Towards excellence in teaching in the EU neighbourhood: insights from the Torino Process
Pedagogical skills, subject knowledge, and an eagerness to adapt and update them in response to challenges and opportunities in the surrounding environment are essential for today’s educators.
They also need strong social skills, whether engaging face to face or virtually with learners, as the societal issues of the world at large, such as migration, are played out in the classroom microcosm.
The ETF, an Agency of the EU working on human capital development in its neighbouring regions, is working together with country counterparts to better understand and respond to the skills development of educators and learners. It undertakes regular monitoring of system-wide progress in education and training, as well as targeted studies and surveys on key components as with educators. The results are intended to guide policy refinement, resource allocation, and strategy formulation with the well-being and success of learners at the centre.
The Torino Process is a biennial review of vocational education and training systems within a lifelong learning perspective. It was established by the European Training Foundation (ETF) in 2010 and since then has been carried out in partner countries in South Eastern Europe, Türkiye, Eastern Europe, Central Asia and the Southern and Eastern Mediterranean.
The 6th round of the Torino Process 2022 -2024 monitoring exercise examined many of the deliverables of vocational education and training systems including better conditions of work for teachers and staff in leadership positions in education and training. It introduced a novel monitoring exercise across 22 countries focusing on system performance and lifelong learning, in particular the degree to which countries create and sustain good and equitable opportunities for lifelong learning, and the impact which initial and continuing VET has on the educational and career paths of youth and adult individuals.
The emphasis has been on excellence in teaching and the professional growth of educators, the integration of innovative practices to boost the quality and relevance of teachers work in support of learning and training, the competence of VET school leaders, and the efficiency in managing human resources allocated to the system, particularly the availability and proper deployment of teachers and trainers.
The 2023 monitoring delivered a mixed message in these areas. The results point out both positive trends, such as the improvement in learning quality and efforts to align education with labour market demands, as well as areas of concern or at least room for improvement. Examples include the presence of gaps in leadership capacity across countries, only moderate emphasis on pedagogical excellence despite commitments to the contrary, and moderate efficiency in managing human resources.
Good leaders and good teachers are essential for the quality of learning. The findings regarding innovation in support of better and more relevant teaching are positive as quite a few countries in the Torino Process sample report being open to innovative practices in this domain. Yet, in many contexts the system-wide uptake of innovative solutions remains a challenge.
Additionally, results indicate that countries are only moderately efficient in managing their human resources in VET. In many, policies and practices to recruit and retain qualified teachers and trainers and ensure their effective allocation and utilization across various institutions and programmes, may need attention. This is also true for the scheduling and management of their workload and career progression so that they have better conditions and support to meet VET-specific objectives and equip students with skills.
Drawing upon the experience and expertise of key experts this 17th edition of Learning Connects focuses on ways to overcome system wide difficulties featured in the Torino Process findings including support for teacher empowerment and engagement in policy dialogue, discussion on contemporary challenges, such as artificial intelligence, and better understanding of educators professional development needs and supporting tools.