The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) and the Council of Europe have used and further developed the Profile of Inclusive Teachers, an outcome of the Agency's Teacher Education for Inclusion project. UNICEF is actively promoting inclusive education as the main strategy to achieve the Millennium Development Goals and since 2015 the Sustainable Developments Goals, as they both relate to education.
Capacity building is not only necessary for teachers working with children, but also for ministry representatives, NGOs, teacher educators, the private sector and, last but not least, United Nations personnel. To ensure that all UNICEF staff have a good basic understanding of Inclusive Education, 14 Webinars and accompanying Technical Booklets were developed and are now available online for anyone interested in the basics of inclusive education.
In addition, UNICEF developed an Inclusive Education Toolkit consisting of an Introductory Module and three Trainer-of-Trainer Modules on Inclusive Education. The modules use the four areas of competence developed in the Profile of Inclusive Teachers. They are activity-based with accompanying sets of PowerPoint slides. Countries interested in using the modules will need to adapt and expand the modules based on their own needs, emphasis and interest.
The Council of Europe in cooperation with the European Union has taken a closer look on teacher education practices in the Western Balkans and how providers can be supported in improving existing activities. A mapping exercise was used to visualise current practices, and a tool was developed to help improve them. The mapping report and the tool are available on the website of the Joint Programme Regional Support for Inclusive Education, which ended November 2015. The Tool to Upgrade Teacher Education Practices for Inclusive Education expands the Profile of Inclusive Teachers into four practices. These practices are used to develop a Framework for Inclusive Practices, which aims to guide the upgrading activities of teacher education providers.