Jurja Jakob and Sandra Antulić Majcen participated in the ECER 2026 conference

Jurja Jakob and Sandra Antulić Majcen participated in the international scientific conference ECER 2026, which was held from 18 till 21 August at Tampere University, Finland.

Together with the VETprep project team members from Denmark, Estonia, Scotland and Spain they presented a part of the project results.

Within the symposium titled “Navigating VET Transitions in Europe: Policy Repertoires, Vulnerability Perspectives, and Evidence Based Insights from Five Countries“ Sandra Antulić Majcen presented the paper written in co-authorship with Marko Lucić titled “Risky Times and Relative Risks: Tertiary Education Aspirations of Croatian VET Students and the COVID-19 pandemic“.

Jurja Jakob presented the paper “Student Profiles, Aspirations, and Educational Inequality in Croatian VET: Evidence from PISA 2022 with Policy Implications“ written in co-authorship with Sandra Antulić Majcen and Marko Lucić.

Both papers build on the analysis of VET policies in Croatia in the period from 2015 till 2025, and secondary analyses of PISA data (cycles 2015, 2018 and 2022), in which patterns of educational and career aspirations of VET students are explored, with a particular focus on students in vulnerable positions in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period. The results contribute to the understanding of patterns of participation, attractiveness and completion in the context of vocational education and training.