The coherence of vocational education and training in Norway and Spain: national traditions and the reshaping of VET governance in hybrid VET systems

Abstract

Coherence of national education and training systems is increasingly tabled in European policy debates. Leaning on literature about the emergence and consolidation of national education systems, this article explores the rationale for VET reforms in Norway and Spain by scrutinising attempts to strengthen the coherence of their VET systems. Coherence has been sought through the unification of different strands of vocational education; initial, continuing and active labour market policies (what we call ‘horizontal coherence’) and the mainstreaming of VET curricular elements; plus the systematisation of VET practices across educational levels (‘vertical coherence’). While both countries looked for coherence, their motivations, how they operationalised the term and the emphasis of their actions differed substantially. Spain has experienced a move from the three largely unrelated strands into a more unified system; Norway from a fragile VET system to the availability of more VET courses and apprenticeship arrangements at all educational levels.

Keywords:

• comparative education
• divergent training systems
• hybrid training systems
• VET policy

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to Ole Johnny Olsen, at the University of Bergen, for valuable comments on earlier drafts of this article. All remaining errors are the authors’.

Notes

1. A second option to improve comparability is using comparisons between different geographical units within one country, rather than over time – see Linz et al. (1966). This strategy is not used in our analysis, given the relative lack of data at sub-national level in the variables of interest.

2. ‘Formación de ciclo largo’