Bericht im Rahmen d es ö st erreichischen Fachw issens- und Referenznet zw erkes Berufsb ild ung für CEDEFO P w w w . ab f - au st r i a. at Be r uf sb ild ungsf o rsc hung – Üb e rb lic k p e r Mausklic k Inf o Do c VET-Research in Aust ria Sho rt Descrit io n Lo re nz Lassnigg IHS - Inst it ut e fo r Ad vanced St ud ies mit Unt e rst üt z ung d urc h 3 / 09-2003 Das ReferNet in Ö st er reich Grundsätzliches Ziel des Fachwissens- und Referenznetzwerks (kurz: ReferNet) in Österreich ist die Herstellung von Transparenz und Synergie in der Berufsbildungsforschung, die Verbreitung von Informationen und Forschungsergebnissen sowie die Beratung von CEDEFOP (Europäisches Zentrum zur Förderung der Berufsbildung). Zentrale Forschungseinrichtungen der Berufsbildungs- und Qualifikationsforschung in Österreich haben sich zur Arbeitsgemeinschaft Berufsbildungsforschung Austria (abf-austria) zusammengeschlossen. Es sind dies mehrere außeruniversitäre Einrichtungen, die kontinuierlich wissenschaftlich in den Feldern Berufsbildung, Qualifikation und Arbeitsmarkt arbeiten. Die abf-austria bietet aufgrund der Einbeziehung der einschlägigen Forschungsorganisationen eine zentrale Plattform für diese Arbeiten. Entsprechend der Vorgaben von CEDEFOP werden die folgenden Aufgaben wahrgenommen: • • • • Erarbeitung von Berichten und Expertisen Vernetzung der nationalen und europäischen Forschung Dokumentation von Veröffentlichungen Betreuung von Datenbanken. Näheres zur abf-austria sowie dem ReferNet finden Sie unter w w w .ab f-aust ria.at InfoDoc erscheint aktuell nach Einlangen der jeweiligen Artikel. © Herausgeber und für den Inhalt verantwortlich sind die Autoren/Institutionen der jeweiligen InfoDoc-Ausgaben Institut für Höhere Studien • Institute for Advanced Studies Lorenz Lassnigg VET-research in Austria – short description Contribution to REFER-net (September 2003)i Changes of the basic structure of educational R&D and VET research in Austria A report for the OECD project about educational R&D has analysed the situation of VET research in the 1990 as a part of educational R&D.ii It turned out that educational R&D was in a weak position in general. Three different sectors were distinguished in educational research: - general and school related research, - higher education research, and - VET research. Those sectors were organised very differently. The first sector was based in the university system, and to some extent in the institutions for teacher education, the second sector was very weakly developed and situated in a few highly specialised units of non-university or university research plants, and VET research was mainly organised in a market like fashion. Institutions related to the social partners had a remarkable share in that market. Important characteristics of VET-research were that it was only marginally based in the university system,iii and therefore mainly focused at applied research questions. The main financial sources were invested from the labour market authorities, and therefore VET research was closely related to issues of the labour market development, occupations, and educational choice and orientation. Thus there was no clear separation between VET research, research about occupational development and labour market research. The institutions taking part in the market were very much driven by competition and some attempts made to establish more coordination and cooperation in that research area have failed. A more comprehensive and systematic research agenda, which would include basic and applied research, could not be developed sufficiently in that flexible structure which was also strongly oriented to short term political needs. During the last decade some principal traits of that basic structure have persisted, however, some important aspects have changed. − First in the sector of general and school related research steps have been taken towards more cooperation (by the set up of a scientific society and a journal)iv, a strong focus has arisen particularly in the field of school development and quality assurance (supported by activities of the school administration).v At the moment, the institutions for teacher training are in a process of reform, and are expected to develop stronger competencies in educational