Guiding principles on professional development of trainers in vocational education and training

These guiding principles are a contribution of the European Commission, Cedefop and the thematic working group on professional development of trainers in vocational education and training (VET) to the objective set in the Bruges communique of collecting good practice and developing guiding principles on the changing roles, competences and professional development of VET teachers and trainers. The objectives of the paper are firstly, to attract attention to and increase knowledge of what these key agents between the worlds of education and work are and what makes them ‘trainers’, and...  [+] Show more

These guiding principles are a contribution of the European Commission, Cedefop and the thematic working group on professional development of trainers in vocational education and training (VET) to the objective set in the Bruges communique of collecting good practice and developing guiding principles on the changing roles, competences and professional development of VET teachers and trainers. The objectives of the paper are firstly, to attract attention to and increase knowledge of what these key agents between the worlds of education and work are and what makes them ‘trainers’, and secondly, to discuss existing practice and provide suggestions on how to support in-company trainers so they have opportunities to update their competences throughout their careers. After presenting the general context, the paper discusses the diversity of situations, titles, functions and roles of in-company trainers across member states [of the European Union] and focuses on two groups of specialists who provide training in companies: trainers who perform training tasks as the major part of their occupational role and employees whose occupational role includes a particular training-related function (for example, owners, general managers, supervisors and skilled workers). It also points out the common understanding that at least four groups of competences are important to a different extent for trainers in VET, including those who train in companies: technical/subject-related; company-specific; pedagogical-didactical; and transversal. The paper then identifies examples, areas and approaches in which interventions, or lack of such, have significant influence on in-company trainers so that stakeholders across companies, sectors and countries have reference points to look for further actions. Examples of competence requirements and profiles of VET trainers from Belgium, Finland, Germany and the Netherlands are presented in detail in the annex.

Excerpts from publication.