Cedefop newsletter

Context

Inclusive vocational education and training (VET) is a long-standing EU policy priority, reinforced by the 2025 Herning Declaration, which calls for equal access to quality VET and lifelong learning for all.  Across Europe, countries are working to widen participation while maintaining high quality educational standards and promoting excellence. Particular attention is given to learners facing barriers, including early leavers, young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs), unemployed adults, people with disabilities or special educational needs, migrants, refugees, and other groups with fewer opportunities. 

This Insight is part of a series drawing on evidence from the Timeline of VET policies in Europe. The Insight highlights key trends and includes a collection of policy examples that readers can explore on their own.

Facts and findings

• Inclusion measures reflect national needs and priorities.
• Flexible pathways, VET programme modularisation, microcredentials, guidance in labour market transitions, and financial incentives open more routes to learning.
• Validation and recognition of skills and prior learning have been specifically instrumental for newly arriving migrants and refugees.
• Data-sharing and early warning arrangements are most effective to preventing early leaving from education and training.
• Awareness-raising campaigns and role-model initiatives promote female participation in STEM and other non-traditional fields.
• Investment in digital infrastructure and online services is expanding access and reducing barriers to learning.

Key messages

• Inclusion has been on the policy agenda for a long time but it is still a concern. 
• Inclusion is linked to VET attractiveness, quality and excellence.
• Inclusiveness is evolving from support for vulnerable groups towards VET systems that respond to the needs of all learners.
• Lifelong guidance and individualised assistance help learners access VET, stay engaged and move into employment.
• Digital technologies and online services can improve access to learning, but support is needed to avoid leaving some learners behind.
• Professional development is crucial for teachers, trainers and institutions’ capacity to support diverse learners.
• Cooperation of policy makers, social partners, employers strengthens the impact of inclusion measures.

Policy pointers

• Inclusion by design not as exception - embed inclusion as a whole-system principle in VET.
• Expand learner-centred approaches - flexible and individualised learning for every learner.
• Scale what works - better use the existing evidence and tools.
• Use connected data to identify risks and act early.
• Balance inclusion, quality and excellence in VET.

Context

Citizenship education in IVET matters for democratic resilience, social inclusion and economic performance. Across Europe, VET prepares almost half of learners at upper secondary level, including many young people who may have had fewer civic learning opportunities at home or earlier in schooling. 
As democratic backsliding, disinformation, declining institutional trust and inequalities in participation grow, IVET is expected to prepare learners not only for work but also for life in democratic societies. 
This literature review examines how citizenship education is integrated into school- and company-based IVET, which conditions enable or hinder it, and how IVET supports democratic knowledge, political and civic self-efficacy, civic engagement, critical thinking, media literacy, EU history and European common values. 

Facts and findings

• The literature review analyses more than 120 publications from the past decade; the evidence base is uneven across countries and remains limited for workplaces, employers and in-company trainers.
• IVET learners tend to receive less comprehensive citizenship education than peers in general education, with fewer opportunities for democratic citizenship education, which is also often less complex.
• IVET learners often report lower political knowledge, political and civic self-efficacy and participation in democratic processes, but many value inclusiveness, solidarity, social responsibility and practical engagement.
• The identified enablers and barriers operate across policy frameworks, learning culture, teaching practice, curriculum and assessment, extra-curricular activities and teacher and trainer preparation.

Key messages

• IVET has a democratic, social and economic role: citizenship competence strengthens participation, social cohesion, institutional trust, employability and job readiness.
• VET learners should not be treated as civically disengaged; citizenship education should build on their lived experiences, vocational identities and practical orientations.
• Company-based learning can turn citizenship education into lived practice but this potential requires stronger links between schools, companies and in-company trainers.
• Policy ambition is not enough when frameworks, curriculum design, assessment, teacher preparation and trainer preparation remain weak or inconsistent.

Policy pointers

The proposed markers of citizenship education in IVET can help identify the policy, institutional and workplace conditions that support implementation.

