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1) What is the position of VET in your university/context?
For me it is not so much a question of VET than of vocational education. VET is present at PH FHNW in initial teacher training for the relevant schools. In the further education unit it yet was not successful to establish continuing education for vocational school teachers. In the German speaking part of Switzerland it is an institutional and political struggle: school teacher training up to lower secondary school and adult education can be found only at the universities for teacher training (Pädagogische Hochschule). Upper secondary teacher training is rather linked to universities (where the subjects often is studied) AND universities of teacher training. One example where the topic is present in further teacher education for compulsory school teachers is preparation for the choice of a vocation (Berufswahlvorbereitung).
The question of vocational education is much wider: E.g. my position is called “Co-head of extra-occupational (vocational) further education” / “Co-Ressortleitung berufsbegleitende Weiterbildung”, so all course offers and counseling we are offering are vocational in a wider sense – even if they are not located in VET. It is a bit special because the vocation it is directed to is “teaching”.
So I would say: VET is not very visible at my university, but vocational education is present in nearly everything related to this university. Teacher training itself has developed from a more VET-setting (teacher seminars / Lehrerseminare) to a more university-setting (university or universities of teacher training).

2) What degrees or teacher training programmes exist in your university/context?
Bachelor-Studiengang Vorschul- und Primarstufe
Bachelor-Studiengang Primarstufe
Bachelor-Studiengang Sekundarstufe I
Bachelor-Studiengang Logopädie
Master-Studiengang Sekundarstufe I
Master-Studiengang of Arts in Educational Sciences
Lehrdiplom für Maturitätsschulen (Höheres Lehramt) -> Zusatzqualifikation Berufsfachschulen
Master-Studiengang Vermittlung in Kunst und Design (Höheres Lehramt)
Master-Studiengang Mehrsprachigkeit (Trinational)
Master-Studiengang Sonderpädagogik

3) What changes are taking place?
It is only changes. The PH FHNW has been found in 2006. In my area there has been a shift from local division (Aargau, Solothurn) to a content-led division. The co-head-system is a heritage from the local division. While Aargau and Solothurn function like this, Basel Landschaft and Basel Stadt are not part of that content-led division. So a local division is still partly existing even within among the partner cantons that are part of PH FHNW. In principle it seems that new structures are transforming and overlapping old ones without losing them. With a high frequency of change that means that several systems are co-existing alongside each other and for newcomers or outsiders it is difficult to grasp the complexity, to build ownership or to only understand processes that are going on.

4) What reasons do you consider to be behind the changes?
There is political forces for founding and gathering higher education teacher training institutes. After the formal change the involved people start to negotiate new ways of functioning / combining or overlapping them with old ones. There is quite a high staff change rate.

5) Are there and what kinds of reactions to changes?
You can leave. You can stay and follow your own agenda until somebody complains. You can adapt the surface and merge what is behind or you can completely adapt changes and transform constantly. I think the first three are the most common ones.

6) Any other comments or suggestions on how to proceed
I would prefer to speak about vocational education and I hope that my own work can be part of a reflective and (re-)searching agenda.

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1) What is the position of VET in your university/context?

Academic research and studies in VET started to develop separately from adult education (which had become increasingly oriented to VET) during the 1980s. With support from National Employers´ Union and Board of Vocational Education, and opportunistly from city of Hämeenlinna and principal of the Class-teacher Education Unit of University of Tampere, the first chair for vocational education was established in the mid of 1980s. The geographical location and existing networks with (big) employers, administration and VET teacher colleges supported the development of VET research and studies separate from research and studies in the “mother university” of Tampere. Especially in the middle of polytechnics reform beginning of 1990s, which required teachers from previous VET institutes to upgrade their qualifications to university (post-MA/MSc) level in order to be appointed to the new polytechnics, provided a strong impetus for government supported training and research in VET in Hämeenlinna.

While the university sector has been semi-privatized and rationalized heavily according to guidelines of the EU HE and research agendas (e.g. Bologna process), new and more centralized/corporate-based solutions in organizing university, research, studies etc. have emerged. In this context, despite the general “vocationalization” of university studies and “industry-relevance” of research, the status of previous separate unit for VET research and studies is deeply questioned. At the moment it seems that the research and study activities in Hämeenlinna are becoming a part of university of Tampere, School of Education profile, but not without activity of the previous and new staff and interest groups inside and outside university. How VET will be profiled substantially and organizationally in the future, may depend much on the strength and determinedness of different actor groups.

2) What degrees or teacher training programmes exist in your university/context?
In Tampere we have MA and Dr programmes with profile on adult and vocational education (stangely and without reason, separately). Teacher training takes place in polytechnics with units for VET teacher training.

3) What changes are taking place?

At the moment, majoring in VET in educational studies only takes place in Tampere. However, in most units with adult education, and e.g. in departments/Schools of management, both research and training of experts is increasingly oriented to managerial, planning and design positions of VET and HRD (or learning, innovation, or KBE more broadly). It is difficult to see, if this agenda becomes increasingly part of the mainstream approach in educational research and studies, or if there still is a market for VET&HRD expertise inside education, beside management, business and engineering studies.

4) What reasons do you consider to be behind the changes?

While the earlier constellation was much dependent on relations between academics in education, employers´s central union, VET administration and heads of VET teacher training, it can be speculated whether the move to polytechnics system and changes in national and local governance have paved way for new solutions for promotion of VET research and studies (e.g. would this take place more in the polytechnics, which claim their status as universities of applied sciences or will current teacher/general pedagogical study programmes in universities developed increasingly into managerial and business-oriented profile).

5) Are there and what kinds of reactions to changes?

Unfortunatelly very few explicit reactions, although it is clear that there is a lot criticism on the grass-root level. Lots of teachers and occupational groups still respect occupationally oriented research and studies, whether in university or outside. Because of strict financial incentives and control based on responding to rationalizing government programmes, the opposition tends to remain invisible, while the heads and directors of VET institutes and polytechnics are mainly concerned about combatting for their current status quo. In universities, polarization between adult (liberal/radical) education researchers and VET researchers (more related to VET institutes and administration) has until now made it difficult to build any discussion or collaboration between researchers and university units.

6) Any other comments or suggestions on how to proceed.
It would be extremely important to trace and analyze developments at least in the European, if not in a wider perspective, because they are increasingly guided and controlled by domination of trans-national policy-making and economical – industrial and financial – solutions.

Please add your university, country and email address
University of Tampere, Finland, anja.heikkinen@uta.fi

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