- 2024Implementation
- 2025Implementation
Background
It is essential that every teacher and school leader has the opportunity to continuously engage in professional development. This not only enhances job satisfaction but also strengthens subject knowledge and, in turn, improves the quality of education. At the same time, the Netherlands faces challenges in maintaining the attractiveness of the teaching profession, with shortages in various sectors and difficulties in retaining experienced teachers. For this reason, the education ministry aims to ensure that teachers continue to grow—didactically, in subject expertise, and in their ability to contribute to decision-making about their profession. Beginning teachers will also receive strong guidance in this process. These measures contribute to maintaining high-quality education and ensuring that teaching remains an attractive and sustainable career path.
Objectives
The national growth fund project ‘National approach to teacher professionalisation’ (Nationale Aanpak Professionalisering Leraren, NAPL) main objective is to develop national frameworks for teacher professionalisation and to enable 60 000 teachers in primary, secondary, and vocational education to participate in professional development programmes over the next ten years.
The national approach to teacher professionalisation aims to enhance the attractiveness of the teaching profession by enabling and supporting professional development. This is intended to lead to:
- career development opportunities: support for teachers as they advance from entry-level to fully qualified status, including pathways for further specialisation containing a minimum of six specialisations by sector (primary, secondary, VET)
- improved education quality: professional development directly contributes to better classroom outcomes.
- teacher recruitment and retention: more people will choose the teaching profession, and experienced teachers will be more likely to stay.
The content of the career development pathways is shaped by the education field itself, ensuring alignment with the needs of teachers and educational practice.
Description
The National approach to teacher professionalisation (NAPL) consists of four pillars. The four pillars are:
- creation of career development pathways for teachers: the NAPL programme outlines how teachers can progress from entry-level to fully qualified status and further specialise. These pathways offer opportunities for teachers to deepen their knowledge and specialise further, while continuing to teach. At least five specialisations are foreseen per education sector (primary, secondary, and vocational education).
- development of a digital platform for professional development offerings: a user-friendly platform where teachers can find professional development opportunities tailored to their needs. All offerings must meet nationally developed quality standards.
- upgrade of co-creation labs for designing career development programmes within education regions: it is planned that, within the education region networks, successful existing career development programmes for teachers are scaled up and new ones are developed collaboratively by teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators. It is foreseen that funding is made available to support schools and regions in participating in and further developing these initiatives.
- establishment of a quality assurance system: national quality standards for professional development programmes are planned to be established; a system of assessments and evaluations will ensure the quality of...
The National approach to teacher professionalisation (NAPL) consists of four pillars. The four pillars are:
- creation of career development pathways for teachers: the NAPL programme outlines how teachers can progress from entry-level to fully qualified status and further specialise. These pathways offer opportunities for teachers to deepen their knowledge and specialise further, while continuing to teach. At least five specialisations are foreseen per education sector (primary, secondary, and vocational education).
- development of a digital platform for professional development offerings: a user-friendly platform where teachers can find professional development opportunities tailored to their needs. All offerings must meet nationally developed quality standards.
- upgrade of co-creation labs for designing career development programmes within education regions: it is planned that, within the education region networks, successful existing career development programmes for teachers are scaled up and new ones are developed collaboratively by teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators. It is foreseen that funding is made available to support schools and regions in participating in and further developing these initiatives.
- establishment of a quality assurance system: national quality standards for professional development programmes are planned to be established; a system of assessments and evaluations will ensure the quality of these programmes.
The programme has three phases:
Phase 1: 2024/2025 to 2026 – Start-up and development
- design of career pathways and specialisations for teachers.
- creation of national quality standards for professionalisation programmes.
Phase 2: 2026/2027 to 2028/2029 – Co-creation labs in action
- launch of 12 regional co-creation labs within the educational regions to develop professionalisation programmes; existing successful programmes are being accelerated, and new programs are being developed in collaboration with teachers, school leaders, and trainers.
- establishment of a sustainable infrastructure to finance regional collaboration. Subsidies are being made available to support schools and regions in their participation and development.
Phase 3: 2029/2030 to 2033 – Implementation and improvement
- making quality-assured professionalisation programmes digitally available.
- ensuring quality assurance through the establishment of a national quality monitoring system of professional development programmes.
- scaling up teacher participation in professionalisation programmes across all education sectors.
