- 2021Design
- 2022Approved/Agreed
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
Background
In recent years, concerns about low compatibility of Czech continuing education system with current labour market megatrends have been rising. There is no unified coherent policy of lifelong learning. Partial areas are governed by different stakeholders, such as the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and others, and regulated by different laws. There have been significant investments in individual projects aiming to build or support more systematic approaches or platforms, but their sustainability proved rather limited. Czech labour market, with the industry in its core, belongs to labour markets most susceptible to profound transformation by the processes of Industry 4.0. Many jobs are expected to be replaced or transformed by automatisation. At the same time, the participation of adults in education and training in the Czech Republic is very low, especially that of lower qualified people. There is only limited awareness about the necessity and benefits of lifelong learning and constant reskilling and upskilling among not only the employees, but also among many employers.
This is the context where the social partner associations stepped up with their proposal for unified conception of lifelong learning in the Czech Republic.
Objectives
The main goal is to introduce the theme of continuing professional education and training in a strong and transparent way into the social dialogue at the national level.
So far, the social partners in the Czech Republic have had only consultative role in the area of education and training. The proposal aims to gradually proceed to higher level of shared responsibility where social partners would cooperate on defining and governance of the continuing professional education and training system.
Description
The proposal was drafted in the framework of the project Social dialogue and society 4.0 (2019-22), It is implemented by the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, the biggest trade union association in the Czech Republic, in partnership with the Confederation of Industry, the biggest employer organisation. The general idea of the proposal is to build a continuous learning culture and make it an integral part of not only social dialogue, but also society as a whole. A coherent public system of support for continuing vocational education and training is seen as an inevitable condition for sustainable implementation of LLL culture in the labour market and society. The proposal is based on the latest analytical research and recommendations provided by the OECD and ILO (see Sources). Many discussion forums were organised in the Czech Republic to validate the basic ideas of the proposal. The proposal was approved by the Plenary Council of Economic and Social Agreement, which is the highest official tripartite platform.
The four main pillars of the Proposal, mutual trust, mutual cooperation, mutual determination and mutual reflection, translate into concrete steps as follows:
Mutual trust
- creating common priorities: elaboration of more concrete national policy for continuing education and training will be ensured by the highest tripartite platform (the Plenary Council of Economic and Social Agreement); the policy builds...
The proposal was drafted in the framework of the project Social dialogue and society 4.0 (2019-22), It is implemented by the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions, the biggest trade union association in the Czech Republic, in partnership with the Confederation of Industry, the biggest employer organisation. The general idea of the proposal is to build a continuous learning culture and make it an integral part of not only social dialogue, but also society as a whole. A coherent public system of support for continuing vocational education and training is seen as an inevitable condition for sustainable implementation of LLL culture in the labour market and society. The proposal is based on the latest analytical research and recommendations provided by the OECD and ILO (see Sources). Many discussion forums were organised in the Czech Republic to validate the basic ideas of the proposal. The proposal was approved by the Plenary Council of Economic and Social Agreement, which is the highest official tripartite platform.
The four main pillars of the Proposal, mutual trust, mutual cooperation, mutual determination and mutual reflection, translate into concrete steps as follows:
Mutual trust
- creating common priorities: elaboration of more concrete national policy for continuing education and training will be ensured by the highest tripartite platform (the Plenary Council of Economic and Social Agreement); the policy builds upon common priorities of all key stakeholders; a time schedule will be agreed. The goal is to have the policy adopted by the Government;
- reinforcing governance: an independent audit of current governance of continuing education and training will be conducted. A permanent coordination mechanism at the government level on tripartite basis will be established, as well as a permanent working group by the Council of Economic and Social Agreement;
- common skills prediction: the long-term sustainability of sector skills councils will be ensured, and they should be transformed into a tool of tripartite governance. The sustainability and efficiency of the National register of qualifications and National system of occupations should be ensured by the commitment of the State, and both systems should be coordinated and integrated into the functional system of continuing education and training. The capacities of social partners for skills forecast in the context of disruptive societal changes should be increased.
Mutual cooperation
- overcoming barriers in continuing education and training: collective agreements should more often specify conditions for professional development of employees; employees' education and training should be proposed as a part of their working hours. Social dialogue in companies should bring about more concrete and transparent incentives for employees participating in education and training (e.g. a pay rise or obtaining a certificate). Employees most endangered by automatisation and digitalisation or those with lower qualification should especially be encouraged to participate in education. The National register of qualifications as well as the National system of occupations should be added to the agenda of employee and employer representatives at the company level;
- adequate public funding: expenditures on active labour market policies should be increased as a unique tool for active intervention in the labour market in the context of incoming challenges. The funding of IVET and CVET should be better balanced as CVET should gain a status of equal pillar of lifelong learning. Stimulating tax incentives should be proposed for employers as well as individuals. A scenario analysis of possible funding in the context of incoming societal megatrends should be elaborated, to be used for strategic discussions, that would support especially direct forms of funding and tripartite-based education and training fund. Also, possible scenarios for implementation of individual learning accounts in the country should be analysed.
