UNDP Vocational Education AND training project

1. UNDP Vocational Education AND training project Dr. Nicole Vartanian November 2011

2. Management and organizational structure of a VET institution

3. Overarching questions • What are the leadership skills necessary to manage a VET institution? • What is the optimal organizational structure to achieve your educational goals?

4. Conceptions of leadership • At the core of most definitions of leadership are two functions • Providing direction • Exercising influence • Not the same concept as management Management is efficiency in climbing the ladder of success; leadership determines whether the ladder is leaning against the right wall. Stephen Covey Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. Peter Drucker

5. Current research findings and trends • Leadership is second only to classroom instruction among all school-related factors that contribute to what students learn at school. • Leadership effects are usually largest where and when they are needed most. • Reference: How leadership influences student learning, by Kenneth Leithwood, Karen Seashore Louis, Stephen Anderson and Kyla Wahlstrom • http://www.wallacefoundation.org/knowledge-center/school-leadership/key-research/Documents/How-Leadership-Influences-Student-Learning.pdf

6. Qualities of successful leadership • Setting direction • Helping colleagues develop shared understandings about the organization’s goals that can solidify a sense of purpose or vision • Developing people • Creating capacities and motivations in colleagues to move productively towards goals through direct experiences with leaders • Redesigning the organization • Supporting the performance of administrators, educators, and students by strengthening organizational culture, modifying structures, and building collaborative processes to match the changing nature of the institution

7. Educational leadership models • Nimble leaders develop repertoire of skills based on unique institutional circumstances rather than proscribed models • Organizational culture • Student population • Policy context • Student-centered leaders develop institutions that are focused on student success • Creating and sustaining a competitive school • Empowering others to make significant decisions • Providing instructional guidance • Developing and implementing strategic and school-improvement plans

8. Distributed leadership • Initiatives or practices used to influence members of the organization are exercised by more than a single person. • Successful leaders cannot carry out their leadership roles by themselves. • They build capacity and count on leadership contributions from many others in their organizations. • An effective strategy is to develop a strong, in-house, systematically aligned professional development program. • This concept overlaps substantially with shared, collaborative, democratic, and participatory leadership.

9. Optimizing organizational structure • School leaders aiming to improve organizations must: • Identify which conditions have great effect on student learning • Assess which of those conditions are prone to intervention • Determine most productive forms for those interventions to take • Structural factors affecting organizational success include: • Shared governance and decision-making • School culture and community • Instructional program coherence and student success • Conducive classroom and office conditions

10. Professional development • Capacity building for teachers must involve systematic and consistent steps toward developing a professional learning community. • Significant variation in student learning is accounted for by teachers’ capacities, including: • Basic skillsand subject matter content knowledge • Pedagogical skill and content knowledge • Classroom experience • Administrators need training to augment capacities they largely acquire on the job to manage staff and improve student learning. • Problem-solving, practical thinking strategies • Authentic, experiential learning situations • Coaching, mentoring opportunities

11. Charting a clear course • Clarify academic goals • What knowledge and skills should graduates of the institution possess? • Assess and connect to labor market needs • How can the institution’s curriculum and offerings stay relevant to the current labor market? • Create organizational chart • How can units and employees of the organization be represented clearly within a graphic representation of the institutional structure? • Define clear roles and accountability • How can it be assured that administrators and educators understand and accept their professional responsibilities?

12. Traits of successful leaders • Building high-performance organizations which make significant contributions to student success depends on how fluidly leaders interact with the organizational context. • Leadership and learning are indispensable to each other. John F. Kennedy • The supreme quality for leadership is unquestionably integrity. Without it, no real success is possible, no matter whether it is on a section gang, a football field, in an army, or in an office. Dwight D. Eisenhower • Example is leadership. Albert Schweitzer