3.1 Introduction

This chapter starts with a discussion of the challenges in and need for developing TVET teachers’ digital teaching competencies. Informed by existing research and practices in developing professional competencies for teachers, in particular for TVET teachers, we then propose a framework that identifies core competencies required of in-service TVET teachers and practitioners in the digital age in Sect. 3.2. In Sect. 3.3, this framework is further expanded by the proposal of indicators for each of the proposed core competencies, which form the basis for an instrument developed for assessing these competencies. Section 3.4 suggests ways of how the framework, indicators, and assessment instrument can be used to guide and support TVET teachers’ professional development.

3.1.1 Challenges Facing the Development of Digital Teaching Competencies for TVET Teachers

In the last 20 years, two kinds of transformation through technology have fundamentally changed the landscape of TVET: the transformation of TVET through ICT and the technological transformation of the world of work. Transforming TVET through ICT has been accelerated since the Third International Congress on Technical and Vocational Education and Training held in Shanghai in 2012 (UNESCO, 2012a, 2012b). As a result, digitalization, blended, and online learning have become the catchphrases in TVET, although the degree of their implementation differs from country to country (Subrahmanyam, 2022). Such a transformation brings with it a need for teachers in TVET to constantly update and expand their knowledge and skills, in particular, technological competence needed to facilitate and innovate teaching and learning. At the same time, the technological transformation happening in industry calls for a constant curriculum upgrade, and/or even a curriculum overhaul in some cases to foster new skills and/or professions needed by today’s industry such as greening skills for sustainable developments. Are TVET teachers technologically, pedagogically, and even psychologically prepared to meet these challenges? Are there effective ongoing and sustainable professional development programs available to help TVET teachers to identify and develop the competencies needed in today’s vocational education? The most recent UNESCO trends mapping study titled Digital Skills Development in TVET Teacher Training reveals that there were tremendous issues facing TVET teachers and trainers both before and during Covid-19. Among them was the lack of training in digital skills as a key challenge. This challenge was strongly linked to the lack of digital access and infrastructure, and to the lack of trained trainers with the required skills and knowledge for facilitating the digital competence development of TVET teachers and trainers. The study further reported that existing digital skills training programs tended to (a) focus on the use of tools for teaching TVET rather than on alternative forms of course delivery, (b) teach teachers/trainers how to use technology rather than how to apply different digital options, (c) not be targeted to reach a multigenerational teacher/ trainer workforce, and/or (d) lack relevant content” (Subrahmanyam, 2022, p. 15).

In terms of levels of digital teaching competencies measured by the four-stage ICT adoption model (i.e., emerging, adopting, infusing and transforming) proposed by UNEVOC (UNESCO-UNEVOC, ), teachers and trainers today in most cases were found at the levels of “applying” and “infusing.” (p. 19) This was because existing professional development programs seldom provided them “with the level and depth of digital and pedagogical skills” demanded by teaching transformation (Subrahmanyam, 2022, p. 19). It was further revealed in this study that there still existed a fear of and resistance to changes and to the adoption of new technologies in teaching among TVET teachers as far as attitude was concerned.

In addition to acquiring digital teaching competence, TVET teacher are also facing the challenges of upgrading their existing knowledge, skills, and pedagogy and develop new subject matter and/or disciplinary expertise. This challenge has largely brought about by the fast-changing industry and the goals for sustainable development and green economies. Today, many traditional occupations are becoming obsolete and new industries are replacing the old. As the main producers of future labour force, vocational education is responsible for aligning education and training with the sustainable development goals and developing future workforce who is capable of responding effectively to the principles and needs of sustainable development agenda. Therefore, incumbent upon TVET teachers is to develop knowledge, skills, and competencies needed for green occupations, economies, and societies.

Clearly, to help TVET teachers to meet these challenges, systematic and continuing professional development is urgently needed. Against this background, we propose a new competency framework, relevant competency indicators, and an assessment instrument to help today’s TVET teachers upgrade and develop the competencies needed in the digital age.

