Vocational teachers’ views on their professional competence and cooperation with working life Abstract

The reform of vocational upper secondary education in Finland, emphasising work-based learning, influences vocational teachers’ work and brings new challenges for teachers’ competence. This study examines vocational teachers’ views on the required professional competence and experiences of cooperation with working life. The research data consisted of interviews with vocational teachers (N=13) who work in both apprenticeship training and school-based VET in the social and health service sector (n=5), construction work sector (n=4), and business sector (n=4). The data was analysed with thematic analysis. In this research, vocational teachers’ competence was constructed based on cognitive, operational, social and metacompetence. At best, working life cooperation was described as favourable development of learning environments. However, the study also showed some important challenges in teachers’ working life cooperation. Cooperation was sometimes seen as balancing between the needs of students and workplaces. In some cases, teachers were even considered to have very limited opportunities to intervene when any problems occur. The purpose of this study is to deepen our understanding of vocational teachers’ professional competence on the boundaries between education and work, as well as to bring new insights for vocational institutions to develop teachers’ competence and working life cooperation. Keywords: vocational teacher, competence, working life cooperation, vocational education and trainingPeer reviewe