Vocational education and training (VET) is a multidisciplinary and multifaceted applied research field. Research is driven by practical, social, political, and scientific interests. The aim of the panel discussion is to give continuity to earlier discussions aimed to further elaborate an analytical framework on VET research. The framework aims to integrate current VET research, to identify research gaps and to develop a proposal on future research. A first draft of the framework has been discussed during the first VET Skills Week 2016, organised by the European Commission, and further developed at the Crossing Boundaries Conference 2017 in Rostock, and the second VET Skills Week 2017. Likewise, a discussion was also held as part of the sessions of the 2018 and 2019 ECER conferences.

The framework organizes VET research along three analytical levels and three analytical foci.

The analytical foci highlight the role and needs of the learners or students, the trainers and teachers and the object or work process. They consider that VET is on education and training and on becoming a subject specific expert and a professional expert in a specific vocational area.

The analytical levels highlight the role of individuals (micro-level), schools and enterprises (meso-level), as well as educational policy and society (macro-level). They consider the interdependence of individual, and institutional actors.

This model aims at integrating not only different needs expressed by the participants with respect to their region or country, but also different scientific theories and methods. It reflects the country-specific status of VET, as well as it social and cultural embeddedness and historical context. It acknowledges that VET research is always embedded in a socio-political-historical context in a way that one solution cannot fit all needs.

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