Mutual determination: cultivating the culture of continuing professional development. The possibility of introducing education and training ambassadors should be examined, with a role especially in the field of career and lifelong guidance. A public communication campaign should be launched, as well as easily accessible online information related to continuing professional education and training. The expertise of the social partners should be increased in guidance and counselling for the low-qualified, workers endangered by automatisation and other hard-to-reach groups. Also, the capacities of employee representatives to participate actively in digitalisation and automatisation trends and company innovations should be boosted.
Mutual reflection: the quality of continuing professional education. A method for quality assurance of education providers should be implemented.
In 2021, the proposal was widely discussed, drafted and published. Based on the draft, employee representatives were nominated as members of the Retraining and Continuing Education Committee by the National recovery and resilience plan.
The proposal was approved by the Plenary Council of Economic and Social Agreement, which is the highest official tripartite platform.
Besides that, the Czech Chamber of Commerce, the Agrarian Chamber, the Confederation of Industry and the Confederation of Employers' and Entrepreneurs' Associations signed a memorandum on joint action to promote and build a partnership approach to the governance of lifelong learning system.
In 2022, the Partnership Model for the Governance of Lifelong Learning System was drafted by the main employers´ organisations (Confederation of Industry, Confederation of Employers' and Entrepreneurs' Associations, The Union of Employers' Associations of the Czech Republic, the Czech Chamber of Commerce, the Agrarian Chamber of the Czech Republic, the Association of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) with the support of the Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions. The document declares its support for a common approach and shared responsibility for the area among employers, trade unions and the state.
In the model, the key decisions are made jointly by all partners while specified executive roles are assigned to them individually. The model builds on various previous projects and aspires to interlink and use their results in practice, in the framework of the following activities:
- Analyses/anticipation of skill needs
- New skills identification
- Impacts of changes on the occupations and qualifications
- Revision of occupational standards
- Revision of qualification standards
- Revision of standards for initial education
- Creation of standards for adult education
- Counselling and financial support for training of employees
The proposal includes a concrete allocations of these activities among stakeholders including the identification of previous projects outcomes on which to build.
The model proposes to establish a State fund to support the development of LLL and labour market. The purpose of the Fund would be to support more effective employment of qualified workers, skills development in match with current labour market needs, in line with the trends of jobs supply and demand, creation of qualification standards and their revision, establishing a specialised network of counsellors for employees and employers to develop lifelong learning, raise public awareness of lifelong learning and promote related tools. The Fund is to be managed by the Alliance of Sector Councils governed by the main employers´ confederations and representatives of employees. The sector councils have been established and functioning already for 15 years. They are composed of leading experts - mainly major employers in the sector, HR specialists, representatives of professional associations, guilds, employees (trade unions), authorising bodies, training provider, consultancy companies and representatives of the National Pedagogical Institute. Specifically, it is proposed that the union experts and their educational ambassadors in companies should be involved in the Alliance and its transversal or joint activities implemented by thematically focused teams (as proposed by the Trade Union Concept).
The Fund should be initially financed mainly from the operational programmes (ESF) and the National recovery and resilience plan as well as from employers contributions to public employment policies. In the longer term part of the corporate income tax might be assigned to the Fund.
The document also contains a proposal for necessary legislative amendments to implement the abovementioned policies. In January 2023, the material was acknowledged by the highest tripartite platform (the Plenary Council of Economic and Social Agreement). It was agreed to discuss it in the working groups of the Council, to further elaborate it and resubmit to the tripartite plenary by the end of June 2023.
The provisions of the Fund, initially proposed to support lifelong learning and skills development through a tripartite governance model, conflicted with the government's perspective on financial costs to the state budget. This key contradiction led to the proposal to withdraw from the establishment of the Fund and instead to implement a national project with the working title Model of partnership cooperation and coordination of the continuing professional education system - Sectoral skills strategies. Funding would come from the ESF, specifically from the Operational Program Employment Plus. The goal of the project is to verify the effectiveness of partnership cooperation between the government and social partners at the national level, with an extension to the sectoral level.
Later in 2023, key discussions took place between representatives of the government and social partners regarding the design and competences of the proposed 'Government Council for Qualifications, Professional and Vocational Education' and its financing.
