Responsibility is a fundamental aspect of teacher professionalism; however, research on teacher responsibility in vocational contexts is scarce.

Drawing on both focus groups and individual interviews with vocational teachers from three vocational programmes, this study examines how vocational teachers perceive and navigate their responsibilities for students’ transitions to apprenticeships. The study is situated in Norway, where vocational education and training is characterised by an institutional gap between school-based learning and apprenticeships.

Findings show how teachers negotiate and enact responsibility amid systemic constraints, ambiguous expectations and competing interests, and why support can be necessary yet not sufficient when control over allocation lies outside schools. While teachers’ work in supporting students’ transitions to apprenticeships often involves substantial but largely invisible efforts, the study also highlights that personalised student support carries the risks of over-reliance on individual teachers and variations in the level of support provided.

The study contributes to ongoing scholarly debates on teachers’ roles in VET transitions by clarifying how responsibility is negotiated and enacted at the school – apprenticeship boundary, particularly in contexts where expectations are unclear and formal guidelines are absent or ambiguous.

Dette er sluttrapporten fra den fireårige evalueringen av fagfornyelsen i yrkesfag, gjennomført av NIFU i samarbeid med Fafo og OsloMet.

Fagfornyelsen var prosessen med å utvikle og innføre læreplanverket for Kunnskapsløftet 2020 (LK20) i hele grunnopplæringen, fra første til trettende år.

Evalueringen har fulgt utviklingen og innføringen av nye læreplaner og ny tilbudsstruktur fra 2020 på vg1 til overgangen til arbeid etter fullført læretid i 2024. I denne evalueringen ser vi kun på innføringen av LK20 i yrkesfaglige utdanningsprogram, med hovedvekt på programfagene (det vil si de yrkesfaglige fagene).