The World Digital Education Conference was held on Feb 13 and 14 in Beijing, China. The two-day event, themed "Digital Transformation and Future of Education", was co-hosted by the Ministry of Education and the Chinese National Commission for UNESCO. As a typical representative of world TVET institutions, Prof.Yang Xinbin, Chairholder of UNESCO Chair on Digitalization in TVET,Shenzhen Polytechnic, Chinawas invited to participate and make a presentation in the parallel forum "Digital Transformation and Developmentin TVET".
With the theme of "Transformation and Reinvention: Digital Transformation Empowers the New Ecosystem for TVET", this parallel forum aimed to explore new approaches to digital transformation and development in TVET, focusing on issues such as the development and application of digital resources and the digital capacity building in TVET. Education experts and scholars gathered together to share their experiences and discuss the future development of digital transformation in TVET from different perspectives.
“Digital skills are widely used and the demand for education and training in digital skills is surging. Over the past few years, developing digital skills has become a policy priority for countries around the world in response to rapid technological change. Currently, 170 countries and regions around the world have issued digital strategies. This demonstrates that digital skills are increasingly needed across all occupations and sectors of society.” The UNESCO Chairholder Yang Xinbin started with two stories of the digital transformation of Foxconn and the waterworks system, raising the audience's awareness and resonance of the urgency and importance of the digital transformation in TVET. He expounded the underlying logic and analysis framework of the digital transformation in TVET, shared the strategic goals and ten deployments of the digital transformation of Shenzhen Polytechnic, and finally proposed six approaches for the digital transformation in TVET: Digital transformation of programs and curriculums, teachers’digital capacity building on pedagogy approaches, students' digital skills, digital transformation of college-enterprise cooperation, developing an international exchange platform, and strengthening the digital infrastructures.
Around 800 representatives from 130 countries and regions attended the conference,includingstate leaders and education ministers, diplomatic envoys, heads and representatives of UN agencies,international organizations, universities andTVET institutions, and representatives of digital technology companies.
