Station 10. Teachers and trainers

Whom do we mean when we refer to teachers and trainers?

When we refer to teachers and trainers in partner countries, we normally refer to different categories of teachers and trainers working in VET.

Teachers and trainers across contexts

People can take on informal roles, or have a formally allocated task to instruct, supervise and/or assess learners in order for learners to develop new knowledge, skills and/or attitudes. These roles and tasks take place in schools or training centres, as well as workplace-related settings, in more or less formally composed teams of teachers and/or trainers. The teaching and learning can include one or more learners. In different practices and theories other names are used, amongst others: coach, mentor, instructor, tutor, and so on.

In Partner Countries, the types of teachers and trainers are similar to those in EU Member States, as described in the diagram below developed by Cedefop:

There is a hierarchy in these different categories of teachers. Teachers of general subjects and vocational theoretical subjects normally require higher education degrees. Few Partner Countries have specialised training institutions for VET teachers. Teachers of vocational theoretical subjects are often graduates of technical faculties, with or without specific pedagogical training.

Practical instructors in school workshops often do not have a higher education qualification. They themselves are often graduates of VET schools with some practical experience. Because they do not have a higher education qualification, practical instructors in schools are often poorly paid in comparison to their colleagues who deal with the theoretical training.

Trainers in companies often lack any specific training to be a trainer. They have often developed their training skills on the job, by supervising, tutoring or mentoring new colleagues, apprentices or stagiaires.

Trainers in training centres have often acquired competences to train adults, and are less formal in their training role. The commercial training sector as we know it today, and training centres of public employment services, are relatively young institutions in many Partner Countries, although there are strong traditions of adult learning in some - e.g. Israel, Turkey, and former Yugoslavia and former Soviet Union countries.

Are current roles showing a bias against practical skills in VET?

There is still a bias in favour of knowledge over practical skills in many Partner Countries, even within VET. Traditionally, theory and practice are often segregated in the curriculum. This segregated way of working allows teachers and trainers to focus on their own tasks, in isolation, without taking into account what their colleagues are doing.

One of the biggest challenges is to rethink the curriculum in a more integrated way, and mix theory and practice.  Students love this mixed approach, as it makes theory much more meaningful for them, and they are able to contextualise their knowledge. But teachers are not used to this.