Addressing the youth opportunity gap

the role of ict in enabling student access, creativity and innovation through skills and tvet development

The Education Leaders Forum 2012 was hosted jointly by UNESCO-UNEVOC and Microsoft in partnership with Nokia, Promethean and the Open University on May 17^th in Shanghai, PRC, coinciding with UNESCO’s Third Congress on Technical and Vocational Education and Training.

Gathering over 60 education policy makers, experts and technology industry representatives from 26 countries, the Forum surfaced a number of interesting threads, emphasizing the significance of TVET in education and economic development, acknowledging the importance of technology in TVET and enabling access to opportunities, and highlighting the need to build capacity and not dependency, encouraging leadership not only at the top but also at the practitioner level.

Dr. Qian Tang, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Education, pointed out the importance of collaborating with private sector for successful TVET development. Further discussions circled around the increasing necessity of fostering entrepreneurial skills, to build and strengthen local economies in a global market place.

If you are interested to learn more about how technology can help develop TVET please get in touch with local representatives from UNESCO-UNEVOC or Microsoft.