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(ETF).
As part of UNESCO-UNEVOC's work to create a database of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) toolkits, this webinar presented the work of the ETF in developing an International Self-Assessment Tool for Centres of Vocational Excellence (ISATCOVE). Julian Stanley from the ETF presented the background to the self-assessment tool, its structure and how it will contribute to excellence in TVET.
The ISATCOVE framework is composed of 23 criteria – each of which describes an element of vocational excellence. The criteria are grouped into three dimensions:
The tool is currently being piloted within and beyond the European Union. In 2024, the pilot will be extended, and centres are invited to express interest in participation. Participants will be supported by coaches to get the most out of their self-assessment.
Since 2018, the European Commission has engaged with practice and thinking around Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs), producing a Mapping Report in 2019 that described and analysed the work of CoVEs in Europe and beyond. Since then, the Commission has supported the development of CoVEs, in particular, through Erasmus+ funding (planned to be €400 million up to 2027).
The purpose of the International Self-Assessement Tool for COVEs (ISATCOVE) is to support the development of CoVEs in a systematic way that is complementary to Erasmus+. ISATCOVE will help to share what has been learnt about vocational excellence from CoVEs with other skills providers. The tool sets out an explicit and comprehensive framework that can serve as a scaffold, against which other skills providers can plan their own development.
Vocational skills providers can use ISATCOVE to discover their own profile of excellence – a profile which does justice to the complexity of the dimensions and layers that make up excellence. The self-improvement tool is intended to assist teachers, managers and stakeholders at a VET provider to develop a shared understanding of their own profile and to explore how they want to develop over time.
ISATCOVE is designed to be an international tool. The criteria and indicators have been written so that they reflect vocational excellence at an international level and the tool has been designed to support international comparisons, sharing of practice and collaboration. In this sense, the tool reflects a European approach to CoVEs, which places a particular emphasis on the benefits of international collaboration between skills providers within and outside of Europe and also provides a way of communicating the European approach to vocational excellence to the rest of the world.
Times are indicated in CET. The webinar is held in English with captions.
10:00 – 10:05: Welcome and opening
Moderation
Julian Stanley, European Training Foundation (ETF)
Julian Stanley spent the first half of his career working as a VET teacher and manager in a variety of schools in London, UK. Subsequently, he joined the University of Warwick where he carried out research into the development of curriculum, qualifications and pedagogies and contributed to initial and continuing professional development.
Since 2014, he has been employed by the European Training Foundation (ETF) in Italy, where he has specialized in supporting vocational teaching and learning and teacher professional development. Julian has worked on teacher development policies at the European level and in many of Europe’s partner countries.
Julian coordinated ETF’s international survey into vocational teachers, involving nine countries, and has supported professional development at the levels of policy and practice, most recently, in relation to teacher placements in industry, innovations in pedagogy, school-based professional development and teacher and school networks.
Julian helped to develop ENE, the ETF's network for CoVEs, and was part of a team that is supporting innovation in teaching and learning in vocational and life-long learning. Currently, Julian is leading ETF’s work to develop a self-assessment tool for Centres of Vocational Excellence on behalf of the European Commission.
Graeme Atherton, UNESCO-UNEVOC Consultant
Graeme Atherton is Director of the Centre of Inequality and Levelling Up (CELUP) at the University of West London, leads the National Education Opportunities Network (NEON), which is the UK professional organization for access and equity in higher education (HE) with over 100 universities as members and has also founded the World Access to Higher Education Network (WAHEN). He is a trustee of the National Union of Students (NUS) and holds visiting professorships at the Centre for Higher Education Research, Sunway University, Kuala Lumpur and Amity University London. He has produced over 200 publications and conference papers.
Sarah Elson-Rogers, UNESCO-UNEVOC Consultant
Sarah Elson-Rogers worked for UNESCO-UNEVOC from July 2021 to February 2023 as Team Leader for the Innovation and Future of TVET programme, which includes the Bridging Innovation and Learning in TVET (BILT) project. The team supports efforts to strengthen TVET systems in UNESCO’s Member States with a focus on the themes of digitalization, greening, migration and entrepreneurship. She is currently supporting the work of UNESCO-UNEVOC as a consultant.
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