Context/Problem: Technical Vocational Education and Training (TVET) in Costa Rica has been increasingly receiving a high political and economic attention due to the growing need for well-qualified workforce. Among other aspects, the professionalization of TVET teachers, who are essential actors contributing to the development of workforce skills and thus to the economic progress of the country (Grollmann 2009), becomes crucial for the quality of TVET. In Costa Rica, teacher qualification and shortages of TVET educators represent major challenges in TVET. Not all TVET teachers also have professional pedagogical and subject didactic competencies (Álvarez-Galván 2015). Furthermore, the importance of TVET research continues to grow. However, until now the research on TVET and in particular on the professionalization of TVET teachers is scarce in Costa Rica. The project CoRiVET intends to address this gap by reflecting on the importance of capacity building for research in TVET as well as of TVET teachers’ qualifications. It is conducted in cooperation of the National Technical University in Costa Rica and the German University of Osnabrück and focuses on the improvement of the qualification of TVET educators and of the institutionalised TVET research in Costa-Rica. Research question: At the first stage of the project, the following research question was addressed: What are the current state, challenges and demands in the qualification processes of TVET teachers in and for Costa Rica on the academic level? Method/Approach: To answer the research question, the existing curricular documents (among others) of the study program preparing TVET educators were qualitatively analysed as well as semi-structured interviews with different actors including political and labour market actors, teachers of TVET institutions, developers and implementers of the program were conducted and analysed by using the social science hermeneutics approach. Expected result: The results indicate that the current academic program for preparation of TVET teachers does not fully meet the current qualification requirements expressed by different stakeholders. Among its limitations, it does not provide for the acquisition of a comprehensive understanding of the structures, functions, and current developments in national TVET system. Furthermore, there is a lack of specifications concerning pedagogical and vocational didactical competences provided by the preparation for future TVET teachers, which is critically accentuated by stakeholders in the Costa Rican TVET sector. These results provide an important basis for the revision of the existing curriculum of the program and also for further education of TVET personnel.

Álvarez- Galván , J.-L. (2015): Una revisión de Habilidades más allá de la escuela de Costa Rica. Revisiones de la OCDE so bre educación y formación profesional. París: Publicaciones de la OCDE. Grollmann, Philip (2009): Professionalization of VET Teachers and Lecturers and Practices in TVET Institutions in an International Perspective. In Rupert Maclean, David Wilson (Eds.): International handbook of education for the changing world of work. Bridging academic and vocational learning. Dordrecht: Springer Science+Business Media B.V, pp. 1185–1201.