Towards emotional responsive mentoring of at-risk students in last-resort programs

Background Mentors guide students in their challenges at school and in life. At-risk students in last-resort programs who are at a high risk of leaving school unqualified are especially in need of highly competent and adaptive mentors. This study therefore aimed to identify mentor qualities as perceived by at-risk students and their mentors that meet students’ needs and mentors’ capabilities. Methods Face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews were conducted with students and mentors of two specialized programs in the Netherlands. Sensitizing concepts, derived from literature, were used to identify themes. Data analysis was conducted using thematic analyses and was validated by performing an audit. Results The mentor qualities that at-risk students and their mentors reported were classified in three different themes. Mentor tasks consisted of guiding and motivating students and providing them with tangible methods of support. Relationships between mentor and student were based on levels of respect, equality, and bonding. Characteristics of mentors related to empathy, care, and trust. Research implications Emotional responsiveness deserves further exploration as it appears to be an underlying concept of being a good mentor. Future research might explore mentor qualities in the context of other last-resort programs for at-risk students. Practical implications Findings implicate that mentors have to walk a tightrope between keeping professional distance and being sensitive, suggesting constant attention to their professional development is needed. Originality In the context of last-resort programs, an alternative perspective on mentoring at-risk students is outlined, based on perceptions of both students and mentors.

Market conditions of international VET providers: a comparative analysis of Australia, UK, USA, and Germany

VET (vocational education and training) is a highly complex, multidimensional worldwide phenomenon with diverse structures. Additionally, very different actors define the functions of a national (or even a regional) VET system. The paper contributes to a better understanding of the policy frameworks and current states of such systems. Therefore, we focus on selected VET systems in order to understand their specifics and thus, their market conditions. A qualitative approach is used to answer the research question regarding which conditions create or support market-based opportunities for the provision of commercial vocational training services. We find that the liberalism and deregulation of the VET sectors, as well as the marketisation of VET practices, lead to incentives to internationalise VET offers. Thinking in terms of skills, the kind of education system does not play a role. This is the case in liberal market-driven VET approaches (here, the UK, the USA and Australia) and is mirrored in the micro-analysis categories of curricula, learning location, content, and learning process.

A social perspective on resilience: social support and dyadic coping in teacher training

Stress in teaching and teacher training is a well-known issue and stress management during teacher training may not only be affected by individual coping efforts, but also determined by private and work-related networks the individual is integrated in. In that regard, our article aims firstly to identify sources of social support in the German teacher training system and secondly to analyze interdependencies in dyadic coping interactions based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model. On the basis of questionnaire data from 307 German trainees and qualified teachers from vocational and general schools, we found that mentors, partners, fellow trainees, colleagues at school, parents, and good friends were named as the most supportive reference persons during teacher training. In a follow-up survey, data from 49 sources of support were obtained, which could be assigned to the corresponding (trainee) teachers (in the sense of support recipients). These dyads thus form the basis for the analysis of dyadic coping interdependencies. The results of the moderator analyses show, among other things, that support recipients who prefer the coping strategy palliative emotion regulation tend to react rather sensitively to contrary coping strategies of the source of support with regard to their stress symptoms. Social interactions in this respect can represent both protective as well as risk factors. Therefore, a system of complex social interdependencies must be considered when analyzing relational resilience among prospective teachers.

Complex factors and educational tools for social change and empowerment for severely marginalized Nepalese women working in hospitality and tourism

Educated and skilled women are active change agents. This paper focuses on informal hospitality education as a tool for social change and empowerment for severely marginalized Nepalese women. Studied over 18 months, a small group of women cooking for a boutique local and international tourist market in Kathmandu participated in cookery skills training. The Australian educator/researchers focused on the educational experience to uptake and retention of cookery skills and technical language. As a result of the educational intervention, changes in personal attributes and perceptions of inherent sociocultural gender roles/caste emerged. Participation in the cookery skills training program contributed partially as a catalyst that improved confidence, communication skills and exposed to the women pathways toward self-sustainability, emancipation and empowerment within an often-hostile working environment for women from severely disadvantaged backgrounds in Nepal.

Learning Factories 4.0 in technical vocational schools: can they foster competence development?

Learning Factories 4.0 are thought to prepare vocational students for the challenges of Industry 4.0. The implementation of those interconnected Learning Factories 4.0 at technical vocational schools may promote the development of subject-related technical competencies as well as multidisciplinary digital competencies. Still, research is scarce with regard to the development of competencies supported through Learning Factories 4.0 in technical vocational schools. Hence this research focusses on subject-related technical and multidisciplinary digital competencies of technical vocational students change due to different levels of Learning Factory 4.0 interaction over time. Three subsequent competence tests with N = 63 technical vocational students were conducted. Findings indicate the benefits of integrating Learning Factories 4.0 for developing subject-related competencies in technical vocational schools. However, the study could not identify a positive development of multidisciplinary digital competencies. The findings of this study can help educators to further develop learning environments with support from Learning Factories 4.0 as well as preparing their learners for the demanding competencies of Industry 4.0.

