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Cedefop presented the key findings of its analysis on the coherence and impact of two decades of European policy initiatives aimed at promoting lifelong learning opportunities for individuals. The initiatives analysed span across different policy areas, such as quality assurance, comparability, credit systems, validation of non-formal and informal learning and recognition of qualifications. The analysis also focused on changes observed at national level over the past two decades and identifies remaining challenges to learning mobility within and across countries. Alternative future policy scenarios on lifelong learning for 2040 were also presented and discussed with participants.

The conference aimed to encourage reflection and discussions on promoting systems that further encourage entering, re-entering and accumulation of learning across institutions, education and training systems, and countries for all types of learner. The event targeted a diverse group of stakeholders involved in shaping and influencing education and training policies. This included policy-makers at EU and national levels, academics, social partners, education and training institutions from various sub-sectors and levels of education, career and learning advisory services, businesses, and learners.
 

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To stay ahead of these changes and their impact on skill provision and labour market developments, effective and responsive skills anticipation is crucial. While significant progress has been made in understanding medium to long-term trends, there is a growing need for tools that can promptly capture short-term shifts in the labour market.

Cedefop’s new tool for short-term anticipation of skills trends and VET demand (STAS)  addresses this need by producing regular, 6-monthly projections of employment by occupation across the 27 EU Member States. These short-term projections provide timely insights into emerging labour market trends and evolving skill needs.

Aimed at policy makers, social partners, and VET experts and practitioners, STAS projections supports the planning and implementation of VET policies, VET offers and curricula, and active labour market policies. By capturing the dynamic nature of the labour market more effectively, the tool acts as an early-warning system for emerging skill shortages, gaps, and needs, offering a strategic advantage in adapting to short-term changes.

The new tool addresses key recommendations highlighted in Draghi’s report on European competitiveness, which stresses that "the EU should overhaul its approach to skills, making it more strategic, future-oriented and focused on emerging skill shortages”. The report further calls on the EU and Member States to:

• enhance their use of skills intelligence by making much more intense use of data to understand and act on existing skills gaps, and
• ensure that education and training systems become more responsive to the evolving skill needs and skill gaps identified by skills intelligence.

At the core of its mission, Cedefop’s focus on next-generation labour market and skills intelligence (LMSI) for Europe aims to future-proof VET and up- and reskilling initiatives, aligning with the European Digital Agenda and the European Green Deal.  
STAS complements Cedefop’s existing suite of tools for skills intelligence, medium-long term skills forecast, and online job advertisement analysis.

Video recording

The video recording of the event can be watched from here.
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Agenda

Times are indicated in CET.

For this symposium, 'new fields' refers to fields, sectors or occupations (or as a consequence specialties and programmes) that were not previously typically offered through apprenticeships. These might be entirely new for apprenticeship programmes (i.e. where apprenticeship programmes were offered for the first time), or used to be very small in terms of enrolments/participation but are now becoming more central to apprenticeship-related policies and choices of individuals.  
The understanding of a 'new field' depends therefore on the national context.

Selected papers study a range of new programmes in health, financial services, ICT/digital industries, or teacher education. They also cover the emergence of new programmes or drastic revamp of existing ones  in more traditional sectors (e.g. construction, energy and food industries), in the light of the digital and green transitions.

Aspects that were discussed during the event:

• The use of skills intelligence to inform and drive the expansion to new fields (labour market responsiveness )
• The role of social partners and social dialogue in selecting and entering into new fields
• Addressing needs and opportunities of the twin transition
• Adapting the apprenticeship features to the needs of different fields
• Positioning apprenticeship programmes at new education and training levels
• Improving VET attractiveness through expansion to new fields
• Using the expansion to new fields to improve opportunities for women or other less represented groups to benefit from apprenticeships

The event included opening presentations from the OECD and Cedefop, discussion and Q&A sessions and a closing panel with representatives of governments, employers, trade unions, apprenticeship providers and learners. 

The joint Cedefop-OECD apprenticeship symposiums focus on education and training that can truly be understood as a quality apprenticeship. Not all initiatives to introduce or reinforce work-based learning in VET programmes would fall under apprenticeship. To see what is understood by the term apprenticeship(s), please refer to the European framework for quality and effective apprenticeships (2018) or the ILO Recommendation 208 concerning quality apprenticeships (2023) or the call for evidence (link below).

Key dates for paper authors:

• Call for evidence: 15 July - 5 September 2024
• Deadline for paper submissions: 25 October 2024
• Selection of papers: 15 November 2024
• Deadline for submitting presentations: 20 March 2025
• Symposium: 1 and 2 April 2025
• Deadline for submitting full papers for the subsequent publication: 2 May 2025

The 2025 symposium continues the joint work of Cedefop and the OECD on apprenticeships. Find out more about our past events and publications:

• 2023 Symposium on Apprenticeships and the digital transition, and the subsequent publication of papers
• 2021 Symposium on Apprenticeships for greener economies and societies, and the subsequent publication of papers
• 2019 Symposium on The next steps for apprenticeship, and the subsequent publication of papers

The EU Pillar of Social Rights emphasises the need to rethink policies that promote learning throughout life (see also European Commission, 2024). Upgrading lifelong guidance systems is critical, especially coordinated with other services, structures and policies, for improving outcomes in education, training, and the labour market (European Commission and Barnes et al., 2020; e.g. Action 3 of the European skills agenda). Guidance systems can help prevent exclusion, enhance productivity and innovation, address labour market gaps, and foster well-being and civic participation essential for Europe’s critical transitions. However, many young people and adults in Europe remain unaware or face barriers to accessing these or other supporting services. Persistent and new challenges include the varying quality of provisions supporting career development, the plethora of emerging and evolving technologies in the field, and the integration of labour market and skills information and intelligence. Policies must also address the diverse expectations among service users and stakeholders.

Structured cooperation across key sectors can increase the benefits for guidance service users through better quality provisions (ELGPN, 2015; Cedefop, 2022). Recognising this, Cedefop initiated efforts to revisit its reference framework to support cooperation on systems and policy development, including the 2015 ELGPN Guidelines, with the support of CareersNet and the European Commission, experts at FIER (Finnish Institute of Educational Research), from ETF and ILO, among others. The joint vision of the Interagency Working Group on Career Guidance (IAG WGCG) (2021, 2023) is also a reference point. This webinar briefly introduced the draft framework's elements to discuss and share views on relevant issues with key stakeholders and experts working in the field.

Stand by for the event follow up including a forthcoming news on lifelong guidance.

Audience

This webinar contents remain relevant for policymakers and stakeholders, guidance providers in or across the education, training, labour market, youth and social fields, the general public, including service users.

Thank you to our many participants who joined us and our speakers for an interesting event!

Video recording

The video recording of the event can be watched from here.
(By following the link, the YouTube privacy policy and cookies will apply)

Programme

The workshop provided an opportunity to bring together the research community, and individual country experts to:

• Validate the results of the updated projections for the 2026 release.
• Present and discuss the on-going work on labour shortages.

The workshop informed key findings from Cedefop’s ReferNet survey, which examined the current state of comparison and recognition of VET qualifications in Europe. The primary objective of the workshop was to investigate the feasibility of developing a methodology for comparing and recognising VET qualifications, with a focus on recognising foreign qualifications for the purposes of employment and further studies.
During the workshop, experts discussed key topics, including:

• Approaches and criteria for comparing and recognising VET qualifications for learning and work ;
• The use of digitalisation and transparency tools to support comparison and recognition of VET qualifications;
• Recognising foreign VET qualifications for the purpose of employment.

The outcomes of this workshop will contribute to a better understanding of the complexities involved in comparing and recognising VET qualifications and will help shape Cedefop's future work in this area. By exploring the challenges and opportunities related to this topic, the workshop aimed to provide a foundation for further research, discussion, and collaboration among stakeholders, ultimately supporting the development of more effective and efficient systems for comparison and recognition of VET qualifications in Europe.
 

The main aim of the EVTS is to provide new evidence on the opportunities, experiences, challenges and other factors affecting the CPD of representative samples of teachers working in initial VET schools, at ISCED level 3, across 23 EU Member States. The EVTS is a unique survey, as it will provide directly comparable data across these countries and will enable the collection of robust data to inform the design of EU and national policies that can improve VET teachers’ participation in high-quality and accessible CPD.

Invited participants are the members of the EVTS Stakeholder Group set up by Cedefop to support the EVTS planning and implementation. This is composed of around 100 members representing: Cedefop project team members; the contracted research team Verian; the Commission’s Directorate General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL); relevant Ministries from the participating countries (ministries of education and labour market); as well as, European and national members of the European Trade Union Committee for Education (ETUCE), and the European Federation of Education Employers (EFEE). Other Cedefop's key stakeholders will be also invited including representatives from OECD, the Joint Research Centre, the European Training Foundation, and other European and international organisations.

Participants will have the opportunity to learn about this new survey as well as to debate pressing topics that concern VET teachers, such as teachers’ shortages, workload, working conditions, career opportunities, access to quality CPD, CPD for inclusion, CPD to support the digital and green transition, etc.

The event will take place in a hybrid mode allowing the physical presence of participants at Cedefop headquarters as well as giving the opportunity to attend it online.

Registration is closed       

Over the past three years, Cedefop has conducted extensive research on the use of learning outcomes in vocational education and training (VET) across Europe.  Our findings highlight the increasing use of the learning outcomes approach, while also revealing a wide diversity in how it is understood and implemented.

This conference thus provided a platform to:

• Explore how learning outcomes-based curricula are influencing teaching practices in both school-based and company training settings;
• Discuss implications for assessment strategies;
• Share lessons learned and policy suggestions to support future developments.

Methodology of the conference 

Following a keynote speech on Cedefop’s study and overall findings, participants were given the opportunity to hear about national case study examples and share their insights in four dedicated breakout sessions:

• Breakout room 1: Understanding and ownership of the learning outcomes approach: How can we ensure that all stakeholders are engaged?
• Breakout room 2: Learning outcomes across the teacher education continuum: How can we empower teachers and trainers?          
• Breakout room 3: Learning outcomes impact on assessment: How can we ensure alignment of teaching, learning and assessment?
• Breakout Room 4: Building on what we know: What tools do we need to share practices on learning outcomes?

Participants engaged directly with various panellists -including policy makers and practitioners- on the implementation of the learning outcomes approach. The panel discussion promoted an active exchange of ideas, encouraging participants to share their experience and ideas on the actual use of learning outcomes in practice.

The aim of the meeting will be to:

• inform partners of the latest EU policy developments on VET, skills and qualifications;
• take stock of the work carried out in 2025 and the outcomes published and disseminated;
• prepare the 2026 work plan: VET policy reporting, spotlight, news, visibility actions, etc.;
• foster partnership and knowledge-sharing through interactive (joint) presentations of national developments, debates, etc.;
• hold individual meetings for deeper cooperation among members and between members and Cedefop experts.
• convey in a physical open space, which will encourage creative reflection on how partners would like ReferNet to develop in the 2024-27 period.

Participants will also have the opportunity to exchange good dissemination practices in a dedicated space where they can display their national publications, newsletters, videos, promotional items, etc and benefit from bilateral meetings.