7th International VET Conference Crossing Boundaries
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa from 18 to 20 May 2027
As systems of work and learning evolve, vocational education is increasingly required to move across boundaries: between sectors, disciplines, institutions, and nations. This conference aims to create a space for critical dialogue, innovative research, and collaborative exchange that explores the roles of VET in addressing global challenges, as well as the conditions of possibility for VET to play these roles.
Conference Topic
Learning Across Continents: Conversations in a Divided World. Around the world, countries are facing challenges in preparing people for a rapidly changing world of work. Vocational education systems are under pressure from digitalisation, the imperative to decarbonise economies, and rising youth unemployment and underemployment. What does this all mean for VET? How do we understand the role of VET in preparing young people for work when labour markets are in flux? Is this changing the nature of VET and VET curricula? Is it raising new questions for work, labour markets, and education relationships? Is there a stable core to VET across different contexts? Are systems looking more similar or more different from each other? What are the main factors—such as workplace organisation, changing labour markets, changing enrolment in schools and universities, and the nature of the economy—that are influencing different aspects of VET? Which aspects are they influencing—such as curriculum, governance, partnerships, enrolment patterns—in different countries? How do we connect better as researchers, and use VET research to build connection? We call for papers that engage with context—both in terms of local context, and in terms of what differences different contexts seem to be making to VET systems.
Sub-Themes
Submissions may address (but are not limited to) the following sub-themes:
- Governance, policy, and institutional change within VET
- Sustainability and green transitions in VET
- Transitions and pathways across vocational, academic, and hybrid systems
- Equity, inclusion, and social justice in vocational education
- Digitalisation, AI, and the future of skills and work
- Professional identities, teachers, and trainers in VET
- Work-based learning, apprenticeships, and industry partnerships
- Methodological innovations in VET research
- Youth employment strategies and the relationship between skills development strategies and employment creation