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Iraq with a population of approximately 13 million in 1980 is one of the capital (oil) rich countries of the Arab region, and shares with them the objective of a fast pace of economic development. Such Arab states may be characterised by the existence of a large and expanding government sector, ambitious industrial development programmes and the pursuit of an increasing standard of welfare and income for their inhabitants. Since about 1970 Iraq's economy has been radically transformed and change is continuing. The demand for labour has grown commensurately with the successive national development plans of the decade. Meeting these increased labour requirements presents formidable tasks for policy makers and planners in Iraq as in other Arab countries.

The purpose of this paper is to compare, and identify both similarities and differences in, affordances for vocational learning in two contrasting education systems, for construction worker and shop salesperson apprentices, in Swedish contexts.

Data were collected through interviews and observations in two research projects, each addressing relevant aspects of one of the focal educational systems. A framework consisting of identified goals, activities and guidance was applied in the analysis.

The results show that the affordances for learning in the examined educational systems are dependent on the learners’ access to, and participation in, workplace activities. A conclusion is that workplace demands override educational goals in both cases. Thus, the affordances for learning related to both individual and educational goals are dependent on the access to guidance during workplace activities.

The study highlights constraints between educational goals and workplace affordances in both apprenticeship systems, which largely develop vocational competencies related to specific workplace demands and activities. A presented model regards apprenticeships as vocational and educational training in workplaces is outlined that enable a deeper understanding of the correspondence between individual, educational and workplace goals that forms the type of activity which leads to a learning outcome.

This paper seeks to concentrate on bottom‐up approaches in order to promote a European vocational education and training (VET) concept. The overall aim of this article is to demonstrate that sophisticated approaches still have a chance of becoming common practice in European countries.

The centre of the article is the discussion of a core occupational profile called ECO‐recycler, which tends to be an alternative to the discussion of a uniform European Qualification Framework. The method of participatory discourse is applied in order to shape a VET space jointly with European partners. However, the partnership should not only discuss an abstract level because the implementation of the ECO‐recycler is the main target of the discourse and it will be demonstrated how it works.

After the clarification of a bottom‐up approach, the implementation process of a core occupational profile in the partner countries is described.

The empirical approach for the creation of work process based core occupational profiles will be offered.

European policies must be changed if these approaches are pursued.

This article offers an alternative to existing European policy and will be of interest to those in the field.

This overview of current themes in vocational education and training policies and systems is presented in three parts. PART 1 treats the context of vocational education and training and discusses the major issues influencing national Governments to change their role in vocational education and training. PART 2 discusses the common themes in how central Governments are changing their role in vocational education and training, particularly concerning the devolution of training responsibility to local bodies. The ways in which vocational education and training systems controlled by these local bodies are reacting to this increased responsibility are pursued in detail. PART 3 discusses the growing realization by central Governments that their responsibility for economic development and productivity can be discharged by a closer focus on vocational education and training, not at the delivery level, but at a policy level which includes both policies for vocational preparation of all citizens — particularly youth — and policies which promote new and existing enterprises which show high returns on investment and productivity.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the difference in attaining and maintaining employment between transition age youth (ages 19–22) with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBDs) completing and not completing vocational training.

A quantitative causal-comparative research design using existing data extracted from the National Longitudinal Transitional Study-2 (NLTS-2) via a restricted data use license issued by the National Center Special Education Research, Institution of Education Sciences, US Department of Education. One-way ANCOVA and multiple regression analysis with one independent variable and six control variables were used for the study.

The results showed there is a significant difference in employment status between transition age youth with EBDs completing vocational training as compared to non-completion of vocational training, controlling for gender, race, age, mental health services, academic achievement and prior work experience. Individuals who completed vocational training are more likely employed after two years, than those who had not completed vocational training.

The outcomes of the study showed that vocational training during the transitional period had a positive impact on outcomes such as employment status, participation in job skills programs and perceived preparedness for employment. These findings support the idea that vocational training during the secondary school period is an effective way to scaffold support for the transitional period. As a result, these findings justify the use of vocational training as part of the transitional preparation for students with emotional and behavioral disorders.

Examines the current rhetoric surrounding the Australian government policy of “creating a clever country” and developing a “multiskilled workforce”. An outcome of the policy is the drive to increase student numbers in what are traditionally known as technical and further education colleges. Deconstructs the taken‐for‐granted use of the term vocational education and training and the language being used to speak of the implementation of competence‐based education, in order to explore the expectations and limitations of its use. Considers the possible role for education within the present trend towards the provision of education which is driven by industry demands.

The purpose of this paper is to compare stakeholders’ roles in Germany and Switzerland when it comes to promoting innovation in the dual apprenticeship model. In both countries, the relevant stakeholders who represent the various occupations and, in a more narrow sense, the social partners, actively shape vocational education and training (VET) reforms. They represent the area of public educational policy, besides governments, political parties and the public, who, in both countries, appreciate the decisive role of apprenticeships for youth education, employment and social stability. Thus, the broad consensus of the relevant stakeholders is crucial in order to keep apprenticeship systems alive. Both countries face challenges related to academisation, which means, that the Gymnasium (high school) and higher education now are even more the first option for parents than in former times. On several levels German and Swiss policy makers try to strengthen VET paying tribute to and trying to cope with these developments.

