by Monica Pfister
Ensuring access to high-quality vocational education and training has presented unique challenges worldwide amidst school closures in response to the coronavirus. This is not only because of the hands-on nature of vocational subjects; it is also because digital teaching and learning resources are generally less widely available for vocational subjects than for general education subjects, making even theoretical lessons difficult to design and deliver online. Poland is tackling this challenge head-on by developing digital resources in vocational subjects and adding them to the Integrated Education Platform, Poland’s nationwide platform for online teaching and learning. The Ministry of National Education has already invested nearly PLN 20 million (US$5.2 million) in new digital resources to develop students’ entrepreneurship skills and industry-specific foreign language skills, which are aligned to Poland’s 2017 curriculum for vocational education and training. Now, the Ministry plans to invest more than PLN 136 million (US$35.4 million) to develop digital resources tailored to vocational education in specific industry areas. These new resources will help prepare Poland to provide continuity of learning for all students, regardless of the trajectory of the pandemic.
