The global COVID-19 outbreak has impacted not only our health, lives and economies, but also the labour market and education sector. Many countries implemented temporary measures to slow down the spread of the virus, which included closing public institutions and schools.

Consequently, different forms of online learning and collaboration became the focus of attention in an effort to ensure continuity of learning. While some institutions and members of the TVET community already had valuable experience with online learning strategies and were set-up to offer large-scale online solutions without much delay, others were still in the learning phase and found it useful to hear about working solutions that could be quickly adapted to their local contexts.

As many in the TVET sector grappled with the switch to online or blended learning, the UNESCO-UNEVOC TVeT Forum served as a platform for mutual support, knowledge sharing and peer learning. The discussion thread on the move towards online learning along with other related discussions can be viewed here: Moving to online TVET learning in response to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak – challenges and experiences. Should you have other specific TVET-related questions or interests, we encourage you to open your own threads and engage in peer support.

Resources and Services

UNESCO

*NEW* ILO-UNESCO-World Bank webinar on TVET and skills development in the time of COVID-19

Held on 1 February 2021, this webinar focused on the main findings of the new publication entitled Skills development in the time of COVID-19: Taking stock of the initial responses in technical and vocational education and training.

*NEW* Case study on Finnish TVET: a resilient model of training during COVID-19

This case study examines how TVET was organized during the state of emergency caused by the COVID-19 pandemic in Finland. The disruption accentuated the importance of flexibility within the education system to make it resilient.

UNESCO's COVID-19 Educational Disruption and Response page provides an overview of various forms of distance learning solutions.

UNESCO’s webinars on the educational dimensions of the COVID-19 pandemic.

OECD-UNESCO joint webinar: Industry Experience of TVET Teachers in Times of Crisis. Access the synthesis report and the webinar recording here

UNESCO-UNEVOC

On our website, you can find a handbook on Open Educational Resources for skills development and a list of OER services, resources and platforms.

Our virtual conference report on Skills for a Resilient Youth highlights how TVET systems can support youth in developing the skills and competencies to manage disruptions in the future.

Inter-Agency Group on TVET

On 10 June 2020, a webinar was held to share and discuss the results of a Global Survey that examined the impact of COVID-19 on training and development of employees, apprentices and interns in enterprises and other organizations. The webinar was jointly organized by 10 key international and regional development partners of UNESCO (see here for more information).

A recording of the webinar is available on YouTube:

Inter-Agency Group on TVET Newsletter - November 2020

The Interagency Group on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (IAG-TVET) was convened by UNESCO in 2008 to ensure a good coordination of activities by the key international organizations involved in the delivery of policy advice, programme ...

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Commonwealth of Learning (COL)

COL has a wealth of excellent openly available learning resources and tools. (shared on the TVeT Forum platform here). This same list can also be accessed here.

Policy Briefs and Guides for policy-makers

• A Guide to Virtual Universities for Policy-Makers
• Policy Brief: Doctoral Study and Research Degrees: Online and Distance Programmes
• Brief: Engineering Education: Online and Distance Programmes
• A Policy Brief on MOOCs
• Making Sense of MOOCs: A Guide for Policy-Makers in Developing Countries

• Designing Online Learning
• E-Learning: A Guidebook of Principles, Procedures and Practices
• Education for a Digital World: Advice, Guidelines and Effective Practice from Around Globe
• Guide to Blended Learning
• Guide to Developing Open Textbooks
• Guidelines for Online Assessment for Educators
• Pedagogical Innovations for Technology-Enabled Learning
• Increasing Access to Education for All Through Mobile Learning
• Designing and Implementing Micro-Credentials: A Guide for Practitioners

• A Basic Guide to Open Educational Resources (OER)
• Understanding Open Educational Resources
• OER for Open Schooling Teachers Guide
• Case Studies on OER-based eLearning
• Guidelines for Open Educational Resources (OER) in Higher Education

• Blended Course Learnability Evaluation Checklist
• Quality in MOOCs: Surveying the Terrain
• Guidelines for Quality Assurance and Accreditation of MOOCs
• Quality Assurance Guidelines for Open Educational Resources: TIPS Framework

• Creating and Repurposing OER Using FOSS: A How-To Guide for Teachers and Learners
• Creating, Using and Sharing Open Educational Resources
• Designing Learning Objects for Online Learning
• Interactive Learning Objects: Toolkit for Teachers and Learners
• A report on the Re-use and Adaptation of Open Educational Resources (OER): An Exploration of Technologies Available

These OER courses are designed to be facilitated in cohorts, but anyone can view them and learn from them at the links below:

• https://www.colvee.org/course/tvsd/flexible-skills-development
• https://www.colvee.org/course/tvsd/facilitating-online-courses
• https://www.colvee.org/course/tvsd/blended-learning-classroom

Other resources

National Webinar (India) on Repositioning TVET Post Covid-19: New Approaches and Solutions

Organized by Pandit Sundarlal Sharma Central Institute of Vocational Education, Bhopal India

MOOCS for teachers (shared in this contribution)

• a MOOC on Technology Enabled Learning, started on 5 April 2020
• a MOOC on Blended Learning Practice started on 19 April 2020
• a series of webinars on various topics related to online learning.

(shared in this contribution)

• https://1minutecpd.wordpress.com/ - 1 minute CPD is a website from a collaborative group of UK educators with short blog posts written over the last 3 years on a range of digital literacy topics. The first 366 posts are designed to take just 1 minute to read (hence the name of the website).
• "23 Things", where each Thing is a tool or cluster of tools to enable a particular digital capability (for self-directed learning).

(shared in this contribution)

• https://bit.ly/OEP-HelloFutureEntrepreneur - Hello Future Entrepreneur has seven "chapters" on entrepreneurship-related topics, including multimedia material and assignments on each topic. The material is free to use, but teachers will need to instruct students on how and where to complete the assignments as well as assess their work.

• “Remote Learning Toolkit to Quickly Transition Your Course Online” (shared in this contribution by Mansour Kamal Mansour)
• Utilizing learning management systems (LMS) to implement the 5 E's instructional model
• 'Making Training Virtual' online module- organized by Ohio State University, Centre for Education and Training for Employment.

(shared in this contribution)

• http://skillparkkerala.in/news_and_events/webinars/ - To empower students and professionals, Additional Skill Acquisition Programme (ASAP) is conducting a series of Webinars in different topics every day (Mo-Fr) at 4 p.m. Indian Standard Time.

Directory of pedagogical and technological resources and training that can equip teachers and professional staff in education in their online or distance education projects in higher education.

• https://kit.cegepadistance.ca