Cedefop

Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training (VET) under the Copenhagen process takes into account the rich diversity of national systems and stakeholders in Member States, EFTA-EEA countries and candidate countries. It builds its success on a flexible approach based on sharing of experiences, working towards common goals and learning from best practices via the "open method of co-ordination".

Understanding national VET systems, their characteristics, developments and priorities is a key element in the overall coordination process. Through the VET in Europe project, Cedefop supports this process by providing insight information on the national VET systems. The aim of the project is to collect information using a common theme-based structure from Member States, plus Iceland and Norway through its network of reference and expertise, Refernet, and facilitate a wide distribution among its stakeholders.

Three main outputs are currently available:

• VET in Europe - Country reports (former Thematic overviews) - giving a general overview of the national VET systems. It can be accessed by country, theme, year.
• detailed thematic analyses - detailing single themes related to the national VET systems. It can be accessed by theme and by country. 
• comparative presentations and analyses - making a synthesis of single VET themes for several countries. It can be accessed by theme. 

Short descriptions are produced for the countries holding the EU-Council presidency (and closely follow the VET in Europe - Country reports).

Information on education and training systems can also be found on www.eurydice.org of Eurydice, the information network on education in Europe and in particular in the reports describing the "Structures of education, vocational training and adult education systems in Europe". The latter have been jointly prepared by the Eurydice network and Cedefop's ReferNet.