Resources

I. Digitalization of TVET

1. Digital Transformation in TVET by UNESCO-UNEVOC

According to UNESCO-UNEVOC, the digital transformation impacts all aspects of TVET delivery, from the integration of new digital skills and competencies into teaching and learning processes to the organization of learning itself. Including digital technologies in TVET programmes thus is an indispensable means to improving the quality of TVET as well as its labour market relevance. To achieve this, learners in the TVET system need to be enabled to become digitally literate, technically competent and work-ready professionals for digitalised work  environments.

This, however, cannot be achieved without “digitizing” TVET institutions and practitioners themselves. This must include various aspects such as (i) the implementation of new forms of learning and teaching (e.g., online, blended, workplace-integrated learning), (ii) the use of digital tools and data to modernize the organizational management of TVET providers, and (iii) an active engagement of TVET providers within their education and labour market ecosystems and communities (e.g., through partnerships with local technology companies).

To further promote the digitalization of TVET, UNESCO-UNEVOC has developed a knowledge hub containing information, examples and discussion papers on what is happening at local, national, regional and international levels to address the challenges TVET providers, teachers and learners face in the digital transformation of TVET provision.

For more information, please visit https://unevoc.unesco.org/home/Digital+Transformation+in+TVET.

2. Digital Transformation in TVET by UNESCO-UNEVOC

This joint ILO-UNESCO report provides a global, high-level overview of how digitalization is affecting TVET and skills systems. It draws on consultations with key stakeholders in a set of countries and international organizations to provide insights into the nature and scope of digitalisation and how it is likely to affect the management, delivery, assessment and certification of technical and vocational education and training. The study draws on developments in Brazil, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Slovenia, Turkey and the United States.

To access the publication, please click here.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO) & UNESCO (2020). The Digitization of TVET and Skills Systems. Geneva: ILO.

3. Online Toolbox AR/VR-enhanced learning in TVET

This joint ILO-UNESCO report provides a global, high-level overview of how digitalization is affecting TVET and skills systems. It draws on consultations with key stakeholders in a set of countries and international organizations to provide insights into the nature and scope of digitalisation and how it is likely to affect the management, delivery, assessment and certification of technical and vocational education and training. The study draws on developments in Brazil, Ghana, India, Kenya, Malaysia, Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Slovenia, Turkey and the United States.

To access the publication, please click here.

Source: International Labour Organization (ILO) & UNESCO (2020). The Digitization of TVET and Skills Systems. Geneva: ILO.

II. Greening of TVET

1. Greening TVET: A Practical Guide for Institutions by UNESCO-UNEVOC

Published in 2017 by UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for TVET, the Practical Guide for Institutions was developed to help technical and vocational education and training (TVET) leaders and practitioners improve their understanding and implementation of education for sustainable development by applying a whole-institution approach to greening their TVET institutions.

According to the guide, “Greening TVET” consists of four key steps:

1. Understanding the process
2. Planning for the greening of TVET
3. Implementing an Institutional Green Plan
4. Monitoring and Assessment Strategies

To access the Practical Guide for Institutions, please click here.

Source: UNESCO-UNEVOC (2017). Greening Technical and Vocational Education and Training. A practical guide for institutions. Paris: UNESCO.

2. Generic Green Skills for TVET: Teaching and Learning Materials

Sustainable economic growth, as outlined in the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda, can only be achieved if the world of work can be effectively transformed to more environmentally friendly and sustainable practices. In this context, TVET has a key role to play, as it has the potential to prepare learners for the emerging green jobs by providing them with green skills that enable them to adapt to changing work processes and profiles.

In order to support TVET institutions in greening their curricula and pedagogical approaches, the team from the Education University of Hong Kong has developed a TVET teacher training and peer learning programme, which aims at providing learners with Generic Green Skills for TVET.

Here are some key facts about the programme:

• Main objective of the programme: To enhance educators’ capacity to include generic green skills into their pedagogical practice.
• Learning outcomes:
• Increased understanding of the rationale and practices of greening TVET
• Ability to effectively use generic green skills resources
• Ability to develop contextualized resources and apply them in pedagogical practices for greening curricula (pedagogical innovation)
• A set of resources developed for inclusion of generic green skills into current curricula that are relevant for the local context
• Training activities that facilitate collaborative learning and peer support include:
• Knowledge transfer seminars
• Different types of small group work activities (e.g. brainstorming, mind mapping)
• Simulated classroom practice

The programme length can vary between 3 and 5 days. Teaching and Learning Resources developed by the team will be used during the workshop.

For more information on Generic Green Skills for TVET, please visit https://greenskillsresources.com/ or contact Margarita Pavlova at genericgreenskills@gmail.com.

III. Excellence in TVET

1. Centres of Vocational Excellence: An engine for vocational education and training development by ETF

Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) are often represented as the institutions that embody vocational excellence. However, the purpose, structure and functions of CoVEs vary greatly from one context to another. Differences and similarities are often disguised by the use of specific terminologies, which may be lost in translation. CoVEs are assigned different roles in policy-making and enjoy different levels of political commitment and prioritisation of resources. Quite often, CoVEs exist in isolation without partnerships with other education institutions at national and international level. Sometimes CoVEs are fundamentally skills providers – vocational schools or training centres – but sometimes they are coordination or development centres or networks rather than providers.

Published in 2020 by the European Training Foundation (ETF), this report aims to help readers understand the different types of CoVEs as developed in different contexts. It is intended to offer a different perspective on vocational excellence, with the aim of facilitating understanding of the phenomenon and its links with vocational education and training (VET). There is no robust measurement for defining vocational excellence. There are, though, the thorny questions: What is vocational excellence, why is it important, and how is it developed and for whom? It is this complexity of vocational excellence that the report attempts to address. To this end, a wealth of information is used from countries outside the EU to show that vocational excellence functions not in a vacuum, but in relation to a context. It is this context that defines the parameters of what can be perceived as vocational excellence and CoVEs.