3.1.2 The Need for a New Framework of Digital Teaching Competencies for TVET Teachers

Since the turn of the century, especially since Covid-19, supporting TVET teachers in developing digital competencies has become the centre of attention as far as vocational institutional policies and efforts are concerned. On the part of individual teachers, despite all the challenges mentioned above, an ongoing effort has been to constantly increase their agency so that they can take better advantage of the opportunities that educational technology can offer for pedagogical innovation. There have been a number of guidelines, standards, and competency frameworks guiding the institutional and individual teachers’ efforts in teachers’ professional development (see Becker, 2010; Berliner, 2004; Diao & Yang, 2021; Diep & Hartmann, 2016; Latchem, 2017; Rauner et al., 2013b; Rauner, 2021; Subrahmanyam, 2022; Wagiran et al., 2019a, 2019b). Among them, the COMET framework proposed by Rauner et al. (2013b) and the test instruments subsequently developed based on this framework have been widely evaluated and adopted in TVET teacher professional development. A more detailed discussion on this framework is contained in Sect. 2.2.2. A more recent study specifically addressing TVET teachers’ competency development in the Industry 4.0 era is found in Jafar et al. (2020). Based on a comprehensive literature review and the analysis of TVET teachers’ competencies explored in nine most relevant studies, Jafar et al. proposed a TVET Teacher Professional Competencies framework in the Industry 4.0 era. The framework is composed of 5 dimensions: technical, non-technical, personal attributes, motive, and mental and physical. Comprehensive as it is, the model is static and merely presents a list of competencies required of TVET teachers today. Without criteria indicative of the competency levels that a teacher can/should achieve and without projecting a dynamic competency progression phase by phase, the framework does not present itself as a user-friendly tool to assess TVET teachers’ competency development. Similar deficiencies also applied to most existing competency frameworks for TVET teachers. Here we concur with Diep and Hartmann (2016) that “competence of vocational teacher is still a complex, ill-structured domain facing the fast-change world with the tendency of sustainable development” (p. 7). We believe high time that a more operational, adaptable, and easy-to-use framework with clear competency indicators is developed. Informed by existing literature and new insights from the most recent practices in the digital age, we propose here a TVET teacher competency framework and developed relevant competency indicators and a competency assessment instrument with the aim to:

  • reflect the key competencies required of TVET teachers in the digital age.

  • provide a reference point for developing ongoing professional development programs.

  • provide an easy-to-use and adaptable instrument for TVET teachers to self-assess their competency levels.

  • help individual teachers to formulate short-term and long-term career objectives and plans.

  • help individual teachers to develop self-development strategies.

  • contribute to institutional policy making in regard to teachers’ professional development initiative, strategies and support structures and mechanisms.

  • contribute to national policy formulation relating to vocational education reform, digital transformation and professional development for TVET teachers and trainers.

  • provide a basis for future research to update the competencies contained in the proposed framework and integrate new competencies and criteria to meet the for-ever changing needs of industry.

3.2 Rationales for Proposing a Competency Framework for TVET Teachers in the Digital Age

This section consists of two parts. Section 3.2.1 reviews the relevant literature on the roles that TVET teachers play in the digital age, with the aim of exploring the competencies required of TVET teachers today. Section 3.2.2 reviews existing approaches to the examination of teacher professional development trajectory in terms of stages of development. Discussions in these two sections lead to our proposal of a digital teaching competency framework for today’s TVET teachers in Sect. 3.3. Discussions contained in Sect. 3.2 also informs our proposal of TVET teachers’ competency indicators and a competency assessment instrument in Sect. 3.4.

3.2.1 Exploring TVET Teachers’ Competencies in the Digital Age: A Multi-role Perspective

In the digital age, TVET teachers are required to play multiple roles to meet the demands of the age. In this section, we focus on four of these roles to explore professional competencies that TVET teachers need to develop today. These competencies are discussed in the context of TVET teachers as teachers by profession, vocational practitioners and trainers, digital citizens and lifelong learners. The review on the basic tenants in teacher competencies contained in Sect. 2.1.2 supplements the discussion here.

