On May 10, 2017, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research published its announcement on "the promotion of the internationalization of vocational education and training".
To internationalize vocational education and training (VET) cooperation in the German-speaking countries, there are various research strands in the fields of development research, transfer research, European cooperation in vocational training, service research, corporate research and network research. Research on international VET cooperation is generally conducted at disciplinary level, with related divisions, exclusions and limits and fragmentation of the research landscape. The aim of developing and consolidating a sustainable research network for international VET cooperation must therefore be to combine and integrate the various (scientific) disciplinary (analytical) approaches to the subject area. Furthermore, international VET cooperation is not only determined by factual but also by social, institutional and temporal complexity. It therefore constitutes a so-called "wicked problem" (Coyne 2005), i.e. a complex problem that cannot be dealt with by (one) discipline alone. Rather, it requires a trans- and cross-disciplinary perspective and the involvement of other (non-scientific) societal stakeholders such as economic and social partners and political actors.
In this context, a national and interdisciplinary scientific advisory board will be set up to support the implementation of the new funding initiative with its expertise and to participate in the development and evaluation of the concept for the structural consolidation of an inter- and transdisciplinary research community.
