CEMETS News

The CEMETS iLab Nepal has officially come to an end. Discover how this project contributed to Nepal’s TVET sector and meet the winning team.

The best education systems have no dead ends: they are permeable. But why does this matter? Part two of our blog series focuses on the role of permeability in equity, making VET programs attractive, and economic development.

In their report about permeability, Prof. Dr. Ursula Renold, Dr. Katie Caves, Dr. Patrick McDonald, and Ditjola Naço put into words (and figures) what an education system without dead ends looks like. In our permeability blog series, we will talk about why permeability is an important aspect of strong education systems and discuss tools to improve it.

CEMETS hosted a special institute this year: our very first alumni edition. Over the course of six days in Zurich, former Summer Institute participants deepened and shared their knowledge of education systems and reform implementation. As a result, we formed an ongoing international community of education systems experts.

CEMETS hosted its first ever hybrid Summer Institute this summer, having learned from years of both virtual and in-​person institutes. The result was a week-​long event in Zurich full of in-​depth discussions and international exchange.

Permeability is often mentioned as one of the key characteristics of strong education systems. This post presents results of a recent reseach project on fashion technology apprentices to examine the impact of permeability in real life.

Do students in work-based learning suffer less form learning loss than other students?

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

We generally try to keep a more broad international focus, but this post focuses on the education system in the United States of America. Discussions of systemic racism and systemic inequality in education are useful to at least some extent everywhere, but the specific policies and practices I reference here are American.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland.

Zurich, May 7th 2020: The COVID-19 pandemic is affecting dual vocational education and training (VET). The initial results show that during the lockdown about one-third of current apprentices either could not carry out the work-based part of their training or did it in an alternative form.

In a new working paper, Thomas Bolli, I, and Maria Esther Oswald-Egg explored the relationship between internships during university and graduates' incomes. We found that internships improve income for graduates, and the effect works through increasing graduates' transferable skills.

The research project "Apprenticeship Pulse" identifies the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic on apprentices, training companies and young people in Switzerland. Here is the May 2020 results.

A new summary brochure of our study on the social status of VET in Switzerland shows that there is overlap in the ability levels of young people in the VET and academic pathways. The study shows that VET is a high-status option and a case of school choice, not tracking.

At the beginning of this year, Chile published a new Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) strategy. CEMETS’ own Ursula Renold and Katherine Caves wrote the foreword to the strategy. This blog post is the English version of that foreword.

In the last entry we summarized a recent literature review on implementing VET, focusing on the key success factors and big question marks around specific reform features. In this entry, we’ll talk about the trends and interesting patterns in the literature. The literature is remarkably consistent over time, and doesn’t differ much between scholarly and non-scholarly sources (things like policy reports).

We've just finished the first version of a literature review on implementing VET reforms. Since we know that having a better VET system is a good thing and we’re pretty clear on what a good VET system is, we need to know what it takes to get from a worse system to a better one. That’s a big question, so we start by looking at everything that’s already out there to get a sense of what’s important, what we know, and what we need to look at more carefully.

In the last post, we talked about the differences in outcomes from school-based and dual apprenticeship VET programs. In this post, we’ll explore a few ways the two program types are different for teachers.

We have already touched on different outcomes for “dual” and “school-based” VET. In this post we’ll get more into the difference between the two types. Briefly, dual VET or apprenticeship is when participants split their time between work and school, with at least 25% of their time spent in the workplace. In contrast, school-based VET is almost entirely at school, or with less than 25% of time spent in the workplace.

National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) are a very common type of VET reform. This post very briefly discusses some of the evidence—or lack thereof—for their hoped-for benefits and a few reasons they might help, or fail to do so.

We talk about education and training programs a lot. What is a program? How do programs fit into education and training systems? How do states and countries align multiple curricula within a single program, and why should they want to? What is the difference between pathways, programs, and curricula?

When countries without strong VET systems start working toward better VET, there are always a few common threads to their initial hurdles. Education systems that only deal with general education usually have to face a few changes in expectations. These are the most common examples.

