New Skills for VET Teachers

Background

 

Education has experienced a significant shift in focus from the start of the 21st Century. The current industrial model of education, dating from the early 19th century, which is grounded in logic, language and recall is no longer relevant to the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed in the 21st Century.  Governments want high value, high skills economies and for this to become reality there is a need to have a highly skilled workforce. To develop the wider transversal skills that employers need, education must provide opportunities for students to collaborate, think critically and communicate effectively. These are skills that will help citizens today flourish in an increasingly complex and uncertain world. The model for education needs to focus on developing lifelong learning skills rather than simply gaining a qualification or frontloading skills that may become redundant over time. Just as industry and the economy is evolving so too must education.  

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As part of the NSVETT programme, attendees at a conference in Finland discussed the future of education, and focused on four key areas of development: 

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• Flexibility of learning  

• Physical spaces 

• Mapping to the working world 

• Personalised learning pathways for educators 
   

Flexibility of learning 

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During the 21st Century there has been a significant move towards blended learning models, which adapt and evolve according to the needs of curriculum and individual students. This has been experienced in the UK with the Open University, and increasingly through Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS), which are open to all to pursue at their own time and pace. 

 

The popularity of Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games (MMORPG) has lessened the barriers that people perceive between others at a global level. Popular online multi-player games have experienced sustained global activity, lasting sometimes months, in teams made up of players from across the globe and across multiple time zones. This embracing of technology has led to a more open mindset regarding the potential of online platforms to create and sustain longer term relationships and outcomes.

  

Is there then an argument that gamification can spill over into the online educational world? With increasing access to technology and increasing confidence in its ability to sustain long term learning and relationships, there comes an increase in the enthusiasm to try something new. By merging the short- and long-term goal setting of an online game, with blended learning opportunities, we can create realistic, usable, and exciting spaces which can provide access to a wider learning community.  

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With this comes greater flexibility. Those with young children, caring responsibilities, or strict working hours, will have access to the same quality of learning resources as those who can attend a physical campus in person.  

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The challenge however is the personalisation of the curriculum. With an increase in distance learning, there comes a decrease in physical contact and so there is a need to encourage greater collegiality and effective collaboration between learners online.

   

Physical spaces 

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As the transition to more online learning becomes mainstream there may be an assumption that there will be a reduction in the requirement for physical learning spaces. However, the learning environment forms an important part of the student experience and may require a more flexible approach to the design of physical facilities and spaces for students and staff.  

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This physical space provides multiple benefits for students: 

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• Provides facilities (computers, internet, learning resources) for students who may not have access to this at home 

• Builds a sense of community within the student body and individual cohorts 

• Creates opportunities for collaborative working 

• Opportunities for students who are learning on vocational programmes to practice their skills 
   

However, with a blended learning approach which provides 24/7 access to learning, there comes some expectation that there would be more flexible access to these physical facilities. Flexible access and flexible learning spaces provide the context for learners to develop their collaboration, communication and interpersonal skills. Providing flexible, appropriate access to rooms and facilities which encourage independent and collaborative learning amongst students and staff will help build the lifelong learning skills needed in the 21st Century.  

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Mapping to the working world 

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Vocational training across a wide number of areas has dual pathway career routes which are often perceived as discrete and parallel (academic verses vocational). This view is likely to change as business and industry push for learners who have wider 21st Century skills. Markets are competitive, and innovation and creativity are valued in that context. Future careers are likely to experience a gradual blurring of pathways, enabling more flexible routes for learners, driven by the demands of industry and society. The need for a highly skilled work force is already established and will become more important in maintaining employment in developed economies.  

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This will provide opportunities for learners to generate industry solutions in a more efficient way as learning pathways become more accessible and employees become more multiskilled. Modularised adaptive online learning allows personalised development opportunities. The move towards flexible pathways may address the culture where vocational training is perceived as the fallback choice or route for those that do not have the required examination grades to return to school. Placing vocational training on a par with traditional academic curriculum and institutions will require cultural shift and impact the marketing of vocational training. 

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In an increasingly uncertain world and as job security changes, this may become a driver for employee upskilling and retraining thus driving the need for more flexible pathways. Diverse learner profiles in terms of age, experience and skills will mean a personalised curriculum becomes more important to allow greater levels of differentiation. These changes will impact the pedagogical skills needed to teach in this context, with teachers becoming facilitators, guiding the learning in this more blended environment. Teachers will need higher level technological and pedagogical skills. 

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Personalised learning pathways for educators 

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There is increasing demand to map directly to individual needs through staff development approaches which take cognisance of the greater breadth of skills required in the 21st Century. As we move through the decade, and we increase the offering to our students, is there then an argument to create flexibility of learning pathways for teachers as well? 

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In the Vocational Education and Training (VET), Further education (FE) and Higher education (HE) sectors, it is recognised that lecturers have a dual professionalism: professional / technical skills, as well as pedagogical expertise. The current dual professionalism may evolve towards a more multifaceted role, in recognition of the wider skills learners need. As educators we need to facilitate a curriculum that encompasses the development of the transversal skills future employees will need.  

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As well as sound knowledge of their subject, lecturers should also have sound knowledge of teaching and learning strategies and their impact on their students. Lecturers require empathy with their learners, awareness of different abilities and disabilities and how that impacts individual learning. They also increasingly need confidence in the use of technology, and how to engage with it in educational environments, as well as broader skills in creating curricula that map to the skills learners need to thrive within the world of work and within society.  

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Every individual institution will have central areas of focus, and within that, each department/faculty will apply their own guidance and criteria. Individual lecturers too will have varying skillsets. So how do we ensure that all employees have the same opportunity to upskill? Flexible, modular options may be the solution. By offering individualised learning pathways, which accommodate individual skill building within a centralised curriculum, educational institutions have an opportunity to become adaptive and responsive to the changing needs of individuals, industry, and education.  In summary, we need to consider what is worth learning and how current and future students learn? 

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