Innovation and Transfer in Vocational Education and Training: An Investigation Applying a Design Research Approach

Social innovation in education requires the transfer of knowledge between research and practice. In Germany, vocational education and training (VET) represents a mature educational sub-sector in which processes of developing innovation and transferring it into educational practice is often hampered by a complex and long-established structure of stakeholders and institutions.

In this context, the study “Accompanying Research InnoVET” aims at developing, testing and evaluating support mechanisms for facilitating translational processes between research and practice. The study is conducted in connection with the national InnoVET programme, funding and supporting 17 projects across Germany in developing and implementing innovative approaches in the VET sector.

This contribution outlines the requirements of collaboration between research and VET practice in innovation and transfer processes. It examines the features that can contribute to the success of a research-practice dialogue and addresses the question which contribution design-based research (DBR) can make to innovations developed in the InnoVET programme.

For this puropose, case studies of a number of InnoVET projects were conducted, involving a number of research methods: interviews with a wide range of key stakeholders (e.g. chambers of industry and commerce, vocational colleges, training companies), a survey of programme participants, development talks with practitioners and researchers, and observation of collaborative structures within projects. Analytical strategies include thematic coding of qualitiative data, collaborative research-practice workshops, and constrastive triangulation of different types of data.

Results emphasize, e.g., the significant role the interaction between research and practice plays, the specific opportunies and limitations for this interaction in a mature VET system, the importance of actors’ transfer-oriented mindset and furthermore, the need for collaborative exchange formats. The results demonstrate the contribution DBR can make to improve innovation transfer in large-scale political innovation programmes thereby generating new theories for transfer strategy measures.