Stronger VET for better lives

148 Pages·2015·3.03 MB·English

EN EN ISSN: 1608-7089
Stronger VET
Stronger VET
for better lives
for better lives
European countries’ joint work on vocational
education and training (VET) shows clear signs of
progress but there is more to do. In many
countries, the Bruges communiqué of 2010 has
inspired systemic reforms focusing on
learning-outcomes-oriented standards and
curricula. In several cases, these were triggered by
the work on qualifications frameworks. In other
countries, the main impact of the communiqué is
reflected in their work on apprenticeships but there
are challenges in securing its quality. The
development of national qualifications frameworks VET
(NQFs), measures to reduce early leaving, and
policies to promote lifelong learning for low-skilled
and other groups at risk have also been high on
national policy agendas. Work on the European
tools will need to ensure they interact better with
and focus more on European citizens and
employers to produce the intended benefit. Other
challenges include better use of information on
labour market outcomes of VET graduates,
strengthening efforts to promote creativity,
innovation and entrepreneurship in VET, and
ensuring professional development opportunities
for VET teachers and trainers.
European Centre for the Development
of Vocational Training
Europe 123, 570 01 Thessaloniki (Pylea), GREECE
PO Box 22427, 551 02 Thessaloniki, GREECE
Tel. [phone], Fax [phone], E-mail:
Stronger VET for better lives
Cedefop’s monitoring report on vocational
education and training policies 2010-14
Cedefop Reference series 98
Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2015
Please cite this publication as:
Cedefop (2015). Stronger VET for better lives:
Cedefop's monitoring report on vocational education and
training policies 2010-14. Luxembourg: Publications Office
of the European Union. Cedefop Reference series; No 98
A great deal of additional information on the European Union
is available on the Internet.
It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu).
Luxembourg:
Publications Office of the European Union, 2015
ISBN 978-92-896-1660-7
ISSN 1608-7089
doi:10.2801/8213
Copyright © European Centre for the Development
of Vocational Training (Cedefop), 2015
All rights reserved.
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The European Centre for the Development
of Vocational Training (Cedefop) is the European Union's
reference centre for vocational education and training.
We provide information on and analyses of vocational
education and training systems, policies, research and practice.
Cedefop was established in 1975
by Council Regulation (EEC) No 337/75.
Europe 123, 570 01 Thessaloniki (Pylea), GREECE
PO Box 22427, 551 02 Thessaloniki, GREECE
Tel. [phone], Fax [phone]
E-mail:
Foreword
‘Cedefop and the European Training Foundation (ETF) should continue,
according to their specific mandates, to support policy development and
implementation, to report on progress towards the strategic objectives and
the short-term deliverables (STDs) (of European cooperation in vocational
education and training (VET)), and to provide evidence for policy-making in
VET’ (Council of the EU and European Commission, 2010, p. 18).
This ‘monitoring’ report illustrates progress achieved in VET in Member
States and associated and candidate countries in the period 2011-14 towards
the 2020 objectives set for education and training and ambitions of Europe’s
overall 2020 strategy.
Our key conclusion in this report is that the European VET agenda has
prompted a multifaceted process which shows clear signs of progress, but
with more work to do. VET in Europe is responding positively and directly to
predictable and unpredictable challenges in the labour market. Work on
common priorities has had a positive reform effect in several countries and,
with already robust VET systems, it is time to move on to higher levels of
achievement.
European citizens as learners are at the heart of this process. On a
broader scale, the Europe 2020 agenda, education and training 2020
objectives and the Bruges communiqué aim at improving their quality of life.
The European Commission, Cedefop and ETF have joined forces to establish
the evidence base and framework to support VET policies that help create an
inclusive learning environment which empowers all citizens to tap their
potential to secure employability and better lives. Hence this report’s title,
which reflects two key guiding messages: the need to ensure that European
policies and tools for VET get stronger and make it more attractive and
relevant to the labour market; and that VET systems in Member States benefit
citizens of all ages, backgrounds and potential. If the Europe 2020 strategy is
about delivering growth that is smart, sustainable and inclusive, then VET
should also be smart, sustainable and inclusive. Long-term investment in VET
with strong emphasis on employability is the recipe for growth,
competitiveness and innovation.
Since launch of the Copenhagen process (2002), VET has undergone
significant transformations. Coupled with the Bologna process (1999), the two
traditionally distinct education sectors have established a two-pillar system of
quality and standards that offer greater transparency, transferability and
permeability. European tools and principles, like European frameworks for
qualifications and quality assurance, credit transfer systems, principles for
validating non-formal and informal learning or Europass, which helps record
people’s skills and qualifications and makes them easily understood across
Europe, have helped portray VET’s value. Initiatives promoting
apprenticeships and work-based learning more generally, key competences,
adult learning, lifelong guidance and counselling and preventing early leaving
from education and training – to name just a few – have been instrumental in
establishing VET as a core element in knowledge societies.
2 Stronger VET for better lives
Member States are at different levels of development in VET. But this is
only natural given the variety of systems, their socioeconomic contexts and
starting points in the education and training sector, in which responding to new
challenges and implementation takes years, not months. Overall, however,
the report illustrates that VET is making inroads into the way people perceive
learning; that levels of qualifications are progressively moving upwards
towards higher VET and that social partners are regularly engaged in
strengthening work-based learning to reinforce VET’s labour market
relevance. These are positive signs upon which we can build priorities for the
next years.