To access the report on CoVEs, please click here.

Source: European Training Foundation (ETF) (2020). Centres of Vocational Excellence: An engine for vocational education and training development. An International Study. Turin: ETF.

IV. Work-based Learning

The “work-based learning” approach (WBL) focuses on work processes as a starting point for vocational learning. The overall objective refers to the development of vocational action competence.

Dehnbostel & Schröder (2017) define WBL as a learning concept in TVET that takes place at the company’s workplace and within work-processes as well as in traditional formal learning venues of the TVET system:

“… work-based and work-related learning refer to learning in companies, training centres, schools and academies. This includes direct learning at the workplace and learning in work processes and through work” (Schröder & Dehnbostel 2017).

Within the concept of work-based learning, the following models can be distinguished in relation to their proximity to real work and simulation of work:

• Work-integrated Learning (WIL) at the in-company work place and integrated in work processes;
• Work-connected Learning (WCL), which is focusing on learning next to the work place;
• Work-oriented Learning (WOL), which uses typical work tasks for simulation in learning environments such as TVET colleges or inter-company training centres.

These different terms take into account the fact that work-based learning (WBL) can (and should) take place not only at the “learning venue workplace” but also at additional learning venues and thus refer to the range of proximity or connection with real work processes.

Source:

Dehnbostel, P. & Schröder, T. (2017). Work-based and Work-related Learning – Models and Learning Concepts, TVET@ASIA issue 9, 1-16. Online: https://tvet-online.asia/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/dehnbostel_schroeder_tvet9.pdf (24.05.2023).

Dehnbostel, P. (2018). Lern- und kompetenzförderliche Arbeitsgestaltung in der digitalen Arbeitswelt. In: De Gruyter (2018): Arbeit. Band 27, Heft 4. S. 269-294. URL: https://doi.org/10.1515/arbeit-2018-0022.

V. Research in TVET

1. Research and Working Paper Series by the RCP

In 2009 China, Viet Nam, Laos and Thailand founded the Regional Cooperation Platform Training and In-Service Training of Teachers and Managers in Vocational Schools in Asia – called the RCP for short. To support the work of RCP, a couple of studies have been conducted, commissioned by the Regional Cooperation Platform. The results of this work are published in the following series:

A) Research and Development

Eds.:  Paryono, Schröder, T. & Spöttl, G.

Series A: Under the auspices of the Regional Cooperation Platform for Vocational Teacher Education in Asia (RCP) a series of action- research projects had been initiated and conducted by researchers from the RCP-partner universities. These studies aim, first and foremost to provide evidence-based systemic innovation and in the spirit of action research tradition implementing comparative elements with practices already in place in the East- and Southeast Asian region. The outcome of these research projects invariably brought forth innovations in TVET-teacher education via organizational development or political reform.

Volume 1:

Kurnia, D. (2013): Post-Study Pre-Service Practical Training Programme for TVET Teacher Students. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 1,8MB, 138 p.

Volume 2:

Soysouvanh, B. (2013): Development of Standards for Vocational Teachers at Bachelor level in Lao PDF. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 2,3 MB, 82 p.

Volume 3:

Xiao, F. (2013): Macro- and Mesoeconomic Effects of Investment in Vocational Education. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 2,3 MB, 90 p.

Volume 4:

Gillen, J. & Mosel, A.-C. (2013): The prospects of measures for the advance of gender equality in TVET. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 2,8 MB, 118 p.

Volume 5:

Yunos, J. M. (2013): Practices on APEL for TVET Teacher Training Programs  -Admission and Advanced Standing Processes. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 1,5 MB, 167 p.

Volume 6:

Hung, H. X. (2013): Comparative Study on Curricula for Vocational Teacher Education in Mechanical and Electrical Engineering. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 3,3 MB, 285 p.

Volume 7:

Wijanarka, S. (2013): Precondition for an extra-occupational study program for vocational teacher in Indonesia. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 1,9 MB, 85 p.

Volume 8:

Risler, M. & Zhiqun, Z. (2015): Apprenticeship and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises – The China Case. Report of a desk study and a field research mission conducted in May-June 2013 the framework of the ILO “Global Product” Project.
Chiang Mai: RAVTE.
Download:  PDF, 1MB, 73 p.

B) Practice and Working Paper

Eds.: Paryono, Schröder, T. & Spöttl, G.

Series B focuses on distributing working papers used in workshops or developed during workshops. These works are aimed particularly at practitioners seeking practical guidelines for whom the information provided would most likely prove inspiring and certainly supportive in their work.

Volume 1:

Heidsiek, C. (2013): Organizational Development of Institutions for TVET-Teacher Education. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 2,7 MB, 69 p.

Volume 2:

Tubsree, C. & Bunsong, S. (2013): Curriculum Development of Vocational Teacher Education within the Context of ASEAN Integration Process. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 1,7 MB, 140 p.

Read the executive summary PDF, 109 kB, 2 p.

Volume 3:

Kurnia, D., Dittrich, J., & Ilhamdaniah (2013): Occupational Competence Needs Analysis as Basis for TVET Teacher Curriculum Development. Shanghai: RCP.
Download: PDF, 4,3 MB, 140 p.

Read the executive summary PDF, 217 kB, 1 p.

Volume 4:

Hoepfner, H.-D. & Koch, H. (2015): Self-reliant Learning in Technical Education and Vocational Training (TEVT). Chiang Mai: RAVTE.
Download: PDF, 1,7 MB, 70 p.