Vocational education and training - VET

This policy brief contributes to better understanding of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) in Europe by providing insights into their main characteristics, scope and coverage, along with a discussion on their impact and the extent to which they are used.

The analysis is based primarily on information from Cedefop’s European inventory of NQFs, which was updated in cooperation with the European Commission, the ETF and the countries participating in the EQF process.

This article aims to analyze vocational education and training in Europe and to model mechanisms of educational and vocational choice. First, we expose the differences between VET approaches in Europe. Secondly, a sociological analysis is provided. When VET systems were first created, aspects such as work culture or diverging political concerns led to different responses in the various countries. Thirdly, we present a psychological approach of the educational and vocational choice which draws on a process where profession images are compared with one’s own self-image. Finally, we present an integrated explanatory model of the vocational choice, based on sociological and psychological dimensions. In conclusion, we propose several plans of action in order to support and inform students regarding educational choice and to improve valorization of the VET track.

To make and shape the green and digital transitions, Europe needs a skills revolution. Sitting alongside the current VET and skills policy framework and expanding funding opportunities, Cedefop EU skills intelligence is a key resource that helps unleash it. Skills intelligence provides sound and trusted evidence on labour market trends and skill needs, which guides policy- and decision-makers in focusing their efforts when investing in skills and in skills matching.

This report is one of Cedefop’s key contributions to the 2023 European Year of Skills. It broadens understanding of what has changed in EU labour markets in the past decade and uses Cedefop’s 2023 skills forecast, sectoral foresight and big data-powered analysis to track ongoing and future trends. The report blends different types of evidence to foster better understanding of the labour market and skills impacts of the twin transition and current and future labour markets tensions.

The Future of VET study examined how vocational education and training (VET) has changed since the mid-1990s, and how this may influence future opportunities and challenges.

This synthesis report summarises 3 years of research involving researchers and VET experts across Europe, with discussion of findings on the content and delivery of VET, assessment practices, and the link between initial and continuing VET. In addition to connecting and synthesising the series of research papers and case studies already published, it features an analysis by country. The study provides important insights into how VET in Europe has developed over the past three decades, illustrating observed trends and developments, as well as tendencies of convergence between countries and systems.

The research has also shown that the development of VET does not necessarily form an unbroken chain leading in one direction but can be interrupted by changes of course and even reversals in policy and practice. The future of VET is still unwritten. This report aims to provide a stimulus for developing future research in this area.

This report presents a holistic approach to understanding and comparing vocational education and training (VET) systems.

The approach has been developed jointly by a group of interdisciplinary VET researchers over a 5-year period as part of Cedefop's research on the future of VET and has been reviewed several times. The framework introduces 50 dimensions for analysing VET systems, as well as parts of them, structured according to three overlapping main perspectives: epistemological and pedagogical, education system, and socioeconomic or labour market. The framework is particularly suited to ‘clearing the ground’ for policy work and provides a model for how research can support policy. This model can be flexibly adapted and applied in any comparative research or international policy learning activity related to VET.

This Guide is dedicated particularly to those who inform and advise this group of Europe-wide mobile workers, including especially the EURES advisers who are trained by the European Commission in issues of the mobility of workers at transnational and cross-border level and are active in employment services, trade unions or employers’ organisations.
Those who (want to) work in another country, have many questions, for example:
Do I need a work permit?
Will my professional qualification be recognised?
Which labour applies to me?
What do I have to if I am unemployed?
In which country do I have to pay taxes?

The need for investment and for a holistic approach to VET teachers’ and trainers’ professional development is at the heart of high-quality and inclusive VET.

Building on the findings of Cedefop/ReferNet thematic perspectives for EU Member States, Norway and Iceland, this synthesis report identifies recent trends and policy developments in Europe on the initial and continuous professional development of VET teachers and trainers.

The report points to the different types of VET teachers and trainers in Europe; their evolving and complex role in mastering new technologies, supporting the integration of refugees, identifying and supporting learners at risk of early leaving, and understanding changing labour market needs, to empower and equip students with skills for the future.

Their qualifications and opportunities for continuous professional development vary across countries but the challenges policy-makers face in supporting them are shared. The report concludes with key messages for designing effective policies in Europe.

Career guidance and counselling are key features of comprehensive strategies aiming to reduce early leaving from education and training. They may assist students, not only in terms of decision-making but also in managing their transitions within education and training pathways or from education to employment.

Apprenticeships for adults are one of the policy solutions to the need for supporting adults willing to train, while broadening the skills base of the working population across Europe.

The European Union policy for education and training attaches great importance to enabling learners to become familiar with international mobility. Acquiring such experience while in studies is seen as crucial to improving labour mobility later.

This allows EU economies to address spatial imbalances in labour availability and transnational enterprise needs for mobile staff. A range of EU-level vocational education and training (VET) policy initiatives to support learner mobility has been undertaken since the 1960s. Major moves to ensure the quality of mobilities were made in 2006 (European Quality Charter for Mobility) and 2011 (Youth on the move recommendation).

This policy brief takes stock of national efforts to improve the quality of international learning mobility in initial VET over the past decade. It shows that countries have made progress, although areas for improvement remain in terms of quality frameworks and policy governance.

This synthesis report summarises 3 years of research involving researchers and VET experts across Europe, with discussion of findings on the content and delivery of VET, assessment practices, and the link between initial and continuing VET. In addition to connecting and synthesising the series of research papers and case studies already published, it features an analysis by country.

In the current, fast-changing education and labour market landscape, there is a need to promote more learner-centred strategies and to build bridges between initial and continuing vocational education and training (VET).

Cedefop’s latest briefing note on the future of VET provides insights into how training content and provision are changing to respond to labour markets’ rapidly evolving skill needs.

This article aims to analyze vocational education and training in Europe and to model mechanisms of educational and vocational choice. First, we expose the differences between VET approaches in Europe. Secondly, a sociological analysis is provided. When VET systems were first created, aspects such as work culture or diverging political concerns led to different responses in the various countries. Thirdly, we present a psychological approach of the educational and vocational choice which draws on a process where profession images are compared with one’s own self-image. Finally, we present an integrated explanatory model of the vocational choice, based on sociological and psychological dimensions. In conclusion, we propose several plans of action in order to support and inform students regarding educational choice and to improve valorization of the VET track.

Volume 1 https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications/3086
Volume 2 https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/publications/3088