The study seeked to improve our understanding of how VET is changing in the countries belonging to the European Union (as well as Iceland and Norway). Over a three-year period, this project analysed how vocationally oriented education and training changed in the past two decades (1995-2015) and based on these results investigated the main challenges and opportunities facing the sector today and in the future.
Work was divided into six separate but interlinked themes:
- the changing definition and conceptualisation of VET;
- the external drivers influencing VET developments;
- the role of traditional VET at upper secondary level;
- VET from a lifelong learning perspective;
- the role of VET at higher education levels;
- scenarios outlining alternative development paths for European VET in the 21st century.
3s, as coordinator of the project consortium, was commissioned by Cedefop with the implementation of this 3-year framework contract. The consortium partners included Danish Technological Institute (DTI, DNK), University of Warwick (IER, UK), Tallinn University (IISS, EST), Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini (FGB, IT), and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB, DE) as key subcontractor. Furthermore, the consortium was supported by a wide array of country researchers and thematic experts from various countries and fields.
Link to Cedefop project website
Link to publications