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The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre is one of seven UNESCO institutes and centres in the field of education. The Centre is located in Bonn and is financed both by UNESCO and the German government.

UNESCO-UNEVOC aims to assist UNESCO Member States to develop and strengthen technical and vocational education and training (commonly called TVET). The Centre works in the context of UNESCO’s mandate for Education for All and Education for Sustainable Development. It undertakes its activities through a global network of TVET institutions comprising departments of ministries, national TVET bodies, Universities, and nationally leading training centers.

History
In 1989, the United Nations recognized that the “development of technical and vocational education should contribute to the safeguarding of peace and friendly understanding among nations” and was, as such, part of a UN Mandate. As a result, an “International Project on Technical and Vocational Education” was initiated in Berlin and the “UNEVOC Network” was officially launched in 1992. The network gathered 185 centers in 126 countries in 1999.

The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre was established in 1999 as a result of a decision taken by the UNESCO General Conference. A year after, UNESCO and the Government of Germany signed an agreement for the hosting of the International Centre in Bonn in a former German parliament building ("Langer Eugen"). The inauguration ceremony took place in April 2002. UNSCO-UNEVOC is hosted and partly financed by the German government.

Mission and activities
The UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre acts as part of the United Nations mandate to promote peace, justice, equity, poverty alleviation, and greater social cohesion. Its official mission is to assist Member States in their TVET policies in order to "achieve access for all, high quality, relevant and effective programmes and learning opportunities throughout life”. At its creation, this goal was subdivided into different objectives: understanding the factors determining the role and status of technical and vocational education, building documentations and databases (while not being in competition with specialized documentation centers and focusing on existing documentation), and building a network of UNEVOC Centres to be nominated by National UNESCO commissions. Those objectives have laid the foundation of UNEVOC's current activity.

Nowadays, the UNESCO-UNEVOC International Centre coordinates a network of more than 250 institutions in more than 160 countries. "UNEVOC Centres" are to support the development of TVET in the member state in which they are located. The International Centre defines itself as a hub, facilitating contacts between centres, experts and stakeholders: it organizes conferences, forums, and expert meetings, in partner countries or at its site in Bonn. Those events gather experts or representatives from UNEVOC Centres, UNESCO institutions and other national and international partners.

UNESCO-UNEVOC is also known for its online resources on TVET ("e-Forum", "TVETipedia", "World TVET Database") , its contribution to the field of sustainable TVET and to the Education For All project.