Vocational education and training (VET) systems and practices, unlike higher or general education, are considerably national in scope, which is why the field is highly fragmented (Gessler et al., 2021). Despite the fragmented architecture, international blueprints like the dual apprenticeship system à la Germany, Switzerland, or Austria (OECD, 2010, pp. 12, 27, 34–36) become increasingly important: on the one hand because they create pull factors for countries eager to reform their VET systems (e.g. Láscarez & Schmees, 2021) and on the other hand as they create push factors through international organisations (IOs) like the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) as they marketise these blueprints globally. Both observations can be associated with the same mechanism: As successful perceived VET policies in a particular nation are decontextualised by IOs (and sometimes national (non-)governmental organisations) in order to create international blueprints. Through an international discourse around these blueprints, a shared belief in their legitimacy and rationality unfolds. From this perspective, countries tend to implement policies more on the basis of shared beliefs than because of rational arguments (beyond the discourse). Accordingly, the discourse entails a narrative causal relationship of these blueprints (described by sociological institutionalists as a “myth”, see Koch 2009, p. 113), e.g. that implementing the dual apprenticeship system will lead to a low youth unemployment rate (see OECD 2010). Chabbott and Ramirez (2006, p. 174) conceptualised links between discourses from the global through the national, and further to the local level. National actors adopt these ideas to create reform pressure on the VET system. In doing so, these actors prove their willingness to acknowledge current problems concerning VET, as well as their willingness to implement solutions perceived to be rational (see Láscarez & Schmees, 2021). The theory of sociological institutionalism, as well as the mechanisms explained by it regarding the internationalisation of VET systems, complement existing VET theories that are functionalist in nature by explaining e.g. how “Bildung” unfolds, how skills gaps can be closed, or how literacy spreads. While these attempts are important, they need to be accompanied by theories (further developed in VET research and by VET researchers) that set these functionalist approaches and practises in a meta-theoretical perspective to explain and reflect upon the success of one over the other. In our view, sociological neo-institutionalism is able to function as a meta-theory for VET research.

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