News
Launch of the New UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization at Shenzhen Polytechnic
Harnessing the power of the digital revolution to ensure quality education and Transform Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) is key to achieving socio-economic development and industrialization. The Shenzhen Polytechnic believes in this fundamental mission to transform its training system by mainstreaming ICTs in all its training programmes to ensure the delivery of quality TVET and quality graduate aligned with the needs of the labour market.
The UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization was successfully launched at the Shenzhen Polytechnic on 16th March 2023. Over 1,000 participants joined the launch event on-line and 300 participants attended face to face. Over 220 members of the UNESCO Vocational Education and Training Network from more than 140 countries participated in this international academic event online. Congratulatory messages were delivered by Prof. Shahbaz Khan, Director of the UNESCO Beijing Office, Mr. Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO, Mr. Hervé Huot-Marchand, Chief of Section of Youth, Literacy and Skills Development, Mr. Friedrich Huebler, Head of UNEVOC International Centre in Bonn, Mr. Cai Maozhou, Director and Superintendent of Shenzhen Municipal Education Bureau, Ms. Han Wei, Executive Deputy Director of UNESCO Higher Education Innovation Center and Mr. Lu Yongping, President of Huawei China Government-Enterprise Education and Medical System Department. Also attended and spoke at the event were, Mr. Robert Parua, Education Programme Specialist from UNESCO Beijing Office, Ms. Sarah Elson-Rogers, Program Director of UNESCO International Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training, Wilson Junior, Program Supervisor, Alexandra Filipova, Program Officer, Mr. Han Xibin, Vice President of the Institute of Education of Tsinghua University, Mr. Zhang Zhenbo, Vice President of Huawei China Government-Enterprise Education and Medical System Department, and Prof. Yang Xinbin, Holder of UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET.
The Shenzhen Polytechnic is one of the top TVET Institutions in China. It has met all the requirements and conditions of being designated as a UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization. This Chair is unique and the only UNESCO Chair devoted to TVET digitalization in the UNESCO network of over 900 UNESCO Chairs and University Networks.
The Chair’s mission and aim is to establish a joint global network of UNESCO Chairs in TVET to promote TVET digitalization at the global, regional and country level. The Chair is expected to promote policy dialogue, capacity development, sharing good practices and act as a catalyst for international cooperation in TVET Digitalization.
Professor Shahbaz Khan, Director of Beijing Office congratulated the new UNESCO Chair in Digitalization and urged the Chair to align its work with the new UNESCO Global Strategy for TVET (2022-2029). He reaffirmed UNESCO’s strong commitment to ensure the success of the UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization to support TVET Institutions at regional and global level.
Mr. Qin Changwei, Secretary-General of the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO reiterated in his opening remarks that the new UNESCO Chair will play a pivotal role in contributing towards the Chinese Government’s TVET modernization strategy and foster international cooperation to share China’s success story in TVET reform and modernization to meet the demands of the industry and labour market.
Mr. Lu Yongping, President of Huawei China Government-Enterprise Education and Medical System Department, reaffirmed his commitment to supporting the Shenzhen Polytechnic to deliver effectively TVET Digitalization initiatives at the national, regional and global level and further deepen the public -private partnership in digitalization process.
Mr. Xu Jianling, President of Shenzhen Polytechnic thanked UNESCO for approving the UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization and reaffirmed Shenzhen Polytechnic’s solid commitment to support the new UNESCO Chair to fulfill its mission and objectives.
Mr. Friedrich Huebler, Head of UNEVOC International Centre in Bonn, in his congratulatory message highlighted the importance of TVET Digitalization and reaffirmed UNEVOC International Centre’s mission to assist the new UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization to succeeded. TVET Digitalization is a key pillar in the UNEVOC global strategy.
The message from TVET Section at UNESCO Headquarters congratulated the new UNESCO Chair in TVET digitalization and reiterated that the work of the Chair is directly aligned with the UNESCO Global Strategy in TVET, UNESCO will support the work of the UNESCO Chair to advance digital skills agenda at the global and regional level with focus in Africa.
The Launch of the UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization coincided with the hosting of the Global Forum on Digital Transformation in TVET. Presentations were delivered by Shenzhen Polytechnic, UNESCO Beijing, UNEVOC International Centre in Bonn, Huawei Company. Mr. Robert Parua’ Education Programme Specialist of UNESCO Beijing Office made a presentation on the Objectives and Background of the UNESCO Chairs UNITWIN Programme and UNESCO ICT in Education programme to complement the work of the new Chair.
