SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme

0.        Event Recording

I.        Background

All Southeast Asian countries have positioned Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the mainstream of education systems and set it as a priority in their education agendas due to its crucial role in the socio-economic development of a nation.

To promote the internationalisation of TVET institutions and improve international competitiveness and employability of TVET students in Southeast Asian countries, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) in collaboration with Ministries of Education, other TVET-relevant Ministries, and TVET institutions have introduced the SEAMEO Polytechnic Network. The Network of colleges, polytechnics, and university of technologies from Southeast Asia conducts regional exchange programmes and other collaborations to provide their students and faculty staff with international education experiences.

As recommended during the 3rd High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET, hosted by the Ministry of Education of Malaysia in May 2017, the SEAMEO Secretariat serves as a coordinator and facilitator of the exchange programmes.

Since 2018, the SEAMEO Secretariat in collaboration with TVET institutions and relevant Ministries have implemented the “SEAMEO Polytechnic Meeting” twice a year as a “Meeting Platform” to discuss the implementation process and seek commitments from the participating institutions for SEA-TVET Student Exchange Programme. As a result, the SEA-TVET Student Exchange Programme has been implemented for 4 batches with the total number of 1,143 TVET students exchanged in 2018-2019 between Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Disrupted by the pandemic, the exchange has been halted and the planned 5th batch could not be conducted in 2020. After reassessing the current global and regional situation, SEAMEO has decided to conduct the first virtual student exchange under the SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme in May-June 2022. The first batch of the virtual student exchange will be conducted as a pilot with institutions from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam, who have previously already signed up for the 5th batch of the SEA-TVET Exchange Programme.

To introduce the virtual exchange mechanism, timeline, and requirements, and to collect feedback on virtual exchange readiness of participating institutions, SEAMEO will organize the Virtual Briefing Meeting for SEAMEO TVET Network Institutions. The Briefing Meeting will constitute the official kick-off of the SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme.

II.        Organisers and Host

 The Briefing Meeting is organized and hosted virtually by the Southeast Asia Ministers of Education Organisation (SEAMEO) Secretariat.

III.       Objectives of the Virtual Briefing Meeting

The Briefing Meeting aims to:

i)          Inform institutions of the mechanism of the virtual student exchange, timeline, and requirements.

ii)         Collect feedback from institutions on their capacity for virtual exchange and expectations such as preferred duration, formats, and occupations.

iii)        Prepare SEAMEO TVET Network institutions on how to arrange their participation in the virtual SEAMEO TVET Student Exchange Programme in 2022.

The Briefing Meeting aims to introduce the concept and mechanism of the virtual exchange to institutions and ministry coordinators. Following the briefing meeting there will be a registration period of approximately 3 weeks for the SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme itself.

IV.       Expected Outputs

The Briefing Meeting is expected to deliver the following outputs:

• Institutions are aware of the mechanism, timeline, and requirements to participate in the virtual SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme.
• Feedback from institutions on the mechanism, their expectations towards the exchange programme, and framework conditions is collected and integrated into the exchange planning.
• Institutions are prepared to take the next steps for the virtual student exchange such as signing letters of agreement and institutional conformation forms.

V.        Participants

The meeting will be attended by approximately 200 participants from TVET Institutions/Polytechnics/Universities as well as coordinators from related ministries from Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Since participation in the SEAMEO TVET Exchange Programme will require the decision from the TVET institutions as a follow-up after the meeting, the participants should be from the management level such as Director, Deputy Director, Head of Programme, Head of International Relations, Head of Academic Affairs, or related positions.

The participating TVET institutions should provide Diploma/Higher Diploma/TVET Bachelor in the following priority study areas.

Preferred:

• Computer Science/IT/ Informatics
• Multimedia/ Creative Industry
• Business/Entrepreneurship

Optional:

• Hospitality and Tourism
• Health Science
• Agriculture/Animal Science
• Mechatronics/Electronics and Manufacturing