The journeyman’s examination in vocational education.

Abstract

Vocational education in Iceland is in general a dual system where a section of the programme takes place at an upper secondary school and another section at a workplace under apprenticeship contract. The so-called certified trades are a major aspect of vocational education in Iceland, where the programme ends with a journeyman’s examination, legally required for working in the field. This study investigates the journeyman’s examination in its capacity as a legal and social recognition of professional skill and a final assessment of vocational studies. The journeyman’s examinations are professional qualifications undertaken after graduation from school and having completed the workplace section of the programme. An independent journeyman’s examination committee is responsible for creating, holding, and evaluating these examinations. A journeyman’s licence is considered a good measurement of professional skill and provides the legal certification to work independently in a trade. The objective of this research is to understand how those who work within the vocational education system, journeymen, teachers and master craftsmen, view the journeyman’s examination. In particular, the research questions concern how they view the examinations in the context of the programme as a whole, their opinion on the internal validity of the examination, and their experience and view of the process of taking the journeyman’s examination.

To answer these questions four trades were selected as representative of the various programme types found among the certified trades, in terms of duration of the workplace period and the sequencing of the school and workplace periods. A total of 24 participants were interviewed, six within each trade: recently graduated journeymen (n = 8), teachers at upper secondary schools (n = 8), and master craftsmen in charge of apprentices at workplaces (n = 8). The interviews were semi-structured and covered various topics relating to vocational education, among them the journeyman’s examination which is of interest here. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim for analysis. Thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006, 2013) was used to code the data and organize themes in accordance with the research questions.

The findings suggest insufficient content validity of journeyman’s examinations; that is to say, what is being taught in the programme as a whole, in school and workplace, is not being evaluated. Although not unanimous in what the journeyman’s examination should contain, most interviewees agreed that those examinations were not in accordance with current practices in the trade in general and students’ workplace experiences in particular. In part this seems related to the dual nature of the programmes and periods at school and workplaces. These appear to be insufficiently integrated, often resulting in gaps between periods and the loss of knowledge and skill. Also, curricula do not clearly define what should be taught during the workplace period of the programme. As a result, there does not seem to be a consensus within trades as to what competences students should have acquired after completing this part of the programme. It is quite difficult to ensure the content validity of an examination when there is no clear consensus on the content, and this is particularly problematic in case of a summative master’s examination. The findings also show that the legal framework on which journeyman’s examinations are based is too complicated, needing revision and improvement. In particular, there is a need for stakeholders to be more engaged and involved throughout the programme as a whole. The teachers and master craftsmen interviewed expressed clear interest in a formalised conversation and contact with the journeyman’s examination committee, and the results indicate that where communication takes place, there is better accord and agreement about the examinations.

In sum, the results show that journeymen’s study programmes in a double system of certified trade are too restricted in scope, there is no clear consensus as to what workplace training should include, and, besides, lack of communication complicates the matter.

Therefore, improvements are needed to ensure that the journeyman’s examinations measure the knowledge, competence and skill a journeyman is expected to acquire in vocational programmes relating to certified trades in Iceland.