 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
It is with deep sadness that the Canadian Vocational Association (CVA) announces the passing of Pierre Morin, a cherished colleague, mentor, and friend. His loss leaves a profound void in our organization and in the field of competency management, where he dedicated his career to helping others grow and succeed.
Pierre was more than just an expert in competency analysis, competency-based program development, and performance management—he was a leader with a vision, a teacher with a passion, and above all, a man with a big heart. As the CVA’s DACUM Training Coordinator, he played a pivotal role in shaping vocational education in Canada and around the world. Since 1995, his expertise has guided countless professionals, and his legacy will continue to influence generations to come. Interested in receiving the CVA/ACFP free bi-monthly Newsletter? Our #DACUM training calendar 2025 For more information on DACUM or write to dacum@cva-acfp.org Join our online community -Scoop.It! @Canadian Vocational Association / Association canadienne de la formation professionnelle
COX’S BAZAR (ILO News) - The International Labour Organisation (ILO), together with the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), have created and operationalized the first-ever competency-based skills development framework for the Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh to equip them with employability skills that would enable them to get decent work should they return to Myanmar, or resettle in other countries. Competency-based training (CBT) is a structured training and assessment system that allows individuals to acquire skills and knowledge required to effectively perform specified work activities to expected industry standards. It is demand-driven, flexibly delivered through modules to ensure individuals gain mastery of real-life industry skills for successful performance in the labour market. According to the UNHCR, the Rohingyas are the world’s largest stateless people, which had made it difficult for them to receive any formal CBT based on the any national framework.
The European Union faces a major demographic challenge, marked by an aging population, declining birth rates, and shifting migration patterns. By 2035, the EU labour force is expected to grow, albeit unequally across the different age cohorts, with higher annual growth expected primarily for those aged 60 and above.
This demographic trend places significant pressure on labour markets, as the ratio of young workers entering the workforce to retiring employees will decline. In several sectors facing severe shortages such as health, care, and construction, these shortages stem primarily from high replacement demand.
The gender gap in the labour force participation is forecasted to narrow, but to a limited extent, driven by a higher rate of growth in participation for females compared to males. Policies promoting upskilling and reskilling, active aging, lifelong learning, and inclusiveness can enhance greater labour force participation, particularly among underrepresented groups, including migrants and women.
Cedefop’s latest employment projections* for 2035 anticipate marginal annual employment growth (0.4%) at EU level. Variations in future employment across sectors and occupations will be largely driven by the twin (digital and green) transition, alongside demographic shifts.
COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE EUROPEAN COUNCIL, THE COUNCIL, THE EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS
The Union of Skills
Europe’s competitive strength lies in its people. Our human capital is key to the EU’s prosperity, its economic resilience and unique social market economy. It is key toincreasing our productivity growth, making our industries more competitive and innovative, to attracting additional investments, and to a a dynamic single market and enhanced economic security. Putting people first and investing in skills pays off many times over. In the context of the global competition for talent, and a shrinking working age population in the EU, Europe’s competitiveness relies on future-oriented skills, contributing to economic social and territorial cohesion. Human capital is also essential to promote preparedness and security in the present geopolitical situation.
To be competitive and prepared for the future, the EU needs to support and prepare its people with the skills and competences needed for success in learning, work, and life, as highlighted by the Competitiveness Compass for the EU 1 . Europe’s social market economy, with its strong foundations in education, training, research, innovation and democracy, can serve as a solid base.
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the next general-purpose technology reshaping labour markets, jobs and skills. This policy brief presents first results of Cedefop’s 2024 AI skills survey, mapping AI use in Europe and its impact on jobs.
Drawing representative samples of the adult workforce in European countries, Cedefop carried out in 2024 a first European survey focused on the use and impact of AI in jobs. It also examines the extent to which European employers may support workers in mitigating AI skill gaps. The survey shows that more than a quarter of the European adult workforce is already experimenting with the use of AI at work. With 6 in 10 employees susceptible to some form of AI-related task transformation, it is obvious that upskilling, reskilling and investing in AI literacy will be crucial drivers of a human-centred AI revolution that can boost European competitiveness.
The challenges posed by climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution have become defining issues of our time. These crises are global in scope, affecting all regions of the planet, with impacts felt across all sectors of society. Facing these daunting challenges requires rethinking how we engage with the environment and, more deeply, how human systems in general operate. Education is at the heart of this transformative effort. It enables individuals to grasp the complexities of environmental systems, understand the interconnectedness of ecological, social, and economic factors, and ultimately take informed and responsible action. This report takes a strategic life-span perspective on education and skills policies for a sustainable future, spanning from primary schooling to higher education and lifelong learning. Drawing on multi-disciplinary insights and examples of policies and practices from around the world, it provides actionable insights and recommendations on the role that education and training systems can play in fostering transformative change and building resilient societies. These recommendations focus on (1) empowering citizens and communities for action, (2) fostering informed consumption and lifestyle choices, and (3) equipping individuals with the skills needed for changing labour markets in response to the greening of economies and societies.