3.2.1.1 TVET Teachers’ Competencies as a Teacher by Profession

TVET teachers, first and foremost, is an educator with the same basic competency requirements as those in schools and higher education. Different lenses and approaches have been adopted to exposit competencies for teachers in general. For example, from the iceberg model perspective, competencies for teachers can include knowledge, skills, social role, self-image, traits, and motives (London leadership academy., n.d.). On the other hand, the psychological perspective of teachers’ competencies emphasizes teachers’ value systems, psychological wellbeing, personality, and ethics. Research on pedagogy often concerns teachers’ competencies in curriculum development and delivery. Models and approaches have been developed to guide the developmental process of curriculum development. Among them, the ADDIE model is perhaps the most commonly used (Morrison, 2010). ADDIE is the acronym for Analysis, Design, Develop, Implementation, and Evaluation. As far as TVET teachers’ competencies are concerned, curriculum development has its own unique concerns and requirements, in comparison to that in general education. Quality curriculum design in the digital age requires a good understanding of the potential of ICT in meeting learners’ needs, in addition to a sufficient command of vocational theories, knowledge, and relevant vocational skills. Curriculum design should also be informed by an analysis of learner and industry needs. Diao and Yang (2021) believed that curriculum development for TVET teachers should be the concerted efforts of the TVET teachers and experts from relevant industries, and it should be supported by institutional professional development communities. They suggested four key components in TVET curriculum development: analysis of industry needs and requirements, analysis of specific task needs, course development, and project development. Among them, needs analysis informs course and project design. Integrating the needs of industry into curriculum design has never been more crucial than it is today. The twenty-first century industry is experiencing tremendous changes almost every day, especially in the process of achieving the goals of sustainable developments.

Curriculum delivery in TVET also has its own unique demands, strategies, and approaches. While different pedagogical approaches are adopted in different subject areas and countries, the learner-centered approach is gaining prominence in TVET. This approach sees teachers as learning facilitators rather than instructors, and students as active agents in learning rather than passive receivers of instructions (Hannafin et al., 2014). Guided by this approach, we argue here that TVET teachers today are required to develop facilitating skills to support student contextual, authentic, and hands-on learning through the use of ICT. This is a process of developing students’ capacity in problem solving, critical thinking, and autonomous learning. In a typical TVET classroom, students’ engagement in specific, real-life task completion through hands-on learning is often a regular part of the classroom activities. Blended learning also requires TVET teachers to facilitate learning and training in a multimodal environment and use technology in a pedagogically sound manner. Teaching in TVET today also includes collaborating and negotiating with industry for opportunities of vocational skill training and upskilling.

3.2.1.2 TVET Teachers’ Competencies as a Vocational Practitioner and Skill Trainer

The strong link between the TVET system and industry places special demands on TVET teachers and their professional development. It also creates confusion about the roles of TVET teachers. Existing research on TVET teachers’ competencies features an ongoing dialogue on the dual nature of this profession encompassing their pedagogical expertise as a teacher and vocational knowledge and skills as a trainer/tradesperson (Tyler & Dymock, 2021). To put it simply, TVET teachers need to play the dual role of teaching domain knowledge and theories and training students on vocational skills. Terms such as “double reference” (Becker & Spottl, 2019, p. 7) and “dual professionalism” (Avis & Orr, 2014, p. 1101) are often used to describe such a dual nature of this profession. This dualism has set the TVET teachers apart from teachers in general education and has received increasing attention from TVET professionals in recent years. This is because the ever-changing needs in today’s workplace require TVET teachers to update their knowledge and skills in order to stay abreast with what is needed in today’s labor market. Köpsén (2014) argued for “a contemporary and modern vocational identity that addresses the current demands for vocational knowledge and skills as well as values and attitudes” (p. 209). The competencies required of TVET teachers as a practitioner and trainer include both pedagogic capability of imparting theories and knowledge to students in a specific subject area, and occupational capacity of applying practical knowledge (e.g., procedural knowledge) to training students on vocational skills and workplace ethics. To Diao and Yang (2021), domain theories and knowledge were critically important as they reflected teachers’ mastery of the subject area contents, and their understanding of industry and reflection of workplace practices. Vocational capacity is thus a core competency for TVET teachers. It includes the capacity to communicate with industry, practical occupational expertise, and the ability to serve the needs of industry.

