1. OER for TVET, an Odyssey
Robert Schuwer & Ben Janssen
1

2. ἄνδρα μοι ἔννεπε, μοῦσα, πολύτροπον, ὃς μάλα πολλὰ
πλάγχθη, ἐπεὶ Τροίης ἱερὸν πτολίεθρον ἔπερσεν:
πολλῶν δ᾽ ἀνθρώπων ἴδεν ἄστεα καὶ νόον ἔγνω,
A Quest For Reality meeting Expectations of Inclusiveness

3. Agenda
• Study
• Relevance
• Research
• Conclusions

4. Study

5. Study commissioned by UNESCO-UNEVOC
• In order to fill the gap both on mapping the landscape of OER in
TVET and to provide UNESCO – UNEVOC with recommendations
• Study performed in period June – December 2017
• Final report delivered February 2018

6. Technical and Vocational Education and Training
(Orr, 2017), adapted
Non TVET-
learning during
working life
time

7. Approach
• Literature review
• Survey
• Interviews
• Virtual Conference

8. Relevance

9. Relevance: World Bank
(World Bank, 2018)

10. Relevance: Qingdao Declaration
“Open Educational Resources (OERs) provide education
stakeholders with opportunities to improve the quality of, and
expand access to, textbooks and other forms of learning content,
to catalyze the innovative use of content, and to foster
knowledge creation. We commit to developing sector-wide
strategies and capacity building programs to fully realize the
potential of OERs to expand access to lifelong learning
opportunities and achieve quality education.”
(Unesco, 2015)

11. Relevance: Ljubljana Action Plan, preambule
“The Organization has an important role in helping to
promote OER at all levels of education: from early
childhood, primary and secondary education, to technical
and vocational education and training, to higher education,
encompassing non-formal and informal educational
contexts.”
(Unesco, 2017)

12. Relevance: our study

13. Relevance comes with costs

14. World
Bank
Our study
Relevance
OER for
TVET?
Qingdao/
Ljubljana
(preambule)
High relevance
OER for TVET!
Research needed
(complexity TVET
& challenges)

15. Research

16. Literature review
• 22 collections
• Initial search led to 770 publications
• After review 45 publications remained
• 16 publications were added (a.o. references
in one or more of 45 publications)
• In total 61 publications have been included in
the review

17. Additional literature review
• In DOAJ, Labordoc.ilo.org, Eric.gov.org
– Broadened search to “Vocational” instead of “Technical and
Vocational”
– Broadened search to French and Spanish sources
• Result: < 5 extra articles about OER in (T)VET

18. Findings: target sectors OER research
(Orr, 2017), adapted
Non TVET-
learning during
working life

19. Very few
research
results?
Under the
radar?
Incomplete
review?
No evidence
from interviews
and survey
Literature review,
additional search
Very few
research
results!

20. Conclusions

21. Conclusions (1)
• Study has revealed that there are not many international
(open access) publications on OER for/in TVET.
• ‘OER for/in TVET’ not as well researched and discussed as is
the case with ‘OER in/for Higher Education’ and/or ‘OER for
community colleges’ and/or ‘OER for/in K12’.
• OER is of high relevance for TVET

22. Conclusions (2)
High
relevance
OER for
TVET!
Questions about
inclusiveness of
OER regarding
TVET!
What can we do
about it?
Very few
research
results!

23. Thank you!
r.schuwer@fontys.nlbenjanssen@xs4all.nl

24. Colophon
Images
• Odysseus and the Sirens. PD https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fichier:Odysseus_Sirens_BM_E440_n2.jpg
• Open Lion. CC-BY Hester Jelgerhuis
• Books. CC0 smithjklc0. https://pixabay.com/en/back-to-school-books-vintage-932992/
• Survey. CC0 andibreit https://pixabay.com/en/survey-opinion-research-voting-fill-1594962/
• Interview. CC0 marca_propaganda. https://pixabay.com/en/tv-interview-fishing-fisherman-1344060/
References
• Orr, D. (2017). ICT for a Future-Proof TVET – Opportunities and Challenges. International Forum on ICT and Education 2030, 10-11 July
2017, Qingdao. https://www.slideshare.net/DominicOrr/ict-for-a-futureproof-tvet-opportunities-and-challenges
• UNESCO (2015). Qingdao Declaration: Leveraging ICTs to achieve Education 2030. Available at
http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0023/002333/233352E.pdf
• UNESCO (2017). Second World OER Congress Ljubljana OER Action Plan 2017. UNESCO, Paris.
https://en.unesco.org/sites/default/files/ljubljana_oer_action_plan_2017.pdf
• World Bank (2018). World Development Report 2018: Learning to Realize Education’s Promise. Washington, DC: World Bank.
DOI:10.1596/978-1-4648-1096-1