Mobile Ethnography and Journey Mapping as Multi-Sensory (Co-)Creative Approaches to Understanding Young People’s Meaning-Making in Vocational Education and Training (VET)

Context: The Danish VET system relies on the dual model. In Denmark VET programs continue to face challenges, regarding low enrollment and high dropout rates not least in the transitions from school to work based learning. This paper explores how young VET students in Denmark under the age of 25 years navigate the intersection of youth life and work life during their apprenticeships. Approach: Drawing on an ongoing study using mobile ethnography and journey mapping, the research investigates how students under 25 years create and experience meaning in their educational and personal lives. The study addresses high dropout rates and limited knowledge of students’ workplace learning. By applying mobile ethnography and journey mapping interviews, the participants are engaged as co-creators of data through images, chats, and visual mapping. Findings: The study is still ongoing, but findings aim to inform more inclusive, youth-centered VET practices, also during work-based learning periods in the VET programs that support student retention and completion in a dual education system. Conclusions: The study is still ongoing. Conclusions will be available early 2026.