Background

The TVET sector in Near East countries is entering a period of substantial reforms and changes. These are driven by the demand from industrial and service sector enterprises as well as by the growing number of entrants into the labour market. To cope with these changes new instruments and methods need to be developed and introduced to improve the quality in TVET and to find new modes of delivery.

Key aspects for quality improvement are systematic and continued teacher training to cope with rapidly changing technologies, to mainstream the concept of life-long learning in TVET and to promote regional cooperation to respond to the growing interdependence and migration flows of the labour force.

At the same time the ICT sector is one of the fastest growing sectors with a quickly expanding infrastructure, becoming a key technology for other sectors and providing growing number of employment opportunities.

E-learning in this context can stand for a paradigm shift in TVET towards systematic and continued teacher training, mainstreaming the concept of lifelong learning in TVET and promoting regional cooperation.

In the meantime E-learning is fully recognised in industrialised countries as part of a range of methodologies applied in education, namely in the context of the requirements for continuous and lifelong learning.