Handbook of Vocational Education and Training : Developments in the Changing World of Work

This handbook brings together and promotes research on the area of vocational education and training (VET). It analyzes current and future economic and labor market trends and relates these to likely implications for vocational education and training. It questions how VET engages with the growing power of human development approaches and with the sustainable development agenda. Equity and inclusion are discussed in a range of ways by the authors and the consideration of the construction of these terms is an important element of the handbook. It further addresses both the overall notion of system reform, at different scales, and what is known about particular technologies of systems reform across a variety of settings. Vocational learning and VET teacher/trainer education are discussed from a comparative perspective. National and comparative experiences are also shared on questions of equity and efficiency in funding in terms of those that fund and are funded, and for a range of funding methodologies. As well as reviewing existing gaps, this handbook is looking forward in identifying promising new directions in research and environment.

Simon McGrath is the UNESCO Chair in the Political Economy of Education at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom, and Extraordinary Professor at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. He has published on a number of aspects of education-development links, especially at the post-school level. He is researching theories of vocational education and training for human and sustainable development. He is engaged in a wide range of policy advisory work on skills and development, most recently for the UNDESA, UNESCO and the Commonwealth Secretariat.

Martin Mulder is Emeritus Professor of Education and former Head of the Education and Competence Studies Group at Wageningen University, Netherlands. Prof. Mulder’s primary field of interest is competence-based vocational and professional education. He edited the bookCompetence-Based Vocational and Professional Education. Bridging the Worlds of Work and Education (Springer, 2017) and (co)authored and edited numerous other books and articles in peer-reviewed scientific research journals in the fields of vocational education, higher education, teacher education, science and engineering education, technology-enhanced learning, and management and mainstream educational research. He is editor-in-chief of the Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension. Competence for Rural Innovation and Transformation. The work of Prof. Mulder has been widely acknowledged. Being founder of the Vocational Education and Training Network of the European Educational Research Association, he was elected its Honorary Member. In 2016, he received the European Vocational Education Researcher Award from the European Commission. Prof. Mulder has served on a number of editorial committees of international journals, and held various positions in national, European, American and world educational research associations. 

Joy Papier is a Professor and the Director of the Institute for Post-School Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. The Institute undertakes training and development of adult educators and TVET college lecturers, post-schooling research, and policy analysis in the vocational, adult education, and higher education sectors. Prof. Papier has been active in education, policy and development for about 25 years, as a school-teacher, university teacher educator, trainer, development worker and researcher. She holds the degrees of M.Phil. (University of the Western Cape), M.Ed. (Harvard University, USA) and Ph.D. (Education Policy) from the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Her current research interests include TVET teacher education, TVET policy and development, vocational curricula policy, workplace and institutional cultures. She has published on vocational and general teacher education in several academic journals, presented at conferences and on public panels, participates in national government task teams and is an external examiner for numerous postgraduate dissertations in the field of post-schooling. Prof. Papier was recognized for her work in education by the prestigious South African Mail & Guardian Book of Women in 2011.

Rebecca Suart is a Doctoral Researcher at the University of Nottingham, United Kingdom. Her research interests include further education systems; VET for adult learners; women as lifelong learners; and VET skills for human development. Prior to her research career, Rebecca worked for 15 years as a practitioner in the delivery and management of VET in the UK Further Education sector. During this time Rebecca chaired a sector skills competition council, devising standards and organizing national competitions to find UK entrants for World Skills events.