Editorial

UNESCO-UNEVOC Bulletin 17, April 2010

Welcome to the first issue of UNESCO-UNEVOC Bulletin in 2010. The year started out strong for UNESCO-UNEVOC: As the year marked the beginning of the biennium 2010-2011 in the UNESCO programme cycle, the staff of the Centre has been busy elaborating work plans and finalizing reports on activities of the previous year. A visit of the director of the Division of ESB helped in the elaboration.

Singapore joined the UNEVOC Network through its Institute of Technical Education (ITE) in February 2010. ITE is the main provider of career technical education in Singapore at the technician or semi-professional level, and the principal authority for national occupational skills certification and standards. Applications for membership in the Network from institutions in Ghana and Nigeria are currently being processed.
Also in February, UNESCO-UNEVOC and InWEnt – Capacity Building International renewed their Memorandum of Understanding. Focusing on capacity building of technical and vocational educators and TVET development, future collaboration will concentrate on selected countries in Southern and Eastern Africa, South East Asia, Central Asia and Eastern Europe.
The work on best practices, success stories and case studies grew apace with attention focusing on editing and commissioning additional writers.
106 threads have been discussed in and 582 messages sent to the UNEVOC e-Forum since the beginning of January. The discussions have dealt with issues such as the image as well as structural status of TVET, TVET in the Maldives, models of institutional effectiveness in TVET, the value of TVET qualifications delivered online, women’s empowerment through TVET, and many more.
In March, UNESCO-UNEVOC hosted an Expert Group Meeting on Exploring Linkages between Education and Labour Market: Tools and Methodologies, which was organized by UNESCO Headquarters. Also hosted by the Centre was the first meeting of the Inter-Agency Working Group on TVET Indicators, a sub-group of the Inter-Agency Working Group on TVET. The Inter-Agency Working Group on TVET brings together the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the European Training Foundation (ETF), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNESCO and the World Bank (WB). The two events in Bonn constituted the first major collaboration between UNESCO-UNEVOC and UNESCO Headquarters since the endorsement of the new UNESCO TVET strategy last year.
The staff of UNEVOC will be strengthened in the upcoming months. UNESCO has published two vacancy announcements for positions at the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre: Head of UNEVOC and Programme Specialist (TVET). The closing date for applications for both positions is 19 April 2010. The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre is also in the process of recruiting a new administrative officer. The applications are currently under review.

I invite you to read more about the above as well as information about other recent UNEVOC activities in this issue of our Bulletin.