The Employer council for dual VET

Policy development
Practical measure/Initiative
Slovakia
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Timeline
  • 2015Approved/Agreed
  • 2016Implementation
  • 2017Implementation
  • 2018Implementation
  • 2019Implementation
  • 2020Implementation
  • 2021Implementation
  • 2022Implementation
  • 2023Implementation
  • 2024Implementation
ID number
28567

Background

A brief overview of the context and rationale of the policy development, explaining why it is implemented or why it is important.

Since the adoption of the Act on VET (184/2009), employers' organisations had been collaborating more closely with the government on VET policy-making. Slovakia adopted a new Act on VET in March 2015 (61/2015) introducing a dual VET scheme and tax incentives for enterprises to provide training. Raising the number of companies and VET students in dual schemes were part of policy priorities for the period 2016-20.

Dual VET has been created with the participation of employer representatives. The role of institutions representing employers' interests has been strengthened to help implement the law that also stipulates their responsibilities. These representatives were agreed by stakeholders and listed in an education ministry decree. They include the Chamber of Commerce and Industry; the National Union of Employers; the Federation of Employers' Associations; the Chamber of Agriculture and Food; the Chamber of Trades; the Chamber of Mines; and the Chamber of Foresters, and the Association of Industrial Unions. The role of the sectoral assignees, selected from among chambers and employers' associations to cover the relevant study fields,, includes facilitating the adaptation of VET to labour market needs, assuring its quality, certifying in-company training facilities, and training in-company trainers.

Objectives

Goals and objectives of the policy development.

The objective of the policy was to create legal basis for an umbrella organisation to coordinate activities of professional and employer organisations with responsibility for respective fields of study ('sectoral assignees').

Description

What/How/Who/For whom/When of the policy development in detail, explaining its activities and annual progress, main actors and target groups.

An umbrella body, the Employer Council for dual VET, was set up in 2016 aiming to strengthen cooperation between respective sectoral assignees involved in dual VET. The Council is partially financed from the State budget. The most important responsibility of the Council is to coordinate processes related to the accreditation of training companies based on their compliance with the requirements set by the State concerning space, training equipment and materials. Involving employers allows adjusting the volume and learning outcomes of practical training to their needs.

2015
Approved/Agreed

The legislation approved.

2016
Implementation

Employer Council for Dual VET set up.

2017
Implementation

The Employer Council for Dual VET was activated.

2018
Implementation

The Employer Council for Dual VET was operational.

2019
Implementation

The Employer Council for Dual VET has a direct influence on the ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET, since 2018. The secretary of the Council has replaced a former project manager of this ESF project.

2020
Implementation

The Employer Council for Dual VET continued its cooperation with experts responsible for the ESF project Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET.

The Council also participated in the preparation of the amendment of the Act on VET (61/2015) that was submitted to public discussion in February 2021. According to this amendment, the Council should expand its scope of influence from dual VET to the whole of secondary initial VET. The Council cooperated with the State Institute of Vocational Education on elaborating the updated guidelines for employers and schools defining the conditions for the provision of education in schools and training in company facilities during the COVID-19 pandemic (in effect since March 2021).

2021
Implementation

Under the amendment to the Act on VET (61/2015) adopted by the parliament on 20 October 2021 and entering into force on 1 January 2022, the Employer Council for Dual VET is renamed Employer Council for VET. This is accompanied by a substantial expansion of its powers. Instead of coordinating activities of employer and professional organisations concerning dual VET, it now coordinates activities of these organisations for VET as a whole. The statute of the council remains, however, the subject of discussion in the National VET Council, an advisory body of the government towards VET, inter alia assessing strategic documents and regulating activities of diverse employer and professional organisations concerning VET. Unlike the employers' and professional organisations, which are entitled to receive funding from the education ministry under this amendment, the Employer Council for VET is not entitled to such funding.

2022
Implementation

As a consequence of the new status of employer and professional organisations, the education ministry entered into contracts with them to co-finance the execution of their responsibilities as 'sectoral assignees' for the respective fields of study. Of the total amount of EUR 2 622 243, 40.5% was earmarked for capacity building. Thus, the education ministry supports hiring practitioners leaving it to individual contractors to define the qualification prerequisites.

In 2022, a new education ministry decree on the system of education branches and on institutional responsibility towards branches (287/2022) was issued with the strong involvement of the Employer Council for VET. The council also published the assessment criteria for a 'supra-company training centre' (explicitly seen as a quality mark). The first two institutions were already certified.

