The research and development project Pro-VET (Professional Development of Vocation Education Teachers with European Practices. Pro-VET 2022) deals with the need to improve teaching competences of teachers in Vocational Education and Training (VET) in Russia and Serbia given a world of ongoing standardisation and increasing digitalization.

The main objective is to identify the status-quo of both countries, compare this with apparent good practices of EU-countries (Finland, Germany, Ireland and Netherlands) and develop measures to help overcome the resulting gap.

To do this, the project first had to conduct a comparative study on VET-teacher education practices in select European countries - applying the method of mutual learning from apparent good practice. Therefore, VET and VET-teacher education systems of four EU countries were analysed against agreed criteria (cp. Klein et al. 2020), documented in national reports, and compared and summarised in a joint document. Thus, it was possible to identify the state of the art and diverging trends within VET systems and educational programs for VET-teachers in the EU countries.

Similarly, colleagues in Serbia and Russia analysed their own VET and VET-teacher education systems and wrote national reports. The theoretical approach is “policy learning” (cp. Tütlys et al. 2016), where the results of the mentioned comparison should not be misunderstood as a “benchmarking” or “best practice” report; but rather as a field of potential development areas or an instrument for mirroring the VET-teacher education systems in Russia and Serbia.

Findings from Russia and Serbia differed partially:  In Russia, many VET-teachers only studied their subject (e.g. a bachelor of engineering), whereas VET teachers in Serbia often hold a PhD. However, similarities predominate: In both countries, most VET-teachers had no, or only few, pedagogical courses and the cooperation with the “world of work” in the form of work-based learning (WBL) is weak.

Apart from the educational background of VET-teachers and the lack of WBL, the study revealed also that in both countries, there is still an imbalance between the needs of teachers about continuous professional development (CPD), their perception of their competences, as well as the implementation of new technologies for their CPD even though online trainings have become a popular form of continuing education.

Based on these findings, both countries developed online training courses (VOOC – Vocational Open Online Courses) to meet the identified demand. In Serbia, respective VOOCs focused on e-learning design and tutoring, interactive teaching and learning strategies, as well as soft skills. In Russia, the VOOCS deal with the design and tutoring of e-Learning, the methodology of tutor support, as well as chosen policies from EU countries.

The project applies a series of established VET research methods: The national reports on VET systems and educational programmes for VET teachers are mainly based on desk-research with respect to regulations, recommendations, case studies and previous research followed by a critical content analysis. In some countries, additional data was gathered (e. g. by interviews in Germany or by a survey in Serbia).

The comparative research method tries to overcome the descriptive and “culture-free” approach by considering both the history and traditions of the VET-systems and the VET teacher educational programmes with respect to the beliefs, hopes and aims of the stakeholders of the six countries.

PRO-VET (2022): The PRO-VET project https://provet.online/index.php/project/about (30.01.2022) Klein et al. (2020): PROFILES AND COMPETENCES OF VET TEACHERS AND TRAINERS. Comparative report on the development of teaching competences of VET teachers and trainers in Germany, Lithuania and Italy. https://media.suub.uni-bremen.de/bitstream/elib/4410/4/FB_69.pdf (30.01.2022) Tütlys et al. (2016): Policy borrowing and policy learning in the initial VET reforms of Lith-uania after 1990. In: Bohlinger et al (Eds): Education Policy: Mapping the Landscape and Scope, Pages 377-401. FfM, Peter Lang.