Integrating Work-Based Learning into Formal VET: Towards a Global Diffusion of Apprenticeship Training and the Dual Model?

Abstract

In an era in which policy makers emphasize the need to invest in vocational skills development and improve its orientation towards the demands of the labor market, there is also a growing interest in promoting systems of apprenticeship, by integrating work-based learning into formal VET. Countries with dual VET at the upper secondary level are often considered as “models,” and they have been actively promoting themselves as “lenders” of dual VET in international cooperation. Still, the introduction of apprenticeship schemes in many countries has had mixed results, and even in countries where dual VET had already played a key role, its adaption to changes in society and labor markets has become challenging. Whereas national qualifications frameworks are now being implemented across the globe, the global diffusion of apprenticeship schemes in formal VET in general, and dual VET in particular, is by no means yet a reality.