Quality Assurance for TVET Articulation towards Sustainable Development: Learning from experiences in Chile. Francisca Gómez Gajardo

• In Event: Community colleges, TVET institutions, and global counterparts: challenges towards sustainability for vocationally oriented jobs

Proposal

Technical and Vocational Educational Training (TVET), has two main roles within local, national and regional sustainable development. On one hand there is the goal to train labour force aligned with the productive sectors demands, specifically towards the technical and operational level. There is also another goal to build training opportunities and career paths to allow all individuals access to education. (Larrañaga et al, 2013; OCDE, 2008). Despite the different elements in which globalization impacts on societies and its development, there are still co existing educational barriers that generates limitation to individual mobility and development (Mulder, 2007; Vargas, 2000; Lawler, 1994).
Purpose
The purpose of this work is to analyse the Chilean experience regarding TVET articulation and quality assurance, aiming to identify best practices and failed experiences to learn from and build knowledge from it.
Framework
TVET has been long on debate about its quality, relevance for labour market as well as how it is articulated within the whole educational system. Challenges have not been fulfilled and remain within public debate. Quality assurance is understood as a set of actions and systematic activities whose purpose is to manage and ensure the quality of the processes and results of an organization, based on planning, execution, measurement, comparison with standards, feedback and monitoring of the processes to reach the expected results, in terms of efficiency, effectiveness and excellence of results (internal); as well as respond to the changes that may be generated in the (external) environment in which it performs and be able to respond to the requirements and standards defined by the institutional framework. Within this framework, seems relevant to analyse the experience on TVET articulation in Chile over the last 20 years, considering public and private initiatives, and how quality assurance approach may contribute to improve learning outcomes as well as to increase its value within the labour market.
Methods
This work is mainly based on a qualitative methodological approach, grounded on description, analysis and systematization of experiences - public and private- within TVET articulation and quality assurance.
Results
Expected outcome is to identify strategies and practices with observable results, that could highlight elements for success or failure that could help other institutions to continue to improve articulation within TVET in Chile.

References
Larrañaga, O., Cabezas, G., & Dussaillant, F. (2013). Informe completo del Estudio de la Educación Técnico Profesional. Programa de las Naciones Unidas para el Desarrollo-Chile Área de Reducción de la Pobreza y la Desigualdad.
Lawler, E. (1994). From job-based to competency-based organizations. Journal of organizational behavior, vol. 15(n° 1), 3-15.
Mulder, M (2007) Competencia: la esencia y la utilización del concepto en la formación profesional inicial y permanente, Revista Europea de Formación Profesional Nº40 -2007/1, pp. 5-24.
OCDE (2008). Sistemas de cualificaciones. Puentes para el aprendizaje a lo largo de la vida. OCDE.
VARGAS, F (2000) De las virtudes laborales a las competencias clave: un nuevo concepto para antiguas demandas Boletín CINTERFOR Nº 149, may-august 2000, pp 9-24, Montevideo

Author

• Francisca Gomez-Gajardo, Universidad Autónoma de Chile