The symposium will dive into the topic of VET teacher education in Europe: its organisation and challenges in education and training future VET educators. Results from the Erasmus+ project VETteach (https://www.ibp.uni-rostock.de/en/forschung1/erasmus-projekt-vetteach/translate-to-english-erasmus-projekt-vetteach/)  will be presented and discussed. The aim is to define theoretically and empirically underpinned, and practically relevant fields of action of teacher education at universities.

High-quality initial education and training of future VET teachers and their continuous professional development is a prerequisite and guarantee of excellent vocational education and training. In the EU, the Riga Conclusion from 2015 highlights the decisive role of VET providers stating that "systematic approaches to, and opportunities for, initial and continuous professional development of VET teachers, trainers and mentors in school and work-based settings" (p. 4) are needed. Similarly, in an outlook post-2020, the Advisory Committee on Vocational Training emphasizes that VET needs to be delivered by highly qualified teachers and trainers and that the professional development of teachers and trainers should be fostered, including digital skills and innovative teaching methods (ACVT, 2018). A recent report of the ET 2020 Working Group on VET (ET 2020, 2018) highlights four areas of action to support educators: specifying the roles of teachers and trainers, strengthening their professional development, equipping teachers for critical challenges, and fostering collaboration.
To reach these goals, high-quality education and training of VET educators are indispensable. VET TE must take into account the many and very diverse challenges that current and future VET educators face. These are, for example, rapid technological changes, the demand to take on more and broader educational tasks and to adapt to new forms of work organisation (e.g., the flexibility of working hours, teleworking). VET educators must adapt the learning goals and didactical concepts of their teaching and need to design learning situations that allow their students the development of practical and academic competences. They must establish innovative learning arrangements at schools and in companies, which incorporate digital learning tools, open new opportunities to foster individual learning processes and occupation-specific forms of learning in different vocational fields. To do so, they must be able to analyse work processes to determine the competences required at the workplace. They should initiate and sustain close relationships and co-operations with (regional) companies. There is also a growing demand to support, advice and accompany an increasingly heterogeneous group of VET learners which asks for an educator’s competences to guide other people. It is expected that VET educators support disadvantaged learners as well as talented VET students: They must guide their students in developing their professional career and facilitate the integration of students in the labour market. People in VET need to adhere to democratic and European values while they are fully developing their potential in a lifelong perspective. To become critical citizens, VET educators thus need to enable learners to raise their voice in democratic processes in the workplace, at school and beyond.

This symposium integrates four papers emerging from the Erasmus+ project VETteach. The first contribution deals with how teacher education is organised at universities across Europe and the relevance of prior vocational experiences. The second contributions highlight the importance of civic education in VET and consequently also in VET educators' education in democratic societies. The third presentation focusses on teaching teachers to successfully support disadvantaged people in VET. The fourth presentation gives an insight in a study to catch the voices of VET teachers and their perception of challenges and needs in daily work. Each of these short 12 minutes presentations aims at stimulating thoughts and the discussion in the symposium.

Antera, S. (2021): Professional Competence of Vocational Teachers:a Conceptual Review. In. Vocations and Learning (2021) 14:459–479, https://doi.org/10.1007/s12186-021-09271-7 OECD (2021), Teachers and Leaders in Vocational Education and Training, OECD Reviews of Vocational Education and Training, OECD Publishing, Paris, https://doi.org/10.1787/59d4fbb1-en Isacsson, A., Amhag, L. & Stigmar, M. (2018). The Content, Challenges and Values that form Nordic Vocational Teacher Education. Ammattikasvatukusen aikakauskirja, 20 (2). 38–50 Kaiser, F., Marhuenda Fluixá, F., & Palomares-Montero, D. (2021). Common challenges European VET teachers as innovators are facing and their impact on academic VET teacher education. In C. Nägele, B.E. Stalder, & M. Weich (Eds.), Pathways in Vocational Education and Training and Lifelong Learning.Muttenz and Bern online, (pp. 183–189): https://zenodo.org/record/4610025#.YHXkNugzZyw Keurulainen, K. (2014): An overview of European VET-teacher qualifications and VET-teacher education. Jyväskylä: JAMK, http://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:jamk-issn-1799-8395-66 Misra, P. K. (2011). VET teachers in Europe: policies, practices and challenges. Journal of Vocational Education & Training, 63(1), 27-45. https://doi.org/10.1080/13636820.2011.552732 [02.02.2021] Teräs, M.; Rundgren, S.; Eliasson, E. & Ståhle, Y. (2021) Vocational teacher students’ perceptions of 21st century skills in a vocational education programme in Sweden. In. . In L. M. Herrera, M. Teräs & P. Gougoulakis (Hrsg.), Teaching, Learning and Teacher Education. Emerging Issues in Research on Vocational Education & Training Vol. 5 (S. 86-120). Stockholm: Premiss förlag. www.edu.su.se/polopoly_fs/1.540753.1613111419!/menu/standard/file/Emergent%20Vol%205-Inlaga-POD-Tryckoriginal-210114.pdf – p. 394-426