FORESIGHT AND POLICY AND STRATEGY DEVELOPMENT FOR
VOCATIONAL EDUCATION AND TRAINING: TOOLS AND ADDED VALUE IN
THE CONTEXT OF TRANSITION AND DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
A ONE AND A HALF DAY EXPERTS MEETING WITH THE EUROPEAN
TRAINING FOUNDATION (ETF)
ETF, Turin, 8-9 March 2012
The ETF works in 30 countries in the EU pre-accession and neighbourhood regions. Its mandate is to
harness the potential of countries’ human capital through reform of education, training and labour
market systems in the context of the EU’s external relations policy. Its core functions include
supporting the EU’s external assistance policies, providing evidence based policy analysis, supporting
capacity building in human capital development, and disseminating and exchanging information and
experiences.
In 2011 the ETF launched a series of round tables with international experts and international
organisations to peer exchange on thematic areas and tools in support to the efficient and effective
delivery of its core functions. The proposed roundtable will focus on foresight and related
methodologies and tools and their added value in supporting the development of VET policies and
strategies in ETF partner countries.
Background and rationale
VET reforms have been on the policy agenda of the ETF partner countries for a long time, but the
actual implementation of policies and the impact they have had so far on the overall human capital
development of counties is slow. Economic and social changes have been substantial during the last
years but the overall vision for human capital development in the new contexts and the specific role of
VET needs still to be developed.
Despite the diversity of country contexts and the stage of development of the VET systems in the ETF
partner countries, some common challenges in making VET systems more effective in promoting
human capital development can be identified.
In the majority of ETF partner countries economic growth has been slow and job-less during the last
15 years. The aggregate demand for skills is low (employment rates are around 50% in the majority of
the countries) and biased towards lower level skills (between 40 – 80% of employment is in
agriculture and in the non-agricultural informal sector). With a small number of exceptions, the
dynamism of economies to grow and create quality jobs is still weak or erratic. Despite countries’
considerations about emerging skill mismatches, understanding about future skill demand remains
blurred.
The capacity of their education and training systems to innovate and adapt to emerging socioeconomic challenges has remained weak. There has been a lot of experimentation during the last 1520 years at least that has been largely driven by donors. This has led to some changes in parts of the
VET system; it has also built institutional capacities; but it has not created large scale modernisation
or actual reform, if not in limited cases. VET systems remain essentially obsolete in their way of
governance, teaching and learning methods and in terms of the skills they produce.
Strategic steering of education and training policies remains weak. VET policies formulated during the
last years are generally ambitious in their objectives but insufficient in the means (actions and
resources) they mobilise, and unable to face multiple challenges developing in the course of
implementation. Most of the reforms have been developed by Ministries of Education -often with the
assistance of donors- but without genuine participation of economic and social actors. This leads to a
lack of understanding and ownership by key stakeholders that are moreover often responsible for
their implementation. In fact they are poorly implemented and often interrupted by governmental
changes.
The ETF is engaged in dialogue with its partner countries to assist them view their education and
training systems in the light of present and future socio-economic challenges, and develop a common
vision among stakeholders. While achieving and formulating a common and shared vision remain a
challenge, similar efforts need to be placed at the level of strategic realisation of the vision in the
context of fast changing conditions and requirements of the social and economic needs.
It is essential to reflect on tools and methodologies that could support partner countries in enhancing
their ability to share a common vision in relation to human capital development and VET policies and
strategically manage change in a flexible, participatory and result oriented manner. Foresight methods
and tools have a key role in this context, bringing the discussion in the partner countries to face
pragmatic issues that have an impact on the implementation and hence on the performance of their
policies and strategies.
Objectives of the round table
The objectives of this round table are:
1. To introduce and discuss about strengths and weaknesses of different foresight and related
methods and methodologies, focusing on examples of how policies have been benefitting
from foresight use, especially in the context of human capital development
2. Exchange knowledge and reflections around the actual use of foresight methods in the
context of transition and developing countries in building (i) a future oriented approach to the
development of their human capital, (ii) a longer term vision for the development of their
education and training systems, and (iii) a more strategic approach to implementation to face
the fast changing context and requests of society.
Questions for discussion





What are the experiences and lessons learned in using foresight methodologies in the context
of human capital related policies?
How can different foresight methodologies feed into the policy making process of the partner
countries in the field of education and training?
What are the preconditions for creating credible results?
What foresight methodologies can offer in facing the challenge of fast changing needs of the
economy that impact the performance of planned education and training strategies?
How can foresight methodologies support a greater degree of flexibility and adaptation of skill
matching strategies in a national economy?
Working methods
International experts will present their experience and case studies on foresight methodologies. Panel
and open discussions will extract lessons learned. A final discussion will take place on possible future
ETF work.
Venue and timing
ETF, Torino; start on 8 March at 9.30 – ending on 9 March at 14.00
Invited experts






Jennifer Cassingena Harper - Malta Council for Science and Technology
Adrian Curaj - Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and
Innovation Funding
Tom Leney - Senior Policy Analyst, Education & Training Innovation (Danish Technological
Institute)
Fabiana Scapolo - European Commission, Joint Research Centre
Philine Warnke - Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation Research (ISI)
Robert Wilson - University of Warwick