3.2.1.3 TVET Teachers’ Competencies as a Digital Citizen

In the digital age, teachers are digital citizens. However, digital competence for teachers, including TVET teachers, encapsulates much more than what is prescribed for an average digital citizen. In addition to possessing the basic digital literacy to survive in society as everyone else does, TVET teachers need to acquire knowledge and capacities to enhance and support student learning with technology. As exposited in the widely used TPCK framework (see discussion in Sect. 2.2.1), teachers today first need to possess basic knowledge of and ability to use a variety of essential ICTs to support/enable student learning. More importantly, they need to acquire Technological Content Knowledge (TCK) to be able to identify appropriate technologies for specific content design and development for realizing specific learning goals. Finally, teachers need to develop Technological Pedagogical Knowledge (TPK) to be able to apply appropriate technologies to enhance and innovate pedagogy and student learning. In other words, technology should be applied in a pedagogically effective manner to make learning more flexible, interactive, and inclusive. Similar emphases have been repeatedly conveyed in recent studies on TVET teachers’ competency development (Hodges et al., 2020; Subrahmanyam, 2022). According to Digital Campus Specifications for Vocational Institutions published by the Ministry of Education, China, digital competency for teachers consists of four dimensions: the awareness of technological advancements and attitudes towards ICT adoption, technological knowledge and skills, application of ICT to teaching and teaching innovation, and social responsibilities (Ministry of Education of the PRC, 2020). All of the above discussed technological competencies are particularly relevant to TVET teachers, with a strong emphasis on the fluent use of their digital competencies to facilitate authentic experiential and contextual learning and training in real world settings (Liu, & Yin, 2014).

3.2.1.4 TVET Teachers’ Competencies as a Life-Long Learner

Lifelong learning has never been so integral to our lives in the twenty-first century as we need to constantly update our knowledge and skills to adapt to the rapidly changing vocational education, society and world of work. Lifelong learning should be an indispensable part of TVET teachers’ professional life.

First, they need to respond to the transformation taking place in industry such as the new skill requirements for a green economy (Diep & Hartmann, 2016). To TVET, such a transformation means many previously highly demanded disciplinary areas and courses such as traditional manufacturing and processing, are being replaced by new subject areas and courses such as artificial intelligence and green technologies. These changes require TVET teachers to constantly update their existing curricula and develop new curricula to stay current with industry developments and meet the needs of current and future students.

Second, the digital transformation taking place in TVET also impels teachers to constantly advance their technological knowledge and digital teaching skills to respond to new demands in facilitating student learning and training. Thus, lifelong learning is part and parcel of TVET teachers’ professional life. There is a dual focus in TVET teachers’ lifelong learning: self-development to become a lifelong learner themselves and helping students to become lifelong learners. As a lifelong learner, TVET teachers need keep themselves up to date on new pedagogical theories, technological development, in particular, the development of environmentally friendly technologies, as argued by Diep and Hartmann (2016). In addition, they also need to develop competencies to help students to learn how to learn so that students can develop lifelong learning strategies from an early age. Such strategies help students to become flexible, adaptable, and open-minded future workforce. While technological advancements have made lifelong learning a necessity, it also has great potential to assist and enable lifelong learning, making it ubiquitous, as the distinction between formal, informal, in-class and out-of-class learning is fast becoming blurry.

To summarize, TVET teachers in the digital age are teachers by profession, vocational practitioners and skill trainers, digital citizens and lifelong learners. This multi-role identity is depicted in Fig. 3.1.

Fig. 3.1
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The multi-role identity of TVET teachers in the digital age

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On the basis of the above discussion, this handbook proposes a framework of teaching competencies for TVET teachers in the digital age. It consists of six constructs: curriculum improvement/development, facilitating learning, vocational knowledge and expertise, vocational capacity, digital competence and competence for research, and self-development. Among them, curriculum improvement/development and facilitating learning are the basic competencies that should be possessed by a teacher; vocational knowledge, expertise, and vocational capacity are the competencies required of a vocational practitioner and skill trainer. As a digital citizen, TVET teachers should possess not only basic digital literacy, but also digital proficiency to engage and support student learning and training. As a life-long learner, the capacity to research and self-develop is crucial.

3.2.2 The Stages of TVET Teachers’ Competency Development

As far as Teacher Career Cycle theory is concerned, the models proposed by Fessler (1991) and Huberman (1992) are often cited to guide research on teachers’ professional life development trajectory. Fessler’s model consists of eight stages: preservice, induction, competency building, enthusiastic and growing, career frustration, career winddown, and career exit. The preservice stage in a teacher’s career cycle was excluded from Huberman’s seven stage model that began from career entry, moving up to survival and discovery, stabilization, experimentation and diversification, stock-taking and interrogations, serenity and conservatism, and disengagement (serene or bitter).

