9th Regional Policy Dialogue on TVET

In June 2018, the ASEAN Secretariat with support from the German government’s Regional Cooperation Programme to Improve the Quality and Labour Market Orientation of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (RECOTVET) has initiated a regional learning process among ASEAN Member States. The objective is to identify challenges and solutions to strengthening business and industry cooperation in TVET.

The process was kicked off at the 7^th Regional Policy Dialogue (7^th RPD) on "Business and industry cooperation in TVET – Towards a better practice for ASEAN", which took place in June 2018 at the ASEAN Secretariat in Jakarta, Indonesia. The initiative has since received support from the 13^th SOM-ED in November 2018.

Both public and private sector participants at the 7^th RPD affirmed their willingness to institutionalize a cooperation mechanism for TVET. They resolved that there is a need to move 'from potential to realization' by focusing on tangible actions.

As a concrete step, a regional working group of TVET champions from business and industry was mandated with the development of a Future ASEAN Agenda for TVET outlining specific, action-oriented recommendations on how the voice and contributions of business and industry in TVET could be enhanced. The regional working group convened for the first time back-to-back with the 7^th RPD. It has since met in five more workshops between June 2018 and March 2019 to develop the Future ASEAN Agenda for TVET.

The 9^th Regional Policy Dialogue will mark an important milestone in the public-private dialogue on TVET in ASEAN. It will provide a forum for the regional working group to present the Future ASEAN Agenda for TVET which it has developed over the course of the past year and discuss its recommendations with public sector representatives.

It will furthermore provide participants with state-of-the-art research and practical examples from the ASEAN region and beyond that illustrate the recommendations contained in the Future ASEAN Agenda for TVET and identify and document the way forward for implementing the Future ASEAN Agenda for TVET.

The 9^th Regional Policy Dialogue will be attended by more than 100 delegates from both public and private sector. Participants from the public sector include senior decision-makers from ministries of education and labor but also industry and economics. Participants from the private sector include members of the regional working group and representatives of chambers, associations and companies from across ASEAN. Regional stakeholders from the ASEAN Secretariat, SEAMEO, and development partners will also join.

Download the Future Agenda for TVET here.