- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
Background
The continuing education landscape in Germany has developed over the decades as heterogeneous regarding the quality of providers and presents itself to interested parties with a certain lack of transparency with regard to recognition and permeability of the educational offers. At the same time, the need to adapt vocational competences and establish lifelong learning has become more and more urgent due to major social upheavals such as digitalisation, adaptation to climate change and a shortage of skilled workers.
Objectives
Objectives of the new funding guideline are integrating education platforms and services nationwide based on common standards, thereby supporting access to education. The National education platform project is embedded in the Digital education initiative where learning, teaching and training are improved across the entire education pathway so that all generations can move confidently in the digital world. The National education platform as a hub will support and professionalise the digitisation drive in the education sector nationwide, which was forced by the COVID-19 pandemic, while at the same time recognising and respecting competences and responsibilities in the Federal education system.
Description
In 2021, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is funding the first prototype of a technical infrastructure for a digital education platform. As a hub, it is intended to integrate existing and new digital education platforms into a nationwide platform system, providing every user with central access to education offers. The digital education area is based on common standards, formats and interoperable structures that are compatible with the rest of Europe in the sense of a national education platform.
In April 2021, a network coordinated by the University of Potsdam began developing the education space Digital project (Bildungsraum) or BIRD for short. BIRD represents the first of a total of four prototypes for a future national education platform and enables the testing of structures for data exchange, the interoperability of different platform types and the implementation of standards.
In 2022, the work on the first version of the platform is ongoing.
In 2023, as part of the National Skills Strategy, the Federal Employment Agency (BA) developed the first prototype of a technical infrastructure, the online portal 'mein NOW' (abbreviation for: National Online Portal for Continuing Vocational Education and Training).
In January 2024, the first version of the National education platform 'mein NOW' was launched, offering companies and people in employment various services relating to continuing professional development. The portal was continuously developed and further enhanced in 2024, with new functions and content being added successively.
Bodies responsible
- Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
- Federal Employment Agency (BA)
- Federal States (Länder)
Target groups
Learners
- Young people (15-29 years old)
- Adult learners
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 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.
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.
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.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- VET as an attractive choice based on modern and digitalised provision of training and skills
Osnabrück Declaration
- Resilience and excellence through quality, inclusive and flexible VET
- Establishing a new lifelong learning culture - relevance of continuing VET and digitalisation
- Sustainability - a green link in VET
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). National education platform (NOW!): Germany. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/lt/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/41083