Representations that society builds about vocational education
Perspectives of stakeholders involved in Portuguese Apprenticeship Courses
Supporting Agencies
- CIIE-FPCEUP
- FCT
- European Social Fund
- Portuguese Government
Abstract
This paper focuses on the perspectives that stakeholders involved in Apprenticeship Courses have regarding the social representations of initial vocational education and training, given the stigma surrounding this educational pathway in Portugal. Method: For the purpose of this paper, we will use 90 semi-structured interviews, with four groups of stakeholders related to this IVET modality, conducted in the North of Portugal (54 trainees; nine leaders of training centres; 18 trainers; and nine tutors of on-the-job training). Content analysis was performed using deductive-inductive analysis and a micro-meso-macro analytical framework with the support of NVivo software. Results: The results point to the predominance of negative over positive social representations. The micro-meso-macro analytical framework indicates that the micro level, related to the trainees, prevails within the negative social representations, whereas it does not appear in the positive ones. Discussion: Overall, the participants mention that society has a negative image of IVET, which is essentially associated with the trainees’ educational pathways and socioeconomic status. Conclusions: The stigma reported by the participants may be suppressed when parity of esteem between vocational education and mainstream education exists. This change implies, among other factors, a levelling of the quality of both educational offers. It is necessary to publicly value vocational education; identify its advantages; increase the quality of its curricula; attract young people from a diversity of pathways; and reduce public references, namely in the media, that induce negative images about this educational track.
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