Given the uneven and still limited empirical evidence, especially on workplace-based learning and company-based training, the markers should be treated as provisional. Further research would be needed to assess their relevance across different IVET systems, their ability to capture differences between school-based and workplace-based learning, and their usefulness for monitoring or comparison without oversimplifying the diversity of IVET provision. 

The first ever Council Recommendation on VET for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience (hereinafter, the VET Recommendation), and the Osnabrück Declaration started the current policy cycle in 2020. In response to the set priorities, EU-27, Norway and Iceland and five candidate countries, Albania, Montenegro, CCs set ambitious national plans, to achieve the following six priorities: making their VET systems agile and attractive, flexible and inclusive, innovative and quality assured. The Union of Skills (March 2025), the Herning Declaration (September 2025), and the forthcoming EU VET strategy are renewing the VET policy agenda to focus on attractive and inclusive VET for increased competitiveness and quality jobs. Cedefop and ETF monitor how the countries have been implementing EU common and national priorities in VET. 

Facts and findings

• Approximately 450 national measures in the EU-27, Norway and Iceland have been launched between 2020-2025 across all the VET priority areas.
• Countries have made significant progress in implementing the VET priorities. It applies both to quantitative and qualitative targets.
• Notable achievements have been made in making VET systems agile, flexible, innovative, and quality-assured. 
• Progress in strengthening VET attractiveness and inclusiveness differs across countries.
• Quantitative targets: the 60% share of VET learners benefiting from work-based learning (WBL) was already achieved in 2021 and has been exceeding the target with 65.3% in 2024. The employment rate of VET graduates of 82% has been almost reached with 80% EU average in 2024. The initial VET learner mobility rate is below the target of 12% as set in the Europe on the Move.

Key messages

• Many policy developments have moved to implementation in 2023-2025, creating significant momentum for policy reform in the next policy cycle renewed by the Herning Declaration.
• Adapting to rapid labour market changes has been among the most progressing policy priorities across countries, with progress achieved by modernising VET standards, curricula, and programmes to incorporate a balanced mix of vocational skills necessary for the green and digital transition.
• Countries have shown their commitment to enhancing VET flexibility and and making lifelong learning a reality for all through the adoption of learning outcomes, modularisation, microcredentials and validation and recognition of learning outcomes acquired outside formal systems.
• Despite positive progress, the implementation of national VET reforms and policies faces recurring institutional, financial, and cultural structural challenges cutting across multiple areas: fragmented governance and limited coordination, availability of financial resources, and low societal perception of VET.

Policy pointers

• Align VET with national economic, employment, labour market and social strategies and policies. 
• Stakeholder involvement is crucial: define clear roles, share objectives and responsibilities, institutionalise cooperation.
• Take forward the potential of CoVEs for VET systems.
• Ensure sustainable funding arrangements and smooth transitions from EU-funded projects to coordinated and monitored national, regional, local and sectoral funding.
• Continue work on integrating digital, green and transversal skills in all VET programmes to ensure that VET graduates are equipped with skills needed for evolving and changing jobs. 
• Use advanced technologies in teaching and learning, support VET teachers and trainers to work with those.
• Place VET teachers and trainers in focus, combine professional autonomy, physical and mental well-being and targeted professional development (CPD).
• Promote VET as a valuable and future-oriented pathway. Provide evidence for learners, companies and providers acquired through systematic policy monitoring.

This brief revisits Global Careers Month (GCM) 2025 to provide insight into the discussions, exchanges and initiatives that took place during the month, summarises key messages, drawing on the impressions of regional partners (‘focal points’). It is expected that future editions will build on these foundations, encouraging participants to apply key insights and to anticipate the next opportunity for structured exchange and collaboration, with excitement and interest.

Context

The forthcoming European strategy for vocational education and training (VET) is expected to place further emphasis on making VET systems more responsive to labour market needs, and ensuring that they are seen as an attractive, high-quality option for learners of all ages. 

Apprenticeships seem to be a particularly appealing option among the various VET offers. Cedefop’s 2026 analysis of apprenticeship schemes not only shows a significant increase in apprenticeship enrolments in most EU Member States but also highlights the continuation of the identified notable expansion to new occupations and higher education levels, and the increasing average age of the apprentice population across the EU. While apprenticeships dynamically adapt to emerging labour market needs and learner preferences, their position in the education and training systems of Member States has been changing significantly.

