We are innovating. Join us in reimagining the future of IIEP-UNESCO training!

19 December 2020

IIEP-UNESCO is transforming its training offer. What’s ahead: A blended professional development experience that preserves face-to-face international diversity and access to the Institute’s technical expertise with greater digital accessibility. Register below to receive updates on the right programme for you!

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted professional development worldwide. At IIEP, it facilitated a fundamental rethink of the Institute’s training portfolio – not only to deliver a stronger, more sustainable offer, but also to ultimately help build more resilient and equitable education systems.

“Despite the current health crisis, a window opened for us to reevaluate how and where we train education managers and planners,” says IIEP’s head of training and education, Mioko Saito. “It has accelerated the need for innovation, and we hope that together with UNESCO Member States, we can provide a new offer that is appealing, feasible, and impactful as well as adapted to the changed realities that we all face.”



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Going forward, this means a more sustainable, accessible, and digitally focused training offer. Let’s take a closer at the details.

Blended learning with a longer e-Learning phase

Blended learning combines online and face-to-face training. It converts the best aspects of the Institute’s classroom experience into a digital learning environment, while maintaining essential physical contact for other parts of a course. Increased use of multimedia is helping create new meaning for participants as they can immerse themselves – at distance – in real-life situations. This can also be combined with actual school visits, such as in the recent online course on planning for disability-inclusive education where participants conducted one-on-one interviews with school actors in their home country. And, to help establish a sense of community with other trainees, new tools such as interactive whiteboards and social media groups are already bringing participants together – no matter where they are. 

Which courses are affected?

Blended learning has already benefited training across IIEP’s offer in Buenos Aires, Dakar, and Paris. Shorter courses will now move entirely online, while longer training programmes will resume some face-to-face training once the sanitary situation allows. In Paris, this shift will particularly affect the Advanced Training Programme (ATP) and the Education Sector Planning (ESP) course – two of the longer, more in-depth training options. Both programmes will have shorter residential periods in Paris and a longer online phase. The ATP is due to start again in September 2021.


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IIEP-UNESCO training is a multilingual, multicultural experience. Will that be preserved online?

A combination of self-paced learning and interactive tools (e.g. webinars, online forums, collaborative wikis, and discussion groups) will preserve this core aspect of the training offer and help maintain the Institute’s emphasis on peer-to-peer learning. Translation tools and simultaneous interpretation will be used throughout different courses, and participants will continue to be able to access a variety of IIEP resources via the digital library and online portals.

“It is crucial that all participants can access core training materials, so as a trainer, I have to focus on providing clear and dynamic content that can be accessed online or offline. The advantage of digital training, though, is the ability to explore beyond that common foundation by sharing more varied resources (videos, podcast episodes, Twitter accounts, etc.) that will address all types of learning profiles, styles, and paces.”
Amelie Gagnon, IIEP-UNESCO instructor

What about technological constraints?

IIEP is working to better answer the needs of the 21st Century educational planner. Blended learning is part of this – a way to help planners balance the heavy demands of their professional lives with the flexibility to pursue upskilling and training. Technological constraints remain – e.g. access to a digital device or a reliable internet connection. IIEP’s training team is working at developing ways for participants to access modules offline and is using responsive-design to facilitate access to its courses via computer, tablet, and mobile phone.

Updating course content and ensuring a high quality offer

IIEP’s training team is currently evaluating the course content, and making sure that it responds to the changing needs of UNESCO Member States. For example, there is now greater focus on education plan implementation, crisis-sensitive educational planning, equity, and inclusion.

To ensure quality, IIEP has created a dedicated Monitoring and Evaluation Working Group – comprised of members from its three offices – to track training outcomes based on the Kirkpatrick model. This four-level system looks at everything from immediate results and trainee satisfaction to positive change at the organizational level. In addition, a number of online courses have already been awarded a certificate from Quality Matters and the Institute also follows W3C web accessibility guidelines to make sure all participants can benefit from the training offer.

How will these changes affect course fees?

A reduced residential phase at the IIEP headquarters’ in Paris will reduce participation fees (due to the high cost of living). The overall goal is to make IIEP training a more sustainable, and accessible training option for everybody. We will share updated fee structures as soon as they are ready.