3. How many IVET students have direct access to tertiary education?

Education programmes in upper secondary initial VET are diverse. Shorter programmes may raise education above lower secondary level, reduce early school leaving and improve transition to the labour market. Longer and more complex programmes may develop higher skills for work or tertiary level education and training. The indicator is defined as the percentage of upper secondary VET students enrolled in programmes providing direct access to tertiary education as a percentage of all students in upper secondary IVET. (Cedefop calculations based on Eurostat data, UOE data collection on formal education). EU averages are estimated from available country data.

IVET students in programmes with direct access to tertiary education as % of all upper secondary IVET 

Source: Cedefop calculations based on Eurostat data, UOE data collection on formal education systems.

Key points

In 2020, in the EU, 70% of students in upper secondary initial VET were enrolled in programmes granting direct access to tertiary education upon completion. The percentage was at or about 100% in Finland Portugal and Cyprus, followed by Lithuania (97.8%), Austria (94.2%), Latvia (93.7%), Greece (92.7%) and Germany (91.1%). Upper secondary initial VET programmes granting direct access to tertiary education accounted for less than 50% of enrolments in VET only in Hungary (0.6%), Belgium (23.3%), and Bulgaria (35.3%). Between 2015 and 2020, the EU average fell by 2.7 percentage points.  Three countries reported considerable falls: Bulgaria (-57.7 percentage points), Estonia (-40.6) and Romania (-13.2). In contrast, considerable increases were in Denmark (20.6 percentage points), Latvia and the Netherlands (both by 6.7 percentage points). In non-EU countries, more than 90% of all upper secondary IVET students had direct access to tertiary education in Serbia, Turkey, Switzerland, North Macedonia and Norway. In Iceland, the share was only 2.7%.  

Table 3. IVET students in programmes with direct access to tertiary education as % of all upper secondary IVET 

Source: Cedefop calculations based on Eurostat data, UOE data collection on formal education systems. Notes: (z): ‘not applicable’, data are not presented when they are not available and/or do not support sufficiently reliable comparisons across countries or over time.