The tertiary education sector has been developing comparatively dynamically in recent years (OECD 2008; Cedefop 2011; OECD 2012). Numerous countries are introducing or expanding educational programmes that contain both vocational and academic elements. A wide range of models has evolved from the desire to create stronger links between academic and professional/practice-related learning, increase permeability and make the pathway of vocational education more attractive. The momentum in the changes in the tertiary education and training sector is evident e.g. in the introduction of the so-called Degree Apprenticeships in the United Kingdom at the end of 2014, the growth of dual study programmes in Germany as well as the introduction of the so-called short-cycle level in the ISCED 2011 classification (level 5).

Furthermore for a total of around 15 years, an academic debate on the issue of a higher-level education and training in the form of work-based learning has been taking place in the Anglo-Saxon area, in particular in Australia and England. The issue of ´vocationalism´ or ´professionalism` as trends or mega-trends have been described and analysed in various studies and publications (Grubb and Lazerson 1974, Boud and Solomon eds. 2001, Tynjälä, Välimaa, and Boulton-Lewis 2006, Taylor, Ferreira, de Lourdes Machado, and Santiago 2008, Delplace 2014).

Nevertheless the vocational elements in tertiary education, often equated with higher or even university education, remain prevalently unnoticed and hidden behind a debate on “academisation” and the discussion surrounding the strengths and weaknesses of work-based learning models in most European countries remains focussed on the secondary sector, which can also be observed with the new OECD activity “Work-based learning in vocational education and training” (2015).

The project that forms basis for this conference input may contribute to a changed and updated perception of vocational education and training by revealing work-based learning models as a parameter of innovation in tertiary education. It analyses and compares models and functions of work-based learning programmes in the tertiary education sector of selected European countries. It´s a research project of the German Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) that started in 2014 (https://www.bibb.de/de/24108.php).

The challenge but at the same time the strength of the project in terms of content is its cross-sector approach taken in relation to education and training. No other study is known which investigates and compares formats of training programmes both from the higher education area as well as the higher level vocational education and training area. Other studies focus either on “higher vocational education and training” or on higher education sector programmes.

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