Professional identity in crisis: the impact of vocational and professional education

Dr. Janko Muršak

Summary:  Construction of the professional identity in the conditions of modern work is in crisis due to the changing circumstances in which professional socialization is taking place. The uncertainty in the labor market and actual changes in the content of work and social situations have a deep impact on the character of the socialization processes. The traditional work group is disappearing and does not represent a reference point for the individual construction of professional identity. The educational system has no relevant answer to that situation, what is refl ected in the statistical data showing the current of students inside educational system. We can follow the typical vertical mobility when everybody fi nishing the upper secondary education continues schooling in the tertiary education. A question is arising weather it is still meaningful to prepare students in secondary vocational and professional schools for the world of work and to invest in their professional socialization. Regardless this question, further adjustments to the described changing conditions are to be made in the system of professional and vocational education).