Central Asia Symposium on ICT in Education 2016: Unleashing the Potential of ICT for Skills Development
27-29 June 2016 | Astana, Republic of Kazakhstan
The Central Asia Symposium on ICT in Education (CASIE) has served as a convening platform for the Central Asian republics to collectively discuss ongoing challenges in education and identify possible solutions through effective utilization of ICTs in education since its inception in 2011. As a region that shares a unique social, cultural and historical background different from the rest of the Asia and Pacific region, the participating countries in the past CASIEs celebrated the rare opportunity to exchange their views and experiences in integrating ICT in education, and collectively deliberate on effective solutions to various challenges.
For the last few decades, the Central Asian region has gone through considerable changes in its economic landscape, becoming a competitive actor in the global economy. For example, the added value from the service sector in Central Asia has been drastically increasing while the economic share from agricultural and industrial sectors has declined. Although this is a global trend, the growth spurt in the service sector of the region is remarkable, compared to other regions in Asia and the Pacific.
Developing a well‐educated and skilled society is key to the successful development of any nation. Education and training have to be responsive and relevant to the demands of employers and requirements of the increasingly changing and unpredictable job market. With a sizeable young population, the Central Asian countries can increase their competitiveness by raising youth employability through a stronger alignment of the outcomes of education and training with the skills requirements of the labour market. It is in this context that this year’s CASIE seeks to examine challenges in skills development in Central Asia, and explore how ICTs can contribute to addressing the issues, such as improving employability, quality of education and training, and create a more labour market responsive and relevant education and training sector.
Given the renewed attention to skills development in Education 2030 agenda and its association with ICT to unleash the full potential for skills development, the CASIE 2016 will focus on the following four themes:
- ICTs to facilitate open, flexible and blended learning opportunities for all
- ICTs to support practical oriented authentic learning experiences
- ICTs to strengthen data‐informed education and training policy development to adapt to job market trends
- Partnerships for mainstreaming ICTs in education and training
The Symposium will examine policies, strategies, and initiatives to address the growing need for adequate skills development that meet the demands of today’s and tomorrow’s labour markets. Through various formats, such as plenary and break‐out workshop sessions, the Symposium will serve as an opportunity for the Central Asian countries to further explore the issues surrounding skills development and support to mainstream holistic and effective use of ICT in TVET at the ground level. The daily reflection sessions will bring together participants at all levels, including policy makers, international and national experts in ICT for skills development, TVET teacher educators, and Ministerial officials to discuss shared and individual challenges in order to initiate partnerships, as well as share perspectives on suitable policies and programmes. Collectively, this format would encourage a link between policy, research, and practice.
Objectives
The CASIE 2016 aims to:
- bring together national education policy makers, practitioners and development partners to explore the potentials of ICT to strengthen education and training system in the region
- provide a platform for the Central Asian republics to discuss ongoing challenges and identify possible solutions for relevant and demanded skills development, with a particular focus on effective utilization of ICT in TVET
- promote collaboration and partnerships among the Central Asian countries in the identification of solutions in response to similar issues and challenges toward effective and efficient use of ICT in TVET
Language of the Symposium
Russian and English with simultaneous translation in both languages
Participants
- Participating countries: Republic of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Mongolia, Republic of Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Republic of Uzbekistan.
- Three participants from each of the six countries: 1) Policy Maker (e.g. high level official from a ministry of education which governs TVET), 2) Head of TVET division, 3) Head of ICT‐in‐Education Division. More participants from the host country might be present.
- Officials from the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Kazakhstan
- Representatives from the Korea Research and Education Information Service (KERIS)
- Experts from UNESCO and other international organizations/NGOs
- Partner representatives from the private sector
Expected Outputs
A publication containing the following will be produced and disseminated:
- A status review of issues and trends in skills development of the Central Asian countries, with special focus on the use of ICT in education and training
- Promising cases from the region and beyond
- Policy recommendations from workshop
- Follow‐up activities for cooperation
Contact Information
ict.bgk@unesco.org
Presentations
Keynote presentation
- UNESCO's Strategy for TVET: Digital vision for skills development (Mr Libing Wang, Chief, EISD, UNESCO Bangkok
Country level reporting
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UNESCO synthesis of country status from the pre-symposium surveys (Ms. Jonghwi Park and Mr. Miron Bhowmik, ICT in Education, UNESCO Bangkok, Thailand)
♦ Country Report: Kazakhstan
♦ Country Report: Kyrgyz Republic
♦ Country Report: Mongolia
♦ Country Report: Tajikistan
♦ Country Report: Uzbekistan
Plenary Session 1: Providing open, flexible and blended learning opportunities for all
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Korean Open CourseWare and ASEAN Cyber University Project (Mr Sanghyun Jang, Chief, Section for ICT in Higher Education, KERIS)
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Provision of Open Educational Resources for Secondary Special Education in the Republic of Uzbekistan (Mr Uktam Karimov, Professor, Information Library System Department, Tashkent University of Information Technologies)
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Promotion of equitable access to education and skills development by means of ICT (Ms Natalia Amelina, Programme Specialist, UNESCO IITE)
Plenary Session 2: Supporting practice oriented authentic learning experiences
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Korean TVET case: interactive and differentiated e-learning using emerging technologies (Dr Junghyun An, Research Professor, Online Lifelong Education Institute, Korea University of Technology and Education)
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Technologies for bridging the gap between the school and the workplace (Professor Pierre Dillenbourg, CHILI Lab, EPFL, Centre for Digital Education, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)
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Employing practical digital approaches to develop an institutional pedagogical strategy for teachers (Ms Satu Jarvinen, Expert, Digital Learning and International Affairs, Omnia, Finland)
Plenary Session 3: Strengthening data-informed education and training policy development
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Developing a labour market information system in Mongolia: Do the TVET institutions benefit from it? (Dr Javzan Sukhbaatar, Vice President for Research, Development, and Cooperation, Institute of Finance and Economics, Mongolia)
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Enhancing the use of data and NQF for better skills’ policies in Central Asia (Mr Arnault Pretet, Project Co-ordinator, Eurasia, Global Relations, OECD)
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Alignment of labour market information system and TVET policies (Mr Eunsang Cho, Programme Specialist, TVET, UNESCO Bangkok)
Roundtable
Reflection session
- Symposium overview (Ms Aigul Khalafova, Programme Officer, UNESCO Almaty)
Workshops
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UNESCO-UNEVOC promoting cooperation in TVET (Mr Max Ehlers, Associate ICT Officer, UNESCO-UNEVOC)
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UNESCO focus group interview for TVET study (Ms Natalia Amelina, Programme Specialist, UNESCO IITE)
Plenary Session 4: Building partnerships for mainstreaming ICTs in education and training
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Partnership between APEC Petrotechnic and the labour market (Mr Nurgali Arshabekov, Acting CEO, NJSC Holding "Kasipkor")
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Adaptive Learning: The Essential Element for Comprehensive Development (Mr Mikhail Vilkov, Intel Kazakhstan)
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UNESCO Central Asia partnerships (Ms Aigul Khalafova, Education Officer, UNESCO Almaty; Ms Bakhtiyor Namazov, Education Programme Specialist, UNESCO Tashkent)
