At-risk students like those with special educational needs, learning difficulties, or pupils at risk of exclusion frequently struggle in transition from basic to secondary vocational education and training, often due to poor personal, learning and social skills. Therefore, several countries implement transition programs like the choice of profession training (CoPT) in Estonia to support youngsters’ readiness to continue their studies. This study aimed to identify how the characteristics of powerful learning environments in vocational education (PoLEVE) appear in CoPT in VET teachers and support specialists’ experiences. The deductive thematic analysis of 16 semistructured interviews illuminated the development of learning-, life-, cooperation- and self-determinations skills through adaptive teaching and learning support in a safe and positive learning community. Nevertheless, the results also call for empowering at-risk students to cope independently, supporting their construction of vocational knowledge through reflective dialogue and intellectually challenging problem-solving.

This article delves into a unique form of potential academic drift in Estonian vocational education and training (VET) institutions, where many VET entrants already hold higher education degrees. While there is extensive research on transitions from vocational education to higher education, the reverse transition from higher education to VET needs to be explored. The study aimed to identify the life transitions that bring higher education graduates to VET, the boundaries they experience during their transition and how they manage these in terms of boundary crossing. Findings from 12 semi-structured in-depth interviews with VET students holding university diplomas revealed that these students enter VET driven by career-related life-transitions. However, their trans-formative potential as boundary crossers still needs to be met, as there was evidence of a predominant trend of unilateral adaptation to the norms and practices of the vocational context, sidelining the potential for negotiation and hybridisation of practices.

Siinses uurimuses seati eesmärgiks selgitada välja kutseõpetajakoolituse üliõpilaste arusaamad kutsestandardile toetuva e-portfoolio rollist õpingute toetamisel ning nende kogemused e-portfoolio koostamise protsessis. Viie fookusrühma intervjuu (n = 19) induktiivse sisuanalüüsi tulemused näitavad, et kutsestandardile toetuvat e-portfooliot kogetakse õpingute teljena, mis muudab nähtavaks varasema erialase töökogemuse, õppimise ja arengu ning kujundab arusaama kutseõpetaja elukutsest. Samas rõhutavad tulemused e-portfoolio lõimimise olulisust kutseõpetaja bakalaureuseõppekavasse ning vajadust tõhustada juhendamist eeskätt protsessi alguses, et toetada üliõpilaste toimetulekut e-portfoolio avatud olemuse ning kohati vastuoluliste eesmärkidega.  Summary

Context: As Europe pursues climate neutrality and skills transformation, there is a growing need to understand how secondary vocational education can integrate sustainability through powerful and transformative learning environments. Approach: This study combines a theoretically grounded PTLES framework with a comparative case-based analysis of 11 vocational education and training practices across Belgium, Estonia, France, Germany, and Spain. Findings: Across diverse national contexts, the cases consistently highlight authentic learning tasks, higher-order thinking, adaptive support, reflection, and collaboration as key characteristics of effective transformative learning environments for sustainability. Conclusions: The results provide empirical support for the PTLES framework as a model for sustainability-oriented vocational education while revealing opportunities to strengthen meta-cognitive reflection and the explicit integration of sustainability across learning contexts in different domains and education systems of different European countries.