Thematic quality assessment of learning at work within Higher Vocational Education

Abstract

Higher Vocational Education (HVE) was introduced in 2009, and so is a relatively new element of the Swedish adult and higher education system. Compared to other forms of adult and higher education it is less institutionalized. One reason for this is that HVE is designed to be a flexible form of post-secondary vocational education to address the needs of a highly skilled work force. This thematic quality assessment has two main purposes: (a) to analyse the quality of one main course in HVE, namely Learning in Working Life (LIA), and (b) to de-velop instruments and indicators to explore the quality of the student learning in working life as part of HVE. The design of research instruments was based on by hypotheses to uncover the background, the learning process and effect parameters. In all, 12 HVEs participated during the autumn of 2013, within four educational areas (health care, computer science, technology, and business and administration). In total, 42 students and 36 supervisors were interviewed. An important finding is the lack of definitions and criteria for quality, and the risk of substantial quality differences between educational providers. Another significant problem identified in the study is the unclear division of responsibilities between the educational provider and the partner from the world of work. Most of the supervi-sors, who were skilled workers or professionals, had a fragmentary understanding of HVE. They gave instructions, but did not stimulate their students to reflect theoreti-cally on what they learned during LIA. Integration between school-based learning and experience of work life was limited. There was a shortage of instruments for assessing the quality of what was taught in the workplace. A large proportion (75 %) of the students was employed soon after graduation. For those who did not, their skills run the risk of rapidly becoming obsolete.