This evolving paper follows a first paper released in 2021 on “National or regional curriculum frameworks and visualisations”. It presented a compilation of visualisations of curriculum frameworks, main competences and strategic schemes provided by countries and jurisdictions as part of the OECD Education 2030 curriculum analysis work.
This paper presents a compilation of visualisations from conceptual frameworks that align with the OECD Learning Framework – OECD Learning Compass 2030, developed by inter-governmental, international organisations, non-governmental associations, or at the school or local level. The OECD Learning Compass 2030 positions itself as an overarching framework, with a taxonomy that serves as a common language for a multitude of audiences and contexts. The paper is an evolving document: new frameworks will be added and updated on a regular basis, in particular with frameworks of those schools, NPOs and other social partners who become part of the OECD Education 2030 multi-stakeholders’ group
Sisters Thandiwe and Adessy Tembo are defying the odds in Zambia’s construction industry.
These two young entrepreneurs – graduates of Build It International’s Training into Work programme – have turned their skills into a growing business, Two Sisters Construction. In an industry dominated by men, they have faced many barriers, but their strength, resilience and vision continue to drive them forward.
International Women’s Day 2025 calls on us to accelerate action, urging bold steps toward gender equality. In Zambia’s construction sector, as in many countries, women remain significantly underrepresented. But change is possible when we work together towards a shared goal.
Introduction: Instructional quality refers to classroom management, personal learning support and cognitive activation.
Methods: This study was conducted in nurses’ vocational education and training (VET). We asked nursing students (N = 496) to estimate instructional quality of their classes (n = 52). Furthermore, we asked teachers (N = 52) to describe the learning objectives they aimed to achieve. We used online and paper- pencil questionnaires with validated scales to measure classroom management, personal learning support, and cognitive activation, and connectivity. For analyzing our data, we used descriptive statistics and Anova with Bonferroni and Turkey’ post hoc tests. We also used structuring qualitative content analysis to teachers’ descriptions of learning goals.
Results: Our results indicate that nursing students estimated the instructional quality of their classes quite high. When teacher aimed on achieving higher levels of learning objectives classroom management and personal learning support were estimated significantly different.
Discussion: In VET it is important to coordinate the content, the way of instruction, and the way learners are supported in the learning process to achieve high instructional quality.
Skillsets in transit: understanding recognition, validation and accreditation of learning outcomes for migrants and refugees
Did you ever wonder how rising inequality and polarisation will shape education? Or how advances in artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and other technologies could transform teaching and learning?
Trends Shaping Education is a triennial report exploring the social, technological, economic, environmental and political forces transforming education systems worldwide. The trends are robust, but the questions raised in this report are suggestive. They are designed to inspire reflection and inform strategic thinking on how global trends might transform education and how education can shape a better future.
The 2025 edition explores a rich array of topics related to the key themes of global conflict and cooperation, work and progress, voices and storytelling, and bodies and minds. It builds on foresight exercises from previous editions, while introducing a range of new futures thinking tools to inspire reflection and action.
This report is designed to give policy makers, researchers, educational leaders, administrators and teachers a robust, non-specialist source of international comparative trends shaping education, whether in early childhood education and care, schools, universities or in programmes for older adults. It will also be of interest to students, parents and anyone curious about how education can address today’s challenges and prepare for the future.
Executive Summary
This report explores global megatrends that are shaping societies in OECD countries and beyond through an educational lens. It raises questions about the implications of global trends for various stages and sectors of education and offers thinking tools to help education systems anticipate disruptions and think strategically about the future. In times of rapid change and uncertainty, futures thinking can help education systems navigate complex global challenges. By imagining potential scenarios and exploring diverse possibilities, it enables education policymakers and stakeholders to make informed decisions that are resilient and adaptive. This proactive approach can help education systems to prepare for potential disruptions, but also to seize emerging opportunities and take action today to shape the future. This summary highlights key trends explored in this edition along with suggestive questions they may raise for education.
Noel Baldwin: Canada is facing some unique challenges in addressing the housing crisis and other big building projects like green infrastructure. How can recruitment in the skilled construction trades and training help to meet the urgent demand for housing and infrastructure in BC and across the country?
Brynn Bourke: For a long time, our apprenticeship system had one pathway. It presupposed that you were in high school and that in grade 10 or 11, you identified that you wanted to be an electrician or a plumber. You would then take courses in grades 11 and 12 that provided the prerequisites to enter a trade immediately upon graduating from high school.
