This article examines how collaboration-related degree learning outcomes are interpreted, implemented, and assessed within four Swedish professional education programmes: the social work programme, the subject teacher programme, the special needs education programme, and the health care counselling programme. Drawing on neo-institutional theory and a governance perspective, the study analyses 30 semi-structured interviews with programme directors from 21 universities using qualitative content analysis. The findings show that collaboration is framed as a self-evident core competence but is translated differently across programmes. Three cross-cutting patterns emerge: (1) professional logics shape local interpretations, giving divergent meanings to similar outcomes; (2) organisational structures, such as timetables, course architecture, and placements, indirectly govern opportunities for collaboration; and (3) assessment practices often privilege reflection over action, shifting responsibility to supervisors in placement and field-based learning contexts. These patterns reveal how governance and professional logics jointly shape opportunities for students to develop collaborative competence. The study concludes that authentic, practice-based learning and assessment designs supported by coherent organisational and policy conditions are crucial for achieving functional equivalence across institutions. The results underline the need for policies and resource support that bridge the gap between formal outcomes and educational practice, creating equitable conditions for students’ development of collaborative competence.
This article examines students’ transition from school-based training to workplace-based training in vocational education and training (VET). We analyse how students’ experiences of this transition are shaped by perceptions of the relationship between school-based and workplace-based training among the students themselves and their teachers and workplace trainers. The theoretical framework includes the concepts of narrative, repertoire, and horizon. The empirical material consists of interviews with students, their teachers, and workplace trainers. The analysis identifies two student narratives during school-based training: ‘I want to use the knowledge I have acquired at school during workplace-based training’ and ‘I want to put school behind me’. During workplace-based training, these are mirrored by two narratives in which school-based training becomes either more or less meaningful. Two teachers’ positions and two workplace trainer positions are also constructed, reflecting divergent views on the relevance of school-based education and training. By juxtaposing student narratives with teacher and trainer positions, the analysis highlights conditions shaping either smooth or more disjointed transitions. By examining how students’ narratives are shaped through encounters with teachers’ and trainers’ positions, the study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of meaning-making processes in transitions between school-based and workplace-based training in VET.
Work-based learning is a central component of vocational education and training (VET), yet student absence from workplace placements is often understood in administrative or behavioural terms. This article examines how VET students interpret absence from work-based learning and what such withdrawal reveals about the relational, psychological, and organisational conditions shaping participation. Drawing on qualitative interviews with 26 upper-secondary vocational students in Sweden who experienced work-based learning as challenging, the study employs reflexive thematic analysis informed by the theory of communities of practice and Biesta’s three domains of education. The findings show that absence from work-based learning emerges as a situated and meaningful response to learning environments perceived as lacking recognition, safety, or pedagogical purpose. Students described withdrawing in response to emotional exhaustion, relational insecurity and poor workplace treatment, experiences of meaninglessness linked to limited learning opportunities, as well as practical and structural barriers disrupting continuity. Rather than indicating a lack of motivation or commitment, absence functioned as a relational and communicative act through which students signalled that participation had become untenable. By reconceptualising absence as an educationally and ethically significant phenomenon, the article contributes by foregrounding absence as student voice and an indicator of inclusiveness and responsiveness in work-based learning arrangements.
This study examines how vocational teachers perceive their agency as professionals teaching adult migrant students and what hinders these teachers’ agency when approaching migrant students. Thematic analysis of interviews with 12 teachers and the director of the institute with experience in teaching adult migrant students revealed two ways of acting as teachers of migrant students by: (1) limiting own responsibilities to teaching contents of vocational subjects; (2) assuming a broader set of responsibilities in supporting migrant students. Independently of the undertaken position and depending on the situation, these teachers actively searched for new ways of supporting migrant students. The teachers’ professional agency and ability to undertake new responsibilities were delimited by restricting assumptions on migrants, their skills, the role of VET as well as challenges with the distribution of resources, teachers’ lack of knowledge in some areas and lack of professional development support. Thus, VET teachers’ in-service and on-the-job training must be reshaped to meet changing conditions and to create possibilities for rethinking of their responsibilities and the redistribution of resources.
