At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, teachers across the globe were forced to rapidly transition to distance learning models. While some technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions already had valuable experience with blended or online delivery, the global disruption revealed significant disparities in levels of preparedness to implement distance learning and address this challenge effectively. The crisis further reinforced the current and future training needs of TVET staff and the importance of building their capacities to navigate a digital future. UNESCO suggests that one of the key lessons learned from the shift to online training programmes is that teachers have to understand and feel comfortable with the technology used to harness the full benefits during training, and effectively integrate these tools into their teaching strategies.

Developing the capacities of TVET staff is at the core of UNESCO-UNEVOC’s ongoing thematic priorities and its programmatic work. Since 2016, its flagship UNEVOC TVET Leadership Programme has trained more than 200 TVET leaders from over 100 countries. This year, due to the ongoing pandemic, UNESCO-UNEVOC took the decision not to carry out the UNEVOC TVET Leadership Programme in its usual format. Instead, the UNEVOC TVET Leadership Programme 2020 – Special Edition was launched. The Special Edition keeps in mind the programme’s spirit of “moving to action”. Through a call for proposals, UNESCO-UNEVOC invited alumni of previous editions of the programme to put forward activities that would support local networking and capacity building opportunities to address issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Below are three of the winning proposals that focus on building the capacities of teachers in the fundamentals of online learning and the use of OER programmes.

Country: Belarus

UNEVOC Centre: Republican Institute for Vocational Education (RIPO)

Activities: Building the capacities of teachers on the fundamentals of online learning and the development of OERs

• Development of an OER on the ‘Fundamentals of pedagogical design for online TVET courses’
• Consultation with teaching staff regarding the current capacities of teachers to develop OERs (4 webinars)
• Training workshop targeted at staff on the design of online courses and OERs
  
  

Country: Ghana

UNEVOC Centre: University of Cape Coast (UCC)

Activities: Capacity building for teachers on the fundamentals of online learning, and the development of OERs

• Development of resource materials on technology-supported teaching strategies
• Training workshop targeted at teaching staff on the development and implementation of blended learning methods
• Webinar to share the results with other teachers
  
  

Country: Malaysia

UNEVOC Centre: Faculty of Technical and Vocational Education, University Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM)

Activities: Supporting teaching staff to develop and use OER in TVET programmes, specifically with augmented reality and virtual reality components

• Development of training materials regarding the development and use of OERs in TVET programmes
• Training workshop targeted at teaching staff