Initiatives in the recognition of prior learning (RPL) have been taken in Sweden in recent years, mainly focusing on prior vocational learning among immigrants. The government started different projects to find methods for recognising a person's prior learning in the field of vocational competence. This article presents a study of how these projects were organised and their starting points. Differences are identified concerning whether they were integrated with, or parallel to, the school system, and whether the starting point was a few vocations or a number of different vocations (depending on the background of the participants). The article then looks at some problems that arise when trying to recognise prior learning. We find that knowledge of the Swedish language is essential in this process, but that the demands are flexible and the criteria informal. The article also discusses the relationship between RPL and the educational system, where most of the projects had problems in not being too influenced by the school tradition where the main documentation of competence is grades. Finally, the article discusses conditions for the development of trust in RPL.

This qualitative study focuses on how knowings and learning take place in full-scale simulation training of medical and nursing students, by drawing upon actor-network theory (ANT). ANT situates materiality as a part of the social practices. Knowing and learning, according to ANT, are not simply cognitive or social phenomena, but are seen as emerging as effects of the relation between material assemblages and human actors being performed into being in particular locations. Data consists of observations of simulations performed by ten groups of students. The analysis focuses on the emerging knowings in the socio-materialarrangements of three locations involved in the simulation-the simulation room, the observation room and the reflection room. The findings indicate that medical knowing, affective knowing and communicative knowing are produced in different ways in the different locations and material arrangements of the simulation cycle.

This chapter illustrate how the social and material arrangements for interprofessional simulation produces different conditions for learning. The first section focuses on the emerging medical knowing, affective knowing and communicative knowing in the socio-material arrangements of three locations involved in the simulation, i.e the simulation room, the observation room and the reflection room, during the course of events in the scenario. The second section focuses on emerging rhythms of collaboration. Different ways of relating to the manikin as a technical, medical and human body, and the relevance of these findings for simulation pedagogy are described.

This article aims to review the pedagogical research on simulation training in vocational education and training (VET) and to discuss the emerging teaching practice from a sociomaterial perspective on learning and practice. Literature reviews on research into simulation training with pedagogical interests show that there are three main themes: 1) the effect of technology-enhanced simulation training, 2) the fidelity and authenticity of simulation and learning, and 3) pedagogical consideration and underpinnings. The article draws on a sociomaterial perspective on learning and practice to problematise and discuss the findings of previous research. This theoretical perspective makes it possible to discuss how technology, educational practice and social relations are intertwined and precondition each other. Through the lens of sociomaterial theory, the article discusses how the introduction of the new technologies brings about changes and expectations of what can be learned, how the teaching practices are enacted and how this affects the relationship between teachers and students.

This is the second issue of the Nordic Journal of Vocational Education and Training in 2021. In this issue we present six articles -five peer-reviewed research articles and one magazine article, representing three of our Nordic countries. Three of the articles are contributions from Norway, two from Denmark and one from Sweden. In our journal we want to provide new insights and discussions on different aspects of vocational and professional education and training. The present contributions cover topics that particularly concern the vocational education and training (VET) teacher, such as the teacher's role, teacher education, professional development, and collaboration. For example, two studies from health care education discuss the teacher's role in VET for adults, with many immigrant students and where communication and language become central, and the teachers' experience of a 'career paradox' among students -that is, how many students are focused on further studies rather than a future in health care work.