaps superior in importance to sub-
ject-specific competences for mastering the numer-
ous and virtually unpredictable demands that arise
in the occupational context. These discussions
have been marked by the hope that acquiring spe-
cific abilities of a non-subject-specific nature (e. g.
methodological or social competences) would en-
able people to react competently to new or differ-
ent situations. Although this theme was initially
discussed using concepts like “qualifications” or
“key qualifications”, recent research has tended in-
creasingly to favor the concept of “competence”.
The latter concept stems from a different theoreti-
cal tradition than the former: from theoretical edu-
cational research focusing on the subject, whereas
“qualification” comes from ↑ educational econom-
ics. Nevertheless, these two concepts are far from
clearly demarcated from one another in the litera-
ture. Arnold (1998) and Vonken (2001) point out
that the concepts of competence and qualification
are often used as synonyms, and sometimes even
as antonyms. The lack of clear distinction is seen
also in the fact that the individual qualifications
and competences listed in the various taxonomies
are often virtually identical, at least in the terms
chosen to describe them.
In the literature, different terms are used to des-
ignate non-subject-specific competences that can
be applied in a number of different ↑ subject are-
as, from “↑ cross-curricular competences” to “core
competences” to “↑ key competences”, all of which
overlap to a large extent in meaning. A close-
ly related problem is that of the numerous differ-
ent taxonomies developed to systematize the rele-
vant cross-curricular competences. The models on
which these are based are more heuristically than
theoretically consistent, however, and they lack
empirical validation. When undertaking the de-
scription and cataloguing of cross-curricular com-
petences, we are thus faced with both theoretical
and empirical shortcomings.
The goal of this article is to critically examine
the broadly used concept of “competence” togeth-
er with the different taxonomies of cross-curricu-
lar competences that have been developed over the
518
last thirty years. I will refer here to the relevant
taxonomies of key qualifications, models that have
served as important points of reference – histori-
cally speaking – for the current discussion. In the
third section, I will analyze important issues for
future research connected to the definition and as-
sessment of cross-curricular competences.
3.7.2.2 The Concept of Competence
In common parlance, the concept of competence
is used in two different ways: first, as a capacity or
ability, and second, as a province of responsibil-
ity or field of authority – for example, the author-
ity to make decisions. The first usage corresponds
to the concept of “competence” or “competences”
used the field of vocational education: here, an in-
dividual is considered “competent” when possess-
ing the ability to do something specific. Clement
(2002) has recently shown that in the international
context, while this concept may initially appear to
enjoy overall homogeneous usage, quite the oppo-
site is true. She writes, “both the scope in the con-
tent of specific competences as well as the frame-
work conditions required for their acquisition and
certification differ (…) in significant points” (ibid.,
48). Numerous factors play a role in how compe-
tences are conceptualized: these include the pre-
vailing educational, economic, and political strat-
egies, the traditions of the ↑ profession in question,
and the specific ↑ labour market on which the com-
petences are to be marketed (cf. ibid., 30). Defini-
tions of (vocational) action competence usually
emphasize the importance of practice and learning
processes in fostering the development of compe-
tences, thus positing competence as something that
can be learned and influenced, and as distinguish-
able from concepts like intelligence. Competence
contains cognitive, motivational, and volitional
aspects as well (WEINERT 2001; TIPPELT/ MANDL /
STRAKA 2003).
An important theoretical construct of competence
referred to repeatedly in the present-day discus-
sion is Chomsky’s (1969) linguistic concept from
the 1960s. Chomsky differentiates between com-
petence and ↑ performance: he uses competence to
designate general linguistic capacity, and perform-
ance to designate the actual use of language. Ac-
cording to Chomsky, only in the case of the ide-
Handbook of TVET Research
al speaker/listener (native speaker) does perform-
ance directly reflect linguistic competence. He
traces the numerous “performance errors” that oc-
cur (deviations from the rules, slips of the tongue,
etc.) back to socio-cultural, social, individual psy-
chological, and situational factors. Habermas’ con-
cept of communicative competence (1981/1995)
also constitutes an important conceptual reference
point in the current discussion.
Weinert’s (2001) approach occupies a central posi-
tion in the current debate. He defines competenc-
es as “the necessary prerequisites for successfully
meeting complex demands possessed by an indi-
vidual or group of individuals” (ibid., 62). Compe-
tence, which is learnable, thus corresponds to the
potential to successfully meet complex demands.
The concept encompasses not only cognitive as-
pects, but also explicitly motivational, moral, vo-
litional, and social components. Competences are
acquired as well when dealing in depth with spe-
cific subject matter (“domains”). Thus, Weinert’s
approach ↑ distances itself from the idea that com-
petences are acquired without relation to specific
subject matter, an idea originally put forward in re-
lation to ↑ key qualifications but since discarded.
In the field of vocational education and training,
the discussion taking place in the working group
on “Qualification Development Management” has
proven important as well. Competence is defined
here – in contrast to other constructs like ability,
skills, capacities, or qualifications – as the abili-
ty for ↑ self-organisation that the individual pos-
sesses in the form of a disposition (cf. ERPENBECK
1996, 311). This approach has been criticized on
a number of points. From the point of view of
↑ ideology critique (cf. BOLDER 2002, 662), it has
been faulted for emphasizing personal responsi-
bility, self-organisation, and self-governance, and
for missing the central issue of the internalization
of heteronomy, a condition in which the individu-
al is fundamentally lacking in self-determination.
Vonken (2001) criticizes the use of the concepts of
“competence” and “competence development” not
to describe qualifications – a concept almost en-
tirely unrelated to personality – but instead to focus
on specific personality traits that are economically
and socially desirable for workers. As a result, the
lack of certain competences is interpreted as a per-
Areas of VET Research
sonality deficit. The lack of certain qualifications,
however, still allows the personality of the worker
to remain intact: the separation of work and per-
sonality into two different conceptual areas pro-
tects the individual’s self-esteem. Arnold (1997a,
283) takes yet another perspective, criticizing that
instead of constituting a new paradigm, “compe-
tence” and “competence development” essentially
integrate older approaches and discussions without
taking account of important new contexts and is-
sues within the debate. Finally, Lehmann (2002,
121) comes to the conclusion that the current de-
bate on competence “[suffers] from not insignificant
theoretical deficits; it threatens to degenerate into mean-
ingless generalizations – like the concept of key quali-
fications that preceded it – and to become no more than
a passing fad, despite the fact that this impression has
been challenged with vehement optimism by those with
an interest in defending the idea”.
3.7.2.3 Taxonomies of Cross-Curricular
Competences
↑ Cross-curricular competences must include all
those competences that are not specific to an indi-
vidual subject or occupation but transversal in na-
ture, spanning diverse fields and ↑ professions and
crucial for school or job success. Since the incep-
tion of the discussion about ↑ key qualifications, a
vast range of non-subject-specific qualifications
and competences have been identified that only
partially do justice to the demands of a theoretical-
ly and empirically tested model of cross-curricular
competences. Grob/ Maag Merki (2001, 63 ff.) dif-
ferentiate six criteria that can serve as indicators
for determining the quality of the taxonomies:
Structural model: A theoretically and empirical-
ly tested model of cross-curricular competences
has to clarify the internal structures of each of the
particular competences. This prevents inclusion
of competence dimensions that are largely redun-
dant.
Functional model: Such a model identifies the re-
lationships among competences or the dimensions
of the particular competences to relevant exter-
nal criteria by empirically demonstrating that they
possess a functional relationship to the complex
demands in the desired areas.
Plasticity: The competences in question are not
determined largely by genetic factors, but can be
519
shaped and formed to a sufficient degree. In this
way, they can be fostered in school, vocational
training, and/or ↑ further education.
Breadth of content: The dimensions of the com-
petences included focus on the individual in the
broader context of his or her entire life. Function-
ality should be conceptualized both individually
and interpersonally, as well as socially.
Empirical falsifiability: A model of cross-curric-
ular competences is empirically falsifiable and re-
mains at the level of previous empirical proofs of
its basic statements.
Clarification of the normative basis: The selection
of competences that are viewed as important for
processes of vocational training or further educa-
tion cannot take place in a value-neutral manner
(cf. RYCHEN / SALGANIK 2003). It is important to bal-
ance the normative perspectives connected to each
of the taxonomies in such a way that the taxonomy
is not dominated by particular interests but based
on a democratic process of negotiation that inte-
grates different groups with different worldviews
and values.
The majority of existing models of ↑ cross-cur-
ricular competences fail to meet all of the afore-
mentioned criteria, most meeting only one or an-
other individual criterion. The first concept of
↑ key competences proposed thirty years ago by
Mertens (1974), for example, lacks empirical test-
ing of whether these key qualifications can be used
effectively to solve the problem of unforeseea-
ble demands arising within the workplace (DÖRIG
1994). The most serious deficits of this heuristic
approach, in addition to not meeting the criterion
of functionality, are its failure to empirically clar-
ify the internal structures of the key qualifications
involved (structural model criterion) and its lack
of plasticity.
Further developments of Mertens’ concept share
the same problem. While approaches from the
field of vocational education such as that of Bunk
(1990), and approaches oriented toward the indi-
vidual rather than the occupation, such as that of
Calchera/ Weber (1990), do provide an anthropo-
logical and pedagogical basis for the concept, they
lack any empirical testing of its structure, function,
or plasticity. A particularly interesting approach is
the one proposed by Reetz (1990): since his taxon-
520
omy is based on Roth’s personality model, it pos-
sesses a theoretically based, systematic structure
and thus meets the criterion of “breadth” particu-
larly well. Nevertheless, according to Dörig (1994,
104), it still has yet to “fulfill the promise of being
able to transfer the desired abilities out of the spe-
cific context” (criterion of functionality). Further-
more, normative clarification of the competences
in question is still pending.
Klafki (1998) takes a somewhat different approach
in establishing the theoretical basis for his mod-
el of cross-curricular competences. Through anal-
ysis of the “key problems typical of a given ep-
och”, which represent the content side of the ↑ ed-
ucational process, he generates the ↑ key qualifica-
tions necessary to deal with these problems on the
formal side. Acquiring these key qualifications en-
ables students to “understand the contexts of the
problems characterizing their epoch” (ibid., 150).
However, this model too is a heuristic one, and an
empirical test of its structure, functionality, and
plasticity still remains to be done.
It is possible to distinguish between the aforemen-
tioned theoretically based approaches on the one
hand and empirically based approaches on the oth-
er. The empirical approaches can be subdivided
according to their use of three ideal types of meth-
odology that are nevertheless also found in combi-
nation in practical research work: (a) the analysis
of job descriptions, task profiles, or job advertise-
ments, (b) the analysis of the opinions of experts in
companies or research institutions, (c) the analy-
sis of the curricula and guidelines for training cur-
rently in use.
(a) The analysis of organisational factors – for ex-
ample, job descriptions or task profiles – proceeds
from the assumption that these represent a solid ba-
sis for identifying core competences or key qualifi-
cations (cf. WEINERT 2001, 57). The deductive pro-
cedure that has been used, for example, by Krüger
(1988) in deriving extra-functional qualifications
from organisational characteristics and tasks, and
by some companies as well, guarantees that the
criterion of functionality is fulfilled at least con-
ceptually even if the relationship between predic-
tor (i.e. competence) and criterion (i.e. demands in
complex situations) still remains to be tested em-
pirically. Further study is needed to better under-
Handbook of TVET Research
stand the internal structures (structural model cri-
terion) and analyze the plasticity of the individual
competences or key qualifications involved.
(b) Another means of creating empirically based
taxonomies is by surveying experts in companies
or academic disciplines. One current example is
offered by the ↑ OECD project “Definition and
Selection of Competences” (DeSeCo) (RYCHEN /
SALGANIK 2003). The advantage of this approach
lies in the possibility to make a relatively rational
choice of competences and to maintain ↑ distance
from particularistic interests and applications. In
practice, however, it proves very difficult to inte-
grate the different concepts due to the diverging
perspectives among the various disciplines. Each
individual academic discipline has its own empha-
ses and priorities, and choosing experts thus inev-
itably means choosing specific scientific positions
within a discipline while rejecting or excluding
others. Choosing competences that are formulat-
ed on a high level of ↑ abstraction at least implicitly
fulfills the demand for breadth. The disadvantage
of these still-untested, abstract concepts is that un-
til they have been put into practice, their practical
applicability in the context of vocational training
and ↑ further education must be assumed to be very
low (criterion of plasticity).
(c) A third strategy for creating a theoretical mod-
el of ↑ cross-curricular competences or qualifica-
tions consists in the analysis of curricula and train-
ing guidelines currently in use. This approach has
been used in the studies of Frey (1999) within one
↑ occupational group (future teachers) and Grob/
Maag Merki (2001) covering a range of school
levels and occupations. Curricula and vocation-
al training guidelines contain in concise form all
the learning objectives considered by the decision-
makers in the educational system to be important
for meeting the demands of school, occupation,
and society. This approach – like the approaches
developed in organisational sociology – fulfills the
“functional model” criterion, at least conceptually.
Particularly in the case of the curricula from gen-
eral educational and ↑ vocational schools, collec-
tive interests are given priority over particular in-
terests since it must be assumed that the process
of ↑ curriculum development consists in arriving at
transparent compromises among a variety of diver-
Areas of VET Research
gent interests (criterion of normativity). Some em-
pirical studies have analyzed the structure, func-
tionality, and plasticity of cross-curricular com-
petences that were derived based on the identi-
fication and transformation of stated education-
al objectives (FREY 1999; BALZER / FREY/ RENOLD /
NENNIGER 2002; BIERI / FORRER 2005; MAAG MERKI
2006; MAAG MERKI / GROB 2005). Through its in-
clusion of personal, interpersonal, and social com-
petences, the model of Grob/ Maag Merki (2001)
fulfills the criterion of breadth particularly well.
3.7.2.4 Specific Research Desiderata
The discussion thus far has revealed numerous the-
oretical and empirical shortcomings in the defini-
tion and conception of the construct of “compe-
tence” or “cross-curricular competence”. From a
scientific perspective, the resulting picture is un-
satisfying. This has much to do with the fact that
the empirical measurement of non-subject-specif-
ic competences has received only very margin-
al attention in the research thus far – in contrast
to the thorough discussions of conceptual aspects.
Due to the interdependency of theory and empir-
ics, this results in the urgent need for future work
clarifying numerous issues on the theoretical level
(cf. TRIER 2001, 51). In the following, I will sketch
out three central topics of crucial importance for
future research.
Empirical Assessment of Cross-Curricular
Competences
As the previously cited analyses have shown, the
discussion about the construct of “cross-curricular
competence” is grossly lacking in empirical foun-
dations. The measurement or evaluation of com-
petences is, however, as Bernien (1997, 21) writes,
not simply an end in itself but rather “absolutely
decisive for both the theoretical conceptualiza-
tion and practical application (of cross-curricular
competences), and not least for the political gov-
ernance of this process”. The empirical deficit here
is connected to the formidable challenges of op-
erationalizing cross-curricular competences such
as cooperative or communicative abilities. Com-
petences develop in an interactive process and are
dependent on personal and situational characteris-
521
tics (cf. GROB / MAAG MERKI 2001, 229). They man-
ifest themselves as latent, individual dispositions
in concrete situations (↑ performance) and are of-
ten identifiable only in these specific situations.
The empirical challenge lies in accounting for this
situation-specificity while integrating both sides –
the personal and the situational – into the measure-
ment and evaluation of competences and consid-
ering the interactions among the personal and the
situational aspects as well (cf. also FLASSE / STIELER-
LORENZ 2000, 209). This integrated perspective
can help to prevent the ↑ assessment of competenc-
es according to one-dimensional, biased, selective
evaluations of isolated aspects.
After assessing cross-curricular competences, the
next major challenge lies in interpreting them. Of-
ten these competences cannot be described ac-
cording to a simple behavior-effect type of rela-
tionship – along the lines of “the more, the bet-
ter” – but more to a “mesotic type” (PATRY 1991a),
a reverse U-shaped relationship between a behav-
ior and its effect in which there is no maximal but
merely optimal behavior. “A behavior should not
be either too high or too low in frequency, dura-
tion, or intensity; rather, a median value is appro-
priate” (ibid., 68). Pinpointing this median value
is, however, significantly more difficult than set-
ting a maximal value, since it depends on theoret-
ical, empirical and normative factors that are fre-
quently nonexistent. Due to the complexity of the
subject, Bernien (1997) proceeds on the assump-
tion that not all of the components of competence
judged to be relevant are actually measurable and
assessable.
The currently existing assessment instruments use
different methods of measurement. The validity
of each of these methods has to be evaluated in-
dividually in relationship to the competences. To
measure personal competences such as attitudes
or motivations, for example, standardized ques-
tionnaires based on personal self-assessment have
proven to generate valid results (e. g. SONNTAG /
SCHÄFER-RAUSER 1993; GROB / MAAG MERKI 2001;
FREY/ BALZER / RENOLD / NENNIGER 2002). In con-
trast, the assessment of social and methodical
competences through self-reporting in question-
naires has been called strongly into question. The
use of an outside observer to evaluate individual
522
behavioral patterns, as carried out using the Kas-
seler Competency Grid (KAUFFELD 2002) and the
Assessment Center method (e. g. SCHULER 2006) is
an extremely time-consuming procedure but can
generate valid data on specific situational config-
urations. Nevertheless, here as well, opinions con-
flict on the extent to which the results can be gen-
eralized. These methods can in turn be differen-
tiated from computer-based assessment methods,
which are used, for example, to measure problem-
solving competences (WIRTH 2004). Using logfile
records, computer-based assessment methods dis-
tinguish themselves as non-reactive but also very
situation-specific procedures. Furthermore, they
are unsuitable for assessing motivations or atti-
tudes. Achievement tests are equally unpromising
in this regard: while they are often used to measure
social competences (e. g. MEIJER / ELSHOUT-MOHR /
HOUT-WOLTERS 2000), achievement tests have been
shown in numerous studies to lack validity (SEY-
FRIED 1995).
In sum, the existing ↑ competence assessment
methods each offer important contributions that
help to illuminate the broader research landscape.
However, further and more extensive work is need-
ed before ↑ cross-curricular competences can be
assessed according to the scientific ↑ quality cri-
teria of ↑ objectivity, reliability, and validity. A
particularly fruitful contribution can be expected
from the use of multiple complementary methods
– combining, for example, standardized methods
for the self-assessment of cross-curricular compe-
tences with methods allowing for analysis of ac-
tion processes based on objective observation of
behavioral patterns. This would also make it pos-
sible to assess different competence areas simul-
taneously and thus create individual competence
profiles, allowing the comprehensive identification
of individual competence resources and deficits.
Degree of Generalization of Competences
One problem that arises in the selection of cross-
curricular competences relates to their degree of
generalization. The ↑ key qualifications or cross-
curricular competences listed in taxonomies are
often presented as highly generalized and abstract
constructs whose conceptual basis is far from con-
cretely defined. If they are to become more than
Handbook of TVET Research
catchwords, however, these constructs will need a
solid conceptual base. Furthermore, they will have
to be fleshed out in the context of a systematic and
scientifically well-founded process of transforma-
tion and operationalization, with the goal of iden-
tifying their subdimensions (BERNIEN 1997, 32 ff.).
In this way, value of cross-curricular competenc-
es for the (vocational) ↑ educational process can
be analyzed empirically, and they can be shaped
and developed in the practical context of vocation-
al training and ↑ further education. The advantage
of this approach that is missing in many of the cur-
rently existing taxonomies is its use of multi-di-
mensional and hierarchically differentiated theo-
retical conceptions that make it possible to create
more detailed competence profiles of individuals.
This in turn will enable us to glean information on
specific individual resources and deficits that can
provide a useful starting point for further vocation-
al training.
The Relationship between Domain-Specific
and Key Competences
The concept of ↑ key competences (or key quali-
fications) is based on the idea of identifying com-
petences that are not subject-specific but formal
in nature, and thus can be optimally applied to di-
verse new subjects and fields. In practice, howev-
er, this objective has proven difficult to achieve
(cf. DÖRIG 1994; DUBS 1996b). In the context of re-
search on teaching and learning, it has been dem-
onstrated that the more general a ↑ learning strat-
egy is, the more limited its contribution to solv-
ing challenging educational and intellectual prob-
lems (WEINERT/ SCHRADER 1996) – as shown, for
example, in the “dilemma of breadth vs. accuracy”
(FRIEDRICH / MANDL 1992, 18). Given the situation-
specific character and the only limited transsitua-
tional consistency of ↑ cross-curricular competenc-
es (PATRY 1991a), we must also expect to encounter
the same problems outside specific learning areas.
As a result, it must be assumed that cross-curric-
ular competences are linked to content-related as-
pects of learning, and thus, that competences can
never achieve universal applicability to all areas of
life. At most, individual competences are applica-
ble to domains that share similarities in structure
or content (cf. MAAG MERKI 2001). In the future,
Areas of VET Research
therefore, it will be important to sound out the ↑ do-
main-specific functions of each competence in re-
lation to its cross-domain functions.
3.7.3 Shaping and Evaluating
Vocational Training Offers
Peter Gerds
3.7.3.1 Fields of Reference for Designing
Curricula and Didactical
Arrangements in TVET
↑ Vocational pedagogy as an academic discipline,
related to relevant fields of practice, does not only
analyse problems in an uninvolved manner but is
also expected to give useful support to practition-
ers acting in real teaching situations.
The accelerating speed of social changes, espe-
cially in the fields of work and technology, with
its unpredictable and undetermined results, opens
a wide spectrum of options about how to organ-
ise work and to produce and offer numerous goods
and service variations. The significant requirement
for modern concepts of organising skilled work in
the context of implementing open technologies and
global competition is to provide a wide and flex-
ible scope of tasks and reponsibilities for all em-
ployees. Self-reliant and independent learning and
the ability to find solutions for undetermined tasks
has become a crucial requirement for the qualifi-
cation of the workforce, including skilled workers
on the shop-floors. Curricula and modern ↑ didacti-
cal concepts of TVET have to meet these demands,
and corresponding with the dynamic chang-
es of work a new and extended latitude of shap-
ing TVET arose. High flexibility in teaching situa-
tions, applying tailor-made didactical approaches,
varying teaching methods and using suitable in-
struments of diagnoses and guidance with respect
to individual learning preconditions and process-
es have become the outstanding marks of profes-
sional vocational teaching. One precondition for
higher ↑ performance of teaching and providing
individual achievements of learning is to analyse
the obstacles and beneficial effects of learning sit-
uations in order to shape suitable, more demand-
523
ing and complex learning arrangements (ARNOLD /
LIPSMEIER 1995, 13–15).
Didactics in this constructive meaning recognis-
es that the preconditions, processes and results of
teaching and learning are not determined but have
to be shaped in concrete situations. This includes
analysis and eliminating obstacles in the learning
arrangements preventing the learners from indi-
vidual achievements.
For vocational education, the constitutive didac-
tical frame of reference consists of the undeter-
mined interrelation of work, techniques and ed-
ucation. This implies that vocational education
not only has to prepare learners for coping with
the demands of real working situations and tasks
but also to enable them to take part in the proc-
esses of shaping the organisation of work on the
shop-floor. The objectives, contents and delivery
modes of ↑ didactical arrangements can no long-
er be completely determined by analysing the real
existing forms of work and techniques only. In ad-
dition to this, human-oriented criteria for shaping
didactical arrangements are indispensable if voca-
tional education is not only fitting the workforce
for whatever demands may arise but also seeks to
enable individuals to work more independent and
autonomously.
Another field of reference for determining con-
tents of didactical arrangements in TVET are the
so-called corresponding academic disciplines.
This approach claims a strong relation of scientif-
ic knowledge in defined academic domains (such
as ↑ mechanical engineering) and the knowledge to
be provided in TVET for skilled craftsmen from
“related” vocational trades (such as skilled me-
chanics). In school-oriented national systems of
TVET this approach, which tends to move away
from the demands of real skilled work, is predom-
inant. Summarizing both of the fields of reference
for developing TVET training offers mentioned
above are not sufficient: demands from real, ex-
isting work-processes often do not include subject-
oriented criteria for developing broad human abil-
ities, and the structure and subjects of academic
disciplines have limited relevance for developing
the occupational competence of skilled workers.
Modern subject-oriented didactical approaches re-
flect the limited meaningfulness of both fields of
524
reference. Statements about their relevance for
TVET can only be given with respect to specific
occupational analyses. The characteristic features
of modern didactical approaches and curricula are
openness, flexibility and responsiveness in order to
enable learners to learn independent by and to de-
velop their vocational careers and mastery as part
of their own responsibility (VOLPERT 1989; RAUNER
1995a).
To sum up one can say that shaping training offers
for individual vocational development means em-
powering and coaching learners to take up and ex-
tend given scopes of action in working and ↑ learn-
ing environments, including decisions about pur-
poses, means and results of their actions. This im-
plies a coherence of the social, technical and eth-
ical dimension in vocational education and work-
processes (RAUNER 1987).
Scopes of tasks and responsibilities in ↑ work proc-
esses have been fixed in a given work-organisation
by the typical tasks belonging to a special occupa-
tion or ↑ vocation. Investigating, documenting and
transforming the ↑ occupational tasks into learn-
ing assignments is a precondition for shaping and
delivering ↑ didactical arrangements. The quality,
complexity and extension of occupational learn-
ing assignments with respect to their social, tech-
nical and ethical dimension determine the poten-
tial scope of professional development of the learn-
ers. The crucial problem of planning didactical ar-
rangements and delivering real teaching-learning
situations in TVET is fitting together learning as-
signments relevant for real occupational tasks and
the individual prior achievements, knowledge and
work-experience of the learners. Development of
professional expertise takes place within a defined
occupational domain and is a process of widening
and deepening this domain up to mastery. Shap-
ing occupational learning assignments and ar-
rangements is done properly by starting up with
conscious reference to the learner’s current posi-
tion and guiding him/her to the next step of profes-
sional development. This core task of teachers re-
quires sound diagnostic competence in order to as-
sess prior achievements and progress of learners as
well as governance of instruments for shaping indi-
vidual tailored training offers (HOFER / NIEGEMANN /
Handbook of TVET Research
ECKERT/ RINN 1996, 53–67; RAUNER 1999a, 424–
446; GERSTENMAIER 2004, 151–166).
In other words, development of ↑ vocational curric-
ula, didactical arrangements and ↑ teaching-learn-
ing environments implies an indispensable state
of tension between the demands coming from the
↑ labour markets to provide marketable qualifica-
tions and the social and individual claims that ex-
ceed adaptation (DRECHSEL / GERDS /KOERBER 1987;
GERDS 1995b).
3.7.3.2 Characteristic Marks of Traditional
TVET Arrangements
Traditional curricula, ↑ didactical concepts and
learning-teaching arrangements which were the
targets of adaptation had been removed by concep-
tions which put concrete target groups, learning
situations and social demands in the focus of atten-
tion (HEDDERICH 2001). The following character-
istic marks of the traditional conceptions indicate
that a deep-seated change in TVET arrangements
has taken place within the last couple of years.
(1) Standardization
Goals, contents, processes, range of time, locations
and results of learning have been predetermined in
detail by central committees, separated from actu-
al learners, teachers and the environment of learn-
ing. Space for unpredictable, unplanned process-
es, the development of new and innovative proce-
dures and results, original and creative solutions
and corresponding competence is not scheduled.
Even more, results of individual learning differing
from uniform guidelines are unwanted. Acting as
a matter of routine and fulfilling given standards
are the characteristic features of TVET training
offers, in certain analogy to traditional Taylorist
forms of work organisation.
(2) Learning in Separated Institutions Apart from
Real Work and Life
The idea of learning is to compile a lot of context-
free items of knowledge in stock for application in
future working situations. Since learning does not
take place in meaningful situations but in artifi-
cial school-based environments separated from re-
al work and individual experiences, students can-
not acquire applicable occupational competence.
Learning is limited by clearly defined phases in
Areas of VET Research
special locations (e. g. classroom-teaching in a
set hourly pattern). Continuous learning in work-
ing situations and processes and ↑ lifelong learn-
ing based on own experience is not intended. Sep-
arate alternate phases of learning and working are
located in different places and time. Decentralized
learning at work is not scheduled (DEHNBOSTEL /
HOLZ / NOVAK 1992; DEHNBOSTEL / WALTER-LEZIUS
1995).
(3) Predominance of the Instrumental and Techni-
cal Mode of Action
Traditional concepts of TVET favour training of
skills needed for carrying out clearly and rigid-
ly defined tasks or sub-tasks, corresponding with
the Taylorist organisation of work. Comprehen-
sive vocational skills, knowledge and competence
which is not directly and immediately required on
the fragmented labour-markets are not in focus.
TVET has to provide manpower needed for giv-
en demands and purposes of production with de-
fined standards. Realizing and considering indi-
vidual distinctive features of learners and workers
as well as taking part in processes of communica-
tion and co-operation in ↑ communities of practice
and going unusual ways when solving problems is
estimated to lead away from the “right” way pre-
scribed in the formal organisation of working and
learning. But even social relations with colleagues
who are competitors when offering the same stand-
ardized and accountable ↑ performances are domi-
nated by the instrumental mode of action.
In this mode TVET has the function of supplying
abstract qualifications without any specific pur-
pose for alienated work. Development of person-
al preconditions for sharing in common processes
of decisions and innovation that exceed the imme-
diate requirements of daily tasks are not the goal
(BRATER 1984; GERDS 1992b).
(4) External Control Instead of Self-Regulation
Rigid fragmentation and limitation of tasks in
strongly dissected organisations of working and
learning have severe consequences on the moti-
vation and interests of concerned persons. Work-
ers tend to hold back their work-process-knowl-
edge and engagement when they feel that they are
not recognized as equal partners. Indifference and
lack of ↑ commitment may be the consequences
with strong impact on the results of working and
525
learning. External control of workers becomes a
necessary requirement in order to ensure the in-
dispensable minimum of interest. The time, ener-
gy and expenditure needed the for control usually
cause high inefficiency.
3.7.3.3 New Demands for Design of Modern
TVET Concepts
Modern, computer-integrated and systemic con-
cepts of work organisation require ↑ participation
and overview of employees on the whole process
of working and a broader cut of their tasks and
responsibilities. A traditional concept with a re-
stricted, limited scope of tasks is an obstacle for
the implementation of more flexible and efficient
ways of production and the opportunity to adjust
quickly and responsibly to new, unpredictable sit-
uations. Close communication and co-operation in
flexible systems of work, efficient customer advi-
sory service and tailor-made individual solutions
are the significant marks of competitive trades and
services with new demands for qualified personnel
(GANGUIN 1992, 16–33). One consequence is the
necessity to shift responsibilities, decision-mak-
ing-powers and rights of disposal back to the direct
locations of work and personnel in the processes of
creating values. This is the reason for the signifi-
cant progress of corresponding holistic and work-
process oriented modern concepts of TVET. Indi-
vidual, tailor-made qualification, continuous ↑ life-
long learning and, increasingly, ↑ organisational
learning are becoming the missing link between
↑ organisational development, ↑ human resources
development and TVET (GEISSLER 1998).
Just as important as the above-mentioned glo-
bal trends of modern work-organisation are the
new demands arising from direct interaction be-
tween personnel and computer aided systems and
tools on the workplaces. It is becoming more and
more evident that the implicit, ↑ tacit and applica-
ble knowledge and experience of skilled person-
nel is crucial for their ability to find solutions to
an increasing number of non-routine-tasks. Fur-
thermore the effective use of computer-integrat-
ed tools requires adaptive implementation, con-
tinuous maintenance and updating directly at the
workplaces (SCHREIER 2001b).
526
The gap between the knowledge of both developers
and users of the systems, machines and tools must
be reconcilable. Otherwise, deskilling will hap-
pen and will have severe consequences (JAKOBS /
MARTIN 1991). Computer-integrated systems and
tools can only be completed through and incorpo-
rated into concrete application on the workplaces
with ↑ participation of the user (FISCHER 1995a).
Systemic reorganisation of work in the context
of computer integration has revolutionary conse-
quences in all areas of TVET, starting from the
micro-dimension of shaping concrete teaching and
learning situations up to organisational and per-
sonal development of TVET-institutions, curricu-
lum-development and the level of national TVET-
systems. Comparable with removing more rights of
disposal and decision down to the level of skilled
work, an international trend of empowerment and
enrichment of real teaching and learning places,
persons and situations can be identified by the inte-
gration of work and learning. Students are increas-
ingly given the responsibility for their own process-
es of learning, and ↑ didactical concepts for inde-
pendent learning and working are in great demand
(GERDS 2001). Teachers and instructors commis-
sioned with TVET are given more space for didac-
tical decisions, including curriculum implementa-
tion and evaluation as well as their own profession-
al development (GERDS / BAUER 2003). ↑ Vocational
curricula are moving more and more away from
rigid and detailed guidelines but give the teachers/
instructors and learners more space for filling up
broader curricular frameworks individually in ac-
cordance with the needs of learners. Participation
in processes of organisational and personal devel-
opment is becoming a major qualification require-
ment of teaching personnel (SLOANE 2002).
This enlarging scope of teachers’ and instructors’
tasks and responsibilities yield evidence of the gen-
eral trend that flat models of organisation and a re-
duction of hierarchical levels are not only making
progress in market-oriented but also in school-ori-
ented TVET-systems. Decisions and competence
on planning and evaluating programmes, cours-
es, instructional planning and guidance up to com-
munity relations can no longer be divided and al-
lotted to institutions and persons sealed off from
each other. Development, implementation, evalua-
Handbook of TVET Research
tion and revision of curricula form a coherent cir-
cuit. In accordance with modern concepts, teach-
ing personnel have to take on a greater role at eve-
ry stage (FISCHER / GERDS 2002).
The new concepts of TVET and broader scope of
tasks of its personnel significantly exceed their tra-
ditional scope of duties, with reference to the deliv-
ery of teaching as the core of activities. Neverthe-
less the following remarks refer to shaping the con-
crete processes of vocational teaching and learn-
ing since these are still extremely relevant for the
results and quality of teaching. Didactical deci-
sions on suitable teaching methods, instructional
execution and evaluation, individual guidance and
coaching of learners, developing and using me-
dia and shaping ↑ learning environments are still
estimated to have a crucial impact on the learn-
er’s ↑ performance. These decisions determine to a
large extent how far new aims of teaching like in-
dependent learning and development of vocational
expertise, which are based on the above-mentioned
changing requirements from the modern world of
work, can be transferred into reality.
3.7.3.4 Findings on the Quality of School-
Based TVET
Most countries with school-based or dual TVET-
systems for initial technical/vocational education
and related academic TVET teacher education
have a tradition that has elaborated didactical con-
cepts that are focused on systematic teaching and
structured learning. In the last decade the recogni-
tion of these concepts has been overshadowed by
the boom in learning at work and the development
of ↑ work process knowledge, which has a strong
impact on the recent process of restructuring the
organisation of technical/↑ vocational schools and
modernisation of ↑ didactical arrangements of
school-based TVET-teaching and learning. Never-
theless, the following actual empirical findings in-
dicate that there still exists a lack of modernity as
well in practice as in theory, compared with the
contributions put up to the actual European discus-
sion on learning at work.
Areas of VET Research
Elements and Characteristic Marks of Didac-
tical Concepts for School-Based Vocational
Learning
Academic initial and in-service education of TVET
teachers usually refers to school-based vocational
learning. The focus lies on the shaping of learning
processes in accordance with teaching aims, con-
tents and methods that are pre-set by the teacher
and the curriculum. Usually this type of teaching
and learning results in propositional knowledge
which comes close to traditional academic theory
in a mode simplified by didactical reduction:
“– discipline-based theories and concepts, derived from
coherent, systematic knowledge,
– generalizations and practical principles in the applied
field of professional action; and
– special propositions about particular cases, decisions
and actions” (ERAUT 2002, 43).
Since school-based learning takes place apart from
real life and working situations with given social,
informational and material contexts, all the en-
vironmental framework of teaching and learning
must be planned and arranged, including:
– Social forms of action, regulating the social re-
lations and forms of communication and co-oper-
ation of the persons involved in teaching-learning
processes. The social forms are determined by the
external dimension (structure of space, time and
facilities) and the internal dimension (hierarchical
or equal structure of personal relations),
– Patterns of action, regulating teaching-learning
processes with their internal component (building
of knowledge and competence by internalisation
of performed actions) and its external component
(staging and engineering of simulated work-proc-
esses as ↑ didactical arrangements),
– Sequential arrangement of steps of teaching-
learning processes, regulating their external struc-
ture (arrangement of sequences by time) and their
internal structure of (way of acquisition of knowl-
edge, e. g. situated or context-free) (MEYER 1987).
The interplay of social-forms, patterns of action
and sequential arrangements is decisive for fix-
ing didactical arrangements and teaching methods
like projects, programmes, courses of study, or les-
son plans.
Like work-based learning, school-based learning
is an extremely complex event and scientists are
527
uncertain whether a coherent theory with non-con-
tradictory categories for analysing and describing
↑ teaching and learning processes is possible (TER-
HART 2000a, 33; PÄTZOLD 2003a, 16–21). There-
fore Pätzold decided to use a pragmatic definition
of the term “teaching and learning methods” to de-
scribe their empirical research on the real practice
of teaching and learning processes in TVET. The
term “teaching and learning arrangement” used is
open for a broad scope of different ways of teach-
ing and learning, reaching from “great arrange-
ments” like projects down to short patterns of ac-
tion in micro-teaching situations.
But all these traditional concepts of school-based
learning come from the teacher’s point of view:
they are the persons who have to shape learn-
ing-processes. So learning and teaching become
equated and placed on the same level, and the ac-
tivities and perspectives of the learners tend to be
ignored.
The term “teaching and learning” arrangement
refers to the “constructivistic” theory of learning
(MATURANA 1993). The transfer of the theory of
autopoietic systems to pedagogic theory indicated
a change of perspective: knowledge cannot simply
be transferred from teachers to learners. Didactic
competence of teachers can no more be defined as
the ability to arrange an effective process knowl-
edge-transfer from the teacher to the learner by ap-
plying “suitable” teaching methods. On contrary
the teacher has to empower the learner’s process
of own acting and active learning. Not the arrange-
ment and organisation of the teacher’s instruction
is given priority, but support of the process of con-
struction of knowledge by the learners themselves
comes to the fore. This “constructivistic” theory
of learning can be supplemented by findings from
empiric research on the structure and quality of in-
struction summarized as follows.
(1) Existing Room to Move and Modernise the
Organisation and Arrangement of School-Based
Learning has Not Been Sufficiently Exhausted
In spite of increasing regulation by the progress
of extensive programme, curriculum and lesson
planning and the strong trend towards standard-
izing and bureaucratizing vocational teaching and
learning triggered by the implementation of scien-
tific methods for developing and evaluating cur-
528
ricula and organisations, still a wide scope of dif-
ference in the quality of vocational education has
been found (DEITMER / FISCHER / GERDS ET AL. 2004;
DEITMER 2004b).
These findings suggest that significant room to
move and modernise still exists in many schools
and that, in general, it has not yet been exhausted.
Another reason for the great differences in quali-
ty may be due to a weak impact of regulations on
teaching and learning reality, where many pos-
sibilities evade them. Experienced teachers and
trainers hardly refer to curricula and other regu-
lations when preparing and conducting teaching.
Other findings documenting the minor interest of
many teachers in their own ↑ further education on
pedagogical issues offer some conclusions about
the lack of professional development in core areas.
About 50 % of the teachers have sound knowledge
and experience of traditional concepts like teach-
er-centred instructional execution, but only 25 %
are familiar with modern concepts of independent
and work oriented learning (PÄTZOLD 2003a).
(2) Verbal Instruction is Still Predominant
Head-on verbal instruction is still the dominant
form of interaction. Following the theory of ↑ sit-
uated cognition (LAVE / WENGER 1991) the conse-
quence is that providing a kind of knowledge that
is not very useful in practical vocational contexts is
not suitable to make learners ready for meeting the
demands of real work. In contrast, and in accord-
ance with the theory of ↑ situated learning TVET
has to consider the following general principles
(CLANCEY 1992):
(a) learning situations should offer real work com-
plexity rather than selective cuts of reality that aim
at directly transmitting certain, abstract concepts;
(b) active engagement through practical experi-
ence is superior to passive learning through expo-
sition;
(c) group work and social interaction are superior
to individual learning.
Another starting point for a critique of verbal head-
on instruction and curricula overloaded with use-
less theoretical knowledge comes from a more di-
dactical point of view. The result of learning in this
mode is the compilation of “↑ inert knowledge”
(MANDL / GRUBER / RENKL 1993) that is not applicable
for real life and work situations (BRETTSCHNEIDER /
Handbook of TVET Research
GRUBER /K AISER / STARK 2000, 399). Inert knowl-
edge is not applicable for the reason that learning
is organised in a receptive manner by acquiring
prescribed and disciplinary structured terms and
facts. This concept neglects the idea that learning
is an active and constructive process that must be
related to occupational activities and tasks (R EIN-
MANN-ROTHMEIER / MANDL /P RENTZEL 1994). Dörn-
er resumes the results of his “Lohhausen-experi-
ments” with his sarcastic statement that the partic-
ipants of the investigated programmes have been
enabled to discuss their problems using many fine,
new terms. But their real activities remained com-
pletely untouched by this increase of eloquence
(DÖRNER 2000, 304). In this context Dörner speaks
about “knowledge of eunuchs: They know how to
do it but they cannot”.
Tramm and Rebmann describe the significant
marks and reasons for their findings on the type of
knowledge in the ↑ occupational area of business
administration as follows:
(a) Dominance of fragmented and hierarchically
structured detailed knowledge on law and trading,
(b) Lack of possibilities to acquire authentic expe-
rience by dealing directly with relevant subjects,
(c) Holistic and complex action, linking concrete
tasks and cases, finding aims of action, decision-
making, execution, control, instruction and justifi-
cation in complex learning arrangements does not
take place (TRAMM / SCHROER, cited by 2002, 78).
Following Tramm and Rebmann, the characteris-
tic marks of the “didactic theory” as the basis for
this type of knowledge acquisition are:
A fund of knowledge-items on contents and proce-
dures exists; the compiled amount of the items re-
sults in ↑ vocational competence;
This fund consists of defined terms that have been
transformed or reduced from hierarchical struc-
tured scientific disciplines;
Vocational competence is generated somehow
by “compressing” knowledge systems. Theoreti-
cal terms that have been acquired in context-free
learning situations are somehow linked with prac-
tical experience from work and real life;
Learning happens by illustrating isolated verbal
terms by the teacher and receiving them in a pas-
sive mode by the learner. When learning, the terms
Areas of VET Research
are taken up by a hierarchical structure of knowl-
edge ready to be called upon if required.
(3) Predominance of Social Forms of Action and
Media Restricting Communication and Co-opera-
tion
The predominant form of action of teaching is
head-on, frontal instruction and holding lessons
directed by the teacher. Working and learning in
groups or with a partner on learning assignments
related to typical ↑ occupational tasks rarely hap-
pens. Empirical findings indicate that school-based
vocational education is usually going off in a “clas-
sical” teacher-centred way ascribing a passive role
to the learners. Even in industrial and trade educa-
tion the blackboard is the most preferred medium
when teaching (PÄTZOLD 2003a, 64).
But vocational training measures in companies
also show a lack of modern activating arrange-
ments: trainer-centred instruction and application
of the methods coming from “Training within in-
dustries” (TWI) are the predominant form of so-
cial action. But these traditional teaching methods
are given much better grades by the learners since
they mark vocational training in companies as be-
ing much more valuable for the development of ex-
pertise than school-based vocational education.
Even for ↑ pilot projects aiming for the implemen-
tation of modern concepts of learning, the results
of evaluation prove that the enlarged space offered
for realization did not result in a new quality of vo-
cational learning in the extension that had been ex-
pected.
The results of empirical evaluation show that a
German governmental programme consisting of
21 pilot projects in 100 ↑ vocational schools carried
out for implementation of the four central aims, (1)
work ↑ process orientation of curricula, (2) inde-
pendent learning, (3) action-oriented learning for
acquiring the competence of shaping and (4) holis-
tic learning, did not bring about an overall turning
away from the ancient traditions of teaching and
learning. One of the reasons for this finding is a
deficient knowledge-base of teachers and instruc-
tors on modern didactics, guidance of students and
arranging of individual ways of learning for learn-
ers with different prior achievements (DEITMER /
FISCHER / GERDS ET AL. 2004).
529
3.7.3.5 Significant Marks of Modern
Activating and Complex Learning
Arrangements and Criteria for
Shaping and Evaluation
The Fundamental Relation of Practical Experi-
ence and Theoretical Knowledge
A general starting point is the goal of enabling
learners to cope with the demands of real voca-
tional working tasks and situations. This means
governing and participating in shaping the ↑ work
processes, technical and instrumental means of
production and forms of work organisation, which
are relevant for a given workplace, in accordance
with the standards valid for the professional ↑ per-
formance of a ↑ vocational task. To govern the de-
mands means active concern with a task that be-
longs to a vocational profile and performance in
terms of fulfilling recognized assessable criteria.
Beyond this, enabling learners to shape their own
individual career paths and professional develop-
ment on the way to mastery is increasingly becom-
ing a crucial aim for TVET.
W. Volpert defines this goal by the criteria of
shaping new conditions, forms and products of
work, based on acquired vocational governance
and expertise as a kind of self-realization (VOL-
PERT 1989).
In order to avoid the development of ↑ inert knowl-
edge TVET should take place in situations requir-
ing independent and self-reliant actions of learners.
Furthermore, learning should be situated in com-
plex and authentic contexts of application. Authen-
ticity means linking new learning tasks and one’s
own experience with former solutions to compara-
ble problems. By this experience a limited fund of
applicable and necessary knowledge to cope with
the new demands is available.
But this fund of knowledge is not enough and
needs to be extended by acquiring new knowledge
when the learner is concerned with overcoming
the new task. When the learner realizes that he/
she is able to enable him-/herself to complete the
task successfully the motivation arises for contin-
uous further learning. This is an internal process
of learners that cannot be taken over by the teach-
ers. They are commissioned to provide the ↑ learn-
ing environment and further conditions, which are
530
beneficial for successful learning and to eliminate
the obstacles of successful learning.
Criteria for beneficial learning arrangements are:
(1) They focus on work-related learning tasks
which trigger independent learning
(2) They are complex, open and changeable by the
learners
(3) They are connectable with prior experience
(authentic prior achievement)
(4) They require relevant means (equipment, tools,
materials, information) needed for professional
↑ performance
(5) They allow, or, better, they require different so-
lutions and individual ways of learning
(6) They allow and require co-operation and com-
munication in a group
(7) They prompt different kinds of personal and
social activities (verbal, social, mental, operation-
al, physical)
(8) They encourage self-organised learning (alone
and in groups)
(9) They require self-reflection and self-assessment
of the ways and results of working and learning.
Contrary to systematic theoretical knowledge ac-
quired in traditional classroom learning the results
of ↑ situated learning are influenced by many con-
text-specific variables which are linked with the
specific and are not repeatable anywhere at will.
But the results from empirical research (BOREHAM /
SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002) offer evidence that the-
oretical knowledge and assumptions founded on
pragmatic theories are necessary to cope with the
demands arising from solving difficult tasks and
critical events at work (FISCHER / BOREHAM 2004).
Highly skilled workers and professionals are able
to integrate their experimental knowledge and the-
ory and to resolve contradictions between both in
the context of solving a real problem at work.
Recent findings from research projects on the or-
igin of ↑ work process knowledge make clear that
its development can be described as a dialectical
process of merging practical experience acquired
at workplaces and relevant theoretical knowledge
acquired apart from workplaces. The crucial task
for didactical work is to realize and foster this
merger in suitable ↑ didactical arrangements by
Handbook of TVET Research
linking learning situations which occur on-the-job
with related learning in classrooms.
Another approach of research towards clarify-
ing the relation of inert and applicable knowl-
edge comes from knowledge-transfer-theory. The
question as to how knowledge is acquired by ex-
perience can be integrated into the existing fund
of knowledge resulting in a higher level of knowl-
edge and competence, which are required for solv-
ing new and more difficult problems. According
to the transfer-hypothesis a transfer to new situa-
tions of application can only happen if the “old”
and the “new” situation have structural identities.
A problem comparable with the origin of “↑ in-
ert knowledge” can arise if a “de-contextualisa-
tion” of knowledge acquired by situative learning
does not take place. In this case an accumulation
of knowledge and an integration into the fund of
structured knowledge is not possible. Bruchhäuser
insists that a structuring transfer-process from pri-
mary experience to systematic knowledge is neces-
sary to accumulate the fund. A precondition of the
transfer is the ability to draw inductive conclusions
(BRUCHHÄUSER 2001, 334–335).
In the field of ↑ curriculum development at least two
strategies for dealing with this problem are visible.
First, the development of spiral-curricula allowing
ascendant and successive ways of learning through
similar tasks arranged on different levels of diffi-
culty. This allows the compilation and elaboration
of ↑ domain-specific funds of knowledge (GERDS
2001, 44–48). It also allows the application of the
principle of “logic of development” coming from
curricula for health-care ↑ vocations on other voca-
tional fields (RAUNER 1999a).
Aspects and Findings of the Evaluation of
Complex Teaching-Learning Arrangements
A significant mark of the quality of didactical ar-
rangements is the strategy how to relate practical
experience acquired when learning and working to
theoretical knowledge that is already available or
to be acquired for solving a ↑ vocational task.
In order to promote a suitable merger of both sides
in the process of developing competence, pragmat-
ic combinations of the constructivistic, situated
and instructional paradigms of learning are on the
way. That these paradigms must not exclude each
Areas of VET Research
other necessarily but can be added to and complet-
ed has been proven in a lot of practical projects
(SCHROER 2002).
The results prove that particularly in complex
teaching-learning arrangements a significant high-
er performance could be achieved by providing
additional instructional support compared with
arrangements without this additional instruction
(BRETTSCHNEIDER / GRUBER /K AISER / STARK 2000).
Schroer’s research on school-based TVET in Ger-
many proves that poor results of teaching and
learning are often due to missing professional di-
agnoses of individual procedures and steps of
learning. There is a strong demand for individu-
alised and tailored training offers that cannot be
covered because suitable instruments of diagnoses
and managing differentiated ↑ didactical arrange-
ment are not available or known to the teachers.
This problem is going to become urgent in the con-
text of trials to implement complex situated ↑ learn-
ing environments aiming for ↑ self-reliant learning.
The results from these trials show that it is pos-
sible to avoid the genesis of ↑ inert knowledge to
some extent. But the problem arises that learners
with high prior achievements have strong benefits
from these arrangements. On the other hand learn-
ers with weak prior achievement and preconditions
do not profit from the arrangements.
By using additional instructional aids (e. g. use
of hypermedia, multimedia-sets of data net-
works, shaping of individual interactive ways
of acquiring information allowing free naviga-
tion through domains of knowledge) significant
progress even for retarded learners are possible
(SCHROER 2002, 284–340).
A sustainable and professional use of compu-
ter-aided, individualised situated teaching-learn-
ing arrangements like this requires deep-rooted
changes of existing curricula, ↑ didactical concepts
and above all TVET-teacher education.
Desiderata in the Field of Developing and
Evaluating Complex Situated Teaching-Learn-
ing Arrangements
The most important questions for evaluation in the
phase of development are:
(1) Acceptance of ↑ situated learning arrangement
by the learners, including the relation and rele-
531
vance of the arrangements for real work in compa-
nies and the qualification demands.
(2) Diagnoses, accreditation and assessment of
given individual preconditions and achievements
of leaning.
(3) Elements and structure of complex learning ar-
rangements enhancing motivation, ↑ commitment
and achievement of learners.
(4) Strategies for arranging coherent phases of
practice and theoretical learning.
(5) Differentiated and individualised shaping of
learning arrangements and organisation of feed-
back by using suitable tools.
The most important questions in the phases of im-
plementation and dissemination are
(1) Depth, grade of elaboration and type of ac-
quired knowledge.
(2) Teachers’ professional competence for shaping
and implementing complex situated learning envi-
ronments.
(3) Instruments and procedures for developing and
evaluating curricula for learning in complex situ-
ated arrangements.
The decisive criterion for evaluation is the abili-
ty to acquire new knowledge through independent
and self-reliant learning, to be able to solve voca-
tional core-tasks by using this knowledge and to
apply it to other comparable tasks and cases.
The evaluation on the impact of complex didacti-
cal arrangements should focus on how far the re-
sults depend on matters such as the contents of the
learning, the motivation and the medial aspects
i.e. (interactivity of programmes, feedback, recog-
nition of didactic principles in software-tools for
programme design).
3.7.4 Shaping Learning
Environments
Peter Dehnbostel
3.7.4.1 Background
Since the 1990s, we have been witnessing a reviv-
al of ↑ on-the-job learning. As a result of changes
in society and industry, this form of learning has
532
become an important competitive advantage for
companies. Improvement and optimization proc-
esses, ↑ quality assurance, knowledge organisation
and other current management concepts and meth-
ods require learning processes that take place dur-
ing work. For the most part, on-the-job learning
is felt to be more important than the courses and
seminars that still dominate the field of vocation-
al ↑ further education. This shift of perspective in
further education is reflected in the way that “skills
development” has nowadays come to replace the
term “qualification”. Analytically defined qualifi-
cations from educational establishments have giv-
en way to holistic skills that can only be acquired
through learning at home and at work.
Although it is generally recognized that ↑ on-the-
job learning now plays an increasingly important
role in reorganisation and restructuring process-
es, this tells us little about the scope and quality
of on-the-job learning or about its relevance and
role in personal development. In addition, on-the-
job learning also has its disadvantages: the situa-
tional dependence of work assignments and work-
ing conditions, their economic determination, the
coincidental and arbitrary nature of the learning
processes, and the fact that many workplaces are
not conducive to learning.
By shaping ↑ learning environments, we can there-
fore make a significant contribution towards in-
creasing ↑ learning potential at the workplace and
towards encouraging and facilitating learning. In
terms of the criteria, processes and concepts in-
volved in ↑ shaping learning environments, howev-
er, there are major differences between disciplines
such as vocational education, ↑ ergonomics, and
industrial and organisational psychology. This is
evident not only in new learning methods such as
coaching, ↑ learning islands and quality circles but
also in forms of employment such as group work,
rotation and networks, where deliberate attempts
are made to create ↑ learning-oriented work struc-
tures. We are no longer concerned here with learn-
ing environments in the narrower sense of the term
but also with the shaping of wider learning and
working environments. These reach far into eve-
ryday life as a result of the breakdown of borders
between gainful work, types of work, and learn-
ing locations.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.7.4.2 On-the-Job Learning
Until well into the 1980s, discussions of vocation-
al education were based on the assumption that
learning potential and learning opportunities at the
workplace would continue to decrease as they had
in the wake of the industrialization and Tayloriza-
tion of work in previous decades. Learning at work
was considered less and less justifiable not only for
didactical and methodical but also for organisa-
tional and economic reasons. Off-the-job training
measures showed, however, that while ↑ systemat-
ic learning was feasible in centralized educational
centres, too little attention was being paid to prac-
tical and experience-oriented learning. It also be-
came clear that the complex demands of modern-
day workplaces were becoming increasingly dif-
ficult to anticipate and simulate. It was eventually
acknowledged that new work and organisational
concepts make increased learning potential and
learning opportunities possible within modern
↑ work processes. As a result, companies increas-
ingly placed more emphasis on qualification and
skills development at work. Decentralized train-
ing concepts were used to achieve this goal (see
DEHNBOSTEL / HOLZ / NOVAK 1992).
The main reason for reconsidering on-the-job-
learning was not educational arguments but rath-
er economic considerations. Conventional forms
of industrial rationalization are not as effective as
they should be. This is a result of our increasingly
knowledge- and service-based society with its new
↑ information and communication technologies
and because of the decrease in manual labour and
the increase in knowledge-based tasks. In terms of
added value, knowledge is becoming an increasing-
ly important resource. The ever-increasing speed
at which economic, technological and socio-cul-
tural changes are taking place is constantly forc-
ing organisations and companies to adapt and in-
novate. It is hoped that continuous learning in and
from organisations will pave the way for innova-
tions, increase and expand knowledge and, last but
not least, enhance ↑ performance and competitive-
ness. For many experts from different fields, on-
the-job learning and the knowledge gained from
it has nowadays become the most important pro-
ductive force in an increasingly customer-orient-
Areas of VET Research
ed and globalized economy (see also JAEGER 1999;
NONAKA / TAKEUCHI 1997; WILDEMANN 1994).
Another issue is how these learning processes
should be judged in terms of quality and imple-
mentation. This touches upon what is probably the
most decisive issue for the present situation of on-
the-job learning. Do modern work processes actu-
ally offer the broad range of learning options that
are clearly available today, and how effective and
sustainable are these options? This discussion has
been underway since the beginning of the 1990s
and has focused on the key words “coincidence”
and “convergence” of economic and educational
rationality (see also ACHTENHAGEN 1990; HARTEIS
2000; HEID 1999). Analyses have indicated the ad-
vantages and disadvantages of corporate change
and its effect on learning in modern ↑ work proc-
esses. On the one hand, globalization, new ↑ infor-
mation and communication technologies, and in-
creased productivity have led to massive personnel
cuts, increased stress, unstable employment con-
ditions, and task-oriented learning. On the other
hand, dehierarchization and decentralization pro-
vide better conditions for holistic work, higher
levels of freedom, increased involvement and ac-
tive ↑ participation by employees, and improved
learning conditions and ↑ learning potential.
Regardless of the current discussion, industrial
and educational psychologists consider the chanc-
es of ↑ on-the-job learning for personality devel-
opment to be important (see also HACKER / SKELL
1993; WÄCHTER / MODROW-THIEL 2002). In terms of
the importance of work and work-related learning,
this view has much in common with reformist ed-
ucation and ↑ classical vocational education theory
of the early 20th century. Accordingly, on-the-job
learning is seen as part of the human development
process and as a major contribution to self-actu-
alization. This is related to the conviction that the
conditions under which work is performed are of
elementary importance to the individual and soci-
ety. In order to make these conditions as conducive
to learning as possible, there must be criteria for
learning content and ↑ learning environments.
533
3.7.4.3 Criteria for Establishing Learning
Potential
The task of creating ↑ learning-oriented working
conditions and learning environments always in-
volves some tension and contradictions. Work-
place tasks are subject to economic criteria and
factors, while individual and personality-related
goals must be seen primarily in the context of hu-
man-oriented ↑ personnel development and profes-
sional development and advancement options. The
criteria that serve as a constructive basis both for
analyzing learning potential on the job and for cre-
ating ↑ learning-oriented working environments
have been defined in several studies (see BERG-
MANN 1996, 173 ff.; FRANKE / K LEINSCHMITT 1987;
SONNTAG 1996), mainly from the perspective of in-
dustrial and organisational psychology.
As an example I would like to examine the criteria
formulated by G. Franke, which to a large extent
conform with those in other studies. Based on pre-
vious research, Franke identifies (1999, 61 ff.) sev-
en criteria or dimensions as relevant conditions for
on-the-job learning:
– Experience with problems, which in essence
comprises the complexity of experience and the
extent of thought processes within the work itself;
– Scope of action, which tells us about levels of
freedom at the workplace and, in connection with
this, about the various possibilities for taking com-
petent action;
– Centralized variability, which refers to the han-
dling of tasks that have the same basic structure
but different conditions for implementing them,
and which therefore indicates options for making
changes at the workplace;
– Integrality, which comprises holistic tasks in
terms of “complete action”;
– Social support, which entails communication,
suggestions, and support with and by colleagues
and superiors;
– Individualization, which relates tasks to the de-
velopment stage of the individual; and
– Rationality, which uses the Dreyfus/ Dreyfus
model to classify employees according to develop-
ment stages – from novice to expert.
Franke believes that these criteria are decisive for
learning potential and for “developing strategic
potential for taking action”. They cannot, howev-
534
er, count as ↑ quality criteria per se. Whether they
have a beneficial or detrimental effect on learning
depends on larger circumstances such as corporate
culture, the way the work is organized, and ↑ work
tasks. This is made clear in the brief description
of “individualization:” depending on the develop-
ment stage of the individual, tasks can be either too
demanding or too simple. In other dimensions such
as “experience with problems”, “scope of action”
and “rationality”, conduciveness to learning main-
ly depends on individual disposition. Depending
on personality and skill, the degrees of problem
content, scope of action and rationality can bene-
fit or hinder learning. In addition, the interplay be-
tween the individual dimensions is important.
From a constructivist viewpoint, it is necessary to
fulfill similar requirements to make learning-ori-
ented workplaces and ↑ learning environments ef-
fective (REINMANN-ROTHMEIER / MANDL 2001b). The
working/learning process must have certain levels
of freedom: new developments should not appear
as an enclosed system and the learner must take
over control processes. The learner must be able
to gain experience, collect knowledge, and reach
his own conclusions. These levels of freedom must
be experienced, used and structured consciously.
For this to work, learners must be motivated and
have or develop an interest in the work or learn-
ing activities; they should also guide themselves
through the learning process. Learning is always a
social process in which learners and their actions
are influenced interactively and socioculturally.
The principles for ↑ shaping learning environments
are summed up as follows:
– Authenticity and situational context;
– Multiple contexts;
– Multiple perspectives; and
– Social context.
Besides the main objective of modern vocational
training, i.e. achieving comprehensive profession-
al skills and using the reflexive capacity for action,
there are two other criteria for identifying ↑ learn-
ing potential: reflexivity and the innovative con-
tent of work. Reflexivity covers both structural re-
flexivity and the self-reflexivity of the person tak-
ing action (compare LASH 1996, 203 f.). Accord-
ing to this definition, reflexivity at work means re-
flecting about work structures and environments
Handbook of TVET Research
as well as about oneself. The innovative content of
the work depends on the innovative ability of each
individual. This innovative ability is the objective
of continuous and reflexive learning at work. In-
novation is the interconnection and implementa-
tion of knowledge, experience and vision to cre-
ate something new. This can take the form of prod-
ucts, services or even work structures and organi-
sations.
3.7.4.4 Developing and Shaping Learning
Environments
As the description of the general criteria for estab-
lishing learning potential clearly shows, there is no
one best way to create ↑ learning-oriented working
conditions and learning environments. Each com-
pany and each area of work requires a solution spe-
cific to it. In addition, the complexity of post-Tay-
lorist work structures means that in many cases it
is only possible to identify and shape the tasks as
group work in a holistic and complete sequence of
events. When shaping learning environments, it
is therefore necessary to take into account ↑ work
processes and working environments that extend
beyond individual workplaces and into everyday
life.
Learning environments at work are characterized
mainly by the positive conditions and options that
exist to make ↑ on-the-job learning possible. These
conditions and options are determined on the one
hand by concrete factors such as company size,
company branches, job assignments, the way the
work is organized, and qualification requirements.
On the other hand they are also determined by
measures aimed at developing and shaping work
processes and learning environments. In this con-
text, ‘developing’ involves examining and select-
ing the workplace as a learning facility and learn-
ing environment. ‘Shaping’ refers to the targeted
creation of learning-oriented structures, which is
mainly achieved through personnel-related meas-
ures and by providing sufficient learning materi-
al. In the following, ↑ work and learning tasks and
↑ learning islands will be presented as two gener-
alized examples for developing and shaping work
processes and learning environments (see DEHN-
BOSTEL 2003, 6 ff.).
Areas of VET Research
The qualification concept of work and learning as-
signments involves selecting and didactically pre-
paring ↑ work tasks in order to develop and organ-
ize the workplaces concerned as learning facilities
and learning environments. One example of this
is the model of work and learning tasks in sever-
al small- and medium-sized companies (see also
WILKE-SCHNAUFER 1998). In order to identify the
work situation in the companies concerned, a mul-
ti-stage process of company and qualification anal-
ysis was carried out as were analyses of work as-
signments. The latter involved identifying “typ-
ical” tasks, i.e. not only conventional company
tasks to which work structures and work material
are tailored but also tasks that should be character-
istic of and can to a large extent be applied to the
qualified job or the job training profile.
In the analysis of company-specific tasks, the pro-
duction of an axle or rotary component, for ex-
ample, was identified as a task that is relevant to
learning. In order to prepare the task didactically,
it was analyzed and divided into individual stag-
es: the receiving and preparation phases, the ac-
tual production and quality control phase, and last
but not least the completion stage. An examination
was carried out to determine which qualifications
are necessary for each individual work stage and
for all the work stages as a whole, and what needs
to be added for vocational education and training
purposes. To make life easier for training staff, the
↑ work and learning tasks were written down in a
curriculum. The planning and production process
of an axle was prepared in such a way that it can be
applied to a number of related products as a work
and learning task entitled “rotary components”
and can be used in several companies.
In general, work and learning tasks are based on
the principles of
– The authenticity of the ↑ work tasks;
– Conformity with the respective job profile;
– Gearing the ↑ teaching and learning processes
towards experience-related learning;
– Increasing independent group work; and
– Making use of individual educational rights.
The decisive factor for this systematically de-
signed method of work-based learning is that the
respective task or the work and learning assign-
ment derived from it corresponds to holistic work
535
and learning stages that can be carried out in the
respective learning/working environment.
With the installation of ↑ learning islands and sim-
ilar educational methods such as learning stations
and learning circles, workplaces are systematically
developed and shaped as ↑ learning facilities and
↑ learning environments; as with work and learning
tasks, formal and ↑ informal learning are integrat-
ed. A tried and tested model containing five phas-
es has been prepared for developing and shaping
the learning environment, the latter being referred
to as “learning island” (DEHNBOSTEL 2001b, 80 ff.;
2003, 7 f.). The first phase involves analyzing the
workplaces and work assignments and establishing
the qualification requirements and work conditions
that are associated with them. Based on the above-
mentioned criteria, an examination is carried out
to determine ↑ learning potential and learning op-
tions. A second phase takes into account vocation-
al and educational training aims and determines
whether the workplace under examination will
be selected as a learning environment and learn-
ing island. A third phase determines the structure,
equipment and organisational principles and cre-
ates a working and learning infrastructure. Learn-
ing aims, learning contents and methods are then
determined on the basis of the working/learning
situation, the organisational backgrounds and the
personnel and social objectives. The fifth and last
phase involves planning the work and processes in
the learning island and preparing a model to assess
the quality of the work that has been carried out.
The quality of the learning processes and skills de-
velopment are also examined on the basis of spe-
cific criteria.
Various versions of this model are used. It has been
shown that criteria are needed to analyze learning
potentials for setting up learning methods such as
learning islands because many workplaces and
↑ work processes are, for various reasons, unsuit-
able as learning environments. In contrast to ac-
tual workplaces, learning islands provide learning
environments in which there is more time to per-
form the desired qualification and learning proc-
esses despite the fact that they deal with the same
work tasks. For this purpose, learning islands are
equipped with material such as educational soft-
ware and visualization options. On the basis of the
536
above-mentioned criteria, efforts are also under-
way to ensure that the work tasks of learning is-
lands meet the criteria that apply to the work as a
whole, i.e. that they offer effective learning options
and incentives through complexity, problem con-
tent and plenty of variation.
To a great extent, the learners plan, perform and
evaluate the work tasks themselves. The work in
the learning islands is characterized by a high lev-
el of independence, responsibility and close group
cooperation. In charge of the learning islands is a
training specialist, who primarily plays the role of
a process and development supervisor and who is
generally qualified in vocational and educational
training. His main challenge is to provide knowl-
edge and skills not by applying conventional meth-
ods of instruction but by allowing the learner to
be largely in control of his own work and learning
processes. Learning situations and learning mi-
lieus are created that allow learners to work alone
and in groups and, to a great extent, to acquire spe-
cialized, social and personal skills independently.
Learning and instruction methods of the past are
replaced by accompanying, moderating and coach-
ing processes that require appropriately-developed
↑ learning environments.
3.7.4.5 Concluding Remarks
The trend towards ↑ on-the-job learning will con-
tinue in the foreseeable future. Despite the benefits
of the options available to shape learning environ-
ments at the workplace, there are two aspects that
we must not forget. First, company innovations are
facing increased pressure from market competi-
tion and cost-saving measures. As a result, learn-
ing at the workplace and newly created learning
environments are facing increasing pressure from
outside. Learning may be limited to immediate
corporate benefits and may be superseded by pure-
ly short-term measures and actions that improve
a company’s competitive advantage. Secondly, re-
stricting skills development to on-the-job learning
would be untenable from an educational point of
view. This would be tantamount to detaching on-
the-job learning from the structures of the gener-
al education system. It would prevent employees
from attaining certified qualifications in order to
advance professionally and from receiving general
Handbook of TVET Research
educational qualifications at a later stage. Against
this background, efforts to connect informal and
formal learning acquire additional importance. It
is necessary to link learning facilities and learn-
ing environments in companies to external learn-
ing facilities and secondary and post-secondary
education.
It follows that comprehensive vocational skills
and the reflexive capacity for action can only be
acquired by linking learning by doing or ↑ infor-
mal learning with formal learning in appropri-
ately organized learning environments inside and
outside companies. When it comes to developing
skills, formal and informal learning are two sides
of the same coin; separating them is a forced un-
dertaking in which the learner suffers. The princi-
ple that non-organized learning implies organized
learning and vice-versa is confirmed by the learn-
ing environments I have presented and explained
in this essay.
3.7.5 Task-Oriented Learning
Falk Howe
3.7.5.1 Introduction
The rapid technological, economic and social
change at the beginning of the 21st century also
poses the question as to which didactic concepts
or which learning and training strategies can help
to realise an adequate and effective vocational ed-
ucation and training. In nearly all economic sec-
tors and ↑ occupational areas there are now new
or fundamentally changed qualification require-
ments. At the same time, with the increased use
of ↑ information and communication technologies,
the opportunities to shape workplaces, working
environments, working conditions, progress plan-
ning, work sequences etc. also grow. Besides, re-
cent forms of working organisation with distinc-
tive ↑ process orientation shift competence and re-
sponsibilities to the value-adding shop-floor-level.
The employees are confronted with demanding ex-
pectations such as independency, sense of respon-
sibility, cooperation, communication and interac-
Areas of VET Research 537

tion ability, understanding of operational work- In other words, the trainees learn how to tackle job
flows and context, flexibility, creativity. tasks critically (with respect to the applicable tech-
In many cases, such developments are also reflect- niques, work organisation, working conditions),
ed in ↑ vocational curricula. Meanwhile it is an im- and are able to put them into a reflective practice.
portant aim of vocational education in Germany, They understand clearly what they are studying
for example, to enable the trainees to play their for. In this framework, the role of the trainers and
part in shaping the world of work and society in a teachers is basically that of “assistants” and they
socially and ecologically responsible way (agree- assume the functions of moderators and advisors.
ment on ↑ vocational schools of 1991). In Germany the concept of task-oriented learning
disseminated very quickly during the 1990s. In a
3.7.5.2 Conceptual Clarification huge number of ↑ pilot projects the role of the cen-
tral didactical-methodological instrument was also
Against this background, task-oriented learning is
added in order to increase the quality of vocational
a ↑ didactical concept that supports coping with the
education and training.
given challenges with a work- and ↑ work process-
If one compares the individual approaches, con-
related learning. Accordingly it is a cornerstone of
ceptual differences arise first between the type and
modern vocational education and training, based
range of the relation between work and learning.
on the interaction between learning and working.
The range reaches from an immediate assignment
Task-oriented learning is performed in the manner
of the trainees under real operational conditions up
of projects which refer to problem-containing situ-
to an intermediatory work relationship where oc-
ations of operational reality. The assignments are
cupational working tasks are prepared didactical-
normally selected from among the typical tasks
ly and competence is promoted regardless of oper-
of enterprises involved in the vocational training.
ational requirements (cp. MALEK 1996, 27 f.). Be-
Learning and working as well as the vocational
yond this, the single approaches differ concerning
training elements from both vocational education
the amount of freedom and tolerance they offer to
schools and companies are combined. By shifting
the learners. While there is a rather narrow guid-
learning into work processes the tasks constitute a
ance in the form of leading texts on the one hand
link between the world of vocational training and
(e. g. so called “order manuals”, NICOLAUS /K ASTEN
the world of work: The educational and qualifica-
1999), on the other hand it is didactic intention to
tion potential of the reality of work is used for vo-
allow the learners a great latitude and to encour-
cational learning.
age them to find and realise alternatives in the so-
The fundamental characteristics of task-orient-
lution of tasks and problems in an independent way
ed learning is that the trainees are encouraged to
(e. g. so called “shaping-oriented ↑ learning and
discover and use the freedom of action to accom-
working tasks” HOWE 2002; 2004). Thirdly differ-
plish the tasks, to seek alternative solutions, often
ences appear in the systematisation of the single
through a teamwork approach, to evaluate the var-
tasks: E. g., the complexity of the tasks (cf. WIL-
ious proposals and, therefore, to become capable
KE-SCHNAUFER / SCHONHARDT / FROMMERT 1998, 25–
of making well-grounded decisions. Trainees co-
29), the main focus of the learning intended with
operatively agree to their proceeding among them-
the task (cf. MEERTEN 1999, 144–152) or so called
selves and with their trainers and teachers.
“learning areas” based on a logic of development
The assignments have to be designed in order to
(REINHOLD / HAASLER / HOWE ET AL. 2003, 29–40;
provoke the trainees to ask themselves the follow-
→ 3.4.1) serve as structuring elements.
ing key questions:
– Why is the technique structured like this and
3.7.5.3 Importance, Aims and Benefits of
why does the enterprise use it in this manner?
Task-Oriented Learning
– Why is work organized in precisely this way in
the enterprise? The ↑ teaching and ↑ learning strategies in voca-
– Could the job be done in another way? What al- tional training and education range from a decid-
ternatives are there? ed “project-oriented and work-related” approach,
538
i.e. the training is almost exclusively carried out
through projects in operational reality, to a gen-
eral “course-oriented” approach, i.e. the training
is based on a set of rather theoretical classroom
courses. The goal of task-oriented learning is to
contribute to increase the amount of “project-ori-
ented and work-related” vocational education and
training.
The inclusion of vocational training in enterprises’
work and business processes makes it possible to
conduct the hands-on parts of training at the work-
place, using state-of-the-art technology. By taking
part in the actual ↑ work processes, in fact, train-
ees gain “first hand” experience of the job tech-
niques and work organisation and of how the de-
sires, interests and (regulatory, administrative,
etc.) requirements become a part of the goods and
the work process. Furthermore, this on-site work
experience also gives trainees the opportunity to
learn how to affect these development processes.
Besides the above-mentioned integration between
learning and working and the consequent improve-
ment of the quality of vocational training, task-ori-
ented learning also produces other benefits, name-
ly:
– If the projects also envision the development and
↑ performance of job tasks, it may contribute to the
value-creating process within the enterprise;
– Inasmuch as the project materials are usually
made available by the customer, this allows the re-
duction of ↑ training costs;
– Training tasks allow professional trainers and
teachers to further investigate the state-of-the-art
work and business processes adopted by the en-
terprises, as well as their operating contexts. This
important training knowledge may then be trans-
ferred to the apprenticeship workshops and voca-
tional training schools, i.e. to institutions tradition-
ally far removed from the actual workplace;
– Trainers and teachers highlight, in particular,
the strong motivation this type of vocational train-
ing produces in trainees. Trainers and teachers, in
fact, receive from the trainees, who collaborate
in their training with noteworthy creativity and a
great deal of ↑ commitment, positive feedback on
their work.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.7.5.4 Conceptual References
One of the main challenges of vocational educa-
tion and training is the question of the relation be-
tween practice and theory. Depending on the learn-
ing venue (↑ vocational schools, enterprises, indus-
try-wide training centres) there is a more or less
complete separation.
Among other things didactical and curricular re-
form projects of the past were designed to over-
come this separation of practice and theory and
thus to increase the quality of vocational educa-
tion and training. Task-oriented learning connects
with these efforts and takes up the actual findings
of ↑ curriculum research, competence research and
learning and teaching research. Their didactical-
methodological adjustment continues to create dif-
ferent innovative drafts of VET practice as well.
Situated Cognition
Learning and teaching research (→ 3.7.7), espe-
cially findings of ↑ Situated Cognition (COLLINS /
BROWN / NEWMAN 1989; ROGOFF 1990; THE COGNI-
TION AND TECHNOLOGY GROUP AT VANDERBILT 1990;
LAVE / WENGER 1991; GREENO / SMITH / MOORE 1993),
provide links for task-oriented learning.
In spite of different emphases these theories, sim-
plistically summarised, emanate from the com-
mon acceptance that learning is an active, indi-
vidual construction process in connection with al-
ready existing foreknowledge and experiences of
the learner. According to these theories the acqui-
sition of competence can’t be separated from the
practical application, and competence depends on
the context in which it was acquired as well as that
in which it should be used. To allow the transfer of
the learned, the learning situation has to be as sim-
ilar as possible to the later application situation, i.e.
it has to be shaped in a “situated” way. Hence, the
learning occasion should be an interesting, authen-
tic problem. For the comprehensive development
and adaptable transferability of knowledge, multi-
ple perspectives or contexts are open to the learn-
er, and he is offered the possibility for a continuous
articulation and reflection of his action (compare
GERSTENMAIER / MANDL 1995, 879; MANDL / GRUBER /
RENKL 2002, 141, 144).
Areas of VET Research
Decentralised Learning
Learning and working have always been more or
less closely associated. However, from the 1920s
onwards German industry, for example, increas-
ingly shifted its training activities to the appren-
ticeship workshops, where so called “basic qualifi-
cations” were achieved through the completion of
special training courses. Through the years, there-
fore, the relationship between learning and work-
ing gradually disappeared.
In the 1990s it was recognized – and is increas-
ingly so today – that basic (and further) vocation-
al training should become a part of the enterpris-
es’ ↑ work processes (→ 3.6.4), supporting class-
room instruction as far as possible. With it, the
connection of learning and work had a revival at
the end of the 20th century (compare STREUMER
2001; BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002; FISCHER /
BOREHAM / NYHAN 2004).
Against this background the approach of ↑ decen-
tralised learning deals with four main subjects that
fix a framework for developing appropriate learn-
ing concepts: new learning venues and new com-
binations of them, new methods and ↑ didactical
concepts, modified training of the trainers and
teachers and analysis of the workplace and work-
ing environment (DEHNBOSTEL / MOLZBERGER 2004,
291). It is the basic intention to integrate the work-
place and the work processes into vocational ed-
ucation and training measures to enable trainees
to cope with changed qualification requirements
(→ 3.7.4).
Action-Based Learning and Vocational
Competence
In the 1980s the concepts of the integral work proc-
ess and action-oriented learning become more and
more important (cf. HACKER 1986b). Activated by
the debate on so-called “↑ key qualifications” as an
answer to the changed qualification requirements,
the vocational training in companies became ac-
tion-oriented through methods like project work
(compare LAUR-ERNST /ALBERT / GUTSCHMIDT 1996)
or leading texts (compare REETZ 1990).
In particular, action orientation aims at the inte-
grated mediation of theoretical knowledge and
practical abilities through a reality- and problem-
539
related learning, which simultaneously integrates
social action and is controlled by the learners
themselves (compare WITTWER 2000, 13; PÄTZOLD
1992; ADOLPH 1996). The support of the ability to
plan independently, of ↑ performance and apprais-
al of vocational activities is the main goal of this
approach.
However, the idea that ↑ vocational competence is
more than only a sequence of action steps based
on the principle of the total work process has been
criticized (compare RAUNER 1995b, 5). According
to the “Pedagogical Anthropology” (ROTH 1971)
and the “Shaping Orientation” (R AUNER 1988a;
→ 5.1.4) the concept of comprehensive vocation-
al competence set out as the ability and readiness
to pursue an independent, proper, professional as
well as personally thought-out acting for social re-
sponsibility (compare BADER 2000, 39). Vocation-
al competence encloses the dimensions of profes-
sional, social, human and methodical competence
and moves the individual development of the per-
sonality into the focus of the vocational training
processes.
Theory of Development Tasks
According to the theory of ↑ development tasks
(HAVIGHURST 1972), everyone has to solve distinc-
tive tasks on the way to becoming an adult (com-
pare BREMER 2004b, 329). Therefore, vocation-
al educational backgrounds can be designed as a
process of development from novice to expert by
facing the learners with distinctive working tasks
that build on each other (DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1987;
RAUNER 1999a). If the news content and the claim
of the tasks pose a challenge to the learners that
can be tackled based on already acquired com-
petence, they can support the vocational develop-
ment as a “Development Task” (HAVIGHURST 1972)
or a “Paradigmatic Assignment” (BENNER 1997;
→ 4.2). Competence is extended, available action
drafts and well-rehearsed behaviour patterns are
reconsidered, complemented and modified.
Development tasks are not only suited to the ↑ com-
petence assessment, but likewise to the designing
of ↑ vocational curricula (→ 3.4.1) and with it to the
shaping of task-oriented learning.
540
3.7.5.5 Ideal Type of Realisation of Task-
Oriented Learning
Task-oriented learning has to be “developed”,
“performed” and finally “appraised”. This divi-
sion, however, misleadingly suggests the close-cut
separation between the various parts of a project,
which does not exist, at least not in these terms.
The various phases and the relative sub-divisions,
in fact, are “permeable”; they influence and inter-
mingle with each other. Their characteristics, how-
ever, change from task to task: task-oriented learn-
ing never follows a pre-determined model.
The following brief summary is based, primari-
ly, on ideas from (HOWE / HEERMEYER / HEUERMANN
ET AL. 2002) that resulted from the ↑ pilot project
GoLo (cf. BAUERMEISTER / HOWE / RAUNER 2000;
HOWE 2001a).
Development of Task-Oriented Learning
Task-oriented learning is based on occupational
working tasks. Consequently, the starting point for
its development is the assessment of the work and
business processes of the enterprises where the
training is to be carried out.
The decision for a task is made easier by a list of
choice criteria. Such a list should check if the task
adequately takes into account the ability and skills
of the trainees, the requirements and conditions of
the enterprise and the vocational training schools,
the exemplarity for the occupation, and the refer-
ence to the occupational ↑ training regulations.
Task-oriented learning doesn’t limit the trainees’
activities to the gaining, application and consolida-
tion of skills and knowledge for solving the prac-
tical problems. The personal, social and methodo-
logical abilities are supported, too. Every task of-
fers manifold learning opportunities, so that the
learning state of the trainees can be focused on.
After a task is selected, the prerequisites are
checked as to whether they are necessary for a
↑ performance by the trainees (learning and work-
ing environment, personal and financial resourc-
es, responsibilities, required information, timeta-
ble etc.). While preparing the task-oriented learn-
ing it is recommended that as much room as possi-
ble should be left for trainee activities.
Handbook of TVET Research
When the preparation is complete, the next step
is to put the assignment in writing to the trainees.
It is an important guide, not only for the trainees,
but also for the trainers and teachers. In order to
comply with the requirements, they must first of
all have a clear grasp of the scope and goals of the
task.
Performance of Task-Oriented Learning
The performance of task-oriented learning is ba-
sically the responsibility of the trainees, it’s “their
project”. Trainers and teachers aren’t supervisors
who show the trainees what to do, or do their job
for them, but they take on the role of experts, mod-
erators and consultants. It is very important that
they do not provide predetermined solutions and
concepts. They instead illustrate organisation and
planning methods to be applied in the performance
of the task and make them available to the train-
ees.
This procedure is also new to the trainees, who are
often not used to studying and working independ-
ently, an issue that is a legacy of traditional school-
ing. Initially it is not uncommon for them to as-
sume the role of “consumers” and to expect com-
plete and detailed instructions from the trainers
and teachers.
Performing the task, trainees must be left sufficient
freedom of action, so that they can learn from their
own experience. That means that there is the pos-
sibility of making mistakes, of making wrong or
inadequate decisions, of creating misunderstand-
ings, of inappropriate undertakings or plans, of no-
ticing shortcomings or deficits too late, etc.
After they have received the assignment and be-
come familiar with it the trainees may assemble
the first development, processing and solution pro-
posals. They establish the knowledge, skills and
abilities, as well as the resources and information,
which will be necessary to cope with the task.
In order to make a grounded choice between the
alternative options, and ultimately decide on the
implementation of one or another, it is necessary
to establish criteria. These criteria may be drawn
from the requirements that the various “parties
concerned” (e. g. customer/client, standardisation
rules, requirements associated with environmental
and social aspects) relate to the goods or service.
Areas of VET Research
In this phase, the assessment criteria for individ-
ual performance are established, too, so that the
trainees know, throughout the complete process of
the task-oriented learning, in which way their work
will be measured.
The practical implementation of task-oriented
learning basically refers to producing goods or
providing a service. Of course, this also requires
continuous planning, monitoring and documenta-
tion of the agreements, decisions, procedures and
provisional results. This will, again, affect the sub-
sequent progress of the work so that this process is
a process of permanent development and improve-
ment.
In the course of the project, the trainees largely de-
velop the necessary competence required for the
practical implementation of the task on their own.
Furthermore, missing skills may be learnt and ex-
ercised by attending appropriate courses. Task-ori-
ented learning cannot totally replace “traditional”
training methods. In fact, traditional class teach-
ing and lectures as well as demonstration and im-
itation also have a role to play in the teaching and
training process. The context, however, is funda-
mentally different, because the trainees need the
contents to cope with the task.
Appraisal of Task-Oriented Learning
The appraisal of task-oriented learning is an im-
portant part of the teaching process. It is not only a
simple appendix of the ↑ performance.
Because the preparation of an orderly and accurate
documentation is part of the work of skilled work-
ers and craftsmen, for example, in connection with
support services or customer relations, it is advis-
able, additionally, to provide for documentation in
connection with task-oriented learning.
Experience tells us that the following presentation
plays a particular role relating to the motivation of
the trainees and the reflection of the entire project.
At the deadline the trainees present the performed
occupational working task, the procedures adopt-
ed to accomplish it and its output. Beyond that,
the trainees point out which learning opportuni-
ties, subdivided into professional, social, human
and methodical competence, were realised by per-
forming the task.
541
The final appraisal by the trainers and teachers
pursues three different objectives: first the rating
of the trainees’ performance is based on the crite-
ria established by the trainees. The consideration
of criteria like the quality of the goods or services,
the accomplishment of the requirements, the use
of alternative processing methods and solutions,
the collaboration, the individual contribution and
performance, and any problems and troubleshoot-
ing gives the appraisal the necessary transparen-
cy. The fact that trainers and teachers should act
as moderators and consultants obliges them sec-
ondly to reflect on their own role in a self-critical
way. They have to consider whether the trainees
have been given sufficient freedom of action or if
they have been given too explicit instructions and
if, on the contrary, the trainees were overtaxed be-
cause of too-confusing learning and working sit-
uations. Third, a completed task provides the op-
portunity to use the completed experiences for the
shaping of task-oriented learning in the future. To
develop a grasp for one’s own learning processes a
↑ self-evaluation is very important in this connec-
tion (compare DUBS 1995, 891). The self-evalua-
tion enables the trainers and teachers to develop
appropriate task-oriented learning, to maintain the
qualitative level of their vocational training or to
identify deficits or improvement options (compare
HOWE / BAUER 2001).
3.7.5.6 State of Research
The testing and evaluation of task-oriented learn-
ing from the part of ↑ VET research that is related
to practice. Findings and insights are often gained
in ↑ pilot projects and are used, primarily, to sus-
tainably implement and to disseminate innova-
tive vocational training approaches. Research re-
sults and reports of experience of appropriate pilot
projects can be summarized by the appraisal that
the concept of task-oriented learning has proved
its worth. In particular it is emphasized that task-
oriented learning leads to an improved quality of
vocational training and education which is much
more adequate to the actual challenges of the world
of employment.
On the one hand trainees who performed task-ori-
ented learning usually achieved better results in
examinations. The young persons were confident
542
at the end of their training that they had acquired
competence that enables them to cope with occu-
pational everyday life and with future develop-
ments. On the other hand, too, owners of compa-
nies and enterprises were very satisfied with the
young skilled workers because they found their
way in the companies and enterprises without any
bigger problems.
Besides the work relation of the didactical ap-
proach the high motivation and the great ↑ commit-
ment of trainees, trainers and teachers were seen as
decisive for this training success (compare, for ex-
ample, ARENDS / EHRLICH / MEYER / UHLIG-SCHOENIAN
1998; BUNZEL / SCHÄFER / BRETHEUER 1998; HÖPFNER
1998; HOWE / HEERMEYER / HEUERMANN 1998; JENE-
WEIN 1999; MALEK / PAHL 1998; WILKE-SCHNAUFER /
SCHONHARDT/ FROMMERT 1998).
In spite of these predominantly positive findings
there is (still) no comprehensive and far-reaching
implementation of action-based or ↑ work proc-
ess-oriented approaches like that of the task-ori-
ented learning in the practice of vocational edu-
cation and training. Investigations referring to this
reveal, rather, a dominance of traditional teaching
and learning methods. Furthermore, the survey of
the BIBB (BMBW 1993) as well as the inquiry
of Pätzold (PÄTZOLD /K LUSMEYER / WINGELS 2003)
show that teacher-centred lessons in the ↑ voca-
tional schools and the demonstration and the four-
step-method in in-company-training prevail as tra-
ditional drafts.
3.7.5.7 Perspectives
The concept of task-oriented learning, with differ-
ent arrangements and emphases, plays an impor-
tant role in numerous pilot projects and it is be-
ing further developed and evaluated (in Germany
compare, for example, EULER 2004b).
In Germany task-oriented learning is partly estab-
lished in former pilot project regions (e. g. Wil-
helmshaven or Duisburg) as a vocational education
and training standard. Here the new demands on
the trainers and teachers as well as on the trainees
are confirmed. These, primarily, consist in over-
coming rehearsed, familiar ↑ performances of vo-
cational education and training at schools and in
companies and in understanding the ↑ teaching and
Handbook of TVET Research
learning processes as a common challenge for all
persons and parties involved.
Trainers and teachers need enlarged or even to-
tally new competence in relation to a comprehen-
sive support and assessment of learning and com-
petence development. Otherwise, the learners are
confronted with the situation that first of all they
are themselves responsible for their learning and
their learning success. They have to change from
the role of a rather passive learning consumer into
that of an active learner.
Regarding the organisation and development of the
school and company as learning venues above all
there are changed requirements because of team-
work. To realise task-oriented learning common
work groups of both trainers and teachers are very
helpful. These work groups can develop the in-
stitutional basic conditions, provide the ↑ learn-
ing environment, put the occupational training
standards into action, prepare, perform and assess
the education measures and many more. Besides
openness and tolerance appropriate team compe-
tence is necessary to be able to shape and reflect
such processes (compare VOLLMER / BERBEN 2002;
SCHLEY 1998). At the same time trainers and teach-
ers have to be given sufficient room for manoeuvre
and more autonomy by the administration. That
way the work groups can be involved in the devel-
opment of a learning organisation (compare SENGE
1998; BERBEN /K LÜVER / MILEVCZIK 2001; GERDS /
ZÖLLER 2002).
It has turned out that task-oriented learning is very
suitable for comprehensive vocational education
and training processes. It allows effective common
developing work towards a prospective and trend-
setting vocational training and education. This
should be continued in the future.
Areas of VET Research
3.7.6 Self-Directed Learning
– Conceptual Clarifications,
Theoretical Perspectives and
Modelling
Martin Lang and Günter Pätzold
3.7.6.1 Objectives and Relevance for
Vocational Education and Training
In recent years there has been intensive research in-
to different aspects of ↑ self-directed learning (e. g.
BOEKEARTS / PINTRICH / ZEIDNER 2000; ZIMMERMAN /
SCHUNK 2001). The fact that this subject receives
such great attention in different domains of peda-
gogical practice (school, higher education, initial
and ↑ continuing vocational education and train-
ing, ↑ adult education) can be attributed to various
possible reasons. On the one hand there is a con-
sensus about the high relevance of ability to and
readiness for self-directed learning especially in
the context of ↑ lifelong learning. In this regard
the ability to learn in a self-directed way is even
viewed as a fundamental cross-disciplinary com-
petence; and its promotion is regarded as “one of
the fundamental tasks of future education policy
and educational practice” (KMK 2000b, 2).
Moreover, the legitimacy of promoting self-direct-
ed learning is asserted by making reference to the
changes in economic policy, society and work or-
ganisation. These changes can be characterised by
the following catchwords: ↑ globalisation, custom-
er orientation, low hierarchies, lack of predictabil-
ity and planning reliability, individualisation and
↑ employability. Along with these developments
comes the demand for greater flexibility, for self-
initiative and eventually for the ability to self-re-
flect and self-direct.
Learning theoretical foundations of self-directed
learning are also achieved through examining the
different learning preconditions, learning abilities
and learning styles of the learners. The acquisi-
tion of self-learning competence, which allows the
learners to shape their learning processes on their
own and to use appropriate ↑ learning strategies
and learning and working techniques according to
their learning type, offers the opportunity to make
allowances for heterogeneity (cf. BRÄU / SCHWERDT
543
2005). From a didactical point of view this objec-
tive is based on a constructivist view of learning
that interprets learning as a process in which the
learner constructs his knowledge in a goal-orient-
ed, reflective and responsible way by means of var-
ious intellectual operations and strategies as well
as practical activities if possible. He does so by
linking his knowledge to prior knowledge, by ex-
panding and differentiating his knowledge. This
requires that the learners are able to direct their
learning on their own.
An education-theoretical legitimation of self-di-
rected learning is drawn from the assumption that
the self-direction of one’s own learning process
is in line with the pedagogical ideal of promoting
individual maturity and autonomy. To do some-
thing “autonomously” or “in a self-directed way”
is therefore regarded as better and more positive
than doing the same thing “heteronomously” or
“under guidance”. This assumption, however, must
be viewed critically, insofar as “the defining feature
‘self’ is in itself no quality criterion for an action or for
learning. The quality of an action is not determined by
the performing subject, but must be measured accord-
ing to the contents and ends of the agency in question”
(K RAFT 1999, 837).
Against the background of these objectives it be-
comes clear that self-directed learning is a precon-
dition as well as a goal of vocational education and
training. Given the difficulty of predicting future
challenges and given the dynamic change in the
world of work, the ability to learn in a self-direct-
ed way must be viewed as a central momentum in
the process of continuous learning, relearning and
further learning across the lifespan.
As a result of numerous research activities differ-
ent theoretical positions emerged (see ZIMMER-
MAN 2001), which serve the description and anal-
ysis of the phenomenon. Different aspects and key
processes of ↑ self-directed learning were identi-
fied via the comparison of learners with “good”
and “bad” self-directing skills, the connections be-
tween self-direction, motivation and learning were
studied, the development of self-learning compe-
tence over a particular lifespan was investigated,
and intervention techniques to promote self-direct-
ed learning in the school context were developed
and tested (SCHUNK 2005, 174). It must be admit-
ted that research on self-directed learning is con-
544
ducted by a number of different disciplines (e. g.
pedagogy, learning psychology, organisational
psychology, labour studies) and that it is quite seg-
mented so that there are only few results on the
commonalities and differences concerning self-di-
rected learning in different domains (BOEKEARTS /
MAES /K AROLY 2005). Nevertheless these different
foci of research, as a whole, led to an improved un-
derstanding of self-direction processes in learning
and gave important impulses to pedagogical prac-
tice.
3.7.6.2 Self-Directed, Self-Organised,
Self-Regulated…? – Conceptual
Clarifications
When it comes to the definition and theoretical
modelling of the concept of “self-directed learn-
ing” and its synonyms there is far less agreement
than on the assertion of its necessity. For even
though there is consensus on a descriptive lev-
el about the functional definition of self-directed
learners it is difficult to find a definition that not
only gives a functional description of the differ-
ent steps of the processes involved in self-direct-
ed learning (see also BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND
ET AL. 2000, 2). For instance, Weinert (1984, 97)
defines self-directed learning with the qualifica-
tion that “the agent has a targeted and far-reaching
influence on the decisions whether, what, how and
to what end he or she learns”.
For the theoretical foundation and conceptual spec-
ification we will select approaches from different
research disciplines. The objective is to achieve a
clearer picture on what are the differences between
the concepts of self-directed, self-regulated and
self-organised learning, which are frequently used
in the literature and often interchangeably, and to
Tab. 1: Comparison of external and self-direction as well as external and self-organisation
Handbook of TVET Research
justify why in this article the term “self-directed
learning” was chosen.
If one consults cybernetics, for instance, one finds
that the distinction between “direction” and “reg-
ulation” is that “direction is … an informational
command to a system and an interference with a
system to have it operate in a particular way and
to achieve a goal”. Regulation, in contrast to this,
is “an informational feedback triggered by a de-
viation from a desired operation or objective”
(ULRICH / PROBST 1991, 79). By checking and re-
porting back whether the regulatory measures tak-
en have led to the desired change or whether there
are deviations that necessitate the initiation of fur-
ther measures, “regulation” integrates the reac-
tion to disruptions into the course of the process.
Miller, Galanter and Pribram’s regulation mod-
el (TOTE) that was published in 1960 is regarded
as a landmark of the cognitive turn in learning re-
search. The improvement of learning activities that
is achieved through autonomous tests and opera-
tions supplements the alternative model of external
control (MILLER / GALANTER / PRIBRAM 1960).
The relationship between self-directed and self-
regulated learning becomes clear when one bas-
es an understanding of self-directed learning on,
for instance, the early definition by Knowles, who
conceives self-directed learning as a process
“in which individuals take the initiative, with or without
the help of others, in diagnosing their learning needs,
formulating learning goals, identifying human and ma-
terial resources for learning, choosing and implementing
appropriate learning strategies, and evaluating learning
outcomes” (K NOWLES 1975, 18).
At the beginning of the self-directed learning
process the learner defines directive measures for
the achievement of an objective he has set. During
and after the learning process there are learning
Areas of VET Research
tests, which may lead to a correction of the learn-
ing activities undertaken. In this sense regulation
can be understood as a prerequisite for direction –
and thus as a necessary part of self-directed learn-
ing – for it can provide information for new di-
rective measures in subsequent learning activities
(STRAKA 2006, 399). This conception of the learn-
ing process as a cyclical and reflective sequence of
steps in an action (ZIMMERMAN 2000, 15 ff.; WINNE
1996, 331) also explains the possibility of using the
concept of self-direction despite the clear presence
of regulatory measures.
With regard to the demarcation of the terms “self-
direction” and “↑ self-organisation” we will refer
to the arguments of Erpenbeck and Heyse (1999,
130). According to the authors the concept of “di-
rection”, referring to contexts of learning, always
implies the direction towards a goal that was, at
least in its basic shape, fixed in advance. This goal
may be set by another person or by the agent him-
self. Erpenbeck and Heyse also identify as compo-
nents of direction, in addition to the learning ob-
jectives themselves, the
“operations and strategies of information processing (in
order to achieve these objectives), targeted control proc-
esses (comparison, assessment, evaluation of feedback)
and … the degree of openness of learning objectives, op-
erations/strategies and control processes” (ERPENBECK /
HEYSE 1999, 130).
In contrast to this they speak of “organisation”
when the four aforementioned components cannot
be determined and, predominantly, such options
for agency are at hand that make it possible to cope
with the open future. A contrastive juxtaposition
of externally directed and ↑ self-directed learning
as well as externally organised and self-organised
learning is provided by the following table:
From this portrayal of the extremes “externally di-
rected” versus “self-directed” learning it already
becomes clear that in real learning processes there
is never the question of either-or. Instead, the ques-
tion of the share of the positions sketched above in
the learning processes has to be answered. How
much responsibility the learners take for the learn-
ing processes or how strong their directive con-
tributions are should emerge from the negotia-
ton processes between the agents involved in the
↑ teaching and learning process. In these negotia-
tions all relevant aspects of the teaching practice
545
are treated, and the result is a framework for self-
directed learning accepted by all stakeholders.
As to the question whether one may speak of self-
directed or self-organised learning processes, the
context in which the learning process takes place
is of particular relevance. It has to be presup-
posed that self-organisation processes can be re-
alised predominantly in contexts external to the
school (e. g. in processes of ↑ in-company train-
ing), whereas in school-based learning processes
the given curricular and institutional circumstanc-
es prevent the realisation of complex and com-
pletely open situations. Therefore in the context of
school-based learning a rather self-directed learn-
ing has to be expected.
Further theoretical foundations of self-directed and
self-organised learning can be for instance syner-
getics (HAKEN 1996) and the theory of autopoi-
esis worked out by Maturana and Varela (1987),
which was developed further in ↑ constructiv-
ism (ERPENBECK / HEYSE 1999, 136 ff.; MINNAMEIER
2003). According to this theory complex systems
can react to the external dynamics of the environ-
ment with an internal dynamics in such a way that
the variable linking of the components secures the
stability of the system. Human systems are com-
plex systems and therefore unpredictable. The in-
telligent subject, on the basis of its cognitive struc-
ture, constructs new knowledge in its interaction
with the environment. The learner is viewed as a
subject that has an individual history, constructs
their own world interpretation and constructs of
meaning, builds upon the latter when facing new
demands, is capable of active learning and builds
their identity in this process. Accordingly, teacher
activity must individually build upon the basis of
the things learned so far and facilitate interaction
among the learners as well as between the learners
and the teacher.
The recurrence to these ↑ theories of self-organi-
sation is by no means arbitrary as an ever more
complex environment requires the development of
competence in the sense of dispositions for self-or-
ganisation, as explained in the beginning.
“The more open the creative options for thought and ac-
tion, the more dynamic the systems of market, individ-
ual and enterprise are and must be, the more important
self-organisation processes become” (ERPENBECK / HEYSE
1999, 26).
546
It has to be noted that the two theoretical approach-
es discussed are not congruent, but make consider-
ably different contributions to the explanation of
self-organising processes. In this regard it is nec-
essary
“to find out which theoretical instruments from which
contemporary self-organisation theories are particular-
ly appropriate for modelling the functions and forms of
competence and competence development” (ERPENBECK /-
HEYSE 1999, 136).
A comprehensive analysis of the approaches can-
not be given here, but in summary the strong point
of synergetics is in the description of structural-
functional principles (e. g. the principle of ordinal
parameters), while the autopoiesis approach con-
tributes predominantly to issues of cognition, self-
reference and autonomy.
According to the two theoretical approaches, ↑ self-
organisation processes of competence development
start under very specific conditions. More precisely,
it is, at bottom, the necessity to overcome environ-
mental restrictions or obstacles that triggers learn-
ing processes. As long as agency schemes lead to
the desired outcome and are thus viable there is no
need for the individual to extend the cognitive ref-
erence system. The individual finds himself in an
intrapersonal and interpersonal equilibrium. This
behaviour changes only when obstacles come up
that cannot be dealt with by means of the existing
repertoire. Autopoiesis theory speaks of perturba-
tions, which are perceived as milieu changes and
lead to the initiation of cognitive processes that
aim at the restoration of the equilibrium. In syner-
getics it is assumed that changes of so-called con-
trol parameters lead to an instability of an existing
equilibrium (HAKEN 1996, 588). The increasing
entropy (“in cognitive systems this is information that
can be interpreted only insufficiently or even contradicts
the convictions of the individual in question” (MINNA-
MEIER 2003, 6)) leads to a distortion of the system,
to entry into chaotic states, which ultimately forc-
es the individual with evolutionary pressure to de-
velop his or her own cognitive system further. This
phase shift to a higher cognitive level causes new
forms of information processing and problem solv-
ing and is the expression of a related competence.
At the same time the system – in physical terms –
has entered a state of low entropy at a higher lev-
el of order, which leads to a new equilibrium. This
Handbook of TVET Research
process of developing new, emergent structures
takes a self-organised course. “The system finds
… its particular structure on its own under the new
control parameters” (HAKEN 1996, 588).
3.7.6.3 Modelling Self-Directed Learning
Following the conceptual clarification and the the-
oretical foundation we now wish to present a the-
oretical framework by which, on the one hand,
the demands can be described whose mastering
is expected from individuals when they engage
in ↑ self-directed learning. On the other hand this
model of self-learning competence will also pro-
vide scientifically justified ideas concerning what
degrees self-learning competence can have or what
degrees and levels can be identified in individuals
(BMBF 2003a, 74).
“It is only models as specific interpretations of a theory
that build the bridge to empirical observation. A mean-
ingful discourse, a rational measurement of competence
accordingly presupposes a suitable competence model
that allows for empirical prognoses within the theoreti-
cal framework” (ERPENBECK / ROSENSTIEL 2003a, XII).
Even though numerous theoretical models can be
found in the literature (ZIMMERMAN / SCHUNK 2001;
NÜESCH 2001, 22 ff.) that view the concept of self-
directed learning from different perspectives (e. g.
the operant, phenomenological, cognitive-con-
structivist, volitional, social-cognitive theories),
it is nevertheless possible to identify commonali-
ties in these positions. For instance, self-directed
learning is unanimously perceived as active and
constructive shaping of the process of knowledge
generation. In this shaping activity the learners
orient their attitudes, positions and actions towards
the needs of learning and motivation, and they au-
tonomously define goals and use adequate strate-
gies for their achievement (PINTRICH 2000, 452 f.).
Most definitions of self-directed learning empha-
sise the importance of cognitive, motivational, vo-
litional and metacognitive processes for self-di-
rected learning (e. g. PINTRICH 2000; BOEKEARTS
1999; SCHIEFELE / PEKRUN 1996, 258). Even though
there are particularly extensive research activities
about ↑ learning strategies and metacognition this
should not lead to an overemphasising of the cog-
nitive aspects of self-directed learning at the ex-
pense of the other processes (see BOEKEARTS 1999).
Areas of VET Research
For it could be sufficiently demonstrated in empiri-
cal studies that comprehensive declarative knowl-
edge of adequate learning strategies does not auto-
matically entail the application of these strategies
(see ARTELT 2000a, 100).
“The investigation of self-regulated learning process-
es has to consider, besides (meta-) cognitive compo-
nents, especially motivational-emotional components
of the learning processes” (BAUMERT / K LIEME / NEUBRAND
ET AL. 2000, 3).
For the theoretical modelling of ↑ self-directed
learning therefore a framework model is suggested
that takes the equivalence of cognitive, metacog-
nitive, and motivational components into account.
A model of this kind can be found, for instance, in
Boekearts (1997; 1999).
At the core of this three-layer model is the choice
of cognitive ↑ learning strategies that serve the ex-
amination of the learning content in question as
well as the understanding and retaining of the lat-
ter, and that enable the learner to exercise target-
ed influence on the learning process. These learn-
ing strategies are also termed information process-
ing strategies (FRIEDRICH / MANDL 1992) and can be
differentiated, according to a taxonomy by Wein-
stein and Mayer (WEINSTEIN / MAYER 1986), into
repetition, organisation and elaboration strategies.
Repetition strategies keep new information, e. g.
by memorising or repeated reading of text passag-
es, in the short-term memory until they are per-
manently stored in the long-term memory. As rep-
etition strategies concentrate merely on the acqui-
sition of factual knowledge without achieving a
deeper understanding of relationships they are al-
so termed surface-oriented strategies. Organisa-
tion and elaboration strategies, on the other hand,
support a deep processing of the learning matter
with a view to understanding, and this is why they
are also termed depth-oriented strategies.
“Organisation strategies stimulate the learner e. g. to
structure the learning matter and to make himself aware
of the relations between the relevant concepts (e. g. by
working out a mind-map). Elaboration strategies stim-
ulate the learner to link newly acquired knowledge to
his prior knowledge, e. g. by developing concrete exam-
ples of the application of newly acquired knowledge”
(LEOPOLD / LEUTNER 2004, 365).
It is necessary for the effective self-direction of
learning that the learners have a sufficient reper-
547
toire of strategies at their disposal, from which the
appropriate strategy for a specific context of appli-
cation can be selected. The choice and the effec-
tive use of learning strategies depend on several
factors. Due to the fact that self-learning compe-
tence is to a large extent ↑ domain-specific, it has
to be expected that learners work differently on
learning tasks in different domains, and that their
learning style depends on specific technical con-
tents and environmental requirements (BOEKEARTS
1999, 448 f.). Moreover, motivational and emo-
tional factors also influence the selection and use
of the learning strategies. It has been empirical-
ly proven that the use of depth-oriented strategies
is correlated with an intrinsic motivation while
the use of surface-oriented strategies is correlated
with an extrinsic motivation (SCHIEFELE / SCHREYER
1994, 9 f.).
The middle layer of Boekarts’s framework model
takes up the particular importance of metacogni-
tion for a successful learning process (cf. SCHIEFELE
2005, 36). An important precondition for self-di-
rected learning is the presence of ↑ metacognitive
knowledge, which can be differentiated into a de-
clarative and an executive part.
The declarative part is the knowledge about one’s
own cognitive system (more or less stable task-spe-
cific strong and weak points, learning habits), the
knowledge about characteristics and demands of
tasks (type of task, difficulty), and the knowledge
about the utility and application of specific strate-
gies (characteristics, area of application, experienc-
es with the use of strategies) (FLAVELL 1984, 24 f.).
The executive metacognitive knowledge supports
the learner in the selection and the adequate use
of the learning strategies. By means of so-called
metacognitive strategies the learning process is
planned (e. g. learning objective and means that
are necessary to achieve it), controlled (e. g. learn-
ing progress), directed (e. g. through revision of the
means) and evaluated (assessment of the achieve-
ment of objectives) (K LIEME /ARTELT/ STANAT 2001,
211).
Self-regulation strategies of this type are also
termed control or resource strategies (FRIEDRICH /-
MANDL 1997, 251) and have the function to regu-
late cognition, motivation and behaviour.
548
“Therefore they have an overarching relevance and
are in some sense the tools by means of which a learn-
er directs his motivation, his cognitions and his behav-
iour towards a goal that he himself has set” (LEOPOLD /
LEUTNER 2004, 365).
With the increase in learning experience and the
changes in individual efficacy expectations and at-
tribution patterns a declarative and executive stra-
tegic knowledge develops, which leads – especial-
ly “via the increase in knowledge on the utility of
strategy application” (BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND
ET AL. 2000, 7) – to a differentiated employment of
learning strategies, because of the existence of an
elaborate strategy repertoire.
The outer layer of this framework model according
to Boekearts takes into consideration, via the regu-
lation of the “self”, the motivational and volitional
aspects of ↑ self-directed learning.
“As self-directed learning usually requires a certain per-
sistency it makes sense to also consider temporally sta-
ble motivational components as influential factors. The
description and analysis of these structural learning pre-
requisites is served by motivation theoretical concepts
like needs, thematic interest, objectives and self-efficacy
convictions etc” Friedrich/ Mandl 1997, 243).
Deci and Ryan (1993, 236) identified in their em-
pirical studies the experience of competence, self-
efficacy, autonomy and social embeddedness as
being important conditions for the development of
motivation based on self-determination. Self-ef-
ficacy convictions (SCHWARZER /JERUSALEM 2002;
BANDURA 1997) are an especially important deter-
minant of self-directed learning since they influ-
ence, via the included assumptions, the choice of
tasks, the readiness to work hard, and the duration
of efforts under unfavourable circumstances. Be-
sides the cognitive and motivational aspects, the
volitional processes, which consist of the directive
and control processes that take place before, dur-
ing and after the actual ↑ performance of an action,
are a necessary condition for self-directed learning
(CORNO 2001; HECKHAUSEN 1989, 212 ff.).
As a framework model the three-layer model by
Boekaerts illustrates the processes and regula-
tory systems of self-directed learning quite well.
The analytical distinction of the different regula-
tory systems, however, cannot be maintained in
practice. Instead, each of the three layers in this
framework model is interdependent with the oth-
Handbook of TVET Research
ers. There is, for example, a high correlation be-
tween motivation and the use of elaborate in-depth
strategies as mentioned above.
3.7.6.4 Concepts for the Promotion of Self-
Directed Learning
In principle one can distinguish direct and in-
direct concepts for the promotion of self-di-
rected learning, which have different conse-
quences for the shaping of the ↑ learning en-
vironment (NÜESCH 2001, 101 ff.; FRIEDRICH /-
MANDL 2006, 10 f.).
The idea of the direct approach is to equip the
learner with a comprehensive repertoire of strat-
egies and techniques for self-directed learning
through a ↑ learning strategy training in instruc-
tion-oriented learning environments. The learn-
ers can make deliberate and targeted use of this
repertoire in order to be successful in self-direct-
ed learning. Cognitive strategies for knowledge
acquisition are imparted as well as metacognitive
strategies for the planning, direction and control
of the learning process and motivational strategies
for the initiation and continuation of the learning
process.
With regard to the implementation of a direct
training of learning strategies it must be borne in
mind that the key to learning to learn lies not in
an abstract, context-independent communication
of learning strategies, but in the reflection on one’s
own work and learning experiences and the asso-
ciated individual development of work and learn-
ing strategies (metacognition). This allows the
learners to reflect, and to select successful strate-
gies with a view to concrete learning situations and
their individual preconditions (prior knowledge,
learning habits, motivation). Moreover, it cannot
be expected that single training measures are suf-
ficient for a sustainable change of the learning be-
haviour since
“the acquisition and utilisation of learning strategies …
is not the result of short-term strategy training or single
instruction sequences, but rather the result of long-term
habit formation” (FRIEDRICH / MANDL 2006, 17).
A programme of learning strategy training is suc-
cessful only if it is adapted to an authentic con-
text of utilisation or application and if a high lev-
el of learner activity and metacognitive awareness
Areas of VET Research
is promoted. Additionally the initial external sup-
port should be reduced in the course of the train-
ing process. It is also necessary that appropriate
motivational preconditions are created and main-
tained, and that not only declarative, but also pro-
cedural and conditional strategy knowledge is cre-
ated so that the learners become aware how, when
and why a strategy is applied.
The successful implementation of learning-strate-
gy training programmes may also mean under cer-
tain conditions that the learners first have to devel-
op the awareness that their existing learning strate-
gies need a revision or extension. Especially weak-
er learners often underestimate this need because
in most cases they lack sufficient abilities for self-
monitoring and self-assessment. In this case it can
be quite helpful first to learn appropriate forms of
self-monitoring prior to intervention programmes
for ↑ learning strategy training. This way the learn-
ers can learn more about the extent and the ↑ effec-
tiveness of their existing learning strategies before
they are encouraged to change them or to learn
new strategies (ZIMMERMAN 1999, 549).
Unlike the direct approach the indirect approach
is characterised by the fact that self-learning com-
petence is not explicitly trained in strategy train-
ing courses. Instead, the ↑ learning environment is
shaped in a way that implicitly offers the learners
the opportunity for ↑ self-directed learning. This
requires that in the learning environment there is
a certain degree of flexibility and room for ma-
noeuvre. The learning environment should mo-
tivate self-activity and enable individual deci-
sions of the learners with regard to learning ob-
jectives, learning paths and learning tempo. This
profile is matched particularly well by learning en-
vironments that follow the paradigm of a moder-
ate ↑ constructivism (e. g. cognitive apprenticeship
(COLLINS / BROWN / NEWMAN 1989), cognitive flexi-
bility (SPIRO / FELTOVICH /JACOBSON / COULSON 1992)
or anchored instruction). What these learning en-
vironments have in common is that they provide
complex starting problems, allow for multiple per-
spectives, follow the principle of authenticity and
situatedness, feature reflexive learning in the so-
cial context and provide assistance if necessary
(REINMANN-ROTHMEIER / MANDL 2001a, 627 f.). Es-
pecially learners with lower self-direction skills
549
can benefit from forms of social learning when
they are encouraged by the exchange with and the
support of other learners to apply more effective
self-direction strategies (ZIMMERMAN 1999, 549).
Social learning also helps those who already prac-
tice self-directed learning to deepen their under-
standing of learning by explaining their concepts
and strategies to other learners.
“The general understanding is that collaborative learn-
ing supports self-regulation because peers model and
discuss their own learning and motivation strategies,
which are then ‘distributed’ across the group for indi-
viduals to pick up and modify to suit their own needs”
(BOEKEARTS / CORNO 2005, 220).
In the context of the shaping of learning environ-
ments with a view to the implementation of indi-
rect support approaches, ↑ e-learning concepts with
hypermedia structures seem to be particularly ap-
propriate, for their characteristics (e. g. free choice
of learning paths and tempo, independence from
location and time, multimodality, cognitive flexi-
bility), in principle, enable or even demand a far-
reaching self-direction of the learners (FRIEDRICH /
MANDL 2006, 18; LANG 2004, 123; LANG / PÄTZOLD
2002).
On the basis of the existing studies and meta-anal-
yses (NÜESCH 2001, 102; FRIEDRICH / MANDL 1992,
33) no preference of one approach compared to
the other can be established a priori. Rather there
is some evidence that it makes sense to link both
approaches regarding the support of self-directed
learning to each other, depending on the existing
self-learning competence of the learners. That is
to say, that in the beginning there should be direct
strategy training, which can afterwards be reduced
and gradually replaced with problem-oriented
learning environments according to the advancing
competence acquisition of the learners (FRIEDRICH /
MANDL 2006, 16 f.).
However, the indirect approach using open and
complex problems is the one that best suits the pos-
tulates of competence development as the latter al-
ways depends on the self-organised examination
and handling of tasks in specific contexts. “Com-
petence is the link between knowledge and skills
and must be regarded as the ability to master situ-
ations or tasks” (BMBF 2003a, 73).
When it comes to the question that is fundamen-
tal for the design and implementation of support
550
schemes whether the application of specific learn-
ing strategies ultimately leads to better learning
achievements, the results of recent studies are, at
first glance, not very impressive. Artelt (ARTELT
2000a, 176) observes, in this regard, that there is
“a considerable discrepancy between relationships
theoretically deduced and those that were found
empirically”. However, a differentiated analy-
sis shows that the strength of the correlation nev-
ertheless depends on how learning achievements
and the application of learning strategies are meas-
ured. Therefore it is natural to expect that the cho-
sen criterion for successful learning has direct ef-
fects on the utility of learning strategies.
“If the acquisition of factual knowledge is used as an in-
dicator there is no significant correlation with strategy
application. If, on the other hand, the intellectual ↑ per-
formance in a problem solving task is used as a criteri-
on, then there is a significant correlation with the appli-
cation of strategies” (FRIEDRICH / MANDL 2006, 13).
The correlation between learning success and
strategy application also depends on the way the
application of ↑ learning strategies is operational-
ised. If the application of strategies is measured
near the process one can demonstrate clear rela-
tionships with learning success, whereas retro-
spective instruments detect rather weak relation-
ships. A more detailed description and compari-
son of these different methods is given in the fol-
lowing section.
3.7.6.5 Diagnostics
The recording of ↑ self-directed learning is, for
several reasons, not trivial. On the one hand the
highly complex construct requires a more proc-
ess-oriented ↑ diagnostics, which takes into ac-
count all components (cognitive, metacognitive,
motivational, volitional) of self-directed learning
(BOEKEARTS 1999). On the other hand ability and
readiness for self-directed learning is shown on-
ly in the successful solution of a concrete problem
(↑ performance).
Further difficulties in the selection of adequate
measurement instruments lie in the fact that the
available methods are different in their relevance
depending on the function and the context of the
evaluation (cf. METZGER 2006) and also in the fact
that “the type of survey has influence on the signif-
Handbook of TVET Research
icance and the generalisability of the results” (A R-
TELT 2006, 339).
In practice the measurement and evaluation of self-
directed learning is still dominated by question-
naire inventories (e. g. “Learning and Study Strat-
egies Inventory” (LASSI) (WEINSTEIN / SCHULTE /
PALMER 1987), “Motivated Strategies for Learning
Questionnaire” (MSLQ) (PINTRICH / SMITH / GARCIA /
MC K EACHIE 1991), “Kiel Learning Strategy In-
ventory” (Kieler Lernstrategie-Inventar, KLI)
(BAUMERT / HEYN /KÖLLER 1992), “Inventory for the
Measurement of Learning Strategies in Studying”
(Inventar zur Erfassung von Lernstrategien im
Studium, LIST) (WILD / SCHIEFELE 1994), “How do
I learn?” (Wie lerne ich?, WLI) (METZGER 1995)
or “Trait Self-Regulation Questionnaire” (TSRQ)
(O’NEIL / HERL 1998)), even though the search for
a valid measurement of ↑ self-directed learning
by means of questionnaires has many problems
(PÄTZOLD / LANG 2005, 6).
For example, the use of questionnaires as a type
of retrospective self-report presupposes an elab-
orate declarative and procedural meta-memory
for the ↑ abstraction of one’s own learning activi-
ties, which normally cannot be expected from the
learners (ARTELT 2000b). Moreover, a certain tem-
poral proximity of the survey to the learning proc-
ess is required in order to secure the significance of
the self-reflection. In the case of a period between
the performance of the action and the recall which
is too long, there could be errors in statements due
to an insufficient memory of the interviewee. The
learners must also be aware of the processes of ap-
plying learning strategies. Routines that are con-
ducted automatically often cannot be verbalised.
Another methodological shortcoming of question-
naire inventories is the fact that questionnaires
mostly register the use of learning strategies with-
out considering the learning context. According-
ly, the learning strategies surveyed this way are re-
garded as strategies for dealing with any learning
matter whatsoever and the learner’s generally fa-
voured learning style, as it were. What is neglect-
ed in this case is that the learning behaviour is to
a large extent determined by the specific condi-
tions of application. Depending on the setting one
and the same learner may show a totally different
learning orientation.
Areas of VET Research
“However, students who self-regulate on one occasion
may not self-regulate their studying on another occa-
sion, despite the acknowledged benefits. It is argued that
self-regulated learning can be domain-specific or do-
main-transcending, and that competent performers in a
specific domain rely on different types of prior knowl-
edge related to that domain” (BOEKEARTS 1997, 161).
Depending on the domain, specific learning strat-
egies are applied that pay adequate attention to the
particular conditions of the ↑ learning environment
(e. g. criteria for success, teaching methods, expec-
tations, type of examination, specifications of the
domain etc.).
Not least, one must bear in mind that learners also
tend to answer a questionnaire on learning strate-
gies in the way they believe to be socially accepta-
ble. As a result of these methodological limitations
it can be asserted that as a rule questionnaires can
only diagnose to what extent the learner fulfils the
prerequisites for self-directed learning by possess-
ing a certain knowledge about the use of ↑ learn-
ing strategies.
“Besides the measurement of motivational preferences
and interests a questionnaire makes it possible to gath-
er information about the learners’ preferred learning
methods, their strategic knowledge as well as their rela-
tive strengths and weaknesses” (K LIEME /ARTELT / STANAT
2001, 212).
Strategy inventories thus measure rather gener-
al learning preferences, but this survey method
does not allow conclusions with regard to the ac-
tual learning behaviour, let alone the learning suc-
cess. The knowledge about the application of spe-
cific learning strategies is a necessary, but by no
means a sufficient condition of self-directed learn-
ing, and it gives no clue concerning the actual ap-
plication – in terms of frequency and ↑ effective-
ness – in the learning process:
“Strategical knowledge does not ensure implementation
of strategies: to be effective, cognitive strategies must be
adapted to specific behavioral contexts that learners en-
counter” (ZIMMERMAN 1999, 550).
The sketched methodological weaknesses of ques-
tionnaire surveys to describe learning behaviour
also explain why a correlation between a learning
strategy use determined by ↑ self-evaluation and
a learning success measured by external evalua-
tion could hardly be empirically detected (ARTELT
2000a, 76).
551
As a consequence of these findings on the defi-
ciencies of purely questionnaire-based surveys of
learning strategies it would make sense to supple-
ment, in the sense of empirical ↑ triangulation, the
current research practice with action-oriented in-
struments in the shape of a ↑ performance measure-
ment in order to improve the validity. And indeed
the theoretical development of self-directed learn-
ing has also led to the development of this kind
of measurement instruments. While the ability to
self-directed learning is understood less as a stable
characteristic of the learner, but as a dynamic de-
velopment process in scholastic and extrascholas-
tic contexts, the inventory used for the measure-
ment of self-learning competence has developed
further. In the beginning the focus was on a de-
contextualised measurement by means of general-
ised questionnaires that viewed the ability to ↑ self-
directed learning as a habitual feature of the per-
son, but, by and large, ↑ domain-specific and later
context-sensitive survey methods were developed.
These new ↑ diagnosis instruments (e. g. method of
thinking out loud, retrospective self-report, stim-
ulated recall, qualitative interviews, observations,
learning diary, portfolio, computer-based process
measurement, traces of mental events and process-
es), which are used in combination with each oth-
er wherever possible, aim at capturing the process
of self-direction through the analysis of a concrete
behaviour (BOEKEARTS / CORNO 2005, 209 ff.; Artelt
2000a, 91 ff.). The aim is, for instance, to analyse
how learners act when solving complex problems
with the help of computer programmes. The pro-
gramme records what text passages the learner
marks, comments or reads repeatedly by scroll-
ing back, and the traces that the learner leaves in
the material are clarified, quantified and analysed.
This way mental processes that are normally invis-
ible, like the application of cognitive and volitional
strategies, are made explicit (WINNE 2005, 236).
In all these considerations, however, the idea that,
especially for school contexts, the rule must always
apply that the instruments employed must be work-
able for teachers and learners in application and
analysis, must not be neglected. In this regard it is
no surprise that so far it is still the case that
“the number of studies in which the questionnaire-based
survey of learning strategies is supplemented by action-
oriented analyses so that the predictive validity of the
552
learning strategy inventory is also tested is very small
in comparison to the numerous statements in the litera-
ture that it is necessary to do just this. This is the case
because, above all, an action-oriented survey of learning
strategies is methodologically very sophisticated and al-
so time-consuming” (ARTELT 2000a, 106).
There is, especially, a lack of long-term studies and
↑ pilot projects in vocational education and train-
ing, which could provide information on how self-
learning competence changes and develops over
the learning biography. In the meantime the BLK
(Bund-Länder-Kommission für Bildungsplanung
und Forschungsförderung/Federal and State Com-
mission for ↑ Educational Planning and Research
Support) pilot programme “Self-directed and Co-
operative Learning in Initial Vocational Training”
(Selbstgesteuertes und kooperatives Lernen in der
beruflichen Erstausbildung, SKOLA) investigates
how an optimal balance between self-directed
work on contextualised tasks on the one hand and
support from the teachers in decontextualisation
can be established for different contents and learn-
ing preconditions. The programme, which includes
21 pilot projects in 12 of the German Länder, is
equally supported by the Federal Ministry of Edu-
cation and Research and the participating Länder.
The coordination of the programme was assigned
to the Universities of Dortmund (Prof. Dr. Günter
Pätzold) and St. Gallen (Prof. Dr. Dieter Euler) (cf.
BLK 2006).
3.7.7 Learning and Teaching
Research
Gerald A. Straka
3.7.7.1 From Research on Teaching to
Learning and Teaching Research
“Lehr-Lern-Forschung” is a genuine German term
that was disseminated throughout the West Ger-
man pedagogical discourse in the 1970s. The Eng-
lish translation “learning and teaching research”
captures the corresponding perspective even bet-
ter, as will be shown below, if the aspect of inte-
grating learning and teaching is taken into consid-
eration as well. Up to that point only “research on
Handbook of TVET Research
teaching” had been conducted worldwide, as prov-
en by the American ↑ Educational Research Asso-
ciation’s (↑ AERA) handbook of the same title edit-
ed by Gage (1963). In the Federal Republic of Ger-
many research on teaching was on the one hand
boosted through Heinrich Roth’s path-breaking in-
augural lecture in Göttingen (1962) with its plea
for a “realistic turn in pedagogical research” that
received throughout the German-speaking coun-
tries attention. On the other hand the scientific con-
nection of West Germany to international empiri-
cal research on instruction was established by the
German adaptation (not translation) of the above-
mentioned AERA handbook, which was inaugu-
rated by Karlheinz Ingenkamp (1972).
Theoretical and methodological considerations,
however, gave rise to doubts against the explana-
tory value of comparing teaching methods (GAGE
1963). The arguments put forward were the often
deficient control of distorting factors (laboratory
experiment) and the indeterminacy of the realised
treatments like “traditional instruction”. These
were considered inadequate to explain the numer-
ous conditions and processes that were regarded
as influential on learning. In general the lack of
learning theoretical foundation of the measures
was criticised, as was the fact that they were large-
ly dependent on one specific learning concept, e. g.
on Skinner’s operant conditioning in programmed
instruction. Concepts of this kind were regarded as
too narrow for the explanation of the multidimen-
sional interplay between learning and teaching.
The critique of the explanatory power of this un-
differentiated comparison of teaching methods
and the demand for a stronger consideration of
cognitive processes (WEINERT 2000) contributed
to the effect that in the Federal Republic of Ger-
many the term “teaching research” (Unterrichts-
forschung) was replaced with “learning and teach-
ing research”. The latter expressed a shift of per-
spective: teaching is not only to be viewed under
the aspect of teaching theory, but also under the
aspect of learning theory. Both aspects have to be
integrated and the interplay of teaching and learn-
ing has to be studied empirically. The sequence of
terms “learning-teaching” instead of “teaching-
learning” expresses the idea that empirically val-
idated knowledge on learning is the reference for
Areas of VET Research 553

teaching and not vice versa in the tradition of Ger- levels of external conditions, internal conditions
man didactical thinking. and actual processes:

