Collective skill formation systems thrive if employers' skill needs are reflected in apprenticeship training programmes and firms offer apprenticeship positions. Occupation-level adaptation processes underpin these systems, which offer upper-secondary level vocational education leading to hundreds of occupations. Yet, it is considered challenging…

Competence development and measurement are of great interest to vocational education and training (VET). Although there are many instruments available for measuring competence in diverse settings, in many cases, the completed steps of validation are neither documented nor made transparent in a comprehensible manner. Understanding what an…

In vocational education and training, coaching can be used to support apprentices' ability to manage their own (further) competence development 'on the job'. This is largely requested among employees at workplaces in internationally competitive sectors of the economy which require of their workforce a great deal of flexibility and learning…

This resource has been developed for pre-apprenticeship providers who wish to develop and enhance their programme to ensure that young people are equipped with the key skills they need for an apprenticeship and their future career. This resource is divided into the following sections: (1) Transversal and learn to learn skills; (2) Basic skills;…

Based on qualitative research on and automation technology apprentices in Switzerland, this paper examines apprentices' experiences of participating in their company's production activities and becoming members of their community of practice, and the influence of these experiences on the development of their occupational identity. Participation in…

This report shares data in the following categories as they relate to graduates in Ontario's economy: (1) Matching skills to employer needs: pathways, entrepreneurship, and innovation; (2) Ontario's college graduate advantage compared to the U.S.; (3) Ontario's post-secondary graduates in the world economy; (4) Educational attainment and…

Many people have studied and written about Switzerland's youth apprenticeship system, and there are good reasons to do so. The Swiss economy has been called the most innovative in the world. Switzerland's students significantly outperform U.S. students in scholastic achievement. Its youth unemployment rate is lower than in the United States.…

Role models provide youth with valuable information on how to pursue their career goals. However, whether the presence of role models is related to career development beyond social support has not been sufficiently addressed. We investigated how perceived role model influence and social support were related to goal engagement among 191 students…

This article investigates how Swiss retail apprentices construct their occupational identities under modern workplace affordances. The Swiss retail sector has become more competitive in recent decades; as a consequence, retail businesses look for skilled and responsible employees who are flexible in regard to work tasks and schedules. The article…

A growing number of U.S. companies across a range of industries are designing apprenticeship programs to give workers access to on-the-job learning opportunities that allow them to transition into in-demand jobs and careers. This discussion paper provides a snapshot of the current state of apprenticeship in the United States based on interviews…

Occupations differ in their prestige, but little research has examined how workers manage working in a low-prestige occupation. This case study with retail-clerk apprentices in Switzerland uncovers the identity strategies the apprentices employ to help them normalise the situation they find themselves in: they are learning an occupation that is…

Austria, Germany and Switzerland are renowned for their extensive systems of collective vocational skill formation, which, however, have developed largely in separation from higher education. This divide has become increasingly contested as a result of a variety of socioeconomic factors that have led to an increasing demand for higher level…

In vocational education, a challenging issue is to help apprentices build integrated knowledge from workplace training and school teaching. The present research proposes a learning design in which apprentices are required to write with a reciprocal peer-tutoring approach about situations they encountered in the workplace in order to help in…

Based on the conceptual argument that the European apprenticeship might explain cross-national variability in adolescent adjustment, the current investigation tested the relationships between mentoring experiences, namely joint activities with mentors as well as perceived mentoring behaviors by unrelated adults in the work setting, and measures of…

The literature on business involvement in education in Canada, the United States, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Switzerland, Japan, the United Kingdom, and other European countries was reviewed. Special attention was paid to the following topics: workplace trends/changes; skill requirements/deficits; youth employment/unemployment; integration versus…