On boosting skills in the Union – opportunities for vocational education and training in times of transition

(2026/2070(INI))

The European Parliament,

–having regard to the Herning Declaration on attractive and inclusive Vocational Education and Training for increased competitiveness and quality jobs 2026-2030, adopted by the Member States on 12 September 2025,

–having regard to the Council Recommendation of 24 November 2020 on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilience1,

–having regard to the Commission communication of 5 March 2025 entitled ‘The Union of Skills’ (COM(2025)0090),

–having regard to the recommendation for a Council recommendation on human capital in the European Union, adopted by the Council on 9 March 2026,

–having regard to Regulation 2021/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2021 establishing Erasmus+: the Union Programme for education and training, youth and sport and repealing Regulation (EU) No 1288/20132,

–having regard to Rule 55 of its Rules of Procedure,

–having regard to the report of the Committee on Employment and Social Affairs (A10-0000/2026),

A.whereas 34.7 % of Europeans have obtained a vocational education and training (VET) diploma; whereas 49 % of all students in the EU are enrolled in a VET programme3; whereas VET is regarded as less valuable than academic education in many Member States; whereas students and graduates of VET can experience social bias or reduced opportunities as a result of this perception gap;

B.whereas the EU is experiencing a growing demand for vocational professions driven by the green and digital transition, industrial reshoring, infrastructure investment and demographic change; whereas labour‑market intelligence shows acute and persistent shortages in VET‑intensive sectors; whereas Cedefop’s skills forecast projects that, by 2035, 60 % of all job openings will require up to medium‑level qualifications4, the level most commonly provided through VET pathways;

C.whereas the EU’s policy orientation under the Lisbon Strategy placed a disproportionate emphasis on academic attainment, underestimating the strategic importance of vocational professions for the EU’s industrial base and resilience; whereas recent geopolitical developments, supply-chain disruptions and the green and digital transition demonstrate the necessity of investing substantially in VET;

D.whereas persistent societal and policy biases that frame educational pathways in hierarchical terms contribute to the unattractiveness of vocational pathways and to academic drift, thereby limiting equal recognition of talents, undermining social cohesion and exacerbating critical skills shortages in vocational occupations;

E.whereas unnecessary administrative barriers, fragmented recognition procedures and insufficient interoperability between national systems continue to hinder the free movement of workers, particularly VET professionals; whereas enhanced cooperation between Member States and regional frameworks can contribute to building mutual trust, modernising recognition procedures and facilitating labour mobility for VET professionals, while maintaining high standards;

Recognising the value of VET in society

1.Highlights the importance of VET for the EU’s economic prosperity and competitiveness; stresses the importance of promoting and valorising VET in order to improve its attractiveness as a quality pathway to employment; calls on the Commission to ensure that the upcoming VET strategy addresses the quality and relevance of VET curricula, coupled with improved promotion of VET programmes to learners, employers and the wider public;

2.Stresses that VET should be viewed as a tool that can both support the personal development of students and workers and address labour market shortages, thereby contributing to the EU’s competitiveness and supporting innovation in strategic sectors;

3.Stresses the need to ensure that VET students and graduates feel that their qualifications and professions are valued equally to academic education, to ensure social cohesion and inclusion;

4.Calls for the EU institutions and the Member States to promote more respectful terminology for educational pathways and to move away from terms such as ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ education; calls on the Commission to repeal the EU-level target for higher education attainment as a benchmark, since it does not comply with the Commission’s intention to value VET equally;

5.Calls for the Member States and the EU institutions to involve VET students and graduates at all levels of policymaking to ensure equal participation, and to offer VET traineeships;

6.Recognises the contribution of WorldSkills and EuroSkills in promoting VET excellence, innovation and attractiveness across Europe; encourages closer cooperation between the Commission, the Member States and VET skills competition organisations in order to promote vocational excellence and support the visibility of VET; acknowledges that these competitions and their associated frameworks, such as the WorldSkills Occupational Standards, should serve as an inspiration for policymakers and the development of VET policy and skills recognition;

7.Recalls that although the Commission communication entitled ‘The Union of Skills’ states that VET should become ‘an equally valued learning pathway as higher education’, VET continues to receive a smaller share of Erasmus+ funding, compared with academic education; insists that its budget allocation be increased to ensure that this objective is met in practice, and to support the ‘Europe on the Move’ target of 12 % learning mobility for VET learners by 2030;

Improving VET quality and relevance through increased investment

8.Calls on the Commission to support the Member States in investing sufficiently in VET through country-specific recommendations in the European Semester and the earmarking of EU funding; recalls the successful investment, under the Just Transition Fund, in local economies through a combination of funding for skills and for small and medium-sized enterprises, and recommends that this example be followed under the Member States’ national and regional partnership plans, in order to promote VET;

9.Supports EU- and national-level partnerships between employers and VET providers to improve the relevance and quality of VET curricula; calls for the linking of VET providers to regional industrial and technological clusters;

10.Calls for broader inclusion of VET in existing EU policies and programmes; encourages better integration of VET bodies in the development of innovation policies to enhance the dissemination and uptake of innovative solutions across sectors; insists on the need to support skills investment in strategic sectors under the policy windows of the proposed European Competitiveness Fund;

11.Stresses that AI and automation have led to an increased need for reskilling; emphasises, in this context, the increasing importance of accessible training for all workers for their current or alternative careers;

12.Calls on the Commission, the Member States and employers to ensure fair remuneration and decent working conditions for apprenticeships and internships in VET in order to improve the attractiveness, quality and inclusiveness of work-based learning;

Recognising the mobility of students and workers

13.Stresses the importance of diplomas and skills recognition to ensure freedom of movement for VET students and workers, and address the low number of mobility opportunities in this regard; calls for the upcoming Skills Portability Initiative to deliver a coherent EU ecosystem for skills recognition and mobility, ensuring interoperability between Europass, the multilingual classification of the European Skills, Competences and Occupations, national qualifications frameworks, micro-credentials and digital credentials; emphasises that this system should be transparent, citizen-friendly, digital and free of charge;

14.Regrets the fact that uptake of Common Training Frameworks under Directive 2005/36/EC5 has been limited, and calls on the Commission, the Member States and the relevant professional bodies to actively promote their development and implementation in vocational sectors, where common training requirements could support professional mobility and address skills shortages;

°

° °

15.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council and the Commission.