MANILA (ILO News) - As the COVID-19 pandemic has affected technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions forcing them to adopt new teaching modalities, a virtual forum—held on 3 December concluded that lifelong learning is the new normal for both students and their lecturers.
Entitled TVET Policy eFora, the conference was organised by the Philippines’ Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) under the theme “Survive, Revive, and Thrive: Transforming TVET Towards the New Normal and the Digital Future". It was the last in a four-part series of conferences that began on 27th August this year. The International Labour Organization (ILO) was among the eight partners joining TESDA to share insights and lessons learned, and discuss possibilities to strengthen the TVET sector under the new normal.
“Digital solutions will be the norm”, said Rosanna A. Urdaneta, TESDA Deputy Director General for Policies and Planning, as she summarised key takeaways from the conference. With limitations on face-to-face-instructions due to the pandemic, she said flexible or distant learning modalities have become more entrenched.
Sharing with the participants data on how the pandemic has worsened existing inequality in the world of work, Christine Hofmann, ILO Team Lead, Skills for Social Inclusion, said the crisis has been a catalyst for innovative learning solutions in TVET and accelerated the provision of online and distance learning at unprecedented pace and scale. To make TVET provision more inclusive, it is critical for policy-makers and programme managers to understand where and how exclusion occurs. She therefore presented a new ILO interactive digital tool to assess the inclusivity of TVET and skills development.
During a discussion session with other speakers, Ms Hofmann emphasised the importance of investing in training and making it mobile enough to be accessible by the have-nots.
“Clearly, providing skills for students to make use of technologies is absolutely critical” she said, adding that it is essential to train instructors to be able to deliver those skills.
She stressed the importance of on-the-job learning as a highly effective way for individual to gain both vocational and core skills because new knowledge is often acquired within the actual work environment.
As work-based apprenticeships and physical classrooms have been replaced by online solutions during the pandemic, micro-credentials can become part of learning programmes, said Ms Hofmann. This process of accrediting micro-credentials, however, requires oversight and quality assurance from national skills bodies, she said.
Achim Daniel Schmillen, the World Bank’s Practice Leader for Human Development said it is imperative to consider how to continue learning during the pandemic crisis and to kick start the recovery. He added that the crisis should be taken as an opportunity because it has accelerated the adoption of distance learning and on-the-job training—the approaches that many countries were already moving towards before the pandemic.
The conference also concluded that digital solutions can unlock the benefits of TVET. The discussion panel stressed the importance of making internet access and personal learning devices such as mobile phones accessible and affordable for all.
Paryono, Deputy Director of the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) said it is not easy to deliver the technical contents of TVET online. Animation, for instance, can be used as a modality in TVET, but some students cannot get internet access. Therefore, it is critical to ensure that those needing it can get free internet connectivity. He cited a good practice in Indonesia where the government has subsidised internet access for students who cannot afford it and schools in all regions lend mobile devices to students who do not have them.
TESDA is also one of the key partners of the ILO Skills for Prosperity Programme in the Philippines (SfP-Philippines).
Industry relevance, improved TVET quality, enhanced access to TVET and equity were the key policy areas. They are also the focus areas of the SfP-Philippines programme which is part of the ILO Skills for Prosperity in South-East Asia Programme. The programmes are funded by the United Kingdom government.
Presentation materials of the conference are also available for download here.
