4th High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET

Background:

All Southeast Asian countries have positioned Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in the mainstream of education systems and setting it as a priority in their education agenda in view of the fact that this type of education plays an important role in the socio-economic development of a nation (Paryono, 2013).

TVET has been identified as one of the seven priority areas of SEAMEO Education Agenda for development in Southeast Asia, which were agreed at the Strategic Dialogue of Education Ministers (SDEM) meeting in September 2014.

In addition, the World Education Forum in 2015 announced the Incheon Declaration and Framework for Action by proposing the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 – emphasizing the importance of TVET education - ‘by 2030, substantially increase the number of youth and adults who have relevant skills, including, technical and vocational skills, for employment, decent jobs and entrepreneurship’.

The Southeast Asian countries have attempted to promote regional cooperation, harmonisation and internationalisation of TVET education in the region by actively participated in the following TVET High Officials Meeting since 2015.

• 1st High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET, with the theme “Working Together towards Harmonisation and Internationalisation of TVET in Southeast Asia”, hosted by the Office of the Vocational Education Commission, Ministry of Education, Thailand, on 23-26 August 2015, Chiangmai, Thailand.
• 2nd High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET, with the theme “Strengthening Efforts towards Harmonisation and Internationalisation of TVET in Southeast Asia”, hosted by the Department of Technical and Vocational Education, Ministry of Education and Culture, on 12-14 May 2016, Bali, Indonesia.
• 3rd High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET, with the theme “21st Century TVET in Southeast Asia: Advancing Toward Harmonisation and Internationalisation”, hosted by the Ministry of Education, and the Government of Malaysia, on 23-25 May 2017, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Since the 1st High Officials on SEA-TVET organised in 2015, various new national and regional initiatives in TVET have been created and co-developed among the Southeast Asian countries, and Development Agencies with the purposes among others are to improve the quality of TVET, to promote partnerships among TVET institutions, to strengthen involvement of industries, to leverage capacity of TVET personnel, to harmonise TVET curriculum among participating countries, and to promote the mobility of skilled workers, teachers and students. Various activities have been organised at all levels of TVET personnel such as policy makers, TVET school/college leaders, researchers, teachers and students.

At the 3rd High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET in May 2017, Malaysia, the Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA) of the Philippines, declared the commitment to host the 4th High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET in the Philippines in 2018.

Considering the regional trends and issues in TVET education development especially in the anticipation of Industry 4.0 revolution, the theme of this regional meeting will be “Moving Together Towards TVET 4.0”. The programme aims to focus on the regional initiatives, and discuss on the policies and TVET education components such as policy, curriculum and teaching pedagogies, and TVET personnel that will accelerate the Southeast Asian countries to leverage their TVET education for the Industry 4.0 Revolution.

Objective(s):

• To discuss the current situation of TVET collaboration during 2017-2018 and to identify the strategies to improve the regional cooperation for the region;
• To discuss the national and regional TVET initiatives that may enhance the responsiveness of the member states and the region towards Industry 4.0;
• to determine and plan for the regional directions and strategies to advance the quality of TVET in line with the Industry 4.0 and harmonisation in Southeast Asian countries;
• To seek advice/approval on the regional initiatives from the TVET High Officials for further implementation; and
• To strengthen cooperation among the TVET Ministries/Departments and TVET development agencies among Southeast Asia and with other countries beyond Southeast Asian.

Outcome/Output:

The complete 3-part Declaration of Agreements of the 4th High Officials' Round Table Meeting can be found here. 

• Part 1 Reviewing the TVET Strategic Country Reports and Initiatives: Moving Together Towards TVET 4.0 in Session 1 
• Part 2 Reviewing of Progress Report and Regional Initiatives as presented in Session 2 
• Part 3 Regional policy Recommendations from High Officials Round Table Meeting 

Speakers' profiles and presentations can be found here:

• Session 1 Strategic Country Initiatives for TVET 4.0
• Session 2 Regional Initiatives, Endorsements and Information 
• Session 3 Personnel Reform for Industry 4.0 
• Session 4 Best Practices towards TVET Industry 4.0 

Complete event documentation can be found here.