ADDRESSING DIVERSITY IN TVET INSTITUTION AND INDUSTRY COLLABORATION.

Remarks on the relationships in the context of TVET.

Author: Prof. Dr. Thomas Köhler c/o Institute of Vocational Education @

Dresden University of Technology / Germany

4th World Congress on Vocational Education and Training

„Career & Life Skills Training for the 21st Century“

UTHM Malacca 05.-06.11.2014.

WoCTVET 2014

1. Theoretical Background - Introduction: the concept of diversity - Diversity & TVET

2. Educational Institutions and Diversity

- Collaboration patterns of TVET in Europe - Conclusions on educational organization and setting, i.e. institutional

diversity - Case I: TVET stakeholder online community

3. Educational Roles and Diversity

- Teacher roles in online education - Students background and competencies - Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

4. Conclusions

- Consequences toward partnership of TVET and industry - The linkage between life long learning, inter-sectorial collaboration and a

professional TVET work force

Structure of the presentation

The relationship between Vocational Education and Training (VET) and the labor market is crucial for developing a professional work force. However the question of diversity has not been addressed in an appropriate way in the recent discourse. Indeed it is not trivial to link the wide spread discourse on diversity with the functionalities of education in the TVET sector.

Thus the paper investigates relational patterns of inter-institutional and inter-

organizational type. Such collaboration is a strength of the German vocational education system but is recently challenged by both demographic and technological trends. After a more theoretical introduction of diversity management we will focus on educational institutions and diversity, including the European Framework for Education. Further on the author discusses educational roles in the light of diversity. Both, teachers and students will be considered to understand the specific conditions of managing diversity issues.

As well we will present specific practical cases to highlight recent developments

in a conceptual way, using a case study designs. Case study I deals with a TVET-Stakeholder online community and case study II with a career guidance online platform for young migrants.

Introduction 1/2

Subsequently both case studies are used to understand challenges and related approaches for structural developments of the TVET in Germany and eventually beyond. As well one may discuss its meaning in the age of the knowledge society and web 2.0, virtual enterprises and online education.

The recent trend of introducing web2.0 technologies in vocational education as

well as in the industry itself opens quite new opportunities for strengthening collaboration between VET and the labor market. This has a special meaning for addressing diversity in TVET institution and Industry collaboration where patterns of inter-institutional and inter-organizational collaboration receive additional importance.

The author will conclude remarks on the institutional relationships in the context

of TVET, where recent developments concerning both, new organizational principles and new media technologies, allow more efficient focus on the management of diversity.

Introduction 2/2

1. Theoretical Background - Introduction: the concept of diversity - Diversity & TVET

2. Educational Institutions and Diversity

- Collaboration patterns of TVET in Europe - Conclusions on educational organization and setting, i.e. institutional

diversity - Case I: TVET stakeholder online community

3. Educational Roles and Diversity

- Teacher roles in online education - Students background and competencies - Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

4. Conclusions

- Consequences toward partnership of TVET and industry - The linkage between life long learning, inter-sectorial collaboration and a

professional TVET work force

Structure of the presentation

What is diversity? Definitions. Definition is related to specification, i.e. a focus on a certain

domain: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity.

Better fitting might be the concept of “Diversity Management“ as it used in German speaking (!?) research:

“Diversity management (including managing diversity) is part of human resource management and is usually used in the sense of "social diversity constructive use". DM does not only tolerate the individual differences (i.e. diversity) of the employees, but this raises in terms of positive appreciation particularly pointing and trying to make them useful for the company's success.”

Diversity: a concept for TVET?

Goals of diversity? The goals of diversity management are:

to achieve a productive overall atmosphere in the company, to prevent social discrimination against minorities and to

improve equality of opportunity. by that is not the minority even in focus, but the totality of

the employees in their differences and similarities. differences are, first, the externally perceivable ones, of

which the most important race, ethnicity, age and disability are, on the other subjective differences such as sexual orientation, religion and lifestyle.

Translated and extended from : http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diversity_Management

Diversity: a concept for TVET?

Diversity and TVET? In TVET we may observe diversity of: - teacher roles - qualification schemes for teachers versus trainers - global perspectives with a clash of TVET cultures - educational organization and setting, i.e. institutional diversity - diversity in learner needs, cultures and competencies - etc.

Diversity: a concept for TVET?

1. Theoretical Background - Introduction: the concept of diversity - Diversity & TVET

2. Educational Institutions and Diversity

- Collaboration patterns of TVET in Europe - Conclusions on educational organization and setting, i.e. institutional

diversity - Case I: TVET stakeholder online community

3. Educational Roles and Diversity

- Teacher roles in online education - Students background and competencies - Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

4. Conclusions

- Consequences toward partnership of TVET and industry - The linkage between life long learning, inter-sectorial collaboration and a

professional TVET work force

Structure of the presentation

European Qualifications Framework 1/2

European Qualifications Framework 1/2

European Qualifications Framework 2/2

EQF and TVET in Germany: 1. Integration: Difficulties for transferring the German degrees

into a single European frame.

2. Internationalisation: new chance for the international distribution of the national models but also a challenge for national standards.

3. New opportunities of joint practice: integration of both, vocational and academic education delivers new experiences from working practice that may become elements of a lifelong competency development.

