NN46, September 2011
Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark
Foreword
By Kenneth King, NORRAG
This is rather a special issue of NORRAG News, since about 20 of its 50 contributors have also written full-length papers on the same subjects. These are being delivered during the UKFIET Oxford International Conference on Educational Development during 13-15 September 2011. There is a whole series of sessions of the Conference organised under the theme: Skills for work in changing macro-economic environments at which these full papers will be presented and discussed. The full programme of the Conference within which this theme can be followed is available at http://www.cfbt.com/UKFIET/pdf/UKFIET%202011%20Programme.pdf
In addition, we found that this topic of skills development was very popular, and several people wrote from round the world offering to contribute.
Rethinking Membership. In the last issue of NN (45), we discussed NORRAG membership a good deal. We have to thank NORRAG’s Brainstorming Group for challenging us to think about our membership in all its diversity. We have, as a result, thought a lot about our constituencies, which in total are now over 3,400 members worldwide. We have recognised that all NORRAG members are readers of NORRAG NEWS. Of these, almost 1000 individuals have contributed to NN over the 25 years. Well over a hundred of these contributors have provided multiple copy to NN. They have proved themselves to be reliable writers for NN. Others again have been very proactive and have been keen to organise joint meetings with NORRAG. In the last year and a half alone (2010/2011), NORRAG partnered with UCT (Cape Town), OSSREA (Ethiopia), IAMR (India), ALAST (Mexico) SDC (Dhaka), COTVEC (Ghana), IHEID (Geneva), HKIEd/CERC (Hong Kong), Waseda/ICU/JICA (Japan), and IFAD (Rome). The NORRAG co-operators who promoted these joint activities have hopefully gained from the interaction. Finally, there have been members who have been proactive networkers. When a particular issue of NN has arrived they have taken the initiative and disseminated it round their networks. We recognise these different categories of NORRAG member, but we don't intend dividing the membership into Readers, Writers, Co-operators or Networkers; that could be divisive! But we shall continue to look to the membership for initiatives of all sorts, and especially ideas for joint activities such as those just mentioned.
NORRAG & the Oxford Conference. This year is the 20th anniversary of the Oxford Conference, and NORRAG has been responsible for some particular section of the Conference ever since it began. We have always had a NORRAG open meeting during the Conference, and we look forward to meeting many of the contributors to this special issue there, as well as interacting with many of our readers, writers, co-operators and networkers. Such face-to-face events are crucial to the vitality of virtual networks. Time: 8.00 on the 15th September, in New College, Oxford.
Kenneth King
Saltoun Hall, Pencaitland, East Lothian, Scotland
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Cite article as: King, K, (2011) ‘Foreword’, in NORRAG NEWS, Towards a New Global World of Skills Development? TVET's turn to Make its Mark, No.46, September 2011, pp. 9, available: http://www.norrag.org
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