CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO © UNESCO-UNEVOC/Elena Shvelidze

27 September 2021

On 30 September at 15:00-17:00 (CEST) and 01 October at 8:00-10:00 (CEST), UNESCO will hold two online workshops under the theme “Transforming TVET for successful and just transitions”. The event will bring together members of the global UNEVOC Network to present significant elements and proposed interventions for the new UNESCO Strategy for TVET 2022-2029.

These workshops are jointly organized by UNESCO’s Section for Youth, Literacy and Skills Development and UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, as part of the broader consultation process regarding the Organization’s new Strategy, from September to December 2021 with UNESCO Member States, TVET stakeholders, private sector and other international and regional organizations. The aim is to ensure that the Strategy captures key challenges facing TVET, is relevant to the needs of the Member States, and offers synergies with different partners of UNESCO. The final draft of the new Strategy will be presented at an international conference in early December 2021.

As the United Nations agency specialized in education, UNESCO plays a leading role in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) through normative work, capacity development, policy advice, knowledge development, technical assistance and inter-agency cooperation.

In 2015, UNESCO adopted a Strategy for TVET 2016–2021, which is now coming to an end. It focused on three priority areas, including fostering youth employment and entrepreneurship; promoting equity and gender equality; and facilitating the transition to green economies and sustainable societies.

The new Strategy 2022-2029 will build upon the achievements of the current strategy and seek to generate a global momentum for TVET, contributing to the post-COVID-19 social and economic recovery and to an acceleration of progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 4 and other SDGs, in particular SDG8 on inclusive growth and decent work and SDG5 on gender equality. It will seek to instil a renewed ambition for TVET in Member States and build a common vision for transforming labour markets, economies, and societies.

The three strategic priorities proposed for the new Strategy includes every person to learn, work and thrive; every economy to build skills for sustainable development; and every society to deploy skills for inclusiveness and resilience. In order to maximize the outcomes of the new Strategy, UNESCO will further conduct cross-cutting interventions, actioning three levers: data and knowledge, normative instruments, and networks and partnerships.

The rationale for these strategic priorities and cross-cutting interventions, and UNESCO’s activities to be undertaken under each of them, will be detailed during the workshops with UNEVOC Centres, who will have the opportunity to give feedback on the relevance of the problem statement and the proposed priorities. The consultation will also consider how to strengthen the UNEVOC Network, including in the context of the Global Education Cooperation Mechanism.

• Technical and vocational education and training (TVET)