The new workplace of VET-teachers has changed their roles and their relationships with learners. As a consequence their professional identity has shifted from institute-based and teaching-focused to a much more learner-oriented delivery of topics in diverse environments. Initiatives to improve nat. VET-systems have occurred in the light of globalization of economy and culture and the shift in balance from blue- to white-collar work. Research indicates changes in employment patterns; the way organizations work together; and the working knowledge and capacities required by knowledge workers. At the same time ageing has become a matter for policy debate as impacts of demographic change will be significant when they happen in times when labour shortages are emerging. Thus it’s not surprising that governments are encouraging a reversal of early retirement trends and are looking for strategies to increase participation of older workers. The benefits of keeping them in the workforce are obvious. They have critical knowledge developed by experience and are a primary resource in organisations. Studies show that “mature workers are highly productive, familiar with the organization’s products and the way in which the systems work. In contrast, younger employees have less experience and more effort must be expended on training and then retaining them” (see BMBF, Auswirkungen des dem. Wandels auf die berufl.Ausbildung, 2009). This drive to extend working life and retain the knowledge to support competitiveness has grown globally and is reflected in reports emanating from agencies such as the OECD, the EU (Commission Communication, 2012) as well as almost all 27 national EU governments. Future competitiveness will rest partly on the abilities and productivity of ageing workforce and, as a consequence, on the effective utilisation of older workers and the retention of their knowledge. From EU-labour force data it is clear that the education industry itself is one which is quite affected by the ageing phenomenon. The median age for workers in European VET-education is 44 and the proportion of them over 50 is just over 30%; but some have higher proportion, i.e. Germany with 47% of teachers over 50 (see European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2013). Thus VET-organisations soon will face a staffing crisis. Especially in times of great demand for highly skilled teachers, there is a risk that the stock of knowledge in learning principles and educational theory will be lost as teachers with good industry and teaching experience resign. Talented staff with both industry credibility and teaching experience are difficult to recruit and even harder to retain. With the confidence and experience gained in the VET-system they are attracted by opportunities in the private sector and tend not to stay. Nevertheless there exist no processes or tools exist for VET-institutions to retain knowledge and many VET-organisations are about to experience knowledge loss as a result of employee retirement or change. The DESK project increases the awareness educational managers need to determine what critical knowledge is and that they are likely to lose it in the near future. As the DESK project is intended to produce not only results feasible for one specific national VET-System the consortium was created with the idea to assemble a mix of complementary organisations with profiles, experience and expertise to deliver concepts and tools that can be applied to a variety of European VET-systems. Therefore partners were selected from 4 different national VET-systems (Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Bulgaria) with different concepts of vocational education and different economic situations. Additionally not only vocational schools were incorporated as partners but also teacher-training organizations with contacts to local ministries to safeguard scientific method and potential implementation in national policy initiatives. As a result of the project strategies, and handbook and tools-box will be developed to ensure that organizations are able to retain knowledge, can set up environments and activities to facilitate the active exchange of knowledge from those who are willing to share it with those who are eager to apply it.
In the context of demographic change and labour shortages that are challenging the European VET-organizations and their workforce, VET-organizations are at risk of losing their critical working and educational knowledge just at a time when the systems and economies need to develop greater expertise and provide high quality education. Terms of a VET-knowledge collapse describe the potential impact of the loss and deterioration of valuable skills, experience and know-how so important for high-quality VET-education. Research emphasizes the impact knowledge loss can have, that it is ‘the single most costly source of (knowledge) mismanagement in the corporate world’ and that not capturing knowledge before it walks out the door can result in costly and a detrimental set-backs rendering any attempts to increase efficiency in VET useless. However, before initiating and conducting DESK, no well established and easy to access tools to manage or retain knowledge existed for VET-institutions. The eight DESK consortium partners were carefully selected from 4 different countries and VET-systems. Additionally, not only vocational schools were incorporated but also universities and teacher-training organizations with well established contacts to local ministries to other VET-stakeholders. The coordinating partner, the Landesakademie Esslingen, has experience in managing international projects and organizes a variety of in-service teacher trainings. It is also responsible for human-resource development of educational, managerial staff and teachers with special tasks in vocational schools in Baden-Wuerttemberg. The two Bulgarian universities are internationally recognized research and teacher-training organizations. The vocational school partners from Germany, Austria, Slovenia and Bulgaria represented a great variety of different educational settings from technical colleges to clothing and design schools and with quite different organizational objectives. All school partners have had previous difficulties with knowledge loss due to leaving staff and are aware of the pending threat of the aging workforce. Regional teams were created in which the teacher training organizations contributed to methodological tasks and the vocational schools provided practical insights and testing opportunities. To increase the awareness of stakeholders in the VET-system and to provide support and guidelines DESK developed tools, evaluated measures and created best practice examples of knowledge management and retention in VET-organizations. The collected experiences and lessons learned have been summarized, structured and put in the framework of national partner guides and a Handbook for knowledge management and retention in VET. The results and experiences will support organizations to retain knowledge and to set up processes and activities to facilitate the active exchange of knowledge from those who are willing to share with those who are eager to apply. With the idea of more and more European VET-organisations actively engaging in knowledge management projects, more and more organizations start recognising and appreciating the value of the organizational memory and ‘know-how’ of their experienced employees. This will be one of the factors to initiate the cultural change needed to maintain long-term employability and continuity of the know-how of the aging workforce. Over the duration of the three year project the partners continually optimized their ideas and realized effects for students, teachers and for the partner organization. Considering the variety of project types and the highly diverse partners, educational contexts and starting points the effects were manifold and ranged from the change of the relationship between students and teachers and improved learning outcomes and learning conditions to new perspective on management opportunities that combine strategic development of the school with the risk and resource management of critical knowledge. All of the projects will be continued and local collaborations have been formed to disseminate the ideas and findings. Additionally, the DESK-partners have been able to start first initiatives of system-integrated knowledge-life-cycle-management processes that will hopefully not only guarantee the knowledge continuity of the VET-organizations but also the sustainable employability; it will also increase the loyalty of talented, motivated teachers with their industry credibility and teaching experience. The initial steps have been taken, but it will take time to convince the stakeholders in the VET-systems to initiate the necessary changes.