Search Results for
"Vocational education"

Purpose – This article explores authentic assessment in event management education, with emphasis on emerging technologies and industry collaboration. It addresses sector-wide concerns around course credibility and employability, examining how authentic assessment can bridge the gap between academic learning and professional practice. Design/methodology/approach – An interpretivist, qualitative approach was used, drawing on focus groups and interviews with UK-based event management academics. Thematic analysis identified key themes in assessment design, technology use and industry engagement. Findings – Academics widely support authentic assessment for its role in developing industry-relevant, employability-focused skills. Technology was used to replicate professional contexts but was limited by institutional constraints, digital inequality and staff capability. Industry partnerships improved assessment relevance but often relied on individual networks and goodwill. A revised version of Gulikers et al.’s (2004b) Five-Dimensional Framework is proposed, incorporating student co-creation, reflexive practice and industry feedback as additional dimensions. Research limitations/implications – The study reflects only academic perspectives within UK event management educators. Further research should include student and industry views and test the revised framework in practice. Practical implications – To support authentic assessment, institutions must provide clearer definitions, targeted staff development and resources to embed industry collaboration in curriculum design. Originality/value – The article offers new insights by highlighting academic perspectives and advancing existing frameworks to better reflect current practice. The proposed model integrates technology, reflexivity and industry feedback, offering a more adaptable tool for vocational disciplines. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

This study aimed to examine the influence of educational background on students' perspectives on English-language ability in Indonesia by analyzing language skills and the factors that both challenge and support their development. This study employed a qualitative method, and descriptive analysis was conducted using a questionnaire completed by 34 students from high school, vocational high school, Madrasah, and boarding school. Meanwhile, the interview data were analyzed using thematic analysis techniques. The findings showed that students from high schools and vocational high schools excelled in Writing and Reading. School curricula place greater emphasis on writing skills than on oral communication skills. Reading proficiency is relatively high, indicating that students have access to and reading habits with English-language texts, including textbooks, articles, and other media. On the other hand, listening and speaking remain significant challenges for students, likely due to limited direct or audio exposure to English conversations and, for speaking, to limited practice in academic settings. External factors, such as exposure to English-language media, improve students' English-language skills, although psychological support and English-course experiences remain limited. This study suggests the need to improve language skills and to develop an environment that supports more active English-language practice. © 2024, Int. J. Lang. Educ. All rights reserved.

This chapter examines post-compulsory education choices and their long-term economic implications. It explores the factors influencing students’ decisions between vocational training and academic education, highlighting the role of labor market conditions, individual preferences, and expected returns on education. Empirical evidence shows that economic booms can reduce education continuation rates by increasing job opportunities for low-skilled workers. The analysis shows that vocational education provides a smoother school-to-work transition, particularly in countries with strong apprenticeship systems. However, academic education might yield higher lifetime earnings. The chapter emphasizes the importance of aligning education policies with labor market demands to enhance educational and employment outcomes. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2025.

Purpose – To analyse the key factors shaping student satisfaction in VET studies and how this satisfaction influences students' intention to recommend the programme and their perception of its institutional and social reputation. Design/methodology/approach – On-site surveys through a link to students of VET higher education studies (n = 158) in Extremadura (Spain) from the professional families of administration and management and commerce and marketing. The methodology used is structural equation modelling to evaluate the causal relationships of the proposed theoretical model. Findings – Students’ perception of how well their VET studies prepare them for future professional life is the most influential factor in determining satisfaction, above academic aspects, expectations or infrastructure. Additionally, satisfaction has a direct impact on both the intention to recommend the programme and the perceived reputation of VET studies. Practical implications – Educational institutions can improve the perceived value of VET studies by strengthening ties with the professional world, incorporating active methodologies focused on real-world skills and enhancing reputation through alumni involvement, outreach activities and communication strategies based on student satisfaction. Originality/value – The study contributes to the still limited body of research on satisfaction in VET by proposing and validating a model that connects satisfaction with future attitudes, such as recommendation intention and perceived reputation, offering a useful framework for understanding and enhancing the long-term positioning of VET programmes. © 2025 Emerald Publishing Limited

The most common form of vocational training in Carniola during the Austro-Hungarian period was apprenticeship, a combination of working for masters craftsmen and attending a continual vocational school, which was a lower form of vocational education. The article focuses on the problem of apprenticeship for hospitality workers in Carniola during the Austro-Hungarian period (1867–1918), especially in the final years before the collapse of the monarchy. Events in the field of hospitality training were closely monitored by the professional newspapers Gostilničarski vestnik (1911–1913) and Gostilničar (1914–1931), which play a central role in the article as an exhaustive source of information on the innkeepers’ apprenticeship, and Promet and gostilna (1908–1909) also raised the issue of a vocational school for innkeepers. Ljubljana did not have professional continual vocational schools for innkeepers in this period, even though repeated requests were made, and obtained it only in 1924. With respect to apprenticeship, the two newspapers emphasized the need for establishing a relevant professional school, a requirement for compulsory training for the hospitality profession, which would prevent unfair competition, but were not bold enough when mentioning the problem of too young apprentices. © 2025 The Author(s).

