VET and the creative epistemology of the hand

Creativity is considered one of the necessary competences for the future. Robots will increasingly take over existing human jobs. What will be left to us humans is the ability to think creatively about the human condition, to handle complex situations without clear vantage points and goals in mind, and to collaborate across the value chains in our organisations. This developing situation should attract the attention of those involved in VET. This keynote presentation will link crafts, vocational education and training and creativity which have a lot in common. In this, the pragmatist idea of an epistemology of the hand will stand out as a central concept, inspired by Dewey and present-day pragmatists, and by empirical studies of vocational education and training. Dewey argued that people know different things, and that everything we know – if it is to deserve the term knowledge – must have some connection with practical action. We should count something as knowledge only if it enables us to make a fruitful difference to human experience. This links with an understanding of creative actions as those actions that make an impact in and on the world. A practical implication of this would be that VET must teach its students to act creatively, to judge and handle complex problems in the real world and to make an impact on it.