Funded through the Internal Research Fund (IFF) of the Helmut Schmidt University
Project Team: Johannes Klassen, Dr. Marcus Eckelt, Prof. Dr. Karin Büchter
Duration: 07/2022 – 06/2024
International organizations shape vocational education and training (VET) in several ways. They collect data, publish reports and review the effectiveness of national VET systems; they provide funding for VET projects and build institutional capacities for VET – particularly in low- and middle-income countries; and they promote their own policy ideas on VET through network exchange and the dissemination of best practices. Yet, despite these and other activities, little is known about how international organizations understand VET and how their activities impact national VET systems.
The aim of the project is to fill this research gap and to prepare a DFG proposal that systematically analyzes the role of the four most important international organizations in the field of VET—the OECD, the World Bank, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and UNESCO—using a qualitative research design. For this purpose, the IFF project will first review the current state of research on international organizations in VET. It will then conduct preliminary studies on the OECD and UNESCO, reconstructing how the two organizations have addressed VET in the period from 1990 to 2020 by studying their organizational discourses on VET. Finally, the project will select appropriate country cases for further research to examine the influence of international organizations on national VET systems and policies.
Presentations
Klassen, J. (2023). International Organizations in Vocational Education and Training: A Literature Review, Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 75th Anniversary Conference, Keble College, Oxford, 13-15 July 2023.
Klassen, J. & Eckelt, M. (2022). International Organizations in Vocational Education and Training: A Neglected Type of Actor? Presentation at the VET & Culture Workshop “Current Challenges and Hegemonic Discourses on Vocational and Adult Education”, 13-15 June 2022, University of Rostock.
Contact
Letzte Änderung: 22. September 2023