scholarly journals Measurement of vocational competencies — a contribution to an international large-scale assessment on vocational education and training

2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Esther Winther ◽  
Frank Achtenhagen
Keyword(s):  
Vocational Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Scale Assessment ◽  
And Training

scholarly journals Large scale studies of holistic professional competence in vocational education and training (VET): The case of Norway

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 132-152
Author(s):  
Leif Christian Lahn ◽  
Hæge Nore
Keyword(s):  
Vocational Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Competence Development ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Scale Assessment ◽  
Methodological Guidelines ◽  
And Training

Context: In this paper, we review and discuss the piloting in Norway of a German methodology for competence diagnostics in vocational education and training: the Competence Development and Assessment in TVET (COMET) project. Our overarching theme is determining to what extent such large-scale assessment systems are valid for international comparisons in this sector. Method: We present the theoretical underpinnings of the COMET model and position our discussion within the broader context of the concept of “professional competence” (berufliche Kompetenz) and methodological guidelines for its measurement. Terminology from psychometrics on “measurement equivalence” is described and serves as a template for identifying challenges in using the Norwegian data for comparative purposes. Our pilot included students and apprentices in health care, industrial mechanics and electricians and was designed as a three-year follow-up study from the second year of upper secondary school through two years of apprenticeship. Each year, a test on professional competence and a context survey were administered. Similar studies have been conducted in Germany, China and South Africa.Results: In line with the results from these countries, the Norwegian participants had low scores, particularly the electricians. However, the diagnostic instrument was sensitive to the development of professional competence, and progress on the assessment was influenced by the quality of the learning support in the companies, as reported by apprentices in the context survey.Conclusions: The COMET platform may be a viable prototype for the development of diagnostic tools, which may support the monitoring of quality factors at different levels and inspire local improvement projects in schools, companies and training offices. Such an objective would be in line with the latest summaries of the COMET project, in which its contribution to a model for international large-scale assessment is toned down and replaced by a stronger emphasis on its potential for measuring competence development, evaluating contextual factors and generating data for didactic innovations.

scholarly journals Writing Competences in Norwegian Vocational Education and Training: - How Students and Apprentices Express their Professional Competences

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen Beate Hellne-Halvorsen ◽  
Leif Christian Lahn ◽  
Hæge Nore
Keyword(s):  
Vocational Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Literacy Practices ◽  
Education And Training ◽  
Professional Communication ◽  
Vocational Education And Training ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
Written Test ◽  
Writing Competence ◽  
And Training

AbstractThis article analyzes the writing competence of Norwegian students and apprentices in three professions: Healthcare, industrial mechanics and electricians. The research forms part of a large-scale assessment project in vocational education and training (VET). A subset of 108 written test-answers were subjected to an explorative analysis focusing on generic and professional writing competencies. A more text-based and trans-contextual working life for many professions requires not only profession-specific communicative competency, but also a stronger engagement in generic literacy practices. The need for written communication with customers, clients and colleagues across workplaces and countries has increased and the use of understandable language when communicating with non-peers is required. In the study, we found that the generic writing competency declined during apprenticeship, but on the other hand that the use of professional-specific terminology increased. We also found that writing competence seemed to be contextualized according to different traditions, text cultures and discourses across the three professions. The article questions the prevalence of text-based examinations in VET and analytical categories for measuring writing competence that do not take into account a multimodal character of professional communication.

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