Continuing education provision for headmasters from Mozambique

The State Academy for In-Service Training and Human Resources Development at Schools provides in-service and advanced training for teachers.

iMOVE: What is the name and background of your organisation?

Moser: The Landesakademie für Fortbildung und Personalentwicklung an Schulen in Baden-Württemberg (State Academy for In-Service Training and Human Resources Development at Schools) provides in-service and advanced training for teachers from all types of schools at three sites.

The courses focus on human resources development, for example, for educational managing staff, as well as on pedagogic-psychological, didactic-methodological and topic-related subjects and on school development and school counselling.

iMOVE: Which services do you offer in the field of vocational education and training?

Moser: The site in Esslingen is the State Academy's competence centre for the provision of continuing education for around 22,000 teachers at 287 vocational colleges. The offered courses include also didactic-methodological and technically oriented courses as well as computer and network courses.

The latest challenges Vocational Education and Training (VET) is confronted with are various: Rapid technological changes require state-of-the-art professional knowledge of teachers.

Demographic change with the lack of skilled workers and a new generation of students require new teaching methods and learning styles such as individual support of students, enhancement for low-achieving students, enhancement of students' "soft skills".

New challenges also come with the globalisation and internationalisation on all levels of the world of work and the growing importance of the topic of inclusion. Course participants encounter optimal framework conditions for their training in a modern complex of buildings that was completed in 1997.

iMOVE: What are your international business experiences?

Moser: Many international projects implemented by the State Academy have their roots in Memoranda of Understand (MoUs), long-standing co-operation and education partnerships with the Federal State of Baden-Württemberg and vocational schools. Also, internationally operating companies from Baden-Württemberg make their investments dependent on the availability of qualified professionals and on measures for ensuring the availability of skilled labour in their target markets; they initiate co-operation projects and support these.

Because of the worldwide high reputation of the German Dual System of vocational education and training, many countries gladly resort to expertise from Baden-Württemberg in their efforts to modernise their vocational education systems.

Interested parties hail from China and Singapore, Egypt and Burundi, Mozambique and many other places around the globe. Additionally the State Academy co-operates within European Programmes like Erasmus+, the new lifelong learning programme of the European Union, where we support international school and language projects.

Most popular projects are the Academy for Vocational Education (ABB) and the Danube-Region-Strategy. Great thoroughness in the training provision for teachers and an integrated continuing education and counselling system aim at improving the quality of teaching.

iMOVE: Which key service do you provide for a successful cooperation with international partners?

Moser: The State Academy received requests from Mozambique regarding the advanced training provision for education personnel. As a result, a group of headmasters from Mozambique partook in training in Baden-Württemberg in 2009 and in 2013, respectively.

All important topics a headmaster usually is confronted with were integrated into the two-week seminar, which was specifically designed to focus on self-reflection and practical experience. Excursions and visits further underlined the practical relevance of the course content under revision.

The course participants were given insight into the structures of vocational education and training in Baden-Württemberg and into the functional structures and principles of the dual system of vocational education and training. They concentrated on the development of education plans, organisational structures and operational organisation at schools and the basics of contemporary school management.

Moreover, they were not only introduced to the co-operation partners of a vocational school, but also received introduction to quality management instruments, holistic learning strategies and the structures of teacher training.

© photos: State Academy for In-Service Training and Human Resources Development at Schools