Established in 2014, the Skillman.eu Network delivers concrete and innovative solutions as to the skills needed in the field of advanced manufacturing involving organizations in 84 countries.
ethical campaign to reshape the future of learning

Since its establishment in 2014, the Skillman network has been involved in stimulating innovation, entrepreneurship, and inclusive and sustainable development through a cooperative and systematic approach to excellence in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET). This system has led partly to the creation of the Skillman GlobalCoVEs platform.

We believe that ethical principles for education should not only inspire strategic action plans and systemic changes – they should also make it possible to recognise and integrate ethical competences in curricula, so as to achieve an inclusive and peaceful society capable of achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In short, TVET should be for everyone regardless of location, gender, ethnicity, age, or social or economic status.

Accordingly, we consider it crucial to correctly profile the skills for the future, and adopt systematic approaches to anticipate or foresee required skills.

We must join forces to promote a curriculum design approach based on skills foresight analysis which involves all the actors and stakeholders through a multi-channel engagement plan and regional smart specialisation platforms. It is also fundamental for all stakeholders to cooperate and re-engineer TVET systems to make them “future proof” and redesign existing curricula to incorporate both Skills for Life and Skills for Work.

TVET organisations should be encouraged to contribute to common databases of performance indicators. In order to achieve ‘excellence in TVET’, a common view on its meaning should be understood.

EXCELLENCE IN TVET
While the word ‘excellence’ might seem obvious as a key element in the bid to improve TVET systems, boost skills acquisition and create decent employment, there are various distinctions.

Excellence in TVET for us is:

• not just high-quality training and education;
• not something pertinent or belonging only to elites;
• not a status or a level, but an organizational dimension linked to the TVET community as a whole, providing aggregated results which address the whole of society;
• an enlarged, more comprehensive and inclusive conceptualisation of skills provision;
• something that addresses innovation, pedagogy, social justice, life-long learning, transversal skills, organisational and continuing professional learning and community needs;
• a sustainable goal aimed at uplifting the performance of organisations and their courses, but not at the competitive exclusion or denigration of others; and
• a reason to look at a holistic and homeostatic approach to education which promulgates mutual collaboration and the attractiveness of TVET.

The meaning of excellence that we promote is embodied in SAT: Skillman’s Self-Assessment Tool which seeks to achieve the concept of excellence for all. The tool has been designed for the continual evaluation and fine-tuning of 25 variables for excellence in TVET. It is open-source, with more than 100 organisations already benefiting from its vision.

The members of the network call on action policymakers, researchers, professors, teachers and trainers, directors, academic and practitioners, public administration managers, company representatives and training managers, practitioners of TVET and anyone interested in the future of TVET, to join this appeal and promote these ethical principles.

A PACT FOR EXCELLENCE
Excellence in TVET is excellence for all and not excellence for few.
“Excellence” is a continual process of improvement.
Access to quality learning opportunities is a human right for upskilling, re-skilling, full citizenship and employability.
All SDG principles and ethical skills should be embedded in curricula development.
A holistic approach to skills development should foster both Skills for Life and Skills for Work.

If you agree with these statements, subscribe to this petition and let our voices be heard!

The campaign is organised by the Skillman Alliance, including Skillman.eu, Iveta, and Eapril. It is realised with the support of the EU Commission within the Skillnet project 609063-EPP-1-2019-1-IT-EPPKA3-VET-NETPAR.

The project is a KA3- Support for Policy Reform initiative which covers the whole EU-27 territory plus several countries outside the EU borders. It aims at:

Encouraging the creation of transnational and national VET providers’ networks and partnerships to improve the quality and efficiency of VET at national and European level, enhance their impact and relevance for learners and employers, and build cross-border cooperation for VET quality and attractiveness;

Foster communication, dissemination and support for the implementation of the VET policy agenda at EU and national level, to exchange knowledge, feedback and experience of policy implementation and sharing of best practices on VET excellence.