Full issue 16
TVET personnel – teachers and trainers in companies, vocational schools and other educational contexts – are crucial for enhancing and assuring the quality of vocational education and training. Yet vocational teacher education has been facing challenges over the past few decades. Whereas the need for qualified TVET personnel is indisputable, many countries face a severe shortage of qualified TVET personnel and have therefore implemented various pathways to enter this profession. However, these personnel need to be equipped with future-oriented competencies to provide action-oriented and work-based learning. They also need to be broadly diversified and multi-professional, and able to bridge the gap between vocational theory and practice (Lipsmeier 2013). They also need to develop the specific competences required to integrate learners from different educational, social and cultural backgrounds.