Mission of TTnet Germany
Strengthening and professionalisation of vocational education and training staff
Translated by: Paul David Doherty (Global Sprachteam)
TTnet Germany is a network for innovation in the qualification of vocational education and training staff.
Education experts from industry, unions, education providers, trainers' and teachers' associations, schools, state institutions and universities cooperate in it. Following on from the Bruges Communiqué of 7 December 2010, the network wants to take an active part in the German and European education policy debate.
TTnet Germany arose from the "European forum for key players and decision makers in the field of teaching and training staff in vocational education and training" and is coordinated by the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training in Bonn. The network wants to promote discussion and exchange of experiences on the activities, roles and qualification pathways of vocational education and training staff.
To strengthen and professionalize the vocational education and training staff, the network pursues the following two objectives:
- The vocational education and training staff assumes a key role
The vocational education and training staff is a key factor in the quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training. It thus makes a significant contribution to the competitiveness of enterprises and the vocational and personal perspectives of their employees. - The vocational education and training staff undergoes a role change and a function expansion
Demographic changes and the imminent shortage of young skilled labour, the more heterogeneous socio-cultural background of learners, new forms of work organization and the need to improve cooperation and networking between learning venues have changed the challenges facing vocational education and training. This has brought vocational education and training personnel expanded roles and new functions for which they need to be trained. - New challenges call for professionalisation of the vocational education and training staff
New learner-centred, action-oriented approaches to learning and the competence orientation of learning opportunities and exams require specific professionalisation of staff in in-company, inter-company and extra-company initial and continuing education and training, in in-school vocational education and in vocational education service providers. - Continuous training ensures the quality of vocational education
Continuous development of the vocational education and training staff is an essential prerequisite for being able to meet the new challenges and at the same time continue to develop and ensure the quality of vocational education and training. For this purpose it is necessary to create suitable conditions for all vocational education and training providers (businesses, schools, universities, educational institutions). Particular attention should be focused on previously neglected groups such as the training professionals and the examining staff, who are relevant because of, among other factors, their large numbers. - More lateral mobility and cooperation in educational programmes for vocational education and training personnel are required
Current developments in vocational education and training - action and process orientation, competence-based education, self-directed learning - are resulting in an increasing convergence of fields of activity of different vocational education and training staff groups, for example, trainers and teachers at vocational schools. Greater lateral mobility should therefore be created between training programmes for company and school vocational training staff through the granting of credit for state-recognized further education and training qualifications in the vocational educational training programmes at the university level as well as through more flexible access. This will require closer cooperation and coordination between the educational programmes for company and school vocational education and training personnel. - The vocational education and training staff promotes European educational cooperation and paves the way for greater mobility in Europe
Because Europe is growing more closely together not only as an economic but also as an educational area, additional input is needed at the national level. Given the trend towards professionalisation of vocational education and training personnel witnessed in Europe, for example, the highly developed university-level training schemes, the advanced vocational education and training qualifications and training opportunities for skilled workers providing training should be given a more prominent place in the continuing European debate. - The network is a discussion forum for all relevant groups in vocational education and training
The socially important and momentous function of the vocational education and training staff requires urgent further development of cooperation between the relevant groups in vocational education and training. TTnet Germany provides a platform for such cooperation and at the same time develops initiatives for action plans.
