Digital readiness of VET schools

Abstract

The notion of digital readiness has been attracting more attention in the area of education. It has been caused by the recent shift in educational practices caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper aims to define and investigate the digital readiness of VET schools for digitising teaching, distinguishing areas which need to be supported with additional tools and methodology in the future. To this end, a current situation regarding problems encountered at selected secondary vocational schools was analysed. The paper summarises a study carried out among secondary school teachers in five countries, probing their attitudes and gathering their experiences. It looks into both the technicalities of the educational process (e.g. quality of hardware, reliability of the Internet connection, access to educational software) and the skills involved (e.g. using educational software, the ability to access and adapt online / digital resources, the capacity to introduce new pedagogies and strategies or adapt existing ones). It appeared that the problem areas identified in the process of the study were country depended. However, the most frequently mentioned problems, such as lack of tools that motivate and autonomise students or issues with the hardware and broadband, were shared by teachers from the majority of the partner countries.