This paper will advance the understanding of the process of internationalisation and attraction of the German dual VET model within the EU as a model of good practice. Some European countries, including Spain, encouraged by the EU, have undertaken the reform of their VET systems so as to promote dual apprenticeship. This paper will focus on the analysis of EU proposals and recommendations on two areas: the governance system and the training model, which are the main characteristics of the German model of VET. Accordingly, the research questions which guide this paper are: What are the characteristics of  the VET training model promoted by the European Union?  What examples of good VET practices in respect to  training model are sponsored by the European Union?

The theoretical framework of this paper is based in educational policy transfer and Europeanisation theories. Policy transfer analysis is a theory of policy development that attempts to make sense of a process in which knowledge about institutions, policies or service delivery systems in one sector or level of governance is used in the development of institutions, policies or service delivery systems in another sector or level of government (Evans, 2009). Educational transfer occurs through a variety of more or less direct pathways or mechanisms, such as diffusion or lesson extraction.

There is no diffusion or reception, lending or borrowing, without agency (Steiner-Khamsi, 2014). The question of agency implicitly suggests that we must take into account multiple actors and their different roles in transfer processes and leave behind previous approaches where the state is the only actor (Rappleye, 2012). Supranational organisations such as the EU and its respective agencies have become a hub for the dissemination of ideas, programmes and institutions (Jakobi, 2012). These organisations influence national policy makers directly, through their policies and funding, and indirectly, through the information and policies disseminated in their conferences and reports (Dolowitz & Marsh, 2000).

Europeanisation has become a key concept in understanding how the EU has transformed the way member states make policy. It is used by various authors to describe the impact of the EU on the political life, legislative policies and governance of member states (Ante, 2016). EU policies are clearly aimed at promoting greater cooperation between the Member States (MS), but also at strengthening the Community's political impact in the field of education and hence vocational training. To this end, two lines of action have been defined: the dissemination of best practices and the promotion of joint reflection (Novoa, 2002). As an area where hierarchical intervention by the EU is not possible, the horizontal mechanism is used through soft frameworks where the EU serves only as a stage. In these policy areas, European policy is based on cooperation and agreement between MS (Zaunstöck et al., 2021). The EU works with minimum or non-binding directives or regulations that provide solutions to a specific problem, which are then introduced into the national debate with the possibility of changing the perception of the problems by national actors and thus triggering learning processes and legitimisation of alternatives (Zaunstöck et al., 2021). In order to harmonise the European VET policies, the EU uses what Cort (2009) calls the EU Governance Triangle. This governance triangle would consist of three mechanisms covering different means of regulating the behaviour of MS: the Community method, the programme method and the Open Method of Coordination (OMC) method.  This research will analyse the main documents resulting from this EU Governance Triangle. 

The methodology consists of a reflective thematic analysis (TA), using NVIVO's qualitative data analysis computer software. This research analyses a total of 22 EU documents, consisting of documentation related to the Copenhagen process and the enhancement of the European VET systems, such as communications, recommendations and declarations from different European bodies. This analysis will focus on EU proposals and recommendations on two areas of VET: the governance system and the training model which are the main characteristics of the German model of VET. This research follows the principles of the fully qualitative or Big Q approach which “involves both the use of qualitative tools and techniques and qualitative values, norms and assumptions” (Braun & Clarke, 2021, p. 287). Braun y Clarke (2021) define TA as “a method for developing, analysing and interpreting patterns across a qualitative dataset, which involves systematic processes of data coding to develop themes – themes are your ultimate analytic purpose” (p. 4). Furthermore, the term “reflexive” assumes the active role of the researcher in the coding process and the development of themes, his subjectivity and the relevance of the researcher reflection about his assumptions and practices and how them shape and delimit their data analysis. This method involve six phases (Braun & Clarke, 2021) : 1. Dataset familiarisation: a first approach to the European documentation collected will be carried out, detecting the first focuses of interest and pouring the body of documentation into the NVivo software 2. Data coding: This coding will be mostly deductive, as the search for categories and themes will be based on the theory on the fundamental characteristics of the German dual vocational training system, that are its governance system and its training model (Alemán-Falcón, 2015), although induction will not be ruled out. Similarly, the analysis will capture meanings at both the semantic and latent levels. 3. Initial theme generation: the generation of themes will proceed by looking for broader patterns of meaning, trying to find the meaning that can answer the research questions. 4. Theme development and review and 5. Theme refining, defining and naming: the process of creating themes will be reviewed to finally name and define each theme with the final objective of relating each one of them to the global history of the analysis. 6. Writing up: the report will be elaborated according to the research questions and the most relevant content.

This research is in progress, so conclusions have not been reached yet. The expected outcomes will be a deep understanding of the VET model promoted by the EU in one of the two main important characteristics of the German Dual VET system: its training model. The first approach to the content of the compiled documents shows a commitment on the improvement of this aspect of VET systems. The VET training model promoted by the EU tends to accomplish with the dual apprenticeships model. The increasement of Work-based learning relevance in VET and the promotion of the training at companies or other bodies of the private sector are common proposal of the analised documents, together with the increased relevance of the private sector in the designing and decission-making process of the training model and the curriculum. For instance, Helsinki Communiqué enacts that ”young people in VET should acquire skills and competences relevant to labour market requirements, for employability and for lifelong learning... by combining education and training with work through apprenticeships and work-based learning”. As an early conclusion, from a educational policy trasnfer perspective, the documents seems to be permeated by the German VET model characteristics and so on, they act as part of the transmssion chain afor the dissemination of this model along the rest of Europe.

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