It is hardly a novelty that European countries suffer from skills supply in technical and industrial sectors, recently emphasised with the European Commission’s proposals for strengthening vocational education outlined in the Competitiveness Compass and ”Union of Skills.” In the Swedish context – which is in focus in this paper – industry faces a significant skills shortage (Industrirådet, 2024), and apart from launching strategies for STEM, the Swedish government’s initiatives have expanded pathways to vocational education and emphasised alignment with local labor market demands (Skolverket, 2022). Upper secondary vocational programs struggle with enrolment (Panican, 2020), partly due to perceptions of industry as unattractive and the reproduction of traditional gender segregation in educational choices (Klope, 2020; Ledman et al., 2021).

Teknikcollege (Technical College, TC) is a national organisation that – through local collaborations between schools and companies – certifies and tailors upper secondary school education for the competence needs of businesses, and aims to increase young people’s interest in the industrial sector (Olofsson & Panican, 2020). We have limited knowledge about VET in these local arenas and what implications it has for teaching (Alvunger, 2024), but previous research highlights both opportunities and tensions in the TC model: while collaboration can enhance access to modern technology and increase student interest (Panican & Paul, 2019), it also raises questions about different logics between education and industry  (Höghielm, 2020; Johansson, 2019) that may result in conflicting interests and damage trust and expectations (Hermelin & Rusten, 2016; Hodgson & Spours, 2015; Huddleston & Laczik, 2018; Köpsén, 2021).

This paper explores TC:s national website through a lens of curriculum theory (Alvunger, Soini, Philippou & Priestley, 2021), focusing on the underlying ideas, perspectives, and assumptions about education conveyed through text, image, and video. The study is guided by the following research questions:
• How is the purpose of TC and the arguments for choosing its certified programs presented?
• What conception of knowledge dominates, and how are different forms of learning described?
• How are educational and workplace environments, as well as primary target groups, represented?

To make visible how educational purposes, goals, knowledge, and learning are highlighted in the material, Schiro’s (2012) four curriculum orientations are employed as an analytical framework. These are compiled based on conceptions of knowledge, views on the purposes and goals of education, perspectives on the individual and society, and understandings of learning. According to Schiro (2012), they reflect different educational aims: academic and subject-oriented, vocational, personal (learner-centered), and social or socially critical (cf. Zweeris, Tigelaar & Janssen, 2023). ”Academic rationalism” is the transmission of subject disciplinary knowledge to develop the individual’s intellectual capacity and understanding. Emphasis is placed on knowledge reproduction and subject content—new knowledge drives societal progress. The curriculum orientation ”social efficacy” emphasises that students should be prepared with knowledge, skills, and abilities to function in future working life and society. Focus is on competencies and capabilities as dimensions of social utility, human capital, productivity, and technical instrumentalism. The third orientation is learner-centered, that is, the learner’s personal development and experiences are at the core. It is an emancipatory discourse where knowledge is meaningful in relation to the individual’s experience of the world and its potential to lead to self-realization. Finally, ”social reconstructionism” underlines the socio-cultural context, the individual’s capacity for social agency, critical analysis and consciousness, understanding, and meaning-making. Education is viewed as a means to address social problems and improve society. In this paper, these typologies are employed to identify different emphases in the content conveyed through verbal texts and visual material on TC:s website.

Methodologically, this study takes the form of a critical case study (Flyvbjerg, 2003) of TC:s national website with two employed research methods. To explore the texts, images, and videos on the website, Bacchi’s (2009) “What’s the Problem to be Represented?” approach was applied to identify which problems are presented in texts, what assumptions, ideas, norms, and preconceptions underpin them, and what solutions the policy offers—along with what limits the possibility of achieving the intended change (Bacchi, 2009). Further questions include: What conditions or assumptions are described as part of the “problem”? What is left unquestioned? Who is the sender and who is the receiver? Since the empirical material includes images and graphic elements that function as communicative tools and interact with written text, the study adopts a multimodal perspective on visual representations in digital environments (cf. Jewitt & Oyama, 2001). From a socio-semiotic perspective, Kress and van Leeuwen (2020) argue that images operate as a language, where visual representations can be analyzed similarly to linguistic structures. They propose a form of visual grammar that shapes how meanings are perceived and emphasize that viewers interact with images and their design. Images thus carry ideological positions in one form or another (van Leeuwen & Jewitt, 2001), linking the multimodal perspective to Schiro’s four ideal-typical curriculum ideologies. The analysis of images and videos draws on two key concepts: denotation – what or who is depicted and what the image represents in its most basic sense – and connotation, which concerns the ideas and values reflected in the images, how elements are arranged, and how the image interacts with the viewer’s interpretation and perspective (Kress & van Leeuwen, 2020). The material analyzed consists of what is represented on the homepage—the so-called landing page—and what is directly visible when scrolling from top to bottom. The second part of the material focuses on tabs—hereafter referred to as subpages—specifically targeting students. These subpages include additional content analyzed in the study. The material comprises text, images, and videos, which are either live-action or hybrid films, i.e., a mix of animation and live footage (Teknikcollege, 2025).

The results reveal TC:s ambition to increase young people’s interest in vocational education and to strengthen collaboration between schools and industry. The need for industrial skills supply is emphasised with the slogan “For the future of Swedish industry,” positioning close school–industry cooperation as the solution. The analysis based on Bacchi (2009) shows how TC presents itself as the answer to industry’s skills shortage, highlighting certified programs as reality-based, balancing theory and practice, and guaranteeing quality and future employment. Value-laden terms such as “future-proof,” “sustainable development,” and “job opportunities” legitimise these programs as socially beneficial and attractive for individuals. Visual communication alternates between industrial imagery and playful, colourful illustrations, creating a normative and idealised picture of industry as clean, creative, and sustainability-oriented. While intended to inspire, this risks obscuring structural challenges such as noise, physical strain, and monotonous tasks—potentially leading to unrealistic expectations and dropout. Similarly, the portrayal of students focuses on young women, constructing an ideal type: future-oriented, active, and environmentally conscious. This aligns with efforts to counter gender stereotypes but may also reinforce narrow representations of target groups. The dominant conception of knowledge emphasises utility, competence development aligned with industry needs, and learning through theory–practice integration—reflecting Schiro’s (2012) social efficiency ideology. Vocational programs are framed around practical problem-solving and production skills, while academic programs stress analytical ability and critical thinking, linked to academic rationalism. This framing risks reinforcing hierarchical divides between “the practical welder” and “the calculating engineer” (cf. Carlgren, 2015). Overall, the analysis raises questions about balancing labor-market relevance with critical thinking and democratic aims, and about avoiding an overly instrumental view of education that reduces it to an industry-serving tool.

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