- 2020Design
- 2021Design
- 2022Design
Background
One of the priority objectives of the Long-term plan for education and the development of the education system of the Czech Republic 2019-23 is to increase the involvement of employers and relevant ministries in upper secondary education and to foster the introduction and strengthening of elements of dual system in vocational education and training.
The Strategy 2030+ roadmap of key measures for the period of 2020-23, Innovation of the fields of study system, under Measure 3 among the objectives of Key Action 3.1, Improving the quality of practical training calls for creating the quality standards and parameters of practical training implemented in company and school-based workplaces.
Employers are successfully involved in the practical training and work-based learning of students. There are many examples of good practice, however, there is still no systemic and well-functioning link between education and the world of work that would enable the school system to respond to changing labour market requirements and needs. It is necessary to increase student learning options in a real-work environment. Therefore, the introduction of a modified form of dual system of vocational education adapted to the Czech circumstances is supported while implementing the broadest possible forms of cooperation between schools and companies. Direct communication with employer representatives will also be encouraged in order to set up a system facilitating the transfer of information on student vocational training options at real workplaces in companies and on the benefits of such cooperation.
Objectives
Provision of practical training in real-life environment is not mandatory for employers in the Czech Republic. VET school directors are exclusively responsible for the quality of practical training, yet they can influence the quality of workplace training only to a limited extent. The standard should be motivational for employers; it should support the comparability of conditions and circumstances under which practical training is implemented. The standard will be developed in line with the principles of the EQAVET quality assurance and the Framework for quality and effective apprenticeships.
Description
The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports focuses on expanding options for students to get practical training in a real work environment with the use of elements of the dual system of VET. Favourable conditions will continue to be created to increase the involvement of experts from practice in teaching and implementation of internships for pedagogical staff in companies. Cooperation with employer representatives will be developed based on the Agreement on the division of responsibilities for individual areas of initial education (2016). The measure will include the development of quality standards for company and school-based workplaces where practical training is implemented. The standard will reflect the results of the Analysis on quality and performance of practical training especially in relation to the acquisition of professional, civic and personal competences. The analysis will be conducted by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic in 2021/22.
An internal working group of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and an internal working group of the National Pedagogical Institute were established.
The internal working group of the National Pedagogical Institute prepared a draft standard for practical education provided at a company workplace, based on the quality cycle and selected criteria of the Framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. The draft was communicated to the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and a sample of upper secondary VET schools and employers.
The analysis on quality and performance of practical training by the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic planned for 2021/22 was not conducted.
In 2022, the working group of the NPI CR prepared the draft of quality standards for practical training at employers’ premises. The draft was in the form of a checklist and the working group also prepared a separate checklist for school workplaces (school workshops). The draft incorporated some of the CSI criteria from the Quality School framework (criteria for assessing the conditions, course and outcomes of education in the modification for upper-secondary VET).
In cooperation with NRP EQAVET CZ, the set of quality criteria and conditions of practical training at employers’ and school workplaces was adapted into a self-evaluation tool for assessing conditions of practical training at employers’ and school workplaces. The actual piloting took place in October and November in selected secondary VET schools across all regions of the Czech Republic in order to capture diversity of practical training conditions. For the purposes of the pilot, 40 schools had been approached and 17 of them signed up for participating. Feedback will be processed in early 2023.
In October 2022 the “Standards of practice” developed by the Confederation of Industry within the Competence 4.0. project were published. They constitute a practical tool for establishing cooperation between companies and schools. It guides the cooperating entities through all key procedural and organisational steps when providing practical vocational training in companies’ workplaces.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports
- National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
Education professionals
- Trainers
- School leaders
Entities providing VET
- Companies
- Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
- VET providers (all kinds)
Other stakeholders
- Social partners (employer organisations and trade unions)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
This thematic sub-category refers to further development of national quality assurance (QA) systems for IVET and CVET, for all learning environments (school-based provision and work-based learning, including apprenticeships) and all learning types (digital, face-to-face or blended), delivered by both public and private providers. These systems are underpinned by the EQAVET quality criteria and by indicative descriptors applied both at system and provider levels, as defined in Annex II of the VET Recommendation. The sub-category concerns creating and improving external and self-evaluation of VET providers, and establishing criteria of QA, accreditation of providers and programmes. It also covers the activities of Quality assurance national reference points for VET on implementing and further developing the EQAVET framework, including the implementation of peer reviews at VET system level.
Modernising VET offer and delivery
This thematic category looks at what and how individuals learn, how learning content and learning outcomes in initial and continuing VET are defined, adapted and updated. First and foremost, it examines how VET standards, curricula, programmes and training courses are updated and modernised or new ones created. Updated and renewed VET content ensures that learners acquire a balanced mix of competences that address modern demands, and are more closely aligned with the realities of the labour market, including key competences, digital competences and skills for green transition and sustainability, both sector-specific and across sectors. Using learning outcomes as a basis is important to facilitate this modernisation, including modularisation of VET programmes. Updating and developing teaching and learning materials to support the above is also part of the category.
The thematic category continues to focus on strengthening high-quality and inclusive apprenticeships and work-based learning in real-life work environments and in line with the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. It looks at expanding apprenticeship to continuing vocational training and at developing VET programmes at EQF levels 5-8 for better permeability and lifelong learning and to support the need for higher vocational skills.
This thematic category also focuses on VET delivery through a mix of open, digital and participative learning environments, including workplaces conducive to learning, which are flexible, more adaptable to the ways individuals learn, and provide more access and outreach to various groups of learners, diversifying modes of learning and exploiting the potential of digital learning solutions and blended learning to complement face-to-face learning.
Centres of vocational excellence that connect VET to innovation and skill ecosystems and facilitate stronger cooperation with business and research also fall into this category.
This thematic sub-category covers all developments related to work-based learning (WBL) elements in VET programmes and apprenticeships which continue to be important in the policy agenda. It includes measures to stabilise the offer of apprenticeships, the implementation of the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships, and using the EU on-demand support services and policy learning initiatives among the Member States. It also covers further expansion of apprenticeships and WBL to continuing VET (CVET), for transition to work and inclusion of vulnerable groups, and for improving citizens’ qualification levels.
Teachers, trainers and school leaders competences
Competent and motivated VET teachers in schools and trainers in companies are crucial to VET becoming innovative and relevant, agile, resilient, flexible, inclusive and lifelong.
This thematic category comprises policies and practices of initial training and continuing professional development approaches in a systemic and systematic manner. It also looks at measures aiming to update (entry) requirements and make teaching and training careers attractive and bring more young and talented individuals and business professionals into teaching and training. Supporting VET educators by equipping them with adequate competences, skills and tools for the green transition and digital teaching and learning are addressed in separate thematic sub-categories.
The measures in this category target teachers and school leaders, company trainers and mentors, adult educators and guidance practitioners.
This thematic sub-category refers to all kinds of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) for VET educators who work in vocational schools and in companies providing VET. VET educators include teachers and school leaders, trainers and company managers involved in VET, as well as adult educators and guidance practitioners – those who work in school- and work-based settings. The thematic sub-category includes national strategies, training programmes or individual courses to address the learning needs of VET educators and to develop their vocational (technical) skills, and pedagogical (teaching) skills and competences. Such programmes concern state-of-the-art vocational pedagogy, innovative teaching methods, and competences needed to address evolving teaching environments, e.g. teaching in multicultural settings, working with learners at risk of early leaving, etc.