TEACH-VET – Platform for self-assessment and development of the teaching competence for VET teachers and trainers

The project targets to design systematic instruments and measures for the development of teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers. These instruments are aimed to solve existing systemic problems and shortages in this field. The instrument for on-line self-assessment and development of the teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers is expected to make the processes of recruitment, selection and induction of educators in the field of VET more smooth, transparent, and effective. This instrument should also facilitate improvement of work-based learning by making the acquisition and development of pedagogic competence more easy and accessible for the trainers in enterprises.

Current changes in vocational education and training (VET), such as responding to the technological and organisational trends (advent of the 4th industrial revolution), internationalisation, integration of VET in the lifelong learning processes create the need for better development of the teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers. There are different practices and experiences of VET teachers training in EU countries, what creates the space for effective policy learning in this field. Comparability of the teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers is important from the point of view of internationalisation of initial VET and international mobility of VET students and teachers in implementing ECTS measures in teacher education. However, there is still a lack of modern practical instruments in monitoring, assessment, guidance and comparability of the teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers. Project goal is to create electronic tools for self-assessment, monitoring, guidance and comparability of the teaching competence of VET teachers. Having in mind the complexity of this task and its relevance for the VET systems in many countries, as well as the variety of the policies, approaches and practices of development and assessment of teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers in EU countries, this undertaking requires strong international partnership.

One of the innovations of this project concerns the in-depth focus on the concrete current needs of the teaching competence development of VET teachers and trainers by executing research of these needs in the project partner countries. This research will disclose the common and specific needs of teaching competence development of VET teachers and trainers in the partner countries; referring to the socio-economic and institutional context of processes like the changing role of teaching and VET teachers and trainers in the educational process due to individualisation of learning, increasing orientation to the requirements of the work process, increasing flexibility (and fragmentation) of VET curricula, etc. The implications of these processes to the teaching competence needs are largely unexplored, especially with focus on the identification of these needs for the design of practical instruments and measures.

Another important aspect of innovativeness is provision of the multilingual e-instrument for self-assessment and development of the teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers. This instrument will also significantly contribute to the international comparability of the teaching competence of the VET teachers and trainers and its development by providing basis for benchmarking and quality assurance of this process. The on-line tool for self-assessment and development of teaching competence of the VET teachers and trainers will perform the following functions:

• On-line self-assessment of the teaching competence of VET teachers and trainers. For this purpose there will be used the following software solutions: mahara or Kompetenzwerkstatt as e-Portfolio (documentation of competences and work artefacts (like teaching/training videos or didactic plans of the VET teachers)), LEVEL5 as web-based validation tool which works with different taxonomies (including EQF and the LEVEL5 taxonomy).
• Modules of e-learning (individual and in the groups) for development of teaching competence and the exchange of innovative didactic ideas and solutions. For this purpose there will be used Moodle or a comparable platform (as Learning Management System (LMS)).