CULT Opinion on Boosting skills in the Union – opportunities for vocational education and training in times of transition

14.7.2026

Ms Li Andersson

Chair

Committee on Employment and Social Affairs

BRUSSELS

Subject: CULT Opinion on Boosting skills in the Union – opportunities for vocational education and training in times of transition (2026/2070(INI))

Dear Madam Chair,

Under the procedure referred to above, the Committee on Culture and Education (CULT) has been asked to submit an opinion to your committee and decided to send the opinion in the form of a letter.

The Committee on Culture and Education considered the matter at its meeting of 14 July 2026. At that meeting, it decided to submit the opinion set out below to the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs, as the committee responsible.

Yours sincerely,

Nela Riehl

SUGGESTIONS

 Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular Articles 165 and 166 thereof,

A. whereas VET is a key pillar of the European Education Area, the Union of Skills and the European lifelong learning ecosystem, contributing to personal development, quality employment, social cohesion, the EU’s competitiveness and resilience, including strategic autonomy, in times of green, digital, demographic and industrial transitions; whereas vocational education and training plays a crucial role in strengthening Europe’s industrial base, preserving and improving specialised technical know-how, and addressing labour shortages in sectors essential to the Union’s competitiveness and resilience; Whereas the Copenhagen Process launched in November 2002 to strengthen European cooperation in VET has been providing a consistent framework for European VET policy;

B. whereas VET should be valued as a high-quality learning pathway in its own right, and whereas parity of esteem between vocational and academic pathways should be encouraged and supported by Member States in accordance with their national education and training systems in policy design, learner guidance, mobility opportunities, recognition systems, investment in quality and public communication on VET; whereas equal value should mean effective access and opportunities for learners of all ages and backgrounds, not a zero-sum competition between education and training sectors;

C. whereas the attractiveness and quality of VET depend not only on labour-market relevance, but also on teaching and training, guidance systems, inclusive access, permeability between education and training pathways, recognition of skills and qualifications and the development of basic, digital, green, civic, social and transversal competences;

D. whereas public investment per learner and direct financial aid are systematically lower for upper-secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education – the levels where VET is concentrated – than for tertiary education across most Member States;

E. whereas VET learner and apprentice mobility remains one of the clearest areas where this ambition still needs to be translated into practice; whereas too many VET learners and apprentices continue to face legal uncertainty, administrative barriers, limited provider capacity, unclear responsibilities, and unresolved questions related to insurance, remuneration, social security and recognition; whereas learners are often unaware of their rights and of the procedures available to report abuses; whereas additional barriers, such as rising living and housing costs, might risk excluding learners from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds from vocational education and training mobility opportunities;

F. whereas persistent skills mismatches continue to hamper productivity, economic growth and innovation across the Union, highlighting the need for closer cooperation between training providers, employers, SMEs and local productive ecosystems; Whereas apprenticeship-based and dual vocational education and training systems, which combine school-based learning with substantial quality work-based training in enterprises, have proven effective in supporting the transition from education to employment;

G. whereas strengthening common European principles and provisions for mobile VET learners and apprentices could help provide greater legal certainty for learners, VET providers, employers and competent authorities, in full respect of Member State competences and national VET systems;

H. whereas VET mobility requires stronger support capacity inside VET institutions, including dedicated staff, guidance, employer partnerships, simplified procedures and digital tools;

I. whereas Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs), introduced as such in the current Erasmus+ programme are transformative cooperation projects and partnerships connecting VET providers, public authorities, academia and the private sector, with a role in skills ecosystems, world of work, innovation and the green and digital transitions, supported by innovative pedagogies, professional development of teachers and trainers, learners and staff mobility and VET internationalisation strategies;

J. whereas VET needs adequate, visible and progressively strengthened support under the next MFF, in particular within Erasmus+, while preserving the flexibility and balanced lifelong-learning architecture of the programme and also other complementary EU funds; whereas VET excellence also depends on teachers, trainers, workplace mentors, permeability between education and training pathways and inclusive access;

K. whereas the shortages of VET teachers is affecting all EU 27 Member States; Whereas according to a Cedefop survey in 2025, only 18% of VET teachers believe that their profession is valued, and for one third of VET teachers their profession was not the first choice, and on average VET teachers receive 11% less salary than other tertiary educated professionals.

1. Welcomes the renewed political attention given to VET in the context of the Union of Skills, the Herning Declaration within the Copenhagen Process, and the forthcoming European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training, and recalls its role as a pillar of the European Education Area, the Union of Skills and the European lifelong learning ecosystem to boost competitiveness and resilience;

2. Calls on the Commission and Member States to translate parity of esteem between vocational and academic pathways into concrete measures in policy design, learner guidance, mobility opportunities, recognition systems, investment in quality and public communication on excellence and inclusiveness in VET, in particular to boost its attractiveness;

3. Stresses that equal value should mean effective opportunities for learners, not a zero-sum competition between education and training sectors;

4. Emphasises that the future VET Strategy should remain learner-centred and should support both Europe’s competitiveness and the personal development, social inclusion and democratic participation of learners, fostering a high-quality, inclusive, innovative and attractive European VET with an international outlook; stresses in this regard the importance of clear progression pathways within VET, including higher vocational education and training and qualifications at EQF level 5 and above;

