Journal of Vocational Education and Training:
16th International Conference

Thursday 24 - Saturday 26 July 2025, Oxford, UK

JVET CONFERENCE 2025 - an in-person conference
24-26 July 2025
St Catherine’s College, Oxford

Theme: VET Journeys and destinations

(CALL NOW CLOSED - The deadline for submissions is now closed. If you wish to make a late submission the review team may consider it if there is space in the programme.)

The JVET Conference Committee will host its highly successful biennial international conference in July 2025. The upcoming conference will explores Vocational Education and Training through the lens of the themes of journeys and destinations and will welcome contributions that explore developments in VET as it strives to meet the challenges of economic austerity, climate change, political instability and increasingly rapid technological change. Submissions have been encouraged to explore the journeys of VET systems addressing these challenges as they traverse the occupational boundaries between formal and informal, accredited and unaccredited vocational learning, between regulated and unregulated training, and between ‘vocational’ and ‘professional’ education. The conference will also explore the role of VET in reinforcing or combatting social closure through inclusive practice, and spatial closure through facilitating mobility.

The meeting provides a critical forum for international debates on all aspects and levels of VET and developments in work and learning, reflecting our journal’s concerns over the 76 years of its publication. The conference is in person and virtual attendance will not be available. The two keynote speaker sessions, however, will be recorded and available after the conference.

The conference themes allow for papers on a diverse range topics in TVET. The following are examples, though any relevant contribution will be considered.

  • TVET policy and practice

  • TVET socioeconomic and technological change

  • TVET regulation, accreditation and assessment

  • TVET students and their social contexts 

  • TVET and social justice, social inclusion, and sustainability

Cristian M. Lincovil Belmar,
Executive Secretary of Secondary Technical and Vocational Education, Ministry of Education, Government of Chile

  • Pathways to further education, higher education and the labour market

  • The social role of colleges in international perspectives

  • TVET transition systems 

  • TVET in times of crisis 

  • Teacher education and development in TVET (this is a dedicated stream, and papers will be scheduled together) 

This call for abstracts is now closed. All submitted abstracts are now undergoing peer-review.  
JVET’s editorial management committee very much looks forward to welcoming members of the international VET research community to Oxford.

Delegates may be the lead author and presenter for one paper, but may be a non-presenting co-author for more than one paper.

Delegates applying for funding support from their institutions or requiring visas should make their submissions at the earliest opportunity.

Deadline for 400-word abstract: 9 December 2024  

Decisions notified: by 31 January 2025.

Conference fees: The full conference fee including Thursday and Friday night single accommodation and scheduled meals - £625. 

PhD Bursary places: We have five fully funded bursaries for graduate students to cover the cost of the event fee (with accommodation totalling £625). Please apply as part of your submission process.

Keynote Speakers - read more…

Sharon Gewirtz, School of Education, Communication & Society, King’s College London

JVET Conference 2025 Keynote speakers…

JVET is delighted to announce its keynote speakers for JVET Conference 2025. We look forward to welcoming Sharon Gewirtz and Cristian M. Lincovil Belmar to Oxford in July 2025. Watch this space for more details on their keynote presentations…

  • Sharon Gewirtz is a sociologist and Professor of Education in the School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s College London where she also co-directs the Centre for Public Policy Research. Her research, which has a particular focus on issues of equality and social justice, brings together structural analyses of regulatory systems and policies with micro-level explorations of how these systems and policies are lived and experienced. Sharon is currently working on a collaborative ESRC-funded longitudinal project that is investigating how England's vocational education and training system can better support the school-to-work transitions of the 50% of young people who do not go to university.

    Her previous research has included a series of studies exploring the value climates, material conditions and social relations of teaching and academic work, and the possibilities for, and barriers to, the enactment of professionalism posed by these transformations.

  • Cristian M. Lincovil Belmar is the Executive Secretary for Secondary Vocational Education at the Ministry of Education of Chile. He is an Industrial Engineer from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and holds a Master of Education in Social Justice Education from OISE, University of Toronto.

    He currently leads the definition and deployment of educational policies aimed at vocational education, with focus in vocational high schools. He is also responsible for the executive secretariat of the Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) Advisory Council, a policy body led by the Ministry of Education that gathers different public and private stakeholders to define, monitor and update the National TVET Strategy. He previously was responsible of the technical coordination of the National TVET Policy (2016) and the first version of the National TVET Strategy (2018); and was part of the development team for the Technical and Vocational Qualifications Framework. He also collaborated with the inclusion of TVET in the laws for Higher Education and Public Education. Prior to his experience in the public sector, he worked directly with schools, school districts and NGOs, developing and implementing improvement plans through participatory processes.

    As a consultant, researcher and policy maker, he has advocated for a human centered approach to sustainable development and vocational education and training. A proponent of educational policies that go beyond human capital and aim for human flourishing, Cristian has maintained a close relationship with academic affairs and has published on TVET policy in Chile and abroad.