research. − Second, in the sector of higher education research the foundation of the new polytechnics (Fachhochschule) has given impetus to research in several ways (the implementation process was accompanied by a OECD-review and monitored by a policy research project; the analysis of A-1060 Wien • Stumpergasse 56 • Tel: +43-(0)1-599 91 214 • Fax: +43-(0)1-599 91 555 • www.equi.at • lassnigg@ihs.ac.at qualification needs was set up as a necessary condition for the accreditation of new study programmes in the polytechnic sector, and the administration is running a research programmevi etc.) − Third, in the sector of VET research the market has changed and diversified very much by the set up of a research branch of the public employment service (AMS) and by the development of a number of new institutes providing services in that area (most of which, however, are fairly small units). The Federal Ministry has set up a series of edited books about “Innovation in VET”,vii and AMS has also taken steps for the improvement of communication (by the set up of a research platform)viii The most recent activities around the REFER-net, supported by the Federal Ministry, have given new impetus for steps towards improved cooperation and coordination in the sector of VET research. However, a more stable basis for VET research has not been established so far, and VET research has not taken ground in the university sector on a broader scale. Overview about recent topics of VET research in Austria An important task of the Austrian network is the improvement of communication, exchange and cooperation among the actors in Austrian VET research. To develop the knowledge base about the state of VET research and the main research topics in this field is a key issue. A screening of the available documentary sources shows that much is to be done in this area. At present the information channels cover the scenery only to a certain degree. Thus, we can give some first indications about the state of Austrian VET research only. I. VET research in the 2001 documentation of educational researchix The documentation of educational research does not indicate VET research as a particular category. In a first step the coverage of VET research by the documentation can be explored, if we compare the institutions represented in the educational research documentation with the institutions in the AMS research network: from the 38 institutions of the AMS network only 6 (that is 16%) are represented in the educational research documentation. In a second step we can search that information base for descriptors which are typical for VET research (e.g., occupation, work, technology, qualification, training, labour force, graduates, school to work transition, apprenticeship, modular training; see ANNEX) we get between a minimum of about 40 projectsx to a maximum between 120 and 160 projectsxi performed (completed or ongoing) during 2001. About 20% of performed projects were ongoing and 80% completed during this year. That distribution points to a rather short duration of many projects. Research topics of major attention in 2001 can be indicated by descriptors which have been given to more than one project.xii If we leave some broad and general descriptors (educational policy, continuing vocational education, VET school) aside, we get some focus on the following aspects: 2 - costs of training - vocational needs - vocational integration - higher education graduates - institutional or multi-plant training (“überbetriebliche Ausbildung”) II. Specific initiatives: Future demand for qualifications Some areas of research have been covered more deeply by specific initiatives. Especially the identification of qualification needs has been developed as a topic of particular interest by the AMS. As steps towards the set up of the AMS research network workshops and conferences have been organised since 2001 about the topic of future qualification needs (“Qualifikationsbedarf der Zukunft”). At those workshops the main projects about that topic are discussed among the researchers, and at the broader conferences the Austrian situation is also discussed in the context of good practice at the European level. The contributions to the workshops and conferences are published by the