3.7.7.2 Topics of Research

In the search for a “pedagogically oriented concept
of learning” Heinrich Roth – now considered the
doyen of West German learning and teaching re-
search – made a distinction, on the basis of learn-
ing theoretical findings from outside Germany,
between the “initial” and the “final state” of the
learner as well as the “steps” that the learner has to Fig. 1: General framework for learning and teaching
take in order to proceed from the initial to the fi-
This model helped to overcome the predominant
nal state. It is the task of the teacher to use “learn-
West German discussion on teaching methods
ing aids” for triggering and supporting the learn-
with its “freedom of method” perspective, a teach-
ing steps he deems necessary (ROTH 1957). A few
ing concept that completely neglected results of
years later Gagné’s “Conditions of Learning” (1st
learning research (OSER / BAERISWYL 2001). What
ed.1965, 4th ed. 1985) – translated into German
is particular about this framework for learning and
(1969) upon Heinrich Roth’s initiative – drew a
teaching is that the levels of external conditions,
strict distinction between “external” and above all
actual processes and internal conditions are on
“internal” conditions of learning, which substan-
the one hand defined independently of each other,
tially influence behaviour. Gagné also maintained
but on the other hand brought together in a func-
that there are as many types of learning as there are
tional relationship (K LAUER 1985). Teaching then
identifiable conditions of learning, a view that was
comprises an arrangement of external conditions
supported by empirical findings from learning re-
– from teaching activities to multimedia materials
search (GAGNÉ 1965). This way the American style
– that are assumed to influence learning process-
of learning research with its predominantly behav-
es. Learning itself has taken place only if the per-
ioural orientation and its focus on specific learning
son in question has realized a sustainable change
types was overcome, and the path was made for
in her/his internal conditions. This is the effect of
the cognitive turn in this domain. Building on this
current processes including observable and non-
achievement Gagné developed his “instruction-
observable (learning) behaviour (GAGNÉ 1977;
al design” approach together with Briggs (GAGNÉ /
K LAUER 1973a; STRAKA / MACKE 1979a).
BRIGGS 1974). In the meantime the revised fourth
edition is available (GAGNÉ / BRIGGS / WAGER 1992),
3.7.7.3 Historical Development and Current
which is being distributed to the present day.
State of Research
Compared to Gagné (1965) the initial and fi-
nal state in Roth (1957) correspond to the inter- Learning and teaching research experienced a
nal conditions and the learning steps correspond to boom in the Federal Republic of Germany in the
the “behaviour” as an individual, actual, observ- course of the Priority Programme with the same
able and non-observable process. The “learning name of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft
aids” of the teacher belong to the external condi- (German Research Foundation) that began in 1974
tions, which are captured by the term “teaching” and was to run for six years (DFG 1974). This ↑ re-
in this case. Moreover the internal conditions at search programme was inaugurated by the fact that
the beginning of the learning process have to be up to that point the consideration of learning theo-
distinguished as “learning prerequisites” from the ries in German pedagogy had occurred rather ac-
“learning result”. cidentally, and the assumptions on the relation-
The topics of teaching and learning research are ship of teaching and learning had lacked empirical
thus learning conditions, learning results, behav- confirmation. Moreover there had been only short-
iour and teaching, which are assigned to the three term experiments, a neglect of curricular contexts,
554
a lack of attention towards the influence of teach-
ing material and individual differences (treatment-
aptitude-interaction) (CRONBACH / SNOW 1977), and
finally an undifferentiated concept of “learning
ability”. The criteria for the selection of tenders
were the reference to cognitive theories (including
emotional, motivational and social variables), the
applicability in schools on the basis of long-term
field experiments, and the consideration of individ-
ualisation and differentiation (DFG 1974; ACHTEN-
HAGEN 1995; ACHTENHAGEN / GRUBB 2001). The ↑ re-
search programme focused on mathematics and
English in the 5th and 6th grades in schools of gen-
eral education. The teaching and learning theoreti-
cal discussion that was triggered by the programme
also diffused, albeit slowly, into West German
TVET research (e. g. SCHELTEN 1977; 1980; 1981;
STRAKA / MACKE 1979b; STRAKA 1980).
The projects that were supported in the Priority
Programme on Learning and Teaching Research of
the DFG extended from formal teaching and learn-
ing time models (TREIBER 1980) to interactionist-
communicative models (WIENOLD /ACHTENHAGEN /
BUER ET AL. 1985) to teaching and learning the-
oretical models “in the narrower sense”. How-
ever, even these projects were characterised by
a wide range of research topics like action theo-
retical studies in teaching (HOFER 1981), cogni-
tion theoretical ↑ structuration of teaching mate-
rial (NIEGEMANN / TREIBER 1982) or cognitive-moti-
vationally structured instruction (EIGLER / MACKE /
NENNIGER ET AL. 1976).
Despite this heterogeneity of ↑ research questions
some common research paths can be identified.
These include the attempt to clarify the cognitive
processes in problem solving and action control;
the systematic description of learning material and
learning objects in instruction; structural and sum-
mative analyses of students’ learning outcomes;
the analysis of long-term teaching sequences; the
inclusion of motivational and affective factors; si-
multaneous analyses on different levels (individual
students, classes etc.) (BUER / NENNIGER 1992).
In 1990 a study of the German Research Foun-
dation on “TVET Research at Universities in the
Federal Republic of Germany” was published
(DFG 1990). The paper identified considerable re-
search deficits and thus gave rise to the DFG Prior-
Handbook of TVET Research
ity Programme “Teaching-Learning Processes in
Initial Business Education”, which was a unique
programme in vocational education and training.
Within this programme 18 projects were support-
ed, which investigated different research questions
at different degrees of detail. With a certain gener-
alisation these projects can be classified as follows
(BECK 2000b; 2002; 2003, 233):
From the DFG Priority Programme “Teach-
ing-Learning Processes in Initial Business Ed-
ucation” (BECK 2002) and reviews on the state
of the art in teaching and learning research
(ACHTENHAGEN / GRUBB 2001; EFKLIDES 2006; ATKIN-
SON / DERRY/ R ENKL / WORTHAM 2000; DECI / KOEST-
NER / RYAN 2001; DOCHY/ SEGERS / VAN DEN BOSCHE /
GIJBELS 2003; ILLERIS 2004; NIEGEMANN 2001;
WEIDENMANN 2000; WEINERT 2000; RENKL 2002;
BRANSFORD / BROWN / COCKING 2000; KOCK / SLEE-
GERS / VOETEN 2004; HIDI 2006; K RAPP 2005; GOETZ /
HALL / FRENZEL / PEKRUN 2006; NICKOLAUS /K NÖLL /-
GSCHWENDTNER 2007; PEKRUN 2000; SCHNOTZ
2006; MAYER 2001; STERN / HARDY 2004) the fol-
lowing generalised thematic developments and
contributions to knowledge can be established:
– modelling and empirical validation of the in-
terplay of working or ↑ learning strategies, meta-
cognitive strategies, motivations and emotions and
their support through complex ↑ learning environ-
ments;
– self-directed, self-regulated or autodidactic
learning and their supportive external conditions;
– conceptualisation of interest, self-determination
and learning emotions, their validation as well as
their change in longitudinal perspective in relation
to external conditions in school and work;
– design of media, individually or as integrated
multimedia teaching programmes, including fun-
damental principles like differentiated visual pres-
entation of identical contents and the related learn-
ing effects;
– development and testing of flexible and open
learning environments as a supplement to the in-
structionally, planned and controlled learning ar-
rangements that were predominant in the 1980s;
– studying examples of problem solving in general
and with worked out examples of fostering adap-
tive, flexible transfer;
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 2: Research topics of the DFG Priority Programme
– the effects of ↑ situated action oriented external
conditions on ↑ vocational competence are lower
compared with rather traditional instruction in in-
dustrial domains;
– the demonstration that measures of school or-
ganisation do not automatically lead to a qualita-
tive improvement of teaching-learning processes;
– the proof that learning support by relevant sub-
ject-related prior knowledge normally cannot be
always compensated for through general abilities;
– research findings according to which an exter-
nally stimulated, systematically organised knowl-
edge acquisition controlled by teachers is consist-
ent with intrinsic motivation, concentrated atten-
tion and mental learning activities;
– classification of ↑ learning environments accord-
ing to learning goals, definitions of teachers’ and
learners’ roles and of roles of learners in relation
to each other;
– learning and acting as a multidimensional dy-
namic process of information, observable and non-
observable behaviour, emotion and motivation.
Such a view of learning led to the abandonment of
the search for a generally effective form of learn-
ing and to the investigation of functional relations
555
between intended internal conditions (= learning
objectives), learning activities and teaching condi-
tions. This was exemplarily realised with the “cho-
reographies of teaching” to bridge the gap between
instruction and learning (OSER / BAERISWYL 2001).
3.7.7.4 Methodological Particulars and
Implications
For a long time teaching and learning research
built upon Hilgard’s (1948) definition according to
which learning is the process by which behaviour
is generated or modified in a relatively permanent
way through interaction with the environment or
reactions to a situation. In the course of the cog-
nitive turn the internal conditions like structures
of knowledge, skills and motivation, and the in-
ternal processes like cognitive and meta-cognitive
strategies, motivations and emotions moved into
focus. Learning was conceived as an active, con-
structive operation of processing individually gen-
erated information that leads to understanding via
the connection of the things to be learned with the
existing knowledge and experiences of the learner
(RENKL 2002; ANDERSON 1995b; STRAKA / MACKE
2002). With the emergence of constructivist ap-
556
proaches it was sometimes questioned whether
there are actually stored, abstract and decontextu-
alised representations (= knowledge) that are ac-
quired in one context and can be applied in anoth-
er (CLANCEY 1993; LAVE 1988). Learning is con-
ceived as dealing with situative options for and
constraints on agency. The associated assumption
of situatedness therefore focuses in learning on the
↑ domain-specific dimension and especially on the
socio-cultural dimension of interaction and com-
munication. The consequence is that learning is
viewed as enculturation into social communities
(LAVE / WENGER 1991). In this approach therefore
the actual processes as well as the features of ex-
ternal social conditions and their perception move
into the foreground.
This shift of perspective in the learning concept
is reflected in methodological trends. The behav-
ioural learning concept of the 1960s mostly opted
for simple experimental settings (field experiment)
and measurement instruments for undifferentiat-
ed total scores. Observations and analyses of the
teacher-student-interaction flourished at that time
(FLANDERS 1970; BROPHY/ GOOD 1974; 1986). With
the cognitive turn, experimental studies and cor-
relative case studies experienced a growth in rel-
evance (HESSE / WOTTAWA 1997; RENKL 2002). The
vision of mastering learning (BLOOM 1976; CAR-
ROL 1963), Gagné’s approach of cumulative learn-
ing (1962) and his concept of learning hierarchies
(GAGNÉ 1968; EIGLER / MACKE / NENNIGER ET AL.
1976; SCHELTEN 1980) suggested on the one hand
a differentiation of the summative scores, and on
the other hand the classical measurement mod-
el was made obsolete by the mastery learning
(EIGLER / STRAKA 1978). A consequence was the de-
velopment of probabilistic measurement models
like the binomial model (K LAUER / FRICKE / HERBIG
ET AL. 1972). These models define competence as
the probability of solutions. This perspective was
completed for the time being by more differentiat-
ed probabilistic measurement models like item re-
sponse theory (LORD 1980).
The analysis of knowledge structures and their de-
tails by means of concept-mapping (WEBER 2004;
SCHNOTZ / VOSNIADOU / CARRETERO 1999) led to the
development of alternative procedures and the re-
finement of existing methods in educational ↑ di-
Handbook of TVET Research
agnostics (SOLANO-FORES / SHAVELSON 1997; DUIT
1995). The growth in knowledge on the relation-
ship of teaching and learning led to its further dif-
ferentiation on the one hand and to a growing com-
plexity of the interplay of the involved variables
on the other. Simple correlation analyses and even
analyses of covariance – the “peak” of data anal-
ysis at the time of teaching research – reached
their limits. The further development and inven-
tion of statistical methods like multiple regression
analysis, factor analysis and cluster analysis up to
structural equation models equipped teaching and
learning research with powerful instruments that
allow for a more adequate analysis of the complex-
ity of teaching-learning processes (STRAKA / LENZ
2005).
Whereas the “methodological picture” of teach-
ing and learning researchers with internationally
recognised standards like the “Standards for edu-
cational and psychological testing” (AERA 1999)
used to be clear and unequivocal before the emer-
gence of constructivist approaches, this can only
in part be stated for the situative approach. In this
approach a variety of qualitative methods is em-
ployed, the adequacy and persistence of which still
remains to be proven. One can mention design ex-
periments (cf. BROWN, A. L. 1992) or interactive
research and design (cf. GREENO /MMAP 1998),
which assign high priority to the cooperation of
science and practice. They show some proximity
to the action research of the 1950s (COREY 1953;
SHUMSKY 1958; TABA / NOEL 1957), which seems
to have faded into oblivion. The future will show
whether the ↑ research approaches that are current-
ly in practice will share the fate of action research
(STRAKA 1978). Especially the valid evidence of
processes and effects beyond the single case is the
Achilles heel of constructivist teaching-learning
concepts. Perhaps it was this situation that prompt-
ed the National Research Council (PELLEGRINO /
CHUDOWSKY/ GLASER 2001) to commission a state
of the art report on relevant assessment methods.
Nevertheless a core finding of the report “Know-
ing what students know”, according to which an
assessment method is not appropriate for all pur-
poses, suggests that standards for constructivist
↑ research designs will be developed only in the fu-
ture (RENKL 2002).
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 3: Relationship of learning and teaching work environment in dual vocational education and training
3.7.7.5 Problems and Development
Perspectives
The different research school of thought and the
voluminous empirically verified, but sometimes
contradictory findings from general and vocational
learning and teaching research in the meantime al-
low for a differentiated view of the general frame-
work for learning and teaching. With the cognitive
turn “behaviour” became an element of a more com-
prehensive action concept. For the latter, experi-
ence is constitutive, which is differentiated into the
dimensions of cognition, emotion and motivation.
The observable dimension of behaviour compris-
es aspects like motor ones. The cognitive dimen-
sion focuses on work and control strategies. Refer-
ring to the groups around Weinstein/ Mayer (1986),
Metzger (1997), Boekearts (1999), VanderStoep/
Pintrich (2003), Zimmerman/ Kitsantas (2005)
one can subdivide these strategies into organisa-
tion, planning, processing, concentration and met-
acognition. These categories can be further differ-
557
entiated in turn, as is indicated by the lines (cp.
Fig. 1). The emotional dimension, which consists
of arousal, distinguishes between types and extent
of activating and disactivating non-cognitive states
like joy, anger and boredom as they were mod-
elled by the group around Pekrun (PEKRUN 1992;
PEKRUN / GOETZ / TITZ 2002; GOETZ / HALL / FRENZEL /
PEKRUN 2006). The dimension of motivation con-
sists of interest (K RAPP 2002; 2005; HIDI 2006),
achievement orientation (VOLLMEYER / RHEINBERG
1999; RHEINBERG / VOLLMEYER / ROLLETT 2002) and
attribution (WEINER 1986). Interest is process and/
or content related (STRAKA / NENNIGER 1997). The
achievement orientation focuses on a quality crite-
rion. The concepts of interest and achievement ori-
entation are modelled with Atkinson’s (1964) val-
ue-expectancy considerations to content, process
and quality criterion. Attributions for success and
failure share these common properties like locus,
stability and controllability (WEINER 1986).
An action, however, can be realised only with ref-
erence to something. In the behavioural paradigm
558
this was the stimulus. From the angle of a cogni-
tive and/or constructivist view the point of refer-
ence of an action is the individual or idiosyncrat-
ic (AUSUBEL 1968) creation of information about
things, other persons or the self. Such information
may include facts, state or process concepts (cf.
ANDERSON /K RATHWOHL 2001). Action and infor-
mation are therefore constitutive elements on the
actual process level of the general framework for
learning and teaching (cf. Fig. 1).
Actions and information are according to this mod-
elling transient, a characteristic which implies the
concept of internal conditions. The internal com-
plements of information are knowledge of facts,
state and process conceptions knowledge. The
equivalents of the dimensions of an action are mo-
tor, cognitive, motivational and emotional dispo-
sitions. These internal conditions – currently sub-
sumed under the concept of competence (ACHTEN-
HAGEN 2004; DELAMARE LE DEIST / WINTERTON 2005;
SPENCER / SPENCER 1993; STRAKA 2002; 2005) – are
persistent on the one hand and subject to change
through learning on the other.
External conditions consist of tasks. Only if a bar-
rier is encountered while performing a task, does
the task become a problem for the agent (DÖRNER
1976). A task or a problem can be characterised by
features like complexity, intransparency, depend-
ency, a momentum of its own and a multitude of
objectives and ends (K LUGE 2007). It is a part of
the particulars of learning and teaching process-
es in vocational education and training and espe-
cially in dual vocational training that these proc-
esses are embedded in the contexts of companies
and schools. These contexts feature structurally
similar properties: behaviour of teachers and work
colleagues, type of instruction in school and of or-
ganisation in companies, tools and learning from,
in and with media (JONASSEN 2001). Despite these
analogous commonalities there are differences be-
tween the learning venues company and school.
The arrangement of environmental conditions in
the company is derived from the company’s goals,
which do not primarily consist in the ↑ promotion
of learning. Unlike this, school contexts are pri-
marily organised for the support of learning, or at
least they should be. If these aspects are taken in-
to consideration, the relationship of learning and
Handbook of TVET Research
teaching in dual vocational training can be mod-
elled as follows on the basis of empirical research
findings:
This modelling entails research perspectives for
learning and teaching theory in the domain of vo-
cational education and training. It has to be inves-
tigated whether and what company related and
school related external conditions are connected to
what dimensions of professional competence de-
velopment. This requires a further specification of
those potentially learning-supportive external con-
ditions. In addition differentiated taxonomies for
factual, state and procedural knowledge for occupa-
tional domains have to be developed. On this basis
the missing measurement instruments (BAETHGE /
ACHTENHAGEN /ARENDS ET AL. 2006) would have to
be constructed, which meet the “standards for edu-
cational and psychological testing” (AERA 1999)
or are compatible with a “learning integrated as-
sessment system” (BIRENBAUM / BREUER / CASCALLAR
ET AL. 2006). From this the following conclusion
can be drawn: there are substantial achievements
in the domain of vocational learning and teach-
ing research, but much more work remains to be
done.
3.7.8 Research on Disadvantaged
Groups
Arnulf Bojanowski, Peter Eckardt and
Günter Ratschinski
3.7.8.1 Defining “Disadvantaged” Groups
The term “↑ disadvantaged” was introduced into
the ↑ vocational pedagogy discussion in 1980, with
the establishment of the programme for the disad-
vantaged (BIERMANN / RÜTZEL 1999, 13). The term
disadvantaged has largely replaced the terms un-
skilled, ↑ young worker or fringe group for exam-
ple. However, the term was only able to provide
a temporary outline in this field. From initial re-
search, it became apparent that it primarily de-
scribes youth without regular professional train-
ing.
In the educational science discussions, other cat-
egories of reference such as Youth ↑ Social Work
Areas of VET Research
(FÜLBIER / MÜNCHMEIER 2002; HERRMANNS 2002),
youth vocational help, ↑ vocational preparation,
vocational preparation year or vocational prepar-
ing measures, indicates that they only deal with a
partial vocational educational influenced field of
research. Even the term disadvantaged is question-
able within the professional discussion, because it
is “out of focus” (relational), and it is also discrim-
inating (BIERMANN / RÜTZEL 1999). Furthermore,
support of disadvantaged youth takes place in a –
as generally and appropriately stated – “jungle” of
various measures. To simplify this we talk about
↑ disadvantaged support programmes as being a
simple universal term for the promotion of voca-
tional courses both within and outside of school
offered by the various carriers, actors and institu-
tions.
Even the term ↑ disadvantaged support programme
is not used uniformly. Some texts use terms such
as “Youth with a need for special pedagogical pro-
motion”, “Youth with a difficult chance of start-
ing”, or speak of “vocational integration promo-
tion”. Despite the varying terminology, one could
say: as a rule, promotion measures refer to a group
of young people, who because of individual prob-
lems (e. g. ↑ learning problems or behaviour prob-
lems) or because of unfavourable social living
conditions (family problems, unemployment, poor
relationships at home, etc.), have got into difficul-
ties. With the term “research on ↑ disadvantaged
groups”, the scientific research activities in this
field are to be made accessible.
3.7.8.2 What is “Research on Disadvantaged
Groups? Occupied with” the
Disadvantaged Support Programme
Target Groups
Even though the term “disadvantaged” is inconsist-
ent and debatable – the underlying premise is not.
The disadvantaged support programme occupies
itself with programmes of provision for the voca-
tional and social integration of youth and young
adults “in difficult situations” (MOLLENHAUER /
UHLENDORFF 1992). The disadvantaged support
programme’s learning groups are, as a rule built up
heterogeneously. This means the scheme primarily
consists of pupils from secondary modern, special
needs schools, youth with migrant backgrounds
559
(e. g. ethnic immigrant children with a German
identification card, youth refugees or applicants
for political asylum) youth with social inadequa-
cies (truants, young people with health limitations)
and adolescents without a chance of professional
training or a place of work (GÖGERCIN 1999, 100).
As a rule, it must be presumed that these young
people have a considerable deficiency within their
“learning biography”. There are no clear and de-
terminable factors to explain these young people’s
difficulties and problems in life. Within the rele-
vant pedagogical discussions, there has been dis-
course about the accumulation of problematic cir-
cumstances. The young people themselves feel like
“↑ school failures”, and consider their failure, that
has more than likely come about from “outside cir-
cumstances”, as their own individual failure.
The quantitative meaning of the disadvantaged
support programme is not adequately taken into
account in public or in pedagogical discussions.
In 1998 a representative random telephone survey
was carried out by EMNID on 14,782 young adults
according to age, sex and nationality; they were
between the ages of 20 to 29: 19.3 % were carry-
ing out vocational training, 68.4 % had complet-
ed their vocational training, and 11.6 % had no vo-
cational training (BMBF 1999). One can claim, in
an impromptu way, that these 11.6 % are the typi-
cal target group of the disadvantaged support pro-
gramme. However, only tenuous estimations of
the actual quantitative dimensions of disadvan-
taged youth are possible (LAPPE 1999). Approach-
es are provided in the vocational education report
2003: nationwide, there were more than 75,000
young people in ↑ vocational preparation arrange-
ments within schools alone (BMBF 2003c, 124).
Besides that, there are nationwide 136,000 young
people participating in vocational preparation ar-
rangements provided by the employment exchange
(BMBF 2003c, 152):
In the meantime the disadvantaged support pro-
gramme has, “on the quiet”, become a decisive so-
cialisation and educational entity for a substan-
tial number of youth (GESSNER 2003). However,
no clear outlines or even binding pedagogical con-
cepts inherent in other sections of the educational
system have evolved here. Furthermore, it is worth
mentioning how little the development of a new
560
sector within the educational system is “official-
ly” recognised by educational politics and educa-
tional science. It is also worth mentioning how lit-
tle scientific ↑ vocational pedagogy has perceived
the “lively criticism” made by the disadvantaged
support programme about the ↑ dual system of vo-
cational training, let alone seizing it as a concept
(RÜTZEL 1995; SCHIERHOLZ 2001).
3.7.8.3 Who does Research on the
Disadvantaged”? Overlapping
and Delimitations to (Educational
Scientific) Research Disciplines
Within the pedagogical discourse, it is possible
to find a minimum of four different “authorities”
(FÜLBIER 2002a).
(1) ↑ Social pedagogy makes the question of the
↑ disadvantaged a subject of discussion main-
ly in the field of “Youth ↑ Social Work” (GÖGER-
CIN 1999). Those who work in this traditional ar-
ea stress the extra-curricular, consultative, lei-
sure-oriented aspect and are impartial in their crit-
icism of gainful employment and vocational ori-
entation, unfortunately without acknowledgement
of the vocational pedagogical discourse (e. g. GA-
LUSKE 1993; K RAFELD 1989; GÖGERCIN 1999). Sci-
entific research in this field refers, for example, to
the question of the target groups (GÖGERCIN 1999,
105; FEUERSTEIN 1991) or the ↑ professionalism of
the practitioner in “Youth Vocational Assistance”
(K RAFELD 2000, 113 ff.).
(2) Anyone who comes from the area of special
pedagogy will, more than likely, take the needs
of the youth (especially from schools of special
needs) and subsequently every day life or “life’s
company” into focus. Research carried out in this
partial discipline is, as a rule, concentrated on the
secondary stage I, or more than likely during the
transition from the special needs school to the
phase of vocational training (e. g. BRANDT 1996).
The literature around the area of vocational reha-
bilitation focuses on the transition of handicapped
people into professional life (ELLGER-RÜTTGARDT
1982).
(3) ↑ Vocational pedagogy has its emphasis on
the (older) discussion about ↑ young workers “and
youth unemployment” (see BLANKERTZ 1960;
Handbook of TVET Research
NOLTE / RÖHRS / STRATMANN 1973; SCHWEIKERT 1974;
SEUBERT 1984). New basic approaches to vocation-
al pedagogy for questioning the disadvantaged
are rare (an instructive example is ECKERT/ ROST/
BÖTTCHER ET AL. 2000). Most studies develop on-
ly a minor relationship to social pedagogy or even
special pedagogy. As far as we are concerned, there
is a great need for vocational pedagogical research.
For this reason we stand in contrast to the opinion
of vocational pedagogical experts: in this way the
DFG senate committee named several possible vo-
cational pedagogical priority programmes without
even presenting the ↑ disadvantaged support pro-
gramme (DFG 1990, 116). During an evaluation of
former operations, a certain width and differenti-
ation became apparent concerning the research on
the ↑ vocational preparation year, on learning im-
pairment and on youth unemployment (DFG 1990,
20). During the vocational education research
‘↑ Delphi 2001/2002’, 800 experts were to assess
the urgency of research in 250 given areas. The
topic of support of fringe groups or the disadvan-
taged is not represented amongst the 15 first men-
tioned research desiderata. Based on this study, the
topic of support of fringe groups or the disadvan-
taged will not be explicitly taken into considera-
tion within the mid-term research concept of the
BIBB (BROSI / BRANDES 2003).
(4) Explicit educational pedagogical approaches
to vocational disadvantaged support programmes
are, as far as we know, non-existent. Education-
al pedagogy is implicitly significant of course,
when one includes the empirical results of the in-
ternational educational pedagogical ↑ comparative
studies such as TIMSS, PISA or recently, IGLU.
All studies show with a dramatic amount of coin-
cidence, that the German education system is it-
self at fault for the development of a strong dis-
advantaging of complete groups of young people.
For example, the lack of encouragement in pre-
school, extremely arbitrary allocation from prima-
ry to secondary and ↑ further educational schools,
extremely early sorting of pupils after the fourth
year, distinctive “class specific” reproduction in
↑ school systems, insufficient and low competence-
constructive lessons. Such criticism points out that
schools are continuously producing an increasing
number of drop-outs, who then at the age of 16
Areas of VET Research
to 18, end up in the disadvantaged support pro-
gramme, where deficiency compensation is only
possible under extremely difficult individual con-
ditions within an inadequate supporting system.
This state of affairs has, within the research on the
disadvantaged, (still) not specifically been adapt-
ed to international studies or even led to a widely
arranged international comparison of support sys-
tems for the disadvantaged.
3.7.8.4 Where is Research Carried Out?
Institutions and Locations of
“Research on Disadvantaged Groups”
(1) The Federal Institute for Vocational Educa-
tion (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung, BIBB,
based in Bonn) has, for over 30 years now, been
carrying out model tests for ↑ disadvantaged sup-
port programmes. From the 30 years of research,
an abundance of conceptual basic approaches have
been derived. (ZIELKE / LEMKE / POPP 1986). With
the BIBB-initiated model tests and the appropri-
ate scientific accompanying by-products, a multi-
tude of productive suggestions for the ↑ disadvan-
taged programme could be gained and fed back
into the practical experiences of the disadvan-
taged support programme. For this purpose, the
BIBB provided a much-used guide. Thus BIBB is
held in high esteem as the inspiration of research
and innovations through the use of model testing
(ZIELKE / LEMKE / POPP 1989). Through the so called
GPC (Good Practise Centre) a new basic approach
has arisen, to use the Internet as a possibility for
creating a comprehensive database. Research re-
sults are however, not correlated in the GPC.
During the 1990s, the German Youth Institute
(Deutsches Jugendinstitut, DJI) had concentrated
mainly on the transition of disadvantaged youth
based in the context of the “working world of
Youth ↑ Social Work”. The studies of the DJI con-
tain important sociological material that has influ-
enced the debate on the role of the disadvantaged
support programme within the whole of the edu-
cation system. It has been empirically proved that
the “transition system“, secondary stage I into the
vocational training and then subsequently into the
employment market, has erected new barriers for
the target group, the disadvantaged. The youth not
only had to clear new “hurdles” but are now, to a
561
great extent, excluded from the employment mar-
ket.
The Institute for employment research (Institut
für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung, IAB) has
concentrated heavily on the quantitative analysis of
the employment market and can deliver useful in-
formation concerning the actual numbers of disad-
vantaged young people. The corresponding studies
are useful for the ↑ statistical analysis of the subject
matter (e. g.: SCHOBER 1992), but were not able to
inspire intensive research activities.
(2) Alongside these important public research es-
tablishments are the social- special- and vocation-
al pedagogical institutes at the polytechnics and
universities, which are to be listed as locations of
research on the disadvantaged. However, publica-
tions by vocational pedagogues concerning disad-
vantaged support programmes are rare. For exam-
ple, there were no articles concerning the topic of
“disadvantaged fringe groups”, or similar amongst
the 31 articles of the 2001 edition of the German
“Zeitschrift für Berufs- und Wirtschaftspäda-
gogik”.
(3) Research on the disadvantaged is not only car-
ried out on the public side of things, but also in
the “private economics” sector. First of all, the
three nationwide operating institutes BBJ/CON-
SULT, HIBA and INBAS institutes have, in part,
participated in the construction of the disadvan-
taged support programme. They have contributed
by means of concept development, ↑ further educa-
tion and empirical examinations, to the structur-
ing and stabilisation of the field (good examples
are the works: LIPPEGAUS 1994; BMBF 2002b, au-
thored by INBAS). These institutes have collect-
ed a great deal of experience gathered from mod-
el projects, and presented it to the expert audience.
Thus, a certain research-supportive experience
safeguard has been created.
562
3.7.8.5 What is the Research Investigating?
A General View of the Subject Fields
and the Situation of the Research on
the Disadvantaged
Basic Approaches to the Development of Theo-
retical Concepts
“Formation of theory” means that the conceptual
efforts refer explicitly to the disadvantaged sup-
port programme and do not just deal with the ad-
aptations or further developments achieved with
knowledge taken from other areas.
(1) From a biographical perspective, there is al-
ready a salient concept theory from HILLER for
our target group. His theory provides stimulation
for empirical research and pedagogical practice.
The framework of the theory mainly refers to soci-
ological concepts: The main thing for the youth is
that they are able to attain the necessary economi-
cal, cultural and social “capital” (as per Bourdieu).
Thereby, the objective is to partition their life’s ca-
reer into “partial careers” within which the vari-
ous “capital types” can be acquired (as per Luh-
mann). Hiller’s question goes further, asking how
can the specific partial career be attained and the
“capital” be made fruitful for another partial ca-
reer (“converted”) (HILLER 1994). With this theo-
retical concept, micro-sociological hypotheses of-
fer themselves for the analysis of the life careers of
↑ disadvantaged youth.
(2) This thesis is, from a macro- respective, edu-
cational-sociological point of view, more to be un-
derstood as a “stable temporary solution” of the
disadvantaged. Frank Braun (from DJI) postulates
– and we are able to agree – a gradual familiarisa-
tion of the public to the provisional vocational edu-
cation system for the disadvantaged within the ed-
ucational system (BRAUN 2000). He can make this
educational sociological theory gained from the
empirical results of the DJI plausible, so that in the
mean time this “mixed entity” of various institutes
is able to influence the “transition example” of a
large group of adolescents.
Once again from a macro-sociological theoret-
ical point of view, one questions the “orientation
dilemma” of the “Youth Vocational Assistance”.
This is where the vocational pedagogical orien-
tation (“fixation”) of the ↑ disadvantaged support
Handbook of TVET Research
programme for (employment) work and (life) oc-
cupation, is questionably and heavily criticised
due to the changes within working society (GA-
LUSKE 1993; H AUNERT / LANG 1994; GALUSKE 1998).
With similar aspirations, Franz Josef Krafeld de-
veloped various conceptions for disadvantaged
youth (K RAFELD 1989; 2000), in which he concen-
trates on the “activation of the rural surroundings”
in connection with conceptions of “useful unem-
ployment”.
(3) From a pedagogical point of view, there are a
great deal of individual studies and pedagogical
conceptions. Inspiration is provided by a pletho-
ra of “didactics of the disadvantaged” (BIERMANN /
BONZ / RÜTZEL 1999). However, the sections from
vocational-, social-, special-, and educational ped-
agogies, do not combine to make a consistent the-
oretical framework. Independent of closer scien-
tific discourse, the practice of out-of-school sup-
port of disadvantaged youth becomes more con-
crete through the work of the HIBA, INBAS and
the BIBB – the “Social-pedagogical Vocational
Education” conception (BMBF 2002b) develops
the various references for special pedagogy (indi-
vidualising, promotion planning) ↑ social pedago-
gy (accompanying, advice, common wealth orien-
tation) and ↑ vocational pedagogy (vocational ref-
erence, work pedagogy). The conception has a spe-
cial position within the development of theory, be-
cause it has gathered many productive pedagogical
elements together. It could, within a medium-term
time period, function as an integrative pedagogical
theory for the disadvantaged.
Empirical Orientated Research
The empirical research findings include both quan-
titative and qualitative information, which has built
upon practical experience.
(1) The beginning of important quantitative em-
pirical research. This is marked by a study from
the seventies carried out by Elfriede Höhn (1974)
with the topic of “↑ young workers and the un-
learned”. She carried out research on representa-
tive random sampling of n=1000 unlearned young
adults between the ages of 18 to 25. Contrary to
all expectations, the group proved to be non-ho-
mogeneous. Every second person had training ex-
Areas of VET Research
perience. HÖHN identified three types of the “un-
learned”, “the abdicator” (40 %), “the abandoner”
(34 %) and the “switcher” (25 %).
In an earlier (in the seventies) widespread studies
by the IAB, included a total of 62,825 pupils from
the ninth year, and a representative random sam-
pling of 33,021 school leavers from general edu-
cation schools. The study provided firsthand in-
formation concerning the problems of high birth-
rate age groups during the transition into vocation-
al training as well as into working life (SATERDAG /
STEGMANN 1980). This was able to provide indica-
tors about young people who had dropped out of
the educational system.
A significant rift was created by two sociological
argumentative quantitative studies that caused a
furore (in each case, a temporary one) in the polit-
ical arena: the so-called BIBB/EMNID-study de-
tected in 1991 that 14 % of an age cohort consist-
ently did not enter vocational training or employ-
ment (BMBW 1991). A replication of the analysis
in 1999 (see above) produced virtually the same re-
sults (BMBF 1999). Both studies were widespread
and representative. In this case the study was able
to indicate where educational-political problems
or failures were to be found and that there was in
fact a need for action. The results were at the same
time able to be supplemented by employment mar-
ket projects (TESSARING 1991; TESSARING 1994), and
with pedagogical analysis of the “Cellar Children”
(K LEMM 1991; summarising FÜLBIER 2002).
(2) The main focus of the empirical research activ-
ities is encapsulated by the term “↑ transition re-
search”, significant for this would be the above-
mentioned study of the German Youth Institute
(DJI). (Partially together with the Institute for Em-
ployment Research, IAB) tried nationwide to con-
duct research with an emphasis on the transition at
the important thresholds of the educational system
based on extensive quantitative research projects:
from general schools into vocational training: (1)
threshold, then the transition into working life: (2)
threshold (BRAUN / LEX / RADEMACKER 1999; FEL-
BER 1996; LEX 1997; R AAB 1996; R ADEMACKER
1999). During this, one study was outstanding:
TILLY LEX questioned 2,230 persons between the
ages of 18 and 25, in writing, who at the time of the
analysis were taking part in a project being run by
563
the Youth Vocational Assistance. Stages of voca-
tional integration were included as illustrations of
biographical time series. LEX is able to illustrate
that there are people with varying types of behav-
iour who make their chance of using the transition
into the working market more of a problem, some-
times even extremely difficult (LEX 2002, 477).
During the 1990s, the topic of “↑ Transition Re-
search” empirically confirmed that a long term ac-
tive “parallel system” of the ↑ disadvantaged sup-
port programme had pushed itself alongside the
dual education system of vocational training.
Basic approaches to sociological research with-
in the sphere of transitional problems are impor-
tant strands in the research on the ↑ disadvan-
taged. For this reason a large amount of (regional)
studies exist (WOLF 1986; ECKERT 1989; INSTITUT
FÜR ENTWICKLUNGSPLANUNG UND STRUKTURFORSC-
HUNG AN DER UNIVERSITÄT H ANNOVER 1994) con-
cerning “transition problems”. An important role
is played by subjective coping with the transition.
A good example is provided by the analysis of the
processing and coping strategies of disadvantaged
youth during the transition. At a secondary mod-
ern school, Heinz et al. (1987) carried out a study
on the “junction processes” made by secondary
modern pupils into the working world, which were
carried out under difficult conditions. In a quali-
tative longitudinal section design, interviews were
carried out during the years from 1979 to 1983, al-
ways one year apart, at first with 208 secondary
pupils from Bremen. The main result was that the
situation on the employment market dominated all
vocational perceptions. It is not interests or abili-
ties that determine the career aspiration, but what
the employment market has to offer. Entering the
employment world doesn’t take place because of
interests, but through assignation (HEINZ /K RÜGER /
RETTKE ET AL. 1987). The question of subjective
accomplishment is researched in numerous further
studies (KOHLHEYER / WESTHOFF / SCHIEMANN 1983;
FRIEBEL 1983; DIETZ / MATT/ SCHUMANN / SEUS 1997;
BYLINSKI 2002).
Hiller and his colleagues carried out ↑ qualitative
research on the “transitions problems” with ques-
tions in a different direction. Their “longitudinal
section-research” follows the “career examples” of
young men during their ↑ vocational preparation
564
year and their subsequent “life accomplishment”
(HILLER 1997; GIEST-WARSEWA 2000; FRIEDEMANN /
SCHROEDER 2000). The results make it clear: due
to the employment market situation today, there is
just about no hope when trying to enter an appren-
ticeship or even a working career after taking part
in a vocational preparation activity. This ↑ research
approach draws attention to the theoretical orien-
tation and the repeated replication in various Ger-
man regions (Reutlingen, Rostock, Hamburg, Han-
nover: FRIEDEMANN / SCHROEDER 2000; BICKMANN /
ENGGRUBER 2001).
(3) Apart from this widely-applied research di-
mension of “transitions”, much empirically-orien-
tated research has been recorded. This meant that
there were often problems in exactly defining the
disadvantaged support programme target groups
(FELD 1981), in respect to the heterogeneity of
the ↑ vocational preparation year and the ↑ disad-
vantaged support programme (FEUERSTEIN 1991).
Considering the fact that the term ↑ disadvantaged
has just recently and only gradually presented it-
self, there are studies that are searching for instru-
ments which are able to detect the target groups
(HENNIGE / STEINHILBER 2000; GÖGERCIN 1998).
A further important field of research about the dis-
advantaged support programme that has come in-
to view in recent times is “cooperation and net-
work construction in a regional context”. A quali-
tative case-study (WEIBLEN 1997) has proof of the
necessary regional cooperation relationships on
the basis of 20 years of experience. This aware-
ness is strengthened by a widely arranged, quali-
tative analysis of selected regions carried out con-
cerning cooperation (MÜNDER / SPITZL /K RETSCHMER
2000). The study highlights the deficiencies which
correspond with other data (compare SECKINGER /
WEIGEL / SANTEN / MARKERT 1998), but it is also
able to make many suggestions about cooperation
which are able to push things forward (compare al-
so WEBER 2001).
The topic of the ↑ professionalism of the pedagogi-
cal personnel is, surprisingly, only dealt with on a
marginal basis when taking the various pedagogi-
cal occupational categories within the disadvan-
taged support programme into consideration. The
qualitative analyses refer, for example, to the self-
concept of social pedagogues within the disad-
Handbook of TVET Research
vantaged support programme (BÖTTCHER /KÖSTER
1986; GESSNER 2003), the experiences of instruc-
tors of association with disadvantaged youth with-
in ↑ further education (BOJANOWSKI 1988), or the
stress felt by teachers in the vocational prepara-
tion year (GÖHRLICH 2001; GÖHRLICH 2002). The
results herald a great ability to reflect, as well as
a great deal of professionalism and empathy and a
surprisingly high grade of satisfaction within this
occupation. It also makes obvious the need for in-
tercommunication and further education (com-
pare K RAFELD 1997), which is not surprising, when
taking the inadequate preparation of social ped-
agogues during their work within the disadvan-
taged support programme carried out on poly-
technics into consideration (CHRISTE / ENGGRUBER /
FÜLBIER / MERGNER 2002).
Taking the demands for high quality into consid-
eration for an establishment that is supported by
the Federal Office for “promotion of the disad-
vantaged”, it is surprising how few studies there
are that deal with this topic (compare ENGGRU-
BER 1989; BAUDISCH / BOJANOWSKI 2002; NICASE /
BOLLENS 2000; BYLINSKI 2001).
(4) Very surprising is the result that the pedagog-
ical didactical “core business” of the disadvan-
taged support programme (lessons, training, sup-
port, advising etc.) has only been minimally re-
searched, and that basic systematic checks of pre-
vious supplementary concepts are absent. It deals
with either an analysis of the disadvantaged sup-
port programme and the secondary expansion of
model testing (ZIELKE / LEMKE / POPP 1991), which
are just interesting ad-hoc-evaluations of cur-
rent programmes (BRATER 1983; SCHROER 1991;
BOJANOWSKI / CARSTENSEN-BRETHEUER /K IPP 1996),
or comparisons with various types of programmes
(GREINERT / WIEMANN 1992; PETERSEN 2003), that
draw on pedagogical consequences, or make con-
structive suggestions. A few programmes rely at
least on secondarily tested concepts. Sometimes as-
sistance is sought by falling back on tested psycho-
logical behaviour-therapy concepts. The support
plan for apprenticeship-accompanying assistance
(BONIFER-DÖRR 1992) for example, leans on be-
haviour therapeutic programmes for support of the
work and social behaviour of youth (PETERMANN /
PETERMANN 1992). In addition, in handouts for
Areas of VET Research
the work in the vocational preparation year, many
group dynamic and experience-activating methods
are recommended by practitioners, for example,
to provide a trustworthy class atmosphere (NLI
1994). Approaches that empirically and theoreti-
cally capture the choice of occupation and voca-
tional orientation problems, apart from a very few
approaches to the topic (R ATSCHINSKI 2000; 2001),
do not exist.
Research on the Disadvantaged by Use of
Model Testing, Model Projects and Single In-
tentions
Model projects or experiments are a constructive
feature of practice in the disadvantaged support
programme. This makes them an important part of
this field of research.
(1) The model testing research within the ↑ disad-
vantaged support programme can be isolated by
the series of model tests carried out by the Federal
Institute for Vocational Education (BIBB – Model
Testing) during the 1980s and 1990s (e. g. ABEL /
BRANDES /K ISSLER 1983). At the beginning, model
testing, its scientific backing and the results were
more singular, meaning that they were oriented
to the respective model tests and were only pre-
sented tentatively at expert conferences. During
this phase, the objective use of publications within
the framework of the series of model testing, was
to secure the benefits of and to integrate elements
of the model testing programme through mental
conflations and generalisations (ZIELKE / LEMKE /
POPP 1989).
(2) Model tests and single projects were the de-
cisive instruments of the disadvantaged support
programme for providing the pedagogical arrange-
ments of the disadvantaged support programme
with helpful suggestions. During this pioneering
work it has without doubt been possible to assem-
ble a rich body of suggestions of a vocational sup-
port pedagogy.
3.7.8.6 Outlook
Overall, our brief sketch shows ↑ research fields
that are in great need of development, especial-
ly regarding pedagogical questions. There are no
systematic points of linkage and no collective ba-
565
sis theorems between the affected sciences of spe-
cial-, social-, school- and ↑ vocational pedagogy.
There is also no recognised research-organisation-
al structure. It is necessary to strengthen the em-
pirical research, and at the same time tackle “ped-
agogical basis research” for the ↑ disadvantaged ar-
ea.
A systematic question strategy that is in excess of
the previous research practice must be developed
for a programme supported by vocational pedago-
gy. As far as we are aware, whole areas of the dis-
advantaged support programme have been faded
out. This means that there are no studies concern-
ing knowledge production and ↑ knowledge man-
agement in the disadvantaged support programme
or studies dealing with regional economy or with
the regional economic importance of the social
and vocational integration of difficult youth, or
about the complicated legal and financial condi-
tions of the disadvantaged support programme.
Therefore: in this field, there is little securely struc-
tured knowledge. When taking the requirements of
an “Europeanised Knowledge-Based Society” in-
to consideration, the disadvantaged support pro-
gramme cannot afford, for the “promotion of ↑ hu-
man capital“, to work in such a disparate field. A
new systemisation and a supply of collectively
agreed-upon ↑ research programmes are needed.
Otherwise the disadvantaged support programme
will have to rely on the pragmatic settings of prac-
tice. The challenge for a disadvantaged support
programme inspired by vocational pedagogy is to
develop content-related criteria such as reliability,
long term, transparency, stability, and a systemat-
ic approach – for a good and sustainable disadvan-
taged support programme.
3.7.9 Media Research and
Development
Antje Pabst and Gerhard Zimmer
The field of ↑ media research and development in
vocational training will be described in the follow-
ing few pages, based on four questions:
566
(1) What do the terms “medium” or “media” gen-
erally mean and what do they refer to in vocational
training?
(2) Which forms of media have been developed for
vocational training processes and what functions
do they assume?
(3) What developments have shaped media re-
search and what is expected of the use of media in
vocational development processes?
(4) What possible perspectives are there in media
research and development in vocational training?
3.7.9.1 Definition of the Term “Medium” or
“Media”
In colloquial language, the term “media” desig-
nates systems that mediate information and it has
been considerably extended by the emergence of
computer- and internet-based “new media”. Com-
mon media in vocational training are educational
and specialised books, films, audio samples, pic-
tures, drawings, maps, workbooks, guiding texts,
reference books, gearbox models, machine tools,
laboratory equipment, instructional software, and
simulations. These media are either developed ex-
plicitly for vocational training processes, or, while
developed for other purposes, are useful in voca-
tional training processes. Even teachers can be re-
garded as media, and professionals in their capac-
ity as persons acting in a vocational context can
equally become media for trainees (see AUSTER-
MANN 1996, 1036).
The term “media” as it is used today is of Latin or-
igin and can, on the one hand, mean “intermedi-
ate”, “midway”, “in-between”, “mediating” (root:
“medius”) and, on the other hand, “public“, “com-
mon welfare” or “common property” (root: “medi-
um”). Media are objects, instruments or forms of
expression that stand between the people and the
world and transmit information about the world.
This information, however, is at the same time
a cultural product and a representation of public
facts and forms. Media are thus always mediation
systems created by people for people or previous-
ly existing objects or phenomena turned into a me-
dium for people by people. Information and inter-
pretations are inscribed in their forms by means of
the perception of culture and the world that is to be
Handbook of TVET Research
communicated. This general definition of media
not only applies to mass media but also character-
ises the position and function of media in ↑ teach-
ing and learning processes (ZIMMER 2000; 2001;
2002a; 2002b).
There are, however, other aspects of the concept
of “medium” or “media” that are relevant in the
context of vocational teaching and learning proc-
esses and that frequently fail to attract attention.
In Greek, the term has been preserved as a “genus
verbi”, expressing the ↑ participation of the gram-
matical subject in an action. This function be-
comes apparent in reflexive statements such as “I
wash myself”. Furthermore, a distinction must be
made between the reciprocal medium, which de-
notes the reciprocity of the effect, and the causa-
tive medium as the cause of an effect (BROCKHAUS
1971, Vol. 12, 322; ibid. 1991, Vol. 14, 373 f.; ibid.
1996, Vol. 14, 409). These further aspects of the
concept, such as participation of the subject, reci-
procity or the causing of an action, can also be ap-
plied to the significance or function of media in vo-
cational training. Media are thus not only cultur-
ally generated mediators of information between
teachers and students, but also stimulators or initi-
ators of actions relating to the self or others.
Phenomenological approaches claim that modali-
ty – in other words the question of which senses
are addressed (MAYES 1994) – as well as the en-
coding of information and the navigation within
the medium are crucial for the perception of the
world that people develop by means of these me-
dia. In terms of contents, encoding, modality and
navigation, media are developed by people, who
thus contribute to the shaping of these media with
their personality and their perception of the world
(K RON 2004).
Cognitive science suggests that the result of learn-
ing processes is the cognitive accumulation and re-
structuring of explicit and ↑ implicit knowledge.
Knowledge consists of facts and practical actions,
the meanings of and the relations between these.
It is embedded in society and culture and depends
on the particular learning and application context.
Knowledge not only is subjective property but it is
also determined intersubjectively and is thus trans-
ferable (PERKINS 1992; SALOMON 2003). Conse-
Areas of VET Research
quently, media intersubjectively communicate in-
formation about the world.
Also, in constructivistic learning science, it is as-
sumed that media cannot transmit information di-
rectly from one individual to the other. The per-
ception of modally encoded information, howev-
er, can stimulate and initiate the construction of
information (or knowledge, meanings, motiva-
tions, etc.) in the mind of the recipient (FUNKKOL-
LEG 1990, 51 ff., quoted in A RNOLD / MÜLLER 1992,
7). This means that information about the world is
not transmitted by media, but in fact the world is
subjectively constructed by them (JONASSEN / PECK /
WILSON 1999).
In vocational training, media are more than special
mediation systems standing between the learning
individual and the working world. Rather, the ac-
tual ↑ performance of work and the direct experi-
ence of work and the subject matter connected with
it represent the original medium for vocational
↑ teaching and learning processes. This is reflected
in the fact that the actual work experience is used
as a training medium more often than in other ed-
ucational environments. In this process, the people
that have created the medium vanish behind the
actual objects, instruments and processes. Their
intentions, knowledge and skills are inscribed in
the types of use of the objects in question. These
are individually and subjectively reconstructed in
the course of the actual work experience in coop-
erative and communicative working contexts, sup-
ported by other, more competent workers or ac-
companying instructors. Didactic and methodo-
logical arrangements used in this context can for
example be “training islands” (working stations
for trainees).
However, some media is remote from human ac-
cess. In automated processes based on ↑ informa-
tion and communication technology (PAQ 1987),
which can rarely or not at all be observed or expe-
rienced directly, the objects, instruments and proc-
esses can no longer be a direct medium for voca-
tional learning processes. Even traditional media
such as educational books, pictures, films or mod-
els do not provide sufficient support in this case.
“New media” must instead be developed and in-
tegrated on the basis of the same information and
communication technology, such as ↑ computer-
567
based training, computer simulation, online com-
munities, etc., which are creating new forms of in-
tegration of work and learning, and can make the
knowledge required to be learnt more accessible
to students.
3.7.9.2 Forms, Functions and Categories of
Vocational Training Media
An initial categorisation of the multitude of media
in vocational training can be achieved by dividing
them into groups according to their external form,
the physical medium, for example: worksheet,
book, slide, film, CD-ROM, computer or machine.
Alternatively, they can be sorted according to their
form of presentation, for example: text, picture,
drawing, symbol, model, instrument, experimen-
tal facility or educational software. Or, they can be
categorised based on the senses they address: vis-
ual media (e. g. map, picture, graphic), aural me-
dia (e. g. audio sample of a motor) or audio-vis-
ual media (e. g. film, educational software). Oth-
er possibilities are olfactory, gustatory, tactile or
even kinaesthetic media (BONZ 1999, 167 f.; SCHEL-
TEN 1994, 214).
Media represent a central element in the caus-
al link between teaching and learning arrange-
ments. In this way they are components of those
arrangements along with the aims, contents and
methods, the individual qualifications of teachers
and learners as well as the socio-cultural environ-
ment and the prevailing teaching/learning culture.
Which medium is applied, when, and how, is thus
subject to didactical and methodological consider-
ations. In this respect, the following functions of
media can be distinguished: mediation of informa-
tion (e. g. demonstration, illustration); transfer to
a different level of ↑ abstraction or to another di-
mension of experience (e. g. experiment); encour-
agement for learning (e. g. problematisation, pres-
entation of a particular situation in the operating
process); working equipment (e. g. educational
software, task book, reference book, experimen-
tal equipment); control and feedback support in
the learning process or promotion of the learning
process through repetition, practice, and exchang-
es with other learners (BONZ 1999, 173 ff.). A sin-
gle medium can frequently assume various func-
tions, depending on the extent of its universality,
568
its utilisation and enactment by teachers, and its
engagement by learners.
The decision as to the function of a particular medi-
um in the vocational training process is contingent
on decisions at other levels. Depending on whether
approaches from learning theory, educational the-
ory or interactional theory, cognitive or situation-
al approaches are preferred, certain media will be
used often, rarely or not at all, or their application
will differ. Key determining factors for the choice
and application of a medium are, for instance, the
particular motivation based on the teaching and
learning theory, the class arrangement chosen
for teaching and learning (e. g. group work, lec-
ture format, individual work) and the teaching and
learning culture actually experienced.
Media are thus also categorised according to their
fundamental didactical functions. One of the best-
known and probably the oldest didactical cate-
gorisation is that based on ↑ distance or proximi-
ty in relation to direct experience, in other words
the level of abstraction. The key question here is
whether the medium should illustrate a subject and
make it more tangible, or if the medium should be
a means of revealing the abstract principle behind
the subject. This is the criterion that Dale (1950)
applied in his “Cone of Experience” (quoted in
BONZ 1999, 170). Here, media are arranged quali-
tatively by the decreasing experience of reality. At
the tip of the cone, we find the media permitting
the least experience of reality. At the bottom of the
cone, those media are listed that enable the great-
est experience of reality.
A similar categorisation has been established by
Tulodziecki (1999, 293 f.). He distinguishes be-
tween media: (i) in their real form, for example
when working with a machine; (ii) in model form,
for example when dealing with a gearbox model;
(iii) in graphic form, for example when using dia-
grams of machines; and (iv) in symbolic form, for
example when applying physical formulae. Each of
these categories, therefore, has a particular orien-
tation and utility.
Other possible didactical categories are the ways
of interaction that are supported by media in the
teaching-learning process. Here, interaction re-
fers to communication made possible by media
between the learner and the teacher, between the
Handbook of TVET Research
learner and other learners, between the learner and
the object of learning, and between the learner and
the medium used for learning through the freedom
the medium provides.
Generally, it is assumed that media that permit on-
ly little experience of reality (such as symbolic or
graphic representations) produce a smaller learn-
ing effect than media that enable direct experienc-
es (as for instance experiments, simulations or role-
playing) (ARNOLD / MÜLLER 1992, 7 f.; BONZ 1999,
169 f.; EICKER 1983; MINGZHONG 2003). Teaching
and learning situations largely based on symbolic
and verbal media might therefore be of limited or
specific benefit.
The categorisation of media according to class ar-
rangement, way of interaction, and freedom pro-
vided by the medium is based on current develop-
ments and debates in the field of vocational train-
ing and on recent findings in teaching and learn-
ing research. These lead to a differentiation of me-
dia into explicit teaching aids and explicit learn-
ing aids (BONZ 1999, 177 f.). Explicit teaching aids
can only be applied by the teachers in the teach-
ing process, since they possess the further infor-
mation required to adequately use the medium.
Explicit learning aids are applied by the learners
to support them during the learning process, sup-
ply necessary information, help in conducting in-
quiries, give ideas on how to continue, and pro-
vide feedback through the automatic checking of
learning results. Furthermore, they can encour-
age learners to acquire and apply ↑ learning strat-
egies. Modern media concepts are designed to fol-
low the principles of learner-centred learning and
enable learners to comprehend the object of learn-
ing on their own. They should leave enough room
for learners to engage in searching, collecting, re-
searching, discovering, lingering, sorting, struc-
turing and visualising – either individually or in
groups. These principles require an open design
of media, which is realised today in the context of
↑ e-learning concepts based on computer networks
(ARNOLD /K ILIAN / THILLOSEN / ZIMMER 2004).
With the development of computer networks dur-
ing the past decade, new teaching and learning me-
dia have emerged that present entirely new possi-
bilities. For the first time, computers integrate the
different symbolic systems such as fonts, graphics,
Areas of VET Research
tables, pictures, images, language, film, etc., and
their dynamic linking within different, multimedia-
based types of presentation and interaction, such
as hypertext, animations, models, simulations, etc.
They make numerous new forms of synchronous
and asynchronous communication possible, as for
instance e-mail, chat, discussion forums and video
conferences, thereby opening up entirely new op-
tions for media design (ASTLEITNER 2000; CRAIG /
GHOLSON / DRISCOLL 2002; FISCHER / MANDL 2000;
HOHENSTEIN / WILBERS 2002; NIEGEMANN / HESSEL /
HOHSCHEIT-MAUEL /ASLANKI 2004; PEKRUN 1999;
WEISS /K NOWLTON / MORRISON 2002). For this pur-
pose, concepts for a systematic instructional design
were developed early on (GAGNÉ / BRIGGS / WAGER
1979; GAGNÉ / BRIGGS / WAGER 1992; DICK / CAREY
1996; HEINICH / MOLENDA / RUSSELL / SMALDINO 1999;
MERRILL /LI /JONES 1990), even if these were initial-
ly difficult to put into practice (DICK 1991). Based
on these concepts, an automatic construction of
learning units was attempted in order to reduce
the considerably greater efforts connected with the
creation of new media; this attempt, however, was
unsuccessful (LOCATIS / PARK 1992).
“New media” integrate all traditional teaching and
learning media. They also provide the possibility
of overcoming formerly restrictive requirements
connected with learning and teaching processes,
such as the requirement to meet at the same place
at the same time or the need for different physi-
cal media containing acquired knowledge (on pa-
per, video, audio, etc.). The new synchronous and
asynchronous forms of communication allow for
different times and types of response in teachers as
well as learners, reaching from situationally mo-
tivated/spontaneous to specifically prepared re-
sponses. In particular, models and simulations as
new forms of mediation permit learning in prep-
aration for real situations without risking the un-
wanted consequences of errors. This is the case,
for instance, when learning to operate computer-
controlled machine tools, or when acquiring de-
cision-making skills in task-specific learning by
using financial or economic simulation models
(FISCHER / BOREHAM / NYHAN 2004).
The new media include, among others, ↑ CBT or
↑ WBT (computer-based training or web-based
training = complete multimedia-based and interac-
569
tive educational software distributed on CD-ROM
or via the Internet), simulations or entire teach-
ing and learning arrangements on virtual ↑ learn-
ing platforms. This is what terms like multime-
dia-based and hypermedia-based learning refer to,
and they involve computer-based media in differ-
ent combinations. Examples are telematic learn-
ing, which, on top of various media, includes com-
munication technologies; e-learning, which com-
prises the forms of learning mentioned above; and
blended learning, which represents a combination
of the use of new media and traditional ways of
teaching.
These new media can create an environment for
individual learning. Midoro/ Olimpo et. al. (1991,
181) divide this learning into three dimensions: (i)
adaptivity = adaptation to learning requirements;
(ii) reactivity = interaction modes between learn-
er and system (e. g. simulation, game and micro-
cosm); and (iii) navigability = navigation compa-
rable to a book, dictionary, hypertext or database.
↑ Media competence is, therefore, increasingly re-
quired in order to deal with new media in partic-
ular and with technological media such as tools
and experimental facilities used during training.
This applies not only to teachers, but especially to
learners, since they are now also being encouraged
to learn independently and autonomously. Howev-
er, as discussed above, some of this knowledge is
difficult to be secured through mediational forms
alone. Consequently, media competence involves
the skilful handling of the medium, its correct
classification within the didactical process, and
the mastering of the communication process relat-
ed to it. For teachers, it also involves complement-
ing and actively shaping multimedia. For learners,
it involves using multimedia to present the knowl-
edge they have acquired and the projects they have
completed (ZIMMER 2002b, 2003).
3.7.9.3 Developments and Expectations
Historically, ↑ media research has only existed in
Germany since the introduction of television as an
educational medium in the 1960s and 1970s. The
possibility of using television in teaching led to a
multitude of studies regarding the success of dif-
ferent media as learning aids. At that time, the
question was which position within the mediation
570
process each medium should ideally occupy. The
learning effect produced by media was explained
mainly by the reciprocal action between the per-
sonality of the learner and the medium in ques-
tion (TULODZIECKI 2001, 747). The first meta-anal-
yses of what was to become computer-based train-
ing were carried out by Kulik/Kulik (1987).
The primary medium of vocational training in
crafts and industry, and even in the initial phase
of industrialisation, was work itself. Vocation-
al knowledge and skills were imparted mainly
through ↑ participation in the operational process
(learning by doing). The explicit development of
↑ educational media in vocational training only be-
gan towards the end of the 19th century. At first,
these educational media were applied in addition
to learning by doing in the operational process, in
the form of rather theoretical lessons (PLOGHAUS
2003). Around the turn of the century, industrial
companies started to introduce systematic voca-
tional training in training workshops, using edu-
cational models that were independent of produc-
tion. In Germany, with the founding of the Bun-
desinstitut für Berufsbildung (BIBB – Federal In-
stitute of Vocational Training) in 1969, an institu-
tion was created that carries out ↑ media develop-
ment and research while taking into account prac-
tical aspects (BENNER 1993, 14 f.). Educational me-
dia are also developed by external educational in-
stitutions, operational departments for basic and
advanced training, or ↑ vocational schools and uni-
versities, and then distributed for example through
publishing houses.
For a long time, media research seemed to have
been marked by the hope to finally find the perfect
teaching and learning medium that would make
complicated content matter easily comprehensible
to all those receiving vocational training (i.e. ↑ effi-
ciency criterion). Media were then expected to op-
timise the ↑ teaching and learning process (i.e. in
ways characterisable as depersonalisation, decon-
textualisation and objectivisation) and rationalise
it, since media are reusable (BONZ 1999, 169). The
use of media makes possible the separation of cer-
tain teaching functions from the person perform-
ing the direct teaching process. The subject mat-
ter thus taught becomes detached from the possi-
ble inadequacies of a teacher. Subject matter, im-
Handbook of TVET Research
pulses for learning, and possibilities for the con-
trol of learning results can be stored on a physical
medium during the teaching and learning process.
In particular, the possibility of applying computers
in the teaching and learning process raised hopes
of objectified and efficient instruction (BONZ 1999,
169; SCHELTEN 1994, 214 f.). There were even con-
siderations to completely do without teachers or
persons accompanying the learning process. This
theory has been found in the didactics of pro-
grammed instruction as early as the 1960s. With-
in certain boundaries, this is possible when teach-
ing standardised, fundamental subject matters, but
certainly not throughout the entire ↑ teaching and
learning process (SCHNEIDER 1999, 254).
Media have always played a special role in vo-
cational ↑ distance learning and correspondence
courses. Sparkes/ Kaye/ Hitchcock (1992) analysed
the systems and strategies of distribution, the ↑ ef-
ficiency achieved and the trends emerging in com-
puter-based distance learning on the basis of ten
international case studies.. Among other things,
they concluded that “there are many ways of achiev-
ing effective distance teaching and learning so there are
no prescriptive formulae for achieving success” (91).
Therefore, the expectations that used to be direct-
ed at educational media in terms of making com-
plicated subject matters easily comprehensible
to almost all learners through depersonalisation,
↑ objectification, rationalisation and standardisa-
tion are unlikely to be realised. They have reached
their limits as a result of certain relevant aspects
inherent in the teaching and learning process. The
learning process itself is always a subjective proc-
ess, and while it can be supported and promoted by
media and arranged teaching and learning situa-
tions, it cannot be enforced (GROTLÜSCHEN 2003).
Due to their inbuilt adaptability, the new media
are considered to have the potential to support
learning processes in a more adequate and indi-
vidualised way. Above all, they permit the ver-
bal and graphic presentation of subject matters at
the same time, which is said to considerably im-
prove learning processes in terms of memorisa-
tion. In addition, by making new forms of media-
based communication possible, they can stimu-
late participation and cooperation (CROOK 1994;
SINKO / LEHTINEN 1999; TENBERG 2001). Lehtinen/
Lehti/ Salmi (2003, 266–268) list five aspects that
Areas of VET Research
are required for the successful didactical design of
new media: They must start with complex prob-
lems, combine discovery with instruction, balance
practical examples and systematisation, permit so-
cial interaction and cooperative problem solving,
and place the tasks to be completed in context (al-
so see ARNOLD 2003; DILLENBOURG 1999; ZIMMER
2003; 2004). These then stand as a basis to consid-
er how media might be effectively integrated into
the teaching-learning process.
3.7.9.4 Current Research
Since the 1980s, ↑ media research and development
in Germany has been oriented towards the individ-
ual learner. Modern ↑ educational media should
be geared to the principles of reality-based, learn-
er-centred learning and as far as possible enable
learners to comprehend the subject matter on their
own. Individual ↑ learning strategies and problem
conceptualisation, subjective creativity and self-
orientation are increasingly taken into account in
the development and design of media, thus facil-
itating autonomous learning through experience.
Euler (2003c, 303 f.) identifies three types of inno-
vation: (i) instructional software as an addition to
existing components of the learning and teaching
process, (ii) the development of new ↑ learning en-
vironments (e. g. for in-service training); and (iii)
the shaping of the cultural and organisational/in-
stitutional framework of vocational teaching and
learning (e. g. to support learning in the operation-
al process; see also NYHAN / CRESSEY/ TOMASSINI /
K ELLEHER 2003). A fourth type of innovation at-
tempts to describe the new media by means of
sets of metadata in order to automate their re-
searchability, exchangeability and further appli-
cation or re-use in autonomous learning process-
es (BAUMGARTNER / HÄFELE / MAIER-HÄFELE 2002;
BREMER, C. 2002).
These types of innovations can be summarised by
the following questions: how must media be de-
signed so that the learner becomes or remains the
main player in the ↑ educational process? What di-
dactic considerations permit ↑ interdisciplinary
and individualised media designs? How can me-
dia enable the integration of the reality of working
life into learning arrangements? Or rather: how
can the reality of work become a learning situa-
571
tion with the help of media? Which structural and
physical properties must media possess to acquire
a greater openness and flexibility of application
in integrated ↑ educational processes? (ARNOLD /
MÜLLER 1992, 7 f.; HARRISON 1999; LAUR-ERNST
1993, 9 f.).
As noted, considerable progress has been made in
the emerging field of new ↑ media research and de-
sign in recent years. In the past decade, the devel-
opment of didactial concepts and models (learn-
ing environments, scenarios and media) has been
promoted on an international level (ARNOLD 2001).
Models have been created and insights gained in
order to employ their possibilities and potentials –
didactically sound and based on learning theory –
particularly those of virtual learning environments
into which all other new media can be integrated
(ARNOLD /K ILIAN / THILLOSEN / ZIMMER 2004; K ERRES
2001; SCHULMEISTER 1997).
Key questions in research deal with didactic ap-
proaches to begin with, since it is possible to de-
duce from these the way a ↑ learning platform and
the knowledge elements and communication op-
tions contained in it should be designed. Two ba-
sic approaches are distinguished here: the cogni-
tive and the situational approach. In the cognitive
approach, it is assumed that mental structures and
processes can be systematically assisted through
instruction. For this purpose, different models of
instructional design were developed (DIJKSTRA /
SEEL / SCHOTT 1997; REIGELUTH 1998). Here, the
new educational media are designed in a way to
address individual cognitive processes and support
changes in the cognitive structure. The situational
approach is regarded as a critical response to the
cognitive approach. It takes the view that learn-
ing processes are always bound to the context they
occur in and that various types of interaction and
communication are embedded in them. Acquir-
ing theoretical and practical skills particularly de-
pends on the authenticity of the tasks (BOSHUIZEN /
SCHMIDT / CUSTERS / WEIL 1995; THE COGNITION AND
TECHNOLOGY GROUP AT VANDERBILT 1997). Key
models of situational learning are the Anchored
Instruction Model, which, among other things,
takes into account the complexity of problems and
the proximity to personal circumstances; the Cog-
nitive Apprenticeship Model (COLLINS / BROWN /
572
NEWMAN 1989), in which novices learn from ex-
perts; and the Scaffolded Knowledge Integration
approach, which attempts to make thinking “visi-
ble” (FISCHER / MANDL 2002, 625; MAYER 2005).
Other ↑ research questions are concerned with the
combination of text, sound and images, in oth-
er words the media-based design of the ↑ teaching
and learning process in multimedia-based ↑ learn-
ing environments. An interesting aspect in this re-
spect for instance is that text and images create
two different types of mental representation and,
if combined favourably, have positive effects on
learning and comprehension processes. The use
of animation can also have a stimulating effect on
comprehension, but as regards learning results,
there seems to be no difference between anima-
tion and images in connection with complex sub-
ject matters. Learners whose learning preferences
are more visual will benefit from additional visual-
isation, while learners with a well-developed sense
of space will find graphic presentations more use-
ful (FISCHER / MANDL 2002, 626 f.).
Learning with new media is said to have great po-
tential for autonomy and personal organisation.
Numerous studies show, however, that multime-
dia-based learning environments, in particular,
place many demands on learners so that ideal au-
tonomous learning processes can rarely be put into
practice at present (reference an example of these
studies). It is often unclear to learners which point
within the overall structure they have reached or
how they should progress to other points. As a re-
sult, many learners may simply collect data with-
out reflecting on it or focus on minor details. Fur-
thermore, the aids provided, such as glossaries,
background information or instructions on fur-
ther work, are not always used. It has been shown
that not unlimited freedom but appropriate, auton-
omous learning sequences lead to success in learn-
ing processes (LEHTINEN / REPO 1996; LEHTINEN / RUI
1996). Direct and indirect aids have been devel-
oped in recent years to improve the support of au-
tonomous learning processes. Direct aids employ
cognitive and motivational strategy training while
indirect aids for example use think-aloud protocols
or structural/graphical representations to elaborate
a ↑ learning strategy. Guiding texts or mapping
techniques can equally be employed to represent,
Handbook of TVET Research
structure and categorise subject matters (FISCHER /
MANDL 2002, 627 f.; MANDL / FISCHER 2000). The
promotion and the limits of autonomous learning
fundamentally alter the role of teachers and the
skills required of them (BATTEZZATI / COULON / GRAY
ET AL. 2004).
Not only do the cooperative aspects of new media
make learning more flexible in terms of time and
space, but they also improve quality as these new
forms of cooperation go much further than tradi-
tional teaching and learning situations. This does,
however, only apply as long as the types of net-
work-based communication are put to appropri-
ate use (GAISER 2002; LEHTINEN 2000; LITTLETON /
HÄKKINEN 1999). For instance, the unequal distri-
bution of communicative contributions rather fre-
quently encountered in traditional teaching and
learning contexts is found considerably less in net-
work-based cooperation. Furthermore, a great-
er flexibility can be noted when learners use the
computer to communicate with others in written
form. The simultaneous contact with many learn-
ers, however, as well as the higher effort that must
be put into exclusively written communication can
also hamper cooperative learning results. Addi-
tionally, it has been established that network-based
verbal contributions often refer less directly to pre-
viously discussed issues and instead contain more
complex references, which impedes the continua-
tion of the discussion and makes moderation more
difficult.
Practice
When considering research and development of
new media, their implementation into educational
practice must equally be taken into account (MC-
CULLOUGH 2002a; 2002b; HASEBROOK / HERRMANN /
RUDOLPH 2003). It has often become apparent in
the past that projects, once initiated, are rarely fol-
lowed by processes that promote continuity. Con-
siderations regarding this issue are based on mul-
tidimensional approaches that aim at a change in
the entire educational system in terms of altered
curricula, adequate qualification of teaching per-
sonnel, preparation of learners, etc. instead of sim-
ply a change in media. This means that media-
based infrastructures for learning and operational
processes must be created for example through re-
Areas of VET Research
gional networks, while at the same time a change
in teaching and learning culture must be promot-
ed (SALOMON 1994; 2003; SINKO / LEHTINEN 1999).
This also includes the evaluation of learning
3.8.0 Introduction: Shaping Work and Technology
Peter Brödner and Paul Oehlke
3.8.0.1 New Challenges for Production and
Work
Taylor’s principles of scientific management,
which later materialised in car production by Ford,
led to pre-determined standard operating proce-
dures for highly specialised work which aimed at
management control of obstinate ↑ work process-
es (TAYLOR 1911; FORD 1922). They are rooted in
the rationalistic assumption that the world is fully
comprehensible in objective terms and, hence, that
work can be entirely modelled, controlled and re-
moved. This ambition of ultimately replacing hu-
mans by machines culminated in the conception
of CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing) and
flourishing illusions about ↑ expert systems (BRÖD-
NER 1990). Under the historic circumstances of
volume production in growing markets for rather
simple mass products, this approach could be ex-
ploited to its full potential. With increasingly satu-
rated markets and varied consumer demands, how-
ever, the pressure for generating complex and rap-
idly changing products required more manufactur-
ing flexibility and corresponding production strat-
egies. In the long run, this shift of paradigm stim-
ulated new design solutions of work and technolo-
gy giving a boost to ↑ human resource development
and vocational education and training (VET).
Crisis of Mass Production and Early Redesign
Approaches
On the micro-economic level, strong horizontal
and vertical divisions of labour hindered the devel-
opment and use of human skills and competence
needed for more flexible reactions to market de-
mands and at the same time impaired the workers’
comfort and motivation, as was shown by grow-
ing absenteeism, fluctuation and recruitment prob-
573
results by means of new media (ZIMMER / PSARALIDIS
2000) to improve the development, didactic quali-
ty (ARNOLD / THILLOSEN /K ILIAN 2003) and use of the
new media.
lems for industrial work. Early responses to these
challenges were documented by the publication
of 500 company projects of organisational renew-
al by the Swedish Employers’ Association (SAF
1975) and the worldwide promotion of new work
structures by the car manufacturers Volvo and
Saab (NORSTEDT/AGUREN 1973; AGUREN / HANSSON /-
K ARLSSON 1976). Hence, the conceptions of
↑ Quality of Working Life (QWL) and Socio-Tech-
nical Design (STD) were on the agenda of Euro-
pean work and technology research. Radical rede-
sign approaches, creating complex tasks in simple
organisations rather than simple jobs in complex
organisations (SITTER / HERTOG / EIJNATTEN 1990),
were found appropriate for the demands of a more
diversified quality production relying on function-
al flexibility and competence development (PIORE /
SABEL 1984; K ERN / SCHUMANN 1984). The new pro-
duction schemes stimulated a practice- and proc-
ess-oriented shift of ↑ VET research and of their
subject- and domain-related ↑ research methodolo-
gies (→ 5.1.1; → 5.1.4).
Scientific Criticism and Quality of Working
Life Research
From the very beginning, ↑ quality of working life
research has taken up scientific criticism based on
a broad range of social and psychological find-
ings (FRIEDMAN 1946; ULICH 1998). The ↑ com-
parative studies of the London Tavistock Insti-
tute for Human Relations in British coalmines re-
vealed that the collective self-regulation of semi-
autonomous work groups was much more produc-
tive than systems based on high division of labour
(TRIST/ MURRAY 1958; EMERY/ TRIST 1960). Howev-
er, it was a long way from the initial investigations
via larger-scale experiments in Norway (EMERY/
574
THORSRUD 1964) to modern variants in Sweden
(ENGELSTAD / GUSTAVSEN 1993) and the Netherlands
(SITTER / HERTOG / EIJNATTEN 1990), even in ↑ Aus-
tralia and North America (DAVIS / CHERNS 1976;
EMERY 1989; PASMORE 1988; TAYLOR / FELTEN 1993;
TRIST 1981). In the course of working life research,
the emerging STD approach created a comprehen-
sive conception of integral organisational renewal
based on democratic dialogue procedures (EIJNAT-
TEN 1993). Particularly in Germany, participatory
design processes opened up new perspectives of
individual competence development, experience-
based knowledge acquisition and the work and
technology design approach in VET (→ 3.8.2).
New Demands for Applied and Interdiscipli-
nary Research
Publicly funded research and transfer activities
helped to develop and test innovative, skill en-
hancing and competitive model solutions. More-
over, these challenges demanded from the strict-
ly compartmentalised science systems with their
sharp demarcation lines between ↑ subject are-
as that they cross their epistemological and meth-
odological borders and overcome their tradition-
al fragmentation by cooperating with practition-
ers and other disciplines (HERTOG / SCHRÖDER 1989;
CORBETT / RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991). Analysing ex-
isting work and management practices as well as
developing new real-life solutions for coping with
new demands called for a combination of ana-
lytical and applied research in ↑ interdisciplinary
project designs which balanced the different needs
of scientific autonomy and social change. Manifold
problems were still breaking out, however, when
in concrete research and change processes contro-
versial objectives had to be brought in an always
fragile equilibrium within and between scientific
disciplines, social partners and governmental poli-
cies (GUSTAVSEN 1993; OEHLKE 1994), particularly
in ↑ VET planning and ↑ occupational research on
educational profiles (→ 3.4.2).
3.8.0.2 From National Working Life
Programmes to Innovation Strategies
While the history of national labour research ac-
tivities started in the late 1960s with efforts for in-
Handbook of TVET Research
dustrial democracy and humanisation of working
life, the perspective shifted to shaping work and
technology according to human needs and flexibil-
ity requirements in the 1980s (OECD 1988). With
the wider diffusion of ↑ IT and the debate on in-
sufficient productivity growth, emphasis of pro-
gramme makers further turned towards organi-
sational ↑ innovation strategies and national in-
novation systems (DOSI / FREEMAN / NELSON ET AL.
1988; LUNDVALL 1992). In contrast to Nordic coun-
tries, however, these efforts lost momentum during
the 1990s in big European economies like those
of ↑ France and Germany, which focused on cost
competition policies rather than labour process de-
velopments.
Emergence of Work Life Activities in Europe
Embedded in mutual negotiation practices and
work-related legislation, diverse national activi-
ties and programmes for industrial democracy and
work-life reform prospered and spread from Scan-
dinavia to Germany and France in the 1970s, to
Belgium and the Netherlands in the 1980s, a dec-
ade later to Ireland, and finally, with a vigorous in-
carnation, to Finland, which became a small giant
of innovative workplace development at the turn
of the century (ARNKIL 2003). All these activities
generally aimed at improving poor working con-
ditions as well as productivity growth. With the
spreading of IT in the 1980s, new demands for de-
sign of work and technology came onto the agenda,
in particular, to cope with the unsolved flexibility
problems of CIM that still incorporated traditional
organisational patterns (→ 3.8.5). Thus, the widely
discussed IT productivity paradox facilitated the
dissemination of lean production schemes of Jap-
anese origin (WOMACK /JONES / ROOS 1990), which
revived the debate on modern forms of work or-
ganisation. During a decade of confusion, a great
number of allegedly new management doctrines
like business process reengineering (HAMMER /
CHAMPY 1993), total ↑ quality management or ag-
ile manufacturing appeared that mostly presented
well-known organisational principles under new
labels. However, sound analysis of real organi-
sational practices led to the basic distinction be-
tween two adverse strategies: while low road strat-
egies are solely directed towards numerical flexi-
Areas of VET Research
bility and overall cost-cutting by downsizing and
outsourcing, the high road primarily aims at ex-
panding value creation by developing human and
innovative potentials in respective organisational
patterns (BRÖDNER / GARIBALDO / OEHLKE / PEKRUHL
1998; WORK & TECHNOLOGY CONSORTIUM 1998)
dealt with in particular in some areas of the sec-
tion on Occupational Work and Competence De-
velopment (→ 3.6).
Developing and Shrinking Work and
Technology Programmes
Norway played a pioneering role in putting so-
cio-technical design principles into a succession
of R&D programmes since the late 1960s start-
ing with the Industrial Democracy programme
followed by the HABUT programme involving
hundreds of SMEs in strategic search conferenc-
es and dialogue teams (ENGELSTAD 1991) while
the SBA democratization programme aimed at
local networks in a multi-level change strategy
(QVALE 1989). Likewise the Swedish LOM pro-
gramme on leadership, organisation and ↑ partic-
ipation (1985–1990) practised such a democratic
approach of industrial and local renewal in diag-
onal communication processes of managers, staff
members and foremen (GUSTAVSEN 1992). On the
other hand, the more design-oriented MDA (Peo-
ple, Computers, Work) and MTO (Man, Technolo-
gy, Organisation) programmes called for close co-
operation of different actors in STD like research-
ers of different disciplines, user groups, and com-
ponent suppliers. Moreover, the Swedish govern-
ment promoted, from the 1970s onwards, multi-
faceted development activities for occupational
health, competence formation, and organisation-
al and technological design, which culminated in
the Swedish Work Life Fund (1990–1995) allocat-
ing around 30 billion SEK (more than 3 billion
EUR) to 25,000 development projects all over the
country (GUSTAVSEN / HOFMAIER / EKMAN-PHILIPS /
WIKMAN 1996; RIEGLER 1998). Although never
spending such critical masses for change, a holis-
tic view of industrial renewal likewise emerged in
the course of mainly experimental German R&D
programmes (→ 3.8.1). However, with shrinking
funds for transfer projects of the social partners
and SME-focused branch projects in the 1990ies,
575
the social impact of work-oriented ↑ innovation
strategies declined (OEHLKE 2001b; FRICKE 2003).
A similar fate had also occurred to correspond-
ing Dutch, French and Belgian activities set up in
the 1980s (HERTOG / SCHRÖDER 1989). In the Neth-
erlands, the TAO (Technology, Work, Organisa-
tion) programme (1988–1993) like in ↑ France the
programmes on Men, Work and Technology and
Technology, Work, Employment and Forms of Life
(PIRRTEM) were abandoned whereas the Nation-
al Agency for the Improvement of Working Con-
ditions (ANACT) established in 1973 still plays an
important role in consulting unions and compa-
nies. Likewise the Flemish Foundation for ↑ Tech-
nology Assessment (STV) has survived carrying
out social research on new organisational struc-
tures and working methods on behalf of the social
partners.
Expanding Innovative Workplace Activities
In contrast to these rather small or selective activi-
ties, the Finnish Programmes on Productivity, Ag-
ing Workers and Wellbeing at Work merged in 2004
into the enlarged and enriched Finnish Workplace
Development Programme (Tykes) giving evidence
of a meanwhile broad belief in Finnish society
that organisational innovations may improve both
business ↑ performance and ↑ quality of working
life, supplemented by high investments on learn-
ing and research (ALASOINI / RAMSTAD / ROUHIAINEN
2005). The programme development is embedded
in an institutional setting formed by the triple helix
model of generating innovative solutions through
the cooperation of companies, universities and
policy-makers according to a successful Swedish
approach (VINNOVA 2002). Such a grown inter-
action of the main social actors, in particular the
social partners, forms the root of the hitherto ex-
tremely successful transition from a raw material-
based industrial to an innovative, knowledge-inten-
sive economy while maintaining a socially respon-
sible welfare infrastructure (CASTELLS / HIMANEN
2002). In order to cope progressively with simi-
lar challenges, Ireland launched a revised National
Workplace Strategy in autumn 2005 to stimulate
the shift to creative and innovative, more value-
added and high-skilled activities (NATIONAL CEN-
TRE FOR PARTNERSHIP AND P ERFORMANCE 2005). It is
576
based on experience from the New Work Organi-
sation Programme (1995–1998) aimed at manag-
ing flexibility demands for change through produc-
tive workplace ↑ partnership models of high mu-
tual ↑ commitment and trust (BUSINESS DECISIONS
LIMITED 2000).
3.8.0.3 European Activities for Quality of
Working Life and Organisational
Innovation
The development of national QWL programmes
has been reflected in European strategies from the
very beginning. There is a broad range of research
and information activities by European institu-
tions. Regional and national programmes on work-
ing life issues, industrial and employment condi-
tions were funded by the European Commission
(EC) especially under the umbrella of the Euro-
pean Social Fund (ESF) thereby stimulating the
↑ Social Dialogue between trade unions and em-
ployers’ associations. However, the rare attempts
to set up institutional links to the influential Re-
search Framework Programmes (RFP) failed so
far; but since 2004, the funding of networking na-
tional QWL programmes may pave the way for an
integral European innovation approach on work,
technology and organisation.
Scarcely Linked European Information
Activities
As early as 1975, the European Council set up the
European Foundation for the Improvement of Liv-
ing and Working Conditions (EF). In the same
year ↑ CEDEFOP (Centre européen pour le de-
veloppement de la formation professionelle) was
founded, followed by the European Agency for
Safety and Health more than two decades later.
All three institutions are organised on a tripartite
basis comprising representatives of all EU govern-
ments and social partners, but without noticeable
cooperation with each other. Their staff members
are drawn from the member states and distinguish
themselves by their professional experience. More-
over, they rely on a network of national experts
throughout Europe who prepare case studies and
conduct surveys on a broad range of topics. In par-
ticular, the EF maintains a number of key monitor-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing tools dealing with industrial relations, working
conditions, quality of life and social change thus
supporting the formulation of EU ↑ labour market
and employment policies.
Blocked European Initiatives and Programmes
In the employment and social affairs arena, a wide
range of funding activities (e. g. ADAPT, EQUAL)
for multinational projects and national or region-
al projects has been launched for skill formation,
modernising work organisation and creating em-
ployment without discrimination. Particularly in
the framework of the European Employment Strat-
egy, the ESF was authorized to promote skilled and
trained workforces, to foster innovation and adapt-
ability in work organisation, to develop entrepre-
neurship, to facilitate job creation and to boost hu-
man potential in research, science and technolo-
gy. Moreover, the Green Paper on Partnership for
a New Organization of Work (EC 1997b; 1998a)
should stimulate a broad debate on economic rea-
sons, policy challenges and social opportunities for
a more flexible and productive, participative and
learning-friendly organisation of work. However,
some national governments and influential employ-
ers’ associations were reluctant to accept the Com-
mission’s offer to co-finance national programmes
by expressing their resistance to new regulations
that might limit the prerogatives of management
(EIROBSERVER 1999). Accordingly, the Europe-
wide EPOC-survey (EmployeeDirect Participa-
tion in Organisational Change) covering more
than 6000 firms in EU member states discovered
only small progress in advanced forms of partic-
ipatory, flexible and innovative forms of work or-
ganisation except for Northern Europe (EPOC Re-
search Team 1998; ITPS 2001). Even networks of
expert teams temporarily established by the Euro-
pean Commission (European Work and Technol-
ogy Consortium 1995–1998; European Work Or-
ganisation Network (EWON) 1999–2002) to iden-
tify high roads of skill-based organisational inno-
vation ran out for lack of further support contrast-
ing to the manifold efforts of establishing a Euro-
pean ↑ VET research in the perspective of an inte-
grated labour market (→ 2.5).
Areas of VET Research
European Work-Related Innovation Strategies
at the Crossroads
In spite of a series of analytical studies on anthro-
pocentric production systems and work-orient-
ed design of technologies (LEHNER 1992; RAUNER /
RUTH 1991) by the FAST (Forecasting and Assess-
ment in Science and Technology) programme on-
ly very few attempts to include ↑ human-centred
shaping approaches could be realised in the large
European production and ↑ information technolo-
gy programmes. A prominent example was the ES-
PRIT project 1217 on Human-Centred CIM Sys-
tems with research groups from UK, Denmark and
Germany (CORBETT / RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991). For
lack of coordination between the relevant policy
arenas, knowledge on innovative work organisa-
tion and work-oriented technology design has been
lost. Significantly, a recent Communication on In-
novation Policy (EC, E. C. 2003c) appeared with-
out any reference to the Green Papers on Innova-
tion and on Work Organisation (1995b; 1997b),
thus re-discovering innovation again as a com-
plex change process, demanding joint technologi-
cal and organisational efforts that “involve all em-
ployees in order to make work organisations a col-
lective resource for innovation”.
3.8.0.4 Qualitative Results and Impacts of
the Programmes
The activities of the EC and national programmes
supporting industry-oriented research and devel-
opment for improving ↑ quality of working life,
↑ human-centred design of work and technology
and organisational innovations produced, despite
all setbacks and differences in details, a number of
common shifts in perspective, of procedures and
of socio-political arrangements. These basic quali-
tative results of a human-centred shift in paradigm
may be summarised as follows.
From Reactive Safety Protection to Preventive
Health Promotion
Throughout industrial development, occupational
safety and health (OSH) issues have become ubiq-
uitous as various machines transforming energy or
matter and a growing variety of new or synthetic
materials broadly penetrated ↑ work processes. Al-
577
together they still hold manifold safety and health
risks for the workers involved, ranging from acci-
dental risks through noise to hazardous materials
(PAOLI / MERLLIÉ 2001). The originally prevailing
attitude towards OSH issues has been to protect
the individual worker against risks of technical ac-
cidents or hazardous and poisonous substances af-
ter these risks have been identified. Thus, on the
European level, an OSH Framework Directive of
1989 supplemented by individual directives, e. g.
on machinery and VDUs, covers a broad range of
working environment issues (BIENECK 1992). In
the course of development, it has been realised,
however, that it would be more effective and less
costly to consider safety and health issues before-
hand. According to this shift of perspective, work
processes and technologies to be used should be
designed in such a way that health and safety risks
and hazards are a priori avoided or minimised al-
ready at the source (EUROPEAN AGENCY FOR SAFETY
AND H EALTH AT WORK 2005). New types of coop-
erative intervention connected the design knowl-
edge of engineers and of industrial OSH experts
with the practical know-how of employees, works
councils and management in health circles gen-
erating health reports (KUHN 1992; SCHRÖER /
SOCHERT 2000; AUST/ DUCKI 2004). According-
ly, the European Network on Workplace Health
Promotion (ENWHP) was established in 1996 to
improve work organisation and working environ-
ments, to promote active ↑ participation of employ-
ees in health activities, and to encourage personal
development.
From Specialised Qualifications to Compre-
hensive Competences
New working tasks and procedures as well as the
use of new technical devices require adaptations
of workers’ qualifications. In a Tayloristic envi-
ronment, where design of ↑ work processes and
technical equipment is up to specialists in plan-
ning departments, qualification procedures used
to be limited to adapting and training narrow and
specialised skills for running the processes. As
overcoming the disadvantages of strong horizon-
tal and vertical division of labour is one of the pro-
grammes’ basic attempts, working tasks are being
enlarged and enriched in semi-autonomous work
578
groups so that they provide greater scope of ac-
tion and more incentives for learning at work (FI-
SCHER / R AUNER 2002b). Rather than limited train-
ing of specialised qualifications, the new approach
emphases the development of broad competence in
organisational settings that enable workers to per-
form a variety of tasks, to become cooperative and
proactive members of working teams and to partic-
ipate in processes of joint work design and contin-
uous improvement (→ 3.8.3). The workers’ ↑ tacit
knowledge (POLANYI 1966) based on practical ex-
perience has, combined with explicit knowledge,
regained new importance in context-dependent de-
sign processes (SATO 1997). This particularly ap-
plies to software development and use in compu-
ter-supported work processes that require collabo-
rative and discursive efforts of making sense of the
artifacts (ENGESTRÖM / MIDDLETON 1996). Accord-
ingly great emphasis needs to be given to the for-
mation of ↑ work process knowledge and compe-
tence as well as to methodological and communi-
cative skills in VET (→ 3.8.2).
From Techno-Centric to Human-Oriented
Design of Technology
During industrial development, technology has for
a long time been seen as an exogenous, autono-
mously developing factor strongly determining the
way work should be organised as well as the quali-
fications needed for effective use. This technologi-
cal determinism turned out to be a myth, however.
Research on the social shaping of technology re-
vealed that technical artefacts themselves are a re-
sult of social interests and interactions in scientif-
ic research, technological development and design
(NOBLE 1984; SALZMAN / ROSENTHAL 1994; BIJKER
1995). In this perspective, technical artifacts are
seen as part of an organisation’s social structure,
which they partially embody as coagulated experi-
ence through design and which, in turn, may effec-
tively stimulate working and learning if designed as
tools rather than means of automating routine op-
erations (→ 3.8.5). To this end, the artifacts’ func-
tions and human-machine interaction need to be
designed in a ↑ human-centred way which supports
rather than replaces human action in work (BRÖD-
NER 1990; A DLER / WINOGRAD 1992; GILL 1996). In
particular, they must allow for and make use of the
Handbook of TVET Research
workers’ practical experience, their work capaci-
ty, motivation and ↑ commitment as main sources
of productivity (BÖHLE 1994; MARTIN 1994). This
not only increases quality of work but econom-
ic ↑ performance as well, as a number of projects
– e. g. on work-oriented NC programming, CAD,
or production planning and control – could dem-
onstrate (BRÖDNER 1994). More generally, sever-
al work and technology design projects revealed
that usability and economic ↑ efficiency of com-
puter artifacts depend highly on participatory ap-
proaches and procedures of software development
(MUMFORD 1983a; BJERKNES / EHN /KYNG 1987; EHN
1988) as carried out in projects of shaping Compu-
ter-Supported Cooperative Work (→ 3.8.4).
From Division of Work to Collective
Self-Regulation
Since the 1970s, increasingly significant indica-
tions can be observed for a radical change from
industrial to knowledge-based production, in the
course of which value-adding processes rely deep-
ly on the creation, sharing and use of knowledge
(HELMSTÄDTER 2003). They have become a meth-
odological area of occupational education research
which still differentiates between various mixtures
of implicit, practical and scientific knowledge in
occupational domains and profiles (→ 5.1.1). Since
dealing with knowledge creates more knowledge,
innovation, surprise and uncertainty will contin-
ue to exist. The new market-driven knowledge dy-
namics form the background against which coop-
erative and competence-based forms of work or-
ganisation such as semi-autonomous group work,
cellular manufacturing or problem solving mul-
ti-functional team work (project-type work) have
been implemented, not least to make more effective
use of technology (BRÖDNER 1990; EIJNATTEN 1993;
A N DR E ASE N / C OR I AT / H E RTO G / K A PL I NSK I 1995;
NUTEK 1999). They have often been embedded
in complementary ↑ organisational development
projects to establish decentralised and flexible,
customer-focused value-adding processes, mostly
subsumed under the label of the learning organi-
sation (SENGE 1990/1994). Comprehensive organi-
sational and process innovations deeply challenge
well-established routines of functional specialisa-
tion that emerged during industrial development
Areas of VET Research
and that now form a strong social inertia which
is hard to overcome. Changing such grown inter-
action routines of exerting power and sanctions is
a demanding effort of ↑ organisational learning
(ARGYRIS / SCHÖN 1996).
From Socio-Technical Innovation to Cultural
Change
Traditional ways of looking at change emphasised
technology as the driver and determinant and saw
a more or less linear development process from
scientific research via technological development
and diffusion of technology to organisational con-
sequences. The work and technology design ap-
proaches outlined here revised this technology-
centred view and replaced it with a more compre-
hensive understanding of socio-cultural change.
Innovation in this perspective includes all kinds
of renewal, in particular new forms of organisa-
tion, new businesses and new organisational set-
tings in connection with the design and implemen-
tation of new technologies (EC 1995b). The dy-
namics of ↑ knowledge creation, sharing and use
compel firms increasingly to cooperate for prob-
lem solving, often in the form of temporary coop-
eration in networks of innovators (FREEMAN 1992,
93–120) as an intermediate governance structure
between market and hierarchy (SYDOW 1996). As
processes of innovation are embedded in a socio-
cultural context, from which they draw necessary
resources, they require a great number of precon-
ditions: actors involved need to agree on direction
and objectives of the renewal, on the ways of or-
ganising collective learning, and on the material,
social and institutional resources they need. In ac-
cordance with the principles of evolutionary eco-
nomics they, thus, are part of a system of inno-
vation that may provide them with rather condu-
cive or impairing features and conditions (NELSON /
WINTER 1982; LUNDVALL 1992). In a wider Euro-
pean frame, there is the task of balancing the out-
standing challenges of innovative flexibility and
social security in a distinct European Model built
on cooperative work in teams, between companies
and social partners (NEUMANN / HOLTI / STANDING
1995a; ROUILLEAULT/ ROCHEFORT 2005).
579
3.8.0.5 New Challenges of Knowledge-Based
Societies
In its Lisbon strategy of 2000, the European Coun-
cil announced its plan to make Europe the most
competitive and dynamic knowledge-based econ-
omy producing sustained growth, full employment
and social cohesion. Real development, after half
a decade, however, indicates an almost complete
launch failure except for the Nordic countries. This
is due to a confused and inconsistent macroeco-
nomic and social policy, to a managerial crisis and
neglect of work organisation issues and to under-
utilised and wasted human resources. As the na-
ture of the emerging knowledge-based economy
is characterised by unprecedented high dynamics
and complexity, surprise and uncertainty are nor-
mal and inevitable phenomena, in particular un-
der the conditions of deregulated markets and high
competitive pressures. Coping with dynamics and
uncertainty requires broad and continuous devel-
opment of individual competences and collective
capacities as well as new forms of support struc-
tures and of social security.
Competence-Based High Road Strategies
Since knowledge creation, sharing and use are es-
sential parts of value adding processes, building
an effective knowledge infrastructure compris-
ing high-capacity education and training systems
as well as cooperative research and science sys-
tems is among the most important preconditions
for dynamic growth and employment (LENEY/
AMMERMAN / BRANDSMA ET AL. 2004). Competence-
based high road strategies strongly depend on this
infrastructure that provides innovation competence
on a broad scale. With respect to the dynamics of
knowledge and learning requirements, competence
formation must be organised in the form of ↑ life-
long learning schemes combined with skill-en-
hancing ↑ work processes, organisational settings
and industrial cultures (RUTH 1995; RASMUSSEN /
RAUNER 1996); they become particularly relevant
for ageing workforces in most European countries.
Coping with the dynamics and uncertainty of inno-
vation, knowledge creation and use puts extreme-
ly high demands on the action competence of indi-
vidual knowledge workers. Since most of them are
580
working in more or less traditional organisational
structures, where they suffer from great discrepan-
cies between high demands and available resourc-
es, they are increasingly exposed to enormous
stress. This also applies to new forms of autono-
mous work that are more directly exposed to mar-
ket and time pressures combined with regularly
controlled ↑ performance objectives. These new
forms of strain hold unprecedented mental health
risks as indicated by rapidly growing numbers of
mental diseases (PAOLI / MERLLIÉ 2001). This is an-
other new challenge calling for revived forms of
corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the de-
velopment and exploration of ↑ sustainable work
systems, in which individual and social resources
for healthy work are being maintained rather than
consumed (DOCHERTY/ FORSLIN / SHANI 2002).
Sustainability by Social Regulations and Sup-
port Systems
Since in knowledge-based value adding processes,
in contrast to industrial mass production for rel-
atively stable markets, almost all determinants of
work – working tasks, tools, processes, co-oper-
ations, and knowledge – are uncertain or subject
to risky change, workers need at least some sta-
ble and reliable conditions ensuring a safe social
existence. Otherwise modern knowledge workers,
whether they are skilled craftsmen or senior pro-
fessionals, will not be able to unfold the necessary
creativity and motivation for continuous personal
growth and ↑ lifelong learning to maintain ↑ em-
ployability and sufficient capacities for value crea-
tion. And they urgently need rules protecting them
against the health risks of excessive demands,
overload and stress connected with new forms
of work (GABRIEL / LIIMATAINEN 2000). Moreover,
workers are increasingly exposed to the repercus-
sions of the new divide between a core and periph-
eral workforce subdued to casual and precarious
work, restricted employment conditions and peri-
ods of unemployment, low wages and discriminat-
ing social support systems, growing poverty and
exclusion. Personnel policies singling out older,
female and immigrant workers have to be coun-
teracted by creating legislative conditions, collec-
tive agreements and technical instruments for their
integration and development at work (K ISTLER /
Handbook of TVET Research
OEHLKE 2003). Maintaining employability on a
broad scale is dependent on regulated and certi-
fied systems of skill formation and lifelong learn-
ing to keep and develop occupational competence
(STEVENS / MACKAY 1991). As the whole system of
value creation and competitive business develop-
ment depends on such frame conditions providing
flexicurity, ↑ sustainability and personal develop-
ment at work, there is a strong responsibility on the
part of governments and the social partners to es-
tablish societal support systems in research, edu-
cation and training as well as to push through basic
regulations, e. g. on working time, minimum wag-
es and social security.
Coping with Social Change in Europe
It is no surprise that industrial organisations and
institutions have great difficulties in coping with
the ongoing fundamental change. While market re-
quirements for flexibility, innovation and learning
are universal, some regions persistently perform
better than others. In particular, the Nordic coun-
tries have more conducive institutional settings for
productivity and growth, for innovation and learn-
ing while maintaining social security and welfare,
on the basis of which they outperform the rest of
Europe on the way into the knowledge-based so-
ciety. There is an uneven distribution of ↑ human-
centred forms of work, organisation and technolo-
gy use ensuring functional flexibility of companies
for strategic operations which may open up new
markets for products and services as an expression
of employment-creating high road strategies to in-
novation across Europe with the Nordic countries
on top and a distinct slope towards the South (EP-
OC RESEARCH TEAM 1998; NUTEK 1999; ITPS
2001; BRÖDNER / LATNIAK 2003). In other countries
low road strategies more or less prevail, backed by
long-term deregulation policies and downward ad-
justments of social systems. They determine the
ultimate form of negative integration in Europe:
“harmonisation by erosion” (EC 1998a, 47–49).
However, the high ranking of Nordic countries ac-
cording to criteria of human development as well
as of international competitiveness gives evidence
that positive forms of integration by sustainable
↑ innovation strategies, fostered by public interven-
tions and work-oriented research policies might
Areas of VET Research
also have a future in other European countries.
Moreover, the high road perspective of socio-eco-
nomic development in the ↑ knowledge society de-
mands a thorough shift of paradigm from the era
of industrial division of labour in mass production
to ever expanding cooperative forms of organising
work and value creation built on participative de-
sign of work and technology, on intra-firm and in-
ter-firm cooperation, regional and national settings
for comprehensive innovation efforts and continu-
ous VET opportunities as well as on corresponding
development coalitions between main social stake-
holders in a genuine European Social Model.
3.8.1 Work and Technology
Research
Felix Rauner and Paul Oehlke
In view of the emerging knowledge society, educa-
tion and research are ingrained into the dynamics
of industrial and social change which are essential-
ly determined by the spreading and networking of
pervasive ↑ information technologies (ITs). They
have entered almost all areas of work, life and cul-
ture. However, the high expectations of rising qual-
ity and productivity of work have been counteract-
ed by shrinking productivity growth and employ-
ment losses, not to mention rising environmental
dangers. The reports of the Club of Rome on the
limits of growth and the discussions on ↑ technol-
ogy assessment (CARPENTER 1983; PASCHEN 1975;
MEYER-ABICH / SCHEFOLD 1981; HASTEDT 1991) led
to severe criticism of the dominant techno-eco-
nomic paradigm which neglected controversial
social and environmental effects and demands of
institutional and organisational change (NELSON /-
WINTER 1982; DOSI / FREEMAN /NELSON ET AL. 1988;
FREEMAN 1992, 73–92). Accordingly, the Sun-
dqvist report on “socio-economic strategies for the
new technologies in the 1990s” (OECD 1988) laid
the focus on technological development as a social
and cultural process, thereby including democratic
values in the debate.
581
3.8.1.1 Conceptual Clarification
The rising demands for social integration of new
technologies into ↑ innovation processes implicitly
took into account the participative and design-ori-
ented work and technology research in some Euro-
pean countries which has been conducted since the
middle of the 1970s, funded by public programmes
ranging from humanisation of work via innova-
tive enterprise development up to regional devel-
opment initiatives (→ 3.8.0). Here, these activities
were strongly backed by the social partners’ mak-
ing a compromise between better jobs and produc-
tion flexibility which at the same time opened up
new design approaches for vocational education
and training (VET). These new departures have to
be understood as forward-looking answers to the
increasing social and economic problems which
had been originally triggered off by strong labour
unrest and shrinking capital ↑ performance.
Coping with the ‘Scientific’ Division of Work’
The new design approaches encountered an organ-
isation of work and technology that was deeply in-
grained in social structures hitherto characterised
by an unequal distribution of social resources, di-
vergent positions in the layers of society and an
asymmetrical distribution of public and private in-
struments of control (WEBER 1972, Chapter 8 and
9). Social discrepancies have strongly influenced
the division between hand and head work which,
in modern times, was evaluated as the basis of eco-
nomic progress by Adam Smith (1776/1993), con-
tinued by Charles Babbage (BABBAGE 1832/1999)
as analytical principle of technical development
and, finally, culminating in the highly efficient or-
ganisation of production through Frederick Win-
slow Taylor’s scientific management (TAYLOR
1911/1993; Braverman 1974). It systematically
transferred skills and knowledge from workers to
management and engineers who transformed and
incorporated those competences into procedural
rules, work flows and especially technologically
determined production processes (→ 3.8.5). Cor-
responding methodologies have dominated work
studies in Germany since the 1920s (REFA 1971).
Human labour became an exchangeable produc-
tion factor without specific qualifications and
582
skills or trades and ↑ professions in the pure, “lib-
eral-capitalist type of business” nowadays again
re-established, which definitely excludes ↑ partici-
pation, collaboration or co-determination of work-
ers (GUTENBERG 1973, 486–512).
Shift to Higher Quality of Working Life
In the context of rising social instability, however,
there was a deepening gap to be felt in the aspira-
tions of employees for a higher ↑ quality of work-
ing life with less strain and more work contents as
well as in the competence of management to cope
effectively with saturated markets demanding ris-
ing product change, variety and quality. Especial-
ly in Scandinavia, such deficiencies aroused wide-
spread discussions within companies, especial-
ly the car manufacturers Saab and Volvo, the par-
ties of the ↑ labour market and the players of po-
litical, economic and social institutions having in-
fluence in the area of working conditions. Accord-
ingly, the pioneering collective agreement in the
South German metal industry from 1973 onwards
was distinguished by establishing hourly recrea-
tion breaks and longer operation times which im-
proved the quality of working life as well as of pro-
duction processes on the threshold of a broader im-
plementation of ↑ IT.
Demand for Comprehensive Design
Approaches
Cost-effective disturbances and dysfunctions of
IT systems that followed the traditional division of
work, however, stimulated a certain, but still lim-
ited, change of perspective from ‘technological de-
terminism’ to comprehensive development strate-
gies (BRÖDNER 1990; CORBETT / RASMUSSEN / RAUNER
1991; EHN 1988; RAUNER 1988c; ROSENBROCK 1980;
1983). This shift of design logic produced new
challenges for scientific disciplines, in particular,
the claim for ↑ interdisciplinarity of problem-solv-
ing affected by diverse interests, objectives and re-
sponsibilities. Such different and even divergent
demands could only be sufficiently coped with by
a strong interaction between engineering and so-
cial sciences which, at the same time, had to in-
volve employees, works councils and management,
and, moreover, the bargaining parties of the la-
Handbook of TVET Research
bour market including the public bodies responsi-
ble for work regulations and the curricula of VET.
Taking up design orientations in the ‘medium of
occupational activities’ (GRUSCHKA 1985), voca-
tional ↑ work tasks as basic dimensions of indus-
trial value creation and ↑ organisational develop-
ment processes moved into the centre of vocation-
al research and their ↑ domain-specific distinctions
(DYBOWSKI / HAASE / RAUNER 1993; DYBOWSKI / PÜTZ /
RAUNER 1995c).
3.8.1.2 Relevance of Research Programmes
Work and technology research has been depending
on well-established industrial relations linked to
political reform coalitions. These framework con-
ditions explain why the industrial work restructur-
ing and public work-life activities were mainly re-
alized in Nordic countries, resulting in a North-
South-divide (BRÖDNER / LATNIAK 2003). Thus, oc-
cupational health and safety regulations, participa-
tory labour laws and tripartite development agree-
ments were considerably extended in Norway and
Sweden, but also in the Netherlands and Germany
(→ 3.8.0). In a favourable social climate of limited
conflict, labour and production problems could be
translated into work and technology programmes
helping to improve working conditions and com-
panies’ ↑ performance by implementing human-
oriented design alternatives (OEHLKE 2007).
Institutional and Legal Framework Conditions
In Germany, the responsibilities of the self-man-
aged professional associations (Berufsgenossen-
schaften) were broadened; the trading standards
inspectorate in the Federal States (Bundesländer)
was given enhanced powers; and the new Occu-
pational Safety Act of 1973 made provisions for
medical examinations by company doctors and
checks by health and safety officers which stimu-
lated a broad range of research activities although
these were controversially debated (ELSNER 1985;
MILLES 1984; OEHLKE 1985). Moreover, the Works
Constitution Act amended 1972 laid down the re-
lations between management and works council
giving the latter the right of codetermination and
↑ participation in social, personnel and econom-
ic questions which essentially influenced person-
Areas of VET Research
Fig. 1: Access roads and basic areas of the “Work and Technology” research programme
nel management and staff development. Moreo-
ver, it demanded proven scientific knowledge for
the human-oriented design of work and technol-
ogy. Thus, business, society and government were
called upon to establish work and technology re-
search activities which could open up new oppor-
tunities for improved working life and productivity
growth (MATTHOEFER 1980).
Socio-Economic Rationale of Public
Promotion
In a period of accelerated industrial and social
change, the established rulebooks, standards and
controls, especially in the area of occupational
safety and health, have to be increasingly supple-
mented by new scientific findings and foresighted
model solutions of work and technology which ap-
pear to be too risky, especially from the medium
and small-sized enterprises point of view because
they go beyond their cost-benefit calculations
(BMBF/BMA/BMBW 1990). It was thus a logical
step to set up public programmes for developing al-
ternative work and technology design solutions.
583
From the very beginning, the programme on Hu-
manization of Work (HdA) jointly promoted by the
Federal Ministers of Research and Technology and
of Labour and Social Affairs tried to combine oc-
cupational safety and health protection with the
design of work and technology (FRICKE /K RAHN /
PETER 1985; NUTZINGER 1985; GEORG / SATTEL 1985).
The social shaping of technology also became a
programmatic approach for corresponding region-
al activities in the Federal States of North Rhine-
Westphalia and of Bremen (FRICKE 1994; LATNIAK
1994; RAUNER / RUTH / DEITMER 1995).
Extended Design Challenges for Vocational
Education
Moreover, the expert panel “Work and Technolo-
gy” appointed by the regional Government (Sen-
ate) of the Federal State of Bremen for the devel-
opment of research perspectives formulated a cat-
egorical framework for combining work, technolo-
gy and education paving the way to human-orient-
ed ↑ innovation processes which included a broad
range of needs and interests (SK 1986; 1988). Such
an extended research concept which transcended
584
scientific disciplines represented an extraordinary
challenge for the system of vocational education,
which was forced to adapt subjects, methodologies
and instruments to an integral design perspective
between technical feasibility and social desirabil-
ity (RAUNER 1988b).
Accordingly, the national Work and Technology
programme superseding HdA in 1989 recognized
the growing importance of on the job training and
continuous vocational education for the preven-
tive and innovative design of work and technolo-
gy and, therefore, institutionalized the cooperation
with the Federal Ministry of Education and Sci-
ence and the Federal Institute for Vocational Edu-
cation and Training. Qualifications are interpreted
not only as resulting from the challenges of tech-
nical development and economic change, but also
as a relative ‘independent variable’ stimulating the
participative design of sustainable work contents
and work-oriented innovations. Therefore, new ex-
tensive design solutions consider technical, organ-
isational, health-related and qualificatory aspects
within their complexity and interaction (BMFT/
BMAS/BMBW 1990, 29–34, diagram 31).
3.8.1.3 Main Subjects of Design and
Qualification Research
In the further development of work and technology
design research in Europe, the main subjects dealt
with organisational renewal, integral task design
and human-oriented technology shaping which al-
together contributed to qualification processes and
competence development. In Germany, this debate
received a strong momentum from studies on tech-
nical and organisational change (→ 3.1.5) relying
on former research on industrial work, in partic-
ular of Heinrich Popitz, Paul Bahrdt et al. (1957),
Horst Kern and Michael Schumann (1970), and
Burkart Lutz (1990). Changing demands on skilled
work gave a big boost to ↑ VET research (BAETHGE /
GERSTENBERGER /K ERN ET AL. 1976; GRÜNEWALD
1979).
Competence and Organisational Development
Already in the early 1980s on the basis of empiri-
cal project experience, work psychologists and in-
dustrial sociologists came to the basic conclusion
Handbook of TVET Research
that innovative qualifications and competence de-
velopment of workers depended mainly on their
broad involvement in work and technology de-
sign (FREI / DUELL / BAITSCH 1984; FRICKE / FRICKE /
SCHÖNWÄLDER / STIEGLER 1981). However, an effec-
tive design competence needed two things in ad-
dition: opportunities for attaining renewed techni-
cal qualifications and for learning in ↑ work proc-
esses (GEORG / SATTEL 1985; MEYER-DOHM / SCHUET-
ZE 1987). Therefore, the ↑ participation in develop-
ing and testing new work structures such as work
groups and production islands have proved crucial
from the very beginning for gaining work, tech-
nological and organisational design competence
(BULLINGER /KOHL 1976; ROST-SCHAUDE /KUNSTEK
1982). In present, they empower employees for in-
dividual and collective self-regulation in an entre-
preneurial sense, even in production and service
networks with increasingly distributed workplac-
es and ↑ work processes often in trans-national di-
mensions (BAETHGE-K INSKY/KUPKA 2002; HAASE /-
LACHER 1993) thus laying the ground for a Euro-
pean ↑ VET research (R AUNER / HEIDEGGER 1994;
RAUNER / SPÖTTL / OLESEN / CLEMATIDE 1994). In view
of today’s international demands for organisation-
al flexibility and business re-engineering, the ris-
ing needs for cooperative work have to incorporate
more and more social and communicative com-
petence combined with experience-based knowl-
edge (BÖHLE / PFEIFFER / SEVSAY-TEGETHOFF 2004)
enlarging the profiles of professional activities
(SCHUMANN 2003b, 124–135).
Integral Task Design and Sustainable Quality
Production
For self-regulated work processes and comprehen-
sive ↑ work tasks stimulating motivation and re-
sponsibility, Eberhard Ulich (1998, 161–364) de-
veloped integral design strategies relying on vari-
ous international studies (e. g. EMERY/ EMERY 1974;
HACKER 1986a; HACKMAN / LAWLER 1971; HACKMAN /
OLDHAM 1976; HELLPACH 1922). In this context, a
broad range of work and activity analyses formed
a core of work-life research on avoiding stress and
strain as well as enriching the scope of actions and
decisions (e. g. → 3.6.2; K ARASEK 1985; SONNTAG
1987; VOLPERT 1974; 1987c). This concept-driv-
en research supported an increasingly diversified
Areas of VET Research
quality production that induced the re-integration
of the formerly outsourced functions of repair,
maintenance and quality control (K ERN / SCHUMANN
1984) demanding renewed process competence and
respective ↑ learning strategies under the impact of
ITs (DYBOWSKI / HAASE / RAUNER 1993; LANGEMEYER
2005b). However, such upward spirals have been,
since the middle of the 1990s, undermined by grow-
ing market and financial pressures creating unsta-
ble company perspectives and precarious employ-
ment conditions combined with new forms of con-
trol and constraints through intensified work and
longer working times (PICKSHAUS / SCHMITTHENNER /
URBAN 2001). Rising stress and strain are putting
the design of sustainable work organisations and
socio-economic systems on the research agenda
which provide enough individual and collective
resources (→ 3.6.3) for continuous learning, em-
powerment and employability (DOCHERTY/ FORSLIN /
SHANI 2002; MOLDASCHL 2005).
Human-Oriented Technology Design and
Experience-Based Knowledge
The rising flexibility imperatives on labour, pro-
duction and organisations challenged the design
competence of industrial stakeholders who had to
cope with techno-centric images of unpopulated
factories, modules of computer integrated manu-
facturing (CIM) and data-processing production
units (NOACK / WEGNER / GLUCH / DIENHART 1990).
They have led to a rigid dead end for centrally
steered production processes with countless in-
terfaces between the system’s components which
were not able to match effectively the new situa-
tions which had not been provided for (WARNECKE
1992). Increased economic problems stimulated an
anthropocentric turn in industry and engineering
research institutes that was fostered by the nation-
al programmes on HdA, Work and Technology and
Manufacturing Technologies funding new produc-
tion concepts in manufacturing and services (BRÖD-
NER 1990; 1994; OEHLKE 2001b; 2004, 15–38). In
terms of productivity and ↑ efficiency, on-the-spot-
programming in workshops proved more effective
than in remote planning departments which, there-
fore, were partially dissolved. Herewith, Polanyi’s
(1966) elaboration of tacit knowledge stimulated
experiments on computer-supported experience-
585
led work (→ 3.8.5) which demanded a new mix
of process competence and technical qualifica-
tions, implicit and explicit knowledge or integrated
↑ work process knowledge enabling ↑ participation
in work and technology design (→ 3.6.4). Moreo-
ver, the inclusion of users into the design of com-
puter artifacts gained on importance by participa-
tory approaches and interactive procedures in the
area of human-oriented software development and
implementation (MUMFORD 1983a; BJERKNES / EHN /
KYNG 1987). They have been carried on in various
attempts at shaping ↑ computer-supported coopera-
tive work (CSCW) involving various scientific dis-
ciplines from industrial psychology to information
science (→ 3.8.2; → 3.8.4).
3.8.1.4 Basic Change Effects of Work and
Technology Research
The strategic milestones of alternative design so-
lutions paved the way for an ongoing shift of par-
adigm especially for the ↑ knowledge society that
relies primarily on the use and development of
computer-supported forms of communication and
cooperation, ↑competence and creativity. Howev-
er, comprehensive and innovative human resource
concepts have only been marginally realized; on
the contrary there are backlashes by cost-cutting
rationalization strategies driven by purely short-
term financial operations which spoil the long-
term advantages of sustainable development paths.
Economic downward spirals deny, in fact, the spe-
cific strength and innovative potential of experi-
ence-led competence development, participative
organisational renewal and work-oriented innova-
tions. Therefore, basic forward looking achieve-
ments of work-life research which are deeply in-
terrelated with each other will be mentioned here:
the experimental dissolution of technological de-
terminism, the diverse development of work-ori-
ented ↑ innovation strategies and the partially real-
ized design perspective in VET.
Partial Dissolution of Technological
Determinism
The human-oriented design solutions of work and
technology criticised the technological determin-
ism incarnated in Fordist mass production strate-
586
gies based on the combination of assembly lines
with highly divided work operations which did not,
any longer, effectively match the rising flexibility
and quality demands. However, there are still indi-
cators that lead Donald Mac Kenzie and Judy Wa-
jcman to call technological determinism the sin-
gle most influential theory of the relationship be-
tween technology and society (1985, 4). It still
governs innovation policies in business and gov-
ernments on regional, national and European lev-
els comparing the huge discrepancy between the
financial means spent for technological and work-
place innovation programmes. For quite a while,
the socio-technical design experiments remained
restricted, at first, to a few much discussed mod-
el cases such as the “Utopia” project of Scandina-
vian print unions (EHN 1988) or the European ES-
PRIT Project 1217 on “Human-Centred CIM Sys-
tems” (CORBETT / RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991). They
received only more awareness by extended Ger-
man, Japanese and Swedish funding activities ena-
bling engineering, social and educational research-
ers to contribute effectively to the concept and de-
velopment of human-oriented technology design
(BRÖDNER 1990; GILL 1996; RAUNER 1988c; RAUN-
ER 1995a; R AUNER / RUTH 1991). In Germany’s pro-
gramme development, linkages of work and tech-
nology were mainly realized by the work system
approach consisting of interrelated elements: work-
ing men and work groups, tools and machinery as
subjects and means of work and the environment
of work at workplaces (MARTIN 1985, 39).
Development of Comprehensive Innovation
Strategies
The discussion forum HdA advising the German
Government had, in 1984, already pooled its ten
years of experience and findings in a “work-orient-
ed concept of innovation” incorporating humane,
organisational and technological aspects based on
interactions of diverse social stakeholders which
had likewise been laid down a decade later on by
the guiding principles of the Green Book on Inno-
vation (BMFT/BMAS 1987, 122–126; EC 1995b).
This broad innovation concept based on the four
pillars Health and Qualification, Technology and
Organisation governed the following German pro-
grammes on Work and Technology (1989–2000),
Handbook of TVET Research
Development of Innovative Workplaces – Future
of Work (2001–2005) and Innovation Competence
in the Modern World of Work from 2005 onwards.
Such interactive labour process concepts of inno-
vation which mobilized, developed and tapped hu-
man resources tore down organisational hierar-
chies and built up organisational momentum for
fostering employees’ cooperation, competence and
creativity thus stimulating high roads of innova-
tive work and technology design which could com-
bine employment-creating process and product in-
novations (BRÖDNER / GARIBALDO / OEHLKE / PEKRUHL
1998; WORK & TECHNOLOGY CONSORTIUM 1998).
Skilled labour, technical know-how and intelli-
gent organisations offering top service quality and
better customer relationships may cope success-
fully with demographic, environmental and tech-
nological change problems. The growing need for
extended social services, clean technologies and
merging ITs opens up new fields for socio-techni-
cal innovations in lead markets which satisfy ur-
gent needs and create new fields of employment
(LEHNER / BAETHGE /KUEHL 1998, 463–494; OEHLKE
2004, 125–142).
Design- and Future-Enabling Vocational
Education and Training
The Institute Technology and Education (ITB) fur-
ther developed the theoretical basis for the concept
of work and technology design (HEIDEGGER 1997b)
and implemented it into research, planning and
practice of vocational education (K LEINER / RAUNER /
REINHOLD / RÖBEN 2002; REINHOLD / HAASLER / HOWE
ET AL. 2003). Since then, the idea of a design-ori-
ented vocational education has been institutional-
ised in agreements of the Conference of Federal
Ministers of Culture (KMK 1991a; 1999) and in
the course of modernising and reforming training
rules. By and large, the design-oriented vocational
education has stimulated the development of four
important research topics:
(1) Open, Dynamic and Fundamental Under-
standing of Vocational Practice
The concept of an open, dynamic and fundamental
understanding of vocational practice (HEIDEGGER /
RAUNER 1996; HEIDEGGER /JACOBS / MARTIN ET AL.
1991; RAUNER 2001c) increases at the same the
Areas of VET Research
↑ flexibility of the employees and the ↑ labour mar-
ket for skilled work as well as educational oppor-
tunities for vocational training that emphasises the
understanding of interrelations and design compe-
tence (K LEINER / RAUNER / REINHOLD / RÖBEN 2002;
RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002).
(2) Design-Oriented Tasks for Learning and Work-
ing
The retransfer of industrial training into ↑ work
processes on the basis of design-oriented tasks for
learning and working aims at increasing the qual-
ity of training and at the same time the operation-
al benefits (HÖPFNER 1995; K ROGOLL 1998; HOWE /
BAUER 2001; HOWE / HEERMEYER / HEUERMANN ET AL.
2002).
(3) Design Competence and In-Firm ↑ Organisa-
tional Development
The demands for the dynamics of in-firm organi-
sational development have been gaining in impor-
tance under the conditions of international quality
competition. Through this, there are new demands
for qualifying the employees (DYBOWSKI / HAASE /
RAUNER 1993; HEEG / MEYER-DOHM 1994).
(4) Prospective Demands for Qualification
What are the qualifications that skilled employees
should utilize to be able to operate technical plant
and machinery, devices, tools and technical proc-
esses safely and effectively? But, such a ↑ research
question has to be asked quite afresh in view of
the increasing diffusion of ↑ information technol-
ogies:
How is it possible to adapt the technologies better
to human abilities and to design them as a qualify-
ing medium thereby utilising the increased plastic-
ity through application of information technologies
(SCHREIER 1998; BECKER 2003)? How can the guid-
ing principles of enabling and empowering work-
ing people by methods of participative technical
design be exploited by using information technolo-
gies (FISCHER /JUNGEBLUT/ RÖMMERMANN 1995)?
3.8.1.5 Methodological Implications
In spite of the backlashes and distortions for the
basic achievements and the strategic milestones of
human-oriented ↑ shaping of work and technology,
there are many conclusions for scientific involve-
ment to be drawn from the experience of change
587
projects and programme developments. The plan
for ↑ interdisciplinary problem-solving by crossing
the borders (CORBETT / RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991)
encountered manifold barriers. They are deeply
rooted not only in divergent objectives and meth-
odologies of the respective disciplinary traditions,
but also in adverse action routines and career ways
in science systems which do not honour interdis-
ciplinary and applied studies at all. These prob-
lems will be intensified by the need for coopera-
tion with practitioners who represent different ob-
jectives, attitudes and interests. Bringing them in-
to a fragile harmony in the course of projects by
programme management has to be extended in the
case of transfer activities building up structural
knots and critical mass for thorough change proc-
esses going beyond the popular collections of good
practice case studies in the sense of creating virtu-
al awareness.
Differing Methodological Approaches
Besides the need for ongoing disciplinary research
in many areas of occupational medicine and ↑ er-
gonomics, the demands of ↑ interdisciplinary and
applied research for the design of work and tech-
nology could hitherto only partly be realized. The
complexity of holistic design solutions demanded
a twofold approach: participative procedures with
employees and work groups, works councils and
management and the involvement of different sci-
entific disciplines with their specific methodolo-
gies and their mutual acceptance, at least multi-
level cooperation in the process of concrete prob-
lem-solving (RAUNER 1988c; SK 1986). In success-
ful workplace development activities, all kinds of
methodological approaches have to be taken into
account to make research processes and products
in their respective context sustainable and effec-
tive. Basic methodological arrangements of ana-
lytical, design and action research (OEHLKE 1994)
can roughly be distinguished.
(1) Analytical research mainly by social scien-
tists, especially industrial sociologists in Germa-
ny, which lays the focus on surveying, observing
and analysing social conflicts, new production
concepts and management strategies of ↑ systemic
rationalisation thus clearing up complex situations
and identifying framework and development con-
588
ditions of work and technology which may hinder
and encourage industrial actors and policy-makers
supplemented by project evaluations and ↑ bench-
marking exercises, steering concepts and scenar-
io extrapolations (ALTMANN /KOEHLER / MEIL 1992;
BMFT/BMAS 1987, 109–114);
(2) Expert-driven research for designing workplac-
es and ↑ work processes, devices and technologies
typical for the product-oriented approach of ↑ en-
gineering science, ergonomics and occupational
medicine playing a central role in a broad range
of German programme activities where engineers
shape technologies, specialists of ↑ ergonomics
measure physical strain factors, chemical hazards
and physiological effects of work environments or
industrial psychologists develop instruments for
analysing stress, content and qualification effects
of ↑ work tasks (SONNTAG 1987; ULICH 1998, 59–
160);
(3)Action research to be found above all in Norway
and Sweden which has mainly been done by or-
ganisational sociologists and psychologists includ-
ing inspired consultants to take up the concepts of
Kurt Lewin (1951) and develop them further (e. g.
GUSTAVSEN 1992; GUSTAVSEN / FINNE / OSCARSSON
2001) with the focus on participating in change
processes as facilitators by establishing local dia-
logue procedures which diminish hierarchical and
functional barriers thereby acting as concept-driv-
en moderators and democratically oriented in-
terlocutors for the partners of industrial change
(FRICKE 1997a; GUSTAVSEN 2005).
Proposal of ‘Rolling System Development’
Work and technology research has both put into
question and at the same renewed the traditional
methods of hierarchical and sequential develop-
ment and design corresponding to a purpose-ori-
ented rationale starting from the fixing and opera-
tionalisation of objectives up to the evaluation and
finally implementation of results. But an adequate
solution for the methodological tension between
input- oriented process and output- related prod-
uct approaches has not yet been found. Therefore,
comparing the different development methodol-
ogies with respect to the testing phase of a com-
plex work and technology design concept, Corbett/
Handbook of TVET Research
Rasmussen/ Rauner (1991, 114 f.) proposed the
Rolling System Development:
“Such rolling development (...) takes into account four
important aspects:
(1) Objectives may be changed as a result of integrated
development. Such changes are simultaneously learning
processes for all the people involved.
(2) Employers and users participate in their capacity as
experts of their situation.
(3) The development product is seen as one version of
the system. This implies giving priority to technology
... as an adaptive element of organization development.
Adaptability thus turns into a central technical systems
property or an important shaping criterion.
(4) Development is no longer a linear process. Rather
it is seen as a sequence of objectives which result from
the interplay of producing, testing and revising/adapt-
ing. Thinking in terms of versions is particularly adapt-
ed (a) to the plasticity of IT and (b) to the permanency
of organization development” (compare A REGGER / FREY
1975).
Further Promotion of Practice-Oriented Re-
search Cooperation
The manifold methodological problems of practice-
oriented design research already begin with the di-
verse forms of communication and modes of ex-
pression incarnated in specific scientific languag-
es and methodologies. They may be partly solved
in rolling system development strategies by com-
municative process approaches of action research
combined with the product-oriented input of ex-
pertise. At the same, there is a need to watch out
for framework conditions such as sufficient support
structures, involvement of the social partners, reg-
ulations and changing market environments being
conducive or restrictive to forward-looking design
solutions. Accordingly, the work and technology
project on “Inter-Firm Cooperation. The Design
of Supplier Relations” has succeeded methodical-
ly in a process-oriented approach (ENDRES 1996;
WEHNER / RAEITHEL / CLASES / ENDRES 1996; DICK
1996). It distinguishes by the dialogue-consensus
as criteria of truth (HABERMAS 1991; SCHEELE 1995,
275) and the deduced dialogue forms of validation
(GIDDENS 1989; PIEPER 1988) which have also been
applied in the evaluation of the Bremen Work and
Technology-Programme (RAUNER / RUTH / DEITMER
1995). Extensive experience of development-ori-
Areas of VET Research
ented research has been gained in the field of par-
ticipative software-engineering (FLOYD 1995). In
general, participative design approaches demand
high methodical and professional competence on
the part of researchers (RAVDEN / CLEGG / CORBETT
1987; CORBETT / RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991). Moreo-
ver, there are still methodological demands for the
integration of diverse experience, knowledge and
competence to create a variety of innovative so-
lutions for outstanding problems of demographic,
socio-economic and science-based change which
cannot be reduced to the imperial beliefs of one
best way or of benchmarked best practices being
replaced time after time by the currently-prevail-
ing management fashions.
3.8.2 Participative Technology
Development
Franz Stuber
3.8.2.1 Clarification of Terms
↑ Participative technology development denotes
the inclusion of technology users in the develop-
ment and diffusion of technological processes and
systems. As a field of research in vocational educa-
tion, participative technology development follows
the general approach of technology development.
This takes technological development as an inter-
est-guided process, to the shaping of which voca-
tional specialists, as relevant actors, can contrib-
ute. The development and application of technolo-
gy should not be left to political entities, nor to the
modellings of ↑ engineering science, nor to the cal-
culations of business analysis.
In general, ↑ participation is concerned on the one
hand with involvement, that is partaking in deci-
sions within society, in this case regarding technol-
ogy. On the other, the call for participation takes
the development process as given; it is a question
of becoming involved in it. Thus, a first observa-
tion about technology development to date consists
in a general distinction between technology users
and the decision-makers who shape technology de-
velopment and application. Second, it is clear that
technology users are affected negatively by this
589
development: participation should counteract this.
Third, a general limit in participation processes
is evident. By definition, the call for participation
cannot be aimed at nullifying the decision-mak-
ing capacity of those in whose development proc-
ess participation comes into play.
Opinions differ on the extent to which political
and economic decision-making criteria should be
modified through the participation of technology
users, as participation in technology development
can take on very different forms. In general these
can be classified according to
– aims,
– the object and level of participation,
– scope,
– the agent or subject, and
– the institutional basis.
The range of possible participation forms may be
broken down further. An overview of some classi-
fication methods can be found in Wicke 1992.
An object of equally broad interpretation is the cat-
egory of the user-subject. As participants, technol-
ogy users may appear in the most disparate roles:
as employees, customers or as members of the pub-
lic.
– employees use technology as a tool, operate ma-
chines and deal with technology as an object of la-
bour,
– customers make decisions, with respect to their
available payment capacity, about the private or
commercial suitability of utility value characteris-
tics objectified by technology,
– and as members of the public, technology users
participate in political discussion about technology
development.
3.8.2.2 Historical Development
With the emergence of industrial capitalism, re-
search, technology development and the appli-
cation of these in production became separate
spheres within society. Participative technology
development focuses on this split and accentuates
new means of mediation.
Implicit Participation
Implicit forms of user participation are apparent
when the application of technological artifacts dif-
590
fers from that envisaged by product managers and
designers. The diffusion of conversational soft-
ware is not the first instance of such a discrep-
ancy between intended and actual modes of use,
although only here has it been elevated to an ob-
ject of systematic research. Research in technol-
ogy genesis shows that user models have always
differed to greater or lesser degrees from actual
modes of use.
Kline/ Pinch (1996) point out in relation to early
automobile use in rural America that on the one
hand the rural population attempted to prevent the
intrusion of cars into rural areas, for example by
making roads impassable for cars. On the other,
at an early stage farming households possessed an
above-average number of cars – farmers used cars
as mobile energy sources, as snowploughs, trac-
tors, etc. For a long time corresponding conversion
kits provided by dealers competed with the truck
that Ford had meanwhile brought onto the market.
Comparable findings have been made regard-
ing the development of modes of use for electron-
ic communication technologies (MARVIN 1988;
FISCHER 1992; for details see BAMME / ORNETZEDER /
ROHRACHER 2003). The common feature of ‘im-
plicit ↑ participation’ lies in dissentient appropria-
tion and the discovery in application of new modes
of use:
“People may reject technologies, redefine their func-
tional purpose, customize or even invest idiosyncratic
symbolic meanings in them. Indeed they may redefine a
technology in a way that defies its original, designed and
intended purpose” (MACKAY/ GILLESPIE 1992, 689 f.).
These results provide the first pointers for system-
atic participation in technology development.
Explicit Participation
Explicit participation in technology development
often only comes to light when commercial objec-
tives negate any further application of technology.
A prominent example of this is supplied by the ac-
tivities of the former employees of the British arms
manufacturer Lucas Aerospace in the 1970s. Fol-
lowing the decision by management to close their
production segment, engineers, technicians and la-
bourers together developed alternative products for
a civilian and function-oriented production (see
COOLEY 1987). These experiences inspired sever-
Handbook of TVET Research
al further initiatives, such as the “London Tech-
nology Network”, which in the 1980s linked local
government initiatives with technical colleges and
universities for the development of alternative pro-
duction forms and technological systems.
The ↑ UTOPIA project in Denmark and Sweden
was instituted on union initiative in the field of
press work. As a collaboration of social and tech-
nology scientists with technicians and a technol-
ogy manufacturer, this was aimed at the develop-
ment of a system for newspaper page layout meant
to improve both product quality and the operating
process for workers (see BODKER 1987).
Supported by the strong co-determination rights
prevalent in Scandinavian countries, this project
led to the “↑ Collective Resource Approach to
Systems Design”, which sets a high participation
standard in the development and commercial im-
plementation of new technologies with a special
focus on ↑ information technology: “The collec-
tive resource researcher will ask ‘how do we en-
able people to design their own systems?’” (EHN
1988, 270).
In the context of the European research and tech-
nology support programme ESPRIT, an advanced
development perspective was elaborated with the
project “Human Centred CIM Systems”. Three
groups from Great Britain, Denmark and Germa-
ny developed system concepts and prototypes for
the automation areas CAD, CAP and CAM. This
was aimed on the one hand at the transcendence
of established modelling concepts from technolo-
gy and social sciences:
“While the human centred approach traditionally has fo-
cused on the individual level and the socio-technical ap-
proach has focused on the group level, the technique-
oriented approach has instead tended to develop mod-
els for overall system integration” (CORBETT / R ASMUSSEN /
R AUNER 1991, 18).
These individual perspectives on technology de-
velopment were to be replaced by a “work-oriented
shaping approach” (ibid., 15), through which par-
ticipation would move beyond equal consideration
of individual dimensions.
At the same time the project was concerned with
the generation and development of practical ap-
proaches to technology development. Steps tak-
en in this direction included adaptation of the fu-
Areas of VET Research
ture-workshop method and testing novel so-called
“↑ Shaping Workshops”.
In Germany ↑ participative technology develop-
ment has been promoted in particular in the con-
text of the state research and action programmes
“Humanising Working Life” since the 1970s and
“Work and Technology” since the 1990s.
↑ Participation here is interpreted broadly, in that
cross-company actor networks and regional site re-
lations are integrated into the development process
(RAUNER / RUTH / DEITMER 1995; LANDAU /LUCZAK
2002). At the same time user participation is close-
ly geared to product development. Findings from
research on process knowledge relating to profes-
sional experience and work (→ 3.6.4) have inspired
the elaboration of information system concepts
and prototypes that support workers in their work-
process ↑ skill development. One example is the
DIADOSYS system, developed jointly by repair
and maintenance workers at Lloyd Dynamowerke
and scientists at the University of Bremen. DIA-
DOSYS allows the technology users themselves
to computerise documentation, organisation and
communication of work experience in repair and
maintenance (FISCHER / RÖMMERMANN 1998). These
positive experiences have stimulated compara-
ble concepts and prototypes, for example in pro-
duction control (STUBER 1997), the chemical in-
dustry (RÖBEN 2000a) and in the automotive trade
(BECKER / SPÖTTL 2001b).
3.8.2.3 Current Areas of Application
Whereas early approaches to ↑ participative tech-
nology development were conceived as a ‘user-ori-
ented counterbalance’ to technological effect esti-
mation in the sense of socio-scientific research into
the effects of technological development (see MÜL-
LER 1993), today participative approaches are also
associated with entrepreneurial and political strat-
egies (see IMAI 1986).
IT-System Development
Today ↑ information technology no doubt consti-
tutes the most firmly established field for user par-
ticipation in technology development and diffu-
sion. Very few technologies rival ↑ IT systems in
their influence on our cognitive functioning and
591
social communication. Technical and economic
criteria for development are supplemented here on
several levels by participative procedures.
A large sub-area is covered by “↑ Usability Engi-
neering”. Special inspection methods are employed
to assess functional task suitability and ergonom-
ic fitness for use. In addition to specially trained
assessors, (potential) end-users are also includ-
ed in this process (see LISKOWSKY/ VELICHKOVSKY/
WUENSCHMANN 1997, BRINK / GERGLE / WOOD 2002).
Apart from ↑ Usability Engineering, which tends
to be applied in specific areas, users are also in-
volved in the general process of software devel-
opment in the various phases of the Software Life
Cycle (→ 3.8.4).
Alternative Technologies
Many applications for participative technology de-
velopment can be found among alternative tech-
nologies, in particular in sustainable energy pro-
duction. In this field, user-driven technology de-
velopment spans from the redesign of solar pan-
els, via the discovery and testing of new modes of
utilisation for part-solar heating, to the incremen-
tal improvement of, for example, biomass com-
bustion or ecologically oriented building projects.
Common to all these forms of participation is the
users’ appropriation and development of technolo-
gies through do-it-yourself construction.
In a current case study on solar power systems, bi-
omass combustion and ecological construction,
Bammé et al. have identified a distinct milieu of
innovation:
“In various ways and with differing levels of intensity,
many users in the three case studies were also inven-
tors or developers of technological solutions and new
modes of use or designers of house concepts” (BAMME /
ORNETZEDER / ROHRACHER 2003, 145).
3.8.2.4 Methodological Implications
Participative technology development projects
have applied a large number of methodological ap-
proaches from social and technological research, as
well as generating original methods such as ↑ inter-
disciplinary ‘↑ shaping workshops’ (CORBETT /
RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991), STEPS (FLOYD 1993),
IMPACT (FALCK 1993) ↑ Design Scenarios (CAR-
ROLL 1995) or SimLab (SMEDS 2001).
592
To varying extents and in different forms these
methods have found their way into the practice of
technology development.
The history of participative technology develop-
ment also shows, however, that participation does
not in itself lead to innovations that result in lasting
improvement to artifacts and processes. Any meth-
odological approach is confronted with the follow-
ing difficulties:
– The disparate and contrary aims of technology
use are not smoothed out by ↑ participation, rather
they are extended by one more perspective.
– Technology is always embedded in the organisa-
tional context of its operation and the broader en-
vironment in which it is applied. Participation in
technology development must therefore always be
linked to participation in ↑ organisational develop-
ment (→ 3.8.3).
– Even direct participation in technology develop-
ment can be no more than representative. Technol-
ogy users who contribute to the design of a techno-
logical artifact always make decisions for other us-
ers.
– ↑ Participative technology development has to be
learned. It must therefore become a guideline and
integral element in vocational learning processes.
Working and ↑ learning environments and didactic
concepts need to be designed with this in mind.
– Interests and modes of use change over time and
in reaction to experience of use. Thus a technolog-
ical characteristic now considered beneficial from
the user’s perspective may in future become super-
fluous or even an obstacle to efficient task process-
ing.
Following Læssøe (1993), from the above list it is
possible to deduce four generic principles that al-
low for support of user participation in technology
development through research in vocational edu-
cation:
– Action research: technology development is in-
tervention in established decision-making process-
es.
– Cooperation: technology development involves
disparate perspectives in dialogue.
– Instrumental perspective: technology develop-
ment becomes a tool in the hands of the user.
Handbook of TVET Research
– Cultural embedment: technology development
becomes an entwined process of tradition and
transcendence.
3.8.2.5 Development Perspectives
Participation in technology development is always
ambivalent and influenced by opposing tendencies.
On the one hand, current economic and education-
al policies mean that participative approaches run
into difficulty as soon as they seek to influence
commercial decisions. Any departure from calcu-
lations of commercial profitability is today quick-
ly branded as ‘unviable’. What participative inno-
vation can prove its profitability for a company be-
fore the start of a project?
On the other hand opportunities for participation
are increasing. The lesson that can be learnt from
early forms of implicit participation is increasing-
ly important for profitable production: the use and
utility value of technology applications cannot be
fully anticipated by developers – this use diverges
from their expectations, it changes over the course
of time, and it differs from one group of users to
the next.
These circumstances become particularly clear in
relation to ↑ information technology. SAP AG, one
of the leading ‘solution providers’, draws the fol-
lowing picture:
“These days desktops on different computer platforms
have become almost indisdinguishable, as Internet
browsers operate independently of hardware. Informa-
tion is no longer tied to an IT infrastructure, as XML
is becoming the Esperanto of the infinite expanses of
Internet. Standards wherever you look. But the forecast
apocalypse has not materialised. On the contrary, these
tools … have given rise to new freedoms. Standards al-
low individuality, freeing the programmer of dull rou-
tine work and the user of the need for constant retrain-
ing” (FÄRBINGER 2001).
It emerges here that the classic product character of
software is becoming less pronounced. Precisely
on the basis of far-reaching standardisation, soft-
ware is ‘maturing’ through use into a complex and
integrated system.
Business Models Induce Participation
This development assumes tangible form in new
technological business models. In ‘Application
Areas of VET Research
Service Providing’ (ASP), software can be pur-
chased as a fixed-period service over the Internet.
In this way integrated ↑ IT systems become shared
applications in an entirely new dimension. The
ASP provider becomes an integral component in
the working process of the user.
‘Web Services’ technology goes one step further.
This involves combining different applications and
application modules to create new, customer-spe-
cific solutions. Thus, the apparent contradiction
of ‘standard software as a tailor-made product’
comes within reach. A consortium of leading man-
ufacturers in the ‘UDDI.org’ (Universal Descrip-
tion, Discovery and Integration) is currently devel-
oping standards.
“In summary, UDDI is all about sharing business infor-
mation, making it easier to publish your preferred means
of doing business, find trading partners and have them
find you, and interoperate with these trading partners
over the Internet. By automating these processes:
– Businesses will have a means to describe their servic-
es and business processes in a global, open environment
on the Internet thus extending their reach.
– Potential trading partners will quickly and dynami-
cally discover and interact with each other on the Inter-
net via their preferred applications thus reducing time
to market.
– The barriers to rapid participation in the global Inter-
net economy will be removed for any business anywhere
thus allowing them to fully participate in the new digital
economy” (www.uddi.org).
With progressive standardisation and world-wide
availability, ↑ IT systems are becoming more and
more individual. It is still difficult to predict what
these new forms of use with permanent release
change will mean for the work-process knowledge
of IT specialists and system users. It is clear, how-
ever, that this new tool quality demands an interac-
tive and on-going exchange between development
and use processes, the success of which depends
on qualified user ↑ participation.
593
3.8.3 Participative Organisational
Development
Franz J. Heeg
3.8.3.1 Participation and Organisational
Development – Definition and History
According to Kißler (1997) participation describes
any form of direct or indirect influence on deci-
sion-making processes, which usually are domi-
nated unilaterally – due to prevailing power struc-
tures. The aim is to gain recognition for employ-
ee interests. Participation re-arranges power struc-
tures by bringing employee interests into work-re-
lated decision-making processes. It can be distin-
guished between direct participation (through the
employees themselves) and indirect or delegated
participation (through elected representatives).
↑ Organisational development is an “effort [that
is] planned, organisation wide, managed from the
top to increase organisational ↑ effectiveness and
health through planned interventions in the organ-
isation’s process using behavioural science knowl-
edge” (BECKHARD 1969, 17). Organisational de-
velopment includes changes in decision-making
processes, shape and nature of groups, work pro-
cedures, job descriptions and roles (→ 3.6.1). It is
imperative to change structures and procedures in
order to improve quality and ↑ effectiveness; how-
ever, the management of this process is not a “neat
sequential process” (→ 5.4.2). It typically involves
a dynamic complex interaction between those who
are attached to the present state, despite frustra-
tions, and those who share a vision of a future bet-
ter state and who collaborate with the organisa-
tion’s existing cultural and political forces (SENGE
1990/1994).
Hence, participative organisational development
corresponds to the comprehensive intention to de-
sign an organisation “top down” as well as “bot-
tom up”. Ideally, top management, employees and
members of the works council co-operate in de-
signing organisational change processes. All of
them take responsibility for the process and partic-
ipate actively from the beginning to the end.
Kurt Lewin (1898–1947) is widely recognized as
the founding father of Organisational Development
594
(OD), in particular, of group dynamics and action
research institutionalised in the Research Center
for Group Dynamics (RCGD). His colleagues built
the National Training Laboratory (NTC) which in-
spired T-groups and group-based OD. Of great im-
portance are, e. g., the following:
– Discovery of semi-autonomous work-groups
during the 1940s and 1950s (mining in Yorkshire,
Tavistock Institute),
– Socio-technical systems design in the form of
Australian, Dutch and Swedish models since the
1960s (EIJNATTEN 1993),
– Questions and problems concerning OD process-
es (from an operational to a social level) influenced
by action research (NASCHOLD / COLE / GUSTAVSEN /
BEINUM 1996; NEUMANN / HOLTI / STANDING 1995b;
TOULMIN / GUSTAVSEN 1996; ENNALS / GUSTAVSEN
1999),
– Current discussions and essays regarding flex-
ible, learning and innovative organisations since
the 1990s (FREI / HUGENTOBLER /ALIOTH ET AL. 1996;
EC 1997a; NUTEK 1996),
– New organisational requirements due to intra-
plant, interplant and crossplant network-, knowl-
edge- and innovation management in production
networks and value creation chains (e. g. SYDOW
1992; NONAKA / TAKEUCHI 1995; SCHNEIDER 1996;
especially a variety of articles published in Har-
vard Business Review).
Since the 1970s participative OD can be consid-
ered a practical criticism of Tayloristic work di-
vision and bureaucratic systems of governance.
That is (see for example CLEGG /KORNBERGER /
PITSIS 2005; COLE 1989; PEKRUHL 2001 and REED /
HUGHES1992) since:
– Employees in highly developed countries have
demanded stronger ↑ participation and co-determi-
nation instead of hierarchical forms of structure
and control,
– Differentiating markets in the course of decreas-
ing lot sizes and increasing product quality offer
the possibility of flexible production requirements
together with integrally tailored tasks, semi-auton-
omous work groups and even ↑ self-organisation,
– New management concepts require slim, mod-
ular and fractal forms of organisations and even
cross-plant networks as well as increasingly adap-
tive organisations as a prerequisite for innovation.
Handbook of TVET Research
3.8.3.2 Specifications of Participative
Approaches to OD in Organisational
Practice
Measures for Structuring Work and Small
Group Activities
When speaking of a fundamental approach to OD,
Alioth (1980, 142) refers to Lewin’s three-step ap-
proach to change: unfreezing – moving – freez-
ing (LEWIN 1963). The implementation of differ-
ent forms of work organisation makes use of this
three-step approach leading to different forms of
designing ↑ work processes. On the one hand, there
are measures of structuring work such as time con-
straints reduction, job rotation, job enhancement,
job enlargement, job enrichment or semi-autono-
mous working groups (HEEG 1994, 916). On the oth-
er hand, semi-autonomous working groups repre-
sent small group activities, apart from being meas-
ures for work structuring at the same time: semi-
autonomous work groups carrying out a compar-
atively complex task for the most part, consisting
of more than one work content on different quali-
fication levels (e. g. complete assembly of a group
of components). In addition, disparate and ↑ con-
trolling fields of activities are assigned. Groups al-
so enable individualised forms of work organisa-
tion, e. g. differential dynamic work design (ULICH
1978). The aim of these forms of work organisa-
tion is to consider different needs and ideas of em-
ployees by offering different forms of work sys-
tems from which they can choose. By ensuring that
the organisation of work corresponds to the em-
ployee’s individual circumstances they are given
individual opportunities to show their ↑ perform-
ance to the best advantage of each of them.
The principle of differential work design is best
described when considering a group of employees.
Each of them is offered different work contents in
different organisational arrangements and accord-
ing to his or her qualification and motivation (e. g.
concurrent but technically separate single work
places or even manufacturing cells) (→ 3.8.1).
In order to allow for personal development the prin-
ciple of differential work design has to be amended
by the principle of dynamic work design. Dynam-
ic work design describes the extension of existing
or creation of new work systems as well as the pos-
Areas of VET Research
sibility of alternating between different work sys-
tems. In addition, it offers the opportunity to grad-
ually increase qualifications not only on a profes-
sional level but also regarding social competence,
techniques and ↑ participation (i.e. involvement in
work system design) (→ 3.6.1; → 3.6.2; → 3.6.3).
Heeg (1991) quotes the reorganisation of order
processing in a company from the steel industry as
an example for gradual, self-directed development
of competences with respect to
– Groups within the framework of simultaneous
engineering; e. g. groups engaged with develop-
ment, consisting of employees from the areas of
construction, work preparation, quality control,
calculation etc. who collectively plan and operate
the entire process of development and construction
of new products
– Small group activities which combine previous-
ly separated functional units, e. g., planning, pro-
duction, assembly, ↑ quality assurance, program-
ming of working appliances or distribution, plan-
ning (work preparation) and ↑ quality management
Fig. 1: Model of Psychological Functioning According to Grawe 2004
595
– predominantly for specific products or product
groups.
Such team-related forms of organisation also ex-
ist for the public sector where previously separated
work is replaced by integrated ↑ work tasks (HEEG /
BINZ / FAFFLOCK 2002), especially.
– Group activities, which are carried out in paral-
lel to daily activities and serve for constantly im-
proving procedures, methods, work tools, com-
munication and co-operation, e. g. quality circles,
shop floor circles, KVP-teams (continuous process
of improvement-teams) etc.
– Group activities which are achieved in parallel
to daily routines dealing with project related tasks
(mostly, in order of either technical-organisational
or organisational-qualifying innovations), and in-
cluding partly, employees, who have been released
from their regular work.
– Groups, which concomitant to their daily work
concentrate on acquiring knowledge, competenc-
es, abilities and skills (e. g. educational workshops
(“Lernstatt – Lernen in der Werkstatt”)) (→ 3.6.1;
→ 3.6.3).
596
Furthermore, Fröhlich and Pekruhl (1996), Frei
et al. (1996), Pekruhl (2001) and Cole (1989) give
overviews on the approaches and methods outlined
above.
OD – Concepts and Processes
Beisel (1996, 1) differentiates between two ap-
proaches to organisational research, which both
focus on the topic of practice: first of all, theo-
ries of structural design and secondly, theories of
planned change. Theories of structural design are
concerned with the design of formal organisation-
al structures, which are considered optimal in their
respective given situation (also FRESE 1988; HILL /
FEHLBAUM / ULRICH 1989; K IESER /KUBICEK 1983;
LAWRENCE / LORSCH 1969; PUGH / HICKSON 1976).
This approach can be contrasted with the theories
of planned change which
“originated from the efforts of behavioural and social
scientists to use their findings about human behaviour,
groups, organisations and societies for a planned change
of social systems and to practice “applied” behavioural
science” (K IRSCH / ESSER / GABELE 1979).
Unlike theories of structural design, approaches of
planned change do not focus on the design with re-
spect to the planning of structural changes. Their
main focus lies on the process of change itself and
the problems linked to it. Leavitt (1965) classifies
theories of planned change into structural, techno-
logical and humanistic approaches, the latter being
closely linked to approaches of OD.
The majority of authors engaged in the field of
OD consider it to be a strategy for change, which
fulfills the requirement for necessary adaptation
processes of organisations to constantly changing
internal and external conditions. OD comprises an
organisation as a system: designing organisation-
al and technical work systems as well as changing
of values, beliefs, views and attitudes (organisa-
tional culture) of its members (→ 3.8.1). To change
the behaviour of the members of an organisation,
it is necessary to change their internal, basic be-
liefs and their superordinate contexts. Being an ap-
plied social science, OD is aiming to induce struc-
tural, behavioural and mental changes on the ba-
sis of theories and technologies from the field of
social and especially behavioural sciences (BEISEL
1996, 4). Correspondingly, there is an abundance
Handbook of TVET Research
of strategies for action and intervention, predom-
inantly based on heuristic knowledge, which al-
low for an action-oriented “muddling through”
(→ 3.8.2). However, in the past this happened with-
out any form of scientific funding (BEISEL 1996,
4) (→ 3.6.7). There has been a change for the last
two decades due to the arrival of ↑ theories of ac-
tion, especially theory of systems and ↑ self-organ-
isation theory. Since then, OD has shifted from a
strategy of change to a genuine strategy of innova-
tion. Today’s methods and tools used in OD-proc-
esses are either based on job and process analysis
and qualitative system dynamics as classic organ-
isational methods and tools that are modified ac-
cording to use or on systemic and circular ques-
tioning techniques, sculptures and choreographies
as methods and techniques derived from socio-sci-
entific systemic (therapeutic) counselling of indi-
viduals and groups.
For the area of OD as much as for other forms of
innovative work design (WENGEL / LAY/ PEKRUHL /
MALOCA 2002, 133) it proves to be true that con-
ceptions and approaches are more often cited in
the literature than applied in practice; moreover,
employees often judge the organisational moder-
nity of their working conditions more negatively
than one would derive from information provided
by the companies.
As shown above, there is a long tradition of work
design and ↑ organisational development (al-
though on a rather theoretical than practical ba-
sis) in the ↑ USA and Europe, particularly in
Northern and Western Europe (SITTER / HERTOG /
DANKBAAR 1997, 499). As an alternative to the fre-
quently used classic sociotechnical systems design
(another widespread design approach besides OD),
de Sitter, den Hertog and Dankbaar (1997) intro-
duce Integral Organisational Renewal (IOR). The
essence of this approach lies in the transformation
of complex organisations offering simple jobs into
simple organisations offering complex jobs. IOR
can both be regarded as an expert approach and as
a route for self-design. The approach enables the
members of the organisations to develop and use
their own design expertise. IOR is therefore not
only a strategy for organisation design, but also for
organisation development.
Areas of VET Research
Business Re-Engineering, Lean Production,
Total Quality Management and Other Concepts
Apart from the conceptions and methods applied
for organisational change predominantly dis-
cussed in organisation science, there are other fun-
damental concepts, which by now have become
well known and absorbed worldwide:
– Business process reengineering (HAMMER /
CHAMPY 1993)
– Lean production (WOMACK /JONES / ROOS 1990)
– Total ↑ quality management (DEMING 1982)
– Learning Organisation (SENGE 1990/1994)
(→ 3.6.3).
Despite all differences in the fundamental ide-
as, practical examples and methodological de-
tails covered in these conceptions, they share some
common fundamental principles of re-organising
work and business processes:
– Maximum simplicity, clarity and ↑ commitment
regarding tasks and processes,
– Each organisational part of the system and it’s
actions and the results of these actions determine
quality,
– The customer’s benefit is to the fore,
– Further development results from continuous
learning and continuous pursuit for mastership,
– Ideally, by designing tasks, processes and struc-
tures in a way that allows for the integration of
learning and working (COLE 1989) (→ 4.2; → 4.5).
Consequently applying these principles and com-
bining them with participative processes for OD
should make up one of the main tasks of today’s
organisational design.
3.8.3.3 Theories of Organisations as Levels of
Reflection for Practical Action
Views on Organisations
Particularly Brown (1992), Ortmann, Sydow and
Türk (2000) and Clegg, Kornberger and Pitsis
(2005) point out the development of theoretical
views on organisations, which consider important
additional perspectives on the phenomenon “or-
ganisation”:
– Structures – static as well as dynamic,
– Relations between systems and sub-systems,
– Metaphors, pictures (for example machines,
power, brain metaphors, MORGAN 1986)
597
– Processes, including tasks.
These views can be extended by the perspective
of learning (ARGYRIS / SCHÖN 1978) and the per-
spective of values and needs (CLEGG /KORNBERGER /
PITSIS 2005) (→ 3.6.3).
Two areas of theories will be introduced briefly –
↑ theory of action and theory of systems and ↑ self-
organisation, which recently have been supported
by findings from the field of neuroscience.
There are many well-elaborated concepts of goal-
oriented action. Miller, Galanter and Pribram
(1960) already introduced the concept of goal-hi-
erarchies, at first without differentiating between
different hierarchy-levels. Powers (1973) then pre-
sented a detailed scheme of target hierarchies in
the form of hierarchically organised loop systems.
In 1973 he had already tried to specify these loops
on a neuronal level; however, because of the to the
stage of neuroscience at that time, he could only
do so for the lowest levels. In large part this has
been achieved today (GRAWE 2004). This and the
knowledge about life-long neuronal plasticity con-
stitute the basis for persisting individual learning
capacities. They can be activated also for collec-
tive learning processes in OD to change shared at-
titudes, action patterns and values on the basis of
appropriate interventions.
The theory of systems and ↑ self-organisation is
based on constructivist principles and findings
from both the natural and the social sciences. Ac-
cording to Grawe’s (2004) model of psychological
functioning – consistency theory – people strive
for psychological and physical need-fulfillment
(Fig. 1). These needs are transformed into motiva-
tional schemas, which in turn result in goals and
are then finally transformed into actions. Fig. 1
depicts, among other aspects, the respective parts
of the organisation. It has to be distinguished be-
tween actions – including those within the frame-
work of OD-processes – which are:
– Specified actions, i.e. actions, which are to be
carried out according to predetermined and de-
fined conditions, rules and regulations,
– Self-directed actions, i.e. actions, which are
partly predefined in terms of e. g. the framework,
which can be acted on autonomously,
– Improvised actions, i.e. the given rules and regu-
lations are insufficient and the situation requires to
598
improvise and to “fill in” the gaps in a self-organ-
ised way,
– Self-organised actions, i.e. rules are regarded as
a prompt for change and are then transferred into
change, without knowing what the results will be
(→ 3.8.1; → 3.8.2; → 3.8.4).
Within the framework of OD-processes all kinds
of actions are important. In its function as an or-
der creating process, self-organisation demon-
strates the motivation of all persons involved: they
strive for solutions, which are emotionally more
positive than others. This is evident when consid-
ering – apart from the emotions – the individual
and collective energy, the individual and collec-
tive attention, which is focused on alternative so-
lutions to problems and ways to reach these solu-
tions. Again, this shows the inter-linkage of organ-
isational actions, learning, and the usefulness of a
systemic and self-organising perspective on organ-
isational change. In order to design OD processes,
which enable self-organisation (as a guarantor for
successful innovative processes) it is necessary to
consider the positive emotions and energies (focus
of attention) of all the persons involved.
For example, within the framework of a project,
tools and methods were developed, which – apart
from analysing processes and tasks – consistent-
ly take into consideration system dynamics: mes-
sages about relationships, positive and negative
emotions, unfulfilled and fulfilled needs. Based on
this, effective and efficient solution-scenarios have
been collectively generated on one hand such that,
on the other hand, they facilitate good relation-
ships and need-fulfilment (HEEG / SPERGA / SCHNEI-
DER-H EEG 2006).
3.8.4 Participatory Prototyping
Jürgen Friedrich
3.8.4.1 Introduction: From Technical to
Socio-Technical and Participatory
Design of Information Systems
In the dawn of application software development
– at the end of the fifties and the beginning of the
sixties of the last century – programmers were of-
Handbook of TVET Research
ten the only users of the information systems they
had developed. Therefore, problems with regard to
the use of the systems naturally did not occur. That
changed substantially with the excessive introduc-
tion of information systems, particularly within
the service sector beginning in the middle of the
1960s. The usability of the systems for end users
proved to be extremely poor. This not only pro-
voked resistance on the users’ side but jeopardised
the productivity of the computer applications at
the same time. Technically induced usability defi-
cits were superimposed by a similarly insufficient
treatment of usability problems on the level of
work organisation (→ 3.8.5.1). The introduction of
Management Information Systems (MIS), pursued
with huge effort during the 1970s, turned out to be
a disaster because of a total disregard of the social
and organisational aspects of operational informa-
tion structures. In this concept the company had
been organised top down, like a machine follow-
ing the calculus of a formal organisational logic. If
at all, users occurred as abstract “positions” in the
organisation chart. MIS were the result of an ”al-
liance of formalisation” between business manag-
ers and ↑ IT specialists. The first persons who criti-
cised this reductionist approach already at the end
of the 1970s on the basis of comprehensive îwork-
oriented research, were Enid Mumford from the
Manchester Business School and the Tavistock In-
stitute together with her colleagues John Hawgood
and Frank Land (HAWGOOD / LAND / MUMFORD 1978).
At the beginning of the 1980s they presented an al-
ternative approach by developing the method ETH-
ICS (Effective Technical and Human Implementa-
tion of Computer-based Systems):
“Traditionally, economic and technical objectives have
dominated the thinking of those designing new systems.
(…) The specifications for new systems have tended to
be almost entirely concerned with technical/↑ efficiency
objectives and very rarely with human needs and in-
terests. Today, it is increasingly being recognised that
human consequences cannot be left to change or to ad
hoc adjustments after implementation. The analysis and
specification of the social system, the design of jobs and
of the organizational unit as a whole, has now become as
important as the specification of the technical system“
(MUMFORD 1983b, chapter 3).
With the inclusion of the organisational and social
context into the technical design process prerequi-
sites for ↑ participation of the users were created.
Areas of VET Research
Terms like user participation, ↑ user involvement
or participatory design became part of the discus-
sion in computer science and changed the methods
of software engineering effectively.
3.8.4.2 Concepts: Participation – Prototyping
– Participatory Prototyping
While the term participation in computer science
mainly originated from research in ↑ ergonomics
and work sociology the term ↑ prototyping expe-
rienced a genuine interpretation in computer sci-
ence. Considering the concept of participation we
will here deal with its adaptation in software de-
velopment only; for general discussion (→ 3.8.2;
→ 3.8.3).
Participation
Systematically, one can differentiate between two
main directions in participation approaches: The
↑ socio-technical approach of Enid Mumford and
her school (cf. MUMFORD 1981) and the Scandinavi-
an ↑ Collective Resource Approach (vgl. NYGAARD
1983; EHN /KYNG 1987; FLOYD / MEHL / REISIN ET AL.
1989). The socio-technical approach assumes
symmetry of interest between entrepreneur and
worker. Enterprise negotiation processes should
lead to a balance of interest spheres. The approach
does not accept the existence of basic interest con-
flicts but acts on the assumption that optimal re-
sults for both sides could only be found in ration-
al discourses.
The slogan reads: Participation is productive and
profitable for the enterprise as well. In clear dis-
tinction from this the objective of the ↑ Collective
Resource Approach can be understood as support
for those workers who are affected by the introduc-
tion of new technologies. Scandinavian projects
which were often undertaken together with the
trade unions did assume that the implementation
of workers’ interests could be strengthened by the
introduction of far-reaching participation models
in a sense of work co-determination. Insofar the
↑ Collective Resource Approach has to be consid-
ered as part of the comprehensive Scandinavian
debate about enterprise democracy.
In Germany, this approach was taken up and fur-
ther developed based on the action research par-
599
adigm from the social sciences (cf. MAMBREY/
OPPERMANN / TEPPER 1986; FRIEDRICH / WICKE 1983).
The approach became politically relevant in Ger-
many within the framework of co-determination
on the company level. The conflict between ↑ so-
cio-technical approach and enterprise democracy
oriented concepts became virulent in discussions
about the range of workers’ participation: infor-
mation rights, consultation rights and co-determi-
nation rights indicate the scope within which par-
ticipation could take place. Several research and
transfer projects were encouraging mainstreaming
of participation methods in computer science and
were at the same time leading to a broadening of
the approach by inclusion of results of the socio-
technical school.
At the end of the 1980s the Scandinavian approach
was taken up by North American researchers and
led there – partly in combination with the socio-
technical approach – to the establishment of a new
direction of computer science, the discipline of
Participatory Design.
“Participatory Design (PD) is an approach to the assess-
ment, design, and development of technological and or-
ganizational systems that places a premium on the ac-
tive involvement of workplace practitioners (usually po-
tential or current users of the system) in design and deci-
sion-making processes” (CPSR 2006).
The conceptual differences can be seen very clear-
ly considering the title of a conference of the In-
ternational Federation of Information Process-
ing (IFIP) in the year 1983: “Systems Design For,
With and By the Users” (BRIEFS / CIBORRA / SCHNEI-
DER 1983).
Within the framework of the socio-technical ap-
proach the software developer creates appropri-
ate solutions on behalf of the user, demonstrates
these solutions to the user and finally implements
the optimal solution for the user. The user himself
stays passive to a large extent, being an object rath-
er than a subject of the design process.
The Scandinavian approach tries to solve the prob-
lem in cooperation with the user and to involve his
knowledge of the ↑ work process into system de-
velopment. Developer and user have equal rights,
both are experts in their respective fields: “expert
of practice” with respect to the work process on the
one hand, “technical expert” engaged in the sys-
tem development on the other.
600
Finally, action research – at least its most consist-
ent representatives – is intended to transfer the role
of the developer step by step completely to the us-
er, promoting the user to become a subject of the
development: system development exclusively by
the user.
A closer look at the development of design meth-
ods shows that the basic conflict between the so-
cio-technical, the collective resource and the ac-
tion ↑ research approach had no further practical
consequences. User ↑ participation today is prag-
matically seen as any form of ↑ user involvement in
the system development process.
Participation emerges as a dialectical process: On
the one hand it requires knowledge and experience
of the work process to actively influence the de-
sign process. On the other hand participation cre-
ates new fields of knowledge and extended experi-
ence and is therefore an implicit element of contin-
uous vocational education.
Prototyping
Introducing the participation approach to compu-
ter science had a long lasting effect on the meth-
odology of the discipline and its process model of
software development. The concept of participa-
tion was not compatible with the traditional wa-
terfall model of software engineering. According
to this model each phase of development is follow-
ing the other automatically, and process-related us-
er requirements are only allowed on a local level,
i.e. within the scope of a single phase (Fig. 1).
The waterfall model with its fixed starting and
ending points was substituted by an iterative mod-
Fig. 1: Waterfall model
Handbook of TVET Research
Fig. 2: Spiral model
el in which the phases of software development
were passed through several times. This model al-
lows the user to evaluate (preliminary) results and
to repeatedly revise the development. The focus of
this spiral model developed by Barry W. Boehm
(1988) is based on the fact that each development
cycle leads to a refined and more goal-oriented re-
sult (Fig. 2).
The spiral model not only aims at user-oriented ad-
vantages but also allows – from a managerial point
of view – periodical checking of the achievement
of objectives, the timely elimination of mistakes
(and thereby of costs) as well as the consideration
of alternatives to minimise possible risks.
The spiral model makes an intensive use of the
method of prototyping. Prototyping is often also
called “rapid prototyping” or “rapid application de-
velopment” (MARTIN 1991). The term prototyping
in computer science has to be differentiated from
the homonymous term in production engineering.
In this area the term denotes a procedure by which
3D geometry data from a CAD drawing is trans-
ferred (e. g. by stereo lithography) into a physical
model (e. g. a sample component).
A prototype is a technical object which shows se-
lected features of the final product already in an
early stage of the development process without be-
ing complete, optimal, efficient or reliable yet. A
prototype focuses on the special properties of the
system which are crucial in a given phase of de-
velopment: a sub-function, the user interface, the
processing speed etc. In ↑ prototyping, the static
character of the product takes a back seat. It is be-
ing dissolved by dynamically changing prototypes
Areas of VET Research
and versions. Unlike products, prototypes do not
play their roles only at the end of a development
process but can be applied already in early stages
of software development, e. g. during requirements
specification. Thereby, users are able to evaluate
future properties of the system already in an ear-
ly phase and to modify requirements if necessary.
Prototyping therefore makes it possible to supple-
ment or even substitute (textually formulated) for-
mal requirements by (visually modelled) concrete
and to a certain extent tangible requirements.
Hereby – besides the early involvement of ↑ users
– a second property of prototyping becomes evi-
dent which is able to enhance ↑ participation: Users
are not forced to use the formal language of soft-
ware development – formal specifications, module
diagrams, database schemes or pseudo code – but
can contribute to the design process by using their
everyday professional language to explain the ele-
ments of their workflow.
In this respect, prototyping is losing its object re-
lation – prototyping as manufacturing of a proto-
type – and is going to become a communication
method to discuss design alternatives in the devel-
opment process. In this perspective prototypes are
language elements to communicate properties of
the product between developers and users. Such
a communication is essential during the develop-
ment process because the “final product” actual-
ly does not yet exist either in the customer’s or the
developer’s head. In fact, the image of the product
is altering successively with every prototype. Pro-
totyping as a process of manufacturing a sequence
of prototypes, which in the framework of social in-
teraction between customer and developer are con-
verging to the target system, is in the end going to
become a qualification method in which the expe-
riences of the participants play a crucial role.
3.8.4.3 Topics and State of the Art in
Prototyping
In literature different forms of prototyping are dis-
cussed. Depending on the phase in which proto-
typing is applied Christiane Floyd differentiates
between three types (FLOYD 1984):
îExplorative prototyping is being used in the anal-
ysis phase and helps to clarify the application area
and the constraints of realising the requirements
601
in a given organisational and economic framework
(feasibility). Explorative prototyping also acts as
a means to specify requirements in co-operation
with the customer or user.
Experimental prototyping is being introduced in
the design phase to experimentally prove the us-
ability of the systems specification. The prototype
allows the testing of the interdependency of the
components and the finding of an optimal decom-
position of the overall system to ensure its exten-
sibility.
Finally, evolutionary prototyping provides a basis
for a step-by-step composition of the over-all sys-
tem passing through multiple cycles. It also com-
prises the implementation phase in which the sys-
tem obtains its real functionality. In several itera-
tions the prototype is approaching the final prod-
uct.
The application of the prototyping method in all
phases of the system development process thus en-
ables a comprehensive participation of customers
and users.
3.8.4.3 Topics and State of the Art in
Prototyping
In a second kind of classification prototypes them-
selves are differentiated according to their objec-
tive, their field of application and the degree of
covering the scope of duties.
Because the goal of prototyping is to enhance
communication with the user one often refers to a
prototype as a demonstration prototype. Its func-
tionality is often only simulated (simulation proto-
types, virtual prototypes) or programmed “quick
and dirty” without considering ↑ performance or
stability (throw-away prototypes).
Very often in evolutionary ↑ prototyping function-
al prototypes and interface prototypes play an im-
portant role. These kinds of prototypes will be fur-
ther refined with respect to functional scope and
user interface.
Finally, there is a difference between horizontal
and vertical prototypes. Horizontal prototypes on-
ly represent single layers of a system, e. g. the user
or the functional layer, whereas vertical prototypes
treat a single sub-function concerning the whole
depth of the system, e. g. the user administration
from database structure up to interface aspects.
602
3.8.4.4 Methods and Tools for Participatory
Prototyping
The methodological variety of ↑ participatory pro-
totyping is very large. It ranges from original so-
cial science approaches to programming methods
in software engineering. In this chapter we want
to highlight two methods, one from social science
and one from engineering, to illustrate the exten-
sive range of participatory design.
Ethnographic Methods
↑ Ethnographic methods are rooted in the research
work of cultural anthropologists. In contrast to tra-
ditional analytical methods like interviews and
document analysis, ↑ ethnography is strictly based
on observation procedures. Representatives of the
ethnographic approach underline the problem that
users are often not sufficiently able to reflect their
work situation and to express it appropriately in in-
terviews. Often users do not have an adequate con-
ceptual understanding of their role and behaviour
in a work flow; many of their working methods are
internalised and cognitively automated. Explain-
ing those methods is difficult or even impossible
for them. Polanyi’s findings which he described
by the term “tacit knowledge” can be considered
as a validation of this hypothesis. Observation of
work context, i.e. of ↑ work process, means for
work, working environment and the organisation-
al and social situation by the developer should re-
duce these limits of self-reflection and at the same
time widen the view beyond the subject-related
level of a single user. Thereby, the interests of ex-
ternally affected people (citizens, customers etc.)
will become visible as well. ↑ Participation is being
extended from a unilateral to multilateral social
category. Participatory Design is transformed in-
to ↑ Contextual Design (BEYER / HOLTZBLATT 1998).
But this again raises the question whether this mul-
tilateralism will be bought by “eliminating the in-
dividual from the participation process”. Is obser-
vation still an expression of active ↑ user involve-
ment?
Extreme Programming
When complex descriptions of real use processes
– as elaborated by ethnographic research – are pre-
Handbook of TVET Research
sented to the developers they will abandon hope
reaching a distinct system solution by following
clearly defined requirements in a linear develop-
ment process. The answer of software engineering
is not to map the complexity of the participation
process to a similar complexity of the technical de-
velopment. Quite the contrary, social complexity
should be tackled by a maximum of simplicity in
the technical process. The idea being: Simple ob-
jects and processes increase transparency and im-
prove chances of participation. During the last few
years a particular method which consistently real-
ises this paradigm has been gaining influence in
computer science: Extreme Programming (BECK,
K ENT 1999). Its principles are as follows:
(1) Simplicity in the development process as well
as in the programme code. Thereby it is quite easy
to realise system changes induced by changing us-
er requirements.
(2) Communication between developers and espe-
cially between developers and users. This principle
enables an adaptation of the system to the require-
ments of the ↑ work process. Users are directly in-
tegrated into the development team.
(3) Feedback on various levels. On the one hand
intensive and frequent evaluations should provide
feedback to the developers if the specification is
going to be realised in an appropriate way. On the
other hand frequent presentations of the system’s
status to the user should give him a realistic im-
pression about the feasibility of his requirements.
(4) Trust in the development process. A certain
amount of courage is needed in particular to re-
alise the most obvious requirements and postpone
future possibilities. And courage is also needed to
concentrate on given modules in the face of steadi-
ly extended requirements. But putting the focus on
the revision of given functionality will support the
realisation of users’ feedback.
The procedure starts with the description of re-
quirements – in terms of so called user stories –
by the users. Developers and users together decide
upon priorities.
Starting as an idea of a single person – Kent Beck
– Extreme Programming became a vital movement
around the world. Its principles were published in
a Manifesto for ↑ Agile Software Development
(BECK / BEEDLE / BENNEKUM ET AL. 2001):
Areas of VET Research
(1) Individuals and interactions are more impor-
tant than processes and tools.
(2) Functional software is more important than
comprehensive documentation.
(3) Co-operation with customers is more important
than negotiating contracts.
(4) Responding to changing requirements is more
important than following a given plan.
Emerging from economic necessities to over-
come an increasing bureaucratic software devel-
opment this new approach has the potential for
strengthening participative ↑ prototyping from a
user’s point of view (cf. RITTENBRUCH / MCEWAN /
WARD ET AL. 2002).
Tools
The methods described have to be supported by
adequate tools on the operational level. Many of
those tools function as means for visualisation of
prototypes (“I know what I need if I can see it.”).
Tools for manufacturing “mock-ups” and “paper
prototypes” belong to that group as well as those
for digital visualisation of user interfaces. In gen-
eral fourth generation programming languages
(4GL) support rapid prototyping very well by ab-
stracting from details of programming techniques.
Development of visualisation tools has been pro-
moted in many research projects for several years
(cf. STEPS project, FLOYD 1993; PICTIVE project,
MULLER 1993; MUST project, K ENSING / SIMONSEN /
BODKER 1998). But there is a lack of tools support-
ing ↑ participatory prototyping of dynamic, proc-
ess-oriented aspects of the systems, beyond solely
modelling the graphical interface. One approach
which is going to address this gap is the method of
“design games” (cf. BRANDT / MESSETER 2004).
Case Studies
Theory and methods of participatory prototyping
have been introduced in many areas of the work-
ing life – from the production sector to health care,
service industry and public administration – for
about twenty five years.
The first ↑ pilot projects took place in Scandina-
via. One of the most well-known projects was the
↑ UTOPIA project which was performed by Danish
and Swedish researchers together with the Nordic
603
Graphic Workers’ Union (EHN /KYNG / SUNDBLAD
1983). The introduction of computer-supported
graphical workplaces in the field of newspaper lay-
out and production was organised as a participa-
tory project. The use of mock-ups as tools for “de-
sign by doing” became a kind of language for mu-
tual understanding and mutual learning of technol-
ogists and workers. Later, the project was not on-
ly seen as a context-oriented process of ↑ IT imple-
mentation but also as an important step towards in-
dustrial democracy.
A lot of initiatives took up the UTOPIA experi-
ence, extended its scope of application, and spread
it to other countries. A good example for such an
extension is the Health Information System Pro-
gramme (HISP). The project, which intends to sup-
port health care in ↑ developing countries on a local
level by using computerised information systems,
follows an action-oriented design approach with
participatory prototyping as a main strategy. The
project started in South Africa and was supported
by the Department of Informatics at the University
of Oslo. Experience from that project were trans-
ferred to other countries in Africa, Asia and Lat-
in America. New challenges and questions arose
from experiences gathered in the HISP project:
First, cultural differences of the countries involved
strongly affected the application of participatory
prototyping principles. Social factors like the de-
gree of hierarchy in work life, the extent of for-
malisation in organisations, the existence of a dis-
course culture or the degree of “qualification for
↑ participation” (capacity development) heavily
influenced success or failure of the participation
process. The question suggests itself: Can western-
ised participatory design actually be replicated in
other cultural settings or is methodological ↑ local-
isation needed?
Second, participation is going to be extended be-
yond the corporate context. Target groups for par-
ticipation in such complex systems like health
care are – besides employees – patients, commu-
nity health care personnel, local public adminis-
trations, national health organisations etc. Dis-
tinct interest spheres, like in the early Scandinavi-
an projects (workers vs. employers) which consti-
tuted the basic assumption of the ↑ Collective Re-
source Approach, are not valid anymore in a mul-
604
ti-interest framework of context-oriented use cas-
es (cf. PURI / BYRNE / NHAMPOSSA / QURAISHI 2004;
BRAA / TITLESTAD / SAEBO 2004).
3.8.4.5 The Future of Participatory
Prototyping: Some Research
Questions
Developing methods to bridge the gap between
analysis and design. In the course of case-based
observations a huge amount of work-related qual-
itative descriptions is produced by ↑ ethnographic
methods. The question is how to generalise these
observations and how to derive design require-
ments from this data? Design needs ↑ abstraction
from details and thereby reduction of complexity.
To overcome the methodological gap between eth-
nographic analysis and ethnographic design will
be one of the most crucial ↑ research questions of
↑ participatory prototyping in the future.
Expanding stakeholders: Employees – customers
– citizens. Who will be the future users and how is
participation going to be changed by them? As al-
ready mentioned in the context of the HISP project
participation methodology has to extend its scope
beyond the corporate environment. Indirectly af-
fected people, e. g. customers of the company, con-
sumers buying commodities, citizens who are af-
fected by e-government, raise new questions about
content and organisation of participatory prototyp-
ing on a societal level. Are new forms of direct or
indirect participation needed (local referendums,
electronic votes, ombudsmen, customer represent-
atives etc.)?
Participatory prototyping in global virtual net-
works. Three questions can be asked with respect
to the increasing role of computer networks in cor-
porate as well as private environments:
(a) Computer programmes can be organised as
distributed applications. Different modules of the
software system run on different hardware com-
ponents which can be locally distributed too. The
diffusion process of computing power can go ev-
er further: Ubiquitous computing makes comput-
ers disappear from the particular locations of user
actions. Usage is anywhere, context is undefined.
Which methods of participatory design have to be
elaborated to cope with this extreme kind of diffu-
sion?
Handbook of TVET Research
(b) Often system designers are working in globally
distributed knowledge teams. How can users and
stakeholders be enabled to participate in such a
distributed design process? Is ↑ computer-support-
ed cooperative work (CSCW), using groupware
tools as communication and collaboration means,
an approach which users can be involved in (cf.
DANIELSSON / NAGHSH / DEARDEN 2006)?
(c) Not only designers but also stakeholders can be
operating in a distributed way, being geographically
decentralised, working in global knowledge teams,
being engaged in “Massively Multiplayer Online
Role-Playing Games” (MMORPG) or acting in
other virtual social communities. How can ↑ par-
ticipatory prototyping be organised and technical-
ly supported in online communities? Can we learn
from the Web 2.0 initiative, where users are closely
involved in the design of dynamic web resources,
e. g. online encyclopaedias, weblogs or podcasts?
Languages – tools – media. ↑ Participation of and
communication with users ask for a common lan-
guage which is illustrative and understandable for
affected persons on the one hand and which is ef-
fective and powerful from a designer’s view on the
other. Can prototypes (mock-ups, dummies) be in-
terpreted as “sentences” of this language and how
will the syntax and semantic of this “prototype
language” be defined? Until now there is a lack of
computer-supported ↑ prototyping tools which are
similarly effective and intuitive as hands-on meth-
ods like the use of paper prototypes.
At the same time digital media are going to break
the limits of traditional participation instruments.
The internet opens up opportunities for e-voting,
evaluation feedback and commenting. Already
now web-based questionnaires, news groups and
forums serve as a ubiquitous feedback medium
constituting a “New Participation” approach. How
will participation processes of the future be or-
ganised if computers lose their locality and scat-
ter as ambient technology into everyday devices
and appliances? And what if users leave the phys-
ical environment of traditional workplaces to be-
come tele-workers, e-learners or net citizens and
by this vanish from the view of the observing eth-
nographer. How real can participation be in a vir-
tual medium?
Areas of VET Research
3.8.5 Human-Computer Interaction
Karl-Heinz Rödiger
The design of man-machine interaction is a field of
research and development since technology has ar-
rived in working life. The discussion about ↑ task
allocation between man and computer is near-
ly as old as computers are. It started with the de-
bate about the attentive operator in control centres
and went through different paradigms over time.
It nowadays takes place in debates about ↑ human-
centred (NORMAN / DRAPER 1986) or skill-based de-
sign (SALZMAN 1992). Later on when ↑ information
technology (IT) has been coming out of the spe-
cialist’s corner with the emerging personal com-
puters (PC) in the early 1980s, a second track of
discussion started, mainly under the term usabili-
ty (INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ORGANISATION 1998).
With that the interaction between human and com-
puter has become an original field of research
and development in computer science; it has been
called ↑ human factors. Software-ergonomics is
often used for its description in Europe. The term
↑ ergonomics was first mentioned in 1857 by the
Polish scientist Jastrzebowski (quoted after LAU-
RIG 1997, 126) for how to set about teaching work,
and redefined by (MURRELL 1965) in a book titled
“Ergonomics. Man in his Working Environment”
has for a long time been used in information tech-
nology (IT) for the design of hardware and work-
ing environments.
In 1982 the first conference on Human Factors in
Computer Systems, CHI ’82 organised by the As-
sociation for Computing Machinery (ACM) took
place in Gaithersburg, ↑ USA. This event was al-
so the beginning of ACM’s Special Interest Group
on Computer-Human Interaction (SIGCHI). In the
meantime PCs and the Internet have penetrated
nearly all areas of life and work. Usability of IT
has therefore become a ubiquitous problem, and
the design of computer systems that are free of
harm, free of demands, beneficial for the develop-
ment of personality, and that meet the new require-
ments of knowledge-based societies is one of the
most challenging tasks in computer science. Nev-
ertheless the research and development work in
↑ human factors or ↑ software ergonomics centred
on product-oriented criteria of usability (INTER-
605
NATIONAL STANDARD ORGANISATION 1996) in order
to give software engineers the right guidelines to
create usable systems. The important question of
task allocation was pushed back behind improving
the handling of interfaces and the criteria suitabil-
ity for the task in this standard. However, it was
soon recognized that usability could not only be
defined in a product-oriented way without real us-
ers. Such an approach is probably suitable for very
well known standard tasks. In order to empower
skilled users (→ 3.6.4) to solve unknown problems
of the future they must be involved in the design
of ↑ IT systems. A new discussion about task al-
location, user ↑ participation and the preservation
of skills started under the generic term ↑ user-cen-
tred design.
3.8.5.1 Task Allocation
One of the most interesting questions in IT system
design over the last few decades has been, what
can computers do? and what should remain as hu-
man work (→ 3.8.1)? The answers to these ques-
tions have changed over time and have caused dif-
ferent paradigms that can be classified as compar-
ative, complementary, identical in principle, con-
trastive. Probably one of the first publications on
task allocation in complex systems has been that
of the psychologist Fitts (1951). He developed two
lists, in which he showed the merits of man over
machine and vice versa, that he had gained by
comparison between human abilities and the ↑ ef-
ficiency of computers. In his comparative approach
he defined man as a machine with limited compet-
itiveness:
“Low information-handling rate and inability to carry
on parallel operations are perhaps the major limitations”
(FITTS 1962, 34).
Fitts names as the special strength of man: “In
marked contrast … is man’s ability to handle a great va-
riety of different information-processing tasks” (ibid.,
36). Concerning this Fitts had also foreseen the
phenomenon of remainder work:
“Man’s versatility even poses a considerable danger to
system design, since it is always a temptation to assign
to a man any and all miscellaneous functions which are
left over …” (ibid., 36).
606
This paradigm lasted over a long time until Fitts
himself ruled the direct comparison between man
and machine out.
Jordan (1963), Chapanis (1965), and Lam/
Greenstein (1985) follow a different approach in
the allocation of functions in complex systems,
which can be called complementary. Instead of
polarizing they pose the question how to comple-
ment the competence between man and computer.
Rouse (1977; 1981) proposes to determine the divi-
sion of functions dynamically according to a prob-
lem situation:
“… a dynamic approach to task allocation has numerous
advantages, including better use of the system’s resourc-
es, less variability of the human’s work load, and the
possibility for the human to have an improved knowl-
edge of the overall system state” (ROUSE 1981, 78).
In order to get evidence on the dynamic approach
and on different kinds of ↑ task allocation math-
ematical models of man and computer are simu-
lated. Rouse’s arguments are not easy to under-
stand, because admitting “the computer has no
ego” (ROUSE 1977, 391) he nevertheless argues“…
if human and computer are both allocated responsibili-
ty for all tasks, each decision-maker will spend less time
waiting for an action-evoking event to occur …” (ibid.,
384).
Newell and Simon may be seen as founders of
the paradigm of principal identity. In their Turing
Award Lecture of 1975 they reduced intelligent be-
havior to symbol manipulation:
“A physical symbol system has the necessary and suf-
ficient means for general intelligent action. By ‘general
intelligent action’ we wish to indicate the same scope of
intelligence as we see in human action: that in any re-
al situation behavior appropriate to the ends of the sys-
tem and adaptive to the demands of the environment
can occur, within some limits of speed and complexity“
(NEWELL / SIMON 1976, 116).
These ideas – treating human information process-
ing as equivalent to data processing systems – have
left a broad trail in computer science and have dom-
inated the development of IT systems for a long
time. They have nurtured the hope of being able
to artificially reproduce intelligence with comput-
ers and to build up ↑ expert systems. They have al-
so led to ideas as symbiotic systems or convivial
tools in human – computer interaction (FISCHER
1983). Expert systems usually represent knowl-
edge about the world in the form of production
Handbook of TVET Research
rules, structured objects or logical calculus. The
idea behind this kind of representation is that of
universal truth. In reality, complex expert knowl-
edge is bound to personalities and situations; it is
historically and culturally determined in such a de-
gree that inter-subjective and universal truth can-
not be achieved. Moreover, experts never describe
their knowledge in the form of rules or calculus;
more often they outline it in the form of examples
and typical situations. Therefore the so-called tacit
knowledge (POLANYI 1966), based on practical ex-
perience cannot be completely acquired and for-
malized in a ↑ knowledge base (→ 5.1.5). The ques-
tions, what can computers do? can not be answered
any more then what can they not (DREYFUS 1992)?
As a counterpoint to the claims of ↑ artificial intel-
ligence research work by psychologists has been
undertaken on the question of best practice allo-
cation of tasks between humans and computers
(VOLPERT 1987b). Volpert’s idea when introducing
the so-called contrastive paradigm has been to al-
locate the respective functions according to what
humans can do best, and what computers can do
best. But, also this question could not be answered
unambiguously; the result has been a guideline
for contrastive ↑ task analysis, KABA (DUNCKEL /
VOLPERT/ ZOELCH ET AL. 1993) and the proposal for
a new aspect in industrial science, the so-called
↑ work-oriented computer science (“Arbeitsinfor-
matik”, RÖDIGER 1997).
Because the first 50 years of computers have been
dominated on the one hand by the trade unions’
fear that computers could absorb all human work,
and on the other by the computer scientists’ belief
that computers could stand substitute for all human
work, throughout this time there has been an inten-
sive discussion about ↑ task allocation. The deep-
er insight that none of these poles has taken place
as well as the impossibility of finding criteria for
the division of work for software engineers in ad-
vance in order to enable them to design adequate
systems, and the emerging work about ↑ human
factors in computing have placated this discus-
sion between computer scientists, industrial scien-
tists, psychologists and others involved in the de-
sign of human – computer interaction. Task analy-
sis did not generate a sufficient solution either. The
most common method of making these analyses
Areas of VET Research
is to perform a hierarchical task analysis accord-
ing to Diaper/ Stanton (2004) that is useful only for
well-known and well-structured problems. The is-
sues in an internationalized market with high dy-
namics and complexity are not well structured and
predictable; they cannot be solved by implemented
workflows (→ 3.8.0). Therefore different types of
system are required that put on individual compe-
tences and new forms of technical support. There-
fore Diaper/ Stanton 2004, 603) came to the con-
clusion: “Today, task analysis is a mess”.
Today’s discussion in human computer interaction
is dominated by the term usability, and the ques-
tion of task allocation has been volatilised to suit-
ability for the task.
3.8.5.2 Usability
Although Mauchly stated already in 1947 that
“any machine coding system should be judged quite
largely from the point of view of how easy it is for the
operator to obtain results” (MAUCHLY 1982, 395),
software was created by experts for experts up to
the late 1970s. Xerox’ Star (SMITH / IRBY/K IMBALL
ET AL. 1982) and Apple’s Lisa (1983) are good ex-
amples. The result of the two computers’ introduc-
tion has been economic disaster: Both were won-
derful machines, but nobody knew what to do with
it. Together with the emergence of computers in all
fields of working life questions of how to use them
arose. The central term for all work in human –
computer interaction since the beginning 1980s is
therefore usability.
Nielsen (1993, 26) associates usability with the fol-
lowing five attributes:
“– Learnability: The system should be easy to learn so
that the user can rapidly start getting some work done
with the system.
– ↑ efficiency: The system should be efficient to use, so
that once the user has learned the system, a high level of
productivity is possible.
– Memorability: The system should be easy to remem-
ber, so that the casual user is able to return to the system
after some period of not having used it, without having
to learn everything all over again.
– Errors: The system should have a low error rate, so that
users make few errors during the use of the system, and
so that if they do make errors they can easily recover
from them. Further, catastrophic errors must not occur.
607
– Satisfaction: The system should be pleasant to use, so
that users are subjectively satisfied when using it; they
like it”.
An international standard (INTERNATIONAL STAN-
DARD ORGANISATION 1998) defines usability as “ex-
tent to which a product can be used by specified users to
achieve specified goals with ↑ effectiveness, ↑ efficien-
cy and satisfaction in a specified context of use”. This
definition recognises that usability is playing two
roles: an objective, overall goal of software de-
sign and a specific one that must be put in con-
crete terms with specific users in a particular con-
text. Apart from this standard there exists a lot of
other definitions and criteria sets for usability. An
international standard (INTERNATIONAL STANDARD
ORGANISATION 1996) offers a set of principles that
will give a guideline for the design of interactive
systems. Seven attributes are defined in order to
fulfil the requirements of usability: suitability for
the task, self-descriptiveness, controllability, con-
formity with user expectations, error tolerance,
suitability for individualisation, and suitability for
learning. The most important criteria with respect
to vocational education research are suitability for
the task and suitability for learning. Suitability for
the task can be used to take up the discussion about
allocation of task; suitability for learning (→ 3.7.6)
can be interpreted as a requirement for the devel-
opment of personality. Although these standards
provide a binding source of reference they are not
easy to apply for designers without experience in
interaction design. The structure of ISO 9241-10
is deictic; but there is little help supplied to enable
one to transfer the examples into one’s own design
for usability (SOUZA / BEVAN 1990).
Usability attained a new dimension with the ar-
rival of the Internet (NIELSEN 2000). Billions of
Web sites are not only a problem of navigation and
aesthetics during leisure time. In the meantime
most companies have switched their local applica-
tions to web-based applications that can be used
via browsers. The emerging of an Internet econo-
my and the increasing offers of public services via
Internet have brought a new problem to light: ac-
cessibility, i.e. usability for a wide range of peo-
ple with disabilities, including blindness and low
vision, deafness and hearing loss, learning diffi-
culties, cognitive limitations, limited movement,
speech difficulties, photosensitivity and combina-
608
tions of these. The World Wide Web Consortium
(W3C) has developed Web Content Accessibility
Guidelines (W3C 2006) which will make not on-
ly the Web content more accessible to the vast ma-
jority of users; it also helps to improve the tradi-
tional desktop applications. The following two
books have the same concern: Universal Design
(LIDWELL / HOLDEN / BUTLER 2003), Inclusive Design
(CLARKSON / COLEMAN /K EATES 2003). Besides ac-
cessibility for the handicapped the actual discus-
sion in human – computer interaction is dominat-
ed by the term ambient intelligence (REMAGNINO /
FORESTI / ELLIS 2005). The meaning of ambient in-
telligence is being everywhere surrounded by
wearable or regularly installed sensors or smart
systems with which can be interactively acturated
by speaking, touching, pointing, gesturing or eye
moving. It is ubiquitous computing with all types
of human communication.
Usability is inextricably linked with evaluation
(→ 5.4.1). To ascertain whether an ↑ IT system is
usable it must be tested throughout its develop-
ment (formative evaluation serving as a guideline
for redesign) and at the end (summative evaluation
for verification of the user requirements). A lot of
different methods have been developed over the
years; they can be divided into observation, ques-
tioning, experiments, analytical methods, and ex-
pert reviews. All take place in three steps: (1) de-
scribing the required and the delivered features;
(2) comparing the required with the delivered fea-
tures; (3) assessing the delivered features taking
account of the difference found in (2). A widely
spread method is so-called heuristic evaluation;
it is based on the ↑empirical knowledge that ex-
perts’ opinions converge very quickly to a unified
one. Nevertheless acceptance tests with real users
are indispensable in ambient intelligence, because
these pervasive technologies raise a lot of ethical
and socio-cultural questions.
3.8.5.3 From User-Centred Design to Work-
Oriented Computer Science
Product criteria alone do not guarantee usable sys-
tems. The task of interaction design “… designing
interactive products to support people in their eve-
ryday and working lives” (PREECE / ROGERS / SHARP
2002, v) is requiring a special development process.
Handbook of TVET Research
Not only since the Xerox Star flopped economical-
ly is there a long scientific discussion and an op-
erational practice about the right methodology of
developing IT systems. The poles of this discus-
sion and internal company experiments are char-
acterised by the traditional, technology-based de-
sign approach on the one hand and a type of ↑ us-
er involvement on the other (→ 3.8.2). In the tra-
ditional, technology-based approach the compa-
ny’s responsible persons, who do not have to work
with the future system, together with software en-
gineers are making all the design decisions. There
are numerous examples in the past that this type of
IT system development has led to ineffective, hard-
ly usable systems (MUMFORD / WEIR 1979; CORBETT /
RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991). The Xerox Star is an ex-
ample that a virtual involvement of users is not suf-
ficient. The methodology, the designers have used
(NEWMAN / SPROULL 1979), suggested “to design an
intended user’s model in terms of which the tasks
may be cast” instead of involving real users.
To need to involve real users in the development
of new IT systems, especially in interaction de-
sign has therefore been obvious (→ 3.8.2). One of
the first ideas of participatory design (PD) came
up in Germany, promoted by the German Industri-
al Constitution Law of 1972, in which the thought
of co-determination as a principle of the econom-
ic system is laid down. The basic idea of PD is to
incorporate users along the whole iterative devel-
opment process of new IT systems, not only at the
beginning as interviewees or at the end as testers,
but as co-designers, who evaluate and redesign the
software step by step. The concept of PD is never-
theless controversial:
“The arguments in favour suggest that more user in-
volvement brings more accurate information about tasks
and an opportunity for users to influence design deci-
sions. … On the other hand, extensive user involvement
may be costly and may lengthen the implementation pe-
riod” (SHNEIDERMAN / PLAISANT 2005, 125).
A good overview about practices and tools of PD is
given in Schuler/ Namioka (1993).
In the meantime lots of different methods for de-
signing human – computer interaction with the in-
volvement of users have been developed. Two di-
rections can be seen: the European one (NYGARD
1986; EHN 1988) relying “on a moralistic call up-
on individual designers to be more ‘humanistic’
Areas of VET Research
in their design philosophy” (SALZMAN 1992, 68),
and the more pragmatic, American one. Pragmat-
ic in the sense that not ethical convictions about
life at large and work in particular are guiding
the development of ↑ IT systems; the interests of
workers in their future work and best practice ap-
proaches characterise these methodologies. Ex-
amples are ↑ User Centered System Design (NOR-
MAN /DRAPER 1986), Skill-Based Design (SALZMAN
1992), ↑ Contextual Design (BEYER / HOLTZBLATT
1998; BERINGER / HOLTZBLATT 2006), and Scenario-
Based Development (ROSSON / CARROLL 2002). The
aim of these methodologies is always the same: to
improve the usability of IT systems by involving
users throughout the complete development proc-
ess. The modus operandi and the tools are differ-
ent. Work design is always at the centre, but there
is no discussion about what is going on with the
workers’ skills. New IT systems or the redesign of
legacy systems give the opportunity to workers to
improve their skills and to deliver routine work to
computers. It is a well-known matter of fact that
workers do not want to accomplish routine tasks
that can easily be executed by computers. Contex-
tual Design and Scenario-Based Development are
targeted to efficient solutions in man-computer in-
teraction. Propagating user-centredness these ap-
proaches are nevertheless system-oriented: “Teams
deliver work practice, but the way they deliver it is
through a system solution” (BEYER / HOLTZBLATT 1998,
215). And, according to Rosson/ Carroll (2002)
“a description of work involves three dimensions;
the activities …, the artefacts …, the social con-
text” (ibid., 38 f.); tasks and skills to fulfil them are
missing in this description.
In his textbook review, survey results, and case
studies about IT system design Salzman is come
to the conclusion:
“The prevailing design approaches are based on a mech-
anistic view of humans. The recent (modest) interest in
ergonomics and safety bring the physiological require-
ments of human activity to the attention of equipment
designers, but have not altered the fundamental princi-
ples by which engineers conceptualize their goals and
objectives” (SALZMAN 1992, 91).
Especially his case studies verify the traditional
approach in designing interactive systems that “au-
tomates wherever possible” (ibid.) as inefficient.
609
“The alternative approach pushes decision-making and
process adjustment responsibilities down to the worker”
(ibid.).
The research and development (R&D) work in ↑ hu-
man factors has also drawn attention to psycholog-
ical requirements. Most of today’s interactive sys-
tems are indeed usable from a handling point of
view. From a problem-solving point of view they
persist in most cases in the automation paradigm
that understands humans as an error-prone system
that should be eliminated out of the ↑ work proc-
ess. The R&D work in human factors must pick up
again the discussion about ↑ task allocation under
the requirements of today’s work processes rather
than under the old question “Who can do better?”
The complexity of the actual working environ-
ments requires IT systems that support the work-
ers’ skills instead of replacing it (→ 3.8.1). Human
expertise in assessment and evaluation should be
combined with assistive technologies.
– Instead of learning the use of IT systems via
manuals, they should be developed along the crite-
ria suitability for learning, and therefore allow the
users to learn during usage (INTERNATIONAL STAN-
DARD ORGANISATION 1996);
– Instead of automating ↑ diagnosis, decision-
making, and process adjustment responsibility for
decision-making and process adjustment should be
pushed down to workers (SALZMAN 1992, 91);
– Instead of rule-based ↑ diagnostic systems that
predict the current state of man (medical) or ma-
chine (e. g. car) IT systems should be created that
proof and evaluate the human diagnosis (RHEIN-
DESEL / PUPPE 1998)
The R&D work in human factors has drawn at-
tention to a lot of details about human – compu-
ter interaction and has improved the interfaces.
The quality of an interactive system and the ques-
tion how much it provides in a given problem situ-
ation will not be decided at the interface between
man and machine. As long as software engineers
or human factors investigators try to fulfil the cri-
teria suitability for the task, task allocation has al-
ready been done and their work is mere cosmetics.
The question “Who is doing what?” is decided by
the system’s functionality and is in the kernel of
the software. ↑ User-centred design therefore must
start with the questions “What are the require-
ments of future work?” and “Which part in this
610 Handbook of TVET Research

