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Based on a significant shortage of qualified vocational teachers, this study examines themotivations behind choosing to become a vocational teacher in Swedish uppersecondary schools. The empirical material consists of 111 free-text responses to an openendedsurvey question. Structured tabular thematic analysis of the short free-textanswers is used as the analytical method. The results reveal five main themes in therespondents’ answers: dissatisfaction with previous occupations/desire for betterworking conditions, physical/psychological reasons (extrinsic motivational factors),contributing to shaping the industry’s future workforce based on personal experience(altruistic motivational factors), interest in working with young people, and personaldevelopment and a passion for teaching (intrinsic motivational factors). Like previousresearch, it is the intrinsic motivational factors that dominate. The results are analysedand discussed using previous research and concepts from careership theory. Theanalysis shows that career change for many individuals involves managing theirexperience and knowledge capital by contributing to shaping the industry’s futureworkforce.

Learning and work life can be seen as related (Billet 2001; Fjellström and Kristmansson, 2019) and research in VET context is undergoing a renaissance as research is growing (Andersson 2019; Michelsen, Stenström, Jørgensen, Olsen and Thunqvist 2018) and reviews regarding VET are still rare (Gessler and Siemer, 2020). This paper focuses on research in a Nordic perspective with an aim to identify and analyse published articles in relation to geography of authors, stated keywords and methods. The paper presents a scoping review of research in the field of learning and work life between 2015 and 2021 in a Nordic perspective. It is divided into three parts that follow the research questions. The first part presents an overview of the topics that are studied in the field of learning and work life within the Nordic countries. In the second part the focus is on the different methods that are used in the research field. The final part highlights the question related to region/university-specific topics within Nordic research on learning and work life.

Methodology: The methodological approach is a scoping research review. Web of science, ERIC, Scopus, SWEPub, Oria, BiblioteketDK, and Finna have been used to identify 1067 articles in the specific research area. All articles were divided into three groups that were analysed according to the following criteria: keywords, author´s affiliation, geographic areas of research and methodological approaches. This process resulted in a total of 886 articles as the analytical work also identified articles that didn't meet the search criteria. NVIVO and SciMAT were used in the analytical process.

Outcomes: In relation to what the articles claim to focus on, the keywords used in the different articles show how the authors classify and interpret their research. Preliminary results show differences in research topics in the Nordic countries. Further, common combinations of methods are interviews and observations. Thus, research in a Nordic perspective is in many cases following the same methodological design. Finally, the results indicate that there are differences in research focus from a geographical perspective.

References: Billett, S. (2020). Learning in the workplace: Strategies for effective practice. Routledge.Cobo, M. J., López‐Herrera, A. G., Herrera‐Viedma, E., & Herrera, F. (2012). SciMAT: A new science mapping analysis software tool. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 63(8), 1609-1630.Fjellström, M., & Kristmansson, P. (2019). Constituting an apprenticeship curriculum. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 51(4), 567-581.Gessler, M., & Siemer, C. (2020). Umbrella review: Methodological review of reviews published in peer-reviewed journals with a substantial focus on vocational education and training research. International Journal for Research in Vocational Education and Training, 7(1), 91-125.Michelsen, S., Stenström, M. L., Jørgensen, C. H., Olsen, O. J., & Thunqvist, D. P. (Eds.). (2018). Vocational education in the Nordic Countries. Routledge.

In Sweden, upper secondary vocational education and training (VET) teachers must have high relevant vocational experience from a previous career, but 44% do not have a teaching certificate and thus are not formally qualified. However, there are significant differences between the 12 national VET programs in this respect. For example, 68 percent of the Child Recreation Program teachers are qualified, but only 28 percent of the HVAC and Property Maintenance Program teachers. The overall aim of this study is to identify and understand factors that motivate individuals to choose VET teaching as a second career in Sweden. As the Factors influencing teaching choice (FIT-Choice) scale has been rarely used in a Swedish VET context, a secondary aim is to test its suitability in this context. Thus, we investigate Swedish VET teachers’ choice of a second career, using the FIT-Choice scale. The findings show that it has sufficient validity and reliability for investigating Swedish VET teachers’ motivational determinants, and that the factors motivating their career change are highly dependent on their former occupation and working conditions. Other important factors include the family-friendly work schedules. The findings contribute to understanding of factors that motivate people to become vocational teachers, which is essential for improving the development of the highly skilled employees required in numerous sectors.

Apprenticeships are required for many trades and can take different forms. In Sweden, one form can be viewed as a pathway where students complete a three-year-long vocational education in upper secondary school followed by a post-secondary apprenticeship in a particular trade. Another takes the form of vocational training within the framework of upper secondary school through an apprenticeship. This study analyses how a more clearly defined apprenticeship curriculum can provide sufficient knowledge to identify and understand learning outcomes in apprenticeships. A theoretical framework of an apprenticeship curriculum is used in the analytical work. The findings show that educational goals are often overlooked during apprenticeships, and thus a deliberative education is overridden by deliberative learning that stems from and is closely connected to the individual’s own perception of what to learn. By constituting an apprenticeship curriculum, this article contributes to an enhanced understanding of how to analyse vocational learning, and thus adds important elements to the research field.

