by Giovanni Crisonà, Skillman.eu Leader

Since its establishment in 2014, the Skillman network has been involved in a stimulating debate on education and learning. Recently the pandemic changed deeply this debate and the way we see and discuss the future of learning and also the questions we can ask about the role of advanced manufacturing in our society. 

Free access to education, inclusion, sustainable development, digitalization, accessible innovation, entrepreneurial learning, work-based learning and competency-based learning, cooperative and systematic approach to excellence in Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) are concepts that became part of the reasons why in 2019 we have launched the Skillman GlobalCoVEs platform.

Behind all the Skillman initiatives there is a solid view on how to keep on the attention to ethics in education: we believe that ethical principles should not only inspire strategic action plans and systemic changes in TVET but also make possible the recognition and integration of ethical competences in new and revised curricula.

With the annual forums, we look to redefine the future of learning in order to design an inclusive and peaceful society capable of achieving all the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) where TVET should be for all, regardless of regional location, gender, ethnicity, age and social or economic status.

It’s crucial to profile correctly the skills for the future adopting a systematic approach to skills anticipation/foresight and for this reason, we have set multi-stakeholder cooperation for re-engineering TVET systems, in order to make them “future proof” and in order to redesign the existing curricula fostering both Skills for Life and Skills for Work. 

We call to join forces to promote an approach to curriculum design based on skills foresight analysis and which must involve, through a multi-channel engagement plan, all the actors and stakeholders that in Europe, for example, are also involved into the European platforms for the regional smart specialisation.

We promote the model of excellence for all as it is embodied in the Skillman’s self-assessment tool which has been designed as a subtle mechanism for continuous evaluation and fine-tuning of 25 variables for excellence in TVET. The tool is an open-source solution benefited by organisations that share the idea to consider excellence as a sustainable goal for levelling up performance and not for competition.

The members of Skillman network are promoting universal principles for TVET by calling 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 taking care for the future of TVET.

SIF 2020 is another small step in this long pathway and is designed for provoking an open debate on how to redefine the future of learning by drawing together the new declaration: 2020 UNIVERSAL PACT FOR EXCELLENCE.