An amendment of 6 December 2022 to the Act on employment services (5/2004) redefined the Alliance of Sectoral Councils (ASC) as an association of interested legal entities, education and labour ministries, and bodies representing employers and employees to introduce a whole new structure for VET and lifelong learning governance. ASC is newly responsible for ensuring and coordinating the creation and updating of the National System of Occupations and the National Qualifications System. ASC establishes sectoral councils active in respective sectors as voluntary independent professional associations of representatives of employers, trade unions, educational institutions, state administration bodies and local self-government bodies in particular. Achieving coherence in VET governance of two players - the Employer Council for VET and the Alliance of Sectoral Councils, as well as the education and labour ministries, is under discussion in order to clarify the rules on the division of competences.

2023
Implementation

The emergence of the Sector Councils Alliance (SCA) as a brick-and-mortar institution in 2023 necessitated a clarification of power-sharing arrangements between the Employer Council for VET, the strongest body representing employers in the education sector and the SCA, which has a dominant employer voice despite its multi-partisan composition of founders.

2024
Implementation

Through its Act on adult education (292/2024), the education ministry decided to further empower the Sector Councils Alliance (SCA) in initial VET, where the employer council was previously dominant. A crucial change involves a shift of responsibility for maintaining the National Qualifications System from the education ministry to the SCA. The employer council is still expected to continue contributing to functional initial VET that prepares graduates for occupations aligned with labour market needs. However, the SCA has been given the authority to establish the National Qualifications System and to accredit adult education programmes. Thus, it controls two strong tools for systemic change taken over from the education ministry.

Bodies responsible

This section lists main bodies that are responsible for the implementation of the policy development or for its specific parts or activities, as indicated in the regulatory acts. The responsibilities are usually explained in its description.
  • Ministry of Education, Research, Development and Youth
  • Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family
  • Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport (until 2024)

Target groups

Those who are positively and directly affected by the measures of the policy development; those on the list are specifically defined in the EU VET policy documents. A policy development can be addressed to one or several target groups.

Learners

  • Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices

Education professionals

  • School leaders

Entities providing VET

  • Companies
  • Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)
  • VET providers (all kinds)

Other stakeholders

  • Social partners (employer organisations and trade unions)

Thematic categories

Thematic categories capture main aspects of the decision-making and operation of national VET and LLL systems. These broad areas represent key elements that all VET and LLL systems have to different extents and in different combinations, and which come into focus depending on the EU and national priorities. Thematic categories are further divided into thematic sub-categories. Based on their description, policy developments can be assigned to one or several thematic categories.

Governance of VET and lifelong learning

This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.

This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.

The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.

Engaging VET stakeholders and strengthening partnerships in VET

This thematic sub-category refers both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.

In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.

Modernising VET offer and delivery

This thematic category looks at what and how individuals learn, how learning content and learning outcomes in initial and continuing VET are defined, adapted and updated. First and foremost, it examines how VET standards, curricula, programmes and training courses are updated and modernised or new ones created. Updated and renewed VET content ensures that learners acquire a balanced mix of competences that address modern demands, and are more closely aligned with the realities of the labour market, including key competences, digital competences and skills for green transition and sustainability, both sector-specific and across sectors. Using learning outcomes as a basis is important to facilitate this modernisation, including modularisation of VET programmes. Updating and developing teaching and learning materials to support the above is also part of the category.

The thematic category continues to focus on strengthening high-quality and inclusive apprenticeships and work-based learning in real-life work environments and in line with the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships. It looks at expanding apprenticeship to continuing vocational training and at developing VET programmes at EQF levels 5-8 for better permeability and lifelong learning and to support the need for higher vocational skills.

This thematic category also focuses on VET delivery through a mix of open, digital and participative learning environments, including workplaces conducive to learning, which are flexible, more adaptable to the ways individuals learn, and provide more access and outreach to various groups of learners, diversifying modes of learning and exploiting the potential of digital learning solutions and blended learning to complement face-to-face learning.

Centres of vocational excellence that connect VET to innovation and skill ecosystems and facilitate stronger cooperation with business and research also fall into this category.

Reinforcing work-based learning, including apprenticeships

This thematic sub-category covers all developments related to work-based learning (WBL) elements in VET programmes and apprenticeships which continue to be important in the policy agenda. It includes measures to stabilise the offer of apprenticeships, the implementation of the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships, and using the EU on-demand support services and policy learning initiatives among the Member States. It also covers further expansion of apprenticeships and WBL to continuing VET (CVET), for transition to work and inclusion of vulnerable groups, and for improving citizens’ qualification levels.

Subsystem

Part of the vocational education and training and lifelong learning systems the policy development applies to.
IVET

Country

Slovakia

Type of development

Policy developments are divided into three types: strategy/action plan; regulation/legislation; and practical measure/initiative.
Practical measure/Initiative
Cite as

Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). The Employer council for dual VET: Slovakia. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].

https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/el/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28567