AMS on paper and in the internet. xiii Specific focus is given to methodological issues of the analysis of the demand for qualifications. To improve the availability of results of the monitoring and analysis to a broader public an internet platform has been developed which gives systematic access to the various available sources of information: the Qualifikationsbarometer.xiv This electronic Information base gives easy access to information about employment in the various occupational fields (starting with 25 fields), the employment and qualification structure within those occupational fields due to a high number of specialised occupations, and it links information about the employment situation and demand to information about job descriptions, necessary qualifications and competences, etc. III. Publications 2002-03 The analysis of the publications can give some additional perspectives on the field. About 150 publications have been reported for 2002-03 (including also some from 2000-02; from 2002 a number of 113 publications is included). The publications in many cases are reporting results of research projects, however in a number of cases separate reports prepared inside the administration and information material for a broader public are included in the list. Thus the educational research documentation and the reported publications cover the same “population” only to some extent: to get a valid picture of the scenery the results must be added to some extent. The reporting of the publications is done by different types of institutions (which are included in the broader Austrian VET network), particularly those who have mainly commissioned research and published the results (AMS, BMBWK, AK, WKO are the most important ones) and the research institutions. To some extent the commissioning institutions also perform research and monitoring by themselves (the AMS research branch). Compared to the educational research documentation a 3 somewhat higher number of the research institutions of the AMS research network is represented in that publication base: 10 institutes are represented explicitly and some 5-10 additional institutes are represented indirectly via the reporting by the commissioning institutions. If we take the 38 institutions of the AMS network as the basic population, no more than half of them are covered by the publications information base. About one third of the publications have been commissioned by the AMS. Those publications give results particularly in three main fields: - Monitoring of the short and medium term labour market development, including qualification needsxv - Evaluation of labour market policy measuresxvi - Information material for occupational and education/training choice.xvii Some of those AMS-publications are parts of longer term projects which are performed regularly or periodically, within the research branch of the AMS or in close collaboration between the researchers and the AMS. Those regular publications include the analysis of the labour market by education, the stocks and flows on the labour market, the short-term prognosis of the labour market development, the micro analysis of labour supply, the short- and medium-term prognosis of supply and demand in the apprenticeship system, etc. Other topics of broader weight are analyses of demand for polytechnic programmes (7 publications), various reports about education in Austria provided by the BMBWK (13 publications), studies about the development and status of adult education (5 publications). Special research topics covered by individual publications or a small number of publications are among others - the following: - IT and e-learning - gender issues - new learning environments - quality assurance - entrepreneurship - information society - lifelong learning - opportunities for disabled people - mobility and networking - new forms of working contracts - drop out and early school leavers - cooperation with Middle- and East-European countries - language learning. Results and conclusions VET research is a research field which is performed mainly in a (growing) market for applied research services, and which is institutionalised on a very low level in Austria. Many of the institutes providing 4 research in this field are small and