Through this report we aspire to uncover how VET reform helps renew
structures towards higher standards, quality and labour market relevance of
skills and qualifications. This is the major challenge. With high unemployment
in many European countries and youth unemployment skyrocketing in some,
VET in general, and apprenticeship in particular, has become crucial for
European Union (EU) and national policy-makers as it is seen as a principle
to prepare young people for today’s labour market. In a world of rapid
technological change, demographic change and economic restructuring, it is
a particular challenge for VET to ensure that young people are also prepared
for tomorrow’s work places.
Today’s challenges for VET could not have been foreseen more than a
decade ago when, in 2002, in Copenhagen, under the Lisbon strategy and
parallel to the Bologna process for higher education, ministers responsible for
VET in the EU, European free trade area (EFTA)-European economic area
(EEA) and candidate countries, the European Commission and social partners
agreed on a set of overall priorities for VET. The core intentions then were to
improve lifelong learning (LLL) opportunities and mobility across Member
States in a single European labour market. The coordination process that
followed has supported Member State cooperation and become a catalyst for
modernising VET systems across Europe.
The Bruges communiqué set the agenda for VET in Europe and
encourages action in line with aims of the Europe 2020 and the education and
training 2020 strategies. With its adoption and unfolding impacts of the crisis
in 2010, European cooperation entered a new phase. Strong VET systems
and LLL opportunities increasingly started to be seen as crucial elements in
dealing with the crisis. At the same time, their importance as preconditions for
long-term growth and competitiveness was increasingly recognised.
In the report readers will find evidence of a structured reawakening of
apprenticeship programmes and other forms of work-based learning: greater
interest in validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNFIL); setting up
qualifications frameworks linked to the European qualifications framework
(EQF), thus making education and training outcomes better understood;
access to more structured and available guidance and counselling services;
more VET qualifications based on a learning outcomes approach; the need
to understand and value VET’s potential at all levels to contribute to
innovation, foster an entrepreneurship culture and therefore promote VET
excellence as well as increasing emphasis on VET’s capacity to be inclusive
through renewed attention for the low-skilled and groups at risk.
These are positive signs that auger well for the future. But we cannot rest
on our laurels and ignore the need to intensify our efforts. Challenges include:
increasing VET funding; engaging social partners in a more structured
Foreword 3
dialogue with education authorities; cooperating with primary and lower
secondary education to help ensure that the basic skills and key competences
that learners acquire become their bridge to VET; promoting collaboration
between guidance and counselling services in education and training and
employment sectors and encouraging them to work closely with businesses
and emerging employment sectors; making better use of data on transition
and labour market outcomes to inform VET provision; placing quality
assurance, credit systems and VNFIL at the centre of VET systems; and
providing more professional development opportunities for VET teachers and
trainers.
VET at all levels is at the heart of Europe’s response to the economic
crisis, but also addresses long-term trends such as ageing, changing skill
needs across the jobs spectrum and the need for greener economies. In
countries where VET systems still struggle to gain their rightful place in political
priorities and budgets, more young people may fall by the wayside of society
as they become inactive, which, in turn, will entail social welfare costs. Citizens
expect speedy policy responses with tangible impacts in the short run.
However, in times of tight public budgets this is difficult to achieve and
implementing sustainable measures takes time. Therefore there has been a
growing need in Europe to develop the potential for VET reform and expand
policy learning. While copy-paste approaches to policy are rarely effective,
other models of policy transfer can go a long way in supporting countries’ VET
systems. Encouraging stronger cooperation, for instance within the European
alliance for apprenticeship or use of European tools will help to achieve this.
Use of European tools and principles could also make a significant change to
the value given to a person’s skills and competences, particularly when
accessing the labour market.
Where traditional distinctions between vocational, general and higher
education are entrenched in different cultures, VET cannot be seen in
isolation: it is part and parcel of developing strong education and training
systems in countries. This is because adjusting to labour market needs and
avoiding skill mismatches requires flexible education and training opportunities
that allow combining different types and levels of learning throughout life.
With the period to implement the STDs agreed in 2010 coming to an end,
this report will give readers a comprehensive overview of VET policies and
measures until early 2014. It uncovers several issues that, once addressed,
could strengthen VET nationally and in Europe.
I trust that this report will encourage VET policy-makers at national and
EU levels to reflect and discuss future priorities that are smart, sustainable
and inclusive and which make VET systems stronger for Europe’s citizens to
enjoy a better quality of life.
Joachim James Calleja
Director
Acknowledgements
This report is a result of a team effort and reflects
contributions from all working on the project:
Cedefop's VET policy and systems team and
Cedefop experts working on common European
tools and principles for education and training and
statistics.
Cedefop wishes to acknowledge contributions
and advice from:
(a) ReferNet partners who provided much of the
information in response to three extensive
Cedefop questionnaires on VET policy
developments and implementation in their
countries;
(b) Directors General for Vocational Education and
Training (DGVT) and members of the Advisory
Committee for Vocational Training (ACVT) and
its enlarged Bureau;
(c) the European Commission and Greek and
Italian Presidencies;
(d) the ETF team of VET policy analysts, thematic
experts and EU candidate country desks for
promoting and completing the approach and
tools, analysing progress and providing
information on developments in VET in EU
candidate countries.