Another major outcome of the Launch was the launching of the Huawei Academy. The Huawei Representative reiterated in his speech that the company is deeply committed to advancing digital skills development and digital transformation agenda of the United Nations. Huawei is also a member of the Global Coalition of companies that are committed to digital transformation in partnership with UNESCO and United Nations.
As digitalization is playing a more and more crucial role in future-oriented education systems, technical and vocational education and training (TVET) systems are being modernized in many countries to align with the rapidly changing digital economy, knowledge-based economy and the future world of work. With the launch of the UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization in Shenzhen Polytechnic, the new UNESCO Chair will focus specifically on the theme of Digitalization in TVET.
The Chair is being established at the right moment straight after the UN Transforming Education Summit in September 2022. The Transforming Education Summit had highlighted Digital Learning as a top strategic priority for action at all levels of the education systems.
The new UNESCO Chair’s work will be closely aligned with the newly launched UNESCO’s global strategy on TVET (2022-2029) , China UN Sustainable Development Cooperation Framework (2021-2025), China’s 14 five-year plan, 2035 Education and TVET modernization plan of the Chinese Ministry of Education. The Shenzhen Polytechnic had acquired a lot of experience and equipped with technical expertise in its role as a UNEVOC Centre it contributed towards knowledge sharing of best practices and a catalyst for international cooperation.
The UNESCO Chair in Digitalization aims to foster closer cooperation between the education and private sectors, enhance TVET programmes in digital technologies and Teaching and Learning (T&L) resource databases, and facilitate digital transformation of traditional TVET programmes, promotion of TVET digitalizationin developing countries, close the digital divide in TVET Sector, drive and align both digital transformation of traditional industries and industrialization of digital technologies, and finally foster partnerships to promote TVET digitalization at the global and regional levels to contribute to required skilled manpower to sustain the economic growth and sustainable development.
The UNESCO Chair TVET Digitalization will further contribute towards strengthening north-south-south cooperation in TVET fostering deeper collaboration among the TVET Institutions in Asia Pacific region, Africa and globally under the Belt and Road Initiative. This UNESCO Chair is expected to contribute towards China’s industrialization process and closing the gap in skills demand and align the skills training with the needs of the labour market.
This new Chair will support the promotion of “Digitalization in TVET” from eight dimensions:
Research on theories and practices of Digitalization in TVET to incubate and advocate the concept of “Digitalization in TVET”.
Development of the Digitalized TVET Governance Framework to facilitate digital transformation of governance in TVET institutions.
Development of the TVET Teacher Digital Competency Framework to improve capacity building and performance appraisal for teachers.
Establishment of teaching & learning (T&L) resource databases for programmes in digital technologies to prepare students for the digitalized world of work.
Digital transformation of traditional TVET programmes to match sustainable development needs and future skills demand.
Development of professional and generic digital skills qualifications to facilitate digital upskilling among the workforce.
Digital transformation of T&L techniques and methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of TVET.
Support to digitalization in developing countries to help close the digital divide for south-south cooperation, multi-partner cooperation and wider sustainable development benefit.
UNESCO is committed to support and jointly work closely with new UNESCO Chair in TVET Digitalization hosted by Shenzhen Polytechnic (SZPT) to play a pivotal role in enhancing the capacity of TVET Institutions and TVET infrastructure in China and in developing countries in the digital transformation of TVET aligned with the UN Agenda for Sustainable development Goals 4 & 8 in education and employment.
References:
More to read:
Launched in 1992, the UNITWIN/UNESCO Chairs Programme, which involves over 850 institutions in 117 countries, promotes international inter-university cooperation and networking to enhance institutional capacities through knowledge sharing and collaborative work. The programme supports the establishment of UNESCO Chairs and UNITWIN Networks in key priority areas related to UNESCO’s fields of competence – i.e. in education, the natural and social sciences, culture and communication.
Through this network, higher education and research institutions all over the globe pool their resources, both human and material, to address pressing challenges and contribute to the development of their societies. In many instances, the networks and chairs serve as thinktanks and bridgebuilders between academia, civil society, local communities, research and policy-making. They have proven useful in informing policy decisions, establishing new teaching initiatives, generating innovation through research and contributing to the enrichment of existing university programmes while promoting cultural diversity. In areas lacking expertise, chairs and networks have evolved into poles of excellence and innovation at regional or sub-regional levels. They also contribute to strengthening North-South-South cooperation.
UNESCO-UNEVOC network is engaged in a number of projects on the impacts of digitalization on TVET in terms of new digital skills and competencies, trends in digital skills training for teachers and trainers, toolkits to support TVET providers to identify their needs and assess their progress in TVET priorities. Those digital transformations will make changes to teaching and learning, and delivery processes, which would further change the role of TVET providers within their education and labour market ecosystems and communities.
References:
