Re-conceptualising VET: Responses to Covid-19

McGrath, Simon; Avis, James; Atkins, Liz; Esmond, Bill

Abstract

The paper addresses the impact of Covid-19 on vocational education and training, seeking to discern the outline of possible directions for its future development within the debates about VET responses to the pandemic. The discussion is set in its socio-economic context, considering debates that engage with the social relations of care and neo-liberalism. The paper analyses discourses that have developed around VET across the world during the pandemic, illustrating both possible continuities and ruptures that may emerge in this field, as the health crisis becomes overshadowed in public policy by the prioritisation of economic recovery and social restoration. The paper concludes that, alongside the possibility of a narrowing of VET to its most prosaic aims and practices, the health crisis could also lead to a re-conceptualisation that develops its radical and emancipatory possibilities in both the global south and north.

Citation

McGrath, S., Avis, J., Atkins, L., & Esmond, B. (2020). Re-conceptualising VET: Responses to Covid-19. Journal of Vocational Education and Training, 73(1), 1-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2020.1861068

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 6, 2020
• Online Publication Date: Dec 30, 2020
• Publication Date: Dec 30, 2020
• Deposit Date: Feb 16, 2021
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 31, 2021
• Journal: Journal of Vocational Education and Training
• Print ISSN: 1363-6820
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 73
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 1-23
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2020.1861068
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/5125048
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13636820.2020.1861068
• Additional Information: This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Vocational Education and Training on 30 Dec 2020, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.108013636820.2020.1861068