CETE Receives Designation as the First United States-Based
Member of UNEVOC
Ronald L. Jacobs
Director
I am honored to announce that the Center on Education and Training for Employment (CETE) www.cete.org has been designated as the first U.S.-based member of the UNESCO-UNEVOC network. UNEVOC acts as a key component of UNESCO’s international program on technical and vocational education and training (TVET) www.unevoc.unesco.org. The UNEVOC Network assists member states of the UN to develop policies and practices concerning education for the world of work and skills development for employability and citizenship.
The opportunity for CETE to become part of the UNEVOC Network comes as the United States re-joined UNESCO in 2004. Our vision is that UNEVOC-US – our formal name – will become a catalyst for helping to achieve the UNESCO TVET broad goals of sustainable development and education for all.
We are now engaged in a planning process to develop the UNEVOC-US mission statement and scope of work. At this time, we anticipate three major areas of endeavour. First, we will seek to provide a link between the various technical, vocational education, and training systems in the United States (secondary, post-secondary, and company-based) with similar systems throughout the UNEVOC network. Such exchanges – which might occur through conferences, web-cast programs, publications, and study visits – would provide opportunities for all Americans involved in TVET to learn the experiences of professionals across the global community.
Second, CETE will seek to develop partnerships with UNEVOC members to conduct projects that would help them achieve their TVET goals. For instance, CETE might be called upon to use its expertise in curriculum development and testing to help develop occupational standards or provide technical assistance on how to conduct a labor market survey.
Finally, CETE will seek to serve as a resource for global workforce development professionals, in terms of providing topical seminars and university degree programs, some of which will be accessible through distance technology. CETE has the capacity to broadcast live web-based programs or to make the programs available as a stream via the Internet.
As you might imagine, the next few months should be an exciting time for us. Soon we will complete our planning process and then we will announce information about a formal launch event to celebrate the UNEVOC designation. We urge our colleagues in the workforce development community to keep informed of our progress by visiting www.cete.org/unevoc-us. For more information about our intentions or to explore potential partnerships, please contact me at Jacobs.3@osu.edu.