Challenges for TVET

EQF offers 3 types:

Types of Qualification Frameworks

Aim and Goals: Aim of the so-called AOK community project is the modelling and

assessment of competencies of academic qualifications in terms of their labor-market effectiveness.

The sub-goals of AOK community include in the theory-oriented modelling and transfer-oriented validation example:

Case I: TVET Stakeholder community

Sub-goals: 1. Theory-based determination of structural indicators of academic

qualifications in terms of European / the German Qualifications Framework EQF / DQR, National Educational Panel NEPS and Bologna study documents (European study book, student card, Diploma Supplement)

2. Generic (structural) competence modelling based on online portfolio

3. Concept of the involvement of stakeholder groups in the modelling with a particular focus on labor mark close, professional / operational requirements

4. Development and testing of a prototypic method in the above Professional community

5. High school Cross-validation in the context of “Education portal Saxony”, which is Germany's largest academic learning platform with >100,000 students and covers all the universities of the Free State of Saxony

Case I: TVET Stakeholder community

Framework and modeling approaches on an individual and community level:

Case I: TVET Stakeholder community

1. Theoretical Background - Introduction: the concept of diversity - Diversity & TVET

2. Educational Institutions and Diversity

- Collaboration patterns of TVET in Europe - Conclusions on educational organization and setting, i.e. institutional

diversity - Case I: TVET stakeholder online community

3. Educational Roles and Diversity

- Teacher roles in online education - Students background and competencies - Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

4. Conclusions

- Consequences toward partnership of TVET and industry - The linkage between life long learning, inter-sectorial collaboration and a

professional TVET work force

Structure of the presentation

TU Dresden, 14.12.2014 Folie 19

Teacher roles in online education

Macro Level I:

Time Structure

structured course open online

learning

Micro Level:

Tele-tutoring

didactic options Tele-teaching

Tele-cooperation

Macro Level II:

purely online learning

online and face-to -face learning

Combinations

Context: vocational and career orientation (before vocational training) career guidance toward vocational training for young migrants problem of lacking information and appreciation of TVET

Problems encountered: students dislike completing TVET unsatisfactory support by family because of missing competency lost information no cooperation between the two places of learning: home vs.

school no precise information about TVET learning outcome in the

families available thus pupils cant be reached by neither the vocational teachers

nor the trainers

Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

Solution: www.aumil.de

Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

1. Theoretical Background - Introduction: the concept of diversity - Diversity & TVET

2. Educational Institutions and Diversity

- Collaboration patterns of TVET in Europe - Conclusions on educational organization and setting, i.e. institutional

diversity - Case I: TVET stakeholder online community

3. Educational Roles and Diversity

- Teacher roles in online education - Students background and competencies - Case II: Using online self learning to let young migrants enter TVET

4. Conclusions

- Consequences toward partnership of TVET and industry - The linkage between life long learning, inter-sectorial collaboration and a

professional TVET work force

Structure of the presentation

Conclusions / recommendations: 1. Diversity is an issue for consideration of both institutional and

individual dimension! The concept however needs further elaboration to cover the institutional dimension of TVET.

2. On institutional level the dual vocational education system offers a strong basis for a high quality approach to TVET when principally involving different types of institutions, the schools and the industry.

3. Another demand is linked to the localization of the TVET in the overall education system. Recent developments concerning both new organizational principles and new media technologies allow the development of better solutions for the near future.

4. Trans- and multinational systematizations may serve as interface for sectoral and national frameworks.

Discussion

Conclusions / recommendations: 4. On an individual level diversity issues appear even stronger but

have always been addressed to some extent.

5. However there is a need to focus on diverse teachers’ roles in TVET and beyond with enough attention. Especially TVET is based upon a variety of such roles.

6. Another moment on individual level is migration in the context of a globalized economy that leads to a mixing of educational and vocational cultures.

7. Thus it is a necessary effort to provide support for better orientation in career development and TVET opportunities to assist all those who are not fixed to just one culture.

Discussion

Political agenda by the European Commission: “Bridging frameworks depend on the existence of separate

sectoral frameworks which are governed by sectoral interests. There is a stronger form of linkage which gives an NQF the role of

bringing together the sectoral frameworks into a new integrating framework.

These frameworks are a formal link between different education and training sectors and are represented by a single set of levels and descriptors covering all education and training sectors.

Each sector uses this common set of levels and descriptors as its own framework.

No separate sector frameworks exist.” (cp. EQF Note 2, 2010, pg. 29)

Discussion

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References

I appreciate your inquiries! Please let us continue our discussion during the next conferences: - Online Educa Conference & Fair, Berlin, 02.-05.12.2014 - ICVET Conference, Yogyakarta, Spring 2015 - Vocational Education Days, Dresden, 19.-20.03.2015

Contact: Prof. Dr. Thomas Köhler / Dresden University of Technology A) Institute of Vocational Education / Educational Technology

Chair: http://tu-dresden.de/bt Tel.: +49-(0)351-463-34915 Fax: -463-32659 B) Media Centre / Director: http://mz.tu-dresden.de Tel.: +49-(0)351-463-32772 Fax: -463-34963 Office: D-01217 Dresden, Weberplatz 5 E-Mail: Thomas.Koehler@tu-dresden.de