Characteristics of powerful learning environments in VET transition program for at-risk students: qualitative insights from teachers and support specialists implementing the program

At-risk students like those with special educational needs, learning difficulties, or pupils at risk of exclusion frequently struggle in transition from basic to secondary vocational education and training, often due to poor personal, learning and social skills. Therefore, several countries implement transition programs like the choice of profession training (CoPT) in Estonia to support youngsters’ readiness to continue their studies. This study aimed to identify how the characteristics of powerful learning environments in vocational education (PoLEVE) appear in CoPT in VET teachers and support specialists’ experiences. The deductive thematic analysis of 16 semistructured interviews illuminated the development of learning-, life-, cooperation- and self-determinations skills through adaptive teaching and learning support in a safe and positive learning community. Nevertheless, the results also call for empowering at-risk students to cope independently, supporting their construction of vocational knowledge through reflective dialogue and intellectually challenging problem-solving.

Practical validation framework for competence measurement in VET: a validation study of an instrument for measuring basic commercial knowledge and skills in Switzerland

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 instrument actually measures is extremely important, inter alia, for evaluating test results, for conducting replication studies and for enforcing adaptation intentions. Therefore, more thorough and qualitative validation studies are required. This paper presents an approach to facilitate validation studies using the example of the simuLINCA test. The approach to validation applied in this study was developed in the field of medicine; nevertheless, it provides a promising means of assessing the validity of (computer-based) instruments in VET. We present the approach in detail along a newly developed computer-based simulation (simuLINCA) that measures basic commercial knowledge and skills of apprentices in Switzerland. The strength of the presented approach is that it provides practical guidelines that help perform the measurement process and support an increase in transparency. Still, it is flexible enough to allow different concepts to test development and validity. The approach applied proved to be practicable for VET and the measurement of occupational competence. After extending and slightly modifying the approach, a practical validation framework, including the description of each step and questions to support the application of it, is available for the VET context. The computer-based test instrument, simuLINCA, provides insights into how a computer-based test for measuring competence in various occupational fields can be developed and validated. SimuLINCA showed satisfying evidence for a valid measurement instrument. It could, however, be further developed, revised and extended.

Influence of learning and internship satisfaction on students’ intentions to stay at their current jobs: survey of students participating in Taiwan’s dual education system

We investigated the effectiveness of Taiwan’s dual education system, referred to as the dual system of vocational training policy (DSVTP) program. By surveying 722 randomly selected respondents participating in the DSVTP program, we examined the effects of students’ satisfaction with their learning and internship in the program on their intentions to stay at their current jobs. We employed structural equation modeling to analyze the associations among factors. Our empirical results revealed positive correlations between learning satisfaction, job involvement, dual system satisfaction, and intentions to stay at the current job. These empirical results also suggested that students participating DSVTP are largely satisfied with this program and would promote them to stay at current job, which in turn helps to alleviate youth unemployment. On the basis of the statistical analysis results, policy implications that could serve as a reference in future reforms of the DSVTP in Taiwan are also discussed.

The costs of standardized apprenticeship curricula for training firms

Standardized curricula define the set of skills that must be trained within a training occupation and thus are a key regulatory element of apprenticeship systems. Although clear economic rationales support the usage of such curricula, they necessarily impose costs, especially on firms that train apprentices, but do not use the full set of skills in their productive process and/or train other skills that are not covered by the curriculum. In this paper, we identify the trade-offs involved in setting up training curricula and use data from the most recent survey on the costs and benefits of apprenticeship training among Swiss firms to quantify the associated costs to training firms. On average, training firms state that they do not use 17% of the training content prescribed by the relevant curriculum, and 11% of the companies train additional skills not covered by the curriculum. We show that both kinds of misfit are associated with higher training costs and lower productive output from apprentices. This shows that the regulator imposes costs on firms in order to guarantee broad skills development for apprentices. It also cautions against overly broad curricula that may impose disproportionate costs on firms.

The value of apprentices in the care sector: the effect of apprenticeship costs on the mobility of graduates from apprenticeship training

This paper provides evidence on the effect of apprenticeship costs on the decision whether care facilities employ apprenticeship graduates after completing apprenticeship training. To account for the endogeneity in apprenticeship costs, we exploit an exogenous reduction in the apprenticeship costs of care facilities by exploiting the fact that the underlying apprenticeship levy was introduced across the German federal states at different points in time. We find that the redistribution of apprenticeship costs increases the probability of leaving the training facility after completing apprenticeship training by 10 percentage points. Furthermore, we use this quasi-experimental setting to estimate the effect of mobility of graduates on their wages, which hints at a negative relationship in the upper quartile of the wage distribution.