Supporting TVET Learners’ Success with Peer-Facilitated Learning and Active Citizenship

Abstract

The needs of learners in technical and vocational education and training (TVET) have been widely researched and documented. The same is true of ways to support such learning needs. This chapter addresses one specific question: what support do TVET learners need to enable them to acquire behaviors, knowledge, and attitudes to succeed in TVET, employment, and life? Success appears in many guises. It can mean achieving officially desired outcomes such as retention, completion, and employment. It can also mean achieving less measurable outcomes such as deep learning, well-being, and active citizenship. The chapter first introduces an overarching success framework before exploring how the widely used student engagement pedagogy can support learners to achieve both official and personal success outcomes. It then develops two specific constructs applicable to TVET and found in success frameworks and student engagement: facilitated peer learning and active citizenship. Peer learning is here connected to teacher-facilitated but peer-run mentoring; active citizenship to educational experiences in classrooms, institutions, and workplaces that support flexibility, resilience, openness to change, and diversity. Finally, practical applications of support strategies from one form of peer learning are provided.