work is necessarily played be the workers’ skills?”

and also “What kind of support can be delivered
by software systems?” The question how to design
the interface is under these conditions in fact a sig-
nificant one but not the most important. In order
to create interactive systems that are adequate to
the demands of a knowledge-based economy with
unprecedented high dynamics and complexity the
different threads – task allocation, skill based de-
sign, ↑ human factors, and software engineering –
must be brought together, maybe under the roof of
↑ work-oriented computer science (“Arbeitsinfor-
matik”, VOLPERT 1993; RÖDIGER 1997). The works
of Salzman (1992) and Göranzon (1995) will be a
good starting point.
 Section 4:
Case Studies of TVET Research
Philipp Grollmann and Geoff Hayward
Case Studies of TVET Research
4.0 Case Studies of TVET
Research
Philipp Grollmann and Geoff
Hayward
4.0.1 Introduction
This section illustrates the extent of topics in and
approaches to TVET research and provides an in-
sight into the development, the research process
and the outcomes of individual research projects
(→ 4.1; → 4.2; → 4.4; → 4.5; → 4.6; → 4.9) and
programmes (→ 4.7; → 4.8; → 4.10).
It shows that TVET research is far away from a
well delineated field of study and research or a dis-
cipline of its own, and that there are multiple ap-
proaches to its conceptualisation and different lev-
els of investigation.
As many contributions to this handbook show,
TVET is embedded into complex interplays of
historically grown societal functions. Patterns of
technological and economic innovation, ↑ labour
markets and industrial relations as well as educa-
tional systems and traditions are the main deter-
minants of the actual situation, ↑ policies and prac-
tices of TVET in different countries as compar-
ative and historiographic studies on the develop-
ment of TVET have documented (e. g. DAY 1987;
GREEN 1990; LAUTERBACH / SPÖTTL / FASSHAUER ET AL.
1994ff.).
With this variation, the research-questions, meth-
odologies and the location in disciplinary land-
scapes vary, accordingly (→ 1; → 2).
Those varying national and cultural traditions of
TVET research are however based on similar his-
torical roots as well as confronted with concur-
rent challenges caused through “megatrends”, such
as the increasing ↑ globalisation and international
competition and the increased speed of technolog-
ical and economic innovation (see also the contri-
bution of Achtenhagen and Weber in this section).
As to the joint roots one can refer to learning in
practice and its institutionalisation in form of mas-
ter-apprentice relations, as a central European tra-
dition, which can not only be found in the medie-
val crafts sector but also in other cultures as ethno-
logical studies on learning have illustrated impres-
613
sively (CHAIKLIN / LAVE 1996; LAVE / WENGER 1991).
Learning in environments of enacted practice as
opposed to more formalised learning settings such
as in schools, colleges and universities can claim
to be an anthropological constant and is probably
more widespread than the universal modern sys-
tems of schooling (→ 3.4.2; → 3.6.1).
As to the universal challenges many problems re-
garding the reproduction and further development
of technical, technological and economic knowl-
edge and its societal allocation are very similar
across cultures, when looking beyond the surface
of international variations. To some extent the pro-
grammatic of the “↑ knowledge society” stands in
the way of acknowledging the significant function
of skills and more implicit forms of knowledge
(NEUWEG 2004a; POLANYI 1983; SCHÖN 1983) for
economic and social processes than usually asso-
ciated with the term “knowledge society or econ-
omy” (ASHEIM / ISAKSEN 2000; GAVIGAN / OTTITSCH /
MAHROUM 1999; OECD/HRSDC 1997).
Nevertheless, in all industrialised countries cer-
tain forms of researching aspects and structures of
TVET have developed (→ 1). Very broadly speak-
ing, the state of institutionalisation of research on
TVET as a domain or even discipline of research
varies with the degree to which Vocational Edu-
cation is assigned a significant role and a formal
structure within the overall educational and socio-
economic environment. Since learning in and for
work settings does not constitute an explicit part
of the educational system in many educational tra-
ditions, any attempt to depict the current position
with regard to the global situation of the institu-
tionalisation of this research has to be rather open
in nature (see also the contribution of Achtenhagen
and Weber in this section) .
The roots on which the development of the differ-
ent strands of TVET research are based are shown
in the following table. Relevant established scien-
tific disciplines that constitute the main conceptual
frameworks are also assigned to those traditions.
In the last column the contributions in this section
are listed with regard to their main focus. All in all
TVET research can be broadly clustered along a
dimension of more work and employment orient-
ed and more learning oriented ↑ research designs
and approaches.
614
Tab. 1: The case studies: Overwiew
We did not aim at a representative selection of cases
of TVET research, but we think that we have man-
aged to identify a number of cases which spans this
spectrum of roots of TVET research. Each of the
authors in this section was left great freedom with
regard to setting focuses within their chapters.
4.0.2 Economic Research on Costs and
Benefits of Education and Learning
The question in how far training and learning con-
tributes to individuals’, companies’ and econo-
mies’ success and at what costs is as crucial as it
is difficult to answer. A series of empirical studies
has been carried out with regard to this question in
recent years (ACEMOGLU 1997; ACEMOGLU / PISCHKE
1998; 1999a; 1999b; BOUGHEAS / GEORGELLIS 2001;
CLARK 2001; GROSSMANN / MEYER 2002). This re-
search is complemented by broader approach-
es with the aim of understanding the contribution
of learning, qualifications and training to nation-
al economies (HALL / SOSKICE 2004). It is this per-
Handbook of TVET Research
spective in which the contribution of Mayhew and
Keep is rooted. The most striking feature of the
results of their analysis is that they suggest policy
and ↑ research strategies which go beyond the de-
marcation of the economics of TVET and cover a
broader conception of understanding the relation-
ship between individual learning, ↑ TVET policies
and the political economy of different stakeholders
in TVET. This perspective has fed into the work
of the Economic and Social Sciences Research
Council’s (ESRC) ↑ Centre on Skills, Knowledge
and Organisational Performance (SKOPE), which
examines the links between the acquisition and
use of skills and knowledge, product market strat-
egies and ↑ performance with broader conceptions
of assessing and measuring than usually applied in
economics. Therefore, it represents a research per-
spective with a significant effect on the further de-
velopment of TVET research in one of the major
industrialised countries.
Case Studies of TVET Research
4.0.3 Socio-Economic Training and
Qualification Research
Very close and entangled with the approaches
mentioned above, industrial sociology has looked
into the relationship between the form of work or-
ganisation, industrial policies and developments in
society. It has become clear that the whole complex
of skills, knowledge and education is an important
variable in this interplay. The studies presented by
Manske in this section are located in this school of
thinking and researching TVET. It is typical for
this way of approaching TVET, that it tradition-
ally has conceived of TVET as a dependent var-
iable, determined by economical and technologi-
cal factors (qualification “requirements”). Indus-
trial sociological research stemming from this tra-
dition has also brought forward fundamental com-
parative empirical studies on the relationship be-
tween TVET and work, such as the work of Drexel
or Maurice/ Sorge (DREXEL 1995; MAURICE / SORGE
1990). Through these comparative approaches, it
has eventually become clear that a one-directional
relationship between technology and employment
and qualification, knowledge and skills is a too re-
ductionist concept (see also RUTH 1995).
4.0.4 Life-Course and School-to-Work
Transition
Also in a sociological tradition, but looking more
at education, training and work in a subjective per-
spective, ↑ school-to-work transition and how this
affects individual attitudes and identity forma-
tion has been a much researched field. The con-
tribution by Witzel examines a research project
with this focus, which is complemented by similar
studies with a stronger labour-market orientation
(BRAUNS / MÜLLER / STEINMANN 1997; GANGL 2002;
MÜLLER 1997; SHAVIT/ MÜLLER 1998).
Too often in writing about ↑ qualitative research
we are left with an impoverished understanding of
the pathway from data to findings. This is certainly
not the case in this contribution on Youth Identity
drawing upon the work of Baethge et al. (1988). We
are provided with a suitably detailed account of the
construction of a typology based upon interviews
with 168 young people about their transitions in-
to employment and the impact upon their sense of
615
self. The large sample enables a number of struc-
tural factors to be brought into play in constructing
the typology, and this leads to a more nuanced and
detailed account of transition and identity than we
are used to in the literature. Furthermore, the study
starts from an explicitly theoretical stance, as an
attempt to engage critically with an overly simplis-
tic rendition of young people’s relationship with
the ↑ labour market. The result is a more complex
but ultimately more believable account of the ex-
periences of these young people and the sense they
made of those experiences. The work is now dated
but the methodological approach adopted lends it-
self to replication (not least because we know how
the typology was constructed and enacted) and the
real possibility of comparative work to see how the
constructed categories play out in other settings as
in later examples (BEHRENS / HURRELMANN / BROWN
1995; EVANS / HEINZ 1993).
4.0.5 Research on Human Resources
Development
In policy making discourse and in the advice of
management consultants certain phrases and ide-
as seem to adopt a life of their own. High ↑ per-
formance working seems to be such a concept.
Originally it was developed in American studies
on the development of work organisation, knowl-
edge and ↑ commitment (APPELBAUM / BAILEY/ BERG /
K ALLEBERG 2000). However, as Andy Smith’s con-
tribution indicates, the evidence for the use of
↑ high performance work systems is scant. What
existing evidence suggests is that high perform-
ance working pays off but that it may be difficult
to implement in an organisation. The reason is that
it requires change across several dimensions of the
organisation to incorporate new bundles of HR
management strategies such as performance relat-
ed pay, 360 appraisal and various forms of team
working. There is as yet little evidence about the
role of training in supporting high performance
working, and it is here that Smith’s study makes
a contribution. Methodologically it emphasises
how much can be learnt from detailed, micro-lev-
el case studies to examine the synergy between or-
ganisational practices and a policy initiative, here
the introduction of nationally recognised training
in ↑ Australia. It was this synergy that enabled the
616
case study firm to implement the training struc-
tures and programmes on which to base their suc-
cessful high performance working strategy. This
contribution shows that TVET can also be an im-
portant dimension of ↑ HRD. Worldwide the most
prominent example of the combination of an HRD
focus and the importance of TVET is the work of
Michael Porter (1990).
4.0.6 Research on Work, Technology and
Learning
The article by Wilfred Kruse identifies an impor-
tant new paradigm on research linking occupation-
al analysis to the design of learning programmes
that enable young people to make the journey from
beginner to expert as automotive mechatronics
technicians. This contribution is especially valu-
able for two reasons. First, it shows the strength of
a ↑ research design which is essentially collabora-
tive and dialogic. Researchers effectively become
part of the ↑ community of practice of expert auto-
motive mechatronics technicians who in turn be-
come more fully involved in the research process.
This leads to a deeper understanding of the nature
of the work being done, which enables such work
to be modelled at a more abstract level, essential
to cope with the explosion of technological infor-
mation in this area and to avoid over-specialisation
in training. Second, the article highlights the im-
mense challenge of turning such understandings
into an educational curriculum that does justice to
both the technical aspects of an occupation (which
can be come easily overemphasised) and the im-
portant social aspects of the work context, for ex-
ample the changing economics of the automotive
trade. Finally, the broader European aspects are
considered and a convincing argument is made
that exemplary work assignments, which embody
the essence of this research and development mod-
el, may be a useful way to spread good practice for
learning in this occupational sector across nation-
al boundaries.
With its strong focus at the content of work and ed-
ucation it is representative of a relatively young ↑ re-
search tradition labelled with the terms “occupa-
tional disciplines” and “↑ work process knowledge”
(BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER 2002; BREMER, R.
2002; FISCHER 2000; PAHL / RAUNER 1998; RAUNER
Handbook of TVET Research
2000a). The major aim of this strand of research
is to bring together the more work related perspec-
tives mentioned above and a learning and curricu-
lum view.
4.0.7 Educational and Curriculum
Research
Innovation in VET remains an area of considera-
ble interest and policy concern. Yet too rarely do
we learn the lessons of history about how to de-
sign and undertake innovatory pilot programmes.
This issue is addressed in the contribution by Ute
Laur-Ernst through her examination of the ↑ Multi-
media System Electrical Engineering/Electronics
(MME) pilot in the 1970s. Occurring at a time of
considerable debate about how to reform the ↑ VET
system in Germany, the MME was an ambitious
project that morphed over its lifetime from a stand-
ard quasi-experimental ↑ research design to a pro-
gramme of action research. The analysis suggests
that adopting this research perspective ultimate-
ly provided more fruitful in driving forward inno-
vation in VET practice in both schools and work-
places, and helping the innovation to stick. In addi-
tion to this important lesson, at a time when great-
er emphasis is being placed on ↑ experimental de-
signs as the sine qua non of VET evaluation, Laur-
Ernst emphasises the need for pilots to be of a suf-
ficient scale to produce meaningful results, the
need to recognise the complexity of VET in pilot
design, and the need for systematic evaluation of
pilots before they are implemented more widely.
These are important points that need to be heed-
ed by both researchers and policy makers commis-
sioning innovation and ↑ evaluation research.
Comparative ↑ research in VET is not uncommon
but is often undertaken for more theoretical than
practical purposes. This is not the case with re-
search reported by Zhao Zhiqun and Xu Han on
the adaptation of the German ↑ dual system in the
reform of VET in ↑ China. The reader is struck by
the reflexivity of the research process as Chinese
and German colleagues collaborated to understand
what aspects and ideas might transfer from the
German to the Chinese context and how Chinese
researchers, working collaboratively with school
administrators and teachers began to unravel the
complexities of the reform process. What result-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ed was not a naïve policy borrowing process but
a methodologically sophisticated process of adap-
tation of educational ideas to fit them with a dif-
ferent context. In the process, the Vocational Edu-
cation Reform Promotion through Learning from
the German Dual System (VERDualS) project
helped develop ↑ educational ↑ research capacity in
↑ China and raises interesting questions about pol-
icy learning between developed and ↑ developing
countries.
4.0.8 Empirical Research on Learning and
the Development of Expertise
Even though learning and teaching are at the heart
of TVET processes, the two have often been over-
looked by TVET research, which dealt with poli-
cies, systems, structures and provision. This was
one of the main shortcomings to be tackled by the
network of researchers presented by Achtenha-
gen and Weber, which also constitutes an interest-
ing account of efforts and challenges in cross- or
trans-national research in TVET see also the work
of European Network FORUM, e. g. in Dietzen/
Kuhn 1998). Achtenhagen and Weber put for-
ward the constructivist assumption that under cer-
tain conditions school-based instruction can be as
powerful in vocational learning as the learning in
practice. In contrast to this view, the contribution
of Benner and the contribution of James focus on
the individual processes of knowledge acquisition
in and for work practice. The importance of prac-
tice for vocational learning has been stressed by
several ↑ research approaches (e. g. CHAIKLIN / LAVE
1996; HOLZKAMP 1995; LAVE / WENGER 1991; SCHÖN
1983) and is one of the core features of TVET re-
search in contrast to general research on teach-
ing and learning (e. g. BRANSFORD 2004). James’
contribution provides a rich account on the com-
plex methodologies needed in order to answer ↑ re-
search questions focussing on the multi-faceted re-
ality of this very micro-level of TVET research.
The contribution by Benner is classical in regard
to its application of the ↑ novice-expert-paradigm
of Dreyfus and Dreyfus to a certain professional
domain. It has influenced nursing research, train-
ing and practice. Major findings of the different re-
search projects carried out in nursing using this
paradigm have re-inforced and helped to the fur-
617
ther conceptualisation of practical and ↑ implicit
knowledge as a specific ↑ knowledge base in pro-
fessional work. In addition it has become clear how
crucial this knowledge acquired through practical
experience is for the professional perception of
work-problems and their solutions.
4.1 Pilot Test MME: Innovation
Project at the Turning Point
(BBF)
Ute Laur-Ernst
4.1.1 Introduction
The innovation project described below was car-
ried out at the very beginning of a specific and sys-
tematic research in vocational education and train-
ing (VET) in Germany. For a long time VET was
not an original subject of research. This gap was
overcome when the Federal Government set the re-
form of the “German ↑ Dual System of Vocation-
al Education and Training” (→ 1.4) on the top of
the political agenda at the end of the 1960s. The
responsible stakeholders in those days agreed to
base the intended modernisation of the organisa-
tion, the subjects and the learning methods in VET
on empirical findings and theoretical knowledge.
As a main instrument for innovation they proposed
and financed the so called “Modellversuche” (pilot
tests/↑ pilot projects), which made it possible to test
modern curricular and learning concepts under the
real conditions existing in schools and companies
involved in VET. Each pilot project was accom-
panied by an external scientific team (so-called
“Wissenschaftliche Begleitung”), that carried out
investigations and studies to prove from a “neu-
tral” viewpoint the quality and ↑ efficiency of the
innovation tested. These empirical data should be
used for further political decisions.
Until now the innovation instrument “Modellver-
such” exists in Germany – beside the different EU
programmes and their pilot projects. But it has
changed in several aspects. One crucial change
was pushed very early by the pilot project MME in
particular with respect to the function of scientists
(“Wissenschaftliche Begleitung”), the ↑ research
618
approach, and the understanding of innovation as
an active and co-operative learning process for all
participants. Further insights concerning the qual-
ity of innovations, their transfer, implementation
and modus of finance – meanwhile also gained
from other pilot projects on the national and inter-
national level – were not taken up until now neither
by the political administration nor by the scientif-
ic community (→ 2.4). That is not surprising, but it
postpones reform and modernisation in education.
Systematic exploitation of available experiences as
well as more research in the structure and dynam-
ic of change is necessary to improve VET-systems
all over the world. In this sense the “old pilot test
MME” provides also today some relevant informa-
tion for the future.
4.1.2 Historical-Political Context
In the 1970s the Federal Institute for Vocational
Training (today BIBB, then the BBF) developed
and carried out one of the biggest pilot tests in
its history on its own responsibility: the pilot test
↑ Multimedia System Electrical Engineering/Elec-
tronics, in short MME. It started throughout the
Federal Republic of Germany with 56 (part time)
↑ vocational schools from all the Federal German
states at that time and lasted a good six years (1972
to 1977/78). It focussed on the development, test-
ing and implementation of an open, curricular
multimedia system with full geographical cover-
age and a modular structure for training in the rap-
idly changing professional and working environ-
ment of electrical engineering/electronics (R AUNER
1972; 1975). This reform project was unusual not
only in respect of its content and volume, but also
from the political viewpoint, as it was the Federal
Government, which is not responsible for the vo-
cational schools, and the BBF, which had only just
been set up and which was primarily intended to
address the companies with trainees, that took the
active role. Subsequently, the business side inter-
vened after a short time and declared its own inter-
ests. These were taken up by the project group in
the BBF and from 1975 a second leg of the project
was started in parallel involving 20 industrial com-
panies (until 1980). In this way the pilot test now
corresponded to the dual structure of vocational
training. Both learning locations: the vocational
Handbook of TVET Research
school and the industrial company were involved,
but hardly co-operated with each other at all – the
usual situation.
The decision regarding the MME pilot test was
taken during the boom time of education reforms
in Germany. The ↑ Vocational Training Law had
recently been passed (1969). The expectation was
for an upswing in professional basic and advanced
training through innovative research under close-
ly simulated conditions of practice. However, the
readiness for reform that was encountered did
not mean an absence of conflict. On the contrary
at the beginning of the innovation project it was
necessary to resolve some controversies with the
representatives of the Federal German states (de-
spite the consent of the Commission of the Fed-
eral Government and the Federal and State Com-
mission for ↑ Educational Planning and Research
Support, BLK) and of business. Thus there was for
example a suspicion that the curricular decisions
of the cultural and educational administrations at
the Federal state level and of the social partners
at the Federal Government level were to be un-
dermined by means of learning media that could
be used throughout the Federal Republic of Ger-
many. And the intention expressed in the action
programme and educational report of the Federal
German Government of 1970 to increase the ↑ effi-
ciency of teaching-learning processes by means of
↑ educational technology caused teachers and in-
structors to fear that didactic concepts were to be
tried out in the pilot test that would make it pos-
sible to reduce personnel in schools and compa-
ny training departments. Although the MME pi-
lot test was considered to be “non-political”, be-
cause it was positioned at the microlevel, it was in-
itially regarded with scepticism in terms of ↑ edu-
cational policy. The first task was therefore to cre-
ate confidence.
4.1.3 Objectives and Solution Concept of
the Pilot Test
The MME pilot test was conducted under the gen-
eral motto of “Qualitative Improvement of Voca-
tional Training”. This meant in particular:
– Overcoming long-established structures in ↑ vo-
cational school tuition,
Case Studies of TVET Research
– Developing technical and ↑ interdisciplinary
qualifications of importance to the ↑ profession that
had hitherto been neglected in schools and compa-
nies,
– Strengthening the position of the learner in the
training process,
– A holistic orientation in training, simultaneously
accompanied by media-didactic differentiation.
Besides this redesigning of standard practice in
terms of the priorities of content and methods, the
pilot test pursued scientific targets: an increase in
knowledge concerning the design and ↑ effective-
ness of learning media as well as the positioning
of recent vocational ↑ training research in practice-
oriented projects, and in this context the further
development of the pilot test as an instrument of
reform. This multi-level objective required a com-
plex structure of the pilot test and an ↑ interdisci-
plinary project group.
What did the solution concept look like? What ↑ in-
novation strategy was adopted? From the didactic
viewpoint, the combination of modern education-
al technology with the method of programmed in-
struction deriving from behaviourism appeared
to be a promising approach. The first positive re-
sults in respect of learning with programmed ma-
terials were now available in the field of vocation-
al training. At the same time the modern commu-
nications media such as film (Super 8) and video
as well as an innovative concept of mobile experi-
mental tools (modular teaching toolkits) promised
to make the relatively monotonous tuition in voca-
tional schools more attractive, more differentiated
and more efficient. In line with standard pilot test
practice, the project group embarked upon the in-
novation project with a relatively complete solution
concept. Although the MME multi-media system
was not completely developed, the new learning
media for two topic areas (DC current technology
and electronics) were already available for testing.
A differentiated, quasi-experimental ↑ research de-
sign had been worked out for this, which was to
supply reliable empirical data for two objectives:
– for the revision as well as an improved design of
the learning materials still at the planning stage for
alternating current technology, electrical machines
and protective measures, and
619
– for insights regarding the determinants and ef-
fects of active, motivating tuition with modern me-
dia.
To supplement this it was envisaged that the imple-
mentation of the pilot test, in other words the ↑ in-
novation process, should be critically monitored in
order to discover starting points for its organisa-
tional and instrumental optimisation.
In summary, the MME pilot test initially fol-
lowed a “rational-empirical” innovation strategy
in which a scientifically substantiated “good solu-
tion” (the multi-media system) was to be tried out
on a broad basis and empirically analysed in or-
der to subsequently become a fixed feature of day-
to-day teaching practice. In fact however the pilot
test took a different course. After a relatively short
time, there was a change of strategy: the originally
planned process of testing and implementation be-
came a target-oriented, innovative learning proc-
ess (“normative-competence based”), in which re-
searchers and practitioners equally took part.
4.1.4 Dynamic Innovation Process
The pilot test is characterised by three turning
points with long-term effects on vocational ↑ train-
ing research and practice:
– from the quasi-experimental field test to an ac-
tion-oriented research project,
– from a teacher focus to a learner focus in the
training process and
– from the segmented teaching of knowledge and
skills with a specifically technical bias to an inte-
grated, comprehensive qualification.
These three new orientations are exemplary for the
innate dynamics of innovation projects and show
that they are to be understood as living learning
processes with an uncertain outcome that cannot
be planned in detail in advance and that they must
be flexibly designed taking account of the current
level of insights and competence of the partici-
pants in each case.
Change in the Research Paradigm
By analogy with sociological and psychological re-
search practice, at the beginning of the pilot test a
hypothetical concept was developed the empirical
examination of which was to be carried out by way
620
of a quasi-experimental field test. Fundamentally
it was assumed (“explanation model”) that the in-
tended improvement in the quality of training can
be achieved with the aid of alternative as well as
differently combinable programmed learning me-
dia for theoretical and experimental teaching con-
tents and their embedding in various learning ar-
rangements. In this way the usual separation of
theoretical and laboratory and/or workshop tuition
was to be overcome, e. g. through co-operation
of the teachers (“team teaching”) on the basis of
the interrelated teaching programmes and exper-
imental exercises. The dominant frontal teaching
method was to be supplanted by self-learning on
the part of the students with programmed materi-
al, and the latter were to be assigned an active role.
Furthermore learning situations were arranged for
the independent and co-operative conducting of
experiments on the modular teaching toolkit in or-
der to replace the usual teaching by demonstration
(GUTSCHMIDT/K REIGENFELD / LAUR ET AL. 1974).
On the basis of innovative didactic considerations,
varied teaching plans were systematically worked
out which covered the multivariate ↑ research de-
sign. The objective was to measure and analyze
short-term and longer-term learning success, at-
titudes to training as well as emotional evalua-
tions of the media-based learning arrangements.
The starting point in these contexts was not a sim-
ple relationship between “stimulus” and “reaction”
but consisted in mediating moderator variables (in-
telligence, general education, interest in the sub-
ject etc.), which could explain the expected indi-
vidual differences. These moderator variables al-
so included teacher characteristics (e. g. age, pro-
fessional experience, authoritarian or partnership-
like and rigid or flexible behaviour) as well as im-
portant boundary conditions at the schools (size
and heterogeneity of the classes, school budget).
Teachers and students were informed about the
manner of proceeding and the objectives of the test
and were requested to consistently adhere to the
teaching plans (“experimental conditions”) over a
period of one to two years in several classes as well
as to carry out the standardised tests, surveys and
controls of what had actually been learnt. Besides
these quantitative instruments, for special ques-
tion complexes (e. g. co-operative learning with
Handbook of TVET Research
the modular teaching toolkit) qualitative methods
such as observation, interviews and ↑ group discus-
sions were applied (for the basics of these methods
see → 5.1.6). In this way, a complex compilation of
data about approx. 170 teachers and several thou-
sand students was built up, which was continuous-
ly evaluated with high statistical input (descriptive
and explanatory ↑ statistics) and was later finally
evaluated. The extensive results have been docu-
mented (LAUR-ERNST 1981a).
To begin with, the teaching plans were accepted by
the teachers as a practical aid in order to properly
handle and wield the various new modules of the
MME. With growing experience and competence,
they were however felt to be a restriction. The
teachers wanted to design and try out their own
teaching concepts. This was the turning point: The
“object role” of the partners in practice that had
been structurally created in the sociological exper-
iment had to be converted to a “subject role”. This
change corresponded to the paradigm of the action
research that was at that time a topic of controver-
sial discussion. According to this, the experts from
the practical side were to be considered as co-de-
signers of the research process with equal rights.
This was done. In consequence, the test specifica-
tions were dropped; the teachers logged the use of
media which they determined; the design of the in-
vestigation was restructured as a whole. The re-
search side gave up its role of a “neutral” observer
and supported the ↑ innovation process by supply-
ing the empirically gained data and pertinent ped-
agogic-psychological findings (LAUR 1978). Co-
operation also grew significantly in respect of the
development of media. Teachers participated in the
concept development and drafting of media and
proposed improvements in the organisation of the
learning. There were intensive discourses about
necessary didactic innovations in vocational train-
ing, which significantly exceeded the original con-
cept of the MME.
This paradigmatic change in the MME pilot test
was a signal to the administration to generally re-
define the hitherto required external control func-
tion of “scientific accompaniment” within the
meaning of action research (in this connection in
general see → 5.4.3). A corresponding change was
effected in the promotion guidelines. In the teach-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ing activities in the companies, action research was
practised from the very beginning on the basis of
the experience gained. In this context the instruc-
tors were initially provided with the learning docu-
ments for the ↑ vocational school (specialist subject
electronics) in order to work out a complementa-
ry company-specific qualification concept against
this background.
Centring on the Learner and the Changed Role
of the Teacher
The socio-political orientation of the initiators of
the pilot test was manifested in the objective of the
“democratisation” of the vocational school, an ob-
jective typical of that time (RAUNER 1972). In prin-
ciple this meant two things:
– greater independence of the students/trainees
from the teacher, as well as
– the breaching of self-contained “teacher-proof”
curricula.
How were these intentions translated into prac-
tice? On the basis of professionally faultless pro-
grammed learning documents reflecting the tech-
nical state of the art – this was the train of thought –
the young people can learn what is correct and im-
portant with a good portion of independence from
the degree of competence of the teachers. This was
a major advantage in view of the gaps in knowledge
to be observed in the case of many teachers by vir-
tue of rapid technological change in the working
world (e. g. at that time in the field of digital elec-
tronics). In addition, the student/trainee was drawn
out of his mostly passive-receptive role in the tui-
tion process. He now took over an active part that
promoted learning. In the case of programmed in-
struction, however, independence has clear limits
– even if in the MME these were somewhat loos-
ened by means of freely designed tasks, branched
paths of learning and media variants (books, au-
diovisual slide presentations, films, experiments).
This is substantiated by the data and practical ex-
perience gained in the field trial. The critical-re-
flective discussion of these led to a joint new de-
velopment, namely “learner-controlled exercises”,
which were later supplemented by even more open
documents for “learning projects” that were to be
carried out independently. In this way, the step to-
wards self-controlled learning through action was
621
accomplished in the pilot test. But the fact could
not be ignored that not all young people benefited
from this openness to the same extent, just as the
programmed instruction definitely had positive ef-
fects in the case of some of the learners (general
information on ↑ media research → 3.7.9). Within
the framework of the company-based part, the log-
ical consequences were drawn from this and a fur-
ther media innovation was worked out: the “practi-
cal technical exercises”, which were oriented more
to real ↑ work tasks and which made “steered”
learning actions possible. With the “modules con-
cept” that then followed, the trainees and appren-
tices were able to produce complete and functional
products (e. g. measuring devices or amplifiers). In
this way the didactically demanding project idea
was successfully converted to a form that was ac-
cepted by the training organisation in the company
(GUTSCHMIDT/ LAUR 1978).
The media changed the role of the teacher (R AUNER
1980). He could make a selection from among the
media alternatives on offer (audiovisual slide pres-
entation, book, film, programmed or learner-con-
trolled exercise) and design his tuition with many
variant forms and different methods. He became
the organiser of the learning process and in this
situation he himself became an individual learn-
ing counsellor – a role which at that time was in
no way usual. The dominant self-perception of
teachers was that of the incontestable “mediator of
knowledge”. The indubitably difficult re-interpre-
tation of his own role required personal reflection
and a widening of his technical and didactic com-
petence. The pilot test offered a suitable frame-
work for this. Finally yet another step was taken
towards greater self-determination and curricular
openness of the multi-media system (for example
in the field of electronics): the profession-related
parallel offer. Teachers and instructors could de-
cide between alternative exercises (contents) with
the same qualification target. Here however the
MME came up against a limit in terms of practica-
bility; the new option was only partially used.
More Integration and a More Holistic Ap-
proach in the Learning Process
The splitting up of learning processes due to the
strong differentiation of the learning objectives
622
and the strict division of labour between school
and business company led to a segmented profes-
sional qualification, which no longer did justice to
the growing complexity of requirements in the re-
al working world. A more holistic approach and
greater integration were necessary. This meant in
concrete terms: The separation of theory and prac-
tice as well as the one-sided concentration on vo-
cational qualifications had to be overcome. The
former was accomplished by means of the har-
monised theoretical and experimental media, the
modular teaching toolkits that could be set up an-
ywhere as well as the design and furnishings of
technical instruction rooms. However this undis-
puted didactic improvement triggered conflicts in
some ↑ vocational schools. The incorporation of
experimental work into the tuition of the “theory
teachers” in some cases met with strong resistance
and vice versa: the imparting of theoretical knowl-
edge within the framework of laboratory and ex-
perimental instruction by the “technical or work-
shop teachers” did so too. Alongside the corre-
sponding self-perception of status in each case, the
classification of the two types of teacher in differ-
ent pay groups constituted a serious obstacle to in-
novation. It was finally up to the school manage-
ment to find a constructive solution in favour of the
improvement in quality.
In the pilot test in the companies, this problem did
not exist. Here both knowledge components were
interlinked in the same media module (practical
technical exercises) from the very beginning. That
was indubitably better than linking them by means
of subsequent organisational measures as in the
schools. However in this context it was primarily
a question of technical knowledge as a prerequi-
site for concrete practical technical action, not one
of teaching theoretical, scientific reasons and con-
ducting corresponding experiments. Both were al-
located to the school as a qualification task by the
training companies. This also applied in the case
of the promotion of the personality of the train-
ees, which in the MME pilot test acquired a great-
er emphasis through the development of more in-
dependence and cooperativeness. This was expect-
ed of the vocational school by virtue of its teach-
ing mandate; the companies initially saw no task
for themselves in this. One fact that played a spe-
Handbook of TVET Research
cial role in this context was that independent action
was not envisaged in the regulating instruments for
the training of skilled workers that were applicable
in those days. On the contrary: the skilled work-
er was to carry out his work for the company ex-
pressly in accordance with the specifications – not
more.
Another bone of contention was the co-operative
learning promoted in the test. This was regard-
ed critically by both instructors and teachers. The
prevailing argument here was that the co-opera-
tion of the students blurred the individual achieve-
ment that was to be assessed. Both reservations di-
minished with the passing of time, due not least
to a modern organisation of labour in progressive
companies that attached greater importance to in-
dependent teams. The educational breakthrough of
↑ key qualifications across different occupations –
for this is what it amounted to in the MME inno-
vation project, even if it was not named as such
– and of a complex understanding was however
not achieved until the restructuring of the ↑ metal-
working and electrical engineering ↑ professions in
the mid-1980s. The MME pilot test contributed to
preparing the ground for this as did also the simi-
larly designed pilot test Multi-Media System Met-
al Engineering (MMM) that was begun somewhat
later in the BIBB.
4.1.5 Evaluation and Information Strategy
The field test as well as all further empirical in-
vestigations were measures of formative evalua-
tion, an essential element of the ↑ innovation proc-
ess (“action model”). This evaluation was supple-
mented by theoretical discussions with the teach-
ers involved as well as with external scientists.
The most important results are the well-found-
ed Contributions to Experimental Tuition (BIBB
1975) and the critical assessment of the pilot test
from the viewpoint of communicative action, in
which the media-didactic approach was problema-
tised (NEUMANN / STIEHL 1976). The dual evaluation
strategy (empirical and theoretical) underscores
the character of the pilot test as an open learning
and development process (for general information
on this see → 3.6.4).
Transparency was altogether an important design
element. Thus all those involved – also the partic-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ipating students/trainees – were continuously in-
formed about the intentions and results of the pi-
lot test. A wide variety of brochures, “infos”, re-
ports as well as scientific publications were pro-
duced. However this information policy came up
against limits. In both legs of the project, in the
schools and in the companies, there was a structur-
ally-induced communications problem due to the
different interests, competence and language of re-
search and practice. This problem was not capable
of solution but could only be brought to a balance
acceptable to both sides. Even in an action research
project, the actors necessarily remain tied to their
social and professional context. However bridges
can be built; overlap zones crystallised, and these
were of decisive importance for the success of the
innovation project. In the MME pilot test, two
facts here played a decisive role: the competence
and here in particular the professional competence
of the participants on both sides as well as the per-
sonality characteristics such as credibility, com-
munication skills and empathy.
4.1.6 Implementation and Utilisation of the
Results
In the MME pilot test, more than 600 modules in-
cluding accompanying material were developed
and partially revised for the five ↑ subject areas
(DC current and AC current technology, electrical
machines and protective measures as well as elec-
tronics). The test therefore entailed a huge amount
of production, which absorbed a lot of capacity.
The reason for this comprehensive approach in the
production of the media was the following: As ex-
perience shows, individual new media rapidly dis-
appeared; they remained innovative “islands” in
the otherwise unchanged practical environment
and did not have the power to set in motion a last-
ing reorganisation of the teaching-learning proc-
esses. But this is expected of a multi-media sys-
tem that covers all contents, and the development
and testing of which involved a large number of
schools and companies.
For this reason the transfer problem, which it is
well known is the reason why many pilot tests
fail, played no comparable role in the innovation
project MME. After all, no made-to-measure so-
lutions were produced for a selected minority of
623
↑ vocational schools or companies; on the contra-
ry different interests, traditions, boundary condi-
tions and envisaged objectives were taken into ac-
count as far as possible. The learning materials and
learning arrangements were designed with an eye
to a wide spectrum of potential users; later market-
ing was envisaged (“utilisation model”). During
the pilot test itself it was already clear that the use
of the media did not necessarily correspond to the
ideas of the project group but was determined by
the didactic and individual guidelines of the teach-
ers and instructors. This active use that partially
restructures innovation is a prerequisite for its suc-
cessful implementation.
The implementation was moreover initiated by an
early decentralisation of responsibilities and ini-
tiatives. In the school-based part, after two years
regional working groups (specific to the individ-
ual Federal German states) were set up in which
the schools that took part in the pilot test planned
their own special activities, invited other schools
from the local area and reported on their activities
at the joint meetings. In some cases these working
groups continued to exist for many years after the
end of the pilot test and concerned themselves with
questions that went a good deal further than the
original objectives. On the industrial side, there
was an independent exchange of information about
the project and its results in the network of the big
business companies. This was supported by the
project group in the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry by means of special events. The research
into effects to identify longer-term effects and side
effects over and above the known framework of the
pilot test that had originally been envisaged and
proposed did not find the consent of the research
committee of the BBF/BIBB at that time.
4.1.7 Importance and Conclusions
Due not least to its size, its duration and its funding,
the MME pilot test had widespread and long-term
effects that were substantially greater than average.
In many respects it marked a turning point in voca-
tional ↑ training research and practice. This applies
to the applied research paradigm, to the holistic di-
dactic concepts oriented to independent and co-
operative learning action as well as to the changed
role of the teacher as a learning counsellor. The
624
original approach – a complex multi-media system
based on programmed instruction – was in the end
not a feasible innovation in all respects. In particu-
lar the initially favoured programming of learning
rapidly proved to be problematical – not least be-
cause it basically ran counter to the ↑ interdiscipli-
nary objectives: a learner focus, individualisation,
cooperativeness and self-sufficiency. This was not
seen at the beginning of the project, just as little
as the restrictive effect of the ↑ research approach
(quasi-↑ experimental design) was recognised. The
project group, the participants and the sponsors
underwent a sustained learning process and posi-
tioned themselves anew. The MME pilot test pro-
vided decisive stimuli to change long-established
structures and orientations in training both in the
schools and in the companies. In dealings with
the new media and learning arrangements, major
problems of occupational training came into fo-
cus and were tackled in innovative ways. The test
advanced a changed understanding of occupation-
al learning processes, which, in conjunction with
similarly oriented reform initiatives and innova-
tion projects in the 1970s and 1980s, continued to
exert an influence in the long term.
The MME pilot test underscores the fact that voca-
tional training research needs an interdisciplinary,
action research based approach if it is to generate
and realise innovations that are relevant to prac-
tice and to implement these for a sustained peri-
od (in this connection in general see → 5.1.4). In
doing so it will also in future take recourse to the
spectrum of sociological and experimental meth-
ods and elaborate these further for its specific sub-
ject matter. In the light of the experience gained at
that time, three things currently appear to be espe-
cially problematical:
– the common practice of restricting pilot tests to
isolated instances (too few participants) and their
too short duration; in this way they inevitably be-
come “innovation episodes” with no very broad ef-
fect,
– the frequent orientation to selective, non-net-
worked innovations that do not correspond to the
complexity and differentiation of vocational train-
ing; it is not only a question of ↑ interdisciplinarity
but of systemic approaches in pilot tests, and
Handbook of TVET Research
– the relatively small proportion of systematic em-
pirical research that provides findings over and
above the isolated case.
All this points to the need to re-think the current
pilot test concept and the promotion guidelines. Pi-
lot tests as instruments of reform must be adapted
to the new challenges (→ 2.4).
4.2 Using the Dreyfus Model of
Skill Acquisition to Describe
and Interpret Skill Acquisition
and Clinical Judgement
in Nursing Practice and
Education
Patricia Benner
4.2.1 Introduction
Stuart E. Dreyfus, an applied mathematician, and
Hubert L. Dreyfus, a philosopher, developed a
model of ↑ skill acquisition based upon the study
of chess players, Air Force pilots, and army tank
drivers and commanders (DREYFUS / DREYFUS
1977; 1979; 1980; 1986; Dreyfus 1982). The Drey-
fus Model of Skill Acquisition has illuminated on-
going research on skill acquisition and articulation
of knowledge embedded in expert practice (→ 3.6;
→ 5) in nursing (→ 3.2.6). The Dreyfus model is
developmental, based upon situated ↑ perform-
ance and experiential learning. Three studies of
skill acquisition in nursing have been conducted
guided by the Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition
(BENNER, P. 1982; 1984; BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA
1996; BENNER / HOOPER-KYRIAKIDIS / STANNARD
1999). Hubert and Stuart Dreyfus served as con-
sultants in each of these three studies.
The first study, conducted in 1978–1981
(BENNER, P. 1982; 1984), was based upon 21 paired
interviews with newly graduated nurses and their
preceptors, and interviews and/or participant ob-
servations were conducted with 51 additional ex-
perienced nurse clinicians, 11 newly graduated
nurses, and 5 senior nursing students to further de-
lineate and describe characteristics of nurse per-
formance at different levels of education and ex-
Case Studies of TVET Research
perience. The interviews (small group and indi-
vidual) were conducted in six hospitals: two pri-
vate community hospitals, two community teach-
ing hospitals, one university medical centre, and
one inner-city general hospital. A second study of
skill acquisition and clinical knowledge of critical
care nurses was conducted between 1988 and 1994
(BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA 1992; DREYFUS / DREYFUS
1996; RUBIN 1996). One hundred and thirty nurses
practicing in intensive care units and general floor
units from eight hospitals, seven of which are lo-
cated in two far Western and one in the Eastern re-
gion of the ↑ United States of America, comprised
the study population. Small group narrative inter-
views, individual interviews, and participant ob-
servation were used as data collection strategies.
The two aims of the study, relevant to this article,
were: (1) To describe the nature of ↑ skill acquisi-
tion in critical care ↑ nursing practice; (2) To de-
lineate the ↑ practical knowledge embedded in ex-
pert practice. The third study was an extension of
this study, conducted in 1996–1997 to include oth-
er critical care areas (including emergency depart-
ments, flight nursing, home health, the operating
room, and post-anesthesia care units: N=75 nurs-
es) and enlarge our sample of advanced practice
nurses.
The first study was sponsored by a grant from the De-
partment of Health and Human Services, Public Health
Service, Division of Nursing, Bureau of Health Profes-
sions (Grant No. 7 D10 NU 29104-03). The Helene Fuld
Trust funded the second and third studies.
This paper presents key findings of these three
studies using data from each of the studies.
The Dreyfus Model of Skill Acquisition address-
es experiential learning in a complex under-de-
termined field over time. The model is situation-
al rather than being a trait or talent model, since
the focus is on actual performance and outcomes
in particular situations. The model is developmen-
tal in that changes in the performance in particu-
lar situations can be compared across time. How-
ever, the model does not focus or identify particu-
lar traits or talents of the person that generates the
skillful performance.
Nursing, like other practice disciplines, is not mere-
ly an “applied” field in the sense that the practice
is complex, varied and under-determined. Good
practice requires that the nurse develop skillful
625
ethical comportment as a practitioner and that the
nurse use good ↑ clinical judgement informed by
scientific evidence and technological development.
The sciences of medicine and nursing are broad
and multi-disciplinary and require translation in-
to the particular practice situation. Basic sciences
of biochemical, physical and biological processes,
physiological processes, research and development
of specific therapies and technologies, and finally
clinical trials and more make up a broad range of
relevant science used in the practice of medicine
and nursing.
A recent development in nursing and medical prac-
tice has been to aggregate clinical trial research
outcomes to summarize and recommend the best
evidence for treatment of specific clinical condi-
tions. However, the logic of scientific decision-
making and the logic of the practitioner work-
ing with single cases or unique populations are
necessarily different. The practitioner must rea-
son across time about the particular case through
changes in the patient’s condition and changes in
the clinician’s understanding of the patient’s condi-
tion. Since practice in the individual case is under-
determined, i.e., open to variations not accounted
for by science, the practitioner must use good clin-
ical reasoning in order to intelligently select and
use the relevant science. Perceptual acuity in rec-
ognizing salient signs, symptoms, and responses to
therapies are required for the clinician to use good
↑ clinical judgements in particular clinical cases.
Recognizing and keeping track of clinical chang-
es in the patient over time requires the logic of rea-
soning in transition (TAYLOR 1993; BENNER 1994b).
This is a form of argument about the outcomes of
successive changes. Patient changes must be evalu-
ated as improved, stable or deteriorating over time.
Clinicians call this “recognizing trends” in the pa-
tient. Some aspects of practice can be subjected
to more standardization and to what Aristotle de-
scribed as techne. Standard measurements of vi-
tal signs and laboratory metrics are examples of
clinical assessments that can be reduced to techne.
But note that skillfulness and craft based upon ex-
perience may still be essential to successful ↑ per-
formance of techne. In situations where the pa-
tient’s particular response must be considered, and
perceptual acuity is required to recognize salient
626
changes in the patient, as well as situations where
attuned relationships and judgement require skill-
ful comportment, both techne and phronesis (↑ sit-
uated actions based upon skill, judgement, charac-
ter and wisdom) are essential.
At the heart of good ↑ clinical judgement and clin-
ical wisdom lies experiential learning from par-
ticular cases. Bad judgements must be refined and
corrected in particular cases; anomalies and dis-
tinctions must be noticed. The Dreyfus Model of
↑ Skill Acquisition addresses this kind of experien-
tial learning in a complex under-determined field
over time. The model is situational rather than be-
ing a trait or talent model, since the focus is on ac-
tual performance and outcomes in particular situa-
tions. The model is developmental in that changes
in the performance in particular situations can be
compared across time. However, the model does
not focus or identify particular traits or talents of
the person that generate the skillful performance.
Nursing as a practice, requires both techne and ph-
ronesis as described by Aristotle. Techne can be
captured by procedural and scientific knowledge,
knowledge that can be made formal, explicit and
certain except for the necessary timing and adjust-
ments made for particular patients. Phronesis, in
contrast to techne, is the kind of practical reason-
ing engaged in by an excellent practitioner lodged
in a community of practitioners who through ex-
periential learning and for the sake of good prac-
tice continually lives out and improves practice
(SHULMAN 1993; GADAMER 1960/1975; MACINTYRE
1981; DUNNE 1997; BENNER / HOOPER-KYRIAKIDIS /
STANNARD 1999). Techne, or the activity of pro-
ducing outcomes, is governed by a means-ends ra-
tionality where the maker or producer governs the
thing produced or made by gaining mastery over
the means of producing the outcomes. By contrast,
phronesis is lodged in a practice and so cannot re-
ly solely on a means-ends rationality because one’s
acts are governed by concern for doing good in
particular circumstances, where being in relation-
ship and discerning particular human concerns are
at stake must guide action.
Technique alone cannot address interpersonal and
relational responsibilities, discernment and situ-
ated possibilities required by caring for persons
made vulnerable by illness and injury. Phronesis
Handbook of TVET Research
is required. Means and ends are inextricably relat-
ed in caring for the ill. Clinician and patient bend
and respond to the other so that horizons and world
are opened and reconstituted so that new possibili-
ties can emerge.
As the Dreyfus model suggests, experiential learn-
ing requires the stance of an engaged learner, rath-
er than a stance of one expert in techne who skill-
fully applies well-established knowledge in pre-
specified clear circumstances. Experiential learn-
ing requires openness and responsiveness by the
learner to improve practice over time. The learn-
er who develops an attuned, response-based prac-
tice learns to recognize whole situations in terms
of past concrete experiences as pointed out by the
Dreyfus Model.
We found that responding to the situation, as an
“instance of particular concerns” is central to the
logic of excellent practice. For example, this is a
situation of heart “pump” failure or fluid deple-
tion. Interventions depend on clarifying and con-
firming the nature of the clinical situation at hand.
The skillful practitioner learns to hold their back-
ground understandings in a fluid or semi-permea-
ble way so that they can recognize when these tac-
it expectations are not met. For example, a nurse
with expertise in detecting heart arrhythmias on a
unit where all patients’ cardiac functioning is mon-
itored will only notice aberrations in sound pat-
terns, rather than attending to the familiar sounds
in the foreground of attention. Whereas, in some
skill situations, such as playing chess or driving a
car experts would not need to articulate their per-
spectives before taking action, must make a case
that includes articulating their perspective and evi-
dence in order to get the appropriate physician in-
tervention. In emergencies when there is no phy-
sician available, the nurse must be able to articu-
late clearly the reason for using a standing order or
protocol or going beyond the usual boundaries of
usual ↑ nursing practice. This is expected and de-
fensible when it is critical for the patient’s survival.
Recognizing the unexpected… i.e., when tacit glo-
bal expectations of patients’ recovery are not met
is also a hallmark of expert practice.
Case Studies of TVET Research
4.2.2 Novice: First Year of Education
The novice stage of skill acquisition occurs in areas
where the student has no experiential background
on which to base their approach or understanding
of the clinical situation. For example, the art and
skill of a range of medical and nursing interven-
tions on particular patients will be new. The educa-
tor must offer good descriptions of features and at-
tributes of the situation that the novice can recog-
nize. For example to determine fluid balance stu-
dents are given clear parameters and guidelines:
To determine fluid balance, check the patient’s morning
weights and daily intake and output for the past three
days. Weight gain and an intake that is consistently great-
er than 500 cc. could indicate water retention, in which
case fluid restriction should be started until the cause of
the imbalance can be found (BENNER 1984, 21).
An experienced clinician will immediately think
of all the situations where this evaluation would
be inappropriate or too stringent. But the novice
is given clear directions of safe ways to proceed
until the significance of fluid balance for differ-
ent clinical conditions can be learned. The rules
and guidelines must not require prior experience
for their recognition. They must provide a safe be-
ginning point for specific, ↑ situated learning in the
clinical situation. Fluid balance is salient, but what
the novice must learn is the particular salience of
fluid balance for particular patients.
The rule-governed behaviour of the novice is ex-
tremely limited and inflexible. The student is
coached in comparing and matching textbook ex-
amples with actual clinical cases. Skills that are
performed easily on a mannequin in a skills lab re-
quire adaptation, and communication and reassur-
ance skills when performed on a range of patients
who may be calm or highly anxious. The nursing
instructor must carefully select patient care situa-
tions that are relatively stable and provide coach-
ing about possible changes in the patient’s condi-
tion. The instructor forecasts for the student what
they should expect, and students typically rely on
standard nursing care plans to guide their planned
care activities. Exceptions and contraindications
must be identified for the student by the nursing
instructor or staff nurse caring for the patient. The
significance of vital signs in the particular situa-
tion must be reviewed with the instructor or prac-
627
ticing nurse, the range of relevant signs and symp-
toms are reviewed in terms of relevance, and as-
sessed in the particular patient. A large number
of signs and symptoms (e. g. lethargy, skin turgor,
mental status and so on) can only be recognized
and assessed after they have been seen in a range
of patients. Novices have only a very limited abil-
ity to forecast futures due to the student’s experi-
ence with other patients. Usually the student must
rely on textbook forecasts.
4.2.3 Advanced Beginner, New Graduate
The newly graduated nurse has usually functioned
very close to the level of a beginning staff nurse
in his or her final year of nursing education. Typ-
ically newly graduated nurses will not have func-
tioned in any administrative or managerial func-
tions, though they will have studied principles
and practices related to these roles. The striking
change for the newly graduated nurse is that he or
she now has full legal and professional responsibil-
ity for patients. This new level of felt-responsibil-
ity increases the beginning nurse’s attentiveness to
their recognition of features, and relevant aspects
of the situation, however the style of evaluation re-
mains detached, and typically lacks integration
with other objectively evaluated signs and symp-
toms (BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA 1996)):
In what follows, an advanced beginner evidences a
“lightness of being” about learning as he describes a
post-operative patient who had undergone complex GI
surgery. His entire statement was delivered in an excit-
ed, enthusiastic tone.
I had learned so much. There are two clinical nurse spe-
cialists involved right now. There are people on the unit
who are CNII’s and CNIII’s who are just really knowl-
edgeable on major GI surgery on infants. I talked to all
these people and pediatric surgery were really helpful,
and our Attendings and fellows were ... I mean, I just
learned so much in the last three days, I couldn’t even
tell you” (BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA 1996, 52).
The Advanced Beginner has a heightened aware-
ness of any feedback on ↑ performance, and pays
close attention to the practice of colleagues. They
actively search for credible sources of good and
useful information. They now attend to their abil-
ity to recognize these aspects of the situation as
they are pointed out by their colleagues, and as
they come to notice them on their own. The Ad-
628
vanced Beginner can experience each situation as
a myriad of competing tasks, all of which may feel
of equal priority to the new nurse. Anxiety and ex-
cessive fatigue are frequent experiences of new
nurses. Worry and anxiety tend to be more global
because the Advanced Beginner does not yet have
a sense of salience with a range of situations, and
the anxiety of learning to perform new tasks is ev-
er present:
And I just talked to myself and I had a great night be-
cause this was the first time I did it. ... I was (saying to
myself) “Okay. Just take it one step at a time. You’re on-
ly human, do one thing then go onto the next thing. It
will all get done, it will get done easier if you’re calm
and because you think better that way”. ... And the shift
went great” (BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA 1996, 50).
Anxiety is ameliorated by this very lack of attune-
ment and sense of salience. Therefore, much of the
experiential learning required of an Advanced Be-
ginner has to do with recognizing more subtle as-
pects of the situation. Advanced Beginners rely on
textbook accounts of patient signs and symptoms
related to diseases, injuries and therapies, but they
may have difficulty recognizing subtle variations,
and cannot gauge the level of severity in compari-
son with other cases, simply due to their lack of ex-
perience of past and future trajectories with similar
patients. For example, Advanced Beginners collect
their assessment data carefully and then consult
about the significance of the numbers and signs
and symptoms in a particular case. The perceptual
skills associated with recognizing fuzzy or “fam-
ily resemblances”, qualitative distinctions, and re-
al life presentations complete with their range of
manifestations cannot be captured in two dimen-
sional textbooks or single case presentations. This
relationship to clinical mentors is vividly illustrat-
ed in the following nursing student’s account of a
clinical emergency:
This man is a very pleasant fellow, very bright, very
alert and awake, and was unfortunately requiring tra-
cheal suctioning approximately every hour to two hours
for moderate amounts of tracheal secretions which were
relatively tenacious in character, relatively white tannish
in color. He unfortunately did not tolerate the suction-
ing extremely well. It was relatively uncomfortable for
him, caused a moderate amount of cough and gag reflex,
which in turn caused a transient increase in blood pres-
sure. Following suctioning on one occasion, as I was re-
placing his tracheal mist mask, he began coughing up
Handbook of TVET Research
very copious amounts of bright red blood per mouth.
I mildly panicked, called for help from the nurse next
door, placed him a moderate Trendelenberg position,
opened his I.V. to a rapid rate, and continued to expe-
rience mild panic. Perhaps more like moderate panic
(BENNER 1984, 19).
This Advanced Beginner nurse performed well
considering the enormity of the situation. The stu-
dent wonders tacitly whether his suctioning tech-
nique was too traumatic, and therefore caused the
bleed. But notice, the Advanced Beginner cannot
know this since he has had little experience with
patients in similar compromised situations and
with the skill of suctioning itself. There are ex-
traneous details of the story, and the language is
couched in textbook terms. His account responds
to the immediate situation with little no forecast-
ing of the future. He gives a full account of his own
anxiety in the situation that results in part by his
lack of ↑ experiential knowledge about what can
be done in the situation. Like the novice, the Ad-
vanced Beginner is dependent on others for filling
in their experience-based comparisons, interpre-
tations and qualitative distinctions. Later we will
contrast this episode with the account from the ex-
pert’s perspective.
4.2.4 Competent Stage: 1–2 Years in
Practice?
Developing skill and clinical grasp in particular
cases is dependent on experiential learning. Con-
sequently how fast someone can gain competence
depends on how varied and complex his or her pa-
tient population is. The competent stage of ↑ skill
acquisition is typically a time of heightened plan-
ning for what are now more predictable immediate
futures. The competent nurse now decides what is
more or less important based upon informal yard-
sticks learned from past experiences with other pa-
tients. The competent nurse tries to limit the unex-
pected through planning and analysis and forecast-
ing the needs and contingencies of the immediate
future, but they realize that there are no “rules” to
help them do it. Anxiety is now more attuned to
the situation:
Nurse: It kind of humbles you. [She realizes that the
physiological explanation for this occurrence was
straightforward, but that she had not been able to recog-
nize the problem as manifested in the particular patient.]
Case Studies of TVET Research
At one point, I’m feeling like I have things straight now,
and I can handle the situations, and when something like
this happens, I think, well, I still have a lot of learn-
ing to do. I can handle the situations that are status quo;
it’s the unexpected that I have to learn to deal with now.
But then I think back to situations when I was brand
new. Things that are status quo now weren’t back then.
Things I can troubleshoot and solve now were much
different back then. I usually needed help (BENNER /
TANNER / CHESLA 1996, 95).
Anxiety is now more tailored to the situation than
earlier stages, when a general anxiety exists over
learning and performing well without making mis-
takes. Coaching at this point should encourage the
competent level nurse to follow-through on a sense
that things are not as usual, or even vague feel-
ings of foreboding or anxiety, because they have
to learn to decide what is relevant with no rule to
guide them. Experiential learning now enables
emotional responses to act like fuzzy recogni-
tion of similar and/or past clinical dissimilar sit-
uations. Nurses feel exhilarated when they per-
form well, and remorse when they recognize that
their ↑ performance could have been more effective
or more prescient because they had paid attention
to the wrong things or had missed relevant sub-
tle signs and symptoms. These emotional respons-
es are the formative stages of aesthetic apprecia-
tion of good practice. These feelings of satisfaction
and uneasiness with performance act as a moral
compass that guides experiential ethical and clini-
cal learning. There is a built in tension between the
deliberate rule and maxim based strategies of or-
ganizing, planning and prediction and developing
a more response based practice.
Experiential learning with past patient care ena-
bles the nurse to develop a greater sense of sali-
ence. Increasingly the nurse has a sense of when
he has or does not have a good clinical grasp of the
situation. Since they have now lived through more
clinical futures they can now better predict imme-
diate likely events and needs of patients and plan
for them.
4.2.5 Proficiency – a Transitional Stage on
the Way to Expertise
When the practitioner’s grasp of the patient’s clini-
cal situation is jarred by changes or unexpected pa-
tient responses, the practitioner searches for a new
629
grasp and deliberation becomes necessary and if
all goes well, experiential clinical learning occurs.
They describe the frustrating situation of “chas-
ing a problem” and never being quite “in synch”
with the situation when they do not have a good
perceptual grasp of the situation at hand (BENNER /
TANNER / CHESLA 1996, 146–147; BENNER / HOOPER-
KYRIAKIDIS / STANNARD 1999, 23–87). Engaged rea-
soning through transitions requires being open
to correction and dis-confirmation. The ethos of
openness, rather than prediction and control, and
fidelity to what one sees and hears, rather than ex-
cessive suggestibility and confusion, are embod-
ied and linked to emotional responses to the sit-
uation. Thus, one’s skilled emotional responsive-
ness guides perceptual acuity and responsiveness
to changes in the situations that are similar or dis-
similar to past situations, but when novelty or sur-
prise occurs, the nurse tries to figure out why and
how this situation is different (Benner/ Tanner/
Chesla 1996, 116–117).
The nurse gains a much more differentiated world
of practice at the proficient level. The nurse feels
increasingly at home in the situation and can now
recognize when she or he has a good sense of the
situation. In the following excerpt the nurse dem-
onstrates this new comfort level by describing
open-heart surgery patients’ trajectories:
Nurse: I feel pretty comfortable, and you learn when
they’re warming to start giving the volume and when
to stop because now maybe they need a little bit of Lev-
ophed to keep their blood pressure up, when to shut off
the Levophed because they’re waking up and you know
their catecholamines have kicked in and that kind of
thing. It’s almost routine, whereas before it took a lot of
trial and asking questions.
This change is based on procedural knowledge and
protocols, but the transition being described is the
flexible recognition of patient changes in particular
situations. This recognition occurs in the context
of the predictable changes over time in a recover-
ing heart surgery patient. These decisions cannot
be based on quantitative physiological measures
alone, but must be based on understanding the re-
lationship between the numbers and the way the
patient looks and responds. This form of response-
based action is crucial for performing well in a
rapidly changing emergency…(BENNER / TANNER /-
CHESLA 1996, 123).
630
Because the proficient level nurse is learning to ad-
just his or her responses to the situation, the skill
of both problem and person engagement becomes
more differentiated and attuned. Once begun, the
proficient nurse usually continues to refine her
reading of a particular situation. Refining discrim-
inations through deliberate comparisons with past
experiences and other patients improves the nurse’s
grasp of the situation.
4.2.6 Expertise: Phronesis (Practical
Wisdom)
Once a nurse has progressed to proficiency, the
style of being a situated, response-based perform-
er propels experiential learning. And the ability to
switch from tacit expectations taken for granted to
focusing on aspects of the situation that are chang-
ing and creating an altered sense of the situation.
The expert nurse is response based. The expert can
now integrate their grasp of the situation with their
responses.
The expert is able to take up the theories and goals
of practice in multiple ways, often creating new
possibilities in the situation (TAYLOR 1991). These
situated practical innovations or sensible variations
in practice seem intuitively obvious to the practi-
tioner and might not be captured easily in a narra-
tive description of the situation. This is why obser-
vation and informal interviewing in actual situa-
tions are required to discover and describe all lev-
els of practice, but particularly proficient and ex-
pert levels of practice.
The links between the patient’s condition and ac-
tion are sufficiently strong that the nurse attends
primarily to actions rather than to assessment of
signs and symptoms. This is reasonable since, in
extreme circumstances, the possible responses are
fewer, but experience is required to make this shift
in ↑ performance:
Nurse: So we didn’t even call the code. We just called
the doctor stat [emergency] and got him up there. [They
had sufficient people available to resuscitate the patient,
so no formal page for additional help was needed.] I
looked at his heart rate and I said: “O. K. he is bradying
down. Someone want to give me some atropine?” I just
started calling out the drugs that I needed to get for this
guy, so we started to push these drugs in. In the mean-
time, I said, “Can we have some more blood?” I was just
barking out this stuff [the things that were needed and
Handbook of TVET Research
had to be done]. I can’t even tell you the sequence. I was
saying, “We need this.” I needed to anticipate what was
going to happen and I could do this because I had been
through this a week before with this guy and knew what
we had done [and what had worked].
The recognition and assessment language are min-
imal, in part, because the number of actions per
problem are limited, but also because recognition
and assessment language become so linked with
actions and outcomes that they become self-evi-
dent or “obvious” for the expert practitioner. This
is the kind of “maximum grasp” of the expert that
is not available to the proficient performer. Imme-
diate futures obvious to the expert order the situa-
tion. In this case the nurse becomes the situational
leader because of this maximum grasp of this par-
ticular patient, and the sequence of events. The in-
tegrated rapid response is the hallmark of exper-
tise (BENNER / TANNER / CHESLA 1996, 142–143).
Based on their deep familiarity with similar and
dissimilar situations nurses now develop a sense of
whether or not they have a good (better or poorer)
grasp of the situation. Skilled “know-how” now al-
lows for more fluid and rapid performance of pro-
cedures. Qualitative distinctions associated with
nuanced responses make the nurse able to know
and do more than they can tell or think to describe
(POLANYI 1958; BENNER / HOOPER-KYRIAKIDIS /
STANNARD 1999, 85/86). The relational skills of at-
tunement to the patient’s concerns and clinical sit-
uation create the possibility for patients and fam-
ily members to disclose or reveal their concerns
and fears to the nurse, and for the nurse to notice
changes in the patient/family across time (transi-
tions). The quality of attentiveness and relation-
ship literally create different disclosive spaces and
moods for the patient and family so that different
clinical issues are noticed based upon qualitatively
different disclosive possibilities
It is now possible to compare the expert’s narrative
given below of the situation of the patient who de-
veloped a carotid hemorrhage with the Advanced
Beginner’s account given earlier:
I had worked late and was just about ready to go home,
when a nurse preceptor said to me, “Jolene, come here.”
Her voice had urgency in it, but not Code Blue. I walked
in and I looked at the patient and his heart rate was about
120, and he was on the respirator and breathing. And I
asked her: “What’s wrong?” There was a new graduate
taking care of him. And he just pointed down to the pa-
Case Studies of TVET Research
tient who was lying in a pool of blood. There was a big
stream of blood drooling out of his mouth. This man’s
diagnosis was mandibular cancer, which had been re-
sected, and about a week previous to that he had had
a carotid bleed from external carotid, which had been
ligated secondary to radiation erosion. That wound had
become septic and he had developed respiratory failure
and he was in ICU for that. So I looked at the dressing
and it was dry, the blood was coming out of his mouth.
The man had a tracheostomy because of the type of sur-
gery that had been done. He also had an N.G. tube in for
feedings, and I got to thinking that it might be the in-
nominate or the carotid artery that had eroded. So we
took him off the ventilator to see if anything was going
to pump out of his trach. There was a little blood, but it
looked mostly like it had come down from the pharynx
into the lungs. So we began ventilating him, trying to
figure what was inside his mouth that was pumping out
his tremendous amount of blood…(BENNER 1984, 17).
This nurse went on to describe her quick actions to
draw blood for a cross-match and typing and pre-
paring the man for an immediate transfer to the
O.R. after marshalling all the resources for the sur-
gical team. She gives us an immediate direct grasp
of the nature of the situation. Action, thought and
feeling are fused. She evaluates the resistance in
the lungs by hand ventilating the patient. Fortu-
nately, because of her rapid responses, the patient
survived the hemorrhage.
4.2.7 Summary
Each of the studies was based on extensive first per-
son, experience-near narrative accounts of clinical
situations that stood out in the participant’s minds.
In addition a sub-sample of participants were ob-
served and informally interviewed in their prac-
tice. We deliberately sampled nurses with a range
of experience and reported skillfulness, and in-
terviewed nurses with like backgrounds in small
group narrative interviews. We created an open
dialogue with the tenets of the Dreyfus Model of
↑ Skill Acquisition and the philosophical basis for
this model. We found that the model was predic-
tive and descriptive of distinct stages of skill ac-
quisition in ↑ nursing practice. The most qualita-
tively distinct difference lies between the compe-
tent and proficient level where the practitioner be-
gins to read the situation. The proficient perform-
er begins to increasingly change their perception
of the nature of the situation, and then deliberates
631
about changing plans or strategies in response to
the new understanding of the situation. The ex-
pert develops yet another qualitatively distinct way
of being in the situation by developing the capac-
ity to fluidly respond to the situation, even as the
situation changes and the relevance of the actions
taken change. The study of nursing practiced, be-
cause it is an under-determined, complex practice
that requires skillful comportment, articulation,
and highly developed relational skills, allowed us
to identify qualitatively distinct forms of moral
agency and skills of involvement at different lev-
els of skill acquisition. The development of moral
agency and the influence of emotional engagement
with the person and the problem, as well as emo-
tional climate, on ↑ skill acquisition vary distinctly
at each stage of skill acquisition. For example, the
Advanced Beginner focuses on “getting everything
done” adequately. The competent nurse increases
his or her ability to advocate for the patient, getting
what the patient needs or requests. At the expert
level the moral agency and skills of involvement
create disclosive spaces that would not have even
been imagined at the earlier stages. New possibil-
ities and notions of good practice are instantiated
in more skillful ethical comportment and relation-
al capacities. Expert nurses are extremely pleased
when they are able to comfort, or assist patients to
cope with the demands of the illness.
We found that nurses who had some difficulty with
understanding the goals of practice, and difficulty
with their skills of interpersonal and problem en-
gagement did not go on to become expert nurses
(see RUBIN 1996). They literally thought of rational
calculation as the “scientific” and “objective” way
of practicing, and thus they failed to see signifi-
cant moral concerns, and failed to recognize quali-
tative distinctions between situations because they
attempted to apply the “same metric” of rational-
ly calculating odds, prevalence, and evidence in
each situation. This computational and calculative
approach to practice, coupled with a disciplined
stance of detachment, blocked experiential learn-
ing. The Model was also useful in helping us artic-
ulate knowledge and skill embedded in the prac-
tice of nursing. The rational-technical vision of
↑ performance is that of a practitioner or technical
expert developing mastery of a ↑ body of knowl-
632
edge and applying that knowledge in pre-speci-
fied ways for pre-specified outcomes. The ration-
al-technical model does not account for develop-
ment of relational, perceptual or skillful comport-
ment over time. It also does not account for the role
of experiential learning in learning to practice in a
dynamic, under-determined and complex ↑ profes-
sion such as nursing and medicine. A strict techni-
cal application of knowledge does not take into ac-
count the skills required for discerning the nature
of the situation and its possibilities and constraints.
Even the expert in the Dreyfus Model of Skill Ac-
quisition must stay attuned to the situation, and re-
main open to the unexpected. Practitioners accord-
ing to the account of expert comportment provided
by the Dreyfus Model must remain open to experi-
ential learning and reading changes in fast-paced,
open-ended environments. In the Dreyfus Model,
the practitioner is assumed to dwell with increas-
ing skill and finesse in a meaningful, intelligible
but changing world.
4.3 The Automotive Mechatronics
Technician: Steps in Research
and Development towards a
European Occupation
Wilfried Kruse
4.3.1 Project Context
This article discusses the research project entitled
“Realignment of Occupations in the Automotive
Sector: An Analysis of Tasks”. The scientific com-
mentary on the realignment of occupations in the
automotive industry and its report (BECKER / HITZ /
RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002) will be addressed, which
was promoted by the German Federal Ministry for
Education and Research. At the time, the initial as-
sumptions and the ↑ research strategy of this sci-
entific commentary extended significantly beyond
the limited framework of contemporary ↑ occupa-
tional research on realignment, which was tradi-
tionally characterised by the expert work done by
the contributing social partners. What was even
more unusual was that this project was based up-
Handbook of TVET Research
on hypotheses and structural proposals for a new
image of technical automotive occupations which
were produced from previous European sector
studies on ↑ occupational science, which in addi-
tion were supplemented by ↑ comparative studies
drawn from the automotive areas of ↑ Japan and
the ↑ United States of America. Two “predecessor
studies” which also certainly played a part in the
opening of the realignment procedure are of par-
ticular significance:
– a European project within the framework of the
“↑ Leonardo-da-Vinci” programme within which
sector-based partners from several European coun-
tries developed the proposal for an ↑ occupational
profile of the automotive mechatronics technician
as an all-round occupation (RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002);
and before that:
– an extensive international sector study which had
its beginnings in a sector study on further training
in automotive service and repair within the frame-
work of the European Force Programme (RAUNER /
SPÖTTL / OLESEN / CLEMATIDE 1995).
However the final report itself had too much of a
“workshop” character to be recognised much be-
yond the circle of contributing experts as far-reach-
ing. In contrast “Der Kfz-Mechatroniker –
Vom Neuling zum Experten” (The Automotive Me-
chatronics Technician – from Beginner to Expert),
(RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002) a book based upon a dec-
ade of domain-oriented research in the automotive
sector, is an understandable, convincing portrayal
of the entire concept and its preconditions, includ-
ing both action-based and learning-based theoreti-
cal premises. In this case the two central elements
of work ↑ process orientation and assignment ori-
entation allow us to overcome the traditional con-
sideration of individual functions.
It is not the ↑ domain-specific aspect which makes
this approach special, but how it is presented,
namely
– within the framework of the research as sector
and ↑ work process related (extending beyond na-
tional boundaries), and
– within the framework of the structure of occu-
pational curricula as action-oriented work process
and exemplary assignment related.
Upon this comprehensively conceived foundation,
the proposal presented here for a German realign-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ment has already been Europeanised by these dou-
ble premises, while on the other hand the propos-
als made by the research group for a European Car
Mechatronics Technician have been formulated
based on German traditions, insofar as they adhere
to the concept of a formal occupation which how-
ever they would like to open and modernise. This
complex of work carried out on the subject of the
automotive mechatronics technician is a milestone
in occupational scientific research and concept de-
velopment exactly because: This is a well-founded
attempt to establish a European occupational per-
spective without abandoning the relationship, de-
veloped positively in Germany, between the con-
cept of a formal occupation and learning in the en-
vironment of the workplace.
4.3.2 Initial Questions and Subject
The starting point is the observation of an “explo-
sion of knowledge” in the automotive service sec-
tor which amongst other things is evident in an ex-
ponential increase in the amount of automotive
service documentation (see Fig. 1). Acquiring this
knowledge is no longer possible in the usual addi-
tive manner and would give momentum to an ex-
treme specialisation of personnel. However inter-
national studies in the automotive sector describe
a successful model which works against further
Fig. 1: increase in the amount of automotive service documentation (Schlitter-Teggemann 2001)
633
specialisation of personnel in the post-sales area,
namely an all-round workshop service, based up-
on all-round qualifications for the mechanics. For
the training community the question presents itself
of whether, arising from the developments in auto-
motive work, justifiable opportunities exist to solve
the contradiction between the increase in knowl-
edge and the demand for all-round competence
without conceding losses to modern occupational
expertise. Thus the starting point of the accompa-
nying project on realignment is defined, to which
the researchers introduce the findings of the inter-
national studies as hypotheses.
At the beginning of the accompanying research,
three main points were agreed upon between the
sector experts in the organisations involved in the
realignment procedure, the social partners and the
research group which were to be analysed regard-
ing the development of technology and work re-
quirements as well as their weighting in the future
↑ occupational profile, so that qualification require-
ments could be clarified. These were
– the diagnostic work:
In view of widespread self diagnostic technology,
as well as knowledge-based and networked ↑ diag-
nostic systems, the examination of diagnostic ex-
pertise in the qualification profile of the automo-
tive mechatronics technician took on a special sig-
nificance.
634
– vehicle communication technology:
The presence of electronics in vehicles and in vehi-
cle technology in the automotive sector had taken
on considerable dimensions. In previous realign-
ment procedures, the recognition of a finding such
as this always tended to lead to the creation of a
new focal point in the training curriculum. How-
ever the research group, against the backdrop of
the findings of the preceding European research
project, spoke out for vehicle communication tech-
nology to be made a – central – dimension of in-
tegrated (learning) assignments. Further clarifica-
tion of this subject is necessary.
– vehicle communication technology:
This new field needs to be put into place and as-
sessed so that it can take up a fitting position in the
occupational profile so that candidates have an ap-
propriate opportunity to gain knowledge of it. Im-
portant (preliminary) work was done in the Euro-
pean ↑ Leonardo Project on this subject.
4.3.3 Results
The most important results of the broad dialogue-
oriented research on the development of the work
in the automotive post-sales sector in a narrow
sense are:
– The observations and statements of the experts
from the workshops questioned are in agreement
that it is not important for the qualification of au-
tomotive personnel for after-sales service that their
knowledge be extended to cover the largest possi-
ble number of models, but that they develop the
ability to see each vehicle as a kind of highly de-
veloped “assembly” of elements of the models.
– The relatively high quality of instruction in in-
formation and diagnostic technology allows a rap-
id path to the concrete diagnostic case to be found.
In order to master the subject, however, a sound
knowledge of the vehicle system architecture and
of the frame of reference for maintenance and re-
pair is necessary which is created via the crite-
ria for technical inspection and standard service,
amongst other things.
– In spite of the increasing presence of electron-
ics in automotive technology, it is not necessary
for the mechanic to be familiar with the internal
workings of the circuitry. When diagnosing faults,
it is far more important to be able to analyse and
Handbook of TVET Research
evaluate data and measurements. In order to local-
ise faults, the mechanic has to appreciate the con-
text of the meaning of signals and groups of meas-
ured values, be able to interpret these and find the
vehicle’s “deficiency”.
– The creation of a specialist focus within the
training programme cannot be justified given the
↑ work process and assignment analyses. Observa-
tions in workshops in which training is de facto
partially motor or model specific, lead us to be-
lieve that this approach actually hinders an under-
standing of the system “car”.
Against this background, the researchers drew
conclusions with training, political and education-
al implications, which were then checked with ex-
perts from the workshops in a feedback loop. This
also applied to the (exemplary) work assignments
which the researchers identified with the aid of their
broad dialogue-oriented field study and which they
then brought into an educational sequence follow-
ing the principle “from beginner to expert”. The
most important conclusions are:
– The “automotive mechatronics technician”
emerging from this research and development
process has as a core occupation all of the charac-
teristics of a long-term “valid” occupation. What is
meant by this is that further changes in automotive
work practice can be taken into account as they
occur without having to realign the basic structure
of the occupational training at short intervals. The
training plan, structured for logical and open de-
velopment, which was developed and proposed by
the researchers in this context, was however only
partially integrated into the later regulations on the
framework training plan.
– The main work assignments identified were put
into a staged sequence in an intensive special-
ist dialogue with a large number of practical ex-
perts which, as has been said, followed the princi-
ple of “from beginner to expert”(→ 3.4.2; → 4.2)
(BLANKERTZ 1983; GRUSCHKA 1985; BENNER 1997;
among others). Here it was important to solve the
“getting started” problem, since for young peo-
ple in particular, the way in which they are intro-
duced into the subject matter is key in how quick-
ly they develop a grasp of their occupation which
then builds motivation via identification. This was
Case Studies of TVET Research
always one of the major weaknesses of traditional
skills-based basic training.
– Finally, based upon their field work the research-
ers assume that the acquisition of skills-based and
developmentally logical expertise is far better suit-
ed to practical work and the training capabili-
ties found in the workshops thus ensuring that the
main place of learning will remain “the company”
in spite of turbulent changes in this sector.
4.3.4 Research Methods
The main methodical approach taken was to ques-
tion the sector experts not only on the analysis of
the ↑ work processes in the workshops, but to in-
volve them in an extensive feedback loop and in
↑ group discussions to confront them with the
main ↑ occupational tasks described in the course
of processing the research results. In this way,
the sector experts became partners in a re-analy-
sis of the work processes focussed on central tasks
which either characterise ↑ profession practice in
their workshops or will do so in the near future.
The researchers thus brought into play considera-
ble ↑ domain-specific expertise, not by previous ex-
perience alone, and in doing so they added con-
siderable depth to their intensive dialogue-based
↑ empirical knowledge. Meetings were held in an
association of automotive experts; the researchers
were, at least some of the time, a part of the ↑ Com-
munity of Practice (→ 5.1.2) (references amongst
others to: GLENDENNING 1995). The strengths of
this approach are obvious; there is a risk that pos-
sible preconceptions which are strongly technolog-
ically accented will be communicated and that re-
quirements for occupational-professional exper-
tise will be perhaps interpreted in a convention-
al manner, that is along occupational hierarchi-
cal lines, in this case along the corridors of tasks
and expertise which belong to the traditional pro-
file of the skilled worker. In this way, the picture
is not restricted by domain specifics, which are
otherwise indispensable for the quality of under-
standing, but by the proximity of the skilled work-
er/master craftsman core, which passes on many
premises without questioning them. What will be
decisive is how far it is possible to establish a criti-
cal management – Rauner speaks of “supervision”
in another place – which does not have this pro-
635
fessional socialised bias (RAUNER 2001b). Little is
said about this.
4.3.5 Summary
The explicit relationship to sector and work proc-
ess should be emphasised as a particular strength
which, based upon the researcher’s domain-
specific expertise, is in a position to avoid task-re-
lated constrictions and the tearing asunder of con-
texts. The relationship to the work process seems
to have been more rigidly implemented in the re-
search process than in the occupational education-
al concept creation.
While the relationship between research and oc-
cupational educational concept creation in the fi-
nal report of the scientific accompaniment to the
realignment seems almost “deductive”, it becomes
clear in reading the carefully written book “The
Automotive Mechatronics Technician: from Be-
ginner to Expert” that the occupational scientific
research and the occupational educational struc-
ture (curriculum) are two distinct work process-
es, each possessing their own history and logic and
their own contexts.
A more effective and stronger point of contact
for the occupational concept creation is required
which gives sufficient guidance to action, is com-
prehensive and provides motivation for learning.
The occupational perspective is based upon the
end product, that is, it is based upon the car and
not on its individual functions or mechanical ele-
ments; young people undergoing training show in-
terest not just from a worker’s point of view, but
also from that of a consumer; and it actually con-
veys the value of the use of the vehicle. The curric-
ular structure then consistently progresses through
stages of exemplary, practical work assignments. It
is these (exemplary) work assignments that concil-
iate the – analysed – work process with the learn-
ing process to be built upon; the work assignments
are the pivotal point.
This should deal with work assignments which oc-
cur regularly in the workshop and not those which
only occur occasionally as given by the work proc-
ess analyses. Thus, in spite of specialisation, the
workplace is secured as a place of learning. What
is perhaps underestimated is that it is education-
al measures which make exemplary assignments
636
out of work assignments which occur in practice.
The exemplary character does not come about of
its own accord.
The impression is given that the work ↑ process
orientation applies to the research process and the
close cooperation with the members of the com-
munity of automotive practice which takes place
in the research process in particular. In the occupa-
tional educational design, the ↑ work process in its
various dimensions as object steps back behind the
(exemplary) work assignments. And this work as-
signment appears – surely influenced by the think
tank of the ↑ community of practice – to be more
technologically determined than socially deter-
mined or influenced by the workplace (cf. K RUSE
2002). Although the analysis points to dramatic
changes in the areas of responsibility of automo-
tive workshops, my impression is that the connec-
tions between the technical field and its contextual
conditions and for example the economic aspects
have developed relatively little.
The underestimation of the social dimensions of
work process and work assignment is particular-
ly apparent in that creative ability is declared to
be an important goal on the path of occupational
learning, on the way from beginner to expert, but
that it is not made clear in which partial tasks to
be solved this is anchored and with whom together
creative solutions can be sought.
A major service provided by this research which
took place over a number of years and which as
such is a milestone, is the identification, the firm-
ing up and establishment of the concept of “exem-
plary work assignments” a dynamic and thus not
static or abstract link between the work process-
es, which are in a continual state of change, and
the modern acquisition of occupational expertise.
“Realignment” could take advantage of the staged
concept of “from beginner to expert” and using it
could check from time to time whether work as-
signments which are described as exemplary need
modification.
It is also the link of “(exemplary) work assign-
ments” which makes the concept, to a certain ex-
tent “enabled for Europe” because this principle is
capable of implementation in the differing political
contexts which exist in the various countries and
will continue to exist. So this is not an approach
Handbook of TVET Research
which standardizes, but is one of a more cohe-
sive nature. It is thus decisive that this approach
conveys an essential element of the German tra-
dition, namely the occupation principle, but in an
open and modern version. The “Car Mechatronics
Technician” studies and proposals represent a gel-
ling of the idea of “open and modern formal occu-
pations” (HEIDEGGER / RAUNER 1997b) with a wealth
of material; an association which urgently needs to
be further developed in the direction of the politics
of European occupational training.
4.4 Production and Qualification
Fred Manske
4.4.1 Development and Interrelationship
Two areas of study within German industrial soci-
ology are included under the title “Production and
Qualification”. The first appeared within the work
of Baethge et al. who first, in Göttingen in 1973,
and then in 1974 as “Band 14” presented the ma-
terials on TVET research. This, and was a prelude
to the second study, published in 1974 by Mickler,
Mohr, and Kadritzke. Both studies carried the ti-
tle “Production and Qualification” but had differ-
ent subtitles. That of the study carried out by Ba-
ethge is “an initial study on the planning process-
es in the system of vocational training”. The oth-
er is “a report on the main study”. Both research
projects were carried out under commission from
the Federal Institute for Occupational Training by
the research team of the Sociological Research In-
stitute of the University of Göttingen. The inten-
tion of both studies was to improve the rather dis-
satisfactory ↑ body of knowledge existing around
the qualitative and quantitative dynamics of quali-
fication needs. Out of this research, further knowl-
edge has been made available for the formation of
the occupational training system in particular.
An important aspect of the overall socio-econom-
ic and scientific background of both studies is the
following: in the 1960s, labour in Germany was a
scarce commodity, and further economic growth,
as a result, seemed to face serious difficulties.
Case Studies of TVET Research
Part of the inventory back then, as is still the case
today, is the idea that better qualification of la-
bour is one of the most important tasks to under-
take in order to further economic growth in a land
which is lacking in sufficient raw materials. This
corresponded with the widespread assumption that
technical change, by itself, along with qualification
requirements would increase with exposure to ever
more complicated technology
This thesis of a general higher qualification was
put forward by such authors as Blauner (1964) and
Touraine (1955; 1975) who tried to create a scien-
tific basis for a sort of “law of development”. In es-
sence, these authors identified three developmental
stages for technology and work. The first stage is
a phase of industrialization formed by handicrafts
in which the dominant type of worker is the quali-
fied and relatively autonomous craftsman, an ear-
ly kind of skilled worker. This craftsman produc-
es relatively independent, integrated products on
the basis of his vocational qualification, in other
words his special qualifications, which he has ob-
tained and perfected after a period of apprentice-
ship and throughout his working career. A tran-
sitional stage is the disintegration of craftsman-
like production through the development of spe-
cial machines in connection with the de-qualifica-
tion of the worker, who is now chained to this ma-
chine and its rhythms. Here industrial mass pro-
duction comes into the picture, exemplified by the
Fordist-Taylorist methods of production. The prev-
alent type of work is, at this point, the unquali-
fied, over-directed worker, robbed of every form
of autonomy, a living component of a machine-hu-
man system performing repetitive piecework. The
third, and “end stage” is automated production, out
of which the worker steps to become a qualified
technological specialist who supervises and steers
the process. In automated production, a new kind
of specialized work dominates. Sure enough, there
were (and still are) authors who argued for an op-
posing secularistic, dequalification of work. The
most well known was Braverman (1977) whose
Dequalification Thesis in “Work under Monopo-
ly Capitalism” which fell within the so-called “la-
bour process debate” of the Anglo-Saxon Industry,
Management, and Management Training organi-
sational sociology. It is also hereby important to
637
note here that in the ↑ USA, as well as in England,
industrial sociology and management training are
not so widely separated as is the case in Germany;
within German industrial sociology, Braverman
and the labour-process debate are scarcely known.
It is also important to remember why qualification,
within the social science outlined here, or rather
within the industrial-sociological debate, has such
a decisive meaning within the assessment of the
development of work: behind it stands the convic-
tion that the substance of qualification for a partic-
ular job is decisive in the following areas:
(a) A job which one can practice in a self-deter-
mined way to a certain degree;
(b) To therefore independently regulate the divi-
sion of labour and thus to maintain one’s physical
and psychic labour assets;
(c) To further qualify oneself and thus to develop
labour assets in this respect, in a qualitative way, in
order to improve one’s chances in the ↑ labour mar-
ket;
(d) To positively develop one’s own personality in
and through work; to develop self-confidence and
social acknowledgement;
(e) Last but not least, it is assumed that, generally
speaking, a qualified job pays better than one that
is less qualified.
In short, in the society of work to which we belong,
gainful employment has a central relative impor-
tance and the substance of compensation for quali-
fied labour is the key determinant of how “good” a
job is from the perspective of the worker. It must,
beyond that, also be recalled that industrial soci-
ology, at least in part, always has a social-science-
theoretical claim: the analysis of the development
of industry, industrial labour, and technology, be-
cause of the significance of industry for our mod-
ern society, are seen as important components of
the analysis of social development (thus critical of
BRANDT 1984)
Around that same time, the study “Industrial Work
and Worker Consciousness” (K ERN / SCHUMANN
1970) acquired a particular meaning. The authors
of this study could, on the basis of extensive em-
pirical inquiries, establish that the “Highly Qual-
ified” thesis is not applicable. Even in automated
production systems, one can find, alongside tasks
for qualified labour, also those for unqualified la-
638
bour. The authors described, in their “Polarization
Thesis” a technical development that accompanies
the development of qualification requirements:
during the emergence of increasing automation,
according to this thesis, both more- and less- qual-
ified jobs emerge. The political implications of this
study, as well as the implications for the debate go-
ing on about training at the time, should not, un-
der the circumstances, be blamed for the fact that
Kern and Schumann could not exhibit substanti-
ated qualitative or quantitative empirical results at
this point in time.
At that point the soon-constituted critical reception
within industrial sociology hadn’t changed. The
study is one of the rare classics of postwar German
industrial sociology. Furthermore, it is an impor-
tant reason for both studies entering into produc-
tion and qualification.
4.4.2 Research Concepts and Research
Results
In the end the SOFI, therefore, didn’t obtain the
commission to more intensively study the connec-
tion between the development of technology and
qualification requirements, as well as to conduct
a deepened empirical investigation. This was be-
cause of the impression made by the study of Kern
and Schumann.
Preliminary Study
In the preliminary study, in which it was attempt-
ed to ascertain the relationship between technical-
economic change and the development of qualifi-
cation, newer approaches of ↑ VET research were
for the first time discussed. These were essentially
conducted by the Institute for Job Market and ↑ Oc-
cupational Research, the Institute for Social-Scien-
tific Research in Munich (IST) and the work of the
Manpower Group at the Max-Planck Institute for
↑ Educational Research. Secondly, the study gives
an overview of the economic and technical devel-
opment in the (pre-unification) Federal Republic
of Germany. Thirdly, a discussion of the various
approaches followed, with which, up to this point,
the attempt was made to empirically categorize the
development of qualification structures. Included
in this concept are statistical (quantitative) proce-
Handbook of TVET Research
dures, ↑ occupational groups (Leistungsgruppen)
as well as five qualitative studies (among others
the study from Kern and Schumann and the work
of the Institute for Social Scientific Research (ISF)
in Munich as well as work on numerically con-
trolled machines). On the basis of the reception of
these studies the authors came to the decision that
the changes in qualification requirements were de-
pendent on the development of technology and the
organisation of work. Qualification demands were,
on the one hand, connected to production technol-
ogy, and, on the other, able to be formed through
rationalization of ↑ work processes, whereupon the
authors took as their starting point the idea that
the companies would, correspondingly, attempt to
“neutralize” the qualification-guiding tendencies
of technology. That means, in the study:
“…that businesses through appropriate formation as
well as production technology and work organisation,
make the attempt to increase productive power on the
basis of available qualification potential” (BAETHGE /
GERSTENBERGER / K ERN ET AL. 1974, 82).
For the main study, the following core idea was
suggested as a kind of three-step process of em-
pirical analysis and, as required the case may be, a
guide to the process of questioning:
(a) The analysis of the development of technology,
in order to be able to discover to what extent con-
ceptions about qualification requirements as re-
gards to handling have already found entrance into
the design processes. The authors therefore consid-
er the technological development to in no way be
autonomous. Rather, they assume that technology
can eventually be consciously formed with regard
to qualification requirements.
(b) The research on the use of technology, in order
to analyze the question as to how far the personnel
must be quantitatively and qualitatively changed,
must also explore changes in the cost of manufac-
ture.
(c) Analysis of the rationalization of work organi-
sation. Here the question is how occupations are to
be divided in a work-organisation way. The back-
ground is the already-discussed thesis that these
companies will be attempting to implement the
neutralization of the qualification-requirement
tendencies of technology as much as possible. In
addition, that means:
Case Studies of TVET Research
“In the cases in which technological change initially im-
plied the possibility of work-organisational changes be-
ing put back, which further reduce the increased qualifi-
cation needs in the long term” (ibid., 67).
In the preliminary study the following was rec-
ommended: that the main analysis should concen-
trate on a spectrum of ↑ occupational task fields
of “quantitatively relevant groups of technologi-
cal expertise”. It was also suggested that the main
study should include the field of training, because
an analysis of production systems also only con-
tains one aspect, the aspect of inquiry. Further-
more, the “tendency of increasing consciousness
of workers compared to fragmented, unambitious
work should be allowed for”.
Main Study
In the main study Mickler, Mohr, and Kadritzke
pursued the following three goals:
(1) Through a broad-reaching analysis the former-
ly rather “sporadic” knowledge about the develop-
ment of qualification requirements should be en-
larged. The study is indeed applied as a qualitative
investigation of case studies; it is, however, actu-
ally more broadly applied than similar studies that
have already been carried out.
(2) In this study a demanding method should be
developed for the ↑ analysis of qualification re-
quirements. Therefore, qualification requirements
should be able to be more differentiated in their
analysis than was previously the case.
(3) In addition to that, the question needs to be ad-
dressed in which ways the formulation of technolo-
gy and job organisation within industry has effects
that are due to qualification requirements. Fol-
lowing Mickler (→ 3.1.5), at its core the study fol-
lowed two lines of questioning: a “change of qual-
ification requirements” through technical-organi-
sational change in industrial production are iden-
tified with aits focus on skilled work. The reasons
and mechanisms of qualification-related forma-
tion of work will be fathomed ‘in order to be better
able to estimate the qualification potential of eco-
nomic-technical change’. The study sees itself as a
foundational research, which seeks to deliver basic
information for the planning of occupational train-
ing. It seeks to accomplish this by manifestly fol-
lowing the preliminary work of the Baethge study,
639
and concentrating on the development of qualifica-
tion enquiries in industrial production. The system
of vocational training is not the topic of the study.
Rather, the study contained seven industrial
branches, each with two to three firms (15 firms
in total) in which selected areas of production are
studied. Selection criteria were:
(a) The corresponding quantitative importance of
the branches as well as the parts of the branches
(b) A relatively high proportion of skilled workers
(c) Duties spread out from handicrafts to automat-
ed work, and the study should also:
Concern itself with areas of production in which
substantial technical-organisational change have
taken place. These companies should play a cut-
ting-edge role in terms of technology and organ-
isation, in order to have the chance “ ...in the fu-
ture, for the essential development of the branch
as a whole to be realized in the beginning stages”
(MICKLER 1981, 57).
The instruments for the gathering of qualification
requirements were developed according to Kern
and Schumann and the Psychological ↑ Action
Theory of Hacker (1986b). In the study
“ …a scheme for categories has been developed, which
permits qualitative typing, comparative description of
considerable qualification contents of work and their
connection to the underlying technological and organi-
zational changes within business” (MICKLER 1981, 55).
The instrument of analysis consists of two ele-
ments: analysis of tasks and analysis of qualifi-
cation requirements. Within the analysis of tasks,
these tasks should be described as exactly as possi-
ble, including the following dimensions:
(a) actual type of work
(b) work tools and materials
(c) organisation of work.
These were the central categories which form the
contents of work and qualification requirements
(MICKLER / MOHR /K ADRITZKE 1977, Bd II, 30). Fol-
lowing Hacker, the analysis of qualification re-
quirements are differentiated into three hierarchi-
cally-constructed levels of regulation; and added
to that is the category of work motivation.
This leads to the following types of requirements:
(a) Requirements for sensory-motor ↑ perform-
ance
640
(b) requirements for perceptive routinized per-
formance
(c) intellectual requirements, as in requirements of
diagnostic planning performance, and:
(d) requirements for work motivation
The research results of the study do not need to be
further elaborated here (see → 3.1.5)
4.4.3 Academic Meaning, Critical
Appraisal
The German industrial-sociological research on
qualification requirements (and German industrial
sociology in general) have thoroughly and consid-
erably been formed through the work of SOFI. In
the study by Mickler, Möhr, and Kadritzke an an-
alytical instrument for qualification requirements
was developed, which was as elaborate as possible,
within industrial sociology. That is proven despite
all criticism, by the broad reception in the indus-
trial sociological “trade” and, in addition, through
debates in industrial relations research. The work
of the SOFI – in particular the study by Kern and
Schumann and the preliminary study – has also
not in the least influenced ↑ VET research. In some
ways, therefore, the attention of these two differ-
ent disciplines, industrial sociology and VET re-
search is managed by the SOFI studies. In a criti-
cal appraisal of the studies, the different discours-
es and lines of questioning of both of these disci-
plines, despite concomitant intersections, must be
kept in mind.
In industrial sociology the development of work
and society is (or was, see above) in the fore-
ground. The “qualificatory essence” of work lies
within a tradition that, at its core, was already seen
in Adam Smith’s thesis of the division of labour
as a basis for the development of the “wealth of
nations” from the central meaning because it has
been assumed that the development of personali-
ty, and finally that of the entire society, depends
on this. In this respect Taylor played an important
role, with his concept of “scientific management”
that purports to establish the disqualification of a
large part of occupation-dependent workers as its
objective, and with that also contributes to the le-
gitimization of a system of power relations that
appears to follow an objective economical-↑ tech-
nical rationality. Basically, industrial sociology
Handbook of TVET Research
from that point on has worked from Taylor’s ide-
as. Starting from such lines of questioning, indus-
trial sociology arrives at the idea of measuring the
development of qualification requirements across
as broad as possible a spectrum of work situations.
This is demonstrated in, among others, the previ-
ously mentioned studies of Touraine, Blauner, and
Braverman or Kern and Schumann. These stud-
ies do not particularly limit themselves to exam-
ining skilled work. (Sure enough, they focus large-
ly on production work, and lose sight of salaried
work, but that is a different subject.) Compared to
these studies that the study area of the production
and qualification studies discussed here is mark-
edly reduced: to skilled work, a very specialized
types of occupation which quantitatively does not
in any way dominate in industry or in the economy
as a whole. Both studies on production and qualifi-
cation are, for this reason, specialized studies, and
their questioning is, in comparison with the other
studies named here, rather limited. This is clear-
ly due to the fact that the contributions should ac-
complish the development of occupational training
in Germany, which, at its core means training for
specialized workers, in the German system of dual
vocational education and training.
This close connection between both studies does
not, however, change anything with regards to the
already-mentioned appraisal that, in particular,
Mickler, Mohr, and Kadritzke have developed a
convincing concept for the ↑ analysis of qualifica-
tion requirements in industrial work. How this is
to be estimated from the point of view of VET re-
search will be discussed further below. As in oth-
er SOFI studies, this further study is also empiri-
cally rich in content and solidly worked-through.
The reader can comprehend why particular conclu-
sions have been drawn. Both studies on production
and qualification indeed point at some weakness-
es (which they also share with other SOFI studies).
These are, essentially:
(a) Technical and economic rationality are too
strongly stressed. Actors with varied interests and
access to power resources are masked in these
studies. They appear in the face of the mute du-
ty of technical-economic rationality not to have
any meaning for the formation of technology and
work. Management also appears to no longer be
Case Studies of TVET Research
an element of leadership of any externally-arising
logic.
(b) Therefore it was conveniently situated to be able
to study the influence of strong workers’ groups in
the machine industry on the formulation of tech-
nology. (On this theme there has, in the meantime,
been some research) (compare MANSKE 1994). In
general it would therefore be necessary also to in-
corporate the economic action and power constel-
lations within such studies.
(c) The limitation of the studies to the realm
of production is, above all from today’s point of
view, a deficit, because, among other reasons, in
the course of technical development (in particular
numerically-controlled technology) occupational
functions from production can be relocated to the
area of planning.
We shall return to the intentions of industrial-so-
ciological ↑ qualification research and on the con-
sequences that can be drawn with respect to their
use for ↑ VET research. The posing of the ques-
tion for industrial sociology is the very question of
the connection between the development of work
and society. A central category is the development
of qualification requirements. In industrial soci-
ety, it depends on the development of qualifica-
tion requirements to globally comprehend a wide
range of occupational types as well as to cover a
broad time frame. Finally, this is mirrored in the
concept of ascertainment of qualification require-
ments: in order to compare very different jobs as
well as to be able to ascertain categories for qual-
ification, identification must be discovered, which
makes it possible to abstract away from concrete
duties. For this, therefore, qualification levels will
be constructed, this was exactly what the concept
of Mickler, Mohr, and Kadritzke tried to do. It can,
in a slightly exaggerated way, follow that the entire
concrete definition of occupational duties of indus-
trial society is, after the analysis, not interesting
any more, but instead what counts is the central re-
sult – something like a “polarization thesis”.
TVET research must, however, include the defi-
nition of the curricula of concrete functional ele-
ments of work. On this subject there are new de-
partures (see SPÖTTL 2000b and RAUNER 1997),
which offer a formational task for VET research,
while, in comparison, industrial sociology concen-
641
trates itself on analysis. Despite such differences,
industrial sociological qualification research can
contribute to VET research. Thus the analytical in-
struments gained by Mickler, Mohr, and Kadritz-
ke (which are constituted from the methodologi-
cal elements of Spöttl’s approach) can be used to
analyze ↑ work processes (which are constituted of
the methodological elements of Spöttl’s approach).
Furthermore, empirically similar, content-rich in-
dustrial-sociological studies such as that of Mick-
ler, Mohr, and Kadritzke will be consulted for the
appraisal of trends within the development of work
and its causes.
4.5 Training and High
Performance Work Systems:
A Case Study in Synergy
Andy Smith
4.5.1 Introduction
The origins of the notion of ↑ high performance
work systems can be traced back to the ↑ USA and
the famous ↑ MIT sponsored study of the world au-
tomotive industry (→ 4.3; → 4.4) undertaken in the
late 1980s, the International Motor Vehicle Project
(WOMACK /JONES / ROOS 1990). For the MIT team,
lean production was epitomised in the Toyota Pro-
duction System. In this system Toyota reduced
its costs and its risks to the minimum through a
number of techniques. These techniques involved
a very close, strategic relationship between Toyota
and its major component suppliers so that the sup-
pliers delivered parts to the Toyota assembly plants
just in time for them to be used in production. The
MIT team concluded that lean production was the
superior means of organising work for the high-
est level of ↑ performance and that car manufactur-
ers that did not adopt these systems would simply
go out of business. In the mid-1990s, a number of
US researchers made intensive studies of the new-
ly emerging high performance work systems para-
digm (CAPPELLI / ROGOVSKY 1994; OSTERMAN 1995;
MACDUFFIE /KOCHAN 1995). They found that the
major people management elements of the high
642
performance work systems taking root in Ameri-
can business comprised:
– Extensive use of teamwork
– Use of quality circles (although the era of quality
circles was in decline by this time)
– Adoption of total ↑ quality management meth-
ods
– Job rotation
– Extensive training of all workers
– Recruitment for personal rather than technical
skills
– ↑ Performance related pay
– Reduction of barriers between managers and
workers.
These people management initiatives were accom-
panied by the use of flexible production methods
(lean production) and by the extensive investment
in new technologies. The concept of the high per-
formance work system has been the subject of ex-
tensive research in recent years and a number of
terms are often used interchangeably to describe
it – high performance work organisation (ASHTON /
SUNG 2002), high involvement work systems
(FELSTEAD / GALLIE 2002), high performance em-
ployment systems (BROWN / REICH 1997) and high
↑ commitment management (WOOD 1999; BAIRD
2002). The notion of the high commitment work
system underlines the strong connection of these
concepts to human resource management. Al-
though much broader than human resource man-
agement, in that high performance work systems
also encompass the development of new forms
↑ work process and the use of technology, never-
theless the human resource management practic-
es adopted under high performance work systems
are critical to the success of these systems. The hu-
man resource management practices associated
with high performance work systems are clearly
designed to elicit the fullest commitment of work-
ers to the objectives of the organisation. In this re-
spect, the concepts of human resource manage-
ment and high performance work systems might
be said to be largely analogous.
More recently, Belanger et al. (2002) have sought
to clarify some of the conceptual confusion sur-
rounding high performance work systems and have
distinguished three dimensions of the concept:
Handbook of TVET Research
Production management: this involves the greater
use of flexible production systems with an empha-
sis on quality management (→ 3.1.5; → 4.4.)
Work organisation: this dimension involves the use
of production processes based on knowledge and
cognition, especially the use of teamwork (→ 3.8)
Employee relations: this involves the harnessing
of employee commitment in the service of the or-
ganisation. Usually in ↑ high performance work
systems the human resource manager will be
tasked with implementing a ↑ performance based
pay system and ways of deploying the tacit skills
(→ 5.1.5.) of the workers.
The typology developed by Belanger et al. also un-
derlines another important aspect of high perform-
ance work systems which is that high performance
work systems practices need to be implemented to-
gether as “bundles” of practices in order to gain
the maximum effect. Many organisations may im-
plement one or two high performance practices
but it is the synergies that result from bundles of
practices that really lead to performance improve-
ments for organisations (APPELBAUM / BAILEY/ BERG /
K ALLEBERG 2000; PIL / MACDUFFIE 1996). Thus, the
implementation of teamwork will rely on effec-
tive training for teamwork and a pay system that
rewards the collective performance of the team
rather than individual performance. Without sup-
porting practices that are congruent the implemen-
tation of a single high performance practice may
achieve little or indeed, be counterproductive.
4.5.2 The Adoption and Impact of High
Performance Work Systems
The evidence for the use of high performance
work systems is scant. Work by Osterman (1994;
2000) in the ↑ USA in the mid-1990s suggested
that 41 per cent of all establishments in the USA
had over 50 per cent of their workforce participat-
ing in self-directed teams and nearly 60 per cent
of establishments had more than half of their core
workforce in quality improvement teams or quali-
ty circles. Fifty per cent of establishments had im-
plemented total ↑ quality management (OSTERMAN
2000). A survey of Canadian workers in 1997 re-
vealed that 44 per cent of respondents claimed that
just-in-time systems were operating in their work-
places and 50 per cent reported a quality manage-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ment program operating. Sixty-two per cent of re-
spondents to this survey reported the use of teams
in their workplaces and 39 per cent that multiskill-
ing was used (GODARD 2004). The most important
empirical study of high performance work systems
by Appelbaum et al. (2000) examined the impact
of the high performance work systems practices
on firms and individuals in the steel, apparel and
medical electronics manufacturing industries. This
study found that the take up of high performance
work systems practices varied considerably be-
tween the sectors but that their effect of form per-
formance had been positive. In ↑ Australia, Smith
et al. (2003) in a study of the impact of a range of
high performance work practices or “new manage-
ment practices” on the provision of employer spon-
sored training found that 66 per cent of respond-
ing organisations had implemented some form of
teamwork and about 50 per cent had implemented
Total Quality Management.
However, there have been no systematic surveys
of the extent of the adoption of high performance
work systems, beyond a few of the practices. The
general consensus is that the full implementation
of high performance work systems is still quite un-
usual (BUTLER / FELSTEAD /ASHTON ET AL. 2004). It is
likely that single high performance work practic-
es may well be quite common in modern organi-
sations but the bundling together of practices in-
to fully blown high performance work systems is
probably rather unusual.
The impact of high performance work systems
practices has been studied for a number of years.
The studies can be quite confusing as they often
conflate high performance work systems with hu-
man resource management (HRM). The clas-
sic studies by Huselid (HUSELID 1995; HUSELID /
JACKSON / SCHULER 1997; BECKER / HUSELID 1998)
found that firms that implemented more high per-
formance work practices tended to exhibit:
– Lower levels of employee turnover
– Higher levels of sales per employee (productiv-
ity)
– Higher returns to shareholders
– Higher levels of profit.
The findings were quite robust and have become
the benchmark for studies of the impact of high
performance work systems. The evidence strongly
643
suggests that high performance work systems have
a strong positive impact on organisational perform-
ance. Ashton and Sung’s (ASHTON / SUNG 2002) con-
clusion from their review of the research in this ar-
ea is hard to dispute:
First and foremost, stringent scientific research has now
established a strong link between the use of human re-
source management and enhanced performance across
a range of indicators, but especially in productivity and
profitability. Put plainly, investment in these practices
and the skills associated with them pays off on the bot-
tom line (ASHTON / SUNG 2002, 17)
4.5.3 Research Method
The case study reported in this chapter is drawn
from a larger study of the impact of nationally rec-
ognised training amongst Australian firms un-
dertaken with the support of the ↑ National Cen-
tre for Vocational Education Research (SMITH /
PICKERSGILL / SMITH / RUSHBROOK 2005). This study
examined the uptake by Australian employers of
nationally recognised training and the new qualifi-
cations embodied in Training Packages. The study
used a combination of a survey of organisations
and case studies of individual firms in four in-
dustry sectors. The study found that an increasing
number of employers, especially larger employers,
were using nationally recognised training not on-
ly to structure the training of their employees but
also to re-orient their entire human resource man-
agement strategy. In these cases, employee devel-
opment and training had replaced employee rela-
tions and other traditional concerns of human re-
source managers as the central design principle of
human resource management strategy. Thus, in
some of the more “advanced” firms in ↑ Australia
it was clear from the research that training and es-
pecially nationally recognised training was play-
ing a central role in the development of ↑ high per-
formance work systems.
This approach to the operation and adoption of
high performance work systems makes this re-
search quite different from traditional research in-
to high performance work systems. Much of the re-
search carried out in high performance work sys-
tems, whilst it has included reference to the train-
ing of employees, has not approached the question
from the point of view of employee development.
644
Thus survey-based work which has been common
in the UK and the ↑ USA has attempted to measure
the implementation of high performance work sys-
tems on a number of dimensions including train-
ing but focused mainly on new production sys-
tems, work organisation and other human resource
management practices. This includes some of the
most seminal work in the USA such as that by Os-
terman (1995; 2000), Godard (2004) and espe-
cially the work of Appelbaum and her associates
(2000). This work found that extensive training
of employees is but one element amongst many in
modern high performance work systems. The con-
sequences of high performance work systems have
been explored through more qualitative, case study
based approaches. This includes work by Thomp-
son (2003), Danford (2004) and Brown (1999).
Again, however, this work has focused very broad-
ly on the wide range of high performance work
systems practices that firms have adopted rather
than on training. The present case study, therefore,
addresses the issue of high performance work sys-
tems from the point of view of training and em-
ployee development and examines the connections
between new approaches to the training of employ-
ees and the implementation of high performance
work systems from both a theoretical and practi-
cal angle.
4.5.4 Sing Tel Optus
Sing Tel Optus Pty Ltd Communications (“Op-
tus”) is Australia’s second telecommunications
carrier behind Telstra which remains the dominant
company in the telecommunications market in this
country. This case study focused on the call centre
operations of the Mobile division of Optus based at
the Gordon call centre in Sydney. Interviews were
carried out with a number of staff at the Gordon
call centre and at Optus corporate HQ in North
Sydney. Interviewees included:
– General Manager, Learning and Development
– Manager, Optus College
– Manager, Organisation Development
– Gordon Call Centre Manager
– NSW State Human Resource Consultant
– Call Centre trainer/assessor
– 4 customer service representatives
Handbook of TVET Research
Learning and Development at Optus was located
within the corporate Human Resources function. It
was headed by the General Manager, Learning and
Development who reported to the Director of Hu-
man Resources. Optus was a non-unionised com-
pany. As a result, industrial relations played little
part in the human resources function in the compa-
ny. However, learning and development occupied
a very central role in the company’s approach to
HRM. At a corporate level, the learning and de-
velopment function included Organisation Devel-
opment which focused on management develop-
ment, a small multi-media production group which
produced ↑ e-learning materials. Each of the divi-
sions also supported a Learning and Development
Manager who reported to the divisional HR Man-
ager but also had a functional accountability to
the General Manager, Learning and Development.
The learning and development function was quite
large employing around 80 people, most of whom
were trainers attached to the business divisions of
the company and working for the divisional Learn-
ing and Development Managers. This was a testi-
mony to the strength of the learning and develop-
ment function within Optus.
4.5.5 Nationally Recognised Training at
Optus
A major and increasingly important part of the
learning a development function at Optus was the
Registered Training Organisation (RTO), known
as Optus College. Optus college was first formed
in 1999 and was located in the corporate Learn-
ing and Development function and had a remit to
provide nationally recognised training across the
entire organisation. In ↑ Australia, nationally rec-
ognised training is training that leads to a formal
qualification. The qualifications range through 4
Certificate levels (1 the lowest and 4 the highest)
and include a Diploma and Advanced Diploma.
The qualifications for all occupations in Austral-
ia are laid out in a series of “Training Packages”
which cover all industry and ↑ occupational areas
and include sets of competency standards, qualifi-
cations and assessment criteria for each of the oc-
cupations. The motivation for the company to es-
tablish Optus College was to provide basic train-
ing for the ever increasing numbers of staff that
Case Studies of TVET Research
were being hired to staff the call centre business-
es in the various divisions. In the early days, costs
also played an important role in the decision to es-
tablish an RTO. By moving to an on-the-job mod-
el, the company realised that it could roll out a ma-
jor training program to large numbers of new staff
very quickly but without a heavy investment in the
infrastructure of a traditional training department
and classroom-based training. This model proved
to be very successful for the company and for the
learning and development function.
Of the qualifications offered by the College, the
Certificate III in Telecommunications was the
largest single program. It was offered to all new
customer service representatives (reps) when they
joined one of the Optus call centres. The train-
ing was based on a 4 week off-the-job induction
program followed by up to 10 months on-the-job
training. The off-the-job training was mandato-
ry for all new employees and was run by train-
ing staff from the learning and development func-
tion. In this induction new staff learned the basics
of how to deal with different types of customers
and queries on the phone. The on-the-job train-
ing was closely integrated with the organisation’s
↑ performance management system which set tight
standards for the time that reps spent on an indi-
vidual query and the way in which the query was
handled. The average handling time for each query
was 330 seconds. Calls were also regularly moni-
tored for quality. Every month, Team Leaders held
“one on ones” with each of the dozen members of
their team. The reps were rated on a four step scale
from poor performance to highly commendable
and the Team Leader would discuss the perform-
ance feedback from ↑ quality assurance with each
rep. From these performance management meet-
ings, the Team Leaders would decide whether the
rep needed additional training. This training would
be delivered in the form of on-the-job coaching.
The coaching tasks in each team were handled by a
Customer Service Support Representative (CSSR).
The CSSR acted as both a senior customer rep and
trainer within the team and would normally have
up to 40 per cent of their work time dedicated to
training and coaching activities. The CSSR al-
so had responsibility for the training of the whole
team in new product knowledge and procedure is-
645
sues. Thus, the training for the reps was very close-
ly linked into the performance management sys-
tem in a tightly controlled environment.
Although the training for Call Centre reps was the
largest single program run by Optus College, the
company had extended the use of nationally rec-
ognised training to other groups. All members of
the Learning and Development function (some 80
staff) had completed the Cert IV in Assessment
and Workplace Training. The other major area for
nationally accredited training was for Team Lead-
ers who underwent the Certificate IV in Frontline
Management. Just as the Cert III in Telecommuni-
cations was the foundation for the Pathways pro-
gram for Call Centre reps, the Cert IV in Front-
line Management was the foundation for the Op-
tus management development program, Leaders of
Tomorrow. As with the Cert III in Telecommuni-
cations, the Cert IV in Front line Management was
delivered primarily on-the-job with a number of
activities that were designed to increase the super-
visory experience of a call centre rep.
4.5.6 The Role of Nationally Recognised
Training at Optus
The original decision by Optus to establish an RTO
and to use nationally recognised training for their
call centre reps was driven by the need to train
large numbers of people joining the call centre
operations and by the availability of government
funding to support the call centre traineeship. Es-
tablishing the RTO enabled Optus to deliver the
training primarily on-the-job, for large numbers of
employees and in a cost effective way. However,
after that initial decision to establish the RTO, the
company realised that there were more benefits to
be gained for them in using nationally recognised
training more widely and having an RTO to deliv-
er and award the training. The provision of nation-
ally recognised training enabled Optus to develop
a reputation as an employer of choice in a tight-
ening ↑ labour market and it also helped to devel-
op visible career pathways for employees in the or-
ganisation.
Thus, the use of nationally recognised training en-
abled Optus to link its requirements for skills de-
velopment that was delivered primarily on-the-job
to the need to give employees a visible career de-
646
velopment pathway. As discussed above, the train-
ing was also very tightly linked to the ↑ perform-
ance management system. Thus, since its incep-
tion at Optus, nationally recognised training be-
came increasingly central to the human resource
strategy of the company. The use of nationally rec-
ognised training progressed at Optus from a cost
effective means of providing high volume training
to a central element of the company’s entire human
resource strategy. Optus was developing the stra-
tegic importance of nationally recognised training
and Training Packages in the company still further
by utilising the competences in Training Packag-
es to underpin the performance management sys-
tem. The company developed a Success Profile
based on four sets of standards including Knowl-
edge, Behaviours, Personal Attributes and Expe-
rience. A Success Profile could therefore be de-
veloped for any job in the organisation and could
help the company identify the development needs
of individuals who aspired to those jobs. In many
cases, the standards for each of these components
could be described very effectively by using the
competences developed for the relevant Training
Package. This process of designing standards that
could be used for both performance management
for incumbents and development plans for aspir-
ants was a major program for the Organisation De-
velopment section within Learning and Develop-
ment at Optus.
The development of the silo-like divisional struc-
ture at Optus had impeded effective management
development in the company by making it more
difficult for people to change division or function
to gain the wider experience they required for pro-
motion to senior management positions. The new
approach to management development allowed the
company to move people more freely around the
organisation to gain the skills and experience they
needed to move on. This process was being under-
written by the development of Success Profiles for
groups of jobs in the organisation. These “models”
were built from feedback from focus groups of job
holders but also from the competences contained
in the relevant training packages where there was a
suitable qualification. In this way, the competences
contained in the Training Package were used not
only to build the basis of the Success Profile for a
Handbook of TVET Research
job but also ensured that the appropriate qualifica-
tion was tailored to fulfilling the requirements of
individuals to gain the skills necessary to move in-
to the job or simply perform at a higher standard.
4.5.7 Conclusion
The Optus case study provides a very good exam-
ple of how training can lead the development of
more sophisticated approaches to human resource
management and support the introduction and
maintenance of ↑ high performance work systems
practices. The structure and comprehensiveness of
the training packages that underpin nationally rec-
ognised training in ↑ Australia enabled Optus to
centre its human resource management activities
on development activities rather than on employee
relations, the more traditional base for human re-
source management in Australian organisations.
Optus also exhibits many of the aspects of a high
↑ performance work organisation. The extensive
use of teamwork, the high performance standards
in terms of time and quality of customer service,
the use of regular feedback through the perform-
ance management system and the focus on the de-
velopment of employee skills are all hallmarks of
high performance work systems as discussed ear-
lier in this chapter. Underpinning these work prac-
tices at Optus was the nationally recognised train-
ing. Through the training they received, employ-
ees not only learned the skills to perform the job
to the standards expected by the organisation but
were also inducted into the performance manage-
ment system which was the central feature of Op-
tus high performance work systems. The training
was also closely linked to organisation develop-
ment activities in the organisation and to manage-
ment development. It is not surprising, therefore,
that training had become the most important ele-
ment of Optus human resource management strat-
egy since it was training that provided the founda-
tion for this organisation to implement a high per-
formance work systems.
Case Studies of TVET Research
4.6 Youth, Work and Identity. Life
Perspectives and Interests of
Young People – a Research
Project
Andreas Witzel
4.6.1 Background and Objectives of the
Study
Focusing on young people and adolescence in the
1980s, the differentiated qualitative investigation
of Martin Baethge and colleagues contributed sig-
nificantly towards generating a theory of the sub-
jective meaning of work and gainful employment
in life. The results of their detailed and compre-
hensive interview analyses are presented as a ty-
pology, which relate identity building and life per-
spectives by specifying employment trajectories as
well as ↑ work orientations and ↑ life concepts and
how they shape individuals’ behaviour and deci-
sion-making.
The Sociological Research Institute of Göttin-
gen (‘Soziologisches Forschungsinstitut Göttin-
gen – SOFI’) conducted this study between 1983
and 1987 on behalf of the Hans Boeckler Founda-
tion (‘Hans-Böckler Stiftung’), The Federal Min-
istry of Youth, Family, Gender and Health (‘Bun-
desministerium für Jugend, Familie, Frauen und
Gesundheit’) and the German Confederation of
Trade Unions (‘Deutsche Gewerkschaftsbund’).
The study was published in 1988 by Martin Baeth-
ge, Brigitte Hantsche, Wolfgang Pelull and Ulrich
Voskamp.
The study originated from questioning some cul-
tural-historical assessments of public opinion re-
search in the beginning of the 1980s, which pos-
tulated that work was losing significance among
young people. The scientific discourse of the
‘working society in crisis’ and related ↑ value
shifts further nurtured this idea. Gorz (1983) and
Schaff (1985) in particular postulated that the ‘dis-
appearance of work’ would result in work-related
norms and professional ethics becoming less influ-
ential on an individual’s behaviour. These assump-
tions were based on observed general trends such
as the rapid progress in manufacturing industries,
overall reduction of working hours, simplification
647
of ↑ work processes and more equal working con-
ditions at the level of jobs that require high skills
and creativity. Other authors reckoned that the rel-
ative decrease of total working time over the life
span would lead to work losing its meaning for the
individual, while the relative expansion of leisure
time would lead to individuals prioritising values
associated with leisure such as fun and enjoyment
(cf. OPASCHOWSKI 1985).
Against the current political and economic condi-
tions Inglehart’s (1979) hypothesis of a universal
value shift from materialistic (physical ↑ well-be-
ing and substantial security) to post-materialistic
values (self-realisation, intellectual and aesthetic
fulfilment, political ↑ participation and social rec-
ognition) due to prosperity and the gaining sig-
nificance of leisure rather evoke an idealistic no-
tion. Even at that time different authors questioned
those ideas and criticised that Ingelhart’s analy-
sis was lacking a more differentiated assessment
(BAETHGE / HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 20–
26). This critical position also presented an oppos-
ing perspective to most of contemporary research
on youth and adolescence, which also tended to
followed the idea of disruptive modes of individ-
uals’ integration into society (cf. FISCHER / FUCHS /
ZINNECKER 1985; by contrast HEINZ /K RÜGER /
RETTKE et al. 1985).
Derived from assumptions contrary to Inglehart’s
value shift hypotheses the authors postulated a
structural change of adolescence based on chang-
ing patterns of socialisation during adolescence as
well as changing structures of the ↑ labour market,
vocational education and training and company-
based work that young people are confronted with
[translated from German] (BAETHGE / HANTSCHE /
PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 37).
The epoch-marking change from a work-orient-
ed to a more school-based adolescence would of-
fer young people more scope for personal develop-
ment and some kind of alleviation, for example a
psycho-social moratorium, through a delayed con-
frontation with company-specific norms, a more
consciously experienced liberation from the par-
ents and the realisation of a personal lifestyle
based on experiences among peers.
Furthermore, the authors assumed a shift from a
‘production-oriented’ to a ‘consumption-oriented’
648
socialisation paradigm by which internal, recep-
tive and reflexive activities and orientations would
be prioritised over activities more externally ori-
ented towards nature and the environment. Simi-
lar consequences were anticipated in line with the
critical considerations mentioned earlier, namely
the decreasing influence of work-related internal-
ised norms:
“While young people are becoming ever less embedded
in real life and work contexts, their unstable young per-
sonality is losing important traditional supporting pil-
lars of protection and orientation” [translated from Ger-
man] (ibid., 45).
Finally, the assessment of unstable and unpredict-
able labour market developments was linked to the
well-known situation of shortages of vocational
↑ training places and raising unemployment. The
devaluation of vocational qualifications and cer-
tificates and problems related to ↑ school-to-work
transition were the result. This, on the one hand,
privileges the skilled and higher qualified employ-
ees while, on the other hand, people finding them-
selves at the lower end of the social ladder are faced
with impoverishment due to poor working condi-
tions, their exclusion from further and continuous
training and lack of personal resources that could
compensate for educational exclusion.
4.6.2 Research and Methodological
Approach of the Study
With the aim of developing a theory of the sub-
jective meaning of work and gainful employment
the study connects to a concept of identity – in
line with Habermas (1973; 1976) and Krappmann
(1969) – that, on the one hand, claims a compe-
tence-based approach: Individuals are consistent
in terms of their capacity to act and interact even
if role expectations and life situations are incon-
sistent and changing (BAETHGE / HANTSCHE / PELLUL /
VOSKAMP 1988, 28). According to the second con-
stituent of identity individuals monitor and control
their actions and interactions on the basis of a nor-
mative concept of life plans and design. This nor-
mative concept integrates everything people aim
for in life and how and where they feel themselves
(ibid.). In line with a dynamic approach towards
identity the individual continuously balances the
different components of their personal and social
Handbook of TVET Research
identity, which further develop and grow as the in-
dividual is challenged to deal with the environ-
ment and contextual embedding.
Corresponding to the trend of rediscovering quali-
tative methods during the 1970s, the study is meth-
odologically remarkable as it applies descriptive
and interpretive methods. It also ascertains the in-
adequacy of quantitative, standardised methods
particularly in terms of the classical forms of in-
vestigation based on surveys, which tend to
“fail to obtain information of the genesis of individual
attitudes and their respective social contexts. They fur-
ther ignore to what extent the collected opinions are mir-
rored in reality, that is if they are at all binding for the
individuals in terms of concrete actions. Thus, the in-
ner meaning of opinions and statements remains vague.
The main reason for this can be found in the standard-
ised phrasing along common language patterns with
which opinions are commonly being assessed. The re-
sult is that ‘public virtues’ are being confused with per-
sonal dispositions of action” [translated from German]
(ibid., 30).
When investigating the ‘inner’ ↑ structuration of
orientations that are relevant for concrete actions
and ↑ life concepts by means of topic-centred inter-
views (ibid., 33) the topics for a further ‘cautious
inquiry’ were determined in advance. There was,
however, scope for adaptation of length, focus and
linguistic variations of paraphrasing, which made
the interviewee the actor of a rather open conversa-
tion. This approach helped to avoid the risk that the
researchers would pre-determine the direction the
investigated topics would take. The outlined com-
bination of open approach and some form of ↑ in-
terview guidelines evokes certain parallels with
the methodological characteristics of the ↑ prob-
lem-centred interview (WITZEL 1982; 2000).
The sample for data analyses comprised n = 168 de-
pendent employees aged between 19 and 25 years
(accounting for an extended understanding of
youth) working in different sectors (such as man-
ufacturing, administration, ↑ social work and care)
and regions. Some of the participants were unqual-
ified, unemployed or worked for voluntary organi-
sations. Gender constituted another distinctive cat-
egory (male and female participants were almost
equally distributed) as well as union membership
(cf. Table of 15 groups of investigation at BAETHGE /
HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 58). Against the
assumption that work experience and the variety of
Case Studies of TVET Research
socialisation contexts highly influence how an in-
dividual relates to work, the study did not include
pupils, apprentices and students.
The large sample made the data analysis a chal-
lenging task, which required compromising be-
tween obtaining
“a detailed description of individual cases which cannot
be generalised, and the generalisation of experiences at
a relatively high categorical level, which would elimi-
nate all individual particularities” (ibid.).
This compromise was realised by following a his-
torical approach. Thematic oriented analyses of
the young people’s broad descriptions lead to a
complex typology of their perceptions and the sub-
jectively valued importance of central work expe-
riences and tasks. In parallel, descriptive catego-
ries of less complex perceptions, social experienc-
es and structural variables were also elaborated.
This multi-level approach made it possible to con-
nect “complex attitudes and orientations observed
in individual cases with socio-demographic fea-
tures (gender, social background, education)” on
the basis of theory of probabilities, i.e. an action-
oriented vagueness (for more details and critical
notes on the vagueness of action orientation see
Zinn 2001, 60).
The analyses of individuals’ attitudes towards
work was structured along two dimensions: their
expectations of work on the basis of their own
work experiences, and the meaning of work in life
(main interests and plans for the future) in terms
of “giving life a direction, something everyone aims
for and which to identify becomes a major task dur-
ing adolescence” [translated from German] (BAETHGE /
HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 37).
The following sections present the extensive anal-
ysis and description of empirical findings. It shows
how young people deal with their work and ↑ la-
bour market situation against the background of
their employment trajectories (ibid. Chapter 2, 57–
180) and the meaning that work and occupation
have for their life concept (ibid. Chapter 3, 181–
256). What will be ignored, as it is less relevant for
the focus of this handbook, are the interpretation
of findings on young people’s attitudes towards lei-
sure and leisure activities (ibid. Chapter 4, 257–
288.) and unions (ibid. Chapter 5, 289–388).
649
4.6.3 Young People’s Employment
Trajectories and how they Consider
Their Work Situation
The authors started out with exploring the partic-
ipants’ experiences of making the transition from
school to initial vocational training and later gain-
ful employment. Chosen categories for differenti-
ating between different levels of ‘crisis’ were the
participants’ work attitude, some of their socio-de-
mographic features and whether they had success-
fully mastered the transition processes. A “rela-
tively easy transition into the desired apprentice-
ship programme” or “relatively smooth transition
into an acceptable apprenticeship without having
had a prior clear priority in terms of deciding for a
particular occupational specialisation” (BAETHGE /
HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 61) exempli-
fied experiences of the first threshold not affect-
ed by a crisis. By contrast stood provisional solu-
tions, great efforts for realising occupational pri-
orities, remaining on waiting lists or ending up in
unskilled or semi-skilled jobs.
Taking the experience of crises at the first and sec-
ond threshold together (in correlation) resulted
in employment trajectories covering four to nine
years. Those were categorised into two positive ca-
reer examples (covering about half of the partici-
pants), three types of negative careers (about two
fifths) and one average pattern (about 10 per cent).
Another analysis of ‘crises’ explored the social,
educational and family aspects. The result was that
pupils with low ↑ educational attainment or with-
out having any school-leaving certificate, children
from the lower class having negative experiences
at school, an aggressive and confrontational mode
of interaction or lack of reflection about work and
occupational choices at home, all could be found
among the young people mostly affected by crises.
According to the main suppositions of attribution
theory the failures of such ‘losers’ are not the re-
sult of their own efforts (as is the case with ‘suc-
cessful’ young people), but they are based on ex-
ternal factors that are considered to be ‘structur-
al obstacles’.
The typology of employment trajectories is fol-
lowed by the analysis of how the young people
come to terms with their current work situation and
how this relates to their personal ↑ work biography.
650
This presents a major part of the publication and
means that the authors essentially base their typol-
ogy of occupational orientations on structural in-
formation and data.
Reducing the six career types (ibid., 66) to four
(ibid., 79–108) and combining those with the par-
ticipants’ current attitudes and reactions to then
making another extension to five types that incor-
porate work experiences (ibid., 160–166) is from
a methodological point of view rather confusing.
This step is not explained either.
In the description of the young people categorised
according to the five types the focus is placed on
“the expectations of the work at the company and
the standards against which those are being as-
sessed” (ibid., 78). These five types are further ex-
tended by different variations, each of which is il-
lustrated by a singly case making each one func-
tion as a prototype for similar cases.
The reader is challenged not to lose track, as the
typology is not well categorised and the concrete
steps towards a higher level of generalisation of the
individual case descriptions is not clear.
Type A: Young skilled workers employment tra-
jectory characterised by continuity (BAETHGE /
HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 79–108)
This type on the “bright side” (ibid., 79) of the
training and ↑ labour market is represented by
half of the sample and applies to insurance, bank
and industrial clerks, skilled administrative staff,
nurses, mechanics and mechanical engineers and
skilled workers trained in alternative trades. They
all have in common that they found a qualified
job corresponding to their initial vocational train-
ing and characterised by challenging and complex
tasks and autonomy at work. Young people of this
first type come from a supporting social and fami-
ly environment; they have a relatively high level of
education and assess their working situation pos-
itively. They state that their expectations of work
are being met and that they experience scope for
↑ participation and active involvement.
Variations:
(a) From work satisfaction to professional devel-
opment (n = 30)
Handbook of TVET Research
Features of the case description: Positive interim
assessment of one’s own situation, which is regard-
ed as temporary and transitory as it “loses its at-
tractiveness and becomes boring when staying on
for too long” (ibid., 82). Other characteristic fea-
tures are “a curious view ahead” (ibid., 83), or-
ganisational ↑ commitment, investing in broaden-
ing one’s own competences and one’s own horizon.
Money, status, gaining influence and making a ca-
reer are less important than “scope for self-realisa-
tion” and “intellectual challenges” (ibid., 84).
(b) Status and recognition as motivating factors
for making a career – the small group of careerists
(“not even one in ten cases”).
Features of case description: Most important goals
are: power and influence, recognition and good rep-
utation, which are most commonly found among
bank clerks with a milieu-specific social and edu-
cational background.
(c) Having reached all professional expectations –
high level of work commitment (four out of ten).
Features of case description: A “rather conserv-
ative work attitude oriented towards continuity”
(ibid., 94). Work expectations have largely been
fulfilled; the negative aspects of work are tolera-
ble.
(d) “Making the most of a satisfying social envi-
ronment”.
Features of case description: The young people
feel committed to their working environment, “be-
cause it is at work where they feel socially integrated, re-
ceive social recognition and experience that their needs
for social interaction are being met” (ibid., 100). This is
reflected by a good work atmosphere and a “feel-
ing of social belonging” (ibid., 103) in relation to
colleagues and supervisors. It is due to this social
dimension of work that the young people neither
aim to change their workplace nor their employer.
Although work should involve some varying tasks,
it does not present great challenges and is rather
perceived as a routine and necessity. Financial as-
pects, stress, status and career prospects seem to
be less important.
(e) Seeking alternatives – the minority of young
people, who are disillusioned (10 per cent).
Features of case description: Disappointment with
respect to their high expectations; several attempts
Case Studies of TVET Research
to initiate a change and “stubbornly trying to re-
tain the so far obtained benefits by holding on to
learned strategies of coping”.
Type B: Young people with employment trajec-
tories characterised by discontinuities – tak-
ing advantage of a ‘second chance’ to con-
solidate employment perspectives (“one in
ten cases”) (BAETHGE / HANTSCHE / PELLUL /
VOSKAMP 1988, 109–116.)
This type refers to young people, who had difficul-
ties as young job entrants or experienced employ-
ment discontinuities after having completed their
initial vocational training. It also includes negative
career examples characterised by highly individu-
alised pathways and several periods of unemploy-
ment. The majority of the young people in this cat-
egory had a low or intermediate educational back-
ground and rather poor school-leaving certificates.
Their traineeship/apprenticeship presents a provi-
sional or second-best solution resulting in the job
not corresponding to their skills. Their ↑ work ori-
entation focuses on making compromises in order
to secure their job.
Variations:
(a) What matters most is job security – reorienta-
tion from skilled to semi-skilled work.
(b) What matters most is the working environment
– finding a new start after periods of unemploy-
ment.
Type C: Skilled workers in under qualified jobs
– in search of jobs, which match their qualifi-
cation to avoid social degradation and psycho-
logical impoverishment (12 per cent) (BAETHGE /
HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 16–131.)
This type is found mostly among male skilled
workers such as toolmakers, who are proud of their
skills. Working below their qualification level is
perceived as a burden, but is accepted so as not to
risk losing the job. This form of acceptance, how-
ever, is hard for them and although often refuted in
research and public opinion they persist on claim-
ing to work according to their qualification in or-
der to improve their status.
Variations:
651
(a) “You will become what your job makes of you”
– pursuing qualified work
The reasons for this position are illustrated by
the toolmaker in the automobile industry, an oc-
cupational specialisation that is considered to be
at the higher end of all areas of ↑ metal working.
The ↑ young workers continue to expect to get a
job that will ultimately match their qualification,
while concurrently ruling out the idea of pursu-
ing any form of further training, mainly because
they do not consider themselves equipped for theo-
ry-based learning (ibid., 126). Rather they empha-
sise the advantages of practical work experience
that would also correspond to their intermediate
school-leaving certificate in contrast to their more
theoretically oriented colleagues with a higher ed-
ucation certificate. This idea of opposing theoret-
ical and ↑ practical knowledge and skills had al-
ready been described in the study of Heinz et al.
(1985, 138–140) and was explained as the “person-
alisation of structural effects”.
(b) Further training as a way out of under quali-
fied employment
Advancing into positions, which are more intellec-
tually challenging and involve more responsibili-
ties. This is combined with prospects for promo-
tion and higher status.
Type D: Young people with crisis-ridden em-
ployment trajectories – different forms of res-
ignation, opposition and self-assertiveness
(28 per cent) (BAETHGE / HANTSCHE / PELLUL /
VOSKAMP 1988, 131–157)
This category combines the employment trajectory
example five and six, both of which are character-
ised by different precarious features such as hav-
ing attended a special school, having dropped out
of school, difficult regional ↑ labour market condi-
tions and a socially ↑ disadvantaged and/or poor
educational family background.
Variations:
(a) In the group of those having a job young wom-
en with repetitive and very demanding work pre-
dominate. From a defensive situation they empha-
sise the positive aspects of their job. The minori-
ty, however, suffer from poor and restrictive work-
652
ing conditions and seek alternatives. Two ways of
dealing with this situation can be distinguished:
– Resignation and adjustment in the case of un-
skilled or semi-qualified young people.
– Resistance against the restrictive working condi-
tions and looking for alternatives.
(b) Of the group of unemployed youths also two
ways of dealing with this situation can be distin-
guished:
– Young people who are socially excluded cul-
minating in the demonstrative protesting of the
punks.
– Between hope and resignation – young people
who have the ‘wrong’ qualification and are now
undergoing a special re-training supported by the
labour office.
Analysing the connections between the different
patterns of transition from vocational training into
gainful employment on the one hand, and how the
young people experience and deal with their situ-
ation on the other hand, the authors conclude that
the young people’s expectations of work have not
really been disappointed:
“The image of a generation, who redefine their initial
high expectations of work due to frustrating work expe-
riences, going off in a huff to carefully not waste their
energy, does not reflect the reality. The majority of these
young people rather try to cope with the difficult situa-
tion on the labour market by holding on to their expec-
tations and struggling for it with a high level of personal
commitment” [translated from German] (ibid., 159).
Baethge and his team underpin these findings with
the new distribution of five typical forms of coping
with the work situation according to which the ma-
jority of young people belong to the types of:
– “Activities geared towards initiating a change in
terms of career progression”;
– “Activities geared towards initiating a change in
terms of getting out of an unsatisfying work situa-
tion”; and
– “Making the most of an unsatisfying job situa-
tion”.
By contrast, the types that represent “acceptance
of the situation with elements of resignation or re-
treat” and “suffering from the situation” only ac-
count for 19 per cent of the sample.
A further result refers to the new attitude towards
work of young males as well as females, which em-
phasises that work should be purposeful and meet
Handbook of TVET Research
individual interests (73 per cent) rather than prior-
itising material security and seeing working mere-
ly as a means of earning a living (27 per cent).
42 per cent of the youths consider what their tasks
involve and gaining self-confidence as important,
while another 24 per cent of predominantly fe-
males emphasise the communicative and social as-
pects of work. Interestingly, the authors also in-
clude young people with a career and status orien-
tation in this category arguing that such an orien-
tation would also accentuate immaterial values in
terms of reaching out for status elevation and social
recognition. Taking the social and communicative
aspects aside, similarities can be found in terms of
the three ways of coping with the work situation
on the one hand, and the socio-demographic var-
iables such as social background, level of educa-
tion and employment status of the young people on
the other hand. It is rather the young people with
a higher social and educational background (par-
ticularly those coming from families with a white
collar or civil servant tradition), a higher school
leaving certificate (corresponding to a intermedi-
ate and ‘A’ levels) and the skilled workers who em-
phasise scope for personal interests and self-reali-
sation at work.
Only 7 per cent of the young people emphasise the
material aspects of work. Their working condi-
tions are highly restrictive, which makes it diffi-
cult for them to identify with their work. Anoth-
er 20 per cent consider material values in terms of
job security and the level of income as important.
In summary values such as self-realisation are pri-
oritised against the material and reproductive as-
pects of work despite the difficult situation on the
↑ labour market.
4.6.4 Work and Occupational Orientations
in the Life of Young People
The analysis takes on a different perspective when
focusing on the normative identity concept, which
directs the young people’s actions and interactions
in the context of life planning. The authors, how-
ever, do not generate explicitly a connection with
the typology of how young people deal with their
work and labour market situation.
Following Erikson (1966), identifying a ↑ life con-
cept is a central psychosocial and fundamental-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ly stable developmental task during adolescence
in relation to the institutions work, leisure and
family/relationships. These three institutional ar-
eas mark the categories of the typology of the
young people’s statements, which are expressed in
the interview topics “what to achieve in life” and
“how to achieve it” (BAETHGE / HANTSCHE / PELLUL /
VOSKAMP 1988, 182). The summary of this part of
the study confirms again the stated objective of re-
futing the view that young people disappointedly
turn away from work:
“It cannot be concluded that work as a guiding principle
in life is being abandoned when it comes to developing a
somewhat binding orientation in terms of one’s own life
perspectives” [translated from German] (ibid., 187).
The typology serves as a “rather instrumental con-
struct to understand and descriptively classify the
data”. The theoretical assumptions of the psycho-
social ↑ development tasks during adolescence pro-
vide the background for it (ibid., 185). Like the ty-
pology, the presentation refers to single cases and
variations along four major categories – in this
case life concepts (ibid., 181–237).
– Centrality of work and an occupational orienta-
tion as major dimensions of identification (‘work
oriented’):
31 per cent of the young people refer to work as a
central dimension for developing their identity and
life perspectives. The partner, family and leisure
are less important.
– Work and private life as balanced points of refer-
ence (‘balanced’):
30 per cent of the young people develop positive
interests in both spheres without subordinating one
or the other. That work should be purposeful and
meaningful is regarded as more important than
making a career (ibid., 188). The partner and fami-
ly life or hobbies and cultural activities are empha-
sised when it comes to private life and partly com-
pensate for a lack of social recognition at work.
– Family-oriented life concept with a subordinat-
ed, but still significant meaning of work (‘family-
oriented’):
For 23 per cent of the young people work is clearly
less important than the partner and the family for
identity building and self-definition.
– Leisure-oriented life concept with a detached at-
titude towards work:
653
16 per cent of more ‘hedonistic oriented’ young
people favour having fun in life over responsibili-
ties and obligations. Their attitude towards work is
rather distant and detached.
The gender distribution of the first type central-
ity of work and occupational orientation is on-
ly slightly unbalanced (37 per cent males against
25 per cent females). Women’s ↑ commitment to
work in relation to “other spheres of social life” –
illustrated on the basis of one example – contrasts
with their male counterparts, who instead “expe-
rience pressures to be successful and comply with
role expectations at work”. From a contemporary
point of view (cf. for example KRÜGER / BORN 1991;
KÜHN 2004) it is surprising that this is described as
relatively unproblematic: “Where conflicts of in-
terests arise, the young people are generally able
to be flexible and solve such conflicts” (BAETHGE /
HANTSCHE / PELLUL / VOSKAMP 1988, 205).
Slight gender differences of the type work and pri-
vate life as balanced points of reference only oc-
cur regarding personal inclinations and interests.
While young males almost exclusively consider
‘private life’ as enjoying life and having fun, young
women clearly relate private life to the partner and
the family. At one point the clear categorisation of
the typology becomes a little bit fuzzy: The state-
ments “without work no money and no enjoyment”
(ibid., 229) or “today I need my job more than ev-
er to afford my hobbies” (ibid., 236) were classified
as ‘leisure oriented’ while they could also be inter-
preted as ‘balanced’.
With 34 per cent females and only 13 per cent
males clearly represents the family-oriented ↑ life
concept a traditional pattern of orientation with an
asymmetric partner concept. Women refer to the
family as part of “life fulfilment” or a “sphere that
compensates for working life” (ibid., 218).
The leisure-oriented life concept is with 22 per cent
of males twice as strongly represented as among
women (11 per cent). This difference is not further
explained. Work and the family are both mostly
ignored: “For the following years the priority is to
enjoy personal freedom […]” (ibid., 231).
The dominant role of work and its centrality for
developing a life concept is another proof for the
relatively high importance of work for young peo-
ple’s identity formation. Similar to ‘expectations of
654
work’ is the ‘centrality of work’ closely connect-
ed with the socio-demographic features ‘social
background’, ‘level of education and training’ and
‘work-related status’. Young people with ‘A-lev-
el’ certificates are up to 90 per cent work oriented
and contrast with low educated youths, who have a
much stronger family and leisure orientation. Sim-
ilarly higher qualified employees and those with a
higher ↑ professional status are more work and oc-
cupational oriented than unskilled or semi-quali-
fied workers and employees among whom family
orientation predominates.
Considering the different types of employment tra-
jectory the authors conclude that apart from the
positive aspects of a more individualised work atti-
tude with expectations of having an interesting job,
scope for self-realisation and the possibility of em-
ploying the personal skills profile, a reverse trend
of occupational and social exclusion is also nota-
ble. This is reinforced by the socialisation dynam-
ics generated through economic crisis. Only half
of the young people whose employment trajecto-
ries are characterised by crisis have a work and oc-
cupation-centred life concept.
4.6.5 Importance of the Study for
Vocational Education in Theory and
Practice
The study of Baethge et al. (1988) surely is shaped
by the aim of showing that high expectations of
work persist despite experiences of crisis. Against
the background of current developments on the
training and ↑ labour market, which are general-
ly explained as being the economic consequence
of ↑ globalisation processes, this topic almost pro-
vokes one to undertake follow-up ↑ comparative
studies. The analysis of how young people relate to
work is assessed from a subjective perspective. It
starts out by analysing patterns of employment tra-
jectories (which could be unproblematic or charac-
terised by discontinuities and crises) and outcomes
of selection processes (such as skilled workers
working below their qualification). Those issues
are looked at in terms of identifying correspond-
ing responses and orientations of young people.
The empirical results of work expectations give a
positive answer to the question whether work can
still be considered a central category of social in-
Handbook of TVET Research
tegration. In a later publication, Baethge (1991) re-
assesses the key findings of the study relating them
to the development of modern industrial societies.
He concludes that modernisation leads to work and
the ↑ performance of ↑ work tasks undergoing a
process of normative subjectivity (‘normative Sub-
jektivierung’) in terms of individuals attributing a
higher value to having a meaningful job. Working
to make a living, by contrast, is not the main ex-
pectation. As the significance of work is increas-
ingly linked to personal identity formation, Bae-
thge concludes that the model of social and politi-
cal integration through associations and represent-
ative bodies is losing its foundation.
The justification of the large sample (Baethge/
Hantsche/ Pellul/ Voskamp 1988, footnote 16, 392)
shows that when qualitative methods were applied
at the time the study was published it was more
common to concentrate the analysis on a few indi-
vidual cases. For developing the typology, however,
the authors suitably decided to use extensive data.
The vivid and complex description makes it possi-
ble to get insight into the life perspectives and in-
terests of young people. This insight is particular-
ly vital to address theoretical and practical issues
of competence development at school and work.
Critical assessments of the sample, however, per-
sist (cf. LEMPERT 2002, 72) when it comes to draw-
ing quantitative conclusions on the young people’s
orientations and attitudes on the basis of a quali-
tative analysis. In order to generate representative
results more groups of young people (for example
representing construction and textile and food in-
dustries) would need to be included. Weighting the
investigated groups according to their proportion-
al distribution in the overall sample would further
be necessary.
Not to revert to a deterministic model of the re-
lationship between the individual and society al-
so represents an innovative approach. The interac-
tionist approach rather emphasises the actor and
his/her occupational and work-related orientations
and actions and how those are shaped by the indi-
vidual’s concrete work experiences. Although the
typology of employment trajectories is taken as the
basis for classifying orientations and responses,
the authors do not postulate that the environment
has deterministic affects on the individual. The in-
Case Studies of TVET Research
terdependent perspective is expressed in the vari-
ations of types like, for example, when a precari-
ous employment trajectory is specified in terms of
‘resistance’, ‘non-adjustment’ or ‘↑ career changes’,
and unproblematic trajectories are further differ-
entiated into ‘disappointment’ or ‘looking for al-
ternatives’.
When focusing on orientations that are relevant
for and guiding concrete actions the authors them-
selves acknowledged the importance of young peo-
ple’s work and life experiences in linking, on the
one hand, ↑ work orientations and ↑ life concepts,
and combining those with employment trajectories
on the other. Although presenting a complex and
challenging undertaking, the authors further reck-
on that ↑ longitudinal studies are necessary to fos-
ter work-related identity building in the long run
(ibid., 27). That this has been realised in more re-
cent life course research reveals the major weak-
nesses of the study clearly contradicting the claim
of the authors to have accounted for the linkage be-
tween individuals’ orientations and their concrete
actions. A more up-to-date longitudinal study of
female life concepts, for example, reveals the di-
vergence between life plans and concrete actions
when it comes to starting a family and making ar-
rangements of parental leave (cf. BORN /K RÜGER /
LORENZ-MEYER 1996). Further, young women’s life
plans depend on their biographical circumstances,
which influence how those plans are being trans-
lated and transformed into concrete decisions and
actions (cf. GEISSLER / OECHSLE 1996).
The key results of the study consist of the typolo-
gy of transitions into gainful employment and the
related young people’s orientation towards work.
Partly influenced by the findings of Baethge and
colleagues a series of other typologies of work-re-
lated biographical orientations and actions were
developed in the following decades (MÜLLER 1990;
KÖNIG 1993; SCHERR 1995; GEISSLER / OECHSLE
1996; CORSTEN 1998; WITZEL /KÜHN 2000). Issues
of transition into gainful employment remain top-
ical to date. As they address the relationship be-
tween personal identity and work-related roles or –
even more fundamentally – between the individual
and social structure it remains a research topic of
wider interest (see for example WAHLER 1997, 222–
226; ZINN 2001, 55–61; LEMPERT 2002, 63–77).
655
The lack of ↑ comparative studies makes the inter-
pretation of the findings incomplete, first as con-
cerns the interpretation of meaningful work hav-
ing priority over a more materialistic work orienta-
tion related to income; moreover, this is proposed
as a future trend without presenting any significant
evidence for it. Second, as concerns the effects of
experiences of crises: It remains an unanswered
question in what way the young people’s biograph-
ical trajectories and orientations differ in terms of
periods of crisis and periods of stability. Dynamics
of social exclusion persist even under easing ↑ la-
bour market conditions, and the structural frame-
works for realisation still restrain the young peo-
ple’s occupational interests and aspirations. There-
fore transitions, which in many aspects are con-
sidered as unproblematic, can be interpreted as a
highly cognitive adjustment of young people to la-
bour market restrictions. Other ↑ longitudinal stud-
ies that were conducted even before Baethge and
colleagues published their findings (cf. HEINZ /
K RÜGER / RETTKE ET AL. 1985; WAHLER / WITZEL
1997; WITZEL 2001) showed that in this context the
main achievement consists of retrospectively re-
interpreting negative experiences of realising oc-
cupational aspirations to be on the ‘wrong track’,
and assessing the outcomes as the consequences
of personal decisions and efforts. The obvious en-
deavour to come to terms with educational and oc-
cupational selection processes then entails inter-
preting occupational pathways ultimately realised
on the basis of labour market restrictions as some-
thing planned, and substantiating this interpreta-
tion by referring to, for example, an inclination al-
ready developed during childhood.
656
4.7 Implementing Dual Vocational
Education in China: A Case
of Transnational Innovation
Transfer through a German-
Chinese Research and
Development Project
Zhao Zhiqun and Xu Han
4.7.1 Context
This paper discusses a research and develop-
ment project on ↑ China’s vocational education
in the 1990’s –“Research and ↑ Experimentation
of China’s Vocational Education Reform Promo-
tion through Learning from the German ↑ Dual
System” (referred to as “VERDualS” hereafter),
which is jointly executed by the Central Institute
of Vocational and Technical Education (↑ CIVTE)
of the Chinese Ministry of Education, the Institute
of Vocational and Technical Education Liaoning
(RIBB-L) and Shanghai (RIBB-S).
During the late 1970s, China started adopting its
reform and opening up policies with the gradual
transition from the planned economy to the mar-
ket economy. Vocational education saw rapid de-
velopment. However, the quality of the vocation-
al education was hardly adapted to the demand on
human resources from the social, economic and
technological development. Therefore, China had
to review its traditional model of vocational ed-
ucation system and carry out subsequent reform
which cried out for guidance from advanced ex-
perience and reference models. The ever-increas-
ing exchanges with the outside world made both
the educational circle and economic circle greatly
interested in the dual system of German vocational
education, and so a series of ↑ model trials and ↑ pi-
lot projects were organized to introduce the Ger-
man experience and to reform the traditional Chi-
nese vocational education system.
In 1991, The German Government through the
Deutsche Gesellschaft für Technische Zusamme-
narbeit (↑ GTZ) supported the Chinese Govern-
ment in establishing three vocational education re-
search institutes, namely the CIVTE, RIBB-L and
RIBB-S. The core task of these three institutes
Handbook of TVET Research
was to “draw on international and domestic expe-
rience for the development of the vocational edu-
cation system” ,… and “engage in research and de-
velopment as well as conduct ↑ model trials” and
“provide consultancy services to the government”
(SEK/HSST/GTZ 1994). Therefore the common
tasks for the three institutes at the outset were to
implement the project VERDualS and to formu-
late evidence-based suggestions and opinions for
the further development of Chinese vocational ed-
ucation based on the survey and analysis of the ex-
isting model trials and ↑ pilot projects for imple-
mentation of the dual system.
The research project VERDualS was then listed as
one of the key national projects in the ninth five-
year plan of Chinese Social Sciences Research
(1996–2000). Two books were its main results:
“Future-oriented ↑ Experimentation – the Prac-
tice of the Dual System of Vocational Education
in ↑ China” (THE VERDUALS TASK FORCE 1998) and
“ History and Status – The German Dual System
of Vocational Education” (CIVTE 1998a), the first
one was awarded the First Prize of the second Na-
tional Distinguished Achievement of Educational
Scientific Research.
4.7.2 Main Research Issues and Results
VERDualS studied issues that need to be ad-
dressed urgently for the Chinese vocational ed-
ucation system in its transition from quantitative
growth to qualitative progress, such as how to
closely link the specialties and ↑ curriculum de-
velopment with the ↑ labour market; select the ba-
sic model for running schools from the perspective
of social progress; play the role of the enterprise
in vocational education and improve the teaching-
learning quality especially the practical qualifica-
tion of the graduates.
By way of the comparative educational subject of
“drawing on international experience through in-
ternational cooperation”, VERDualS explored the
fundamental rules for vocational education at two
levels of macro school operating mechanism and
micro teaching-learning process. The project con-
sisted of three parts:
– The study and analysis of the original dual sys-
tem of vocational education (→ 1.4): collect and
Case Studies of TVET Research
analyze information on the German ↑ dual system
for the other two parts;
– Model trials (→ 2.4): empirical data were col-
lected from the dual system practiced in China
through the model trials and pilot projects; and
corresponding interpretations were provided;
– Teaching-learning process comparison (→ 3.7.7):
Comparison was made between the dual system (in
German and Chinese pilot projects) and the cur-
rent teaching-learning process of Chinese tradi-
tional vocational education in the field of mechan-
ical and electronic specialties in order to look for
rules for vocational education.
The project results can be summarized from the
following three aspects:
Understanding the Original Dual System of
Vocational Education
The results revealed that the dual system was pro-
duced by the historical development in Germa-
ny and characterized by typical social and cultur-
al features. Due to the different traditions, politi-
cal systems and economic mechanisms in China
and Germany, the dual system can not be copied
straightforwardly to China. However, quite a lot of
experience from the dual system can be introduced
to China, namely the educational mentality, man-
agement system and teaching-learning models.
The Chinese concept of dual vocational education
consists of the following constituents:
(1) The essence of the dual system is “the combi-
nation of theory and practice with the emphasis on
practice; cooperation between the school and the
enterprise with the emphasis on the enterprise”,
which reflects the four aspects of the ↑ educational
process: integration between
– Education and production;
– Learning and working
– Theoretical concepts and practical skills
– Social integration and development of personal-
ity.
(2) The dual system applies a hierarchical and task-
division based management with a complete infor-
mation network, clearly-defined legal procedures
and an effective consultancy agency for decision-
making. On the basis of ↑ statistics, means of in-
formation based guidance, timely monitoring and
657
control, consultation as well as direct investment
on the establishment of cross-enterprise training
centres are used to guide and regulate the opera-
tion of vocational education. An Information net-
work on training and the ↑ labour market is set up
to provide society with policy information and in-
formation about market demands through the An-
nual ↑ Report on Vocational Education and diversi-
fied vocational counselling to juveniles so as to en-
sure that the decisions about vocational education
made by enterprises and individuals are based on
good information.
(3) Relevance and of training content is ensured
by the dominant position of the enterprise in the
training. The specialties (Ausbildungsberuf) in the
dual system are based on vocational analysis and
geared to “broad foundation and multi-skills”. The
curriculum is oriented towards vocational quali-
fication and closely linked with vocational prac-
tice, enterprise needs and students’ career devel-
opment. The teaching-learning processes focused
on students pay great attention to practice and re-
spect of human needs.
4.7.3 Model Trials
The project covered three types of ↑ model trials:
– Since 1983, within the framework of the Sino-
German Technical Cooperation, over 30 enterprise
training centres or ↑ vocational schools were estab-
lished following the dual system model in order to
implement the pilot projects of the dual system of
vocational education;
– The model trials were guided by the three voca-
tional education institutes ↑ CIVTE, RIBB-L and
RIBB-S; regional trials were supported in six cit-
ies such as Suzhou and Wuxi with the support of
the Ministry of Education and local government);
– Additionally, quite a few vocational schools took
their own initiative to learn from and to explore
ways to introduce the German experience.
In this process, the Sino-German Technical Co-
operation Project would normally assign a Ger-
man expert to provide on-site coaching. Whereas,
those schools who took their own initiative to con-
duct the trial were too spread out geographically
and were not able to have close exchanges; there-
fore, the project VERDualS focused on the trials
that were under the direct guidance of the three
658
vocational education institutes. For instance, the
RIBB-L conducted the trial in 13 vocational mid-
dle schools for ca. 1200 students from 10 special-
ties such as mechanics, electrical engineering, ag-
riculture, and finance etc. The achievements can be
summarized by the following four points:
(1) ↑ Vocational competence oriented training was
established. The technicians trained in the voca-
tional education system of the previous planned
economy in ↑ China have limited knowledge, sin-
gle skill and weak adaptability to their new posts.
During the model trials, cooperation was estab-
lished with enterprises to jointly identify new
training objectives oriented to vocational compe-
tence for those pilot specialties so as to expand
professional knowledge coverage, increase stu-
dents’ adaptability and strengthen the awareness
on environmental protection and other ↑ key com-
petences.
(2) A comprehensive curriculum focused on vo-
cational qualifications was devised. The tradition-
al vocational education had its curriculum based
on a theoretical knowledge and specialty system.
The trial was not confined to the specialty system
and established a comprehensive curriculum based
on vocational qualifications by eliminating some
courses. A new three-stage curriculum structure
was developed to include “vocational basic train-
ing, professional training and vocational post train-
ing” and replaced the old three-stage structure of
“cultural class, professional basic class and profes-
sional class”.
(3) The learning contents were reformed to be
more basic, extensive, practical and progressive.
The theoretical learning contents in the tradition-
al Chinese vocational education tend to be exces-
sive and recondite with insufficient coordination
between each subject and with out-of-date knowl-
edge. The teaching guidelines developed through
the trials were based on the production and devel-
opment needs of enterprises and were able to pro-
vide broader work-based skills, reduce the depth of
theoretical knowledge with more attention paid to
the importance of the working process in the vo-
cational learning. All these had become the basis
for the broader curriculum reform in China (ZHAO
2004).
Handbook of TVET Research
(4) Exploration was made on student-centred ways
and means of the teaching-learning organisation.
Pilot schools set up a new teaching arrangement
unit to apply more flexible means to the teaching-
learning arrangement and more diversified teach-
ing approaches, e. g. the teaching of the agricultur-
al specialty was arranged according to the farming
seasons etc. The student-oriented teaching-learn-
ing methods were introduced to reform the tradi-
tional front teaching method (XU 2001).
The project conducted a follow-up survey among
2340 students from 2 graduations in 27 ↑ voca-
tional schools. The survey revealed that students
trained with ↑ dual system models can more quick-
ly adapt to the job requirements and are highly
spoken of by the enterprises since they are knowl-
edgeable, multi-skilled, well-accomplished ethi-
cally and have strong practical ability (THE VER-
DUALS TASK FORCE 1998).
4.7.4 Difficulties with Replicating the Dual
System Experience in China
The results of VERDualS have shown that even
though the vocational educational management
system of the dual system was not introduced to
↑ China in its entirety, there will still be difficulties
in replicating some experiences of the dual system:
(1) it is hard for teachers to adapt. The teachers are
used to classroom type of theoretical teaching and
it is hard for them to break away from the disci-
pline-based curriculum; furthermore, they have
insufficient experience of flexible teaching ar-
rangements and vocational practice; (2) To inten-
sify teaching through practice needs a higher pro-
portion of ↑ practical training. However, when the
enterprise support is generally missing in China,
it becomes a big challenge to address the input on
teaching facilities as well as to establish a model
combining teaching and production and resource
sharing; (3) Due to the limited number and variety
of media for selection, the ↑ teaching and learning
process is generally riddled with the lack of diver-
sified supporting materials and media (THE VER-
DUALS TASK FORCE 1998).
Case Studies of TVET Research
4.7.5 Methodology
The guidelines followed in the design of ↑ research
methodologies in VERDualS were: to conduct an
analysis at the level of the educational system and
teaching-learning process through document re-
view, study tour and joint international and nation-
al workshops; to gain experience from other coun-
tries (such as Canada and ↑ Australia) while con-
ducting comparisons between China and Germa-
ny; to make comparisons on specific subjects such
as means to foster teachers while conducting com-
prehensive comparison (YANG 1998). The entire
research lasted for 10 years and could be divided
into three stages:
(1) Study and analysis of the original ↑ dual system
model. Study tours to Germany and a review of
relevant documents on German vocational educa-
tion were arranged for administrative and research
staff to allow them to analyze the connotation of
the dual system and experiences to be adopted,
thus laying a foundation for conducting the ↑ mod-
el trials.
(2) Model trials. These mainly refer to the experi-
ence from the reform conducted by the ↑ vocation-
al schools and relevant enterprises directly guid-
ed by the three vocational education institutes. The
purpose was to explore the feasibility and condi-
tions for the application of the German experience
to China. People paid their attention mainly to the
technical issues such as the establishment, opera-
tion and coordination of the pilot project and the
formulation of specific policies that are strongly
characterized by straight copying.
(3) The summing-up and replication of the expe-
rience from the trial. The summing-up and anal-
ysis of the trial would abstract experience of gen-
eral significance for wider replication. This was a
process of localizing German experience. Its fo-
cus was to choose transferable contents and adapt-
able forms on the basis of the Chinese situation
and to work out a reform and development concept
through understanding the essentials, applying the
rules and transforming the patterns. As an impor-
tant symbol of this stage, quite a lot of useful Ger-
man experience was adopted in a series of regu-
lations and documents on vocational education
promulgated by the government in the late 1990s.
659
Since we had project staffs come from over 10 Chi-
nese and German vocational education institutes,
six pilot cities and a number of school enterprises
committed to vocational education reform, there-
fore, the research and reform and the theoretical
study and practical ↑ experimentation were carried
out abreast and mutually supplemented. During
the project implementation, its periodic achieve-
ments were already used to guide the government
and schools in the reform in many aspects and
played an important role in the development of the
vocational education reform. Typical example is
the “↑ Report on Vocational Education in ↑ China”
whose compilation was started during the project
implementation.
4.7.6 Summary
VERDualS was the largest organized action in
contemporary Chinese history to learn from for-
eign experience and to review and reform the voca-
tional education system. Its impact on the develop-
ment of the Chinese vocational education system is
far more profound than a normal research project
and its practical significance is far more important
than its theoretical significance:
(1) The inferior social status of vocational educa-
tion in China was reconsidered. After the project,
people’s understanding of vocational education
was no longer confined to the Confucius tradition
and they came to understand that vocational edu-
cation is an important means to realize the strate-
gic task of ↑ human resources development in or-
der to further economic development as well as to
provide another type of education to help realize
individual survival and development (compared
with general education). People started to believe
that the recognition of the importance of vocation-
al education will be increased along with social
progress and economic development; this is very
helpful in improving the widespread pessimistic
atmosphere resulting from the ↑ disadvantaged po-
sition that vocational education had in its compe-
tition with general education at the end of last the
century.
(2) People have recognized that whether the enter-
prise can play its role or not is an important indi-
cator for the level of vocational education devel-
opment. Vocational education should reach beyond
660
the education. More consideration should be given
to wider perspectives like economic and social de-
velopment rather than only to the education itself.
Policy conditions should be created to enable en-
terprises to get involved in the vocational educa-
tion and take a more active role in school adminis-
tration, ↑ curriculum development, financial input,
consultancy for ↑ development policy and evalua-
tion of education. All these were later on reflect-
ed in the relevant policies and documents of the
Chinese Government (MINISTRY OF EDUCATION AND
MINISTRY OF LABOUR 2003).
(3) The project activities encouraged the adminis-
trators and teachers to rationally criticize and con-
sider the teaching and learning traditions based on
Chinese culture and developed over the past thou-
sands of years, and increased their enthusiasm for
accepting foreign ideas. This has laid a good ideo-
logical foundation for future educational and teach-
ing-learning reform. Since then, problems encoun-
tered in introducing advanced foreign educational
and teaching-learning models (e. g. learning-field
curriculum, action-oriented teaching methods and
the special vocational qualification certificate etc.)
are more of a technical nature and less of a concep-
tual or ideological nature.
(4) Due to the limited experience in a develop-
ing country, the design of ↑ research methodology
lacked sufficient theoretical support and systemat-
ic thinking; and research on the original German
models was not profound. But the procedures test-
ed and developed by the project VERDualS for in-
troducing foreign experience, namely “master the
essentials of the experience and the tranferable
contents – research on subjective elements such as
conditions and environment for introduction – cre-
ate conditions and find out alternatives and con-
duct tests – sum up experience and replicate results
from the pilot”, may be of general significance for
↑ developing countries in their learning from the
advanced experience of vocational education from
the developed countries through their foreign ex-
change and cooperation (THE VERDUALS TASK
FORCE 1998).
Handbook of TVET Research
4.8 The Assessment: Knowledge,
Skills and Competitiveness
Ewart Keep and Ken Mayhew
4.8.1 Preliminary Remark
The autumn 1988 issue of the Oxford Review of
Economic Policy considered the UK’s deficien-
cies in vocational education and training (VET). It
was there that Finegold and Soskice first popular-
ized the notion of the ‘low skills/low quality’ equi-
librium. This Assessment originally introduces a
range of articles which discussed developments in
the decade that has passed since then in the same
journal (issue no. 1, 1999). It argues that, despite
massive policy initiatives, there has been only lim-
ited improvement in the UK’s relative VET ↑ per-
formance. Considerable progress has been made in
analysis of market failures affecting the supply of
skills, and in analysis of the possible causes and
consequences of low employer demand for skills
(‘↑ systems failure’). The recent Competitiveness
White Paper reflects this improved understanding.
However, there is still an imperfect appreciation
of the nature of skills and of their contribution to
the development of a more competitive, higher val-
ue-added economy. The article ends by suggesting
how progress might be made on this front. This ar-
ticle was selected for re-print as a case study with-
in this handbook since it exemplifies the consider-
ations which were instrumental to the foundation
of The Economic and Social Research Council’s
(ESRC) ↑ Centre on Skills, Knowledge and Organ-
isational Performance (SKOPE), that commenced
operations in October 1998, and started its second
five-year ↑ research programme in October 2003.
The aim of the Centre is to examine the links be-
tween the acquisition and use of skills and knowl-
edge, product market strategies and performance
(measured in a variety of ways). Some of the ref-
erences in this text therefore are linked to individ-
ual papers within issue no. 1, 1999 of the Oxford
Review of Economic Policy. All individual papers
have been added to the list of references.
Case Studies of TVET Research
4.8.2 Introduction
The autumn 1988 issue of the ‘Oxford Review of
Economic Policy’ was devoted to education and
training. It received considerable publicity and
became very influential in national debate about
Britain’s vocational education and training prob-
lems, not least because it was here that David Fine-
gold and David Soskice first popularized the no-
tion of ‘the low skills/low quality equilibrium’.
This marked a new stage in the debate about the
role that skills and knowledge might play in com-
petitiveness and organisational performance with-
in advanced economies (→ 3.5). In the decade that
has passed since then, academic thinking and anal-
ysis in the field of vocational education and train-
ing (VET) has moved on at a substantial rate. The
articles which make up that issue of the Oxford Re-
view of Economic Policy devoted to these develop-
ments (issue no. 1, 1999) are testimony to some of
the areas in which our understanding of the proc-
esses that create and sustain skills and of the inter-
relationship between skills, knowledge, competi-
tiveness, and economic performance has devel-
oped. This Assessment considers whether policy-
making has advanced at the same rate.
Section 2 outlines the nature of Britain’s VET
failings as they were perceived at the time of the
1988 issue. It goes on to describe the policy ini-
tiatives which were already under way and which
were introduced subsequently, arguing that, sub-
stantial though they were, they led to only limited
progress. Section 3 explores why this was the case.
It sets out the two major generic explanations: mar-
ket and ↑ administrative failure and ↑ systems fail-
ure. Section 4 considers aspects of the policy treat-
ment of market and administrative failure. Sec-
tion 5 discusses how debate on systems failure
and on the demand side has developed since the
late 1980s, while section 6 evaluates the current
government’s stance as exemplified in the recent
Competitiveness White Paper. Section 7 presents
our conclusions.
661
4.8.3 The 1988 Issue’s View of UK
VET Performance and the Policy
Responses
Keep and Mayhew (1988) described how the UK
policy-making community had long exhibited ‘cy-
cles of concern’ about the VET performance. The
late 1970s saw commentators beginning to redis-
cover the UK’s long-standing shortcomings. The
UK was compared unfavourably with our interna-
tional competitors along a number of dimensions.
These were that: too many of the youths left school
at the first opportunity; too many of them not only
did not possess formal qualifications but were de-
ficient in basic literacy and numeracy; there was
a creaking, narrow, and inefficient apprenticeship
system which was in decline; there was little or
no formal training for young entrants to the work-
force who did not embark upon apprenticeships;
adult training was virtually absent. One prominent
aspect of the Conservatives’ ‘supply-side revolu-
tion’ in the 1980s involved an attempt to remedy
these VET failings. There were major changes in
policy and institutions. When the 1988 issue was
published, policy changes concerning work-based
training were well under way, but the policy rev-
olution concerning full-time education had only
just begun. These official initiatives are thorough-
ly described elsewhere, and so here we mention
them only in outline. The key point is that these
efforts concentrated almost exclusively on promot-
ing the supply of skills. Little stress was placed on
addressing the possible lack of demand for skills,
which is what the Finegold-Soskice hypothesis
emphasized. This general thrust of policy contin-
ued into the 1990s.
In the field of training, Industrial Training Boards
(ITBs) were dismantled, thereby largely removing
private-sector coordination at the sectoral level.
At the same time, national tripartite arrangements
in the shape of the Manpower Services Commis-
sion’s successor – the Training Agency – were al-
so abolished, thereby leaving no single body with
a responsibility for national VET strategy. In-
stead, the stress was on locally delivered policy in-
itiatives via the Training and Enterprise Councils
(TECs). In contrast to the broad constituency rep-
resented on the ITBs, the TECs were designed to
be employer-led and their boards consisted large-
662
ly of employers. They were charged with deliver-
ing central government policy, and were the chan-
nel through which the cash made available for the
support of work-based training flowed. The par-
ticular subsidies changed several times during the
1980s. By the end of that decade the main ones
were Youth Training (YT) and its adult equivalent,
Employment Training (ET). The government in-
sisted that it was essential that, in contrast to what
had been the British tradition, a much higher pro-
portion of training should be certified by testing
and qualifications. These qualifications should be
unified and comparable across sectors. Thus Na-
tional Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) were in-
troduced at a variety of levels, ranging from the
most basic (Level 1) to Level 5, which was meant
to be the equivalent of a post-graduate degree. Per-
haps the most constructive innovation was Inves-
tors in People (IIP). Organisations received a ‘kite-
mark’ of good practice to indicate not only that
they were good trainers, but that training decisions
were properly integrated into broader corporate
planning and strategy.
The later reforms of the education system involved
massive institutional change. The precise form of
this differed from one segment of the educational
system to the next. But the overarching theme was
to introduce quasi-markets, where greater compe-
tition between institutions was driven by greater
and better-informed exercise of consumer choice.
Such competition was meant to stimulate greater
↑ efficiency and quality, but, as is so often the case,
with the introduction of quasi-markets came great-
er regulation, supervision, and inspection, in order
to minimize market failure. Central government
control over education, in terms of both content
and process, increased dramatically. One exam-
ple would be the introduction of the national cur-
riculum. Accompanying these changes was great-
er emphasis on preparing pupils for the world of
work while they were still in full-time education.
This was exemplified by the introduction of Gen-
eral National Vocational Qualifications (GNVQs).
These were meant to offer a vocational alterna-
tive to more traditional academic approaches and,
like their sister NVQs, were available at a number
of different levels. But GNVQs were only one el-
ement of this new emphasis on the vocational. For
Handbook of TVET Research
example, all children in their GCSE year were re-
quired to go on work placements.
What was the upshot of this huge surge of policy
activity? Certainly by the end of the 1980s, there
was significantly greater explicit awareness of the
importance of education and training in achieving
national economic success, not only in official cir-
cles but also among business and union leaders.
The number of people obtaining qualifications in-
creased. In terms of full-time education, this clear-
ly represents an advance. This is the case even if
one accepts that GCSEs are easier to obtain than
were O-levels and that there has been grade infla-
tion at A-level. However, there were worrying de-
velopments at the top of the educational ladder.
Syllabus dilution means that students are arriving
at university with a narrow base of knowledge in
particular subjects. More contentious is the possi-
bility that they are arriving with their ↑ cognitive
skills less well developed than they used to be.
Turning to work-based training, it would hardly be
surprising to discover that qualifications acquired
had increased since, as we have seen, the new sys-
tem was designed to be significantly more quali-
fications driven. However, whether this signals a
significant improvement in training volume and
quality is much more doubtful. Until recently the
common interpretation of the official ↑ statistics,
derived from the Labour Force Survey, was that
workbased training had increased in the 1980s and
into the 1990s. Felstead et al. (1997) show that this
view requires careful interpretation. Certainly the
number of workers undergoing training increased,
but the average duration of training per person fell.
If we define the volume of training as the number
of people being trained multiplied by the duration
of training undertaken, the volume of training has
probably remained pretty constant.
Other evidence suggests limited, if any, ‘improve-
ment’ in work-based training for the young. De-
spite the expenditure of very considerable sums of
public money, attempts in the shape of the Youth
Training Scheme (YTS) and its successor YT to
create a high-quality, work-based training route for
young entrants to the work-force not entering ap-
prenticeship largely failed to produce the desired
outcome. YTS and YT, as well as ET, became rec-
ognized largely as schemes to get the unemployed
Case Studies of TVET Research
back into work rather than substantive devices for
improving skills. To the extent that business took
up NVQs, the vast majority were at the low end I
and NVQ 2 while there were persistent criticisms
of the content of many specific GNVQs as devised
by the industry-led bodies and National Training
Organisations. International comparisons are no-
toriously difficult, but the most reliable ones show
that the UK still lags behind its major competitors,
particularly in intermediate skills. Such compari-
sons are tricky at any given point in time, they are
even more so in a time-series dimension. Howev-
er, there is scant evidence that there has been sig-
nificant progress in closing the gap that had been
observed in the late 1970s. In other words, on the
whole the relative deficiencies of the UK VET
↑ performance, which were noted in the 1988 issue
of the journal, remain today.
Some commentators have argued that the lie is giv-
en to the lack of demand hypothesis by evidence of
reported skills shortages. The first report of the Na-
tional Skills Task Force (1998) provides useful in-
formation in this regard. The report distinguishes
between ‘recruitment difficulties’ and ‘skill short-
ages’, as problems which are experienced at the re-
cruitment stage, and ‘skill gaps’, as problems expe-
rienced with an employer’s existing stock of work-
ers. It suggests that many apparent skill shortages
are in fact broader recruitment difficulties. Genu-
ine skill shortage and evident skill gaps are such as
to be consistent with the demand hypothesis for the
economy at large.
Why was there so much activity and such a sub-
stantial increase in awareness of the problem, and
yet apparently so little achievement?
4.8.4 The Underlying Problems with VET
Policy
As we have seen, in the late 1980s the convention-
al diagnoses of the UK’s deficiencies involved de-
scribing problems on the ‘supply side’. These de-
scriptions fell into two broad categories. The first
was the failure of the full-time education system
to deliver the right sort of education to a large
enough group of youngsters. The second suggest-
ed that there was insufficient work-based train-
ing, for which the most common explanation in-
volved a variety of market failures including ex-
663
ternalities. Essentially, it was argued, the social re-
turn to investment in ↑ general training was high-
er than the private return to the employer, because
the employer could not be certain that a worker for
whose training he or she had paid would not leave
for another job. Therefore the aggregate of private-
employer decisions added up to less than the so-
cially optimal amount of training. The failure of
the workers themselves to fill the gap by paying
for the investment was explained by capital mar-
ket failures, lack of information, and risk aversion.
In other words, the conventional ↑ diagnosis was
that work-based training was prejudiced by a se-
ries of market failures affecting the decision-tak-
ing of both employers and individual workers. The
failures of the full-time education system were at-
tributed to a number of factors. These included ad-
ministrative and professional decisions about ex-
penditure, capacity, and syllabus and course con-
tent. From time to time it was also argued that sig-
nals from the ↑ labour market and the social securi-
ty system provided individuals with ‘perverse’ in-
centives which, for example, encouraged them not
to stay on at school or to choose the ‘wrong’ sub-
jects at university.
To the extent that these market and ↑ administra-
tive failures were at the heart of our VET prob-
lems, one has to presume that, by and large, there
was nothing inherently British about them. It was
to be inferred that the UK had dealt with such fail-
ures less well and avoided them less successfully
than our competitor countries. Addressing the is-
sue was certainly not a trivial task, but its dimen-
sions and scale were relatively easy to define.
Finegold and Soskice’s notion of the low skill/low
quality equilibrium suggested that the underly-
ing problem might be far more complex than this.
They reminded us that the demand side might be
important – that, for whatever reason, large num-
bers of UK employers did not want or need skilled
workers. As Finegold (1999) writes, this possibili-
ty had not been ignored in earlier research. Howev-
er, the stress had been placed on broadly ‘cultural’
explanations of employer attitudes towards skill.
The Finegold-Soskice hypothesis moved beyond
cultural explanations to an analysis of ‘systems’
failure where employers were reacting rationally
to a battery of incentives provided by the institu-
664
tions and attitudes they had inherited. They raised
the possibility that, rather than market and ↑ ad-
ministrative failures, the source of our VET prob-
lems might be something far more difficult to ana-
lyse and define, and far more intractable for policy-
makers – ↑ systems failure.
Against this background, this Assessment con-
tinues by asking what progress has been made in
research and policy thinking about these issues.
Two of the contributions (those by Margaret Ste-
vens and Christine Greenhalgh) are primarily con-
cerned with market and administrative failures.
Five (those by Pepper Culpepper, David Finegold,
Francis Green et al., Mari Sako and Robin Wens-
ley) are more concerned with the broader dimen-
sions of systems failure.
For example, as Green et al. make clear, skills and
knowledge are now widely recognized to form
simply one important element within a much wid-
er matrix of factors that helps support high lev-
els of economic ↑ performance. In a very differ-
ent way, Finegold makes a similar point in his re-
view of high skill ecosystems (HSEs) in Califor-
nia. High levels of skill are an important prereq-
uisite for some forms of high-value-added produc-
tion, but, on their own, they are not sufficient to en-
sure success. They have to be combined with other
parts of a broader package of environmental, cul-
tural, and structural factors that can nurture and
support high-performance, high-value-added in-
dustries and sectors.
The cultural specificity of many skill-supply
mechanisms and their location within broader sys-
tems of production, industrial relations, inter-firm
networks, industrial capital, corporate governance,
and politics has also been highlighted by research
over the last decade. A common theme to emerge
from the articles by Green et al., Culpepper, Fine-
gold, and Sako is the degree to which best-prac-
tice models within the field of VET and skill and
↑ knowledge creation tend to be rooted within par-
ticular national and regional contexts that make
their replication in other environments extremely
problematic. The world economy may be becom-
ing more global, but education and training re-
mains an area where skill-supply systems contin-
ue to differ quite radically from one country to the
Handbook of TVET Research
next. Whether any strong degree of convergence is
either possible or desirable remains to be seen.
Current UK debates about skills have a strong ten-
dency to concentrate on lower-level task-specific
skills and a much narrower conception of relevant
and useful knowledge (GREEN 1998). As Coffield
(1997) has noted, UK approaches to skills mean
that there are substantial problems about the role
of theoretical knowledge within our qualifications
(especially NVQs) and curricula. It is also the case
that, in the last decade or so, UK conceptions of
what comprises skills have shifted away from hard,
technical expertise towards softer interpersonal
capabilities, many of which could be conceived of
as personal characteristics or attributes rather than
as skills in a traditional sense – a point we return
to below. This kind of focus in part reflects shifts
in the UK’s employment structure and the decline
of manufacturing employment and it may well fit
the needs of those parts of the economy deliver-
ing mass-produced services, but it produces a poor
match with the needs of the type of high-tech sec-
tors discussed by Finegold, where theoretical mas-
tery of leading-edge developments is a key to de-
veloping and sustaining competitive advantage. If
the government is serious about promoting growth
in the UK as a knowledge economy, then a train-
ing system primarily geared to meet the needs of
the lower segments of the service sector may be a
problem.
4.8.5 Policy Treatment of Market and
Administrative Failure
Largely thanks to Margaret Stevens, the thinking
on externalities has moved on. Important among
her contributions is the development of the concept
of ‘transferable’ skills, in addition to specific and
general ones. In the case of transferable skills the
↑ labour market is not fully competitive and, there-
fore, the training firm can set the wage at less than
the value of marginal product in order to recoup
costs. It is not able to do so for general skills and
will, therefore, not invest in them at all. Thus, if
the skills are transferable, employers are willing
to bear some of the cost of investment in training,
but there would be some under-investment. This
is because there is a positive probability that, at
some point, the training firm will lose its worker
Case Studies of TVET Research
to another employer who can afford to pay more
by virtue of not having to pay for the training it-
self. Stevens notes that this fear of poaching might
also lead to over-investment in specific skills, the
employer using this as a device to lower ↑ mobil-
ity and retain workers for as long as possible in
order to recoup the costs and gain the benefits of
the transferable training. The critical point is that,
in the absence of capital market imperfections, la-
bour-market imperfections reduce the amount of
training which is of use to the ↑ labour market at
large since
“the fall in demand [by the worker] outweighs the rise
in supply [by the employer] because a worker loses from
the reduction in the wage wherever he or she works after
training, whereas the firm supplying the training gains
only if the worker stays in that firm” (STEVENS 1999).
However, when there are capital-market imperfec-
tions which prevent workers from financing train-
ing themselves, then these very labour-market im-
perfections may increase the amount of training
undertaken. The importance of Stevens’s theoreti-
cal contribution is that it leads to much clearer, de-
tailed thinking about appropriate policy responses
to market failure.
An important conclusion to emerge from her anal-
ysis is that the old UK grant/levy system and the
present French system should not be interpreted,
as in fact they are, as ways of dealing with ‘poach-
ing externalities’, but rather more appropriately as
ways of ‘overcoming’ capital-market imperfec-
tions.
Her analysis also underlines the real theoreti-
cal difficulties of interpreting externalities in the
training context. The long-standing disagreement
and confusion about how extensive such a problem
is in the UK is, therefore, perhaps not surprising.
Among a number of detailed policy implications,
Stevens’s main conclusions, with regard to the two
problems of labour-market and capital-market im-
perfections, are:
– public provision of loans to individuals will have
limited impact;
– the policy-maker essentially has two options –
‘subsidies financed out of general taxation’ and
regulation of ‘training activity of firms’.
Following Stevens’s theoretical framework, Green-
halgh argues that training provision in ↑ France is
significantly higher than in the UK, and that differ-
665
ent policy stances are in part responsible for this.
In particular, she states that there are four ‘broad’
forms of policy intervention:
– ‘the release of credit-market constraints on
workers’
– ‘the establishment or improvement of private
property rights and skills’;
– ‘the formation of clubs of providers’; and
– ‘public subsidy for training investment’.
Greenhalgh claims that ↑ France has placed more
stress on the last two, in contrast to Britain, which
has moved away from them towards the first two.
This, she argues, is not a powerful way of dealing
with the various forms of market failure involved
in training.
4.8.6 The Developing Debate on Systems
Failure
How has thinking about the low skill/low quali-
ty equilibrium developed since Finegold and Sos-
kice’s initial insight? In a variety of forms its im-
plications have become common currency in the
academic community. Finegold now believes that
the contrast between the two extremes is, indeed,
too stark and there may well be an intermediate
position. However, the two extremes remain use-
ful for analytical purposes. Thinking about qual-
ity is now clearer.
Essentially, it has two dimensions: specification
and delivery to specification. Specification of a
good or service relates to the number of character-
istics it possesses. A low-spec goodwill have rel-
atively few characteristics, and these will change
infrequently. It is highly unlikely to be genuine-
ly customized. It is these features which permit
the use of Fordist production methods, Taylorized
forms of work organisation and job design, and
the deployment of relatively unskilled labour. Yet
companies whose product strategy is low spec may
deliver superbly to that spec. A tendency to con-
flate these two dimensions of quality may account
for some of the observed confusion in the debate.
For example, retail bankers might find it hard to
accept that their services have become lower spec.
They might counter by claiming that the quality of
service has improved dramatically in recent years
– ↑ banking by phone, out-of-hours banking, an
even greater range of services available 24 hours a
666
day from cash dispensers. But what they would be
describing is delivery to spec rather than the spec
itself.
The academic literature has become more explic-
it on the causal role of VET in a low skills/low
spec equilibrium. Inadequate VET ↑ performance,
as conventionally measured, is increasingly seen
as the inevitable consequence and symptom of be-
ing in such an equilibrium rather than as a problem
in its own right. Indeed, if employers continue to
produce low-spec goods using Fordist production
methods, clearly it would be absurd and wasteful to
increase skill supply – whether at public or private
expense. Following this line of argument, Soskice
(1993) argued that we might as well give up on the
work-based training route. Employers would be ir-
rational to invest more in training if they had no
use for trained workers. Government subsidies to
encourage them to do so would either be wasted or
misused. Rather, Soskice suggested, we should re-
ly on the full-time education system to break out of
the low-skills trap. Partly by accident, as opposed
to government intent, ↑ participation post-16 and in
higher education had increased quite dramatical-
ly in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This, Soskice
contended, would have two effects in altering the
incentives faced by employers. The first is that the
workforce as a whole would be more demanding
in terms of its aspirations about job content and
career goals, and therefore might ‘force’ employ-
ers to improve job content and design. The second
is that the simple fact that more capable labour is
available would give employers a wider range of
options about their product and associated produc-
tion strategies. While both points are probably cor-
rect, it would seem to us to be a matter of faith as
to whether this would be sufficient to jack us out of
any low-skills equilibrium.
Thinking has also become clearer about the conse-
quences of remaining in a low-skills trap. This is
well reflected in the phraseology of the new gov-
ernment’s Competitiveness White Paper:
“In the global economy, capital is mobile, technology
spreads quickly and goods can be made in low-cost coun-
tries and shipped to developed markets. British business
has to compete by exploiting capabilities which compet-
itors find hard to imitate. The UK’s distinctive capabil-
ities are not raw materials, land or cheap labour. They
must be our knowledge, skills and creativity ... which
Handbook of TVET Research
help create high productivity business process and high-
value goods and services” (DTI 1998, 6).
Though it is too easy to be apocalyptic about the
consequences of competing at the low-skill end in
the global economy and to overemphasize the im-
pact thus far on Britain of globalization, the mes-
sage for the future is pretty clear. A UK business
which produces low-spec goods or services in a
tradable sector is likely to be in competition with
producers of similar goods not just in developed
countries but in developing ones. The latter will
have access to exactly the same technology as we
do, and will be at least as able as we are to exploit
such technology via Fordist production methods,
to achieve economies of scale and high productiv-
ity. Competition in low-spec goods is essentially
on price and thus on unit labour costs. If there is
no reason to think that we will have the advantage
in productivity, then we will be competing on la-
bour costs. In other words, UK workers employed
in such firms will be competing against workers
in ↑ developing countries on pay and conditions. If
they are not prepared to accept what (say) a Ma-
laysian worker would expect, then their employer
is likely to be driven out of business or the work-
ers are likely to lose their jobs if others who are
willing to take poor pay and conditions are availa-
ble to replace them. By contrast, firms which adopt
a high-spec product strategy, are unlikely to be so
reliant on price/cost competition. They are com-
peting on the product itself, on its particular char-
acteristics, on their ability to alter these character-
istics to meet changing customer needs and taste,
and on their ability to ‘customize’. In other words,
their products will be high-value added and there-
fore could allow the payment of higher wages.
Thus the last decade has seen much thought about
the nature of a possible low skills/low spec equi-
librium, and about its origins in the product strate-
gy of firms and in associated production processes.
The globalization debate has also provoked much
thought about the possible economic and distribu-
tional consequences. But there remain many la-
cunae. There has been limited consideration of
how we might escape any such equilibrium. We
have already mentioned Soskice’s thesis. Some
of the articles mentioned above make a contribu-
tion in this regard. In addition to Finegold’s anal-
Case Studies of TVET Research
ysis of the Californian case, Green et al. consider
more directly the role of government in three very
different economies from the UK. They describe
the ‘coordinating function’ of the state in match-
ing supply and demand for skills in Korea, Singa-
pore, and Taiwan. They contend that there are two
reasons for the state performing this role effective-
ly. The first is that ‘state bureaucracies are likely
to be in a better position than private individuals
to inform long-term strategic investment in ↑ hu-
man capital’. The second reason relates to partic-
ular characteristics of these three societies. Spe-
cifically:
“egalitarianism and social pressure enhancing the de-
mand for education. . . delivered to the economy. . . a
highly committed body of pupils and students. Thus
the education function of the state becomes potentially
much easier, one of directing and controlling skill for-
mation in pursuit of national economic objectives rather
than, in addition, having to cajole a reluctant population
to leave the family or the work-place for the classroom”.
Thus Green et al. offer some rare insights on what
we consider to be the crux of the issue – product
strategy. Of course, as with all matters of policy
borrowing, lessons from other countries and cul-
tures have to be absorbed carefully. The willing-
ness of the governments of the three Asian coun-
tries to conduct what effectively amounts to a cen-
tralized industrial policy is something which is
difficult to contemplate in the current British en-
vironment.
In fact, the complexity of ↑ systems failure is al-
most certainly a major reason for lack of sustained
thought among policy-makers about how to cope
with it. Understandably, they are reluctant to tack-
le the intractable. There is another more worrying
reason for lack of policy attention to the problem.
This is that, although the systems failure we have
described has become common currency in debate,
the firm empirical evidence to establish the extent
to which the UK is producing low-spec products
and services is still limited. There are several di-
mensions to what we have available.
Going back for more than a decade and a half, var-
ious researchers, stimulated by the initial work of
Sig Prais (1995), have conducted a series of bilat-
eral case-study comparisons. These usually took
the form of selecting a particular, narrowly defined
product and then comparing a limited number of
667
British establishments producing it with those in
a comparable country, most often Germany. The
researchers attempted to ensure that the establish-
ments concerned were as similar as possible in
terms of age and size. The upshot of their research
was to describe a series of products where the UK
version was of lower spec than the foreign coun-
terpart. These products included kitchen furniture
and garden tools among others.
There are obvious difficulties in inferring too much
from case studies of this type. They are expensive
to conduct, difficult to generalize, and are done for
just one point in time. Several economists, there-
fore, have periodically tried to obtain more aggre-
gate evidence. Such attempts date back to papers
by NEDO, but more recently work has been done
by Oulton (1996) and by Buxton et al. (1998). The
methodologies employed by the various studies are
naturally somewhat different from one to the other.
But essentially the researchers compare the long-
run price of specific British goods in foreign trade
with the price of like ones traded by other coun-
tries. The rationale is that price is a proxy for spec.
The results are incomplete and equivocal, but tend
to support the hypothesis that the UK has a limited
presence in high-value-added goods.
Other evidence is more indirect. For example, it re-
lates to the poor take-up of NVQs and to the fact
that where NVQs are used they are at Levels 1 and
2. Level 2 is the equivalent of GCSEs and Lev-
el 1 would not be recognized as a qualification in
most European countries. Indeed, many employ-
ers use NVQ 1 as a sort of check list to be ticked
off item by item as new employees acquire partic-
ular competences that have long been required,
rather than putting them on newly devised train-
ing programmes which would enhance their skills.
Another suggestive piece of evidence that training
quality is low is the predominance of short cours-
es and programmes. All of this is consistent with
employers showing a greater awareness of training
but quite rationally aiming this at the low end to
match their low skill needs.
Thus, the evidence that UK firms are significantly
lower spec than their foreign counterparts is patchy;
certainly patchy enough to allow the sceptic to ig-
nore or deflect the issue. The standards by which
such judgements can be made are strictly compar-
668
ative. But our knowledge of other countries is cor-
respondingly thin. The fact that the world does not
stand still and that standards change rapidly makes
the task of assembling and evaluating appropri-
ate evidence that much more difficult. Even in the
case of Germany, the most often cited example of
the high skill/high spec economy, there is consid-
erable questioning of whether that strength is un-
der threat (CULPEPPER 1999). As Finegold’s article
demonstrates, certain segments of the ↑ US econo-
my have found a route to extremely high spec, but
it is uncertain how quantitatively significant this is
in the context of the whole US economy.
The march of technical progress adds a further di-
mension of difficulty. There is the possibility that
soon it may be feasible to produce high spec by
Fordist production (i.e. low skill) methods. Moreo-
ver, as analysis proceeds, it is apparent that many
of the points around which debates about the UK’s
record on skills and economic ↑ performance have
revolved may be less fixed or black and white than
has hitherto been assumed. For example, both
Finegold’s and Wensley’s articles underscore the
complexity of models of product-market strategy
and managerial choice. Although the general de-
bate about skills and organisational performance
has been predicated upon a simple bi-polar mod-
el of a high-skills, high-value-added strategy or a
low-skills, low-value-added model, the reality may
be far more complex and nuanced.
Notwithstanding all these uncertainties, it remains
clear that the production by significant segments
of the economy of broadly defined high-value-add-
ed goods and services is the key to achieving si-
multaneously national economic success and what
most people would regard as an acceptable distri-
bution of income. To the extent that UK produc-
ers are engaged (actually or potentially) in inter-
national competition, it is therefore essential that
they produce relatively high spec. There is also the
complication of locational competition. This in-
volves not only the long-standing phenomenon of
low-spec manufacturers establishing their opera-
tions in low-wage countries, but also (because of
modern ↑ IT and communications technology) in-
creasingly it applies to the delivery of some non-
traded services, once thought to be immune from
such influences. Even in the case of the non-traded
Handbook of TVET Research
and locationally secure segments of activity, com-
petition will drive down labour costs if the produc-
ers are low spec. The more the rest of the economy
is at this end of the spectrum, the more these seg-
ments will be encouraged to be so.
4.8.7 The Competitiveness White Paper
The White Paper (DTI 1998), published in Decem-
ber 1998, marks a major step forward in the evo-
lution of the UK’s national policy perspective on
industrial policy and the development of a more
competitive, higher-value-added economy. For the
first time in the last two decades there is an ex-
plicit recognition that there is an enabling/regime
competition role for the state (at national, region-
al, and local levels), not least in terms of address-
ing the UK’s declining science base and our gener-
ally weak record on R&D. There is also an under-
standing that creating a high-skills economy goes
far beyond the relatively simple issues of skill sup-
ply and means addressing major structural items,
some of which are addressed in issue 1, 1999 of
the Oxford Review of Economic Policy, such as the
importance of inter-firm networks and product in-
novation and the role of industrial clusters. The in-
spiration for this new approach and for an empha-
sis upon a knowledge-driven economy are the Cal-
ifornian high-tech clusters discussed by Finegold.
However, despite this broader, systemic perspec-
tive, the White Paper’s treatment of skills remains
deficient in a number of respects and runs the dan-
ger of falling into the traditional UK policy-mak-
ers’ trap of assuming that boosting the supply of
skilled and educated employees will, of itself, act
as a catalyst for economic change and enhanced
productivity and competitiveness. There are a
number of problems.
To begin with, its vision (and even more so that of
the accompanying analytical paper (DTI 1998)) is
that, on the one hand, the knowledge-driven econ-
omy is somehow new and that, on the other, it must
apply across all sectors of the economy, and not
just those that one might most obviously associate
with knowledge (↑ IT, pharmaceuticals, software,
consultancy). In trying to sustain this argument, its
authors rely upon the need for organisations in all
sectors to utilize a range of tacit knowledge. The
difficulty comes in the implicit message that this is
Case Studies of TVET Research
somehow new. A medieval potter probably need-
ed tacit knowledge aplenty. The only new element
would be greater competition, but one could argue
that this is often cancelled out by the pressures to
routinize work organisation and job design in ways
that minimize the value of tacit knowledge and the
space to utilize it productively – a point returned
to below.
It is also important to secure an acknowledgement
from policy-makers that by adopting this approach
the White Paper seems to be conflating (in terms of
an appropriate ↑ VET policy response) at least two
radically different types of knowledge:
– abstract, theoretically based bodies of high-lev-
el knowledge of the type typified by Reich as that
required by symbolic manipulators and analysts.
These are the people who drive forward a knowl-
edge-based economy. The creation of this type of
knowledge would appear best suited to formalized
education and academic qualifications followed by
intensive professional development (see FINEGOLD
1999);
– tacit knowledge (→ 5.1.5), which is of particular
importance in the service sector and accords with
Reich’s category of interpersonal services (see be-
low). For this type of worker many of the ‘skills’
tend to be based on personal characteristics and
psychological traits rather than the acquisition of
theoretical skills and knowledge. Insofar as qual-
ifications of any sort are relevant, they would ap-
pear to accord with lower-level NVQs.
The White Paper’s tendency to conflate different
types and orders of knowledge is, in part, a reflec-
tion of a wider confusion about the meaning of skill
which has intensified over the last 15–20 years. In
the past, skills, when talked of by national policy-
makers (usually in connection with manufacturing
industry), meant a combination of education qual-
ifications, ‘hard’ technical skills and knowledge,
and a variety of forms of manual dexterity and spa-
tial awareness. More recently, the meaning of the
term has expanded considerably, partly as a reflec-
tion of the shift in employment to service-sector
occupations, and is now taken to encompass an ad-
ditional range of core or key skills, such as literacy,
numeracy, problem solving, use of IT, and team-
working. Many employers go further and appear to
be using the term ‘skill’ to embrace personal char-
669
acteristics and psychological traits. One example
would be ‘motivational skills’, which could be tak-
en to mean the ability to fit in and remain cheerful,
in some cases in the face of less than ideal employ-
ment conditions.
There is also beginning to emerge a recognition
that in parts of the service sector, rather than seek-
ing technical skills, employers are looking for cer-
tain aspects of physical appearance and the ability
and willingness of those possessing such attributes
to deploy them within the work environment in
conjunction with particular forms of behaviour in
a way that provides for the delivery of a particu-
lar style of service. Nickson et al.’s 1998 research
on what they dub ‘aesthetic’ labour in stylish bars,
hotels, and retail outlets in Glasgow suggests that,
at the leading edge of these generally higher-qual-
ity, higher-value-added areas of the service sector,
a stylish haircut, good dress sense, and appropri-
ate accent and deportment may be the ‘skills’ that
get you the job. The ↑ labour market which Nick-
son et al.’s study covers could be regarded as the
flip side of the knowledge economy reported on by
Finegold. These are the clubs and boutiques where
the knowledge workers spend their earnings, serv-
iced by a class of worker whose skills are, in fact,
personal attributes which in the UK context may
well be related to class back-ground (NICKSON /
WARHURST/ WITZ / CULLEN 1998).
This broadening of the spectrum and mix of knowl-
edge, capabilities, traits, and physical attributes
that can be grouped under the umbrella term of
skills raises a number of major issues for policy-
makers, the majority of which cannot be dealt with
in detail here. However, it seems important to flag
up at least two areas that warrant consideration.
First, one of the realities with which policy-mak-
ers attempting to forge a national VET (and quali-
fications) system must grapple is that the spectrum
of skills that the system must encompass, in terms
of both types and levels, has widened to a point
where demands are differentiated and perhaps di-
vergent, and where the use of blanket terms such
as ‘upskilling’ may be of limited theoretical and
operational value unless the nature of skills being
sought is carefully specified and made explicit.
A second issue is the fact that, once we move away
from theoretical knowledge and technical skills
670
and competences, it becomes increasingly difficult
to devise national ↑ VET systems, programmes,
and qualification structures and certification that
can address needs at the softer end of the skills
spectrum. Many of the attributes being labelled as
skills appear to be personality traits or attitudes
which may only be partially amenable to change
and enhancement through traditional VET. There
is also the question of whether education and train-
ing aimed at ensuring that employees are, for ex-
ample, always motivated, perhaps by accepting as
given sub-standard employment conditions or in
the face of deficient personnel management, would
not raise some very difficult ethical and political
issues. Finally, in seeking to address the demands
of employers looking for the type of ‘aesthetic la-
bour’ reported on by Nickson et al., VET provid-
ers would appear to need to be thinking about
speech training, deportment, and personal groom-
ing classes rather than degrees, GCSEs, or NVQS.
The White Paper and current national policies on
VET hold to a view that employment growth is at
the top of the labour-market hierarchy and that
therefore demand for higher levels of skill is boom-
ing. It is unclear if this represents a realistic analy-
sis of the UK labour market. As mentioned above,
Robert Reich, one of the founders of the knowl-
edge-economy approach to economic competitive-
ness within developed countries, has propounded a
three-fold occupational typology (1991):
– high-level symbolic manipulators or analysts,
precisely the types of knowledge worker discussed
in Finegold’s article;
– a dwindling group of those engaged in routine
production – for example, workers in car factories,
low-level supervisors, and data-entry staff;
– a third group providing interpersonal services –
waiters, hotel receptionists, security guards, shop
assistants, and hairdressers.
All of these groups require skills, particularly if
skills are broadly defined in the ways touched on
above. However, the skill requirements of each
group are liable to differ, and some grasp of the
relative scale of growth in these three broad group-
ings and a detailed analysis of their real skill needs
would appear of more use in designing and devel-
oping an effective ↑ VET system than blanket as-
sumptions about universal upskilling across the
Handbook of TVET Research
whole economy. For instance, the technical skill
requirements of some workers in group two appear
to be being reduced by technological change and
new methods of production.
If this typology holds any truth, then it has im-
portant implications for ↑ VET policy. Put blunt-
ly, long periods of formalized post-↑ compulsory
education and training and high levels of academ-
ic qualification would not necessarily appear tre-
mendously relevant to fitting people for employ-
ment in inter-personal services. Even Reich ad-
mits that only a limited proportion of the work-
force can be employed as symbolic manipulators
and US Bureau of Labour Statistics figures sug-
gest that the proportion of the ↑ US workforce that
can genuinely be de-scribed as symbolic analysts
may be as low as 7 per cent (HENWOOD 1996). This
raises issues about the need for ever greater expan-
sion of post-compulsory education – the White Pa-
per trails a further 700,000 students in ↑ further
education. Scottish higher education already has a
45 per cent age ↑ participation. Are 45 per cent of
the future Scottish work-force going to be symbol-
ic analysts?
The White Paper and (again to a much greater ex-
tent) its accompanying Analytical Paper also tend
to conflate producing relatively high-tech products
(for example, computers and ↑ IT equipment) with
a workforce of highly skilled knowledge workers.
This is not necessarily always the case. The work-
ers who solder together integrated circuit boards
do not need degrees. They need attention to detail,
concentration, and manual dexterity. The high-lev-
el skills in such organisations are concentrated in
the R&D, design, and product-management func-
tions. In other areas of the economy this polariza-
tion is even starker. In much of the service sector
the core organisational competences – those skills
and ↑ bodies of knowledge that give the organisa-
tion its competitive edge (PRAHALAD / HAMEL 1990)
are even more concentrated. In many multiple re-
tail chains they are located in the purchasing, lo-
gistics, and marketing functions within the head
office. Store managers, never mind the shopfloor
workers, are reduced to ciphers with minimal dis-
cretion who implement detailed plans and formu-
lae created by a small band of high-level experts.
Again, this raises questions about what value uni-
Case Studies of TVET Research
versal upskilling, particularly if conceived of in
terms of formalized VET and qualifications, can
have in these circumstances.
This leads us on to the issue of work organisation
and job design. Blanket use of terms such as ‘em-
powerment’ by consultants and business commen-
tators should not obscure the reality that, in much
of the service sector and even in parts of manu-
facturing (ACKROYD / PROCTER 1998), what is some-
times occurring is the implementation of a very
different, largely Taylorist model. Far from seek-
ing an autonomous workforce of polyvalent knowl-
edge workers to whom high levels of discretion
have been delegated in order to produce high-spec,
customized goods and services, many organisa-
tions continue to need workers to perform narrow-
ly specified, closely supervised, repetitive tasks, in
an environment where the work has been organ-
ized and the job designed in order to allow min-
imal discretion (THOMPSON / WARHURST 1998). At-
tempts by some service organisations to impose
scripted interactions between front-line operatives
and customers suggest that even tacit knowledge
may be being seen as of limited value in delivering
competitive advantage, particularly where quality
is seen by management as equalling consistent de-
livery to a relatively low spec rather than the cus-
tomized delivery of higher-spec services. Work by
Dench et al. (1998) on employers’ demand for and
use of core or key skills noted that
“the generally low level of autonomy allowed to em-
ployees especially in non-managerial roles and in less
skilled jobs was a theme emerging from many of our in-
depth interviews … in many organizations, efficient de-
livery is seen in terms of employees working in fairly
prescribed ways” (DENCH ET AL. 1998, 58).
and a study of job satisfaction in UK manufactur-
ing by the London School of Economics’ (LSE),
Centre for Economic ↑ Performance (PATTERSON /
WEST 1998) concluded that ‘for many people…
jobs are impoverished, monotonous and de-skill-
ing ... current managerial approaches to job design
are counter-productive’ (ibid. 5). All this suggests
that movement towards the ↑ OECD’s preferred
model of the ‘high performance workplace’, with
its associated attempts to produce work-organisa-
tion and people-management systems that can cap-
italize on high levels of skill, may be too slow and
too limited in large swathes of UK employment.
671
Current UK ↑ VET policies are failing to address
these issues and appear incapable of acknowledg-
ing that skills are often a third-order issue. Unless
and until first-order questions, such as choice of
product market and competitive strategy, and con-
sequent second-order decisions about work organ-
isation and job design, are confronted, the under-
lying causes of Britain’s skills problem will con-
tinue to be ignored. The danger of policies and in-
stitutional devices (such as the National Targets
for Education and Training) which concentrate on
boosting the supply of qualifications and formal-
ized skills and knowledge is that they appear to of-
fer a relatively swift and simple short cut to a wide-
ranging set of desired outcomes – increased eco-
nomic competitiveness, greater productivity, rising
GDP, and greater social inclusion – without hav-
ing to confront complex and difficult choices about
how businesses choose to compete.
A final area of difficulty is the generalizability
of the Californian example. As has been suggest-
ed above, ↑ comparative VET research has tend-
ed to underline the degree to which successful na-
tional ↑ VET systems are rooted in particular so-
cietal contexts and are therefore difficult to trans-
plant. The Californian example looks less daunt-
ing in this respect, in that at least some of the ma-
jor elements of the supportive infrastructure or ec-
osystem appear replicable in the UK without trans-
gressing major ideological barriers or attempting
sweeping changes in the underlying national cul-
ture. However, as Finegold observes, the high-tech
clusters do not represent the bulk of employment
in the state, though they do plainly generate a dis-
proportionate percentage of its GDP. Moreover,
California is not typical of the ↑ US economy as
a whole. It is a state with a very high concentra-
tion of relatively well-paid, high-skilled employ-
ment. The picture elsewhere in America is rather
more bleak. As Cappelli et al. (1997) have made
clear, despite massive change and upheaval in the
1980s and 1990s, in most American organisations
the ↑ OECD’s model of the high-performance,
high-skill, high-trust workplace has not been re-
alized. Elements of the high-performance model
have been diffused, but the new system of employ-
ee relations and work organisation that is emerging
appears to be based in the main on heightened job
672
insecurity, few opportunities for training or career
progression, work intensification, and, in many
cases, reduced real wages. Cappelli and his team
of co-authors conclude that this emergent model
makes it difficult for the high-performance vision
to prosper, largely owing to the fact that it under-
mines employee ↑ commitment and motivation and
hinders upskilling.
It might, therefore, be argued that, in seeking to
copy the atypical conditions that pertain within
limited high-performance, high-tech clusters in
the ↑ USA, the DTI may succeed in replicating nar-
row, sectorally based islands of excellence within
the UK economy without making much impact on
the vast bulk of UK employment. As noted above,
this is not the DTI’s aim. What it wants is a knowl-
edge-driven economy embracing all sectors, but if
this is the desired outcome, the USA may not pro-
vide all the answers.
These difficulties notwithstanding, the White Pa-
per represents a new turn in the UK’s approach to
industrial policy, and as such is deserving of wel-
come. After nearly two decades in which the role
of government tended to be limited to exhortation
and to a very narrowly delimited range of supply-
side measures, a different sort of agenda is start-
ing to emerge – one which takes on board many of
the lessons that academic research across a range
of disciplines has generated. For example, the
White Paper’s emphasis upon the need for strong-
er inter-firm networks reflects the findings of much
of the work undertaken under the Economic and
Social Research Council’s ↑ research programme
on ‘Contracts and Competition’ (see ARRIGHETTI /
BACHMANN / DEAKIN 1997; DEAKIN / MICHIE 1997;
LANE 1997) and in Sako (1999). Moreover, al-
though the White Paper’s treatment of skills is in
places problematic, at least it is one that locates the
topic within a wider perspective and may thereby,
in the longer term, pose a significant challenge to
traditional approaches to national ↑ VET policy.
As many of the articles in issue 1, 1999 of the Ox-
ford Review of Economic Policy suggest, such a
challenge would be timely. Indeed, if further proof
were needed that enhanced skills may be a neces-
sary but are not a sufficient condition for econom-
ic success, we need look no further than the cur-
rent travails of the Rover Group. This is an organ-
Handbook of TVET Research
isation that has invested heavily in skills, for ex-
ample, by developing high-↑ quality systems of ap-
prenticeship training, and has placed a heavy em-
phasis upon turning itself into a ‘learning com-
pany’. Whatever the successes of this strategy in
boosting ↑ skill levels within the workforce and
in stressing the importance of skill in relation to
product quality and manufacturing ↑ efficiency,
these have not been sufficient to enable the group
to avoid heavy losses. The lead time on a full pay-
back on investment in skills may be long and may
only be realized in conjunction with other chang-
es, such as heavy investment in new plant and ma-
chinery. More skills, on their own, are not enough
to guarantee success.
4.8.8 The Policy Progress and Research
– in Search of New Directions
This Assessment has underscored a number of the
potential lessons that contributors to issue 1, 1999
of the Oxford Review of Economic Policy can pro-
vide to policy-makers. Often the message is that
swift, simple solutions to the UK’s difficulties with
VET may not be readily available. As is often the
way with academic commentators, we therefore
stand open to the accusation of having a problem
for every solution.
Our response would be that effective policies have
to be grounded in a full appreciation of the tangled
and often complex inter-relationships that underlie
current conditions. This is particularly important
when we find ourselves confronting potential ↑ sys-
tems failures, which, by their very nature, tend not
to be amenable to straightforward or narrowly-fo-
cused solutions.
For example, the National Skills Task Force notes
in its first report that:
“it would be a mistake to treat the current demands of
employers and individuals for skills as coterminous with
the needs of the economy… the demand from individu-
als and employers is conditioned by the current structure
of incentives they face and the information they have
about education and training opportunities and their
economic benefits. It cannot be assumed that these nec-
essarily reflect the wider needs of the economy for eco-
nomic growth and stability” (1998, 33).
In other words, the stakeholders in the national
↑ VET system are acting in ways that can be ration-
alized as appropriate and logical within the frame-
Case Studies of TVET Research
work of attitudes, traditions, and incentives which
they experience (JERVIS 1997). Unfortunately, the
result may well be sub-optimal from the viewpoint
of society as a whole. This is a quite fundamen-
tal problem for national ↑ VET policy, the more so
in a country that has a voluntaristic approach to
training and where the main lever for change has
tended to be exhortation. Moves to change the sys-
tem of incentives would plainly not be either sim-
ple or easy.
A large number of interest groups (often, in the
UK context, rather weakly organized) would be
involved, and the policy interventions required to
produce any radical change would need to be wide-
ranging, to involve many different policy-makers
and public and private agencies, and to be intro-
duced in a coordinated manner. Such an approach
to policy formulation has, to date, been rare in the
UK, where uncoordinated, fragmented incremen-
talism has been the norm. The government’s at-
tempts to tackle social deprivation and poverty via
a central policy unit represents one of the few at-
tempts in recent times to marshal a genuinely stra-
tegic, multi-agency initiative and to deliver the
kind of ‘joined-up thinking’ that confronting ↑ sys-
tems failures requires (JERVIS 1997).
How can research aid this task? We would sug-
gest that the approach advocated by Schön (1987)
(→ 5.1.5) has much to recommend it. He argues
that if practitioners (and, from our point of view,
researchers) are to engage effectively with ex-
tremely important but messy and confusing prac-
tical problems that appear to defy solution, rather
than simply confine themselves to dealing with rel-
atively unimportant issues which have the advan-
tage of being easily managed, then they need to ad-
dress the issues from a fresh perspective. The most
important step is to confront the ‘problem of prob-
lem setting’ (ibid., 4). Schön suggests that ‘it is not
by technical problem solving that we convert prob-
lematic situations to well-formed problems; rath-
er, it is through naming and framing that techni-
cal problem solving becomes possible’ (ibid., 5).
The aim must be to construct ‘a well formed prob-
lem’ (ibid., 6).
In the area of VET this is a potentially very useful
pointer to building a better approach. Many of the
aspects of the problems in UK VET ↑ performance
673
are not clearly specified. The ‘naming and fram-
ing’ process has often been partial, and, most im-
portantly, the tendency to specify individual facets
of the problem without adequate reference to oth-
er elements in the picture limits the potential for
research to support integrated policy-making. As
Jervis points out (JERVIS 1997, 4), within national
systems ‘it is the interaction of the parts which are
at least as important as the operations of its com-
ponents’, yet much research has focused down on
the components rather than how they operate to-
gether to create particular attitudes and incentive
structures. A narrowly focused approach to re-
search also encourages the already strong tenden-
cy by policy-makers to launch another initiative,
scheme, or programme targeted at a small and sup-
posedly discrete failing or weakness. Unfortunate-
ly, all too often the result is that the initiative sinks
as a result of striking the unseen bulk of the rest of
the wider problem. The fate of YTS, we contend, is
an example of this phenomenon.
Researchers, we would argue, need to invest sig-
nificantly greater time and effort in trying to
‘name and frame’, with the aim of evolving a bet-
ter class of question. The research community al-
so needs to develop a stronger focus on the inte-
gration and synthesis of existing research findings.
Such a process would help us to identify with much
greater clarity where the real gaps in our knowl-
edge are. At the moment, the field of ↑ VET re-
search in the UK tends to be fragmented by organ-
isational and disciplinary divides, and to lack well-
developed mechanisms and fora within which the
interchange and synthesis of ideas can take place,
particularly beyond a mono-disciplinary perspec-
tive. As a recent, ESRC-commissioned overview
of UK VET re-search commented,
“all too often the model of research that emerges from
our review is that of moles burrowing away in parallel
tunnels, each unaware of the efforts of their colleagues.
Unless and until research becomes better integrated and
able to adopt an holistic approach, although our knowl-
edge of the detail may improve, understanding of the
deep-seated problems that confront UK VET will re-
main, at best, fragmentary” (BROWN / K EEP 1998, 106;
see also HUDDLESTON / UNWIN 1997).
We do not underestimate the scale of the challenge
which a more integrative approach poses for both
policy-makers and researchers, but as suggested
674
above, without progress in this direction, the prog-
nosis for major advances would seem poor.
4.9 Learning to Cook: Analysing
Apprentice’s Knowledge and
Skill Construction in the
Workplace
Susan James
4.9.1 Introduction
In the Republic, Plato (LODGE 1947) puts forward a
↑ Theory of Education that does not involve learn-
ing in an educational institution but rather empha-
sises the importance of learning through one’s oc-
cupation. Dewey (1944, 309–310, emphasis in orig-
inal), an advocate of learning by doing, states, ‘Ed-
ucation through occupations consequently com-
bines within itself more of the factors conducive
to learning than any other method… The only ad-
equate training for occupations is training through
occupations’. People have historically learnt how
to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, craftsmen,
artisans, church leaders and philosophers, amongst
others, through doing their jobs under the guidance
of more experienced workers. As Zuboff (1988,
395, cited by HODKINSON 2005, 12) states,
Learning is no longer a separate activity that occurs ei-
ther before one enters the workplace or in remote class-
room settings… the behaviours that define learning and
behaviours that define being productive are one and the
same. Learning is not something that requires time out
from being engaged in productive activity; learning is
the heart of productive activity.
In recent years there has been a focus on ↑ learn-
ing in the workplace to understand how knowl-
edge and skill is constructed in these environ-
ments and the literature is extensive and rapidly in-
creasing (for example, BILLETT 1995; 1996; 2001;
2002; BOUD / GARRICK 1999; ERAUT, 2000a; 2000b;
2001; ERAUT/ALDERTON / COLE / SENKER 1998;
FULLER / UNWIN 2003; 2003; FULLER / HODKINSON /
HODKINSON / UNWIN 2005; HODKINSON 2005 amongst
others) but as Billett (2001, 2) rightly states,
However, there persists a deeply rooted ambivalence to-
wards learning in workplaces. On the one hand, there
Handbook of TVET Research
is a valuing of the authentic experiences that workplac-
es provide for the development of the vocational knowl-
edge needed at work. On the other hand, workplaces are
characterised as being ‘informal’ learning environments
that fail to provide coherence in the structuring of learn-
ing experiences, are devoid of access to instructional ep-
isodes and lead to piecemeal, concrete and situationally
specific learning outcomes.
Part of this ambivalence could be due to the na-
ture of the subject under scrutiny. So much of the
learning that occurs in workplaces, and the knowl-
edge and skill that is constructed through the eve-
ryday practices of work, becomes implicit and tac-
it (ERAUT 2000a; 2000b; 2001) and therefore quite
an elusive phenomenon.
However, it is often the most elusive phenomena
that are the most enticing. One of the most well
known pieces of research into ↑ learning in the
workplace is Lave’s (1993a) study of West African
tailors whereby she argues the tailors learn their
trade by gradually becoming participants able to
engage fully as members of an existing ↑ com-
munity of practice. Similar work on learning to
move from a novice to an expert has been conduct-
ed by Billett (1995; 2001) focusing on hairdress-
ers’ knowledge and skill construction, Scribner’s
(1999) work on dairy worker’s social construction
of knowledge, and Hutchins (1993) research into
navigator’s learning their ↑ profession. All of these
studies were conducted using non-participant ob-
servation techniques (→ 5.2) combined with inter-
views or, in the case of Felstead et al. (2005) aug-
menting case study work with a survey which high-
lights smaller, perhaps less significant but no less
important, changes in capability or understanding
in learning at work.
What these studies do not do is delve in any great
detail into how the data, no doubt very rich and
descriptive, was analysed to understand what and
how learning took place; that is the purpose of this
chapter. Explanation is given for how such rich and
descriptive data can be analysed and comes from
the research conducted for a doctoral study to un-
derstand how elements of the workplace provid-
ed ↑ affordances (BILLETT 2001) for the process-
es of knowledge and skill construction. It is pro-
posed that by using such an approach for analy-
sis, a deeper understanding of such an elusive and
Case Studies of TVET Research
complex phenomenon as learning in the workplace
can be gained.
4.9.2 The Research
Many opportunities for learning reside within the
production environment of a workplace. A main
purpose of this research was to identify these op-
portunities in order to understand how elements of
the workplace provide ↑ affordances (BILLETT 2001)
for learning. To do this, young people training to
be chefs were the focus to illustrate how knowl-
edge and skill is constructed during apprenticeship
on the trajectory toward becoming a chef.
The data sets generated were used to answer the
following ↑ research questions:
(1) What sorts of knowledge and skill are required
to become a chef, and how is this assessed in the
workplace and through the NVQ?
(2) How are knowledge and skill constructed in the
activity system of a kitchen?
(3) How do the activities in a kitchen promote or
inhibit learning?
(4) How do the ontogenies of the apprentices and
more experienced co-participants affect knowl-
edge and skill construction in the workplace and
the NVQ assessment process?
Tab. 1: Overview of the kitchens
675
4.9.3 The Sites
The kitchens were specifically chosen to gain an
understanding of the processes of knowledge and
skill construction in the workplace. The different
kitchens allowed comparisons to be made along a
number of dimensions including cultural, histori-
cal, social, structural and organisational. Table 1
provides an overview of the sites in this study.
4.9.4 Participant Observation
We know that learning occurs in the workplace.
The reproduction of the vocational culture depends
on a person learning his or her job so that the or-
ganisation may survive. What we do not know a
great deal about is how the processes of learning
enable ↑ performance. Consequently, to understand
the processes involved in an apprentice’s construc-
tion of knowledge and skill, it is necessary to un-
derstand the workplace as a whole, the apprentice’s
place within the establishment, the tasks complet-
ed and the conversations he/she is involved in.
Initially non-participant observation data collec-
tion techniques were adopted so that the work-
place could be observed and an understanding
gained of how the kitchen and the workers in it re-
lated. But as the week wore on, the authenticity of
the working day observed could be seriously ques-
676
tioned. It is very unusual to have someone stand-
ing or sitting around in a kitchen (RUHLMAN 1997;
2001) and kitchens are hectic, hot places fraught
with tension that was more often than not relieved
through swearing, practical jokes and a lot of yell-
ing (BOURDAIN 2000; 2001). In the first three days,
not one sign of this tension relief was seen and it
was becoming increasingly, and painfully, evident
how another person’s presence, particularly the
note taking, was affecting the workers in the kitch-
en. Generally, the only people who enter a kitchen
to take notes are health and hygiene inspectors or
assessors of some kind.
Consequently, participant observation techniques
were adopted for the second week and there was
a noticeable difference in the atmosphere of the
kitchen. Although the data was not as detailed as
in the previous week (because exact conversations
were not able to be recorded), it was a more accu-
rate reflection of the daily experiences of the peo-
ple working in the kitchen. What is lost in detail is
gained in validity because the data collected using
participant observation techniques provides a more
accurate account of the kitchens and the workers in
it. Working collaboratively on tasks proved more
conducive to conversations with the apprentice and
was a way of gleaning data that might otherwise
have stayed under the surface if using non-partici-
pant techniques (ROBSON 1993, 197).
Working with the apprentices in the kitchens af-
forded a variety of different data types: general
but detailed descriptions of the kitchens including
maps, ↑ task analysis sheets, field notes, and inter-
view transcripts. Participant observation and semi-
structured interviews allowed a variety of levels of
information to be discovered: the observation data
allowed an understanding of the activity systems
as a whole; the interview data allowed an under-
standing of how the chef and the apprentice/s saw
their roles and provided the opportunity to clarify
and confirm my observations from the four weeks
spent in each kitchen. Furthermore, through par-
ticipant observation, extrapolation of the processes
involved in an apprentice’s learning from the da-
ta collected in the three kitchens of this study, en-
abled an understanding of the learning processes
that occurred more broadly: ‘The focus of atten-
Handbook of TVET Research
tion is on explaining the phenomenon, on making
it intelligible’ (ALASUUTARI 1995, 147).
4.9.5 Data Analysis
Analytical Strategies (Method)
The ethnographic approach adopted for this study
generated data that could be used to produce rich
descriptive accounts (BURGESS 1984; HAMMERSLEY/
ATKINSON 1995). The data allowed the perspective
of the apprentices to be understood from an analy-
sis of the interactions in the activity system/s that
shaped the processes of learning both on-the-job
and off-the-job. To capture the apprentice’s world
(SCHÜTZ 1954, 267) the emergent ↑ research de-
sign evolved through juxtaposing the collected da-
ta against the ↑ research questions and theoretical
frameworks after each period spent in the kitch-
ens. Each data set influenced and shaped the sub-
sequent sets of data through the specific aspects
observed and through the questions asked during
the semi-structured interview. This process of da-
ta collection and analysis is similar to that used
by Burgess et al. (BURGESS / POLE / EVANS /PRIESTLEY
1994) where the sequential study of four case study
sites – secondary schools in Warwickshire – pro-
vided a strategy to research a ‘Records of Achieve-
ment’ scheme. The authors (ibid., 143) state,
In our view, data analysis is not a discrete element of the
research process which can be neatly bracketed off from
other phases of the project. Instead, we would argue that
data analysis is integral to the way in which questions
are posed, sites selected and data collected…As we in-
dicated in the introduction to that report, our study was
designed to portray an ever-changing situation in four
contrasting schools. This allowed us to examine schools
in different phases of development and with different ex-
periences of Records of Achievement.
Although Burgess et al. focus on the development
of schools, and a particular program, the same
principles of data collection were applied to the
data sets collected in this study. As Figure 1 il-
lustrates, data set X was produced from the ↑ field
research at Chives. In the months before the data
collection at Gastronomique, the data from Chives
was analysed with reference to the research ques-
tions. When aspects of the research questions re-
mained unanswered or more data was needed to
Case Studies of TVET Research
answer fully the research questions, the observa-
tions and research questions were re-focused for
the subsequent kitchen, resulting in data set Y: ‘As
analytical ideas develop and change, what is ‘sig-
nificant’ and what must be included in the field
notes also changes’ (HAMMERSLEY/ATKINSON 1995,
180). Again, analysis continued after the ↑ field re-
search at Gastronomique, and this in turn affected
the data collection at Sebs, producing data set Z.
Fig. 1: The influence of the research questions on the
data sets.
The rest of this chapter explains how the theoreti-
cal and empirical resources were used in the ana-
lytical strategy adopted for the data collected. The
strategy for the analysis of the data can be broken
into three stages:
(1) Community-level analysis;
(2) Interpersonal-level analysis; and
(3) Individual-level analysis.
Each of these stages of analysis is dependent on the
others rather than separate, concrete steps that do
not overlap and within the three stages of analysis,
three units for analysis were used:
(1) ↑ Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1987) (discussed
further in next section);
(2) The ↑ Conceptual Analysis Framework – CAF
(based on MOORE 1981); and
(3) The Individual (ROGOFF / TOPPING / BAKER-
SENNETT / LACASA 2002, ENGESTRÖM 1987).
Using multiple units of analysis to focus and re-fo-
cus on the data emphasises ‘the interconnections
between layers of context’, and focuses attention
‘on understanding how “activity” is shaped and
677
framed by broader layers of context and the dy-
namics between them’ (SELLMAN / BEDWARD / COLE /
DANIELS 2002, 892) when analysing the processes
of an apprentice’s development. This approach was
used by Rogoff et al. (2002, 267) to analyse their
research on girl scouts planning to remember:
The distributed, mutual contributions of individuals,
their partners, and community institutions to planning
can be studied with analyses that focus on one or anoth-
er of these contributions, keeping key aspects of the oth-
er parts of the analysis.
Consequently, by focusing on collective activity,
the interpersonal and the individual, three units
of analysis provided interconnected lenses of an-
alytic foci (ROGOFF 1995) which emphasise vari-
ous aspects of activity at various times (see al-
so SELLMAN / BEDWARD / COLE / DANIELS 2002, 891).
However, Rogoff et al. (2002, 268–269, emphasis
in original) have stated that,
… researchers still struggle with how to conceive of
the contributions of companions and culture to cogni-
tion. The field often seems to be dominated by an either/
or conception in which either the person or the outside
world is regarded as responsible for development… [but]
Sociocultural theory (also called cultural/historical the-
ory) offers a major shift in the unit of analysis. The unit
of analysis becomes the whole sociocultural activity…
Employing sociocultural activity as the unit of analysis
allows us to see how cognitive processes extend across
individual efforts, the participation of partners, and in-
stitutions and cultural traditions.
The work of Cole (1998) and Sellman et al. (2002)
is used to overcome the either/or conception in this
study. Cole (ibid., 133) uses three rings to diagram-
Fig. 2: Three stages and three foci of analysis
678 Handbook of TVET Research

