The New Normal and Vocational Training

This event will provide a brief introduction to the report on the new normal and vocational training with CAF and ILO/Cinterfor authorities, followed by a conversation with the institutions’ directors and the authors of the report to highlight the main results and findings.

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 led to the almost total closure of face-to-face activities in vocational training institutions (VTIs) in Latin America and the Caribbean. At least 85% of face-to-face activities were suspended, affecting more than 30 VTIs that received more than 20 million students during 2019. Young people and women were most affected. Young people, due to the rapid loss of jobs in economic sectors that were hit, such as commerce, restaurants and services associated with tourism, among others. And women because of excessive care responsibilities at home.

Between March and April 2020, 77% of VTIs were forced to shut down training centers. INA and INFOTEP switched to 100% distance training, while SENA and SENAI did so partially. The drop in the number of participants trained by VTIs has been the first consequence of the suspension of face-to-face attendance and mobility restrictions. INFOTEP and INA showed a drop in enrollment of 57% and 31% respectively, while SENA and SENAI underwent a significantly different decrease, 1% and 7%, respectively.

One of the main difficulties during the lockdown period was teacher training for the use of digital tools involved in online education. The four institutions prioritized training actions in the areas of technical updating and digital skills. Encouraging signs are beginning to emerge in all four institutions, showing that the reopening of vocational training classrooms is slowly driving demand to pre-pandemic levels. In the case of INFOTEP, a pilot plan was implemented for the re-enrollment of students with 59,000 places having received about 300,000 applications (the platform actually collapsed).

In SENAI, participants in online courses went from representing 34% of the total in 2019 to 62% in 2020. This transformation involves two central challenges shared by the four interviewees: student retention and the quality of learning processes.

In this event, the successive challenges imposed by online training for teachers will be discussed. The first is updating tools usage, and the second is permanent updating to incorporate the current rapidly changing technological advances, and lastly, training for the development of educational and didactic virtual strategies. 

Date: Tuesday, March 29

Time:

*The event will be broadcast via Zoom

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