Professionalization of Further Education
Unlike other areas of the education system the area of teacher trainings for adult education instructors is not regulated by the state. Consequently, many course instructors have traditionally been working on an honorary or a part-time basis but have not been trained professionally.
This situation has been in a process of change for about 20 years. Nowadays, people who work in further education must increasingly demonstrate their methodical and didactic qualifications. In addition to general educational skills specialized teaching skills need to be included in the qualifications.
The professionalization, however, is not limited to educational issues. It also includes: the development of job descriptions, the introduction of approved qualifications (eg Federal Certificate of Competence.), quality development (eg eduQua) and the coordination with international developments (eg the European qualifications framework)
In various professional areas the appropriate professionalization processes have been carried out – for instance the modular system for “train the trainer” (AdA) - in other areas the development is still in its beginning phase.
On the university level so far only the University of Geneva is offering a graduate training for adult educators.
This happened so far:
- In 1995, the SVEB-Certificate was introduced (AdA-module level 1)
- In 2000, the Federal Certificate of Competence for adult education instructors was introduced (AdA-module level 2)
- In 2000, the quality label for training providers “eduQua” was introduced (http://www.eduqua.ch)
- In 2006, the federal diploma “Advanced Federal Diploma in Training Management and Human Resources Management" was introduced (AdA-module level 3)
- In 2008, the new federally recognized qualifications for “Advanced Federal Diploma in Enterprise Training” vocational counselors was introduced.
Outlook
- Currently there are various ongoing developments at a tertiary level.
- The new federal qualifications for vocational counselors will obtain market positions within the next few years.
- In the coming years international issues will increase in importance. A central concern is the international recognition of diplomas of higher vocational education (tertiary B) because this field has no counterpart within Europe. See European Qualifications Framework and Copenhagen Process.
- In the area of specialized didactics new developments are to be expected.
- The fields of coaching and counseling are increasingly gaining in importance.
