Motivation in International VET Cooperation: VET Providers and their Engagement in Transfer

This paper represents a first contribution in the context of international vocational training research on the side of German VET providers who want to transfer their VET services from Germany as the origin country to another target country and asks about the motivation to become active in this regard. Case studies are applied that involve German VET providers, sampled from a German funding line. In-depth expert interviews with six project actors are conducted to identify the perspectives and approaches for the motivation of transfer. Theoretical assumptions on motives and motivation of the Relationships Motivation Theory by Deci and Ryan, as well as the motives for policy transfer by Pilz and Li offer the analytical framework for this study. Although motives variate in many facets, two main motivations of the revenue-oriented motivation of transfer and the personal concerns motivation can be found according to the analysed data. Concluding, there are rather intuitive and interest-driven motives for engaging in transfer on the side of the analysed VET providers, which is why further research in this area would be desirable.