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Katerina Ananiadou, Beñat Bilbao-Osorio, Tracey Burns, Francesc Pedró, and Vanessa Shadoian-Gersing report back from:
The Fourth meeting of National Experts in VET which was kindly co-organised and hosted by the Swiss Federal Government on 23-24 March 2009, and the Interdisciplinary Congress on Research in VET on 25-27 March 2009, held in Berne, Switzerland.
March 23 was the day devoted to the discussion of the main findings and policy implications of the work done on Systemic Innovation in VET. The discussion was organised around four different topics: overview of the project, its analytical framework and the resulting report (Francesc Pedro); the model of innovation and the processes of innovation (Vanessa Shadoian-Gersing); the use of knowledge in systemic innovation and the central role of the knowledge base in the innovation system (Katerina); drivers, enablers, and barriers (Beñat Bilbao-Osorio); the role of governments (Tracey Burns); and finally the main lessons and policy recommendations as well as the pending agenda (Francesc Pedro).
These presentations allowed for lively discussions, participants stressed the relevance and timeliness of this study and endorsed in particular the systemic innovation approach as a useful analytical tool, and a guiding principle for Innovation Policy. The need was stressed for a holistic approach for top-down and bottom-up innovation, with an emphasis on the role of knowledge in the process. The importance of brokerage and dissemination of information was underlined, as well as capacity building for stakeholders to make good use of the existing knowledge base.
This was the first Interdisciplinary Congress on Research in VET organised by the Swiss Federal Institute for VET (SFIVET) at their headquarters in Berne/Zollikofen. The programme of the Congress was very varied and provided an excellent opportunity to explore the many aspects of current international research work undertaken to enhance learning and improving VET training systems worldwide. It included a number of keynote addresses by international researchers, several parallel thematic and paper sessions and poster presentations. The congress was well attended by a number of researchers and policy makers in the field of VET, from a wide range of countries, including Switzerland, Germany, the UK, the United States and Australia.
We attended the keynote address by Professor Martin Carnoy of Stanford University who addressed the question of what type of VET system is best suited to address the challenges of the new global economy. Professor Carnoy contrasted the long-established and highly structured dual VET systems such as the Swiss one with the more flexible US-type models of vocational training and argued that the latter is better suited to face issues such as increased global competition and demographic changes. A very lively discussion followed his talk with delegates particularly from Switzerland disagreeing with many of his propositions and contesting some of the statistics used as evidence in his talk.
A second keynote address was given by Professor James Pellegrino from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Professor Pellegrino is a cognitive psychologist and assessment specialist and talked about his experience of re-designing a high-stakes assessment programme in the US (the Advanced Placement examination) in order to discuss implications for designing effective VET assessment programmes. His view was that thinking carefully about assessment issues is essential in the design of successful educational programmes as it forces to think seriously about desired learning outcomes and ways to achieve them.
We also attended a number of thematic and paper sessions. The session on ‘an integrated learning approach for the effectiveness of technologies in a dual VET system’ included a series of presentations arising from the work of the Leading House on Technologies for Vocational Training. One particularly impressive presentation was by Patrick Jermann and his colleagues at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne who presented a simulation of a logistic process designed to be used in the context of the college training of dual-training students in the field of logistics. It provided an excellent example of how technology can bridge the gap between work-based training and the more conceptual, abstract learning that takes place in the classroom in dual systems.
Another paper session focused on the impact of systemic changes in VET. The two presentations that made up this session examined two different aspects of systemic change: the first involved a bottom-up approach to introducing a new professional development programme for VET teachers in Western Australia (presented by Rebecca Saunders of Murdoch University); the second was a comparative examination of top-down driven policy initiatives for improving permeability between the VET and HE in Switzerland and Germany (presented by Bettina Siecke of the University of Giessen).
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