Dr Silvia Annen studied Business and Economics Education at the University of Cologne. She holds a Ph.D. in Economics and Social Sciences from the University of Cologne (dissertation topic: Recognition of competences – comparison of selected approaches in Europe). Her main research fields are comparative research in vocational education and training, recognition of competences and qualifications as well as occupational research in the commerce sector.
After her graduation in 2005, she worked as a researcher at the Chair for Business Education of the University of Cologne and within a research-project on recognition of vocational qualifications and competences in a higher educational context. Since 2007, she is a research associate at the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Bonn, Germany. Besides the development, implementation and evaluation of commercial and business service curricula for vocational education and training in the dual system and in further education, she gained experience within different research-projects especially on the topic ‘recognition of qualifications and competences’. From April 2017 until March 2019 she conducted a comparative research project on the integration of foreign-trained workers in the labor market as a visiting scholar at the University of Toronto (Ontario Institute for Studies in Education), Canada. She is a member of the German-French expert commission for vocational education and training.
Relations between communication strategies of universities and governmental guidelines during the Covid-19 pandemic – Potential transferability for VET providers?
Co-presented with Sabrina Sailer.
The Covid-19 pandemic forced universities to change their communication in a unique way and to switch towards online communication within a few days, missing a prior period to prepare both technically and pedagogically. Especially the government policies regarding both health issues and the support towards online studying caused a gap (see. Akram et al. 2020, 2f). To close this gap, universities used tools like their homepages or social media to inform their students. This contribution analyses to which extend they responded according to the government guidelines by comparing the following three countries:
- Italy, one of the most affected countries in Europe which shut down the whole country
- Germany, one of the medium affected countries which still shut down the country partly
- Sweden, which was affected with a delay and declined to shut down the country.
The different government policies form a reference point to compare the universities’ communication strategies. Taking the communication via homepages of the 10 best universities per country (chosen by the university ranking Times Higher Education (THE) 2019) into consideration, the information given will be analysed regarding the alignment with the government regulations (tightness of pursuing), the quantity of information (frequency of updates as steady updates of information is important, see. Schubert 2017; Casanova et al. 2011 ) and the quality of information (complexity, balance of medical information and information regarding the university life).
Within the presentation, the results will be discussed and the different approaches will be evaluated with the audience involved. A digital interacting tool (mentimeter) will therefore be used.
The comparative results will be reflected regarding their potential transferability for VET providers. In this context, the different institutional settings of VET and higher education will be discussed and their impact on the possible paradigmatic pedagogical change the Covid-19 pandemic potentially initiates.