The PISA-VET (vocational education and training) assessment project supports countries in strengthening their skills systems by developing, piloting and implementing an internationally standardised assessment of outcomes of initial VET programmes.‌

The PISA-VET initiative builds on a range of national and industry-specific efforts to measure applied skills, and will be the first time to apply these methods at scale and across countries.

The initiative is currently in its Development Phase, during which the OECD -in collaboration with a large number of partners and experts- is developing the draft assessment framework and instruments. The aim of the Development Phase is to assess the feasibility of the initiative, before moving into the Pilot Phase. The OECD, international experts, and participating countries must confirm the validity of the metrics and the international comparability of results that will come from this assessment. To address this, the OECD has established a step-by-step approach to the development of the assessment framework and the instruments with multiple opportunities for countries to review progress and decide on subsequent work.

The findings from the PISA-VET initiative will enhance comparative policy insights on how to improve the relevance, quality, equity and effectiveness of initial VET programmes.

The PISA-VET assessment will provide policy insights on a range of outcomes and related factors, including:

• comparative skill levels of students across countries and programmes,
• differences between countries and programmes,
• how to account for differences in programme design and learner background, and
• differences between learners and programme types.

The initiative has the potential to pay huge dividends in terms of improving the labour-market relevance, quality and social status of vocational education and training.