matically illustrate that ‘culture can be represented be taken into account. Rogoff et al. (2002, 270) re-
as the weaving together of layers of context’, while fer to this as ‘primary and secondary focus’.
Sellman et al. (ibid., 892) adapted Cole’s diagram
to illustrate the layers of context with regard to stu- Activity Theory
dents’ exclusion. In the context of this study, the
Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1987) (→ 3.4.2) ena-
diagram was adapted to account for the intercon-
bles us to look at a system of activity, for example,
nection between the collective, interpersonal and
a kitchen. Sellman et al. (2002) explicate the use
individual activity, and the effect of the cultural/
of ↑ Activity Theory nicely when they say ‘Activ-
historic aspects of the hospitality industry, the fea-
ity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1999) presents a unit of
tures of the kitchen and the activity and tasks oc-
analysis, the Activity System (see COLE 1996, 40),
curring in the kitchen on the learning process. Fig-
which is useful in representing the individual em-
ure 2 represents the three stages of analysis inte-
bedded in the cultural-historical practice of social
grating the three units of analysis. institutions’. Activity Theory provided the concep-
The next section describes the three units of anal- tual categories necessary to approach the activi-
ysis and the penultimate section explains the three ty system – the kitchens – and was used to think
stages of analysis. of a kitchen in terms of the categories of division
Units of analysis of labour, community, rules, instruments/tools/ar-
The decision to use an existing theory – ↑ Ac- tefacts, the object and the subject’s (the appren-
tivity Theory – and analysis framework rath- tice’s) place within this activity system. The fol-
er than a Grounded Theory approach (GLASER / lowing diagrammatical representation (Figure 3)
STRAUSS 1967) emanated from the initial reading of Activity Theory helps to illustrate this point:
and the formulation of the ↑ research questions. Us-
ing a more analytic induction process with an ex-
isting theory and the ↑ Conceptual Analysis Frame-
work to guide the analysis (ROBSON 1993, 201;
HAMMERSLEY/ATKINSON 1995, 201) seemed the
most suitable given the data collection methods
and time frame. Nonetheless, the theory and Con-
ceptual Analysis Framework were not taken at face
value: kitchens are far more complex than the the-
oretical ideas used. Rogoff et al. (2002, 270, em-
phasis in original) provide a good explanation of
the use of three foci of analysis,
A personal focus of analysis highlights individuals’ con-
tributions and change in the activity; an interpersonal Fig. 3: Activity Theory triangle
focus of analysis highlights the contributions that occur
as people communicate and coordinate efforts, wheth- However, these categories do not do justice to the
er face-to-face or more distally; and a community focus complexity of the kitchens in this study. For exam-
of analysis highlights contributions to the activity that ple, during analysis it became evident that the di-
derive from dynamic cultural practices and institutional vision of labour is far more complex than a sim-
traditions and tools. ple category. The division of labour is a composite
Using multiple units of analysis allows focus on of the space, tempo, routines, hierarchy and work-
one unit while essential information from the other flow. Activity Theory, enhanced by the ↑ CAF,
units can be used to help make sense of the prima- brought to the fore aspects of the kitchens, such
ry data. For example, analysing the task an appren- as the overall effect of the structure and organi-
tice (the individual) undertakes may be the focus, sation of a kitchen on the activity within, which
while the influence of other chefs (the interperson- Activity Theory and the CAF each used in isola-
al), in the form of instruction or workflow, can also tion, did not. For example, Table 2 breaks down a
Case Studies of TVET Research 679

Tab. 2: Breakdown of a menu

680
menu from Gastronomique into its parts and de-
tails which chefs are involved in each menu item’s
preparation. Activity Theory highlighted the divi-
sion of labour and the CAF broke the menu items
down further to explicate the role of each chef in
the making of the dish. Consequently, by theoreti-
cally triangulating (DENZIN 1988) the data, a sec-
ond focus of analysis provided a finer grained ex-
amination of the data.
The Conceptual Analysis Framework
Figure 2 illustrated the levels and stages of analy-
sis as a set of mutually influencing rings. The in-
fluence of Activity Theory, the outer ring, on the
interpersonal as a unit of analysis, is fundamen-
tal to understanding how an apprentice constructs
knowledge and skill in the workplace, because Ac-
tivity Theory highlights community activity while
the CAF allows analysis of the interpersonal rela-
tionships that constitute the community. After ap-
plying Activity Theory in the first stage of analy-
sis, the CAF enabled a more in-depth, second stage
of analysis and provided a different focus allowing
more detail of the kitchens, the workers and the ac-
tivity within to come to the surface as elucidated in
the previous section.
The CAF was based on (1981) work where he and
his team worked in The School for Experiential
Learning (SEL) to ‘develop a systematic approach
to locating the pedagogy and curriculum of expe-
riential education’ (MOORE 1981, ii). The purpose
of the study was ‘to examine these various expe-
riences and try to figure a way to analyze them in
terms of education’ (ibid., 13). Moore’s report pro-
posed ‘a conceptual framework for analyzing the
social organisation of education in nonclassroom
environments’ (ibid., ii) focusing on four major ar-
eas; and it is these four areas that form the basis of
the analysis of the data collected in this research:
– The logical-technical and pragmatic features of
the organisation and its activities;
– Analysis of the tasks broken down into three
phases of establishing, accomplishing and process-
ing;
– The features of the participants; and
– The organisational analysis of the site.
However, Moore’s (1981) framework was modified
for this study so that the data collected would be
Handbook of TVET Research
more relevant and exhaustive (Appendix 1 shows
the CAF that was extended and refined for use
in this study). For example, Moore’s framework,
while taking into account the features of the par-
ticipant (ibid., 99–101), does so at a very basic lev-
el, citing and briefly discussing the ‘Social Stock
of Knowledge’ (BERGER / LUCKMANN 1966).
Although the framework for analysis encompassed
features of the participant such as personality, mo-
tivation and chemistry, during the data collection
phase, additional aspects of the apprentices pre-
sented themselves as relevant, including previ-
ous experience and how the apprentices embodied
their status as chefs. In the kitchens it was obvi-
ous how influential these other factors were in the
apprentices take-up of the opportunities present-
ed to them to construct knowledge and skill, hence
it seemed imperative to include these in the anal-
ysis framework. In other words, the ↑ Conceptual
Analysis Framework highlighted the interperson-
al in the kitchen.
The Individual
Although the community and the interpersonal af-
fect the knowledge and skill construction of the in-
dividual, these two aspects do not exclusively con-
tribute and determine what and how individuals
learn: the individual decides what information is
taken in and what is considered relevant or irrel-
evant (WERTSCH 1998, 181; BILLETT 2002). An in-
dividual brings to a situation prior knowledge, ex-
perience, motivation and a disposition that influ-
ences the processes of learning (PRAWAT 1989; BIL-
LETT 1996). The prior knowledge and experience
may have been gained the previous day or could
be part of their personal history – their ontogeny –
and will influence the learning processes. As Bil-
lett (2001, 37) states,
How individuals engage in workplace activities and the
learning that results from those activities is unlikely to
be uniform. This is because each individual uses differ-
ent bases for thinking and acting at work. Rather than
simply ‘internalising’ knowledge through experiences,
each individual’s learning is influenced by the knowl-
edge that they possess and bring to the situation. These
individual influences are the product of personal histo-
ries. The actual process of learning – of making sense of
things – is a reciprocal process through which the learn-
Case Studies of TVET Research
er also transforms their view of the source of knowledge
(VALSINER 1994).
To understand how the individual accesses and us-
es these resources as part of the process of knowl-
edge and skill construction requires the individu-
al to be a separate unit of analysis. The strategy of
using the three units of analysis, as foci, will now
be discussed in more detail.
4.9.6 Stages of Analysis
In the first instance, the data collected through
participant observation and semi-structured inter-
views was analysed using the categories provided
by ↑ Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1987) – the com-
munity level of analysis (ROGOFF 1995). The sec-
ond stage of analysis involved the amended Con-
ceptual Analysis Framework (CAF) – the inter-
personal level of analysis. The third stage involved
analysis of the apprentice’s development in the
kitchens – the individual level of analysis (ROGOFF
1995).
Stage One: Community-Level Analysis
Participant observation provided the opportunity
to begin analysis from the very beginning of da-
ta collection. Immersion in each of the three sites
soon brought to the fore many aspects of the kitch-
ens that are more noticeable as a worker rather
than as a mere visitor, such as the structure and or-
ganisation of these activity systems with their hi-
erarchy, tempo and routine, space, workflow and
division of labour. Orientation and familiarisation
with the data, the first stage of analysis for many
researchers (for example, PENDRY 1996), began
from the first day of data collection in each ↑ field
research site in this study, as discussed previously.
Immersion in the three kitchens provided famili-
arity, which resulted in descriptive accounts of the
kitchens with ↑ Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1987)
providing orientation in the sites, a way of thinking
about the kitchens.
Initially, the data collected in the first site – Chives
– was coded only with the categories from the CAF
using Atlas/ti (illustrated below in Figure 4). Ac-
tivity Theory at this stage had not been adopted for
analysis. Whilst the CAF provided an initial way
of thinking about the data collected, the authen-
681
tic accounts generated by being a participant ob-
server illuminated many aspects of the workplace
that the framework was not capable of incorporat-
ing and portraying (discussed in the previous sec-
tion). From working in the kitchen of Chives for a
month, the coding and analysis seemed too specif-
ic, and yet not specific enough in some areas, to ad-
equately capture what was occurring in the kitch-
en, and initially did not do justice to the data col-
lected. For example, working in the kitchen is not
just a matter of completing tasks to produce menu
items; there are a number of factors at play such
as timing and co-operation among chefs. Conse-
quently, adopting ↑ Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM
1987) as a heuristic device to guide the first stage
of analysis provided a way of thinking about the
kitchens on a macro level, and enhanced the use
of the ↑ CAF to analyse the data at a second, mi-
cro level.
For the first stage of analysis, the Activity Theo-
ry triangle (ENGESTRÖM 1987) provided a way of
thinking about the kitchens; what activity was oc-
curring, how it was occurring, and who and what
was involved: a conceptual organisation of the da-
ta. The conceptual categories of the triangle – di-
vision of labour, community, rules, subject, instru-
ments, and object – provided codes for the data
when using Atlas/ti. These codes became umbrel-
la categories and allowed analysis on a macro lev-
el. An illustration of how the categories from the
triangle were used appears in Figure 4.
Fig. 4: Application of codes to the data in Atlas/ti us-
ing Activity Theory
682
The first stage of analysis brought to the fore a
number of issues in these workplaces that may pro-
mote or inhibit the learning experiences of an ap-
prentice such as organisational and structural fac-
tors, the role and ontogeny of the head chefs and
the recapitulation of their own apprenticeship, and
the dichotomies of learning in the activity systems
of a kitchen and a ↑ Further Education College.
Stage Two: Interpersonal-Level Analysis
After the broad conceptual categories from Activ-
ity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1987) were applied to the
data, the CAF was used to code and further ana-
lyse the data. The conceptual categories from the
triangle provided direction for applying the ideas
in the CAF. For example, the conceptual catego-
ry of ‘division of labour’ was applied to the da-
ta in the first stage. In the second stage, this um-
brella code emphasised the data involving tasks.
The codes from the CAF were then applied to the
data. This coding highlighted who established the
tasks and how this occurred, what was involved in
accomplishing a task, and who processes the task
(formatively and summatively) and what form the
processing takes.
This second stage of coding involved many read-
ings of the data to ensure the codes were represent-
ing and capturing the data. During this stage, re-
ferral to the first stage occurred (as per Figure 2)
and also helped to ensure that the data coded in
the first stage was thorough. Coding the data in the
second stage using the framework gave a different
emphasis to that taken in the first stage. For exam-
ple, when coding the organisational ethos and ide-
ology (OEI), the first stage of analysis highlight-
ed the division of labour and rules inherent in the
kitchens but when breaking these categories down
to discern how the apprentice is a) integrated into
the organisational ethos, and b) how the apprentice
is expected to learn about the organisational ethos
and ideology, provided a different emphasis to the
division of labour and the rules of the community.
Looking at the data with a different focus helped to
ensure that many aspects were covered. Hammers-
ley and Atkinson (1995, 213) point out that Glaser
and Strauss (1967) call this the ‘constant compara-
tive method’ whereby ‘in this procedure, the ana-
lyst examines each item of data coded in terms of a
Handbook of TVET Research
particular category, and notes its similarities with
and differences to other data that have been simi-
larly categorized’.
The second stage of analysis also brought to the
fore a more in-depth level of analysis than had orig-
inally been anticipated. From the ↑ task analysis
sheets and the prolific reading of the field notes,
episodes of learning became apparent, as did the
facilitation and modes of these learning episodes.
So not only was the apprentice’s trajectory visible
but also the mechanisms used to aid the knowledge
and skill construction along the trajectory. To ex-
plain, the ↑ task analysis sheet, which was devel-
oped from the ↑ CAF, identified and allowed explo-
ration of the tasks the apprentices completed. This,
in turn, led to an identification of how the learning
was facilitated. From the facilitation of learning,
the mechanisms of learning were identified and
examples from the task analysis sheets and field
notes were used to illustrate the processes involved
in an apprentice’s learning.
The CAF also allowed analysis of the individual
to begin in the first and second stages, making a
smooth transition to the third stage of analysis. This
is because the individual had already been high-
lighted by ↑ Activity Theory (ENGESTRÖM 1987) as
the subject, and in the features of the participants
in the CAF.
Stage Three: Individual-Level Analysis
The subject (or individual) – the apprentices –
had been identified in the first and second stages
of analysis. After the second stage of coding and
analysis was completed, the third stage of analysis
involved re-reading the coded transcripts to iden-
tify any patterns or anomalies to do with the indi-
vidual not yet discovered. The third stage of read-
ing the data focussed on the ‘individuals’ contribu-
tions and change in the activity’ (ROGOFF / TOPPING /
BAKER-SENNETT / LACASA 2002, 270). From this lev-
el of analysis, a typology of chefs and apprentices
was developed from across the three sites and dis-
tinguished the effects on, and processes of, learn-
ing among the apprentices. During this third stage,
constant reference to stages one and two of the
analysis were made, not only to understand the de-
velopment of the individual but also the individu-
al’s role in the wider context of the kitchens (ROG-
Case Studies of TVET Research 683

OFF 1995; ROGOFF / TOPPING / BAKER-SENNETT / LACASA removable. Indeed, the further theoretical development
2002). goes, the deeper the tension gets. This is the first con-
dition for cultural theory: it is not its own master. As it
is unseverable from the immediacies thick description
4.9.7 Conclusion presents, its freedom to shape itself in terms of its inter-
The phenomenon under investigation in this study nal logic is rather limited. What generality it contrives to
achieve grows out of the delicacy of its distinctions, not
was complex, as were the sites chosen for the ↑ field
the sweep of its abstractions.
research. The apprentices’ processes of knowledge
and skill construction in the kitchens are devel- Moreover, with the focus and interest shown
opmental. The apprentice starts in the workplace in ↑ learning in the workplace in recent years
with none, or very little, of the knowledge and (HAWKE 1998; BILLETT 2001, 2), and the precur-
skill needed to be a chef. It is through ↑ participa- sors for this interest such as the linking of educa-
tion and training to economic ↑ performance and
tion in the kitchen and the completion of tasks in
the perceived need to up-skill the workforce (see
the workplace that knowledge and skill are con-
for example: WOLF 2002; FINEGOLD / SOSKICE 1988;
structed on the trajectory toward becoming a chef.
1990; K EEP / MAYHEW 1988), ↑ globalisation and
Consequently, using more than one theory to guide
competitive performance (BROWN / GREEN / LAUDER
analysis of the data over a variety of levels – ‘the-
2001), and a change of emphasis from teaching
oretical tringulation’ (DENZIN 1988) – to draw out
to learning, with particular significance ascribed
the learning processes and make explicit the tra-
to the individual’s responsibility for learning (for
jectories of the apprentices has many advantag-
example: BILLETT 2002; FORRESTER / PAYNE / WARD
es, and the multi-level analysis was a particular
1995; CARNOY 1999), research such as this project
strength of this study:
using a multi-pronged approach for such fine-
When one set of theories does not exhaust the potenti-
alities of the data, other sets can be employed to point to
grained analysis can only help to better inform the
and explain the facts which remain unexplained. Thus, research, policy, business and education commu-
for any initial statement of the field problem a whole se- nities.
ries of theories may be successively applied, each yield-
ing different orders of data and each perhaps being limit-
ed by the special perspectives and dimensions on which
it is predicated (BENSMAN and VIDICH 1960, 165–166, cit- 4.10 Transferability, Flexibility,
ed by HAMMERSLEY/ATKINSON 1995, 214).
Mobility as Targets of
Furthermore, using a number of foci in the analy-
Vocational Education and
sis helped to link the theoretical frameworks to the
design of this research while ensuring the struc- Training – The COST Action
ture was open to changes and flexible enough for A11
findings outside of these frameworks to come to
Frank Achtenhagen and Susanne
the fore. The ethnographic nature of this research
Weber
and the rich, thick descriptions the field work elic-
ited, allowed the findings from the analysis to be
presented in keeping with the ethnographic philos- 4.10.1 The Genesis – the Research Problem
ophy of this study and a more narrative style of
COST is an acronym for “European Co-operation
story was told of how the apprentices construct-
in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research”.
ed their knowledge and skill whilst working at
It is an intergovernmental European framework
Chives, Gastronomique and Sebs respectively. As
for international co-operation between nationally
Geertz (1993, 24–25) believes,
funded research activities. COST creates scientif-
The tension between the pull of this need to penetrate
an unfamiliar universe of symbolic action and the re-
ic networks and enables scientists to collaborate in
quirements of technical advance in the theory of cul- a wide spectrum of activities in research and tech-
ture, between the need to grasp and the need to analyze nology. Action A11 was located in the field of So-
is, as a result, both necessarily great and essentially ir- cial Sciences. COST financially supports the co-
684
ordination within the Action, for example work-
shops, meetings, short-term scientific missions,
publications.
Each Action is a network of co-ordinated nation-
al research projects in fields that are of interest to
at least five COST countries. Action A11 consisted
of researchers from 17 different countries. Every
↑ COST Action has an objective and a set of clear-
ly defined goals, which are to be achieved through
the co-operative activities of the Action. The Ac-
tion is formally described in the “Memorandum of
Understanding” which is signed by the participat-
ing COST countries (further information is given
by its website).
The Action was a follow-up of the work of an Ex-
pert Commission of Research on Vocational Edu-
cation and Training (VET) installed by the Ger-
man Research Foundation (DFG 1990). Its rec-
ommendations included the proposal for strength-
ening international co-operation. Achtenhagen –
as its chairman – was asked by the COST Com-
mittee of Senior Officers to develop a feasibility
study for a COST Action in the field of VET. A
steering group was nominated to fulfil this task
(ACHTENHAGEN / NIJHOF / RAFFE 1995) – together
with colleagues from eleven European countries
The Feasibility Study was accepted, the Memo-
randum of Understanding was worked out and the
process of obtaining signatories could begin. In
1997, the Action started formally and had its first
Management Committee meeting in September
1997. It ended in June 2002 with a final conference
in Gothenburg, Sweden.
With regard to the so-called “megatrends” and
their economic, political and social influences, but
also with regard to the increasing importance of
upgrading the labour forces and the fight against
unemployment (in particular among young peo-
ple), the COST Action A11 tried to bring together
new ↑ research approaches which have been emerg-
ing in nearly all highly industrialised countries.
The new research agenda should incorporate
a broad range and a flexible mix of relevant ap-
proaches, providing a concise conceptual and the-
oretical basis for research. A decisive step forward
has been the concentration on teaching-learning
aspect (→ 3.7.7) and not on organisational and in-
stitutional aspects as is the case in most countries
Handbook of TVET Research
(→ 1). As social sciences can contribute directly
to the development of the teaching-training-/learn-
ing-working dimensions of VET, corresponding
social research in a number of related disciplines
and fields has been, therefore, recognized as be-
ing directly relevant to a successful restructuring
of vocational education and training.
The main objective of the Action was to increase
knowledge about the development of flexibility,
transferability and ↑ mobility in the fields of VET.
These targets are accepted worldwide. Howev-
er, there is a lack of understanding for, and expla-
nation of, these attitudes and their consequences
for an effective behaviour on the ↑ labour market
and in private life. Although these topics have to
be judged as under-researched, a multitude of re-
search and political programmes on VET already
exist.
The Action aimed at improving knowledge about
an effective preparation for the labour market as
well as for private life under various headings.
Since individual European Member countries have
very different systems of vocational education and
training, the effects of teaching and learning could
be studied under different institutional conditions.
Thus, it’s research contributed to a better under-
standing of the targets and effects of vocational ed-
ucation and training.
One of the major goals of the COST Feasibility
Study and the different empirical ↑ research ap-
proaches in Member countries has been the devel-
opment of theories which can help to integrate re-
search ideas and findings. This is of particular im-
portance since problems of VET are dealt with by
experts from many disciplines: general education
and ↑ adult education, ↑ curriculum development,
sociology, psychology, didactics, engineering, eco-
nomics and business management.
4.10.2 The Research Concept and the
Methodological Design
The Action concentrated on five central topics to
be worked out by research groups: Context/Input
of VET; processes of VET: developmental work
research, complex ↑ teaching-learning environ-
ments; initial conditions for VET; output of VET:
evaluation and assessment. These topics were op-
Case Studies of TVET Research
erationalised by formulating sub-problems as a re-
search agenda:
(1) Context/Input (Chairs: Lorna Unwin, UK;
Antti Kauppi, FIN)
As the above-mentioned “megatrends” change
working conditions, new forms and ways of pre-
paring for ↑ participation in working life are need-
ed, and the following questions have to be dealt
with:
(a) How should working life problems and needs
be included in vocational teaching-learning proc-
esses on the job as well as in schools at different
levels?
(b) How should vocational education and training
be used to modify working conditions and to de-
fine new jobs?
(c) How can new qualification requirements be
mapped, including ↑ key qualifications at the work-
site, as well as questions relating to the role of ↑ do-
main specific knowledge, general problem-solving
behaviour, and the necessity and effects of team
work?
(d) What should be the basic qualification require-
ments for young adults without sufficient formal
education to prevent them from permanent unem-
ployment?
(2) Process (Chairs: Yrjö Engeström, FIN;
Terttu Tuomi-Gröhn, FIN)
(a) Descriptions and analyses of learning opportu-
nities in different places: worksite, learning cor-
ner, ↑ vocational school, etc.
(b) Transfer from learning processes to the work-
site and from worksite processes to learning.
(c) Interaction of learning processes at different
(working and learning) places and ↑ practical train-
ing with regard to the outcome.
(d) Interaction between the utilization of domain
specific knowledge and general problem-solving
techniques, including the ability to adapt learning
processes to new tasks.
(e) Promotion of transformative learning: effective
coping with changed situations, influencing work-
ing conditions and behaving in different contexts
(“boundary crossing”).
685
(3) Complex Teaching-Learning Arrange-
ments/Environments (Chairs: Peter Sloane, D;
Regina Mulder, NL)
(a) Mapping different approaches of complex
teaching-learning arrangements/environments
with regard to teaching styles and the multimedia/
internet equipment needed, as well as modes of in-
dividual versus collaborative learning.
(b) Opportunities to run vocational education and
training by a series of complex teaching-learning
arrangements/environments as units of a curricu-
lum.
(c) Possibilities of embedding complex teaching-
learning arrangements/environments into process-
es at the worksite.
(d) Effective handling of multimedia and open
↑ distance learning procedures with regard to the
use of complex teaching-learning arrangements/
environments.
(e) Possibilities of modelling and simulating re-
al life situations by including different contexts,
also intercultural similarities and differences, in
complex teaching-learning arrangements/environ-
ments.
(f) Possibilities of self-directed versus goal-direct-
ed learning within complex teaching-learning ar-
rangements.
(g) Investigation on the balance of casuistic and
systematized teaching-learning processes.
(4) Initial Conditions (Chairs: Wim Nijhof, NL;
Loek Nieuwenhuis, NL)
(a) Identification of advantageous and disadvan-
tageous factors for action- and activity-oriented
↑ teaching and learning strategies: the role of em-
ployers, enterprises, unions, teaching and learning
traditions, etc.
(b) Identification of needs for the training of full-
time and part-time teachers and trainers with re-
gard to process conditions – especially the effec-
tive use of complex teaching-learning arrange-
ments/environments.
(c) Identification of a new self-image of teachers
and trainers with regard to their activities in com-
686
plex situations and to the needs of fostering ↑ self-
directed learning of students and apprentices.
(5) Output – Evaluation and Assessment
(Chairs: Klaus Beck, D; Frank Coffield, UK)
(a) Development of evaluation procedures by
which flexibility attitudes can be related to person-
ality factors, to the effects of vocational education
and training and to their interaction.
(b) Development of evaluation procedures by
which the development of cognition (e. g. complex
problem solving), emotion, motivation, social be-
haviour (such as communication and collabora-
tion) and moral judgement can be assessed.
(c) Ranking the results of vocational education and
training for various professional levels according
to EU regulations.
(d) Describing results of vocational education and
training for young adults with very low formal ed-
ucation.
(e) Mid- and long-term evaluation of vocational
education and training, with regard to ↑ mobility
(within and between enterprises and branches).
(f) Development of authentic and valid procedures
of hands-on assessment (also for large scale).
(g) Comparison of the effects of different complex
teaching-learning arrangements/environments.
Major types of activity for each Working Group
have been, according to the statements of the
Memorandum of Understanding, the following –
with the Groups also adapting them according to
their individual members’ expertise:
(1) A synthesis of the state of research in each par-
ticipating country as the starting point for research
on the European level;
(2) an identification of research gaps, but also of
promising ↑ research approaches;
(3) stimulation of common bi- or multi-lateral Eu-
ropean research projects;
(4) common research and exchange of research re-
sults should lead to more stringently formulated
theories about the different problems to be tack-
led;
(5) the formulation of consequences for the devel-
opment of transferability, flexibility and ↑ mobili-
ty;
Handbook of TVET Research
(6) exchange of ideas and research results by meet-
ings, conferences and publications.
The Chairs of the whole Action were Frank Achten-
hagen (Germany) and Frank Coffield (UK).
4.10.3 The Research Process
The Feasibility Study saw a clear connection in
that learning which provides high transfer effects
being the best guarantee for possible high mobility
– under the premise that a flexible system of VET
supports the quality, but also the necessary quan-
tity of teaching and training as well as of learning
and working.
It was at the beginning of the Action very hard to
identify competent researchers within the different
participating countries and to persuade them to co-
operate. The development of such knowledge dur-
ing the Action and of the corresponding networks
that developed marks one of its major effects.
A central aspect and question is always why did
the Action focus on teaching/training and learn-
ing/working processes. Through the Feasibili-
ty Study, as well as by the Memorandum of Un-
derstanding, we emphasized that research on vo-
cational and occupational education and training
is mainly focussed on institutional, organisational
and political topics. The micro level does not play
a decisive role. This can be clearly demonstrat-
ed by a comprehensive study by ↑ CEDEFOP on
“Training in Europe”. The corresponding report
consists of three thick volumes with 34 articles by
55 colleagues. Optimistically judged: only 1.5 ar-
ticles are related to teaching/training and learning
processes themselves; only 2 of the 55 authors also
worked in the Action; while a third colleague left
the Action some years ago as he had changed his
job (cf. DESCY/ TESSARING 2001).
The major reason for the Action’s focus towards
teaching-learning processes can briefly be de-
scribed by a strong conviction: VET, which is to
a large degree run in ↑ vocational schools, can on-
ly survive outside enterprises or stay independent
if it reaches a highly esteemed status, if vocation-
al schools can clearly demonstrate by their success
that their procedures – which include curricula, di-
dactics, methods and media – provide better learn-
ing results than those got by firm-based processes.
Behind this thesis there is a conviction that work-
Case Studies of TVET Research
site learning is not principally better and more ef-
fective than school learning. This experience is
also supported by research results which demon-
strate that so-called authentic learning experiences
are not necessarily better than those made at voca-
tional schools. Learning at the worksite only gets
its positive effects if authenticity of possible and
necessary learning experience is set centre stage
(cf. ACHTENHAGEN / WEBER 2003).
As the literature confronts us with the problems
of “↑ inert” or “↑ tacit” knowledge, we examined
closely the problems of decontextualisation or
transfer through the work of Working Groups 2
and 3. Here, the real and most remarkable research
progress is marked by the fact that Engeström’s
↑ activity theory-approach goes beyond tradition-
al concepts of transfer. The emphasis on develop-
mental transfer and expansive learning opens up
new possibilities for changed learning procedures
at the worksite as well as in schools. The results,
therefore, not only mark a decisive progress in the
fields of VET, but also over and above that more
generally for teaching and learning. Here, an im-
portant fact is again confirmed: research on VET
creates many results which can also be used more
generally (cf. TUOMI-GRÖHN / ENGESTRÖM 2003;
ACHTENHAGEN / GRUBB 2001).
With regard to the flexibility of pathways one aspect
is of great importance: the acceptance of VET by
the academic tracks of the ↑ school system and by
the institutions of higher education (RAFFE 2002).
School history up to our days is full of examples of
how vocational programmes have lost their char-
acter by becoming more general: a process of “col-
onisation”. Through the emphasis on aspects of
teaching-learning which include curricular, didac-
tic and method research and development, it can
be and it should be demonstrated that vocational
goals and content are taught at a comparable level
as academic representatives claim for their institu-
tions. It also can be shown that the traditional goal
and content structure of academic education have
their origin in the Ancient Greek enkyklios paideia
which is still the norm for most European coun-
tries. But it is also evident that the corresponding
academic subjects do not cover the most important
domains of our daily life: economy, technology,
law, medicine and pedagogy. Here, the relationship
687
to vocational goal and content structures is visible;
research has to work out the necessary teaching-
learning steps – a procedure which might help blur
the sharp contrasts between academic and ↑ voca-
tional school tracks and their consequences for the
flexibility of pathways to disappear.
The major problem the Action has been confront-
ed with is the concept of ↑ mobility. The Feasi-
bility Study operationalised this concept as fol-
lows: “Mobility is defined by the potential to ef-
fectively supply and demand on the ↑ labour mar-
ket (within and between career patterns and enter-
prises)” (iii). The Action did not make great ad-
vances on this topic. Coffield gave the explanation
that “the issue of mobility has been steadily rising
to the top of the political agenda in all European
countries during the life of this ↑ COST Action”
(COFFIELD 2002, 30). The major problem is caused
by the fact that mobility as a consequence of the
strength or weakness of VET is interwoven with
problems of migrant workers. The problem, there-
fore, was not adequately researchable – especially
as with regard to the non-migrant country people
the effects of flexibility measures could not suffi-
ciently be operationalised.
The results of the ↑ research programme are mani-
fold, as the central goals of this COST Action A11
cover a broad range of ↑ research questions. The di-
vision of the work by creating five Working Groups
may serve as an example. It was the plan when in-
stigating the Action’s program to develop research
questions within each Working Group with regard
to the overarching themes, but also to monitor the
fact that most research topics in the fields of VET
can be treated from a multifaceted perspective, and
that it is worthwhile to bring together and compare
and contrast the research results from the different
Working Groups. In the following sections the Ac-
tion’s main results are listed without mention of all
possible and necessary links to each other.
(1) New understanding of the concept of transfer
out of the development of ↑ activity theory: The
main point is the overcoming of “↑ inert knowl-
edge” – a knowledge which is learned in VET pro-
grammes but cannot be used at the worksite. The-
oretical approaches have been developed and eval-
uated in different workplaces and branches. The
outcomes exceed traditional concepts of trans-
688
fer and have significant implications for changing
practices in VET (cf. the contributions to TUOMI-
GRÖHN / ENGESTRÖM 2003).
But empirical understanding of developmen-
tal transfer is still at an early stage. We need fur-
ther studies that, over extended periods of time,
describe and analyse how different activity sys-
tems interact and create possibilities for expansive
learning. These studies need to explore the rela-
tionship between the material world, individuals’
learning trajectories, institutional trajectories and
different activity systems. By varying the level of
description, we can develop a better understanding
of the collective transformation that takes place,
and also of how individuals learn as part of this
collective change.
(2) Construction, implementation and evalua-
tion of complex ↑ teaching-learning environments:
The main point is to develop new ways to over-
come a linear, reductionist structure of vocational
and occupational curricula, training plans and in-
structional and training processes. The new com-
plex teaching–learning environments should cor-
respond to the increasing complexity of tasks at the
worksite. They are developed with regard to dif-
ferent branches and have also been evaluated (cf.
K REMER / SLOANE 2001; MULDER / SLOANE 2004).
Results demonstrate that complex teaching-learn-
ing environments are powerful tools for improv-
ing VET. As they were also run for the develop-
ment of strategic knowledge, the level of achieve-
ment – with regard to formal criteria – was equal
or even higher than those in the comparable aca-
demic tracks. This is an important argument with
regard to the “colonisation” effects mentioned by
Raffe (2002).
(3) Evaluation of learning theories with regard to
↑ workplace learning and also under the auspices
of ↑ lifelong learning: Models of elaboration, ex-
pansion and externalisation have been developed,
but achievement motivation and metacognition al-
so play a decisive role. This work was mainly the-
ory-driven – waiting for (collaborative) empirical
research.
(4) Evaluation and assessment procedures with re-
gard to vocational education and training on the
micro, meso and macro levels – whereby results
related to the different levels are combined with
Handbook of TVET Research
each other: Progress is demonstrated by the fact
that (a) evaluation and assessment in the fields of
vocational education and training were found to be
seriously under-developed and (b) the relations be-
tween these different levels were not treated ade-
quately. Therefore, an alternative approach was de-
veloped: the identification of national examples of
best practice and their description in a way which
allows for ↑ abstraction from cultural specificities
thus fostering transfer (BECK 1999; BREUER / BECK
2002; ECCLESTONE 2002).
(5) The Action described thoroughly and exempla-
rily political, administrative and institutional con-
ditions of vocational education and training: This
fact must be emphasized as the vocational educa-
tional sector in each country can be seen to a great
extent as terra incognita. A lot of descriptive coun-
try studies published by other institutions show
that the authors are not informed sufficiently about
the cultural, political and historical context within
which policymaking occurs (cf. NIEUWENHUIS / NIJ-
HOF 2001).
(6) The Action demonstrates the cultural embed-
dedness of vocational education and training –
by selected country studies as well as by teaching-
learning studies according to the ↑ activity theory
approach (cf. for example: BROWN /K EEP 2000, for
the UK).
(7) The concept of flexibility can now be more strin-
gently formulated and evaluated: with regard to
the flexibility of input (e. g. greater responsiveness,
more flexible qualification and certification struc-
tures), flexibility of process (e. g. flexibility in the
method, place, pace, or sequence of study, or more
individualized pathways) and flexibility of out-
put (transferable skills, ↑ key qualifications, work-
er ↑ mobility). This has also to be seen in the con-
text of flexible pathways. In particular, a connec-
tion is made to larger policy-driven programmes
(as e. g. run by the ↑ OECD 2000c: Making Tran-
sitions Work: From Initial Education to Working
Life; 2002) (cf. STEINER / GRAMLINGER / GEHMACHER /
SCHURER 2000; NIJHOF /K IEFT / WOERKOM 2001).
(8) New findings with regard to the formulation
of curricula for ↑ vocational schools and training
plans for enterprises have been developed.
(9) Programmes and recommendations for the ed-
ucation and training of vocational teacher’s as well
Case Studies of TVET Research
as of enterprise trainers, were discussed and pro-
posed.
These results are related to the topics and central
↑ research questions of the field. In addition, struc-
tures and recommendations for the promotion of
research in the fields of vocational education and
training have been developing:
(10) The Action identified competent researchers
and research institutions in the fields of VET. This
was an important step for the development of re-
search from a European perspective.
(11) The Action identified contributions of differ-
ent scientific disciplines to the solution of VET
problems. This is a necessary condition for the de-
velopment of ↑ multidisciplinary research projects
– which also corresponds better to complex prob-
lems at the level of workplaces.
(12) The Action identified different culturally
bound contributions to the solution of shared VET
problems. This is a necessary and promising step
for the development of a European research per-
spective.
(13) The Action started the first joint research
projects run by researchers from different Europe-
an countries. These projects are new in the sense
that they exploit the Action’s collected and pub-
lished knowledge, and have defined new and inno-
vative research themes.
(14) The Action explicitly promoted the scientific
careers of promising young researchers. The key
measures have been: Short-term scientific missions
(study visits at other research laboratories) and Fo-
rums for young researchers, which led to intensive
tutoring by senior researchers, promoted the pos-
sibilities of presenting papers at conferences and
subsequently to publish them.
(15) The Action enabled researchers to come in-
to contact with politicians, policy-makers and ad-
ministrators from other countries dealing with
problems of VET.
(16) Maybe the most important point from a Euro-
pean perspective has been the development of col-
legiality, increased personal knowledge, friendship
and trust – in short, a new network of research-
ers in the field of VET. The signs of new growth
are the planning of joint research projects, sympo-
sia and international conferences, exchange of re-
689
searchers (lecturing in other universities, tutoring
projects, helping with doctoral programmes), joint
editorship for larger publications etc.
If one tries to weigh the Action’s results a descrip-
tion on the quantitative level can be given:
15 books came out of the Action; the participants
of the five Working Groups published hundreds of
articles and books which were inspired by the Ac-
tion and can directly be related to it (see the list in
ACHTENHAGEN / THÅNG 2002 and selected papers and
reports of the Working Groups in ACHTENHAGEN /
JOHN 2003).
Although the Action’s results can on the whole be
judged very positively, we also need to highlight
some of the factors that constrained the work of the
Action. There was one particular and important
disadvantage for Action A11: financial cuts. Dur-
ing the last two years of the project, the constantly
deteriorating financial situation of COST was es-
pecially bad for the fields of vocational and occu-
pational education and training. As the scientific
disciplines which cope with research in this area
are usually underfinanced – compared to other dis-
ciplines such as natural sciences, medicine or engi-
neering – the financial cuts and the corresponding
reduction of meetings decisively hindered the Ac-
tion’s activities. This was very unfortunate as these
cuts happened at the very time when the Action
was beginning to demonstrate how well it could
work and all activities were beginning to flour-
ish. The fact that the necessary reduction of activ-
ities, which could not be compensated for by na-
tional or institutional funds, also led to the with-
drawal of many former active members – especial-
ly from some Mediterranean countries – caused a
serious discontinuity in joint work which had been
successfully launched, and also a lack of motiva-
tion. One example is that planned contributions
to books or conferences were not delivered. The
fruitfulness and the necessity of a ↑ COST Action
in these fields can be demonstrated overwhelming-
ly by the Action’s activities. We have also shown
the necessity for a stabilized continuing promotion
of this highly important but still under-developed
area. It is a pity that we are finally confronted with
a paradox: On the one hand VET is at the top of
the priority list of EU programmes; on the other
hand the EU stops successful European activities
690
when they get to the point of demonstrating suc-
cess. Hence, well-developed accumulated research
capital has been wasted.
4.10.4 The Scientific and Practical Relevance
The last point will be the outlook and give some
hints for further necessary activities of research
and development:
(1) We need much more endeavour with regard to
research on the level of teaching/training – learn-
ing/working processes.
(2) The research done on transfer – in all Working
Groups – shows remarkable progress, especially
as comparable research is on the way on different
topics in different countries – which includes also
bi- and multi-relational projects.
(3) Research on flexibility has produced a much
more elaborated structure.
(4) The ↑ mobility problem is still unsolved. The
complexity is too great; this Action, therefore,
could not efficiently deal with this topic. But better
↑ teaching/training and learning strategies might
and will contribute to a (partial) solution.
We close with some more general remarks:
– All Working Groups were heterogeneous in
composition (i.e. psychologists, sociologists, edu-
cationalists and economists). Members contribut-
ed from markedly different national contexts and
different research paradigms (e. g. quantitative vs.
qualitative). Colleagues were at different stages in
their careers (e. g. senior professors and PhD stu-
dents) and different levels of competence in Eng-
lish. Given this heterogeneity, the real surprise was
that the groups overcame it, saw it as a challenge
and, as a result, became highly productive.
– New networks were established and those who
met in 1997 as professional counterparts part-
ed in 2002 as personal friends. Participants can
now contact specialists in other EU countries with
ease.
– Some colleagues reported that COST had given
their research an international dimension which it
had not had previously.
– Max Weber wrote, Comparison is critical for
the social sciences. If one understands only his/
her own system, one probably does not understand
its real strengths and weaknesses very well. Inter-
Handbook of TVET Research
national debates and discussions helped colleagues
to revise and refine their concepts, to consider new
perspectives on VET, to re-consider neglected top-
ics, to respond to different questions posed by for-
eign experts, and to estimate where their own sys-
tem and society lie in the continuum of such sys-
tems and societies across Europe.
– Regular meetings helped to break down national
stereotypes but they may also have served to over-
come professional stereotypes.
– In general, colleagues felt that the meetings en-
couraged them to become more tolerant of differ-
ent research paradigms, of different styles of de-
bating and discussion, and even ways of running
meetings.
– A hidden benefit of COST is the impact on those
colleagues or participants who were not part of the
Action but who were involved indirectly: by re-
ceiving copies of papers, commenting on COST
papers before publication and being provided with
contacts in other countries for their own research.
– COST meetings also encouraged the develop-
ment of ↑ communities of practice among VET re-
searchers in countries where such colleagues were
dispersed, few in number and with restricted op-
portunities to meet as a group. COST provided the
focus and the stimulus for setting up these new fo-
rums, which still last after this particular ↑ COST
Action has come to an end.
– The dialogue between researchers, policy-mak-
ers and trainers was considered mutually benefi-
cial, with, for example, policy-makers being put
in touch with researchers throughout Europe. The
meetings helped the participants to appreciate
the different agendas, timetables, values and con-
straints of both researchers and policy-makers.
– We have examples where participants have
formed new alliances to carry out evaluations, to
undertake consultancy work, to provide data and
information for ongoing research projects, and to
begin the process of writing new research propos-
als. So COST is having that most important of all
outcomes – it is leading to new research.
Further research is needed on these central topics
of VET. One possible way forward might be Eu-
ropean co-operation on a VET-PISA for which a
feasibility study has just been published (BAETHGE /
ACHTENHAGEN /ARENDS ET AL. 2006).
Case Studies of TVET Research
There is no such thing as the method of techni-
cal and vocational education and training (TVET)
research. This may be a surprising way to intro-
duce a chapter of a handbook which is supposed to
deal precisely with methodological reflections on
methods specific to technical and vocational edu-
cation and training. In fact, of course, on the ba-
sis of the enormous breadth of the thematic field,
which can only be mastered in ↑ interdisciplinary
and transdisciplinary (→ 5.1.4) fashion, TVET re-
search necessarily participates in the whole meth-
odological array of the social sciences.
This is due on the one hand to the plurality of its
scientific goals. Alongside the knowledge interest
there is a distinct development and design interest,
on equal terms (→ 5.1.1; → 5.1.4; → 5.3). TVET
research therefore pursues theoretical, pragmat-
ic and normative scientific aims: it takes in de-
scription, analysis, interpretation, explanation and
nomologisation, critique and design of vocational
and vocation-relevant education, qualification and
socialisation processes and their determining fac-
tors. On the other hand, the questions and thematic
fields it deals with are extraordinarily diverse: for
example, metatheoretical self-reflection; the anal-
ysis of the societal conditions of vocational edu-
cation and training; reflections on the anthropo-
logical significance of occupation as such and its
educational significance; and the determination
of the role of occupations as organisational pat-
terns in modern societies. It concerns the analy-
sis of vocational teaching activities in international
and temporal comparison, as well as the clarifica-
tion and definition of the aims of vocational teach-
ing in close cooperation with ↑ curriculum research
and subject and field didactics and with the aid of
ideas from ↑ vocational education theory, qualifi-
cations research, activity and workplace analyses,
and ↑ professionalisation research. It concerns the
acquisition of didactic and methodical design rec-
ommendations with recourse to, for example, ide-
as from expertise and competence research and
pedagogical psychology. That is, it concerns ques-
tions about suitable ↑ learning environment, suita-
ble learning objects, ↑ teaching methods to be ap-
plied, and media to be employed. TVET research
investigates these and other tasks, again with dif-
ferent methodological implications at the mac-
691
ro-level of vocational education and training sys-
tems, at the meso-level of vocational education and
training institutions and courses, and at the micro-
level of concrete occupational learning process-
es. Alongside intentional vocational education and
training, questions of socialisation in occupation
and workplace are also of interest. The concern
here is the identification of promotive, restrictive
or didactically disturbing functional influences on
the development of personality; the understand-
ing of the connection between work experiences
and personality development, and also, decisively,
the humanisation of work and occupation. In ad-
dition, the problems of ↑ informal learning are in-
creasingly coming into view. Last but not least, in
anthropological and socio-philosophical referenc-
es – that is, where TVET research explicitly or im-
plicitly takes human and societal models as points
of departure – it unavoidably introduces normative
questions into its analytical framework.
In light of such breadth, as revealed impressively
by the present handbook, there is scarcely a meth-
od from the ↑ humanities or the empirical sciences
that TVET research could dispense with. There are
of course numerous publications on the diversity
of the general methods applied in TVET. In addi-
tion, the methodological foundation of such stand-
ard methods has been well described by the philos-
ophy of science. Section 5 of this handbook there-
fore focuses on those methods, that have particular
relevance for the domain of TVET research, and
investigates the interdependency of research do-
main and methods applied.
Section 5.1 specifically concentrates on the ques-
tion of how far TVET ↑ research methods need to
be subject-related. For reasons of economy TVET
research will do what it can to implement stand-
ard methods (→ 5.1.6). However, this endeav-
our finds its limits in the peculiarity of TVET re-
search which must be reflected in its methodolog-
ical choices. Occupational work and education/
training processes are the domain of vocational re-
search and TVET research. Occupations, howev-
er – as significant as content-independent ↑ cross-
curricular competences may be (→ 3.7.2) – have a
domain of their own which constitutes them as so-
cial entities within a given economic and indus-
trial culture: the ensemble of the activities which
692
constitute this occupation in terms of their con-
tents (→ 5.1.1). The fact that a ‘professional’ has
very accurate knowledge of this domain is precise-
ly what makes him a professional. Questions about
expected knowledge and skills in a specific vo-
cational setting, and questions about the learning
paths on which the requisite competence can be
acquired, analytic and design questions, are never
questions about an occupation in the abstract but
always questions about the domain features of a
specific occupation.
In the contributions to section 5, therefore, the fol-
lowing ↑ central questions of a TVET ↑ research
methodology emerge: to what extent is it requi-
site to situate and contextualise the various applied
methods with specific regard to the research do-
main in order to fit them as closely as possible to
the work contents and the knowledge and know-
how incorporated in occupational work? And to
what extent and in what manner must a researcher
be familiar with the relevant occupational domain?
How well must he, for example, in the role of an
observer, interviewer or developer of teaching-
learning arrangements, know the domain which
for the professional makes the occupation this con-
crete and not just any occupation? Must he, as for
example Garfinkel demands for ↑ studies of work
(→ 5.2.8), even himself be specifically qualified in
that domain before he begins his research?
Questions of this kind do not directly touch the
subject-relatedness of methods (in contrast to the
ideal of methodological unity) but above all the
domain expertise (in contrast to the ‘domain in-
difference’) of the researcher. To put it more pre-
cisely, whoever wants to study service technicians
who fix copying machines probably does not need
a special method, but they may have to be a service
technician who fixes copying machines. Precise-
ly that is the core message of ↑ ethnomethodology:
the more the method recedes into the background
(not: the more ‘specialised’ or subject-related it be-
comes) the more unobscured becomes the view of
the object. However, it might be the case that not
only the research process itself requires familiar-
ity with the research domain but also the devel-
opment of adequate ↑ research methods. In other
words: the subject-relatedness of methods may re-
quire ↑ domain-specific expertise.
Handbook of TVET Research
It is becoming increasingly clear that the answer to
the question about the requisite degree of subject-
relatedness, as well as that of domain expertise
depends decisively on the nature of occupational
knowledge. In this respect it is helpful to consider
under what ideal-typical conditions the TVET re-
searcher’s familiarity with the domain can be sus-
pended. Consider two extreme existential modali-
ties of occupational knowledge:
– Occupational knowledge can – in the borderline
case of mere behaviour – be fully subsumed by ob-
servable action. The patterns of activity in this case
are fairly invariable; the necessity of sympathetic
understanding and the ↑ decoding of the meaning
intended in action is not applicable. The external
observer, therefore, if he is observing the worker in
the exercise of his activity, has seen virtually eve-
rything that is to be seen in relation to the occupa-
tion and vocational knowledge in question.
– Even if occupational knowledge, on the contra-
ry, consists of a series of highly complex disposi-
tions which can find expression in a very large or
even unlimited number of concrete and situation-
specific ways of acting, its analysis would not be-
come a decoding task which presupposes a high
degree of familiarity with the object; if his occupa-
tional knowledge was consciously available in its
entirety to the professional he could explicate it in
the form of a number of conditional action rules
(‘if-then’) and procedural provisions and no rele-
vant background knowledge would be required for
the interpretation of this explication. Therefore a
comprehensive decontextualisation of this occupa-
tional knowledge would be presupposed.
Obviously, these two conditions apply only to nar-
row segments of occupational knowledge. First,
occupational know-how, in Gilbert Ryle’s words
(1949, 44 ff.), is practically never ‘a single-track
disposition like a reflex or a habit’; grasping it is
always ‘in a certain manner to look beyond the
↑ performance itself’. Second, the meaning of what
anyone may say about his occupation, the object
of his work, and the contents of his knowledge of
his working processes is revealed only in light of
a network of implicit meaning references. Third-
ly, a certain speechlessness is typical of the expert
experienced in a particular occupation regarding
what he can do and how he can do it. On account
Case Studies of TVET Research
of this speechlessness, occupational knowledge is
to a considerable extent ↑ tacit knowing (→ 5.1.5).
This entails that the professional can only help the
TVET researcher ‘to look beyond the performance
itself’ to a limited extent. The researcher must
therefore look himself. He can do this, in turn, on-
ly if he understands the occupation and its typical
tasks from the inside.
Mere observation and mere questioning devoid of
any ↑ domain-specific competence clearly do not
reach the object of investigation, at least not in all
cases. Ryle (1949, 53) reached precisely this con-
clusion in the course of a very penetrating confron-
tation with the distinction between knowing how
and knowing that (cf. NEUWEG 1998; 2000a):
The knowledge that is required for understanding intel-
ligent performances of a specific kind is some degree of
competence in performances of that kind. The compe-
tent critic of prose-style, experimental technique, or em-
broidery, must at least know how to write, experiment
or sew. (…) For one person to see the jokes that another
makes, the one thing he must have is a sense of humour
of which those jokes are exercises.
The situation of the TVET researcher, when he
wants to or has to approach the contents of the oc-
cupation, is like the difficult and methodologically
often inadequately considered situation of an eth-
nologist who would like to study an alien culture.
He understands many and perhaps the most deci-
sive of their practices only when and to the extent
that he himself masters them, and he can only mas-
ter them after passing through a socialisation proc-
ess in this culture – as a result of which the culture
is no longer alien to him and he is no longer a re-
searcher.
A fundamental dilemma arises from this: it is a
matter of putting proximity and ↑ distance in the
research process in sustained tension (→ 3.4.1;
→ 5.1.3; ). Then, the closer the TVET researcher
finds himself to the object – in the borderline case
he is himself an expert in the domain and mem-
ber of the corresponding ↑ community of practice
(→ 5.1.2) – the sooner he finds acceptance among
those he is researching and the sooner the occupa-
tion and the occupational knowledge are revealed
to him. With increasing proximity, however, he be-
comes increasingly less able
693
– to assist the professionals in the explication of
this knowledge, or more precisely: to compel them
to explicate,
– to represent this knowledge in such a way that
it becomes an intersubjective object accessible to
third-party analysis, and
– to take the perspective of the novice who is still
unable to do what is already obvious to the expert
– an important requirement when it comes to de-
signing vocational learning paths.
In the extreme case the researcher who is all too
close to the object is only in a position to do what
Bergmann (→ 5.2.8) considers to be the danger
of ↑ ethnomethodology which elevates proximity
to the status of a programme: he doubles the ob-
ject descriptively. On the other hand, the greater
the distance from the ↑ research object, the great-
er the ability of the TVET researcher as interest-
ed layman to pose the questions which provoke the
professional to explicate his ↑ implicit knowledge.
However, the more exoteric the representations
of occupational knowledge, the more likely it be-
comes that vocational practise in some – perhaps
the – essential aspects remains not understood.
The dilemma behind this expert paradox (→ 5.1.6)
can be expressed more radically: the self-evident
practices which make up the practise of the occu-
pation can only be defined by someone to whom
they are not self-evident. However, then they are
possibly unintelligible to him. It seems that there is
a choice between the internal perspective of ‘seen,
but unnoticed’ (GARFINKEL 1967a) and the external
perspective of ‘noticed, but unseen’. While the ex-
pert in the domain knows all the answers but hard-
ly has any questions, the researcher who is not ori-
ented to any particular object has many questions
to which he receives either no answers from the
more or less voiceless masters or only such as are
unintelligible to him.
It should be pointed out that the issue of domain
expertise cannot be solved simply by the TVET re-
searcher becoming qualified not only in (general)
TVET research but beyond that, depending on the
domain, for example, in natural science, technol-
ogy, social science, economics, or the law. This is
because the technical knowledge acquired in an
academic discipline does not help with practices,
modes of thinking and knowledge formats estab-
694
lished in the ↑ occupational field – as in the case
of work-process knowledge – which regularly cut
across or (in the case of ↑ implicit knowledge) go
beyond the corresponding scientific knowledge. A
discipline is not an occupation.
The fundamental methodological problems rooted
in the very domain of TVET research are further-
more brought to a head by the fact that assump-
tions about the structure of occupational knowl-
edge and the applied ↑ research methods mutually
condition one another. The nature of the practices
and forms of knowledge inscribed in occupation-
al work patterns and cultures and the adequate re-
search methods for a particular vocational domain
become ‘known’ often only after a research proc-
ess in which already-defined methods come to be
applied – due to which its ‘results’ in the worst case
are methodological artefacts. Obviously one needs,
in advance, a theory of the occupational ↑ domain-
specific knowledge and know-how in order to be
able to define the ↑ research methodology appro-
priately. Just as obviously one reaches a theory of
occupational knowledge only through an appro-
priate use of methodology. Whoever, for example,
would like to find out whether professionals act in
accordance with rules cannot simply enquire about
rules because the danger is that such rules will on-
ly be found under the pressure of rationalisation
in the enquiry situation (→ 5.1.5). Only against the
background of well-founded hypotheses about the
forms of action control typical of certain tasks in
the occupational field can an appropriate research
method be defined. However, without a somehow
methodologically attained pre-experience one will
not attain hypotheses.
This chicken-and-egg problem is particularly pre-
carious because occupational knowing-that and
knowing-how have conscious and implicit, de-
contextualisable and situated, exoteric and esoteric
parts without the relevant zones always being de-
finable in advance. This can be elucidated by the
example of domain specific concepts and their ac-
quisition – also because this example is sometimes
used pars pro toto. The claim common among
learning theory constructivists that all knowing is
like language (BROWN / COLLINS / DUGUID 1989, 32 f.)
indicates that meaning is not ultimately appre-
hendable in terms of explicit definitions; every act
Handbook of TVET Research
of application enriches and changes semantics and
therefore concepts must be acquired in a ‘situated’
way. That also means they could be studied only in
radical proximity to the object, that is, in situ. Of
course, the claim that concepts are constantly un-
der construction relates to different kinds of con-
cepts in different ways and, correspondingly, each
domain requires different research methods and
degrees of domain expertise. For a psychiatrist the
semantics of the concept ‘depressed’ will change
in the course of decades of application to concrete
patients in concrete situations; that of the concept
‘unique selling proposition’ for the marketing ex-
pert too; while the semantics of the concept ‘ar-
ithmetical mean’ (hopefully) will not change for
the statistician. It is correspondingly understand-
able why the concept of depression or the concept
of a USP in their full wealth of meaning have to be
opened up by ↑ participation in occupational prac-
tice; however, it is not obvious why a neat and pre-
cise explanation in relation to a few examples is
not enough for the acquisition of the concept of the
mean.
All in all, it is evident that the problem of sub-
ject-relatedness and domain expertise calls for a
number of differentiations. It is likely that:
– the problem does not even arise as such for some
↑ research questions because the specific contents
of a particular occupation are out of scope;
– ceteris paribus the meso and, above all, the mi-
cro levels of TVET research require a more inten-
sive familiarity with the object;
– in the analysis of occupational mastery occupa-
tion-specific technical competence is beneficial or
even indispensable, while on the other hand ques-
tions of occupational development and theoretical
and practical questions of teaching-learning addi-
tionally and particularly require the ability to take
on the outside perspective of a novice; and
– the esoteric character of a practice field and the
required degree of domain expertise varies from
occupation to occupation, in respect to which,
alongside the contents of work and knowledge, the
degree of algorithmisability of occupational ↑ per-
formances, the relative proportions of different
knowledge modalities (for example, implicit, ex-
plicit-practical, explicit-scientific) and the relative
proportions of different forms of activity control
Case Studies of TVET Research 695