Connection and community may not be the first two words that you associate with graduate studies. However, this is a period rife with challenge, growth and change – and this is precisely why community is paramount to graduate students. Nurturing your academic journey is not something you can accomplish alone: it takes a village to “raise” a PhD student. We are witness to how mentorship can beautifully build this village as it creates spaces for mentees to feel seen, heard and supported.
A mentor is an important part of your community and your network. Let’s start by defining what we mean by these two ideas. First, a community is an ecosystem of human interactions for the purpose of investing in each other as people. These exchanges serve to nurture the mentee rather than follow a prescribed agenda. A mentor, whether a professor or professional outside of your lab or program, supports your transformation and development as an individual without expecting anything in return. In contrast, a network, usually comprised of a group of individuals, tends to focus on concrete and measurable goals such as connecting you to opportunities, either academic or career. Whether mentorship initially appeals to you for the interpersonal gains or for the more professional advancement opportunities, both are important and central to the mentorship experience.
|
This research study offers an in-depth analysis of various curriculum approaches and their implications for education systems worldwide.
Since the 2018 reform of the continuing training system, the national network of regional career guidance services (Service public régional de l’orientation – SPRO) has been responsible for public lifelong guidance services. Each SPRO organises information sessions in secondary education schools on professions and employment trends in the local economy. The national network of regional career guidance services is managed by the Regions, which are responsible for the networking of all services, structures and mechanisms in the field of lifelong guidance.
This coordination role particularly promotes cooperation among local actors, such as schools, businesses, and training centres, to meet labour market demands better.
The association of the French Regions commissioned an analysis report to assess the effectiveness of the SPROs in coordinating and delivering career guidance services across French Regions. It evaluates the progress made since the 2014 reform, identifies persistent challenges (such as overlapping competencies, lack of clarity, and resource constraints), and proposes recommendations to improve the accessibility, coherence, and efficiency of career guidance for individuals. The report also highlights the evolving nature of jobs and the necessity of lifelong career information to address emerging labour market demands.
This white paper provides valuable insights into industry-leading evaluation models and offers a practical roadmap for integrating the toolkit to maximize ROI and operational efficiency for Training companies.
This White Paper will explore aspects such as:
What is training evaluation and why is it important?
Key training evaluation models in use today
Power of training evaluation
How to evaluate training effectiveness using KITABOO?
This is just a taste of vocational excellence! Dive into the full stories of these eleven Centres of Vocational Excellence in the Cookbook on Vocational Excellence. Explore detailed descriptions, tips, and resources for each kitchen tool and ingredient, along with five additional recipes focusing on Digital, Greening, Entrepreneurial, Innovative, and Inclusive excellence.
Canadian higher education is evolving, with international students playing a crucial role in driving innovation and financial sustainability. As institutions adapt to shifting immigration policies and workforce demands, continuing education divisions are bridging skill gaps and ensuring learners—both domestic and international—are prepared for success in a rapidly changing landscape.
On this episode, Christine Brooks-Cappadocia, Assistant Vice President of Continuing Studies at York University, discusses the role of international students in Canada and the impact of immigration policy changes.
Although Artificial intelligence (AI) has been used in education for a long time, its popularity and spread have witnessed exponential growth since the launch of ChatGPT. It can be used as a tool, teaching assistant, or teacher. AI teacher (AI-based robot as a teacher) is not a new concept with the first teaching robots used in the 1970s; however, most of the research and usage of AI in education is focused on AI as a tool or a teaching assistant. This article looks at AI teachers’ history, some key cases, potential and benefits, and concerns and challenges associated with their use in classrooms. Overcoming teachers’ shortage, flexibility, transparency, unbiasedness, and improving students’ motivation were some of their key benefits; while being untested and unreliable, cost, need for specific infrastructure and technical expertise, resistance to change, ethical issues, and fears of dehumanizing and desensitizing students were the main concerns and challenges. We suggest co-teaching with AI teachers using four different approaches. Through them, AI teachers and human teachers can work together in classrooms to maximize the effectiveness of the teaching-learning process.
Abstract
Not every student who enrolls in a teacher training program completes it and obtains a degree. Students dropping out of vocational teacher training is a particularly concerning trend in Germany, where there is a significant shortage of vocational education and training (VET) teachers. Against this backdrop, it is crucial to understand why students fail to complete their teacher training programs. Using data from the student cohort of the National Educational Panel Study in Germany, this study examines the career choice motivation, academic and social integration, and their relationship with the intention to drop out of 114 students in a VET teacher training program. Additionally, the study explores whether the relationship between career choice motivation and dropout intention of VET teacher training is mediated by academic and social integration, which are established predictors of drop out. We found that extrinsic motivation was positively linked to dropout intention, while intrinsic motivation showed a negative association with dropout intention. No significant relationships were found between academic or social integration and dropout intention.
