Identifying resilience promoting factors in vocational education and training: a longitudinal qualitative study in Norway

Drawing on the literature on resilience in education, this article explores personal characteristics, abilities and behaviours that enable vulnerable students and apprentices to succeed in education and training. Despite high dropout rates in vocational education and training (VET) in most countries, little research on resilience in vocational contexts exists, and there is no general understanding or conceptualisation of resilience in VET. The study is based on qualitative interviews with eight adolescents from lower socioeconomic backgrounds who were identified as being at risk of not completing upper secondary education. The adolescents were interviewed the first time during the school-based part of their education (year 2) and the second time during apprenticeship training (year 4). Our findings show that commitment to learning and perseverance, self-regulated learning, goal orientation, self-efficacy and help-seeking are important resilience promoting factors in a vocational context that may serve to enhance resilience among students and apprentices in VET. The study discusses the role of learning environments in school and in the workplace in resilience in VET.