A New Approach to Vocational Teacher Training -A Norwegian Innovative Experience

The aim of this paper is to present a historical and conceptual analysis of observations of a recent innovative approach to training of vocational education teachers in Norway. Since the 17th century, there has been a close link between industrialisation and vocational training in Norway. Consequently, there has been a similar relationship between vocational training (VT) and the training of vocational education teachers (VETs). The close relationship became more apparent during the collapse of Norway´s oil industry in 2015. An increasing number of technically skilled people with higher education lost their jobs. To avert the negative impact of the breakdown, the government requested University of Agder to develop a course designed to retrain unemployed technically skilled workers with higher education to become teachers at vocational schools. In this paper we present and discuss several aspects of the untraditional approach to vocational teacher training. A particular emphasis is given to the educational thoughts that gave birth to a new way of thinking about constructing and developing a transformative vocational teacher training program for untraditional target group. A brief historical account for development of VTCC in Norway is also presented to provide the readers some important information about the Norwegian context