5. Warns that many traditional craft, and cultural-heritage conservation skills are at risk of disappearing as a result of demographic change and the lack of structured transmission pathways; highlights the importance of intergenerational skills transfer in addressing demographic change and labour shortages; encourages initiatives that support experienced workers in passing on their knowledge and expertise through mentoring, workplace training and apprenticeship schemes; calls on the Commission and the Member States to use vocational education and training, as a means of safeguarding and transmitting those skills; calls for VET strategies to be linked to local cultural ecosystems and heritage, as a tool for territorial cohesion and to counter demographic decline ; calls for the cultural and creative sectors to be fully reflected in the forthcoming VET strategy;

6. Calls on the Commission and the Member States to address, as a priority, the legal and administrative uncertainty affecting mobile VET learners and apprentices, including as regards learner status, contractual arrangements, remuneration, social security, insurance and the recognition of learning periods abroad;

7. Calls on the Commission to strengthen common European principles and provisions for mobile VET learners and apprentices, in full respect of Member State competences and national VET systems, in order to provide greater legal certainty for learners, VET providers, employers and competent authorities, including by developing a common European framework for the automatic mutual recognition of study qualifications and learning periods abroad in school, VET and higher education; Calls on the Member States to guarantee the portability of domestic grants and loans for VET learners taking part in recognised mobility, so that support follows the learner abroad; Stresses the importance of regularly reviewing and indexing to inflation grants and financial support for VET learners, apprentices, teachers and staff participating in mobility activities;

8. Calls for the Erasmus+ programme to finance support systems for mobility inside VET institutions, such as mobility coordinators in the institutions themselves, building on successful experimentations such as the MONA project in France, in order to including mobility coordinators, to guide VET learners in their mobility projects, advise VET teachers in setting up European projects and facilitate contacts between VET institutions, the private sector and learners;

9. Encourages the development of a VET-adapted digital mobility infrastructure, inspired by the experience of Erasmus Without Paper in higher education, to simplify administrative processes, learning agreements, recognition procedures and cooperation between VET providers, employers and competent authorities;

10. Highlights the transformative role of Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) as cooperation projects and partnerships bringing together VET providers, public authorities, academia and the private sector, with the aim of strengthening ties between those stakeholders, building innovative curricula and pedagogical formats that respond to Europe’s skills needs, fostering the mobility of VET learners, teachers, trainers and staff, and finding solutions to the administrative, financial, legal and practical barriers that hinder the mobility within VET;

11. Calls for the budget dedicated to CoVEs to be safeguarded in the next Erasmus+ programme, and for successful CoVEs to receive the stability and visibility needed to continue to innovate and transform the VET sector at European, national, regional and local levels;

12. Highlights the role of regional, metropolitan and local authorities in building inclusive, fair and employer-connected apprenticeship and VET ecosystems and in directly managing public training centres;

13. Recalls that VET needs adequate, visible and progressively strengthened support within Erasmus+, based on learner demand, quality, inclusion, absorption capacity and the Europe on the Move target for VET mobility, while preserving the flexibility and balanced lifelong-learning architecture of the programme;

14. Calls for any future Erasmus+ scholarships, talent or excellence actions in strategic educational fields to be open, where relevant, to VET learners and higher VET pathways, while complementing, rather than reducing, core Erasmus+ funding for learning mobility, inclusion and cooperation;

15. Calls for the forthcoming EU Teachers and Trainers Agenda to explicitly address the causes of shortages and needs of VET teachers and trainers and other related staff, including career attractiveness, initial and continuing professional development, flexible professional pathways, pedagogical innovation, digital, AI and green competences, inclusion skills and support for in-company mentors;

16. Stresses the importance of permeability between VET and other education and training pathways, such as higher education, adult learning, and employment, so that learners can progress between pathways without dead ends; calls, in this regard, for stronger recognition of VET qualifications and learning outcomes, better guidance throughout life, quality-assured micro-credentials, validation of non-formal and informal learning, and pathways from initial VET to higher VET, higher education and continuing VET;

17. Calls for VET curricula to equip learners not only with occupation-specific skills, but also with the basic, digital, AI, green, civic, media literacy, entrepreneurial, social and transversal competences needed for quality jobs, lifelong learning, active citizenship and democratic resilience; recalls that excellence and inclusion in VET must be pursued together, and that high-quality VET, mobility and innovation opportunities should be accessible to learners with fewer opportunities, learners with disabilities and learning difficulties, adult learners, learners in outermost regions, rural, remote and disadvantaged areas, and women and girls in STEM-related VET pathways including through mobile training offers, blended learning, distance guidance and cooperation between schools, training centres and local communities;

18. Calls on Member States to challenge gender stereotypes and structural barriers affecting educational and career choices, with a view to promoting gender equality and a more balanced participation of women and men across all vocational pathways, sectors and occupations;

19. Calls for further promoting effective and efficient public spending on VET, as well as complementarity and synergies of funding under the next Multi-Annual Financial Framework, in particular under Erasmus+, AgoraEU, the European Social Fund and other cohesion funds, in addition to the European Competitiveness Fund; Calls for improved data and monitoring of VET, as well as renewed efforts for implementing the EU-level benchmarks in VET effectively in all Member States;

20. Calls for the future European Strategy for Vocational Education and Training to build on the Copenhagen Process and its latest milestone the Herning Declaration, while avoiding the creation of disconnected new initiatives, and to strengthen the coherence and practical use of existing European tools, including the European Qualifications Framework, EQAVET, Europass, micro-credentials, digital credentials and the validation of non-formal and informal learning;