Network of Trainers in Europe

On 14./15.th of October the Network of Trainers in Europe Conference will take place in Kostelec, near Prague, in the Czech Republic.

Until now, we have 85 registered participants from all over the world, especially from Spain, Greece and the UK. But also colleagues from Nigeria, India, Indonesia, Canada and the USA plan to join us.

The idea of this conference is to enable dialogue and exchange. Therefore we plan not only classic paper presentations, but also interactive paper sessions, interactive workshops and speed learning cafés. More than 30 teams from all over Europe will present their results.

The “Johannes Kepler University (JKU)” was recently certified by the regional chamber of economy to enable the University to educate IVET-trainers in the apprenticeship training. The University has devolped a curriculum for IVET trainers that is based on the 40-hour IVET course with interview, stated in the Vocational Training Act.

18 participants have already finished this course successfully. More information you will find at http://www.jku.at/content/e274/e13412/ (also available in English).

This year (2010) cedefop has published a compilation of good practices of professionalization of in-company trainers. “Professional development opportunities for in-company trainers” gives an insight in examples of 13 different Europaean countries how in-company trainers can be trained or how their IVET and CVET is recognized. The report is available by http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/EN/Files/6106_en.pdf .

Our network member Silvia Weiß draw my attention to an interesting study done by CEDEFOP:

“Professional development opportunities for in-company trainers”

The Network of Trainers in Europe has implemented a survey on the work, situation, qualification and status of VET trainers in the 32 European countries. This survey was the first of the two joint network activities to be organised by the network. The survey was based on a questionnaire developed, tested and implemented in the EUROTRAINER I study. It is essentially a tool to assess the situation of trainers and project future trends as well as recruitment and qualification needs.

A new version of the survey is published now in Polish. The survey can be accessed through the link.  Responses will be used for a second round of data analysis with the aim to identify European clusters of training policy.

Within this project some active partners are guiding other countries that are not directly involved in this project. These countries are called “cluster countries”. The main task of the partners that are in charge for cluster countries is to inform relevant stakeholders, to involve them into important ongoings within this project and to disseminate results of the project.

The ibw – Institute for Research on Qualifications and Training of the Austrian Economy mentores the countries Slovakia, Slovenia, Czech Republic, Hungary and the Principality of Liechtenstein. The contacts could be made through personal or official channels that the ibw gained from former projects, events or international meetings. All these listed institutes were pleased to get in contact with the project and were helpful to support parts of the working tasks, e.g. the survey. But not only the working parts  are supported; the contact with all these institutions underlines the network character of the project. Synergies could also be used in other projects, like the consulations seminars held by BIBB – Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildung.

For the Czech Republic we could get in touch with NUOV – National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education. Due to the excellent contact to this institute it was possible to bring NUOV as associated partner into the project.

The Hungarian Observatory for Educational Development is the contact for Hungary. The Observatory is hosted by the National Institute of Vocational Education (NIVE) – a co-ordinator of vocational education and training (VET) development and research.

Slovenia is involved in the project by their National Institute for Vocational Education and Training. In Slovakia we communicate with the Slovak Observatory of VET. 

In Liechtenstein we have contact with the AAB – Amt für Berufsbildung und Berufsberatung. It is a legal body that is responsible for the apprenticeship training in this small country.

As an example I want to present you the situation of VET in the Principality of Liechtenstein. Liechtenstein is a small country with about 35 600 inhabitants. Due the size their VET system cannot be compared with other European countries. Although they have a University and secondary schools with VET orientation there is no system of secondary higher VET schools or colleges. The VET system in Liechtenstein concentrates very much on apprenticeship training with an obligatory training in enterprises and part-time VET schools. Within the training enterprises they have to have IVET trainers available who should be skilled in their occupation as well as in pedagogical issues. For their pedagogical know-how they can attend a training that is not obligatory. In 2008 Liechtenstein had 1194 apprentices trained. By a total number of 32 500 employed people we can speak about a rate of nearly 4 per cent of apprenticeship training.

The Network of Trainers in Europe is pleased to announce two developments:

First, the network will organise a 3rd conference with the opportunity for researchers, practicioners, and scholars in the field of trainers to meet face-to-face in Kostelec, near Prague. The Conference will be accompanied by various online spaces.  The call for paper is out now and ends at the 16th of June.

Second, the proceeding of the 2nd Online conference can now be downloaded here. The proceedings should be considered as abstracts from the conference. They are transcripts from the sessions and show only the core idea of the lectures. We recommend to listen to the audio recording while having a look at the powerpoint presentation at our website.

Feedback is always welcome and we hope that you might be interested to share your experience and ideas with us again in Kostelec.

The partners of the “Network of Trainers in Europe” have met in Vienna from the 22nd – 23rd of March.

Several issues have been discussed, among others 3 case studies done by the Finish, Dutch and Spanish partners. The case studies have been focussing on different aspects, presenting a snapshot of the paramount realities of the European training landscape.

The Finish case gives an example of how to use the pattern language developed by Alexander for identification of pedagogical patterns. It also presents the KOKEVA Osaaja project which aims at improving the quality of training given in the workplace by professional development of the instructors / trainers at the workplace.

The Dutch case study presented 10 movements that characterize the socio-historical development in the Netherlands that have led to the development of expertise centers.

KATS(at)FSW.leidenuniv.nl

The Spanish case study can be seen as a reference model for the process of academization of trainers across Europe. In Spain trainers are nowadays confronted with the demand to have a Master degree.

jluis.garciam(at)educacion.es

People who are interested in more details on the case study can get more information and contact details by clicking on the picture from Markku or directly contact José Luis or Erik.

The network seeks to publish an entire book made of these case studies covering cases additionally from Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Greece, and the UK.

Some of the network members might be interested that there is a new mailing list from VETNET now up and running, as Sabine Manning has announced. The email address to announce publications and post questions is:

vetnet [at] listserv [dot] shuttle [dot] de

Further information can be looked up on the list page

www.vetnet-list.wifo-gate.org, including details of the list membership.

Your profile page is one of the main activity areas on the platform. Everytime you are signed in you can access your profile by following the link on top of the starting page.

From you personal page, you can start searching for members from you own countries or with similar interests by clicking on the link at your profile. You can also send members with whom you are friends messages through the platform.

On your profile page you can also set up groups, forums, or events. It is not mandatory to create them in English, we are also happy to host groups and discussion forums in every other language. Events are any kind of events related to the topic of VET trainers e. g. workshop, conferences, professional development courses. You don’t need to be affiliated with a certain event. Instead we kindly ask you to share the information about upcoming events you find interesting.

If you are interested in discussing a topic that is related to the issues adressed in the network, you can set up a group or a discussion forum and invite people to join it. The difference between a discussion forum and a group is simple: The discussion forum is like any other discussion forum you already know from the net, whereas the group enables you to upload documents you want to share with group members. Sometimes it makes sense to create both of it for one topic otherwise your group might be suffering from information overload.

Again, English is not mandatory neither for the forum or the groups. We just ask you to stick to the topic.

Enjoy the platform!