Fuller’s Concerns-based model,, (see Fuller, 1969; Fuller & Bown, 1975; for a review see Rutherford & Hall, 1990) is a three-stage approach to teacher professional growth sequenced as concerns about self in stage one, concerns about tasks/situations in stage two, and concerns about students in stage three. This model has been “dedicated to understanding the developmental dynamics of pre-service and early in-service teachers” (Conway & Clark, 2003, p. 466). In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Concerns Based Adoption Model (CBAM) was proposed by Hall and others (see Hall & Hord, 1987, 2006; Hall & Loucks, 1978; Loucks et al., 1975) in the context of educational change and innovation adoption. Building on the premise that change is a process, not an event, this model “recognizes educational change is multifaceted and involves the complex and dynamic interplay between people, organizations, systems and processes” (Saunders, 2012, p. 187). There are three dimensions in this model: stages of concern, levels of use, and innovation configurations. Although this model has been widely adopted in the design and implementation of professional development programs in many educational settings, to date, not much has been reported regarding its application to TVET teachers’ professional development, with the exception of the study by Saunders (2012).

From a cognitive development perspective, a progression approach has been widely adopted to project a teacher’s competence trajectory from novice to expert. Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) proposed a five-stage theory of teacher development from (1) novice, (2) advanced beginner, (3) competent, (4) proficient to (5) expert stages. Berliner (2004) commented that the first three stages were a “progression with identifiable behaviours and modes of thinking that are acquired by teachers over an extended period of time,” while the boundary between the last two stages are often overlap and hard to distinguish (p. 22). Berliner’s research adopted this model to investigate and confirm traits of expert teachers.

This model was also adopted by Rauner (2007) to illustrate the competence development stages for TVET teachers. He also discussed four developmental learning areas corresponding to a teacher’s development from novice to expert. Four types of practical knowledge are covered in these four learning areas and they are sequenced as “orientation and overview of knowledge” for novice progressing to advanced beginner, “coherent knowledge” for advanced beginner advancing to competent teacher, “detailed and functional knowledge” for competent moving to proficient teacher, and “experience-based specialized knowledge” for proficient teacher becoming expert. These stages, learning areas, and scopes of knowledge help us to identify the “thresholds and stages in the development of occupational competence and identity; they also have a didactic function in the development of work-related and structurally oriented vocational courses” (Rauner, 2007, p. 55).

Drawing on research and evidence of good practice and in consultation with academic staff and experts and wider academic community, the Royal Academy of Engineering in the UK (2018) published its Career Framework for University Teaching. This framework entails four progressive levels in regard to teaching and leadership in teaching and learning. Level 1 involves ‘the effective teacher’ and delineates the threshold level of teaching competence with key adjectives such as “conscientious,” “reflective,” and “effective.” Level 2 is “the skilled and collegial teacher” that emphasizes “an evidence-informed approach” to their professional development and the provision of mentorship to their colleagues (p. 38). There are two pathways at Level 3, “the institutional leader” and “the scholarly teacher,” with the former contributing to “enhancing the environment for inclusion and excellence in teaching and learning within and beyond their institution” and the latter contributing to “pedagogical knowledge by engaging with and contributing to scholarly research which, in turn, influence educational practice within and beyond their institution” (p. 38). Level 4 includes the national and global leader in teaching that places a strong emphasis on national and global leadership in teaching and pedagogical research.

In different ways and to varying degrees, these three types of models inform our classification of the developmental stages contained in the TVET teachers’ competency framework proposed in this handbook. In particular, our four-stage classification (i.e., beginner, competent, proficient, and expert stages) draws on the Concerns Based Adoption model and cognitive development frameworks. This will be discussed in more detail in the section below.

3.3 Proposing a Competency Framework for TVET Teachers in the Digital Age

The above discussions on TVET teachers’ roles and the stages of professional development led to our proposal of a framework for TVET teachers’ competencies in the digital age. It consists of six constructs and four developmental stages (see Table 3.1).

Table 3.1 A framework of TVET teachers’ competency in the digital age
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3.3.1 Rationale for Each of the Six Constructs of the Proposed Framework

As shown in Table 3.1, there are six key constructs for TVET teachers. The constructs are curriculum improvement/development, facilitating learning and training, vocational knowledge and expertise, vocational capacity, digital competence, and research and self-development.

In the time of rapid technological and societal changes, curriculum improvement/development presents a special challenge to TVET teachers. That is, curriculum design and instructional planning need to constantly assess and select appropriate and cutting-edge technologies to reflect and meet the changing needs of industry and to enhance student learning and skill training. As an overarching approach, blended learning should guide curriculum and instructional design and development.

This blended learning approach is also applicable to the construct of facilitating learning and training. This can include how to manage a blended learning environment in teaching and training, how to support students in their use of technology in learning and vocational skills development, and how to assess student learning using appropriate technologies and methods.

