Abstract:

According to the international scientific literature, successful distance learning requires from educators specialized knowledge in three key areas related to the content, pedagogical approach, technology, and the interactions between them, as well as efficient learning design, timely feedback, and adequate support. For the learner, distance education requires the development of specific qualities such as engagement and self-regulation. These requirements were further highlighted as the need for distance learning became imperative in the era of COVID-19 and especially in post-secondary education and vocational training in Greece. The Public Vocational Training Institutes (DIEK) offer initial vocational training to adults over 18 in specific vocational specialties (e.g., health, engineering, tourism, informatics). In this paper we present a research organized by the Panhellenic Union of Directors of Public Vocational Training Institutes (PANEDDIEK) during the COVID-19 period. The research aims at monitoring the effectiveness of distance training in DIEK and drawing conclusions that will lead to further improvement on the training quality. The research involved 29 DIEK, 56 different vocational specialties from different geographical areas of Greece and was conducted on two axes: the first was addressed to trainers and the second one to trainees. The research instruments were two specially designed questionnaires, one specifically for trainers/teachers and the other for trainees/students. Respondents were asked to fill in a questionnaire consisting of both closed- and opened-form questions. The questionnaire for trainers focuses on the 6 main areas of the European Digital Competencies for Education (DigCompEdu) framework: professional engagement, digital resources, teaching and learning, assessment, empowering learners and facilitating learners’ digital competence. The trainee’s questionnaire focuses on their digital competences as it was perceived by themselves and on the areas of the DigCompEdu framework that concern the learners’ empowerment and digital competence facilitation. This research is an attempt to cross-check the trainees’ responses with the trainers’ responses according to their specialty and the DigCompEdu framework’s areas of digital competences in order to assess strengths and weaknesses, and the acquired level of digital skills.

The value of the research lies in the fact that it is a pioneer effort to monitor the trends prevailing in distance learning provided by DIEK during the pandemic. An important feature is the range of specialties covered, the geographical distribution of the sample as it includes areas from all over Greece and the fact that it is an ongoing project. The collection of research questionnaires will be repeated on an annual basis to help us monitor the trends in vocational training. An initial analysis of the results has revealed, as expected, that specialties such as those directly related to technology have greater ease and efficacy in conducting distance training. On the contrary, an increased difficulty arises in the design and implementation of otherwise traditional face-to-face training courses in specific specialties (e.g. cooks, mechanics) due to the nature of the specialty. The paper will present the results along with a discussion of the main findings.

Keywords:

Vocational Training, Distance Learning, Public Vocational Training Institutes, COVID-19 and Distance Learning, Digital competences.