Abstract
The rapid digital transformation of the labour market has increased the demand for cognitive skills, posing challenges for vulnerable groups such as NEETs (Not in Education, Employment, or Training). Using the Labor Force Survey ad hoc module on job skills, we investigate skill utilisation at a workplace between
NEETs with prior work experience and employed individuals, the role of upskilling, and the impact of training on NEET outcomes. We identify significant skill utilisation gaps between NEETs and their employed peers. NEETs more often worked in repetitive, physically oriented jobs and less often used digital, numerical, and social skills in the workplace. Through counterfactual analysis, we show that while digital upskilling programs may reduce NEET rates, their effects vary in different characteristics. Notably, we find the largest positive effect among highly educated NEETs with low digital skills, as they may possess the necessary human capital. Our findings suggest that addressing NEET challenges requires more than just training, including early interventions and multi-component programs that address the educational and socio-economic disadvantages NEETs face.
Keywords: digitalisation, NEETs, skills, unemployment
The report underscores the indis-pensable role of industry engagement in ensuring the relevance and applicability of micro-credentials to real-world skill demands. By fostering synergies between academia/training professionals and industry, Mauritius seeks to co-create curricula that align with industry standards, thereby equipping learners with the requisite skills for professional succes.
Gender inequality remains a critical issue across the European Union, affecting classrooms, learning environments, and workplaces. Vocational education and training (VET) is no exception, with persistent gender imbalances that limit opportunities and hinder growth for all.
Executive Summary
Though many groups continue to face barriers to employment, Canada is challenged by widespread labour shortages.
To improve the employability of job seekers and address the labour needs of employers, this project tried to develop a flexible learning platform (FLP) that would deliver micro-credentials that met the direct needs of employers. The project aimed to partner with other colleges and employers to identify in-demand jobs and their associated competencies requirements, and to develop and deliver micro-credentials that meet the specific needs of individual job seekers.
During implementation, the project faced challenges recruiting employers and developing micro-credentials that were in demand. Additionally, the original plan to have IBM develop a flexible learning platform ended up being too costly and complex to fully implement. As a result, the project team were unable to award micro-credentials or document the improved job prospects and performance of micro-credential holders. Overall, this project highlights the importance of involving employer partners at the outset, especially in the design of micro-credentials that actually meet existing needs. Complex technology projects also require significant planning and agile project implementation to successfully deliver on their goals.
Key Insights
Tailoring micro-credentials to the needs of individual learners holds the promise of being more cost effective and motivating.
Engaging employers as key partners in the development of micro-credentials is essential to making them relevant.
While engaging potential technology partners early in the project planning process is important, it is equally crucial to remain flexible and be willing to adjust or even change partners to meet shifting needs.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to enhance job quality, create new roles, and elevate the value of uniquely human skills such as creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence, experts revealed during the latest ILO webinar in the AI For Good Series. James Bessen, Executive Director of Boston University’s Technology and Policy Research Initiatives, served as the keynote speaker at the event, entitled "What will AI do to our work?". He insisted that despite widespread fears of artificial intelligence causing mass unemployment, the technology had the potential to lead to long term job growth and economic development. “Automation is going to happen more positively when workers are provided with the skills and capabilities to make the most of it,” he said, adding that the challenge was to move away from a world where people are only educated when they are young with the belief the skills will last their entire working life. “We have to change the way our educational institutions work to develop lifelong learning. We need to develop ways of allowing workers to develop new skills working with the new technology, and we need to encourage institutions so that new skills will lead to higher pay,” he explained. The webinar, which was held last week was moderated by Pawel Gmyrek, ILO senior researcher. It is part of a larger thematic series on AI and Work, co-hosted by the ILO and ITU as part of collaboration between AI for Good and the ILO AI Observatory. Key insights from the discussion included: - Task Transformation: Artificial intelligence may replace some jobs, but it can also transform tasks within occupations, enabling workers to focus on higher-value activities, which can lead to new approaches and skills.
- Skill Demand: As AI handles repetitive or routine tasks, demand increases for uniquely human skills such as complex problem-solving, and interpersonal communication.
- Historical Parallels: Drawing on examples from past technological revolutions, Bessen explained that periods of job displacement due to industry developments have historically been followed by long-term job growth and economic development.
Bessen noted that there were some risks of AI misuse, such as increased employee surveillance or invasions of privacy, and insisted that where the introduction of technology had worked best it had not “antagonized workers, if anything it involved their participation.” The ILO Observatory on Artificial Intelligence and Work in the Digital Economy is the leading international knowledge hub on the world-of-work dimensions of AI and the digital economy. It aims to support governments and social partners in understanding and managing the digital transformation of work through upskilling, standard-setting, and the advancement of AI governance for sustainable development.
|
