Lithuania: programme aligns VET to labour market needs (2021-30)

Aim

The main aim of this measure is to increase the attractiveness of vocational education and training (VET) by improving its compliance with labour market needs and expanding opportunities for acquisition of professional competences.

Main activities and indicators until 2030

• amendment of the necessary legal acts, especially of the VET Law;
• consolidation of the creation of the National Platform for the Advancement of VET;
• updating existing VET programmes and creating new ones in line with the new requirements arising from the development of green technologies and innovations, such as energy efficiency, circular economy, digitisation => target: at least 95 programmes to be updated or renewed;
• improvement of teachers’ and trainers’ competences => target: continuous professional training to be provided for at least 1 000 teachers and trainers;
• further development of apprenticeships and work-based learning:
     - increasing the number of apprentices => target: a total of 3 866 apprentices;
     - increasing the share of VET providers which organise VET programmes in the form of apprenticeship => target: 100 % (all VET providers);
     - increasing the number of learners who participated in the national mobility programme and received a certificate confirming that they improved practical and digital skills in sectoral practical training centres => target: a total of 12 394 learners;
• increasing the number of general education learners of grades 9-12 who follow a vocational module => target:  a total of 4 000 learners;
• supporting disadvantaged learners => target: the share of learners from disadvantaged groups who received support for improving access to VET to increase from 0% to 4%;
• investments in the infrastructure of VET institutions in the region of central and western Lithuania => target: modernised educational infrastructure to be provided to an additional 22 860 learners per year.

Target groups

• VET learners;
• disadvantaged learners;
• learners of primary and secondary general education programmes;
• adults who want to retrain, update their qualifications, acquire additional qualifications;
• VET teachers and trainers;
• educational support specialists;
• employers who offer apprenticeship places.

In 2023-29 the Government plans to allocate almost EUR 84 million for the implementation of the measure ‘To create a system of vocational education and training responding to the needs of the labour market’, which will come from the State budget, the European Union and other international financial support funds.

Read more

• Information of the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport (2021) on the progress measures of the education development programme
• Resolution of 1 December 2021: Švietimo pletros programos patvirtinimo [Approval of the educational development programme]  
• Order of 9 June 2022 Sukurti rinkos poreikius atliepiancčia profesinio ugdymo sistema aprašo patvirtinimo [Approval of the education development programme measure ‘To create a vocational education system that responds to the needs of the market’]