young. There are strong links to labour market research and to the public employment service (AMS), and there are weak links to academic research and to the higher education system. Exchange among the researchers is improving, but rather weak so far. The documentation of projects and results covers the field only to some part, and seems to be fairly influenced by “self selection” of researchers and institutions that are reporting their work to the information bases. A broad range of topics, including the areas of high priority in policy and practice, is covered by the research activities. More systematic attempts are made in labour market research, as compared to VET research in a more specific sense. The coordinating activities set up in the course of the REFER-net at national level have led to promising step towards the further development of VET research in Austria. Given the actual state, some resources should be devoted specifically to a more systematic screening of the reporting practices and to the analysis of the state of the art in VET research at the national level. This cannot be done at the level of resources available at present. xviii Endnotes i The author has to thank Jörg Markowitsch for valuable comments. Educational Research in Austria. In: Educational Research and Development. Austria, Germany, Switzerland. OECD Documents. Paris 1995, p.31-37. iii The institutes or departments providing the study programmes for Business Education (Wirtschaftspädagogik) at four major universities (Graz: http://www.kfunigraz.ac.at/wipwww/; Innsbruck: http://www.uibk.ac.at/c/c4/c433/lehre/index.html; Linz: http://wipaed.jku.at/inhalt.htm; Vienna: http://www.wuwien.ac.at/inst/wipaed/) are most closely related to issues of VET research, however, those units are highly specialised to their main mission in the school sector. iv See: http://paedpsych.jk.uni-linz.ac.at/INTERNET/OEFEB/FAQs.html and http://www.studienverlag.at/titel.php3?nr=149. v See: http://www.qis.at/start.htm vi See: http://www.fhr.ac.at/4_publ/4_2.htm vii See: http://www.studienverlag.at/suche.php3 viii See: http://www.ams.or.at/b_info/index400fn.htm ix See: http://www.rpi.at/Bildungsforschung-Dokumentation-2001.pdf x Projects selected by combinations with the descriptor occupation (= “…beruf…”) in title or abstract. xi Projects selected by a broader group of VET-related descriptors in title or abstract; the range between 100 and 165 is given because the projects are described by more than one descriptor: the overall number of projects carrying one or more of the VET-related descriptors is 241 (193 completed and 48 ongoing projects) – if projects on average carry two descriptors the number is about 120, if the average factor is 1.5, the number is about 160. xii In sum about 100 descriptors were selected as VET related; half of those descriptors are attached to only 1 project; only about 20 of the about 100 descriptors (less than one quarter) are attached two three or more projects; the maximum of projects per descriptor is 8 for the broad category „Bildungspolitik“ (educational policy); about 25 descriptors (one quarter) are attached two 2 projects (see the list in the ANNEX). xiii See: Conference „Qualifikationsbedarf der Zukunft I“ May 2002 (http://bis.ams.or.at/forschungsnetzwerk/dokumentationQBZ.pdf); see also: Maria Hofstätter, René Sturm (Hg.): AMS report 34 – Qualifikationsbedarf der Zukunft I : Früherkennung und Darstellung von Qualifikationsbedarf. Beiträge zur Fachtagung "Qualifikationsbedarf der Zukunft - Prognoseinstrumente und Innovationsfelder" des AMS vom 28. Mai 2002 in Wien; „Qualifikationsbedarf der Zukunft II“ October 2002 (http://www.ibw.at/html/projekte/proj_nat/ams/aktuell_fs.htm). xiv See: http://www.ams.or.at/b_info/index400qb.htm xv See: Projections of qualifications and occupations in Austria: Short-term approaches, macro perspective and emphasis on the supply side. In: M. Neugart, K. Schömann (eds.) Forecasting labour markets in OECD chttp://www.ams.or.at/b_info/index400qb.htmountries. Measuring and tackling mismatches. Cheltenham: Elgar 2002, 240-282. xvi See the documentation of short information, reports, and studies: http://www.ams.or.at/b_info/index400.htm. xvii See as a summary the Qualifikationsbarometer, which includes