In the present descriptive qualitative study, we present the concept of vocational branding to provide a definition and explain how it may increase interest in a particular vocation or career. We define vocational branding as a set of stories, facts, and ideas communicating the personality, traits, and realistic benefits and challenges of a…

In many countries, high-stakes tests play an important role in allocating students to prestigious tracks and schools in secondary education or to prestigious programs and colleges in tertiary education. It is not clear what happens if the cutoff points in these tests are systematically lowered. Will this affect subsequent educational careers? This…

In this study, we focus on the role of Dutch Level 2 senior vocational training in care work in relation to the prospects and options it provides for students who follow this programme. Similar to the 'care girls' from previous studies our participants are young women from lower-class backgrounds who aspire to various jobs in the care sector, but…

Previous research on employment outcomes of autistic adults mainly assessed if they work and under what terms, with mostly anecdotal descriptions of where they work. This study aimed to identify the employment sector distribution of autistic employees compared to the general workforce in the Netherlands and to explore possible background…

The present study addresses creativity as an employee strategy adopted to deal with challenges and distinguishes between incremental creativity (i.e., minor modifications to existing practices) and radical creativity (i.e., major departures from current practices). We hypothesize that employee self-reported mindfulness and other-rated personal…

Students' health profession education includes learning at the workplace through placements. For students, participating in daily work activities in interaction with supervisors, co-workers and peers is a valuable practice to learn the expertise that is needed to become a health care professional. To contribute to the understanding of…

This study focuses on student teachers who are on the threshold of entering the teaching profession. The aim of this study is to examine their motivations for becoming teachers, their educational ideals and the meaningful experiences inside and outside teacher education that influenced their educational ideals. To examine these, we conducted a…

Student diversity in health professions education (HPE) can be affected by selection procedures. Little is known about how different selection tools impact student diversity across programs using different combinations of traditional and broadened selection criteria. The present multi-site study examined the chances in selection of subgroups of…

Absolute ability/achievement does not explain gender differences in educational trajectories, but the role of comparative advantage (i.e., being better in one subject compared to another) has received much less attention. To study this, longitudinal data collected among 1,352 individuals (age 15-16) in upper secondary education in the Netherlands…

Reducing the number of vocational qualifications available is a current or recent priority area of many VET [vocational education and training] systems internationally, but what is the best way to achieve this and is there anything that needs to be considered? Focusing on cases studies on New Zealand, England, Finland and the Netherlands, this…

Purpose: Employees are increasingly expected to organize their own human resource development activities. To what extent and how exactly employees in various organizational contexts manage to shape their individual learning paths however remains largely unclear. The purpose of this present study is to explore, leaning on the empirical…

The paramedic profession is rapidly evolving and has witnessed significant expansion in the scope of practice and the public expectations of the paramedic role in recent years. Increasing demands for greater knowledge and skills for paramedics has implications for the university programs tasked with their pre-employment training. The certification…

The concept of quality culture has gained increased attention in health professions education, drawing on insights that quality management processes and positive work-related attitudes of staff in synergy lead to continuous improvement. However, the directions that guide institutions from quality culture theory to educational practice have been…

Students' vocational knowledge can be defined as all knowledge students require performing within occupational practice. In the context of vocational education and training, students' vocational knowledge is often discussed from a perspective of either what should be taught and learned in schools or different kinds of knowledge students should…

Purpose: This study explores the use of advisory services by farm managers and its linkages with the economic, environmental and social performance of farms. Design/methodology/approach: Using cluster analysis we determined groups of farms according to their sustainability performance and explored the correlations between contacts with advisory…