The professional development of teachers in the Republic of Serbia is regulated by appropriate national acts and defined legal frameworks which prescribe the need and necessity of continuous training as a legal obligation. The Regulation on the Continuing Professional Development of Teachers (2021) defines professional development as a complex process aimed at the constant review and development of competencies of employees in the education system. Concurrently, a key goal of the Strategy for the Development of Education until 2030 is the professional development of employees in education to raise the capacity and quality of teaching staff. The Action Plan from 2021 to 2023 for the Strategy’s implementation defines the priorities for implementing specific measures and activities – all to systematically improve education development. In this way, Serbia has announced and launched various reforms to address a growing demand for a better and more equitable education system (Maghnouj et al., 2020, p. 48). In Serbia, the importance of continuing professional development (CPD) for VET teachers is not in question (Maksimović, 2016, p. 4). Still, the research conducted has shown that most respondents (75%) think it is primarily their responsibility to identify their own CPD needs. Regarding the respondents’ current needs, 65% claim that there is a moderate or high level of demand for implementing new technologies in the workplace, for ICT skills (56%), and for teaching cross-curricular skills (53%) (Maksimović, 2016, p. 30). To overcome the lack of needed skills, a Rulebook for the continuous professional development of teachers was introduced in 2016, which recognised and regulated the delivery of online training. Since then, online training has become an increasingly popular form of professional development and it is also frequently organised by education authorities (Progress report, 2018, p. 32). Guided by national priorities on the professional development of VET teachers, Pro-VET project team members from the University of Novi Sad and the Novi Sad School of Business have developed an online training course aimed at developing the team-working skills of VET teachers. As a result of positive reactions from alpha and beta course testing participants, an official request was submitted to the Institute for the Advancement of Education (the regulatory body approving teacher professional development programs) to accredit the course titled “Development and application of teamwork in everyday teaching practice”.

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