Costa Rica is recognized as one of the Latin American countries that invests the most in education. According to the World Economic Forum's Global Competitiveness Report 2016-2017, Costa Rica's education system ranks 35th in the world, one of the highest in Latin America. However, most students in Costa Rica leave school with a weak foundation for work, amid concerns about low productivity and skills shortages (OECD, 2016), compounded by the fact that Costa Rica is the OECD country with the highest unemployment rate (34.2%) among 15-24 year-olds (ILO, 2022). To resume economic growth, Costa Rica needs a labour force with the competencies and skills demanded by the labour market and a TVET system that meets this need. One of the main institutions active in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in Costa Rica is the Ministry of Public Education (Ministerio de Educación Pública - MEP) and the National Institute for Apprenticeships (Instituto Nacional de Aprendizaje – INA) (Rommel & Vargas Méndez, 2022). However, employers argue that there are insufficient graduates in technical specialties of increasing labour market demand.   Furthermore, there is a lack in the supply of skilled TVET teachers in order to strength the quality of TVET. For example, not all teachers of TVET have vocational pedagogical and subject didactic competencies (Álvarez-Galván, 2015).  This has brought the demand for more research on TVET to the center in Costa Rica. At the same time, it can be observed that, despite the growing attention from the political and economic side, a development of theoretical and methodological approaches on TVET and its scientifical knowledge does not take place. Although TVET is considered as an important and valuable alternative for the insertion of the young population in the labor market with a growing importance for the society, the relevance of TVET research is not yet that present so that research efforts have remained in the background (Alvarado Calderón & Mora Hernández, 2020). Lascarez & Baumann (2018) state that TVET research in Costa Rica is still in its infancy and that there is still no university chair conducting TVET research.   

In Germany, for example, TVET is supported by the academic sub-discipline of TVET research and is characterized by chairs, courses of study in TVET teacher qualification, its own research community, academic journals and appropriate support for young researchers. Thus, although the Costa Rican discourse on TVET has typical elements such as the currently formulated need for TVET research and existing courses of study in TVET teacher education, as well as some academic scientific research efforts, this has not yet led to the promotion or institutionalization of a specific TVET-related scientific focus. This paper deals with the status and needs of TVET research in Costa Rica within the framework of the CoRiVET - Costa Rican Vocational Education and Training Project, funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research. The project aims to actualize the current curriculum on teacher qualification for TVET at the National Technical University (UTN) and to further institutionalized TVET research. In order to fulfil this last objective, a diagnosis of the current state of research on TVET will be carried out, which will provide updated information to detect in which sub-themes of TVET it is necessary to make greater research efforts in the future. In this context CoRiVET deals with the question: What is the status of TVET research in Costa Rica and which are the associated research needs for TVET?

In order to answer the research question a systematic review is carried out, supported by demi-standardized expert interviews with expert who are directly or indirectly involved in TVET and TVET research. The systematic review of the literature on TVET research will be carried out by using the methodology proposed by Gessler and Siemer (2020), for which both formal scientific publications and "grey literature" (strategy documents, project reports, evaluations, etc.) are analyzed. All documents related to TVET in Costa Rica (published worldwide) are considered. The search for documents on TVET research will be conducted in the 3 languages (Spanish, English and German). Search terms for documents on TVET research in the 3 languages are, among others: technical education, vocational training, technical education research, vocational training research, dual training, combined with the name of Costa Rica, and Central America. Different databases will be used in the process of searching for publications on TVET research. The analysis procedure will be inspired by the methods of thematic analysis (Mayring, 2008). In addition, semi-standardized expert interviews will be conducted in order to identify concrete needs for the promotion of TVET research in Costa Rica. Therefore, the aim of the interviews is to identify existing resources and competences in TVET research as well as characterize the status, challenges, and opportunities. A strategy for disseminating the results of the present study will be considered in order to make them known to decision-makers in Costa Rica and to the scientific community in the TVET sector in Costa Rica.

It can be assumed that the current status of TVET research and previous efforts and activities of TVET research in Costa Rica can be regarded as low. There is no, however, systematized overview of existing research and research needs in TVET that could provide an up-to-date assessment of specific research foci, topics, methodological approaches, etc. In other words, there is no institutionalized and systematized TVET research, which can be referred to. In this respect, it can be argued that the systematic review, combined with the expert interviews will enable an overview of precisely these things in order to derive adapted measures in the CoRiVET project and to promote the second objective of strengthening TVET research. At the same time, the systematization of the status quo in TVET research and the results of the interviews enable the identification of relevant actors with their related needs, characteristics and possibilities to promote TVET research activities. So, the expected results are, on the one hand, a systematization of existing research activities, a characterization of current needs to promote TVET research regarding actors, institutions etc. and, in particular, the identification of research themes in and for the Costa Rican TVET system. It can be assumed that topics like pedagogical qualification of teachers for TVET, the professionalization processes of teachers, labor market needs, among others, will be identified as decisive research areas.

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