Changing our thinking about VET trainer competency development
We've recently been working with a client to define a trainer progression framework for around 3000 trainers spread across the organisation. Our thinking was influenced by research coming out of the E.U. around competencies for VET professionals. It's produced by the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Education, and the 'Handbook for Practitioners' can be found here . It's well worth a read. Some of the key themes that made good sense to us include:
- The explosion of new learning technologies and pace of change of information now demands far greater flexibility and responsiveness of trainers than has been the case in the past
-In order to respond to this challenge, trainers need to see themselves in broad partnerships and networks. "Professionalism and expertise are no longer understood as personal properties..." p13.
-This change is sufficiently important to justify a quadrant of the framework being dedicated to networking.
The Handbook goes on to break down competencies across administration, training, quality assurance, and networking. These categories are mapped to teachers, in-company trainers, and leaders.
While written at a high level, the competencies provide a really pragmatic, useful set of indicators that can be adapted for individual organisational contexts.
It's always hard to know where to focus your limited time when exploring new models for trainer development. This should definitely be on your reading list.
Posted by PhilGaring at
11:18 AM
