Coaching to support apprentice’s ability to manage their own (further) competence development: results of a case study and their implications

ABSTRACT

In vocational education and training, coaching can be used to support apprentices’ ability to manage their own (further) competence development ‘on the job’. This is largely requested among employees at workplaces in internationally competitive sectors of the economy which require of their workforce a great deal of flexibility and learning ability. So far, little is known about coaching practices in vocational education and training. The aim of this paper is to explore how coaching is used in vocational training in a large Swiss enterprise of the communication- and IT- services sector. The for this purpose analysed case study data comprises 30 interviews with apprentices, workplace trainers, coaches, and members of VET management of the enterprise, protocols of site visits and an analysis of VET related documents. As also VET schools must train learners for the contemporary world of work and must foster their ability to increasingly manage their own (further) competence development, coaching could be an interesting approach to be used in VET schools. This is critically discussed in the second part of the paper, respecting the different conditions that apply for supporting learning at the workplace- and supporting learning in the VET school context.

KEYWORDS:

• Coaching
• case study
• vocational education and training

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Ethical declaration

Our research complies with ethical guidelines and adheres to Swiss legal requirements. We adhere to the Swiss-academies Code of Conduct for Scientific Integrity (attached). As this is not required in Switzerland, no approval was obtained from an independent ethics committee for this research. In the research, all participants gave their consent for us to use the material for publication. The interview data was anonymised and is only quoted in excerpts, so that it is not possible to draw conclusions about the interviewees.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna Keller

Anna Keller works as Junior Researcher in the research field “Learning cultures and instruction” at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET). She works in a project that is concerned with innovative learning cultures in Swiss enterprises and conducts research in the area of occupation-specific didactics in vocational education and training. She completed her Master of Science in education at the University of Bern in 2017 and is now doing her PhD at the Institute of Education at the University of Zurich.

Antje Barabasch

Prof. Dr. Antje Barabasch is head of the research axe “Teaching and Learning in VET” and the research field “Learning cultures and instruction”. Prior to arriving at the Swiss Federal University for Vocational Education and Training (SFUVET) she worked at CEDEFOP, an agency of the European Commission, and directed various European research projects. Today, her research is concerned with new learning cultures in VET, especially in enterprises, creativity development and creative approaches to VET, teacher training as well as policy transfer in VET.