Against the background of increasing qualification needs there is a growing awareness of the challenge to widen participation in processes of skill formation and competence development. At the same time, the issue of permeability between vocational education and training (VET) and general education has turned out as a major focus of European education and training policies and certainly is a crucial principle underlying the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). In this context, «hybrid qualifications» (HQ) may be seen as an interesting approach to tackle these challenges as they serve «two masters», i.e. by producing skills for the labour market and enabling individuals to progress more or less directly to higher education. The specific focus of this book is placed on conditions, structures and processes which help to combine VET with qualifications leading into higher education. This volume assembles articles by researchers from Switzerland, the Netherlands, France, Australia, Canada, Scotland, England, Denmark, Austria and Germany.

Thomas Deissinger is University Professor of Business Education at the University of Konstanz, Germany. Josef Aff is University Professor and Head of the Institute for Business Education at the Vienna University of Economics and Business, Austria. Alison Fuller is University Professor and the Director of Research as well as the Head of the Lifelong and Work-Related Learning Research Centre in the Southampton Education School and in the University of Southampton, England. Christian Helms Jørgensen is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Educational Studies at Roskilde University, Denmark.