Unesco-Unevoc in Action – Biennial Report 2016-2017
UNESCO-UNEVOC, the UNESCO spcialized Centre for TVET acting as part of the UN mandate to promote peace, justice, equity, poverty alleviation, and greater social cohesion, has recently published the Moving Forward Biennial Report which gives a comprehensive overview of its activities in TVET over the biennium 2016-2017, and highlights the concerted actions and support to the UNEVOC Network and UNESCO Member States through capacity development, international collaborations and knowledge exchange to advance TVET.
The report details key engagements under each of the five thematic priority areas of UNESCO-UNEVOC: Greening TVET, Promoting ICT, Mainstreaming entrepreneurship, Mobilizing youth to promote skills development, and Gender equality.
Greening TVET for integrating Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) and climate change actions
Over the course of the biennium, UNESCO-UNEVOC’s engagements in greening TVET included developing strategic partnerships, improving the capacities of UNEVOC Centres and Member States, and building the knowledge resources that reinforce orientation towards greater sustainability and institutional applications. As a result, over 200 TVET institution stakeholders and young people in more than 20 countries have increased their greening TVET capacities and understanding of the issue.
Promoting ICTs in TVET
The integration of ICTs in TVET presents certain challenges such as the disparity between the skills demanded by industry and the competencies of the TVET teachers to impart these to their students, largely due to their limited exposure to new technolgies as well as gaps in their own training.
Mainstreaming entrepreneurship in TVET
One of the targets of Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) on Education is to strengthen ‘skills for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship’. In line with the UNESCO TVET Strategy (2016–2021), youth employment and entrepreneurship is one of the core thematic priorities for UNESCO-UNEVOC’s activities. During the course of the biennium, the work of UNESCO-UNEVOC in this area focused on supporting TVET institutions in the Member States and the UNEVOC Network to develop and implement effective strategies to strengthen entrepreneurial skills in TVET.
Mobilizing youth to promote skills development
Young people constitute a crucial target group for TVET. UNESCO-UNEVOC pays particular attention to helping young people engage in the promotion of skills development and ensuring that their perspectives are reflected in the policy discussions and programmes. World Youth Skills Day is a UN-recognized initiative that aims to raise awareness about the importance of ensuring that all young people have access to good-quality TVET and skills development opportunities.
Gender equality
The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre has been promoting discussions to shed light on issues of gender inequality in TVET, with a particular focus on women’s participation in this sector – the aim being to build a stronger knowledge base founded on good practice that will help guide targeted policies and programmes.
The Biennial Report gives an overview of the UNEVOC Network, consisting of approximately 250 Centres across 165 UNESCO Member States, Capacity Development Programmes, Knowledge Development and Management activities organised by the Centre, Partnership and international collaboration. The last part of the publication introduces the TVET team and the financial report of the biennum.
Download the publication: Unesco – Unevoc Biennial Report 2016-2017