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37/ 2004
Bonn, 21.10.2004

 

(Vocational) Training for sustainable development - UNESCO experts meeting in Bonn

Learning for Work, Citizenship and Sustainability is the theme of the UNESCO meeting of technical and vocational education and training specialists which the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre and Germany's Federal Ministry of Education and Research are holding in Bonn with the support of the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training from 25 - 28 October 2004. Some 100 experts from throughout the world are expected to be on hand to discuss an issue whose importance for global economic and social development has been increasingly emphasized in recent years - namely, sustainable development! Education - and vocational education and training in particular here - plays a fundamental role in this connection. Its job is to improve people's ability to deal with environmental and development issues. The international meeting's particular importance is underscored by the fact that the conference will be opened by Germany's Federal Minister of Education and Research Edelgard Bulmahn and UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura.
Vocational environmental training has long been on the agenda in Germany. It has been adopted by initial and continuing vocational education and training regulations, is the subject of numerous research and development projects and is a key issue at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training ("BIBB") as part of its Sustainable Development priority issue. BIBB will consequently be providing more than just organizational support at the experts meeting. It will also offer two special programme activities that will allow participants to particularly benefit from its work. These are:

  • A panel discussion at BIBB where representatives from seven international organizations 01 will discuss the subject of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) for Sustainable Development.
  • Insights into vocational training practice. Conference participants will have the opportunity to obtain first-hand impressions on location of the implementation of individual elements of sustainable development in vocational education and training. Visits to the Bau-Medien-Zentrum training centre in Düren and the Technology Centre of the Koblenz Chamber of Commerce have been arranged for this purpose.

Background on the UNESCO international experts meeting: The UN General Assembly instructed UNESCO in December 2002 to coordinate the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 -2014). This task was preceded by the World Summit on Sustainable Development held in Johannesburg, South Africa, in September 2002, where education and science were given greater weight in the sustainability debate and better training offerings were called for with an eye to implementing the action plan from Johannesburg.

The 2004 international experts meeting that Germany is hosting will lend weight to this development. The meeting will target two fundamental objectives:

  1. The meeting is to determine the degree to which UNESCO's standards-setting role in the area of initial and continuing vocational education and training has benefited member states in the years since the Second International Congress on TVET held in Seoul in 1999. 
  2. Participants are to discuss the role that initial and continuing vocational education and training plays in global sustainable development and what contributions it makes to this development. It is hoped that an agenda can be drafted in the course of the United Nations Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (2005 -2014).


The last day of the experts meeting will revolve around formulating a "Bonn Declaration" on the role of and contribution that vocational training for sustainable developments makes and around an action plan that outlines the next concrete steps to be taken.

Further information on the subject of sustainable development is available from:

footnotes

01) Mr. Arvil van Adams, Senior Advisor for Social Protection, Africa Region, World Bank, Washington D.C.; Mr. Ulrich Hillenkamp, Deputy Director, European Training Foundation (ETF), Turin; Mr. Wataru Iwamoto, Director, Division of Secondary, Technical and Vocational Education, UNESCO, Paris; Mr. Günter Klein, Director, World Health Organisation - European Centre for Environment and Health, Bonn; Ms. Akpezi Ogbuigwe, Head, Education and Training, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), Nairobi; Mr. Juan Carlos Villagrán De León, Institute Deputy Director, United Nations University - Institute for Environment and Human Security, Bonn; Moderation: Ms. Jane Stewart, Director, Skills and Employability Department, International Labour Organisation (ILO), Geneva.

Last modified on: October 25, 2004

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