This study aims to reveal the inhibiting factors for graduates of SVHS Expertise Competency in Building Modeling and Information Design (BMID) to get their first job. This research is quantitative descriptive research. Data were obtained through questionnaire surveys and documents. The research population is SVHS organizing BMID Expertise Competency, SVHS graduates, and construction service companies in Yogyakarta Special Region Province. The research sample was determined purposively. Each district/city is represented by one State vocational High School (SVHS). Data were collected through observation, questionnaires, and documents. Instrument validity uses questionnaire content validity based on expert judgment. Data analysis uses descriptive statistics and is presented in the form of graphs and data tables. The results showed that 52% of respondents chose to continue their education, 45% worked and 3% were entrepreneurs. As many as 44% of respondents who work get their first job without the help of other parties. 85% of respondents who work have an average duration of waiting period for work for < 6 months. A total of 46% of respondents agreed that the obstacle to getting a job was inappropriate skills or competencies. 50% of SVHS alumni applied to work at an internship site to get a job. Although SVHS provides training support and cooperation with industry, there is still a gap between the abilities of graduates and the needs of the world of work. Efforts to increase graduate employment require stronger synergy between SVHS, businesses, industries, and the government. © ICRES 2025.All rights reserved.

The article addresses school-to-work transitions among young women in a strongly male dominated professional sphere–the transport industry. Drawing on interviews with two girls over the time span 2015–2022 and visits to their upper secondary school 2016–2019, the study focuses on how power structures related to gender play out in the positioning that takes place in school and workplaces: How the girls were positioned socially and in relation to professional qualification, and how they positioned themselves in these respects. The findings indicate significant changes in discourse and practice when the girls transitioned from students to employees, changes which in the article are discussed in the framework of ‘inequality regimes’ and through the lens of the ‘glass funnel’ metaphor. Linking the funnel metaphor to the framework of inequality regimes broadens the picture to consider how young people are exposed to generally increasing inequalities in labour markets where institutions and organisations are affected by neoliberal economic policies, weakened collective protection of workers and wider wage gaps. With individualisation and insecurity, young people like the two girls in focus in this article, are increasingly left to fend for themselves in a harsh labour market. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

This article posits that within American woodworking and wood play school curriculum—across time periods and age ranges—there is a hidden-in-plain-site dimension of care toward non-human things, like tools and wood. Analyzing American teacher guidebooks, curriculum descriptions, educational research journals, technical education magazines, newsletters, school textbooks, and other sources, this study describes how the dimension of care is revealed, despite not being named as an explicit educational purpose. An ethics of care is theorized in this study as quotidian habits of maintenance and reverence toward non-human things. Emphasizing this style of care provides a new way of seeing American wood shop class, and related lessons, away from their vocational backdrop, and provides current educators with inspiration on how woodworking and wood play could be integrated into curriculum concerned with promoting a less anthropocentric ethics in the classroom. © 2023 Curriculum and Pedagogy Group.

To meet society’s changing demands, the responsive development of curricula is vital, and curriculum developers need to increasingly foresee and incorporate changes into their curricula in a timely manner. However, responsive curriculum development is a complex problem for curriculum developers in vocational and (higher) professional education, and comprehensive research on this theme is scarce. This study focused on responsive curriculum development processes in a Dutch higher professional education institution (N = 77 experts). A group concept mapping study into the supportive factors of this process revealed six factors: (1) a vision of education and learning, (2) a continuous and iterative development process, (3) teamwork, (4) involving stakeholders, (5) a conducive environment and conditions, and (6) agency. Participating experts highlighted the importance of ensuring that equal attention is devoted to each of these factors. However, the results also reveal the challenges that curriculum developers face. To deal with these, a framework of factors is suggested to facilitate curriculum conversations in which developers can negotiate–and give meaning to–the desired change in the curriculum context. © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.

In comparative VET research, a model developed from the perspective of comparative politics, the so-called ‘skill formation systems typology’ developed by Busemeyer and Trampusch, dominates the discourse. However, models to compare VET systems often rely on a narrow set of assumptions and fail to account for their complexity. We therefore review this typology and highlight its limitations. This article argues that this typology has limited usefulness for understanding vocational education and training (VET) systems. We advocate for a approach from the perspective of vocational education studies that takes into account the unique contexts and characteristics of specific VET systems. The article concludes that there is a need for substantively robust and valid distinctions based on appropriate models that allow for the international comparison of VET systems. © 2023 The vocational Aspect of education Ltd.