A high-level Cedefop delegation contributed to the EU Lithuanian Presidency’s vocational education and training (VET) events in Vilnius.
Cedefop Director James Calleja welcomed Croatia to the agency at the meeting of Directors-General for vocational education and training (DGVT) on 11 and 12 November. He praised the contribution Croatia has already made to vocational training, describing it as a ‘VET-friendly country’. Mr Calleja noted that Cedefop is looking forward to working with the new EU Member State and to forging a new relationship.

Responsibility for reporting on Croatia’s VET performance has passed from the European Training Foundation (ETF) to Cedefop, following the country’s accession to the EU in July 2013.

ETF Director Madlen Serban spoke about the close collaboration during the pre-accession period between the agency and the Croatian authorities. Croatian government representative Sabina Glasovac spoke about the VET system in the country.

The ETF and Cedefop directors presented the Spotlight on VET – Croatia, a concise guide to the country’s VET system, which was produced jointly by the two agencies.

At the conference on the role of VET in making education more inclusive, also in Vilnius (12 and 13 November), Cedefop Deputy Director Christian Lettmayr, who moderated a workshop on VET and early school leaving, pointed out that ‘the cause of early leaving is not just found within VET but is influenced by many other factors; it also takes a joint effort and a wider partnership approach to attract learners to VET programmes that suit them and keep them engaged.’

Cedefop expert Alexandra Dehmel presented the findings of the study Return to learning, return to work, which looks at work-based learning and the reintegration of unemployed adults into the labour market. Ms Dehmel said that the main messages for policy-makers are ‘the use of full potential work-based learning has to offer, implementation of holistic policies and programmes, key competence development, use of key success factors for programmes, support of employer involvement and intermediary function of training organisations and improvement of monitoring and implementations of quality assurance systems.’

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