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Recognizing and Developing Vocational Excellence Through Skills Competitions

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Abstract

Vocational excellence is not easy to define, not least because of differing country contexts, expectations, and norms. Yet, excellence in vocational education and training abounds. One such example is skills competitions. These provide both a benchmark for high performance and an objective way to assess vocational excellence, and where they are international, they also allow cross-country assessments against commonly agreed standards. International skills competitions, specifically WorldSkills Competitions, are the focus of this chapter with the aim of illuminating what vocational excellence is. Drawing on research on WorldSkills Competitions allows an opportunity to understand better the factors that contribute to the development of vocational skills to a high standard, while focussing on understanding the knowledge and skills development of the competitors, and the people involved in this development, allows us to begin to understand better how vocational excellence can be achieved and recognized.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Susan James Relly & Ewart Keep

Authors
  1. Susan James Relly
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  2. Ewart Keep
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ewart Keep .

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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James Relly, S., Keep, E. (2019). Recognizing and Developing Vocational Excellence Through Skills Competitions. 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_112-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-49789-1_112-1

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  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-49789-1

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-49789-1

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