Digital technologies have massively changed the skills set needed for work and life. The current COVID-19 pandemic has even accelerated the need for online teaching and learning. The public technical and vocational education training (TVET) centres, designed to prepare learners for the present and future of the world of work, have to make the best use of new technologies and to shift from face-to-face training to digital and online learning.

The ILO in collaboration with the Ministry of Manpower and Skilvul, a digital training provider, conducted a training programme on the creation and the delivery of online training for selected information, communication and technology (ICT) and non-ICT instructors of public and community TVETs nationwide in preparing them to have the capacity and capability to deliver online trainings.

Surya Lukita Warman, Secretary General for Productivity and Training of the Ministry of Manpower, highlighted the importance of online training and the crucial role of instructors in preparing competent labour force in the country. “The government is now in the process of formulating regulations on TVET’s online training delivery to accelerate the transformation,” he said.

Similarly, Michiko Miyamoto, Country Director of the ILO in Indonesia, emphasized the key role of the instructors for the quality of TVETs’ learning programme. “The COVID-19 pandemic has provided us with an opportunity to accelerate the digital transformation of Indonesian TVETs that will help more young Indonesians to get skills needed for the world of work.”

Preparing the instructors to shift from offline to online courses

The training programme aimed to build the capacity of TVETs’ instructors to develop and deliver online training, accelerate the transition of TVETs to online training and support TVETs in developing action plan and strategy in order to shift from offline to online training programme.

A total of 60 instructors from 50 TVETs in 21 provinces participated in the training programme, conducted from June to July 2020. They were selected from 1,097 registered instructors nationwide and went through almost a total of 80 hours of training consisted of two stages: basic coding training with blended learning method and the online workshop on facilitation, coaching and learning journey creation training.

During the first stage, the selected instructors participated in a 3-week combination of webinar and independent online learning through skilvul.com where instructors could get access into HTML, CSS, Javascript and basic Web Development trainings. These technical trainings served as “bonus” as the main objective of this stage was for the instructors to experience as well as explore available online training where they could find inspiration for online learning platforms for their institutions.

After the first stage was completed, the participating instructors were split into two batches for the 4-day interactive second stage, focusing on online facilitation and coaching. On the first day, the participants learned about facilitation and learning journey. They learnt how to communicate effectively and to prepare their learning sessions in an interesting and enlightening way.

Drawing upon what they have previously learnt, on the second day, they were assigned to develop online contents and deliver them on their course session using Google Classroom. Each Google Classroom was presented on third day in an online training simulation and received feedbacks from their peers.

On the final day, the participants worked together to find solutions of the challenges they had identified to transform into online training in their institutions. These solutions would be key to the Action Plan that they developed, detailing strategies to transform their TVET’s training courses from offline to online.

Providing a greater opportunity for women

The training for public TVETs instructors to transform their offline learning into online training is Women in STEM project’s contribution to provide capacity development for instructors at the TVET level who are key actors in preparing students, including female students, to be skillful and ready for the world of work.

“The shifting from offline to online learning programme will provide a greater opportunity and access for women to training programme, particularly the ICT training programme. The ILO through its Women in STEM project has focused on increasing the participation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related area as they are a higher risk of losing jobs because of automation,” said Navitri Putri Guillaume, the project officer of the ILO’s Women in STEM project.

The training programmes were conducted by the ILO through its Women in STEM workforce readiness and development programme. Funded by J.P Morgan Chase Foundation, the programme seeks to provide women with critical soft and technical skills to help women gain quality employment and support career advancement of women, particularly in the fields of information technology.