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Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience

TA-9-2020-0373 · P9_TA(2020)0373 · PE661.530

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Parliament's resolution responds to the Commission's proposal for a Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience. It welcomes the proposal and its aims to modernise VET, and calls for more inclusive, accessible and resilient VET systems. It backs the proposal's quantitative objectives for 2025 and asks the Commission to report every five years on implementation. It calls for more funding and mobility, an EU online VET platform and a job portal for traineeships and apprenticeships, and support for Centres of Vocational Excellence. It asks member states to make VET more inclusive for vulnerable groups, to promote the dual VET model, to improve skills anticipation and to address gender bias. It calls for a quality guarantee for learners whose training was disrupted by COVID-19, and for measures to reduce drop-outs and ensure equal access to apprenticeships.

Key points

  1. Underlines that VET, with its focus on practice and work-based learning, is vital for filling skills gaps, equipping young people for employment and upskilling and reskilling workers, especially for SMEs.
  2. Calls for VET to be coordinated with formal and traditional education and treated as complementary and equal in priority at EU and member state level.
  3. Emphasises the urgent need to modernise and expand VET policies to make them more inclusive, accessible, resilient, attractive and effective, and to deliver on the European Green Deal objectives.
  4. Stresses that COVID-19 containment measures put VET systems under serious strain, and calls for financial means, technical assistance and guidance for digital devices and e-learning, including broadband for all schools and households.
  5. Fears a decline in apprenticeship places and calls on member states and regions to expand alternative supra-company training, and for a quality guarantee letting those whose training was disrupted by COVID-19 fill gaps afterwards.
  6. Welcomes the proposal and its 2025 objectives: at least 82 % employed graduates, 60 % of recent VET graduates with work-based learning exposure, and 8 % of VET learners with learning mobility abroad; asks the Commission to report every five years.
  7. Calls on the Commission to expand mobility programmes such as ErasmusPro, strengthen synergies between ESF+ and Erasmus+, and ensure adequate resources in the 2021-2027 period.
  8. Calls for an EU online platform on VET and an EU web job portal for traineeships and apprenticeships, and for support for virtual reality tools, vocational online open courses and other digital solutions.
  9. Calls on member states to reduce VET drop-outs, ensure equal access to quality apprenticeships and employee training, and involve social partners, enterprises, VET providers and learners in policy design.
  10. Supports Centres of Vocational Excellence as drivers of innovation and quality, and calls for investment in them and for joint European VET qualifications, curricula and diplomas.
  11. Calls on member states to make VET more inclusive for vulnerable groups, promote the dual VET model, improve skills anticipation systems, and address gender bias and gender-stereotypical choices.
  12. Calls for paid educational leave policies, better tracking of VET graduates, and increased resources for digitalisation of VET programmes and graduate tracking.

Who is affected

  • Member states, which are asked to design inclusive VET systems, promote the dual model and improve skills anticipation.
  • VET learners, who should gain a voice in managing VET schemes and benefit from quality guarantees after COVID-19 disruption.
  • VET teachers and trainers, who need continuous training, digital skills and equipment.
  • SMEs, which are encouraged to offer apprenticeships and mobility and are targeted by an EU-wide campaign.
  • Vulnerable groups, including persons with disabilities, NEETs, older workers, low-qualified adults, migrants and refugees, who should get access to VET.

Figures and deadlines

  • By 2025, the share of employed graduates should be at least 82 %.
  • By 2025, 60 % of recent graduates from VET should benefit from exposure to work-based learning.
  • By 2025, 8 % of learners in VET should benefit from a learning mobility abroad.
  • In August 2020, youth unemployment stood at 17,6 % in the EU and 18,1 % in the Euro area, compared to 14,1 % and 15,4 % in August 2019.
  • 60 million adults in the EU are low-qualified, and 128 million adults have a low level of education, low digital skills or low cognitive skills or are at risk of skill loss.
  • In 2017, 4,3 % of pupils in lower secondary education followed vocational programmes, 47,8 % in upper secondary and 92 % in post-secondary non-tertiary education.
  • In 2015, 30,5 % of companies with 10 or more people employed in the EU-28 business economy provided IVET.
  • In 2015, 72,6 % of companies employing 10 or more people in the EU-28 provided CVET to their staff, up from 59,7 % in 2005 and 65,7 % in 2010.

Legal basis: Articles 165 and 166 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union