- 2021Approved/Agreed
- 2022Implementation
Background
Portugal's structural skills gap continues to be a key factor in inequality of opportunity and an inhibiting element in the competitiveness of enterprises in different sectors of activity. Portugal’s position in the European Union (EU) framework continues to be marked by a disadvantage in qualifications, having the highest proportion of adults aged 25 to 64 who did not complete secondary education in the European Union in 2020 (PT 44.6%; EU-27 20.8%) along with a relevant proportion of young people (20-24 years old) who enter the labour market without having completed this level of education (PT 18.3%).
Objectives
The VET agreement enables conditions for vocational training, particular the certified variety, to be a significant part of the growth effort, ensuring recognised training, alignment with the needs of companies and sectors, and recognition of individual training, improving their employability.
It also aims to deepen the role of social partners in the training system. This will be done without prejudice to the needed integration of the reflection in a global vision of the national qualifications system (SNQ).
It creates conditions to increase training participation and qualifications levels and to converge, by 2030, to the European target of having at least 60% of adults annually participating in lifelong learning. It also supports the EC aim of effective active support to employment following the COVID-19 crisis.
Description
The VET agreement is to be a common ground of a tripartite understanding, between the government and the social partners, in the following areas of intervention:
- regulation and governance of the vocational training system (framework and regulation, regulation model and financing sources and quality improvement);
- further development of the system’s instruments and responsiveness (improve the flexibility of the SNQ, strengthen responses to sectoral needs and dynamics and improve incentives for the participation of companies and individuals);
- raise the population qualifications level and the Qualifica programme;
- post-secondary training and intermediate qualification levels;
- innovation and flexibilisation of training modalities and responses;
- digital area and distance learning.
It is expected that implementation of the agreement will affect individuals, considering the interconnection between vocational training and qualification: more training, better levels of personal and citizenship skills, better career paths and better salary levels, and also in the competitiveness of the economy and society as a whole.
On 28 July 2021, the Government and the majority of social partners signed a strategic document for VET named Agreement for Vocational Training and Qualification: a strategic goal for people, for companies and for the country (Acordo para a Formação Profissional e Qualificação: um Desígnio Estratégico para as Pessoas, para as Empresas e para o País), 14 years since the last VET Agreement.
Some of the measures foreseen in the VET Agreement have been implemented through new legislation or revision and updating of existing legislation, such as Impulse adults programme, Apprenticeship programmes; Recognition Validation and Certification of Competencies (RVCC); Technological specialization courses (CET); Professional higher technical courses (CTesPs); Adult education and training courses (EFA).
Bodies responsible
- Government
- Social partners
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
- Young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs)
- Learners with migrant background, including refugees
- Learners at risk of early leaving or/and early leavers
- Learners with disabilities
- Adult learners
- Older workers and employees (55 - 64 years old)
- Unemployed and jobseekers
- Persons in employment, including those at risk of unemployment
- Low-skilled/qualified persons
- Learners from other groups at risk of exclusion (minorities, people with fewer opportunities due to geographical location or social-economic disadvantaged position)
Education professionals
- Teachers
- Trainers
- School leaders
- Adult educators
- Guidance practitioners
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
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.
This thematic sub-category refers to the integration of VET into economic, industrial, innovation, social and employment strategies, including those linked to recovery, green and digital transitions, and where VET is seen as a driver for innovation and growth. It includes national, regional, sectoral strategic documents or initiatives that make VET an integral part of broader policies, or applying a mix of policies to address an issue VET is part of, e.g. in addressing youth unemployment measures through VET, social and active labour market policies that are implemented in combination. National skill strategies aiming at quality and inclusive lifelong learning also fall into this sub-category.
This thematic sub-category refers to the ways VET is funded at the system level. Policies include optimisation of VET provider funding that allows them to adapt their offer to changing skill needs, green and digital transitions, the social agenda and economic cycles, e.g. increasing the funding for VET or for specific programmes. They can also concern changing the mechanism of how the funding is allocated to VET schools (per capita vs based on achievement or other criteria). Using EU funds and financial instruments for development of VET and skills also falls into this sub-category.
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.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing the possibility for individuals who are already in the labour market/in employment to reskill and/or acquire higher levels of skills, and to ensuring targeted information resources on the benefits of CVET and lifelong learning. It also covers the availability of CVET programmes adaptable to labour market, sectoral or individual up- and reskilling needs. The sub-category includes working with respective stakeholders to develop digital learning solutions supporting access to CVET opportunities and awarding CVET credentials and certificates.