Tävlingsdomarnas bäst praxis-bedömning av yrkeskunnande i en yrkestävling

This article presents the results of a study of a youth cooking contest for upper secondary schools in Sweden, which was part of the Swedish SkillsCompetition. The material consists of observations, in the form of shadowing, of the competition judges during the competition, and conversations with judges before and during the competition. The text has a vocational knowledge and skills perspective and relates to answering the question: what vocational knowledge and skills are valued as significant by the competition judges in the school competition? The analyses employ the concepts of key qualifications, specific vocational knowledge and skills, and forms of knowledge, that together contribute to understanding how vocational knowledge and skills can be described and valued. This article focuses on the competition judges’ best-practice assessments of five contest teams’ performance, from preparation of menu to tasting of it and their work afterwards. It also demonstrates that professionalism (skilful performance) and judicious action are the most important aspects of what the competition judgments focused on in this competition.