(for example, routine, rule following, consciously

planned, intuitive-improvisational, creative) will
play a role.
TVET research must therefore, as significant as
the identity creating function of a general TVET
research remains, be differentiated in relation to
occupation (-al field) and be pursued to a great ex-
tent in a ↑ domain-specific and subject-related way
(→ 5.1.1). To that extent it is humanistic, social and
↑ vocational science research. The methodological
challenge here consists less in the discovery of new
methods than in the choice of methods appropri-
ate to the object; in the finding of the right meas-
ure of occupational technical competence by the
researcher; in the formation – where applicable –
of teams of researchers with deliberately very dif-
ferent domain expertise, and – regarding the vari-
ety of occupational domains with which TVET re-
search has to do – in the concrete-social organisa-
tion of inter- and transdisciplinarity.
 Section 5:
Research Methods

5.1 Methodological Aspects

Georg Hans Neuweg/Peter Putz
5.2 Interview and Observation Methods
Winfried Hacker
5.3 Experimental Research, Developmental Methods
Peter Röben
5.4 Evaluation, Quality Development and Assurance
Jürgen van Buer/Eugenie A. Samier
Research Methods
5.1.0 Introduction: Methodological Aspects
Georg Hans Neuweg and Peter Putz
There is no such thing as the method of techni-
cal and vocational education and training (TVET)
research. This may be a surprising way to intro-
duce a chapter of a handbook which is supposed to
deal precisely with methodological reflections on
methods specific to technical and vocational edu-
cation and training. In fact, of course, on the ba-
sis of the enormous breadth of the thematic field,
which can only be mastered in ↑ interdisciplinary
and transdisciplinary (→ 5.1.4) fashion, TVET re-
search necessarily participates in the whole meth-
odological array of the social sciences.
This is due on the one hand to the plurality of its
scientific goals. Alongside the knowledge interest
there is a distinct development and design interest,
on equal terms (→ 5.1.1; → 5.1.4; → 5.3). TVET
research therefore pursues theoretical, pragmat-
ic and normative scientific aims: it takes in de-
scription, analysis, interpretation, explanation and
nomologisation, critique and design of vocational
and vocation-relevant education, qualification and
socialisation processes and their determining fac-
tors. On the other hand, the questions and thematic
fields it deals with are extraordinarily diverse: for
example, metatheoretical self-reflection; the anal-
ysis of the societal conditions of vocational edu-
cation and training; reflections on the anthropo-
logical significance of occupation as such and its
educational significance; and the determination
of the role of occupations as organisational pat-
terns in modern societies. It concerns the analy-
sis of vocational teaching activities in international
and temporal comparison, as well as the clarifica-
tion and definition of the aims of vocational teach-
ing in close cooperation with ↑ curriculum research
and subject and field didactics and with the aid of
ideas from ↑ vocational education theory, qualifi-
cations research, activity and workplace analyses,
and ↑ professionalisation research. It concerns the
acquisition of didactic and methodical design rec-
ommendations with recourse to, for example, ide-
as from expertise and competence research and
pedagogical psychology. That is, it concerns ques-
tions about suitable ↑ learning environment, suita-
699
ble learning objects, ↑ teaching methods to be ap-
plied, and media to be employed. TVET research
investigates these and other tasks, again with dif-
ferent methodological implications at the mac-
ro-level of vocational education and training sys-
tems, at the meso-level of vocational education and
training institutions and courses, and at the micro-
level of concrete occupational learning process-
es. Alongside intentional vocational education and
training, questions of socialisation in occupation
and workplace are also of interest. The concern
here is the identification of promotive, restrictive
or didactically disturbing functional influences on
the development of personality; the understand-
ing of the connection between work experiences
and personality development, and also, decisively,
the humanisation of work and occupation. In ad-
dition, the problems of ↑ informal learning are in-
creasingly coming into view. Last but not least, in
anthropological and socio-philosophical referenc-
es – that is, where TVET research explicitly or im-
plicitly takes human and societal models as points
of departure – it unavoidably introduces normative
questions into its analytical framework.
In light of such breadth, as revealed impressively
by the present handbook, there is scarcely a meth-
od from the ↑ humanities or the empirical sciences
that TVET research could dispense with. There are
of course numerous publications on the diversity
of the general methods applied in TVET. In addi-
tion, the methodological foundation of such stand-
ard methods has been well described by the philos-
ophy of science. Section 5 of this handbook there-
fore focuses on those methods, that have particular
relevance for the domain of TVET research, and
investigates the interdependency of research do-
main and methods applied.
Section 5.1 specifically concentrates on the ques-
tion of how far TVET ↑ research methods need to
be subject-related. For reasons of economy TVET
research will do what it can to implement stand-
ard methods (→ 5.1.6). However, this endeav-
our finds its limits in the peculiarity of TVET re-
search which must be reflected in its methodolog-
700
ical choices. Occupational work and education/
training processes are the domain of vocational re-
search and TVET research. Occupations, howev-
er – as significant as content-independent ↑ cross-
curricular competences may be (→ 3.7.2) – have a
domain of their own which constitutes them as so-
cial entities within a given economic and indus-
trial culture: the ensemble of the activities which
constitute this occupation in terms of their con-
tents (→ 5.1.1). The fact that a ‘professional’ has
very accurate knowledge of this domain is precise-
ly what makes him a professional. Questions about
expected knowledge and skills in a specific vo-
cational setting, and questions about the learning
paths on which the requisite competence can be
acquired, analytic and design questions, are never
questions about an occupation in the abstract but
always questions about the domain features of a
specific occupation.
In the contributions to section 5, therefore, the fol-
lowing ↑ central questions of a TVET ↑ research
methodology emerge: to what extent is it requi-
site to situate and contextualise the various applied
methods with specific regard to the research do-
main in order to fit them as closely as possible to
the work contents and the knowledge and know-
how incorporated in occupational work? And to
what extent and in what manner must a researcher
be familiar with the relevant occupational domain?
How well must he, for example, in the role of an
observer, interviewer or developer of teaching-
learning arrangements, know the domain which
for the professional makes the occupation this con-
crete and not just any occupation? Must he, as for
example Garfinkel demands for ↑ studies of work
(→ 5.2.8), even himself be specifically qualified in
that domain before he begins his research?
Questions of this kind do not directly touch the
subject-relatedness of methods (in contrast to the
ideal of methodological unity) but above all the
domain expertise (in contrast to the ‘domain in-
difference’) of the researcher. To put it more pre-
cisely, whoever wants to study service technicians
who fix copying machines probably does not need
a special method, but they may have to be a service
technician who fixes copying machines. Precise-
ly that is the core message of ↑ ethnomethodology:
the more the method recedes into the background
Handbook of TVET Research
(not: the more ‘specialised’ or subject-related it be-
comes) the more unobscured becomes the view of
the object. However, it might be the case that not
only the research process itself requires familiar-
ity with the research domain but also the devel-
opment of adequate ↑ research methods. In other
words: the subject-relatedness of methods may re-
quire ↑ domain-specific expertise.
It is becoming increasingly clear that the answer to
the question about the requisite degree of subject-
relatedness, as well as that of domain expertise
depends decisively on the nature of occupational
knowledge. In this respect it is helpful to consider
under what ideal-typical conditions the TVET re-
searcher’s familiarity with the domain can be sus-
pended. Consider two extreme existential modali-
ties of occupational knowledge:
– Occupational knowledge can – in the borderline
case of mere behaviour – be fully subsumed by ob-
servable action. The patterns of activity in this case
are fairly invariable; the necessity of sympathetic
understanding and the ↑ decoding of the meaning
intended in action is not applicable. The external
observer, therefore, if he is observing the worker in
the exercise of his activity, has seen virtually eve-
rything that is to be seen in relation to the occupa-
tion and vocational knowledge in question.
– Even if occupational knowledge, on the contra-
ry, consists of a series of highly complex disposi-
tions which can find expression in a very large or
even unlimited number of concrete and situation-
specific ways of acting, its analysis would not be-
come a decoding task which presupposes a high
degree of familiarity with the object; if his occupa-
tional knowledge was consciously available in its
entirety to the professional he could explicate it in
the form of a number of conditional action rules
(‘if-then’) and procedural provisions and no rele-
vant background knowledge would be required for
the interpretation of this explication. Therefore a
comprehensive decontextualisation of this occupa-
tional knowledge would be presupposed.
Obviously, these two conditions apply only to nar-
row segments of occupational knowledge. First,
occupational know-how, in Gilbert Ryle’s words
(1949, 44 ff.), is practically never ‘a single-track
disposition like a reflex or a habit’; grasping it is
always ‘in a certain manner to look beyond the
Research Methods
↑ performance itself’. Second, the meaning of what
anyone may say about his occupation, the object
of his work, and the contents of his knowledge of
his working processes is revealed only in light of
a network of implicit meaning references. Third-
ly, a certain speechlessness is typical of the expert
experienced in a particular occupation regarding
what he can do and how he can do it. On account
of this speechlessness, occupational knowledge is
to a considerable extent ↑ tacit knowing (→ 5.1.5).
This entails that the professional can only help the
TVET researcher ‘to look beyond the performance
itself’ to a limited extent. The researcher must
therefore look himself. He can do this, in turn, on-
ly if he understands the occupation and its typical
tasks from the inside.
Mere observation and mere questioning devoid of
any ↑ domain-specific competence clearly do not
reach the object of investigation, at least not in all
cases. Ryle (1949, 53) reached precisely this con-
clusion in the course of a very penetrating confron-
tation with the distinction between knowing how
and knowing that (cf. NEUWEG 1998; 2000a):
The knowledge that is required for understanding intel-
ligent performances of a specific kind is some degree of
competence in performances of that kind. The compe-
tent critic of prose-style, experimental technique, or em-
broidery, must at least know how to write, experiment
or sew. (…) For one person to see the jokes that another
makes, the one thing he must have is a sense of humour
of which those jokes are exercises.
The situation of the TVET researcher, when he
wants to or has to approach the contents of the oc-
cupation, is like the difficult and methodologically
often inadequately considered situation of an eth-
nologist who would like to study an alien culture.
He understands many and perhaps the most deci-
sive of their practices only when and to the extent
that he himself masters them, and he can only mas-
ter them after passing through a socialisation proc-
ess in this culture – as a result of which the culture
is no longer alien to him and he is no longer a re-
searcher.
A fundamental dilemma arises from this: it is a
matter of putting proximity and ↑ distance in the
research process in sustained tension (→ 3.4.1;
→ 5.1.3; ). Then, the closer the TVET researcher
finds himself to the object – in the borderline case
he is himself an expert in the domain and mem-
701
ber of the corresponding ↑ community of practice
(→ 5.1.2) – the sooner he finds acceptance among
those he is researching and the sooner the occupa-
tion and the occupational knowledge are revealed
to him. With increasing proximity, however, he be-
comes increasingly less able
– to assist the professionals in the explication of
this knowledge, or more precisely: to compel them
to explicate,
– to represent this knowledge in such a way that
it becomes an intersubjective object accessible to
third-party analysis, and
– to take the perspective of the novice who is still
unable to do what is already obvious to the expert
– an important requirement when it comes to de-
signing vocational learning paths.
In the extreme case the researcher who is all too
close to the object is only in a position to do what
Bergmann (→ 5.2.8) considers to be the danger
of ↑ ethnomethodology which elevates proximity
to the status of a programme: he doubles the ob-
ject descriptively. On the other hand, the greater
the distance from the ↑ research object, the great-
er the ability of the TVET researcher as interest-
ed layman to pose the questions which provoke the
professional to explicate his ↑ implicit knowledge.
However, the more exoteric the representations
of occupational knowledge, the more likely it be-
comes that vocational practise in some – perhaps
the – essential aspects remains not understood.
The dilemma behind this expert paradox (→ 5.1.6)
can be expressed more radically: the self-evident
practices which make up the practise of the occu-
pation can only be defined by someone to whom
they are not self-evident. However, then they are
possibly unintelligible to him. It seems that there is
a choice between the internal perspective of ‘seen,
but unnoticed’ (GARFINKEL 1967a) and the external
perspective of ‘noticed, but unseen’. While the ex-
pert in the domain knows all the answers but hard-
ly has any questions, the researcher who is not ori-
ented to any particular object has many questions
to which he receives either no answers from the
more or less voiceless masters or only such as are
unintelligible to him.
It should be pointed out that the issue of domain
expertise cannot be solved simply by the TVET re-
searcher becoming qualified not only in (general)
702
TVET research but beyond that, depending on the
domain, for example, in natural science, technol-
ogy, social science, economics, or the law. This is
because the technical knowledge acquired in an
academic discipline does not help with practices,
modes of thinking and knowledge formats estab-
lished in the ↑ occupational field – as in the case
of work-process knowledge – which regularly cut
across or (in the case of ↑ implicit knowledge) go
beyond the corresponding scientific knowledge. A
discipline is not an occupation.
The fundamental methodological problems rooted
in the very domain of TVET research are further-
more brought to a head by the fact that assump-
tions about the structure of occupational knowl-
edge and the applied ↑ research methods mutually
condition one another. The nature of the practices
and forms of knowledge inscribed in occupation-
al work patterns and cultures and the adequate re-
search methods for a particular vocational domain
become ‘known’ often only after a research proc-
ess in which already-defined methods come to be
applied – due to which its ‘results’ in the worst case
are methodological artefacts. Obviously one needs,
in advance, a theory of the occupational ↑ domain-
specific knowledge and know-how in order to be
able to define the ↑ research methodology appro-
priately. Just as obviously one reaches a theory of
occupational knowledge only through an appro-
priate use of methodology. Whoever, for example,
would like to find out whether professionals act in
accordance with rules cannot simply enquire about
rules because the danger is that such rules will on-
ly be found under the pressure of rationalisation
in the enquiry situation (→ 5.1.5). Only against the
background of well-founded hypotheses about the
forms of action control typical of certain tasks in
the occupational field can an appropriate research
method be defined. However, without a somehow
methodologically attained pre-experience one will
not attain hypotheses.
This chicken-and-egg problem is particularly pre-
carious because occupational knowing-that and
knowing-how have conscious and implicit, de-
contextualisable and situated, exoteric and esoteric
parts without the relevant zones always being de-
finable in advance. This can be elucidated by the
example of domain specific concepts and their ac-
Handbook of TVET Research
quisition – also because this example is sometimes
used pars pro toto. The claim common among
learning theory constructivists that all knowing is
like language (BROWN / COLLINS / DUGUID 1989, 32 f.)
indicates that meaning is not ultimately appre-
hendable in terms of explicit definitions; every act
of application enriches and changes semantics and
therefore concepts must be acquired in a ‘situated’
way. That also means they could be studied only in
radical proximity to the object, that is, in situ. Of
course, the claim that concepts are constantly un-
der construction relates to different kinds of con-
cepts in different ways and, correspondingly, each
domain requires different research methods and
degrees of domain expertise. For a psychiatrist the
semantics of the concept ‘depressed’ will change
in the course of decades of application to concrete
patients in concrete situations; that of the concept
‘unique selling proposition’ for the marketing ex-
pert too; while the semantics of the concept ‘ar-
ithmetical mean’ (hopefully) will not change for
the statistician. It is correspondingly understand-
able why the concept of depression or the concept
of a USP in their full wealth of meaning have to be
opened up by ↑ participation in occupational prac-
tice; however, it is not obvious why a neat and pre-
cise explanation in relation to a few examples is
not enough for the acquisition of the concept of the
mean.
All in all, it is evident that the problem of sub-
ject-relatedness and domain expertise calls for a
number of differentiations. It is likely that:
– the problem does not even arise as such for some
↑ research questions because the specific contents
of a particular occupation are out of scope;
– ceteris paribus the meso and, above all, the mi-
cro levels of TVET research require a more inten-
sive familiarity with the object;
– in the analysis of occupational mastery occupa-
tion-specific technical competence is beneficial or
even indispensable, while on the other hand ques-
tions of occupational development and theoretical
and practical questions of teaching-learning addi-
tionally and particularly require the ability to take
on the outside perspective of a novice; and
– the esoteric character of a practice field and the
required degree of domain expertise varies from
occupation to occupation, in respect to which,
Research Methods
alongside the contents of work and knowledge, the
degree of algorithmisability of occupational ↑ per-
formances, the relative proportions of different
knowledge modalities (for example, implicit, ex-
plicit-practical, explicit-scientific) and the relative
proportions of different forms of activity control
(for example, routine, rule following, consciously
planned, intuitive-improvisational, creative) will
play a role.
TVET research must therefore, as significant as
the identity creating function of a general TVET
research remains, be differentiated in relation to
occupation (-al field) and be pursued to a great ex-
tent in a ↑ domain-specific and subject-related way
(→ 5.1.1). To that extent it is humanistic, social and
↑ vocational science research. The methodological
challenge here consists less in the discovery of new
methods than in the choice of methods appropri-
ate to the object; in the finding of the right meas-
ure of occupational technical competence by the
researcher; in the formation – where applicable –
of teams of researchers with deliberately very dif-
ferent domain expertise, and – regarding the vari-
ety of occupational domains with which TVET re-
search has to do – in the concrete-social organisa-
tion of inter- and transdisciplinarity.
5.1.1 Subject-Related Research
Approach: Vocational Work
and Education Processes
Felix Rauner
5.1.1.1 On the Problem of Subject-Related
Research Methods
The differentiation of the fundamental methods
of observation and experiment developed by the
natural sciences into a multitude of disciplinary
methods, which can be observed in the history of
the ↑ humanities and social sciences, is the top-
ic of a controversial debate. TVET research can-
not escape this controversy since it is in many re-
spects sociological research, too. Gerhard Klein-
ing holds the pointed opinion that the connection
of the methods to their topics diminishes the epis-
temic potential of the social sciences because it ex-
703
cludes all data not generated by disciplinary meth-
ods. The subject-related segmentation of empirical
social ↑ research methods may also be the cause
of the “harmlessness of the social sciences” (K LE-
INING 1995c, 13). With reference to the history of
scientific methods in the natural sciences Kleining
argues for a recollection of everyday methods and
for the unity of methods by a reversal of their sub-
ject-related fragmentation.
Harold Garfinkel maintains a radically contrary
position. For TVET research this view is quite in-
teresting because the research concept of “↑ Stud-
ies of Work” developed by Garfinkel (GARFINKEL
1986; HERITAGE 1984; → 5.2.8) touches one of the
central topics of TVET research. The author pos-
tulates a “Unique Adequacy Requirement” for re-
search methods. According to this requirement the
primacy is with the subject, i.e., the research topic.
Even if one neglects the methodological difficulty
of accepting the adequacy of a method for the sub-
ject matter as a criterion for the selection of meth-
ods – what method is there to prove this adequa-
cy in turn? The objective of a uniquely adequate
choice and development of research methods will,
in the case of any ambiguity, lead to the sacrifice
of methods when the latter do not fit the particu-
larity and uniqueness of the subject (op. cit., 57).
Uwe Flick et al. point out in their methodological
reflections on ↑ qualitative research that the feature
of subject adequacy applies in particular to quali-
tative methods.
“For almost every procedure it is possible to detect
for what particular subject it was developed. Usually
the starting point was the fact that the available meth-
ods were inappropriate for this particular topic” (FLICK /
K ARDORFF / STEINKE 2000, 22).
TVET research, therefore, faces the question as to
whether there are good or even coercive reasons
for a differentiation of methods according to spe-
cific subject matters or whether Kleining’s position
in favour of a unity of methods should be adopt-
ed instead.
TVET research is basically concerned with occu-
pation-related ↑ work tasks and processes as con-
stitutive elements of the organisation and design of
qualification and education processes, which take
place in more or less formalised vocational train-
ing programmes and systems. Its epistemic interest
is directed towards phenomena constituted by the
704
situative practices of agents. The contexts of agen-
cy therefore are a central source of knowledge and
not of distortion.
John Heritage, in his analysis of Garfinkel’s “Stud-
ies of Work” comes to the conclusion that the tra-
ditional studies of occupations lead into a dead
end: “The studies […] are largely silent about the mat-
ters which make these occupations significant in the first
place” (HERITAGE 1984, 298). He refers to the exam-
ple of the analysis of juridical pleas, which is often
mentioned by Garfinkel in this regard. The analy-
sis (“Occupational Studies”) was to be conducted
on the basis of tape recordings. When the social
scientist that had been recruited for this task pro-
posed to apply Robert F. Bales’ categories for the
analysis of interaction processes in this study, he
was given the answer:
“By using Bales’ Interaction Process Analysis I am sure
we‘ll learn what about a jury‘s deliberations makes them
a small group. But we want to know what about the de-
liberations makes them a jury” (HERITAGE 1984, 299).
The gap in sociological occupations research,
according to Garfinkel, lies in the fact that with
its own methods it cannot find out how tasks are
solved in occupational practice:
“It is just these features of occupations which are sys-
tematically absent from the special science literature”
(ibid.).
Heritage sees this methodological judgement on
the limited scope of social scientific research and
↑ research methods with regard to occupation-re-
lated ↑ research problems verified by the fact that
there are no methodological guidelines:
“No manuals of procedure are available which describe
how social scientific concepts can be ‘operationally’ ap-
plied to naturally occurring occupational conduct” (op.
cit., 301).
Garfinkel has attempted to establish the subject ad-
equacy of methods for the ‘↑ Studies of Work’ by
a radical critique of the inadequacy of tradition-
al analysis techniques as well as by an interpre-
tive foundation of analysis “from within” the pro-
fessional practice of work. He therefore also calls
for a comprehensive ↑ domain-specific qualifica-
tion of researchers who conduct occupational stud-
ies (GARFINKEL 1967a; 1986). However, the dilem-
ma that characterises social scientific analyses of
work and occupations consists of the fact that even
though the right questions can be asked, the meth-
Handbook of TVET Research
ods developed for the problem still define the re-
search topic as a sociological one. The ambition
formulated by Garfinkel to clarify what constitutes
the contents of professional work can be fulfilled
only if the (limited) range of these methods is taken
into consideration and the occupational and work
studies are conducted by the relevant ↑ vocational
disciplines or with their ↑ participation (cf. STRAT-
MANN 1975b; MÜLLGES 1975; R AU NER 2002d).
5.1.1.2 TVET Research between Analysis
and Design
The analytical dimension of TVET research is thor-
oughly connected with the developmental tasks at
all levels of professional work and vocational edu-
cation, from the working and learning individuals
up to the structures of the employment and TVET
systems. From this the analytical and formative
treatment of the contents of professional work and
vocational education emerges (→ 5.4.4; → 5.4.5).
The analytical dimension of TVET research, due
to its proximity to the empirical disciplines, has a
sociological imprint, especially as far as research
methods are concerned. This is expressed, for in-
stance, by the distinctly sociological ↑ qualification
research, which was for some time quite popular in
TVET research (GRÜNEWALD / DEGEN /K RICK 1979).
The declining interest in this ↑ research field on the
part of research and ↑ TVET policy is attributed to
the relatively small practical relevance of its results
(DYBOWSKI / HAASE / RAUNER 1993).
The greater part of the results expected from TVET
research aims directly at the planning processes of
the modernisation and reorganisation of occupa-
tions and ↑ occupational fields, of the correspond-
ing vocational training plans, the development
and testing of new training instruments (↑ media
research and development) as well as the devel-
opment and testing of new learning and training
methods. These development and design-oriented
tasks can be handled only in cooperation with the
relevant vocational disciplines and their respective
didactics (→ 4.1; → 5.2.1; → 5.2.2).
Research Methods
Technology as Subject Matter and Instrument
in Work and Training Processes
In technical vocational education, technology, in
the form of devices, machines and assemblies, but
also of components and technical processes, is a
work-related subject in ↑ teaching and learning
processes. Normally the application of technology
is learned in the ↑ work process via tools and us-
er interfaces, which are more or less adapted well
to the abilities of the users. In the handling of tra-
ditional technologies the qualification of the us-
ers as a process of adapting them to the qualifica-
tion requirements generated by technology is the
dominant paradigm. For instance, the technologi-
cal innovations in the machine tool industry in the
1980s triggered the development of subject-relat-
ed ↑ research methods. Fritz Böhle und Hans Mar-
tin show in the project CeA (Computergestütztes
erfahrungsgeleitetes Arbeiten – “computer aided
experience-oriented work”) that lathe operators,
in their operation of different materials, tools, ma-
chines and orders, rely on their very differentiated
perception of sounds. Therefore in the case of en-
capsulated machines bearing microphones, knock
sensors, infrared sensors and other devices are in-
stalled for a transparent signal transmission in ma-
chine tools in order to regain access to the lost or
diminished opportunities for the sensual percep-
tion of the lathing process, which is a fundamen-
tal requirement for experiential learning (MARTIN
1995b; BÖHLE 1995). Engineers from different dis-
ciplines, labour researchers, natural scientists and
TVET teachers have collaborated on this project in
order to adequately address the complex research
and developmental tasks adequately with regard to
contents and methods.
The media and the equipment developed by the
BBF/BIBB are examples of development-ori-
ented TVET research that is shaped through im-
plicit methods from the respective disciplines (cf.
GUTSCHMIDT/K REIGENFELD / LAUR ET AL. 1974; LAUR-
ERNST 1981a). ↑ Interdisciplinarity and the inter-
action of analysis and design in ↑ media research
and development are based, above all, on a mutu-
al understanding of the actors involved, and not so
much on an elaborate methodology (→ 4.1).
705
Work Contents and Work Organisation as a
Topic of TVET Research
With the work-oriented turn in the didactics of vo-
cational education the importance of work and task
analyses increased. The training contents and ob-
jectives were organised in learning fields accord-
ing to a decision of the Conference of Education
Ministers (Kultusministerkonferenz – KMK) on
↑ curriculum development (KMK 1999). They are
supposed to be oriented towards the crucial work
situations relevant for an occupation and for the de-
velopment of professional competence. By this no-
tion ↑ educational planning for TVET establishes
a connection to developmental foundations of vo-
cational training and learning processes (BREMER
2001). The theoretical concept of developmental
tasks by Robert J. Havighurst had already been in-
troduced into ↑ educational research in the 1970s
(BLANKERTZ 1983; GRUSCHKA 1985). A similar rel-
evance is attributed to the concept of paradigmat-
ic work situations, which is employed by Patricia
Benner in the application of the ↑ novice-expert-
paradigm (DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1987) for curricu-
lum development in the nursing sector. In TVET
research these concepts and methods become more
and more important due to the demand for more
and stronger subject orientation in ↑ vocational
competence development.
For the evaluation and measurement of vocation-
al competence development the methodological
instrument of vocational developmental tasks was
developed (HAASLER 2003; → 5.2.6).
Another problem of subject-oriented methodology
emerges from technological innovations with an
open architecture and structure of ends, whose us-
er-oriented implementation takes place only under
consideration of criteria of work organisation and
the tutorial design of ↑ work processes.
During the re-regulation of the automotive engi-
neering occupations it was examined how the do-
mains of “↑ diagnostics” and “vehicle electronics”
could be integrated into the training curricula as
learning subjects and objectives and possibly even
as specialisations of their own. In the course of an
international comparative sector study of the auto-
motive after-sales service sector it could be dem-
onstrated that the qualification requirements for
car service could not be conceived of as an enti-
706
ty objectively determined by technology. The sec-
tor studies on the ↑ car service sector in Europe-
an countries (RAUNER / RUTH / DEITMER /SENATOR FÜR
ARBEIT DER FREIEN HANSESTADT BREMEN 1995), in
the ↑ USA (SPÖTTL / RAUNER / MORITZ 1997) and in
↑ Japan (MORITZ / RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1997) as well as
the task and work process analyses show that nei-
ther the qualification requirements for car service
technicians nor the bundling of tasks into occupa-
tions and the definition of sub-disciplines can be
objectively inferred from technology. The qual-
ification profiles and the areas of specialisation
within them are the expression of different cor-
porate and organisational concepts and traditions
(RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002, 51 ff.).
Whilst in the ↑ United States the mega-dealers
dominate, as the brand specific contractual ven-
dors and the independent auto repair shops with
small staff do in Germany, Japan has a variety of
distribution channels below the level of individu-
al brands. These have far-reaching consequences
on the organisation and design of ↑ work process-
es and thus on professional qualification require-
ments.
The widespread assumption that professional tasks
and qualification requirements are determined by
the subject of work, in this case the automobile,
has proven to be unsustainable. In general the sup-
posed dependence of the change of professional
tasks and qualification requirements on technical
and economic change is criticised as technical and
economic determinism (LUTZ 1988).
↑ Occupational profiles and qualification require-
ments are above all deeply rooted in different in-
dustrial cultures (RUTH 1995; RASMUSSEN / RAUNER
1996). With regard to the subject adequacy of re-
search and development methods this means firstly
integration of the dimension of vocational learning
both as a dependent and as an independent varia-
ble into the methodological concept, and secondly
taking the industrial-cultural particularities of the
respective worlds of work into consideration in the
course of the selection and development of meth-
ods.
Handbook of TVET Research
Qualification Elements and Educational Con-
tents
Qualification elements and educational contents
in vocational education and training are shaped by
the experience-based qualification requirements as
well as by normative decisions on educational and
qualification goals. Both of these reference points
can be defined as polarities of a dialectical rela-
tionship. They represent opposing concepts in that
qualification requirements refer to the existing con-
ditions of the professional world of work, whereas
educational goals reach beyond the present state of
affairs and transcend reality. This applies in par-
ticular to a design-oriented vocational education.
Educational goals, however, can engender any ef-
fect only if they respond to the facts of professional
reality. In this respect qualification requirements
are not just objectively fixed since they refer to
professional tasks that presuppose, in the process
of the organisation and design of corporate work
processes, normative decisions, or are shaped by
industrial culture. Therefore qualification require-
ments and objectives of the organisation of educa-
tional and work processes are mutually constitu-
tive of each other (→ 3.4.1).
Under the circumstances of a technological devel-
opment that leads to the fusion of computers, net-
works and media (CNM) into an integrated CNM
technology, vocational education and training is
strengthened in its function and effect of an in-
dependent (which is also) variable. Erich Staudt
defines ↑ human resource development strategies
which employ the plasticity of CNM based tech-
nology in order to adapt the technical environment
to the respective qualifications of the employees
and to promote competence development as a part
of ↑ organisational development as potential orient-
ed organisational development (STAUDT 1999).
“Die Verzahnung von Unternehmens, Organisations-
und Personalentwicklung stellt neue Anforderungen an
Wissenschaft und Praxis, wenn man zu einer Unterneh-
mensführung gelangen und dynamische Umbrüche be-
wältigen will [The integration of corporate, organisa-
tional and human resource development poses new chal-
lenges to science and practice if one wants to achieve a
single corporate governance and to cope with dynamic
transformations]” (STAUDT / K RÖLL / HÖREN 1993, 58).
For subject-related method development this
means, for instance, that technical applications in
Research Methods
software development have to be designed and up-
dated in a manner that is complementary to the
changing qualification potentials in the enterprise.
In these research and development contexts tradi-
tional problems and methods of ↑ qualification re-
search lose their meaning. Qualification develop-
ment becomes a dimension of organisational de-
velopment, which estimates the change and adap-
tation potential of technology much higher than
the respective potential of the qualification of em-
ployees.
5.1.1.3 Implications for Subject-Related
Research and Development Methods
TVET research with its subjects categorized ac-
cording to occupations and ↑ occupational fields is
– a part of the ↑ humanities focusing on the devel-
opment of the human personality for and within
processes of professional work;
– sociological research as professional work and
learning are embedded in a variety of social proc-
esses of the educational and employment systems;
– research in the ↑ vocational disciplines since the
professional work settings are in many ways char-
acterised by professional tasks which have to be
mastered and shaped with a view to education and
qualification.
TVET research can be classified as a part of the
agency and development-oriented traditions of sci-
ence and research.
Whenever the levels of the design of qualifica-
tion processes, the development of training plans
as well as the development of media and learn-
ing arrangements comes into play, the subjects
of TVET research are socio-technical ones. Re-
search projects that attempt to improve the tuto-
rial quality of a computer-based ↑ diagnostic sys-
tem or of software tools for office work require, on
the part of the researchers, discipline-specific de-
sign competence, a profound work-process knowl-
edge as well as didactical analysis and design com-
petence. These competences are indispensable for
the capacity to select or to develop the adequate
↑ research methods for the respective research and
development projects.
TVET research requires a high level of occupa-
tion-specific and ↑ work process related profession-
707
al competence especially at the micro and meso
levels.
The analysis and design of professional work and
education requires different research and develop-
ment methods in ↑ mechanical engineering than in
the office or service sectors. Therefore TVET re-
search has to be differentiated according to occu-
pations, ↑ occupational groups and occupational
fields in order to achieve practical relevance in the
context of its developmental and design missions.
The affinity of work contents and ↑ work process
knowledge for the professional knowledge availa-
ble in the vocational disciplines differs very much
between the occupations. Occupations differ in the
scope and the quality of implicit, practical and the-
oretical knowledge. This is reflected in the occu-
pation-specific manifestations of intelligence and
competence profiles as they are revealed in the va-
riety of professional work (cf. GARDNER 2002). This
in turn is exhibited in the organisation of vocation-
al education processes and training programmes.
Occupations do not feature a homogeneous lev-
el of prerequisites and are therefore characterised
in different ways by the school-leaving qualifica-
tions of candidates. Besides those occupations that
demand a high level of theoretical knowledge as
entry requirement there are other occupations for
which this type of knowledge is less important.
Therefore the proportions of apprentices with a
lower secondary level qualification, e. g. Haupts-
chulabschluss or Realschulabschluss, and those in
possession of a higher qualification like the Abit-
ur are quite different between the various occupa-
tions trained in the ↑ dual system of apprenticeship
training. This entails far-reaching consequences
for the choice and design of research methods in
the different occupational domains.
Another aspect of subject-related research meth-
ods emerges from the criteria of occupation devel-
opment. For instance, the methodological instru-
ments of qualification and expertise research in the
field of professional electrical process engineering
differ characteristically from task and work proc-
ess analyses in avionics. In the first case the core
definition for professional work is electrical proc-
ess engineering. This technique is applied in many
fields of process engineering: in chemical industry
as well as in the food or steel sectors. In the sec-
708
ond case, the context of application, and therefore
the work setting, is defined by an aircraft or heli-
copter. In the two occupational domains the con-
textual references for “professional” ↑ work tasks
are fundamentally different. Analysis techniques
and instruments in work process analyses in the
domain of avionics need to take into considera-
tion the technical context of aviation engineering.
This includes the professional qualification of the
researcher. In the case of electrical process engi-
neers, on the other hand, the influences of differ-
ent economic sectors must be considered. With re-
gard to the aspects of the study that are of profes-
sional relevance this means that researchers with
different disciplinary competences have to be in-
cluded. Klaus Ehrlich has shown in this regard that
the application of analytic instruments developed
for the identification of overlaps between electri-
cal occupations led to problematic results in the
investigation of similarities between the occupa-
tions of electrical process engineer and industri-
al electrician. The prior understanding of the re-
searchers, which was shaped by their profession-
al biographies as “trained” electricians/electron-
ics had the consequence that they viewed and ana-
lysed ↑ work processes and work objects of electri-
cal process engineers through the lens of their pri-
or knowledge of electrical engineering. Ultimately
this led to a grave misinterpretation of the match-
ing potential of the two training curricula (EHRLICH
1998, 128 ff.).
In the practice of TVET research the realisation of
a subject-related differentiation of the research and
development methods has been a methodological
aspiration that has been difficult to fulfil because of
the variety of occupational domains. Looking back
on the past 20 years one can say that the research
networks and programmes established in TVET
research and the ↑ domain-specific and ↑ interdis-
ciplinary TVET dialogues, e. g. the Hochschultage
Berufliche Bildung conference series established
in 1980, or the TVET congresses organised by the
BIBB, have made an important and perhaps indis-
pensable contribution to the consolidation of the
research that was initiated then in the different dis-
ciplines, and continues despite humble beginnings,
to develop even today.
Handbook of TVET Research
5.1.2 Situated Learning in
Communities of Practice as a
Research Topic
Christoph Clases and Theo Wehner
The social structure of learning (in a vocational or
other academic environment) is an integral and at
the same time implicit component of what is ac-
tually learned, whether in training settings (voca-
tional and otherwise), in informal groups, in teams
or departments, in companies or in networks. This
is what is meant by the situatedness of learning
processes. In this paper we will discuss the theo-
ry of ↑ situated learning (LAVE / WENGER 1991), with
respect to both its analytical strength and its form-
ative potential. We are thus principally concerned
with:
(1) the significance of ↑ communities of practice as
places of learning, whereby the increasing ↑ partic-
ipation and ngagement of newcomers in a develop-
ing social practice can be made the subject of in-
vestigation into learning processes.
(2) using the concept of situated learning to clarify
the structural relationships of individual learning
processes at work as well as questions concerning
↑ organisational development.
(3) examining the possibilities and limitations of
implementing this concept – initially analytically
– in vocational learning practices, with the help of
specific suggestions.
This paper addresses these three areas and con-
cludes with a critical reflection on the concept of
situated learning in communities of practice.
5.1.2.1 Defining and Classifying the Theory
of Situated Learning
The theory of situated learning was developed
within the context of ethnographical studies (LAVE /
WENGER 1991), and forms the basis for formative
concepts that deal with questions of setting up
communities of practice (WENGER 1999), establish-
ing ties with ↑ knowledge management (WENGER /-
MCDERMOTT / SNYDER 2002; CLASES 2003) and
creating intercompany learning fields (ENDRES /
WEHNER 1996). We are highly sceptical with theo-
ries of learning or teaching in which it is assumed
that ‘pure’ knowledge can be gained without any
Research Methods
reference to the social context in which it is initial-
ly acquired. If the specific circumstances in which
the knowledge originated are viewed as being of
little consequence, then the learners are ultimate-
ly faced with a content that has been cut off from
its specific place of origination in a ↑ community of
practice, that is, it has been desituated.
Lave and Wenger are not alone in their criticism
of learning processes in which the situatedness of
learning processes is disregarded. Their criticism
reflects the claims of a phenomenologically formu-
lated concept of learning (SCHULZE 1993), which,
among other things, insists that:
– learning should be understood as an autonomous
activity, not as an epiphenomenon;
– learning should not be reduced to scholastic
teach-learn directives set up as curricula;
– analysis should not be applied merely to isolat-
ed elements that represent partial phenomena but
should also take into account more complex proc-
esses that have a long-term effect.
The move away from behaviouristic ignorance to
cognitive, motivational or volitional factors in the
learning process marks the cognitive turning point
in both teaching theory and psychology. Where-
as the highly influential Test-Operate-Test-Ex-
it (TOTE) approach of Miller, Galanter and Pri-
bram (1960), which was even then oriented to the
symbol-processing paradigm in psychology, still
bears neo-behaviouristic characteristics, the phys-
ical symbol system hypothesis of Newell and Si-
mon (1972) represented a real breakthrough in the
cognitive sciences and in ↑ artificial intelligence
(AI) research. This paradigm implies that not on-
ly do human beings operate cognitively, but so do
all machines that use rule-controlled mechanisms
(of a specific syntax) to represent and manipulate
separate physical elements (symbols). According-
ly, from a functional standpoint, every cognitive
system may be classified as a representation ma-
chine. Thanks to the cognitive approach, the world
of thinking and learning has been turned on its
head. However, the thinking and learning process
is conceptualized by neglecting its pragmatic di-
mension, that is, the practical learning activity in a
social space. This “cognitivistic” reduction gener-
ates typical conceptual dilemmas (LAW 2000).
709
Approaches to the situatedness of the human proc-
esses of thinking, learning and problem-solving
are linked by a fundamental criticism of this cog-
nitive world view. However, no real theory of situ-
atedness exists, merely different approaches to us-
ing the concept. The term situatedness, which is
found as early as Mead (1934), was taken up again
in the debate on AI research (WINOGRAD / FLORES
1986) and was thereafter referred to, for a time,
as situated activity (SUCHMAN 1987). Further ap-
proaches, each with their own focus, then followed
(ROGOFF 1990; GREENO / MOORE 1993; CLANCEY
1993; CLASES /ENDRES / WEHNER 1996; K IRSHNER /
WHITSON 1997). Related theoretical treatments that
also highlight the constitutive role of social prac-
tice for learning processes are the concept of dis-
tributed cognition of Hutchins (1995) and the con-
tributions of socially shared cognition (RESNICK /
LEVINE / TEASLEY 1991).
Based on ethnographical studies (for example,
LAVE 1988), Lave and Wenger (1991) examined a
number of social parameters that affect ↑ situated
learning processes from an anthropological per-
spective. Their interest focused on the structural
aspects of the process that turns a newcomer into a
full member of a community of practice. They ar-
gued for a new analytical perspective by explor-
ing the significance of learning processes in and
for communities of practice: firstly, learning cre-
ates continuity against the background of specif-
ic traditions in a field of practice (a focus on repro-
duction) and secondly it produces discontinuities
and fractures (a focus on innovation), which can
lead to the further development of existing forms
of organisation.
The concept of a community of practice as a place
of learning will now be developed.
5.1.2.2 The Concept of a Community of
Practice: Between Reproduction and
Innovation
The learning processes of newcomers who, over
time, develop into experts within a specific context,
for example within a particular vocational field or
environment, are described by the above authors
as having an essentially social character. Thus new
company employees acquire the knowledge need-
ed for their work only to a limited extent via formal
710
process descriptions or curriculum-based training
sessions in which explicit and codified knowledge
is documented. Rather, their learning consists of
actively acquiring corporate practice by their at-
tempts to reproduce specific action units (BROWN /-
DUGUID 2001). ↑ Communities of practice that de-
pend precisely on reproducing these action units
represent the actual environment in which learning
takes place, that is, where knowledge is generated,
passed on and modified.
“People belong to communities of practice at the same
time as they belong to other organisational structures. In
their business unit, they shape the organisation. In their
teams, they take care of projects. In their networks, they
form relationships. And in their communities of practice
they develop the knowledge that lets them do these other
tasks” (WENGER 1998a).
The term “community of practice” implies nei-
ther the physical presence of the participants nor
a well-defined and clearly identifiable group with
distinctly visible social boundaries. Neither can
a community of practice be characterised by the
presence of the actors’ common goals – such as
a homogeneous community of interest. Moreover,
communities of practice do not arise from pure-
ly formal organisational parameters but are rath-
er the result of historically developed and shared
models of action and interpretation. Formal regu-
lations make up only a small part of these models,
which are largely the result of processes of nego-
tiation that are repeatedly carried out in corporate
practice between the actors involved.
The shared engagement of all the actors in re-
producing and passing on an activity system
(ENGESTRÖM 1987; RAEITHEL 1992) is characteris-
tic of communities of practice. The term “engage-
ment” covers both the technical artefacts (activi-
ty resources) used in a community of practice as
well as the formal and informal organisational
structures (coordination resources). Both activity
and coordination resources may be considered as
conveyors of the history or tradition of communi-
ties of practice and they are understood by learn-
ers as situated, situating and hypostasised aspects
of their practice. Examples include workplace de-
scriptions and manuals that are designed to regu-
late the ↑ performance of ↑ work tasks and ways of
handling relevant work resources. Patterns of so-
Handbook of TVET Research
cial relationships or ritualised modes of behaviour
in formal work organisations are other examples.
The resources used should be understood as plac-
es of knowledge that are not self-explanatory but
need to be interpreted. Thus models of interpreta-
tion are produced within the context of communi-
ties of practice, which take on a guiding function
for those involved in them. We may call these local
models of interpretation and understand them as
processes of assigning significance that have aris-
en in a form typical for each community of prac-
tice. The reproduction of communities of prac-
tice and the creation of continuity occur when lo-
cal models of interpretation are passed on and rel-
evant tasks are realised. In this context, the partic-
ular function of learning processes in communities
of practice then becomes clear. Newcomers must
be legitimised to participate in the reproduction
of tasks, which tend to be marginal at the begin-
ning of the learning process. This is the only way
for them to become full members of a communi-
ty of practice, thereby contributing to its reproduc-
tion. However, any attempt to reproduce a commu-
nity of practice will encounter different perspec-
tives, goals and ways of performing of the actors
involved. No identical reproduction is possible, as
fractures and shifts occur. The tradition-forming
reproductive cycles then become productive inno-
vative cycles.
5.1.2.3 Situated Learning as Legitimised
Participation
In communities of practice it is not enough to sim-
ply embed learning processes in a contents-based
and situational context: on the contrary, learning
should be understood as a fundamental and often
tacit component of social practice in general. It is
not the social context that teaches the learner to
act in a specific way, but rather the learner’s per-
ception, redefinition and emotional evaluation of
the situation as it emerges, that is, its social situ-
atedness in a community of practice. If vocation-
al practice is reflected as learning practice, then
its fundamental aim should direct towards extend-
ing the individual’s involvement in socially rele-
vant activities. Acquiring expertise then becomes
the vehicle for participating in a full social (work-
ing) life.
Research Methods
The learning content can also be defined by the
requirements needed to participate in a ↑ commu-
nity of practice. At the same time, the motivation
to participate in such a community also contrib-
utes to boosting the individual’s readiness to ac-
quire the necessary competence and skills. Lave
and Wenger (1991) have, with their conceptual tri-
ad of legitimate peripheral ↑ participation, pro-
posed analytical concepts that can be used to ana-
lyse the specific situatedness of learning process-
es. These components should not be discussed in-
dependently of each other and they are also mutu-
ally dependent. In the theory of ↑ situated learning,
learners are understood as individuals who:
– are involved in a community of practice to a
specified degree and are increasingly able to par-
ticipate in the various tasks in the field of prac-
tice;
– have a concrete and legitimate form of access in
each case; and
– occupy different but specific positions of periph-
erality in relation to the field of practice, that is,
they are at a certain ↑ distance to the community’s
core activities.
On the term legitimacy: learning processes are
characterised by the legitimacy of the learners in
a community of practice. A learner’s access to a
field of practice is always associated with a certain
socially coordinated “access authorisation”. This
does not concern the institutional legitimacy of an
involvement in itself, but rather the form that it as-
sumes. This concept consequently refers to a spe-
cific arrangement with respect to the subject being
learned. This form of legitimacy is not only a nec-
essary condition but also a constitutive determin-
ing factor of the content of the learning situation it-
self. It has a significant effect on the position of the
learner with respect to the person’s extent of access
to the knowledge of the community. Just as many
strategies that complement legitimacy but aim to
exclude and isolate learners can be found in corpo-
rate practice; they may be seen as barriers that can
restrict potential learning opportunities
There are many different forms of legitimacy
that are defined by communities of practice. Ex-
amples include permission to take part in ses-
sions and group meetings, the more or less autono-
mous assumption of tasks critical to success with-
711
in the community of practice, or the regulation of
access rights to information on the Intranet. Ac-
cess to minutes and other documents, the leeway
granted to individual initiatives for contacting var-
ious corporate experts, and systematically support-
ed access to other groups or departments (such as
via guest attendances, see below), the activities of
which are related to the tasks to be learned, are
other examples. In the latter case, legitimacy al-
so invariably refers to the places of learning that
might lead to a change in perspective for the learn-
er, have an effect on the learner’s situatedness and
lead to different learning patterns.
On the term participation: despite and because
of their peripherality to the central processes of
a community of practice, learners are involved in
the structure of the community. Their significance
arises from the fact that every community of prac-
tice needs to initiate learning processes in order
to assure its own reproduction. The way the learn-
ing processes are initiated leads to various forms
of learner involvement in the community’s social
practice, and these in turn can affect ↑ organisa-
tional development possibilities. The position of
legitimate peripherality gives learners more than
mere observer status. This concept includes the
engagement of learners, who penetrate the culture
and the local models of interpretation associated
with it. In learning processes, participants may
have conflicting perspectives that then become the
learning content. By anticipating conflicts, learn-
ing processes become dynamic forms of involve-
ment in conceptual terms. Individual learning
processes that turn local models of interpretation
into a topic of study are then more closely linked
to questions of organisational innovation. Hence
newcomers become sources of innovation if they
– legitimated for this very reason – question estab-
lished practice. Everything that is time-honoured,
proven, routine, can be re-examined with regard to
its appropriateness.
5.1.2.4 From Analysis to Intervention:
Formative Fields in the Workplace
With regard to the development of framework con-
ditions for corporate learning processes, we will
now refer to three formative fields presented else-
where in more detail (ENDRES / WEHNER 1996).
712 Handbook of TVET Research