Social partner representatives (employers and trade unions) proposed the establishment of a unified Government Council for Qualifications, Vocational and Professional Education. Preferably, this council would be administered by the Government Office of the Czech Republic. It would replace and consolidate the functions of the National Council for Qualifications, the Council for Vocational Education (Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports) and the Committee for Requalification and Further Education (Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs).
The Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs is assessing the feasibility of this proposed model, along with the planned project focused on partnership cooperation prepared by the social partners. Additionally, the Ministry is working on a proposal to create the most effective set-up for the Council's functioning to meet the requirements of both the social partners and the government.
Bodies responsible
- Confederation of Industry of the Czech Republic
- Czech Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions
Target groups
Learners
- Adult learners
- Persons in employment, including those at risk of unemployment
Other stakeholders
- Social partners (employer organisations and trade unions)
Other
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.
This thematic sub-category refers to further development of national quality assurance (QA) systems for IVET and CVET, for all learning environments (school-based provision and work-based learning, including apprenticeships) and all learning types (digital, face-to-face or blended), delivered by both public and private providers. These systems are underpinned by the EQAVET quality criteria and by indicative descriptors applied both at system and provider levels, as defined in Annex II of the VET Recommendation. The sub-category concerns creating and improving external and self-evaluation of VET providers, and establishing criteria of QA, accreditation of providers and programmes. It also covers the activities of Quality assurance national reference points for VET on implementing and further developing the EQAVET framework, including the implementation of peer reviews at VET system level.
High-quality and timely skills intelligence is a powerful policy tool, helping improve economic competitiveness and fostering social progress and equality through the provision of targeted skills training to all citizens (Cedefop, 2020). Skills intelligence is the outcome of an expert-driven process of identifying, analysing, synthesising and presenting quantitative and/or qualitative skills and labour market information. Skills intelligence draws on data from multiple sources, such as graduate tracking systems, skills anticipation mechanisms, including at sectoral and regional levels. Actions related to establishing and developing such systems fall under this thematic sub-category.
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.
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.
Transparency and portability of VET skills and qualifications
European principles and tools, such as EQF, ESCO, ECTS, Europass and ECVET, provide a strong basis for transparency and portability of national and sectoral qualifications across Europe, including the issuing of digital diplomas and certificates.
This thematic category looks at how individuals are supported in transferring, accumulating, and validating skills and competences acquired in formal, non-formal and informal settings – including learning on the job – and in having their learning recognised towards a qualification at any point of their lives. This is only possible if qualifications are transparent and comparable and are part of comprehensive national qualifications frameworks. Availability of qualifications smaller than full and acquirable in shorter periods of time is necessary; some countries have recently worked on developing partial qualifications, microcredentials, etc.
This thematic sub-category concerns all developments related to national qualification frameworks (NQFs). As in most countries NQFs are in place and referenced to the European qualifications framework (EQF), the thematic sub-category covers updating and expanding the frameworks, developing new qualifications and using NQFs as catalysts for other reforms.
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 initiatives that promote VET and lifelong learning implemented at any level and by any stakeholder. It also covers measures to ensure and broaden access to information about VET to various target groups, including targeted information and promotional campaigns (e.g. for parents, adult learners, vulnerable groups). Among others, it includes national skill competitions and fairs organised to attract learners to VET.
This thematic sub-category refers to all kinds of incentives that encourage learners to take part in VET and lifelong learning; VET providers to improve, broaden and update their offer; companies to provide places for apprenticeship and work-based learning, and to stimulate and support learning of their employees. It also includes measures addressing specific challenges of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) willing to create work-based learning opportunities in different sectors. Incentives can be financial (e.g. grants, allowances, tax incentives, levy/grant mechanisms, vouchers, training credits, individual learning accounts) and non-financial (e.g. information/advice on funding opportunities, technical support, mentoring).
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.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing high-quality lifelong learning and career guidance services, including making full use of Europass and other digital services and resources.
This thematic sub-category refers to making VET pathways and programmes inclusive and accessible for all. It concerns measures and targeted actions to increase access and participation in VET and lifelong learning for learners from all vulnerable groups, and to support their school/training-to-work transitions. It includes measures to prevent early leaving from education and training. The thematic sub-category covers measures promoting gender balance in traditionally ‘male’ and ‘female’ professions and addressing gender-related and other stereotypes. The vulnerable groups are, but not limited to: persons with disabilities; the low-qualified/-skilled; minorities; persons of migrant background, including refugees; people with fewer opportunities due to their geographical location and/or their socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Social partner concept for Continuing Education: Czechia. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/41967