Internationalisation of vocational education and training staff
Education and training staff play a key role within European education and training collaboration. The EU commission has therefore set the professionalization of education and training staff as a priority as part of its strategy for education and training policy 2020.
Support for staff involved with education and training has become a priority area in terms of commitments within vocational education and training collaboration following the introduction of the so-called “Copenhagen process”. Under the heading of “Improving quality”, greater attention is paid in particular to the qualification requirements for education and training staff. “The improvement in the general and vocational education and training of teachers and trainers” was enshrined as the first of 13 sub goals as part of the Lisbon Agenda - the joint education and training policy 2010 programme for the development of European education and training systems. This goal also continues to form part of the current strategic framework for European collaboration in the area of general and vocational education and training (ET 2020) and is now as a sub item to strategic goal 2 “Improvement in the quality and efficiency of general and vocational education and training” (EUROPEAN COUNCIL 2009).
The EU commission has made the professionalization of education and training staff a priority in its education and training policy strategy 2020. The varied vocational backgrounds of education and training staff is regarded as an advantage. In future, however, the rapid transformation of roles and responsibilities of education and training staff must be reflected in new policies as well as approaches towards recruitment and initial and continuing vocational education and training.
The 2020 strategy includes the following priorities in particular with regard to the qualification of education and training staff:
- Professionalization,
- Quality assurance of learning processes,
- Cooperation at a more intensive level between the business and the education and training sectors,
- An entrepreneurial approach among education and training staff.
In future, the modernisation of initial and continuing vocational education and training will require new pedagogical concepts, curriculum developments, quality assurance, and both management and administrative responsibilities. Education and training staff have an important role to play in this and are one of the key target groups in the new EU funding period within the ERASMUS + education and training programme.
Education and training staff take the role of innovators in the learning environment, in curriculum planning and in the implementation of competence-based systems orientated towards learning outcomes. As such they are regarded important individuals in establishing mobility within initial and continuing vocational education and training. As key players, the focus is therefore also on the vocational development of these individuals.