International Journal of Vocational Education Studies

The International Journal of Vocational Education Studies publishes current findings in vocational education research. It is focused on the analysis and further development of vocational education and training. The journal serves to strengthen the international scientific exchange of selected research results from different countries and thus to network the international community vocational education researcher.

The journal and the articles are aimed at the academic community as well as decision-makers in the field of vocational education and training. The aim is to make research results from VET research accessible to a global professional public and to inform about current developments in VET. The journal takes into account that VET in different countries is not only studied from a perspective of educational studies, but also from other disciplines, e.g. political science, sociology or economics.

Vocational education research is a relatively young scientific discipline compared to other social sciences. However, the degree of professionalisation and institutionalisation of vocational education research varies greatly in different countries. Internationally, the understanding and approaches of Vocational Education and Training are very different. Vocational education and training encompasses a wide range of informal in-company training, private and non-formal vocational education and training programmes, as well as state-organised formal vocational education and training systems. These approaches and systems follow very different principles and have diverse characteristics, both within individual countries and in international comparison. The extent of standardisation of frameworks and qualifications and the links to general education and higher education are very diverse internationally.

With this journal we would like to promote academic exchange on current reform developments in vocational education and training. In our opinion, knowledge about the many international developments in vocational education and training has so far been too limited. However, since the importance of vocational education and training is increasing significantly, the need for scientific exchange is also growing. There is a lack of scientific journals with which these research results can be systematically shared. Although the global development of VET systems is the focus of this journal, it is welcoming numerous foci of vocational education studies, i.e. philosophy of (vocational) education, didactics, or history of vocational education.