4th SEAMEO Polytechnic Network Meeting

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). In addition, TVET has been identified as one of the seven priority areas in education in Southeast Asia, which was agreed at the Strategic Dialogue of Education Ministers (SDEM) meeting in September 2014.

In response to the Southeast Asian regional directions agreed at the 1st High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET in Thailand, May 2015 - to promote the internationalisation of TVET institutions,  to improve the student mobility, and to leverage the global competitiveness and 21st century skills of TVET students in Southeast Asian countries, the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization (SEAMEO) has spearheaded to develop the SEAMEO Polytechnic Network in April 2016 as a part of SEA-TVET Consortium.

The SEAMEO Polytechnic Network aims to enhance internationalisation and partnership of TVET institutions (colleges, polytechnics and university of technologies) in the Southeast Asian region through cross-country student exchange programme and other collaborations.

To improve the number of TVET student mobility across the region, the High Officials’ Round Table Meeting of the 3rd High Officials Meeting on SEA-TVET, hosted by the Ministry of Education of Malaysia in May 2017 recommended the SEAMEO Secretariat to serve as a “Coordinating Agency” (One Stop Service Unit) to facilitate the implementation process of TVET student exchange through internship programme, starting from organizing a meeting, seeking commitment from institutions, mapping students, producing guidelines, facilitating interview, evaluation  and certification.

Since 2017, the SEAMEO Polytechnic Network Meetings have been organized at least 2 times a year as a platform to discuss with TVET institutions for seeking commitment and implementation process of the SEA-TVET Student Internship Exchange Programme.

Objective(s):

1. To share and learn the successful practices of student internship exchange from the participating institutions
2. To review and evaluate the implementation of the 2^nd batch of SEA-TVET student internship exchange and identify the improvement for the 3^rd batch of SEA-TVET student internship exchange to be implemented in 2019
3. To seek commitments from participating TVET institutions

Expected Outcomes:

1. Experiences and lessons learned are shared for future improvements of student internship exchange programme
2. Details of implementation plan for the 3^rd batch of SEA-TVET Student Internship Exchange such as timeline, study areas, budgeting, programme structure, duration, student visa, criteria for selecting students, regulations students, travel preparation, evaluation & report, and certification for student exchange are agreed among the participating institutions.
3. A letter of Agreement for the 3^rd Batch of SEA-TVET Student Internship Exchange are signed between institutions

Further Information: 

Please click here for information on the 1^st Batch of SEA-TVET Exchange and here for information on the 2^nd batch of SEA-TVET Exchange.