Heraclitus famously claimed that the ever-present change, known in philosophy as "flux", is the characteristic feature of the world. Education, training, and lifelong learning are not an exemption – they are also in constant flux both through "top-down" policy reforms and "bottom-up" small daily steps to deal with social, demographic, cultural, economic, scientific, environmental, and technological changes that characterise the 21st century. Sometimes these changes take years to happen - sometimes, the response to external 'shocks', like the current pandemic due to COVID-19, requires immediate action. In this context, the work of educators has been changed the recent years rapidly.
If you conduct even a quick online search, you realise that plenty of frameworks, profiles, standards, and models aim to capture educators' skills, knowledge, attitudes, and professional practices. So, the question we asked ourselves, after conducting two rounds of desk research on the changing roles of educators (including the analysis of more than 90 frameworks, profiles, standards, and models) was the following: Do we need another model/framework/profile/standard for educators? And the reply was positive because of the constant and rapid changes. Our analyses revealed that most of the existing models were developed before the pandemic, which heavily affected the work of educators. Also, many of the existing models refer to specific contexts and leave little room, if any, for adaptation and contextualisation. Finally, not all of them are based on an extensive literature review and consultations with stakeholders and end-users.
So, we developed a research-based model building on insights from recent literature and consultations with stakeholders and end-users. We adopted a comprehensive definition of "educators" as the umbrella term for a highly diverse group of professionals involved in teaching or guiding and facilitating learning who may have different job roles, titles, and responsibilities. The model, called READY, is by design open, adaptable, and modular and aspires to be used as a reference point by different actors across EU and Partner Countries and for various purposes. That is why the READY model is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, meaning that you are free to share — copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format and adapt — translate, remix, transform, and build upon the material.
READY comprises different layers (domains of professional activity, professional practices, and core descriptors) to offer insights and input to educators and various education and training stakeholders. Therefore, through contextualisation, it can meet the needs of all educators that operate in such diverse settings, while the rapid changes in how people learn require constant adaptation to the new realities by addressing challenges and grasping opportunities.
The READY model results from a fruitful collaboration between ETF staff and international experts, policymakers and stakeholders from the EU Member States and Partner Countries. But its development is not the end of the story. A first implementation is underway in the Israeli VET sector. The insights from this first adaptation and testing of the model in real settings will help us to improve it further while background material and promising practices will be collected. You are encouraged to use and adapt the model to best suit your organisation's needs. You can learn more about READY and its potential use through the webinar "New roles and competences for contemporary educators: introducing the ETF READY model" on 27 April at 14:00CET.
So, are you READY to take the challenge and give the model a chance?
And if you take the challenge and give the model a chance we would like to hear about your experiences with the model. Only by starting to use the model and learning from the experiences we can further develop the model. So let us know what you think about it!
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