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The training of teachers for vocational education and training (TVET) is a great challenge as numerous countries are not prepared for it. In many countries the opinion still prevails that practical knowledge and skills should be transferred by persons, e.g. skilled workers, with more know-how than the trainees. Therefore it is common practice that Level-3-students in vocational education and training are instructed by Level-4-graduates. Such approaches not only hamper professionalism but are also inefficient. Thus junior teachers are not adequately trained for the required levels. This paper therefore presents an approach for the training of TVET teachers which is based on a professionalized international level and is normally reserved for universities. A professionalized teacher training is based on standards for programs, contents, and training facilities safeguarding an optimal training of the teaching staff. As teachers are the key persons for meeting the training standards, standards for teacher training must also be discussed. Their quality, their orientation, their design and the consequences for a successful implementation will be discussed. Furthermore it will be shown how standards must be configured in order to be accepted and pursued in a target oriented way by the industry, politics and the target groups themselves. The [Teacher Training for Technical and Vocational Education and Training] TT-TVET project will be referred to as well. Within the framework of this project the partners have developed transnational standards which have found utmost acceptance in the partner countries’ own study courses for TVET teachers.

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During the past decade, the educational scientific research has been established in Germany. This discipline aims at the access to the practical and theoretical knowledge and skills in the corporate world of work with special emphasis on skilled work. In order to pave the way for this context-related research, some central methods have been developed. One of them is the work process analysis which is taking place on the ‘shop-floor-level’. The concept of this methodological approach is presented in this research report. It has meanwhile been tested in several countries within the framework of qualification research.

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Parity of esteem between general and vocational education is a widely discussed topic in those countries which have established a system of vocational education and training (VET) beside the system of general education, leading to numerous qualifications and licenses. This paper aims to address this issue. An explorative consideration of curricular basic structures of [technical and vocational education and training] TVET and higher education will reveal the qualitative differences in the different study courses and entailing barriers for permeability between TVET and higher education. A deepening analysis compares the curricular structures and evaluates the differences with the aid of selected criteria. The article clarifies the hidden obstacles of permeability between vocational and higher education, and points out ways to shape lateral and vertical permeability with a view to career paths to build up human capabilities. However, until now most of these do not entail permeability to learning pathways in higher education. This is especially true when vocational programmes do not prepare for higher education at the same time, i.e. do not include a university entrance qualification. This discussion has gained a new momentum with the adoption of the European Qualifications Framework by the European Parliament and the Council in 2008, motivating member states to reconsider this context. Since then there is an intensive debate about opening universities for learners with vocational qualifications.

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The training of [technical and vocational education and training] TVET teachers is scarcely comparable from country to country, because very different educational policy frameworks and concepts exist for it. Nationally, too, the concepts and programmes implemented in individual regions are often not comparable. Depending on each country's interests and responsibilities, very different solutions are practised, ranging from a few hours of instruction in pedagogical approaches to training at universities. In this paper, a framework is outlined for university-based master's programmes to qualify TVET teachers. The proposals build on participants already having earned a bachelor's degree in a subject (e.g. an engineering subject such as electrical engineering) and then earning a TVET teacher master's degree.

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In the 1990s, the system of dual vocational education and training (VET) witnessed the beginning of a restructuring, leading to a paradigm change away from emphasizing the holistic nature of the concept. Instead the work-process orientation was now considered the core asset of the concept. This step came as a surprise because the dual approach with the companies as the contractors for apprentices had implied that training had always been carried through in a practice oriented way on the basis of work-processes. Both educational planners and social partners were apparently convinced that this was no longer the case. It was generally agreed: vocational training could no longer cater to the requirements of the industry. This article attempts to shed more light on the reasons for the necessity of a reform of the vocational education and training system. In this context central reform steps necessary to secure the future of the VET system (with the ‘dual’ system as pivotal point) will be presented and discussed by focusing on the work-process orientation. Finally, some critical reflection will be added regarding the ‘transition system’ which has more and more emerged as a parallel system of the ‘dual’ system.

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Standards with a focus on learning and supporting measurable learning processes including their outcome have been under discussion since several decades. In the last two decades more and more standards have been discussed for teacher training for technical education and vocational education and training. Teachers in this area are facing a bunch of challenges worldwide. The reasons for this vary from country to country because of the very different approaches and organization models of teacher training for technical education and vocational training. This situation has prompted some planners to creating standards for whole regions such as Asia, Europe, the United States and so on. This approach is not followed in this article. The concept of standards demonstrated in this article concentrates on teacher training in technical education with a clear link to scientific disciplines at university level in individual countries. Additionally the concept of standards follows a dynamic approach which allows teachers to specify standards for the requirements of quality indicators. Via a bottom-up approach, this concept can be developed for a whole study programme and the quality indicators could be compared between countries and regions.

