Rethinking Vocational Education and Training: Hauling in from Maritime Education

There are great concerns about the effectiveness of the current vocational education and training systems (VET) and their shortcomings in providing the beginners with the competencies that they require at work. The purpose of this contribution is to elaborate on the pitfalls of different elements of the VET and provide suggestion for its improvement. Based of my research in the field of maritime vocational domain, this chapter analyzes the current condition of VET and demonstrates and discusses the limitations and shortcomings of the system and the need for a new epistemological approach. An analysis of the traditional apprenticeship, formal vocational education, and on-the-job training is provided. Based on these a different methodology is proposed which includes both elements of traditional and cognitive apprenticeship. The effectiveness of this method in improving the competency of practitioners for today’s technological workplaces is evaluated.