As working life changes, it places new demands on vocational competence and the use of different digital technologies. It affects vocational teaching, yet digitalization within vocational education constitutes a scarcely researched area. In this study, we explore how vocational teachers relate to teaching in a digitalized society from a…

Virtual simulations (VS) are gaining more popularity in vocational education and training (VET) to train professional competencies. However, implementing VS into organisations requires the involvement of trainers in, and the development of their knowledge to fulfil a meaningful approach to integrating this technology into teaching. In the Estonian…

The dual system of vocational education and training (VET) and its quality have recently been receiving scientific attention, partly due to high drop-out rates and to politically-motivated efforts to increase participation in the system (Le Mouillour, 2018). However, it remains controversial as to how quality within training companies should be…

In this paper we aim to understand how the discourse of VET stakeholders (educational administrators, school leaders and vocational teachers) reproduces and/or contests gender-typical occupational practices in VET. Drawing from interviews with VET stakeholders in Estonia, we found that, as a rule, teachers and heads of schools have noticed gender…

For learners in vocational education, acquiring the specialized language of their field is important in facilitating the ability to communicate appropriately with colleagues and customers. Spoken and written discourse in a range of workplace settings has received some attention, but less attention has been given to discourse in vocational…

Participation in professional development activities is important for teachers to continuously improve their knowledge and skills. However, teachers differ in their attitude towards learning activities. This paper examined how different goal orientation profiles are related to participation in professional development activities (acquiring…

In a large-scale top-down innovation operation in the Netherlands, workplace simulations have been implemented in vocational schools, where students are required to work independently and self-direct their learning. However, research has shown that the success of such large-scale top-down innovations depends on how well their execution in schools…

The effective implementation of educational reform is an issue that confronts both those that plan and sponsor those reforms and those that are affected by them. This article discusses networking processes in the context of reform in vocational and professional higher education. When exploring failures in educational change processes, issues…

In a previous series of studies, a model of comprehensive competence-based vocational education (CCBE model) was developed, consisting of eight principles of competence-based vocational education (CBE) that were elaborated for four implementation levels (Wesselink et al. "European journal of vocational training" 40:38-51 2007a). The…