The VETNET-program started with an opening session, which was dedicated to vocational education and training in South Tyrol: The German Dual Education in South Tyrol: Dual Education is a Success Story, Albeit Constant Improvements, are Needed by Isolde Moroder, The Italian Dual Education in South Tyrol: New Offers for Companies are Needed to Support Apprenticeship by Renzo Roncat & Judit Szabo, and The perspective of a Trade Association and Service Provider, by Mirko Cutrì & Thomas Pardeller. The opening session was very well attended and gave an insight into the German and Italian VET in South Tyrol.
There was a significant increase in the number of proposals for VETNET going up from 70 proposals in 2017 to 134 submissions. During the conference, there was a rich diversity of presentations, highlighting important thematic, theoretical, and methodological discussions in the VET field. Presentations addressed questions about VET governance and financing, the comparison and transfer of VET systems, learning in and through VET, the qualification of VET teachers and trainers, workplace learning, how to support the talented young people in VET, and how to include the excluded through VET.
For the first times in years, VETNET published conference proceedings, online and as print (to be ordered through Amazon). More than 40 papers are included in the proceedings: Nägele, Christof, & Stalder, Barbara E. (2018). Trends in Vocational Education and Training Research. Proceedings of the European Conference on Educational Research (ECER), Vocational Education and Training Network (VETNET). Zenodo. Link
Overall, the conference in Bolzano/Bozen was a success with respect to the scientific contributions, the discussions, and also the traditional VETNET dinner (with more than 80 participants) was a success.