Strengthening the Capacity Needs of Vocational Teachers and Trainers in

Commonwealth Educational Media Centre for Asia, the regional centre of Commonwealth of Learning, organized a ‘Brain Storming Session to Strengthen the Capacity Needs of Vocational Teachers and Trainers’ on 06 September 2022 at the New Delhi, India.

The Session aimed at identifying the training needs of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) teachers and trainers, specifically in 21 st century skills and teaching methodologies; reviewing existing CEMCA courses on these methodologies; drafting outline of new course with clearly spelt out outcome for various target groups; and embedding blended approaches for the delivery of this course.

The Session adopted a participatory and outcome oriented approach to achieve its objectives. It was facilitated by Mr. Saurabh Mishra, Programme Officer (Skills), CEMCA, and Mr. Purandar Sengupta, CEMCA consultant. Mr. Mishra briefly introduced the organization, and the key objectives, and intended outcome of the brain-storming Session.

Dr. B. Shadrach, Director, CEMCA, delivered the opening remarks. He situated the need to train TVET teachers and trainers in the context of enormous skilling and training opportunities at the national level, in the unorganized as well as formal sectors. Analyzing TVET training challenges from both global and national perspectives, he shared that there is huge scope for integrating digital and green technologies in the TVET training space, thereby making a case for the blended learning approach.

Dr. Nirmaljeet Singh Kalsi, (IAS, Retd.), Chairperson, National Council of Vocational Education and Training (NCVET) was invited as the Chief Guest of the workshop. He spoke succinctly on ‘Reimagining Skilling: Integration of general and vocational education, blended learning, and the National Credit Framework with emphasis on ToT and ToA’. He described NCVET as a new age skilling facilitator rather than a regulator. According to him, India has the potential to emerge as the skill capital of the world due to its demographic dividend. He also demonstrated the key features of the resilient National Credit Framework, which has the potential to revolutionize education and skilling.

The Session was orchestrated around an outcome oriented participatory approach to achieve its objectives. It was attended by stakeholders from the Government Institutions, Skill Universities, Schools (Vocational Education), Skill Centres, and TVET experts. The Session adopted a combination of group work, round table discussions, and group presentations to engage all the stakeholders, and come out with the draft outline of course structure.