What are vocational training conversations about? Analysis of vocational training conversations in Dutch vocational education from a career learning perspective

Research evidence shows that a career dialogue is a central part of any powerful learning environment for career learning. In vocational education and training, there are three important parties in this dialogue: the student, the teacher and the mentor from practice. In this paper the communication between these parties is investigated in secondary vocational training in the Netherlands. Results suggest that the potential of the dialogue (or trialogue, as it concerns three parties) is hardly utilised: the communication between student, teacher and mentor from practice is not dialogical and only discusses the most successful way to a degree, but not to a career.