This paper explores the long-term career aspirations of refugees participating in a Swiss pre-vocational programme (PAI) supporting their transition into vocational education and training (VET). Using survey data from 2702 participants combined with administrative records, we describe participants’ most salient career aspirations, identify distinct participant groups with different aspiration patterns, and analyse group differences in socio-demographic backgrounds, personal resources, learning experiences, and post-PAI pathways. Using latent class analysis (LCA), six groups were identified: Three stayer groups showed strong continuity aspirations, linked to more positive learning experiences and higher transition rates into VET. The other three groups were characterised by a desire for occupational reorientation, a focus on broader career themes, or general career uncertainty. Career-uncertain individuals had fewer personal resources, less positive learning experiences, and weaker learning outcomes than the stayers. Overall, six in ten PAI participants wished to remain in their current occupational field, indicating that the programme successfully motivated and prepared them for careers in that field. The findings highlight the importance of high-quality learning environments for developing long-term career aspirations among refugees entering VET and the labour market, thereby fostering sustainable careers.
This article explores the tension between the academisation of vocational education and training (VET) and efforts to reclaim its transformative potential. Drawing on Paulo Freire’s critical pedagogy, it argues for the repoliticisation of VET in South Africa, where the post-apartheid VET system remains shaped by inequality, outdated curricula, and low social status. Rather than viewing VET merely as preparation for employment, repoliticisation foregrounds student agency, dialogical praxis, and the pursuit of epistemic justice. Centred on the experiences of 15 students who participated in Learning Cycle Group (LCG) meetings – structured, dialogical spaces informed by Freirean pedagogy – the study draws on participatory data to examine how students resisted being positioned as passive recipients of training. Instead, they articulated aspirations rooted in social justice, critical reflection, and collective transformation. The findings reveal that when students engage as co-investigators of their realities, VET can become a site of critical consciousness and political becoming. Integrating Freirean ideas into VET is thus presented not as elitist academisation but as a counter-hegemonic move that reclaims the humanising and political dimensions of education, positioning VET as a democratic space of dignity and dialogue.
This article addresses the mismatch in Sweden between youth interest in industrial and technology education and labour market demands. It examines the digital marketing strategies of Teknikcollege (TC), a certification concept for upper secondary vocational education, aimed at attracting students, educational providers, and employers. Using critical discourse analysis of TC’s website, the study explores how discursive strategies construct social identities, relationships, and power structures, interpreted through gender system theory. The findings indicate that an overarching industrial discourse permeates all target groups, while additional discourses are often contradictory. Marketing directed at students, especially young women, emphasises autonomy and challenges traditional gender norms within industrial professions. Communication aimed at educational providers reflects responsibility and inclusivity discourses. In contrast, employer-oriented messaging relies on traditional masculine ideals, positioning students as production resources. Although TC seeks to increase sector attractiveness, its marketing fails to address underlying power dynamics and tensions, thereby maintaining the existing mismatch.
Even though social and health care education (social- og sundhedsuddannelserne) in Denmark has existed since 1991, the amount of research in this field is limited. This scoping review aims to bring together the existing knowledge about social and health care education in Denmark in the attempt to produce an overview of research topics and findings. Hence, the scoping review explores what research in a Danish context has been interested in when researching social and health care education programmes since 1991. The first part of the review focuses on the research in two specific arenas: those of school, practices of school culture, teaching, and learning on the one hand, and those of apprenticeship, training, and learning on the other. The second part of the review examines the transversal complex interactions between school culture, teaching, learning, the students’ subjectivity, communities etc., and how these factors affect students’ motivation, participation, and retention throughout the educational processes. Furthermore, the review unfolds which aspects of social and health care education have been studied the most and which lack focus, thereby identifying potential knowledge gaps in the research into social and health care education.
This article presents a study of group counselling for experienced healthcare workers employed in health and care services. The study context involves part-time students in the final year of a two-year counselling education programme, who facilitated counselling in groups for healthcare workers undertaking further education in mental health care at a vocational college. The aim was to explore how participants experienced person-centred group counselling grounded in person-centred, gestalt-based, and phenomenological theory and practice. Data were collected through focus group interviews and process evaluation forms. The evaluation forms included four questions and four open comment fields, generating 84 responses. Focus group interviews were conducted with 12 of the 31 participants who had taken part in three planned and structured group sessions. Findings indicate that the format was experienced as surprising and as a ‘gift,’ strengthening the sense of professional community. Participants described gaining professional insight and personal confidence through sharing experiences and daring to be themselves. The mentors’ status as students was not significant, provided participants felt supported. The article argues that person-centred counselling promotes reflection, supports practice, and fosters transformative learning in working life.