This thesis is about the workplace-based part of the 2008-11 pilot project of upper secondary apprenticeship education (USAE) in the Business and Administration programme. The aim is to develop knowledge on the ways in which USAE is realised in the Business and Administration programme, and how students in this programme develop professional skills. A further aim is to shed light on the nature of professional skills in the retail industry in a historical as well as a contemporary perspective. The development of professional skills, and the conditions created for that process to take place is the particular focus of the thesis. Lave & Wenger´s (1991) theory of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP), Billetts (1996, 2002, 2006) theory of a workplace curriculum and Engeström´s (1987) activity theory are used for the analyses in the study. Data production was conducted mainly through interviews, observations, gathering of documents and participation in trilateral talks. Development and structural changes that have taken place on several levels in the retail sector have resulted in many professional skills becoming embedded in information technology. This, in combination with the current division of labour, means that apprentice students may have difficulties in reaching the more advanced tasks. The prevailing view among the general public on the retail industry as a low-status sector can also be traced back to its history. The steering documents did not appear to have any decisive significance for the content of the education. Instead, what may be termed the workplace curriculum, control the knowledge content that is made accessible. The conclusion must be, therefore, that the professional skills that apprentices can develop are narrow and specific for the workplace. The apprentices gain access to basic tasks related to the daily work at the workplace, but rarely have the opportunity to take part in the more advanced work-tasks. USAE students in the Business and Administration programme also experience difficulties in achieving deeper and so-called theoretical or abstract skills. This implies that instead of this more challenging work they are assigned tasks that are quantifiable and can be checked mechanically in matrices and checklists. The study shows that in the assessment work, professional skills have been downgraded and are considered as little more than social and interactive competence and employability. A crucial conclusion is that USAE does not constitute one unified activity system with a common underlying motive, but should rather be considered as two separate activity systems (school and workplace) with distinct cultural differences.

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to compare, and identify both similarities and differences in, affordances for vocational learning in two contrasting education systems, for construction worker and shop salesperson apprentices, in Swedish contexts.

Design/methodology/approach - Data were collected through interviews and observations in two research projects, each addressing relevant aspects of one of the focal educational systems. A framework consisting of identified goals, activities and guidance was applied in the analysis.

Findings - The results show that the affordances for learning in the examined educational systems are dependent on the learners' access to, and participation in, workplace activities. A conclusion is that workplace demands override educational goals in both cases. Thus, the affordances for learning related to both individual and educational goals are dependent on the access to guidance during workplace activities.

Originality/value - The study highlights constraints between educational goals and workplace affordances in both apprenticeship systems, which largely develop vocational competencies related to specific workplace demands and activities. A presented model regards apprenticeships as vocational and educational training in workplaces is outlined that enable a deeper understanding of the correspondence between individual, educational and workplace goals that forms the type of activity which leads to a learning outcome.

This comparative study comprises apprentices who are becoming construction workers and shop salesmen’s within two different apprenticeship systems in a Swedish context. Particularly in this paper, the aim is to study how affordances for vocational learning can be viewed through these educational contexts. The data collection includes interviews and documents related to respectively educational system. The findings show that there are similarities between the two apparent different educational systems. One conclusion is that workplace demands overcome the criteria in the steering documents. Consequently, there are apparent constraints between stated goals and the affordances offered by workplaces in both educational systems. Hence, they both develop vocational competencies according to workplace demands that correspond to workplace activities.

The aim of this thesis is twofold. First, from a life course perspective I´m going to study the timing of a number of life course events in sparsely populated areas and urban areas in a cohort of people born 1968-1971. The second part of the aim is to analyze how the timing of the life course events in a later stage of life affects the residential choice, with special focus on owning the dwelling, in the above mentioned geographical areas.

The life course events in focus are; leaving the parental home, the first cohabitation or the first marriage, the first childbearing and the first separation or divorce.

The results state that there are significant differences between sparsely populated and urban areas in the cohort, in timing for at least three out of the four life events. The difference in average age between sparsely populated and urban areas is biggest for leaving the parental home and for the first cohabitation or marriage with the rural individuals being the youngest. The same pattern is also visible for the first child but the difference in timing between the two geographical areas are less distinct for that event. For separations and divorces there are no clear differences in timing.

Linear regressions show that educational level is of crucial importance for the timing ofthe life events. An increasing level of education leads to a later life event. Different economic variables such as income support, unemployment allowance and disposable income also have an influence on the timing of the events. But the significance of the effect of these variables on the average age is stronger in the urban areas than in the sparsely populated districts. It seems that in sparsely populated areas there are other variables that play an essential role when it comes to the timing of the events in the life course. One possible aspect, but not investigated here, could be the impact of the wider family context.

Finally, a control for how the different timing of the life events in the two geographical contexts affects the residential choice at least ten years after the events has been done. It shows that the general pattern concerning the residential choice of the cohort is that 90 percent in sparsely populated areas and 70 percent in the urban areas defined as suburbs lives in owned villas. It seems that, in this cohort, house owning is an overrepresented way of residence regardless the individuals geographical identity.

The results also shows that people in the cohort, regardless if and when the four life events has taken place in the younger ages, to a large extent in the later life still lives in the same type of municipality (sparsely populated or urban). In other words, it is not possible to find any strong correlations between the timing of the life events and residential choice in a later stage of life.