Integration of immigrants into vocational education and training in Europe: A scoping review

Increasing immigrants’ labour market participation is an important political goal in many European countries. Vocational education and training (VET) can play a key role in this process. The aim of this scoping review was to review the literature on using VET programmes as a means for immigrants’ labour market integration by mapping key characteristics of empirical studies within this research field, and to analyse challenges reported in the literature. We conducted systematic searches in three international indexed databases and supplementary searches in alternative sources. In total, 20 studies (published 2013–2023) were included. Our findings suggest that research on immigrants and VET has slightly increased during the ten-year period we mapped. The studies are predominantly qualitative and originate from the Nordic and German-speaking countries, with refugees and teachers as the main research participants. Through thematic analysis, we identified two broad and interrelated themes of barriers to integration in VET programmes: institutional challenges and situational challenges. Institutional challenges were further categorised into the sub-themes of information, access, course provision, and organisational challenges. Situational challenges include newcomer factors, reception factors, immigration policies, and integration policies. These findings highlight the complexity of immigrants’ learning trajectories in VET, shaped by the interplay of multiple challenges within diverse local and national contexts.