Summary
Deliverable D2.1
Dual education programmes across Europe share a common ambition but operate within national frameworks that differ considerably — affecting learner status, contracts, remuneration, curriculum integration and the recognition of mobility periods abroad. These differences make international apprenticeship mobility within dual programmes far more complex than it needs to be.
D2.1, led by ESTIA with editorial support from KIC, establishes a comparative typology of work-integrated dual models across ten European countries: Austria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Portugal and Spain. Programmes are organised into five categories based on the share of work-based learning and the structure of alternation, and cross-referenced against three mobility patterns.
The report draws on a stakeholder survey, 58 in-depth interviews, focus groups and a legal review of national frameworks. Alongside the comparative analysis, it develops a pedagogical framework conceptualising dual higher education as a learning ecosystem in which knowledge emerges through the interaction between institutional and workplace contexts. D2.1 provides the analytical foundation for the project’s later work on harmonised contracts, credit transfer and joint programmes.
