Zurich University of Teacher Education - International

21/10/2026

Learning to Shape the Future – School-Based Career Orientation & Life Skills 🎓✨

In times of uncertainty, young people need more than a list of professions. They need life skills, self-awareness and the confidence to make decisions about their future.

On 29 October, RECI-FoBBIZ, the Swiss network for education and vocational skills development in international cooperation, hosts Corinna Borer from the Zurich University of Teacher Education - International. She shows how Ukraine is introducing career orientation as a school-based learning process within compulsory education alongside practical tips and tools for your own context.

This event is open for anyone working with young people:
👩‍🏫 Teachers and school leaders: find out how to support your students in shaping their future.
🌍 Education professionals, NGO and development practitioners: see a real-world example from a fragile context.

📅 29 October 2026
🕐 13:00–14:00 CET
💻 Online (MS Teams), in English
👉 Free, registration is required: https://reci-fobbiz.ch/en/event/reci-fobbiz-talk-learning-to-shape-the-future-school-based-career-orientation-life-skills/

15/10/2026

Looking back on the project Experience Democracy in Schools Now (EDISON)

From 2019–2023, EDISON helped schools across Southeast Europe make democracy part of everyday school life. 🏫✨

In eight countries, teachers, principals, students and parents gained free access to democracy education resources via the multilingual Living Democracy website, which was delivered by 16 local experts. In addition, ten schools in Kosovo underwent participatory school development, which sparked the formation of new student clubs, a stronger student voice, and closer collaboration between schools. This was achieved despite the pandemic and strikes, which is a real testament to everyone involved!

The project's insights live on in a free guide on local democratic school development, available in Albanian and English.🌱

📖 Discover EDISON and its publications: https://tiny.phzh.ch/edison

🌐 Explore our international education projects: https://ipe.phzh.ch

08/10/2026

From urban greening to cooking for seniors, 11 community-led initiatives have shown what living democracy looks like in everyday life in North Macedonia. 🌱 Magdalena Spasovska of TAKT - Together Advancing Common Trust talks about the SUDECU project and her experiences with peer learning.

PH Zurich offers a vibrant environment for teaching and learning – one that’s scientific, practice-based and has a great network.

05/10/2026

Behind every learner who finds their voice, there's a teacher who believed in them. 🍎

Happy World Teachers' Day! Today we say thank you to all the teachers in our network, from classrooms in the Canton of Zurich to schools and learning spaces across Africa, the Middle East, Southeastern Europe and across the world.

You inspire, you encourage, you adapt, and you never stop learning yourselves. Your commitment to children and adults alike is what makes quality education possible. We're proud to work alongside so many of you across cultural and national boundaries. 💛

Discover our international projects and our work with teachers: https://ipe.phzh.ch

01/10/2026

How do we build education, training and work pathways that actually hold under pressure? Join the RECI-FoBBIZ Forum on 16 November 2026 for a day of ideas, exchange and new connections!

We'll look at where learning pathways break, what transfers from one context to another, and how we can work together more effectively across the education-training-work continuum. 🌍📚

This forum is for you if you…
👉 work in education, vocational training or skills development
👉 are active in international cooperation or education in emergencies
👉 represent an NGO, institution, foundation or organisation working on education and employment
👉 are a researcher, policymaker or student who wants to connect with practice

As a member of the RECI-FoBBIZ network for education and vocational skills development in international cooperation, we encourage our community to join:
📅 16 November 2026, 09:00–17:00
📍 Paul Klee Zentrum, Bern
🗣️ Sessions in DE, EN and FR
🎟️ Early Bird prices until 12 October

Grab your ticket and join us 👉 https://reci-fobbiz.ch/en/event/reci-fobbiz-forum-2026/

25/09/2026

Right now, teachers across Lebanon are building new tools for the classroom and for themselves. 🌱

As part of the Lebanon Initiative for Education (LIFE) project, educators from schools in Tripoli and Byblos/Jbeil are taking part in intensive training facilitated by our partner Mentor & Guide on social-emotional learning, conflict management and active teaching methods.

In Tripoli, teachers are working through exercises like the "Emotion Signal Lab" and "Conflict Repair Clinic": practical tools to read classroom tension early, respond calmly, and turn conflict into growth. 🤝

In Byblos/Jbeil, the focus shifts to motivation and critical thinking: from "Task Redesign" to age-adapted activities like “What Did You See Today?” and “Real or Fake?”, helping teachers spark curiosity and independent thinking at every grade level. 🧠✨

👉 Learn more about the LIFE project: http://tiny.phzh.ch/life

🌍 Our international projects: https://ipe.phzh.ch

LIFE is financially supported by the Community Fund of the Kanton Zürich, Switzerland and the Leading House MENA at HES-SO.

