Closely related to these shifts is the intertwining issue of learners' identity development referred to as becoming.
It is unclear whether and which elements of VET provision shape learners' identities and even more unclear whether the desired effects of a strong identity in terms of an enhanced vocational performance actually materialize.
Empirical studies in educational psychology find evidence that project learning has a positive impact on learning activities, effective performance, learning behavior, achievement motivation, as well as on the expression and refinement of learners' identities through collaborative efforts.
As the main emphasis is on the role of social activity in promoting learning and the formation of the learner's identity, peripheral participation is legitimate in itself (Lave and Wenger 1991).
Consequently, learners' diverse identity development occurs in connection with localized values-realization and through sociohistorical experiences.
In line with our model results, we outline three points of intervention to strengthen a learner's vocational identity and thereby optimize VET: (1) Grant vocational learners an opportunity to experience actual work.
This requires adopting a shared collective identity, as learners become committed to rigorous forms of problem-solving and inquiry that is valued by the community.
So, for instance, engineering students that see themselves as 'practical', find that the theoretical/academic practice of university mathematics becomes irrelevant to their aspirations and ways of learning, i.e. alien to their identity as learners.
Schaffer elucidated how games help learners reframe their identities and interests in relation to professional communities of practice.
Compounding this shortcoming is the problematized nature of social media technologies for learners as being a source of their personal identity; thus instructors must transform learners' everyday practices that inform their personal identity into professional practices that will inform their professional identity.
As well as providing supervised exam centres they will also authenticate the identity of online learners.
