Countering academisation of VET through local collaboration: A situational analysis from Western Norway

The article aims to demonstrate that although the academisation of vocational education and training (VET) is embedded in larger formations of symbolic power, it is a complex and non-linear process. One unfortunate aspect of academisation is the regulation of VET by external authorities (Billett, 2014), and one way to remedy it is to involve VET actors in shaping vocational education’s purposes (Billett, 2010). The article argues that ethnographic research is essential to understanding the meanings of the academisation of VET. Although taking a particular empirical case as the point of departure, the article will primarily develop a conceptual and methodological framework for dealing with the complexity of the actors, social practices, and institutions involved in shaping the purposes of vocational knowledge practices. The case informing my theoretical reflections is a network of relationships between school leaders, teachers, instructors in companies, a business association, and others who collaborate to provide vocational students with an apprenticeship in a region in Western Norway. The aim is to motivate local youth to choose vocational education, build better connections between schools and workplaces, and thus strengthen VET’s relevance, quality, attractiveness, and social status in the region. I argue for the importance of contextualising academisation processes and the multiple and contradictory ways they influence vocational education. It is important to identify local manifestations and consequences of academisation and the diverse ways local actors in the field of VET deal with them.