Innovation and Excellence in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education


Hangzhou Declaration

The International Meeting on Innovation and Excellence in TVET Teacher/Trainer Education, held from 8 - 10 November 2004 in Hangzhou, China, and organized by UNESCO-UNEVOC in collaboration with their UNESCO offices in Beijing and Bangkok, and the Chinese education authorities, discussed, inter alia, the following:

• The current marginalisation of TVET vis-à-vis general and academic education;


• The current fragmentation in the fields of teacher education/training of trainers for TVET;


• The need for developing higher degree structures in TVET education;


• The lack of an established research culture that should focus on the development of TVET; and


• The challenges in promoting intercultural understanding and knowledge sharing between and among developed and developing countries.

• TVET should be developed into an internationally acknowledged scientific community;


• Sustainable, reproductive and innovative national scientific systems be developed and integrated into national systems of innovation;


• International exchange of learners and educators be accelerated;


• The expertise in pedagogy of TVET should be linked to the vocational disciplines and to integrative perspectives on school-based and work-based learning;


• An improvement in vocational skills for employability and citizenship can only be realized if there is an improvement in the quality, effectiveness and relevance of teaching, and that


• An effective interaction between teacher/trainers and learners lies at the centre of quality TVET.