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Boosting skills in the Union – opportunities for vocational education and training in times of transition

TA-10-2026-0358 · P10_TA(2026)0358 · PE789.915

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✦ In short · AI summary of this text, generated 22 Oct 2026

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Parliament's resolution calls for vocational education and training (VET) to be treated as an equal pathway to academic education. It asks the Commission for an ambitious European VET Strategy and more Erasmus+ funding for VET, and urges member states to invest in VET, guidance and fair pay. It wants recognition of VET qualifications simplified and made automatic across borders, a VET diploma, a skills portability ecosystem and expanded recognition networks. It also asks for inclusive access for women, people with disabilities, NEETs and learners in disadvantaged regions. The resolution calls for better financial support for VET learners, quality jobs and apprenticeships, stronger involvement of social partners and enterprises, and support for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) hosting apprentices.

Key points

  1. Welcomes renewed political attention to VET and calls on the Commission to ensure the upcoming VET strategy covers curriculum quality and better promotion of VET programmes.
  2. Says formal vocational providers and foundational qualifications should remain the basis of VET, with modular and digital learning playing a complementary, quality-assured role.
  3. Calls on the Commission and member states to counter negative perceptions of VET through early career guidance, engagement with parents, paid apprenticeships, campaigns and regional skills investment.
  4. Emphasises inclusive VET for learners facing barriers linked to gender, disability, migration background, geography and socio-economic status, and calls for closing the gender gap in STEM pathways.
  5. Calls on member states to extend existing academic support instruments to VET learners and to design eligibility rules for student cards, funding and public jobs without discriminating between pathways.
  6. Calls for respectful terminology based on European Qualifications Framework (EQF) levels, and for the Commission to add an EU-level target for participation in and completion of initial VET.
  7. Calls on the Commission to assess and, where necessary, propose measures against discrimination on the basis of education pathway within the EU equality framework.
  8. Insists Erasmus+ funding for VET be increased, with earmarking for inclusive scholarships and apprentice mobility, to support the 12 % learning mobility target for VET learners by 2030.
  9. Calls for simplified procedures and targeted support so SMEs can host and send apprentices abroad, and for a common framework ensuring automatic recognition of learning outcomes acquired abroad.
  10. Calls on the Commission to bring forward an ambitious European VET Strategy recognising gender equality as a fundamental objective and involving social partners and VET providers early.
  11. Calls for Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) to be central to VET development, with their Erasmus+ budget safeguarded and an independent evaluation of their contribution.
  12. Calls for a coherent EU ecosystem for recognition and mobility, a VET diploma, expanded ENIC and NARIC networks, and a recognition convention within the Copenhagen Process.

Who is affected

  • VET learners and apprentices: better financial support, mobility, recognition of qualifications and quality work-based learning.
  • Member states: urged to invest in VET, guidance and fair wages, and to close gender gaps in vocational pathways.
  • SMEs: simplified procedures and targeted support to take part in apprentice mobility and VET schemes.
  • The Commission: asked for a VET strategy, a VET diploma, a skills portability ecosystem and action on education-based discrimination.
  • VET teachers and trainers: better working conditions, pay and well-being, and continuous professional development.

Figures and deadlines

  • 12 % learning mobility for VET learners by 2030, under the 'Europe on the Move' target.
  • At least 60 % of all adults participating in training every year by 2030, a European Pillar of Social Rights goal.
  • 34,7 % of Europeans have obtained a VET diploma; 49 % of all EU students are enrolled in a VET programme.
  • 80 % of SMEs report difficulties finding workers with the required skills.
  • 11,0 % of young people aged 15 to 29 in the EU were neither in employment nor in education or training in 2025.
  • By 2035, 60 % of all job openings will require up to medium-level qualifications, per Cedefop's forecast.
  • Only 18 % of VET teachers believe their profession is valued; VET teachers earn on average 11 % less than other tertiary educated professionals.
  • Women represented only 15 % of graduates of mid-level VET in STEM fields in 2023.