most references to information material: http://www.ams.or.at/b_info/index400qb.htm ii xviii 5 ANNEX: Descriptors used for identification of projects in VET-research Completed Projects 2001 DESCRIPTORS Bildungspolitik Ausbildungskosten xviii Berufsanforderung Berufliche Integration Berufsbildende Schule Hochschulabsolvent Überbetriebliche Ausbildung Akademikerarbeitslosigkeit Ausbildungsangebot Ausbildungsart Ausbildungsbedarf Berufliche Qualifikation Berufsausbildung Beziehung Beschäftigung - Ausbildung Bildungsplanung Computeranwendungxviii Duale Ausbildung Erwachsenenbildung Informationstechnologie Lebenslanges Lernen Sozialpartner Übergang zur Arbeitswelt Weiterbildung der Mitarbeiter Akademikerbedarf Anfangsausbildung Arbeitskräftemangel Berufliche Rehabilitation Berufliches Streben Berufsbegleitende Ausbildung Berufsberatung Berufsforschung Berufsklassifizierung Berufstätige Mutter Beschäftigung Jugendlicher Beziehung Hochschule - Unternehmen Bildungsbedarf Bildungsökonomie Computernetzwerk Frauenbeschäftigung Ingenieur Jugendarbeitslosigkeit Praktikum Qualifikationsgrad Techniker Technische Bildung Technologischer Wandel Umschulung Wirtschaftliche Ressourcen Wirtschaftsentwicklung Akademischer Grad Aktionsprogramm der EG Arbeitnehmer Arbeitsbeziehungen Arbeitskräftebedarf Arbeitsmarkt Arbeitsplatzsuche Aufteilung der Arbeitszeit Ausbildung der Ausbilder Ausbildungs- und Arbeitsplatzgarantie Ausbildungswahl Ausbildungszentrum Befriedigung im Beruf Berufliche Information Berufliche Mobilität Beruflicher Misserfolg Berufsbild Berufsbildung Berufschance Berufserfahrung No of projects 6 5 5 4 4 4 4 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 Project Number 2192, 2196, 2206, 2238, 2266, 2277 2203, 2220, 2225, 2226, 2234 2201, 2220, 2230, 2238, 2293 2188, 2241, 2264, 2288 2199, 2238, 2245, 2287 2204, 2216, 2268, 2293 2200, 2203, 2206, 2234 2216, 2223, 2293 2199, 2238, 2241 2203, 2236, 2239 2199, 2234, 2238, 2203, 2245, 2261 2201, 2224, 2230 2206, 2288, 2293 2223, 2240, 2268 2199, 2204, 2277 2236, 2239, 2240 2225, 2226, 2234 2199, 2201, 2277 2203, 2205, 2234 2206, 2234, 2235 2206, 2188, 2288 2203, 2261, 2209 2223, 2293 2236, 2239 2204, 2223 2188, 2288 2203, 2221 2220, 2234 2228, 2241 2223, 2230 2230, 2240 2247, 2249 2224, 2240 2279, 2293 2223, 2278 2196, 2226 2277, 2278 2221, 2224 2200, 2201 2224, 2288 2200, 2264 2238, 2241 2200, 2201 2220,2201 2201, 2205 2230, 2234 2225, 2226 2238, 2245 2268 2222 2225 2234 2204 2228 2188 2220 2199 2240 2241 2200 2288 2241 2230 2224 2228 2264 2224 2264 6 Cont. DESCRIPTORS Berufslaufbahn Berufsprognose Berufsverband Betriebspraktikum Bildungsnachfrage Computer literacy Curriculumentwicklung Demographie Erwerbsleben Freier Verkehr von Person, Waren, Kapital Handfertigkeit Informationstext Informationsverarbeitung Informationsverbreitung Innovation Jugendlicher Jugendpolitik Junger Erwachsener Lehre Lehrling Modular Training Polytechnische Bildung Praktikant Qualifikation Schulwahl Sozioprofessionelle Kategorie Technisches Personal Technologische Bildung Telekommunikation Unqualifizierte Jugendliche Werkstatt Werkstudent Wirtschaftsbedingungen Wirtschaftswissenschaft Zweiter Bildungsweg No of projects Project Number 2224 2238 2216 2200 2240 2199 2245 2240 2224 2228 2264 2278 2201 2259 2217 2266 2288 2224 2240 2240 2287 2200 2200 2201 2285 2230 2201 2200 2204 2224 2264 2220 2230 2204 2235 Ongoing Projects 2001 Bildungspolitik Curriculumentwicklung Berufsanforderung Berufsanforderung Beschäftigung Jugendlicher Bildungsbedarf Erwachsenenbildung Tourismus Anerkennung von Bildungsabschlüssen Arbeitsmarktpolitik Ausbildungsprogramm Ausbildungszentrum Befriedigung im Beruf Berufliche Integration Berufswahl Betriebsgründung Betriebsmanagement Computeranwendung Computernetzwerk Credits Handarbeit Handfertigkeit Hochschulabsolvent Informationstechnologie Klein- und Mittelbetriebe Lehrberuf Managementausbildung Orientierungsstufe Technische Bildung Übergang zur Arbeitswelt Werkstatt Wirtschaftskunde Zweiter Bildungsweg 8 3 2 2 2 2 2 2 2195, 2219, 2229, 2253, 2267, 2274, 2281, 2294 2244, 2248, 2251 2224, 2251 2294, 2295 2187, 2218 2219, 2229 2232, 2233 2208, 2244 2297 2187 2202 2202 2213 2187 2218 2202 2202 2276 2276 2297 2282 2282 2295 2276 2202 2213 2202 2292 2282 2187 2282 2202 2232 7