In terms of vocational knowledge and expertise, this construct embraces two kinds of core capacities for TVET teachers: (1) the capacity to constantly update their own domain knowledge, and (2) the capacity to make best use of technology to engage learners in their acquisition of domain knowledge.

Different from teachers in higher education, TVET teachers play the dual role of facilitating knowledge acquisition and skill training. In skill training, TVET teachers are much like a tradesperson or technician. They need to help students acquire practical skills relevant to their future occupations, often through hands-on learning in a real-world setting. This role requires TVET teachers not only to develop pedagogy for training and supervising students’ vocational skills development, but also engage with industry to advance their understanding of industry needs, and update their vocational knowledge and skills accordingly. They also need to collaborate with industry in research, skill training in the workplace, and supervising internship.

In the proposed framework, the level of TVET teachers’ digital competence qualitatively exceeds the basic digital literacy possessed by a digital citizen. This construct assumes that in-service TVET teachers have gained their basic digital literacy in their pre-service training such as skills for accessing information through LMS and for using social media. For in-service TVET teachers, they should be able to leverage technology to facilitate student learning and assessments, to solve learning problems, and to innovate and transform their teaching (Almerich et al., 2016; Wagiran et al., 2019a, 2019b). The construct of digital competence in the proposed framework echoes the call of the UNESCO-UNEVOC study (2020a) that TVET teachers and trainers need to build digital skills, acquire knowledge of new technology and equipment, and develop competencies in applying ICT to deliver learner-centered learning and training for the purpose of fostering learners’ digital competencies and future oriented skills. The four stages of competency development in this construct align with the four stages of ICT adoption promoted by UNEVOC, namely in emerging, adopting, infusing, and transforming (UNESCO-UNEVOC, 2020b, p. 19).

Lastly, the proposed framework specifies research and self-development as a competency required of today’s TVET teachers. This construct addresses the weak culture of research in TVET that has been generally recognized in the literature (Lachlem, 2017; Marope et al., 2015), although research has been one of the three dimensions (with the other two being teaching and management) in the IIOE’s (International Institute of Online Education) Teacher ICT Competence Framework developed by ICHEI (International Center for Higher Education Innovation under the auspices of UNESCO). The forever changing demands from today’s industry requires TVET teachers to be aware of and constantly informed by new theoretical knowledge and practical developments from industry. Research and self-development is also a process in which TVET teachers reflect upon their teaching practice and innovation through research and publication and develop their agency both individually and in a community of practice. The ability to research and self-develop as a lifelong learner has never been so crucial as it is today. Fortunately, with the aid of technology, this construct can be achieved through a repertoire of resources and a variety of effective means and avenues, be them physical or virtual, online or face to face.

TVET teachers’ capacity to use technology in a pedagogically meaningful fashion pervades all of the six constructs in the proposed framework. This is because blended and online learning has become an integral part of today’s education. At the same time, technology is also transforming industry and the whole society. The proposed framework also recognizes the multiple roles played by today’s TVET teachers. It highlights the dual role of TVET teachers being a content provider and practical skill trainer. The importance of TVET teachers becoming a lifelong learner is also underlined in the framework. We acknowledge that the above proposed framework does not cover every aspect of TVET teachers’ competencies needed in the digital age. For example, we excluded some of the so-called soft skills such as teachers’ beliefs, values, attitudes and ethics as we focus on digital teaching competencies. We also need to limit the scope of the framework in order to keep it more focused and easier to be used by TVET practitioners. We believe they are equally important and deserve a comprehensive study beyond the focus and scope of the proposed framework.

3.3.2 Rationale for the Stages of the Proposed TVET Teachers’ Competency Development

The proposed framework delineates the trajectory of TVET teachers’ professional development, progressing from beginner to a competent teacher, and then a proficient teacher to an expert. Different from the five-stage model proposed by Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986) and Rauner’s (2007) five-stage vocational competence development, we excluded the novice stage as we focused on in-service teachers’ digital competencies. We believed that in-service teachers were not completely new to technology-supported teaching and training as they should have been trained as teachers in a specific subject area in their preservice training and should have possessed basic digital literacy.

