New Skills for VET Teachers

This article is based on discussions during New Skills for VET Teachers (NSVETT) project partners workshop in Bangor, Northern Ireland. There, staff skills were recognized as the single most important element in developing the capacity to roll out change across an organization. Therefore, it is important to pay attention on how VET organizations support their teacher’s competence development. As VET teachers guide their student’s personal growth and professional development it is important to consider who supports teacher’s personal development and professional plans and how lifelong learning among personnel can be supported. 

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Personal and professional skills, competencies and their development are often intertwined, in and out of specific work role, improving one’s potential in life in general. Usually, these two viewpoints are met on development discussions at the workplaces. Both personal and professional development can focus on acquiring new knowledge, skills and competences. Therefore, having a clear personal and professional development plan is important. To have a plan is all about answering questions such as: what you would like to achieve, how to achieve it, who supports and guides you, and how do you know when you have achieved your goals.

 

Continuous changes in the labour market and the increasing digitalization demand coping skills from VET teachers. Both formal and informal learning opportunities are important. Workplace learning could be defined as individuals and teams learning in collaboration, both at work and for work. There are some core competences that all VET teachers should meet (see NSVETT article by Rinne&Raudasoja), but as important are the specialized competence areas. Linking core and specialized competencies and building teams where participants competencies supplement each other without unnecessary overlapping is a tricky job. Another thing to consider is how to anticipate future competence areas and build teacher teams capable in facing the uncertain future, including hard and soft, transversal skills? 

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At the NSVETT workshop, SERC Learning Academy presented the critical staff skills they have recognized: 

• professional skills 

• technology enhanced skills 

• pedagogical skills 

• collaborative and planning skills 

• innovative and critical thinking skills 

• project based learning skills 
   

Many of which are strongly linked in both, professional and personal development of the learner. Important is to understand the development process of a whole learner, from skills to attitudes to behaviours to experience and eventually to qualifications.

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Personal and professional development discussions 

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Personal development can be seen as a continuous, lifelong and lifewide process. When a person is making the most out of their abilities, skills and competences it can have a positive impact on their life, including other people around this person, different communities and even societies. Personal development includes a personal dimension, as well as career and/or educational aspects. When drawing a personal development plan and having a personal development discussion, it is important to identify the individual goals, strengths and weaknesses in order to know what areas should be improved and developed and how to achieve the goals. Personal development plan usually includes self-reflection and self-evaluation. VET organizations should see personal development discussions as an investment – teachers as a great opportunity to identify and display their skills and competencies, even out of the work role.  

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In professional development discussions it is essential to create a common understanding on what is expected in that work role, what needs to be achieved and how to achieve it, in order to be able to develop the necessary competencies and skills. On an organizational level this demands pro-active, foresights skills, in order to know what are the future skills and competencies that are needed for teachers in specific fields and subjects. 

Continuous induction, possibilities to give and receive mentoring were discussed during the NSVETT workshop. It is important to notice that in professional development discussions teacher’s different resources, career goals and prior competences create the basis for their professional development plan. The plan should be an ever-changing document, that can be changed when some goals are achieved and new goals are being set up, instead of being a document that the teachers and their supervisors are forced to fill in every year. For VET teachers, a professional development plan can be a helpful tool to understand the role and the work they currently do, ways to improve their performance and what skills and competences are necessary in the future – in their current work role or throughout their working life and career path.  

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Personal Growth and Professional Development Plan 

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How is the teacher’s personal and professional development seen in VET organizations? Do teachers get coaching or consultation if they do not meet the competence level that is expected of them or could mentoring for example be a resource to pro-active holistic development of individuals, teams and the organization? How are teachers supported to develop their competences and skills in informal training programmes and how could on-the-job-learning opportunities enhance skills needed in the future? 

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Personal and professional development are often seen as separate routes of self-improvement, but they often go hand in hand and affect each other. Therefore, personal growth could be seen as professional development. For organizations it could be beneficial to offer resources to their employees for personal growth activities based on the employees own interest. Learning new skills or strengthening the old ones can be a result of achieving personal goals for work or vice versa. Receiving feedback on both “sides” gives teachers the possibility to develop professionally, academically and personally, creating opportunities to transform and re-position themselves, even meeting some major changes.  

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NSVETT is a three-year-long project co-funded by the Erasmus+ Programme of the European Union. As a result of the project the participants will gain new ideas on how to ensure and improve teacher professional learning. 

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