Their formulation is linked to the theory of ↑ situ- RAEITHEL / CLASES /ENDRES 1996), are the arena in-
ated learning: guest attendances between compa- to which the experiences gained by guest attend-
nies; people with border-crossing tasks; and inter- ees and border-crossers flow together. On the ba-
company workshop groups. sis of cooperative experience, existing cooperative
Guest attendances are used in the first instance relationships are explicitly examined by systema-
to allow a limited amount of communicative ex-
tising known sources of disturbances and treating
change, confined to a specific time period, to take
them in a solution-oriented way. In contrast to the
place between potential partners. Guest attendanc-
cross-border function, these workshop groups do
es should be run in those sectors where a coordi-
nated process must be assured between spatially not merely pursue individual cases; rather, individ-
separate organisational structures. However, their ual topics are examined in order to determine their
aim should not be merely to get to know the link- general validity. In workshop groups, new agree-
ing coordination structures but ultimately the po- ments designed to extend established cooperative
tential partners too, so that potential problem ar- relations are developed. They therefore represent a
eas in the ↑ work process can be recognised and special form of “expansive” cooperation (WEHNER /
examined. We assume that guest attendances take RAEITHEL / CLASES /ENDRES 1996). An overview of
place in the presence of others, help to build trust these formative fields is shown in Table 1.
between individuals, enable an exchange of views
to take place so that existing ideas may be revised.
The causes of a lack of corporate coordination can-
not, as a rule, be corrected alongside daily busi-
ness but can only be dealt with through trouble-
shooting.
People with cross-border tasks can then track co-
operation problems occurring between groups,
teams or departments on the basis of individual
cases, moderate and help eliminate them. Thanks
to cross-border activities, employees can broaden
their social and technical competences by dealing
with ↑ critical incidents. This can only happen if
they are also authorised to track, moderate and ul-
timately eliminate problems beyond their depart-
ment and workplace. In contrast to guest attendees,
border-crossers do not keep to fixed sectors but on-
Tab. 1: Overview of the Three Formative Fields
ly enter those domains that are experiencing prob-
lems: they remain there not solely to get to know The catalyst for situated learning in the three form-
the coordination structures but to influence them ative fields comes from anticipated, current or gen-
directly. Border-crossers are consequently char- eralised problem areas in communities of practice.
acterised by their orientation to resolving individ- They are handled by an exchange of communica-
ual cases, through which they will obviously al-
tion and cooperative negotiation, approaches that
so gain much personal insight. People with cross-
assume some experience in procedures. The results
border tasks can help build up control procedures,
are a higher level of cooperation, improved depth
which are ultimately used not only to correct indi-
vidual problems but also to contribute to improv- of insight into the procedures as well as a height-
ing coordination within and between ↑ communi- ened level of anticipation. The strategic goal is to
ties of practice. increase the prognostic validity of cooperatively
Intercompany workshop groups, which may be negotiated coordination structures and to improve
understood as co-construction forums (WEHNER /- cooperative competences on a situational basis.
Research Methods
5.1.2.5 Situated Learning and Prospects for
Research into Vocational Training
In discussing the formative areas, we have not-
ed that, in each case, learning occurs in a specific
form. The first characteristic of this form of learn-
ing is that it takes place neither in a decontextual-
ised nor an exemplified way but rather alongside
actually occurring events in interactive contexts.
It can thus be designated as ↑ situated learning
and can be clearly distinguished from instructed
learning, where the learning objectives and tools
are subject to prior professional structuring and
are passed on precisely by means of instruction.
Situated learning on the other hand “takes place in
the background of the activities that ‘make us learn’ and
of the perceptions and awareness with which we accom-
pany these activities. Learning is subsumed into what
is learned. It disappears as our knowledge and capabil-
ity grow. It is transformed into knowledge and skills”
(SCHULZE 1993, 246).
To conclude, we will take a look at the prospects
for research into vocational training that may re-
sult from the concept of situated learning in ↑ com-
munities of practice. The findings, which would
be suitable for carrying out research into voca-
tional biographies, educational environments or
vocational training curricula, would invariably be
seen to go beyond a cognitively constrained per-
spective on (technical or social) problem-solving
competences. Vocational training (in factories, rel-
evant training centres, associations, clubs and so
forth) would have to be examined as to how far it
transgresses an essentially individual-centred ap-
proach in practice. It would therefore be necessary
to examine not only the knowledge that is (appar-
ently) regarded as necessary but also the skills or
competence targeted by specific vocational train-
ing courses.
An investigation of vocational training approach-
es and environments as communities of practice
would be an obvious first step. This would mean
analysing various training courses, including the
way they have become institutionalised, in order
to identify the (dys)functionality of specific forms
of legitimacy, the options for participating and the
positions of peripherality. Vocational training bi-
ographies are being examined in long-term stud-
ies: the factors that influence how successfully in-
dividual and organisational competences inter-
713
lock could then be discussed. ↑ Comparative stud-
ies situated alongside various vocational training
routes then become interesting when they focus
on the differences between the ↑ knowledge bases
of a ↑ community of practice defined by curricula
and those used in vocational practice. What are the
topics and focal points? What are the key challeng-
es, problems and outstanding questions? Which
practical approaches, reference models, standards,
instruments, stories, examples of good practice
and documents are distributed in communities of
practice and how are they made accessible? Under
what contextual conditions and to what degree is
the peripherality related to pressure to act appro-
priate to newcomers? If the picture of the much-
touted process of ↑ lifelong learning is indeed cor-
rect, then the development of expertise immediate-
ly opens up as a topic of research. How do com-
munities of practice change alongside the situated
learning processes of their most advanced mem-
bers? How do the latter continue to develop their
own expertise? Even if learning takes place in the
ongoing process of living “in the background of …
perceptions” (see above) and thus transforms us,
ultimately we come across it again in what we have
learned. When learning processes are reinterpret-
ed as situated processes, then perhaps they will be
understood in a new way.
5.1.3 Distance and Proximity in
VET Research
Lars Heinemann
5.1.3.1 Introduction: Distance, Proximity
and Relation to the Research Objects
The relation of ↑ distance and proximity is a meth-
odological problem, which is not only related to
↑ VET research. In general, the researcher’s differ-
ent methodological views and actions guide possi-
ble perspectives on the object under scrutiny. Prox-
imity and distance enable and constrain results of
research in specific ways.
At a general level, proximity (e. g. to the profes-
sional knowledge of a skilled worker and his/her
subjective theories) implies familiarity and thus
714
the possibility of identifying relevant forms of
knowledge and learning processes and describing
them in detail. The danger with this is that main-
ly, for example in professional discussions, some
themes are taken for granted and thus potentially
important details and differences may escape no-
tice. Proximity may lead to loss of direction.
A more ‘distanced’ approach, where the researcher
sees him or herself as a professional outsider, can
lead to another pitfall: as relevant forms of knowl-
edge, processes of communication and learning
are inseparable from the ways work is carried out
and learned and thus inseparable from vocational
education (→ 5.1.1), a scientific approach that does
not reflect on this knowledge and its bearers may
neglect parts of what is really going on.
‘Proximity’ and ‘↑ distance’ refer here to positions
inherent in different methodological approaches,
e. g. ↑ ethnomethodology, ↑ activity theory, or ↑ ac-
tion-oriented subject interviews (Fachgespräche,
→ 5.2.2). These methodological approaches in
turn are reflected in the researchers’ personal
background – for conducting, for example, a Fach-
gespräch, some knowledge about the subject of the
skilled work in question is indispensable, whilst
familiarity with these subjects as a member of the
respective ↑ community of practice may blur the
view of the way in which for example novices turn
into experts. As one sees, ‘proximity’ in this last
example refers to proximity in terms of being close
to the community of practice that the researcher
is looking at. As one should note, this means ↑ re-
search approaches the researcher may have in his
disposal cannot be put on a linear scale between
distance and proximity. Though one may loosely
group techniques like quantitative research, inter-
views, participative observation on a scale of dis-
tance vs. proximity in terms of the researcher and
his subjectivity being more or less involved, the
kind of proximity we find in Fachgespräche only
partly fits on this scale – here, proximity in terms
of expert knowledge is required, too.
The necessary mixture of these different approach-
es varies for different research interests and differ-
ent phases of the research process. This holds true
first of all for the trivial case when one works with
aggregated empirical data where what is required
from the researcher is mastering the relevant meth-
Handbook of TVET Research
ods and knowing the field sufficiently to develop
sensible hypotheses about the data’s relations.
Using qualitative methods, researchers from var-
ious social sciences have worked on the field be-
tween distance and proximity (see e. g. FLICK 1995b,
for social sciences, HAMEYER 1995, for pedago-
gy, GEERTZ 1988 for ethnology). Here, the focus
lies mostly on a (preferably undisguised) obser-
vation of the object of research and the research-
er’s subjectivity and thus is dealt with in categories
of perception. For ↑ VET research, two more as-
pects have to be added to this: first, the more ↑ do-
main-specific ↑ research questions, e. g. about typ-
ical ↑ work processes and competence, are under
scrutiny, the researcher needs some factual prox-
imity to the themes he is researching. Thus, in this
area we witnessed the development of specific re-
search techniques (see part 4). Secondly, scientif-
ic work in development programmes in VET (e. g.
the German Modellversuche, → 5.4.3) has to aban-
don distance, since while gaining insights into the
↑ research object it is changed at the same time.
This article now describes how the specific con-
figuration of the area of ↑ research in VET requires
to especially consideration of the relation between
distance and proximity. Then, it deals with ways
of treating this relation in the research process. Fi-
nally, it draws attention to another implication of
proximity, the question of value-free research.
5.1.3.2 Distance in the Research Process:
Ethnomethodological Indifference,
Activity Theory and Comprehension
There is a concept of ideal research in social sci-
ences that draws on the researcher being as invis-
ible as possible, to collect data free from any in-
terference quasi pure. This ideal of pureness, cop-
ied from the natural sciences, looks like a method-
ological fiction and is not only denied by the rich
tradition of ↑ qualitative research practice. Even in
the methodological discourse of the natural scienc-
es, such an approach has become contested. This
holds true first for the general development of re-
search: the old ideal of advancing through falsifi-
able hypotheses (containing the requirement that
these hypotheses have to be revisable intersubjec-
tively, i.e. without relying on the researcher) al-
ready has been under heavy attack since the 1960s
Research Methods
by the works of, first, Thomas Kuhn (1962) and lat-
er Paul Feyerabend (e. g. 1985), leading to a self-
critique of critical rationalism. Perhaps even more
importantly, the science studies, researching the
ways and methods by which results are actually
produced in natural sciences, showed that for ex-
ample, when analysing the fermentation of lactic
acid, Pasteur worked much more in the way an-
thropologists since Malinowski have produced re-
sults – by means of ‘telling a story’ (LATOUR 1999).
Integrated in a field of manifold, not necessarily
scientific, interests the focus is on producing mate-
rial convincing the researcher as much as his envi-
ronment, i.e. responding to and reshaping existing
interests and dominant discourses (see here FOU-
CAULT 2001).
Still, there are a lot of good reasons for distant ap-
proaches even in the social sciences and ↑ VET re-
search. Already the Mayo studies of 1927-32 made
use of an approach informed by an anthropologi-
cal model to describe the organisation of work dur-
ing their time (DINGLEY 1997). The advantage of a
method which looks at the workers at their work
as members of a distinct culture lies in the fact
that this way ↑ work processes, co-ordination and
collaboration in their entirety are in the focus of
the research. The methodological benefit of such
an approach and its descendants like for example
↑ ethnomethodology, ↑ studies of work (→ 5.2.8)
and even (though stemming from another tradi-
tion) ↑ activity theory is that this way work and its
specific organisation are not being taken for grant-
ed. As a professional outsider, the researcher is ab-
stracting from his previous knowledge and thus
has the opportunity to grasp details of work organ-
isation and development of competence that even
the participants themselves are not aware of (see
e. g. GOFFMAN 1961) studies on psychiatry.
An important methodological postulate of eth-
nomethodology as well as of studies of work thus
lies in the researcher’s professional indifference
that secures ↑ distance. The meaning of this pos-
tulate lies in hindering the researcher’s previous
knowledge in order to neglect really new and dif-
ferent insights or to adapt them to things already
known. This does not imply, though, that this dis-
tance precludes close examination of the ↑ research
objects. Exactly the opposite, as one may see in
715
the works of Garfinkel or Goffman. Distance here
is a methodological position, not a way research is
conducted.
A newer example for this kind of research, its ad-
vantages and constraints, is provided by John
Seely Brown (1999) a former director of research
at Xerox.
Asked to develop ↑ expert systems that should ease
maintenance and repair of office equipment like
copiers or printers, he hired some anthropologists
to record how the maintenance experts actually did
their work. The result was, that the experts ‘told
stories’, i.e. developed meaningful subjective the-
ories falling back on their previous experiences.
Brown’s measure, thus, was not to develop compu-
ter-based expert systems, but to provide the main-
tenance experts with walkie-talkies raising their
possibilities of communication.
In this slightly anecdotal story, it is exactly the pro-
fessional distance of the anthropologists that ena-
bled them to identify a typical way through which
incorporated knowledge was communicated and
change the ↑ quality management in a way that this
knowledge could be better explicated and commu-
nicated. The obvious advantage of this approach
lies in the fact that the analysis of the object of
work has not been done by ‘experts’ from ↑ voca-
tional sciences, but drawing from the point,
“that those, who carry out a profession, can bet-
ter describe and define then everybody else what vo-
cational tasks form their work” (BREMER / R AUNER /
RÖBEN 2001, 220).
Obviously, such an approach does not need to be
carried out by anthropologists. Expert systems on
maintenance at work like DIADOSYS have been
developed under ↑ participation of skilled workers
(FISCHER 2001a).
We find a similar methodological approach in re-
search in the tradition of ‘activity theory’, devel-
oped among others by Yrjö Engeström (see e. g.
ENGESTRÖM 1987; ENGESTRÖM / MIDDLETON 1996;
K EROSUO / ENGESTRÖM 2003). Emanating from Lev
Semenovich Vygotsky (1986), they developed a
model from the notions of ‘shared’ and ‘bounda-
ry objects’ that incorporate the subjective views of
skilled workers on their ↑ work tasks and work or-
ganisation. Here, subjective theories are combined
with the framework of a ‘↑ community of practice’
to analyse the relations of communication inside
716
an organisation or community like in software de-
sign, work at a laboratory or a hospital, flying pas-
senger planes etc.
Methodologically, there are important differences
between all these approaches depending on wheth-
er the research aims mainly at the function of sub-
jective theories for the workers in the ↑ work proc-
esses, i.e. the ‘how’ of constituting meaning and
co-ordination, or if it aims at the tradition of ‘thick
description’, too, on ‘what’ happens, i.e. focussing
on the description of behaviour patterns in relation
to different levels of meaning and organisation
(see GEERTZ 1973). But these approaches all have
in common the fact that during the research proc-
ess, not much factual proximity to the ↑ research
object is required, and the tension between ↑ dis-
tance and proximity is solved by as rich as pos-
sible a description. Here, work is analysed main-
ly as a social phenomenon, abstracting when pos-
sible from the very content of the work undertak-
en. Likewise, Lave and Wenger (1991) looked at
how ↑ situated learning happened, how novices are
making use of their legitimate peripheral position
to involve themselves in a ↑ community of prac-
tice, abstracting from the content of the knowledge
these learners learn.
The strength of these approaches lies in the fact
that they imply the necessary distance when using
the typical arsenal of qualitative and quantitative
↑ research methods. The results rely on the pos-
sibility of converting the content communicated,
e. g. in conversations between health care person-
al or technicians to the form, as well as the ways
these contents are communicated.
Professional distance is thus an important meth-
odological prerequisite, first of all in questions of
↑ organisational learning, work organisation and
general learning theories. When research becomes
↑ domain-specific, regarding the content of a spe-
cific field of work and technology and its organisa-
tion, the subjective theories of the workers, collec-
tive ↑ vocational identities and so on, then proxim-
ity in content is also called for.
5.1.3.3 Proximity in Domain-Specific
Research
Expertise regarding content is the main justifica-
tion for methods in ↑ VET research that look for
Handbook of TVET Research
more proximity to the object. The field of VET re-
search is not only structured according to gener-
al cultural rules. Skilled work, as well as (medi-
ated by this skilled work) behaviour patterns and
subjective theories of members of communities of
practice is shaped, too, by technology – working
appliances and objects of work. These contents of
skilled work, and thus their context, the way they
are embedded in differently organised work proc-
esses and organisations, are unavoidable in do-
main-specific research.
The field of VET research is structured by the in-
terrelation of work, technology and education, the
organisation of work processes not being arbitrary
but ruled by profit interests and embedded in his-
torically developed organisations of work such as
for example ↑ occupational profiles. From this fol-
lows the idea, “... that education and qualification have
not only to be adjusted to overall concepts, but have to be
related to expert domains (like e. g. occupations” (R AU-
NER 2004b, 81).
Here, converting factual content of skilled work
into the form of learning and communication is
only possible when a description of work organi-
sation or subjective theories is enough. Even then,
understanding the statements of employees about
their work requires some expert knowledge (this is
why GARFINKEL (1986), too, asked the researcher to
acquire the necessary knowledge). This has conse-
quences for the research process.
As much as the description of participants’ ↑ prac-
tical knowledge forms the centre of research, prox-
imity to the contents and objects of work is re-
quired. This then implies not only observation of
actions as in the ↑ studies of work. As work his-
torically constitutes itself via occupations, one of
the tasks of VET research being translating work
processes into curricula (e. g. via learning areas),
work processes must be described in their context.
“The analysis of occupational work and the reference to
skilled workers’ concrete work process knowledge is un-
avoidable” (FISCHER 2001a, 82).
If the specific way in which objects of VET re-
search are structured calls for an intervening strat-
egy, this strategy has to reflect the interrelation of
education, work and technology that shapes the
structure. Methods of VET research have to reflect
on this relation (for examples, see → 5.1.6) for the
whole research process from planning, to commu-
Research Methods
nicating the results. For ↑ interview methods, this
means often changing them into a Fachgespräch.
How much proximity in terms of contents and/or
being a member of a ↑ community of practice – and
thus, how much factual knowledge is required –
is obviously an empirical question, depending on
the respective research project. Neither is great-
er proximity ‘better’ here, nor is it generally re-
quired. Becker (2003, 60–61) writes on approach-
es to ↑ VET research on car mechanics:
“An essential attribute of such a scientific approach
is the proximity to the skilled worker, because the re-
searcher’s acceptance depends on this. (...) Out of this
view it is positive if the researcher himself is a skilled
worker, having undergone the same socialisation”.
This over-generalised approach shows us that there
are different requirements for different forms of
↑ distance/proximity with different reasons at dif-
ferent stages of the research process. Pragmat-
ic reasons – access to the field, recognition by in-
terview partners – differ from reasons regarding
the process of gaining insight. For these pragmat-
ic reasons, proximity in contents and ‘having the
same socialisation’ are not essential at all. In con-
trast, for the productivity of interviews and Fach-
gespräche, proximity in contents is required. How
much a similar socialisation of researcher and
skilled worker is required, though, is again an em-
pirical question.
Proximity in terms of content is not naturally su-
perior to more distanced approaches. It is neces-
sary to reflect the different advantages (sometimes
necessities) of these approaches and treat them in
a way that fosters their respective strengths. The
methodological arsenals of various social sciences
and VET research provide examples.
5.1.3.4 Treating Proximity and Distance
What was said above made clear that proximity
and distance in VET research are not two poles
that imply mutually exclusive ↑ research approach-
es. Proximity and distance as moments of the re-
search process are not only in the foreground re-
garding specific problems but in different phas-
es of the research process, too. In a particular re-
search context, the researcher will have to under-
go a variety of decisions on methods correspond-
ing more to proximity or distance. For example,
717
researching ↑ work process knowledge for design-
ing curricula may require at first a distanced view
to see structures and patterns of knowledge shar-
ing and learning and, in another step, analysing the
content of this knowledge, calling for proximity.
Further on, to design a curriculum out of this obvi-
ously again requires abstracting from this knowl-
edge and ‘translating’ it into the area of pedagogy
and didactics, e. g. deriving typical ↑ learning and
working tasks.
This means that one cannot solve the problems in-
herent in the different approaches by just opting
for one polar extreme or by looking for a compro-
mise. Rather, during the research process one has
to reflect on these dimensions in order to treat their
tensions productively. One – limited – possibili-
ty here is the researcher’s self-reflection, a means
used typically if there are no other options. This
method has already been used since the beginning
of anthropology, the researcher e. g. using his di-
ary to reflect on what he saw and what his role in
a different culture was. Later on, anthropological
theory produced valuable insights, e. g. in form of
ethnopsychiatry to structure the process of self-re-
flection in a way to treat the tension of distance and
proximity (DEVEREUX 1981).
For VET research, different methods in ↑ quali-
tative research played a bigger role in generating
communicative validity of results by reflecting
once more with the participants of, for example a
Fachgespräch, on the results. This may be done via
new interviews, (structured) ↑ group discussions
etc. (see e. g. FLICK 1995b, 102 f.).
Furthermore, one may use a kind of supervision
to resolve this tension during the research process.
Rauner (1998b, 27) in analysing Fachgespräche,
which involved researchers who were differently
versed in factual matters, devised the idea of con-
ducting Fachgespräche by two researchers with
different degrees of professional proximity.
Finally, primarily for bigger research and devel-
opment programmes like the German Modellver-
suche, there is the possibility of using ↑ evaluation
methods for dealing with this problem. Seen in this
way, formative ↑ evaluation methods (→ 5.4.6) not
only produce information on development, prob-
lems and possibilities of a project for the partici-
pants, but may present to researchers a tool to to
718
reflect on results and observations e. g. derived
from interviews (see DEITMER / HEINEMANN / MOON /
STIEGLITZ 2004).
These examples of possible mechanisms for re-
flecting ↑ distance and proximity clearly show that
the choice of methods does not depend on a meth-
odological ideal, but on the matter at hand. Ac-
cordingly, selecting how to develop the relation of
distance and proximity depends on the respective
research project. But to develop it is an unavoida-
ble task for ↑ VET research.
5.1.3.5 Distance and Proximity in VET
Research and Value Judgements
As is generally known, Max Weber’s (1988b, orig-
inal 1922) position on the strictly separate descrip-
tion of facts and judgements that the research-
er may derive from it is widely established. Here,
the argument is not so much about the research-
er’s known or unknown values may unconsciously
negatively effect the results (a problem discussed
in part two of this article), but of ↑ value judge-
ments’ having a different epistemological signifi-
cance than factual judgements. Normative notions
that imply values thus do not lead to a clear, impar-
tial description of the object of research. Critique
of this position, e. g. Stammer 1965 or during the
so called positivist dispute of 1961 (see ADORNO /
DAHRENDORF / PILOT ET AL. 1981), accordingly tries
to show that the very basic principles of social sci-
ences contain values, i.e. comprising a norma-
tive yield that one cannot abstract from without
irreparably damaging these sciences and change
them to mere social technology. Adorno’s example
(ibid. 139 f.) is the very notion of society that in-
cludes the idea that one should act as the socius of
another. Irrespective of the question as to whether
this argument holds true for the social sciences as a
whole, there is a good reason to state such a relation
for VET research. The fact that this field is struc-
tured around the basic concepts of work, technol-
ogy and education means that research cannot ab-
stract from these concepts and their interrelations.
The very research of ↑ educational processes leads
to valuing explicitly or implicitly the notions of ed-
ucation and occupation themselves (→ 2.4) as well
as developments in work and technology, e. g. on
whether some changes in work organisation lead
Handbook of TVET Research
to a better or worse potential to learn, whether the
employees get more or less leeway to further shape
these processes etc.
In this context, Sloane (1995, 34 f.) pleads for an
attitude that restrains equally distanced ‘rational’
contemplation and interventionist hectoring in the
sense of ‘missionary’ conduct of the researcher.
This argument, though, refers to the researcher’s
conduct and not on the question of deriving value
judgements themselves.
Here, it is crucial that value judgements in VET
research are not driven from outside VET e. g. by
the researcher’s idea of man, but lie in the object
of research themselves. If in a concrete develop-
ment project, the researcher opts for an approach
for social ↑ shaping of work and technology or, in
the sense of scientific management for an approach
oriented towards accommodation to a prescribed
work organisation (see RAUNER 2004b, 82), is an
issue which implies not only a technical ↑ research
question, but a decision based on the inherent val-
ues of VET research and VET itself.
5.1.4 Shaping-Oriented Research
and Interdisciplinarity
Gerald A. Heidegger
5.1.4.1 Definition
Shaping is a concept which usually is not asso-
ciated with research but rather with practical do-
ing or enacting. Above that, it revokes associations
with artistic acts. One thinks about the “beauti-
ful shape” e. g. of a classical statue. True, shaping
meanwhile has become a rather common orienta-
tion for VET research as can be seen from the in-
dex of this handbook. However, shaping orienta-
tion has not been explicated clearly enough as an
overarching methodological construct (cf. howev-
er HEIDEGGER 1991). Rather, how it is to be under-
stood is usually defined in terms related to specific
areas and themes.
Things become different if VET research is em-
bedded into the tradition of pedagogics as a “prac-
tical science”, according to the philosopher Sch-
leiermacher (1983/1984) in the sense laid down by
Research Methods
Schmied-Kowarzik (1974, 1, 9 ff.) As far as this
means to perceive ↑ VET research (at least to a
great degree) as a science which aims at improving
practical endeavours from analysing them shaping
orientation becomes a prevailing regulative prin-
ciple. In the sense of the three “critiques” of Im-
manuel Kant the true, the good and the beautiful
are intrinsically interwoven. VET research which
strives for truth tries, at the same time, to further
“good” VET practice by supporting adequate fea-
tures and conditions. This practice shows – in a
somehow idealistic diction – a “beautiful” shape
in as much as it’s individual elements should be
matched and act together as well as possible. (See
for didactical realisations the significance of artis-
tic exercises for VET according to BRATER 1984).
For that it is necessary to be aware of the presup-
positions of the shaping approach. Shaping is di-
alectically interconnected with enlightenment
(→ 5.1.4.2). Because something new is to be cre-
ated shaping is a concept which embodies in it the
critical tradition of enlightenment (SK 1986).
In this sense one can perceive “enlightenment as
shaping” (LUTZ 1988, 22 f.) according to which
concept the analysis of social sciences “becomes
an obvious, productive and powerful partner of
societal practice” (cf. also FRICKE 1997b). In this
interpretation of (vocational) pedagogy one will
draw on the expertise of social sciences in so far
as it exposes different alternatives of the possible
developments (→ 5.4.4). To bring out alternatives,
for the orientations of acting (HEIDEGGER /JACOBS /
MARTIN ET AL. 1991, 423) as well as for conditions
of future actions, particularly through moulding
scenarios (HEIDEGGER /JACOBS / MARTIN ET AL. 1991,
363, 546, → 3.1.4), is a decisive feature of shaping
orientation as a methodological principle. For only
if various options can be chosen there exists, in the
first place, the possibility of shaping.
In order to create a “good” shape, research orien-
tated towards shaping needs ethical orientations.
In the post-conventional meaning these arise from
“communicative acting” (HABERMAS 1981) or, be-
yond that (KOHLBERG /ALTHOF 1995/1996), from
assuring oneself of ethical principles (follow-
ing K ANT 1791). The “beautiful” is represented
in shaping oriented research through taking into
account, from the beginning, not only arguments
719
which can be rationally substantiated, but also the
(emotional) wishes of the respective people con-
cerned. (See “Technology as unity of the techni-
cally possible and the socially desirable” (R AUNER
1995a, 58; FISCHER 2001b.) From that it becomes
obvious that shaping oriented research has to be
carried through in an ↑ interdisciplinary manner.
For a single disciplinary branch can not, by itself,
represent all or most of the above mentioned as-
pects which shall be diffentiated in the following.
Shaping oriented VET research accepts the task of
supporting “Bildung” in all areas which are relat-
ed to vocational education and training. This re-
fers to strengthening the development of personal-
ity in VET processes and the evolution of person-
ality during the whole work life.
5.1.4.2 Interdisciplinary Polarities of
Shaping Orientation
↑ Interdisciplinarity is often suspected to be ei-
ther used as a catchword or to reduce, in the re-
spective investigations, the analytical rigour which
arises from the specifities of the single disciplinary
branches which, after all, have been differentiated
with good reason during their historical develop-
ment (KOCKA 1987; ROPOHL 2001; cf. however WI-
ETEK 2003). In order to prevent this reduction now-
adays “Transdiciplinarity” is proposed as a meth-
odological postulate (THOMPSON K LEIN 2001). Ac-
cording to that the core of the respective scientif-
ic discipline should be preserved, but from there
collaboration with other branches should be enact-
ed which, however, is usually only vaguely defined
(K ÄBISCH / MAASS / SCHMIDT 2001; cf. however MO-
RAN 2002).
Particularly in the case of ↑ interdisciplinarity un-
derstood as “multidisciplinarity” one often finds
that research is carried though in the usual disci-
plinary boundaries while the outcomes are placed
side by side more in external juxtaposition. Cer-
tainly, an important change between various per-
spectives can be achieved in this way. Howev-
er, in their shaping endeavours the actors have to
find out themselves in which manner the different
perspectives should be integrated (BRUUN 2000).
In order to deal with this dilemma in a sensible
way already Schleiermacher (SCHMIED-KOWARZIK
1974, 29 f.) has proposed a specific foundation for
720
the “practical science”. It is based on the supposi-
tion of “polarities which mutually intersect” where
each one of them means specific opposite poles of
the “knowledge space” to be considered by a sci-
ence interpreted accordingly (cf. for the follow-
ing HEIDEGGER 1987). In that way the individual
perspectives can be interconnected internally and
their relations can be described more exactly. But
also such a “polar dialectic” view leaves the chal-
lenge to the actors to decide, in the end, themselves
about the objectives and methods of their shaping
endeavours. But shaping oriented research with
this foundation can them support in finding their
way about the diversity of statements which are
said to be “scientifically proven” but are also of-
ten still at variance. At the same time the actors are
not subject to “expertocracy” (Schelsky), the rul-
ing of the experts. On the contrary, they must have
freedom of choice which means that they can, with
their various perspectives, participate in collective
decisions (RAUNER 1988a, 36). The four most im-
portant polarities shall be, in the following, differ-
entiated and briefly outlined. One should, howev-
er, keep in mind that, in the manner proposed by
Schleiermacher, they cross one another and that
they are thus intimately interconnected.
Acting and Thinking
Pedagogical acting obviously should be, on the
macro level (educational systems), the meso lev-
el (educational schemes and institutions) and on
the micro level (learning and teaching), guided
by thinking. This is represented, in it’s systemat-
ic form, through the scientific (vocational) edu-
cation research in the above mentioned meaning
of enlightenment of “facts” presented by the vari-
ous social sciences and the ↑ humanities. However
from those one can not draw clear instructions for
acting. For that an unequivocal ↑ theory of action
(WANDEL 1976) would be necessary which, howev-
er, should be understood as “praxeology” (DERBO-
LAV 1975) which only can provide orientations for
acting or maybe “heuristcs for acting” (WALGEN-
BACH 1979). For here rules the “double contingen-
cy of the social” (LUHMANN / SCHORR 1979, 121 f.).
Nevertheless a regulative principle is indispensi-
ble which is, in the different fields of ↑ VET re-
search, just the principle “shaping”, with it’s con-
Handbook of TVET Research
notations of the “good” and the “beautiful”, desir-
able. It can be perceived in “polar dialectical” op-
position to the principle “critique” which is related
to the concept of truth in the social sciences and in
the humanities. The two together represent an eth-
ical regulation of acting and thinking.
The difference between acting and thinking, un-
derstood however more in an integrative manner,
became prominent when “competency to act” was
explicitly formulated as a main aim of education.
Important for the German discourse about “Bil-
dung” proved to be the seminal work of Robinsohn
(1972), pointing out the opposition of the ability
to “master life situations” versus the capability to
“interpret the world”. Also significant for this dis-
course was the work of Roth (1976) who demand-
ed to foster the competency to act which however
should be regulated through the capability of crit-
ical thinking, embodied in “ Mündigkeit” which
means self-reflecting autonomy. This formula
which contains implicitly the dialectics of shap-
ing and critique proved to become influentical for
↑ vocational pedagogy up till now. For the pole act-
ing can be seen as connected with the “tacit di-
mension” of knowledge (POLANYI 1985b) or rath-
er “↑ tacit knowing” (cf. NEUWEG 2001; → 5.1.5) as
well as with know-how which can lead, mainly via
experiences from acting, to expertise (DREYFUS /
DREYFUS 1987; cf. FISCHER 2000; ERAUT 2000a).
Thus this pole gets it’s own independent basis in
relation to “know that” and “know why” with their
foundation in scientific knowledge.
Individual – Society
“Bildung” in the emphatic sense of the German
idealistic tradition (Humboldt) is foremost an indi-
vidual concept meaning “internal” “emancipation”
from external coercion which can not be justified
(BLANKERTZ 1982b; 1985). However, it should at the
same time – in an equally emphatic formulation –
aim at societal liberation so that Heydorn (1979)
states an “opposition or contradiction between
“Bildung” and power” (HEYDORN 1972; KONEFFKE
1986). But vocational pedagogy, under the present
societal conditions, is compelled in any case to
cope with young people’s future work situations
which are not determined by their own will. There-
fore it has to lower these idealistic demands with-
Research Methods
out, however, to abandon them altogether. Shaping
orientation then means to support providing work
situations where the people concerned can partici-
pate in decisions whenever possible. This demand
is made explicit in several chapters of this hand-
book. But in the end it is overall important for all
areas related to practice and ↑ participation is a de-
cisive criterion for acknowledging in how far the
methodological postulate of shaping orientation is
taken as significant. At the same time one should
always keep in mind that participation is limited
by power relations in society (LANGE 1988) and in
working conditions (SCHUDY 1999) – which is what
the sociology of power (BAETHGE / BAETHGE-K INSKY
1995, 144; cf. BRAVERMAN 1974) is deliberating.
The opposition within the interaction of the indi-
vidual and society is here therefore represented as
the opposition of participation and securing power.
The latter, however, is in modern societies not pos-
sible without a certain degree of integration of the
people impaired in their societal status.
Rationality – Wishes
Since the renaissance period science has been
more and more connected with rationality.
In this process the social sciences and the ↑ Hu-
manities have taken the area of emotions as one
of their subjects too. For pedagogy particularly the
theory of socialisation (HURRELMANN 1995) is sig-
nificant, and the “connection of social structure
and personality” (ibido) brings the ↑ interdiscipli-
nary view to the fore. The individual aspect of de-
velopment of the personality has been described
by Roth (1976) in a “realistic” perspective and
was called “self competency” or personal com-
petency (PRANDINI 2001, 186, 277) which is con-
nected with personal attitudes and values. In ↑ vo-
cational pedagogy the humanistic psychology (RO-
GERS 1942) became influential, and particularly the
“pyramid” of human needs according to Maslow
(1981) was used to analyse the structure of moti-
vation. For “holistic” VET (OTT 1995, 29, 59) “af-
fective-ethical” learning is accentuated. For inves-
tigations about vocational/occupational socialisa-
tion (HEINZ 1995; LEMPERT 1998) coping with emo-
tions has become important within the framework
of analyses of constituting personal identity (cf.
CIOMPI 1999). The principle of shaping orientation
721
reaches beyond that because it is also asked how
it may be possible to do justice to the emotional
wishes of the people. As it was said before shap-
ing orientation means to give individual and col-
lective wishes the same value as rationality (DER-
BOLAV 1978). The dialectics between the two poles
is represented by the demand that these wishes and
desires should be subject to critical thinking. But
also the aims and methods, which appear to be ra-
tionally substantiated should be called into ques-
tion in how far they are adequate to the emotion-
al needs.
Structure – Processes of Decision
In the scientific tradition the social sciences and
the humanities have the task to discover objective
regularities (the structure) of the societal and indi-
vidual evolution, including their origins and driv-
ing forces as well as tendencies for future devel-
opments. This is particularly the case for the dis-
course about the development of qualifications
(BAETHGE / BAETHGE-K INSKY 1995, 143 ff.) as well
as for the contentious proposition of a technologi-
cally and economically determined “logic of de-
velopment” which has been disputed since 1986 by
Rauner and many others. But it applies of course
also to theories of socialisation and even personal-
isation (PIAGET 1976).
Most areas of ↑ VET research are governed to a
high degree by this paradigma, too. Shaping as
methodological orientation confronts that with the
principle of human freedom. (1987) had, in the year
1943, provoked a shock in the philosophy by for-
mulating this principle in the rather extreme notion
of existentialism. Shaping orientation has to resort
to this concept, even in a rather moderated fashion.
For shaping has, already as a concept in itself, to
presuppose the possibility of free choice between
alternatives. The dialectics of processes of unre-
stricted decisions and the structural determination
of development means, however, that the choice
between alternatives is confined to those which ap-
pear to be feasible within this framework of deter-
mination. The other way around it becomes thus
obvious that these factors of determination are, at
least partly, produced through co-operation of acts
of free decision. This again brings the political di-
mension of shaping to the fore (OEHLKE 2001a).
722
5.1.4.3 Historical Origins
In the areas relevant for ↑ VET research the con-
cept of shaping has been, in Germany, formulat-
ed explicitly at first in the 70’s in connection with
the striving for making (industrial) work more
humane (“Humanisierung der Arbeit”). Before,
within the efforts of the working-class movement
to carry through political education for the labour-
ers, the trade unions aimed more at critical en-
lightment of the proletariat. Materials for inform-
ing these endeavours like the booklets relating to
work relations (“Themenkreis Betrieb”, cf. BROCK /
HINDRICHS / HOFFMANN ET AL. 1969) were mostly in-
spired by the book “Sociological imagination and
learning from case studies” (“Soziologische Phan-
tasie und exemplarisches Lernen”, NEGT 1968)
which, however, contains already significant as-
pects of shaping orientation. For imagination is re-
quired in order to be able to outline alternatives to
the existing circumstances in society and in com-
panies. At the same time (“sociological”) under-
standing of the driving societal forces is neces-
sary which are frequently not noticed within the
concrete realities of a company and which main-
ly manifest themselves as power relations. Learn-
ing from case studies should help not to be content
with abstract analyses but to devise alternatives.
The German “constitutional law for work rela-
tions” (“Betriebsverfassungsgesetz”), in force
from the year 1972 up to now, demands that the
working conditions should be shaped according to
the proven knowledge drawn from the work sci-
ences. That strengthened the respective research
(PÖHLER 1979) which was supported, since 1974,
by the action programme “Research for making
working life more humane” (“Forschung zur Hu-
manisierung des Arbeitslebens”, cf. OEHLKE 2001a,
81).
The conventional approach of research which
stresses the distinction between researcher and ↑ re-
search object was supplemented by the approach
of action research. This participatory research in-
cluded the question of the qualifications (or com-
petences) necessary to develop for participating in
decisions (FRICKE / FRICKE / SCHÖNWÄLDER / STIEGLER
1981) in order to foster the shaping opportunities
of the employees (FRICKE / PETER / PÖHLER 1982). In
the expert opinion “Work and technology as a task
Handbook of TVET Research
of political shaping” (“Arbeit und Technik als poli-
tische Gestaltungsaufgabe”) the authors (FRICKE /
K RAHN / PETER 1985) stressed the political dimen-
sion and emphasised that work content and organ-
isational features are closely connected with the
state of the technology applied. Rosenbrock (1984)
formulated in a booklet published by the German
metal workers union: “Development of technolo-
gy: shaping can be done”. He showed from case
studies that there have often been ramifications
within the development of technology. Therefore
it is possible to influence it in order to make work-
ing life more humane and to foster the social shap-
ing of technology. According to those ideas the
“Research and development programme work
and technology” was designed in 1989, and later a
framework for action research called “Innovative
shaping of work – future of work” was implement-
ed (OEHLKE 2001a). During the 1980’s especially
Rauner (1986; 1988a) introduced shaping orien-
tation as a methodological postulate into VET re-
search (see also HEIDEGGER 1978). That presented
a new idea of what (vocational) “Bildung” should
be about by aiming precisely at “enabling peo-
ple to take part in shaping work and technology”.
Shaping orientation as an ↑ interdisciplinary ↑ re-
search approach has since become relevant in var-
ious areas of VET research like ↑ VET planning,
↑ vocational didactics, the sciences of vocational
areas, but beyond that also for shaping one’s own
occupational biography (HENDRICH 2002, 92 ff.;
cf. Tippelt 1995). This research approach was
from the beginning also embedded in internation-
al studies (RAUNER / RASMUSSEN / CORBETT 1988; see
MACK ENZIE / WAJCMAN 1985) and incorporates in-
to itself the existence of different “industrial cul-
tures” which present specific conditions for shap-
ing (COOLEY 1988, DEITMER / RUTH 2001).
5.1.4.4 Areas of Shaping Oriented VET
Research
In the following three areas shall be outlined where
shaping orientation is explicitly of particular rele-
vance (→ 3.8; see also FISCHER / HEIDEGGER / PETER-
SEN ET AL. 2001).
Research Methods
Shaping of Humane Work
Shaping of work content is closely connected with
that of work organisation since the latter deter-
mines, to a large degree, the distribution of tasks
amongst a work team (MARTIN 1995a, 147). (See
for the “Interaction of shaping and organisation of
work” from the point of view of the work sciences
→ 3.5.2.). The development of these relations un-
der the conditions of capitalism is, in the research
of industrial sociology, mainly viewed in the per-
spective of “rationalisation” – making production
more efficient (“Rationalisierung” – cf. BAETHGE /
BAETHGE-K INSKY 1995). Traditionally, and nowa-
days again more strongly, these investigations an-
alyse more the consequences of technological in-
novations rather than shaping them. For the strat-
egies of making work more effective have usually
been conceived as being completely determined by
economic – technological rationality. Because of
the connection between work organisation, work
content and the qualification requirements – even
if the latter are not completely determined by the
former (LUTZ 1979) – this research is very impor-
tant for VET although it is not (yet) shaping ori-
ented. The relevance is, however, restricted main-
ly to about one third of the jobs and apprentice-
ships, namely those which are situated in the sec-
tor of the economy that is related to the global
markets. In addition, this research is mostly aim-
ing at the area of the production of tangible goods.
In the beginning of the 1980’s it became more ob-
vious that even under the conditions of capital-
ism different modes of fostering the ↑ efficiency
of work can co-exist and compete with each other.
On the one hand one was (LUTZ 1988) – and still
is – afraid that, supported by increased comput-
ing power and improved software (e. g. for experts’
systems), the computer-based “Neo-Taylorism”
will be maintained or re-introduced. On the other
hand a strong trend towards “↑ efficiency-heighten-
ing centred on personal competences” (BAETHGE /
BAETHGE-K INSKY 1995, 149 ff.) observed: in the ar-
ea of industrial production the “new modes of pro-
duction” (K ERN / SCHUMANN 1984), in the area of
business processes the “↑ systemic rationalisation”
(BAETHGE / OBERBECK 1986). Here aspects like mar-
ket relations, customer orientation and flexibility
are of importance. Thus the possibility of shaping
723
the way of using the technology and the work or-
ganisation becomes explicitly visible – as a per-
manent task. Here processes of negotiation – with-
in the enterprises and on the societal level – be-
come important. Contrary to current trends “post-
materialistic” interests (INGLEHART 1989) of the
employees gain relevance. They aim at demand-
ing ↑ work tasks, development of competences and
communicative co-operation of autonomous per-
sons. (MOLDASCHL / VOSS 2002) however view the
above mentioned changes of “rationalisation strat-
egies in a critical perspective as nothing more than
replacing the “code power”) by the “code market”.
For making the optimistic vision of shaping be-
coming reality the necessary competences have
to be fostered. That should lead to putting the in-
dividual into the centre of VET to a degree not
known before.
Social (or Socially Acceptable) Shaping of
Technology
This is relevant, within the framework of ↑ VET
research, particularly for the relation of the use of
technology and the shaping of work organisation
and work content. The decisive changeover hap-
pened at the beginning of the 1980’s when the re-
spective discourse turned from consequences to
shaping (FISCHER 2001b; 46 ff.). Whilst before one
had assumed that economic and technological de-
terminism means to look only for consequences it
was now emphasised that shaping not only is the
way of using technology is possible, but even be-
yond that the way of designing and developing it
(RAUNER 1986). Historical investigations (KUBY
1980; NOBLE 1979) had shown that already former-
ly the “progress” of technology was only partly de-
termined by “techno-logical” inevitability, even in
view of the primacy of the economic forces. Par-
ticularly the influence of cultural factors was dis-
covered, amongst them the “symbolism” con-
nected with technical artefacts (GERDS 1988). Re-
searching into the ↑ shaping of work and technol-
ogy soon expanded beyond the limits of the single
work place. Rauner (1986, 137 ff.) has developed a
matrix of the “fields of shaping technology” where
the “domains of technology and it’s applications”
intersect with the “social areas of shaping technol-
ogy”. The latter include work place, individual life-
724
world, sciences and ↑ humanities, political groups,
social partners, state agencies etc. In each of these
social areas the individual views things in a spe-
cific perspective where these perspectives can also
be different for the individual actor and the respec-
tive social group (SCHACHTNER 1997). Thus it be-
comes necessary to induce overarching processes
of arranging compromises. For enabling people to
take part in these processes technological educa-
tion as part of technical VET and training should
care for explicitly fostering willingness and ability.
A little earlier the relatively new discourse about
ecology and environment protection (ULLRICH 1977)
had gained influence. Even if it generally has lost
some of it’s prominence the debates about genet-
ic engineering in agriculture and, more general,
bio-technology to be used for medical purposes
are still very contentious. Volmerg and Senghaas-
Knobloch (1992, 30 ff.) propose to induce a partic-
ipative dialogue of non-professional people, sup-
ported by expertise. This should offer “opportuni-
ties to develop an attitude of common responsibil-
ity for the consequences of technological develop-
ments” (SENGHAAS-K NOBLOCH 2001, 75). For that
the rather new research area regarding the “eth-
ics of technology” becomes increasingly relevant
(ZIMMERLI 1998; HASTEDT 1991; DECKER 2001).
Shaping Oriented VET
When it comes to VET the research concerning the
humane shaping of work and the above mentioned
social shaping of technology as mentioned above,
contributes to exploring the opportunities to influ-
ence the conditions of future occupational work.
Shaping orientation as a menthodological princi-
ple becomes the focus of vocational pedagogics as
an area of ↑ VET research. For that Rauner (1988b)
had, as already mentioned, proposed to implement
“enabling people to take part in shaping work and
technology as guiding principle for VET”. At the
same time, the idea of “action orientation” for VET
teaching and learning had become, in Germany,
the most prominent approach for vocational peda-
gogics, even if often only as a postulate. This was
based on Roth’s (1976) proposal to install “com-
petency for acting “As the new formulation of the
general aim of “Bildung” (or education) of a per-
son who at the same time had gained self-reflect-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing autonomy through critical thinking. The latter,
however, was not adequately represented even in
the modern concept of “complete action” (LAUR-
ERNST 1984) which includes the ability to inde-
pendently plan and carry through a work task and
check the results.
Thus action orientation can also be used, in the ex-
treme case, as an effective method for the “adap-
tation approach” in VET. This means that people
are trained to adapt their competences, or rather
skills, to the tasks without influencing the features
of the latter (see also PÄTZOLD / WALZIK 2002). Ac-
cording to section 2 (→ 5.1.4.2) “shaping” repre-
sents the appropriate “regulative principle” for act-
ing. Therefore action orientation as a pedagogical
method should be transformed into shaping orien-
tation as a didactical postulate for teaching and
learning in VET (“Shaping competency”: HEI-
DEGGER 1996). Here the concept of didactics is to
be understood in the sense of a mutual interaction
of didactics and methods (JANK / MEYER 2002) and
thus has always to include the definition and reflec-
tion of the educational aims (see HEIDACK 2001) of
VET. These aims can transcend those of the en-
terprises, even in view of the de facto prevalence
of their demands. For the whole educational sys-
tem must be relatively autonomous, according to
Bourdieu and Passeron (1971), if it is to fulfil it’s
overall tasks even in a capitalist society (see also
LUTZ 1979; ARNOLD / LIPSMEIER 1995, 20–22). Ac-
cording to this premise VET must reach beyond
the special qualification for “occupational fitness”
and must include occupational self-reflecting au-
tonomy, in the sense of Roth’s triad of person-
al and social competences as well as those relat-
ed to the technical tasks of a specific occupation.
To explore the possibilities how to improve that is
the task of VET research in the area “Didactics of
VET” (→ 3.6). Here, as mentioned, shaping orien-
tation means to transcend enlightenment in teach-
ing and learning and to discover, with imagination,
new solutions and even to test them, if possible.
(See for vocational colleges HEIDEGGER /ADOLPH /
LASKE 1997; ADOLPH 2001; KMK 1991b). For that
it is the task of VET research to connect the di-
dactics of VET with other fields of shaping prac-
tices, as mentioned above and described in chap-
ters of this handbook like “Occupational work and
Research Methods
development of competences” (→ 3.5), “Planning
and developing VET” (→ 3.4) and “Development
of job profiles” (→ 3.1). Shaping orientation rep-
resents a decisive guiding principle also for the re-
search of the “occupational/↑ vocational sciences”
regarding special ↑ occupational fields (→ 3.2) be-
cause it tackles the problem of defining and mas-
tering ↑ occupational tasks within the framework
of the organisational and ↑ human resources devel-
opment of companies.
5.1.5 The Tacit and Implicit as a
Subject of VET Research
Georg Hans Neuweg
The concept of ↑ tacit (or ↑ implicit) knowledge de-
notes that knowledge which manifests itself in be-
haviour in a wider sense, that is, in the process-
es of perception, judgement, anticipation, thought,
decision-making or action, and which is not, not
completely or not adequately explicable (verbalis-
able, objectifiable, formalisable, technicisable) by
the subject nor, under some circumstances, by the
analytical observer. The concept is not exhausted
by the notion of automatism, but also – and espe-
cially – includes flexible ways of acting. Neither
is it identical with knowing-how or procedural
knowledge because people, beyond an ‘expert eye’
and various abilities and skills, also demonstrate
knowledge of what is or will be the case – a know-
ing-that, therefore, concerning the structural char-
acteristics of their surrounding world, without nec-
essarily being able to put into words the contents of
the schemata or mental models attributed to them.
It is not by chance that M. Polanyi as a rule uses
the term ‘tacit knowing’ instead of ‘tacit knowl-
edge’. From that it becomes clear that he is inter-
ested not in mental structures or knowledge as
some sort of substance but rather in knowing as a
process. The view is directed towards perceptual,
decision-making, and action dispositions and the
corresponding forms of ↑ performance (knowing);
only from here does the enquiry return to the re-
lationship between knowledge in the proper sense
and practical or vocational knowing.
725
The concept of ‘↑ inert knowledge’ (GRUBER /
RENKL 2000) also owes its existence to the differ-
ence between verbalisable knowledge and know-
ing-how, a concept which refers to (at least poten-
tially) activity-oriented explicit knowledge, which
is not, or not adequately, reflected in correspond-
ing dispositions to judge or to act. While at least
in German-speaking countries the concept of in-
ert knowledge remains bound to the cognitivistic
paradigm and so to the idea of an integration of ex-
plicit knowledge and knowing-how, the debate on
the ‘implicit’ is to a greater extent devoted to the
categorical difference between explicit knowledge
and knowing-how, the internal structure of ↑ expe-
riential knowledge and the limits of learning to act
by means of instruction and schooling. It is for this
reason – so far much more strongly in the English-
speaking countries (see for example IMEL 2003) –
that TVET research, long familiar with the theory/
practice problem, is interested in it.
Reception and diffusion of the concept of tac-
it knowledge are hampered by the extraordi-
nary disciplinary breadth of the academic dis-
course. The relevant research contexts are uni-
fied less by a homogenous paradigmatic start-
ing point or even ↑ research methodology than by
common approaches to inquiry and modes of re-
sponse. Important areas of inquiry here are, above
all, philosophy and epistemology (for example PO-
LANYI 1964; 1966; 1969), ordinary language phi-
losophy (RYLE 1949; K EMMERLING 1975; WITTGEN-
STEIN 1953; SCHNEIDER 1993), cognitive science
and AI (for example FODOR 1981; SEARLE 1983;
SUCHMAN 1987; DREYFUS 1972; DREYFUS / DREYFUS
1986), theoretical psychology (NISBETT / WILSON
1977), experimental psychology (for example R E-
BER 1989; 1993; BERRY 1997; NEUWEG 2000b; for
criticism see: HAIDER 2000), sociology of science
(for example FLECK 1935; KUHN 1970), sociology
of knowledge (for example COLLINS /KUSCH 1998;
COLLINS 2001), sociology of culture (for example
BOURDIEU 1990; 1992), industrial sociology and
sociology of work (for example BÖHLE / SCHULZE
1997), industrial psychology (VOLPERT 1994;
2003; HACKER 1998), research on expertise (for
example SCHÖN 1983; 1987; BENNER 1984; WAHL
1991; BROMME 1992; 1996; BÜSSING / HERBIG 2003a;
→ 3.4.2), pedagogy of technical and vocational
726
education and training (for example ERAUT 1994;
2000; FISCHER 2000; NEUWEG 2001) and business
economics, particularly intensively, along with or-
ganisation theory (for example ORTMANN 2003)
and decision theory (for example FRANCK 1992), in
the area of ↑ knowledge management (for example
NONAKA / TAKEUCHI 1995; BAUMARD 1999; for criti-
cisms see NEUWEG 2007).
For TVET research a specific view emerges in this
discourse on the theory/practice problem which
can be termed the ↑ tacit knowing view (see NEU-
WEG 2001; 2004b; 2005; 2006). Its core assump-
tions are:
– (vocational practical) knowing-how to a consid-
erable extent cannot – or cannot only – be under-
stood as mere application of knowledge;
– particularly in the case of persons with vocation-
al experience, intuitive moments play a central role
in perception and action;
– actors are unable – or only insufficiently – to
verbalise the ‘knowledge basis’ of their actions;
– intelligent practice is codifiable only to a limited
extent, even for the external observer; and conse-
quently
– central ↑ performance conditions are acquired –
and have to be acquired – not through verbal in-
struction but through experience and example,
through exemplary action, as in the master-appren-
tice relationship, and in ↑ communities of practice.
Correspondingly, interest in the implicit is concen-
trated primarily on the aspects of the intuitive, the
non-verbalisable, the non-formalisable and/or the
experience-dependent.
5.1.5.1 The Intuitive Aspect
The assumption that beyond reportable knowledge
there are other generative principles of intelligent
practice represents a significant theoretical chal-
lenge for the common way of thinking about hu-
man action. It contrasts with the widespread ten-
dency to interpret intuitive forms of action as mere
automatisms and routines which are characterised
by an inflexibility and a far-reaching unconscious-
ness in their execution. And it also contrasts with
the tendency to characterise skilled work and in
general specifically human forms of action as re-
flective, being planned in advance, or being the
result of the application of knowledge (for crit-
Handbook of TVET Research
icism of the understanding of acting as a double
act of thinking and doing, see RYLE 1949; NEU-
WEG 2000a). The difficulties which experienced
and in no way automatically-acting experts have
in reporting mental precursor- or accompanying
processes and structures of their actions suggest
that both the concept of knowledge application and
that of routine may not apply to significant forms
of skilled action, above all that of the ‘true master’
(VOLPERT 1994, 121).
Attempts at the phenomenological reconstruc-
tion of expert and experience-led action have so
far resulted in a range of concepts, although they
share a family resemblance: for example, ↑ intui-
tive-improvisatory (VOLPERT 1994; 2003), intu-
itive (DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1986), artistic (BRAT-
ER 1984), subjectivising (BÖHLE / MILKAU 1988;
BÖHLE / SCHULZE 1997) or ↑ situated action (SUCH-
MAN 1987). Related ideas are expressed by the
concepts of habitus (BOURDIEU 1992), knowing-in-
action (SCHÖN 1983; 1987) or tacit knowing (Po-
lanyi). Concepts of this kind model forms of activ-
ity control with an intuitive character and, in com-
parison with mere automatisms, at the same time
with greater flexibility, in respect of which the ac-
tor does not act entirely unconsciously but rather
directs his concentration towards the situation or
task, not his own cognitions. Such action is direct-
ed less by plans than by the sensible entering in-
to the situative and constantly changing circum-
stances. Under certain conditions, particularly of
a subtle fit between level of competence and level
of challenge and clear, continuous feedback on the
success of one’s own action, this mode of action
can combine with a specific quality of experience
termed ‘flow’ (CSIKSZENTMIHALYI 1982).
As a condition of the appearance of such forms
of activity control on the side of the person, what
stands out above all is the level of experience or
the level of competence-challenge-fit, in respect
of which with increasing experience planned ac-
tion gives way more and more to an intuitive Ge-
stalt apprehension and a relatively spontaneous un-
dertaking of action (cf. on this the five-stage skill-
acquisition model of DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1986). A
‘dropping out’ (VOLPERT 1994; 2003) from the in-
tuitive mode becomes probable when the natural
interplay between situation and action is disturbed
Research Methods
by unusual difficulties. The previously quasi-re-
flective action then becomes in a sense reflective,
although there must be no recourse to decontextu-
alised knowledge. Rather the expert thinks by act-
ing (cf. on this Schön’s concepts of reflection-in-
action and on-the-spot-experiment) or situatedly
about his acting and the knowledge incorporated
in it (cf. the concept of ‘deliberative rationality’ in
DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1986, 36 ff., 165 ff., which finds
expression in the critical consideration of one’s
own ↑ intuitions).
Concerning the object, apart from the extent of the
relevant pressure to act or the existence of oppor-
tunities for ‘stop-and-think’ which are a precondi-
tion of planning, the degree of environmental dy-
namics and their unpredictability is the essential
condition; the more the environment develops a
life of its own and the less these changes are pre-
dictable, the more the intelligence of action pass-
es from the planning to the activity level. The find-
ings of experimental psychology foster the suspi-
cion, in addition, that intuitive modes of problem-
solving arise above all under conditions of high
complexity and under these conditions are possi-
bly more successful too (cf. NEUWEG 2000b and the
recommendations for further reading there).
5.1.5.2 The Non-Verbalisable Aspect
In terms of ↑ research methodology the concept
of ↑ tacit knowing gives reasons for far-reach-
ing doubts about the possibility of explicating the
knowledge-basis of expert action by means of in-
terview procedures (→ 5.2.5). It is first of all to be
concluded from the obviously fractured relation-
ship between expertise in ↑ verbalisation and in
action that ↑ performance itself is ultimately the
sole correct indicator of knowing-how and there-
fore must also be the decisive starting point for
competence diagnostic measures (NEUWEG 2002a;
→ 5.2.6). Insofar as experienced experts ‘can know
more than they can tell’ (cf. POLANYI 1966, 4) in-
terrogation procedures aimed at the knowledge
which is assumed to lie behind knowing-how are
in danger not merely of missing their target, but
they can even distort it if test subjects yield to the
legitimation pressure arising from the interview
situation and then ‘tell more than they can know’
(cf. NISBETT / WILSON 1977). As a function of the
727
competence for rationalisation of the relevant test
subjects one comes to a systematic overestimation
of the degree of consciousness of activity control
and particularly of the degree of ↑ abstraction of
the knowledge involved. The discussion concern-
ing the reliability of verbal data (cf. particularly
ERICSSON / SIMON 1980) has rightly led to the basic
rule, ‘avoid everything which induces the test sub-
jects to infer mental processes and structures in-
stead of merely recalling them’.
Failure to observe this basic rule is all the more
important the less activity control on the part of
experts can be understood as the working out of
plans and the application of knowledge. For exam-
ple, Dreyfus/ Dreyfus’s (1986) stage model of ex-
pertise development postulates in the train of ex-
tended experience a transition from rule-led to in-
tuitive action which is to be understood not as the
becoming unconscious of originally conscious
rules, but rather as a qualitative process of enrich-
ment. Interrogation procedures would in this case
directly obscure the nature of expertise because
they require the expert to regress to a knowledge
of rules which he has already left behind (cf. also
DREYFUS 1982). Similarly, Suchman (1987) under-
stands plans articulated ex post as rationalisations
of an in fact ↑ situated action whose outstanding
characteristic – the intuitive-creative involvement
in the special features of the situation and their
partly unforeseeable development dynamic – gets
lost in these articulations.
One can counter the difficulty of test subjects con-
fusing what really directs their actions and how
they explain their actions after the fact by getting
them to verbalise their mental processes simulta-
neously with their actions. Such procedures are, on
the one hand, confronted by the objection that the
call to introspection changes its object or in the ex-
treme case makes it disappear, because it changes
the cognitive modus operandi. On the other hand,
however, drops in performance caused by reflec-
tion or introspection may provide important clues
as to what is implicit in the unaffected normal case
in perception and action (see, for example BAUMEIS-
TER 1984; MASTERS 1992; WILSON / SCHOOLER 1991;
SCHOOLER / OHLSSON / BROOKS 1993).
In the circumstances described it is natural to de-
fine, by means of psychological research, those
728
processes of information processing and those
mental structures concerning which the sub-
jects can give no information and to reconstruct
the corresponding behaviour by means of genera-
tive rules which are validated not – as, for exam-
ple, in the ‘Subjective Theories’ (Subjektive The-
orien – GROEBEN / WAHL / SCHLEE 1988) ↑ research
programme – communicatively but rather in terms
of behavioural prognoses and in the ideal case by
means of computer simulations. Fodor (1981, 75) is
among the most prominent representatives of this
position:
if X is something an organism knows how to do but is
unable to explain how to do, and if S is some sequence
of operations, the specification of which would consti-
tute an answer to the question ‘How do you X?’, and if
an optimal simulation of the behavior of the organism X
is by running through the sequence of operations speci-
fied by S, then the organism tacitly knows the answer to
the question ‘How do you X?’, and S is a formulation of
the organism’s tacit knowledge.
Consequently, the theoretical challenge consists of
shedding light from the third person perspective
on the internal structures behind the competence
of the first person and not – as, for example, in Ryle
(RYLE 1949) – remaining at the level of mere at-
tributions of dispositions. There would be signifi-
cant practical returns from such a ↑ research strat-
egy in the creation of possible foundations for the
technicisation and computerisation of human com-
petences, for example, in the form of ↑ expert sys-
tems.
From a TVET perspective, however, what is inter-
esting is not primarily how one can theoretically
(or also practically, in the form of technical arte-
facts) simulate certain forms of knowing-how, but
rather how one can teach them. It can be objected,
first, that not every descriptive rule which appro-
priately predicts behaviour also has to be a gener-
ative rule for learners which supports the acquisi-
tion of the corresponding competence. For exam-
ple, the ability to maintain one’s balance on a bi-
cycle can be described entirely in terms of phys-
ical rules without these rules being useful in the
acquisition of this ability. Second, the reconstruc-
tion of implicit knowing as ‘unconscious’ but in
principle nevertheless propositionally represent-
able knowledge can strongly influence modes of
didactic thought. The idea of describing the ef-
Handbook of TVET Research
fect of experience as ‘knowledge’ suggests, name-
ly, understanding didactically supported learning
as the process of knowledge transmission and the
development of knowing-how as the gradual be-
coming-unconscious of originally explicit knowl-
edge as ‘proceduralisation’ (for example in ANDER-
SON 1987 or H ACKER 1998). Alongside the manifold
forms of ↑ implicit learning, those ways of learn-
ing, conversely, with respect to which structures of
explicit knowing arise in the wake of reflection on
previously accumulated implicit knowing, then fall
out of view.
From a philosophy of science standpoint too the
constructs in terms of which the observer de-
scribes, predicts and, possibly, simulates human
behaviour should not be attributed to the subject as
‘unconscious knowing’ (cf. NEUWEG 2001, 90 ff.;
for criticisms GADENNE 2000). The thesis that a
causal ‘tacit knowledge’ generates behaviour is
confronted by the objection that it does not explain
behaviour but rather doubles it through the intro-
duction of theoretical artefacts. The assertion that
a person behaves in this way or another and uncon-
sciously knows about the rules with which the ob-
server describes and predicts this behaviour would
be unfalsifiable and ultimately give expression to a
category error as described by Ryle (RYLE 1949).
5.1.5.3 The Unformalisable Aspect
The discussion of the implicit becomes radical-
ised when it is understood not merely as the intu-
itive and non-verbalisable in the first-person per-
spective but also as what is non-formalisable and
non-technicisable for the third person. This inter-
pretation of the concept, which is highly signifi-
cant in the context of the AI debate, is also full of
consequences from a didactic standpoint. While,
that is, with respect to knowledge which is non-
verbalisable merely for the first person, but exter-
nally analysable, it can meaningfully be asked and
empirically examined in what way it is suitably ac-
quired, a knowledge which in principle cannot be
described by means of rules can by definition be
acquired only implicitly, because ‘[a]n art which
cannot be specified in detail cannot be transmitted
by prescription, since no prescription for it exists’
(POLANYI 1964, 53).
Research Methods
In the substantiation of the non-formalisability the-
sis patterns of argumentation concerning the sub-
ject, external demands, and knowledge are as a rule
interconnected. Concerning the subject, alongside
references to the sensual-bodily foundations of hu-
man perception and competences – for example,
the proverbial ‘flair’ – special features of ↑ experi-
ential knowledge are postulated which render de-
scription in terms of rules impossible. It is argued,
for example, that this knowledge can be under-
stood as a library of case types, which enables the
expert to recognise a given situation and the call
to action contained in it spontaneously and with-
out analytical examination of the configuration of
features as typical (DREYFUS 1972; DREYFUS 1982;
DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1986). On the basis of its Ge-
stalt character and the subtlety with which the con-
textual factors enter into the interpretation of the
situation it is impossible to describe these experi-
ence-based classes of similar situations by means
of isolatable elements and combinatory rules.
In patterns of argument related to external de-
mands non-formalisability is justified by means
of the specific character of the action-demands to
be mastered. So, for example, Schön (1983) with
reference to complexity, uncertainty, instability,
uniqueness, and value conflict puts forward five
features of fields of practice which make it impos-
sible to understand professional action appropriate-
ly as the application of knowledge. Collins/ Kusch
(1998) relate their thesis about the non-substituta-
bility of experience and socialisation by instruction
(irreplaceability thesis) particularly to so-called
‘polymorphic actions’ whose competent execution
assumes an understanding of the relevant context
which can be acquired only through membership
of a ↑ community of practice and which as a result
can neither be simulated mechanically nor taught
through the imparting of knowledge of rules.
As regards knowledge, patterns of argument in
the tradition of Aristotelian phronesis (ARISTOT-
LE 2000), Kantian judgement (K ANT 1787; 1791) or
Wittgensteinian rule following refer to the inevita-
ble gaps between the abstractness of rules and the
concreteness of the individual situation and to the
impossibility deriving from the problem of infinite
regress of directing the process of situation-appro-
729
priate and creative rule interpretation in turn by
means of rules (DREYFUS 1972; ORTMANN 2003).
Common to these lines of argument, as a rule, is
the conviction that expert perception, thinking and
acting prove to be situated, related to special cas-
es and context-sensitive, so that their flexibility
and underlying situative understanding cannot be
exhaustively modelled in terms of rules (cf. NEU-
WEG 2002b). The fact that the expert answers the
question ‘By what in general does one know this
or that situation and what in general must be done
in it?’, by saying ‘it depends’, marks in this per-
spective the central difference between him and a
mere novice ‘working-to-rule’. This insight gives
rise, among other things, to the further question:
‘to what extent does the task often addressed in or-
ganisational ↑ knowledge management of explicat-
ing ↑ implicit knowledge under some circumstanc-
es unintentionally argue in favour of a deflexibili-
sation and bureaucratisation of organisations?’
5.1.5.4 The Experience-Dependence Aspect
Understanding of the limitations of attempts to
shorten learning processes through verbal instruc-
tion has accompanied vocational training theo-
ry since its beginnings. According to Kerschen-
steiner (1907) one must, for example, be able to
do cabinet-making and not merely know about it;
one does not become a joiner by virtue of being
able to repeat parrot-fashion everything that one
learned during one’s apprenticeship. What prima-
rily directs action is not book- and memory-based
knowledge but rather a slowly developing experi-
ential knowledge which develops alongside work
as it were as a by-product and can be substituted by
words only in a limited way.
The increasing awareness of the phenomenon of
experiential knowledge in general (cf. BÖHLE 003),
and the concept of implicit knowing in particular is
helping such insights to undergo a renaissance. Di-
dactic interest is shifting to a considerable extent
from learning in school-like situations to learning
in the operational field or in operational-field-like
↑ learning environments and above all to a learning
by means of socialisation processes in expert cul-
tures; from learning through describing to learn-
ing through familiarity; from learning with deper-
sonalised media of knowledge retention to a learn-
730
ing in face-to-face contact between experts and
novices; and from learning by means of commu-
nication of ↑ abstractions to a learning by means
of complex, realistic setting of tasks and paradig-
matic cases.
Knowledge of the limits of the teachability of ↑ tac-
it knowing which Polanyi (1964) not by chance
characterised as personal knowledge admonishes
us on the one hand to a fundamental didactic mod-
esty: ‘in the last resort we must rely on discovering for
ourselves the right feel of a skilful feat. We alone can
catch the knack of it; no teacher can do this for us’ (PO-
LANYI 1969, 126). On the other hand, from the tac-
it knowing view – depending on the specific theo-
retical frame of reference – much information re-
sults concerning the meaning, mechanisms and or-
ganisational options of situated, implicit, informal
and/or incidental learning (cf. for example NEU-
WEG 2000b; 2001, 245 ff., 367 ff.). The insight into
the inevitable role of one’s own action experiences
in the building up of competences supports, for ex-
ample, the idea of ↑ learning in the workplace and
also favours a fundamentally new attitude to the
↑ experiential knowledge of older workers. Knowl-
edge of the importance of personal contact be-
tween bearers and recipients of implicit knowing
is revitalising interest in model learning in on-the-
job training by working alongside a master crafts-
man (cf. GAMBLE 2001), and in this context it be-
comes clear that such learning ultimately does not
rest on blind imitation but rather on a sympathet-
ic understanding (Polanyi passim; ORTMANN 2003,
146 ff.; VOLPERT 2003). Beyond that, familiar di-
dactic principles are becoming newly accented
and legitimated by means of tacit knowing. Along-
side the co-presence of objects and language (NEU-
WEG 2001, 319 ff., 384 ff.), for example, the impor-
tance of example and context variation in the in-
terest of a contextualised teaching of ↑ abstractions
and for the purpose of building ‘flexible patterns’
(VOLPERT 1994), but also the importance of more
repetitive forms of practice (ALLEN 2000; BOLLNOW
1991), are emphatically being recalled.
Although a central challenge presented by the tac-
it knowing view crops up regularly in answers to
the question of what it really means to didactically
support an appropriate interplay between entering
into and reflection on experience, the discussion at
the same time strengthens the growing interest in
Handbook of TVET Research
informal forms of learning (cf. for example COF-
FIELD 2000; DOHMEN 2001) and suggests a strong-
er decoupling of the question of the acknowledge-
ment of competences from the ways in which they
came into being. For example, experimental psy-
chological research on ↑ implicit learning makes it
clear that surprisingly complex stimulus structures
can be developed even without didactic prepara-
tion and without conscious rule detection (REBER
1993). Information on the so far undervalued po-
tential of ↑ informal learning also results from the
insight that communities of practitioners are unit-
ed by style of thought and paradigms, as well as
by practicing rules and reporting back infringe-
ments of the rules, without these orientational
foundations having to be codified. Knowledge of
this kind ultimately cannot be transmitted institu-
tionally or at school; socialisation into such knowl-
edge assumes, rather, ↑ participation in the relevant
praxes and forms of life (cf. for example COLLINS /
KUSCH 1998; FLECK 1935; KUHN 1970; POLANYI
1964; LAVE / WENGER 1991).
Nevertheless, it should be kept in mind that a ↑ the-
ory of action, knowledge, and learning that is ad-
equate to the object and suitable for TVET re-
search must take into account both the delibera-
tive and the intuitive moments of vocational-prac-
tical knowing-how and vocation-related learning,
both the explicit and the implicit and, not least, not
only competence but also the educational dimen-
sion. In light of such a requirement it must be re-
membered that
– it is always also a question of defining that ex-
plicit knowledge which does not have to be ‘situat-
edly’, ‘implicitly’, ‘informally’ or even ‘incidental-
ly’ developed and, in order to save time, is not to be
so developed, because the tacit knowing view bare-
ly thematises the role of factual knowledge as an
unavoidable foundation of knowing-how in many
domains and the imparting of codified knowledge
generally remains an excellent means of intergen-
erational and interpersonal knowledge transfer;
– reflection, conceptual penetration and mental
grasping of principles and rules are sometimes un-
avoidable in the decontextualising and flexibilising
of knowing-how;
– the conditions of fluent and self-assured action
are frequently at the same time the conditions of
Research Methods
errors, and implicit knowing to that extent also
conceals the risk of a ‘tacit blindness’ (NEUWEG
2001, 344 ff.) which is to be reflexively corrected;
– vocational knowledge is by no means exhaust-
ed by know-how but in many cases necessarily in-
cludes a know-why which may be acquired only in
traditional school or college instruction;
– studies on implicit knowing constantly aim at
the dimension of practical knowing-how but hard-
ly ever operate with the concept of education and
culture and so run the risk of losing sight of those
stocks of explicit knowledge which someone must
possess if they would like to make free and at the
same time responsible decisions as a mature per-
son in an increasingly complex world.
From that point of view it is appropriate to recol-
lect that Kerschensteiner did not see his task as
merely extracting the valuable core of what one to-
day calls ‘the tacit’. He was also of the opinion that
there is ‘no worthwhile creation … without a cer-
tain measure of knowledge, that today can no long-
er be exclusively acquired on the path of personal
experience’ (1907, 48), for which reason ↑ experi-
ential knowledge must be married to book know-
ledge’ (1907, 51).
Regarded in this way research into the ‘implicit’
in the coming years not only must create the foun-
dation for an appropriate ‘marriage guidance’, but
will also have to ask to what extent the interest in
↑ informal learning possibly argues in support of a
de-institutionalisation of learning which will cer-
tainly relieve the national training/education budg-
et, but which can scarcely any longer count as edu-
cation in the full sense of the word.
731
5.1.6 On the Implementation
of Basic Methods in
Vocational Training
Research: (Observation,
Experimentation,
Interviewing, Content
Analysis)
Rainer Bremer
A prominent theoretician once stated, “anything
goes!” concerning the relationship between meth-
odology and empirical research (FEYERABEND
1976). This statement was levelled at the author-
ity inherent in the methodology of ↑ scientific the-
ory, its prerequisites and principles. It served the
purpose of unsettling two of their postulates. On
the one hand, it promised to generate empirical re-
search results deductively, through principles ele-
vated to research laws by their faithful application.
Coming from the other direction, too, than me-
thodically organised critique of submitted results
within the scientific community, these rules were
meant to watch over and evaluate the validity of re-
search results (POPPER, K. 1969; ALBERT 1969), by
examining them for conformity with the methodo-
logical rules deemed true and valid. This method
of examination, in particular, makes the mediation
of the methods programmatic that slip between sci-
entific cognition and its scientific theme like a fil-
ter. Feyerabend protested against this, stating that
by means of the initially methodologically con-
structed research instruments and designed meth-
ods, this is inevitably coupled with the conceiva-
bly greatest ↑ distance to the cognition of research
issues, which are to be worked upon using these
methods in the future. This means that the opti-
cal properties of the filter are fixed without any-
one involved having any knowledge about the light
in which the subject matter of the findings will ap-
pear. This gives rise to the possibility, in princi-
ple, of light not being allowed to fall onto the issue
being studied. Methodologically speaking, empiri-
cal research of this nature does not correspond to
a theoretical basis in its subject matter, moreover
producing it as a methodological artefact (Insti-
tut für Sozialforschung 1972). This is what Fey-
erabend reflects upon when he rejects the forced,
732
compulsive character of methodology which it ac-
quires by way of already determining the appro-
priateness of methods, which neither the research-
er nor the research topic have yet touched upon.
His critique makes an option for a new cognition
of ↑ scientific theory valid, something that medical
science matter-of-factly concedes with the max-
im “he/she who heals successfully is right”. Medi-
cal scientists do this, trusting in scientific rational-
ism, which they believe will prevail over any form
of obscurantism. Methodological rigour embodies
the risk of erring, while at the same time also ex-
cluding the risk of cognition (ref. the “Falsifica-
tion” concept POPPER, K. 1969 and ALBERT 1969).
At the same time, the development of methods per
se requires a certain openness, in order to prevent
its detachment from its field of application or the
↑ research field in an authoritarian pose (ref. contri-
butions by MITTELSTRASS 1979). Notwithstanding
this, modifications, experimental further develop-
ment or adaptation of methods introduced else-
where, such as clinical experiments in research on
vocational training, can result not only in the risk
of failure in the ↑ research question pursued and
of producing misleading results, but also of pro-
ducing fully-fledged disadvantages in terms of re-
search economics. Anyone who first needs to de-
velop methods in a field fundamentally limited by
scarce resources, rather than making use of exist-
ing methods, is faced with an expenditure that can
only be justified by proven, better quality results,
in comparison to the results of standard meth-
ods. This leads to the question of what method
ought to be used to obtain such proof. In the like-
lihood of first having to develop methods for this
as well, the dimensions of any research would in-
variably be transgressed, with the research relegat-
ed to the state of a mere experiment. Researchers
must therefore acquire a certain feeling of open-
ness in the development and application of meth-
ods as a flanking measure for their own plans rel-
atively quickly, with an eye towards safeguard-
ing their work through standardised methods and
the contemplation of deviations from these, if the
↑ research question or issue can otherwise only be
dealt with insufficiently.
In the case of ↑ research designs guided by hypoth-
eses, it is quite probable that transgressions against
Handbook of TVET Research
insufficient standard methods can still be control-
led to be in accord with the research intention, as
this can be accommodated by the extension and
adaptation of hypotheses into the design (ref. fun-
damentally to SCHNELL / HILL / ESSER 1992 and RIT-
SERT 1996). Feyerabend’s wholesome pragmatism,
moreover implies a healthy, productive doubt about
the extent of the general acceptance of standard
methods, as well as certain attitudes regarding the
reproducibility and validity of findings. It can be
proven, that “↑ objectivity” in the sense of repro-
ducibility and validity is significant both in terms
of research logic and in terms of practical research,
insofar as it is functional. This applies in particular
to market research and public opinion polling, as
it is not the development of opinions as a rule, but
rather their content and distribution over the total
population that is of interest. Scientifically relevant
interest simply consists in predictability.
The analysis of “the development of opinions”
using the instruments and methods of market re-
search and opinion polling has a similar purpose
of determining and assigning interest in the for-
mation and influencing of opinions to a ↑ research
method, which does not itself exercise any influ-
ence on the research topic (ref. to the controver-
sy about “action research”, WOHLRAPP 1979). Re-
search of this nature should after all, not influence
the manifest opinions of so-called consumers and
voters through interviewing, but rather describe
them in their latency, as a condition that must re-
main divorced from the method of discursive ra-
tionale, so that it remains open to continued ma-
nipulation.
The interconnection between cognitive interest
(ref. the origin of the term, HABERMAS 1968) and the
objective validity of knowledge has always chal-
lenged scientific reflection with respect to episte-
mological reflection. Banal relativism can lurk be-
hind the question “what is objectively true?” just
as much as exalted scepticism (ref. HORKHEIMER
1938). Pedagogics has always taken up “offers of
theory” (OELKERS / TENORTH 1987) and attempted to
reproduce model paradigms, methods and styles
based on their own questions. This article is to a
small degree, also pervaded by that theme. There
are however, enormous restrictions in the apprais-
al of offers of such theories, irrespective of how in-
Research Methods
fluential the theories have become, or whether they
are regarded as being so. Very few aspects are even
suited for consideration in terms of the question of
the “implementation of fundamental methods in
research on vocational training”; because of ones
own standards. A lack of appropriateness even ex-
ists where ostensibly scientific or epistemological
questions are being dealt with. ↑ Constructivism
(MATURANA 1993 and a treatise by Fischer 1993)
for instance, may have significance for education-
al theory or technical didactics; it may moreover
describe the learning of others, but it cannot pos-
sibly pose its relativistic basic question to its own
repertoire of methods. It is forced, in this regard,
to “fall back on unfamiliar explanation models”
(MEINEFELD 1995, 129). This is equally true for so-
called “↑ Contextualism” (ref. WILLASCHEK 2003),
which places perception and cognition in princi-
ple within the context proviso. Here too, the skep-
tical core concept sabotages all findings that might
eventuate because of its operatively manoeuvred
methods, however that might be possible and in
whatever manner this might eventuate. Scepti-
cism towards findings (which is in principle pro-
ductive), whether the findings reflect the context
of their development, explodes into a methodical
agnosticism that seeks to deny the comprehension
of the context. For scientific endeavours commit-
ted to the principle of critique, the context depend-
ence of empirically saturated cognition would be
just the requirement whose attainability contextu-
alism categorically seeks to exclude (ref. BOGUMIL /
IMMERFALL 1985).
Epistemological tendencies or ↑ scientific theories,
which deny this requirement, have nothing to offer
in the question regarding the “implementation of
↑ basic methods in research on vocational train-
ing”. As soon as the social science-informed cog-
nition interest is directed towards the contents of
what people think in their occupations and how
they act, insofar as this thinking and acting con-
stitutes their vocational capacity, what is tradition-
ally termed “↑ objectivity as avoidance of the pre-
conscious and projected” becomes important. At
the latest since Feyerabend, it can no longer be re-
duced methodologically to reproducibility and va-
lidity. Rather than the description and distribution
of opinions, attitudes and points of view, as in vot-
733
er and consumer research, an examination of the
development of vocational competency would per-
force have to take a different path of investigation,
one that not only states factors, but also interprets
them. This is necessary, as it is not by any means
clear from the beginning what necessary compe-
tences should be present in a specific occupation
and what competences do not have to be. Without
the method of “observation”, “interviews” would
hardly lead to insights worth speaking of. Obvi-
ously problematical in this context too, is who
should primarily be interviewed. Should it rath-
er be someone who requires the competence and
defines the need, or a person who disposes over
those competences already? It appears as though
the “development” of the answer through confron-
tation of different target groups with reciprocal
evaluations may be unavoidable, if we seek to in-
crease the validity of the data. In research on vo-
cational training, which is concerned with the es-
tablishment of requirements and their fulfilment
in ↑ teaching and learning processes, the methodi-
cally-generated data and findings are backed up by
contents to which the methods cannot remain in-
different. The fact that knowledge in social ↑ voca-
tions is largely based on people, whereas that of an
electro-technician or engineer is overwhelmingly
based on technological-scientific phenomena, im-
plies that the content of the structure of knowledge
that needs to be acquired for an occupation is de-
termined in its contents, by the domain in which it
is developed in its social-historical context.
In a description of perceived difficult tasks of a vo-
cation, an educator’s account, in which, for exam-
ple, it took him a considerable amount of time to
master cases like that of a three-year-old boy uri-
nating into the kindergarten’s sandbox, is on a com-
pletely different level of plausibility to the report
of a maintenance technician involved in car mod-
el changes, who succeeded, after many years on
the job in car-body construction, in securely cou-
pling the complex control system of the welding
robots with the technology of mains latching at the
first go. In order to ascertain, whether both the ed-
ucationalist and the industrial electronics techni-
cian utilized their professional work concepts to an
equally high level, research concerning this ques-
tion must be open to both scientific research logic
734
and practical research. The contents and form of
professional knowledge and skills is beyond me-
thodically proceeding, everyday theoretical inter-
pretation of the almighty social sciences. Freeing
ourselves from this level of interpretation howev-
er, confronts us with another problem, that of the
“paradox of experts”.
5.1.6.1 The Paradox of Experts
Methods considered fundamental in the social sci-
ences and partially seen as ultimate instruments,
cannot be taken over willy-nilly in research on vo-
cational training, at least in those fields directly as-
sociated with trade schools, such as those dealing
with work, ↑ work processes, qualifications, com-
petences, as well as reciprocally, processes con-
cerned with earnings and learning.
Even the most important results of developing vo-
cational skills and competences are not easily to
access by ↑ research methods, because all fully
built ↑ work process knowledge includes a hidden,
invisible part of work process related competences
which are not simply seeking to make these tasks
visible. So the constellation between field and re-
search associated with the topic of ↑ vocation pro-
duces a variable in turn, that has proven to be con-
text dependent, or more precisely, is domain de-
pendent (RAUNER 1998b; PAHL / RAUNER / SPÖTTL
2000). The proportion of declarable knowledge
and the percentage of skills recognizable in work
processes exist in every occupation, but are nei-
ther quantitatively identical nor qualitatively ho-
mogenous (RAUNER 2000a; 2002a). Expenditure
can accordingly be high, for the ascertainment of
the complementary portion respectively, pursuing
learning processes over a longer time. The varia-
ble itself remains unquantifiable up to that point
in time, where the research results are completely
available, since the proportion of declared knowl-
edge only becomes known through the counterpart
that has been made explicit and vice versa. The
general nature of this statement appears somewhat
unsatisfactory, but needs to be accepted here, as it
leads to an important problem of the implementa-
tion of fundamental ↑ research methods.
The “paradox of experts” of research on vocational
training is associated with these doubly determined
variables as regards the contents. Due to the high
Handbook of TVET Research
percentage of non-declarable or non-visible knowl-
edge and skills, i.e. because of the binding of their
contents to vocational domains (FISCHER 2000),
that do not primarily require or define knowledge
and skills per se, but rather their application as
competence (POLANYI 1966; NEUWEG 1999), a par-
ticular role of research, one which is based on its
methods and instruments and tolerates, sometimes
even requires, some functional amateurism in re-
gard to the research issue, is becoming precarious.
It is not enough for vocational ↑ training research,
to dispose over the most advanced, most elaborate
methodical specialisation, as long as this is not ac-
companied by responsibilities for the domain. The
instruments utilised will otherwise remain blunt
and blunt instruments are not conducive to under-
standing what goes on in the domain.
The situation could arise, where the “researcher-
layperson” is confronted by a plethora of things that
puzzle him, so that he is unable to ask questions
about everything. He may perhaps ask the wrong
questions by insisting on unimportant aspects and
ignoring the important factors (RÖBEN 2001). Con-
sequently he is helplessly at the mercy of what he
sees and is informed about, by others, without be-
ing able to vindicate himself behind the ↑ objectiv-
ity of his findings (→ 5.1.3).
Let us take the case of an expert for the domain
(“layperson-researcher”). Most of the information
such a person hears and sees will probably not only
be obvious to him, but already known to him. No-
one generally makes trivialities explicit, explains
them or poses them for discussion, but experts of
vocational domains often regard things as trivial
that cause laypersons to be extremely amazed and
pose a riddle to them. The interview and obser-
vation instruments used in such cases are no less
blunt than the ones used by the “researcher-lay-
person”. This paradox can be solved however, us-
ing a combination of methods, even if the process
is somewhat laborious (BREMER / RAUNER / RÖBEN
2001). The expert does not have the naivety of a
“researcher-layperson”, who disposes over the abil-
ity to pose the right questions. Instead, he under-
stands the answers that he receives from experts
of a ↑ vocation. What matters then, is to combine
the naïve competence of amateurish questioning
with the expert’s specific competence of compre-
Research Methods
hension, so that the three types of vocational abil-
ity, namely, behaviour, acting and thinking, can be
taken into account effectively, in the repertoire of
research instruments. These three factors apply for
the constellation of the “observing researcher” and
the “research issue”. This means that the three fac-
tors apply for observations, even when the “lay-
person-researcher” already knows all the prereq-
uisites that play a role in the currently analysed
↑ work process (BREMER / RAUNER / RÖBEN 2001) and
what can be utilized by him for an explanation.
That does not logically fall under the issue of ob-
servation, but rather the hypotheses, by means of
which they are organised from a practical research
perspective. The outcome of the three aforemen-
tioned levels enables a methodical differentiation
of the phenomenological accessible observation
level (ref. also GARFINKEL 1967b).
The differentiation premise can be stated more or
less as follows. The inner logic of the intertwin-
ing of non-trivial vocational knowledge and skills
is triggered by vocational ↑ work tasks, which de-
termine whether a person (a) uses routines that en-
sue automatically (“behaviour”), (b) if the person
is conscious of rules in the sense of a plan, for han-
dling tasks that he/she has to carry out (“acting”)
or (c) whether the person has to make decisions
(“think”), in the face of conflicting regulations.
It is not possible to superficially differentiate the
three levels from working processes. Evidence of
the differences cannot merely be assumed. Numer-
ous indications do, however, exist, as evidenced by
the nature of the tasks and the rhythm of work-
ing on them, the average frequency of working on
them and the relative novelty of a fault occurring
for the person working on the tasks.
In order to provide a generally valid example, that
utilizes research logic in respect to the significance
of the three levels: behaviour, acting and thinking,
it is possible to fall back on the role of moral con-
sciousness in everyday life. Behaviour that ap-
pears to conform to existing moral fabric, is prob-
ably constituted therein that someone has switched
off all immoral alternatives of action out of habit.
Only when someone is confronted by a situation
which makes a violation of moral norms apparent,
that a conscious act in the sense of taking heed of
rules and regulations becomes possible. Ultimate-
735
ly, if the correct norm is not immediately available,
moral thinking as a reflection of the possibility of
action becomes necessary, which in the principle
sense, may be the morally preferable one.
5.1.6.2 On the Role of Research Design
The three levels are extremely important in their
functional differentiation, from the perspective of
the selection of methods in investigations of ↑ work
processes and the relevant competences required
for them, up to the question of work organisation,
and education and training for the work situation.
From a phenomenological perspective, the obser-
vations on all three levels are identical, irrespec-
tive of whether they are designated as “behaviour”
or taking “action”. After all, “thinking can also
be categorised as “taking action”, or “behaviour”.
Terminologically one cannot get any further here.
What is decisive is the functional differentiation
between working out ↑ vocational tasks according
to routine, adherence to rules and norms or con-
scious decisions. The difficulty does not only lie
in the necessity of adequately differentiating be-
tween the three categories methodically. There are
good grounds for believing that ↑ vocational com-
petences differ from each other according to their
degree of elaboration, even in the expression of the
transitions i.e. when someone gives up his routine
behaviour and begins to search for rules or alter-
natives to an ambiguous case and what result he fi-
nally comes up with in his decision about a prob-
lem. We are potentially faced by developed com-
petences on all levels, which are not however ac-
cessible by simple, mere observation. Only the se-
lection of an adequate ↑ research method enables
them to become apparent. Following that, they can
be analyzed, irrespective of whether it is for the
purpose of work organisation, a vocational curric-
ulum or the evaluation of training methods for de-
veloping or furthering competence.
In the following, a number of references about me-
thodical access to the research topic aim to further
underscore the significance of ↑ research designs,
in which the ↑ research questions should at least be
concretized from the outset, so that assumptions
which might otherwise remain implicit in regard
to the type (nature), extent and validity of the an-
swers are made aware of.
736
Hypotheses about the expected results should then
be formulated using these assumptions and the
more or less stabilized realism gained through re-
search experience. A double formulation of hy-
potheses based on a spectrum of expectations can
be exceptionally useful for the later compelling ne-
cessity of interpreting the results. This means that
individual hypotheses are formulated both posi-
tively and negatively, which, if the expectations
were well founded, will later be confirmed by the
results in all empirical cases lying between them.
5.1.6.3 Observation
The value of this procedure is indisputable for the
explorative part of the research if that is the inten-
tion. Where the aim is to investigate vocational-
ly relevant courses of action or processes empiri-
cally, then an examination thereof should certainly
be undertaken. This is particularly true when one
considers that questions of work organisation or
technological development can place their imprint
on the issue being researched. Then above all, ir-
regularities in the development have to be expect-
ed in the first findings already. Even though com-
prehensive research results cannot be obtained by
mere observation, the researcher will nevertheless
learn to evaluate the problems more precisely, the
solution of which will decide the success of the re-
search.
As one can only observe what one can see, it is
important that the ↑ observation method include
an estimation of the proportion of non-visible fac-
tors, to ensure that complementary or compensato-
ry methods suited for also understanding the non-
visible aspects of the research issue are taken in-
to account. This can be done methodically, con-
secutively or exclusively. A consecutive procedure
involves further checking the observation findings
gained by observation methods, by means of oth-
er more indirect methods after the completion of
the research investigation. The observation would
then represent an initial step towards a comprehen-
sive result. The exclusive procedure can be utilised
when a part of the ↑ research question is deemed to
have been answered by the method of observation.
Stringent ↑ research designs will seek to strictly
isolate both of the above, whereas a pragmatic ap-
proach will at the most, differentiate between the
Handbook of TVET Research
consecutive and the exclusive procedures ex post.
Positive in this is, that the method of observation
is more productive than reliable and therefore ulti-
mately maintains its explorative character, which
as such, speaks against already completed find-
ings.
5.1.6.4 Experimenting
It must be clear to the researcher, that experiments
suspend the normal case, in which the research is-
sue becomes one, without having been made in-
to one through research. The aim of the research
question cannot therefore be to establish the “ac-
tual state” of a process, course of events of an or-
ganisation or group of people. Where a leading re-
search hypothesis however indicates a difference
between the “target state” and the “actual state”
then an experiment might very well supply an an-
swer to the question. If the interference between
the observer and the observed is merely taken in-
to consideration in the appraisal of research results
(ref. CICOUREL 1970), then we are confronted by all
the methodological problems and reservations that
were already associated with the “action research”
of 25 years ago (MOSER 1977). A re-enactment of
the “action research” debate that was carried out up
to the loftiest heights of ↑ scientific theory (WOHL-
RAPP 1979), would essentially be futile. The refer-
ence must suffice here, that clever research design
can utilize the inevitable “response” of the protag-
onists to the research and help identify things e. g.
in the formulation of items respectively, by means
of a methodically controlled course of action. This
applies equally well to the Hawthorne effect. The
references on page 3, concerning the factor of ↑ do-
main specifics in respect to ↑ research methods on
vocational training, moreover “offensively” limits
what is aspired to be the neutral thematic indiffer-
ence of traditional research methods. Should the
combination of “researcher-layperson” and “lay-
person-researcher” succeed in the investigation
of vocational domains (BREMER / RAUNER / RÖBEN
2001), then the barrier between researcher and re-
search issue must fall, as in a sense, it becomes the
research issue itself, as it contributes to the pro-
duction of research relevant findings about its do-
main. The experimental transformation of process
parameters can accentuate, draw attention to and
Research Methods
make apparent, the rules and models effective in
the normal situation, in the sense of differentiation
between them.
5.1.6.5 Interviewing
In terms of research economics, results gained by
means of verbal communication are the most ef-
ficient by far, as regards the application of meth-
ods and findings obtained. Given the proviso, that
the contents of a question can be precisely meas-
ured and the answer is unequivocally aimed at the
intent of the question, information, attitudes and
opinions can be gained both by using contrastive
as well as conflicting methods. The hermeneuti-
cal circle is largely suspended, which makes the
interpretation of the data obtained by interview
much easier (OEVERMANN 1983, on the fundamen-
tal question of empirically founded theory, ref. al-
so to LAMNEK 1988 and K ELLE 1994).
These prerequisites are unfortunately fulfilled
far less frequently than interviews are conducted.
Conclusive controls of whether the requirements
have been met or not, are not possible, as such tests
can only be carried out by means of justifiable ex-
penditure anyway, using standardized comprehen-
sive interviews with usual means such as prelim-
inary tests. Adherence to a few basic principles
helps in securing and respectively, improving the
interview results: Contents that can be objectified
play a large role in domains, such as for instance,
the distribution of elements of knowledge. Where
the aim is to ascertain these by interview, the ini-
tial consideration must be, to what degree the in-
terviewees actually dispose over this knowledge.
This should be followed by an assessment employ-
ing the formulation of a hypothesis, as to what the
degree of deficiency is, whether merely the names
of things are familiar to the interviewees for in-
stance, or whether they already dispose over con-
ceptions that are further supported by notions, im-
agination and concepts. Where the interviewee al-
ready disposes over conceptions, or it is presumed
to be the case, further verification is required as to
the degree that these notions and concepts are a re-
production of the generally accessible knowledge
associated with the domain, or in how far they are
elaborations of proprietary knowledge which de-
737
veloped parallel to the more or less official knowl-
edge and became relevant for action.
Different ↑ interview methods in conformity with
the above-named model of levels of behaviour, ac-
tion and thinking (→ 5.1.6.1) are available, which
could do justice to the degree of elaboration of the
linguistic representation of vocational domains.
An interview model with the goal of verbalising
the ↑ work process respectively, the process of ac-
tion, would be very well suited for differentiation
between the proportion of routine and that of the
knowledge of rules in the transition from behav-
iour to action. The knowledge of rules and norms
ascertained by interview, leads relatively direct-
ly to an estimation of the degree of elaboration,
which is assumed that the interviewee has. It ini-
tially remains undecided here in principle, whether
the interviewee’s knowledge is the special knowl-
edge of an individual, or reproducible collective
knowledge. As evident as the domain and rules for
mastering it may already be here at this ↑ perform-
ance level, the potential for competent vocation-
al action has not yet been definitively ascertained,
whereas the interview schema “question-answer”
has in principle, been exhausted.
Verification of competence situated above the per-
formance sphere can only be achieved with great
difficulty, by means of interviews. Interviewing
moreover, needs to be complemented by a provoc-
ative measure that as in this case, challenges the
verbal manifestation of competence.
So-called dilemma questions based on the ex-
haustibility of rules of vocational action are ex-
ceptionally well suited for this. Cases construed
in this manner force the individual to make deci-
sions (“think”), whereby not the decision per se
becomes interesting, but rather, its justification.
The reason being, that in both technology and eco-
nomics, where sufficiently complex starting condi-
tions exist, which must be construed by the dilem-
ma, there is usually more than just one possibility,
with all possibilities having their advantages and
disadvantages. That is the dilemma of the matter.
The substantiation for a specific solution (course of
“action”) provides information about the breadth
and depth of already acquired ↑ vocational compe-
tence by means of this verbally accessible level of
reflection.
738
5.1.6.6 Content Analysis
The important thing in an analysis is to gain all the
information that the material allows one to deduce.
The content analysis is in this respect suited me-
thodically, both for the exploration of a domain on
the basis of semantically or symbolically current
material, as well as the evaluation of findings of
specific quality i.e. of the specific ↑ objectification
of the manifest character of its contents. The more
indefinite these conclusions are, the more suitable
they are for hypotheses that can be tested with oth-
er methods of the domain (latent contents). More
5.2.0 Research Methods: Interview and Observation Methods
– Introduction
Winfried Hacker
There is not “one single” ↑ research method for
the manifold aims and contents (for example com-
petence; cf. Haasler, this section) of scientific re-
search in Vocational Education and Training. Nor-
mally several methods are combined. However, a
non-reflected combination of several methods in
terms of an arbitrary mix of methods would be not
efficient. A concept-driven combination and se-
quence of the employed research methods is inev-
itable.
↑ Observation methods and ↑ interview methods
are the most applied components of this concept-
driven combination of research methods. Their
↑ efficiency will depend on their well thought-out
integration into a broader scope of activity-relat-
ed research methods (see below “Four level-ap-
proach”). The concept-driven combination of re-
search methods should consider at least the follow-
ing rules:
(1) Situated and causal approach: The selection
of the methods should consider the top-down de-
termination of the job requirements to be trained.
The individual task requirements are determined
by the hierarchy of organisational, technological
and group/team requirements. Thus, it would be
impossible to describe the isolated requirements of
a task to be accomplished. Organisational charac-
Handbook of TVET Research
difficult than the deduction from latent contents by
means of further methodical arrangements, is test-
ing for overlooked contents, since one cannot de-
velop hypotheses for contents that one is not aware
of! In practical research, it is probably advisable
to overcome such impasses by scrutinizing the do-
main knowledge of a number of people respective-
ly, making efforts to obtain several different voca-
tional standards.
teristics – for example ↑ participation in job design
– often influence the requirements of an individu-
al task (ARGOTE / MCEVILY/ REAGANS 2003; GREENO /
MMAP 1998).
(2) Hypothetic-deductive approach: Research in
Technical and Vocational Education and Train-
ing must narrow its research topic in a step-by-step
way. This is implemented by an approach which
generates and checks increasingly precise hypoth-
eses for the sequences of research steps.
(3) Systemic approach: Often – depending on the
relevant questions of research – observations and
interviews are neither the starting point nor the end
of the sequence of necessary research methods, but
components of a “hypothetic-deductive four-level
approach” of activity-centred research (Fig. 1; for
detail see HACKER 1995).
The main reason is that observations and inter-
views (including questionnaires) at first need lots
of information on – for example – what should be
observed by means of what criteria or which ques-
tions are to be asked, and why, in order to identi-
fy the curriculum-relevant expert know-how or the
level of skills already acquired by a novice.
However often observations or interviews (follow-
ing a quasi-experimental or even only a post facto-
design) are not sufficient in order to identify what
Research Methods
the essential knowledge to be taught is. In this case
more invasive research following a strict ↑ experi-
mental design becomes inevitable. Therefore ob-
servation and interview methods require comple-
tion by the analysis of documents as well as in-
terventions with an experimental design (“experi-
ments”). Thus, they are components of a system of
research steps.
Both, “observation” as well as “interview” are
summarising labels for a couple of more specific
methods. Some of them are outlined in the follow-
ing contributions. Some of these specific methods
must be applied repeatedly, as the feed-back loop
arrows in Figure 1 illustrate.
Observation-based methods are as manifold as the
components of the competence of the employees.
There is not the one observation method. In Voca-
tional Education and Training there are two main
research topics to which observation methods can
be applied. These are
– Condition-centred analyses of the tasks togeth-
er with their organisational and technological con-
ditions of task accomplishment, which aim at the
mental requirements (competence) to be taught
(task analyses). Here, a combination with docu-
ment analyses and interviews is usually necessary.
Fig. 1: Hypothetic-Deductive Four-level Approach of Activity-Centred Research Concerning (Mental) Require-
ments
739
This issue is dealt with in the contribution of Röben
(this section).
The methods for task analyses are to be distin-
guished from the conceptually broader sociologi-
cally-based “↑ studies of work” approach discussed
in this section by Bergmann.
– Subject-centred analyses of the procedures/ac-
tions of employees (e. g. novices, experts) accom-
plishing the tasks, in order to identify the compe-
tences of experts or the relevant deficits of novic-
es or learners (see the contribution of Haasler, this
section) (action analysis).
The ↑ efficiency of any observation – whether
structured or participative (“action research”) –
heavily depends on the preparation of the obser-
vation. Most important is a well-defined system of
dimensions or categories which must guide an ob-
servation. This is necessary also if tools (for exam-
ple lists of criteria that should be recorded more or
less automatically) are to be prepared.
Interview-based methods are also as manifold
as the intended purposes of questioning. Dyad-
ic (e. g. interviewer – interviewee, expert-trainee)
and group-based interviews, oral or written ques-
tions and answers, and a couple of different for-
mats of questions and answers (e. g. open versus
740
multiple choice) are possible. Again the ↑ efficien-
cy of an interview technique depends heavily on
its compatibility with the ↑ research question and
on the type of the knowledge (explicit vs. implicit,
procedural vs. declarative, episodic vs. semantic;
see Hacker, this section or for more detail HACK-
ER 2005) an interviewer is interested in. There-
fore the selection of the suitable interview tech-
nique depends on the information from preceding
research steps and on the (hopefully theoretical-
ly based) hypotheses on the subjects of research.
Types of interview techniques and of workshops
with groups of experts and interviewers are dealt
with in the contributions of Becker, Hacker, Niet-
hammer and Spöttl (this section).
Both types of ↑ research methods, observation and
interview, can be assisted by recording tools, espe-
cially by videotaping, or by schemes for the clas-
sification of observed activities or of the answers.
The contribution of Rauner (this section) outlines
the application of a recording technique even as a
tool for training and educational purposes.
As is well known, the ↑ efficiency of all research
methods and techniques completely depends on
the way they are integrated into the total research
process. This is dealt with in terms of the types of
↑ research design (CAMPBELL / STANLEY 1963).
Consequently, the ↑ efficiency of observation and
interview techniques does not exist per se, but de-
pends on the research design. This issue of ↑ re-
search design holds true not only for the research
by intervention in terms of experiments (cf. next
section → 5.3.1).
Depending on the hypotheses, observation and in-
terview may need a design with comparable groups
of subjects in terms of a “control group” (without
the intervention) and one or more “experimental
groups” (with a varied intervention), too. If, for ex-
ample, specific competence of experts should be
compared with those of novices in order to identify
necessary items of a training curriculum, observa-
tions (work studies) and accompanying interviews
are to be integrated into a quasi-experimental con-
trol (novices)-experimental (experts) group de-
sign. The expert group here may be considered as
an experimental group which had earlier already
obtained the “intervention” to become an expert.
In ↑ field research this type of quasi-experimental
Handbook of TVET Research
design looking for an already existing “interven-
tion” for the reason of a comparison is an useful
strategy (cf. HACKER 1995).
Other research questions applying observa-
tions and interviews even may require a pre-test/
post-test control-experimental group design (cf.
HACKER / SKELL 1993). This holds true, for instance,
if the researcher is interested in the differing ↑ effi-
ciency of a training method applied to novices ver-
sus to experienced employees.
Finally the presentation of interview and of ↑ ob-
servation methods in separate contributions of this
section should not produce the misleading im-
pression that these methods are alternative ways
of researching. On the contrary, the most effec-
tive procedure is just the “observation interview”
as is usually found, e. g. in Occupational Psychol-
ogy. During the observation, the work study, “sit-
uated” questions are asked concerning the ongo-
ing work activity and the covert action-regulating
mental processes and representations (e. g. reason-
ing processes or mental models. Cf. HACKER 1995,
chapter 7.5).
5.2.1 Technical Interview
Manuela Niethammer
5.2.1.1 Definition and Classification
The interview is a conversation situation which is
consciously and specifically arranged by its partic-
ipants. The questioning of or the communication
with the subject is used systematically and in a con-
trolled way as a constitutive moment of the cogni-
tive process (see ATTESLANDER /KOPP 1987; RAUNER
2001b). The term is derived from the Anglo-Amer-
ican and generally became accepted in the Ger-
man language area in the 20th century. Its ethymo-
logical origin is the word “entrevue”, which means
“arranged meeting” (see LAMNEK 1989, 35).
The interview was developed as a method of da-
ta collection in empirical social studies research
and is widely used – within the quantitative as well
as ↑ qualitative research paradigm (see HOPF 1995;
Flick 1995b). In this context, Lamnek talks about
the interview as “Königsweg” (ideal way) (LAM-
Research Methods
NEK 1989, 35) whereas Flick distinguishes between
the German-speaking research area, in which the
interview is dominant, and the American research
area, in which participant observation is more
prominent (FLICK 1995b, 94).
The advantages of the interview compared to par-
ticipant observation (see Fig. 1) resulted in the
style being modified and adapted for different
fields of application, which go beyond questions
related to social studies. Many ↑ interview meth-
ods, which can mostly be distinguished with re-
gard to the subject focused, have been differenti-
ated (see FLICK 1995b, 146). Moreover, different
forms of interviews are distinguished depending
on how the interview is performed methodologi-
cally (depending on degrees of freedom of inter-
viewer and interviewee).
Fig. 1: Advantages of interviews compared to obser-
vation according to Lamnek (1989, 35)
The Relation of the Technical Interview to the
Object
The ↑ technical interview was developed as a ↑ vo-
cational science method of data collection for ana-
lysing working processes as part of the vocational
science research in qualifications (see DRESCHER /
MÜLLER / PETERSEN 1995). The research interest is
focussed on the content of work or ↑ work process-
es and factors determining these contents (techni-
cal, economical, ecological, social), whereby the
data are collected by interviewing relevant rep-
resentatives in the field of work (RAUNER 2001b,
249 f.). The work content can thereby either be
objectively or subjectively reflected upon. In the
first case, reflections are made on the work con-
tents, which are objectively given at the time of the
741
survey. The people concerned are predominantly
asked as “experts” of a working domain to com-
ment on profound connections within the field of
work (technical interview) (see Fig. 5). In the case
of the subject oriented work research, the employ-
ee is at the centre of interest as an expert acting
in a vocational context. The work content is not
important, but the expert’s subjective perspective
and his or her knowledge in correlation with those
contents (specialist interview) is. With this focus
on the worker’s perceptions, the analysis of the ex-
pert’s knowledge becomes the object of the so-
cial sciences (see technical interview according to
MEUSER / NAGEL 1991; FLICK 1995b).
Technical and specialist interviews cannot always
clearly be differentiated from one another as in
the scope of technical interviews subjective opin-
ions and perspectives of the interviewee are al-
so conveyed. In both cases, however, it is not the
subjective perspective of a layman on the techno-
logically, economically, ecologically and socially
determined work contents, which are to be dealt
with, but the reflection of a competent expert. This
means that the interviewee stands out by his or her
formal or informal qualification. This focus on the
expert does not exclude the option of interviewing
representatives of different competence levels like
apprentices, experienced specialists and engineers.
It further implies the acceptance of the fact that
there is not only one expert whose experience and
knowledge is representative of all contexts playing
a major role in the vocational reality. Certified spe-
cialists in these vocational fields of action define
their ↑ vocational competence predominantly by
their capability in technological, economical and
ecological contexts. For this research focus for re-
flections on their work reality in a social context
they step rather into the role of a layman.
By focussing on the skilled participants in the dis-
cussion, the technical and specialist interview are
distinguished from the “Problemzentrierten In-
terview” (problem oriented interview) (WITZEL
1985), which plays a major role in the research of
the social sciences. In the problem orientated in-
terview, subjective interpretations related to a so-
cially or biographically relevant problem are an-
alysed, whereas subjects are not mainly selected
with regard to a special qualification which may
742
Fig. 2: Defi nitions of Different Types of Interviews Depending on their Performance According to Mayring (1990)
be adaquate for reflecting or solving the problem.
The fact that the vocationally oriented research on
work uses a ↑ technical interview to ask subjects,
who are part of a practicing communitity for a vo-
cationally specific problem regarding the work re-
ality, poses specific demands on the “content and
theoretically based capability” (see HOPF 1995) of
the interviewer. The content of the required com-
petence results from the object on which the in-
terview is based: in the chemical work field, the
interviewer needs different knowledge of the sub-
ject matter than in an electrotechnical or health
care work field. His capacity for ↑ abstraction is
supposed to correspond to those content based re-
quirements, which are characteristic of the work
field. Moreover, the interviewer needs to be ac-
cepted by the practicing community as participant
of the discussion. Interviewees would not tell a
person who is not familiar with the subject matter
anything about contents specific to their work field
as they conclude that these contents will not be un-
derstood by that interviewer (see R AUNER 2001b).
The ↑ performance of technical interviews – which
are socially constructed for a targeted communi-
cation – always demands social knowledge of the
subject matter as well.
Handbook of TVET Research
Different Types of Interviews Depending on
their Performance
The differentiation of interviews is based on the
discussion in the social sciences. Mayring distin-
guishes different types of interviews depending on
their openness, their structure and their research
paradigm (see Fig. 2 and 3).
According to this terminology the technical inter-
view corresponds to an open, half-standardised
and unstructured method. A pre-structuring of
these types of interviews is determined by focuss-
ing the interview on the work content. The half-
standardised approach will be further explained in
the discussion on the conceptional approach of the
technical interview.
5.2.1.2 Concept and Application of the
Technical Interview
The classification of a method for collecting data
requires reflection of the method as part of a com-
plex research process. For differentiating the re-
search process, the hypothesis based procedure for
assessing a theory needs to be distinguished from
a procedure which generates a hypothesis for de-
veloping a theory. Thus, the ↑ vocational science
↑ work analysis via technical interview needs to be
integrated in the research paradigm. For this pur-
pose, the qualitative and quantitative research par-
Research Methods
Fig. 3: Distinction of the Qualitative and Quantitative Research Paradigm in the Social Studies (see Flick 1995b,
56 ff.)
adigms are compared according to Flick (1995b,
56 ff.). This comparison is used as a better illustra-
tion of the differences (see Fig. 3).
The ↑ research approaches do not contradict one
another but constitute approaches which comple-
ment one another and can be combined.
In the reflection of the criteria mentioned above, it
is difficult to classify the vocational science work
analysis via technical interview by either para-
digm, because it unites elements of both para-
digms. The research process contains elements
of the linear as well as circular research process:
in advance of the survey, the objective aspects of
the chosen sphere of the object are analysed, i.e.
all relevant work contents are logically structured.
The objectively logical relations raised indicate the
hypotheses. They serve the researcher as terms of
reference for developing an interview guideline in
advance and a primary cognitive structuring of the
data collected during the interview.
However, there is no operationalisation of the hy-
potheses, because a reduction of the given com-
plexity of the field of work in individual retrievable
743
items would result in a distorted representation of
the field of work, which would not be transparent
or comprehensible for the research subjects. They
would not recognise their field of work in these re-
ductions. This elementarisation would therefore
neither be appropriate for the representation of the
object nor the research subjects.
The classification approaches, which were gener-
ated in advance, are not presented to the subjects.
The researcher rather classifies what the subjects
have to offer or reconstructs and cognitively com-
pares them with the model designed beforehand.
The coding, i.e. the ↑ abstraction of new categories,
which have not been taken into consideration in
advance, becomes necessary when the interview-
ee’s answers either go beyond the classification ap-
proach or negate it. The data collected has to be as-
sessed regarding their technical correctness.
The sections of the field of work investigated and
the research subjects are selected regarding their
relevance to the vocational education research.
The peculiarity of this ↑ research field shows that
the research process, in which the data were col-
744
lected via ↑ technical interview, is in between both
paradigms. This is why the discussion and classifi-
cation is important to avoid a premature and one-
sided classification.
The process of the ↑ vocational science work re-
search via technical interview is subdivided into
individual sections as illustrated in the following
diagram. The steps of the action depend on and are
related to one another.
The Process of a Technical Interview
(1) Analysis of the problem, i.e.
– Articulation of the ↑ research questions which
give access to the particular section of the field of
work and
– Analysis and structuring of the objective aspects
from the researcher’s perspective (objectively log-
ical structuring of the object of analysis which is
equivalent to the formation of a hypothesis).
Ideal reference points for the analysis of occupa-
tional or work related contents are given by the re-
flection of concrete tasks. The ordering, which re-
sults from the process of solving the task, is, how-
ever, constituted by subjective and objective fac-
tors, which are to be assigned to certain levels of
the system superordinate to the tasks (see NIET-
HAMMER 2003). Accordingly, the superordinate
levels of the system as e. g. the all-embracing leg-
islation or the organisational concepts of compa-
nies are to be included in the ↑ vocational science
work analyses. Every level opens a path to a spe-
cific perspective on the work contents, which help
to discover different facts of the matter. Conse-
quently, specific structuring models are necessary
for every level: concepts of work organisation can
be structured or illustrated via Personnel-Process-
Matrix and processes of complex instructions via
process chains.
For the analysis of the content in the context of
concrete tasks two perspectives have to be guar-
anteed: the perspective with the reference to the
tasks and the work system. Contents with reference
to the tasks can be illustrated by process models,
which allow the illustration of the logical struc-
ture of dealing with the task. The representation of
the contents with reference to the work system re-
quires, in addition to others, structure models (see
Fig: 4 as exemplifying illustration), which help to
Handbook of TVET Research
make the objects of work like physical operations
or chemical reactions and the means of work of a
work procedure transparent.
In a technical interview, not the whole part of
the work reality, which is opened by the orienta-
tion towards the task, is of interest to the research-
er, but also aspects concerning the apparatus.
Accordingly, the analysis of the problem can be
limited in advance.
The results of the problem analysis represent the
hypotheses which are the basis for the researcher
to construct an interview guideline.
Fig. 4: System of Categorisation as a Basis of the
Development of Structure Models of Process
Items of Physical Operations
(2) Guideline Construction (on the Basis of the
Problem Analysis)
The guideline illustrated (Figure 5) is an example
of a ↑ technical interview applied to work analyses
of laboratory work and makes clear that the struc-
ture of the guideline depends on the constituting
factors of occupational work.
(3) ↑ Performance of Technical Interviews (Data
Collection and Processing)
The first interviews, where appropriate, can con-
sciously be applied as a testing of the guideline and
training of the interviewer. Experience during the
performance of the technical interview and the ap-
plication of the interview guideline is used to op-
timise the guideline. The guideline is not a rigid
scheme which is processed in a linear way.
Research Methods
Fig. 5: Guideline of a Technical Interview for Work
Analyses in Laboratory Work (excerpt)
The interviewer only forms questions and de-
mands, which are supposed to stimulate the sub-
jects to analyse their own work with regard to the
different perspectives. During the interview, the
questions are spontaneously formed with regard to
the language level of the subject. The subjects give
their opinion openly, i.e. without any guideline.
The survey is carried out via tape recordings and
note takings. The note takings (where appropriate)
745
have the advantage, in the case of the technical in-
terview, that structuring illustrations can be made
in the shape of a process or structure model (see
MAYRING 1990, 62). This way the data collection
can be combined with the data processing. The
process or structure models which show the facts
and correlations mentioned by the subject illustrate
exactly these correlations and are generated simul-
taneously to the data collection. A literal transcrip-
tion, i.e. the full comprehension of the text, is not
necessarily required of a technical interview, be-
cause the objective contents are focussed.
With the help of the problem analysis, which has
been established in advance, the interviewer can
assess which of the objective aspects can be named
and explained by the subject and to which level of
↑ abstraction reflections are based. By cognitively
comparing the collected data with the hypotheses
the seemingly “open spots” can be registered. By
inquiry about these “open spots”, the interviewer
can find out if the interviewee has not mentioned
these aspects by chance or forgot about them or if
they are not relevant to the topic concerned from
his perspective (see LAMNEK 1989, 78).
Rauner distinguishes four different types of ques-
tions depending on the purpose:
– The paraphrasing inquiry (the interviewer re-
flects the answer to initiate a content based rein-
forcement),
– The technically accentuated inquiry (the inter-
viewer poses a consolidating question based on a
subject matter mentioned in the answer),
– The social context accentuated inquiry (the in-
terviewer poses a consolidating question based on
the organisational, social and qualifying context of
work),
– The inquiry to verbalise emotionally experi-
enced contents (the interviewer reflects emotion-
ally experienced contents implicitly or explicit-
ly mentioned in the answer (in the context of the
occupational work) by verbalising them or asking
the subject to verbalise them) according to Rauner
(2001b, 254).
Rauner (2001b) referred in a ↑ comparative study
to the influence of the researchers’ technical quali-
fication on the process of the interviews. The way
inquiries are phrased is not only a response to the
answers, but is also dependent on the technical
746
background of the interviewer. This problem can
be solved to a certain degree by the previously per-
formed problem analysis, because the objective-
ly logical structuring of the work contents repre-
sent terms of orientation and reference for the clas-
sification and examination of the collected data.
Therefore, particular attention has to be paid to the
preparation of the ↑ technical interview.
For the ↑ performance of technical interviews char-
acteristic situational conditions have to be secured
for qualitative interviews. Lamneck summarises
the necessary conditions:
– The interviewee is to be informed about the
sense, purpose and object of the interviews with-
out provoking a predetermination of the content of
the conversation.
– Absolute confidentiality and anonymity are to
be secured.
– The language level and competence of the inter-
viewee are decisive: scientific terminology is to be
avoided. The interviewer adapts to the general lan-
guage level of the subjects.
– Although the interview is supposed to take place
in a situation similar to a working day, the inter-
viewer has always to consider that the situation
is nevertheless particular and relatively uncom-
mon, because the asymmetry between the partici-
pants of the interview is principally not cancelled
out. (The interviewer tries to compensate for this
asymmetry.)
– The interviewer is reserved but interested and
creates a non-judgemental situation.
– The design of the interview process with regard
to the content is predominantly influenced by the
interviewee due to the methodological principles;
his or her systems of relevance structure the object
and the process. (see LAMNEK 1989, 103)
(4) Evaluation of the Data
The structure and process models, in which the
work contents are represented, are either devel-
oped by the interviewees and the interviewers to-
gether in the course of the technical interview or
after the technical interview by the interviewer.
Aspects which were contributed by the subject and
not recorded in advance during the problem anal-
ysis are inputs for modifying or extending the hy-
potheses and theories of the work content.
Handbook of TVET Research
The results are once again evaluated with the sub-
ject after the interview (after a pause of a few days)
and, where appropriate, corrected. The pause can
be used by the interviewer for the structuring da-
ta processing which helps to bring up further ques-
tions. For the subject the interruption is a chance
to find a ↑ distance to the particular situation of the
interview and to reflect or assess his or her state-
ments in the context of his or her own concrete
work.
5.2.1.3 Range and Critique of the Method
The technical interview is applied to more theory-
based ↑ occupational research. The data is predom-
inantly utilised in the scope of designing educa-
tion: in the macro perspective, the analysis of the
occupational development or the development of
regulating instruments and, in the micro perspec-
tive, the design of occupationally or task related
arrangements of the learning and teaching proc-
esses in the vocational and further training are
based on the data.
The evaluation is determined by the reference to
the content within the work domain. The technical
focus requires theoretical knowledge of the sub-
ject matter of the corresponding work domain to
be investigated. With regard to the data processing,
models have to be developed (process and struc-
ture models), which allow a concise illustration of
the results and their application in the context of
educational design.
With the help of the ↑ technical interview, work con-
tents, which the interviewee is aware of and which
can be described by him or her, are registered. Due
to the communication situation there are particular
conditions which partly allow the interviewee to
discover correlations and to develop broader cog-
nitive structures (see MAYRING 1990, 47).
Research Methods
5.2.2 Action-Oriented Specialised
Interviews
Matthias Becker
5.2.2.1 Action-Oriented Specialised
Interviews in Vocational Education
Research
The term “specialised interview” is rather un-
known in vocational ↑ educational research, al-
though it is of central importance for ↑ research
methods. Above all in social sciences, the form of
the interview is widespread as a research method.
Interviews are considered as one form of interview
and are defined as either
– Written or
– Oral
forms of interviews as well as
– Standardised and
– Open
variants. Both written and oral surveys can be
open or standardised. The best known written and
standardised form of a survey is the questionnaire
with fixed and predefined scales of answers. The
oral and rather open forms of surveys, on the other
hand, are called interviews.
Specialised interviews are used in vocational edu-
cational research for the documentation of expert
knowledge and are therefore often called “↑ ex-
pert interviews” (cf. DEEKE 1995) or – due to their
form of dialogue – as “↑ expert conversations” (cf.
RAUNER 1998b). This essay understands special-
ised interviews as a special kind of expert inter-
view, which differs from forms of surveys in other
↑ research traditions by the determination of the ar-
ea of objects and the interest for a deeper insight.
What makes specialised interviews exceptional is
the fact that the focus of the conversations is on the
meaning of the contents for which the person to
be interviewed is the „expert of the trade”. In vo-
cational education and research, specialised inter-
views are therefore aimed at “collecting highly de-
tailed information on the work contents important for
(skilled) work as well as the respective qualification
requirements and competence” (DRESCHER 1996, 9) .
This is achieved by a systematic and explorative
conduct of the interview.
747
↑ Action oriented ↑ specialized interviews are con-
ducted on sites where the expert is not only able to
reveal his or her knowledge but where this knowl-
edge and its impact become explicitly evident: at
the workplace, during the ↑ work process.
In the context of pedagogical research Meuser
and Nagel state that expert interviews altogether
are about “the assessment of practice saturated expert
knowledge, of the know-how of those who create the
rules and routines according to which a social system
reproduces itself …” (MEUSER / NAGEL 1997, 481). As
for a vocational educational research whose find-
ings are focused on the contents of occupational
work, the subject of the research method can be
adequately described. However, it is not the repro-
duction of the social system that is important but
the “characteristics of knowledge and skills oriented to
the work reality which are reflected by the skilled work-
er by his or her actions, gestures and statements with re-
gard to the object of work” (BECKER 2003, 48). They
form the focal point for the action-oriented spe-
cialised interviews.
As a result, vocational educational research gains a
deeper insight into the work processes and the nec-
essary occupational competence. These interviews
can be used especially for the shaping and the de-
scription of the contents of work oriented curric-
ula.
5.2.2.2 History and Origin of Action-
Oriented Specialized Interviews
The principles of action-oriented specialised in-
terviews as a method of vocational educational re-
search developed from the tradition of the work
and occupation analysis in the 1950s. Riedel de-
veloped a semi-structured procedure for ↑ work
analysis, which was used for the assessment of
“core ↑ performances” and “fringe performances”
of a certain kind of work. First of all he carried
through surveys with the aid of a questionnaire and
noticed that “a close cooperation between analyst and
expert is the only possible way to obtain a precise defi-
nition of the occupational work requirements” (R IEDEL
1957, 21, Italics in the original version). The written
interview, therefore, was not enough to assess the
character of occupational work. In order to delve
deeper into the solution of the ↑ research method-
ological problem, “carefully structured conversa-
tions between the researcher and experts” (ibid.,
748
22) were conducted. Therefore Riedel developed
a scheme of questions which should help to guide
the “conversation from secondary to primary is-
sues” (ibid, 21). The scheme of questions was com-
posed of four chapters for an analysis:
– Delimitation of the task,
– Characterisation of work,
– Detailed exterior process,
– Interior prerequisites (cf. ibid., 23 ff.).
Riedel emphasized the importance of the interac-
tion between researcher and the person to be inter-
viewed by stressing that “apart from the observation
of the work to be studied, a useful analysis also requires
a continuous conversation between the analyst and the
expert” (ibid 24). The realization of such a conver-
sation, which is no every-day chat and does not fo-
cus on the social context but on the objective work
requirements, entails a lot of prerequisites. Such a
conversation can only be successful as soon as
– There is a guideline for questions adapted to and
according to the objective of the survey (for Riedel
this is the scheme of questions);
– The researcher is able to conduct the conversa-
tion in a way that the contents of skilled work can
be accessed in the necessary depth;
– A number of framework conditions are adhered
to in order to safeguard that the ↑ work tasks char-
acterizing an occupation can be assessed validly
and representatively in terms of contents.
The first prerequisite for an action-oriented ↑ spe-
cialized interview characterizes this as a semi-
structured method. With the aid of guiding ques-
tions, this structurization ensures that the conver-
sation contributes to the answering of the survey
questions in a target-oriented way. The second
prerequisite underlines the role of the researcher,
who must have knowledge about the work and ac-
tions of the person to be interviewed in order to
be able to “get satisfactory results from the sur-
veys” (MOLLE 1965, 30 f.). The third prerequisite
highlights the influence of the ↑ work processes in
whose context the real requirements of competenc-
es have to be accessed. The latter prerequisite is of-
ten neglected as soon as interviews are carried out
in another environment than the work place, which
may sometimes be hard to access. This leads to a
considerable weakening of the significance of spe-
cialized interviews and quite often to an inadmis-
sible displacement of the objective area. Example:
Handbook of TVET Research
instead of the real skilled work, the work is on-
ly reflected as a model (e. g. by simulation) during
the conversation.
The principles of action-oriented specialised inter-
views have often been applied within the frame-
work of research projects and ↑ pilot projects and
have been adapted to the requirements of the re-
spective ↑ research question and further developed.
Nevertheless, they have so far only rarely been dis-
cussed as a systematic method of ↑ vocational ed-
ucational sciences (cf. BECKER 2003, 39; RAUNER
2001b). Instead they were repeatedly (and by mis-
take) said to originate from social sciences or work
sciences research. As for action- oriented special-
ised interviews some principles are valid which are
also important for other ↑ research traditions and
have partly been taken from them. In focussed in-
terviews of social research (cf. HOPF 2000, 353 ff.),
the guidelines for conversations plays an impor-
tant role. The interviews are situated – as, e. g. in
the ↑ studies of work – and thus require a “reflec-
tive ↑ context orientation of a generation of sense
and an index of everyday statements and actions
(BERGMANN, J. 2000, 127). The object of research
is, however, completely different and the research
aim is another one: a deeper insight with regard to
the competence necessary for an occupation.
Based on this research interest, ↑ action oriented
specialized interviews were used to assess the re-
quired competence for the maintenance of elec-
tronical devices in networked production units
(DRESCHER 1996), for the formulation of shaping
requirements for occupational work with the in-
troduction of technology in the chemical indus-
try (NIETHAMMER 1995a, as knowledge analysis in
a situative conversation, 82 ff.) and for a number
of research projects in the car repair service sector
(cf. among others BECKER 2003; SCHREIER 2001a;
BECKER / HITZ / RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002).
5.2.2.3 The “Context” as a Defining Element
Specialised interviews are assigned a context, i.e.
a coherence of situations and objects by their envi-
ronment, the particular way of ↑ conducting a con-
versation, by the relationship structure between the
person to be interviewed and the interviewer and
above all by the addressed contents. Interviews are
context related as soon as
Research Methods
– The environment corresponds to the “natural”
environment of the person to be interviewed,
– The way of conducting the conversation cor-
responds to the communication structures of the
“↑ community of practice” of the person to be in-
terviewed,
– The relationship structure between the person to
be interviewed and the interviewer is both on an
equal footing and also marked by acceptance, cu-
riosity and respect with regard to the expertise of
the person to be interviewed,
– The addressed contents can be discussed and an-
alysed by both sides in terms of their structure of
signification.
If these characteristics do not apply, the interview
is de-contextualised. ↑ Action oriented specialised
interviews aim at a strong orientation to the con-
text in order to get valid verbal data with respect
to the contents.
The workplace and the working environment gives
sense to skilled work. The tools and methods to
be applied there, the objects of work (customer,
work order, technology, technical documentation
and phenomena), the organisation and the objec-
tively and subjectively perceived requirements for
skilled work and technology generate the natural
environment for the interview.
Interviews of skilled workers and other experts of
their trade with the help of communication struc-
tures which correspond to the scientific language
or the communication routines of other domains
inevitably lead to common places and reduce the
interview to an everyday conversation. Thus a con-
fectioner and a tool maker or a social scientist and
a specialist information technician can talk to each
other on everyday topics. However, they will not
be able to lead conversations of specialised depth
with regard to the domains of the others. This is
of course also true if the researcher is “methodi-
cally trained”. Rauner (2001b) took a closer look
at this by analysing the conduct of conversations
by researchers.
He evaluated conversation processes and identified
four different variants of inquiries:
(1) The paraphrasing inquiry: the interviewer re-
peats in his or her own words what has been stat-
ed by the person to be interviewed. This serves to
keep the conversation going.
749
(2) The specialised accentuated inquiry: the inter-
viewer comments special issues in the answers in
order to get a deeper insight into the coherences.
(3) The inquiry accentuating the social context:
the person to be interviewed is encouraged to keep
on telling and explaining.
(4) The inquiry to verbalise emotional experience
contents, highlighting emotional experience con-
tents (cf. ibid, 253 f.).
The result of the study revealed that interviewers
who are competent in the subject to be surveyed
more often make use of the specialized inquiry.
This results in a continuous deepening of the an-
swers. Interviewers without special background
or semi-professional interviewers (in terms of the
specialised ↑ professionalisation of the person to be
interviewed) rather rely on paraphrasing inquiries
and on those emphasising the social context. This
is due to the fact that the interviewer cannot keep
track with the meaning of the answers while the
person to be interviewed feels that he or she is not
entirely understood and therefore only states less-
profound facts and subjects. The conversations
necessarily remain “on the surface of any contents
dimension of ↑ work processes” (ibid, 255). Hack-
er also observed these phenomena. As for methods
for a knowledge ↑ diagnosis (↑ knowledge diagno-
sis) he basically assumes that “action knowledge is
linked to a situation/context” (HACKER 1996, 13).
Therefore the methods must make use of this de-
pendence on contexts. With the help of numerous
work scientific studies he proves that context relat-
ed interviews yield more information than de-con-
textualised surveys.
However, if the professionally competent inter-
viewer belongs to the same ↑ practice community
as the person to be interviewed, issues which are
deemed self-evident are not addressed although
they would be relevant for vocational educational
topics. This is why Rauner suggests a supervision
arrangement for certain ↑ research questions. This
research team should be composed of vocational
educationalists and “professional outsiders” in or-
der to ensure a better control of the research proc-
ess (cf. RAUNER 1998b, 26 f.).
The structure of the relationship between inter-
viewer and the person to be interviewed is crucial.
Conversations with specialised depth can only be
750
conducted if the person to be interviewed accepts
the interviewer. The conditions for such conversa-
tion are improving with the degree of adequacy the
researcher shows for the working environment of
the skilled worker. This also includes the use of the
special language spoken within the ↑ practice com-
munity (BECKER 2003, 60). If the interviewer acts
in a way that could be deemed arrogant by the per-
son to be interviewed, conversations become less
deeper (ibid, 64). In his surveys, Spöttl has repeat-
edly noticed this fact and underlines the necessi-
ty of restraining the researcher’s own specialized
competency during the interview (SPÖTTL 2000b,
215). The respect for the person to be interviewed
and his or her occupational knowledge is a neces-
sary prerequisite for the creation of an atmosphere
of confidence and results in a higher willingness to
make statements during the conversation. The spe-
cialized competency of a researcher should there-
fore be used to establish an atmosphere of confi-
dence in a first phase. The researcher should be cu-
rious. His or her special know-how should be added
successively for a deeper access to the facts. This
process can also change into a common problem
solving or experimenting phase (cf. MORITZ 1996).
Hacker states similar arguments and assumes that
the interviewed experts can also acquire knowl-
edge through the research process if there are situ-
ations of dialogue as well as work and problem ori-
ented situations which are (re)constructed by ex-
pertise for the survey (HACKER 1996, 19).
5.2.2.4 Concept and Application
Conceptual hints can be deducted for the applica-
tion of ↑ action oriented ↑ specialized interviews
above all with the aid of findings on the context
related abilities of experts of skilled work. An im-
portant hint is undoubtedly that they can only be
carried through by closely combining the monitor-
ing of the actions during the ↑ work process.
Specialised interviews conducted outside the
working environment and the work processes can-
not discuss situative action. In such a de-contextu-
alised environment only explicit knowledge char-
acteristics can be discussed. ↑ Practical knowl-
edge which is crucial for the mastership can only
be adequately made the object of interviews if the
work reality is perceived and involved in the con-
Handbook of TVET Research
versation from the perspective of the skilled work-
er. Therefore the observation of work is an impor-
tant starting point for a conversation. Furthermore
the realisation of action oriented specialised inter-
views requires a lot of time. According to expe-
riences made by the author, at least three to four
hours are necessary to analyse important work
processes and coherences. About eight hours are
required to assess the competency requirements
for an occupational work task and several days are
necessary to adequately access skill and knowl-
edge characteristics for the coping of occupation-
al problems.
Practical research hints for conducting action-ori-
ented specialised interviews:
– The starting point is the question or the hypoth-
esis for the survey leading to the ↑ central question
for an interview guideline.
– Action-oriented specialised interviews are nor-
mally used as one out of several methods within
the framework of ↑ work process studies (cf. BECK-
ER 2004, 170). They have to be conceived based on
a ↑ research design.
– Interviews are normally carried out within the
framework of case studies and have to be coordi-
nated with further methods (work observance, task
analyses, accompanying an order processing, visits
to companies).
– Prior to the interviews the researcher should get
acquainted with the working environment through
a visit to the respective company. After this the re-
searcher and the person(s) to be interviewed should
get to know each other and discuss the purpose of
the interview.
– The interview takes place during the coping
with ↑ work tasks. One after the other the central
questions set down in the interview guideline are
discussed – always in connection with the current
↑ work tasks. The person to be interviewed is mo-
tivated to think aloud (cf. DUNCKER 1966). Dur-
ing the ↑ performance of work actions, unclear and
misunderstood facts are clarified via inquiries.
This leads to an objectivation of subjective observ-
ances and interpretations (a procedure of context
oriented ↑ objectification, cf. BECKER 2003, 62).
Examples for the formulation of ↑ central questions
can be taken from “BIBB-Dienstleistungsstudie” (
SPÖTTL / HECKER / HOLM / WINDELBAND 2003, 210 ff.).
Research Methods
– Variants of the interviews can develop by ac-
companying a work order involving several per-
sons and several experts (group interviews). The
latter variant is especially recommended for the
analysis of more complex occupational problems.
– Recording all interviews is recommended. The
interviewer has to make sure that apart from the
approval of the person to be interviewed there is
a relaxed conversation atmosphere (cf. HERMANNS
2000). The transcript of entire interviews should
be the exception as a target oriented evaluation
with the help of an interview guideline is much
more efficient. The evaluation should be done im-
mediately after the interview in order to safeguard
the “presence” of the conversations and the related
work actions. This is especially true if the person
to be interviewed has refused a recording and the
interviewer has to set up a protocol from memory.
5.2.2.5 Criticism
Open interviews are generally subject to criticism
as they are qualitative methods and differ wide-
ly from the classical ↑ quality criteria of the em-
pirical ↑ research methods (↑ objectivity, validity,
reliability, utility). The operationalisation neces-
sary for the determination of such criteria has so
far not been successfully achieved and does part-
ly not make sense. Nevertheless the safeguarding
of action-oriented specialised interviews is neces-
sary and can be achieved. A careful imbedding in-
to the ↑ research design is recommended by taking
into consideration and revising the findings from
and by ↑ sector analyses, case studies and expert-
skilled-worker workshops (Expert-Skilled Worker-
Workshops, → 5.2.4). This ↑ triangulation contrib-
utes to the validation of the results by its comple-
mentarity.
In addition the shaping of the method itself (by a
context oriented objectivation, see above) helps to
reach a validation of the contents. Nevertheless the
development of quality criteria for action-oriented
specialised interviews remains an important task
for the future.
Another aspect of action-oriented interviews is the
adequacy of operating expense. Great demands are
made on the specialised competency and the meth-
odological knowledge of the researcher. Therefore
action-oriented specialised interviews are ade-
751
quate wherever deeper insights into the knowledge
incorporated in ↑ work processes are required. As
for a superficial assessment of occupational ↑ work
tasks, e. g. ranges of work tasks which are charac-
teristic for a company, a sector or an occupation,
other methods – such as a data base aided ↑ work
analysis are more effective and significant be-
cause they allow to quantify statements on the im-
portance of work tasks. On the other hand action-
oriented specialised interviews are crucial for the
survey of action guiding knowledge and occupa-
tional competence which are used and further de-
veloped within the framework of the coping with
these tasks.
5.2.3 Task Analysis in Vocational
Science
Peter Röben
5.2.3.1 Explanation of Terms
An analysis of vocational work for the purpose
of developing occupational curricula (see RÖ-
BEN 2004b) must be based on the actual work
process (→ 3.6), see BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/ FISCHER
2002) and also has to take its embeddeness within
the organisation (company) and society into con-
sideration. An analysis of the work process brings
to light the empirically accessible aspects of an in-
dividual’s work (see ROGALSKI 2004). In order to
grasp the significance of these aspects, howev-
er, they must be reflected upon against the back-
ground of the entire work process, i.e. against the
background of the dynamic and static work organ-
isation (organisational procedures and structure
of the company) and societal influences on work
(regulations, laws, standards, etc.). ↑ Work analy-
sis must therefore distinguish between the condi-
tions for ↑ performance of the work (context char-
acteristics) and work content (content character-
istics) (see HACKER 1995, 23; NORROS / NUUTINEN
2002, 29).
In the following the focus is on the tasks as the
structure of vocational work in which the aspects
of the simple ↑ work process are placed in the con-
text of modern vocational work. This means that
752
the relationship between objective conditions of
work and subjective forms and content of work is
examined.
“A task exists when a subject notionally anticipates
the achievement of a goal under given conditions and
is aware of the necessity of achieving this goal. Thus
one examines the individual activity in the task from
the viewpoint of its beginning and anticipates the goal
in its unfolded form. In this sense tasks are unfolded
goals…” (SEIDEL 1976, 54, cited according to FISCHER
1995b, 126).
The realisation of the necessity of achieving the
goal presumes that the subject is aware of the in-
adequacy of the given state. Unfolding the goals
means that the way to reaching the final state striv-
en for is mentally outlined using the means avail-
able. These two aspects of the task, awareness of
the inadequacy of the given state and mental an-
ticipation of the use of the means available, make
it a suitable structural element for grasping voca-
tional work in a form that is less subjected to the
constant technical and organisational processes of
change than the tools employed and working en-
vironments. This means that an empirical analy-
sis of vocational work concentrates on those struc-
tures in the empirical reality of work that are less
affected by the so-called half-life of knowledge: in
contrast to the rapid change of the technical ele-
ments of the work system, the goals to be achieved
through the technical means as utility values are
not subjected to such swift change.
5.2.3.2 On the Genesis of Task Analysis
↑ Task analysis in German ↑ vocational science de-
veloped in the wake of ↑ training research whose
results are intended to be beneficial for the develop-
ment of occupations and job outlines. In the 1960s
the development of job outlines solely by means
of consulting experts was criticized (see PFEUFFER
1972, 6) and methods were developed and detailed
for empirical ↑ studies of work (K IRCHNER / ROH-
MERT 1973; FERNER 1973; MOLLE 1965; FERNER /
GÄRTNER /K RISCHOK / STOLZE 1979; PORNSCHLEGEL
1967). These work analyses based on vocational
↑ training research and conducted in the 1960s and
1970s were in part task analyses oriented to job
analyses (see FERNER 1973; LÖNS 1975; PFEUFFER
1975) which viewed an occupation as a set of char-
acteristics that were clearly differentiated from
Handbook of TVET Research
each other. These characteristics comprised skills
and know-how clearly allocated to these skills (see
the example of measuring work in → 3.4.1).
This type of ↑ work analysis was stimulated by the
psychological work analysis method PAQ (Posi-
tion Analysis Questionnaire), which is based on
the following prerequisites:
“(1) There is a fixed correspondence between the
task and work behaviour so that the same occupa-
tional demand always triggers the same behaviour.
(2) Human labour is broken down into basic units or
work elements that can be comprehended and ana-
lyzed through expert judgment” (FISCHBACH / NULL-
MEIER 1983, 63 f.).
Fischbach and Nullmeier (1983) show what mis-
takes this type of work analysis can lead to using
the example of the item of “use of keyboards”: this
encompasses piano players, secretaries as well as
CAD programmers. However, the observed activ-
ity of operating a keyboard cannot be separated
from the task that the observed person carries out.
The behaviourist ideal of measurability through
natural science and a concept of behaviour based
on this lead the observer away from the (in a be-
haviourist sense non-measurable) intellectual con-
nection between the (measurable) individual oper-
ations and lead him to unimportant aspects of work
execution, such as the (measurable) use of the key-
board for such different purposes as programming,
writing dictation or playing music.
From the point of view of ↑ task analysis in ↑ voca-
tional science the context important for learning
is destroyed by this topological or set-theoretical
approach (see, for example, RIEDEL 1962, 19, who
compares work analysis in the sense of job analysis
to work analysis oriented to industrial education).
Molle notes that
“when observing a working person […], it [is] especial-
ly important – this was frequently overlooked in work-
place analyses – that the researcher also recognizes
what thinking work (considering, deciding, evaluating,
connecting thoughts, etc.) the worker has to perform”
(MOLLE 1965, 43).
The studies conducted on the knowledge of skilled
workers (e. g. PFEUFFER 1972) regard this knowl-
edge as items that may exist or may not exist: such
as knowledge of types of cables and lines, of cir-
cuit diagrams, interconnection diagrams, etc.
(PFEUFFER 1972, Annex).
Research Methods
The idea of isolated imparting of abilities and skills
relevant to the work found its expression in such
things as teaching workshops remote from work in
which, for example, metalwork was reduced to iso-
lated skills, such as filing, turning, planning, mill-
ing, measuring, marking, etc., according to the
“Basic course in metalwork” model.
In the 1970s this behaviourist approach already
underwent criticism on the part of industrial psy-
chology, based on the action regulation theory. Ac-
cording to this theory, putting together pianists,
secretaries and CAD programmers must be criti-
cised because these three activities are equated in
terms of an operation (of the representational level
of performing an action: in this case operating a
keyboard), as a result of which the higher levels of
the action regulation are ignored.
The concept of task contains two meanings that
both play a major role for work analysis. In Seidel’s
statement quoted at the beginning the subjective
side is emphasized: a task can therefore be viewed
as a responsibility (→ 3.4.2). The other meaning
of task comprises the objective side: a task as a
work order. The company or social division of la-
bour manifests itself in the form of tasks that are
assigned to the holder of a certain job as a work or-
der, as an instruction or are specified in the job de-
scription (for an analysis of skilled work on the ba-
sis of work orders and tasks, see HÄGELE 2001).
5.2.3.3 Formulation and Methods of Task
Analysis in the Context of Different
Research Traditions
In industrial psychology the job assigned by the
company organisation to the individual, who in-
terprets or takes it on “as a task”, is “the central
category of a psychological job analysis” (HACKER
1986a, 61).
Because of its objective and subjective side, the
job assignment represents a significant interface
between the technical and organisational require-
ments of the company, on the one hand, and the
abilities and qualifications of the people, on the
other hand (see DUNCKEL / VOLPERT 1997). In the
MTO concept (an important socio-technical shap-
ing approach in industrial science, see ULICH 2001,
83 ff.) one even starts out from the primacy of the
job assignment that is attached to it because of its
753
linking of the social and technical subsystem (ibid,
190 f.).
The transition from the work order to the task
means that the skilled worker makes a demand
coming from the outside his own and has trans-
formed it into a goal of his ↑ work process. Hacker
states that tasks are subjectively interpreted or “re-
defined” by the performer (HACKER 1986a, 61 ff.).
Viewed in this way, work contexts go into the def-
inition of ↑ occupational tasks and this definition
thus becomes a culmination point for learning
processes in the medium of work.
In terms of its structure the concept of a task re-
sembles the concept of a problem and to differen-
tiate between the two concepts, a task will be re-
ferred to here when at least the initial state, the
expected result and work steps (also designated
as methods) are known to the performer. In con-
trast to this, a characteristic of a problem is that
the methods for its solution are not known initially.
Of course, problems are part of the everyday work
carried out by a skilled worker. Problems are phe-
nomena that may and, as a rule, do occur during
the ↑ performance of a task, but they themselves
are usually not part of the task.
The methods of industrial psychology ↑ task analy-
sis applied to examine the structure and sequence
of tasks (e. g. heterarchic task analysis, contrastive
task analysis in the office and administration sec-
tor, regulation obstacles in the working world, task
inventory, methods for determining regulation re-
quirements in work; all in DUNCKEL 1999) are based
on the action regulation theory. On the basis of sci-
entific experience with the shaping of tasks that go
back to the beginning of the last century (see, for
example, the definition of task in HELLPACH 1922),
the normative construct of a complete task was de-
veloped in industrial psychology as the ideal of a
task (HELLPACH 1922, 27; RICE 1958; EMERY 1959;
TOMASZEWSKI 1981; HACKER 1986a; VOLPERT 1987c;
for criticism see FISCHER 1995b, 125 ff.).
Ulich summarises the characteristics of a complete
task as follows:
“(1) Independently setting goals that can be embedded
in higher-ranking goals,
(2) independent preparation of actions in the sense of as-
suming planning functions,
754
(3) selection of the means, including the necessary inter-
actions for appropriate achievement of goals,
(4) execution functions with workflow feedback for nec-
essary correction of actions,
(5) monitoring with feedback on results and the opportu-
nity of checking the results of one’s own actions for ac-
cordance with the set goals” (ULICH 2001, 201).
5.2.3.4 Problems and Development
Perspectives
In this definition of tasks ↑ vocational science re-
search is faced with the problem that the concept
not only encompasses occupational tasks, but al-
so tasks that can be allocated to the area of worker
training, among others. Furthermore, this concept
of task proves to be inadequate for a curricular ac-
cess to work, as is demanded by the learning field
concept, for example, in that it does not provide a
criterion for a meaningful selection of occupation-
al tasks that matches the curricular specifications.
Therefore, it is necessary to further develop the
concept of task for ↑ curriculum development. In
the GAB ↑ pilot project (see BREMER 2004b) a new
method of task analysis (based on ↑ expert/ skilled
worker workshops, → 5.2.4) was developed and
tested for this reason. This method is based on
the normative stipulation that work in an occupa-
tion can be characterized by an ensemble of 15 to
20 tasks (see BREMER / RAUNER / RÖBEN 2001; RAU-
NER 2004c). This demand not only means that the
scope and hierarchy of the regulation requirements
for performing the task are specified, but also that
criteria are provided for the selection of content (a
detailed description of the method can be found
in K LEINER / RAUNER / REINHOLD / RÖBEN 2002; for the
curriculum concept on which the analysis is based
see RAUNER 1999a).
In addition to the outer structure, the concept of
the characteristic ↑ occupational task to be devel-
oped here entails content-related requirements, re-
quirements that usually can be met only if voca-
tional training has taken place. The concept of task
to be established in ↑ vocational science goes be-
yond the industrial psychology concept in that the
occupational task is closely linked to the construct
of occupation and is based on curricular work.
Handbook of TVET Research
5.2.3.5 Method of Task Analysis
The requirements of ↑ curriculum development for
the so-called core occupations leads to require-
ments placed on the empirical study, e. g. in the
selection of skilled workers who adequately repre-
sent the occupational task fields belonging to eve-
ry core occupation and supply the content for the
tasks in so-called ↑ expert/skilled worker work-
shops (→ 5.2.4).
A participative method of ↑ task analysis is em-
ployed in these workshops. Starting from the per-
sonal experiences of the participants, first of all in-
dividual occupational biographies are ascertained.
For each stage of vocational development regard-
ed as important by the participants the most im-
portant tasks are collected and assessed in terms
of their significance for the participants’ own per-
sonal development. Through this step the concept
of task as a description of one’s work is introduced
into the workshop.
In the further course of the workshop the current
tasks of the participants are initially recorded in
the form of individual lists (in the parlance of the
expert/skilled worker workshops: examples of oc-
cupational tasks). In group work the participants
draw up representative lists, which contain typical
tasks for this occupation and their context, from
these individual lists. In the plenum of the work-
shop the results of the group work are present-
ed and discussed. The aim is to work up a list of
characteristic occupational tasks that correctly de-
scribes the skilled work of the participants repre-
sented in the plenum (K LEINER / RAUNER / REINHOLD /
RÖBEN 2002, 31 ff.).
This method of task analysis utilizes the ↑ work
process knowledge of the skilled work without ex-
plicating it since the work process knowledge of
the participants goes into the lists of tasks drawn
up by them as action knowledge. By regarding cer-
tain tasks and company contexts as significant and
others as not significant, they apply a knowledge
from the company context of their work that is not
easily accessible to the moderator of the workshop.
Directing group work with the help of group work
and plenum discussion requires from the workshop
moderator that he or she get the participants to ex-
plicate, justify and complete their individual views
Research Methods
so the workshop can function as a tool for empiri-
cal data collection.
The ↑ empirical knowledge of the participants is
also made use of in evaluating the tasks found in
terms of their degree of requirement for novices,
skilled workers and occupational experts. After
all, most participants are familiar with the require-
ments connected with the tasks from their own ex-
perience as well as from the observation of novic-
es in their area of work. This knowledge develops
into rules in the ↑ community of practice of the re-
spective area of work that are based on the assign-
ment of tasks to new employees. This knowledge
of rules on the part of the participants is utilized
in task analysis in vocational science to obtain an
evaluation of the tasks found for the development
path from beginner to expert (K LEINER / RAUNER /
REINHOLD / RÖBEN 2002, 36).
Company expert skilled workers are familiar-
ized with the learning areas 1 to 4 ((1) orientation
and overview knowledge, (2) context knowledge,
(3) detailed and functional knowledge, (4) expe-
rience-based, subject-related in-depth knowledge)
to the extent that they are able allocate the tasks
found by them to these areas. This method has a
certain similarity to the psychological methods of
the structure handsorting technique. The intention
is not to train the participants to become didactic
experts during the workshop, but the grid of learn-
ing areas serves to provide the participants with a
structure enabling them to put the tasks found in a
sequence.
The result of the sequence achieved in the work-
shop is underpinned by another method. The par-
ticipants receive a questionnaire with a matrix that
contains a row of statements in the first column,
such as “↑ Performance of the task is often bound
up with high time and cost pressure”. These state-
ments are designed such that each of them can be
allocated to one of the four learning areas.
The other columns of the matrix contain the num-
bers of the tasks found in the workshop as cap-
tions and the remaining cells of the matrix have
to be filled out by the participants (see K LEINER /
RAUNER / REINHOLD / RÖBEN 2002, 66 ff., the detailed
approach is documented here). Each characteris-
tic ↑ occupational task is thus linked to each state-
ment by a + (applies), – (does not apply) or a 0
755
(clear allocation not possible) and the tasks can be
arranged along the structure defined by the learn-
ing areas in this way. The ↑ task analysis conducted
in the workshop must be complemented by further
steps (→ 5.2.4; K LEINER / RAUNER / REINHOLD / RÖBEN
2002, 74 ff.) and is extended in the course of ↑ cur-
riculum development to include the process of con-
structing learning and ↑ work tasks on the basis of
the characteristic occupational tasks collected in
the workshop. Both processes, that of curriculum
construction as well as task analysis, must be seen
in connection with each other and are based on the
concept of competence development through the
shaping of vocational training processes according
to development logic (see RAUNER 1999a; BREMER /
RAUNER / RÖBEN 2001).
5.2.3.6 Selected Empirical Research Results
The results gained through the ↑ expert/skilled
worker workshops in the GAB project are doc-
umented in Rauner/ Schön/ Gerlach and Rein-
hold 2001 (industrial electronics technicians);
Rauner/ Haasler 2001 (toolmakers); Rauner/
Kleiner and Meyer 2001 (industrial mechanics);
Rauner/ Bremer 2001.
Up to now task analysis has been used to devel-
op vocational training curricula and design learn-
ing fields, though current applications can also be
found in European research and further training
in Germany. The subject-independent and decon-
textualized form of representation achieved in the
workshops was extended to include a process of
recontextualisation (occupational task experience)
with which teachers and trainers can identify the
characteristic occupational tasks in a company de-
partment.
756
5.2.4 Expert Skilled Worker
Workshops
Georg Spöttl
5.2.4.1 Expert Skilled Worker Workshops
– Delimitation of the Term
There is consensus in ↑ vocational educational sci-
ence that
– the identification of the knowledge and skills of
skilled workers and
– the investigation of qualification development in
relevant ↑ research fields
must be accelerated in order to close the research
gap which has been existent for many years (cf.
FENGER 1968, 335). Expert Skilled Worker Work-
shops (ESWW) as an empirically oriented re-
search instrument may considerably contribute to
closing this gap.
The comprehensive objective of ESWW is to con-
tribute to the vocational educational scientific dis-
cussion of the dimensions of vocational education
and training, work and technology and to improve
the range of ↑ qualification research with convinc-
ing links to vocational education and training.
Other ↑ research approaches such as the compre-
hensively established qualitative social-scientif-
ic research, do not pursue an objective as it would
be required for vocational education and training
(see BÜCHTER 1999, 12 ff.) in order to identify the
knowledge and skills anchored in practical work
tasks.
“If we succeed in gaining access to this kind of knowl-
edge, the respective findings will have a revolution-
ary impact on curriculum research and development”
(SPÖTTL 2000b, 207).
A crucial fact for gaining this access is the skilled
worker – the human being – in the ↑ work process
and the challenges he/she is facing. This implies
a discussion of all work relevant contents neces-
sary for a ↑ profession and which have to be kept
in mind during competency development consid-
erations.
As early as the 1980s, Bob Norton had already un-
derlined the notion that it made sense to involve
skilled workers in the further development of
“their” jobs: “expert workers can describe and de-
fine their job/occupation more accurately than an-
Handbook of TVET Research
yone else” (NORTON 1997, 1 f.). This statement was
based on diverse experiences with the application
of a set of instruments developed and optimised by
Norton: “↑ Developing a Curriculum” (DACUM)
(SAMUELSON / LIMING / WARMBROD 1987; NORTON
1997). The roots of the DACUM procedure date
back to 1964 when it was first applied in Canada
(cf. COLLIN 1999, 16). Within the context of Euro-
pean vocational education and studies in the au-
tomotive sector (RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1995b) carried
through in the early 1990s the question arose as to
how knowledge and skills of skilled workers may
be accessed and how the characteristic coherences
within an occupation could be made the object of
the shaping of curricula (RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1995a).
These challenges resulted in a differentiated vo-
cational ↑ educational research concept which was
starting to apply ↑ expert skilled worker workshops
as a methodical instrument in order to find out
“which work tasks can only be coped and efficiently
mastered after a professional experience of many years
and which work tasks could already be dealt with by be-
ginners. Eventually all work tasks have to be assessed
which provide an answer to the question why something
is exactly the way it is” (SPÖTTL 2000b, 214; cf. R AUNER
1997).
The recently published dissertation of Kleiner fur-
ther develops the ESWW towards methodical in-
struments for the vocational educational scientific
↑ qualification research (K LEINER 2004).
5.2.4.2 Genesis of the Method within the
Context of Vocational Educational
Scientific Research
The experts joined together in ESWW excel
“because their occupational career, their profession-
al competency and their current work tasks give them
an experience and knowledge background which is well
suitable for the identification of current and future ori-
ented work coherences” (BREMER / R AUNER / RÖBEN 2001,
218).
Experiences made so far with ESWW prove that
the above mentioned objectives can be attained.
ESWW have already played an important role at an
early stage of the still young vocational education-
al research. The very first surveys into the Euro-
pean ↑ occupational profile of a “car mechatronic”
carried through in 1994 already showed that inter-
viewing car mechatronics with the help of a ques-
Research Methods
tionnaire or an interview resulted in very question-
able findings (cf. RAUNER / SPÖTTL 1995a). Due to
the insights gained from anonymous surveys the
participating researchers (among them the author)
concluded that the target groups at best gave on-
ly some hints on qualification deficits and special
challenges when they were given questionnaires
with both open and closed questions. A number
of explications can be given. On the one hand it
is the systemic technology, above all the ↑ diagno-
sis technology, which can no longer be accessed at
shop-floor level. This is why a description of prob-
lems becomes more difficult.
“This modern technology is a systemic technology. It re-
quires working with terms describing the systems, terms
which have to be dealt with mentally, i.e. with a compre-
hensive theory, not only with formulas or even percep-
tions” (GRONWALD 1993a).
It is obvious that the challenges immanent in this
technology cannot be thoroughly determined with
the help of questionnaires or standardized inter-
views as the contents are too complex. Another
problem may be the fact that the construction of
questionnaires and key questions in this phase of
surveys were still more closely oriented towards
procedures of the qualitative social sciences. Thus
the details of development and the challenges for
work and technology could not be adequately as-
sessed. The ↑ decoding of the knowledge and skills
incorporated in professional work was not possi-
ble at all. The numerous variants of qualitative in-
terviews were not crowned with success either (cf.
HOPF 2000, 350 f.) as the work contents dealt with
by the skilled workers are too specific to be as-
sessed by instruments and methods aimed at gen-
eral system structures or ↑ socio-technological sys-
tems. According to ↑ ethnography (cf. LÜDERS 2003,
384 ff.) it was obvious that they needed to take into
account the participating observation in the sense
of a flexible ↑ research strategy (ibidem 393). This
required adapting to the respective situative situ-
ations.
“This also implies that the researcher must be able to
adapt his/her methodical proceedings and to maintain
the balance of a cognitive interest and situative require-
ments” (LÜDERS 2003).
Becker and Isermann (1997, 18 f.) and Becker
(2003) question this very approach. They presume
that concrete work contents and their complexity
757
can only be accessed as soon as the researchers are
familiar with the concrete work contents and the
tools of work, i.e. if they are able to break down a
domain such as skilled work (e. g. in the automo-
tive sector, the recycling sector, chip removal etc.).
↑ Ethnography on the other hand postulates that:
“the research practice is highly influenced by the social
environment and the situations, characterized by the
participating subjects, their ways and conditions of life
(…)” (LÜDERS 2003, 393).
This rather proves the need for a “double role” of
the researchers: on the one hand they are supposed
to delve into the existing milieu, i.e. to break down
a domain, whereas on the other hand they must not
loose track of the interests of the participating sub-
jects.
This highly acceptable reality of research practice
and the insight that established social and work
scientific assessment and interview procedures can
scarcely completely tap:
– the acting mechanisms internalised by skilled
workers,
– the knowledge and skills internalised by skilled
workers as well as
– the experience knowledge acquired by skilled
workers,
which all led to the development of new ↑ research
methods. These were supposed to open up skilled
work and ↑ domain specific knowledge and skills
which are characteristic for a certain ↑ profes-
sion. Furthermore it was necessary to determine
the work-process-oriented training contents for
↑ curriculum development for skilled workers (cf.
SPÖTTL 2000b; RAUNER /K LEINER 2004, 123). One
of the most promising methods are the so-called
“action-oriented ↑ expert interviews” (→ 5.2.2) and
the ↑ expert skilled worker workshops. The first
are above all applied for a direct work observation
and the reflection of work situations. The latter are
applied in order to promote the readiness of the
skilled workers to provide information on factual
challenges and the required acting knowledge, the
knowledge and skills. The objective is to under-
stand the acting of an expert, more precisely the
objective “if-then-correlations” (if I do this, exact-
ly that and that happens because …)” as well as
subjective assumptions.
The insight that modern occupations require a fine
structure of skilled worker acting, the knowledge
758
Tab. 1: Core Work Processes of a Car Mechatronic (R AUNER /SPÖTTL 1995b).
of concrete ↑ work processes and contents in the
respective relevant context and the objective “↑ tac-
it” knowledge of skilled workers on the shop-floor
level resulted in the development of the ESWW
method.
5.2.4.3 The “Context” of Expert Skilled
Workers Workshops
The work coherences characteristic for a certain
occupation which are at the same time suitable for
the development of occupational competency are
identified and formulated with the help of ESWW
(cf. DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1987; BENNER 1997). An-
other step is their curricular structurization as the
basis for competence development. The formula-
tion of the ↑ work tasks and their sensible coher-
ence calls for an analysis of the objective facts, of
the context constituting a certain occupation, i.e.
the variety of:
– The objects of vocational skilled work,
– The tools, methods and forms of organisation,
– The requirements for skilled work and technol-
ogy
Handbook of TVET Research
which have to be precisely determined.
This can be realized via the identification and for-
malization of work tasks which are important for
competency development. Two procedures have
emerged. The procedure practised by the group
of researchers Bremer, Rauner and Röben (2001)
and Rauner and Kleiner (2004) only concentrates
on the workshop itself and focus on ↑ group dis-
cussions as an identification procedure (K LEINER
2004, 84 ff.). Based on the occupational career
of the participants (occupational biography) those
tasks are identified that were and still are impor-
tant for each skilled worker. Subsequently, char-
acteristic work tasks are worked out in group and
plenary sessions, they are then structured and con-
densed into ↑ occupational profiles. Havighurst
(1972) calls these tasks ↑ development tasks. An-
other procedure, represented by Spöttl (2000b) and
Becker and Spöttl (BECKER / SPÖTTL 2001a) aims at
the identification of work tasks via ↑ work process
studies at the shop-floor level. The identification
of “paradigmatic work tasks” – named paradig-
matic cases by Benner (BENNER 1997, 31) – which
unify practical and theoretical knowledge based
Research Methods
on experience can thus be better safeguarded by
this procedure compared to the first approach as
the researchers are firmly involved in the “practi-
cal life” of their target groups. In an ↑ ESWW the
identified ↑ work tasks are evaluated, clustered and
structured in order to form the basis for the ↑ occu-
pational profile and for ↑ curriculum development.
In this case ESWW are very suitable methodolog-
ical instruments for the precise and accurate for-
mulation and the curricular structurization of the
work tasks.
The chance of ESWW lies in the fact that expert
skilled workers are able to assess the identified
↑ work processes. They can specify the developed
work tasks in terms of “important work tasks”
(paradigmatic work tasks) and they can structur-
ized them for competency development. Occupa-
tional work tasks are important as soon as they
– Are characteristic for the respective occupation,
i.e. point to reasonable work coherences rather
than to abstract tasks, skills or actions;
– Encourage learning in order to challenge occu-
pational competence development by concentrat-
ing on the comprehensive work process as a core
of learning encouragement;
– Enable a systematisation of occupational learn-
ing in terms of development of occupational acting
competence;
– Are designed in a way that they also contain
future occupational developments (cf. RAUNER /
K LEINER 2004, 118 f.).
ESWW eventually help to decode the knowledge
and skills incorporated in skilled and occupation-
al work and can thus be referred to as an important
part of a ↑ domain specific ↑ qualification research.
This is underpinned by an exact description of cur-
rent skilled work in the form of occupational work
tasks which are embedded in corporate business
and work processes. Their assignment to learning
fields structured into levels of competence devel-
opment from the novice to the expert represents
at the same time the basis for curriculum devel-
opment (cf. K LEINER 2004, 89). Contrary to work
psychology and work science, individual tasks or
↑ performances are not analysed and transferred to
a curriculum but are tasks in terms of a complete
action.
759
5.2.4.4 Concepts and Implementation of the
Method
The more comprehensive procedure based on work
processes will be discussed in detail below.
A one-day expert skilled worker workshop should
involve around 7 to 9 expert skilled workers. They
should
– Represent an occupation which is to be further
developed in a skilled and biographical way;
– Be able to critically and perspectively describe,
evaluate and systematize their current (occupa-
tional) skilled work and to develop new ideas for
occupations;
– Reflect their own initial and further occupation-
al training in the context of the change of work
tasks.
The majority of the experts should still be active-
ly involved in the respective skilled work, i.e. they
should still be productively active. Another small-
er part of the group should come from the indi-
rect domain and should work as master craftsmen,
trainer or technician. At least one of the research-
ers organizing the workshop must have a relevant
vocational educational scientific formation and
an adequate occupational biography. Just one out
of the two prerequisites is not enough. Without a
vocational educational scientific formation there
is no access to issues of vocational education re-
sulting in the fact that important vocational edu-
cational scientific coherences cannot be perceived.
In case of a lack of a clear-cut vocational biogra-
phy the researcher cannot entirely understand the
language and the contents of the skilled work(ers).
The second researcher should at least have one of
the required qualifications, at best both of them,
and should at the same time be an experienced fa-
cilitator. The course of the workshop should be
stimulated by the inspiration and impulses of both
the researchers and the workshop participants.
Preset “theoretical” specifications should not be
provided. Pre-structured papers or lectures of dif-
ferent configurations as an introduction should al-
so be avoided. It is important that the researchers
provoke the conversations, the statements, the ex-
planations with the aid of context-oriented ques-
tions and by questions formulated in the language
of the skilled workers. The researchers should not
be in the focus of the conversations. The experts
760
are the ones who are to talk and to explain where-
as the researchers give impulses, summarize, ask
back. The structuring of the content and the ↑ work
tasks is the predominant ↑ performance by the ex-
perts. They are the only ones who can construct a
development logical ranking as they well remem-
ber how they have learned – and are still learning
– their trade. The researchers must flawlessly pro-
vide the instruments, the materials for documenta-
tion, the changing of the sequences, additions and
specifications. Only if the researchers and the ex-
perts act at the same level and speak the same lan-
guage, the results of the experts will turn out in a
way that the corporate work coherences, work con-
tents and work tasks are realistically mirrored.
5.2.4.5 Course of an ESWW (cf. Spöttl
2000b, 216)
– Explanation of the aim of the workshop and of
the working methods.
– Presentation of the researchers and the workshop
participants (very suitable are methods to promote
communication).
– Identification, selection and formulation of oc-
cupational work tasks which were previously iden-
tified with the aid of ↑ work process studies. Im-
portant: work tasks must represent work coherenc-
es and must be relevant for a specific occupation (a
variety of methods is recommended).
– Precise formulation and structurization of the
work tasks as well as their grouping according to
development logical principles.
– Evaluation of the work tasks with respect to a
specific occupation.
As a result, all characteristic work coherences
and their qualificational requirements for a spe-
cific ↑ occupational profile should be identified. A
preliminary differentiation of the work tasks ac-
cording to their special relevance is recommend-
ed. This can, however, also be done during one of
the subsequent work phases.
One of the most important prerequisites for a suc-
cessful workshop is an atmosphere marked by con-
fidence and creativity, thus encouraging all partic-
ipating expert skilled workers to contribute their
entire experience and competency to the analysis
process. This is why a successful facilitation of the
workshop is crucial. It should not only provide a
Handbook of TVET Research
positive atmosphere but should also make skilful
use of the various facilitation methods for safe-
guarding the documentation of the results.
The further course of the ↑ ESWW should focus
on the evaluation, weighting and final grouping of
the work tasks.
In order to be able to evaluate and group the exist-
ing work tasks they will be presented on a list and
the following questions should be answered:
– How does the respective task occur in everyday
life?
– How difficult is it to perform these tasks in a
qualified and effective way?
According to the result of the evaluation the work
tasks are comparatively precisely assigned to four
groups and are internally sorted.
The structurization corresponds to four levels (cf.
SPÖTTL 1995, 70 f.):
– Orientation and overview knowledge.
– Coherent knowledge.
– Detailed and functional knowledge.
– Specialized skilled deepened knowledge.
The evaluation of the degree of difficulty and the
subjective appreciation of the experts is used to ar-
range the work tasks into a training-logical rank-
ing and to assign them to the four levels.
In case of tasks with an outreach into several fields
of work tasks the experts must decide on their as-
signment according to training logical consider-
ations in order to define their quantity and their
quality for a vocational educational plan.
5.2.4.6 Scope and Criticism
Work tasks should be clustered, structured and
evaluated according to the criteria set by the mod-
ern occupations and with the aid of ↑ ESWW. Thus
the results clearly differ from ↑ DACUM which is
based on the American job understanding and as-
signs little or no importance at all to a structuriza-
tion of work tasks. Nevertheless it has to be stated
that the theories of vocational work tasks which
have been developed so far as a basis for devel-
opment logical curriculum are only rudimentari-
ly available. The concepts and definitions, which
can be accessed so far still have to be considerably
differentiated. Above all bridges must be built to-
wards ↑ didactical concepts in order to safeguard
a work oriented vocational education by didacti-
Research Methods
cal theories and the corresponding educational ob-
jectives.
5.2.5 Knowledge Diagnosis
Winfried Hacker
5.2.5.1 Knowledge, Data, Information
There are different points of view about how to de-
fine and subdivide knowledge. This is mainly due
to the differing approaches of several disciplines
and the various levels of consideration, i.e. of or-
ganisations, teams and individuals (RYLE 1969).
Further, knowledge is simultaneously a resource
of ↑ performance, an action-regulating mental rep-
resentation and a result of intentional or casual ac-
tivities, which generate knowledge (TUOMI 1999).
From the point of view of Cognitive Psychology,
knowledge is the result of the uptake, processing
and storage of information in the memories of indi-
viduals. It regulates activity and is developed in ac-
tivity. Data and information on the other hand exist
outside human memory. Data are fixed facts which
are not integrated in meaningful relationships. In-
formation will develop if connections between data
are identified, meaning is attributed and, thus, un-
certainty is reduced. Information becomes knowl-
edge by selection for it and its combination and
evaluation in human memory (DAVENPORT / PRUSAK
1998); for the circular relationship of data, infor-
mation and knowledge cf. (CLASES 2003).
5.2.5.2 Kinds of Knowledge
There are differing proposals concerning the sub-
division of knowledge, too, which are mainly pre-
sented separately one from another depending on
the intentions of the relevant classification.
Knowledge inter alia is classified following its var-
ious contents, its mental consciousness or its dis-
semination:
Concerning knowledge content the distinction of
knowledge about states versus about changes (KLIX
1988) is widespread, similar to that of declarative
knowledge about facts vs. procedural knowledge
761
about processes (ANDERSON 1995a) or “knowing
what” vs. “knowing how”.
Concerning the consciousness of knowledge and,
thus, the possibility of its ↑ verbalisation and con-
sequently of elicitation by interviews or question-
naires, explicit knowledge which may be verbal-
ised by applying concepts or symbols is distin-
guished from ↑ implicit knowledge which is effec-
tive in actions but maybe not (or no longer) put into
words. Again this distinction is presented in sev-
eral versions. Occasionally implicit knowledge is
dealt with in terms of experience, ↑ tacit knowl-
edge or competence (BÖHLE / ROSE 1992; BÜSSING /
HERBIG 2003b; ERAUT 2000a). It is important to re-
alise that these versions do not exclude or contra-
dict one another; there are various relationships.
Implicit knowledge may develop implicitly from
the outset or may be generated by routinisation
of former explicit knowledge (proceduralisation;
mental automation; development of ↑ skills). In the
reverse case the explication of implicit knowledge
is a difficult issue of knowledge elicitation (cf. fol-
lowing sections).
Concerning the explicit knowledge about facts and
procedures this knowledge may additionally be
knowledge about one’s own knowledge, the meta-
knowledge, or knowledge about the knowledge of
other persons, the transactional knowledge (WEG-
NER 1986). Concerning the implicit knowledge of
facts and procedures the existence of meta- knowl-
edge is not discussed in literature so far. Declar-
ative explicit meta-knowledge, for example, may
be knowledge of the reliability of the sources of
information/knowledge used in one’s own activi-
ty. Procedural explicit meta-knowledge for exam-
ple may be knowledge on the degree of one’s own
command of a skill.
As to knowledge dissemination, for example, pri-
vate vs. societal or public knowledge is men-
tioned.
Finally knowledge occasionally is classified fol-
lowing its type of existence. It may exist as a state-
ment on contents of own memory or can exist
tacitly in the mode of action-regulation. Here simi-
larities with the mentioned distinction between ex-
plicit and implicit knowledge are given.
762
5.2.5.3 Diagnosis of Knowledge, Especially of
Action-Regulating Knowledge
The manifold conceptions of knowledge deter-
mine manifold interpretations of what “↑ diagnosis
of knowledge” means.
Generally diagnosis means the identification of
the characteristics of an entity and, thus, describes
processes of cognition. Consequently, ↑ knowledge
diagnosis is conceptualised here as the methodolo-
gy and method of the identification and processing
of the task-related knowledge of ↑ performance ex-
perts in order to communicate it to novices or em-
ployees with suboptimal performance.
For these training purposes action-regulating
knowledge enabling effective performance is of in-
terest. This knowledge shows some distinctive fea-
tures. It includes several of the above mentioned
kinds of knowledge, it shows specific combina-
tions of these kinds of knowledge, and it may not
be isolated from other mental prerequisites of ac-
tions (for detail see HACKER 1992; 1996; 2005):
Not all knowledge regulates actions. The knowl-
edge that actually regulates action should be dis-
tinguished from knowledge that only accompanies
actions, and from knowledge which subsequently
is applied to justify already completed actions.
In action-regulating knowledge, first procedural
knowledge about strategies is combined with de-
clarative knowledge about states. Secondly this ac-
tion-regulating knowledge is combined with goals.
Psychologically a goal is the combination of the
anticipation of the future result of an action with
the intention to accomplish this result by one’s
own effort. Moreover, this knowledge is organ-
ised in patterns of goals, conditions of goal ac-
complishment and the necessary measures (GCM-
patterns). These GCM-patterns are a refinement
of the If-Then-patterns or production rule systems
discussed in Cognitive Psychology: if a person
pursues a goal and if she realises that the condi-
tions of goal accomplishment are given, she is sup-
posed to activate and implement suitable measures
of goal accomplishment. Therefore at least knowl-
edge is inevitable on the characteristics of the goal,
the conditions of its accomplishment and on suit-
able methods and means. This knowledge at least
must be reproduced from memory, or searched for
in memory, or is to be generated in order to fill up
Handbook of TVET Research
the gaps in the necessary action-regulating knowl-
edge. Furthermore for successful work in complex
systems knowledge about the causes of an existing
situation which should be changed is necessary, as
is knowledge about the rules governing the tech-
nological processes that are to be changed, about
the useful or necessary means, tools or partners,
as well as of the consequences and side-effects of
the intended actions.
Some parts of this action-regulating knowledge
may be thought only partially, or not at all verbal-
ly, by teachers, instructors or teaching aids. These
parts, at least, must be acquired in a guided execu-
tion of those actions, which should be mastered by
the trainees. These parts of knowledge are often
labelled experience or ↑ implicit knowledge. Exe-
cuting the actions to be trained decisively contrib-
utes to the implicit knowledge.
Finally, pieces of action regulating knowledge may
become objective matters, for example if the infor-
mation is fixed in instructions, documents or man-
uals, but moreover also if it becomes reified in or-
ganisational structures and procedures or in tools.
In the reverse case the fixed information can be
retransformed into action-regulating knowledge in
human memory.
5.2.5.4 Methodology of the Diagnosis of
Action-Regulating Knowledge
The above-mentioned topics explain why the diag-
nosis or elicitation of action-regulating knowledge
may not be reduced to simple question-based meth-
ods, i.e. interviews and questionnaires, but needs a
pattern of different approaches and methods (TER-
GAN 1988). This pattern comprises analyses of doc-
uments and of results of work, work-study tech-
niques, field experiments and, of course, the var-
ious techniques of questioning (HACKER / ROTHE /
WANDKE 1995; K LUWE 1988). This pattern of meth-
ods is not an arbitrary mix of several methods, but
a methodologically-determined strategy and com-
bination of methods aiming at the several facets of
action-regulating knowledge. Knowledge diagno-
sis is not only a reproduction of verbalized knowl-
edge ready for use in action, nor is it only the trans-
formation of implicit knowledge on procedures in-
to conscious explicit knowledge. Knowledge diag-
nosis moreover is a process of reconstruction – if
Research Methods
necessary cooperative reconstruction – which cre-
ates action regulating knowledge by accomplish-
ing the relevant tasks and solving the given prob-
lems in an explicit way which may be fixed in ver-
bal statements.
That way knowledge ↑ diagnosis becomes a learn-
ing process even of the experts, as well. Conse-
quently, following this approach, the reproach that
↑ knowledge diagnosis might mean an expropria-
tion of knowledge would be absurd.
5.2.5.5 Methods of Knowledge Diagnosis. An
Overview
Table 1 summarises methods of knowledge diag-
nosis. Normally they are combined in their appli-
cation.
Tab. 1: Classification of the main methods of knowl-
edge diagnosis
Which of these methods are applied depends on
the tasks: Action-regulating knowledge of milking
needs another combination of diagnostic methods
than that of solving problems of a differential cal-
culus.
763
The great variety of available methods needs to be
classified. As some of the methods are complex, an
overlapping classification is inevitable.
At first, activity-centred vs. subject-centred ap-
proaches may be distinguished. The subject-cen-
tred ones can be subdivided into dyadic (e. g. inter-
viewer – employee) or group approaches.
Further, with respect to the extent of modifications
of the knowledge through an invasive elicitation
procedure itself, one may classify the subject-cen-
tred approaches according to this extent of modifi-
cations due to the elicitation procedure.
The sequence of the approaches in Table 1 offers a
recommendation of the sequence of their applica-
tion in case of the utilisation of several approach-
es:
For an efficient application of the subject-centred
approaches it is necessary in advance to know,
which kinds of personal prerequisites – e. g. knowl-
edge, experience, reasoning or personality traits
– are the main sources of a high-level ↑ perform-
ance. This presupposed information is gained by
activity-centred approaches, especially by the psy-
chological analysis of task requirements follow-
ing a step-by-step and multilevel approach (HACK-
ER 1995).
Within the subject-centred approaches the dyad-
ic ones offer useful foundations for efficient group
approaches.
Finally within both, the dyadic as well as the group-
based subject-centred approaches, one should pro-
ceed from those which will modify the knowledge
less, the non-invasive approaches, to the invasive
ones. Following this methodology the diagnosis
will falsify or verify hypotheses, but only few con-
straints are put on the experts by the type of ques-
tions used or tasks to be addressed. Later on, based
on already-elicited knowledge, more invasive or
restrictive procedures may be applied.
A sequence of methods as outlined here offers sev-
eral advantages. These are the following ones:
– This sequence of the step-by-step generating and
testing of hypotheses installs possibilities of vali-
dation of the elicited knowledge already during the
process of its elicitation.
– The successive application of different methods
identifies the possibility of closing the procedure,
if a further method will not identify new pieces
764
of knowledge or other prerequisites of high-level
↑ performance.
– A set of several methods takes into account the
multi-modal nature of the prerequisites of high-
level performance.
– The integration of group-based methods may
improve the motivation to contribute to a knowl-
edge elicitation process, if an equity of exchange
is guaranteed for the group members and, thus,
learning becomes effective.
The following passages will only discuss inter-
view-based methods in a strict sense. For other
methods, i.e. the techniques of classification and
completion of a presented ↑ body of knowledge by
the dialoge-consensus methods (SCHEELE / GROEBEN
1988), the repertory-grid-technique (SCHEER /
CATINA 1993), or the story-telling technique the
original sources should be consulted. Work study
techniques are discussed in 5.2.8 as well as from
the psychological point of view in Hacker (1996)
or Harvey (1991). For group techniques with rele-
vance for knowledge elicitation see West (1996) or
Wetzstein/Jahn/ Hacker (2003).
Unlike the thinking aloud method, interviews re-
quire a concept-driven approach and, thus, at least
a rough idea of the desired knowledge. Therefore,
interviews are often interventions, too. An inter-
vention may assist or impair the identification of
action-regulating knowledge.
Table 2 summaries some kinds of interviews.
The elicitation of action-regulating knowledge
needs a successive combination of different in-
terview techniques in order to identify the sever-
al types of knowledge, e. g. implicit and explic-
it knowledge. Some chances of an explication of
↑ implicit knowledge may be offered by the distri-
bution of the cognitive processes of a working task
between persons, for example in a tutorial dialogue
between trainer and trainee, which causes an ex-
ternalisation, i.e., a conceptualisation. The inter-
viewer here has the role of the trainee.
Handbook of TVET Research
Tab. 2: Kinds of interview techniques for knowledge
↑ diagnosis
Interviews aiming at specific tasks or cases are
more profitable than interviews without the rela-
tionship to a specific “situated” case. This holds
especially for interviews in terms of walk through,
read through or teach through techniques.
The interviews should start with a non-standard-
ised interview technique. The first reason is the
higher acceptance of the procedure if the inter-
viewee may at first describe her/his perception of
the work situation. Further it is necessary at first to
identify the knowledge of the experts without the
modifications and selections imposed by the con-
cepts of the interviewer onto this knowledge. The
non-standardised parts of the interviews should
neither impose a scientific approach nor the naïve
theories of the interviewer on the interviewees
(ERICSON / SIMON 1993). In this non-invasive inter-
view the experts should describe what they do and
why, in which sequence, and what they have to re-
member, consider, know, and to be able to do for
this reason. The description of what a person actu-
ally is doing when accomplishing a task may hint
on the person’s ↑ tacit knowledge.
“Tacit knowledge… is the knowledge that you need to
succeed in an endeavour, that is not formally thought-
out and that often is not even verbalized. It is knowledge
Research Methods
typically acquired on the job or in the situation where it
is actually used” (STERNBERG 1995, 321. See also BERLI-
NER 1994; SCHÖN 1983).
In addition to and after the “free”, not standardised
interview techniques the concept driven, standard-
ised and pre-structured interview techniques are
useful. There, a multi-level procedure should be
applied in knowledge ↑ diagnosis. In the first step
the interviewee is asked to decompose her/his task
into subtasks. These subtasks are the units of anal-
ysis in the next steps which inquire about the nec-
essary knowledge, experience and skills. The as-
sumptions about the characteristics of the sup-
posed knowledge, guiding this type of interview,
will influence the result of the diagnosis. There-
fore these assumptions should restrict themselves
to general characteristics of the mental regulation
of work. The question-answering technique with
interrogative questions (who, what, why etc.) aim-
ing at the generic semantic relationships (causal,
final, conditional relations etc.), that must be filled
up with the specific knowledge for any successful
action, follows these general assumptions.
It turned out to be helpful to ask the interviewees
before the interviews for a self-analysis of their
activities and even to offer them some tools, e. g.
suitable check-lists, for this purpose.
It depends on the type of working process being
analysed as to whether the interviews may accom-
pany the ↑ work process or are added at the end of
them. Not all tasks can be interrupted for an in-
terview.
A type of interview, which is of special interest in
↑ knowledge diagnosis, is the systematic mental
(“virtual”) “work through” of the relevant tasks
and technological systems. This method contrib-
utes decisively to the identification of the perform-
ance-determining parts of the tasks, the necessary
sequence of the operations, and the action-regulat-
ing experience. Several versions of the technique
are applied:
(a) Systematic mental walk-through without any
external assistance.
(b) Systematic read-through. The expert and the
interviewer – in the role of a trainee –read the in-
structions or manual of the relevant tasks and their
tools together. These texts are interpreted by the
expert based on her/his experience.
765
(c) Systematic situated teach-through. Again the
expert instructs the interviewer, but here instruc-
tion takes place at the workplace with its materials
and tools. He simulates a training procedure, how-
ever the tasks actually are not accomplished. Thus,
the expert may use the memory-assisting context
of the workplace and the possibilities of a virtual
demonstration. As there are no limitations by the
actual task accomplishment, he/she is able to an-
swer even complex questions of the trainee/inter-
viewer without the load of dual tasking.
The walk through-procedures are suitable for
knowledge diagnosis in groups too.
The externalisation of implicit or tacit knowledge
into verbal behaviour (“↑ verbalisation”) needs an
iterative analytical procedure with feed-back loops
(CHI / GLASER / FARR 1988; SCHÖN 1983). The inves-
tigator presents the employee with the categorised
data of the observations at the task (job analyses)
for a common read through. He/she asks for expla-
nations of the registered activity, and offers alter-
native formulations concerning hypothetical tacit
knowledge in order to find out corrections, modifi-
cations and completions.
A well-known advantage of questionnaires is the
possibility to interview many interviewees simul-
taneously with low costs. The prerequisites of this
advantage are a sufficient ↑ rate of return and the
existence of a high number of experts on a job,
working in comparable conditions. Further – as
was mentioned for all kinds of standardised inter-
views techniques – the more sophisticated the in-
tended questions on the ↑ knowledge base, the more
fundamental information is necessary in advance
in order to develop a system of questions which are
actually useful.
5.2.5.6 Further Requirements of Research
The problem how to identify and organise the ac-
tion-regulation knowledge of ↑ performance ex-
perts for reasons of education of future experts has
only partly been solved so far.
First of all it should be analysed more seriously as
to which specific pieces of knowledge and expe-
rience and which skills, attitudes and other kinds
of performance prerequisites (e. g. reasoning; capa-
city of working memory; “competences”) will de-
termine excellent ↑ performance in a given task or
766
job. The waffle on “the” “hard” and “soft” skills is
not helpful.
A further problem concerns the useful combina-
tion of methods and the sequence of the applica-
tion of the several methods of knowledge ↑ diag-
nosis. There are hints of a different ↑ ↑ effective-
ness of the methods and their sequence of applica-
tion for different kinds of knowledge (e. g. knowl-
edge of conditions, causes, procedures or tools)
(HACKER /JILGE 1993; HACKER 1996).
More generally, the fundamental methodological
approach of ↑ knowledge diagnosis should be dealt
with. Simplifying the question is, whether knowl-
edge diagnosis means to skim off or even to “ex-
propriate” the knowledge and experience of em-
ployees – in order to automate processes by means
of ↑ artificial intelligence or to train low-cost em-
ployees – or intends a process of joint learning with
an equity of exchange of personal experience.
A further unsolved problem is whether knowledge
diagnosis restricts the elicitation of the knowl-
edge already applied in existing jobs. Beyond this,
knowledge diagnosis might try to identify that
knowledge which will be necessary in the future
for new tasks which until now just did not exist.
Last not least the optimal, ↑ user-friendly modes
of the presentation of the different kinds of elicit-
ed knowledge need some more investigation, espe-
cially concerning the computer-based presentation
of procedural knowledge.
5.2.6 Assessing Vocational
Competences
Bernd Haasler and John Erpenbeck
5.2.6.1 Understanding Vocational
Competences
This chapter explores competences in the con-
text of vocational education research, i.e. it focus-
es on an individual’s skills and competences that
are necessary to master ↑ work tasks in a proficient
and independent way. Further, it explores how such
skills and competences can be better assessed for
practical and research purposes.
Handbook of TVET Research
In order to be able to describe, assess or even meas-
ure ↑ vocational competences with scientific meth-
ods, it is first of all necessary to reach a common
understanding of the nature of vocational compe-
tences and how they should be defined. While a
literature review reveals that there exist abundant
literature about the different forms and dimen-
sions of competence, the term ‘vocational compe-
tence’ is not applied consistently. Rather it is de-
fined, classified and used in various, sometimes di-
vergent ways (cf. WEINERT 2001). These often di-
vergent understandings and classifications make it
particularly difficult to apply this concept in prac-
tical research. As most authors agree that a uni-
form definition, which determines a standardised
method and understanding of ‘competence’, can
neither be assumed nor expected, they tend to fol-
low, for assessment purposes, their own approach-
es in defining and classifying competence in line
with their respective ↑ research tradition.
In summarising such attempts of classification, Er-
penbeck and von Rosenstiel (2003a) define compe-
tences as ‘dispositions of self-organising actions’.
With this understanding they draw a clear dis-
tinction between competences and qualifications.
Whereas the concept of qualifications assumes the
existence of a specific set of actual knowledge and
capabilities – the qualification certifies that par-
ticular aims and objectives and these knowledge
and capabilities in principle have been achieved –
, competences essentially enable the individual to
act under conditions of uncertainty in a creative
and solution-oriented way.
A more systematic analysis leads to the definition
that competences are self-organised dispositions of
complex adaptive systems, i.e. individuals in par-
ticular. In an evolutionary sense, it means that in-
dividuals are able to realise reflexive and creative
problem solving in reflection of general complex
and selectively decisive situations (paths). Thus,
competences do not present general dispositions
or abilities as a precondition to be able to act, but
only reflect the self-organising, open, flexible and
creative potential for action, which could in prin-
ciple lead to a number of different outcomes. This
means that those actions are open in terms of fu-
ture directions and purposes (K APPELHOFF 2004).
Research Methods
Competences can help to structure an individual’s
self-organising ability in terms of generalised me-
ta-competences (BERGMANN / DAUB / MEURER 2006;
ERPENBECK / SCHARNHORST / EBELING ET AL. 2006).
They can further help to assess the basic forms of
self-organising abilities in terms of an individu-
al’s personality (personal competences), concrete
objects and processes (technical/subject-specific
and methodological competences) and others (so-
cial competences) by considering the intensity of
the individual’s efforts and activities (self-realising
competence). These categories can be understood
as basic competences. With the observed tenden-
cy of authors tending to create endless lists of sub-
competences, it is recommendable to categorise
any possible kinds of sub-competences along these
basic entities (HEYSE 2007) for not running the risk
of an endless expansion of the terminology (like it
was the case with the term ‘↑ key competences’ in
the 1970s).
The understanding that competences do not de-
scribe abilities, attitudes, behaviour or knowledge
as such, but rather an individual’s self-organising
potentials (cf. RÖBEN 2001; → 3.4.2) radically chal-
lenges cognitivist approaches. After most educa-
tionalists initially demonstrated a rather critical at-
titude towards emerging concepts of competence
and the underlying constructivist ideas of self-or-
ganising theory, they gradually accepted the ter-
minology and adopted it to serve their own pur-
poses. For example, what formerly was designat-
ed as ‘reading and calculating abilities’ nowadays
is termed ‘reading and calculating competences’.
Suddenly, much of what formerly was termed ‘ca-
pabilities’, ‘knowledge’ or ‘qualification’ is now
being referred to as ‘competence’. These trends are
based on the idea that all kinds of ↑ performance
dispositions can be subsumed under the concept
of competence. Accordingly, competences are be-
ing defined as context-specific, cognitive perform-
ance dispositions, which are functional in terms of
enabling the individual to respond to and act in a
particular, very concrete work environment. Dis-
positions in this sense reflect particular work situ-
ations and environments and their context-specific
requirements for learning and action. Consequent-
ly, such competences are supposed to be based on
learning and experience, and thus can be shaped
767
and modified through institutionalised education
and training processes (K LIEME / LEUTNER 2006).
Such a definition is not unproblematic. The first
concern refers to the underlying notion that the
term ‘competence’ can be applied to any kind of
cognitive achievement. The second concern ad-
dresses the rather narrow concept of domains, i.e.
that the achievement and demonstration of compe-
tences are confined to a particular domain. The de-
cisive characteristic of basic competences, on the
contrary, is precisely their transferability between
different domains. For example, a sales person is
able to apply his/her social competence (such as
communicative abilities) to other areas such as
teaching. Against the aspect of transferability, it
is not surprising that cognitivists oppose the self-
organising constructivist concept of competence.
Thus, they conclude that the cognitivist under-
standing of competence is fundamentally differ-
ent from the competence concept as it is structured
and defined in vocational education and ↑ training
research, and widely discussed along the dimen-
sions of basic competences in terms of technical,
methodological, social and personal competences
(K LIEME /AVENARIUS / BLUM / DÖBRICH / GRUBER ET AL.
2003, 22).
5.2.6.2 Methods to Assess Vocational
Competences
There exists a variety of ↑ research methods and
tools to assess ↑ vocational competences and com-
petence development. The “Handbuch Kompeten-
zmessung” (Handbook of ↑ Competence Assess-
ment) 2003a alone presents 44 internationally ap-
plied methods of competence assessment and eval-
uation, most of which are commonly used in the
context of ↑ human resources development, staff
recruitment and performance assessment. The ma-
jority of these tools are offered and marketed by
commercial providers (cf. SCHULER 2000). In ad-
dition, abundant on-line tools for the ↑ assessment
of competences also exist (RIDDER / BRUNS / BRÜNN
2004).
Instruments of competence assessment of work
psychology and vocational education research dif-
ferentiate their understanding of competences, on
the one hand, along the concept of ‘comprehensive
work actions’ (“Konzept der vollständigen Arbeits-
768
handlung”) (HACKER 1992; 1996; 2005; VOLPERT
1987a; 2005) and, on the other hand, by distin-
guishing between technical, methodological, so-
cial and personal competence (ROTH 1971; REETZ
1999). Thereby it is not clear whether those dif-
ferent dimensions of competence can be assessed
independently or only in their totality. This prob-
lem is further discussed in a major publication
dealing with the assessment of ↑ key competenc-
es (RYCHEN / SALGANIK 2001), while comprehensive
empirical investigations have been conduced by
Maag Merki (2004).
The Instrument for Competence Assessment
(ICA) developed by Swedish work psychologists
aims at assessing competences that are in the first
place based on work experience (LANTZ / FRIEDRICH
2003). For assessing ↑ vocational competences,
however, the ICA must be considered restrictive,
because the approach measures abilities largely in-
dependently of the actual ↑ work processes (K ERN /
SCHUMANN 1970). So far, ICA has not been adapted
to account for an occupation- or a domain-orient-
ed perspective. Also Bergmann’s concept of com-
petence estimation across sectors or occupational
domains (BERGMANN, B. 2003) has not been differ-
entiated along occupational domains or specialisa-
tions. Based on Hacker (2005) and Ulich (1998),
Bergmann’s assessment tool postulates that work-
ers as ‘experts’ of their respective domain are able
to judge upon their ↑ work tasks, objectives and
outcomes. Her hypothesis is that the nature of the
work task highly influences the proficiency and
vocational competence development of the work-
er. This idea closely relates to the concept of learn-
ing in qualifying work processes, which is wide-
ly discussed in vocational education research (R AU-
NER 2004b). This latter ↑ research tradition fur-
ther introduces the following types of work-based
knowledge:
– Practical or ↑ implicit knowledge (BENNER 1995;
HAASLER 2004)
– ↑ Work process knowledge (BOREHAM / SAMURÇAY/
FISCHER 2002)
– Action-oriented and reflective knowledge
(HACKER 1996)
Despite in depth analyses of these knowledge con-
cepts it has not been possible to develop a power-
ful assessment tool based on an elaborated concept
Handbook of TVET Research
of vocational competences and competence devel-
opment. This may be because it is misleading to
assume that ↑ competence assessment necessari-
ly needs to be restricted to some form of testing.
While it can be expected that the above mentioned
tools will gain a predictably minor impact in com-
panies and in actual work practice – above all be-
cause they are too laborious and time-consuming
– it is likely that other forms of qualitative methods
(such as competence portfolios), biographic meth-
ods (competence biographies), simulation methods
or work samples will gain much greater influence.
In our view, combining qualitative and quantita-
tive assessment tools (i.e. hybrid methods) would
be the most promising approach in future.
The above examples illustrate that adapting the
different methods of competence assessment to the
requirements of theory and practice of vocational
education and training remains a task to be tack-
led, both in terms of the theoretical foundation as
well as the empirical evidence. A diagnostic tool
that can also assess the environment in which vo-
cational competences develop has to consider,
above all, the quality of vocational learning both
in ↑ vocational schools and in the company. Apart
from some exceptions, such quality-oriented forms
of competence assessment have not yet been devel-
oped. For VET practice, this means that decisions
of ↑ curriculum development have so far hard-
ly been based on empirical evidence. Assessment
tools developed by related scientific disciplines or
traditions, such as work science or ↑ ergonomics,
typically do not relate to concerns and issues of
vocational education and ↑ training research, or do
not reveal their implicit assumptions of learning
outcomes for the benefit of VET. Thus, they are
largely inappropriate for guiding empirical investi-
gations of vocational learning, which – in Germa-
ny at least – typically takes place in the dynamics
between vocational schools and the practical work
experience in the company.
If competences are an indirect ascription of ob-
served actions, attitudes or abilities of individuals,
identifying the appropriate methodological tools to
observe, describe and assess competences remains
an unresolved challenge. Erpenbeck and von Ro-
senstiel emphasise that the direct assessment of
competences is insofar difficult as we are dealing
Research Methods
with ‘inner assets’, which cannot be observed di-
rectly and which are meaningless without a the-
oretically founded framework of interpretation
(2003a). Under the assumption that the empirical
evidence of competences is revealed in some kind
of expertise or ↑ performance (“Performanz”) (RÖ-
BEN 2001, 44), competences can only indirectly be
assessed by means of analysing context-specific
and task-related work actions. Thereby it is impor-
tant it point out that competences are not just per-
sonality traits. While the latter (such as introver-
sion or extraversion) remain relatively stable even
under changing living conditions) competences
are rather flexible and are likely to be transformed
as individuals experience different work environ-
ments and performance requirements.
Empirically, the above underlying assumptions
have wide-reaching implications as they imply that
↑ vocational competences can only be assessed un-
der consideration of a workers’ every day work
practice and environment. How workers deal with
their every day ↑ work tasks, thus, either has to be
observed at their workplace, or – alternatively or
complementary to it – in an environment that sim-
ulates this work practice in an experimental set-
ting. The objective of either alternative would be
to confront individuals with realistic work tasks in
such a way that the outcomes of the tasks give ev-
idence of their vocational proficiency and knowl-
edge. Such a work task-oriented approach makes it
possible to assess vocational competences that are
closely linked to the actual work demands. Anoth-
er advantage is that the outcomes could easily be
applied to VET practice and support the design of
vocational training concepts and programmes.
The shortfall of most ↑ interdisciplinary approach-
es, which aim to assess vocational competences
and competence development, is that they large-
ly ignore this route of considering and analysing
work-related actions. The following sections intro-
duce some few selected approaches, which from
their design and conceptualisation refer to central
issues related to vocational education research.
Notably, most instruments aiming at assessing
competences cannot be considered measurement
tools in a narrow sense, because they tend to eval-
uate and assess competences rather than measur-
ing them in a standardised way.
769
In vocational education research, assessing voca-
tional competences empirically is yet to be based
on elaborated methods. Systems of certification,
expert research and knowledge psychology for
long have relied on identifying and analysing ex-
plicit technical knowledge and know-how while
largely ignoring ↑ work process-related knowl-
edge. The latter only recently has been identified
and acknowledged as a key dimension of voca-
tional learning and work performance (cf. FISCH-
ER 2000; → 3.6.4).
Current methods that assess the outcomes of vo-
cational education and training are based on ab-
stract work samples and multiple-choice tests, both
of which are largely inappropriate to give accurate
information about the level of vocational compe-
tence achieved. Rather have those tests and the
way they are being implemented lead to the man-
ifestation of a subject-oriented learning structure
instead of reflecting the complex demands of the
actual work practice. In order to assess vocation-
al competences that enable the individual to mas-
ter everyday work tasks, scientific methods and as-
sessment tools, which consider and create close
linkage to the actual work demands and work and
business processes, should be prioritised. Further
plays the respective ↑ community of practice – col-
leagues, co-workers and supervisors in particular
– a key role in evaluating and judging upon an em-
ployee’s vocational proficiency.
5.2.6.3 Kasseler-Competence-Classification
The competence classification instrument devel-
oped at the University of Kassel, Germany (“Kas-
seler-Kompetenz-Raster”, KKR) by Ekkehart Frie-
ling and colleagues has been implemented widely
and in various practical work environments (FRIE-
LING / K AUFFELD / GROTE 2000). The KKR method
aims at assessing employees’ vocational, action-
oriented competence (“berufliche Handlungskom-
petenz”) challenging them to master optimisation
tasks. The approach consists of video-recording
↑ group discussions, which involve five to seven
employees. These employees typically cooperate
within or across several company departments and
are required to solve a characteristic optimisation
task together. The discussions and other forms of
verbal communication among the participants are
770
being transcribed verbatim and evaluated against
50 categories (“Sinneinheiten”) that the KKR clas-
sification system comprises. The criteria for classi-
fication reflect the distinction between technical/
subject-specific competence (“Fachkompetenz”),
methodological competence (“Methodenkompe-
tenz”), social competence (“Sozialkompetenz”)
and self competence (“Selbstkompetenz”). Si-
multaneously are the participants asked to fill out
a questionnaire concerning the flexibility of the
company and the employees, the self-assessment
of their own ↑ vocational competences, personal
characteristics, team working and the company’s
potentials for innovation. Furthermore form the
participants’ behaviour and attitudes part of the
competence analysis. Those are assumed to be re-
vealed in the participants’ verbal expressions in the
↑ group discussions that take place as the employ-
ees try to solve the optimisation task (K AUFFELD /
GROTE / FRIELING 2003).
The limits of the KKR method are various. First,
the results obtained from the group discussions
cannot be generalised. Second, the method typi-
cally concentrates on optimisation tasks, which do
not really encourage employees’ creativity and co-
operation among each other for finding a solution
for a complex task. More routine vocational com-
petences that are expressed in everyday individual
problem-solving abilities cannot be assessed suf-
ficiently with this method. Third, restricting the
analysis of vocational competences to the verbal
expressions that the participants make during the
group discussion (the results from the question-
naires and video-taping are rather used to assess
and consider contextual variables) highly limits the
scope of assessment since it is unclear and greatly
questionable whether and to what extent commu-
nication skills allow for making conclusions about
an individuals’ technical skills and problem solv-
ing abilities. Finally, the strong point of the meth-
od of considering several layers of analysis (the in-
dividual, the group and the organisation) may turn
out to be problematic when wanting to draw con-
clusions for each layer independently.
Handbook of TVET Research
5.2.6.4 Work Samples and Situated
Questions
Schaper’s (2003; 2005) method of work samples
and situated questioning to assess workplace-re-
lated competences (“Arbeitsproben und situative
Fragen zur Messung arbeitsplatzbezogener Kom-
petenzen”) aims at measuring vocational compe-
tences and competence development by relating
it to an individual’s work-related behaviour and
knowledge. So far the method has been applied
in the context of skilling industrial workers, who
are undergoing a dual apprenticeship programme.
Thereby have learning experiences been integrat-
ed into the company’s work and business process-
es of manufacturing. The main objective of this
approach is to assess learning effects and chang-
es of an individual’s competence profile in relation
to varying ↑ learning environments. This should be
achieved by applying workplace-related work sam-
ples and situated questioning. Workplace-relat-
ed samples are understood as “standardised tasks
that facilitate the observation and identification of
work attitudes” (SCHAPER 2003, 187) as they reflect
authentic ↑ work tasks and problems. These are au-
thentic in that they allow for judging upon an indi-
vidual’s work ↑ performance and outcomes under
realistic working conditions. Situated questioning
complements the work samples. By means of fo-
cused questions the participants are required to ex-
plain the different work steps they decide to follow
in order to solve a (hypothetically posed) problem
or task.
The work samples are targeted to assess three
competence dimensions, namely technical, meth-
odological and social competences. The nature of
the work samples are further based on task analy-
ses undertaken by instructors and trainers. Imple-
menting the two components, work samples and
situated questions, takes about 90 minutes dur-
ing which an instructor writes down his or her ob-
servations and the statements made by the partici-
pants into a pre-defined classification scheme. One
instructor thereby analyses and observes exactly
one participant.
Combining work samples with situated question-
ing is based on the idea that work-related tasks
alone do not sufficiently assess the ability to co-
operate effectively in a team or to solve problems
Research Methods
under conditions of conflicting interests. The lim-
its of this method, however, are twofold. First, as
is the case with the KKR method, the obtained re-
sults are difficult to generalise and can only to a
limited extent be transferred to other occupation-
al contexts. Second, the classification of tasks and
how task ↑ performance is being evaluated accord-
ing to the different competence dimensions is not
unambiguous. Although work samples of routine
tasks can be considered a commonly applied as-
sessment tool at interim and final examinations of
the German dual vocational training scheme, it has
been critically argued that ↑ vocational competenc-
es can only appropriately be assessed and validat-
ed by means of situated tasks, as opposed to deriv-
ing conclusions on the basis of routine tasks and
standardised work samples.
5.2.6.5 Evaluation Tasks
The following presents an approach, which con-
fronts individuals with work-related tasks typical
of their respected area of work or ↑ domain-spe-
cific challenges. In a secondary analysis of sever-
al empirical investigations of expertise research,
Rothe and Schindler supported a methodologi-
cal approach that confronts individuals with tasks
as closely as possible related to the actual ↑ work
processes and work demands. These tasks are de-
signed in a way so that they can be considered pro-
totypical of the domain-specific challenges. Thus,
therefore their solution characteristics can be ab-
stracted and applied to similar tasks within the
same domain (ROTHE / SCHINDLER 1996, 41).
Based on the concept of ↑ development tasks
(HAVIGHURST 1972), Gruschka (1985) developed
domain-specific ↑ evaluation tasks, which were in-
itially used in the area of vocational education as
an instrument for evaluating in-school training of
prospective teachers. An attempt to formulate such
tasks for the area of industrial/technical vocation-
al training has been presented by a German work-
ing group led by Rainer Bremer (BREMER 2004a;
BREMER / HAASLER 2004; 2006).
In principle, vocational evaluation tasks present
the subjects with a problem of a type that they have
never before tackled (these tasks are expressly not
an input-output measurement in the form of mon-
itoring the ability to learn). The way in which the
771
participants solve (or fail to solve) these problems
demonstrates and reveals their work practice-ori-
ented problem solving strategies. The formulation
of the task should avoid any kind of help or guid-
ance: from a professional point of view a concise
and matter-of-fact formulation of the task must dis-
close a clear order, which implies and determines
the route towards a solution by way of performance
requirements, but without favouring one particular
solution. Thus, the formulation and nature of the
task is open enough to encourage self-organising
action and demonstration of an individual’s actu-
al competence.
The identification and formulation of domain-spe-
cific evaluation tasks (which essentially represent
core tasks of an occupation) require an intensive
knowledge of the requirements of skilled work and
the practical expertise of those who perform the
daily ↑ work tasks typical of the particular ↑ occu-
pational field. In order to be able to interpret the
participants’ various solutions in an adequate man-
ner, it is also necessary to have a sound knowledge
of the conditions under which vocational skills and
competences are acquired (e. g. curricula, work en-
vironment, organisational forms of training).
Extensive empirical investigations of research in-
to vocational training have led to the supposition
that successful skilled workers internalise three
distinctive strategies, which enable them to apply
new work experiences to enhance and update their
↑ professionalism (BREMER 2004a, 112 ff.). Typi-
cally, they have adopted
(i) a vocational ↑ learning strategy (closely related
to their personal competences);
(ii) a particular working strategy (closely related
with their technical-methodological and self-real-
ising competence); and
(iii) a strategy for professional cooperation (close-
ly linked with the development of their social com-
petences, communicative competences in particu-
lar).
These strategies are embodied in and ‘intercon-
nected’ with the concrete work outcomes, meth-
ods, procedures and organisational forms of skilled
work. The data collected by means of implement-
ing evaluation tasks – in the form of the various
problem-solving solutions that the subjects present
– are interpreted with the help of development
772
hermeneutics and then structured and categorised
according to the three strategies mentioned above.
The way in which a vocational ↑ evaluation task is
tackled and the inherent problem resolved not on-
ly gives insight into trainees’ competence develop-
ment and the ↑ ↑ effectiveness of their vocational
training, it also provides valuable information on
the occupational understanding and self-awareness
that the trainees develop in the course of their ap-
prenticeship.
Evaluation Task Method Exemplified for Initial
Industrial/Technical Vocational Training
A practical example shall help to illustrate the con-
cept of evaluation task. A longitudinal empirical
investigation covering a period of 3.5 years aimed
at assessing the development of ↑ vocational com-
petences of apprentices of a major German auto-
mobile company (BREMER / HAASLER 2006). This
period was identical to follow the trainees over
the duration of their training programme, dur-
ing which they were confronted with four differ-
ent evaluation tasks at different points in time. The
first evaluation task for the toolmaker trainees was
presented to them at the end of the first year of
training. The task consisted of the following exer-
cise: to incorporate into existing blank dice made
from light metal (length of edge: 30 millimetre)
the ‘number of spots’ found on a dice (to mark the
correct number of depressions for each of the six
sides). In addition, a production proposal should
be put forward to one customer who requires a lot
size of 1,000 units, as well as to another customer
who wants 50,000 dice. In the run-up to the inves-
tigation, several experts of skilled work generally
accepted this task as a standard problem arising in
the domain of tool making; one which, on the one
hand, can be tackled successfully by trainees and,
on the other, still possesses challenging problem
characteristics for an advanced worker or an ex-
pert. Given a time limit of four hours, the train-
ees were asked to penetrate the problem theoreti-
cally and demonstrate various solutions by means
of descriptions and sketches. The task was carried
out in the company’s training rooms; the aids the
young people were allowed to use included text-
books, tables, calculators and drawing materials.
Handbook of TVET Research
The main result of the investigation shall be ex-
plained below by taking two different types of so-
lution generated by the subject groups as an ex-
ample (cf. HAASLER / BALDAUF-BERGMANN 2003).
While the trainees who suggest producing the de-
pressions on the blank dice by following manual
production processes (see Fig. 1) prove that after
a training period of 12 months they still have no
concept of the ↑ work processes the toolmaker typ-
ically deals with, the second example illustrates a
realistic professional solution.
Fig. 1: Solution type of a manual unit production –
‘the craftsperson’
The first example illustrates a solution type that is
conceptualised along manual work processes. The
trainees suggest processing the item ‘directly’, the
‘indirect’ production of items using tools charac-
teristic of the occupation is not present in the so-
lutions offered. Here, the presented solution re-
flects the experiences the trainees have gained at
the training workshop so far. They provide a work-
able model of how the depressions can be made.
They fail, however, to understand that the tool-
maker does not manufacture the final product, but
that the nature of the occupation essentially con-
sists of making the tools to produce parts. Thus,
the trainees present a solution that does not corre-
spond with the ↑ occupational profile, because the
solution may only work if the task was to consist
of producing one single dice, but not for mass pro-
duction. The most obvious result is that the train-
ees fail to realise that essentially the tool making
occupation is an ‘implementer of mass production’.
This gross misunderstanding may be explained by
Research Methods 773

the nature of the vocational training during the first they have developed both specialist skills as well
year. Basic training in all aspects of the metal en- as an understanding of the ↑ occupational field they
gineering trade in the first year – which in the field are training for. Their proposed solution proves
under investigation is mainly organised in train- that they are able to approach realistic ↑ work tasks
ing workshops and laboratories and taking forms from a professional perspective.
of general instead of ↑ domain-specific teaching –
does not seem to contribute to an understanding of
the domain-specific problem solving processes at
the level of skilled work. The learning and work-
ing strategies of the training workshop (embod-
ied here in the manual production of units) are for
the most part transferred directly by the trainees
to practice-based professional problems and chal-
lenges. This is revealed clearly in the young peo-
ple’s obvious lack of general knowledge about the
tool-making sector. Knowledge from context-free
basic training in the area of metal engineering is
applied and characterises the various solutions pre-
sented for this ↑ evaluation task, absolutely failing
to take into account the utility value aspect. With
this kind of implemented working strategy only Fig. 2: Solution type mass production – the ‘toolmak-
very few solutions satisfy the utility value aspect er’
of mass production. Making thousands of punch
marks ‘by hand’ without any aids would, without This evaluation task that was presented at the end
thinking, transfer learning and working strategies of the first year of training focuses on the learn-
from the training workshop to realistic work prob- ing and working strategy the trainees have adopt-
lems in a way that is completely unsuitable for the ed. In the interpretation of results, it does not take
task. The task, however, makes clear that the solu- into account the trainees’ strategy for profession-
tion requires creative and innovative thinking in- al cooperation. This latter important aspect of vo-
herent of any kind of ‘real’ competence. cational learning and competence development
Trainees, whose various solutions could be desig- (WENGER 1998b) was considered in the course of
nated to the type ‘toolmaker’, generated propos- implementing evaluation tasks in the following
two years of training in that the interpretation and
als for solutions ranging from simple aids through
evaluation of the results was not only validated by
to complex tools (such as the impressing tool in
the researchers, but also by supervisors and expert
Fig. 2).
colleagues. Their criteria of skilled work and profi-
The illustrated proposal enables the 21 depressions
ciency were ultimately taken as the basis of evalua-
on the dice to be manufactured in one stage of pro-
tion and judgement upon whether a presented solu-
duction. Although this production approach was
tion would be considered acceptable by other col-
generated by a trainee after just one year of train-
leagues or not.
ing, it can be rated as a professional solution on the
level of skilled work. The technical faithfulness to
5.2.6.6 Conclusions
detail of the sketch or trouble-free implementation
in practice is not a deciding factor in the interpre- The method of assessing vocational learning by
tation of this solution type. Essentially, it is rec- way of evaluation tasks, as presented here, re-
ognisable that the applied working and ↑ learning quires some final appreciation and also critical ex-
strategies are adequately geared towards the cur- amination. This methodological approach to re-
rent problem situation. Trainees, who presented a cording relevant domain-specific facets of com-
solution of the type ‘toolmaker’, demonstrate that petence presents the subjects with practically rel-
774
evant, but not trivial, tasks. Thereby it is assumed
that these tasks are prototypical of the require-
ments of the occupation and open enough so that
the solution characteristics of the resolved task can
provide an indication of the ↑ vocational compe-
tences acquired to date. This encumbers the meth-
od with hermeneutically not unproblematic impli-
cations that are not accessible to any simple solu-
tion. In principle, the objection cannot be refuted
that ultimately it remains to be seen whether reli-
able conclusions can be drawn from the subjects’
ability to penetrate and resolve problems theoret-
ically, and their ability to act and deal with chal-
lenges and problems in a realistic work situation.
It is possible and likely that skilled workers, who
demonstrate their expertise every day in their work
practice, are not necessarily experts on ↑ verbalisa-
tion or drawing. As, in this sense, we cannot take
for granted that they are ‘experts on communica-
tion’, there remains the suspicion that their abil-
ity to reveal their own learning and work strate-
gies may be less developed than their actual ability
to apply those strategies in a real work setting (cf.
HACKER 1996, 9). This aspect may be worth to be
taken into account when interpreting the presented
solutions of the ↑ evaluation tasks.
In comparison to other currently available exami-
nation and ↑ competence assessment tools, evalu-
ation tasks stand out by their closeness to actual
↑ work processes and demands. Further can the re-
sults obtained through this method and their in-
terpretation be highly valuable for the formulation
of guidelines and recommendations to improve vo-
cational training programmes and ↑ learning envi-
ronments. Thus, the strong point of this method
lies in its far reaching potentials, which extend be-
yond the assessment of individual competence de-
velopment and dimensions.
Handbook of TVET Research
5.2.7 Situation Film
Felix Rauner
5.2.7.1 Conceptual Definition
Situation films are a form of accentuated conden-
sation of cinematic documentations. The criteria
underlying accentuation and condensation arise
from the analytical and developmental objectives
pursued by the respective research and develop-
ment proposal. In ↑ qualitative research, situation
films are viewed as a medium of communication
which allows to single out a specific object of study
from the sphere of unspeakability. Using the vid-
eotaping technique, authentic film documents, for
instance covering focal points in a company, are
produced. These play a key role in ↑ organisation-
al development (cf. MÜLLER 1995, 333 ff.). Given
the fact that in general organisational development
processes in companies involve different agents
and groups who are affected indifferent ways by
the development process – depending on whether
they are executives or lower-level specialists such
as skilled workers or qualified clerks – five fea-
tures of thee situation film make this medium par-
ticularly suitable for this purpose:
Location-Specific Perspectives and Changes in
Perspective
Situation films make it possible to capture situa-
tions ‘objectively’ on film. One and the same fo-
cal point in a company, for instance, can be pre-
sented from different perspectives: from the an-
gle of the general management, from the point of
view of process planning or from the viewpoint of
the “workshop”; captured from different perspec-
tives, the realities in companies become the ob-
ject of cinematic documentation. The medium of
the situation film not only opens up subjective rep-
resentations for the procedural research process
(cf. LEWIN 1963; ENDRES / WEHNER 1996), but al-
so serves the function of complementing already
available forms of comprehension and communi-
cation by the aspect of media-aided communica-
tion and reconstruction techniques which are ap-
plied in interest-motivated ↑ implicit knowledge.
Raising (expatiating) implicit knowledge to the
Research Methods
level of subjective theories is considered one of the
most complex forms of self-reflection of one’s ac-
tions (HIRSCHHORN / GILMORE 1992). Applying the
dialogue-consensus (SCHEELE / GROEBEN 1988) – a
criterion of truth which is given wide attention in
empirical social research – the situation film pro-
vides the possibility to open up differential cre-
ative spaces by taking into account the levels of
knowledge of the actors involved as well as the ac-
centuated knowledge tied to the various interests.
Concentration of Action and Dramatisation
As part of the film production process the action
documented on film (raw material) is condensed in
such a manner that the dramatic nature of industri-
al situations which is at the centre of the analyti-
cal and developmental process, is highlighted, thus
safeguarding the ↑ objectivity of documentation. In
this way a dramatisation of the action is achieved
which also boosts the readiness and ability of the
actors involved to reflect on their educational and
job situation.
Reflexive Documentation
The method of producing situation films is based
on the insight that industrial and professional re-
alities are not neutral but are socially constructed.
The working environment and the way in which
e. g. a milling machine operator who is involved in
an integrated production process experiences his
work, widely differ from the working environment
and the experiences of those who are involved in
planning the production process, although both
agents are part of the same working context. This
is the reason why the working realities of the ac-
tors involved – which differ due to their location-
restriction – are captured as different forms of a
superior reality. The meanings, interpretations and
assessments of situations arise from the commu-
nication between actors and researchers. The sit-
uation film does not include any instructive com-
ments or solutions to problems. In this respect the
situation film differs most sharply from instructive
films. And this is the reason why the situation film
is a particularly suitable medium for ↑ qualitative
research. A wide experience in the use of this me-
775
dium has already been gained in the field of eth-
nology (PETERMANN 1984).
Representativeness
The situation captured on film represents a typical
focal point in a given social context (in this case
an industrial/vocational setting) for which solu-
tions are not readily available. The primary crite-
rion applied in the selection of situations to be cap-
tured on film is their usefulness for research. This
can be exemplified with a situation film produced
by Wolfgang Beyer, Friedhelm Eicker and others
on the cooperation efforts between instructors of
theoretical courses and those of practical subject
matters in vocational training programmes; this
cooperation has become increasingly problemat-
ic in the past few years (BEYER / EICKER / MESSING /
WENZEL 1980). Prior to the production of this situ-
ation film, training programmes and the demands
on teachers of practical courses had been analysed
in all regional states of Germany.
Creative Space
Using situation films as a means to study organ-
isational structures and vocational training pro-
grammes seems to be particularly suitable in shap-
ing-oriented research (RAUNER 1995a; HEIDEGGER /
JACOBS / MARTIN ET AL. 1991).
Werner Petermann expounded the problems of the
‘authority’ of films. This is a crucial issue with re-
spect to documentary films. They suggest a level
of authority which reflect the producer’s view that
images ‘speak for themselves’. The same impor-
tance is ascribed to the comments accompanying
the images even in those cases in which an image
only serves as an illustration of a commentary. In
contrast to documentary films, “open films” which
openly present their scientific and production-spe-
cific premises (PETERMANN 1995; 230 ff.). Initiat-
ing and maintaining a dialogical discourse with
the agents involved in the industrial hotspot is a
major challenge which faces the use of film pro-
duction as a research tool (ibid., 231)
776 Handbook of TVET Research