The beginning stage of their competency development can be seen as an awareness raising period. This is a process in which TVET teachers gain a preliminary understanding of the teaching and learning environment that they are going to work in and the competencies required of them to teach in a digital age. It is crucial for them to be conscious of the importance of developing one’s professional competencies in an ongoing manner. This can be achieved through teachers’ participating in the institution’s orientation programs, co-developing curricula with peers, and teaching and training students supervised or with a team. They also need to improve their understanding of domain knowledge and vocational skills through research and regular contact with industry. They may have a sufficient level of digital literacy for accessing online resources for teaching preparation, but they need to develop an understanding of how to apply their digital knowledge to specific instructional design and delivery. They may need guidance and support in every aspect of their professional development at this stage.

Stage two is a transitional stage, in which teachers should have become more competent and independent after adapting to the teaching and learning environment. This stage sees the internalization of their experiences and insights gained in stage one. In terms of curriculum development and delivery, teachers are not only able to integrate and use ICT fluently to support or enable learning and training, they can also use appropriate technology and resources to solve problems arising from their teaching and training. They have acquired a new understanding of domain knowledge and vocational skills needed by industry through engaging with industry. Self-development becomes more self-regulatory and self-paced.

Innovation characterizes the third stage in TVET teachers’ professional trajectory. In this stage, teachers have become more proficient and resourceful in curriculum development and facilitation of learning, catalysing the potential of ICT in teaching and training innovation. With the support of ICT and informed by students’ learning needs and the demands of industry, teachers begin to venture out of their comfort zone to explore ways to innovate their curricula and improve students’ occupational skills development. Research into and reflection on their teaching innovation happen regularly and findings are shared with their peers in communities of practice and/or through publication.

When teachers become an expert in the field in stage four, leadership qualities become the essential competency in the digital age. These qualities can be manifested in their efforts to bring new knowledge, skills, and pedagogies into teaching, learning and training to make them more effective, interactive, enabling, and learner-centred. Such a transformation requires forward thinking that foresees what is needed in future TVET curricula and how ICT can be utilized to prepare students to meet the future needs of industry. Peer mentoring is another leadership quality that expert teachers need to nurture in this stage. Peer mentoring can happen in research projects and publications as well as in teaching innovation.

3.4 TVET Teachers’ Competency Indicators and Assessment Instrument

While the above proposed framework outlines the constructs and stages of TVET teachers’ competency development, in this section, we first identify three levels of key competency indicators in Sect. 3.4.1 for each of the six competencies contained in the framework in Table 3.1. These indicators define the capabilities and behaviours that a competent TVET teacher should develop in the digital age. Then Sect. 3.4.2 proposes an assessment instrument to help measure these competencies based on the indicators developed in Sect. 3.4.1.

3.4.1 Key Competency Indicators

To further qualify the scope and contents of each competency discussed in Table 3.1, we developed a list of indicators as shown in Table 3.2. They are categorized into three levels, with six first-level indicators, 18 s-level indicators, and 62 third-level indicators.

Table 3.2 Key indicators for assessing TVET teachers’ competency in the digital age
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3.4.2 Assessment Instrument

Based on the competency indicators discussed above, an assessment instrument was proposed (see Table 3.3). It consists of three levels of criteria with six in level 1, 19 in level 2, and 147 in level 3.

Table 3.3 Assessment instrument for TVET teachers’ competency in the digital age
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3.5 Recommendations for the Use of the Proposed Competency Framework, Indicator, and Assessment Instrument

3.5.1 Informing TVET Teachers’ Professional Development at the National Level

First, the proposed framework and indicators and assessment instrument can be used as a reference point when formulating national policies for supporting TVET teachers’ professional development. We believe that improving TVET teachers’ competencies should go hand in hand with the digital transformation of a country’s vocational education. In a similar vein, Latchem (2017) argued that digital transformation of TVET “requires the creation of a training ecosystem wherein all of the stakeholders in the internal and external organizational ecosystems agree, collaborate and share resources, information and services” (p. 201). As far as teachers are concerned, their willingness and capability to participate in educational reforms determine the degree of their success. The proposed competency framework and indicators can help examine the current status of TVET teachers’ competency level in a country and identify strengths and areas for improvement. Such an analysis can lead to the formulation of well-informed policies and standards for TVET teachers’ professional development at the national level. The proposed competency framework can also be used as a reference when improving existing policies and standards for teacher professional development, making them more comprehensive in scope, more specific in content, and more applicable and effective in practice.