These developments come with wins but also challenges. While some of the recently introduced schemes are at the consolidation stage, others have not managed to establish their place in national education and training systems or only attract a small share of all VET learners. In other cases, apprenticeships have grown more at higher qualification levels (EQG level 5 or higher) than upper secondary ones (EQF levels 3 or 4), gradually transforming what stakeholders think of this policy instrument’s objectives and target populations. 

Recent reforms need to be studied in greater depth, in terms of how they have achieved the stated policy goals and whether they have reached the intended learner groups, but also whether they have produced any unintended outcomes. 

Facts and findings

• The papers in this publication reaffirm previous observations that the turn to adult learners is a common theme across most apprenticeship schemes. In some cases, new schemes are introduced specifically to enrol learners over 18 years of age. In other cases, schemes that had no upper age limit have recently attracted more adults than young learners as a result of the changing preferences of learners and employers
• Many papers in this publication demonstrate how the increasing attention paid to adults is followed by apprenticeships now leading to a broader range of qualification levels than in past years. Often, programmes offered to adults lead to qualifications at EQF level 5 or higher (while programmes at level 3 or 4 can often also be accessed by adult learners, not just young people).
• In some of the countries that are analysed in this publication, the introduction of new apprenticeship schemes or models within a scheme has led to significant uptake by employers and learners, sometimes supported by favourable funding conditions. However, in several countries, enrolments in new schemes or new programmes at higher levels within existing schemes have not grown as expected or are highly dependent on financing capacity. This publication shows that the road to successfully introducing or repositioning apprenticeships is not always an easy one.

Key messages

• Apprenticeships offer opportunities for agile policy responses to dynamically changing skills and qualification needs. While the position of apprenticeships is changing to meet such needs, the results do not always match policy intentions. This collection of papers helps navigate common challenges and identify the conditions for the successful introduction or repositioning of apprenticeships in education and training systems.
• One challenge that emerges from several papers refers to the consistency of and continuity in policymaking regarding apprenticeships, and a systemic view of how apprenticeships operate in relation to other VET options. When new schemes are introduced or existing ones are targeted at new levels and audiences, it may take time for stakeholders and potential users to learn about the new options. The benefits from joining an apprenticeship are not always self-evident, the offers are less well known and the procedures and requirements to join may seem discouraging. Some of the schemes presented were introduced 10 or more years ago, and it took time to consolidate their position in the education and training system.
• A systemic view of apprenticeships is of particular importance also when apprenticeships are offered in parallel with other school-based tracks that lead to the same qualifications. 

Policy pointers

The papers of this publication point to several enabling factors that could underpin the successful introduction or repositioning of apprenticeships in education and training systems. These factors may involve the following.

• Reinforcing and communicating the advantages of apprenticeship programmes when it comes to the participation of training companies (and also, when applicable, in relation to other VET options that provide for shorter work placements), e.g. ensuring that the share of workplace learning in apprenticeship programmes is considerably higher (50% or more of the total duration of the programme) than in other VET options.
• Introducing regulations that make apprenticeships more attractive to learners, e.g. by removing age limits or by ensuring flexible learning arrangements and tailoring participation conditions to adult learners, or facilitating progression to higher education levels through clear pathways, which may help overcome stereotypes regarding the lower position and prestige of apprenticeships.
• Ensuring the high quality of apprenticeship programmes, e.g. by raising the quality of VET centres, upgrading the competences of teaching and training staff involved in apprenticeships, and accrediting training companies or by introducing monitoring mechanisms, with regular checks of the quality of the delivery of workplace learning,
• Extending the involvement of labour market actors, e.g. through sectoral councils or skills anticipation mechanisms, with a view to improving the relevance of apprenticeship programmes and attracting new employers and learners to occupations that are not traditionally covered by apprenticeships.
• Reinforcing the coordination of key stakeholders (ministries, social partners, provider representatives) and shared decision-making to better align objectives, prioritise target groups (companies or learners) and mobilise resources from all key actors.