5.2.7.2 Genesis of the Situation Film as search on ‘labour and technology (cf. NOACK /
a Tool for Vocational Training WEGNER / GLUCH / DIENHART 1990). These research
Research initiatives generated the educational guiding prin-
ciple of “Enabling agents to become actively in-
The term ‘situation film’ was coined by Achim
volved in the development of their working en-
Heimbucher and Jürgen Zimmer during a pre-
vironment” (RAUNER 1995a). This guiding prin-
school project designed to develop a situation-spe-
ciple is of major importance for the arrangement
cific ↑ didactical concept for pre-schools (HEIM-
and structuring of organisational processes in in-
BUCHER / ZIMMER 1975, 251 ff.). The ‘activities‘
dustry (DYBOWSKI / PÜTZ / RAUNER 1995c). Transfer-
planned by kindergarten teachers for the groups
ring know-how from the area of engineering re-
of children will be replaced by well-directed, sit-
search to the actors in charge of the development
uation-specific measures designed to promote the
of computer-aided production processes was tra-
children’s development. In a close cooperation be-
ditionally brought about by offering instructional
tween filmmakers, scientists and pre-school edu-
training programmes. As part of the research on
cators the medium of the situation film was devel-
‘labour and technology’ issues the project ‘partic-
oped to advance this didactical concept for pre-
ipant-oriented creative learning’ was carried out;
schoolers. On the basis of everyday situations, sit-
it represents a fundamental change in perspec-
uation films are designed to capture instructional
tive: The training programme was designed to in-
opportunities that arise from the situations them-
duce participants to develop the creative poten-
selves and not from the instructional measures tak-
tials and options of computer-aided and Internet-
en. In practice this concept is not easy to maintain,
based production techniques and to apply them as
since obviously suitable situations are not easily
part of user-specific solutions and processes of or-
available. Situation films create a quasi-real situa-
ganisational development. In this process the me-
tion and thus provide a good starting point for kin-
dium of the situation film gained central impor-
dergarten teachers to take instructive action. By
tance. Three video tapes, which captured authentic
proceeding in this way it can be assumed that chil-
working situations in two engineering plants that
dren experience a quasi-real situation. As part of
use different production techniques, represented
research projects designed to point out the differ-
the main didactical material used in the training
ences between the work of teachers teaching the-
programme. Plant A was a traditional engineer-
oretical knowledge, the work done by teachers of
ing company in which the production planning de-
practical contents (R AUNER / DRECHSEL / GRONWALD /
partment was separated from the programming de-
K RÜGER 1980) and research projects looking into
partment where the CNC programme was devel-
teaching structures applied in “labour and tech-
oped. This plant also had a foreman’s office and
nology”, the concept of producing situation films
a workshop with CNC-controlled machine tools.
was used as a method to analyse and develop tech-
Construction (CAD), production planning (CAM)
nology, labour and vocational training concepts
and engineering processes CNC) were interlinked
(cf. BEYER / EICKER / MESSING / WENZEL 1980; Müller
through a computer-integrated manufacturing con-
1995; Fischer/Jungeblut/ Römmermann 1995).
cept, with the CNC programme being generated by
the CAD data and made available to the CNC tools
5.2.7.3 The Situation Film as a Medium
via the Internet. This production procedure was
for Participatory Organisational
documented by producing two situation films – the
Development
first one capturing the procedure from the perspec-
Along with the increased use of internet-based and tive of the workshop and the second one captur-
computer-aided manufacturing techniques the cre- ing the process from the viewpoint of production
ative space in labour design and ↑ labour organi- planning. A third film was produced to capture a
sation as part of industrial ↑ organisational de- workshop-oriented production concept in a similar
velopment processes has also grown significant- company. In this company production planning,
ly and thus has become a central issue in the re- the development of the CNC programme and CAD
Research Methods
design were housed in the workshop department.
The staff of the workshop – skilled workers, fore-
men and engineers – were jointly responsible for
the entire production process – including planning
and carrying out the production orders as well as
constructional modifications.
The situational films uncovered two conflict ar-
eas as industrial hotspots. The first area of con-
flict was the division of labour in plant A – with
programming and production planning on the one
hand and the machining technicians in the work-
shop on the other hand. This production procedure
which is characterized by a hierarchical division of
labour was efficient, mainly because the machin-
ing technicians independently made corrections to
the planning procedures and CNC programmes to
ensure smooth production. In general they did not
inform the production planners and the program-
ming department about these changes. Instead
they made ample use of this opportunity to point
out the ‘incompetency’ of the production planners.
The discrepancy between the formal responsibility
of staff members and their competency was at the
centre of this industrial hotspot, which eventually
developed into a crisis that jeopardized the compa-
ny’s competitiveness. The parties involved for the
first time became aware of this potential for con-
flict through the situation film and were thus able
to discuss it.
The second area of conflict was revealed during
the production of the film and the procedure of
gaining the approval of the managing board and
of those in charge of the operational areas in-
volved. During the approval procedure the man-
agement initially classified a large number of film
sequences as unacceptable. This way of proceed-
ing had been previously fixed by contract and was
a precondition for the film team’s gaining access
to the facility in the first place. All the department
heads involved in the approval procedure demand-
ed that precisely those film sequences were handed
over to them which presented their department in
a bad light. It turned out that the executives of the
company were for the first time confronted with
the hard realities of their companies when view-
ing the two situation films. The researchers were
taken aback by the level of surprise the executives
and the department heads showed when they were
777
faced with the realities of operations in their com-
pany. In a series of discussions moderated by the
researchers the confrontation between the execu-
tives could eventually be resolved.
– In the end the situations captured on film were
accepted as industrial realities.
– The statements made by the actors involved were
acknowledged as legitimate viewpoints.
– There was general agreement that changes need-
ed to be made and the decision was reached to im-
plement an ↑ organisational development project.
– It was acknowledged that the know-how and in-
terests of all those involved – and particularly of
the workshop staff – were important and should be
considered in the implementation of the organisa-
tional development project” (MÜLLER 1995).
The procedure of approving the film generated a
learning process with the executives which even-
tually resulted in drastic changes in the organisa-
tional structure of the company.
The researchers stated that they had not realised
that the situation film was a crucial medium for
industrial organisational development until af-
ter the start of the project. This finding was given
special attention in another research and develop-
ment project that focused on skilled maintenance
work in computer-aided production processes and
on the possibilities for using ↑ expert systems (F
ISCHER /JUNGEBLUT / RÖMMERMANN 1995). The situa-
tion film was also used as a medium in the analy-
sis of skilled maintenance work and in document-
ing the participatory contributions of staff mem-
bers to this operational process. The film entitled:
“Every machine has its own whims” (FISCHER /
JUNGEBLUT/ RÖMMERMANN 1995) captures in detail
how a skilled maintenance and production work-
er proceeds in troubleshooting. The skilled work-
ers explain their way of proceeding to each oth-
er and also involve the researchers in their discus-
sions during the working process. The case study
captured on film played a central role in the devel-
opmental process: it served the function of proving
the respective level of functionality achieved by
the supportive system and of assessing it (FISCHER /
JUNGEBLUT/ RÖMMERMANN 1995, 200–201). In this
case the situation film also served the function of
a medium that was used by the skilled workers to
discuss the work they do – maintenance tasks and
778
measures taken when process upsets occur – with
the researchers. As part of this cooperation, crite-
ria for the development of software tools were for-
mulated. These tools were designed to be used in
the documentation of the relevant know-how.
The Methodical Concept of Situation Films
As regards methodology, a distinction needs to be
made between the production of a situation film
and its use as a tool in scientific studies of develop-
mental and organisational processes and as a suit-
able medium to acquire design competency as part
of ↑ self-directed learning processes. Instead of a
screenplay there is a description of a situation to
be captured on film and of the tools to be used in
the exploration of creative spaces that are available
in the implementation of new technologies and in
the application of new, creative approaches in the
design of industrial environments or of vocation-
al training programmes. This description is joint-
ly produced by the representatives of the groups of
actors to be involved in the film – including their
interest-motivated views, concepts, experiences
and prejudices – as well as the film producers and
the scientists who moderated the discussions. The
researchers involved in the film project must have
acquired the relevant scientific and practical back-
ground knowledge so that they are generally ac-
cepted not only as specialist interlocutors but also
as neutral experts and mediators who are not di-
rectly involved in the conflicts. During the prep-
aration phase the filming team in general gets to
know the personalities, views and interest of the
main agents involved in the situation to be cap-
tured on film. In this preparatory stage the team
also gets an initial overview of what caused the
hotspots and of the magnitude of their social, tech-
nological, organisational and economic implica-
tions. When shooting the film, the team applies the
method of participatory observation. Due to mod-
ern video technologies, only a minimum of effort
and equipment is required and after a short phase
of familiarisation the agents involved are hard-
ly distracted by the side noises of the filming pro-
cedure. Producing a good situation film means to
capture the ‘right’ incidents at the ‘right moment’
and in such a manner that the film clearly shows
the respective hotspot in its specific context and
Handbook of TVET Research
also captures the dramatic nature of ↑ organisa-
tional development. The images must speak for
themselves. To achieve this effect the filming team
needs to have special know-how and the skills re-
quired for producing such a film. A controversial
discussion among methodologists is currently un-
derway on whether an expert who has specialised
skills is better qualified for shooting such a film
or a filmmaker who acquires the necessary know-
how for producing a situation film. When shoot-
ing the film the team is aware of the fact that on-
ly one tenth of the material produced will actually
be used for the situation film. Hence the film does
not represent unaltered and unprocessed material
which shows the incident in question from a ↑ dis-
tance. The situation film is a pointed, condensed
version of the filming material produced which al-
lows the researchers involved in the production of
the film to intervene by raising questions.
The raw material is analysed in four steps:
(1) The person shooting the film and the scientists
condense the material in such a manner that they
get a rough cut.
(2) The scientists and the main actors in the film
jointly follow up the rough cut. In the process the
criteria of authenticity and originality (in terms of
↑ validity of content) of the audio-visual statements
made are applied.
(3) Final approval of the film is achieved through a
discursive process in which also the decision-mak-
ers are involved.
(4) In a last step companion material is produced.
The consternation and identification of the view-
ers with the situation captured on film must not be
reduced by educational comments or instructions.
The companion material is produced to promote
the readiness of those involved to engage in the or-
ganisational development process.
The experience gained so far with the use of situ-
ation films in organisational development process-
es has shown that the ↑ efficiency of situation films
as a medium of observation, analysis and develop-
ment can only be fully exploited if the technical
competency of the filmmaker, the scientific know-
how of the researchers monitoring the project and
the practical skills of the industrial staff involved
are interlinked; an optimal result can be obtained
if the production of the film has been systematical-
Research Methods
ly incorporated in the ↑ organisational development
process. This view is supported by Martin Fischer
et al. who produced a situation film that was used
in the analysis of skilled maintenance work and in
the development of a work-oriented software tool
for industrial maintenance operations. The situa-
tion film which presents a concrete incident and
was produced under this project illustrates the
manner in which skilled maintenance and produc-
tion workers proceed in troubleshooting.
“The troubleshooting example provided the basis for a
joint analysis of work-related problems and of industri-
al maintenance operations; in the developmental proc-
ess [a cooperation between skilled workers and scien-
tists, F.R.] the case study presented in the film repre-
sented the material by means of which the functionality
of the support systems (software tool) was demonstrat-
ed and assessed” (FISCHER /JUNGEBLUT / RÖMMERMANN
1995, 202).
5.2.7.4 Classifying the Situation Film among
Audiovisually Supported Research
Tools
In the field of curricula- and education-oriented
↑ media research the turn towards producing situ-
ation films was triggered by a general criticism of
didactical and instructional educational theory. In
didactics the audio-visual method applied were in-
structional films. In vocational ↑ training research
the production of these instructional films increas-
ingly conflicted with an approach that came up in
the early 1970s: experimental and action-oriented
learning. And in the field of ‘labour and technolo-
gy research’ a teaching concept that provides par-
ticipants of vocational training programmes with
creative options as well as with opportunities for
self-controlled learning was given more attention.
Research in the field of labour and technology,
which started in the early 1980s, sought to achieve
innovations in industry; right from the start the
studies carried out were based on the concepts of
↑ participation and ↑ interdisciplinarity. The use of
media which promote communication play a ma-
jor role in this process, since the actors involved
bring in different levels of experience and compe-
tence which must be linked together. The ESPRIT
project called “Human-centred CIM Systems”
was the first of its kind in which an ↑ interdiscipli-
nary as well as participatory development project
779
was empirically tested on a large scale (CORBETT /
RASMUSSEN / RAUNER 1991).
The ‘Rolling Development’ concept was devised
for industrial design and organisational processes
(ibid., chap. 4). In subsequent studies Ruth Kay-
ser and Wolfgang Müller (K AYSER / MÜLLER 1993)
as well as Martin Fischer’s research team used this
concept as a basis when they adjusted the meth-
od of producing situation films to the special re-
quirements of research on vocational training pro-
grammes.
Producing films as a means to capture, analyse and
evaluate observations has a much longer tradition
in empirical social research (ELLGRING 1991, 203).
In his paper on carrying out observations by means
of audiovisual support systems Ellgring points to
the long tradition of using audiovisual support sys-
tems in empirical social research. Among oth-
er things he emphasizes the ‘Cinema Analysis’ of
Arnold Gesell who used the method of producing
films in ↑ longitudinal studies of infant and toddler
development as early as in the 1920s and 1930s
(GESELL 1935). Film production has also been giv-
en some attention in cultural anthropology and hu-
man ethnology (EIBL-EIBESFELDT 1984). Ellgring
gives six features which are of general importance
and which make film production a particularly
suitable method for observation:
(1) Films provide the option to document major be-
havioural phenomena. No other medium allows to
capture elusive situations in such a comprehensive
manner.
(2) Secretive filming.
Among scientists this approach is disputed for eth-
ical reasons.
(3) A high level of ↑ objectivity (intersubjectivity).
This feature is at the centre of fundamental meth-
odological discussions, since film production can
also be used for conveying subjectivity. However, a
film document represents the objectivised form of
a situation, thus making this situation accessible to
discourse and analysis.
(4) The assessment of behavioural patterns.
This process is facilitated by producing a situation
film because this medium captures the relevant ac-
tors’ nonverbal communication, thus opening their
behavioural patterns up for interpretation.
780
(5) Objectifying Effect
This effect is achieved by confronting the relevant
actors with their statements and behavioural pat-
terns.
(6) Video Editing
This procedure allows to evaluate and accentuate
the cinematic raw material by applying different
analytical methods.
In psychoanalytical hermeneutics the production
of feature films has gained some significance. The
interaction practices captured in these films are
perceived as a drama.
Hans Dieter König claims that affective compre-
hension is achieved by the reader/viewer getting
emotionally involved in the text/film – a view that
is in line with Freud’s theory of psychoanalytical
understanding (KÖNIG 2000, 556 ff.).
And finally: Visual sociology (cf. DENZIN 2000)
defines itself by the media of images and films.
The interpretation of visual and audiovisual mate-
rial is at the core of its methodical tools.
5.2.7.5 Concluding Remarks
In vocational ↑ training research there is a wide
field of methodical applications in which the film
as a medium – in particular the situation film –
can be used. The few research and development
projects carried out so far have supported this
view. Methodically, the production of situation
films follows on from the use of films in empiri-
cal social research (cf. ELLGRING 1995; SCHERER /
EKMAN 1982; HARPER 1994).
Vocational training programmes and learning in
↑ work processes are of central importance to ↑ or-
ganisational development in industry. There is an
interplay of education/learning and technological/
organisational processes of change. Traditionally
these are the fields which are analysed in industrial
science, in ↑ engineering science and in economics.
The studies carried out on ‘labour and technology’
are part of an ↑ interdisciplinary study programme
which is the first of its kind that is designed to de-
velop and subsequently implement a comprehen-
sive integrated ↑ research approach which also in-
cludes vocational training research. In this respect
the situation film may also turn out as a medium
which is suited to exceed the boundaries of sin-
Handbook of TVET Research
gle sciences, which facilitates mutual understand-
ing and helps to justify and implement interdisci-
plinary research projects. This shows that the sci-
entific potential of using cinematic material in vo-
cational training research has so far only been
touched on.
5.2.8 Studies of Work
Jörg R. Bergmann
Outside and independent of the established re-
search in occupational sociology and sociology
of work a new approach known as the ↑ Studies of
Work has emerged in Anglo-American sociology
over the past 25–30 years. For many observers this
approach still seems to be somewhat enigmatic.
It has emerged from the ↑ research programme of
↑ ethnomethodology (GARFINKEL 1986) and since a
few years it is being received in the German-speak-
ing countries, albeit hesitantly (cf. for research in
the ↑ vocational disciplines R AUNER 1998b, 23 ff.).
This approach escapes an easy reception because
the theory on which it is based is sophisticated and
complex, its thematic orientation must be confus-
ing for German-speaking sociology, and its meth-
odological – and practical – consequences are radi-
cal and appear to be unpredictable. In what follows
the basics of the Studies of Work approach are de-
picted systematically and historically. The major
research themes are then outlined and illustrated
by the presentation of some empirical studies. In a
concluding section the approach is discussed with
a view to its potential and its perspectives.
5.2.8.1 Basic Idea and Conception
The ↑ Studies of Work aim at investigating, by
means of detailed documentation, description
and analysis of real ↑ work processes, the situat-
ed, ↑ embodied practices in which the constitu-
tive knowledge and skills of this work materialise.
Work activities in their material, temporal and so-
cial organisation are thus in the focus of attention.
It is a characteristic feature of the Studies of Work
that they do not presuppose normative or ideal-
ised versions of work but rather concentrate on re-
al work processes in their rich details. The top-
Research Methods
ic of the Studies of Work is the embodied knowl-
edge that materialises in the mastery of profession-
al practices and that is constitutive for the success-
ful perfomance of a particular job. The Studies of
Work thus aim at the empirical analysis of com-
petence systems (LYNCH / LIVINGSTON / GARFINKEL
1985, 182) that are characteristic for a particular
type of work and define its identity. These compe-
tences are taken for granted by experienced practi-
tioners. Therefore they can hardly be made explic-
it in retrospective, interview-elicited descriptions
of work processes, and they escape a depiction in
training manuals and textbooks. In labour studies
and in the ↑ vocational disciplines the great impor-
tance of these practical competences and ↑ implicit
knowledge has been recognised already for some
time and associated to the Studies of Work (R AUN-
ER 2004a, 8 f.).
According to their ethnomethodological orien-
tation proponents of the Studies of Work assume
that the ↑ performance of ↑ work tasks cannot be
explained as rule-abiding actions. Rules, instruc-
tions, norms etc. are, by their formal status, gen-
eral propositions that have to be interpreted and
adapted by the actors. They have to be transferred
into the situation, i.e. situated (cf. HERITAGE 1984,
293 ff.; SHARROCK /ANDERSON 1986, 80 ff.). Actions
therefore have, as Garfinkel puts it, an inevitably
indexical character because they unavoidably re-
fer to the context in which they are localised. Due
to this indexicality there is a principal gap between
official textbook descriptions of the rules of work,
which can only deliver idealised versions of work
processes, and the actual, practical work perform-
ance in situ – a gap that common experience knows
as the difference between theory and practice.
Each kind of work – from driving a truck to playing
the piano to accomplishing a mathematical proof –
has to be learned, beyond theoretical instruction,
as a practical activity as well. In this learning proc-
ess the future professional acquires the ability to
identify and to handle situative contingencies and
to make decisions on the course of work not sche-
matically, but on a case-by-case basis; he learns
to deal with imponderabilities and local constel-
lations so as to somehow maintain the adequacy
and ↑ efficiency of his activities. This somehow has
been systematically left out in the descriptions giv-
781
en by labour experts and sociologists. The Stud-
ies of Work take this somehow as their primary
↑ research object and ask in a praxeological man-
ner how exactly it is that the specificity and log-
ic of a particular work is constituted in the details
of the embodied performance of practical tasks.
The Studies of Work therefore are in some sense
connected to research in the vocational disciplines
on ↑ work process knowledge (cf. as an example
NIETHAMMER / STORZ 2002; BECKER 2004).
One of the major difficulties is that these practices
can neither be identified by a pre-given catalogue
of criteria nor can they be determined by attempt-
ing to capture them under some external ‘aspect’,
e. g. as variables or motivational factors. Like oth-
er actions, work activities generate in their devel-
oping course an autochthonous order that is char-
acterized by a “natural accountability” (GARFINKEL
2002, 173, 190), which is to say that the work’s in-
telligibility, describability and meaningfulness is
generated through the ways it is realized and is not
merely the result of scientific representation and
analysis. The endogeneous practices of generating
order and meaning in the performance of work are
the core topic of the Studies of Work.
5.2.8.2 Genesis and Development
The Studies of Work emerged as an approach of
its own from the ↑ research programme of ↑ eth-
nomethodology which was inaugurated in the
1960s by the American sociologist Harold Gar-
finkel (1967a). Based on the assumption that ac-
tors pursue the meaningful ↑ structuration of what
they see and do in the social interaction with oth-
ers, ↑ ethnomethodology has the objective to iden-
tify and analyse the principles and mechanisms by
means of which social order is accomplished in
the course of action. With this programmatic ↑ re-
search question Garfinkel builds on the works of
Alfred Schütz (1971) on a phenomenological foun-
dation of the social sciences. Like Schütz, Garfin-
kel criticises the then dominant paradigm of struc-
tural functionalism by Talcott Parsons for neglect-
ing the actors’ specific practices of acquisition, in-
terpretation, translation and decision-making as ir-
relevant or for equalling these achievements with
the model of scientifically rational behaviour. Gar-
finkel’s claim is that the solution to the problem of
782
social order can be found only in the elementary
processes of the constitution of meaning in every-
day life. Research has therefore to focus on how
actors in their day-to-day activities transform the
cultural values and norms into the situation, co-
ordinate them with others and make them practi-
cally relevant.
Although the name may invite such a misunder-
standing, ethnomethodology must not be under-
stood as a plan for a scientific methodology. Eth-
nomethodology is rather a term for the situative
techniques and procedures (“methods”) by means
of which actors in everyday life (“ethnos”) joint-
ly generate meaningful social order and rationali-
ty for all practical purposes. With the shift towards
the methodical procedures of actors, through
which social phenomena are constituted, Garfinkel
implements a constitution-analytical programme
as the main venture of ethnomethodology. At the
same time he criticises traditional sociology and
social research for using, without further clarifica-
tion, everyday knowledge and common sense prac-
tices as resources instead of making them a topic
of research. Whilst the criticism of the normative
paradigm (WILSON 1973) of traditional sociology
played an important role in the early stage of eth-
nomethodology (cf. CICOUREL 1970), later on the
focus shifted more and more to the empirical real-
ization of the ethnomethodological ↑ research pro-
gramme. An approach that emerged from Garfin-
kel’s original programme in the early 1970s, but
was also strongly influenced by Erving Goffman’s
(1971) studies on interaction order, is ↑ conversa-
tion analysis (cf. BERGMANN 2004; SACKS 1992).
Conversation analytical studies pursue the mech-
anisms of situated order production within the
domain of verbal and non-verbal interaction and
show how actors, in the local context of their inter-
action, generate the “natural accountability” of ac-
tions and events.
Besides the research in conversation analysis,
which soon found international dissemination and
recognition, studies were carried out during the
early development of ethnomethodology that were
concerned with the local production of ↑ work
processes and professional tasks. An example is
the study by Don Zimmerman (1969) on the prac-
tical foundations of ↑ work tasks in a public social
Handbook of TVET Research
service agency. However, the decisive momentum
for the development of the ↑ Studies of Work was
another research domain to which Harold Gar-
finkel and other ethnomethodological researchers
turned: the work of scientists.
From an ethnomethodological point of view sci-
ence must not be identified with its models and
representations in methodological and theoretical
textbooks. It has rather to be regarded as some-
thing that emerges from the situative practices of
scientists and that finds its social order and ration-
ality in these practices. In such a perspective, sci-
ence loses the character of being something im-
material, purely ideal, even ethereal and becomes
a concerted social achievement (LYNCH / LIVING-
STON / GARFINKEL 1985). In order to find out in de-
tail through which practices scientists produce in
their cooperative work the characteristic features
of their discipline (↑ objectivity, consistency, stand-
ardisation etc.) it is necessary to study scientific
work the same way as anthropologists studied trib-
al societies: at close ↑ distance, by participant ob-
servation, through the collection of various data
and materials. In this methodological spirit sev-
eral ↑ field research studies were done in the late
1970s, which later became famous as “laborato-
ry studies” and which exercised considerable in-
fluence in the sociology of science (cf. for an over-
view K NORR-CETINA 1995; as exemplary study cf.
LYNCH 1985). Almost in the manner of a “fractal
sociology” these laboratory studies reconstruct in
fine-grained detail on a micro-level – e. g. on the
basis of some laboratory shop talk on the magni-
fied and coloured photograph of a tissue sample
or by reference to the different versions through
which a scientific manuscript iterates before its fi-
nal version – how the institution science is contin-
uously constituted in every moment through artful
work practices.
Since the late 1980s the ethnomethodological
↑ Studies of Work found broad reception in another
domain – the research area in which various disci-
plines are concerned with the foundations, but al-
so with the development, application and effects of
the new ↑ information technologies. Here, an im-
portant part was played by the study of Lucy Such-
man (1987), in which the author – then a research-
er at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
Research Methods
– convincingly demonstrates what kind of prob-
lems can emerge in human-machine interaction
when in the development of such systems the sit-
uated, local character of human action is not tak-
en into consideration. The study which is strongly
indebted to the work of Harold Garfinkel is based
on detailed empirical observations and audiovisu-
al recordings. It is also due to this study that some
researchers in cognitive science and AI research,
which used to operate with a rigid model of ac-
tion, nowadays conceptualise cognitive processes
more closely to communicative processes and take
their situative and emergent quality into consid-
eration when formalising actions (cf. ENGESTRÖM /
MIDDLETON 1996).
Today the influence of the Studies of Work is most
clearly visible in the domain of technological so-
ciology (BUTTON 1993; HEATH / LUFF 2000), espe-
cially in the studies on “↑ Computer Supported Co-
operative Work”. In CSCW research and in the
development of software systems it was realised
that work activities and interaction with comput-
ers are inevitably of a situative character and do
by no means follow the ideas and prescriptions of
systems developers. The consequence is that sys-
tems designers who strive for “usability” need to
have knowledge about the ways these systems are
actually used and about the contexts in which us-
ers work with the systems. For the acquisition of
this knowledge systems designers who are con-
cernced with “requirement engineering” and “par-
ticipatory design” have to rely on detailed ethno-
graphic observations in local work environments.
In the last years the so-called “Workplace Stud-
ies” developed as a special ↑ research field (LUFF /
HINDMARSH / HEATH 2000; K NOBLAUCH / HEATH
1999; HEATH / BUTTON 2002) in which the Studies
of Work programme figures prominently and addi-
tional perspectives are brought in by various oth-
er ↑ research approaches (such as ↑ Activity Theo-
ry, Actor Network Theory, Distributed Cognition
Approach). The “Workplace Studies” are the result
of joint efforts of social scientists and information
scientists to investigate how situative professional
work practices and new information technologies
interact with each other.
783
5.2.8.3 Object Relation and Exemplary
Studies
A central ethnomethodological theorem that is al-
so a starting point for the Studies of Work asserts
that actors continuously employ techniques and
procedures in their actions in order to render these
very actions accountable to others. The actors
thus continuously generate for each other the fac-
tual character of social facts and the ↑ objectivity
of objective state of affairs. This meaningful con-
struction of reality is an essentially reflexive proc-
ess: actions become identifiable, accountable and
meaningful through the meaning they convey, and
the meaning is in turn communicatively confirmed
time and again through the performed actions.
The conception of the Studies of Work radicalises
this idea of the meaningful generation of reality. It
does no longer distinguish between descriptions,
representations and accounts on the one hand and
objects and facts on the other, but postulates the
undivisibility and irreducibility of the local pro-
duction of social order in the actors’ ↑ embodied
practices. The meaning and reality of social ob-
jects are therefore no longer viewed as the product
of (isolated) practices of representation. Object and
representation are rather understood as a unity, as a
whole that realises itself in the accomplishment of
sensual-material activities. (For exemplary stud-
ies on how objects emerge from discursive prac-
tices cf. GOODWIN 1996; GOODWIN / GOODWIN 1997).
This idea was heavily influenced by Maurice Mer-
leau-Ponty’s studies on the ↑ phenomenology of the
body. His efforts to overcome the distinction be-
tween the body as “mechanism-in-itself” and the
mind as “being-for-itself” are continued in a so-
ciological way by the ↑ Studies of Work and their
way to approach the ordering/ordered character of
work activities..
Given these considerations it is quite clear why the
Studies of Work are not limited to analysing ver-
bal and non-verbal events within ↑ work processes.
The direction taken is quite different from ↑ con-
versation analysis:
Although recent conversation analytic studies pre-
dominantly took conversations in institutional,
professional settings – in court, in medicine, at
schools – as research topic (cf. as a representative
collection DREW/HERITAGE 1992), a certain prior-
784
ity is assigned to everyday conversation not influ-
cenced by institutional constraints. The Studies of
Work, on the other hand, take into account every-
thing that occurs in the ↑ performance of work ac-
tivities even over a longer period of time. This in-
cludes not only the verbal interaction of workers,
but also for instance the technical handling of in-
struments, the manipulation and spatial organisa-
tion of objects or the visual and written documents
that are generated in the work process.
A particularly instructive example is the case study
by Garfinkel, Lynch and Livingston (1981) on the
work of a team of astronomers who discovered an
optical pulsar in 1969. On the basis of the tape re-
corded work discussion of the scientists during
their observations as well as on the basis of their
log entries and their ultimately published scientif-
ic article the authors analyse the “discovery work”
of astronomers in an observatory. Their ↑ central
question was: “What does the optically discovered
pulsar consist of as Cocke and Disney’s [the as-
tronomers involved] night’s work?” (GARFINKEL /
LYNCH / LIVINGSTON 1981, 132). The authors thus
dissolved what they called the “Independent Gal-
ilean Pulsar” into actions and transformed it into
a cultural object that was made up of an ensem-
ble of work specific objectifying practices (cf. al-
so SUCHMAN / BLOMBERG / ORR / TRIGG 1999). Another
case study (HEATH / HINDMARSH / LUFF 1999) is con-
cerned with the isolated and apparently non-social
work situation of a train driver in the cab of a Lon-
don underground train. Based on ethnographic ob-
servations, tape and video recordings of the nor-
mal work routine the authors demonstrate that the
practical intelligence and social sensibility of the
drivers are an indispensable condition for the safe
and reliable transport of passengers. There are sev-
eral formal procedures and clearly specified tasks
for the drivers to limit the range of their work ac-
tivities and to constrain their discretionary pow-
er. But these formal prescriptions, according to
the authors’ conclusion, do not themselves guar-
antee trouble-free operations, but rely on the social
and interactive organisation by means of which the
drivers steer the trains and maintain the service for
the passengers.
In the context of the Studies of Work numerous
studies on a variety of professional work contexts
Handbook of TVET Research
were carried out in the past years. All these stud-
ies concentrate on the description and identifica-
tion of the specific practical competences on which
the accomplishment of a (professional) activity is
founded. No professional activity has to be prin-
cipally excluded in advance – even the establish-
ment of the intelligibility of a mathematical dem-
onstration, which is normally supposed to take
place independently of any context and in a purely
ideal sphere, is deconstructed in an ethnomethod-
ological view into situated sequences of action of
a mathematician working with chalk on a black-
board (LIVINGSTON 1986).
5.2.8.4 Methods
In an ethnomethodological manner the Studies of
Work, identify as their ↑ research object what is
mostly taken as unquestioned resource and condi-
tion in the traditional sociology of work and occu-
pations. David Sudnow, who has himself presented
an ethnomethodological study on the improvisa-
tional work of jazz piano playing (SUDNOW 1978),
criticises that studies in the sociology of music re-
veal a lot about the role model, the income, the
work situation, the drug consumption etc. of jazz
musicians, but that the work of making music itself
remains unmentioned in these texts. This “miss-
ing what” (Garfinkel) is the topic of the Studies of
Work. But since it cannot be determined in advance
what these taken-for-granted practices of a specif-
ic type of work consist of, it is methodologically
impossible to simply draw upon the established
procedures of data collection, data processing and
theory building. When a social object is methodi-
cally processed through coding and numerical-sta-
tistical transformation it is lost for ↑ ethnomethod-
ology since the situative practices of its generation
are eliminated. Furthermore, these practices can-
not simply be surveyed by interviews, since they
remain, as Garfinkel (1967a) puts it, “seen but un-
noticed”.
In ethnomethodology there are great reservations
against explicating the procedural rules prior to
the actual research and to fix these rules in a man-
datory methodological catalogue. According to the
conviction underlying this position methods must
never be allowed to dominate the ↑ research object
and have to be abandoned if they limit access to
Research Methods
the specific nature of a research object. Garfinkel
(2002, 175 f.) goes so far as to postulate a “unique
adequacy requirement” as an ideal for ethnometh-
odological ↑ research methods. In its weak ver-
sion this ideal stipulates that a researcher has to be
deeply familiar with the mechanisms of meaning
and order production in his field of research in or-
der to investigate it. In its strong version the pos-
tulate means that the methods for investigating a
field should be seen – and found – as part of the
field itself. An example would be a field observa-
tion that takes up the methods of observation al-
ready practised in this field. In the ideal case the
methods of investigation should be uniquely ade-
quate to the object – but since this can be decid-
ed only when one already has obtained knowledge
about the object or when the researcher is part of
the ↑ research field, a formalisation of methods is
impossible. (The very claim that the researcher
needs to be a competent member of the field he in-
vestigates is, of course, highly unrealistic. In fact
it was only in a few cases that this claim could be
fulfilled, cf. LIVINGSTON 1986; BURNS 2000 and, for
a German example STOY 2001).
A ↑ Studies of Work researcher cannot decide a pri-
ori in what details and structural features the “lived
order” (Garfinkel) of a ↑ work process becomes ob-
servable and how a practitioner’s situative compe-
tence becomes apparent. Therefore the researcher
needs first of all to gain ethnographic access to the
field of investigation and to record the work proc-
ess as exactly as possible in its temporal and spa-
tial course, its material shape and its documenta-
ry traces (written material, diagrams etc.). Given
its orientation towards the local practices in which
work is constituted as an intelligible pheonome-
non, ethnomethodology depends on “data” whose
representational form is such that the practices it
focuses on are conserved. Accordingly ethnometh-
odology is committed to a “registering” conserva-
tion mode (BERGMANN 1985) by means of which
social events are preserved in their raw appearance
regardless of plausibility and behavioural expecta-
tions. This is the background for the ethnometh-
odological interest in tape and video recordings of
social interactions in natural, i.e. unarranged con-
texts and in the development of transcription rules
that allow for the written fixation of a conversa-
785
tion without orthographic standardisation and re-
duction that ethnomethodologists and conversation
analysts have shown since the 1960s.
For the analysis of this material no standardized
methods were developed by the Studies of Work or
ethnomethodology as a whole. The closest approx-
imation to such methodological standards can be
found in ↑ conversation analysis (BERGMANN 2004).
A first analytical access to the data can often be
gained through one of the following two strategies.
One possibility is to use the work-related state-
ments of practitioners during the ↑ performance of
a work activity to become attentive to the specif-
ic task constellations and problem-solving proce-
dures that are embodied in the work routine and
that reveal the orientational patterns and relevance
structures of a particular work. Another possibili-
ty is to look for “disruptions” or “trouble-makers”
that may come up during a particular work and that
offer the researcher an opportunity to observe the
practical employment of order-generating activi-
ties and the work specific competence that is nec-
essary for their performance.
According to their complex research objects and
the heterogeneity of their data the Studies of Work
employ a variety of methods for analysis and do
not hesitate to borrow from other methodological
approaches (↑ ethnography, conversation analysis,
text analysis). It is not the application of a particu-
lar method that is crucial for the Studies of Work,
but the ability to use the general theoretical consid-
erations (on the indexicality of actions, on the con-
cern for “accountability” etc.) such that the prac-
tices that generate the identifying features of some
work activity become accessible and visible.
5.2.8.5 Perspectives
Undoubtedly the ↑ Studies of Work are a provo-
cation for the sociology of work and occupations.
Traditional sociology of work hardly can make an-
ything of the claim to take the constitutive practic-
es of work activities as the central ↑ research ob-
ject, to abandon any interest in typologies and to
concentrate instead on the particulars of the work
in question (but cf. BARLEY/KUNDA 2001). In his
programmatic texs Garfinkel persistently talks of
the “haecceitas” of the social, identifying it as the
focus of ethnomethodological interest. This term
786
is meant to express the idea that everything that is
social exists only as an singular, unique phenom-
enon. When the social is described in general con-
cepts and subsumed under pre-given, theoretical-
ly deduced categories this feature of uniqueness
is eliminated and lost (GARFINKEL 2002; cf. also
LYNCH 1993, ch. 7). Nevertheless in the meantime
this ethnomethodological provocation was produc-
tively received in labour studies and in research in
the ↑ vocational disciplines, and it gave rise to the-
matic and methodological innovations (cf. R AUN-
ER 2002d).
To insist upon the haecceitas of all social objects,
which must not be neglected in scientific treatment,
entails some danger for the Studies of Work. Some
of the studies that follow this approach are charac-
terized by an exaggerated reservation against any
generalisation. Instead they move through more
and more detailed loops of description, which ul-
timately leads to a descriptive duplication of the
research object. In this case taking haecceitas in-
to account leads to a kind of scientific agnosti-
cism and paralyses any strive for generalised state-
ments. Along this road the Studies of Work would
develop into an empty and futile provocation of the
modell building social sciences.
Garfinkel’s reminder to consider the haecceitas of
all social objects can nevertheless be of high value
especially for the study of professional work prac-
tices. The scientific investigation of professional
activities is very often in danger to neglect the lo-
5.3.0 Experimentation and Development
Peter Röben
5.3.0.1 Conceptual Clarification and
Definition of Key Issues
The two terms ↑ experimentation and development
have a highly positive connotation in the scientif-
ic field. Experimentation is a key tool for obtain-
ing knowledge and insight in the natural sciences
and development is a central feature of the ↑ engi-
neering sciences. The success of these two divi-
sions of science have led to a higher regard for its
methods.
Handbook of TVET Research
cal, reflexive process in which its object is consti-
tuted. The situative demands, the practical skills
and the embodied knowledge of professional work
gets frequently ignored with reference to the nec-
essary scientific formalisation and generalisation.
It is not seldom that scientists encounter “practi-
tioners” with a certain epistemic arrogance while
practitioners in turn can only shake their heads
about the ignorant observers who apply some ex-
ternal categories to their work. At this point the
potential of the Studies of Work becomes evident,
which strive to study ↑ work processes according to
their own internal logic.
However, such an analysis delving deeply into the
internal logic of work processes cannot be achieved
by a researcher who permanently maintains a ↑ dis-
tance to his object. Consequently Harold Garfinkel
(2002, 100 ff.) pointed out that ↑ ethnomethodol-
ogy has to be applied ethnomethodology through
and through. It has to develop into a hybrid dis-
cipline in which different ↑ professions are joint-
ly engaged in the analysis of work processes. In
the area of ↑ CSCW research the Studies of Work
already stood the practical test to a large extent.
Should they also succeed in other areas of work in
gaining access to the constitutive sub-structure of
practical skills and embodied professional knowl-
edge, their findings would be of inestimable value
and have a revolutionary impact – for practitioners
as well as for scientists.
However, one does not learn anything about the
role that experimentation and development can and
should play in vocational ↑ training research by ex-
amining natural and engineering science. First it is
necessary to take a closer look at the adaptation of
these methods in the social sciences and ↑ humani-
ties, particularly in educational theory and ↑ voca-
tional education theory. The approach pursued by
Gerald Straka inter alia represents an attempt in
this direction.
One of the major results is the contradiction be-
tween internal and ↑ external validity of laboratory
Research Methods
and field experiments. While laboratory experi-
ments make it possible to monitor the investigation
variables to a large extent and thus ensure their ex-
ternal validity, transferring their results to the ex-
ternal world evidently poses a much greater prob-
lem than in the natural sciences. However, even
in the natural sciences laboratory findings do not
necessarily guarantee their application in the re-
al world. Nevertheless, if the interrelationship of
the investigation variables has been isolated from
disruptive influences in the laboratory, it supplies
rules that are generally valid in the form of natu-
ral laws, i.e. also outside laboratories. A drop ex-
periment conducted in a vacuum in the laborato-
ry, for example, is not wrong because the atmos-
phere in the real world makes the falling of the
bodies appear differently than under the condi-
tions in the laboratory. On the contrary, by elim-
inating a disruptive influence (e. g. of the air), the
effect of another influence (gravitation) becomes
identifiable and in the further course of research
the influence of the disruption in itself can then be
determined. Natural science has accumulated an
enormous store of verified knowledge through this
isolation of individual influencing factors, quanti-
tative determination of their extent and effect as
well as successive determination of other influenc-
ing factors. As a discipline geared to the realiza-
tion of useful artefacts (tools, products, machines,
buildings, equipment), the ↑ engineering sciences
are able to utilize the verified knowledge accumu-
lated in the natural sciences in their development
and shaping process.
A fundamental difference exists between the field
of natural and engineering sciences, on the one
hand, and the field of ↑ humanities and social sci-
ences, on the other hand. It relates to the laws and
rules. Whereas one can only find laws in the nat-
ural and engineering sciences but cannot violate
them, social laws are created by humanity. How-
ever, not only the creation of laws is the reason be-
hind the fundamental difference between the two
large divisions of science, but also the nature of
these divisions. While the laws of the natural and
engineering sciences apply objectively, social laws
can be violated. There have been, for instance, in-
numerable attempts to build a perpetuum mobile,
i.e. to create a machine that generates constant use-
787
ful power without any energy supply. Back in 1775
the French Academy of Sciences declared that it
would not accept or examine any more papers on
the topic of perpetual motion, at a time far before
the discovery of the law of conservation of energy
in the mid-19th century. There are constantly vio-
lations against the property law, as an example of a
social law. It exists only to the extent that state or-
gans vest power in it.
Furthermore, social laws cannot simply be ex-
amined independent of researchers. The Haw-
thorne Experiment (see in Wikipedia, for exam-
ple) is a good instructive example of how examina-
tion of a social group from a natural science point
of view can lead to confusing results. In the sec-
tion by Straka et al. 6 other effects are described
that act as disruptive factors in a social experiment
and may question its results. One cannot avoid this
problem by restricting oneself to laboratory exper-
iments. After all, the gain of ↑ internal validity is
repeatedly called into question by the loss of ↑ ex-
ternal validity.
Therefore, social sciences and humanities have to
develop their own methods to make valid state-
ments on the subject of their research. One of these
methods is the ↑ qualitative experiment, which dif-
fers clearly from the quantitative experiments of
the natural sciences and the disciplines inspired by
the natural sciences (see → 5.3.2). The concept of
qualitative experiments encompasses phenomeno-
logical investigation, dialogues and genetic recon-
struction, through which the relationship between
research and the subject of study is also included.
A large-scale form of ↑ experimentation that is
used to a relatively large extent in German voca-
tional ↑ training research is accompanying ↑ design
projects research, such as that presented in the ar-
ticle by Peter Sloane. The role played by research-
ers in a design project is due to their scientific un-
derstanding. In the case of detached (non-interven-
ing) accompanying research, an attempt is made
to realize ideal research in which the result of a
design project is not determined by the activities
of the researchers who take note of and document
what happens in the design project from the point
of view of a neutral observer. In the case of inter-
vening accompanying research, the realization
that the activities in a design project are influenced
788
by the mere presence of the researchers is applied
positively and an attempt is made to support the
achievement of the goals of the design project par-
ticipants during the design project, and even to de-
vote oneself to serving the interests of the design
project participants. Responsive accompanying re-
search departs from this ideal of serving the re-
search scientists in the interests of the project par-
ticipants and emphasizes that both researchers and
project participants have their own respective in-
terests and the activities of the design project must
therefore be negotiated.
Whereas the development process within the
framework of individual design projects may be of
a perceptible experimental nature, objectives that
are no longer of an experimental nature result at
the level of design project programmes and espe-
cially at the various political levels of the vocation-
al training system. The goal of equivalence of vo-
cational and general education, for example, is a
normative maxim so that this goal is withdrawn
from the field of experiments. Only specific design
projects that are aimed at promoting this goal are
of an experimental nature.
5.3.0.2 Genesis and Historical Development
Among the most famous experiments in ↑ humani-
ties and social sciences, which especially received
widespread attention in pedagogical science, are
those conducted by Skinner (1904–1990, “Skinner
box”). The “laws of learning” identified in rats,
dogs and doves were taken to be universally val-
id due to a questionable equation with experiments
in the natural sciences. These “laws” were applied
and distributed via popular learning methods of
the 1960s and 1970s (e. g. programmed learning,
whose basic concept still forms the foundations of
many computer-based learning programmes).
Other examples for famous historic experiments in
humanities and social sciences that are also rele-
vant for TVET research are the Stanford prison ex-
periment (1971), the Milgram experiment (1963),
which was intended to test the “Germans are dif-
ferent” hypothesis, and the experiments by Wolf-
gang Köhler (1887–1967) on the usage of tools by
great apes. These experiments were relevant for
gestalt psychology and yielded important results
for experiential learning.
Handbook of TVET Research
In the early sociology of work and industrial so-
ciology the Hawthorne experiments (1924–1932)
in a factory of Western Electric (Cicero, Illinois,
↑ USA) are of great importance. From the discus-
sion on the interpretation of the results between
representatives of the company and trade union-
ists the human relations approach emerged, which
found its German counterpart in the programmes
“Humanisierung der Arbeitswelt” (humanisation
of the world of work, 1974–1989) and “Arbeit und
Technik” (work and technology, 1989–1996).
A typical difference between experiments in the
natural sciences and experiments in the social sci-
ences and the humanities is the fact that the in-
terpretation of the latter is already influenced by
moral judgements of the interpreter. Taking a mor-
al stance towards the law of gravity is absurd, for
there is no alternative to this law. But studying the
working and learning conditions of workers and
showing indifference with regard to the relevance
of the results for the people affected is wrong. For
these conditions are the result of actions and deci-
sions to which there is always an alternative. One
of the major educational tasks in TVET research is
to support an awareness of alternatives also in the
domain of technology.
The title of the German programme on the im-
provement of working conditions, “humanisation
of the world of work” already points at conditions
in the ↑ work process that tend to be inhuman. Un-
skilled work continues to take place under condi-
tions that cannot simply be evaluated by the meas-
urement of objective quantities like brightness,
sound, temperature etc., but only by reference to its
meaning for the persons who have to endure this
type of work. TVET research, to the extent that it
conceives of itself as a pedagogical science, shares
one specific feature with general educational sci-
ence. This characteristic feature of the educational
sciences of not simply generating knowledge that
can prove to be action-directing or action-orient-
ed in practice, but of having incorporated stand-
ards as an absolutely constituent element, has been
known since Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776–
1841) at the latest. In his section Felix Rauner ex-
amines the implications of this far-reaching the-
sis for vocational ↑ training research and its rela-
tionship to the system of vocational training. A key
Research Methods
concept in his section is the notion of development.
The objective of vocational training research is, for
example, to develop training courses, job outlines,
↑ educational processes and organisations condu-
cive to learning. An especially highly charged field
is that of ↑ interdisciplinary cooperation, which is
pushing into nearly all areas of development of vo-
cational training research. The system of vocation-
al training is extremely broadly differentiated, its
degree of detail can be indicated, for example, by
the great number of training occupations (346) and
the many thousands of occupations actually per-
formed. The task of vocational training research
is to develop ↑ domain-specific competences for a
very large number of knowledge and activity do-
mains.
5.3.0.3 Major Research Areas and Topics
↑ Experimentation and development in the con-
text of TVET research is a vast field. It stretches
from the connections with the neighbouring dis-
ciplines psychology and sociology to the classi-
cal pedagogical research areas of learning, compe-
tence and personality development and to the relat-
ed pedagogical measures like ↑ curriculum devel-
opment, design of learning media and the defini-
tion of the teacher’s role in the entire field of initial
and ↑ continuing vocational education and training.
The latter includes all relevant learning venues, the
classroom and the laboratory in the work process
as well as in the ↑ in-company training centre. A
problem that should not be underestimated is the
variety of contents. This becomes clear immedi-
ately when considering in which contexts TVET
research is carried out. The range of these contexts
comprises the entire knowledge utilised in society
for the purposes of production, reproduction, ad-
ministration, distribution and management in do-
mains as heterogeneous as agriculture and ↑ infor-
mation technology, media and gardening, metal-
works and medicine, to name but a few.
Bruno Clematide makes key comments on the role
of vocational training researchers at the interface of
this diverse fields of knowledge. He examines the
process of participative development in which it is
important for the researcher’s expertise to interact
with that of the practitioner in order to produce an
optimal development result. A significant aspect
789
in this context is making a distinction between the
respective learning of the groups involved in the
development process. The learning of practition-
ers and workers makes itself felt in their altered
practice while the learning of researchers goes be-
yond that and finds expression in the documenta-
tion of the altered practice against the background
of theoretical assumptions and findings. However,
the learning of individual researchers does not be-
come a learning of the research community until
the latter receives the publications of a practice-
oriented project and thus places them within the
framework of theoretical discourses. Research-
ers at the interface between practical communi-
ties and the scientific community find themselves
in a delicate balance between proximity and ↑ dis-
tance. The proximity to the practical community is
necessary to comprehend its significance. Howev-
er, maintaining distance to the practical communi-
ty is necessary since the data collected in it must
be recognized in a context that is alien to it, i.e. the
theoretical discourse of researchers.
5.3.0.4 Perspectives
Participative development meets with criticism
among researchers who work on a quantitative ba-
sis. In their eyes the successes of participative de-
velopment are singular events with limited scope
and very restricted generalizability. This criticism
can only be refuted by means of results of voca-
tional ↑ training research that, on the basis of ini-
tially singular events, produces a generalizable re-
sult, which can be communicated in a broad scien-
tific community, through disclosure of the meth-
ods applied (e. g. future creating workshop, dialog
conference, narrative approach, appreciative in-
quiry, learning organisation) and a participatively
developed understanding of the dependent (influ-
enceable) and individual (non-influenceable) var-
iables.
790
5.3.1 Laboratory Experiments and
Quasi Experiments
Gerald A. Straka, Katja Meyer-Siever
and Johannes Rosendahl
5.3.1.1 History
“In our judgement the controlled experiment still re-
mains the single most powerful tool for enabling inves-
tigators to disentangle just what causes what, and is the
standard against which other research methods continue
to be measured” (ARONSON / ELLSWORTH / CARLSMITH /GON-
ZALES 1990, XVII).
In Germany a breakthrough occurred in ↑ educa-
tional research in the late 19th century in the field
of experimental methodology. According to Klau-
er (1973b) this breakthrough was caused by two
major events: In 1849 John Stuart Mills raised the
question of how causal connections could be dem-
onstrated empirically and inductively. Until today
the systematic answers he provided are of impor-
tance. The second event was the establishment of
the Institute for Experimental Psychology by Wil-
helm Wundt in Leipzig – the first of its kind world-
wide. Although Wundt mainly conducted experi-
mental psychological research, some of his stu-
dents extended these studies to educational fields.
Noteworthy in this context are the works of Lay
(“Experimental Didactics” 1920), Meumann (“In-
troductory Lectures to Experimental Psychology”
1907/1908) and Fischer (“On the Role of Exper-
iments in Educational Research” 1913) [transla-
tion: S.O.]. Up to the First World War these sci-
entists were the representatives of the first bloom
period of experimental methodology in education-
al science.
In the 1930s the enthusiasm for experimental meth-
odology in Germany gave way to disappointment
because this methodology was pushed aside by the
humanities-oriented educational science. The de-
cline in recognition was even reinforced by the fact
that those personalities who were closely linked to
the tradition of experimental research, distanced
themselves from it; they now argued that experi-
ments were often tedious, ambiguous and unreli-
able when repeated. Moreover, a large number of
representatives of the ↑ Humanities held the view
that experimental methods could only be applied
Handbook of TVET Research
to a limited degree in educational science, since
they were not justifiable ethically and also because
this kind of approach was not appropriate for com-
plex educational contexts.
After World War II educationalists in Germany
tried to re-connect with the traditions of the ↑ Hu-
manities. The inaugural lecture of Heinrich Roth
in Göttingen in which he propagated a realistic
turn towards ↑ educational research (ROTH 1962)
actually represented a shift in direction. Howev-
er, this shift only gradually became widespread
(K LAUER 1973b). A glance at the relevant bodies in
vocational education shows that until this day nei-
ther empirical nor experimental ↑ research meth-
ods have won wide recognition in this field. These
scientific approaches might become more wide-
spread in vocational ↑ training research through
the impetus of international quantitative studies
like TIMSS and PISA (BAUMERT / BOS / LEHMANN
2000; BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND ET AL. 2001).
5.3.1.2 Conceptual Definition and
Classification
In general the term ‘experiment’ is associated with
clarity, accuracy and control; however, it is inter-
preted differently in the relevant literature. To il-
lustrate this point, the definitions of well-known
representatives of experimental methodology are
given:
Wundt (1913, 25): “An experiment is an observation
which links up with the arbitrary effect of the observ-
er on the development and the course of the events to be
observed” (Later on Wundt added the criteria of varia-
bility and repeatability to the criterion of arbitrary pro-
ducibility).
Bredekamp (1980, 1 f.): “Hence an experiment can be
defined as an observation of certain phenomena in a giv-
en situation, in which test persons have randomly been
placed in conditions created by the investigator, and
in which the sequence of conditions is changed at ran-
dom with repeated observations of the test person […]”
[translation: S.O.].
Hager (1987, 71): “An analysis (UU) is an experiment
with respect to the independent variable X if the same
facts are observed systematically under different cir-
cumstances (X1, X2, …, XK) and if the test persons
and the conditions are associated with each other at ran-
dom or if the test persons and the sequence of conditions
in which they are observed systematically (X1, X2, …,
Research Methods
XK) are associated with each other at random” [trans-
lation: S.O.]:
Despite these differences in defining the term ‘ex-
periment’ some key aspects of an experiment can
be identified:
(1) specific and methodically created experimental
conditions;
(2) systematic variation of at least one independent
variable;
(3) systematic recording of at least one dependent
variable;
(4) monitoring of disturbing variables;
(5) repeatability.
In general the term ‘experiment’ is used to de-
scribe a study carried out under the ‘artificial’ con-
ditions of a laboratory. This procedure – called
laboratory experiment – makes it possible to work
under strictly controlled conditions. In contrast to
this the field experiment is performed under ‘natu-
ral conditions’. The laboratory experiment and the
experiment in general are based on the same ques-
tion: Checking the impact of independent varia-
bles (X) on dependent variables (Y). The two al-
so share the feature of ‘controlled condition vari-
ation’ according to which specific conditions can
be controlled by the investigator (through elimi-
nation, random allocation, parallelisation or keep-
ing constant) and other conditions can be changed
(K LAUER 1973b). A marked difference between the
field experiment and the laboratory experiment
lies in the fact that in a laboratory experiment it
is largely possible to control potentially disturbing
factors (GADENNE 1976) whereas in a field experi-
ment this control is only considered possible to a
limited degree.
Campbell and Stanley (1963) systematized the
controversial disturbing factors according to their
internal and ↑ external validity. A study may be
described as internally valid, if it is ensured that
changes in the dependent variable can be attribut-
ed to a variation of the independent variable and
were not caused by disturbing variables which
mixed up with the independent variable. A study
can be described as externally valid if the results
it yields can be generalized and are also applicable
to other individuals, situations and operationaliza-
tions of the independent and dependent variables.
791
Set against these criteria, the field experiment is
considered to have a greater ↑ external validity and
– broadly – a smaller ↑ internal validity, where-
as the laboratory experiment is believed to have a
greater internal and frequently a smaller external
validity. However, to what extent this assessment
of the different types of analyses is actually ap-
propriate, must be determined separately for each
case (BRACHT/ GLASS 1968; COOK / CAMPBELL 1976).
Campbell and Stanley (1963) make a distinction
between eight different types of disturbing factors
which threaten the internal validity of an experi-
ment:
(1) history: events that may occur simultaneously
with the ongoing process between the first and sec-
ond measurement;
(2) maturation: maturing of the test persons (grow
older, more hungry or more tired etc.);
(3) testing: effects of a first test run on the levels re-
corded in a second run (effect of training and rou-
tine; pre-test effect, K LAUER 1973b);
(4) instrumentation: use of different measuring in-
struments, presence of different observers or ana-
lyzers may cause changes in measurements and/or
in the results obtained;
(5) statistical regression: impact of the selection of
test groups on the basis of the extreme values they
produced;
(6) selection: different strategies applied in the se-
lection of test persons;
(7) experimental mortality: drop-out of test per-
sons;
(8) selection-maturation interaction, which in spe-
cific quasi-experimental groups may be confused
with the effect of experimental variables or may be
mistaken for the effect of such variables.
The external validity of an experiment is influ-
enced by the following disturbing factors (BRACHT/
GLASS 1968; K LAUER 1973b):
(1) reactive or interaction effect of testing: impact
on the sensitivity or responsiveness of the test per-
sons by preliminary studies (pre-test or post-test
responsiveness, BRACHT/ GLASS 1968);
(2) interaction between biased sample selection
and the experimental variables;
792
(3) reactive effects of the experimental situation:
impact on the level of generalization on those per-
sons, who have been exposed to the treatment un-
der different conditions than those of the experi-
mental situation;
(4) multiple treatment interference: Effects of pre-
vious analyses or experiments complicate the iden-
tification of the causes of the results obtained or
make it more difficult to apply the results to situa-
tions in which only one variable is independent.
(5) Hawthorne-Effect/Placebo-Effect: if a test per-
son is aware that he/she is undergoing an experi-
ment, this knowledge may cause changes in his/
her behavior which would not occur if he/she had
no knowledge of this fact;
(6) Novelty Effect: The results obtained may partly
be attributed to enthusiasm or to the unfamiliarity
of the experimental situation;
(7) Impact of the investigator’s personality: certain
characteristics, modes of conduct or the mere pres-
ence of the investigator may unintentionally influ-
ence the behavior of the test persons.
In the following types of studies the above-men-
tioned disturbing factors cannot be controlled:
Quasi- Experiments (CAMPBELL / STANLEY 1963;
Kerlinger 1964). In principle these may be based
on the same questions as field experiments. How-
ever, in contrast to field experiments the control of
potentially disturbing factors is far more difficult
in ↑ quasi experiments. The most prominent differ-
ence between a quasi experiment and an experi-
ment is that in a quasi-experiment the random al-
location of test persons to experimental conditions
is not carried out. Frequently this random alloca-
tion is not justifiable because of the conditions pre-
vailing in the educational field and also for rea-
sons of scientific ethics. Since quasi-experiments
are most commonly used in the social sciences,
it will be given special attention in this paper
(CAMPBELL / STANLEY 1963; COOK / CAMPBELL 1976;
K ERLINGER 1964).
Methodologically the term experiment must be dif-
ferentiated from the ex-post-facto- experiment. As
part of this approach the independent variable(s)
(X) was already realized and the potential corre-
lations and effects of the independent variable on
the variable(s) presumed dependent were analysed
retroactively (K ERLINGER 1964). Hence the investi-
Handbook of TVET Research
gator can by no means vary the independent vari-
ables in an ex-post-facto- experiment so that a con-
trol of potentially disturbing factors through ran-
dom allocation is not possible.
5.3.1.3 Criteria Underlying the Study
Designs
Different study or ↑ experimental designs can be
used to control the disturbing factors and to ensure
the ↑ internal validity of the experiment.
“An experimental design is a standardised scheme
(structural scheme) which can be routinely applied and
which provides the basis for the organisation, monitor-
ing and methodical assessment of an empirical study on
independent (IV) and dependent (DV) variables” (SAR-
RIS 1992, 4). [translation, S.O.]
In the following some of these ‘structural schemes’
will be outlined. Where this is possible, the study
designs will be illustrated by examples from the
DFG-funded study program “Teaching-Learn-
ing Processes in Initial Business Education” (1994
to 1999) (BECK /K RUMM 2001). The optimized ex-
perimental designs created for statistical analyses
will not be considered (e. g. BORTZ 1999; FISHER
1935/1972; WINER 1962/1991).
Experimental Designs
‘Real’ experimental designs are designs compris-
ing several groups, since at least one control group
must be compared with one experimental group.
In addition to this the test persons will be random-
ly allocated to different groups. This is done to en-
sure that the experimental and the control group
do not differ from each other; thus any differences
that occur are exclusively attributable to the meas-
ures taken, and the treatment performed, respec-
tively.
(1) Posttest Only Control Group Design
R Random allocation
TE Treatment to the Experimental Group
TC Treatment to the Control Group
O Measurement (observation)
Research Methods
The control group design including a follow-up
examination is widely appreciated because of its
simplicity and ↑ efficiency. It is not necessary to
carry out a pre-test, since generally it can be en-
sured through random allocation that at the outset
the groups do not differ from each other. Another
benefit is that pre-test effects can be avoided (sen-
sitization).
If a statistically significant difference between the
mean values of the experimental group and the
control group occurs, this can be attributed to the
effect of the treatment (T) carried out. Ebner and
Aprea (2001) analysed the effect of active graph-
ic representation of economic facts on the level of
their acquisition and use. For this study 143 future
bankers in their second year of training were ran-
domly allocated (R) to the control and the experi-
mental group. The experimental group was given a
short training in mapping procedures. Subsequent-
ly the trainees were asked to create such a network
diagram for a text they were given (TE). The con-
trol group, however, was only given a text and an
exemplary diagram (TC). The question underlying
this experiment was to determine if the learning
↑ efficiency varied in line with the ↑ teaching meth-
od applied.
Random allocation of the trainees to the groups
under comparison makes it possible to maintain
disturbing factors like maturation, testing, instru-
mentation used, statistical regression, selection
and experimental loss of test persons, as well as
interaction between the various variables at a con-
stant level and thus to control them. From this fol-
lows that an internal validity of the results can be
assumed, although ↑ external validity continues to
be threatened by effects such as, for instance, the
Hawthorne-effect, the novelty-effect or the impact
of the investigator. Therefore population validity
is not in place, since the trainees are not a random
sample of the entire group of ‘future bankers’.
(2) Pretest-Posttest Control Group Design
This design has the same benefits as the “Posttest
only control group design” – not least because of
the Random Allocation of the Test Persons – and
793
thus has a high ↑ internal validity. In addition to
this there is the possibility to determine initial val-
ues and to check the equality of the groups by
means of theoretically significant control varia-
bles. The disturbing factor ‘history’ is eliminated,
since both groups are exposed to the same condi-
tions. However, it may happen that the internal va-
lidity is affected by the simple presence or conduct
of the investigator, the sequence of occurrences
and – in lengthy experiments – by the by the exper-
imental loss of test persons. ↑ External validity is
threatened because the test persons have been sen-
sitized to the problem in preliminary tests. In those
cases in which the experimental group(s) and the
control group(s) is/are not representative of the
general population, the risk of an interaction be-
tween the selection of test persons and the treat-
ment continues to exist.
The two-group design can be extended to carry out
a more comprehensive analysis of conditions and
to control disturbing effects like the placebo effect,
the novelty effect or the effect caused by the pres-
ence/conduct of the investigator. One example of
such an extension is the, 2 x 2-factorial design’ in
which two treatments are carried out in two ways
(= 2 x 2). Given the internal validity of the experi-
ment, it is possible to compare the effect of four ex-
perimental conditions.
In a study on Learning by Solving Problems in
Commercial Calculation (STARK / GRUBER / HINKOFER
ET AL. 2001) the authors addressed the question
of what impact the two different ways of solving
problems and ↑ learning strategies (TA/B) have
on the transfer of what has been learnt. The anal-
ogous exemplary solutions covered the issue of se-
curities, stocks and bonds. The multiple (differing)
examples also covered the issues of loans and cor-
porate ↑ participation. In both treatments the struc-
ture of the tasks assigned was the same (TA/B).
The learning strategy applied either was ‘thinking
out loud’ (i.e. pupils were asked to express what
just crossed their mind) or the pupils explained
how they intended to address the issue. The pu-
pils were allocated at random to the two groups;
the level of their knowledge (O0) established at the
start of the experiment confirmed that there was a
high level of equality between the two groups. Af-
794
ter conclusion of the experiment the test persons’
transfer ↑ efficiency was determined (O1).
In addition to the study designs presented above
there are other, partly quite complex ↑ experimen-
tal designs (cf. WINER 1962/1991). In general they
presuppose a random distribution of the test per-
sons to the groups under study – conditions which
are rather unrealistic, since groups (classes) in vo-
cational training programs are generally not ar-
ranged at random and these groups are studied in
vocational ↑ training research. For this reason re-
searchers in this field developed 2 alternative so-
lutions: Quasi-experimental and extended non-ex-
perimental study designs.
Quasi-Experimental Designs
A typical example of this mode of approach is the
study carried out by Sembill, Schumacher, Wolf,
Wuttke and Santjer-Schnabel (2001). It was de-
signed to analyse how the problem solving abili-
ty and and the level of motivation of learners could
be improved through self-organized learning. In
the study two classes, which had been parallelized
in terms of gender and age, were compared. The
experimental group temporarily used the strate-
gy of self-organized learning (SoLe = TE), where-
as the control group was instructed ‘traditionally’
(TraLe = TC).
During the teaching units the researchers also com-
piled processing data, i.e. at 5-minute intervals the
students were asked to assess their cognitive, emo-
tional and motivational status. The structural de-
sign of the study is presented in the following:
Fig. 1: structural model (empirical)
Handbook of TVET Research
P O0 TE/OP O1 TE/OP O2
TE/OP O3
P O0 TK/OP O1 TK/OP O2
TK/OP O3
P parallelization
OP compilation of processing data during
treatment
This quasi experimental field study in which
measurements were taken at different times and
processing data were compiled during treatment,
presents the course of development of major pa-
rameters (motivational development). By paral-
lelizing the two groups under comparison and sub-
sequent checking of the homogeneity of the exper-
imental and the control group by means of tests
carried out when the first measurements (O0) were
taken, it was possible to show in this study that in
the experimental group which temporarily learnt
in a ↑ learning environment of self-organization
(SoLe-Group), the problem solving ability had
improved. However, the observation that the stu-
dents in the SoLe-Group were more self-motivated
in learning, may also be attributable to the novel-
ty or Hawthorne effect – an effect, which research-
ers tried to avoid by extending the study over 29
weeks.
5.3.1.4 Future Trends
The fictitiousness of a ‘real’ experiment
(SARRIS 1992) as well as the relatively high level of
time and effort involved in ↑ experimental designs
prompted methodologists like Blalock to think
Research Methods
about ways in which quasi- and non-experimental
study designs could be used to check causal rela-
tionships (BLALOCK 1964). As a result of the subse-
quent methodological discussion – held, above all,
in the Social Sciences in which experiments are
not always possible – the relevant strategies were
developed and put into practice; they helped to
raise the internal and ↑ external validity of non-ex-
perimental study designs. Among these are: com-
pilation of longitudinal data, testing of alterna-
tive hypotheses and application of strategies such
as the cross-validation of results in major samples
(BURKE 2001).
In this context the development of multivariable
statistical procedures like factor-, regression and
path analysis as well as the programs developed
to analyse structural equation models (e. g. LIS-
REL) need to be mentioned (e. g. BACKHAUS / ERICH-
SON / P LINKE / WEIBER 2003). The later in particu-
lar make it possible to analyse the effects of sev-
eral variables simultaneously so that the complex-
ity of the wide field of vocational education is tak-
en into account. As part of a field study, for in-
stance, which looked into the factors that can be
used to determine the level of competent action in
students enrolled in commercial vocational train-
ing programs, a structural model was confirmed
(STRAKA / LENZ 2003; Fig. 1):
This figure shows that the ‚conditions in class’ did
not – as initially presumed – directly impact the
‘vocation-specific competence’. However, in line
with the findings obtained in the studies on inter-
ests and ↑ learning strategies (BECK /K RUMM 2001)
it turned out that the factors ‘content-based inter-
est’ and ‘working and control strategies’ impact-
ed a student’s ‘vocation-specific competence’ in
different degrees (= moderator effects). The lat-
ter prompted students to attribute their scores to
different causes (attributions). ‘Economic compe-
tence’ which is focused on the national economy,
only had a moderate effect on the company-orient-
ed ‘vocation-specific competence’, an observation
which may indicate that the test persons had not
yet interrelated these economic fields.
These ↑ evaluation methods have been advanced to
complex, multivariable and multifactorial analyti-
cal methods; new software tools in this field have
much facilitated the application of these methods
795
so that it is not only possible to control potentially
disturbing factors statistically but also to rule out
several alternative hypotheses at the same time.
The co-efficients in Fig. 1, for instance, present net
effects, because the effect of third variables is sta-
tistically controlled. This form of control of poten-
tially disturbing factors will, however, never reach
the level by a random allocation (STRAKA 1974).
But from a statistical perspective, methodologi-
cal developments have helped to blur the line be-
tween an ex-post-facto-experiment and a field ex-
periment.
On the one hand this progress in ↑ research meth-
odologies has produced major procedures which
can be applied to describe and explain complex in-
teraction in the field of vocational training. On the
other hand this development requires a systematic
working on the findings in order to develop corre-
sponding complex hypothetical models and to vali-
date them on the basis of the data obtained. Insofar
Popper’s statement “observation [is] always an ob-
servation in the light of theories” (POPPER 1989, 31)
might only now receive due attention in vocational
↑ training research.
5.3.2. Qualitative Experiments
Franz Stuber
5.3.2.1 Clarification of Terms
↑ Qualitative experiments are characterised by a
special type of experimental activity in the social
sphere. As experiments, they represent a primary
means of acquiring scientific knowledge.
↑ Experimentation in general involves planning
the production of particular conditions that allow
a phenomenon of interest to be observed systemat-
ically without external disturbance, and then con-
clusions are to be drawn from such observation.
Conclusions may range from explanations to new
hypotheses based on findings.
Experiments can generally be differentiated ac-
cording to their field of enquiry. In the natural sci-
ences experiments are concerned with elucidating
relationships governed by natural laws. Technical
experiments focus on the intended application of
796
new combinations of the material under investi-
gation. Thus, technical experiments always have
a social dimension. The history of modern natu-
ral and technical sciences offers a striking picture
of their interconnectedness. One example is Ben-
jamin Franklin’s famous kite experiment of 1752.
Using a kite attached to copper wire, Franklin was
able to provide experimental proof of atmospheric
electricity and so elucidate the universally known
phenomenon of lightning. This knowledge was, at
the same time, the basis for a technical invention
with practical application: the lightning rod.
The distinction between qualitative and quantita-
tive experiments is not of great importance in the
natural sciences. Experimentally established struc-
tures are always quantitative relations of a certain
quality, while quantitative experiments serve to
differentiate findings, that is, qualities of natural
phenomena.
In the social sciences, however, ↑ qualitative ex-
perimentation has acquired significance as a dis-
crete ↑ research method. Experiments in the social
sciences focus on social relations and cognitive op-
erations.
The demands of experimental research are funda-
mentally different here from those that govern in-
vestigations into animate and inanimate nature.
This difference is already evident in the widely-
used expression ‘social experiment’. This is used
– often with critical intent – to refer to a politically
motivated shift in (power) relations within society,
where it is uncertain whether the people affected
will adapt to the new conditions.
In connection with social and psychological phe-
nomena, the specific production and modification
of particular conditions in the research process in-
volves examination of the needs and objectives
of individuals and their interactional forms. Such
modifications represent direct interventions in the
living and working conditions of the relevant test
subjects.
These peculiarities of social science experiments
may also apply to technical experiments if and to
the extent that the intended new combination of
natural laws in artifacts is accompanied by mod-
ifications in the forms and processes of work and
living.
Handbook of TVET Research
Qualitative ↑ experimentation as a discrete ↑ re-
search method can be linked to qualitatively ori-
ented empirical research in social and educational
studies. In ↑ qualitative experiments, specific inter-
ventions in the social environment are undertaken
in order to achieve insights into aim-determination
and/or forms of consciousness. As a method be-
longing to the ↑ qualitative paradigm, ↑ qualitative
experimentation is concerned not with the empiri-
cal verification of hypotheses, rather with the gen-
eration of theories appropriate to the object of en-
quiry, as well as with the multi-perspectivity of the
research process and the reflexivity of the actors.
In contrast to ↑ pilot project research (→ 5.3.3),
qualitative experiments are limited to the micro-
analysis of social conditions.
5.3.2.2 Genesis of the Method
Qualitative experimentation as a research method
has diverse roots.
Experimental research in psychology had its first
heyday in the early 20th century. Indeed, the term
qualitative experimentation was coined at that time
(MACH 1980). The emerging schools of percep-
tion, thought and Gestalt psychology, but also an-
imal psychology, declared qualitative experimen-
tation to be a preferred method. In the much-cited
‘Marienthal Study’ as well, in which the subjec-
tive effects of unemployment were investigated in
an Austrian village, researchers varied the social
environment according to qualitative experimental
criteria (JAHODA / LAZARSFELD / ZEISEL 1960).
This tradition, established at the beginning of the
20th century, was continued by, among others,
K. Lewin with his qualitative experimentation on
the effect of educational styles on the group be-
haviour of children and in J. Piaget’s experiments
in learning psychology that he performed on his
own children (for details see K LEINING 1986;
VOLLMERS 1992).
In education research, traditionally the distinction
between qualitative and quantitative experiments
is not so pronounced. Early discussion was more
concerned with the suitability of experimental re-
search to education in general. An early-differenti-
ated position was represented by A. Fischer:
“An experiment has limits that are determined by its ob-
ject, the child and the current technology status of the
Research Methods
experiment itself. The setting and rationalising of educa-
tional objectives must, as with every instance of setting
and rationalising values and target conditions, set aside
experimentation. … All these limits can be admitted,
but there is no need to view them with excessive pessi-
mism. Things that today are unripe for experimentation
may become ripe tomorrow; this is the hope that fills our
work” (FISCHER 1913, 56).
Without distinguishing between quantitative and
qualitative approaches, in this way Fischer assigns
experimental pedagogy its proper place in educa-
tional science and, at the same time, clarifies the
unsuitability of experimental procedures for nor-
mative educational practice. ↑ Teaching method-
ology has since proved to be an appropriate field
of application for (quantity oriented) experimen-
tation, in particular the comparison of different
methodologies in relation to attainable learning ef-
fects (K LAUER 1973b).
With the dominance of behaviouristic psychology
and socio-scientific education, quality-oriented ex-
perimental approaches became largely peripheral
towards the middle of the 20th century.
Qualitative Heuristics
Their ‘rediscovery’ and elaboration in Germany
dates to the 1980s, in particular to the work of G.
Kleining. Kleining places qualitative experimenta-
tion in the context of his ↑ heuristic methodology.
“Qualitative experimentation is intervention according
to scientific principles in a (social) object for the purpose
of investigating its structure. It is the explorative, heuris-
tic form of experimentation” (K LEINING 1986, 724).
“It is not based on existing knowledge or hypotheses,
rather it aims at something new, at discoveries. It does
not make use of variables, rather, it seeks and reveals
structures. … Relations are of a qualitative nature; for
the most part they cannot be measured, because they in-
volve not only processes, but also negations, contradic-
tions, unstable dependencies, reversible relations and
discontinuities. The conditions of an experiment are not
to be regulated. … Repeatability is not a condition for
a qualitative experiment” (italics in the original, K LEI-
NING 1986, 725).
With this decisive dissociation from mainstream
empirical sociological research, Kleining reacts
against an over-emphasis on hermeneutic method-
ology in the social sciences generally and argues
for the further development of detecting ↑ research
strategies (K LEINING 1995a). As basic methods for
797
such strategies he names observation and experi-
ment. Thus, the model for his ↑ heuristic method-
ology is the methodology of the natural and tech-
nical sciences.
“In summary, qualitative heuristics attempts to win back
the qualities of exploration and discovery for psycholog-
ical and sociological research” (K LEINING / WITT 2000,
par. 6).
In order to embed ↑ qualitative experimentation in
the research process, Kleining postulates four rules
of qualitative heuristics (K LEINING 1986; 2004):
(1) Openness of researchers towards modifying
their preconceptions when these are opposed by
new findings.
(2) Openness of the research process; provisional
findings concerning the ↑ research object are grad-
ually brought more into line with the object itself
and the research process may itself be modified
during its progression.
(3) Maximum structural variation in research per-
spectives and methods; the object should be viewed
from as many different perspectives as possible.
Disparate findings should
(4) always be subjected to intensive examination
for possible points in common.
5.3.2.3 Examples of Qualitative Experiments
Only a few ↑ qualitative experiments have been
documented that consistently comply with the
rules of qualitative heuristics. Kleining and Witt
report on the successful application of qualitative
experimentation in testing the method of intro-
spection:
“Two [qualitative experiments, F.S.] regarding a sudden
alarm, two about television communication, two about
the acceptance of artistic films, several dealing with var-
ious emotions … A series of factors were varied system-
atically in these experiments with the goal of complying
with rule 3 concerning the structural variation of per-
spectives” (K LEINING / WITT 2000, Abs. 15 f.).
According to the authors, these experiments and
their introspective analysis proved to be an appro-
priate tool for locating individual modes of receiv-
ing and managing disturbances.
A further example of qualitative experimental re-
search is offered by the so-called ‘Passau Ma-
donna Debate’. In the early 1990s the social sci-
entist A. Mintzel questioned the coat of arms of
798
the non-denominational University of Passau, as
this features the Roman Catholic cult symbol of
‘Our Lady of Victory’, a Madonna figure armed
with a staff with crucifix who is depicted defeat-
ing a dragon. The manifold reactions to a result-
ing request for change to university administration
revealed the close connections between university
management, the Catholic Church and conserva-
tive powers (MINTZEL 1991; K LEINING 1999).
Kleining illustrates a further application of quali-
tative experimentation in analysis of a literary text.
Specific variations in individual passages from the
first chapter of Cervantes’ Don Quixote are used to
show how the story operates with various levels of
reality (K LEINING 2004).
Technology Development
Schulze and Haasis (2003) outline an application
in the field of development and implementation of
IT-supported planning and organisation systems at
DaimlerChrysler AG. Their starting point is the
oft-cited paradox, according to which digital ↑ in-
formation technology is on the one hand attributed
an extremely high potential for product and proc-
ess innovation. On the other hand, their introduc-
tion in ↑ work processes frequently causes so many
unforeseen problems that the abandonment rate for
↑ IT projects remains persistently above 50 %. In
recent years steps have been taken in development
and implementation practices to counter this trend
through participative and prototype-based strate-
gies (→ 3.8.2; → 3.8.4).
In the view of Schulze and Haasis, the procedural
models employed here lack suitable development
criteria:
“It is supposed that an IT development and implemen-
tation team of interdisciplinary composition will, in a
first phase of evaluations and brainstormings, elaborate
– in whatever way – a ‘suitable’ scenario and a ‘suita-
ble’ prototype that they will gradually refine. How one
ought to go about this remains open” (SCHULZE / HAASIS
2003, 135).
They argue that this could easily give rise to a
‘tunnel perspective’ that does not adequately illu-
minate the solution space available in the devel-
opment process. To plug this gap, the authors ad-
vocate the application of qualitative ↑ experimen-
tation:
Handbook of TVET Research
“In this way it is no longer a question of ‘arbitrary’ mod-
ification of prototypes, but of a systematic maximal var-
iation that is nonetheless appropriate to the research ob-
ject” (ibid., 137).
Unfortunately the authors present this application
scenario only as a thought experiment. A trial un-
der real industrial conditions of development and
implementation has yet to be carried out.
5.3.2.4 Conception of Qualitative
Experiments
Experiments are always planned interventions. As
↑ qualitative experiments involve intervention in
social configurations, dialogic strategies are re-
quired that the researcher uses to manoeuvre with-
in the subject-object relationship.
Building on Kleining’s study, B. Vollmers distin-
guishes three main types of qualitative experi-
ments: (1) phenomenological investigations aim at
spontaneous and intuitive variations in experimen-
tal arrangements.
“The investigation should conclude with a set of theoret-
ical categories that summarise the variety of phenomena
as precisely as possible” (VOLLMERS 1992, 245).
(2) In dialogues, questions are put to the object of
enquiry in order to penetrate to the “crux” of the
matter through constant questioning (ibid., 247).
(3) Finally, genetic reconstruction integrates the
relationship between researcher and object itself
into the experiment. In such experiments, the con-
stitution of the object via the subject-object rela-
tionship within the investigation becomes the fo-
cus of inquiry.
This analytical distinction corresponds to an over-
lapping of the three types in the practical research
process. For the organisation of this process, Klein-
ing proposes a total of six techniques that he calls
the experimenter’s “tools”.
– Separation/segmentation involves the division
or re-articulation of actions, groups, etc. The re-
searcher establishes the fitting accuracy of the
change from the reaction of the object.
– Combination, by contrast, puts artifacts, people,
groups, etc. together in ways different from those
in which they were originally found. For example,
“Men and women, Germans and foreigners, children and
elderly people are combined in a single working group
– what happens? The result reveals something about the
Research Methods
peculiarities of the elements that have been brought to-
gether” (K LEINING 1999, 146).
– With reduction/weakening, parts and functions
are removed from an experimental arrangement in
order to establish their significance for the identity
of the object.
– Adjection/intensification, on the other hand, at-
tempts to draw conclusions from the (increased)
assistance of things, actions, etc.
– In substitution, elements within the experimen-
tal arrangement are replaced in order to trace func-
tional equivalence.
– Through transformation, the attempt is made
to establish idiosyncrasies of the object through
transmutation.
“The experimental production of something completely
different that is nonetheless the same or something very
similar that appears totally dissimilar – these are goals
that, once reached, give us information about the charac-
teristics of objects” (K LEINING 1986, 738).
5.3.2.5 Scope and Development Perspectives
↑ Qualitative experimentation continues to lead
a shadowy existence in vocational education re-
search. Empirical (vocational) education research
is dominated by designs for testing hypotheses,
and experimental settings can be found more read-
ily in the domain of psychological research without
any direct link to vocational learning and working
processes.
From this perspective, the great merit of G. Klein-
ing’s school consists in particular in the revived
awareness and methodological refinement of qual-
itative ↑ experimentation as a detecting ↑ research
method. ↑ Qualitative experiments enrich object-
related ↑ research methodology and in this way al-
so stimulate fresh reflection on the relationship be-
tween natural and socio-scientific research meth-
ods.
The vehement dismissal of the principles of quan-
titative experimentation is understandable in the
context of debate within empirical social research.
Several things, however, need to be ‘put straight’
regarding the application of this method in voca-
tional education research.
Thus, the opposition asserted by Kleining between
approaches ‘based on existing knowledge’ and
those that ‘aim at new knowledge’ is particular-
799
ly questionable (see K LEINING 1986, 725). One es-
sential feature of experimental activity is precisely
that it distinguishes itself from unsystematic ‘tri-
al-and-error’ procedures. Even the experimental
examination of social conditions is based on the-
oretical assumptions concerning the object of in-
quiry. Without this pre-existing knowledge about
the object, criteria for setting up an experiment
would be lacking. The problem of explicating pri-
or knowledge, which comes to light for example in
approaches linked to so-called ‘grounded theory’,
is also posed in ↑ qualitative experimentation (see
K ELLE 1994).
The same can be said for the contrast between
qualitative and quantitative characteristics of re-
lations. Certainly, the determination of a relation-
ship, such as that between a particular operation-
al information source and a successful disturbance
↑ diagnosis, represents a valuable insight into ex-
pert competence. However, it is difficult to counte-
nance the idea that for a deeper understanding of
this relationship, quantitative data is negligible or
impossible to measure.
On the other hand, further relativisations of tra-
ditional experimental conditions – controllabili-
ty, reproducibility – coincide very closely with the
specific demands placed on experimental research
as an element of vocational education research.
Development Perspectives
To what extent the experimental techniques de-
scribed are practicable in the various fields of vo-
cational education research is a question that can
hardly be answered at present. For this purpose
specific trials and manifold ‘experiments’ with
qualitative ↑ experimentation are required.
As already mentioned, the field of technology and
labour development appears to be a first favourable
area of application. Here, the integrated adoption
of ↑ qualitative experimentation promises a fore-
sighted and balanced implementation of operation-
al innovations. Integrated here means that the rel-
evant innovation goals are transparent and that all
actors participate equally in the dialogic process.
The qualitative experimentation method can also
be applied to the exploration of ↑ domain-specific
knowledge of the labour process (→ 3.6.4). A sys-
tematic variation in the conditions of expert activ-
800
ity can help to establish the presence, significance
and relevance of activity ↑ performances, strategies
and (implicit) ↑ skill acquisition.
A further direct link to teaching methodology in
vocational education emerges. ↑ Experimental
learning has acquired great significance as a ba-
sic form of enquiry-based learning in particular
in commercial-technological vocational education
(→ 4.1).
Guidance of experimental learning using the ‘tools’
of qualitative experimentation can aid the percep-
tion of technological conditions in relation to their
social function and the exploration of technologi-
cal and ↑ organisational development options in the
learning process.
In this way support is lent to the central goals for
experimental learning in vocational education: the
grasping of professional reality (EICKER / RAUNER
1996) and the promotion of active student learning
(ACKSTEINER 2001). In addition, the combination of
qualitative experimentation in the learning process
with the business game and scenario method also
appears promising.
Overall it can therefore be said that the application
and development of the method of qualitative ex-
perimentation has great potential for research in-
to vocational education. Those active in the field
would do well to act broadly on this proposition
and experience qualitative experimentation for
themselves.
5.3.3 Experimental Research
Designs (ERD) in Vocational
Education
Peter F. E. Sloane
5.3.3.1 Introduction: On Experimental
Research Designs (ERD)
This contribution focuses on ↑ research pro-
grammes in the area of vocational education and
training. It is based on German experiences in de-
sign projects
(I use the term design project as translation for the Ger-
man concept of ‘Modellversuch’ according to the An-
Handbook of TVET Research
glo-American approach of ↑ design based research. This
kind of research program will be illustrated later on) .
These are development programmes run by en-
terprises, schools, and so on, accompanied by re-
search groups and financed by the government.
These programmes, therefore, are embedded in an
institutional framework. One interesting point is
how research work done in these settings refers to
methodological recourses on research.
In the following an ↑ experimental research design
is worked out. Starting with a few remarks on ↑ re-
search in real life settings (chapter 1), I will illus-
trate different possible ↑ research approaches for
the work in design projects (chapter 2) and then
summarize different research programmes (chap-
ter 3). As research work in social fields always
means that research actors move into different life
settings, the specific aspects of this moving across
fields will be examined at the end (chapter 4).
5.3.3.2 Research in Real Life Settings
On first examination, “research” is a way to gen-
erate knowledge about a specific subject. Research
on vocational education and training is focused on
particular aspects of education. On the second ex-
amination, research therefore also depends on the
interest of researchers in specific topics and on
problems they have defined. And on the third and
last examination, common sense structures on the
subject of vocational education exist.
There are at least two different ways to de-contex-
tualise the subject ‘vocational education and train-
ing (VET)’: (1) as an individual’s process of de-
velopment based on learning processes and (2) as
a social system these processes are embedded in.
These two views are integrated in the German con-
cept of didactics. In this holistic approach
(Didactics is not an approach just referring to vocation-
al education and training. It is a general concept to de-
scribe learning and teaching processes as well as the
aims of these processes and mechanisms to regulate
them (instructions))
it is possible to differentiate between (1) the organ-
isation (regime) of VET, (2) the instructional de-
sign, (3) the intentions and the curriculum (sylla-
bus, basic assumptions, main tasks etc.) of teach-
ing and learning, (4) teachers and (5) learners as
subjects of the teaching-/learning.
Research Methods
The overall intention is to grasp the whole com-
plexity of vocational education and training. With-
in this context, it is important to emphasize that
this social system is not a neutral object of re-
search, but a ↑ research object, which can be char-
acterized as institutional-political and responsive
practice.
– Institutional-political practice
VET is regulated. The regulations are negotiated
by the same social groups that are also responsible
for the implementation and observance of the reg-
ulations. These social groups are manifold and re-
flect the pluralistic character of modern societies.
They include associations, trade unions, churches,
political parties and so on. This implicates that the
researchers who want to investigate this practice
have to make arrangements with those who regu-
late the practice. This leads to certain particulari-
ties for research, which will be dealt with later.
– Responsive Practice
Research on practice is no neutral process of ob-
servation and/or systematization. The social sys-
tem reacts to its observer. It reacts not only be-
forehand, i.e. when research is authorised, but al-
so during the research process, as well as after the
research process, when the results of the research
are interpreted.
5.3.3.3 Basic Concepts of Research on
Vocational Education
The ‘Logic of Research’
The ‘logic of research’ is in accordance with the
rules about how researchers do their job. Para-
digms regulate the way ↑ research programmes are
handled and define what is allowed, and what is
not. This is a regulation by the social communi-
ty of researchers, the so-called scientific commu-
nities. Besides this there is also a general interest
of society for the work of researchers. In an insti-
tutionalized world there are a lot of influences be-
tween research and public partners.
Max Weber therefore made a distinction between
the inner legitimation of research and its outer le-
gitimation:
– Inner legitimation of research
801
Aspects of methodological standards are important
for the coherence between researchers. Therefore,
it is necessary to express ↑ research methods, and
it is important to have the possibility of discussing
↑ research approaches in the scientific community.
Of course main approaches exist which are accept-
ed by a broad majority in the group, as well as mi-
nority positions.
– Outer legitimation of research
Research is related to society. Even if research
groups have the idea of neutral research they have
to consider the different links they have to society.
At least the work of researchers has to be accept-
ed by society.
Furthermore it is a matter of general agreement in
modern societies to solve problems by research.
From the position of society this means that re-
search is an important instrument to develop so-
ciety. From the point of research and the scientific
community it becomes necessary to work out the
rules of cooperation with society in general and es-
pecially the rules for public ↑ partnerships.
Ideal Research Approaches
Inner and outer legitimation of research lead to dif-
ferent possible research programmes. In my opin-
ion three ideal approaches exist: the approach of
rational research, the approach of rational practice
and the approach of reflective practice.
– The approach of rational research
This is a paradigm of empirical research. Rational-
ity is in accordance with the way researchers work:
they generate hypothesises and prove them in re-
al life. The result is positive knowledge (see AL-
BERT 1982) especially about all that what we do
not know. According to Karl R. Popper (1969) re-
searchers have to create hypotheses that they then
try to falsify. If this is transferred to vocational ed-
ucation we learn a lot about those concepts of edu-
cation that do not work.
In a more smooth way the empirical approach is
transformed into a verifying concept. Researchers
then try to evaluate concepts of vocational educa-
tion, thus to create positive knowledge.
– The approach of rational practice
Besides the empirical tradition in social research
there is a critical tradition, fostered by the propo-
nents of Critical Theory. According to this con-
802
ception (cf. MARCUSE 1967; ADORNO 1970) research
work and science in general also has to concentrate
on the social backgrounds of their own work. Re-
searchers ought to change society and should work
for a better future for all people (HORKHEIMER /
MARCUSE 1937).
This concept follows the idea of enlightening the
practice. It explains social structures (see LAKATOS
1974, 126 f.).
– The approach of reflective practice
Central to the approach of reflective practice is the
assumption that practice is able to reflect upon it-
self. This does not necessarily need to be contra-
dictory to empirical research, since this assump-
tion does not automatically exclude empirical-an-
alytical collection of data via rational methods.
Nevertheless, it changes the idea of rationality in-
sofar as those who are the objects of research are
conceded to possess the same ability to act in ra-
tional ways.
This approach acts on the assumption of an epis-
temological concept of the self (epistemologisches
Subjektmodell), which means that “the behavior of
the object under scrutiny and the behavior of the
scrutineer fall in the same range of a single explan-
atory model” (LITTLE 1972, 97). In other words:
each actor is self-reflective and can therefore gen-
erate knowledge on what happens in the research
project. At this point, there are links to the con-
cept of subjective theories (see SCHEELE / GROEBEN
1988).
The approaches of rational research and rational
practice pick up the contradictions between empir-
ical ↑ research programmes on one hand and crit-
ical reform programmes on the other. One main
question is: should research intervene in social
processes or not? Research results are not some-
thing like pictures of social structures and inter-
actions. This naïve idea of research work reduc-
es the difference between rational research and ra-
tional practice. In this case we discuss whether the
quality of the picture is important or if the motif of
the picture has to be changed. The approach of re-
flexive subjects changes the point of view and has
more sophisticated ideas about the relationship be-
tween researchers and their subject. Research pro-
grammes are the result of ↑ participation and co-
Handbook of TVET Research
operation between researchers and other actors in
the social field.
5.3.3.4 Research Programmes
Research on research programmes has identified
three ideal-typical approaches of accompanying
research: distanced research, intervening research
and responsive research. These approaches are
ideal-typical conceptions of research. The three
adjectives – distanced, intervening and responsive
– refer to the habit of the researcher. The respec-
tive habits are, indeed, based on differing, particu-
lar conceptions of research:
Distanced Accompanying Research
Empirical-analytical as well as phenomenological,
text-based approaches can be subsumed under dis-
tanced accompanying research.
Empirical-analytical accompanying research aims
at the development of explanatory theories (see
LAKATOS 1974, 126 f.). The main intention is to
verify theories through interviews and observation
in research projects.
Accompanying researchers generate nomological
knowledge, which might be the basis for technolo-
gies (see POPPER 1987; ALBERT 1972). For this pur-
pose, ↑ quasi-experiments, for example observance
in class, with researchers and pupils being objects
of ‘neutral’ observance, could be used.
Predominant in approaches of distanced research
are interviews, for example in order to identify
profiles of attitudes of the various actors. In this
case, the subjective views of the participants are
collected and systemized at regular intervals.
Another ‘distanced’ approach of covering research
projects is the text-based interpretation of docu-
ments generated in the context of the project. In
this case, research is conceived as organised and
reflected work on everyday experience in the field
(see SOEFFNER 1983, 22). It is a phenomenological
approach. The interpreter analyses the impacts of
texts.
Within the context of ↑ research programmes, a
multitude of texts is produced. Researchers gener-
ate texts through interviews, observance and so on.
According to Terhart (1981, 771 ff.), these texts can
be validated twice (communicative validation):
Research Methods
– A statement, which is gained through interpre-
tation, can enforce itself when the person who in-
terprets and the person who is interpreted agree on
one interpretation and therefore validate it commu-
nicatively (communicative validation) (ibid. 771).
Transferred to the practice in research projects,
this means: accompanying researchers, the re-
sponsible body of the research project and the field
agents need to agree on the meanings of texts.
– The second way of communicative validation is
a process in which agreement between the commu-
nity of interpreters and researchers (ibid. 775) is
sought. In this case, the reality in research projects
which is covered in the texts is regarded as an indi-
vidual, particular case of a general theory (see GA-
DAMER 1972, 291, 312 ff, esp. 316). The interpreter
understands the text as a particular case of a gener-
al theory. In research projects, researchers explain
texts by using theories.
Intervening Accompanying Research
Action research can be regarded as the gener-
al methodological basis of intervening accompa-
nying research. The development of organisations
has taken root as a special approach in the field of
research on research projects.
Central to action research are, inter alia:
– Change in social reality through the researcher
(see K LÜVER /K RÜGER 1972, 76),
– Initiation and documentation of processes of
change (see PIEPER 1972, 100 f.),
– The learning process of researchers (see K LAFKI
1973, 499) or
– The process of change in general (see
HEINZE 1987, 29 ff, esp. 36).
On the basis of these central points, the follow-
ing issues arise for research in design projects: ac-
companying researchers understand their field as
an ever-changing practice (cf. FUCHS 1970, 9), the
gaining and development of insights and conclu-
sions are regarded as processes (ibid., 9 f.) and the
researcher is on duty for the practice and the prob-
lems that are defined in practice.
Within this context, the following ↑ research meth-
ods are used (see for example HAAG 1972, 38 or
EICHNER / SCHMIDT 1974): observation, simulation,
reflection on the field and concerted analysis done
by the researcher and his ↑ research object. The
803
shaping of practice (see K LAFKI 1973, 488; 1984,
267 f.) is part of scientific reflection. Research is
meant to initiate reflective learning processes (see
K LAFKI 1973, 500 f.). Discourse and action are
crucial elements of the proceeding:
For Moser (see 1983, 64; 1977), the actors who
are involved in the discourse and their working on
their everyday experience are central. He refers to
this discourse as a subversive one. Patterns of ex-
planations and justifications are developed in these
discourses. This leads to a thoroughly reflected
practice (cf. KÖNIG 1983, 86). Actors agree on ac-
tions in order to generate knowledge which then
leads to actions again (KÖNIG 1983, 87).
In such an approach, the difference between re-
search and practice (field) blurs. Accompanying
researchers, the responsible body of the research
project and the field actors (teachers, trainers,
managers et.) reflect on their concerted actions,
particularly with the intention of being able to or-
ganise activities in the research programme more
reasonably. This leads to a gain in rationality (see
ZIMMER 1995a). To put it more precisely: the ac-
tors who participate (teachers, manager, trainers
and so on) are researching themselves, i.e. practice
is conducting research on itself. The actors make
experiments together in their everyday life and
analyse the ‘successes’ of their experiments (see
ALTRICHTER / POSCH 1998).
Action research basically emphasises the learning
processes of the actors. The aforementioned ap-
proach which focuses on the development of or-
ganisations aims, on the other hand, more at the
shaping of organisations. Its main intention is the
integration of the human being with the organisa-
tion (see FRESE 1988, 155 f.). This approach is re-
garded as a strategy of intervention, which is initi-
ated by counselling (WOHLGEMUTH 1982, 57). It is
considered an ‘open process’, in which the actors,
together with their counsellors, agree on goals in
order to plan, implement and evaluate actions (see
EULER / SLOANE 1989, 127; FRENCH / BELL 1982, 67;
WOLLNIK 1986, 182). Particularly in ↑ research pro-
grammes on enterprises, the accompanying re-
searchers have often been engaged as counsellors
on ↑ organisational development. They were re-
sponsible for the analysis and ↑ diagnosis of prob-
lems.
804
Action research and approaches on the develop-
ment of organisations emphasise the processes of
communication between the responsible body of
the design project and the field actors, sometimes
with the involvement of external responsible bod-
ies. The central aim is the gain of rationality. It is,
however, not clear who defines these ‘gains’.
Responsive Research
Distanced accompanying research on the one
hand and intervening accompanying research on
the other hand act on very different interests in
insights and actions. Their point of reference is
their respective theory (programme of rational re-
search) or the institutional structure (programme
of rational practice). Responsive accompanying re-
search is based on the assumption that these two
programmes are integrated: they cover and docu-
ment the action within the research project as done
in distanced research and advise the responsible
body of the research project or the field actors (=
response). There are a broad number of possible,
concrete proceedings with different variations. In
the following, two concepts are introduced: the ap-
proach of responsive evaluation and the approach
of communication between theory and practice.
Responsive evaluation distinguishes between two
interrelated phases of work: the evaluation of the
action within the research project and the giving of
suggestions, which are based on the evaluation.
The evaluation ought to record the interests of the
actors participating in the research project open-
ly and sensitively (see EHRLICH 1995). Therefore,
evaluation does not only have to take empirical-an-
alytical preciseness into account, but should, at the
same time, act responsibly from a social point of
view (see BEYWL 1988, 145). This particularly con-
cerns the intentions of the evaluation: the individ-
ual independence of the human being ought to be
supported (see WEITZ 1995, 146; BEYWL 1988). Re-
search on research programmes therefore acts on
the assumption that the interests of the participat-
ing actors are considered (see PÄTZOLD 1995b, 55;
HUSCHKE-RHEIN 1987, 43; an overview is provided
by DEHNBOSTEL 1995b, 81 ff.).
According to the approach of communication be-
tween research and practice (see SLOANE 1985b;
1985a; 1992; 1995; EULER 1994; K REMER 1997),
Handbook of TVET Research
different kinds of people or groups, pursuing their
particular intentions, act in research projects. The
accompanying researchers, the responsible body
of the research project and the field agents follow
different interests and ideas of rationality. Harmo-
ny between the respective interests on insights, ac-
tions, arrangements and developments is rather an
exception than the rule.
The responsiveness in the approach of communi-
cation between research and practice results from
the division of work in research projects: mutual
services are provided, agreements on objectives
are made, task schedules are agreed upon and so
on. The responsible body of the research project
and the field agents aim at improving their own
work. The accompanying researchers aim at gen-
erating knowledge. Therefore, mutual responsive-
ness emerges from the differing interests.
Design-Based Research (DBR)
↑ Design-Based Research (DBR) has developed in
the context of research on innovations (see REIN-
MANN-ROTHMEIER 2003, → 5.1; R EINMANN 2005):
Based on the experience that research programmes
only very rarely lead to sustainable changes in
practice, the DBR approach acts on the belief that
innovations are developed in practice itself. The
intentions to change practice are normally not mo-
tivated by scientific interests. Nevertheless, the
analysis of case studies on innovative practices in
the field of practice can provide science a worth-
while insight into the structures of practice and
their impacts, for example by figuring out the cen-
tral variables which configure processes of inno-
vation (see GOMEZ / FISHMAN / PEA 2003; REINMANN
2005, 64). This approach regards the practitioners
– teachers, learners, students, trainers and so on as
subjects who reflect their actions: “Reflective prac-
tice” (BROWN, A. L. 1992, 174) is the basis for the
building of theories.
The term ‘design’ aims at the techniques, methods
and possibilities of changing and shaping practice
used by the practitioner (see BAUMGARTNER / PAYR
1999 and REINMANN 2005, 59). These actions are
shown in the form of specific analysis of problems,
decision-making processes and so on, which are
conducted competently (this is the often implic-
it assumption of this approach) by practitioners in
Research Methods
the actual situations in practice. Such “processes
of designing” (R EINMANN 2005, 60) can be the ba-
sis of scientific analysis, which can, in turn, lead to
the development of specific theories for the respec-
tive field, to solutions which are made for the spe-
cific situations and methodologies of design (see
EDELSON 2002; REINMANN 2005, 61).
Participants in a DBR-programme are therefore not
to be regarded as objects in a treatment which is
evaluated, but as reflective participants in a project
that is conducted together:
“participants are not ‘subjects’ assigned to treatments
but instead are treated as co-participants in both the de-
sign and even the analysis” (BARAB / SQUIRE 2004, 3).
DBR follows a basic understanding of practical ac-
tion that is very close to the humanistic concept of
art: to design means to create. Finally, a holistic
research concept is pursued, such as, for example,
that carried out by Gabi Reinmann (2005, 63). The
assumption that scientific research is able to gener-
ate knowledge that is incorporated in the process-
es of actions in practice is central for the approach.
The intention is not to control processes of action
along the lines of evaluative research (see EDELSON
2002); the intention is rather to gain deeper theo-
retical insights into the ways practice works (see
REINMANN 2005, 63 f.):
“↑ design-based research focuses on understanding the
messiness of real-world practice” (BARAB / SQUIRE 2004,
3).
5.3.3.5 Crossing the Borderline – Research in
Life Settings
Up to now, it was assumed that the borders between
accompanying researchers, the responsible body of
the research project and the field actors are clear-
ly delineated. In practice, however, these bound-
aries between the different actors are not always
clear. Also, the predicate ‘scientific’ cannot neces-
sarily be given to the accompanying researchers.
The field agents, in particular, also consider their
work as ‘scientific’, and search for ↑ research co-
operation with the accompanying researchers. The
concept of action research loosens the demarcation
lines between accompanying researchers, the re-
sponsible body of the research project and the field
agents. It calls for the concerted effort of all partic-
805
ipants to enhance practice, with the aspired aim of
gaining rationality as the prime goal of science.
The following, concluding section examines re-
search projects such as research and development
programmes. It explicitly focuses on the aspect of
research in research projects. The claim to conduct
research is, from now on, not exclusively associ-
ated with the accompanying researchers. At the
same time, this implies the need to define criteria
of identification for science or research. This is en-
sured using a model of life spheres.
Having a scientific attitude – or simply being a
researcher – is the judgement made by the social
group of scientists concerning one member of the
group and their working methods. It is a question
on the ethics of the ↑ profession, which touches,
amongst other things, the following aspects:
– Which attitude towards research is favoured?
This refers to aspects that are mentioned above un-
der the point type of research (distanced – inter-
vening – responsive research).
– Which aims are pursued? This refers to the in-
terests in cognition and has its strongest occurrence
concerning the question of which kind of ‘quali-
ty’ of cognition is aspired to. Within this context,
action research aims at another ideal of cognition
(the gain of rationality for practice) compared to
distanced research (enhancement of theory).
– Which methods are accepted? Scientific groups
have their own specific beliefs on the admissibility
of ↑ research methods.
Researchers are border crossers between two final-
ly incompatible worlds (see K IRSCH 1997, 45 ff.):
Research and everyday life (here: the field of the
research project). The work in research projects
leads to their confrontation with totally different
working contexts. It leads to an alternation be-
tween the two worlds:
Each of these two worlds – science and the field
of the research project – can be described by three
characteristics:
– Each world has specific demands on the person
and his or her abilities.
– Each world has its own culture that determines
the action within this world.
– Each world has its own specific institutional sys-
tem.
806
Fig. 1: Research projects as model of life spheres
To act in a research project implies for the accom-
panying researchers to drop out of one world for a
certain amount of time and to enter another world.
At the same time, it is not only accompanying re-
searchers who switch from research into everyday
life within the research project, but also ‘practi-
tioners’ who switch by leaving their practice and
entering the life sphere ‘research’.
When researchers ‘engage’ with research projects,
agreements are made, expert knowledge on con-
crete problems is offered and so on. The action of
the researcher is responsive: he or she offers so-
lutions to problems, explains certain issues, docu-
ments events and so on. He or she therefore does,
for example, counsel, explain, (co-)develop and in-
vestigate in the field of action. The intensity of his
or her activities can vary from distanced observ-
ing of the events in the research project to partial
↑ participation in the action of the research project
to complete absorption through the new life sphere
and the integration in it.
The work in research projects with the switching
between different life spheres implies that the per-
sonal abilities of the respective researchers need to
fit. This means that the specific competence of the
researchers is needed and that the researchers are
willing to engage with the rules and the institution-
al organisation.
Handbook of TVET Research
Scientific work in research projects demands – ac-
cording to this concept – to come back into sci-
ence. This then means that the researcher has to
leave everyday life within the research project
and to re-enter the world of science in order to re-
port on the life in the field. By doing so, experi-
ences in research projects can form the basis for
the generation of new theories in science. It is vi-
tal that the demands on the person and its abilities
as well as the norms and the institutional organi-
sation in science define the frame of reference for
the researcher.
The switching between the two life spheres is, at
the same time, also a switch between different per-
spectives. The researcher acts as a two-sided ob-
server: on the one hand, science is observed out
of everyday life. On the other hand, everyday life
within the research project is observed out of sci-
ence. Thus, the researcher becomes a counsellor
for the particular, other life sphere. The research-
er enriches science by providing practical, in some
parts narrative and casuistic contributions and ex-
plains everyday life with the help of theories. This
two-sided role can, ultimately, lead to the defini-
tion of accompanying researchers as mediators.
Fig. 1 illustrates the switch between the two life
spheres and the double-sided role of observing re-
sulting from switching. The switch is not only a
Research Methods
switch from the world of research into the world
of the everyday life in the research project. Such a
switch can also be done by other actors in the re-
search project, for example by field agents.
A typical example is the field agent (e. g. a teach-
er) who is writing a PhD. The writing of the PhD
leads to the field agents’ temporary absence from
his field of practice. They ‘enter’ the world of re-
search and needs to meet the demands posed on
him as well as to ‘learn’ the culture lived in re-
search groups and the institutional organisation
within science. Central in this case is the degree of
engagement with theory what is structurally com-
parable to the above-mentioned thoughts on ↑ dis-
tance to, partial participation in and integration in
the life sphere of research. Within this context, he
might also act as a mediator in terms of enrich-
ing science with experiences gained in practice as
well as by explaining everyday life with the help
of theories.
5.3.4 Participative Development
Bruno Clematide
5.3.4.1 Conceptual Clarification
Basically participative development builds on col-
laboration between researchers and practitioners.
Who the researchers and practitioners have to be,
obviously, depends on the themes of research and
intervention.
As an example, participative development regard-
ing the ↑ social dialogue on specific VET issues on
the local level has to involve representatives from
employers’ associations and trade unions. The rep-
resentatives will contribute their knowledge about
the local area in question, and the researchers will
bring a theoretical background in industrial rela-
tions and general insights about the ↑ VET system.
Participative development regarding the develop-
ment of an optimal link between ↑ workplace learn-
ing and ↑ institutionalised learning, as another ex-
ample, will have to build on the collaboration be-
tween employees and managers from enterprises,
teachers from training institutions and researchers
807
with a background in learning theory and insights
in how workplaces can hinder or foster learning.
What is essential in this collaboration is that two
kinds of expertise – the expertise of the research-
er and the expertise of the practitioner – meet with
equal value and importance but with different and
equally legitimate perspectives. On the one hand
participative development aims at practitioners’
learning and developing practice, on the other
hand it aims at documentation and theory building
with value in the research community.
Three Arenas of Learning in Participative De-
velopment
Learning in any research based on participative
development takes place in three different arenas:
(1) learning during the interplay between research-
ers and practitioners, (2) learning among practi-
tioners and (3) learning between researchers.
In the joint learning arena the researcher has sever-
al tasks: firstly, the researcher has to feed the joint
learning process with up-to-date knowledge from
the relevant VET domain. Secondly, the research-
er has the role of being the master of the methodo-
logical tools in the process: the researcher brings
in methods that are adequate for the collaborative
learning process between researchers and practi-
tioners and will often be in charge of bringing these
methods to work, facilitating the process, and se-
curing that the rules of the game are followed. It is,
for example, very important that the practitioners’
and the researcher’s contributions are recognized
and regarded of equal importance. Thirdly, the re-
searcher has the responsibility of documenting the
joint learning sessions.
A lot of learning takes place among practitioners
between the joint sessions with the researchers.
When the practitioners are at work again they will
find situations where reflections from the joint ses-
sions are transformed into new ways of working,
new ways of co-operations etc., a transformation
which has to be understood as a specific learning
process (ERAUT 2004).
Learning between the involved researchers takes
place in their own space: there are joint reflections
based on experience from the researcher’s and the
practitioners’ joint learning arena where the new
knowledge is produced in cooperation. In the re-
808
searchers own learning, they are learning on the
basis of their professional competence in handling
data, in constructing theories, and in relating the
gained knowledge to existing theories. (NIELSEN /
NIELSEN 2006)
Related Concepts
In Scandinavia, participative development in ↑ VET
research is highly influenced by different kinds of
action ↑ research approaches – a type of research
which has contributed substantially to insights and
concrete improvements in working life. In Sweden
the term interactive research has been put forward
(SVENSSON / NIELSEN 2006) in recent years, in an at-
tempt to place action research not only as an alter-
native to predominant mainstream social science
but as real complementary research with the same
value in the research society.
5.3.4.2 The Genesis of Participative
Development
There are many different kinds of participative ap-
proaches and tools in participative development.
While the first generation of socio-technical think-
ing in work life development was highly expert
driven and had a limited involvement of the work-
ers affected, the following generation was eager to
find models that could encourage a higher degree
of ↑ participation by the workers/learners.
Nielsen and Nielsen (2006) make a distinction be-
tween two trends in recent Scandinavian action
and interactive research: the pragmatic approach
represented by the dialogue tradition influenced by
Habermas, and the critical theoretical trend repre-
sented by the critical utopian action research influ-
enced by Horkheimer and Adorno.
Organisation theory from the line of human re-
source management has also made many marks on
participative development.
It may appear as if there is a free choice between
lots of tools in a super market for participative de-
velopment tools: sessions of joint reflection, future
workshops, several narrative tools, dialogue con-
ferences, tools of appreciative enquiry and others.
However, a closer look at these methodological
tools reveals that the choice of participative tool
Handbook of TVET Research
will depend on which degree of radicalism the en-
visaged intervention is aiming at.
In the last decades some divides between action
researchers have emerged. Still the different posi-
tions share a research concept where researchers
participate in the process of improvement togeth-
er with those who are directly concerned. They are
not detached from ‘real life’. Some action research-
ers give explicit priority to concrete changes when
they design research. Typically, their written pub-
lications are like anthropological stories about the
improvements, and the way these improvements
are achieved, and are less focussed on theoretical
discourses in the scientific community. Others fol-
low a double strategy where the scientific commu-
nity is addressed with reflections about both im-
provements and the processes of change. The goal
of this double strategy is – besides the concrete im-
provements – to step out of the concrete practice,
to reflect and make these reflections accessible for
other researchers in the field.
The choice of methods of course will also depend
on the focal issues of the specific participative de-
velopment. In the following paragraphs different
approaches are described.
Future Creating Workshop
One of the methods with direct roots in the critical
utopian tradition is the future creating workshop
(JUNGK / MÜLLERT 1981). Contrary to the Dialogue
Conference, participative development using fu-
ture workshops deliberatively takes for granted that
the hierarchical power structures of society cannot
be neutralised. In future workshops attempts are
made to overcome existing power relations. There
is an explicit agenda to create collective sociologi-
cal fantasy when researchers and practitioners co-
operate aiming at transcending existing barriers
in the way working life is organised. Expressed in
terms of learning, expansive learning (ENGESTRÖM
1987) is dominating the agenda. The researcher’s
role during the three phases of a future workshop
– critique, utopia, realisation – is the one of being
the facilitator, ensuring that the democratic rules
are kept and supporting the process of structuring
the discussions and the results of the discussions.
This kind of rather radical approach is quite rare
in VET-research, last but not least because of the
Research Methods
fact that national VET-programmes usually are fo-
cussing highly on more consensus-oriented devel-
opments.
Dialogue Conferences
Probably the most widespread way of participative
developments in the past two decades on the more
pragmatic, Habermas-inspired path, is the so-
called Dialogue Conference (GUSTAVSEN 1992). At
Dialogue Conferences, which typically lasts two
days, all participants jointly define the problem
and develop action plans that the workers/learners
are expected to act on in a time period after the
Dialogue Conference. Theoretically the Dialogue
Conference is inspired by Habermas and builds on
a belief that during these conferences it is possible
to create relations free of power – independent of
the positions the participants in these conferences
have in their working life. One of the roles of the
researcher in a Dialogue Conference is to secure
this aspect of power free relations, and as proc-
ess facilitator to ‘guarantee’ that each participant
has the opportunity to express his/her opinion. In
Norway and Sweden almost all of the large pro-
grammes for the improvement of working life have
built on this concept. Quite a lot of these efforts
at work life improvements were, of course, direct
learning activities, often inside one company.
Narrative Approaches
Narrative approaches seem to gain importance as
a methodologically and theoretically based tool
in ↑ VET research of the participative kind. Many
studies have dealt with ↑ tacit knowledge in many
↑ occupational areas. In attempts to make tacit
knowledge visible and verbal, such narrative ap-
proaches seem to be very useful. An example is
the use of history workshops adopted as orches-
trated ↑ workplace learning (CLEMATIDE 2005), for
instance when employees in their pre-retirement
period together with their younger colleagues try
to pinpoint the huge bulk of tacit knowledge that
risks being lost when the older colleagues actual-
ly retire.
809
Appreciative Inquiry
In the last decade much participative development
has built on systemic theory and appreciative in-
quiry in facilitating development processes relat-
ed to work (LANG / LITTLE / CRONEN 1990; COOPER-
RIDER 1990). Many process-oriented tools adopted
in participative development projects, e. g. reflec-
tive teams and mutual interviews, have their theo-
retical roots in systemic thinking. These methods
are also applied in many development projects re-
garding workplace learning and pedagogical prac-
tice at VET-colleges.
Learning Organisation
Also, from organisation theory follow-
ing the principles of the learning organisation
(SENGE 1990/1994), inspiration into participative
development in VET-areas can be tracked. Senge’s
almost normative guidelines for establishing learn-
ing organisations that are able to meet modern de-
mands for flexibility and rapid change, have been
inspiration for a countless number of development
projects aiming at developing learning organisa-
tions. In participative development projects aim-
ing at turning VET-institutions into learning or-
ganisation, Senge’s approach has been and still is
a source of inspiration – although it has been criti-
cized for being purely management-oriented.
5.3.4.3 Conception and Adaptation of
Participative Development
Which one of the above-mentioned approaches
will be chosen in the specific participative devel-
opment projects, depends primarily on the scien-
tific background of the researchers involved. There
is no canonized best method in participative VET-
related developments which is shared by the whole
VET-research community.
Yet, common for all these methods used in the
meeting between researcher and practitioner is
that they are primarily process-oriented. The di-
rect outcome is more often the learning process in
itself and the changed work practices or teaching
practices as results from the learning process, than
specific products like a didactic tool kit or a new
curriculum.
810
Therefore participative developments need the re-
searchers’ documentation and communication of
the process and theoretical reflections if others
than the directly involved individuals or groups of
individuals are likely to benefit from these partici-
pative approaches.
For the researcher it can be a challenge to maintain
an adequate balance between closeness and ↑ dis-
tance. Closeness is necessary for understanding
the mechanisms and relations between the prac-
titioners, and distance is necessary for providing
space for reflection and for contribution to theo-
ry building.
The most common participative developments in
VET-research are rather short term projects sup-
ported by national R&D programmes. For example
in Denmark the Department of Education launch-
es every year an R&D programme with a series of
themes where technical and commercial colleges
can get financial support to step-by-step improve-
ments, often supported in the process by VET-re-
searchers. A characteristic of participative devel-
opment in this framework would be participative
development configured as follows: the research-
ers involved make desk studies of the current state-
of-the-art regarding the focal theme of the project.
In a joint workshop with teachers from the partic-
ipating colleges this state-of-the-art is presented
together with examples of best practices from the
participating teachers. Researchers and teachers
define a working agenda with joint seminars and
periods where the teachers try to test new practic-
es which the joint seminars pointed at as possibly
promising solutions. In joint seminars the research-
ers facilitate reflection on the teachers’ experience
with new practices. In a joint effort adjustments
for the next coming test period are agreed upon.
The teachers adapt the new practices. Researchers
might observe new practices. At a final seminar,
conclusions are drawn and the researchers make a
written documentation. The target users are other
reflective practitioners among teachers at commer-
cial colleges and technical colleges. Jointly the re-
searcher and the teachers involved present experi-
ence from this kind of participative development
at the annual R&D conference, and the research-
ers, finally, produce papers aiming at the scientific
↑ VET research community.
Handbook of TVET Research
5.3.4.4 Contextualisation – Illustrative
Examples
In the framework of Learning Lab Denmark re-
searchers from Roskilde University Centre, the
Danish University of Education, Aalborg Univer-
sity and the consultancy company Kubix formed
a group of senior researchers, who were all part
of a research consortium on ↑ Workplace Learn-
ing. Part of the research which has taken place was
participative development trying to meet the above
mentioned characteristics. The core activity of the
consortium was to explore the learning process-
es that take place when workers learn and devel-
op competence on the job and in the formal educa-
tional system, respectively, and the interaction be-
tween these two.
The researchers followed a main working principle
in their mutual learning. Firstly, there were joint
sessions with the focus on joint theoretical reflec-
tions, and secondly, each researcher brought in a
specific participative development project he/she
was responsible for.
There was a two-way relation between the joint
group activities and the specific projects: On the
first hand, the group acted as a sparring partner for
the researcher regarding the specific project. On
the second hand, each of the projects delivered em-
pirical findings that were used as basis for theoreti-
cal reflections in the group of senior researchers.
This working format was to a high degree contrib-
uting to the wished balance between nearness and
↑ distance that is so crucial to achieve in participa-
tive development.
The collaboration between the researchers and the
practitioners following the above-mentioned guide-
lines for participative development is illustrated by
the following example (ELSBORG 2005).
Elsborg describes how he as a researcher contrib-
uted to the development projects on three build-
ing sites. Altogether about 10 teachers from a pub-
lic technical college and 140 construction work-
ers participated in these projects. The development
projects were designed so that they could match
the working tasks. Thus, it was the specific build-
ing task that defined the group of participants and
the duration of the training. Each of the develop-
ment projects actually involved 20–40 skilled and
Research Methods
unskilled construction workers and stretched over
five months.
The concrete change processes were not defined in
advance. The change processes were to be devel-
oped in co-operation with the persons involved in
the project in order to make it possible for the par-
ticipants to develop their individual competences
and qualifications on which the projects focused.
The construction workers from the building site
and the related teachers met one hour once a week
in so-called reflection rooms. These rooms have
been regarded an integrated part of performing
work and consequently the time used for reflection
was paid work for both teachers and construction
workers. The communication form was dialogue,
and target-setting, action plans and evaluations
were continuously made. The specific themes var-
ied according to the conditions which the construc-
tion workers themselves outlined as decisive – the
physical and the ↑ social working environment and
the logistics, respectively. In this connection the
discussion of and decisions concerning the co-op-
eration and the communication across occupations
and level of management have been consistently in
focus. This implied that also the daily learning at
work was thematized and reflected upon.
Theoretical knowledge of reflection was used as a
starting point for the design of the participative de-
velopment. That it is possible to provide training
through reflection in the work, and that it contains
great potentials for both individual and ↑ organisa-
tional development, have been pointed out by both
VET researchers and workplace researchers (e. g.
SCHÖN 1984; BOUD 1985; HØYRUP 2004).
Working with collective reflection as an integrat-
ed part of the working place development provides
a purpose-directed attempt to create and support
working place learning through the establishment
of collective practice, that is, a practice in which
present values, structures and culture are ques-
tioned – above all by constructively forward-look-
ing thinking and acting.
That such a formalised possibility for collective re-
flection in the work for skilled and unskilled con-
struction workers would be particularly relevant,
was a starting point for the development projects.
For one thing, skilled and unskilled persons con-
stitutes a group on the ↑ labour market for whom
811
doing the work provides rather poor possibilities
for learning, and for another the group is not scho-
lastic trained for self-reflection.
The content of the weekly meetings in the devel-
opment projects were guided by the basic values
which the participants had co-developed and ap-
proved. In general, the basic values of the work on
the building site focussed on the desirability of a
high degree of information, good co-operation,
good communication, optimization of the working
operations and job satisfaction through good plan-
ning and respect for each others’ work.
When the employees on these reflection meetings
pointed at a need for more exact knowledge, also
more traditional teaching was carried out by the
teachers from the technical college. These more
traditionally-organised teaching elements in the
development projects resulted from problem areas
which the construction workers wanted to put on
the agenda – for instance management concepts,
communication and co-operation skills. At the
same time this offered the possibility to thematize
and reflect on tendencies within the industry and
the development in society and, thus, it reached be-
yond the learning at the individual and institution-
al level.
In overall terms, the development projects were
based on the assumption that it is only possi-
ble to find the solutions through which the par-
ticipants are going to develop individually, if the
change processes use the participants’ knowledge
and understandings. Therefore, the development
project had no pre-arranged scheme for the devel-
opment process, but offered the frame of the man-
datory co-operation. Everyone got the opportuni-
ty to present the situation from their point of view
and experienced that also their ways of looking on
things were taken seriously. It was expected that
in this way the participants would be motivated to
enter into a constructive dialogue about the devel-
opment of specific activities and carrying out these
activities.
In order to achieve the main purpose of contrib-
uting to individual competence development, the
projects also had an overall pedagogical starting
point in an understanding of learning that regards
the individual participant as a resourceful person
who has to be involved in own learning process-
812
es. Therefore, the projects tried to secure the com-
petence development through providing opportu-
nities for equal and respectful dialogue across the
occupations, and now and then also between the
skilled, the unskilled, and the managers. A dia-
logue about the working conditions based on the
participants’ practice experience.
In the development projects, the training process-
es were planned in order to thematize and make
the ↑ implicit learning visible through orchestrat-
ed ↑ workplace learning (CLEMATIDE 2005). The
purpose was in this way to support the ↑ informal
learning that took place every day on the partici-
pating building sites. In itself the purpose of the
change processes was to contribute to explicate the
participants’ knowledge in the field and thus form
the basis for individual and collective reflection.
The assumption was that the development of pro-
fessional competence in this way would also pro-
mote the development of general individual com-
petence, generally demanded in the ↑ knowledge
society.
The construction workers who participated in the
development projects, expressed in the integrated
final evaluation an explicit desire also in the future
to involve their individual competences and qual-
ifications in doing their work, if they in a similar
way could get the possibility of having real influ-
ence on the work organisation.
The purpose of the continuous and the final eval-
uation of the project was to stimulate the change
process. With a ↑ research design where the re-
search-related cognition is achieved through con-
tribution to change the reality, it is desirable that
the research currently qualifies the change proc-
esses which the project tries to implement.
The above example illustrates how participative
development can utilise the possibility of reflec-
tion in the field of practice, the motivating possi-
bilities for the workers to influence their working
conditions, and the researchers’ theoretical gener-
alisations by relating the specific fields of practice
– a specific work place – to power structures on so-
cietal level.
Handbook of TVET Research
5.3.4.5 Criticism and Prospective
Participative development has often some limita-
tions and is regularly confronted with criticism.
The most important ones are dealt with below.
Limited Range of Effect in the Field of Practice
The range of implementation of participative de-
velopments often does not go further than to those
agents directly involved in the specific participa-
tive development projects. In many developments
of the participative kind supported by national pro-
grammes like the Danish ones mentioned earlier,
the directly involved practitioners learn a lot and
develop new practices, but their new practices of-
ten stay encapsulated and do not affect practices
in general. The ↑ VET system as such risks stay-
ing unaffected even by very promising participa-
tive developments projects.
Lacking Generalisations
Analogous to the modest changes of the domi-
nating VET practices there is a risk of participa-
tive developments not contributing to the updat-
ing of the scientific ↑ knowledge base. This might
be the case for two reasons: firstly some participa-
tive development projects are explicitly only aim-
ing at new developments in the field of practice.
Criteria of success and criteria for receiving finan-
cial support might often be formulated in terms of
changed practice only and not in terms of produc-
tion of generalisations and theory construction. A
second reason could be that the agents in partici-
pative developments do not reflect sufficiently on
the factors hindering the transition from isolated
changes to changes on the VET system level.
To overcome this embedded risk of remaining iso-
lated cases of changes, it is necessary to deal syn-
chronically with these hindering factors. If for ex-
ample a specific participative development is aim-
ing at more holistic learning processes integrating
work place learning with ↑ institutionalised learn-
ing, it would be necessary to address both how
competent involved training institutions and enter-
prises generally spoken are regarding the adapta-
tion of new learning principles, and which factors
in the ↑ organisational learning space of the train-
ing institutions are necessary to be dealt with be-
Research Methods
fore the results from the participative development
projects have a chance of being broadly adapted.
Isolated Cases
Participative developments risk remaining sin-
gle cases without contribution to theory construc-
tion and generalized understandings of the spe-
cific themes which the participative development
projects have dealt with. The fact that each action
or participative research to a great extent is unique
seems to make it difficult to make cross-compari-
sons (WESTLANDER 2006): the weakness in current
Scandinavian Action Research is the far too infre-
quent efforts to make such comparisons aiming at
reaching a level of more general knowledge.
The Question of Validity
A well-known criticism of any ↑ qualitative re-
search from the side of purely quantitative orient-
ed research community has also been expressed
against participative and action research. Critics
like Sørensen (1992) are claiming that action re-
search lacks any validity. This kind of criticism
might not be as widespread in the ↑ VET research
community as it is in other mainstream social
sciences. Yet, participative development as ↑ re-
search approach has to prove its validity in eve-
ry single case. Participative development might
tend to focus on what the joint development has
aimed at and by doing so tend to neglect what did
not go as well as hoped. As Eikeland (2006) puts
it, it is a serious problem of participative develop-
ment that is does not reveal and say what it actu-
ally does but covers it up in order to make it look
nicer and more innovative than it is. The most im-
portant rule for securing validity must be making
the research process in participative development
visible, exposed and understood.
Of course it is necessary to be aware of these criti-
cisms. Yet, it is an indisputable fact that participa-
tive development is a promising way of delivering
the double ↑ commitment to both the research com-
munity and to VET practice, meaning that partici-
pative development as a ↑ research method can con-
tribute to new theoretical insights and at the same
time be able to influence practice.
813
5.3.5 Interdisciplinary Development
Felix Rauner
5.3.5.1 Conceptual Explanation
↑ Research on vocational education and training
(VET) is largely about the development of voca-
tional training schemes. The correlation between
research and development is accentuated by all of
the principal praxis-guided sciences as well as by
their related ↑ research traditions. (Vocational) ed-
ucation, which is one of the constitutive aspects
that make up vocational ↑ training research, isn’t
only characterized as a praxis-oriented or action-
guiding science, but also one that is, itself, derived
from practical experience. (HERBART 1806; WENI-
GER 1953; H ERRMANN 1995; BENNER 1995; SCHMIED -
KOWARZIK 1980). Therefore, the term “vocation-
al training research” has always included develop-
mental approaches. For example, ↑ media research
and vocational training, which have been estab-
lished by the Federal Institute for Vocational Edu-
cation and Training (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbil-
dungforschung/Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung,
BBF/BIBB) through the 1969 Federal Law for Vo-
cational Training, also include the development of
media to be used in vocational training research
and in the development of training systems. The
tasks of development always delineate the frame-
work for research assignments. The act of “devel-
oping” which is one way of taking systematic ac-
tion is constantly being confronted with the com-
plexity of practice:
“The specific importance given educational practice and
to theoretical education is only specific in relation to the
framework of questions and tasks which are shared by
all action-oriented sciences. It is only in this sense, how-
ever not by claiming to be self-sustaining, that theoret-
ical and practical education may claim to be independ-
ent” (BENNER 1995, 300).
Given the specific terms and conditions of academ-
ic processes, that is, in the sense of processes that
are themselves “producing knowledge”; in which
pedagogy, on its path through the universities, is
integrated into a plurality of educational sciences,
and in particular the extreme division of labour, it
must be pointed out that knowledge that is derived
from practical experience demands ↑ interdiscipli-
814
nary organisation. In research on vocational train-
ing, ↑ interdisciplinarity also indicates a funda-
mental criticism of the tendency towards separa-
tion into disciplines and the implied “disciplining
of pedagogy” which are viewed as an attempt to
split this science into a variety of fragmented ed-
ucational disciplines. Taken individually but also
as a whole, these various specialized disciplines
fail to understand the holistic ideal of hermaneutic
pedagogy, which is in and of, and from, itself in-
separable, both in terms of educational as well as
training processes. Helmut Heid interprets the ten-
sion between disciplinarity and ↑ interdisciplinar-
ity as a dialectical relationship:
“…the disciplinarity of pedagogical problems can be in-
terpreted from a cognitive, anthropological standpoint
and on a highly abstract level as a correlation between
single-discipline differentiation, specialization and iso-
lation of academic activities, which can be determined
in different ways” (HEID 1995, 177).
Practical research is faced with the task of solving
the tension between the widespread demands of
↑ educational policy for the establishment of inte-
grative, ↑ interdisciplinary research and the intrin-
sic scientific processes of developing discipline-
specific terminology and non-compatible research
paradigms. The resulting insight is that the increas-
ing dissociation of the research efforts undertaken
in different scientific fields will lead to an aliena-
tion of social problems (ibid. 187), has indeed led
to a broadening of interdisciplinary research prac-
tice, but not however to a scientifically developed
interdisciplinary ↑ research methodology.
In summary, it becomes clear that interdiscipli-
nary ↑ VET research, which mainly emphasiz-
es development-related tasks, is dominated by re-
search practices which draw on two different sci-
entific spheres. On the one hand, findings obtained
in the ↑ humanities and social sciences, which cen-
tre around the development of ↑ educational proc-
esses and the tension between subjectivity and so-
ciability are used, and on the other hand, vocation-
al ↑ training research draws on the wide spectrum
of specialized and ↑ vocational sciences and their
respective didactics applied when the contents of
VET are an issue.
A conceptual explanation of the development of
vocational training research can only be provided
if the term development is differentiated in such a
Handbook of TVET Research
manner that it can be used for VET research. Voca-
tional science draws on those developmental con-
cepts and methodologies that have become estab-
lished in their respective disciplines. In the voca-
tional fields of the individual-related service sec-
tor, which forms a part of sociological and nurs-
ing research, the term “development” has a mark-
edly discursively-formed character. The person to
be educated as well as the person being cared for
is (also) viewed as someone who is a subject of
the activities and development processes in ques-
tion. In the industrial and technical sciences the
involvement of technological equipment for edu-
cational programmes clearly shows that the action
and development processes in this field are much
more purpose-oriented. The ↑ didactical concept
of “completed action” has its source here. It arose
from a hierarchical-sequential type of development
which is widespread in traditional engineering and
design science. Via the theory on action regula-
tion, which is one of the fundamental theories un-
derlying industrial psychology and industrial sci-
ence (HACKER 1986b), this type of action finds its
entry into vocational education and VET research.
The limited scope of this concept of development
and the corresponding developmental design has
already been mentioned as part of the description
of technology-intrinsic realities, e. g. in software
engineering. In the field of software development,
participatory and process-oriented developmen-
tal methods, in which purpose-oriented action is
eclipsed by communication-oriented action, have
already been applied with considerable success. In
VET research and in vocational education the met-
aphor of spiral development is also used to refer
to forms of communicative, interactive, and par-
ticipatory formulation and development processes.
5.3.5.2 Developmental Tasks
Developmental tasks, which are part of VET re-
search, are not only a component of the develop-
ment of vocational training and of on-the job learn-
ing programmes as part of vocational training sys-
tems, but they are also part of training schemes
carried out under the existing employment system
and of qualification and vocational training pro-
grammes.
Research Methods
The development of systematic structures for oc-
cupational training includes:
– a vocational development that is based on ↑ qual-
ification research and ↑ social dialogue (→ 3.1)
– legal regulations and the accompanying measures
for system regulation and control (K ELL 2005)
– the institutional framework of the vocational
training system, its internal differentiation, pene-
trability, flexibility, and adaptability in its interac-
tion with the employment system and with skilled
↑ labour markets. (→ 3.3)
– integration into the overall educational system
and the resulting interaction between general and
occupational training (BILDUNGSKOMMISSION 2003)
– the structuring of transitions from school in-
to the work world on the first cusp of a transition
from occupational training to occupational sys-
tem) (ibid.)
One of the key aims of vocational ↑ training re-
search, which targets system development, is re-
search and development projects within occupa-
tional training collaboration. These are carried out
as part of development co-operations (→ 2.7) and
may be viewed as an additional dimension of inter-
governmental cooperation within the process of
European integration (→ 2.5).
The degree to which different states draw on sci-
entific findings to define the goals and critera of
developmenta l approaches varies widely. Devel-
opment goals and criteria are marked by different
academic and ↑ research traditions, which are in-
volved in the development and reform of educa-
tional systems. Economic sciences such as ↑ Educa-
tional Economics and Human Resources Manage-
ment ap ply the criteria of “↑ return of investment”
to the development of their means of questioning
and ↑ research methods. The criteria applied by the
↑ labour market economy in devising the content
and design of its research originate from econom-
ic calculations driven by the economy as a whole.
In contrast to this, within the development of a sys-
tem that is oriented towards job market research,
socio-politically-influenced criteria of analysis and
formulation are dominant. The decrease of youth
unemployment, the integration of at-risk and mar-
ginal groups into the occupational system, the in-
crease of “↑ employability”(Beschäftigungsfähigk
eit) and of social coherence are the dominant gov-
815
erning criteria of a socio-politically influenced oc-
cupational training politics and ↑ VET research.
(COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION 2004b)
System development which is focused on voca-
tional education and educational science empha-
sizes the integration of general and vocational de-
velopment, the vertical- and horizontal penetrabil-
ity of the educational system as well as the pre-
dominance of educational goals over the inter-
ests of companies in qualification measures. This
is particularly applicable for countries which have
a decisive academic vocational training system.
(→ 3.3.1; → 3.3.2)
Vocational education and the development of vo-
cational training systems are not only a dimension
for innovation in a particular country, but are also
a component of its job market, as well as its social
and ↑ educational policy. Hence vocational train-
ing requires a trans-sectoral political approach.
The European Commission’s establishment of a
“Human Resources ↑ Development Task Force”, as
well as the development of committees for voca-
tional training at the federal, state, and local lev-
els, is in accordance with the ↑ interdisciplinary ac-
ademic approach pursued in research and develop-
ment.
5.3.5.3 Developing Training Programmes
As a general rule, the development of training
courses comprises the vocational education of the
students, the development of vocational training
curricula and the examination requirements. This
development takes place within the framework
of existing educational structures. The process-
es, which are being monitored and facilitated by
vocational training researchers, are dominated by
the idea of ↑ interdisciplinarity. (K ELL 2003) This
is also valid for the vocational education of stu-
dents, which, whenever it is professionally organ-
ized, is based on educational criteria that are val-
id for the different vocational fields. (HEIDEGGER /
RAUNER 1996) as well as on the implementation of
↑ domain-specific qualification programmes and
↑ curriculum research. (RAUNER 2004d) The devel-
opment of vocational training programmes, which
must be viewed as a component of ↑ interdiscipli-
nary education, also includes analytical research –
for example, in the form of activity and ↑ task anal-
816
ysis. Thus, for example, the development of the
European training programme “Car Mechatron-
ic” which was part of the interdisciplinary, com-
prehensive, ↑ LEONARDO Development Project
(RAUNER / SPÖTTL 2002; MORITZ / RAUNER / SPÖTTL
1997, SPÖTTL / RAUNER / MORITZ 1997), was preceded
by extensive sectoral studies within the European
Union, in ↑ Japan and in the ↑ USA. These interna-
tional ↑ comparative studies provided the basis for
the development of criteria for European vocation-
al training programmes. Under the LEONARDO
Programme the development of educational pro-
grammes plays a prominent role. The research and
development practices which became established
as a result of this programme integrate a large va-
riety of different ↑ research approaches – mainly
because the cross-national project consortia suc-
ceeded in combining different national ↑ research
traditions. A scientific reflection on the practic-
es that have become established in this way in de-
velopment-oriented ↑ interdisciplinary vocational
↑ training research is, however, still to come.
5.3.5.4 Designing Vocational Training
Processes as Interdisciplinary
Development Tasks
Various research traditions and sciences have al-
ready covered the design of vocational training
programmes. Research on teaching and learning
is focused on defining general principles and cri-
teria to be applied in the design of ↑ teaching and
learning processes. (RENKL 2002) While activi-
ties in this scientific field draw on the findings ob-
tained in educational psychology, empirical educa-
tional science, psychology of knowledge, and eth-
no-methodology – fields which have their specific
empirical methods and therefore approach teach-
ing and learning processes analytically – the mod-
el projects and experimental teaching activities
in class which are predominantly covered by ↑ re-
search fields which specialize in vocational educa-
tion also serve a developmental function. In VET
and in studies on ↑ vocational schools this function
is also met by efforts seeking to:
– develop experimental and action-oriented learn-
ing processes (HASS 1979; EICKER 1983; RAUNER
1992; MINGZHONG 2003);
Handbook of TVET Research
– Develop vocation-oriented ↑ didactical concepts,
like those suggested by the Conference of Cultur-
al Ministers for the development of learning fields
(KMK 1999; PRZYGODDA / BAUER 2004; LIPSMEIER /
PÄTZOLD / BUSION 2000; GERDS / ZÖLLER 2001; RAU-
NER 1999a);
– Promote a development-oriented structuring of
vocational training programmes (BENNER 1997;
RAUNER 1999a)
Scientific monitoring of the model projects and
teaching activities in the area of vocational edu-
cation frequently also covers developmental tasks.
One of the key areas of the BLK pilot programme
“New Learning Concepts In Dual Vocational
Training” is, for instance, the development of ↑ vo-
cational curricula which are geared towards learn-
ing fields (DEITMER / FISCHER / GERDS ET AL. 2004).
In all those cases in which scientific monitoring of
model tests also includes the application of voca-
tion-specific and didactical competence, applica-
tion of this competence is placed at the centre of
scientific monitoring. It has turned out that it is dif-
ficult to make a distinction between those contri-
butions which the practical competence of teachers
has made to the development of vocational educa-
tion, and the contributions which must be attribut-
ed to the scientific competence of ↑ VET research-
ers. In most cases the scientists involved, who view
themselves as representatives of integrative disci-
plines such as occupational didactics, industrial
science, vocational, labour, and economic pedago-
gy, make sure that the concept of ↑ interdiscipli-
narity is applied.
5.3.5.5 Vocational Education and Industrial
Organisational Development as
Subjects for VET Research
At the beginning of the 1990s the first analy-
ses on the correlation between industrial devel-
opment and vocational education were presented
(DYBOWSKI / HAASE / RAUNER 1993). Until that point,
industrial ↑ organisational development and voca-
tional education had been viewed as two fields of
activity which had to be designed separately. An-
alysing and shaping the interplay and the correla-
tions between these two spheres became increas-
ingly urgent, and, therefore, this connection was
one of the issues to be studied in vocational train-
Research Methods
ing research. The increased urgency around this
topic arose not only from the changed conditions
dominating tighter international competition for
quality but also from the realization that the in-
clusion of human resources management into the
processes of ↑ personnel development plays a key
role in industrial organisational development.
„This development reveals why the organisational as-
pect of industrial innovation and its interaction with
technological innovation and vocational education have
become central and urgent issues in human resourc-
es management. Questions as to how information and
ommunication technologies which are characterized by
flexibility, openness and modularity can be used most
effectively in order to bring concrete technological and
organisational solutions in line with the specific abili-
ties of the users of the technologies, are placed at the
center of attention, just like questions relating to suit-
able didactical and methodological concepts for voca-
tional education which enable the participants of voca-
tional programs to contribute to a participatory organi-
sational development and which promote the commit-
ment of the parties involved – a commitment that is re-
quired to advance the educational and industrial proc-
ess” (DYBOWSKI / HAASE / R AUNER 1993, 5).
In this context, the discipline-oriented ↑ research
traditions are considered to be of minor importance
with respect to their analytical and developmental
potential. Industrial sociology has adopted an an-
alytical approach to this ↑ research field: “The so-
cio-theoretical interpretations of empirically cap-
tured development processes also allows for prog-
nostic designs” (ibid. 142). In contrast to this, or-
ganisational and industrial psychology has, from
a very early stage, oriented itself to the concept of
creating a working atmosphere which promotes the
employee’s personality (EMERY/ EMERY 1974). As a
result, research and development interests focus on
individual-related assessment and design criteria.
Gearing industrial psychology and industrial sci-
ences to the concepts of job design comprises three
developmental schemes:
– Socio-technological system design
– Innovation-promoting job design
– Individual-promoting job design
With respect to these schemes, research and de-
velopment interests focus on individual-related as-
sessment and design concepts based on task anal-
yses. These are needed to identify the factors that
enhance the employees’ ↑ performance, ↑ well-be-
817
ing, and qualifications. It is only rarely that tasks
relating to job organisation and industrial ↑ organ-
isational development are addressed as part of vo-
cational ↑ training research – which is mainly due
to the fact that the problems and tasks dealt with in
this field are specifically subject-related (see LUC-
ZAK 1998; ULICH 1994).
Economically oriented research is faced with the
problem that due to its disciplinary orientation to-
wards an economic quantification of industrial or-
ganisational processes it is not able to provide suit-
able answers to questions relating to the structure
and content of organisational and ↑ personnel de-
velopment. The extended procedures currently ap-
plied to assess profitability – a human resources
calculation scheme, ↑ cost-benefit analysis and val-
uation of the employment system – as well as the
use of multi-level schemes for assessing profitabili-
ty, have given rise to a broader understanding of in-
novation which attaches greater importance to the
factor of “work” as a central element of econom-
ic profitability. In the process the fields of person-
nel management and job design are also addressed
from an economic viewpoint (HEEG / MEYER-DOHM
1994).
In terms of disciplinarity, ↑ engineering science
neither has the methods nor the categorical frame-
work that would be needed to open up the corre-
lation between vocational qualification and indus-
trial organisational development for development-
oriented research. However, the pragmatic method
of development was already challenged at a very
early stage because it had been possible to mas-
ter complex systems and to minimize unintended
side effects in the implementation of large-scale
projects in the field of modern technologies. As a
result new project management and system imple-
mentation methods were developed, which by far
exceeded the level of traditional methods in engi-
neering. This increased orientation of engineer-
ing science towards ↑ interdisciplinarity was even
more intensified by the studies carried out on the
genesis and implications of technology.
At a meeting of experts which had been organized
by the BIBB and the ITB in 1994 six research and
development fields were identified and described:
(1) Industrial organisational development and vo-
cational training in international comparison and
818
as elements of multi-national research and ↑ devel-
opment tasks;
(2) Organisational development, technological de-
sign and vocational qualification;
(3) Industrial innovations and strategies for quali-
fication schemes;
(4) Model projects and industrial organisational
development;
(5) ↑ Media development and concepts for quali-
fication in the tension between learning process-
es, technologies and job designs promoting learn-
ing processes;
(6) Qualification schemes for professional educa-
tors to support learning organisations (DYBOWSKI /-
PÜTZ / RAUNER 1995c).
5.3.5.6 Scientific-Methodological
Implications
Vocational ↑ training research that is focused on
development and also takes into account scientific
traditions which not only cover contents and types
of professional employment but also the chang-
es that occurred in professional qualification re-
quirements and the design of vocational training
and learning processes, can only be carried out, if
the intersection of research, development and cog-
nitive interests is sufficiently large so that those
involved can reach an agreement on common re-
search and development concepts. ↑ Domain-spe-
cific curricular development is viewed as a typi-
cal example of an ↑ interdisciplinary key scientif-
ic area. Ever since the employment-oriented turn
occurred in the didactics of vocational training
schemes, the main task to be met by vocation-
al training research has been to develop job-ori-
ented curricula by focusing on professional action
and learning fields (cf. LIPSMEIER / PÄTZOLD / BUSION
2000; GERDS / ZÖLLER 2001). To achieve this goal,
it is indispensable to carry out vocational ↑ qual-
ification research, which is arranged by ↑ profes-
sions and professional fields. Research and devel-
opment methodologies applied in the field of vo-
cational training mainly follow the direction laid
out by the research of expertise and the sciences
supporting it (RÖBEN 2004a). With respect to this
field, the industrial sciences have a long tradition
in analysing and designing ↑ work processes. Var-
Handbook of TVET Research
ious common strands with vocational education
and vocational research have arisen from this (see
HACKER 1992; 1996). The cognitive interests of vo-
cational education and industrial sciences differ
widely: whereas the latter focus on analysing the
work load and health risks to which jobholders are
exposed and on making employment more human
and maintaining health, the former mainly looks
into working processes from an subject-related an-
gle and focuses on the learning, educational and
competence-building aspects of work.
Just like research on expertise, vocational training
research is also guided by the goal of exploring how
knowledge and abilities are built into working and
learning processes (see FRANKE 2001). Research on
expertise has revealed that expertise manifests it-
self in domain-specific competences. However, the
cognitive interest of research on expertise is main-
ly focused on identifying the principles governing
the development of expertise and on the question
of which knowledge and which abilities make up
competence and what is needed to promote the de-
velopment of competence. Looking into the spe-
cific knowledge and abilities, which, for instance,
skilled workers have acquired and using the results
obtained as a basis for developing ↑ vocational cur-
ricula, is only of little or no help. This is the point
where vocational training research comes in be-
cause it is focused on mapping out the knowledge
and abilities required and used in the different pro-
fessional domains. It is this level of differentiation
that is reached in qualification research, which ac-
counts for its didactic relevance in curricular de-
sign. In this context ↑ interdisciplinarity also aris-
es from the fact that the findings obtained in vo-
cational training research are also useful for gen-
eral, cross-domain studies carried out in the are-
as of industrial and cognitive psychology as well
as in vocational education (cf. BECK / HEID 1996).
The complementarity of psychological and ↑ edu-
cational ↑ research traditions results from the fact
that the key study area of industrial psychology is
the expertise that manifests itself in the working
process, and emerges from there, respectively. By
contrast, educational-psychological research of ex-
pertise is focused on expertise, which results from
the process of intentional education. Comparative
levels of complementarity in the field of ↑ interdis-
Research Methods
ciplinary development have been achieved in man-
machine research and in software-engineering, for
instance, when the issue of designing skill-based
technology is addressed (SALZMAN 1992; EICKER /
PETERSEN 2001).
Examples from curricular research have shown that
whenever theories, scientific approaches and find-
ings from the ↑ Humanities and Social Sciences are
successfully combined with those of domain-spe-
cific sciences, the results obtained have a particu-
larly stimulating effect on ongoing scientific dis-
cussions in this field. This applies, for instance, to
the curriculum jointly developed by Patricia Ben-
ner (Professor of Nursing Sciences at the Univer-
sity of California) and Hubert L. Dreyfus (cog-
nitive scientist and philosopher) for the training
of nurses (BENNER 1997), for the training of edu-
cators – a programme developed under a college
school project – (GRUSCHKA 1985) and for the mod-
el project carried out on the basis of developmen-
tal theories: „Business and Work Process Oriented
Vocational Education” (BREMER /JAGLA 2000).
Measured by the limited level and the results of
methodological reflection, it must be stated that –
5.4.0 Evaluation, Quality Development and Assurance
– Introduction
Jürgen van Buer and Eugenie A. Samier
5.4.0.1 A Short Review of the 1980s and
1990s and the Current Context
– PISA and Its Impact on the
Understanding of Quality Assurance
and Development in Germany
Germany was deeply shocked by the results of PI-
SA (for the results of both PISA studies in Ger-
many see e. g. BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND ET AL.
2001; PRENZEL / BAUMERT 2004). Compared to oth-
er European and overseas countries, the questions
raised after empirically verifiable results of the ed-
ucation system have, for too long, been answered
only on the basis of socially desirable values – re-
sults understood in the sense of competence devel-
opment, change of attitude, and the values devel-
819
in terms of methodology – ↑ interdisciplinary, de-
velopment-oriented vocational ↑ training research
is significantly deficient. However, this has hardly
had a negative effect on the emergence of interdis-
ciplinary developmental practices, particularly in
the area of curricular and ↑ media research and de-
velopment. This corresponds to experiences gained
in scientific research and development, i.e. that the
level of methodological reflection and discussion
is much higher in analytical sciences than in de-
velopment-oriented sciences. This is, for instance,
true for ↑ engineering sciences, where methodolog-
ical reflection on the studies carried out is small
although the methodological instruments in place
are highly advanced.
Development-oriented, interdisciplinary vocation-
al training research has also gained wide practi-
cal experience. It is one of the major challenges
facing this scientific field to reflect this experience
on a broader methodological scale in order to give
rise to a scientifically founded methodology of de-
velopment.
opment of the individual or age groups. The same
applies to questions raised after the studies’ out-
comes in the sense of a long-term use for individu-
al career and social development as well as the as-
surance of economic developments etc. (for a dif-
ferentiation of results that are both direct and short
term, influenced by educational institutions, as well
as long-term outcomes see e. g. DITTON 2007).
The Problem of Input Oriented Formal Quality
Assurance
This perspective was supported by the following
mindset up to the late second half of the 1990s.
↑ Quality assurance as it was and is still described,
820
at least for public schools and vocational training
– or rather the formally normative appreciation of
quality for a single educational organisation, took
place through regulated access to the governmen-
tally-controlled pedagogical fields of activity by
means of certificates that enable future teachers to
start a professional career. Therefore, the certifi-
cates of the 1st and 2nd state examinations had a
key function in Germany that made staff recruit-
ment, or rather the implementation of staff recruit-
ment, a crucial factor in quality assurance of gov-
ernmentally-run educational organisations. This is
still applicable to professional teaching for career
access in general public schools as well as to ↑ vo-
cational schools. In other learning sites of the vo-
cational education system such as companies with
apprenticeship training positions and other educa-
tional organisations with different approaches to
training and education, access to the ↑ profession
has, due to a different legal foundation, never been
regulated as strictly as in general public schools.
The examination for the qualification as a train-
er in commercial organisations, however, soon
caused a similar focus on a single moment and in-
put-oriented quality control as it exists in the field
of vocational schools (for the examination for the
qualification as a trainer in a commercial organi-
sations see KÜPER / STEIN 2006). These qualifying
courses were offered by the chambers, and exami-
nations were also conducted there.
The Relation of the Special Structure of
Actions in Pedagogic Functions and Input
Oriented Quality Assurance
This attitude towards input-oriented ↑ quality as-
surance was supported by the following basic un-
derstanding of the special structure of pedagog-
ic activity: in Germany this attitude is particular-
ly based on educational-pedagogical understand-
ing up to the 1920s (see e. g. SPRANGER 1921; WE-
NIGER 1953; LITT 1960; for the vocational field see
K ERSCHENSTEINER 1926). At the foundation of the
Federal Republic of Germany in 1949 and then in
the 1950s, this process was also supported through
educational-theoretical didactics (Bildungstheo-
retische Didaktik; see e. g. K LAFKI 1959). Facing
the so-called “empirical turning point” in educa-
tional studies in Germany in the beginning of the
Handbook of TVET Research
1970s, as well as later developments in the 1990s
that one could call the “second empirical turn-
ing point”, these concepts still represent an influ-
ential focus of discussion (see e. g. K LAFKI 1991).
Up until the 1990s, this basic understanding could
be summarised as follows: pedagogical activity is
characterized through a special personal ↑ com-
mitment of the single pedagogical agent to the sin-
gle educated child or young person, which makes a
regular systematic quality control by no means su-
perfluous, yet – as one could state a little bit ironi-
cally – it does not represent a focus of central edu-
cational political action. In Germany, this has been
formally sanctioned for a long time and is also part
of the current relevant discussion, especially be-
cause of the legal status of the teacher as a civil
servant. Meanwhile this argument has decreased
in relevance due to the findings of empirical in-
ternational and national ↑ ↑ performance studies.
It has also been changed considerably through the
implementation of highly differentiated and for-
malized models of quality assurance.
Two Central Questions Regarding Input-
Oriented Quality Assurance
In this proposed, and therefore partially rough,
framework the following two questions essential
for understanding ↑ quality assurance have hard-
ly been raised, let alone investigated and answered
through empirical research. (a) How far do these
certificates draw a valid picture of the competence
they are intended to inculcate, applied to qualify-
ing, or “input”, certificates of pedagogical agents
as well as to leaving, or “output”, certificates of
(vocational) students? And, (b) what kind of time-
related range can such a certificate claim with re-
gard to the “guarantee” of high quality, everyday
accomplishment through competent pedagogi-
cal activities in the sense of resource savings, as
well as effective and responsible problem solving
(see the definition of competence and educational
standards in K LIEME /AVENARIUS 2003)?
However, the large empirical studies of compre-
hensive schools in the middle of the 1970s dem-
onstrated, at least partially, the effects of struc-
turally complex major and minor interventions on
the systemic level (the exo-systemic level accord-
ing to Bronfenbrenner 1981), but also increasing-
Research Methods
ly on the level of single organisations (the meso-
systemic level) (see e. g. FEND 1986; as a review
also STEFFENS 2007). Nevertheless, no significant
change in this basic foundation, concerning the
general input orientation in control and regula-
tion of the education system, took place (see e. g.
WEISS / BELLMANN 2007). This foundation is still
being supported by the legal duty of the state to
provide sufficient resources to schools. Further-
more, until the 1990s, no change of attitude took
place in the general mindset towards control and
regulation of the educational system. These con-
cepts were mainly focused on normatively veri-
fied, regional or locally moderate top-down regu-
lation on different levels (for termini of control and
regulation see ZLATKIN-TROITSCHANSKAIA 2006; ad-
ministrative concepts of school see e. g. WITTMANN
2007). This applies in several areas, from the edu-
cational-political formation of volition to its inter-
pretation on the side of state and regional educa-
tional administration, to inner control and regula-
tion of the single educational organisation (in the
school year 2005/2006 there were 36,888 gener-
al public schools and 10,444 ↑ vocational schools
in Germany), and to the guarantee of high qual-
ity everyday pedagogical practice (in the school
year of 2005/2006 there were 667,000 pedagogical
agents in general public schools with 137,064,000
weekly hours of teaching and 121,200 teachers in
vocational schools with 2,490,100 hours of teach-
ing; see data for the last school years documented
by the Statistisches Bundesamt).
A number of other conditions have had an even
greater significant impact on vocational educa-
tion. Vocational education has hardly been the fo-
cus of educational-political discussion over the
past few decades and when it has, it has been on
the occasion of legal initiatives (see the German
↑ Vocational Training Act of 1969 and its amend-
ment in 2005) or efforts to reconstruct the curricu-
la of the vocational ↑ professions. This happened in
the 1990s with the introduction of learning fields
(for learning fields see e. g. papers in LIPSMEIER /
PÄTZOLD / BUSION 2000), or the contrary discussion
about the ↑ modularisation of ↑ vocational curricula
as they are intended for the ↑ European Qualifica-
tions Framework (EQF) and for the national qual-
ifications framework of Germany, which is still to
821
be developed (for a critical view on the EQF and its
impact on the discussion in vocational education
research see e. g. BAETHGE /ACHTENHAGEN /ARENDS
ET AL. 2006). Up to the last few new educational-
political orientations regarding the definition and
implementation of new instruments of control and
regulation such as school programmes (see e. g.
articles in HOLTAPPELS 2004, also BUER /KÖLLER
2007), systematic external school inspection (see
e. g. BOS / DEDERING 2007), and external evaluation
(see ARTELT 2007) the following is supported by
the majority of those who are educational-politi-
cally in charge of vocational schools: the latter are
by no means substantially different from general
public schools and therefore require no significant-
ly different treatment, even if the discussion about
the reconstruction of vocational schools into com-
petence centres seems to point in this direction (for
competence centres see e. g. BLK 2002; for the ac-
tual situation see BLK 2006).
Governmentally initiated education policies have
hardly shown dynamics of change in the 1980s and
1990s in Germany, whereas the fields of business,
industry and trade have been going through drastic
and above all fast and broadly implemented trans-
formations. The continuous and comprehensive
technological change resulted in flexible forms of
communication and logistics, which finally made a
globalization of the markets possible. This applies
to either products or services as well as to capi-
tal. Markets, competition and decisions regarding
the location of a company lose national relevance
to an increasing extent. The life cycle of products
becomes continuously shorter. These trends have
enormous backlashes for companies’ philosophies
and organisations. The shareholder value almost
entirely eliminated the stakeholder value regard-
ing its relevance for the management of a com-
pany (see e. g. BEYER / HÖPNER 2003). Innovative
management approaches such as lean production,
↑ quality management, change management, ↑ per-
formance management and others promise tight-
ly organized structures, more efficient processes
and high-class results (for management as a char-
acteristic modern feature see e. g. STAEHLE 1999;
for change management see e. g. DOPPLER / LAU-
TERBURG 2002). Finally, these tendencies, coupled
with an increasing economic relevance of the serv-
822
ice sector, also resulted in change in the valuation
and position of ↑ human capital within companies
and therefore, also, in a change regarding the de-
mands placed on staff members.
These trends stand in a specific and generally tense
relationship with each other, each depending on the
segment of the ↑ labour market, size of the compa-
ny, kind of the product or service etc. They regu-
larly result in companies being under short-term
highly effective, yet large pressure for change and
adjustment. Companies try to deal with the pres-
sure by strategies of staff recruitment (e. g. assess-
ments), staff development (e. g. through a more
effective vocational ↑ further education), par-
tially through a flexible balance between perma-
nent staff and seasonal staff, and also increasing-
ly through changes in their strategies regarding the
first level of vocational education.
In each national ↑ system of vocational education
these different development dynamics and trends,
partially lead to enormous tensions and high pres-
sure to adjust on the side of government-controlled
educational organisations. This especially applies
to those vocational education systems which com-
prise, such as in the German system, governmen-
tally accredited and organisationally assured re-
sponsibilities for output assurance between ↑ voca-
tional schools and companies of vocational train-
ing or providers of training in order to guaran-
tee a broad range of cooperation and coordination
(for the general placement of vocational education
between state and market see e. g. KUHLEE 2003;
2006; for the problem of cooperation in the ↑ du-
al system of the German vocational education see
e. g. papers in EULER 2004b). These differences re-
garding systemic and single organisational dynam-
ics of development especially refer to the training
curricula in different ↑ professions and to their per-
manent, increasingly rapid implementation. They
also refer to the matches made between learning
milieus in vocational schools, the broad variance
of in-company-training milieus, and all of the oth-
er learning sites.
The increasing pressure has had an impact on voca-
tional schools for at least 20 years in that pressure
from the private sector became noticeably larger
according to which the educational system should
reliably guarantee a normatively defined base line
Handbook of TVET Research
of basic competences for all children and young
adults (see e. g. K LIEME /AVENARIUS 2003). In vo-
cational schools this required assuming addition-
al tasks of child-rearing and education, namely the
subsequent assurance of standards for young peo-
ple. These represent a special risk group if schools
cannot guarantee the fulfilment of these standards
up to the last school year (see e. g. KONSORTIUM
BILDUNGSBERICHTERSTATTUNG 2006). Regarding the
question of educational standards assurance at the
end of ↑ compulsory schooling, the two PISA stud-
ies and the TIMSS study (see articles in BAUMERT /
BOS / LEHMANN 2000) draw a highly differentiat-
ed picture (see articles in e. g. BAUMERT / STANAT /
WATERMANN 2006).
For some German states, several empirical stud-
ies exist that lead one to see an additional regional
differentiation (for Hamburg see the LAU studies;
LEHMANN / PEEK 2000). The ULME II study for
Hamburg, which conducted further tests on sub-
ject populations examined by the LAU-studies,
shows very much the depth of impact of curricu-
lar-bound knowledge in schooling up to the age of
15 or 16 in successful ↑ vocational school training
(see LEHMANN / SEEBER / HUNGER 2006). Whether or
not and how far the vocational in-company-train-
ing is similarly influenced by the empirical view
still remains unclear (see BAETHGE /ACHTENHAGEN /
ARENDS ET AL. 2006).
To date, studies are lacking that provide at least
partial answers to both of the following questions.
(a) How can the theoretically-founded term indi-
vidual ‘↑ professionalism’ or ‘↑ employability’ as a
limited goal of vocational education and training
be operationalized so that it becomes test-instru-
mental and validly comprehensible for content for
accounted training professions (often named Vo-
cational-PISA, see BAETHGE /ACHTENHAGEN /ARENDS
ET AL. 2006)? Existing studies either do not at all,
or only partially, settle this claim because they are
primarily oriented toward knowledge or knowl-
edge-structures as well as solving related prob-
lems in paper-and-pencil-situations. This includes
school-based test situations that can be adopted
and transferred only partially to situations external
to schools (see also papers in STRAKA 2003). And
(b), which relative contributions do different learn-
ing sites achieve in the vocational education sys-
Research Methods
tem for the development of individual profession-
alism for subgroups and for employability?
Facing the above-described dominant attention,
which is paid to general education by the educa-
tional-political discussion, but also facing man-
ageable problems regarding the structure of the
system of general public schools as well as their
institutional variation, the following findings are
not surprising. ↑ Educational research in the ar-
ea of general education is more assured and also
more differentiated than that of vocational edu-
cation research. The ↑ methodology-methods dis-
cussion is also further developed in general edu-
cation (see e. g. PEEK / NEUMANN 2003, also papers
of K LIEME / LEUTNER / WIRT 2005). Even less concise
is the situation in the ↑ tertiary sector of (vocation-
al) ↑ further education. Nonetheless, Tippelt and
Hoh (2001) come to the conclusion that a strong
demand to catch up does actually exist. At least for
the German vocational education system, there are
currently no empirical studies that are structured
comparable to those output studies of the German
federal states already mentioned and that include
a similar dimension as TIMSS and PISA and can
therefore produce similarly differentiated findings
for big cohorts, but will be implemented within the
next years.
5.4.0.2 Quality Assurance – Complex
Strategies between Reporting,
Resource Sparing Optimization of
Intended Impacts and Economic
Rationality
As mentioned before, the historically high stabil-
ity of these concepts of control and regulation in
the 1980s and 1990s in Germany, which were, to
a high degree, oriented toward administrative for-
malities, led to the following situation in the Ger-
man education system: there existed neither mod-
els nor concepts of ↑ quality management and re-
lated practices that were especially developed for
the specific concerns of educational organisations
and the systems into which they are integrated. No
one model could facilitate the accomplishment of
an increasing pressure to adjust the strong public
demand for empirically verifiable ↑ quality assur-
ance. Therefore it is hardly surprising that those
concepts of management and reporting which were
823
mainly developed and tested by the big companies
of economy and industry were used in the educa-
tional system in an adapted way. The problems of
financing in the educational system (see e. g. BLK
2004; WEISS / BELLMANN 2006; for the federal state
of Berlin see DOHMEN / RESCHKE 2003) also in-
creased the demands for a preferably resource sav-
ing use of financial practices by organisations and
their staff. Therefore, the questions of ↑ ↑ effective-
ness and ↑ efficiency became those of the greatest
importance (for a legal-economical understand-
ing of control and regulation see e. g. ZLATKIN-
TROITSCHANSKAIA 2007). The following concepts
of the educational (vocational) system are the most
relevant:
(a) Strengthening of output control through exter-
nal evaluation; on the one hand through compar-
ing measurements of the achievement of central
standards (see e. g. KÖLLER 2007), and, on the oth-
er, through systematic school inspections that fo-
cus on process control (for school inspection see
e. g. BOS / DEDERING 2007).
(b) Development of single organisational, explicit-
ly-phrased programmes of control and regulation
or frames of development (for school programme
see e. g. ROLFF 2006) that intended a strengthening
of internal evaluation of a single organisation fol-
lowed by an analysis of strengths and weaknesses
(see e. g. BUER / HALLMANN 2007).
(c) Strengthening of the senior administrator in
management and leadership (see e. g. DUBS 2005).
(d) Single organisational portfolios of reporting
and ↑ performance, which are – in the sense of an
increasing market transparency – accessible to an-
yone (see e. g. PEEK 2007).
(e) The systematic dynamic sampling of staff de-
velopment in educational organisations (see e. g.
K EMPFERT 2006) which means the adjustment of
teacher’s competence to the new findings of edu-
cational and curricular research as well as of the
didactics of different subjects or different are-
as of learning. Thereby, concepts of education-
al regulation and monitoring (“↑ controlling” in
German) become increasingly important (see
e. g. BUER / SEEBER 2004; for schools BUER 2005).
They are based on regular and prompt gathering
of strengths and weaknesses of the pedagogical
agents by means of highly differentiated systems
824
of performance review (see e. g. BECKER / BUCHEN
2006). The measurement of ↑ human capital in the
sense of “soft” parameters in management systems
such as the balanced-scorecard are to an increas-
ing extent regarded as a crucial factor for the assur-
ance of competitiveness (for Balanced-Scorecard
concept see e. g. K APLAN / NORTON 1997; for its use
in schools see e. g. SEITZ / CAPAUL 2005, 144 ff.).
(f) The extension of the autonomy of the single
school going along with an obligation to prove its
↑ effectiveness empirically (see e. g. FÜSSEL 2007).
Not only educational scholars like Heid (2007)
create awareness for the following facts: report-
ing is also indispensable for educational organ-
isations, mainly for those financed by public au-
thorities. Furthermore, ↑ ↑ effectiveness can by all
means be seen as a basic category of pedagogical
thinking and activity. Moreover, market transpar-
ency is not only an economic category. Especially
in the ↑ tertiary sector of (vocational) ↑ further edu-
cation it is indispensable (see e. g. GALILÄER 2005).
Additionally, the educational authors also refer to
the fact that an economization of the whole discus-
sion is indeed not only a visionary fear but that it is
already detectable. An increasing economization
is noticeable through the fact that direct (market-
driven) utilization receives much more attention
in defining output intended by schools and other
training institutions. Thereby, the balance between
the demand of the individual for individual devel-
opment on the one hand and the demand of soci-
ety from the individual on the other may shift to
the disadvantage of the individual (see e. g. K ELL
1995).
Governmentally run companies and public author-
ities have by far the largest demand for (vocational)
further education, mainly in the field of qualifying
risk groups and unemployed persons. As demand-
ers, they almost have a monopolistic position in
Germany in the tertiary sector (see e. g. GALILÄER
2005). The placement of an order is bound to a
certain model of ↑ quality assurance that leads par-
tially to a distinct standardization of quality assur-
ance allocating to an essential subsidiary role of
the public sector (see e. g. SAUTER 2000). None-
theless, the situation in the tertiary sector regard-
ing the definition and above all the implementation
of instruments of control and regulation for sys-
Handbook of TVET Research
tematic quality assurance and development is still
not concise due to a fragmented legal basis (see
e. g. NUISSL / PEHL 2004, 20). The ISO EN 9000 ff.-
model is an established concept that comprises a
high degree of validity. Yet, it is equipped rath-
er formally and can, especially in the field of ed-
ucational and qualifying work, represent the spe-
cificity of processes and outputs only marginally.
Therefore it is not surprising that the number of
relevant models of quality assurance in Germany
is continuously increasing; for further education,
currently models such as the EFQM-model (1999–
2003), the “phase model” (STARK 2000), the “mod-
el of the professional cycle of action” (WEINBERG
2000), and the model “house of vocational educa-
tion quality” (ARNOLD 2006) are being discussed.
Taking this into consideration, one can state the
following: the current situation regarding the qual-
ity assurance of educational work can be regard-
ed as “stormy” but also “rather reserved”. Further-
more, the previous available findings concerning
the ↑ effectiveness of control instruments and reg-
ulations are indeed ambivalent (for a summary see
e. g. ZLATKIN-TROITSCHANSKAIA 2006). This tenden-
cy becomes even more obvious the more one shifts
the perspective from the systemic level to that of
single educational organisations and to the inte-
grated processes and their impacts that lead to a
stronger focus on everyday quality variance with-
in institutions.
5.4.0.3 Conclusion and Prospects
Quality assurance and development can be regard-
ed as a high priority, main target for the effective
and efficient use of restricted financial means in
educational efforts. This not only applies to fur-
ther education and all its facets but also, since the
PISA-report, to the German education macro-sys-
tem on the systemic level as well as to the single
school on the meso-systemic level. For the imple-
mentation of these options a broad range of dif-
ferent instruments of control and regulation is
available that are often borrowed from other so-
cial subsystems, here mainly the economic sector,
and which can only partially and with strong ef-
forts be adapted. Not yet empirically proven are
the answers to questions regarding how far the si-
multaneous use of these instruments implies a high
Research Methods
demand of micro-regulation or causes higher cost
(as it has in many other national jurisdictions) and
whether the increasing shift of responsibilities to-
wards single organisations definitely leads to high-
er quality of educational and qualifying processes
and of the achievements of the learning individu-
al. Above all, one can refer to many detailed prob-
lems concerning the definition of content as well as
the ↑ methodology-methods design of such instru-
ments. Problems arise, especially in the assurance
of data quality and of a high standard regarding
their analysis as the articles in Section 5.4 show
from very different perspectives.
Currently, the implementation of systematic qual-
ity control seems to be established as a pan-Eu-
ropean, dominant guideline for general and voca-
tional education. The latter is offered at curricular
bound and legally accountable organisations of the
educational system and demanded through the bi-
ographical design of individual lives. Partly, high
investments are being undertaken for the creation
of a supervision of quality control in the frame-
work of academic and non-academic accrediting
systems.
The articles in Section 5.4 of this handbook ap-
proach selected issues of this complex set of prob-
lems from very different perspectives. Alongside
previous findings and approved models they espe-
cially present unsolved problems and possible so-
lutions.
5.4.1 Evaluation Research
Gerald Heidegger
5.4.1.1 Definitions
Valuing – Evaluation – Evaluation Research
Evaluation in it’s general sense (SCRIVEN 1980;
1991) means, in the context of ↑ VET research, to
evaluate VET on three levels: On the macro level
↑ VET systems, on the meso level VET colleges,
training departments of companies, training insti-
tutions and measures etc., on the micro level sin-
gle courses, but also the progress of learning and
825
the learning success of groups of people or even
of individuals. If (vocational) pedagogics is un-
derstood, according to Schleiermacher (SCHLEIER-
MACHER 1983/1984), as “science of practice” or
even more as “practical science” (SCHMIED-KOWAR-
ZIK 1974), this encompasses always to analyse, to
improve and to value real practice (SHADISH / COOK /
LEVITON 1991). In this view it is important to deal
not only with the method and the content, but also
with the aims of (vocational) educational practice
(see for general education: K LAFKI 1991), including
theoretical foundation, legitimisation in view of
the possibilities for practice and evaluation. That
limits the “technocratic” option of external, au-
thoritative control, but can considerably contribute
to innovations, by “enlightening”, through evalua-
tion, practice for (better) practice (→ 5.4.2). In this
sense evaluation is happening in everyday (voca-
tional) education all the time without external stim-
uli, even if only to a more or less great degree. This
process of “↑ self-evaluation” (→ 5.4.1.4) turns out
to become nowadays increasingly relevant. Evalua-
tion in the narrow sense, however, means a system-
atic process. This can also be applied to self-eval-
uation. Consequently, rather clearly defined meth-
ods have to be applied in a strict way, even if these
are “soft”, qualitative methods (→ 5.4.1.2). In or-
der to lay the foundations of an adequate method-
ology one has to make use of the whole inventory
of the social sciences and the ↑ humanities. This
concept of evaluation which is determined through
science is more and more called “↑ evaluation re-
search”.
Thus the question arises in which way (vocation-
al) ↑ educational research distinguishes itself from
evaluation research. During the first phase of the
expansion of evaluation research in the ↑ USA.
Cronbach and Suppes (1969, 20 f.) differentiated
between “decision oriented” and “conclusion ori-
ented” research. According to this distinction re-
search is called decision oriented if the researcher
is to deliver information which is required, in the
context of demand oriented research, by the deci-
sion makers. In the case of conclusion oriented re-
search, on the other hand, the researcher formu-
lates himself the hypotheses which are of interest
to him (WOTTAWA / THIERAU 2003, 36). Evaluation
(research) obviously is closer to decision orient-
826
ed research (CHEN 1990) even if the delimitation
against conclusion oriented research is less rele-
vant for (vocational) educational research, at least
as far as one accepts the thesis of “pedagogics as
a practical science”. The difference between the
latter conception and the former definitions con-
sists in the fact that those former concepts place
the researcher outside of the field to be investigat-
ed. To which degree this point of view is adequate
is the central, and heavily contested, issue of the
arguments brought forward according to the two
most clearly formulated paradigms of evaluation
research, the “conventional approach” and the “in-
terpretive approach” (→ 5.4.1.2).
A brief, but still rather encompassing definition is
proposed by Helmke, according to Burkhard and
Eikenbusch (2000, translated by G.H.):
“The concept of evaluation encompasses the following
features:
– to take a systematic inventory
– of the processes or the results/outcomes
– of a programme or a single measure,
– to be compared with pre-defined standards, criteria,
expectations or hypotheses,
– with the objective of improving the programme or the
measure” (HELMKE 2003, 152).
In order to take account of the nowadays strong-
er connection of evaluation with ↑ quality man-
agement one can include in this definition not on-
ly programmes and single measures, but the whole
range of activities of an institution. In addition, the
concept of ↑ meta-evaluation becomes important
which, however, is used with three different mean-
ings:
– comparative evaluation of the evaluation of
similar programmes or measures (WOTTAWA /
THIERAU 2003, 138),
– evaluation of processes of evaluation because
the latter can and should be improved themselves
(HELMKE 2003, 152; see also JOINT COMMITTEE ON
STANDARDS FOR EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION / SANDERS
1999),
– evaluation of a system for quality management
since this is, to a high degree, based on evaluation
(DITTON 2000).
Handbook of TVET Research
Three Pathways of Development
The roots of systematic evaluation as an area of
scientific activity are to be found in the quali-
tive ↑ field research carried through in the ↑ USA.
(SUCHMANN 1967). During the 1960’s particular-
ly the programmes for social policies of the John-
son administration have been tried to be evaluat-
ed, using increasingly “objectivating” methods
(ABRAMSON 1979).
In all ↑ OECD countries, methods have been more
and more developed and implemented which
should judge the effects of interventions (MITTER /
WEISHAUPT 1977), including the area of (general)
education (LANGE 1983). In (West) Germany the
“General Programme for Education” (“Bildungs-
gesamtplan”, BLK 1973) initiated an encompass-
ing “Programme of Model Experiments”, persist-
ing particularly in the area of VET until today,
which demanded “scientific accompaniment” as a
must for each single model experiment (→ 5.3.3).
For this “accompanying research” the methods of
evaluation have been expanded and differentiated
according to scientific standards, thus establishing
the field of scientific research which is nowadays
called ↑ evaluation research.
Apart from this development of methods for eval-
uating interventions in policy fields like social af-
fairs, public health, economy, ↑ labour market and
particularly also (vocational) education (HOLLING /
GEDIGA 1999) there is a second pathway of devel-
opment. This was established by OECD studies
(OECD 2001a) which aim at comparing the effects
(↑ effectiveness and ↑ efficiency) of the education-
al systems in different countries. These studies are
sometimes called “systems monitoring” (MBW-
FK 2003, 3) or more often also ↑ evaluation stud-
ies. This is the case although in the literature on
research surveys (BORTZ / DÖRING 2003; WOTTAWA /
THIERAU 2003), which however is strongly influ-
enced by empirical psychology, evaluation re-
search is closely connected with the implementa-
tion of interventions (ROSSI / FREEMANN 1993, 5).
(The determination and assessment of the quali-
ty of teaching (HELMKE 2003, 151–192) is usually
also called “evaluation”.) The international ↑ com-
parative studies are focussing, however, mostly the
sector of general education – best known is PISA
(BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND ET AL. 2001). For
Research Methods
VET the first steps towards that have been taken in
the context of the EU (see EC STRUCTURAL FUNDS
1999). Since then the Declaration of Copenhagen,
and thereafter the Technical Working Group, have
developed a quality framework for VET, includ-
ing evaluation (EUROPEAN MINISTERS OF VOCATION-
AL EDUCATION AND TRAINING /EC 2002). The cultur-
al variety – regarding systems, content and meth-
ods – is considerably greater for VET than for gen-
eral (or basic) education which makes compari-
sons extremely difficult. Comparative studies like
the ones of the OECD are, however, also critisized
(HAENISCH 1998) since they actually exert pressure
only to judge the results – the “output” which is
defined according to external and often contested
criteria. In this way it is difficult not to exclude the
justified resistance against the demands of official
education (WILLIS 1979). In addition, a compara-
tive test which tries to “measure”, similarly to PI-
SA, the competences regarding occupational/vo-
cational activities is prone to overlook decisive fac-
tors of a ↑ VET system, e. g. of the “↑ dual system”
in Germany: allocation of social status or effects
on socialisation (LEMPERT 1998) or the structuring
of the ↑ labour market (HEIDEGGER 1997a).
A third pathway of development is represented
through the fact that increasingly the viewpoint of
business administration is applied to the realm of
education. Especially from the area of industrial
production methods of ↑ quality management are
transferred to education, including the internation-
al standards according to ISO 9000 ff. (DIN 1997).
That is because cost-benefit-analyses, using mone-
tary criteria, are intruding more and more into all
sectors of society although the former are clear-
ly in opposition to pedagogical thinking which is
– particularly in the tradition of Humboldt – not
oriented towards utilitarian goals. Nevertheless,
for ↑ VET research issues like ↑ quality assurance
(→ 5.4.3), ↑ educational controlling (→ 5.4.4.) and
↑ benchmarking (→ 5.4.5) have become increas-
ingly relevant. In all these areas the term ↑ eval-
uation research is used even if usually no clear-
ly defined intervention, limited in time, is inves-
tigated regarding it’s ↑ ↑ effectiveness. Since quali-
ty management increases it’s importance for (voca-
tional) schools when they gain more autonomy the
827
delimitation to evaluation appears to be vanishing
(STEINER / LANDWEHR 2003; → 5.4.1.6).
The concept of evaluation research is, in view of
these various roots, rather vague. All definitions
have in common that evaluation (research) should
be supporting planning and decision making, and
that in the case of ↑ self-evaluation too. Therefore
it is oriented towards practical purposes includ-
ing, particularly in the view of “pedagogics as a
practical science”, also the evaluation of the aims
of (vocational) education. That is, human activi-
ties should – ideally through a circle of feedback
– be improved by evaluating their outcomes re-
garding their objectives. At least in the “interpre-
tive approach” these aims themselves should – as
far as possible by the respective actors themselves
– be evaluated, too. In this case the typically close
connection of evaluation with the utilitarian phi-
losophy (HOFFE 1975) can be attenuated (see also
ARNOLD 1997b).
5.4.1.2 Paradigms of Evaluation Research
The diversity of the roots of evaluation research
is mirrored in a great variety of methodologies
and rather different conceptions of the aims, in-
cluding the views of the human being. In an op-
position which tries to accentuate the differences
they can be summed up in the two main streams
of the “Conventional Approach” and the “Inter-
pretive Approach” (BUNDESAMT FÜR GESUNDHEIT
(SCHWEIZ) 1979, 72–75).
The second tendency encompasses the “Fourth
Generation Evaluation” and is closely connected
with the approach of “Empowerment Evaluation”
(FETTERMANN /K AFTARIAN / WANDERSMAN 1996; see
also PATTON 1990). But one should appreciate that
particularly in the (vocational) ↑ educational re-
search both paradigms are represented. And in
spite of their, at first sight, seemingly strong op-
position often combinations of both can be found.
This was already proposed by Habermas (1969)
who tried, in this way, to reduce the “conflict about
↑ value judgements” (“Werturteilsstreit” accord-
ing to Max Weber) which later was called “conflict
about positivism”. Bortz and Döring (2003, 298)
also stress that the opposing “poles” of approach-
es should not be seen as mutually exclusive. They
view them, however, primarily in terms of method-
828
ology (“opposition of quantitative and qualitative
methods”, ibid.), and here the systematic “↑ Tri-
angulation” (MAYRING 1990) is indeed rather the
rule than the exemption. But to talk about differ-
ent paradigms goes way beyond the issue of meth-
odology. An approach of a “polar dialectic” con-
nection of these oppositions has been developed
by Heidegger (1987). He proposes, in contrast to
the rather common diffuse “relativism”, to estab-
lish explicitly strictly defined relations of the con-
tradictory propositions.
In a very rough delimitation the “Conventional Ap-
proach” is, with respect to the theory of scientific
investigations, connected with the tradition of pos-
itivism (Auguste Comte) and those of pragmatism,
logical empirism, critical rationalism and, partic-
ularly for (vocational) education, the tradition of
behaviourism (WESTERMANN 2000). Because these
schools of thought represent, in spite of all their
differences, the basis of the “main stream” of ac-
ademic research in the ↑ humanities and the social
sciences the concept of “Conventional Approach”
was formulated. The “Interpretive Approach”, on
the other hand, is rooted in the hermeneutic “un-
derstandig” (according to Wilhelm Dilthey) and is
based on theories of the research areas of ↑ phe-
nomenology, symbolic interactionism and ↑ eth-
nomethodology (BORTZ / DÖRING 2003, 300–307).
Nowadays it is also related to (“moderate”) ↑ con-
structivism and tries to extract, according to the
“Grounded Theory” (GLASER / STRAUSS 1967), the-
oretical constructs out of the systematized ex-
periences themselves. Therefore it can be, in the
German perspective, seen as an example of the
“Geisteswissenschaften” (similar to the “↑ Hu-
manities” in the Anglo-Saxon tradition). On the
contrary the “Conventional Approach” aims at
testing hypotheses which have been established
beforehand. It is based on a view of the human
being which supposes that human behaviour can,
in principle, be understood in terms of scientific
laws rather similar to those of the natural scienc-
es (“quasi-laws”). Especially within ↑ evaluation
research the neutrality with respect to values is
stressed when this research is carried through “on
demand” of a “customer” commissioning it who
does not belong to the field of activities in question
(WOTTAWA / THIERAU 2003, 32 f.). The “Interpretive
Handbook of TVET Research
Approach”, on the other hand, accentuates the in-
separability of values and the perception of “facts”.
The researcher involves himself in the issues of the
research “field” and aims at an egalitarian relation
to the people to be investigated while, in the other
case, a conscious ↑ distance is established in order
to secure the ↑ objectivity of the research results
(see LAMNEK 1993).
5.4.1.3 Clarification of Concepts
Evaluation research has, particularly in the ↑ USA,
been developed to become an established prop-
er research area where even an own ↑ occupa-
tional profile has been defined. The education of
this “Evaluation Professional” is closely connect-
ed with psychology in the “empirical-analytical”
tradition (HABERMAS 1969). In view of the com-
prehensive inventory of methods of evaluation re-
search only a few central delimitations of concepts
can be outlined.
Input – Process – Output – Outcome
Evaluation can investigate
– which resources of personnel, curricula, equip-
ment etc. (“Input”) are available (also called
“Structural Evaluation”),
– in how far the processes are in compliance with
externally or internally predefined standards (pos-
sibly based on similar processes somewhere else),
– to which degree the planned effects (of learn-
ing) – “Output” – have been achieved. Particularly
within the evaluation in connection with the activ-
ities of ↑ quality management of educational insti-
tutions one tries, in addition, to estimate the “Out-
come” (SEEBER 2000a). For the learning success
should lead to good achievements in future (occu-
pational) life. These effects which are to be found
only in the future are called “outcome”. Natural-
ly they can, for methodological reasons, measured
merely with great difficulties (→ 5.4.3). “Outcome”
is supposed to be rooted in the “competences” (ca-
pabilities) which have been developed (BERGMANN /
FRITSCH / GÖPFERT ET AL. 2000). In contrast to the
Anglo-Saxon terminology “internal dispositions”
are here at issue. For measuring these obviously
particularly great problems arise.
Research Methods
Criteria of Quality
As in the empirical social sciences in general the
three conventional criteria of quality are also of
relevance for evaluation research (see for the fol-
lowing HELMKE 2003, 87 f.):
– Objectivity: This construction relates to the de-
gree to which different judging people arrive at
the same result. This goal which is decisive for the
“Conventional Approach” can be best achieved by
quantitative methods. Qualitative methods imply
inevitably a – more or less – high degree of subjec-
tivity which is, however, in the “Interpretive Ap-
proach” perceived as particularly productive.
– Reliability: This is meant to indicate how far the
evaluation is “correct”. It is measured according
to the degree to which a repetition of an evalua-
tion arrives at the same result. Because most of the
“facts” which are to be evaluated – training cours-
es or teachers’ judgements etc. – are man-made
they change, as evaluation objects, often within a
short time-span. The “Interpretive Approach” tries
to avoid this dilemma through employing methods
of “deep hermeneutics” as it is called in the Ger-
man tradition.
– Validity: This criterion tries to indicate the ex-
tent to which that which is evaluated is at the same
time the feature that one really wants to know
about. Because of the high complexity of human
thinking, acting and behaving here great difficul-
ties arise too. The quantitively oriented ↑ evalua-
tion research which is inspired by psychology has
developed a very differentiated inventory of meth-
ods (BORTZ / DÖRING 2003) in order to secure the
validity it’s outcomes. The qualitative methods, on
the other hand, also cannot avoid this problem, not
even by highly elaborated methodical means (OEV
ERMANN /A LLERT / KONAU / K RAMBECK 1979). For the
factor subjectivity (BORTZ / DÖRING 2003, 302 f.)
which is at the foundation of this approach repre-
sents also a limitation.
Beside many further differentiations (SCHNELL /
HILL / ESSER 1992, 149 ff.) for vocational education
research also the difference between internal and
↑ external validity is of importance (COOK / SHADISH
1994; PATRY 1991b). ↑ Internal validity indicates
the extent to which alterations of the dependent
variables can be attributed to the effect of the in-
dependent variables. But this presupposes a clear
829
separation of the two kinds of variables which is
strictly speaking mainly possible for laboratory
experiments. Here however, it is usually difficult
to secure the external validity. This means that the
result can be transferred to other circumstances.
Because this is, for ↑ educational research, a near-
ly indispensable requirement here “quasi-experi-
mental” investigations in the “field” are very com-
mon. “↑ Field research” in the strict sense, howev-
er, takes place in “natural” surroundings which are
influenced by the researcher as little as possible.
Formative – Summative
The evaluation can, on the one hand, aim at as-
sessing the results of interventions but also those
of everyday processes like – in ↑ VET research –
teaching during the whole duration of an appren-
ticeship. This is called “summative” evaluation.
On the other hand, evaluation can more or less reg-
ularly accompany those processes and “reflect” the
results “back” to the actors. It’s task is to support
these processes and, in this way, often the develop-
ment of the whole institution, it forms them. This
is called “formative” evaluation (SCRIVEN 1980).
In the research concerning model experiments and
for ↑ quality management this formative evaluation
is pre-eminent in order to assist in improving the
processes involved. In the case of quality manage-
ment, however, as well as for international com-
parative investigations also summative evaluation,
carried through in regular intervals, can contribute
to improvements.
Quality Standards for Processes of Evaluation
In the ↑ USA in 1975 the “Joint Committee on
Standards for Educational Evaluation” was estab-
lished which encompasses scientists and represent-
atives of teachers’ associations, school principals
and monitoring authorities (MERTENS 2000). In the
year 1994 (SHADISH / NEWMAN / SCHEIRER / WYE 1995)
it has published the “Program Evaluation Stand-
ards” (1994; JOINT COMMITTEE ON STANDARDS FOR
EDUCATIONAL EVALUATION / SANDERS 1999), and also
Standards of Evaluation of Teachers (1988) as well
as “Student Evaluation Standards” (2003). The
German Association for Evaluation (“Deutsche
Gesellschaft für Evaluation – “DeGEval”) which
830
was founded later has, in the year 2002, agreed
upon similar standards (DeGEval 2004). Accord-
ingly evaluation should exhibit four basic features:
usefulness, feasibility, fairness, exactness (ibid., 1).
They encompass three to nine subcriteria, amongst
them for usefulness the transparency of values and
for fairness a complete (and fair) assessment.
5.4.1.4 External Evaluation (by Others)
Versus Internal (Self-) Evaluation
In the discussions in the literature, but also in the
“field” the evaluation by others was – as a sys-
tematic method – prevailing until recently. Ex-
ternal (evaluation) experts who do not belong to
the field to be investigated judge the success of the
“objects” of evaluation. Usually research “on de-
mand” is concerned, like for the ↑ OECD ↑ com-
parative studies or – although in a more open con-
ception – for the research on model experiments in
↑ vocational pedagogy. Comparative investigations
on the macro level can only be carried through in
the form of external evaluation research. For mod-
el experiments the enhancement of ↑ objectivity is
at issue as is the case for evaluations within the
framework of ↑ quality management (→ 5.4.1.6).
The people whose activities are to be evaluated
can, of course, be included in the planning and the
assessment of the results. This is rather common
on the meso and the micro level. For an evalua-
tion which is not designed together with the peo-
ple concerned will often neglect decisive contex-
tual conditions and orientations for acting. Meth-
ods which allow for ↑ participation of the people
concerned are called “participatory ↑ evaluation
research” (COUSINS 1996). On the one hand one
expects a higher degree of validity, on the other
hand the degree of objectivity can be diminished
through stronger participation (SHAW 1999). In or-
der to avoid that the evaluators usually keep some
↑ distance to the processes in the “field”.
It is however possible and often practiced to re-
duce this distance even more and to proceed to
“Action Research” (STANGL 2004). In this concep-
tion, developed already more than 50 years ago
by Lewin for organisational theory, research and
action are intertwined, that is recognising, inter-
preting and changing a problem situation. Action
research connects participation, communication
Handbook of TVET Research
between researchers and the people to be inves-
tigated in a mutual learning and common reflec-
tion process, structured like a dialogue (R EASON /
BRADBURY 2001). The conscious bias of the re-
searcher is thought to strengthen the emancipa-
tory features of this paradigm which is connect-
ed with the “Interpretive Approach” of evalua-
tion research. Distance of the researcher and ac-
tive involvement can, however, be kept in a balance
(HEIDEGGER /DRESCHER / GERDS / RAUNER 1993; HEI-
DEGGER 1997a, 258). The independence of the peo-
ple concerned is strengthened even more if these
are not externally investigated but if they them-
selves carry through the evaluation of their situa-
tions, activities and their outcomes. This is called
“internal” or ↑ self-evaluation. This is the best way
to realise the aim of carrying through evaluation as
a learning process which is scientifically support-
ed (SLOANE 1999). These activities which are usu-
ally connected with the “Interpretive Approach”
are meant to lead to “Empowerment Evaluation”
(FETTERMANN /K AFTARIAN / WANDERSMAN 1996; see
also CHEMLINSKY/ SHADISH 1997).
This method of (partial) self-evaluation is also im-
portant for quality management particularly in so-
cial organisations (STAHL 1998 b, 33 f.): e. g. ↑ voca-
tional schools, training departments in companies,
↑ further education colleges (see WILL / WINTELER /
K RAPP 1987b).
Here the area of ↑ social work played the part of
vanguard. For this field ↑ quality criteria are dif-
ficult to define and the consensus about the rea-
sons of success and failure is contested (BEYWL /
BESTVATER 1998, 34–37). In addition the effects of
interventions in social work can not immediately
be recognized because they appear only at a lat-
er time (K ÄHLER 1999). All these features may
often let external evaluation go astray. (The rea-
sons mentioned apply also, although in an atten-
uated version, to VET.) For the aforementioned
field König (2000, 33 ff.) has outlined a hierarchi-
cal scheme for the management in social organisa-
tions. On the uppermost level amongst other things
the quality management is situated. On a medium
level the ↑ quality assurance is to be found which
encompasses evaluation. Here self-evaluation has
the benefit to counteract this hierarchical pyramid.
For the people concerned are at the same time the
Research Methods
actors and the evaluators and may accept, for this
reason, the perspective of quality management in
so far as it does not enforce external control. All
these features apply also for VET institutions of
all kinds. Therefore some requirements are direct-
ly transferable, like the following ones: The eval-
uation activities (lean, concise, factual) should be
easily to be integrated into the normal ↑ work proc-
ess (BEYWL / BESTVATER 1998, 39). The control of
planning and realisation of the evaluation and the
use of the results is executed by the internal eval-
uators, and the evaluation is voluntary (BEYWL /
BESTVATER 1998, 39; see also Kähler 1999, 93 f.).
This kind of self-evaluation aims at innovations.
The prospects of realisation are favourable since
the concerned actors themselves initiate the whole
process which can be called “shaping oriented
strategy for innovations” (HEIDEGGER 1997a).
5.4.1.5 Criteria for Comparison
Orientation towards Sample Groups for Com-
parison
A rigorous understanding of scientific accounta-
bility, in the sense of the empirically and analyt-
ically oriented “Conventional Approach”, is best
achieved by ↑ evaluation designs which employ ex-
periments. They are suitable particularly for the
evaluation of interventions which are limited in
time and content, like single courses encompass-
ing specific contents, methods and media. For
evaluating the effects of such a “treatment” one
forms, in order to secure “control”, a sample group
which often is attending the customary course.
The two groups are “randomised”, that is the in-
dividual members of the groups are selected by
chance. After the pre-test the test after the “treat-
ment” in the laboratory experiment shows the dif-
ferences if any. But it is by no means sure that the
differences can be attributed to a causal relation
to the treatment even if they are statistically sig-
nificant. For variables like the personality of the
teacher or social processes in the group of learn-
ers, which are possibly not connected with the dif-
ferent forms of the courses, can be equally respon-
sible for the differences. These “intervening varia-
bles” can be controlled only with great difficulties.
This is the reason for the “deficiency in technolo-
831
gy” in education as it was called by Luhmann and
Schorr (1979).
Helmke (2003) has summed up the state of the art
of relating different methods of evaluating with an-
other, like systematic evaluation and judgement of
the teacher etc. (see also PATRY 1991b). In ↑ VET
research, particularly within research on teach-
ing-learning connections, the “quasi-experimen-
tal” design is usually preferred, that is a situation
where the groups are “naturally” formed. The ob-
ject to be investigated is then e. g. the already ex-
isting class in a vocational school. The advantage
is that one keeps closer to the field, e. g. the organ-
isational structure of the college. Thus the expec-
tation is better founded that the results should be
transferable to other classes or schools.
Orientation towards Standards
All methods which are related to the “Convention-
al Approach” are bound to carry through compari-
sons. If not an intervention limited in content and
time is at issue so called “standards” are taken as
criteria for comparison. The best known example
is PISA where the standards have been designed
especially for this inquiry. Standards as such are
of course not really new. They are usually repre-
sented by the items of the conventional test, partic-
ularly if it is centrally organized. For example for
the theoretical part of the examination in the Ger-
man ↑ dual system the test items are clearly defined
through the so called “PAL” register. The practical
examination is also in most cases structured ac-
cording to central rules.
The new features of the movement towards stand-
ards are therefore due to the goal of internation-
alization of VET and the international VET re-
search (GONON 1998). Common standards, partic-
ularly for the EU, are to be developed which should
bring about the possibility of comparing the occu-
pationally related capabilities of learners and em-
ployees, and that across different countries and on
various levels. Here for VET research a branch of
↑ evaluation research is growing which is support-
ed by the EU Commission. Because of the vari-
ance of the ↑ VET systems in the member states
this evaluation will focus on output even more than
in the case of general education (see RUDORF 2001;
LIPSMEIER 2001). Problems are arising according
832 Handbook of TVET Research

