12 April, 2016

On 12 April 2016, UNESCO’s Executive Board adopted the new Strategy for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for the period 2016 to 2021. The Strategy has been strongly endorsed by Member States and will replace UNESCO’s Strategy for TVET for the period 2010 to 2015.

The Strategy sets out a number of key policy areas and actions with the aim of supporting Member States to enhance the relevance of their TVET systems. The focus is on equipping all youth and adults with the skills required to not only find decent work and develop entrepreneurial and innovative mind-sets, but also to become active citizens in an equitable, inclusive and sustainable society. Such a transformative vision of TVET will be implemented in the framework of lifelong learning, and will contribute to the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The Strategy is aligned with Sustainable Development Goal 4, namely to “ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”, and has three priority areas:

• Fostering youth employment and entrepreneurship;
• Promoting equity and gender equality;
• Facilitating transition to green economies and sustainable societies.

To achieve the objectives of the Strategy, UNESCO will work with Member States, UN Agencies and international, regional and bilateral organisations to support policy reviews and development, promote collaborative research approaches and capacity development, and foster cross-sectoral approaches.

UNESCO-UNEVOC in the new Strategy

UNESCO-UNEVOC is UNESCO’s specialized centre for TVET and its important role in the implementation of the new Strategy is evident. UNESCO-UNEVOC is the hub of the UNEVOC Network, a global network of over 250 TVET institutions from over 160 countries, as well as a resource centre for research and innovation, knowledge sharing and capacity development. In the Strategy, the Centre is entrusted, among other things, with the development of the TVET Leadership Programme aimed at capacity building of TVET institutional leaders and heads of TVET teacher training institutions.

Development of the Strategy for TVET 2016-2021

The development of this new Strategy for TVET took into account input from various consultations, including the virtual conference organized in September to October on UNESCO-UNEVOC’s TVeT Forum. UNESCO-UNEVOC also contributed to the development of the UNESCO’s new TVET Strategy by engaging its UNEVOC Centres. Between April and June 2015, 191 UNEVOC Centres provided valuable feedback on the effectiveness of UNESCO’s interventions, tools and services.

The Strategy is available at the following link: http://www.unevoc.unesco.org/go.php?q=UNESCO+TVET+Strategy+2016-2021