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Purpose - This paper seeks to concentrate on bottom-up approaches in order to promote a European vocational education and training (VET) concept. The overall aim of this article is to demonstrate that sophisticated approaches still have a chance of becoming common practice in European countries. Design/methodology/approach - The centre of the article is the discussion of a core occupational profile called ECO-recycler, which tends to be an alternative to the discussion of a uniform European Qualification Framework. The method of participatory discourse is applied in order to shape a VET space jointly with European partners. However, the partnership should not only discuss an abstract level because the implementation of the ECO-recycler is the main target of the discourse and it will be demonstrated how it works. Findings - After the clarification of a bottom-up approach, the implementation process of a core occupational profile in the partner countries is described. Research limitations/implications - The empirical approach for the creation of work process based core occupational profiles will be offered. Practical implications - European policies must be changed if these approaches are pursued. Originality/value - This article offers an alternative to existing European policy and will be of interest to those in the field.

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Technical and vocational education and training (TVET) teacher training and the quality of TVET teachers' work are linked to relevant economic sectors. The availability of qualified personnel is highly dependent on a TVET system that takes into account the innovations, developments and qualification requirements of these sectors. For economic sectors as well as for employment, classification systems are normally used to structure and mark the main focus, strength and weakness of relevant areas. For employment systems, a corresponding qualification system with occupational standards and possibilities for education and career pathways are necessary components for future-oriented developments. Vocational disciplines help to align TVET with the relevant economic and employment sectors.

The definition of Regional TVET Teacher Standard for ASEAN (RTTS) based on vocational disciplines which are relevant to ASEAN Member States (AMS) describes a quality standard for TVET teachers. The guidelines help to reflect and understand the meaning of vocational disciplines for TVET teacher's competence profiles, for TVET teacher training, for the shaping of study programmes and for the orientation of TVET systems on economically relevant sectors. The second version of the RTTS in 2019 focusses on vocational disciplines as a bridge between relevant vocational sciences and pedagogical fields of actions for TVET teachers. It also achieves an actualization of the standards through a closer link to the changes in the world of work. At the same time, these instruments are adjusted to the internationally approved orientations.

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There are many definitions of 'Industry 4.0'. A comprehensive one is that 'Industry 4.0' is the current trend towards automation and data exchange in manufacturing technologies which are based on digital technology. It includes 'Cyber-Physical Systems' (CPS), the Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing, and has an impact on all economic sectors. One of the highly relevant questions concerns the qualification requirements for employees on the 'shop-floor' and at the middle employment level. Depending on the implementation level of Industry 4.0 in companies, vocational education and training for the workforce is highly relevant and the vocational education system has to respond to the needs and expectations of these changes in the work world. Successful responses of the vocational system to the demands of Industry 4.0 have to focus on curriculum development and training of both skilled and highly skilled workers.

This article, therefore, makes use of a framework which refers to the core trends of the expected impact of Industry 4.0 to competences outlined in the different scenarios of the development of Industry 4.0. These scenarios outline two main types of changes caused by Industry 4.0: (1) changes in the content of work processes for applied technologies, accomplished tasks, work organisation and other factors; and (2) micro-structural changes of work and work processes resulting in vanishing and emerging occupations and professions. The first type of change enhances new competence needs and fosters adjustments and updating of qualifications whereas the second type of change often leads to the emergence or the disappearance of qualifications. Both types of change foster different shifts in the structure of qualifications

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Worldwide high-tech work-processes require well trained individuals and industrial nations compete in designing concepts of training which can match the challenges of successful performance at the place of work. For the basic design of these concepts we need a symbiosis of assessment-oriented and experience-oriented training as the presently two leading models of training worldwide. Or in other words: we need to employ 'intelligent standards' as reliable benchmarks and we need to involve practical experience in training as the target level for acquiring the competences required today. Beyond this basic design [the authors] have attempted to cast the requirements which can safeguard the development of quality training programmes into 14 'main principles'. These principles range from defining a clear mission for each training institution to emphasizing the importance of the concept of the 'skilled worker' and from alternating in training between theory in the classroom and practical training in the workshop to the establishment of paramount standards as reference for the kind of training provided as well as for a reliable orientation regarding the needs of the employers. This structure renders sufficient orientation marks for the design of quality training, yet at the same time it allows for maintaining the flexibility which is needed for responding to different cultural, individual, economic and historical requirements.

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