15/09/2026

🗳️ International Day of Democracy

Democracy does not just appear: It is learned, practiced and passed on. At PH Zurich, our Department for International Projects in Education works on exactly that, in Switzerland and abroad:

🇲🇰 In North Macedonia, the SUDECU projects brings together young people and parents who develop their own local democracy and sustainability projects, then pass on what they have learned through peer education. TAKT - Together Advancing Common Trust, Универзитет „Св. Кирил и Методиј“ во Скопје

🇺🇦 In Ukraine, our DECIDE project is working with schools and local authorities as they decentralise the education system, helping communities make more democratic decisions closer to home. DOCCU, Швейцарсько-український проєкт DECIDE, Swiss Development & Cooperation

🌐 The international DEM-ED network connects teacher trainers from Switzerland to Armenia, Georgia, Moldova, Cyprus and beyond, working together to develop learning modules and recommendations that strengthen democracy and peace education in teacher training.

And thanks to our long-standing partnership with the Council of Europe and other partners, our Living Democracy (https://www.living-democracy.com/) and IPE-Textbooks (https://ipe-textbooks.phzh.ch/) platforms make free teaching materials on democracy and human rights available in 16 languages to students, parents and educators all over the world.
Democracy needs commitment. Every single day.

☝️ Learn more about our approach to democratic education: https://phzh.ch/en/international/international-projects-in-education/democratic-education/

🔗Explore our international education projects: https://ipe.phzh.ch

11/09/2026

This week, students in our Global Learning elective are visiting North Macedonia as part of blended intensive programme supported by Movetia. Their agenda includes:

🚶 A city tour through Skopje's history, from the Mother Theresa Memorial House to the monuments of Alexander and Skanderbeg to the Old Bazaar and the Kale Fortress
🤝 A visit to Kumanovo with our partner TAKT - Together Advancing Common Trust, meeting people from the municipality, the local museum as well as the peer-groups involved in the SUDECU Project
🌍 A morning at UNICEF MK, followed by a joint field visit with representatives of the Embassy of Switzerland in North Macedonia to a vocational school's BioHacking Lab
🏛️ A visit at Универзитет „Св. Кирил и Методиј“ во Скопје (Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje), including a workshop with local students on sustainable education.

The common thread: Not only comparing education systems but talking to the people who are building them is what actually changes how you see your own.

Today our students join the SUDECU Final Conference, alongside the peers, students, city-trainers, and partners they've spent the week learning from. 🎓

👉 Learn more about student mobility at PH Zurich: https://phzh.ch/en/studies/student-mobility/

🌐 Explore SUDECU and our international education projects: https://ipe.phzh.ch

03/09/2026

🌍 Looking back on SINAN.

From 2017 to 2021, our Swiss-North African Academic Network (SINAN) project connected 24 lecturers from teacher training institutions across Switzerland, Tunisia and Egypt, thus creating a space to exchange ideas on higher education teaching and learning.

Highlights from four years of collaboration:
🤝 Network meetings in Switzerland, Tunisia and Egypt as well as online exchanges
📖 An Arabic translation of PH Zurich's handbook "Competency-based teaching and learning in higher education – essentials”
📚 A collective volume capturing the reflections, practices and lessons learned by SINAN participants
🗣️ A slam poetry event organised by Swiss and Tunisian students on the topic of “The Sea Between Us”
🌱 New partnerships that grew out of the project, including LILSKILLS with the University of Assiut and University of Zurich

SINAN showed what is possible when educators across borders learn from each other's classrooms and cultures. A big thank you to everyone who made this exchange happen!

📖 Curious what came out of it? Dive into SINAN and discover the free handbook in Arabic on teaching and learning in higher education and the edited volume with contributions developed in international groups over the course of SINAN: https://tiny.phzh.ch/sinan

✍️ The slam poetry publication „The Sea Between Us – Das Meer zwischen uns – La mer qui nou sépare – البحر الذي يفصلنا“ can be found here: https://issuu.com/schreibzentrum/docs/zwischen-uns-das-meer

🌐 Explore our international education projects: https://ipe.phzh.ch

HEP-BEJUNE
HEP Vaud / Haute école pédagogique du canton de Vaud
Université de Genève
PH Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz FHNW
الصفحة الرسميه لجامعة اسيوط
The American University in Cairo
Ministère de l'éducation Tunisie
Université de Carthage
Université Virtuelle de Tunis
Université de Tunis

27/08/2026

Last week, Corinna Borer and Wiltrud Weidinger welcomed Tatiana Verdes from the Universitatea Pedagogică de Stat „Ion Creangă” din Chișinău and Turchină Tatiana from the Universitatea de Stat din Moldova to PH Zurich for two intensive days of collaborative work on the FutureS Moldova project.

The workshop was all about co-creating new Future Skills Modules, connecting the GreenComp framework and the Future Skills Navigator with Moldova's own curriculum.

It's this kind of close, practical exchange that turns a project vision into something real for future teachers and their students. We are excited to see where FutureS Moldova goes next! 🚀

👉 Want to learn more about FutureS Moldova: https://tiny.phzh.ch/futures-moldova

🌍 Our international projects: https://ipe.phzh.ch

FutureS Moldova is financially supported by the Community Fund of the Kanton Zürich, Switzerland.