to the following questions: Who defines the stand- velopment” (in German: “Qualität durch Evalu-
ards and especially the aims that they are thought ation und Entwicklung”). Because the model is
to represent? How can the interrelation between based on an scientific inventory of the state of the
aims, content and methods be incorporated in the arts (GONON / HÜGLI / LANDWEHR ET AL. 2001) and
standards? How are the cultural and social peculi- aims at systematic evaluation, to be improved in
arities to be taken into account? the course of it’s dissemination, it can be seen as
an important step in the development of ↑ evalua-
5.4.1.6 Quality Management and Evaluation tion research for this area.
at Vocational Schools The basis is systematic self-evaluation of the school
as an “holistic” institution (LANDWEHR / STEINER /
During the last years this issue has become of great
K ELLER 2003). It tries, via the rather independent
importance for evaluation research (KMK 2003).
design of a common vision of the mission of the
According to the common, although also contest-
institution, to render the ↑ participation of the act-
ed, tendencies towards deregulation of societal
ing people concerned possible. This should be se-
structures the efforts increasingly gain relevance
cured afterwards, through introducing feedback
to enhance the autonomy of the individual schools.
processes which should support common learning
This was, however, already also an aim of the dif-
(LANDWEHR 2003) although instruments carrying
ferent phases of “reform pedagogy”. For ↑ voca-
that through are mostly predefined. This self-eval-
tional schools it is particularly important to co-op-
uation, oriented towards development, which is
erate with the regional industry and have regard
called “primary evaluation” (LANDWEHR / STEINER
to regional social circumstances. While in some
2003, 29 ff.) is to be combined with external eval-
countries schools are already autonomous in many
uation by others. The latter represents ↑ meta-eval-
others the legal preconditions are in the process of
uation in the sense of the evaluation of a quality
development (e. g. in Germany the transformation
management system which is itself based on evalu-
of vocational schools to “regional VET centres”).
ation. This should on the one hand strengthen the
But then the public responsibility for the ↑ quality
innovation potential within the schools, by enhanc-
development of the activities of these institutions
ing the validity of the self-evaluation. On the other
becomes even more important. To secure the ade-
hand it is intended to give an account of one’s work
quacy of their aims is still an obligation of the pub-
to others. It is not denied that these two functions,
lic authorities, particularly with respect to “educa-
orientation towards development and rendering ac-
tion” (in the strict sense) within VET. These aims
countability, which are inherent in evaluation, are
are in the interest of all stakeholders, including be-
partly at variance (STEINER / LANDWEHR 2003, 27).
sides the students and teachers in the schools al-
Similar models are in the process of testing,
so parents, companies and regional authorities.
e. g. in some German States (see “STAATSINSTI-
That is in accordance with the ideas about “New
TUT FÜR SCHULPÄDAGOGIK UND BILDUNGSFORSCHUNG
Public Management” (DUBS 1996c). For that the
MÜNCHEN 2003”). After a pilot testing it is planned
model of the “European Foundation for ↑ Quali-
to carry through an external “evaluation in the
ty Management” (“EFQM”, BEHRENS / ESSER 2003)
team” (EVIT), similarly to Q2E all 5 to 6 years
is used, but also still the conventional ISO stand-
(for the German State of Schleswig-Holstein see:
ards. Their transferability to (vocational) schools
MBWFK 2003, 4).
is scrutinized (GONON 2003) and sometimes the
adaptability of instruments of industrial ↑ quality
5.4.1.7 Transfer of Innovative Interventions:
management is also called in question (TENBERG,
“Transformation Evaluation”
R. 2003). In view of these challenges systems of
quality management are introduced which usual- For the evaluation ↑ research in VET not only
ly combine ↑ self-evaluation with external evalua- the evaluation in the framework of quality man-
tion. The Swiss model “Q2E” (STEINER / LANDWEHR agement is important, but also the evaluation of
2003) has proved to be influential for that. “Q2E” planned innovations. This kind of evaluation of
is short for “Quality through Evaluation and De- innovations limited, in the first instance, in scope
Research Methods
and time looks similar to the dominant, psycholog-
ically oriented perception of evaluation. It is how-
ever typical for the latter kind of research that con-
cepts like transfer or dissemination are usually not
mentioned. But for ↑ VET research at last mainly
results are of relevance which can be transferred to
other cases (see PATRY 2000). The issue of trans-
ferability is central for the value of the research
concerning model experiments. For it has turned
out that model experiments, that is specific, lim-
ited innovations outside the usual working con-
ditions, depend strongly on just these exceptional
conditions. Thus it is often difficult to transfer the
results to the everyday activities somewhere else.
Therefore the usefulness of entire programmes of
model experiments in VET (e. g. in Germany) has
sometimes been called in question.
In a specific model experiment (in the German
State of “North-Rhine-Westphalia”) the scientif-
ic advisers tried to expand the scope of ↑ evalua-
tion research. It should not only assist (in a “form-
ative” manner) the ↑ innovation processes and eval-
uate (in a “summative” way) the results. Rather it
should, from the very beginning, explore what
features may support or hamper the transfer of
successful innovations. This kind of investiga-
tions which is oriented towards transfer is called
“↑ transformation evaluation” (HEIDEGGER 1997a).
Transfer cannot mean that the results of a mod-
el experiment can directly be applied somewhere
else. For in another social system the conditions
for realising the innovations are different. There-
fore one should aim at a transfer process where the
next “users” adapt the results so that they are com-
patible with their own objectives and their specific
circumstances. That is, they have to transform the
results into a new shape.
In these kinds of model experiments development
processes and particularly the social actors are at
the centre of interest. Therefore these actors with
their perceptions and objectives should be provid-
ed, through evaluation, with incentives for reflec-
tion about the conditions, possibilities and limita-
tions, of the intended innovation (ibid., 270–281).
Particularly the “neuralgic areas” are to be found,
that is those areas where it is decided if the inno-
vation process goes on or, on the contrary, may
even reverse it’s path. These areas are, in the en-
833
tire “field” of the innovation (LEWIN 1982), closely
interacting, they can stimulate or impede each oth-
er. As long as the innovation is limited to a partic-
ular area the association of all the areas will rather
inhibit the progression because it threatens the ex-
isting equilibrium, similar to the process of cogni-
tive development (PIAGET 1976; 1980). Only if the
innovations in various areas support each other a
threshold can be surmounted on the pathway to a
new equilibrium. The transformation evaluation
therefore inquires, within the areas which are rec-
ognized as “neuralgic”, into the possibilities and
limitations of actions which may further or hinder
the surmounting of the thresholds.
5.4.2 Participative Quality
Assurance
Philipp Gonon
As late as at the early 1990s, both ‘quality’ and its
‘assurance’ were virtually unknown concepts in the
educational sciences. In the wake of control pro-
cedures at operational level, quality assurance be-
came part of advanced training, where it developed
into a management concept. Furthermore, quality
assurance ties in with concepts of ↑ quality circle
meetings in companies, which were discussed as
early as the 1970s. In the meanwhile, quality as-
surance has become a comprehensive requirement
for all sectors of the education system and is hence
of interest also to educational research.
Quality assurance in the context of vocational ed-
ucation involves a multitude of levels and problem
areas. Virtually all aspects of the education sys-
tem, from single teaching-learning interactions to
the total system on a national level, can be consid-
ered from the point of view of quality assurance.
For Herwig Blankertz, attempts at challenging
the institutionalised division between grammar
school and vocational education as well as over-
coming the narrow pragmatic orientation of edu-
cation had already been indicative of “↑pedagog-
ical quality” (BLANKERTZ 1983b, 809 f.). Yet, the
kind of quality assurance that has been established
since the 1990s has been linked more closely to in-
stitutional processes, relating to firms and compa-
834
nies as much as to educational and social institu-
tions (KÖPP / NEUMANN 2003). A question which has
so far attracted only little attention concerns the
scope for participation of teachers and learners in
educational contexts.
5.4.2.1 Terminology
Participation
Participation not only means to take part, but it al-
so refers to the ↑ co-management of designing ar-
rangements and processes affecting oneself and
others. The crucial aspect is the involvement in
problem solving and decision making processes.
The degree of participation depends, for example,
on the general conditions of the specific context.
Especially in the context of education and voca-
tional training, questions of involvement and par-
ticipation in decision making processes are of cru-
cial importance, since the relationship between ed-
ucator and pupil, and between employer and em-
ployee is normally asymmetric. In view of the dif-
ferences in power, knowledge, skills and freedom
of action one may ask to what extent such discrep-
ancies should be supported, preserved, strength-
ened, or rather minimised and maybe even abol-
ished. The concept of participation is based on the
minimisation of such differences, or as the case
may be, it at least demands some valid justification
for differences in responsibilities, i.e., for some-
one’s exclusion from decision making and respon-
sibilities. Participation as a requirement is based
on the notions of fairness and equity, even justice
(RAWLS 2003, 43 ff.). This requirement is not re-
stricted to the public political sphere, but extends
to the economy (KUPER 2004), to scientific re-
search and education.
Quality and quality assurance
The notion of ‘quality’ enjoys a long tradition and
is usually paraphrased as ‘essential character’,
‘distinguishing attribute’ or ‘inherent feature’. In
more recent understandings, an evaluative compo-
nent has been added to these attributes. Since the
1990s, the notion of quality has been established
as a key concept of a market- and user-oriented un-
derstanding of education (ARNOLD 2001, 270). As
Handbook of TVET Research
a consequence, quality aspects are no longer de-
rived exclusively from within the subject matter,
but are increasingly brought forward from outside
the immediate context (HEID 2000, 48). This de-
velopment, and in particular the emergence of the
notion of quality assurance, make it clear that there
has been a shift of stress, if not a new understand-
ing of quality. Attention is called to customer sat-
isfaction and, in particular, to a focus on process-
es and innovation (GONON ET AL. 1999). Within the
framework of quality assurance, quality needs to
be assessed in order to formulate new standards
with respect to criteria of success and target pa-
rameters. In this connexion, educational institu-
tions are usually required – on their own respon-
sibility – to provide a comprehensive quality man-
agement (BRACKMANN 2003, 234).
This new concept of quality does not replace the
traditional understanding, as, for example, Harvey
and Green have noted. Quality continues to play
a role as the nimbus of education at elite univer-
sities and colleges, in the sense of exclusiveness,
which represents an understanding of quality in its
own right. Excellence as a claim to surpass high
standards equals an understanding of quality that
is surely in line with the one held in the tradition-
al education system (HARVEY/ GREEN 2000, 19).
However, quality can also mean to be in accord-
ance with standards. Components of quality assur-
ance can be flawlessness and perfection, as well as
consistency and usefulness with regard to the en-
quirers’ requirements and the demands of the in-
stitution.
Participative quality assurance
The compound ‘participative quality assurance’
is not a well-established term, neither in the dis-
course on quality as such nor in the pedagogical
literature. Therefore, it is hardly surprising that
even in recent educational encyclopaedias and
handbooks both ‘participation’ as well as ‘quality
assurance’ lack entries of their own, and are rare-
ly present even as keywords. According to the En-
zyklopädie Erziehungswissenschaften, in connex-
ion with the discussion on democratisation in the
school context, participation is usually used syn-
onymously with co-operation, and both terms are
used to denote the teachers’, pupils’ and parents’
Research Methods
rights to hearings, counselling, making propos-
als, being informed, and active participation (ROST
1995, 505).
An exception with regard to the prominence of the
notion of participation can be found in the context
of adult education and further education. Accord-
ing to Siebert, it is a traditional matter of course
that adult education is voluntary and that the par-
ticipation of the learners is therefore necessary for
the discussion of the curriculum. Consequently,
any legitimation of ↑ learning targets and methods
without a discussion with and among the partic-
ipants is problematic, particularly in participant-
and problem-oriented courses. Even the objection
that such opportunities for participation are typi-
cally only used by few, particularly active partici-
pants is not valid. Still, the participation principle
is not to be understood as a central demand, but can
be put back in favour of a scientific basis (SIEBERT
1995, 175 f.). In ↑ adult pedagogics, participation is
closely related to active student involvement, and
is furthermore determined as the purpose of so-
cial partaking (cf. GNAHS 1997). Thus, participa-
tion is a principle of education (SIEBERT 1994, 650);
in the form of ‘participative learning’ it should also
be part of societal and social processes (LENHART/
MAIER 1994, 487) as well as of the configuration
of technological aspects in firms (DOBISCHAT 1994,
596).
Analogue applications are quite conceivable for
quality assurance as well, since one aspect of qual-
ity assurance is the degree of involvement and par-
ticipation of all parties concerned. This under-
standing of quality assurance counts on a construc-
tive attitude geared towards problem solving of all
employees, rather than delegating the responsibil-
ity of quality control to specialists or the manage-
ment (cf. GONON 1999, 76). Especially in further
education, such learner-oriented concepts of qual-
ity are increasingly being tried out.
5.4.2.2 Quality, quality circle meetings, quali-
ty assurance and vocational education
↑ traditional quality: quality avant la lettre
Quality plays a significant role in vocational edu-
cation. Mastery of a trade depends on sound vo-
835
cational training. The tradition of apprenticeship
training and a number of other customs and ar-
rangements in trade guilds, cooperatives, and later
also in chambers and syndicates aimed at impart-
ing high quality knowledge and skills as well as
trade-specific attitudes on work ethic, lifestyle and
cosmopolitanism (WISSELL 1929). High quality vo-
cational education does not only serve to preserve
professions and ↑ branches of trade, but is gener-
ally thought to contribute to economic prosperi-
ty for the whole society (PORTER 1991). It is espe-
cially the economic revival and the high product
standards in German-speaking countries that are
related to the there prevalent “↑ dual system” and
that is seen as a competitive advantage (BIERHOFF /
PRAIS 1997). ↑ traditional quality assurance has al-
ways involved the statutory provisions regarding
initial and further training, in particular with re-
gard to regulations on education and auditing, but
also with regard to the professionalising of teach-
ers and instructors.
These well established claims have come to be re-
lated to the notion of quality, for example, in the
reformulation of the “Quality Charter of Higher
Engineering Education for Industry” for the coun-
tries of the European Union (RUDORF 2001) or of
“Didactics as the core of pedagogical professional-
ism” as quality assurance (LISOP 1998).
↑ quality circle meetings and vocational edu-
cation
In the 1970s, the concept of ↑ quality circle meet-
ings attracted considerable attention. It had been
conceived as a tool of human resources and organ-
isational development, intended for lower rank em-
ployees in industrial firms. The idea was that small
groups consisting of employees with different occu-
pational qualifications should come up with hands-
on and improved solutions to practical problems.
Like that, ↑ quality circle meetings should enable
participative decision making and add to the cre-
ation of a sound and convenient working environ-
ment. Successful results had been obtained by the
use of this method in larger firms.
Employee participation in the world of work is not
only considered as a contribution to the quality of
work and the firm’s competitiveness, but also as
an essential component of the competitive capaci-
836
ty of Europe quite generally (BIAGI 2002). Howev-
er, one of the problems of participative quality im-
plemented in this way is its weak institutionalisa-
tion within the firms. Apart from a lack of continu-
ity, this approach also generates winners as well as
losers of the participation process (GREIFENSTEIN /
JANSEN /K ISSLER 1993, 165 ff.). A common criti-
cism of ↑ quality circle meetings is that they usual-
ly act less as a vehicle for democratisation than as a
short-term measure – and consequently as a rather
precarious factor – in a fi rm’s modernisation proc-
ess (GREIFENSTEIN /JANSEN /K ISSLER 1993, 338).
“New quality” finding its way into vocational
education
Independent of this debate, a second kind of de-
velopment of a new understanding of quality can
be observed. Due to a shortage of financing of ed-
ucation, quality assurance is of increasing strate-
gic importance. With resources running short, the
educational system and all educational measures
should still adapt to the changing social and eco-
nomic circumstances. Quality could no longer be
understood to orient only towards ‘internal’ norms,
as had traditionally been the case. “In search for
quality”, it is especially external expectations and
a certain pressure towards the abolishment of uni-
formity of education which are the main issues
(INFORMELLE GRUPPE DER ARBEITGEBERVEREINIGUN-
GEN 2000).
Since the 1990s, the quality debate has been char-
acterised by the so-called ‘↑ comparative quality’,
which is geared to the needs of the enquirers and
customers. Comparisons offer a stronger incentive
to take the enquirers’ favour into account. It is par-
ticularly in this respect that systematic quality as-
surance is of central importance. Thus, quality is
made into a ↑ task for the management. The per-
spective of quality management can therefore be
regarded as a new dimension of quality, one which
focuses more on the overall performance of educa-
tional institutions than on the quality of the actual
classes (BERGHE 1998, 22).
Handbook of TVET Research
Vocational education, ↑ internationalisation
and quality assurance
In vocational education as in other areas it was in-
ternational developments which posed the ques-
tion of quality in a novel way. Comparisons have
played a vital role also with respect to internation-
alisation (GONON 1998). The development of in-
ternational indicators is a relatively recent phe-
nomenon, despite the fact that such organisations
like the OECD, UNESCO and Eurostat have re-
corded data on education and formation in Eu-
rope for quite some time (BERGHE 1998, 27). It was
like this, for example, that the European Training
Foundation defined indicators of vocational educa-
tion and training, which in the context of the “key
indicator project” are meant to point towards prob-
lems and development trends of the vocational ed-
ucational systems of the European member states
(ibid.: 40 ff.). Moreover, there is also a list of in-
dicators with regard to the ‘↑ efficiency’ of the na-
tional vocational educational systems as a piece of
evidence of quality (LIPSMEIER 2001, 50). A prime
motive for attending to quality assurance is there-
by found in aspects regarding the recognition and
comparability of degrees (ZIMMER 1995b).
In contrast, the analysis “Qualitätsentwicklun-
gen in der beruflichen Bildung durch lokale
Netzwerke” (“↑ quality development in vocation-
al education by means of local networks”), pub-
lished in 1999, focused on aspects of innovation
(SEYFRIED /KOHLMEYER / FURTH-RIEDESSER 1999).
Chances of an “improvement in quality in voca-
tional education” are seen especially in local net-
works, since they allow the regional actors to de-
velop common objectives and realisations (ibid.:
64 f.).
5.4.2.3 Topics and areas in quality assurance
in vocational education
Quality assurance has only just begun to attract at-
tention in vocational pedagogy. Yet, stronger in-
tervention is considered necessary, particularly be-
cause relevant decisions, like the allocation of re-
sources and reforms, are closely linked to the top-
ic of quality.
Research Methods
Topics of quality assurance
There is an immense variety of problem formu-
lations related to quality assurance. For exam-
ple, vocational environment education, based on
an information centre, is also referred to as qual-
ity assurance (GESELLSCHAFT FÜR BERUFLICHE UM-
WELTBILDUNG 1996), just as is the case for equali-
ty of opportunity for women in vocational training
and further education (JUNGKUNZ 1997) or quali-
ty assurance in vocational training cooperation
(ARNOLD 2002). However, in connection with vo-
cational education there are two dominating are-
as which relate to quality assurance, namely ad-
vanced training and ↑ vocational schools.
Advanced training
While the vantage point for the new efforts of
quality assurance had at first been advanced in-
house training, the concerns of quality manage-
ment have now become “universalised” (SEVER-
ING 1999 b, 154). After an “initial ISO-euphoria”,
more differentiated forms of quality management
have come to be preferred in advanced in-house
training (STAHL 1998 b, 33). A general survey of
European firms reveals that participative methods,
including elements of self-assessment, are consid-
ered particularly necessary (STAHL 1998 a, 48). Ac-
cording to the understanding of quality in the con-
text of ↑ adult pedagogy, this notion is closely re-
lated to “professionalism and an accompanying
ethics” (GIESECKE 1997, 42). Furthermore, empha-
sis is also laid on “applied dialogic ↑ quality devel-
opment” (“dialogische Qualitätsentwicklung im
Feld”) (MEISEL /KÜCHLER 1999).
↑ vocational schools
Quality assurance is an issue at ↑ vocational schools
and on the level of secondary school (Sekunda-
rstufe II) (STAMM 1998), and is also discussed in
connection with the formation of vocational peda-
gogues (SEEBER 2000c). Quality in schools, includ-
ing ↑ vocational schools, is usually understood as
a ↑ management task. Measures of quality assur-
ance are often only in a test stage and are further-
more related to broader questions of school auton-
omy. An example thereof is the large-scale trial of
a network model which includes the ↑ vocational
837
schools of Bayern, Rheinland-Pfalz and Schleswig
Holstein, and in which quality assurance accord-
ing to ISO-norms and EFQM-models (European
Foundation for Quality Management) is put to the
test (STAATSINSTITUT FÜR SCHULPÄDAGOGIK UND BIL-
DUNGSFORSCHUNG MÜNCHEN 2003).
In ↑ vocational schools, quality assurance is al-
so considered primarily with regard to advantag-
es and disadvantages of particular implementation
systems (HÜGLI 1998; BEHRENS / ESSER 2003). Time
and again, emphasis is laid on the importance
of offering the teachers the chance of entering a
“process of applied ↑ quality development direct-
ly related to teaching” (TENBERG 2003, 141). It is
impossible simply to prescribe quality; instead of
enforcement it is therefore vital to allow adequate
scope for development (GONON 2003, 21).
Status quo of the discussion on quality assur-
ance
The debate on quality essentially revolves around
questions regarding the implementation of quali-
ty assurance systems. In further education as well
as in ↑ vocational schools, alternatives to the im-
plementation of ‘customary’ quality assurance sys-
tems are considered. Instead of taking over estab-
lished ↑ quality systems in their entirety, only spe-
cific concerns or components are accepted and em-
ployed. Besides deniers of quality assurance sys-
tems there are also quality accumulators and qual-
ity eclectics who combine several systems or com-
ponents of systems. In addition, a number of pro-
viders and consultant agencies offer systems of
quality assurance that are adapted to the specific
users (cf. GONON / HÜGLI / LANDWEHR ET AL. 1999).
Participative aspects in the quality debate
There are indeed approaches that conceptualise or-
ganisational reconfigurations mainly under the as-
pect of ‘team development’, both in the context of
advanced training as well as in the quality discus-
sions at ↑ vocational schools. The teaching staff at
↑ vocational schools is hereby defined as a team
that has to take on structuring and innovation tasks
(NICKLIS 2000, 60). Team building is considered
a significant indicator of process quality. In a tra-
ditional ↑ vocational school environment charac-
838
terised by lone warriors and a lack of constructive
criticism, the development of reflexion and of so-
cial-communicative ways of acting is of particular
importance (FASSHAUER 2000, 92f.).
In the canon of advanced training, explicit plead-
ings for “active participation on the learners’ part”
can be found (K EMPER 1998). Even ↑ quality circle
meetings are considered a part of ↑ quality devel-
opment (NÖTZOLD 2002, 88ff.).
Participative approaches are rarely considered a
prominent topic of quality, even though in many
guides and handbooks they appear as a significant
aspect (BRATER / MAURUS 1998; GONON /KÖHLER /
MATTHIEU / SCHMUCK 2002), to which due attention
should be paid already during the development of
quality projects (STEINER / LANDWEHR 2003).
5.4.2.4 On the current state of research on
quality assurance in vocational edu-
cation
The technical literature on quality assurance is
normally of an applied and practical nature, which
is why a majority of publications on this topic con-
sists of overviews, instructions, codes of prac-
tice and guidebooks (cf. SCHÖNI / TOMFORDE / WICKI
1997).
Recording and documenting collected data indeed
plays an important role in every system of quality
assessment. In this connexion, scientific ↑ evalua-
tion methods are also applied. However, systems
of quality assurance do not primarily aim at con-
tributing to scientific knowledge beyond any im-
mediate practical relevance. Therefore, this kind
of research is considered accompanying research
at best.
The same could be said of research in connexion
with ↑ quality circle meetings, since it could essen-
tially be summarised as the result of self report da-
ta on a qualitatively low empirical level (SEMBILL
1999, 337). Therefore, Antoni’s ↑ survey study on
the question of ↑ quality circle meetings as partic-
ipative group work, published in 1990, finds on-
ly a weak theoretical and empirical basis (ANTO-
NI 1990, 202). Accordingly, in his own four case
studies he was not able to come up with firm find-
ings regarding the consequences of participation
on a company’s operational level (ibid.: 204).
Handbook of TVET Research
There are only few studies on quality assurance in
practice, and their focus is mainly on the perspec-
tive of the institution’s and learners’ organisation-
al and professional development. All the results
found so far indicate that it would be essential to
provide an incentive to lend more weight to partic-
ipation (POSCH 2002, 601). In particular, an inves-
tigation of quality criteria specific to the particular
domain, function and addressee is required (FAUL-
STICH 1991, 580f.).
5.4.2.5 Perspectives of participative quality
assurance
Participative quality assurance is not an explic-
it research topic, and neither is participation in
the centre of attention in the quality debate. The
central issue is the legitimisation of benefits and
the protection of resources in the name of quali-
ty improvement. What would be needed here are
concepts and research results which provide evi-
dence that participative models are indeed supe-
rior to technocratic, authoritative or over-directed,
bureaucratic ones. There are fair chances of such
results actually being found. In other areas of ped-
agogy, this question is formulated more explicitly.
For example, ‘participation as a quality feature’ is
a perspective discussed in ↑ social pedagogics. In
explicit connexion with the quality debate, possi-
bilities for adolescent participation with regard to
codetermination rights are discussed, particularly
with respect to process and output quality (BLAN-
DOW/ GINTZEL / H ANSBAUER 1999, 72). Yet, participa-
tion and quality assurance both share the problem
that little is known of their actual pedagogical ef-
fect (ibid.: 77). The inclusion of pedagogical ad-
dressees means that only the specialists’ technical
standards, but also the co-producers, i.e., the learn-
ers themselves, are considered as contributors to
↑ pedagogical quality (cf. FEND 1998: 378). In this
respect, self-organisation becomes a vital aspect
of quality (ECKMANN 2000). The lack of codeter-
mination in vocational education classes is indeed
considered to have an influence on the quality of
the instruction (SEEBER / SQUARRA 2003, 117).
In the context of a growing tendency towards
school autonomy and the formation of competency
centres for vocational education matters, a demand
for employee-oriented quality management is in-
Research Methods
creasingly being voiced. An unpublished empiri-
cal study on the employee-oriented quality man-
agement in a school found that feedback voiced
and discussed among the teaching staff carried
the largest potential for improvement (MINELLI /
WALLISER 1997, 5). It is considered vital to include
all officials and intra-school agents in quality as-
surance processes (WITTMANN 2003, 369). Like-
wise, the acceptance of model experiments clear-
ly hinges on the participation of the teaching staff
of ↑ vocational schools (BUER 2003, 109). In the
context of advanced training, a utopian retrospec-
tion from the year 2025 identifies “participant sov-
ereignty” as the result of the quality discussion
(GNAHS 1995).
Quality assurance as quality management is main-
ly based on guidance. From this perspective, it is
comprehensible that the concept of participative
methods based on small groups – with ↑ quality
circle meetings as a prominent example – had not
been at the centre of attention, since it was also di-
rected against Taylorist structures and behaviour
patterns (BRANDMEIER 1993, 254).
Having said that, it is by all means possible to un-
derstand the notion of ‘customer’ as offering the
possibility of a participative approach, for exam-
ple, if user-oriented quality aspects, or the perform-
ance quality of educational events are designed to
be central elements (WEYMANN 1995, 125). Qual-
ity as a medium which addresses the performance
expectations of the ‘customers’ as well as of the
headmasters and the teaching staff, or of the man-
agement and the employees (cf. KUPER 2002, 536),
leaves room for participative quality.
5.4.3 Output Orientation as Aspect
of Quality Assurance
Sabine Kurz
Starting in the early 1990s, the debate surround-
ing the quality of education and ↑ efficiency of
education systems has been stirred up by the re-
sults of comparative international studies such as
TIMSS, BIJU and PISA. The subsequent focus on
heightened output control has led to a paradigm
change; from the traditional predominance of in-
839
put control, to one more centred on output (cf. i.a.
AVENARIUS / DITTON / DÖBERT ET AL. 2003; BMBF
2003e; and SPECHT 2002). By means of central
guidelines and resources, input control intends to
raise quality per se, with relatively little focus on
systematic ex post analysis. In contrast, the output
control of learning and teaching processes in edu-
cation is organized along the lines of desired re-
sults and outcomes. One manifestation of this par-
adigm change is the introduction of education-
al standards (BMBF 2003d) which formulate the
competence and skills to be acquired in the educa-
tion process. Parallel to this, we can identify two
international developments that support this shift
of perspective. On the one hand, the issue of how
to test the quality of achievement assumes a new
dimension. This is unfolding in an environment
of increasingly scarce resources and in front of a
backdrop of discussion surrounding increased au-
tonomy and the adequacy and ↑ efficiency of the
use of these resources (compare HEINER 1996), and
the introduction of new decentralized control mod-
els (budgeting, agreement on educational levels).
On the other hand, via initiatives such as the Bo-
logna or ↑ Copenhagen process, an attempt is un-
derway on the EU level to harmonise education-
al achievement and awards with a view to making
the so-called ‘output’ measurable and transferable.
Hence, member states are called upon to contrib-
ute to the core objective of developing “compatible
systems of ↑ quality assurance with respect to the
diversity in Europe” (cf. AMTSBLATT DER EU 2002)
and to implement corresponding systems of qual-
ity assurance based above all on:
“learning outcomes that will enable qualifications and
competence achieved in vocational education and train-
ing to be compared, and that could form the basis of a
European currency in Vocational Education and Train-
ing (VET) qualifications” (cf. EC, E. C. 2003a, 24).
This necessarily entails development of a concept
of quality measurement which can be made quan-
tifiable on the basis of common indicators that de-
fine the system outputs (cf. HUTMACHER 1998). The
concept of quality in the education system is thus
determined from the perspective of multi-level
analysis (FEND 2000; 2001) and is corresponding-
ly centred on the:
– Macro level: education system level;
– Meso level: level of individual institutions;
840
– Micro level: level of learning and teaching pro-
cesses.
Within this context it would, similarly, appear ad-
visable to differentiate different system levels in
order to systematize the various notions and con-
cepts.
According to Döbert (2001), for the macro and
micro levels two tendencies are uppermost in the
quality issue: for the macro level we can observe
the increasing influence that international bench
marks exert on national policy decisions; for the
micro level (just as for the meso level) there is a
growing ↑ commitment to ↑ self-evaluation.
5.4.3.1 Conceptualizations
Output Orientation
The term ‘output’ was originally to be found in the
field of manufacturing and computers. It means
something like yield, capacity, or issuance. When
referring to the field of education, ‘output’ is un-
derstood as the results/the learning outcome (SEE-
BER 2000a). Within a system of ↑ quality manage-
ment, output quality is one of three classic dimen-
sions. These are defined by Donabedian (1982) as
structure quality, process quality and result qual-
ity. Similarly, Meier-Ziegler (1993) talks of input
quality, implementation quality and output quality
(see Fig. 3: Dimension of a comprehensive ↑ quali-
ty assurance system). Here, output quality refers to
the curricular, non-curricular and cross-curricular
impact of the education process.
In education, the notion of output refers to the im-
mediate impact of ↑ educational processes, and
thus to the certification of achievement and the ac-
quisition of formal qualifications and awards, as
well as encompassing the development of qualifica-
tions, competence, value patterns and interpretive
patterns, etc. (cf. AVENARIUS / DITTON / DÖBERT ET AL.
2003; DITTON 2000): whereas the longer-term im-
pacts of ↑ educational processes relate to the no-
tion of outcome (for more on this see → 5.4.3.2).
Hence, output and outcome become crucial as-
pects in the assessment and advancement of ↑ edu-
cational processes and the education system.
Handbook of TVET Research
Quality Assurance
Quality denotes the properties of a product or a
service – which can be either good or bad. Not-
withstanding, the term quality is applied chief-
ly to things which exhibit a high level of quality.
According to Fend, in pedagogical discourse the
concept of quality refers to the “distinction between
something high-grade and something low-grade” (FEND
2000, 56) . Precisely what is deemed to be high grade
is dependant on the context and the expectations of
the persons who apply the term. With reference to
the field of education Harvey/ Green (2000) distin-
guish between the five concepts of quality: excep-
tion, perfection, purposefulness, adequate counter-
value for money, and transformation.
The measurement of quality can be oriented i.a.
to external, self-defined, or customary standards.
It can refer to the flawlessness of products or to
the advancement and empowerment of learners.
This multiplicity of approaches is also evident in
the history of quality assurance. Different defini-
tions underlie the various concepts of quality as-
surance, depending on the branch and respective
focus. Thus Garvin (1984) distinguishes between
product-related, process-related, customer-relat-
ed, and value-related approaches (cf. K AMISKE /
BRAUER 1999; and OTT/ SCHEIB 2002). Quality as-
surance in the field of education functions comple-
mentarily to the concept of ↑ quality development.
It encompasses the entire scope of operative activi-
ties that provide guarantees by means of planning,
↑ controlling and testing the defined quality of de-
livery, training programmes, educational institu-
tions, etc. The systematic approach, encompassing
both quality assurance as well as quality develop-
ment, is known as quality management (cf. HEINER
1996).
Output-Oriented Quality Assurance
So far no conceptual definition of output-oriented
↑ quality assurance exists. Until now, it has neither
been systematized in the discourse on quality, nor
in education research.
Within the context of quality assurance the term
output orientation refers to the aspect of ensur-
ing and testing the results and impacts of educa-
tion processes by means of agreed standards or re-
Research Methods
quirements. Thus output orientation constitutes a
crucial point of reference for quality assurance and
the optimization of education processes. Accord-
ingly, an orientation to output means that the end
results are examined in order to draw conclusions
about the preceding process, the institution or the
underlying system. On the one hand this is done in
order to identify strengths and weaknesses, and on
the other to come up with data and approaches de-
signed to improve education procedures.
The techniques applied differ according to the lev-
el at which the output is to be examined and up-
raised. As a rule, on the micro level it is the effi-
cacy of ↑ teaching and learning processes that is
examined within the context of target/actual com-
parison. This is done with the intention of optimiz-
ing individual education procedures: whereas, on
the macro level, it is data and analyses that are rel-
evant. On the one hand, this serves to record the re-
lation between effect and effort within the context
of ↑ cost-benefit analysis, and on the other hand, to
provide ↑ benchmarks which facilitate ↑ self-eval-
uation of the system. Procedures that incorporate
output orientation in systems of quality assurance
aim at the prospective improvement of the whole
education system.
Today the quality discussion in the field of voca-
tional education and training also encompasses cor-
porate training (for a summary see FEUCHTHOFEN /
SEVERING 1995; SEVERING 1998; 1999 a) methods
and contents of ↑ vocational schools (ALTRICHTER
2000; ALTRICHTER / POSCH 1999; TEMME 2002) and
apprenticeship schemes.
There are a number of quality assurance systems
already in place for vocational training (cf. DUBS
2003; GONON / HÜGLI / LANDWEHR ET AL. 1999), of
which the two most known, DIN ISO 9000 ff. and
EFQM (European Foundation of ↑ Quality Man-
agement), are models for excellence. These two
quality assurance systems have a business-eco-
nomics background and accentuate the importance
of customer orientation and customer satisfaction.
Here, quality assurance aims to ensure that custom-
ers actually receive the quality they expect. Con-
sequently, in order to shape the operative process
it is necessary to define the corresponding objec-
tives and standards based on a concept of customer
satisfaction. To this end the ISO norm (DIN 2000;
841
GONON / HÜGLI / LANDWEHR ET AL. 1999) lays down
procedures and operative instructions in a quality
manual, which is intended to ensure that the proc-
esses and products meet prescribed requirements
(compare GONON / HÜGLI / LANDWEHR ET AL. 1999;
as well as OTT/ SCHEIB 2002). Within this context
Arnold (1997b) points out that ISO is actually en-
suring the system of quality assurance, rather than
the underlying quality as such. The EFQM mod-
el (cf. WUNDERER 2001; GONON / HÜGLI / LANDWEHR
ET AL. 1999; as well as GIETL 2001) specifies ena-
bling and result criteria and evaluates these on the
basis of benchmarks. Hence, whereas both of these
two approaches to quality assurance incorporate
prescribed objectives which refer to the output and
which are derived from output-oriented data, at
the same time they also cover information on input
and process variables. There are still insufficient
empirical ↑ longitudinal studies (for initial studies
see SCHULZ 2003; TENBERG, R. 2003; ROMER 2003)
in order to enable successful adaptation of these
approaches to the field of education (here, espe-
cially, ↑ vocational schools and institutions of ↑ fur-
ther education).
5.4.3.2 Reference to and Demarcation from
Other Research Fields and Concepts
A large number of concepts have been developed
in the area of ↑ controlling, assurance and improve-
ment of products and services. These are frequent-
ly derived from different contexts and they subse-
quently exhibit different foci. However, there are
growing similarities, leading to partial overlap-
ping of concepts drawn from the different fields.
For instance, Witthaus bemoans an “insufficient de-
marcation between the concepts evaluation, quality as-
surance and controlling” (WITTHAUS 2000, 152) . More-
over, on the macro level there are clear references
to system monitoring. In this paper these concepts
will be subjected to closer analysis and scrutinized
in relation to one another.
Output-Oriented Quality Assurance and
Evaluation
Output-oriented ↑ quality assurance in education
bears considerable resemblance to summative eval-
uation. Common to both approaches is that they
842
seek to measure the results at the end of an ↑ edu-
cational process in order to evaluate its success. In
one respect, the compiled data serves to provide le-
gitimation and justification to the outside: internal-
ly it serves to improve the evaluated process and
as decision-making criteria for future programmes
(cf. STOCKMANN 2002).
However, differences between the concepts of
quality assurance and summative evaluation are
apparent with respect to:
– Origin and methodology,
– Temporal perspective,
– The instructing party,
– Internal/external implementation.
Above all, quality assurance has its roots in the
sector of private enterprise, whereas evaluation
emerged mainly in the public sector (as an instru-
ment to evaluate processes). This explains why
the methodological approach in the case of qual-
ity assurance is related more to business econom-
ics, while evaluation leans more on socio-scientific
methods (cf. STOCKMANN 2002; BAMBERG / GUMBL /
SCHMIDT 2000).
With regard to the temporal perspective, quali-
ty assurance has a more encompassing brief com-
pared to evaluation. Whereas evaluation is gener-
ally limited in time, quality assurance represents a
continual process. Thus, evaluation can be consid-
ered as an instrument related to quality assurance,
and quality assurance as a “system of continuative
evaluation” (DITTON 2002).
The responsibility and the brief for quality assur-
ance lie with the decision makers themselves. They
decide on the type, scope and intensity of a system
of quality assurance and are intended recipients of
the results, whereupon they reach continuative de-
cisions. In contrast, though, in the case of evalu-
ation we distinguish between self evaluation and
external evaluation, depending on whom is the in-
structing party and who is to receive the results.
Consequently, it is possible that decisions regard-
ing the consequences of an evaluation may lie out-
side the institution itself. This is similar for inter-
nal and external evaluation. Whereas procedures
relating to quality assurance are as a rule carried
out internally, evaluation is frequently also con-
ducted by external institutions. Since these con-
cepts of evaluation are not yet rigorously defined
Handbook of TVET Research
in pedagogical discourse, a clear arrangement ac-
cording to responsibility and actors (Fig. 1) would
appear to be useful.
Fig. 1: Self-external evaluation (KELLER 2004)
Output-Orientated Quality Assurance and
Education Controlling
Originally, the aim of ↑ education controlling was
to describe corporate training programmes by
means of microeconomic data, using the results
to steer training processes. However, until now the
concept of education controlling has been insuffi-
ciently demarcated from concepts such as evalu-
ation, ↑ performance control or quality assurance.
Another author to point out this conceptual vague-
ness is van Buer (cf. → 5.4.4), who cs the concept
of education controlling as one that reaches be-
yond the practice in companies. In his understand-
ing, education controlling entails the compilation
of measurable indicators of education economics.
This information should serve “as the foundation for
a systematic planning and optimization model” (ibid.).
Following on this definition, education control-
ling therefore also represents a steering instrument
of ↑ quality management on the macro level (see
Fig. 2: Classification of quality concepts and pro-
cedures (according to NISBET 1990). Thus, in Swit-
zerland this view of ↑ education controlling con-
stitutes an important structural element (cf. BBT
2003). Here, education controlling is seen as a
component of quality managements. On the basis
of measurable objectives, in a dynamic compari-
Research Methods
son it records deviations of the actual state from
target state. This then serves to determine the im-
portant influencing factors, and from these to de-
rive proposals for measures designed to raise qual-
ity in the whole area of vocational education and
training (DBK 1999). Ultimately, education con-
trolling is thus seen as an instrument to check
whether the output justifies the input, and it posi-
tions the usefulness of education in relation to the
resources it takes up.
According to Witthaus (2000), education control-
ling should avail itself of both pedagogical and
economic criteria in the development and evalu-
ation of processes of vocational training. With re-
gard to the area of company training, ↑ education
controlling possesses some exceptional features
when compared with ↑ quality assurance in the ed-
ucation sector. For instance, the integration of em-
ployees within their company makes it possible to
determine concrete training targets, which then
exert a crucial influence over the implementation
of training programmes. The success of such pro-
grammes can subsequently be measured on the ba-
sis of changes in behaviour vis à vis the prescribed
aims. (cf. PATRY 2000) In so doing one distinguish-
es between the construction output, transfer and
outcome (SEEBER 2000a).
Output denotes the learning success at the end of a
training measure. It can be ascertained by means
of ↑ performance measurement, e. g. in the form of
oral, written, or practical examinations.
In addition, transfer describes the process of ap-
plying what has been learnt to everyday working
situations. To what extent such a transfer actual-
ly takes place depends on a number of factors –
arising from both the learning situation as well as
the working environment. (cf. PATRY 2000; MANDL
ET AL. 1992). We distinguish between the follow-
ing dimensions of structural effect (cf. SCHÜSSLER
2001):
– the personal dimension, which refers to the char-
acteristics, competences and motivations that de-
termine subjective learning behaviour,
– the situative dimension, which refers to all fac-
tors that accompany the learning and transfer proc-
ess,
– the processual dimension, which refers to the di-
dactical-methodological procedure, the course and
843
the pedagogical approach applied to the training
measure.
Finally, under outcome we understand the long-
term effects of the training measure, which be-
come evident in the execution of tasks within the
working process (WITTHAUS 2000). According to
Witthaus, outcome manifests itself in quantitative
criteria such as increased sales, economies of time,
or reduced absenteeism; as well as “soft” criteria
like workers’ motivation, fundamental willingness
to learn, or an increased sense of responsibility.
This categorization of the results of training pro-
grammes may also be suitable for the orientation
to output in quality assurance.
Output-Orientated Quality Assurance and
System Monitoring
System monitoring is a procedure found on the lev-
el of the total control of education systems and in-
cludes an orientation to output. It entails an insti-
tutionalized observation process (SPECHT 2002) in
education research, in which systematically select-
ed, quality relevant and standardized system indi-
cators “are periodically observed, analysed, illustrated
and evaluated in respect of standards” (ibid., 191). Sys-
tem comparisons, ↑ longitudinal studies of system
development, or bench marks form the basis for
this approach. According to Haider (2002), system
monitoring comprises four elements:
– national and international education ↑ statistics,
containing information on resources/budgets, de-
mographic developments, ↑ participation in educa-
tion, education flows, formal qualifications, ↑ la-
bour markets
– output measurements, cumulative to the end of
the training measure or level of education on the
basis of curricular and cross-curricular content,
– periodical surveys of important issues surround-
ing teaching and learning content
– representative opinion polls within the context
of the education system.
International ↑ comparative studies such as TIMSS,
PISA, i.a., or regularly appearing ↑ statistics like
“Education at a glance” (↑ OECD) compile useful
overviews of the relevant indicators concerning in-
vestment in education (input), possibilities for ap-
plication (process) and results (output).
844
5.4.3.3 The Object of Research
In much the same way as the quality concept, out-
put-orientation can be made the subject of multi-
level analysis. It can thus be construed as an aspect
in the evaluation of education processes, institu-
tions or whole systems. In this respect it is neces-
sary to demarcate the fundamental concepts and
procedures related to quality. Classification can
be along the lines of the “evaluation map” devel-
oped by Nisbet (1990) distinguishing four dimen-
sions (Fig. 2).
The dimension external/internal encompasses
the conflicting priorities of ↑ education control-
ling (macro level) and internal ↑ quality manage-
ment (micro/meso level): the dimension process/
product encompasses the conflicting priorities of
↑ quality development vis-à-vis ↑ quality assurance.
The subsequently derived four quadrants illustrate
‘fields of action’ to which the different procedures
of a quality management designed for the educa-
tion system can be allocated.
Fig. 2: Classification of quality concepts and proce-
dures (according to NISBET 1990)
Regardless of which level is to focus on output ori-
entation, it is necessary to formulate general learn-
ing objectives. The extent to which these objec-
tives are met then becomes the object of output
orientation. Based on the learning aims, standards
must be determined which contain the minimum
competence to be acquired for the qualification at
the end of the training process. According to the
↑ Organisation for Economic Cooperation and De-
velopment (OECD), standards can be defined as
threshold values of similar quantifications that de-
termine what is to be understood as good or sat-
isfactory quality. ↑ Benchmarks, average values,
Handbook of TVET Research
or a best mark may also serve as standards. Basi-
cally one can say that standards describe require-
ments for competence. As such they can also be
defined as ↑ evaluation criteria for outputs. Rhein-
berg (2001) describes three possible gauges:
– The social gauge, where the priority lies on re-
cording inter-individual differences in ↑ perform-
ance,
– The individual gauge, where the priority lies on
tracing intra-individual variances in performance,
– The objective gauge, by means of which individ-
ual performance is evaluated in relation to an ab-
solute standard (see also EBBINGHAUS 2000).
In the area of vocational training in Germany we
apply both input standards (training contents/cur-
ricula, etc.) as well as output standards (learning
results, examination requirements, etc.). Although
the Chambers are obliged by the ↑ Vocational
Training Act to implement quality assurance and
development, the fact remains that the social par-
ties still exert considerable influence on how qual-
itative minimum standards are determined for the
training components in companies. These then ap-
ply as the criteria which determine the standards
the ↑ vocational schools then base their curricular
on.
Currently, indicator systems and bench marks are
receiving particular attention as evaluation crite-
ria for quality in education. The discourse is being
led by countries (England, ↑ France, the Nether-
lands, Sweden, Switzerland) which have long been
in possession of national indicator systems for the
evaluation and measurement of performance and
continuative monitoring of the efficacy of their ed-
ucation systems (cf. DÖBERT 2000).
5.4.3.4 History and Status of Research
The first set of indicators for the education system
to reach beyond the compilation of performance da-
ta was developed in 1973 by the OECD. In the mid
1980s the “education indicators project (INES)”
systematized the results. Since the early 1990s an
annual publication “Education at a glance” has in-
cluded a survey of education data with a focus on
output-oriented datasets containing ↑ ↑ perform-
ance studies based on pupils’ performance (see
ACKEREN 2003). With regard to developing con-
ceptual models for indicator systems in education,
Research Methods
among researchers there is broad consensus on a
categorization based on input-process-output data,
albeit with divergent views concerning the weight-
ing of variables and, frequently, different defini-
tions of the output concept (HERPEN 1994).
Indicator systems can be developed pursuant to the
central approaches (FITZ-GIBBON /KOCHAN 2000;
BOTTANI / TUIJNMAN 1994; DARLING-HAMMOND 1994)
System modelling (indicators which have the func-
tion of describing systems), problem finding (in-
dicators which have an early-warning function)
or target setting (indicators which have a steering
function in matters of education policy).
The extent to which national indicator systems
have been implemented in the different countries
varies greatly. Some countries, for instance Cana-
da, Finland, England, Sweden and the Netherlands
are relatively far advanced, whereas other countries
are still at the beginning (cf. BMBF 2003b, 144).
Individual countries prefer to rely on national
↑ comparative studies, since these provide more in-
sight into the strengths and weaknesses of their ed-
ucation systems and, hence, more impetus to re-
form and to further development than internation-
al comparisons.
Besides carrying out comparative studies, various
institutions have been established in the different
countries to draw up and monitor the adherence
to national ↑ quality standards in schools. So far,
no international equivalents have emerged in the
area of vocational training. This can be traced to
the notably different traditions and the varying ex-
tent to which vocational training is embedded in
national systems of education (cf. LAUTERBACH /
SPÖTTL / FASSHAUER ET AL. 1995–2005) and the mi-
nor priority attached to vocational training in the
international debate, which is dominated by Eng-
lish-speaking countries. Vocational training may
be able to partially draw on the above-mentioned
contexts of developed procedures and instruments,
but due to the special status of vocational training
and its special brief, ↑ quality assurance in voca-
tional training ought not be restricted to such in-
struments (cf. GROLLMANN /KURZ / OTTEN 2004).
845
5.4.3.5 Special Methodological Features and
Implications
If we follow the differentiation of learning success
output, transfer and outcome, (cf. SEEBER 2000a)
the following picture emerges: for both ascertain-
ing the learning success accruing from a training
measure (output) as well as for measuring the ef-
fects of the measure in the working process (out-
come), it is necessary to determine objectives and
indicators, with the help of which it is then possible
to ascertain whether the training measure achieves
the desired result. This calls for the availability of
suitable instruments capable of providing purpose-
ful data so that, in connection with input and feed-
back data, conclusions may be drawn regarding
the education process. Ascertaining the effects of
a training measure is thwart with difficulty, espe-
cially in the work context; since actions never oc-
cur in isolation, but rather are dependant on ad-
ditional context variables whose influence can not
be determined. Besides the intended result, a train-
ing measure can also give rise to unforeseen “side
effects” which may well be of significance for its
evaluation. Hence, it is important to ensure that not
only partial effects are measured (cf. WITTHAUS
2000). A further difficulty which may impede the
ascertaining of outputs/outcomes is that acording
to Ditton (2000)
“on the whole it is not clear on which level […], by means
of which procedure […], on the basis of which evalua-
tion criteria and expectations […] reliable and valid con-
clusions may be drawn […] concerning quality or the ex-
tent to which targets have been achieved”.
Since transfer constitutes a process, as such it can-
not be measured in the sense of the word. Rath-
er, from the outset conditions must be created to
facilitate the transmission of the imparted subject
matter and methods to the work situation (PATRY
2000).
In connection with ascertaining the outcome,
the concept of competence (cf. to the definitions
e.g. ERPENBECK / HEYSE 1999; BERGMANN / FRITSCH /
GÖPFERT ET AL. 2000) assumes a high priority, and
inquiries into the development of competences (for
an overview: WEINERT 1999) and the measurement
of competence take on increased methodological
significance. On the European level the concept
of competence has a broadly accepted definition:
846 Handbook of TVET Research

with the exception of England, where the concept ment and measurement of competence is assum-
of competence is related to qualifications acquired ing growing significance, since analysis and the
at the workplace. Put bluntly, competences can be knowledge gained will enable us to draw conclu-
defined as enabling self-organized, creative action, sions for the control of inputs, and thus for future
whereby qualifications are more the product of ex- requirements
amination knowledge. Whereas the latter can be
measured by means of questions, the measuring
of competences stands in need of suitable meas-
uring procedures. The procedures that are called
for should lead to certification, validation, accredi-
tation, or valorization (for more on these concepts
cf. K ÄPPLINGER 2002), depending on whether the
acquired competences are formal, non-formal or
informal.

5.4.3.6 Development Perspectives

Output-orientation as an aspect of ↑ quality assur-
ance in vocational education and training is pre-
dominantly discussed within the context of ed-
ucation policy and then in the field of vocational
education. In addition to this, outside of the An-
glo-American English-speaking countries there is
no systematic empirical research taking place on
the long-term effects of education processes (cf.
RANK / WAKENHUT 1998; for ↑ further education cf.
SCHREIBER 1998).
Ditton points out that there is also a lack of elabo-
rated concepts on quality assurance in the educa-
tion sector, whereby existing deficits “are not to be
attributed merely to negligence on the part of a primari-
ly pragmatic orientation of research, but rather […] sub-
stantially due to the complexity of the subject matter in-
volved” (DITTON 2000, 76).
In his opinion there is a need for a comprehensive
theory which integrates the various theoretical ap-
proaches to levels of learning, delivery, the organ- Fig. 3: Dimensions of a Comprehensive Quality As-
isation of schools, and the education system as a surance System
whole.
In this context, two areas are important for re- Fig. 3 illustrates that the concept of ↑ efficiency is
search on vocational training: on the one hand, far-
located on the level of outputs, and the concept of
ther-reaching research on the causal relationships
between output, transfer and outcome. On the oth- ↑ effectiveness on the level of outcomes. Not until
er, the development of instruments designed to as-
there is feedback is it possible to contribute to im-
certain the outcomes. Outcome is reflected in ac-
tion and can only be measured indirectly, prima- provement, in dependency on the results, so as to
rily as an expression of competent action in ↑ per-
intervene flexibly in the respective ↑ school system
formance. For the subject of quality assurance in
vocational education and training, the ascertain- or ↑ system of vocational education and training.
Research Methods
5.4.4 Educational Controlling
Jürgen van Buer
5.4.4.1 Educational Controlling – Context
and Conceptual Main Thesis
Context of ↑ Educational Controlling its
Development
In the 80ies of the 20th century, the cost pres-
sure on products and services offered in com-
merce and industry is enormously increasing. Due
to changes, predominantly on the capital markets,
the single company is under considerable strain
to plan and make investments under the perspec-
tive of preferably short-term yield expectations.
(cf. K LEINERT / SCHIMMELPFENNIG / SCHRADER / STEHN
2000; KÖDDERMANN / WILHELM 1996). Discrepan-
cies between planning intervals become apparent
with regard to expectations of and demand for re-
turn as well as to learning processes of individuals
and the implementation of a change of knowledge,
competence and attitude for the optimisation of oc-
cupational performance (cf. e.g. BARRETT / HÖVELS /
BOER /K RAAYVANGER 1998, WALDEN 2000).
Therefore, ↑ effectiveness and ↑ efficiency of of-
fers of training and qualification within the com-
pany come into focus of the ongoing discussion;
mainly regarding to the question, in how far the
verifiable quality assurance and enhancement in
the single occupational working processes can be
traced back to the accomplished measures of qual-
ification. Occupational vocational education as
well as advanced training are not only discussed
on the level of general socially consented formula-
tions but also on the level of single entrepreneurial
calculus as strategic factors (cf. K AILER 1994, 77;
LANDSBERG 1995, 12 ).
The problematic budgetary position of the public
sector and its impact on the financing of general
and vocational education as well as its consequenc-
es for the recruitment and training of personnel in
the single company spreads the demand for appro-
priate instruments of control and regulation which
need to be empirically checked and applicable in
politics and management, causing low costs.
847
This debate, though changed in its focus, is addi-
tionally heated by the findings of the international
comparing as well as national and regional school
↑ performance studies such as PISA. These stud-
ies reveal massive deficits of a bigger part of Ger-
man young people mainly regarding to basic com-
petences – especially in contrast to other devel-
oped nations (TIMSS: cf. BAUMERT / BOS / LEHMANN
2000; PISA: BAUMERT /K LIEME / NEUBRAND ET AL.
2001; school ↑ performance study Hamburg LAU:
cf. LEHMANN 2002). No later than the findings of
PISA, the indispensable consequences esp. for the
field of vocational education are debated (Ber-
lin: BILDUNGSKOMMISSION DER LÄNDER BERLIN UND
BRANDENBURG 2003). Various empirically-evalua-
tive measures and activities are taking place which
concentrate on the performance and achievement
potential of the single institution of education and
qualification as an instance increasingly regard-
ed as the central element for quality assurance and
enhancement. Supported by educational politics,
they increasingly lead to normative agreements on
standards of quality and education etc. (↑ evalua-
tion studies in the field of occupational institutions
of education and qualification: cf. for institutions
of vocational educations and cooperating compa-
nies SEEBER / BUER 2004; vocational schools, e.g.
SEEBER / SQUARRA 2003). These trends have lead to
a different understanding of (vocational) institu-
tions of education and qualification as well as of
their control and regulation (control and regulation
cf. the New Public Management e.g. DUBS 1998). It
also puts further emphasis on the central role of the
concepts “Explication and Transparency of Objec-
tives and Standards”, “Reporting Inwards and Out-
wards” and “Output and Outcome Evaluation” as
evaluation- focussed means of control and regu-
lation for systematic assurance of quality (field of
school cf. DITTON 2000).
Exposure to the Term of Educational Control-
ling – Critical Annotations
The terms ‘controlling’ as well as ‘↑ education-
al controlling’ comprise a undefinedness regard-
ing the terms themselves on the one hand and ex-
tremely different methodical approaches to the
phenomena on the other hand. Either can be traced
848
back to the partially inflationary use of the term
(cf. GNAHS /K REKEL 1999).
Considering the literature of business- related con-
trolling, the following becomes obvious: The ex-
isting concepts and models are extremely hetero-
geneous with regard to their theoretical basis as
well as to their perspective approach to the phe-
nomena of the person or matter controlled (cf. e.g.
WEBER 1998, 19ff).
(Educational) controlling regarded as a discipline
in the field of empirical social science, the follow-
ing critique is even more profound: According to
it, the concept lacks a clearly defined terminolog-
ical basement in certain segments of evaluation-
focussed control, despite highly differentiating in-
struments. Furthermore, controlling as a science
of experience is not yet based on a sufficient em-
pirical data basis (cf. e.g. KÜPPER 1997; also WE-
BER 1998).
This state of controlling applies to an even big-
ger extent to the field of ↑ educational controlling
which is ascribed to the fact that educational con-
trolling was originally not primarily induced by
science and that hitherto it is not used under con-
sideration of compliances of scientific standards
e.g. collection, analysis and interpretation of data.
These reasons lead to models which emphasis the
practical usability, especially with regard to a cost-
effective use and fast availability of data for the
following analysis in and for the management.
Justified by this strong practical-pragmatic orien-
tation, the field of controlling still deals consider-
ably undifferentiating with the question of the use
of disposable knowledge, the consistency in the
applied construct, the quality of generated knowl-
edge etc. (critique: cf. SEEBER 2000; BUER 2000,
101 ff.). On the one hand the following is statable:
Each form of systematic evaluation focussing in-
terventions and concepts of control and regulation,
esp. the evaluation by the means of quantifying
data, the quality of the measuring method of the
collected data is named as its indispensable fun-
dament. (cf. e.g. WOTTAWA / THIERAU 1998; BALZER /
FREY/ NENNINGER 1999). Nonetheless, one needs
to emphasize the following: The centre of exist-
ing concepts and models of educational controlling
is mainly the enhancement of subjective certitude
about the judgement on the “quality” of the partic-
Handbook of TVET Research
ular action of education and qualification. There-
fore, the generation of subjective certitude and the
legitimisation of planning and investing actions by
the means of cost-efficiently collected data are fa-
voured, yet, without taking into appropriate con-
sideration the possible effects of errors.
Nonetheless, the following can be stated: ↑ Ed-
ucational controlling is implemented as a group
of promising approaches for the raise of ↑ effec-
tiveness and ↑ efficiency in actions of occupation-
al education and qualification (cf. e.g. articles of
K REKEL / SEUSING 1999)
Position of Educational Controlling between
Business Science and Educational Science
Overall, educational controlling represents a group
of models and concepts which are placed between
two very different and only partially compatible
scientific ideas with regard to the choice of social
actions in social situations: One side emphasises
the beliefs in individual decisions with the objec-
tive to minimise costs and maximise value (un-
der certain conditions) (cf. ELSNER 2000) which
can be summarised as the concept of the “homo
oeconomicus” (cf. e.g. K IRCHGÄSSNER 1991; SIMON
1993). The other side focuses the concept of (voca-
tional) education and its tensed position between
occupational capability and occupational majority
(cf. e.g. HEID 2003). Depending on what approach
is followed, educational controlling is in its the-
oretic basis positioned between (cf. also SEEBER
2000)
– Mainly economical or rather managerial focus:
This leads among others to a stronger relation to
formal quantifiable performance measurement
system (cf. e.g. EICHENBERGER 1992; for commu-
nal self-administration cf. e.g. LANGTHALER 2002).
Thereby, the danger to neglect cause and effect co-
herences, esp. its structure of interdependencies,
increases which will eventually lead to incorrect
judgements on the effects of the interventions ap-
plied (also critical e.g. WITTHAUS 2000, 156 ff.).
– main focus on educational science, esp. in oc-
cupational training and qualification as well as in
adult education: Here, the questions of models of
organisation and functional cycles of further edu-
cation – including the hitherto rather partial eval-
uation – are in the foreground (cf. e.g. die criti-
Research Methods
cal summary of vocational education research in
adult education in TIPPELT/ HOH 2001, esp. 163 ff.).
Though, the issue of economic calculus of educa-
tional efforts is broached, it is yet seldom differ-
entiated sufficiently (critical cf. also EBBINGHAUS
2000).
Depending on the focus chosen, the bonding of the
particular concepts and models on the use of lan-
guage as well as on the different approaches of the
↑ related sciences with regard to occupational edu-
cation and qualification is clearly visible. Nonethe-
less, there exist overlapping and attempts to sys-
temize term-wise and to find definitions which are
meant to connect these two orientations. Yet, de-
spite attempts of multidisciplinary approaches, in
↑ educational controlling does still not exist a suf-
ficient interdisciplinary cooperation with regard to
modelling and empirical inspection (critical cf. al-
so SEEBER 2000, VAN BUER / SEEBER 2002).
5.4.4.2 Definition of Educational Controlling
– Drafts and Model Assumptions
Alluded several times in this article, the haziness
of the use of the term, the position of the issue in
different social subsystems as well as its placement
in diverse areas of science without more interdis-
ciplinary cooperation make a definition of edu-
cational controlling a difficult task. Nonetheless,
the following is statable: Hitherto, the relevant at-
tempts to define were merely conducted with fo-
cus on the functions of managerial controlling in
companies and therefore significantly different to
approaches of systematic, institutionalised assur-
ance of quality like in the publicly controlled in-
stitutions of education. It is remarkable that no dis-
crimination from personnel controlling is carried
out.
Following e.g. WUNDERER / SAILER (1987, 506 f.),
educational controlling constitutes a manageri-
al instrument which acquires educational data by
the means of measurable indicators and which us-
es this information for a variance comparison as a
basis for a systematic model of planning and opti-
misation. According to this approach, educational
controlling alludes to the coordination of the (sin-
gle) managerial system of planning and control
and regulation; its central function is the acquisi-
tion of information.
849
All this leads to the question of the character, qual-
ity, and amount of the information. An answer,
however, is yet to be found since the majority of
models and concepts remains rather hazy. None-
theless, the following trend in the managerial lit-
erature is visible: By means of economic criteria
the educational issues are gathered as quantifiable
data and analysed on the basis of numeric mod-
els. Pedagogic figures of output and transfer such
as increase in competence and change of behav-
iour at the working place, however, are often char-
acterized as not at all or only partially measurable
and are therefore collected by using qualitative da-
ta such as subjective judgements (cf. e.g. BECKER
1995, also GNAHS /K REKEL 2000, cf. also the over-
view on educational controlling in Austrian com-
panies in K AILER / EDER / MAYRHOFER 2000). The
partially missing ↑ interdisciplinarity of relevant
models of educational controlling becomes obvi-
ous. This leads to the fact that options to scale the
data acquisition regarding to an increase in compe-
tence and knowledge are – as discussed in 5.4.4.1
– not replicated. Overall, the quantification of ped-
agogic effects of output, transfer and outcome are
significantly underestimated.
Three Basic Functions of Educational Control-
ling
Objectives, functions and tasks but also the meth-
ods and instruments of educational controlling are
not clearly defined in literature. Therefore, no def-
inite functional, process-related and instrumen-
tal coherent classification into specially banished
institutional areas of responsibility is conducted.
Nonetheless, there is still consensus that educa-
tional controlling should take over the task of im-
proving rational decision making processes for
the optimisation of educational investments and
to contribute to a stringent adjustment of the re-
alised investments of education and qualification.
Following this argumentation, educational con-
trolling can be understood as a strategy to counter-
act the often-observed phenomena of “muddling-
through” and also to improve ↑ efficiency system-
atically – mainly evaluation focussed (“muddling-
through” phenomena in behavioural, manageri-
al approaches cf. e.g. BINMORE 1995). Despite the
indicated different approaches three central func-
850
tions of controlling can be presented: the functions
of coordination, of information as well as of con-
trol and regulation (cf. e.g. HORVÁTH 1996, 142).
The Function of Coordination of ↑ Educational
Controlling:
The function of coordination reaches various sub-
systems of a company, an educational institution
etc. such as the system of planning, control and in-
formation as well as other subsystems of manage-
ment (cf. e.g. KÜPPER 1997). Under a strategic, tac-
tical and operative perspective, processes of edu-
cational planning relate to the target system of the
company, to the system of measures as well as on
the structural and resource system. This applies
primarily to the field of the development of per-
sonnel, yet partially also to prospective recruit-
ment of the latter.
The Function of Information of Educational
Controlling:
This function deals with systematic collecting,
preparation and the analysis of data of educational
issues. A differentiation between primarily value-
related and factual aspects is possible. Analogue to
business controlling, the value-related instruments
of acquisition and analysis are borrowed from ex-
tern reporting, from accounting as well as from
performance analysis (cf. BANK 1997, 221 ff.).
Under the perspective of (occupational) education
research, this cost and return related data is yet in-
sufficient to interfere effectively in procedures of
education and qualification (cf. also TIMMERMANN
2001). A systematically planned and controlled
economic success of these measures requires em-
pirical research of ↑ educational processes (cf. e.g.
VAN BUER 2000) for evaluation-focussed control as
well as of preliminary and downstream process-
es and their interdependencies. This view leads to
an integrative model of educational controlling (cf.
e.g. SEEBER /VAN BUER 2003).
The Function of Control and Regulation of Ed-
ucational Controlling:
The controlling and regulating function of educa-
tional controlling is even enforced by the tight cou-
Handbook of TVET Research
pling of the functions of information and coordi-
nation. It is intensified especially by the variance
analysis. Thereby the following is again obvious:
Educational controlling centrally depends on sys-
tematic, evaluative data of processes of education
and qualification as well as of effects of changes
in competence and attitude in the working proc-
ess itself (transfer controlling; cf. e.g. PATRY 2000)
and of the changes in yield optimisation (cf. e.g.
WALDEN 2000). These findings also serve the pur-
pose to draw conclusions for future planning and
design (cf. e.g. EICHENBERGER 1992, 29 ff.).
The discussion about managerial controlling, hith-
erto mainly related to factual objectives, which is
meant to reveal and minimise internal malfunc-
tionality by the means of economic data, takes two
things hardly into consideration: Firstly, the spe-
cific character of processes of education and qual-
ification. Secondly, the new trends in the acquisi-
tion of competence structures and its changes etc.
as well as in the modelling of optimising strategies
for ↑ educational processes.
5.4.4.3 Educational Controlling on a
Occupational Everyday Basis
The increasing cost sensitisation of companies, the
observable intensification on capital markets, the
resulting merely short-term orientated yield expec-
tations and the increasing importance of human
capital in and for the development of the compa-
ny cause enormous pressure to adopt company ob-
jectives fast and reality-related as well as to im-
plement it in internal cycles of realization. There-
fore, educational controlling becomes even more
important as an instrument of the achievement of
objectives and for yield optimisation.
Previous research and studies on the implemen-
tation of educational controlling in a company,
however, draw a different picture which includes
the field of educational and qualification invest-
ments only conditionally, sometimes marginal in-
to the planning structure (cf. BEICHT /K REKEL 1999;
K AILER / EDER / MAYRHOFER 2000). It is remarkable
that systematic measurement of target achievement
as well as transfer controlling on an everyday ba-
sis hardly ever takes place. Especially the issue of
transfer plays a key role for the perpetuation of the
cycle of controlling. Hitherto, it must be charac-
Research Methods
terised as an investive “blank space” (cf. K AILER /
EDER / MAYRHOFER 2000).
Of all the elements of ↑educational controlling, the
most precisely acquired ones are the costs of fur-
ther training, yet small businesses are still far be-
hind bigger companies. The measurement of util-
ity as well as the controlling of costs, utility and
yield also represent a far reaching blank space (cf.
BEICHT /K REKEL 1999, 50 ff.). The question why ed-
ucational controlling has yet been implemented so
rarely is often answered by a pointer to a lack of
resources, to problems regarding the methodical
competence as well as to problems in the execu-
tion of the relevant instruments (cf. GNAHS /K REKEL
2000, 220). Furthermore, examples in the sense of
“best-practise” can be named (cf. e.g. KÜSTER / LIEB-
CHEN / LEUTHOLD 2000).
5.4.4.4 Educational Controlling of Education
and Qualification – Areas of
Overlapping and Development
The relevant literature on educational controlling
reveals that a theoretic basis and empirical exam-
ination of existing models and sub-models rarely
exist. It is also hardly taken into consideration that
the matter implies high ↑ interdisciplinarity as well
as requirements of the modelling resulting out of it.
Given these facts, the systematic linking of man-
agerial modelling and model analysis with empir-
ical educational and vocational research is espe-
cially desirable. Regarding the question, what the
development of educational controlling as a field of
scientific research will be like, the following can
finally be stated: The actions of evaluation on dif-
ferent systemic levels of the educational systems
are enforced as a reaction to the findings of the
school ↑ performance studies. Due to a stronger fo-
cus on the extended autonomy of the single school
(cf. e.g. BILDUNGSKOMMISSION DER LÄNDER BERLIN
UND BRANDENBURG 2003, 235 ff.) as well as to the
stronger necessity to control the effects of autono-
my with regard to the assurance of the productivi-
ty of the whole system, a stronger, empirical-based
focus on this particular field, put by the education-
al research institutions, is therefore expected.
851
5.4.5 Benchmarking in Vocational
Education and Training
Susan Seeber
5.4.5.1 Scope
The development of information societies, which
corresponds to ever more comprehensive econom-
ic ↑ globalisation and growing competition with-
in national and international ↑ labour markets, in-
creases the significance of education for mastering
the future. It is one of the greatest challenges for
the entire educational sector to assure and, if pos-
sible, improve ↑ quality standards under changing
social and economic conditions (compare WEISS
2000, 16; for the so-called Lisbon Strategy, see
PRESIDENCY CONCLUSION 2000). These interna-
tional developments show that the ↑ performance
of educational systems is generally under scrutiny
(compare COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNI-
TIES 2005a; BAETHGE / BUSS / LANFER 2003; RYCHEN /
SALGANIK 2001). At the same time, new approaches
to quality improvement are under investigation (for
Finland, see RÄKKÖLÄINEN / ECCLESTONE 2005; for
Great Britain, cf. e. g. WHETTON / TWIST/ SAINSBURY
1999). Given this antagonism of scarce resources
and simultaneously growing expectations and de-
mands with regard to the outcomes of education
and training, models of management and optimi-
zation that have been developed in other contexts
are becoming increasingly attractive. This is true
both for the training and qualifying sectors of eco-
nomic enterprises as well as for private and pub-
lic institutions offering vocational education and
training. ↑ Quality management, ↑ educational
controlling, evaluation and ↑ benchmarking repre-
sent theoretical concepts and practical approaches
to the enhancement of the ↑ effectiveness and the
↑ efficiency of ↑ educational processes.
The present article is intended to provide a brief in-
troduction to benchmarking as a means of increas-
ing the ↑ effectiveness and ↑ efficiency of educa-
tional investments. In addition to conceptual con-
siderations and a short history of benchmarking as
a methodology, the potential of benchmarking in
the field of vocational education and training will
be investigated here.
852
5.4.5.2 Conceptual Considerations – General
Characteristics and Structure of
Benchmarking
General Characteristics
As a conceptual approach to dealing with the
aforementioned management and optimization
tasks, benchmarking did not originate from ↑ sci-
entific theory-building, but, rather, in the context
of entrepreneurial interests. It is this context where
its ramifications have been spelled out. Support for
rational decision-making is, indeed, at the centre
of the concept of benchmarking, accompanied by
the need for the justification of concrete actions on
the basis of information which is readily available
and can be obtained at reasonable costs.
The concept of benchmarking has been devel-
oped in the context of the North American indus-
try as a management tool intended to strength-
en the company’s competitiveness. Thus, bench-
marking is generally understood as a continuous
systematic monitoring of the quality of products,
services, internal processes and methods in select-
ed segments of the organisation, drawing compar-
isons with other companies known to excel in the
particular area under investigation (cf. PUSCHMANN
2002; K ARLOF 1999; K EEHLEY/ MEDLIN / LONGMIRE /
MACBRIDE 1996; CAMP 1994).
The following characteristics are distinctive of
benchmarking activities:
– Benchmarking is typically embedded in a con-
cept or framework of controlling (for more detail,
see SEEBER 2000b) or in a comprehensive scheme
of quality management.
– It entails aspects of measurement, comparison,
evaluation and policy formation.
– It also has the function of identifying alterna-
tive problem solutions and promising new ones (cf.
PIESKE 1995, 14 ff.).
Thus, the concept of benchmarking implies not
only the collection and analysis of data, but also
the identification and obtainment of target and at-
tainment figures – of ‘↑ Benchmarks’ in the prop-
er sense of the word. Similarly, superior and in-
novative methods and technologies, the so-called
‘best practices’, are sought. Comparisons with oth-
er companies are preceded by thorough stock-tak-
ing activities within one’s own organisation. This
Handbook of TVET Research
is equivalent to a series of investigations, resulting
in the selection and computation of corresponding
measures and parameters for the areas and seg-
ments under scrutiny (products, services, struc-
tures, processes).
The Structure of Benchmarking
↑ Benchmarking activities can involve the whole
organisation or selected segments; it can occur
in a strategic perspective or focus on immediate-
ly alterable processes. Correspondingly, bench-
marking schemes can be distinguished accord-
ing to the selection of objects, partners and attain-
ment indicators (see Fig. 1; cf. P IESKE 1995, 41;
K ARLOF 1999).
Fig. 1: Structure of Benchmarking schemes
Benchmarking partners: Internal benchmark-
ing studies relate products or processes occurring
within an enterprise or institution to others within
the same institution. In this case, the partners are
divisions or segments of the organisation itself. In
the case of external benchmarking, products and
processes occurring in other institutions are be-
ing compared, which can happen – competitively
– across suppliers within a particular domain or
– neutrally – across organisations which serve dif-
ferent markets and clienteles.
Benchmarking objects: When enterprises or other
organisations are considered from the perspective
of production theory, the objects of benchmarking
can be situated in the domains of input, process
Research Methods
or product. Formally, these objects of comparison
can refer to the structural characteristics of the or-
ganisation (e. g. divisions, branches) or to the man-
agement of production procedures.
Target categories for benchmarking: A crucial
role is to be attributed to the selection, definition
and operationalisation of comparative categories
against which to assess the quality and achievement
of the benchmarking objects. Due to the fact that
benchmarking has developed out of the need for
rational economic management, both the emerg-
ing theoretical concepts and the practical imple-
mentation have been centred so far around aspects
of cost-↑ effectiveness, or the use of economic indi-
cators and indicator systems, respectively. By im-
plication, these refer to monetary and output fig-
ures, to time as an essential economic variable, as
well as to other factors which are known to influ-
ence the ↑ effectiveness of institutional actions and
processes (cf. TINTELNOT 1996, 24; HORVÁTH 1996,
396). Phases of the Benchmarking Process
Publicly available documentations and concepts of
concrete benchmarking exercises are based on a
multi-phased schema (see Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Phases of the Benchmarking process
During the preparatory phase, the objects of com-
parison are determined, the benchmarking team
is composed and relevant characteristics for the
description and evaluation of the benchmarking
objects are defined and operationalised. In addi-
tion, the benchmarking partners are to be selected.
According to expert advice from benchmarking
participants in commercial firms, the success of
benchmarking exercises depends largely on a thor-
ough conduct of the preparatory activities (WEBER /
WERTZ 1999, 21).
The analytical phase comprises the exploitation
of available sources of information and, as the
case may be, the conduct of additional data col-
lections (for benchmarking information and com-
munication systems, see, e. g. GRUNDMANN 2003).
853
The variables upon which comparisons are to be
based have to be selected and/or derived, and anal-
yses suited to explaining differences between the
superior “↑ benchmarks” (in the narrowly defined
sense) and the inferior partner in the comparison
have to be designed and conducted. This phase al-
so includes the preparation of a report on the re-
sults of the ↑ benchmarking exercise.
The intervention phase concerns the implementa-
tion of strategies to achieve the benchmarks, in-
cluding the monitoring of steps initiated in the pur-
suit of the defined goals (cf. BRETTEL 2000, 151 ff.;
K REKEL / BARDELEBEN 2000, 117).
In the economic domain, benchmarking is prima-
rily considered at the level of the individual enter-
prise, even so, entire national economies are com-
pared in terms of the respective fundamental in-
dicators, and the data are used for the purpose of
economic policy-making.
As far as the actual use of benchmarking in the
economy is concerned, there is very little infor-
mation available. Taking as evidence relevant ar-
ticles in management journals and related inter-
net sources which provide information on the top-
ic, support the search for adequate benchmarking
partners and offer services for conducting bench-
marking studies, this management tool appears to
attain rising levels of attention, especially among
those enterprises which have to adjust to change
and increasing competition.
If benchmarking is to meet the expectations at-
tached to this concept, it clearly presupposes the
existence of a fully differentiated monitoring or
↑ controlling scheme, which incorporates the re-
spective information systems. It also requires per-
manent development, subject to the implementa-
tion of strategies for change.
5.4.5.3 Benchmarking in Vocational
Education and Training
Levels of Benchmarking in Education
In the educational domain, benchmarking can be
conceived and implemented at two levels: firstly, at
the system level, namely in the context of interna-
tional or interregional comparisons on the basis of
certain achievement indicators as well as analyses
of ↑ effectiveness and ↑ efficiency (for TIMSS see
854
MULLIS / MARTIN / GONZALEZ / CHROSTOWSKI 2004; for
TIMSS 1999 Benchmarking, see, e. g. MULLIS /
MARTIN / GONZALEZ ET AL. 2001; for PIRLS see
MULLIS / MARTIN / GONZALEZ /K ENNEDY 2003; for PI-
SA 2003 see OECD 2004b), and secondly at the
level of the individual institution, to be evaluated
in the light of inter-differences.
At both levels, educational benchmarking can hard-
ly be considered universal and well-established.
Apart from acknowledging the annually published
educational indicators produced by ↑ OECD and
the more recent categorisations of ↑ educational at-
tainment by the European Union (see COMMISSION
OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 2005a), educational
benchmarks and the concomitant international and
inter-institutional comparisons have only very re-
cently received some attention, at least in some Eu-
ropean countries. In the German case, this some-
what sudden rise of interest is likely to be relat-
ed to the undeniable evidence of nationwide short-
comings in terms of achievement, derived from in-
ternational comparisons (BAUMERT / BOS / LEHMANN
2000; OECD 2004b). Evidence of unsatisfactory
↑ performance levels in key school subjects has al-
so been produced by several regional studies (see,
e. g. LEHMANN / HUNGER / IVANOV/ GÄNSFUSS 2004;
HELMKE /JÄGER 2002; for vocational education
and training, see, e. g. LEHMANN / IVANOV/ HUNGER /
GÄNSFUSS 2005; LEHMANN / SEEBER / HUNGER 2006).
As was to be expected, the international compari-
sons had been focussed on phenomena at the sys-
tem level, whereas the regional studies placed more
emphasis on the inter-institutional differences.
The sub-systems of vocational education and train-
ing are particularly affected by such lack of com-
parative information: internationally, for the most
part structural and achievement data coexist with-
out any linkage (see WERNER / FLÜTER-HOFFMANN /
ZEDLER 2003, 296). In the national context, the sit-
uation is not much different.
Benchmarking at the System Level
International assessments provide an excellent base
for gaining multiple perspectives on educational
issues and for examining a variety of possible rea-
sons behind the observed achievement differences.
The international and regional assessments, which
so far have primarily focussed on general school-
Handbook of TVET Research
ing or academic tracks, have led to the definition
of the respective ↑ benchmarks. Thereby, they have
rendered necessary, though not sufficient, condi-
tions for effective strategies for change.
In conducting such comparative analyses, in edu-
cation, as in other fields, the theory of productiv-
ity has prevailed, especially in the context of con-
cerns about ↑ efficiency. These studies are in line
with the school ↑ effectiveness paradigm, which
has been developed and widely applied in English-
speaking and Western European countries. In the
analysis of education, it distinguishes between in-
put, process and output (and/or outcome) variables
(see REYNOLDS / TEDDLIE 2000, 4 ff.); for its applica-
tion to the study of school quality, see STRINGFIELD /
SLAVIN 1992; for Germany, adaptations have been
published by DITTON 2000).
Quality-relevant indicators selected from these
groups – input, process and output/outcome varia-
bles – facilitate comparisons between and making
ranking lists of educational systems. The analy-
sis published by Klein/ Hüchtermann (2003, 87 ff.)
derives the explicit strengths and weaknesses of
the German system of education from such com-
parisons. Apart from the well-established ↑ OECD
indicators, evidence from international achieve-
ment studies (IEA, PISA) is built into the respec-
tive database. This is compiled in order to arrive
at comprehensively underpinned judgements as to
the ↑ effectiveness of the German system.
Thus, a careful scrutiny of the indicators of voca-
tional education and training used by OECD re-
veals that in this domain of education, Germa-
ny demonstrates a relatively high level of respec-
tive attainment in the adult, economically active
population. Similarly, Germany is characterized
by comparatively high rates of young people who
have successfully completed a programme in vo-
cational education or, more generally speaking,
any programme at the upper secondary level. Fur-
ther strong points are to be seen in a relatively
high rate of polyvalent programme certificates, a
low rate of youth unemployment and a high ↑ par-
ticipation rate in the field of vocationally oriented
↑ further education. Against these strengths, weak-
nesses are identified. These refer to the compara-
tively late average transition at the first and second
thresholds of vocational training, the comparative-
Research Methods
ly low participation rates in vocationally oriented
further education among persons with little or no
educational qualifications as well as a diminish-
ing supply of trained manpower in the foreseea-
ble future (cf. WERNER / FLÜTER-HOFFMANN / ZEDLER
2003, 302 ff.).
However, international comparisons in the do-
main of vocational education are plagued by dif-
ferences in the attributions of different structures
and functions to particular programmes. The sit-
uation is aggravated in the case of the so-called
“↑ dual system”, which in its combination of firm-
based and school-based education and training is
typical of some Central European countries. This
is because, in this case, the institutions involved
(schools, firms) pursue different goals and thus fol-
low different principles of governance. At the very
least one can say that this dramatically increases
the effort involved in the collection and analysis
of respective data for the purpose of internation-
al comparisons.
The Lisbon strategy radically changed the Europe-
an policy of co-operation in the area of education
and training. Ever since, the discussion has taken
place at the European level within a coherent poli-
cy framework, embedded in a systematic monitor-
ing of system ↑ performance and change. Indica-
tors and benchmarks were set up to assess progress
towards the objectives and to identify models of
successful policy practice. Nevertheless, there is
a need to improve the quality and comparability
of existing indicators, above all in the field of ini-
tial and further vocational education and training,
and with regard to the increasing heterogeneity of
programmes, goals and institutions offering voca-
tional education and training in European coun-
tries (cf. COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNI-
TIES 2005a). The relative richness of structural in-
formation is contrasted by a manifest lack of infor-
mation as to the ↑ effectiveness of particular train-
ing systems. Also, there is a blatant deficit of data
regarding the flow of trainees, both within the vo-
cational training programmes and at the transition
points between training institutions, ↑ labour mar-
ket and career trajectory (cf. BAETHGE 2005).
An example for ↑ benchmarking at the system lev-
el: Among others, the input factor “time” is con-
sidered as a crucial criterion of ↑ efficiency, both
855
under an economic and an educational perspective.
International comparisons of educational achieve-
ment have established that learning time is used
to rather different degrees across countries: at any
one grade level, between-country achievement dif-
ferences equivalent to more than three years of
schooling have been observed. Similarly, interstate
comparisons within Germany have produced rath-
er dramatic differences in various achievement in-
dicators (reading comprehension, mathematics,
science), also amounting to up to two-and-one half
years of schooling (see, e. g. BAUMERT / LEHMANN /
LEHRKE / SCHMITZ 1997). When comparing two sys-
tems of education, the one with the higher mean
achievement level at a given grade, for a given out-
put indicator is considered to be the more efficient
one. Years of schooling and vocational education
and training have an impact on the input variable
“costs”. “Costs” as considered here consist of di-
rect expenditure and opportunity costs which are
borne by the individual or the firms, depending on
the specific educational options available in a so-
ciety. Once again, international comparisons are
helpful: Analyses of years of education in relation-
ship to job entry show that school leavers in Ger-
many are considerably older than those in other
countries when entering vocational education and
training. It is true that the educational ↑ statistics
for Germany record mean enrolment times for the
upper secondary level (3.0 years), which are be-
low the international average. However, this ap-
pears to be due to several peculiar effects, which
have influenced these statistics. One of these fac-
tors is the comparatively low ↑ participation rate in
academic tracks geared to higher education entry.
Others refer to the fact that those who participate
in more than one programme at the upper second-
ary level are recorded only once, in their first pro-
gramme, which may refer to a short-term unspe-
cific preparatory course, for instance. In fact, the
mean age for leaving the first upper secondary pro-
gramme (19 years) is above the international av-
erage (18 years), largely due to belated school en-
try and grade repetition. Thus, the comparatively
late age at which German school leavers enter vo-
cational training and eventually the ↑ labour mar-
ket is indicative of the low ↑ efficiency of this sys-
856
tem with regard to the factor of time (see WERNER /
FLÜTER-HOFFMANN / ZEDLER 2003, 344 ff.).
These examples show that the implementation and
perfection of internationally comparative indicator
systems can provide important data on education-
al achievement and the relative ↑ effectiveness of
systems of education. The respective information
is not suitable, however, for deducing strategies of
change and improvement without taking the spe-
cific constraints on the respective educational sites
into account. The recently created programme en-
titled “Educational ↑ Benchmarking Germany”
(compare K LÖS / WEISS 2003) represents a first ap-
proach towards combining comparative data on
the German system of education with independent-
ly compiled internal indicators, the intention being
to articulate and justify recommendations for ↑ ed-
ucational policy-making and reforms.
Benchmarking at the Level of Individual Insti-
tutions
Even if the central motive of benchmarking – “to
learn from the best” – appears to be rather simple,
its implementation in education is a complex proc-
ess that requires some preliminary considerations:
(1) Collection of variables relevant for education-
al achievement
As became clear in the previous section of this ar-
ticle, benchmarking presupposes the existence of
a well-articulated system of ↑ controlling, infor-
mation handling and ↑ quality management. This
is because clearly defined, comparable concepts of
achievement are necessary conditions for any form
of benchmarking (for the constituents of control-
ling schemes, see SEEBER 2000a, 37). In particu-
lar, the various opportunities for vocational edu-
cation and training are characterized by a certain
lack of systematically collected, clearly structured
cross-referenced and well-documented informa-
tion which pays respect to the relevant input, proc-
ess and output concepts (for in-firm programmes
of ↑ further education, see GNAHS /K REKEL 2000;
for initial vocational training, see ACHTENHAGEN
2005). Thus, one of the major problems in this
domain is to identify conceptually valid ↑ bench-
marks (goals and respective achievement char-
acteristics), as well as indicators pertinent to the
Handbook of TVET Research
↑ effectiveness and cost-↑ efficiency of the respec-
tive programmes. However, the position affirmed
here is that economic indicators alone (for ↑ statis-
tics on in-firm programmes of further education,
see, e. g. SCHULTE 1995, 266 ff.), are insufficient to
manage and govern educational practices, process-
es and policies. Terms of comparison which are al-
ien to the core activities of education are either “of
secondary importance or superfluous“ (OELKERS
2003, 59 ff.).
(2) Definition of a system of criteria of ↑ efficien-
cy
As for the sector of general education, it ap-
pears to be true for vocational education and
training (cf. the documentation on the state of
↑ educational controlling in training firms provid-
ed by GNAHS /K REKEL 2000) that the system man-
agement so far has been dominated by input fac-
tors. Educational expenditure has rarely been an-
alysed in terms of its cost-↑ effectiveness. Conse-
quently, there is, as of now, no coherent system of
criteria by which to judge ↑ educational process-
es (K LEIN / HÜCHTERMANN 2003). In other words:
Much work remains to be done along these lines.
(3) Limits to influencing achievement-relevant
concepts
Under the perspective of managing and govern-
ing input and process variables in education, the
distinction between manipulable and non-manip-
ulable variables becomes significant (cf. WEISS
1982, 53). As, in the final analysis, ↑ benchmark-
ing serves the purpose of providing policy-makers
and administrators with information and compara-
tive data useful for making decisions, it is presup-
posed that ways exist of influencing and changing
the respective conditions. These, in turn, define the
frame for the goals and reference points of bench-
marking exercises.
In this respect, there are considerable differences
between the individual institutions offering voca-
tional education and training, as well as between
the courses offered by any one institution (for more
detail, see SEEBER 2000b, 136 ff.).
(4) Potential risks in benchmarking exercises
As an instrument for managing qualification proc-
esses in vocational education and training, bench-
marking serves to establish solid positions for in-
Research Methods
dividual institutions in the respective markets. In
principle, it implies opportunities for institutions
to reduce their deficits with respect to better per-
forming ones. There is some risk implied by the
transparent use of benchmarking, however, namely
that enterprises with negative deviations from the
↑ benchmarks lose market shares, or that high-per-
forming enterprises lose their market advantage
when successful processes are adopted or adapted
by their competitors. This is particularly true for
commercial organisations offering vocational edu-
cation and training.
Undesired side effects for institutions in the pub-
lic sector of education may entail unintended in-
fluences on the flow of students through the ed-
ucational system, including the possibility of an
increase of its social selectivity. In order to have
at least some control over this, the input condi-
tions of schools need to be considered. With re-
spect to comparisons between individuals, class-
es and schools, this implies that ‘expected values’
ought to be computed as a function of known ex-
ternal characteristics (e. g. nonverbal intelligence,
SES and migrant status) and that the benchmark-
ing criterion to be evaluated is given by the differ-
ence between these expected and the observed lev-
els of educational achievement. For the purpose of
providing ‘benchmarked feedback’ to teachers and
schools, this approach was used, for instance, in a
statewide census of educational achievement in the
City of Hamburg (see LEHMANN 2001, 68 ff.).
(5) Complexity and costs
As indicated before, many of the existing data on
educational achievement are poorly structured
and represent measurement standards, which are
somewhat below the desired level. This is in con-
trast with the complexities inherent in the output
specifications expressed in the respective models
of educational benchmarking. Consequently, re-
strictions as to the selection of output characteris-
tics are unavoidable in benchmarking studies. This
implies, however, that the information base availa-
ble for rational decision-making is by far less than
ideal. Therefore, any strategy implemented on that
basis requires some concomitant systematic ↑ con-
trolling. If the existing data are poorly coordinated
and incommensurate, the effort for data collection,
cross-validation and analysis is increased.
857
5.4.5.4 On the Current Significance of
Benchmarking for Vocational
Education and Training
Although ↑ benchmarking goes back to the origins
and traditions of industrial production, in partic-
ular as implemented in large corporations, an in-
creased interest in this approach is noticeable also
in education settings. Here, it is primarily consid-
ered as a tool for managing systems of education
and is consequently referring to the system level
(cf. K LÖS / WEISS 2003). There is a growing tenden-
cy, however, to also apply it to the management of
processes within educational institutions, name-
ly in the context of ↑ educational controlling (see
BÖTEL /K REKEL 2000) and ↑ quality management
(see DUBS 1998).
At the system level, benchmarking may be consid-
ered as a well-established instrument for manag-
ing educational systems. Comparisons are large-
ly restricted, however, to the first two stages in
the benchmarking process, namely the preparato-
ry and the analytical phase. These allow for prob-
lem definitions and consecutive investigations. For
the design and implementation of reforms in ed-
ucational systems and the constituent institutions,
additional investigative effort is required, however
(ARBEITSGRUPPE INTERNATIONALE VERGLEICHSSTUDIE
2003).
The extent to which educational benchmarking is
likely to be accepted in the future is currently dif-
ficult to assess. This is because the improvement of
educational opportunities is primarily discussed in
terms of new approaches to quality management,
New Public Management, Educational Govern-
ance, assessment and evaluation. At the same time,
the existing data referring to educational quality
are very limited and fragmented. The introduction
and perfection of indicator systems for the assess-
ment and evaluation of the ↑ effectiveness and ↑ ef-
ficiency of systems and institutions catering to vo-
cational education and training allows one to ex-
pect, however, that this tool will, indeed, be uti-
lized to initiate and manage beneficial reforms in
the domain of vocational education and training.
858
5.4.6 Programme Evaluation
Ludger Deitmer
In many areas of society, e. g. the school and ed-
ucation system, health services, the economy and
the ↑ labour market and employment policy are-
as, public support programmes are undertaken in
an effort to kick-start incremental or fundamen-
tal changes (innovations). These programmes pool
various projects with different goals (such as the
introduction of new curricula or health education
drives). Using extra material and human resources
(e. g. time, premises and materials), the people ac-
tive in the programmes (e. g. teachers, scientists)
work for various target groups (e. g. pupils, pa-
tients) with the joint goal of preparing, developing
and trying out changes. If a project is successful, it
is frequently followed by an attempt to transfer the
results to other institutions (DEITMER 2004a, 166;
FISCHER / PRZYGODDA 2002, 167).
Programme evaluation seeks to make reform proc-
esses in VET more effective, to increase the out-
put and ensure the sustained ↑ effectiveness of pro-
grammes. Programme ↑ evaluation represents one
of the major elements of programme management.
It provides a better basis for decisions for the im-
proved ↑ utilisation of professional and material re-
sources, but also for future activities, both on the
programme and on the project level. Compared to
project evaluation, programme evaluation features
a greater degree of complexity and faces a wide ar-
ray of methods and designs and also is character-
ised by a multi-actor and multi-measure structure
(FAHRENKROOG / POLT/ ROJO ET AL. 2002).
5.4.6.1 Definitions and Perspectives of
Programme Evaluation
An early definition by Weiss (1974) emphasises
the interaction of theory and practice: evaluation
examines the ↑ effectiveness of social interven-
tions using different ↑ research methods. Follow-
ing the evaluation feedback cycle it forms a link
between theory and practice and between people
and institutions. Wottawa and Thierau (1998) dis-
cuss, among other things, the many and varied at-
tempts to define evaluation, e. g. the definition
by Scriven (1991), according to which evaluation
serves to judge the value of a product, a process
Handbook of TVET Research
or a programme. Ultimately, Wottawa and Thier-
au reach the conclusion that evaluation activities
are subject to a particular interest in knowledge
and application of programmes. Therefore evalu-
ations have the primary purpose of checking prac-
tical measures, either deciding or improving up-
on them. Ultimately, by applying a range of so-
cial-scientific methods, programme evaluation at-
tempts to come up with meaningful ↑ research de-
signs. These methods are used to evaluate the ap-
proach, design, implementation and the benefits
of programmes of social intervention (SHADISH /
COOK / LEVITON 1991; K ROMREY 1995, 109; ROSSI /
FREEMANN / LIPSEY 1999).
According to the literature we can make a distinc-
tion between three general perspectives:
– Planning: in the programme planning phase, the
need for personal and financial resources during
implementation of the programme is examined.
This examination may be called “ex-ante evalu-
ations” or “pro-active” evaluations (HELLSTERN /
WOLLMANN 1984; OWEN / ROGERS 1999). They can
include e. g. the selection procedure for suitable
applications for funding (PROGRAMMTRÄGER ITB/
ISB 2004, 71)
– Implementation: during programme implemen-
tation, programme evaluation has above all an op-
timisation function. These evaluations are also al-
located to “accompanying research” (or “forma-
tive evaluation”). Information on the course and
interim results of a programme is collected and
evaluated to allow early corrections and/or im-
provements to the programme. This also will give
the actors decision aids for the further develop-
ment of their project measures. In the implementa-
tion phase, participatory and/or interactive evalua-
tion approaches may be used. They can have a cer-
tain affinity to ↑ quality management (PROGRAM-
MTRÄGER ITB/ISB 2004, 85; DEITMER 2004a, 114).
– Conclusion and Diffusion: after programme
completion phase, the programme effects are ex-
amined. This evaluation sums up the results
achieved in a so-called summative evaluation. It
involves adopting an ex-post analysis perspective
(SCRIVEN 1991; WOTTAWA / THIERAU 1998).
Unlike ↑ quality assurance systems and ↑ edu-
cational controlling (→ 5.4.3; → 5.4.4), pro-
gramme evaluation should be considered in its
Research Methods
temporary nature, simply for the reason that pro-
grammes run for a limited time and that they have
a project focus and not so much an institutional fo-
cus. To summarize, programme evaluation focuses
either on ongoing improvements of the ↑ perform-
ance, or more on assessing the ↑ effectiveness of
the programme.
5.4.6.2 The Design of Criteria for
Programme Evaluations
According to Kromrey (1995), four general ele-
ments of programme evaluation must be defined
during preparation:
(1) The description of the evaluation subject, at the
centre of which are the goals, programme elements
and project forms of a programme.
(2) The ↑ evaluation design will determine the prin-
ciples of data collation and how data is collected.
It tells us, too, how data processing is done and by
whom.
(3) The identification of the ↑ evaluation actors,
especially those who are qualified to prepare, di-
rect or carry out the evaluation can be selected
by means of an application process performed by
the evaluation paymaster (e. g. programme fund-
ing bodies). The actors or users of the programme
evaluation can participate in the evaluation proc-
ess. The degree of the project actors’ contribu-
tion can range from the role of an “interviewee”
right up to full co-production within a participa-
tive evaluation. This means that the project actors
carry out part of the evaluation themselves under
the guidance of a moderator or facilitator (↑ self-
evaluation). Thus the role of the professional eval-
uator can range from that of an external evaluator
assessing evaluation outcomes right up to a facili-
tator for self evaluation (DEITMER / DAVOINE / FLOREN
ET AL. 2003, 130–133).
(4) ↑ Evaluation criteria are defined, which form the
basis for the evaluation design and therefore create
the “yardstick” by which the evaluators look at the
programme of the project. The criteria can be de-
fined in advance of the evaluation. Alternatively,
they can be jointly developed and determined in
communication with actors or other stakeholders
involved in programme measures (MANSKE / MOON /
RUTH / DEITMER 2002).
859
With the help of programme evaluation, the evalu-
ators obtain a wealth of data that must be system-
atically processed in such a way that well-founded
evaluations results emerge. It is possible, on this
basis, to derive corresponding recommendations
both for programme guidance as well as for the
project development perspectives. It is important
to ensure that the evaluation results are practically
applicable and/or realistic for the programme and
project actors so that they can be matched to the re-
sources available for programme development.
“Findings that are very interesting in themselves, but
that make no difference to decision making one way or
another are irrelevant, and a waste of evaluation resourc-
es” (K ROMREY 2001, 110).
This statement underlines the practical nature of
programme evaluation, which is geared to appli-
cability.
Standards have been developed by the Joint Com-
mittee on Standards for Educational Evaluation to
guarantee the quality of evaluations. These stand-
ards define rules and principles of programme
evaluation based on four basic characteristics: util-
ity, feasibility, propriety and accuracy (WIDMER /
ROTHMAYR / SERDÜLT 1996).
5.4.6.3 Purposes of Programme Evaluation
The evaluation can be geared to the following
purposes and grouped according to the following
↑ evaluation types (WILL / WINTELER /K RAPP 1987a;
K ROMREY 2001, 114; STOCKMANN 2002, 221):
Type 1: Evaluations performed for legitimation
purposes: The evaluation focuses mainly on ex-
amining the contribution of a programme to the
↑ efficiency and ↑ effectiveness of the measures,
projects and planning goals. It often centres on
output measurements based on figures. Input/out-
put comparisons are used to examine the return on
investment and the degree to which the programme
requirements have been met. Questions that can be
at the heart of the examination are e. g. whether
the programme was worth the financial outlay and
whether the measures undertaken have proved to
be cost-effective. Another variation is a target-hit-
ting check, i.e. whether and to what extent the pro-
gramme’s defined targets have been achieved so
far. The results of the programme application are
860
usually finally analysed and its success evaluated
by external evaluators.
Type 2: Evaluations to broaden the ↑ knowledge
base: This kind of evaluation serves scientific in-
terests above all by examining the ↑ effectiveness
of social interventions in the form of research using
scientific methods (e. g. by formulating and check-
ing a hypothesis model). Here designs are realised
that allow effects to be allocated to programme
elements by ↑ controlling the relevant framework
conditions, using methods that are uncontested.
Methods of empirical social research dominate
here and the evaluator must be seen as an exter-
nal social researcher. A typical question to be ex-
amined here would be whether e. g. the measures
carried out during a programme were the cause be-
hind achievement of the goals (examples: SIMMIE
1997; DEITMER 2004a).
Type 3: Evaluations geared to development and
promoting dialogue. This kind of evaluation must
be seen as a fundamentally different type, because
it has above all a programme-shaping effect. The
evaluation represents a major integral part of the
development process. Evaluations of this type have
above all a formative and supportive approach and
are designed to strengthen the ↑ quality develop-
ment and ↑ quality assurance within the ↑ innova-
tion process.
In the ↑ US evaluation community the range of
↑ participation-based evaluation approaches has
expanded to include types with names such as
“Empowerment Evaluation”, “Fourth Genera-
tion Evaluation” or “Participatory Evaluation”
(GUBA / LINCOLN 1989; FETTERMANN /K AFTARIAN /
WANDERSMAN 1996; PATTON 1997). In contrast to
scientifically distanced and/or external evaluation
(see Type 2), this kind of evaluation is above all
characterised by a broad participation of the “af-
fected parties” in the programme evaluation. Ac-
cordingly, the evaluation is designed as a proc-
ess of structured presentation and confrontation
of (partly conflicting) perspectives of the various
actors. The evaluator or the evaluation team acts
among other things as a moderator and supports
the discussion process between the actors with-
in the framework of the changes supported by the
programme (examples: EHRLICH 1995; DEITMER /
ENDRES / MANSKE / RIEDEL 1997).
Handbook of TVET Research
5.4.6.4 The Methodological Development
of the Instruments for Programme
Evaluation
In the course of programme evaluation, the meth-
ods and approaches of empirical social research
are applied. The focus here is not on “the logic of a
science geared towards gaining knowledge, gener-
alisation and transferability”, but
“the logic of a practical project geared to the ‘success’ of
its activity, often as part of a state-administrative inter-
vention programme or an intervention programme fund-
ed by social organisations” (K ROMREY 1995, 315).
Therefore this type of evaluation cannot be equat-
ed with basic scientific research, but is application-
oriented and places the applicability and utility of
the evaluation results in the foreground. Evalua-
tion is thus a form of practice research or action
research. However, it demands professional work
and the observance of scientific principles from the
evaluators.
The processes of change in a programme are seen
as a social process, which favours an ↑ evaluation
design that is qualitative, process-oriented and
process-accompanying and therefore to a certain
extent open. Increasingly, the dominant view is
that evaluations must more strongly reflect the per-
spectives and needs of the stakeholders, and that
qualitative and quantitative methods can usefully
be combined (multi-method approaches).
In the last two decades, this has led to a change
in the theory and practice of evaluations of pub-
licly funded programmes (→ 5.4.1). This demands
above all that both the people directly affected by
the programme as well as the people responsible
for the programme must be able to use the evalua-
tion results. Consequently, Stockmann states:
“The quality of evaluations can therefore not be meas-
ured by one criterion alone. Not only the scientific qual-
ity of the result is important, but also the fact that evalu-
ations are useful, because only then can they have an im-
pact on political and social processes of change” (STOCK-
MANN 2002, 22).
So the utility criterion has gained broad recogni-
tion alongside the scientific quality criterion. This
has been a focus of evaluation discussions for many
years. Or as Chemlinsky (1995, 6) describes the
more recent development of ↑ evaluation research:
Research Methods
“We think less about absolute merits of one method ver-
sus another, and more about whether and how using them
in concert could result in more conclusive findings”.
5.4.6.5 Extending the Practice of Programme
Evaluation: Evaluation as a Medium
and as a Development Platform for
Learning Processes
The following evaluation concept is used to im-
prove or support self-guidance by the participants
and providers of programmes. Those people are
directly or indirectly involved in the programme/
project activities. This evaluation concept meets
an action research orientation, because the evalu-
ator’s role is shifting and they become partners to
focus and directly take part in an interaction with
the people directly involved in and affected by the
evaluation. In this understanding, which is also
followed by Kuhlmann (1998, 109), ↑ evaluation is
seen as a medium for self-organised learning.
The ↑ quality criteria for this evaluation are no
longer primarily ↑ objectivity, reliability and va-
lidity, but communication, intervention, transpar-
ency and relevance (STOCKMANN 2000, 21; DEIT-
MER 2004a, 126) in which the participants demand
clear judgements from the evaluation.
Fig. 1: Evaluation Cycle of an Actor-Oriented Programme Evaluation (EE)
861
This approach includes quantitative and qualitative
methods and the evaluation results should have an
impact on the ↑ innovation process by defining
strength and weaknesses.
5.4.6.6 The Programme Evaluation Concept
of the Programme “New Learning
Strategies in Dual Vocational
Education”
Since 1997, the topic of programme evaluation
has attracted a great deal of attention also in the
German ↑ pilot project research. Nowadays pilot
projects in vocational education (technical col-
leges) and training (industry) are being pooled to
a larger extent in educational programmes (PRO-
GRAMMTRÄGER ITB/ISB 2004). The main focus of
the programme evaluation of the programme “New
↑ learning strategies in dual vocational education”
was on how the pilot projects contributed to the
programme goals. Thus, programme evaluation is
integrated in the ongoing activities at project lev-
el and is therefore designed to be formative. This
intervention helps shape the programme because
it makes the profile of the project clear and allows
its contribution to the programme to be examined
(DEITMER 2004a, 159 ff.).
862
Therefore, the programme evaluation concept for
this programme (PROGRAMMTRÄGER ITB/ISB 2000)
is adapted on the basis of the EE-Tool (DEITMER /
DAVOINE / FLOREN ET AL. 2003) in order to aim at
– Improving the self-reflection of the project par-
ticipants and their project management strategy,
– Achieving an collective understanding of project
achievements, and by
– Evaluating the contribution of the projects to the
underlying programme goals, and
– Communicating this to the programme stake-
holders.
The evaluation process (see picture below) consists
of a preliminary clarification of the ↑ evaluation
criteria to be applied, an evaluation workshop with
the weighting and evaluation of the criteria by the
pilot project actors, an internal evaluation by the
external evaluation team and a perspective meet-
ing that provides feedback on the course and re-
sults of the evaluation to the people involved. Dur-
ing the evaluation process, the project actors are
encouraged to undertake criteria-based ↑ self-eval-
uation in order to assess how well the project goals
are achieved. The various viewpoints of the actors
are made clear during these discussions. This can
lead to conclusions for further action. Finally, the
process is documented in a project management
report (DEITMER 2004a, 103) which can detail new-
ly agreed goals.
A final survey among the more than 200 evalua-
tion participants confirmed the ↑ effectiveness of
the process and actor-oriented evaluation proc-
ess (PROGRAMMTRÄGER ITB/ISB 2004, 97). In the
more than 40 evaluation meetings, the team suc-
ceeded in identifying the critical points in the pi-
lot projects. It was possible using the actors’ own
assessments to make the strengths and weakness-
es of the pilot projects clear to them. This is how
one participant put it at the end of the evaluation
meeting:
“What is positive is that we drew up a balance sheet
– where are we now, where do we want to get to, and
what do we have to do next” (P ROGRAMMTRÄGER ITB/
ISB 2004, 98).
5.4.6.7 Prospects
Despite extensive experience with the accompany-
ing research (“Begleitforschung”) of individual pi-
Handbook of TVET Research
lot projects, programme evaluation is still a rather
young topic within the German ↑ educational re-
search arena (PROGRAMMTRÄGER ITB/ISB 2004,
60; DEITMER 2002, 215).
Evaluation efforts are being undertaken by people,
and even very systematic and standard based eval-
uations can rest on false data. Not least due to ac-
tors’ interests, errors in the method tend to creep
into the programme evaluation. Sometimes pro-
gramme evaluations are used in political debates.
This makes such evaluations vulnerable which
can lead to rejection of uncomfortable results and
not to a change in behaviour, because they can be
used either as a ↑ controlling instrument of a hier-
archical system or as an instrument of reflection
for an innovation-friendly organisation (WIDMER /
ROTHMAYR / SERDÜLT 1996; HOLZINGER 2001).
Many programme evaluations have contributed to
improving both target achievement and the man-
agement of programmes. The right mix of meth-
ods in programme evaluation may be based on dif-
ferent values systems and actors involved in a pro-
gramme. To do this is still a big challenge and re-
mains as an open question in interventions how
↑ distance and proximity in subject-related ap-
proaches should be addressed (→ 5.1.1; → 5.1.3).
Also, it is important to look at how programme
evaluation differs from ↑ quality management and
assurance and/or what links are possible between
evaluation and quality management (STOCKMANN
2002, 238). Certainly, programme evaluation from
different viewpoints can be an effective learning
medium. If programme evaluation activities en-
courage learning, then they have done a great deal
to reach better ↑ efficiency in the way public re-
sources are spent to support innovation in educa-
tion.
5.4.7 Knowledge Management
Michael Dick and Theo Wehner
5.4.7.1 Definition
While ↑ organisational learning (→ 3.6.3) describes
a development theory of the organisation, ↑ knowl-
edge management (KM) has its basis in a structur-
Research Methods
al theory of the organisation, which understands
knowledge as a characteristic trait and a formative
principle of organisations. KM comprises the con-
ception, planning, and use of strategies, processes
and instruments that build, localise, and transform
knowledge in organisations in order to ensure the
organisation’s permanent development. Thus, it
departs from attributing knowledge to individuals
or even to their “minds“, and assumes a collective,
historically based, and representational composi-
tion of knowledge. No standard works or standard
definitions exist yet. Early, ↑ interdisciplinary col-
lected editions have been established by Spender/
Grant (1996) and Schreyögg/ Conrad (1996). Mon-
ographs that introduce the topic in an easy to un-
derstand manner, are written from a macro so-
cio-economic perspective (DRUCKER 1993; OECD
2000b from an educational point of view), from
the perspective of the organisation with an em-
phasis on implementing KM (DAVENPORT / PRUSAK
1998), and on the basis of ↑ knowledge creation
(NONAKA / TAKEUCHI 1995). The latest overviews
are presented by Holsapple (2003), Easterby-
Smith (2003), Tsoukas/ Mylonopoulos (2003) and
Dierkes/ Berthoin Antal/ Child (2001) as well as
by Dick/ Wehner (2003) for the German work and
organisational psychology. KM is a transdiscipli-
nary topic where the economic, information, and
social sciences can form constituent disciplines
(WEHNER / CLASES 2002; ROEHL 2000). In manage-
ment research, the topic is promoted especially by
focussing on internal resources. Thus, the com-
petitiveness of a company derives from its unique
and inimitable core competences (→ 3.4.2). The
central objective is the enhancement and contin-
uous renewal of the organisational knowledge ba-
sis. All company processes align with this objec-
tive. Information science focuses on adjusting in-
formation sources and demands. This includes the
documentation, processing, and acquiring of in-
formation in order to present it at the right time
at the right place, as well as platforms and tools
for communication and cooperation processes. So-
cial scientists called attention to the characteris-
tics of the knowledge phenomenon, and developed
its historical, socio-economical, and cultural roots
under the various key words: knowledge organi-
sation, ↑ knowledge society or ↑ knowledge work.
863
Psychology contributes to basic knowledge about
the connection of knowledge processing with cog-
nitive, motivational and emotional processes. The
educational goal of KM is the implementation of a
continuous learning and changing process in and
between organisations. In general it is about sup-
porting a professional (deliberate, effective as well
as a personality and community-promoting) way
of handling knowledge and its transformation into
↑ organisational learning processes.
5.4.7.2 The Subject Matter: Knowledge
The main question of KM is determining what must
be managed: knowledge. A fundamental, ↑ inter-
disciplinary-accessible difference (but certainly
not the only reasonable one) is the differentiation
between data, information and knowledge. This ap-
proach, which is borrowed from information the-
ory, puts signs, data, information and knowledge
into a concept hierarchy (K RCMAR 2003). Accord-
ing to this hierarchy, knowledge would be obtained
from data and information by combining and ana-
lysing them. It would also create a continuously in-
creasing supply of knowledge. This increase and
the branching of knowledge as well as the possi-
bilities of its presentation and distribution are one
reason for the oft-lamented information overload.
Subsequently, information and data are not only
prerequisites for knowledge, but also its results.
This already clarifies the fact that a KM, which is
only based on data and information, amplifies the
“overload” of information rather than reducing it.
For social sciences, the appropriate model is a con-
tinuous cycle of data, information and knowledge
instead of a hierarchy of processing (Fig. 1).
Fig. 1: Relation Between Data, Information, Knowl-
edge (from: DICK / WEHNER 2002)
864
Data depend on the possibility of observation and
coding. Coding means that according to certain
criteria two observed units can be distinguished
from each other, for example in size, colour, width,
elapsed time. Data allow a distinction. Informa-
tion, however, requires an additional relevance
criterion. It gives the data a meaning and allows
the evaluation and arrangement of them. What is
the difference between knowledge and informa-
tion? Here is where the opinions split. Some au-
thors make a distinction, like Willke (2001), who
assumes that knowledge develops by implement-
ing information into contexts of experience. How-
ever, when processing data to information, the rel-
evant criteria are based on experience as well. So
other authors assume that there is a continuum be-
tween information and knowledge:
“Instead of a hierarchy, we found that the understand-
ing of a continuum ranging from data via information
to knowledge proved to be the most practical scheme
for knowledge management” (MERTINS / HEISIG / VORBECK
2001b, 10).
The relation between signs, data and information
cannot be extended to the category of knowledge
without problems. Knowledge is bound to con-
sciousness. There is a direct connection between
the subject and the environment: on the one hand,
the subjective certainty, and on the other, evidence
as an obvious self-presence of the phenomenon.
The opportunity to evaluate a piece of data or in-
formation as true or false does not lie in the piece
of data or information itself, and also not in an un-
limited combination with other pieces of informa-
tion. A subjective certainty about the alternative
“true or false” can only be reached in relation to
the experienced world. Knowledge is based on em-
pirical observation and experience, while infor-
mation exists as a detachment from both. Anoth-
er fundamental conceptual distinction is the differ-
ence between knowledge and experience. It goes
back to the pragmatic knowledge concept and in-
fluences the Anglo-American discussion. Accord-
ing to this concept, knowledge does not know any
reference points outside human experience. It ex-
plains phenomena and leads to routines of action.
Davenport/ Prusak define:
“Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values,
contextual information, and expert insight that provides
a framework for evaluating and incorporating new expe-
Handbook of TVET Research
riences and information. It originates and is applied in
the mind of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes
embedded not only in documents and repositories but
also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and
norms” (1998, 5).
To summarise, three characteristics of knowl-
edge, in contrast to information, can be identified
(WAIBEL / DICK / WEHNER 2004):
– Knowledge is not a static copy of real life phe-
nomena but includes dynamic structures that sup-
port the personal mastery of action demands. In a
pragmatic sense, this means a preference of action
and experience over cognitive representation;
– Knowledge is not limited to individual memo-
ry but is also embedded in the physical and social
conditions of a field of action. In this situated per-
spective, knowledge or knowing cannot be ana-
lysed purely as a structure independent of any con-
textual influence;
– Individual knowledge is developed through
↑ participation in a socio-cultural practice. This
concept of learning implies an interaction between
individuals, between people and artefacts, and be-
tween individuals and the values, rules and institu-
tions of social life.
In brief one can say: Knowledge is the meaningful
integration of experience, obtained through action,
via the construction of meaning and making sense,
and serves to anticipate actions and events.
5.4.7.3 The Context: Knowledge Society and
Knowledge Work
That KM is more than a quick trend can be seen
from the fact that knowledge has become a leading
topic of many scientific disciplines. Knowledge so-
ciology and cognitive psychology have been con-
stituent disciplines over several generations. The
characteristic of the current development is, on
the one hand, that knowledge-based questions be-
come increasingly relevant in practice, respective-
ly that more attempts to resolve the common prob-
lems in organisations occur on this level. On the
other hand, you can see that the triad, knowledge
– work – organisation, is dealt with as a transdisci-
plinary subject. No single discipline can claim the
sole competence for its processing.
Knowledge has become a significant characteris-
tic of work, organisation, society, and products. It
Research Methods
is central in developing ↑ professions and the bi-
ographical reflection process of professionals
(→ 3.6.9). The mutual relation of reproduction be-
tween knowledge and societal practise is becoming
closer and more binding. It is interesting that this
development comes together with the theoretical-
scientific admission that the knowledge produced
by science does not exist as an indisputable asset
anymore, but as a momentary state of error. This
opens ways for a more reflected and emancipated
practise, but, due to the perceived complexity of
options, also creates discomfort (STEHR 1994).
The role of knowledge in our society changes in
quantity (it increases), in quality (it becomes more
doubtful) and in structure (it gets more impor-
tant for the functioning of our socio-technical sys-
tems). The exponential growth rate of knowledge
in post-industrial societies was determined by the
number of books in the Yale library (R IDER 1944)
or by the number of scientific articles in the Physic
Abstracts (PRICE 1961, both cit. from BELL 1973).
The large amount of knowledge forces us to han-
dle and understand it in other ways. Each resolved
problem carries with it a number of unsolved ques-
tions, the answers of which bring up the same re-
sult: the more knowledge, the more questions. A
better dealing with the amount of information is an
oft-mentioned expectation of KM.
The progressive branching and specialisation of
knowledge is part of this development. It leads to
an alienation of the disciplines from each other and
from the everyday world. Mutual communication
between those who know becomes a main prob-
lem in handling and ↑ controlling complex techno-
logical systems; integration of generalists and spe-
cialists becomes a challenge. Another motive for
KM is to explore and design conditions and pos-
sibilities of the cooperation between cultures and
systems.
Knowledge is a condition and object of work
(SCHULTZE 2003; WILLKE 1998). Creation, adminis-
tration and application of knowledge works be-
come works significant feature. This applies not
only to academic professions, but more and more
for services, other client-related occupations, or in-
dustrial production with its increasing variations.
The evaluation, revision, and innovation of work-
ing processes are becoming necessary due to the
865
fast change of environmental conditions. Wehner/
Clases (2002) describe it as a steady toppling of a
figure – ground – relation: previously, knowledge
was classified as the basis of action, whereas now,
action is also seen as the basis of knowledge.
Besides ground, work and capital, knowledge is
becoming a societal, economical and legal fac-
tor of importance (SPINNER 1994). However, while
knowledge is becoming a structural principle, it is
no longer an additional task of leadership and man-
agement, but is at their core. The relevant knowl-
edge-based theory of the firm has already been
spelled out (QUINN 1992; GRANT 1996; TSOUKAS
1996). The roles, instruments, and work share in
↑ knowledge work and its organisation have, how-
ever, so far been only slightly elaborated (BLACK-
LER 1995).
5.4.7.4 Concepts of Knowledge Management
KM as a Commom Learning Process
According to Polanyi (1966) or Ryle (1949) con-
structs like “↑ tacit knowledge” or “know-how” are
often applied to individuals. The imagination that
is connected with this is that knowledge is kept in
the minds – probably also in the hands – and would
need to be taken out and brought to speak from
there. In organisations, stories about ↑ performanc-
es, best practices, or lessons learned are accredit-
ed to individuals. However, knowledge is incorpo-
rated into common structures, practices, rules and
tools that, for their part, maintain and transfer this
knowledge in an objective way, detached from the
author. Accordingly, Collins (1993) distinguishes
between embrained, embodied, encultured, em-
bedded and encoded knowledge – the knowledge
that is embedded into the mind, body, social prac-
tise, lived culture, processes, routines, tools as well
as symbols and figures. Geertz (1983) introduces
the term ‘↑ local knowledge’. Logically, the com-
munity in and with which those who have knowl-
edge act professionally, also comes into play as a
carrier of knowledge.
This point of view is supported by the cultur-
al-anthropological learning theory, which de-
scribes learning as a culturally based, common-
ly organised process situated in the real world
(LAVE / WENGER 1991; BROWN / DUGUID 1996; SUCH-
866
MAN 1987). Through the distribution of tasks and
roles, ↑ communities of practice enable their mem-
bers to integrate according to their status and
their abilities (→ 5.1.2). The concept is increas-
ingly used, and often means just a group of ex-
perts in a company who work separately from each
other but communicate on-line with each other
(BOGENRIEDER / NOOTEBOOM 2004). An elaborate,
descriptive model for communities of practice is
the activity system that Engeström (1987) calls the
primary unit of analysis for human behaviour. The
basis of an activity system comprises of a subject,
an object and a medium that communicates be-
tween them (tool). This triad is embedded into a
community structure, which can be portrayed and
analysed alongside their rules and work sharing.
Development, progress, and innovation as expan-
sive, i.e. structure changing, learning are produced
through contradictions within or between activity
systems. Any transformation of knowledge, as well
as its management, can only be understood and ar-
ranged by including the complete activity system.
The individual as central category is preserved, but
it is seen in a representative, social, and cultural
light.
Knowledge Transformation
In vocational education, management or work de-
sign, ↑ tacit knowledge as a resource for quality, in-
novation or failure management is becoming more
and more important (→ 5.1.5). Core competences
(PRAHALAD / HAMEL 1990; → 3.4.2), organisation-
al routines (PENTLAND / RUETER 1994), local knowl-
edge (WAIBEL / DICK / WEHNER 2004), ↑ work process
knowledge (→ 3.6.4), skills and expertise (ERICS-
SON 1996; SONNENTAG / SCHMIDT-BRASSE 1998), etc.
will expand, partly substitute or re-establish the
planning knowledge presented systematically and
abstracted from concrete practice. This includes
the idea that, first of all, the planning knowledge
has to be made visible and communicable. From
a psychological-educational perspective, these
transformations present the fundamental challenge
to educational work in companies and to a func-
tioning KM.
Nonaka/ Takeuchi (1995) take the distinction be-
tween tacit and explicit knowledge as the start-
ing point of their theory of ↑ knowledge creation.
Handbook of TVET Research
They place both kinds of knowledge at the levels
of the individual, the group, the company, and the
interaction between companies. Transformations
between these levels in ascending order, i.e. from
the individual to the collective, create knowledge.
One can distinguish between four transformations:
(1) In socialisation ↑ tacit knowledge is trans-
formed silently and absorbed as tacit knowledge;
(2) In externalisation tacit knowledge is explicat-
ed; (3) When explicit assets maintain, something
new evolves by combination; (4) By internalisa-
tion explicit knowledge becomes tacit knowledge
(Fig. 2).
Fig. 2: Theory of ↑ knowledge creation (according to
NONAKA / TAKEUCHI 1995)
Dick/ Wehner (2002) describe this transformation
on three levels: (1) On the level of action, expe-
rience-based knowledge must be transformed in-
to situation-independent information, information,
conversely, must be made accessible; (2) On the
level of representation, knowledge must be trans-
formed from one kind to another, e. g. implicit,
explicit, verbal, visual; (3) On the level of social
structures, culturally accessible competence must
be acquired individually, and individual achieve-
ments must be made culturally usable.
Core Processes of KM
According to a prominent model of Probst/ Raub/
Romhardt (1997), which has not been empirically
validated yet, the development, acquisition, iden-
tification, preservation, use, and distribution of
knowledge make up a cycle with knowledge-relat-
ed objectives and knowledge evaluation. Psycho-
Research Methods
logically examined categories are, above all, the
acquisition (ANDERSON 1981; ENGESTRÖM 1999a)
and representation (ANDERSON / LEBIERE 1998; K LIX /
HAGENDORF 1986) of knowledge, and, the more ap-
plication-related social construction of knowledge
(TSOUKAS / MYLONOPOULOS 2004).
Producing, recording, distributing, and applying
knowledge are also the central categories of KM
with business-oriented approaches that originate
from Business Process Re-engineering (HEISIG
2001). Here it is about the close connection of KM
to the value-adding core processes in businesses,
for example product development, logistics, ↑ in-
formation technology, leadership, ↑ personnel de-
velopment, ↑ controlling or project management.
“Corporate culture” is also mentioned as a field of
application (MERTINS / HEISIG / VORBECK 2001b).
Pawlowsky (1998) derives his integrative model
of KM from ↑ organisational learning processes
(→ 3.6.3). By doing so, he distinguishes between
the learning phases of identification, generation,
diffusion, integration, modification as well as the
usage of knowledge, and brings them in as organ-
isational approaches to KM. For him KM is the
well-directed extension of the core competence of
an organisation via exchange relations inside and
outside. This is why the abilities of innovating and
learning have to be promoted on all functional and
hierarchical levels. On the basis of case studies in
several industrial sectors, Clases/ Wehner (2002)
complete the known core processes with sensiti-
sation, initiation, knowledge-based cooperation as
well as knowledge protection.
Intellectual Capital
The concept of ‘↑ intellectual capital’ – also
‘knowledge capital’ – has its roots in the ↑ hu-
man capital approach (BECKER 1964). The central
theme of this approach is that formation and edu-
cation fundamentally contribute to the economic
productivity and the capital of a society. It is not-
ed that people are willing to accept income loss-
es in order to acquire their education. Innovation
theorists also emphasised the special meaning of
knowledge for economical development and tech-
nical progress (for the roots of the approach see
DUCHARME 1998).
867
The current discussion tries to companies reliably
portray the market value of indicators other than
just financial ones (STEWART 1997; PETTY/ GUTHRIE
2000). The reason for this is the observation that
the market and stock value of a company does not
comply with its book value, i.e. its accounted ma-
terial and financial capital. Indicators like the em-
ployees’ level of education, their ↑ commitment and
motivation, their relationship to the clients, com-
petitors or suppliers, the number of patents, licens-
es, brand products or intellectual property rights,
copyright protected recipes and processes, etc.,
play an important role. Since they build the coun-
terpart to the tangible assets, these indicators are
also called intangible assets. One example for an
operationalisation is the Index of Consumer Senti-
ment having an impact on the price movements in
the global stock markets (CURTIN 2002).
Roos/ Roos/ Dragonetti/ Edvinsson (1997) present-
ed one classification that orientates towards the
↑ Intellectual Capital Report, which was devel-
oped by the Swedish insurance company Skandia
(1994) in the early 90s and was part of the compa-
ny’s annual report. Here it was distinguished be-
tween ↑ human and structural capital (EDVINSSON /
MALONE 1997; OECD 1999b). Reinhardt (1998)
further differentiates this model into competence,
willingness, and flexibility as components of hu-
man capital, as well as relations, organisation, and
innovation as components of structural capital.
Further applications are the Intangible Asset Mon-
itor (SVEIBY 2000) and the Balanced Scorecard
(K APLAN / NORTON 1996), which portray procedural
financial, customer, and employee oriented crite-
ria in a balance, and is opened up to KM (HORVÁTH
2001). A qualitative process from a narrative basis
is the Intellectual Capital Statement (MOURITSEN /
BUKH / LARSEN /JOHANSEN 2002). Heisig/ Vorbeck/
Niebuhr (2001) and Reinhardt et al. (2001) also
present an overview about the concepts and meth-
ods of the Intellectual Capital Approach.
5.4.7.5 State of Empirical Science
Surveys
Early surveys attempted to prove the importance
of KM and to communicate it to a broader audi-
ence (BULLINGER / PRIETO 1998). However, one can-
868 Handbook of TVET Research

not talk of well-founded empirical evidence. The assessment, with 33 % the level of maturity of the
keywords of the early publications were neither projects is so far that they are implemented into
formulated in hypotheses nor translated into em- the daily business processes. More than 75 % re-
pirical conceptions. port that they develop or plan ↑ pilot projects. Since
In the meantime, the significance of the topic is 1200 companies received questionnaires (more
not questioned anymore in science and practice, than 1000 did not answer), the conclusion that KM
although the first euphoria subsided due to disap- still has novelty status and is not diffused yet, is
pointing short-term profit expectations (SCHNEIDER appropriate.
2001). Literature studies prove that a too techni-
cal-centred point of view was granted and so- Case Studies
cial as well as cultural aspects were neglected
The biggest part of empirical collections about
(K ATENKAMP / GRÜNEBERG / NIEHAUS ET AL. 2002;
KM is presented by means of case studies. Nor-
SCHOLL / HEISIG 2003). Today, communicative and
mally, these refer to KM projects in a compa-
human resources are emphasised more. Besides
ny and tell their history from the reason or ini-
the creation of ↑ communities of practice or knowl-
tial problem via the strategy and implementation
edge, networking, the project-based organisation
up to the conclusion. Sometimes they are presen-
(SYDOW/ LINDKVIST/ DEFILLIPPI 2004) and the or-
tations of companies (SHELL INTERNATIONAL 2001;
ganisation of external relations (WAGNER 2003)
SKANDIA 1998; PROBST/ DAVENPORT 2001). Other
moved further to the top of the agenda. Going back
case studies are based on interviews of scientists
to Weick (1969), ‘sensemaking’ is proposed as a
with employees of companies (MERTINS / HEISIG /
strategy of KM in connection with narration and in
VORBECK 2001a; SCHULZE 2002). These are most-
dissociation with the traditional decision theory of
ly labelled as ↑ benchmarks, but often do not allow
management actions (BOLAND / YOO 2003).
a direct comparison, since the initial conditions,
Scholl/ Heisig (2003) assess in their ↑ Delphi study
measures, and reported effects of the companies
that the ‘human shift’ in KM is seen as the most
are too heterogeneous. Instead, these case studies
important theoretical progress of KM. Besides in-
are reconstructions of single cases that can serve
tegration into business processes, the adjustment
as an example of good practice. Furthermore, there
of technical and social aspects of KM is one of
are studies where the scientists themselves are in-
the most urgent challenges. This is confirmed by
volved in implementing the project or were present
a broadly arranged international study, the result
in the field over a long period. The processing of
of which shows a strong relationship between KM
the studies occurs alongside comparable analytical
and organisational-structural factors. These fac-
categories (EPPLER / SUKOWSKI 2000; LÜTHY/ VOIT /-
tors are more important for realising KM than
WEHNER 2002). Case studies where the knowl-
macro-economic and other environmental factors
edge-based work of entire branches is presented
(MOFFETT / MCADAM / PARKINSON 2003).
can be found (WILLKE 2001; OECD 2000b). From
According to another survey (H EISIG /-
the perspective of the employees, it becomes ob-
VORBECK 2001), in which 129 of the largest Ger-
vious which difficulties KM faces in the organi-
man and European companies participated, KM
sational commonplace and how fundamental the
is important for the development of products and
questions which have arisen (WEHNER / DICK 2001).
services, for their production and distribution, for
the analysis of markets and clients as well as for in-
Theory-Driven Research
formation management. The most important suc-
cess factor by far is the business culture. If one The kinds of transdisciplinary communication,
looks at how companies evaluate their own knowl- which are reached by programmatic metaphors
edge about the processes of KM, it is remarkable like organisational mind or ↑ intellectual capital,
that only 17.4 % of them are familiar with explicat- can hardly be transformed to the methods of em-
ing ↑ tacit knowledge – but 62.3 % with databases pirical science. The contributions of business man-
about objects of knowledge. According to this self- agement are almost exclusively based on case stud-
Research Methods
ies that, due to the different contextual conditions,
cannot be compared systematically. However, a few
social-↑ scientific theory traces that can be extend-
ed into the young field of KM are noticeable. In
knowledge-psychological works about mental rep-
resentations, complex problem solutions, or ↑ ar-
tificial intelligence, there is mostly no relation to
concrete real-life fields of application. This is why
these works are only minimally revealed. Con-
cepts like procedural (OSWALD / GADENNE 1984),
implicit (BROADBENT / FITZGERALD / BROADBENT 1986;
BERRY 1987), or ↑ inert knowledge (RENKL / MANDL /
GRUBER 1996) were adapted.
Works dealing with the creation, application, and
contribution of knowledge, and accordingly abil-
ity, stem from the research on expertise (BROM-
ME 1992; DREYFUS / DREYFUS 1986; H ACKER 1992;
SCRIBNER 1984). For distributing and exchanging
knowledge, the communication of experts with
laymen and novices is important (BROMME /JUCKS /
RAMBOW 2003; WEHNER / WAIBEL 1996; DICK /
WEHNER 2007).
Studies about the conditions and possibilities of co-
operative actions in working systems also deal with
knowledge exchange. Differences in knowledge
between the cooperation partners will not be seen
as obstacles, but can be encouraging on a strate-
gic and operative level (PLEISS / OESTERREICH 2003).
One model that understands cooperation and co-
ordination as mutual and fundamentally structural
characteristics of work-sharing organisations ema-
nates from the research of inter-business relation-
ships (WEHNER / CLASES / BACHMANN 2000).
Finally, there are a number of ethnographical stud-
ies that reconstruct the creation and distribution
of knowledge alongside concrete fields of action
(SUCHMAN 1987; ORR 1996; → 5.2.8). The result
that this knowledge is often valid only within lo-
cal borders and can become an obstacle outside the
closed working systems is significant (SCRIBNER /
DI BELLO /K INDRED / ZAZANIS 1991; WAIBEL / DICK /
WEHNER 2004).
5.4.7.6 Tools for Implementation
Apart from informational techniques, which con-
stantly generate current developments, methods
applied to ↑ knowledge management have been
adopted from other fields. Knowledge circles,
869
for instance, derive from participatory work de-
sign and ↑ quality management (DERBOVEN / DICK /
WEHNER 2002). The Repertory Grid to elicit per-
sonal constructs was originally a psychotherapeu-
tic method (JANKOWICZ 2001). Qualitative social
research essentially deals with explaining subjec-
tive and collective experience assets (DICK 2003;
K LEINER / ROTH 1997; DICK / WEHNER 2007).
Frequently, methods of ↑ knowledge management
are described along with the explained core proc-
esses (EPPLER 1999). The main focus is still on
electronic applications even though it has been
pointed out that knowledge should be the result of
interaction between information and experience:
knowledge repositories, intranet, groupware, doc-
ument management, information retrieval tools,
workflow management, data analysis, ↑ computer-
based training among others (HOFFMANN 2001, 76).
Roehl (2000) includes methods such as role-play,
dialogue, training, coaching, mission statement or
quality circle. He distinguishes between individual
related, work related and problem solving-oriented
tools as well as tools of technological and spatial
organisational infrastructure. Davenport/ Prusak
(1998) favour coaching and tutoring. The individu-
al roles within knowledge management have been
recently differentiated into a typology and method-
ically developed within the approach of knowledge
promotion (PETERS / DENGLER 2004).
5.4.7.7 KM for Vocational Education
The importance of the topic of KM for vocation-
al and business education is to be indicated at the
end. Considering waning job security, employees
want especially to secure their employment capa-
bility and also to qualify for work outside of the re-
spective current company. Within the companies,
the relation between experienced reproduction and
innovative adaptation has been shifted in favour of
the latter. Temporary projects are important oppor-
tunities of learning, which, until now, have been
seldom used (SCARBROUGH / SWAN / LAURENT ET AL.
2004; SYDOW/ LINDKVIST/ DEFILLIPPI 2004). Addi-
tionally, the accumulation of experience within
the ↑ work process is an important learning proc-
ess in order to overcome the isolated domination
of partial steps in a strong division of labour for a
cross-functional and holistic knowledge about the
870 Handbook of TVET Research

production processes and technologies (FISCHER /

RAUNER 2002a; FISCHER 2005). All in all, the pro-
portions of learning have been increasing during
↑ performance of work (ENGESTRÖM 1999a) so that
the ability of learning and knowledge communica-
tion as meta and ↑ key competences not only need
to be imparted in a compensatory way but also
anticipatorily. It is crucial not only to understand
them as individual, but also as common and organ-
ised acquirements.
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