This post summarizes a study on the social status of VET in Switzerland. When a VET program has low social status, we can assume that anyone who can pursue the academic option will choose to do so. When the VET program is high-status, however, there will be overlap in the ability levels of people in the VET and academic pathways. Some people who could do the academic route choose instead to do the VET program, because both options have social status. In Switzerland, this is actually the case.

In an earlier post, we talked about how permeability is about not only having transition mechanisms among programs but also about having a variety of education and training programs in all levels and types. That post argues for permeability from the student point of view, and this one addresses why companies want a permeable system that offers multiple levels and types of education and training and ways to move through the system.

The R4D project is an exciting opportunity for us to learn a lot about what makes TVET work and how it impacts young people. Through this project, we should be able to continue giving CEMETS summer institute participants ever-more-accurate and –useful research findings to improve TVET programs all over the world. This post describes the new six-year, five-country research project in which CEMETS is a key partner.

We talk about permeability a lot, and all of the associated concepts around having no dead-end programs and building a strong VET system. For VET to be a permeable system, there need to be clear crosswalks and progression routes, as well as programs at multiple levels and across multiple types of education and training.

In contrast to general education courses, vocational education and training (VET) prepares young people for direct entry into the labour market. Although there is a common objective, vocational education and training programmes vary substantially at the international level. Up until now, reference points for international comparison of VET programmes have been scarce, and there has been a distinct lack of theory-based as well as empirically applicable approaches facilitating such comparison.

In many countries, the youth labour market deteriorated substantially after the financial crisis. Political interest in vocational education and training programmes as a means to improve this situation increased significantly. However, as yet little is known about the impact of vocational education and training on the youth labour market. The authors of a new KOF study aim to close this gap.

The Swiss system of vocational education and training (VET) is famous for its effectiveness and permeability. Switzerland enjoys low youth unemployment, global competitiveness, and innovation. While VET isn’t the only factor at play, Swiss business leaders and politicians point to the strong VET system in Switzerland as a contributing factor again and again. How did the Swiss system get to where it is today? CEMETS is a reform lab, so let’s talk about reforms at home.

To help disseminate the results of our Willingness to Train study of firms in Colorado, we developed this infographic no. 2.

To help disseminate the results of our Willingness to Train study of firms in Colorado, we developed this infographic no. 1.

Welcome again to the CEMETS blog. This entry is on the new KOF Willingness to Train survey in Colorado. This report has a lot of information and insights on training and skills in the U.S. state of Colorado. It is an application of the KOF Willingness to Train survey and its three key findings are that there is a skills shortage in Colorado, that the most important skills are best learned at work, and that companies are interested in starting new training programs but these have to make financial sense.

To help disseminate the results of our recent Nepal study, we developed this summary document.

For this post, we are excited to present a new infographic summary of the Education-Employment Linkage Index (KOF EELI) study we did in the U.S. State of Colorado. This format lets us share information more efficiently with more people. Please feel free to share the infographic if you find it useful!

The last three blog posts have talked about how we measure one characteristic of good vocational education and training (VET) systems. Through all of that, we’re assuming that linkage is better for something—but what? This post will talk about one way we measure the outcomes of VET systems: the KOF Youth Labor Market Index (KOF YLMI).

Welcome again to the CEMETS blog. This entry is the last in a three-part series on the KOF education-employment linkage index (KOF EELI). Entry 1 defines linkage and why it matters, the second (Entry 2) explores an international ranking of scores and how the index can be used for policy, and this entry is about the KOF EELI results in the state of Colorado, USA.

This is the second in a three-part series on the KOF education-employment linkage index (KOF EELI). In Entry 1, I define education-employment linkage and the KOF EELI, which we developed to measure linkage. This entry is about the international KOF EELI comparison, and the next will cover the KOF EELI in the American state of Colorado.

Welcome to the CEMETS blog! We’ll start off by explaining some of the key studies and tools we use. The first three entries will cover the KOF education-employment linkage index (KOF EELI), starting by defining education-employment linkage here, then exploring the international results in the next post and finally the specific results for an in-depth study in the American state of Colorado in the third.