A qualitative vocational education and training: Education for quantity or quality?

Abstract

This article discusses the contemporary discourse of ‘quality’ in upper secondary vocational education in Sweden. The study is based on a selection of government policy texts that preceded the reform of upper secondary education in 2011. The purpose is to present how the concept of quality gets its meaning, and to discuss this from a perspective of competence, knowledge and qualification in order to renegotiate the concept of quality. Hence, the article also discusses how an extended quality concept could contribute to a changed view of Swedish upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) from an economic, individual and social point of view, in terms of both content and attractiveness. A widened approach to quality in VET could lead to a change in the view of, and the discussion about, VET as such. Our purpose is to emphasize the importance of a broader understanding of how quality in VET can be understood and offer a more nuanced and expanded understanding to the contemporary discourse of VET quality, and thus offer opportunities for a more attractive VET.