Managing skills in a time of disruptions

The opening session Forum, hosted at UN Campus in Bonn, included Ms. Elke Büdenbender – Spouse of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, who has been an ardent proponent of TVET in Germany. As the Patron of the German Children’s and Youth Foundation, she has advocated for strengthening vocational training and encouraging prejudice-free occupational choices for the youth. Speaking at the occasion, Ms. Büdenbender stressed upon the importance of TVET in countering the challenges of youth unemployment. She underlined that young people need support and that they cannot find by themselves the answers to the challenges entailed by digitisation, migration and climate change. She also highlighted the role TVET can play in enabling productive learning and professional opportunities for migrants, and promote their social integration.

As a member of the UNEVOC Network and a key collaborator in organizing this Forum the BIBB’s contribution included several activities:

During a study visit that was organized by the BIBB the participants visited the Competence Center for Digital Crafts and Trade at the Chamber of Craft (HWK) in Koblenz where a demonstration of possible operational uses of digital technologies to assist craft businesses were provided. The practical visit was complemented by an interactive session at BIBB where the ongoing projects implemented by BIBB in the fields of disruption were explained.

On the following day, the discussions on the key issues of ongoing digital, climatic and demographic disruptions were expanded by strategy labs on the topics of TVET governance and institutional programmes.

The strategy lab about “Diversifying financing and investment in TVET”, dealed with the identification of measures for the return on investment in TVET. This has become an important topic as TVET is lacking worldwide a problem of attractiveness and parity of esteem. NCVER, a BIBB partner institution and UNEVOC Centre in Australia, coordinated the session and shared the insights from a collaborative research study conducted with BIBB on the return on investment for TVET. The presentation held by Dr. Harald Pfeifer, head of division “Economic aspects of VET” at BIBB, focused on a financial model used in Germany to calculate the costs and benefits of TVET. The discussions around the topic also explored the integration of social and learner impact as part of the return of investment analysis.

Dr. Agnes Dietzen, head of division “Skills and competencies development” at BIBB, introduced the strategy lab “Articulating learning pathways for TVET graduates” with a presentation about a joint-research project of UNEVOC and BIBB called “Work-based learning: options for scientific research on an international comparative level”. The project aims to identify and systemize international research and implementation approaches of work-based learning to generate new research questions in respect to work-based learning.