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Upcoming event and call for papers
Call for Papers - Apprenticeships: Future global trends
9th Research Conference of the International Network for Innovative Apprenticeship (INAP)
May 8th - 9th 2025, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, England
Keynote speakers will include:
Ashwani Aggarwal, International Labour Organization Global Lead for Skill and Lifelong Learning Policy.
Leesa Wheelahan, Professor Emerita, University of Toronto.
Professors Philipp Gonon (Zurich), Oscar Valiente (Glasgow) and Matthias Pilz (Köln) – a discussion panel on ‘Transfer of Dual VET’.
The International Network on Innovative Apprenticeship (INAP) invites contributions to its ninth international research conference. This will be the first full conference since 2019. An online forum was held in 2021.
The conference will address several topics on apprenticeship, including:
· Topic 1: Making apprenticeships more attractive to potential learners and to employers
· Topic 2: Apprenticeships and the future: the economy
· Topic 3: Apprenticeships and the future: society
· Topic 4: Apprenticeship curriculum, standards and delivery
· Topic 5: Governance, including stakeholders' roles and responsibilities
· Topic 6: Teaching and teachers in VET
Access the full guide for presenters and call information here
April 2023
Paper of the Year 2022
Expertise as a ‘capacity for action’: reframing vocational knowledge from the perspective of work by David Guile and Lorna Unwin published in the Journal of Vocational Education and Training Vol. 74 (1) and Teaching art and design in a digital age: challenges facing Ugandan teacher educators by Wycliff Edwin Tusiime, Monica Johannesen and Greta Björk Gudmundsdottir published in Vol. 74 (4) have been awarded joint 1st place for the JVET 2022 Paper of the Year award.
Comments on Expertise as a ‘capacity for action’: reframing vocational knowledge from the perspective of work from members of the JVET Editorial Management Committee included:
“A conceptually strong paper, it contributes to aligning theoretical perspective on expertise with changing working conditions.
“A significant contribution to the discussion on professional expertise.”
“A strong theoretical contribution to VET field, with potential for application to different VET contexts.”
“A substantive paper by two major names that reframes a major concern that they have worked on in the light of recent technological changes to offer a new way of seeing.
Comments on Teaching art and design in a digital age: challenges facing Ugandan teacher educators from members of the JVET Editorial Management Committee included:
“This paper addresses an area of key concern for the future of VET in developing countries and offers considered strategies in the face of challenges. I think JVET should be focusing and highlighting, where possible, on the enhancement of VET in such situations.”
“Well designed research informed by theory.”
“A carefully prepared paper offering rich insights into this topic.”
The Paper of the Year prizes are awarded annually by JVET’s Editorial Management Committee.
09 April 2022
JVET’s Editorial Management Committee (EMC) has announced two joint winners of the JVET Paper of the Year award 2021.
The annual award recognises the standout papers of the previous year and this time, the winners share the prize this year as equal first place. The EMC extends its warmest congratulations to the authors. You can view the winning papers on the links below and both are Free to Access.
Jeanne Gamble
The EMC was struck by this paper’s depth of analysis linking patterns of VET to their material and socio-political foundations. They admired its strong theoretical perspective combined with meticulous historical tracing, providing a fascinating and illuminating account of the development of South African apprenticeship policy under apartheid and apartheid's enduring legacy. It is also, however, a revealing analysis of the complexity of what is entailed in ubiquitous but often unexamined terms like employer demand and employability.
Katherine Marie Caves, Severin Baumann & Ursula Renold
The EMC found this paper to be an ambitious, broadly-scoped, rigorous and concise paper. The literature review addresses the importance of examining how change and reform might be manifest in theory and practice. The EMC found it to be a well written and accessible account which is a source for VET educators and researchers now and, no doubt, will continue to be for some time in the future.
28 September 2021
JVET editors prepare for team transition
L-R top row: Leesa, Stephanie, Kevin
L-R bottom row: Simon, Jim, Ann-Marie
The handover process for the upcoming change in editorship is underway. The first of many international calls took place 28.09.2021 to smooth the process, share thoughts, ideas and innovations. Professor Leesa Wheelahan, Professor Kevin Orr and Professor Ann-Marie Bathmaker are preparing the way for Professor Simon McGrath, Dr Jim Hordern and Professor Stephanie Matseleng Allais to take up their new editor roles from 1 January 2021. A huge debt of gratitude goes to Leesa, Ann-Marie and Kevin for all that they have brought to the team, the Journal and Conferences in the field of vocational education and training. Leesa, Ann-Marie and Kevin will remain on the Editorial Management Committee and as such, very much remain guiding forces for positive moves forward. A warm welcome to their new roles goes to Simon, Jim and Stephanie! Meet the new Editors here.
25 June 2021
JVET celebrates award of its top two papers of the year
JVET’s Editorial Management Committee (EMC) have announced their selection of the top 2 papers published in the Journal in 2020.
First place in the annual award programme is awarded to Dr Don Zoellner, Charles Darwin University, for his paper: Institutional logics: reconceptualising ‘public providers’ in post-open market technical and vocational education and training.
The EMC cited the paper for its timeliness, its ability to bring back an interesting approach to the VET research agenda and for providing evidence that conceptual papers are still relevant in VET-research to aid future thinking in the field.
The panel felt that it was an excellent paper in addressing the effect of post neo-liberalism and revisiting social democracy and that it helps to extend theorising about the nature of markets in VET, the relationship between public and private VET and links with government policy and transition systems.
The judges also appreciated the fact that it is a well-theorised paper on a major national reform programme with international implications and that its perceptive use of the concept of institutional logic would enable readers to better understand important political and cultural changes in VET.
The paper nominated to receive the 2nd place award is by Nora Kolkin Sarastuen, Oslo Metropolitan University: From vocational worker to vocational teacher: a study of identity transition and loss.
The EMC nominated the paper for award for its discussion on a highly important topic in VET, its well-developed research, and interesting insights on teacher recruitment and training in Norway,
The panel felt that the paper offers a novel contribution in its focus on identity transitions highlighting, through findings and analysis from a rigorous empirical study, the significance of the concept of 'detachment' for identity formation.
The paper was well-constructed and theorised and concludes by signalling the implications for the education of vocational teachers. Whilst the empirical project was located in Norway, the conceptualisation and findings are felt to have broader and generic relevance.
Both papers are free to access until 31 December 2021.
01 March 2021
We are delighted to welcome aboard three new members of the Editorial Management Committee and two new colleagues as members of JVET’s editorial board. Professor Stephanie Allais, Professor Susan James Relly and Dr. Holly Henderson join the EMC with immediate effect. Professor Charlotte Chadderton and Dr Oscar Valiente join as members of JVET’s editorial board. Leesa Wheelahan, Editor, commented: “We are delighted to welcome the latest members to the EMC and our wider Editorial Board and are hugely confident that their experience and networks will contribute much to our development plans.”