The paper is situated in the field of comparative VET research. Based on policy documents and findings from research the paper analyses the discourse and perspectives related to VET reforms. The authors deliberately focus on two countries, Germany and Switzerland, which share a great deal of common features in relation to VET, nevertheless developed different measures in order to cope with the pressure of increasing the ratio of students in higher education. The comparative paper looks at the topical reform discourse and taken measures and the specific culture of apprenticeships in the two countries by focusing on those stakeholders, which, besides governments, are crucially involved in the system. The paper draws its insights from the VET policy debate and from both national policy documents and national and international expert publications in the field of VET. A strong focus is given to the emerging new environment of the VET system. Methodologically, the paper draws from an institutional view on VET, which is being discussed broadly in comparative research, since VET systems with a “dual system”, such as the two discussed here, may be categorized as “state-steered market models”, “occupation-based qualifications styles”, “collective skill formation systems” or specific realizations of “transition systems”. All these categories refer to the observation that in these societies it is not the state alone, who defines the structure of the respective VET system, but non-state stakeholders are capable of influencing VET policy and VET reform in a substantial and visible way.

In both countries, Germany and Switzerland, the importance and value of VET is based on an overall consensus, shared by all relevant actors. The basis of this consensus is that the dual system so far successfully opened and should continue to open career paths in industry. Apprenticeships undoubtedly are cornerstones of economic welfare in these countries and can be associated with low youth unemployment rates. A supplementary aspect in the last years however is the political will that VET should also have some kind of link with higher education. Despite some interesting reform measures ambivalences cannot be ignored: against what could be called “academic fallacy” the importance of a highly qualified workforce, trained in non-academic fields, and the future of this kind of skill formation have become major topics and concerns in both societies.

This paper is comparing two similar cases, Switzerland and Germany, in VET in order to profile reform alternatives. Furthermore the actors beyond state are highlighted as important element for reform in VET education.

The purpose of this paper is to argue that it is important to focus on the apprentices' collaborative learning processes when addressing issues of learning transfer.

The claims about the importance of addressing processes of collaborative activities and learning in relation to learning transfer are based on the study following the completion of questionnaires by 243 apprentices and interviews in which 19 baker apprentices participated.

The research results prove that it is important to pay attention to collaborative activities among learners in order to ensure learning transfer.

One limitation of the study is that it does not elaborate on reasons that some apprentices are motivated to integrate what they were taught at vocational college in a workplace setting while others are not motivated to do so.

Educators will become more aware of individual and collective initiatives to cross the boundaries between vocational school and workplace practice.

The study adds to the discussion of learning transfer through an investigation of learning transfer from a collaborative perspective. Most transfer studies have focused on the nature of knowledge or the structural barriers between college and workplace practice, while this study emphasizes the collaborative nature of learning transfer.

This paper aims to analyze the role of human capital (HC), human resource development (HRD) and vocational educational and training (VET) in the emerging Indian economy. How may we define the HC, HRD and VET in India? To what extent and how as HRD investments in India contributed to India’s recent economic development? What were the investments and what were the returns? Who invested and who obtained the returns? Is India really different from other countries?

To achieve that goal, the authors use a model of the HC, HRD and VET national market. Specifically, they divide the analysis in four broad stages: stocks, investments and outcomes; supply, demand, price and quantity; needs; and private and public forces.

The authors conclude that the India’s HC, HRD and VET have been growing and will have to grow even more, for India to become developed. Currently, the urgency is even greater in the HRD and VET side than in the education side. The government goals for 2022 are immense, and the raise in the HRD and VET in India that is aimed will effectively change India’s economy and society.

The authors only use secondary data. They believe that a deeper and very detailed study on all the States of India could be made, following this paper. Also, the analysis could be replicated for the other BRICS.

India HRD and VET market is described as being one of the major India’s problems of today and promises of tomorrow.

Today, only around ten million of India’s citizens receive HRD and VET annually. This number is to be multiplied between 20 and 50 times. This change will change India’s economy and society.

Also, the authors believe that the paper is original because it analyzes India’s HC, HRD and VET with a new conceptual model.

While technical vocational education training (TVET) has been studied in-depth, the evolution and performance patterns of the subject remain unknown and limited. A bibliometric analysis was performed to examine the global scientific literature to assess the state of the art in TVET research over the past 23 years.

The Web of Science (WoS) database was searched to explore TVET-related research from 1999 to 2021, resulting in the identification of 7,512 articles. The VOSviewer software was used to investigate the network of collaboration between authors, institutions, countries and author keywords.

The results reveal that the subject categories of “education” and “educational research” are the most prolific contributors to TVET-related research, with 3,314 articles. Most of the previous studies in Phase I (1999–2006) focussed on human capital resources development in the TVET sector. Phase II (2007–2014) follows with the centralisation of TVET, focussing on technology transition in education. However, in Phase III (2015–2021), researchers appear to focus on vocational studies in higher education towards increasing the productivity of human resources via the implementation of technology transition.

The valuable findings of this study can facilitate better understanding among scholars on the trends of TVET research developments and on the direction of future research.