This study aims to provide insight into apprentices’ perceptions of ethical challenges in ambulance work, their experiences with ethics training, and how ethical competence can be strengthened throughout the educational pathway. Ambulance workers must be capable of providing emergency medical treatment, transporting patients, communicating clearly, acting with empathy, managing stress, and making ethically sound decisions under challenging conditions and time pressure. Professional ethical competence is crucial for handling ethically challenging situations. The data material was generated through interviews with ten apprentices during the period 2021–2023. The study reveals that apprentices experience highly demanding emergency situations where ethics and communication play a central role. Despite their young age, they consider themselves capable of handling the tasks and challenges they face. They possess valuable competencies that must be made visible, acknowledged, recognised, and utilised. Ethical competence develops when they communicate in demanding situations, engage in authentic scenarios followed by reflection, and are challenged to act and make decisions in demanding training situations. The study provides insight into the apprentices’ perspectives – knowledge that can support vocational teachers and instructors in facilitating the development of professional ethical competence in ambulance care.
This article examines the relationship between vocational education and training (VET) and workforce demands in Sweden during a period of rapid change. Using the automotive industry as a case study, it explores how VET adapted to technological advances and an expanding private market in the 1950s. The study investigates how school-level VET responded to evolving sector demands and the factors that enabled or constrained these responses. Drawing on curriculum theory, it analyses how educational governance shaped organisation and content. Empirical data from VET schools in three municipalities (1950–1960) show that local adaptations were frequent, enabled by school autonomy. Differences between schools reflected local market conditions, ranging from small workshops to large-scale industries. Close collaboration between employers and schools was essential in aligning training with labour needs. Overall, curriculum and organisational changes in this period illustrate a process of differentiation linking education to working life.
This article aims to highlight and critically examine the norms and values encountered by adult foreign-born students in health and social care education during internships in elderly care settings. Despite political strategies to integrate foreign-born individuals into the elderly care workforce, research on this group of vocational students remains limited. Using focus group interviews, adult foreign-born students in health and social care education were interviewed. The findings reveal that the students primarily become aware of the norms in elderly care through observing their supervisors’ actions. These observations help make abstract concepts – such as delivering quality care and promoting independence – more tangible and applicable in practice. The personal values of the staff and care recipients emerge when the students face xenophobia. The students recognise having an education as essential for acceptance within the community of practice of elderly care and in society. However, their values sometimes conflict with the norms of the community of practice, particularly due to their deep respect for the elderly care recipients.
Contrary to curricular objectives, vocational education and training programmes in Sweden and elsewhere do not appear to foster all students’ willingness and abilities to participate actively in society. Furthermore, previous research into students’ perspectives on such education is both limited and inconclusive. The aim of this study is to add to current knowledge about Swedish vocational students’ perspectives on education for active participation in society and their expectations of such participation in the future. The study was a part of a joint research and development project, focused on developing citizenship education in the subject areas of history, religious education, science studies, and social studies in Sweden. A questionnaire about the perceived importance of citizenship education and expected future participation in society was distributed to all students in grade three of all vocational programmes in one Swedish municipality (n = 140). Most participants favoured citizenship education, but their expectations of future participation in society varied substantially, depending on the activity in question. Differences in views between students on different vocational programmes were minor. The results are discussed in relation to established types of citizens and action (individual, collective, direct, and indirect).
Our explorative study focused on the analysis of workplace learning in Swiss companies offering a one-year pre-vocational programme (PAI) to young persons with a refugee background. We included three companies in the plumbing, commercial, and horticultural sectors, interviewing an in-company trainer and a former PAI apprentice from the same company in each sector. Drawing on a model of the quality of learning environments in a workplace setting (Filliettaz, 2012; Fuller & Unwin, 2003), we investigated how trainers and PAI apprentices perceived affordances, that is, social and structural resources provided in the workplace, and PAI apprentices’ commitment, referring to their individual prerequisites to make use of these affordances. Our results emphasise the importance of an expansive workplace learning environment that enables PAI apprentices’ progressive involvement in professional tasks, and the crucial role of trainers’ and co-workers’ guidance and support. Our results also showed that PAI apprentices were interested, motivated, and took initiative in the workplace, though their full involvement was undermined by their often-difficult life circumstances.
