Understanding todays Vocational Education and Training (VET) systems requires a comprehension of the rise and development, i.e. of the foundations of topical VET. This book provides a comparative view of its development in Europe. The contributions of renowned authors give insight into conceptual questions, cases and challenges in this field.

Esther Berner is a reasearch associate at the University of Zurich, Chair of of Vocational Education and Training. In 2010 she received her PhD from the University of Zurich with a thesis in the field of 18th-century school history. From 2012 to 2015 she held an interim professorship for Education Theory and Research at the University of Potsdam. Her research interests focus on the history of education, including VET, discourse history of pedagogical theories, knowledge and practices. Philipp Gonon is Professor of Vocational Education and Training at Zurich University, where he teaches vocational pedagogy, history and theory of (vocational) education, quality assurance and program evaluation at graduate and undergraduate level. From 1986 until 1992 he was research assistant and lecturer at the Institute of Pedagogy of the University of Bern. From 1999 until 2004 he served as a Full University Professor of Vocational Further Education at the University of Trier in Germany.