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Networks » 2. Vocational Education and Training (VETNET)

Network Objectives

The research network on vocational education and training (VETNET) was launched at ECER'96 in Sevilla. Since ECER'97 the VETNET network has served as the joint platform and umbrella network for European research in vocational education and training (VET).
The VETNET network covers a broad range of research and development activities in VET.

The VETNET board has defined seven main areas:

  1. Globalisation, VET Systems and Innovation
  2. Accreditation, Qualifications and Frameworks
  3. Work Based Learning, Apprenticeship and Re-Training
  4.  Professionalisation, Competence Development and Life Long Learning
  5.  Boundary Crossing, Transitions and Transfers
  6. Curriculum, Pedagogy and Learning Resources (including E-Learning)
  7. Cultural Diversity, Learners and VET

 

The objectives of the VETNET network in promoting a common European research culture are:

  1. to promote the discussion and dissemination through mutual learning of research and the use of research results; 
  2. to explore the relationship between research, policy and practice; 
  3. to foster the highest quality of research in the field of Vocational Education and Training; and 
  4. to encourage cooperation under VET researchers in the European research area and beyond.

Thematic field of research

The field of VET-related research covers both initial VET and continuing vocational training, both school-based and workplace-based learning provisions as well as the development of pedagogic expertise for vocational and professional education.
VETNET provides an open platform for basic (discipline-based) research that deals with some aspects of VET as well as for more specialised (interdisciplinary) research approaches that are more closely involved in the development of VET systems.

The topics that have been covered by VETNET are related to several thematic clusters such as:

  • VET-related policy studies and cross-cultural comparisons between different VET systems, 
  • studies on current developments in working life and in the labour markets (as preconditions for the shaping of VET provisions), 
  • studies on the uses of VET by diverse target groups and on the impact of training measures on the career development of the users,
  • studies on the shaping of curricula and learning environments for VET and evaluation of educational impact of pilot projects.

Keywords

  • Analyses of VET-related policies in national and European contexts;
  • Comparisons of different VET systems and cultural contexts for the development of VET,
  • Analyses of learning at workplaces and of arrangements for promoting work-related learning,
  • Analyses of changing skill needs and of measures to promote lifelong learning,
  • Monitoring of school-to work transition and socio-cultural patterns for career development,
  • Studies of new learning designs and of piloting their usability with different learners,
  • Analyses of curricular and social innovations in VET (including ICT-related learning and e-learning in the context of VET)
  • Development of methodologies for innovation research and evaluation research in VET, 
  • Analyses on the role of research in the professionalisation of pedagogic expertise in VET,
  • Analyses of the role of VET-related research in promoting cross-cultural cooperation and knowledge transfer in European and international contexts.

VETNET Homepage

Find more information about VETNETs conference proceedings and programme on the VETNET homepage.