In the first blogpost from the literature review on the new roles and profiles of 21st-century VET educators (run within the Creating New Learning project), we have reported about the emerging characteristics that contemporary educators should have, according to scientific literature. Educators should be able to implement new teaching approaches (being learner-centred, e-educators, collaborative and open), they should possess four new competences (digital society competence, intercultural competence, green awareness and skills and entrepreneurial competence) and they should have a new active, lifelong and networked professional development attitude.
In order to understand the distance between this - somehow ideal - profile of the 21st-century educator and the reality of existing VET systems, we have mapped and analysed 19 national, regional and super-national educators professional standards and competences frameworks, to check whether and how they include these emerging approaches and competences. These standards and frameworks differ widely in terms of approach, granularity and maturity; further, most of them target educators in VET institutions with just a few looking at trainers within work-based learning or apprenticeship schemes.
On the positive side, most of the mapped standards and frameworks reflect a rather holistic competence model. These standards are often composed of a combination of professional knowledge and beliefs, motivation and self-regulation. They give importance to innovative teaching approaches and to new professional development attitude, Teachers are expected to be (or become) active, lifelong and networked professionals. Also, these standards give importance to soft skills, such as creativity and critical reflection of their own work.
On the other hand, the great majority of these standards do not include the new areas of competence that emerged from literature: digital, intercultural, green and entrepreneurial competences are absent from most of the frameworks. Notably, digital competence is widely included as far as the instrumental use of ICT is concerned, but very rarely is connected to critical and risk-aware use of technology.
In the report, we briefly analyse standards and frameworks that stand out for different reasons, such as the ones by the Council of Europe, from Singapore, from the Philippines, from Finland and from the US. Even if some of these frameworks have been reviewed by literature, evidence on their level of implementation and on their impact on VET systems and educators is quite scarce. It would be important to close this gap, possibly through some field research, in order to understand how the implementation of these frameworks is being supported and to allow benchmarking and best practices transfer.
Do you have any new standards for VET teachers and trainers in your country?
To what extent or how do these standards reflect the 21st century VET educator described in this blog?
Would you be interested in developing a competency profile jointly?
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