Second, the framework and indicators can also provide a reference for the development of national training programs, training courses, and training resources. The reference point can address urgent needs from industry and a country’s specific needs for competent TVET teachers. While TVET teacher training workshops, seminars, projects, and other capacity-building activities have been offered by governments around the world, international organizations, non-governmental organizations, and private sectors, many of these training efforts are one-off or lack systematic support and follow-ups (Xiaohan, n.d.).

Third, the framework and indicators can inform the building of national Open Educational Resources (OER) for TVET teachers. Such resources empower teachers with tools and means to adapt and/or reuse readily available resources when designing student learning and training as well as teachers’ self-development. Teachers should be provided with a variety of means to access OER. In addition, training how to customize OER for particular learning and training goals should form part of the national professional development programs. Furthermore, a national professional development program should engage teachers to develop their abilities to collect and/or create online teaching resources in local languages to suit local needs. In this regard, attention should be paid to the global campaign for OER and the implementation of the principles of the 2012 Paris OER Declaration.

Fourth, the proposed framework can also help promote the standardization of local teacher training courses. The indicators and criteria statements used in this chapter can facilitate the sharing of local contents across cultures.

3.5.2 Informing TVET Teachers’ Professional Development at the Institutional Level

The proposed framework and indicators can be used as a basis for institutions to further develop and formulate policies and standards to promote, guide and support the professional development of their teachers. They can be used to assess the effectiveness of its staff professional development programs and identify gaps to bridge. They can also contribute to the development of an award policy and system (e.g., certificate, micro credential or monetary awards) to encourage and recognize teachers’ participation in professional development activities or self-learning. In particular, the proposed four stages of professional development specified in the framework can be referred to when developing or updating key performance indicators and criteria for different levels of staff promotion. Systematic support policies and mechanisms can also be established in accordance with the framework and indicators so as to sustain teachers’ agency grow, both individually and in communities of practice. Research shows many institutions in African countries lag behind in meeting the changing needs of teaching in the information age as far as ongoing support for teachers’ professional development is concerned.

In terms of informing institutional teacher professional development programs, the proposed framework and indicators can assist institutions in monitoring and improving such programs. A timely understanding of teachers’ competency levels can help institutions to evaluate whether their current content, modes and approaches adopted in their teachers’ professional development programs meet the requirements of participants’ needs in reaching their lifelong development goals. Many institutions lack an integrated approach to teachers’ professional development, often with no clear objectives and long-term goals. For example, some institutions focus on teachers’ curriculum development ability, and some only train teachers on vocational skills, while others stop at helping teachers develop basic digital literacy without further training on how to integrate ICT to improve, innovate, or enable learning (Subrahmanyam, 2022). The proposed framework and indicators should help institutions develop a systems approach in understanding teachers’ needs for upskilling and support so that ongoing interventions can be more targeted and sustained.

Last, but not least, the proposed indicators and assessment instrument can be adapted/adopted to evaluate institution-wide teachers’ competency levels in an ongoing manner. The evaluation results can facilitate a constant reappraisal of teachers’ competency levels, and in particular, the levels of their technological competence to develop tailored professional development programs and update existing intervention approaches and contents. Such a constant reappraisal is much needed to keep today’s TVET current with the fast-changing industry and society. Besides, the four-stage progression suggested by the framework also provides institutional management with an understanding of each individual teacher’s personal trajectory from beginner to expert. It also helps institutional management classify teachers into beginners, competent teachers, proficient teachers, and experts so that tailored support can be targeted to each group of teachers.

3.5.3 Guiding Individual Teachers’ Self-Development

The proposed assessment instrument is particularly valuable to individual TVET teachers as it can be referred to when assessing their own professional competencies. Used as a self-assessment tool, its three levels of criteria make it easy for individual teachers to ensure a comprehensive coverage and sufficient depth of their self-evaluation. The assessment instrument allows teachers to assess their own specific behaviours and competencies in relation to curriculum development, facilitation of learning and training, vocational knowledge and skills, digital competence, and research and self-development. Such a self-assessment can enable teachers to better understand their levels of competence, professional strengths and weakness, and act accordingly. For example, they would know what OERs to use, which professional development programs to attend, and which communities of practice to join that fit specific needs for further developing their agency.

The four-stage progression contained in the proposed framework also facilitates career goal setting as it lends TVET teachers a holistic view of their professional trajectory. The respective competency levels required of beginner, competent, proficient teacher, and expert help teachers set short term goals for each stage and long-term goals for their whole career. They can adjust their development strategies and tasks according to these goals and eventually become an expert in the field.