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In light of university business English pedagogical innovation, this study reports an empirical study with 66 English major participants.

The study uses online survey and participant observation to investigate their practice-oriented motivation and needs, the perceptions of using vocational education and training pedagogy in business English teaching and the learning outcomes in a Chinese university context.

The study found participants with motivations to learn business and trade knowledge, develop practice-oriented abilities and the preferences of learning flexibly and autonomously. For the perceptions of using vocational education and training pedagogy, simulations of meetings and negotiations were recommended and the job-based competency development model was useful. Workplace simulation was also particularly suggested to bridge the gap between classroom and workplace. For learning outcomes, writing practices and workplace simulation were considered particularly useful. The learning gains were found in international trade correspondence writing. While the intention of continuing learning business English correspondence writing was identified, more opportunities should be created for more practice-oriented activities, such as internship or corporate visit.

Informed by vocational education and training theory, the study has important pedagogical, theoretical and policy implications for business English teaching in both China and worldwide contexts.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate vocational teaching behaviours in facilitating pedagogical practice concerning students' classroom engagement.

A mixed-method approach with quantitative classroom observations and qualitative field notes was conducted at two higher vocational institutions in Guangdong province, south of China. Sixty lesson observations were rated combining with supplementary field notes from 20 teacher participants analysed through a comparative coding process.

Means of dimensions of teaching behaviours and student engagement were calculated based on taking the averages of the means of items theoretically associated with each dimension. Through thematic analysis of observational notes, vocational instructions and students' engagement in vocational learning environment were more diversified in terms of vocational teaching practice, which manifested that vocational teaching behaviours focused more on adjusting students' practical learning.

The limitation is shown that the quantitative sample is small, yet affords greater depth of data for further discussion.

This study develops its setting and orientation by applying the classroom observation instrument into the Chinese high vocational context and offers more in-depth insights and exploration of the characteristics of teaching practice in vocational classrooms.

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.

The field of teaching technologies is in constant interplay between educational and industrial advances. Since the beginning of the twenty-first century, digitalization and automatization have become increasingly important. In industrial and social life, we see similar fast-moving developments. These factors challenge education, specifically vocational education, greatly, and raise two very different, yet very much connected questions: how to prepare students for their vocational lives and how to prepare teachers to communicate the necessary competencies to their students? This chapter provides an overview of advances, challenges, and possible solutions, focusing on the three key fields of vocational education in Germany: Industry 4.0, Education 4.0, and innovative teacher education. Most importantly, however, the text examines the continuous interplay between and among these fields. The beginning of the chapter is dedicated to vocational teacher education, in accordance with industrial and educational advances. Specifying this, characteristics of Industry 4.0, as well as students' and teachers' perceptions of Industry 4.0, are discussed. This is followed by an introduction to the concept of so-called learning factories as a possible way of integrating aspects of Industry 4.0 in German vocational schools. The end of the chapter is dedicated to the required changes in educational settings today and in the future. Though Industry 4.0, Education 4.0, and innovative teacher education are each widely discussed in the current literature, the interplay of all three fields reveals a research gap. This chapter tries to close this gap and provide an important contribution to the research field.

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.

Responding to the recent split in the US labor movement, this paper aims to argue that learning must become an integral part of a progressive union devoted to organizing.

This paper traces the evolution of vocational education in US industrial unions and critiques it in light of the challenges facing labor today.

The paper finds that vocational education in US industrial unions is a negotiated benefit aimed at meeting the instrumental needs of individual union members. The evolution of this model was inevitable given the US labor relations context within which it emerged. However, significant changes in US political economy call for a new model of vocational education in unions. Rather than learning as a service, Learning to Organize challenges unions to put learning in service of the broader, collective aim of renewed labor power.

The paper shows that union leaders need to reframe their views of vocational learning and its role in unions. Union vocational and labor educators can help leaders to both broaden the vocational learning agenda and link worker engagement in vocational learning to strategic planning, policy development, and everyday operations inside unions.

The paper offers ideas on how to mobilize unions' extensive vocational education resources in support of broader worker engagement and a new strategic agenda inside of US unions.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the cause–effect relationship between vocational support and the levels of acquisition of practical skills via learning self-efficacy during a training intervention in computer maintenance technology among vocational electronic technology students.

