The electrical trades play a key role in an increasingly electrified, digitalised and sustainable society. Technological developments and changes in working life place new demands on skilled workers’ knowledge, practical skills, understanding of safety, and ability to collaborate and adapt. It is therefore important to develop knowledge about how students and apprentices learn, and how vocational education and training can prepare them for current and future working life.

The project aims to develop empirical and theoretical knowledge about vocational education and training, learning and development in the electrical trades, both in schools and in working life. Drawing on vocational pedagogical and vocational didactical perspectives, the project examines how the content, teaching and training methods, relationships and learning environments contribute to the development of vocational competence.

The Path from Student to Skilled Worker

The project focuses on the pathway from lower secondary school to upper secondary education and training, through the apprenticeship period and into working life as a skilled worker. At school, students acquire fundamental knowledge and practical skills and become familiar with the working methods, professional values and safety requirements of the occupation. As apprentices, they build on this foundation through vocationally relevant tasks and participation in communities of practice. Gradually increasing responsibility can support the development of professional independence, a sense of belonging and vocational identity.

The project examines how theory and practice are connected throughout the education and training pathway, and how teaching, vocational tasks, guidance, assessment and feedback support learning and progression.

Learning Across Different Arenas

Vocational competence develops across schools, apprenticeship training offices and training companies. The project examines how education and training are organised and delivered in these different arenas, and how the actors collaborate to promote coherence, progression and vocational relevance.

The project includes the perspectives of:

• students and apprentices
• teachers and school leaders
• teachers and training advisers at apprenticeship training offices
• vocational training managers, instructors and others responsible for training in companies

These different perspectives will provide knowledge about how vocational competence is understood, how learning is facilitated, and how students and apprentices are supported throughout the education and training pathway.

Transitions Through the Education and Training Pathway

The transitions from lower secondary school to upper secondary education and training, from school to apprenticeship training, and from apprentice to skilled worker involve new roles, expectations and learning environments. The project examines how students and apprentices experience these transitions, how they are prepared and supported, and how knowledge and practical experience from one stage of the pathway are carried forward to the next.

Particular attention will be given to how schools prepare students for apprenticeship training and working life, how apprenticeship training offices and companies support the transition to apprenticeship training, and how apprentices are prepared for their future roles as independent skilled workers.

Methods

The project uses both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Relevant methods include surveys, individual interviews, focus group interviews, observation and document analysis.

Combining different methods will provide knowledge about the participants’ experiences and practices. It will also make it possible to examine patterns and variations across different actors, learning arenas and stages of the education and training pathway.

What Will the Project Contribute?

The project will develop empirical and theoretical knowledge about vocational education and training, learning and competence development in the electrical trades. It will also contribute to the further development of vocational pedagogical and vocational didactical perspectives on how vocational competence develops in schools and working life.

The knowledge generated by the project may help strengthen:

• the quality and vocational relevance of education and training
• coherence between schools, apprenticeship training offices and companies
• teaching, vocational tasks, guidance and assessment
• transitions and progression throughout the education and training pathway
• students’ and apprentices’ experiences of mastery, well-being and belonging
• the development of vocational identity and professional independence
• vocational teacher education and professional development for those involved in vocational education and training

The overall aim of the project is to contribute to vocational education and training that provides students and apprentices with meaningful opportunities to learn, experience mastery and develop their competence, while preparing them for working life in the electrical trades, a field characterised by continuous change.

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