Margherita Caggiano 2 Comments

UNESCO-UNEVOC Trends mapping – Innovation in TVET

UNESCO-UNEVOC presents a new trends mapping study on innovation in TVET

Source: UNESCO-UNEVOC

Recently released by UNESCO-UNEVOC, this report aims to improve the understanding on innovation in TVET among the international community, as well as to map current trends and showcase different types and experiences of innovation in TVET around the world.

Written by Jan Peter Ganter de Otero, the report clarifies what innovation means for the TVET community, taking into account the different stages of development they find themselves at and different geographic, socio-economic and political contexts. The study presents a general framework that helps to analyse the development and implementation of innovative practices in TVET, including in organizational practices, ecosystem engagement, teaching and learning processes, and products and services offered by TVET institutions.

Key findings

The study identifies several important issues from the literature review, questionnaires and a virtual conference on innovation in TVET that was held in February 2019:

  • Innovation comprises substantial change in the way TVET is practiced by an institution, making it progressively more relevant to its economic, social and environmental context.
  • The deployment of a broad set of organizational practices in TVET (including planning, financing, human resource management, administrative structure, and internal monitoring and communication) is crucial to support the development of innovation in TVET.
  • It is crucial for TVET institutions to consider a comprehensive human resource management approach to build their capacity to develop and implement innovative practices. All types of TVET institutions (ministries, national bodies, training centres and universities) reported a focus on training and skills development as their main human resource management practice. The study found that there was a lack of human resource management practices concerning recruitment, appraisals and incentives.
  • Innovations in the way TVET institutions reach out and foster relationships with external actors (ecosystem) are not only crucial to overcome barriers when it comes to collaboration between the TVET system and other sectors (including business), but can also be pursued with aims of creating a stronger and supportive sense of community between different stakeholders and enhancing the status of TVET.
  • Innovations in teaching and learning processes help to enhance the quality of TVET programmes, projects and initiatives.
  • Promoting technology diffusion and applied research in TVET can also act as an engine for innovation in local community and the society.
  • The great majority of the TVET institutions reported that the lack of time, resources or staff are significant barriers to develop innovative practices.

The final part of this report provides recommendations divided in three different levels: system, policy, and institutional levels.

Download the report: Trends mapping – Innovation in TVET

Join the online discussion

From 28 October, UNESCO-UNEVOC hosted an online discussion on the TVeT Forum on planning for innovation in TVET. This online discussion will be led by Jan Otero, author of Trends mapping – Innovation in TVET,  and will focus on the process of planning for innovation in TVET institutions, schools and training centres.

To access the online discussion, you will need to have a UNEVOC account.

To get our latest updates follow Sustainable Skills:

Margherita Caggiano No Comments

From the Desk of the CEO – October 2019 Newsletter Address

Human capital development is the highest priority for the 2nd term of President Jokowi’s Government.

To build Indonesia’s skills the President has placed a particular focus on technical vocational education and training (TVET). The emphasis is on creating work-ready graduates through vocational education & certification and matching vocational schools education with industry-relevant skills.

Sustainable Skills has been working with several Indonesian Ministry’s responsible for managing the TVET system with a focus on building the skills and knowledge of the Ministry’s so they can better understand how to develop an industry engaged system.

With this in mind it was a pleasure to be invited to speak at the 1st Indonesia Vocational Education and Training Summit 2019 (IVETS) held on the 9th and 10th October in Jakarta.

I was asked to speak on the work Sustainable Skills has been doing with the Ministry of Research Technology and Higher Education (MoRTHE) to create Indonesia’s National TVET Centre of Excellence (CoE). These CoE’s will be established at leading Universities responsible for preparing students to be TVET teachers at High Schools (SMK).

The design of a ‘World Class’ Centre of Excellence is based on pursuing five key objectives to enable the CoE’s to lead and support reform of the national TVET system:

Objective 1: Drive Indonesia’s TVET reform agenda

  • As a capacity builder of TVET teachers for SMKs, the CoE should be a driver of Indonesia’s TVET reform agenda.
  • The CoE should provide research, policy advice and operational standards to stakeholders and government to promote ‘best practice’ vocational training and management of the TVET system.
  • The CoE’s influence in policy making will be maximised by remaining current with industry needs and skills advancement, supporting national development of contemporary skills.

Objective 2: Industry led competency-based training system

  • Industry led, competency-based training ensures industry standards and delivers “job-ready” results, supports world best practice standards and allows regular reviews to adjust for new technologies and business needs.
  • Competency standards are specific requirements of the job or tasks required for the workplace that ensures students are able to do what is expected of them from industry, business and the community.

Objective 3: Quality training and assessment

  • Effective assessment is a key to quality outcomes. Quality training and assessment is underpinned by consultation with industry. Assessment processes must ensure people who are trained have the skills industry needs.
  • Because there are many journeys students can take to reach their destination, training and assessment needs to be flexible and responsive. Modular course design is a key to that flexibility.

Objective 4: Teacher professional development

  • Teachers of vocational education must have practical experience of the skills they teach.
  • Assessment of teachers and students against workplace competency standards must be performed by competent and capable teachers with effective industry engagement.

The CoE’s will be driven by industry collaboration in six areas

  1. Research and policy
  2. TVET teacher capability building
  3. Training and assessment
  4. Competency standards and course development
  5. Training infrastructure
  6. Continuous improvement

Sustainable Skills has been working in Indonesia for 3 years, largely because of the scale of the opportunity for Indonesian people. In our experience, there is no doubt whatsoever that a focus on Industry engaged TVET is a fundamental plank in meeting the Presidents objective to significantly develop Indonesia’s human capital and productivity

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