VET System Governance: A systematic literature review

Abstract

In this study, we conduct a systematic literature review of records across disciplines dealing with VET system governance. The literature draws on a broad array of disciplines including political science, sociology, economics, development economics, and education policy. We identify six schools of thought in the literature, which are neither ideologically isolated nor always based in a single disciplinary approach. In addition, we find that the literature is robust enough to identify 16 key variables in six dimensions associated with the quality or success of governance for VET systems. These variables are applied across schools of thought, although not uniformly. In general, the literature is not fully cohesive but avoids being isolated into ideological silos.