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Skills Competitions for Promoting Vocational Excellence

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Handbook of Vocational Education and Training

Abstract

Over the last decade, skills competitions in vocational education and training (VET) have increased in popularity and visibility. The most well-known global event is the biennial WorldSkills Competition (WSC), which is organized by WorldSkills International (WSI) and involves competitors from 77 member countries covering 50 skill areas (e.g., plumbing, hair dressing, robotics). Academic research on international vocational skills competitions provide an excellent opportunity to investigate the micro- and meso-level factors related to vocational excellence. This chapter focuses on the role of skills competitions in promoting vocational excellence, introducing relevant research, and discussing the seminal findings on individual vocational development and the attractiveness of VET.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Tampere University of Technology, Tampere, Finland

    Petri Nokelainen & Heta Rintala

  2. Faculty of Education, University of Tampere, Tampere, Finland

    Laura Pylväs

Authors
  1. Petri Nokelainen
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  2. Laura Pylväs
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  3. Heta Rintala
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Petri Nokelainen .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of Nottingham School of Education, Nottingham, UK

    Simon McGrath

  2. Education and Competence Studies Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, Gelderland, The Netherlands

    Martin Mulder

  3. Faculty of Education, University of the Western Cape Faculty of Education, Bellville, South Africa

    Joy Papier

  4. School of Education, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

    Rebecca Suart

Section Editor information

  1. Department of Agricultural Education and Communication, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, USA

    Kirby Barrick

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Nokelainen, P., Pylväs, L., Rintala, H. (2018). Skills Competitions for Promoting Vocational Excellence. In: McGrath, S., Mulder, M., Papier, J., Suart, R. (eds) Handbook of Vocational Education and Training. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49789-1_69-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49789-1_69-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-49789-1

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