Teacher training sexual diversity in VET (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) people)

Content

SENSE focuses on teaching diversity skills to VET students in the social domain, and more specifically how to deal with one of the more controversial forms of diversity: sexual diversity. Therefore, its main focus is social inclusion of both fellow students and future clients. This is especially important in an aging Europe where Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex (LGBTI) people, that have acquired an open lifestyle, may be confronted with social sector professionals. The key to achieve this is strengthening the key competences of students but also of teachers, who are often not aware of these issues, or don't know how to handle negative comments by VET students in this area. Generally, VET technical skills in the social domain have been well described, but there is a lack of theory, adequate education, practice and description of what exactly entails competence in diversity skills on the level of both VET students and teachers. SENSE develops a competence framework to fill this gap and to advocate for inclusion of diversity skills in the formal criteria for qualifications.