British Council is inviting colleges and training providers to submit content ideas to be shared on an exciting new digital skills initiative. The new web initiative Vocational Education and Skills Magazine will be based on a content sharing concept, whereby UK and Western Balkans colleges and training providers share articles, ideas, tips, webinars and videos with counterparts working in 14 – 19 vocational education in other countries.

The pilot stage will take place in six countries of the Western Balkans. This is an opportunity to help build capacity amongst vocational education and training professionals in the UK and the Western Balkans and allowing colleges from the UK and the region to increase their international engagement and raise their profile on our web-sites.

What does it look like?

We will be taking a magazine style approach to this initiative, which will sit on British Council web-sites in the region with a monthly edition tackling a different theme/challenge within TVET. In April, there will be a soft launch of the magazine. This first edition will be a general overview of the core concepts and aims of the project, with a specific focus on challenges and successes in vocational education. From May onwards, each edition will focus on a specific theme.

These will include:

1. Employer Engagement eg:

     why and in what ways can employers be engaged?

     involving employers in the curriculum

     work experience and apprenticeships

2. Employability & Core skills eg:

 simulating work in the classroom

 Helping young people into employment – activities to develop skills in writing CVs, interviews etc

 Careers guidance for young people

3. Curriculum Innovation eg

 Developing outcomes based curricula and teaching to achieve these

 Flexible and responsive curriculum

 Curriculum Internationalisation

 STEM and mother tongue

4. Enterprise & Entrepreneurship eg

 Embedding Entrepreneurship

 Social Enterprise

 Engaging with the community

5. Quality Assurance eg

 Quality Assurance – what does it mean?

 What makes an effective TVET teacher?

 What role do qualifications play?

We aim to build up a bank of useful articles, opinion pieces, ideas, tips, and classroom materials that teachers and school/college leaders in the Western Balkans and the UK can share.

How can you get involved?

We have tested the idea on a number of key stakeholders and colleges in the UK FE sector and the Western Balkans, and the initial response has been extremely encouraging; however, the success of the event will depend on the willingness of teachers, curriculum managers and college principals to get involved.

If you would like to contribute, we would love to hear from you. This could be:

• an idea for an article concerning one of the upcoming themes

• a presentation about an aspect of vocational education that you’re passionate about.

• An interview with one of your colleagues/students

• a video piece

• a podcast

• Practical materials for teachers and students of TVET or just simply some basic advice for those new to vocational education.

No type of content is off limits, as long as it supports the goals of the magazine. Each piece we put in the magazine will be supported by a brief pen portrait of the contributor and recognition of the institution from which you came. It’s a great opportunity to expand your institution’s international reach, and support projects as they begin to grow into something larger.

What else can you do to get involved?

Do you have any tips, advice or reflections to share with other teachers in vocational education? This could be how to better apply your knowledge in the classroom, how you adapt your approach to different students, a tip for dealing with a noisy classroom; it could be how you manage your work/life balance, how you deal with social pressures outside of work, a relevant inspirational quote that you know, a book/website you’d recommend for every teacher – You could send us a sentence, or a short paragraph, anything that you feel you wish you had known when you first started your journey into vocational education.

If so, do get in touch and share your idea. Your piece could find itself on our web-site being shared with thousands of teachers!