In recent years, the competence-based approach (CBA) has become one of the leading paradigms for VET worldwide. Despite its prevalence, the realization of the CBA remains heterogeneous in various VET systems. China and Russia, among others, currently strive to make their VET programs more competence-based. However, there is little research on the actual integration and implementation of the CBA in the two countries. This motivated the main research objective, which is to investigate to what extent and how CBA elements are embedded, implemented, and can be further developed in Russian and Chinese commercial VET. Thus, the following research question was investigated in the first research stage: what elements of the CBA are incorporated in VET curricular documents? To answer this research question, the qualitative content analysis of selected curricular documents was conducted. First, a system of analysis categories was deductively developed based on a revised model of comprehensive competence-based VET from Sturing et al. (2011) and further validated and complemented under consideration of the results of a literature review of the Chinese and Russian scientific discourses and interviews with national experts. Furthermore, the system of categories was inductively adapted based on the results from the first round of analysis. In total, five national documents and 116 school documents from Russia, along with 14 and 162 documents from China were analyzed. The results demonstrate that the constellations of CBA elements embedded in both countries’ curricular documents are characterized by many similarities. The central characteristics of the CBA in VET curricula in China and Russia concentrate on various modalities of synchronization of curricula with professional practice and the labor market, the orientation of curriculum design on working processes as well as competencies and the prescription of the relatively high practical orientation of the teaching-learning processes. Along with various similarities, there are also distinct features in each country. Despite the relatively high autonomy of schools in curriculum development in both national contexts, a more significant heterogeneity among vocational schools in the sample can be observed in China regarding the modalities of embedding CBA in curricular documents. These research findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences in the conceptualization of the CBA in commercial VET, as well as of the heterogeneity of the approach’s integration in curricula of different countries. Furthermore, findings create a basis for the further step of the investigation – an analysis of the curriculum implementation.

Sturing, L., Biemans, H. J. A., Mulder, M., & de Bruijn, E. (2011). The Nature of Study Programmes in Vocational Education: Evaluation of the Model for Comprehensive Competence-Based Vocational Education in the Netherlands. Vocations and Learning, 4(3), 191–210