The notion of "Bildung" has been booming in several European countries for almost twenty years now, but it has attracted little attention in vocational education. One reason for this is that "Bildung," the process of becoming human as a goal in itself, is understood in opposition to vocational education, which task would be to…

Competency-based training (CBT) is gaining popularity as an approach towards creating a highly skilled workforce while reducing the skill gaps faced by industry. Integrated within an organisation's management systems, it can lead to benefits such as increased productivity and strengthened employee engagement. While CBT of aviation industry…

This study examines the role of microcredentials in supporting learning for employment. The study collected information through an online survey among mostly European VET providers, national authorities, employee and employer organisations, in-depth country case studies and interviews, as well as Cedefop's ReferNet network. While the topic has…

Purpose: Preventive ergonomics is essential to protecting the health and safety of workers as is recognizing human variability. The purpose of this paper is to describe a Unity-based application designed for three-dimensional postural analysis and visualizations using motion capture data. Integration with virtual reality (VR) technologies allows…

The Industry 4.0 (I4.0) aims to develop a framework where the new technologies interoperate with each other and with employees, creating a smart and efficient environment. Although there are many public and private initiatives focused on boosting the deployment of I4.0 in all sectors worldwide, the adoption is slower than expected. One of the main…

Employability is a construct that includes soft and hard skills to prepare a person to gain employment, progress in it and sustain a career. The employability discourse, in the context of linking education with skills development, has gained increased attention globally. However, engagement with this agenda differs across countries, as it depends…

Purpose: Training cannot be effective if trainers are not pedagogically competent. However, the influence of trainers' pedagogical competencies on employees' knowledge and skill acquisition during training is not given the needed attention in the training literature. This study aims to examine the influence of trainers' pedagogical competencies…

The dual system of vocational education is designed to balance education (in the educational institution) and training (at the enterprise level) equally in order to ensure the appropriate level of qualification, to teach and socialize the next generation. In addition to these effects (qualifications, education and socialization), the dual system…

COVID-19 and social distancing have crashed into the structural shifts brought about by the fourth industrial revolution. And while meeting skill needs has been on employers' and policy-makers' agendas for long, investing in people in a more comprehensive way is becoming more urgent: as European economies are picking up speed, the hunt for talent…

The shift to a knowledge society has transformed the way we live and work, which is especially challenging to adults with low education levels. Adult education could be the answer, but low-educated adults participate least in adult education. The present study uses data from the Programme for the International Assessment of Adult Competencies to…

This article delves into how specialists were trained in Siberia, and it reveals the roles of home education and of specialized educational institutions in seafaring and mining. The authors describe the tutoring system for people who received their education in Europe and Siberia. They also discuss the significance of internships at specialized…

Lifelong learning is especially important for immigrants, who are often at a disadvantage in terms of the languages and skills that are valued in the labour market of their host country. Yet foreign-born adults are less likely to participate in training than native-born ones, and face higher financial and non-financial barriers to training. Policy…

Building on the findings of Cedefop's research project 'The changing nature and role of VET in Europe' (2015-18), this article outlines the development and transformation of European VET over the last two decades. Exploring change from epistemological-pedagogical, institutional and socio-economic perspectives, the research not only illustrates the…

This comparative study examines patterns of inequality in participation in two different types of adult learning and education (ALE) -- job-related formal ALE (JFALE) and job-related non-formal ALE (JNFALE) -- as related to social origins at the micro-level and three categories of social inequality at the macro-level at the macro level (economic,…

What is the significance of regulations of job contracts and wages when it comes to young people's access to labour market? This is an issue that has attracted and continues to attract a great deal of interest in both research and politics. Proposals for deregulated employment protection and reduced entry-level pay recur regularly in public…