Quasi-experimental research was employed. The participants were 84 undergraduates of vocational electronic technology education in Nigeria. The study applied the modified stages of the Dreyfus model of skills acquisition as the training model. The study proposed a four-simple mediation models based on the first four stages of the modified Dreyfus model of skills acquisition (namely, novice, advanced beginner, competent and proficient stages) via practical skills learning self-efficacy.

The result showed significant effects of perceived vocational support in practical skills training on the levels of acquisition of practical skills in computer maintenance technology. Learning self-efficacy mediated the relationship between perceived vocational support and three levels of practical skills acquisition (advanced beginner, competent and proficient).

All possible mediation pathways were not covered in this study. However, the study x-rayed the tendency of pathways in training intervention in vocational education and allied fields of study.

This study has empirically provided evidence to support the Dreyfus model of skills acquisition, as a plausible practical skills training model. Hence, the study can serve as a model for other researchers for replication in other fields of study.

To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study that revealed potential pathways in work-related practical skills training interventions. The study has also validated the Dreyfus model as a potential skill acquisition model for practical skills training.

This study aims to demonstrate whether the educational mismatch prevalent in society can be overcome by various types of lifelong learning and whether lifelong learning can contribute to job satisfaction.

The participants were 2,559 young Korean employees who graduated from general or specialized vocational high school. This study applied structural equation modeling to verify the mediating effects of lifelong learning on the relationship between educational mismatch and job satisfaction. In addition, this study compared whether the conceptual model results were applied to those who graduated from general school and specialized vocational school through multigroup analysis.

Regarding the horizontal mismatch, the mediating effect of lifelong learning correlated with job satisfaction was significantly measured in all multigroup models, including the conceptual model. Nevertheless, regarding the vertical mismatch, this study confirmed that informal learning influences job satisfaction differently according to the type of high school from which employees graduated. Furthermore, for those who graduated from specialized vocational school, the relationship between vertical mismatch and job satisfaction was significantly indicated. However, there was no influence of informal learning at the workplace.

This study empirically demonstrated the alternative value of lifelong learning in overcoming the preceding educational mismatch. Moreover, the evidence that such lifelong learning effects may vary depending on the vocational education experiences before entering the labor market is valuable.

The purpose of the paper is to show that The Netherlands offers an interesting case of apprenticeship as part of an elaborated system of vocational education, combining school and workplace learning. For reaching objectives of vocational education with regard to effective problem solving on the job and work process knowledge the quality of workplace learning is essential.

The research in this paper is explorative. It is based on policy analysis, literature review and meta‐analysis of recent research on workplace learning, done by the authors and some colleagues. New theoretical approaches on workplace learning are used to throw new light on developments in Dutch apprenticeships.

The paper finds that governments as well as schools and companies are attempting to uphold the quality of learning in apprenticeships. More intensive interaction between workplaces and vocational schools are developed. Still, there are two main issues in dispute: the quality of workplace learning (content, guidance, assessment) and the quality of the connection between workplace and school‐based learning, despite attempts to make VET more practice oriented and to improve connections between school and work.

The paper shows that VET innovation should pay more attention to quality improvement and connectivity of work‐based learning by establishing quality criteria for work‐based learning places, by enriching workplace learning and by designing curricula, which integrate learning places as well as learning experiences.

The value of the paper is delivering new insights on apprenticeships by confronting new theories with the Dutch case.

Due to the global outbreak of Covid-19, Swedish teachers in upper secondary education were forced to conduct emergency remote teaching. As of today, there is a stream of research that addresses digitalization in education in light of the pandemic. Previous studies show that the challenges with the sudden intensification of digitalization have been particularly challenging in practical and aesthetic subjects. The research question is as follows: What challenges did vocational teachers experience during the emergency remote teaching caused by Covid-19 and what emergent tactics can be identified in vocational teaching practice?

The empirical data consists of (1) interviews with two vocational teachers and, (2) workshops with 25 teacher students from different vocational programmes that addressed vocational teaching during the Covid-19 crisis.

Emergency remote teaching meant challenges due to the changed socio-material environment that cannot easily be transformed to a vocational teaching setting. The challenges were related to authentic situations and material, problem solving and dexterity. Tactics that emerged as a response to the challenges were mainly connected to attempts to mimic vocational practices.

Contributions include explaining specific challenges and possibilities in developing vocational competence when teaching is digitalised. Furthermore, it increases the understanding of the relationship between theory and practice in vocational education. By adopting a socio-material perspective on vocational competence, the authors enhance the understanding of the importance of a shared socio-material environment.