The NAPL was launched this year. The programme has a total budget of EUR 159.6 million, of which EUR 73.1 million has been allocated for the first four years (2024-2027). The remaining EUR 86.5 million is conditionally reserved. The programme is implemented by the National Realisation Unit (Delivery Unit), established by the education ministry. The Delivery Unit is the NAPL implementation and support unit. It helps organise and strengthen education regions. It supports regional cooperation on teacher recruitment, development and retention by providing guidance, data, coordination and practical tools to address labour-market challenges in education.
The programme is implemented in cooperation with teacher education institutions, school boards, school leaders and teachers. NAPL therefore brings together the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, sectoral umbrella organisations representing primary, secondary and upper secondary VET education (PO-Raad, VO-raad and MBO Raad), higher education associations (Universities of the Netherlands and the Association of Universities of Applied Sciences), the General Union of Education (AOb) and several other teacher unions: Federation of Education Trade Unions (FvOv), Association of Educators in VET (BVMBO), Platform Associations for Subject matter Secondary Education (PVVVO) and Teachers collective (Lerarencollectief). Their involvement aims to ensure that professional development provision reflects the identified needs of teachers.
In a policy letter in July 2025, the education minister provides for every pillar an update on the progress of the NAPL:
- career pathways for teachers: A so-called recruitment group, made up of teachers, school leaders, and teacher educators from primary, secondary, and vocational education, has begun defining the pathways. They will be supported by sector-specific working groups, including experts from academia and industry. Responsibility for this pillar lies with employer and employee organisations through the Collective labour market agreement funded lifelong learning funds.
- digital platform for professional development: Work is ongoing to create an accessible platform for teachers, providing an overview of assessed professional development programmes aligned with the career pathways. The platform is expected to be ready by mid-2027.
- co-creation labs in education regions: A subsidy scheme is being developed to support the creation of professionalisation programmes within the education regions. Preparations are also underway to provide financial support for teachers participating in these programmes from 2027 onwards.
- quality assurance system: A development group consisting of teachers, educators, and employers has been established to define quality criteria and design a quality assurance system for professional development. From the 2025/2026 school year, the group is expected to work on the necessary components developing the quality assurance system.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
- Council for upper secondary VET schools (MBO Raad)
- Association of Universities of Applied Sciences (Vereniging Hogescholen)
- Council for Primary Education (PO-Raad)
- Council for Secondary Education (VO-raad)
- General Union of Education (AOb)
- Universities of the Netherlands (UNL)
- Federation of Education Trade Unions (FvOv)
- Platform Associations for Subject matter Secondary Education (PVVVO)
- Teachers collective (Lerarencollectief) (till 2024)
Target groups
Learners
- Adult learners
Education professionals
- Teachers
- Trainers
- School leaders
Thematic categories
Teachers, trainers and school leaders competences
Competent and motivated VET teachers in schools and trainers in companies are crucial to VET becoming innovative and relevant, agile, resilient, flexible, inclusive and lifelong.
This thematic category comprises policies and practices of initial training and continuing professional development approaches in a systemic and systematic manner. It also looks at measures aiming to update (entry) requirements and make teaching and training careers attractive and bring more young and talented individuals and business professionals into teaching and training. Supporting VET educators by equipping them with adequate competences, skills and tools for the green transition and digital teaching and learning are addressed in separate thematic sub-categories.
The measures in this category target teachers and school leaders, company trainers and mentors, adult educators and guidance practitioners.
This thematic sub-category refers to all kinds of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) for VET educators who work in vocational schools and in companies providing VET. VET educators include teachers and school leaders, trainers and company managers involved in VET, as well as adult educators and guidance practitioners – those who work in school- and work-based settings. The thematic sub-category includes national strategies, training programmes or individual courses to address the learning needs of VET educators and to develop their vocational (technical) skills, and pedagogical (teaching) skills and competences. Such programmes concern state-of-the-art vocational pedagogy, innovative teaching methods, and competences needed to address evolving teaching environments, e.g. teaching in multicultural settings, working with learners at risk of early leaving, etc.
This thematic sub-category refers to measures aimed at engaging more professionals into teaching and training careers, including career schemes or incentives. It includes measures enabling teaching and training of staff, managing VET provider and trainer teams in companies to act as multipliers and mediators, and supporting their peers and/or local communities.
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.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- VET as an attractive choice based on modern and digitalised provision of training and skills
Osnabrück Declaration
- Establishing a new lifelong learning culture - relevance of continuing VET and digitalisation
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). National approach to teacher professionalisation: Netherlands. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2025 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/50344