TVET teachers and trainers

TVET teachers and trainers take on the following roles and responsibilities:

  • Planning, organizing and delivering off-the-job training in TVET institutions within the framework of the overall apprenticeship programme;
  • Interacting with their counterparts in partner enterprises in order to ensure optimal coordination between the off-the-job and on-the-job elements of the training programme;
  • Monitoring the learning progress and skills development of apprentices on a regular basis;
  • Updating their knowledge, skills and competence in their own professional field and adapting their training methods on a regular basis;
  • Taking on work experience in partner enterprises in order to update their understanding of the skills requirements of the different occupations and to experience personally the learning environment of apprentices in enterprises;
  • Providing special care for apprentices with learning difficulties, disabilities and other limitations.

In order to carry out these roles and responsibilities TVET teachers and trainers will need to be well qualified - and, in the case of licensed occupations linked to apprenticeships, hold the necessary professional certifications. Box 24 gives an indication of the qualifications that are required in one particular country, Austria.

Box 6: Qualifications for teachers and trainers in VET institutions - Austria

Part-time vocational school teachers are trained in a three-year bachelor course at university institutions of education. The first and third year of the study are completed on a part-time basis; the second is a full-time study year. Graduates are awarded the academic degree Bachelor of Education (BEd).

Greatly simplified, the following three groups of part-time vocational institution teachers can be distinguished:

- Group 1: Teachers of general education subjects and teachers of business administration
- Group 2: Teachers of occupation-related theory
- Group 3: Teachers of occupation-related practice

The prerequisite for obtaining the teaching diploma for part-time vocational institutions in Groups 1 and 2 is the certificate of secondary education and VET diploma which grants access to tertiary education from a specialist VET institution, the upper secondary school-leaving certificate or the certificate providing general access to higher education (HE) for skilled workers and graduates of three- to four-year full-time VET institutions and relevant training.

For Group 3 it is necessary to furnish proof of a relevant master craftsperson certificate or an equivalent relevant qualification as well as the general university entrance qualification. In addition, as well as personal aptitude, at least three years’ relevant professional practice is required for admission to HE study programmes (Tritscher-Archan, 2015, p. 28).