Hybrid Qualifications ― Structures and Problems in the Context of European Vet Policy

European nations are seeking standardization in many areas of commerce, including vocational education and training (VET). Included in this is the desire to have the student seek higher education or dual qualifications, and to cause the student to seek lifelong learning. These eleven essays seek answers on "hybridized" VET, which would lead to both dual certification and lifelong learning. The contributors examine hybridized VET, when dual qualifications work, and what to expect from them. Individual topics include structures and analysis from Austria, linking the dual system with higher education in Denmark, transcending the academic-vocational binary in England, progression from VET to higher education in Germany, a Scottish diploma system, blurring institutional boundaries in two Canadian provinces, the Swiss way of hybridity, the French case for dual current qualifications, vocational education pathways in the Netherlands as an obstacle course, the Australian approach, and policy implications and recommendations that would lead to more hybrid qualifications. Annotation c2013 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Thomas Deissinger is University Professor of Business Education at the University of Konstanz, Germany.
Josef Aff is University Professor and Head of the Institute for Business Education at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria.
Alison Fuller is University Professor and the Director of Research as well as the Head of the Lifelong and Work-Related Learning Research Centre in the Southampton Education School and in the University of Southampton, England.
Christian Helms Jorgensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Educational Studies at Roskilde University, Denmark.