Editorial

UNESCO-UNEVOC Bulletin 19
December 2010

Dear colleagues,

Various services and different forms of assistance were provided to vocational educators, educational leaders and to other colleagues in several UNESCO field offices. The intention was twofold: for the former to contribute to capacity building and networking and sharing of expertise and knowledge; and for the latter to backstop and facilitate the execution of TVET activities, especially those related to the CapEFA.

To these ends, a number of activities that are treated in this Bulletin were undertaken. Four institutions became UNEVOC Centres in St Kitts and Nevis, Guyana, Indonesia and Chad. The new UNEVOC Centre at the TVET Secretariat, Ministry of Education replaces the UNEVOC Centre at Clarence Fitzroy Bryant College in St. Kitts and Nevis. Through the assistance and collaboration of the UNESCO Kingston Office data about UNEVOC Centres in the Caribbean was updated, and a UNEVOC induction seminar was held in Kingston Jamaica. With reference to the seminar, the UNESCO Kingston Office and the School of Education at the University of the West Indies jointly organised the event with our assistance. Among other things, the seminar sensitised technical and vocational educators about services and resources obtainable from the UNESCO- UNEVOC International Centre and the UNEVOC Network, and from UNESCO as a whole. On 16 September 2010 there was an official opening of the UNEVOC Centre in Magdeburg, which comprises InWEnt-Capacity Building International, Otto-von-Guericke-University and Fraunhofer Institute for Factory Operation and Automation. Leaders of UNEVOC Centres from selected UNEVOC centres in Africa and Asia witnessed the event which took place following an international workshop on Green TVET and Education for Sustainable Development.

Another important UNEVOC Network expert's consultation meeting for UNEVOC Centres from post-Soviet countries took place at the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre in Bonn, Germany from 19 to 22 October, 2010. Aimed at capacity building, the consultation meeting examined the regionalization of the UNEVOC Network and experiences about the integration of ESD in TVET. There was yet another other important international training and knowledge sharing event that was organised by the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre. From 12 to 17 September 2010, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre in partnership with InWEnt – Capacity Building International, Germany, the Colombo Plan Staff College, Philippines and the German Association for Water, Wastewater and Waste held an international workshop in Munich, Germany during the International Trade Fair for Water, Sewage, Waste and Raw Materials Management. This workshop was followed by another one in Magdeburg on "Green TVET and Education for Sustainable Development".

Finally, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre continued to provide backstopping and support towards the implementation of the CapEFA Project in Africa, especially those for TVET development. The backstopping and support took a number of forms. Notable among these was the participation in the Regional Seminar on Capacity Building in Planning and Implementation of CapEFA for TVET Development and on Regional Coordination of TVET Activities in Africa that was held in Zanzibar, Tanzania.

I invite you to read Bulletin No. 19.

L. Efison Munjanganja
Head, UNEVOC Networks & Officer in Charge, UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre