Amendments to the Act on VET (61/2015)

Initiated by employers' representatives and based on the experience of the ESF project 'Dual education and increasing attractiveness and quality of VET', amendments to the VET Act came in force from 1 September 2021 aimed to:

1. significantly strengthen the influence of employers' representatives on the provision of secondary VET, for example by:
   1. extending the responsibilities of the Employer Council for Dual VET to the entire system of vocational education and training that is also visible in the change of the name to the Employer Council for VET;
   2. empowering 'sectoral assignees' to propose the experimental verification of new VET programmes in order to strengthen supply of programmes aligning the needs of the labour market;
   3. extending the rights of 'sectoral assignees', such as to withdraw the right of VET school to use the title 'centre of VET' and, similarly, to grand and withdraw the right of the company to use the title 'supra-company training centre';
2. make the conditions for providing dual VET more flexible, for example by:
   1. reducing the administrative burden for companies by simplifying the verification of the company's ability to provide practical training, the possibility to conduct regular practical training abroad (i.e. outside mobility projects) and introducing an obligation for schools to provide employers with administrative data on dual learners and allow for access to information on their school performance;
   2. allowing the inclusion of training abroad offered as a consequence of the Erasmus+ mobility or intra-company agreements into the number of training hours prescribed by curricula, provided commitments set by the contract on the provision of practical training between Slovak entities are also accepted by an international provider;
   3. introducing the title 'supra-company training centre' to companies already offering practical training fulfilling specific requirements. These centres can be seen as an extension of dual into 'trial', as they offer practical training also for learners who sign a learning contract with a self-employed person, a small or medium-sized enterprise that otherwise only have limited opportunities to offer practical training;
   4. considering as also qualified for the position of head instructor or instructor in dual VET practitioners without respective certificate of apprenticeship if they passed the exam 'verifying professional competence' according to the Lifelong Learning Act (568/2009);
   5. making it possible for students to receive a company scholarship intended for students in the system of dual education also in the case of attending practical training in other premises than the premises of the company they have signed individual learning contracts with;
   6. expanding dual VET beyond traditional apprenticeship, covering also programmes preparing kindergarten teachers, tutors and social care workers;
3. make the law more flexible by:
   1. abolishing the prescribed minimum number of teaching hours (1 400) aimed at practical training in VET programmes offering double qualification (a 'maturita' school-leaving certificate and a certificate of apprenticeship) to open the door for diversified solutions embedded into respective State education programmes; for the exceptional case of limited access to practical training caused by pandemic restrictions a minimum number should be prescribed;
   2. allowing, in some cases, higher flexibility concerning hiring professionals providing practical components of VET, to help address an emerging lack of staff in VET schools.

Initiated by the labour ministry to create an umbrella institution covering earlier responsibilities of education and labour ministries led to the 2024 amendment of the Act on VET strengthening the position of the Sector Councils Alliance toward VET. The SCA has been newly granted responsibility towards

1. publishing not only the 'National System of Occupations' but also the 'National Qualifications System' on its website;
2. ensuring creating and updating qualification and assessment standards;
3. coordinating 'vocational education and training for the labour market at the national level' in addition to employer and professional organisations identified by the education ministry as so-called 'sectoral assignees'.