PROFF – Professionalisation of VET teachers for the future - Europa

Executive summaryThis report describes the results of a research project entitled ‘Professionalisation of VETteachers for the future’ (PROFF). The project was jointly coordinated by TTnet Denmark andTTnet Finland. The Dutch, French, Italian, Norwegian and Portuguese TTnets were partners.PROFF is based on previous work done within the TTnet and builds on findings and resultspresented at the TTnet workshop in Helsinki in 2001. The aim of this workshop was toidentify current and future challenges for VET teachers. The challenges identified during theproceedings included: the need to provide vocational education to new target groups;changing paradigms in educational theory and the trend towards student centred approaches,the increasing role of information and communication technology (ICT) as an educational anda management tool, new developments in labour markets, changes in national VET legislationand in the way VET is organised and the impact of internationalisation. In this setting, thegoal of PROFF is to look at the way in which these challenges are being met in the EUMember States, to identify ‘cases of good practice and to disseminate and discuss thesecases at European level via the national TT-networks’.The project is based on case studies collected by the national TTnets. Each of the participatingcountries (Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal) was askedto collect four or five case studies. Of these, 10 cases were then selected for in-depthinvestigation.The investigation showed that many countries are facing a shortage of VET educators orexpect to face such a shortage soon. This makes it imperative to improve teacher and trainertraining. Many VET reforms have not paid enough attention to this issue.The study found that, in all the countries studied, VET reform has had a major impact onorganising teaching and on teachers’ working practices and teaching techniques. In manyEuropean countries VET reform has also meant that many professional educators no longerhave the officially required qualifications.The case studies pointed to some of the skills and knowledge teachers need to acquire andteacher training to provide. These include:• new pedagogical skills in line with the learner centred approach of modern pedagogicaltheory (‘pedagogical update’) and on-the-job learning techniques now being offered totrainees;• up-to-date ‘vocational’ skills related to modern technologies and work practices(‘vocational update’);• awareness of the needs of business and employers;• skills for team working and networking;• managerial, organisational and communications skills.5