Vocational education and training (VET) is an important part of education systems around the world. In an era of changing skill needs in the labour market, as a result of global megatrends such as automation and population ageing, VET is well-placed to equip students with the skills the labour market needs and provide education and training opportunities for adults. Likewise, VET can play an important role in the recovery from the COVID-19 crisis, by developing in-demand skills to avoid hiring difficulties among employers, providing youth at risk of being not in education, employment, or training (NEET) with opportunities to acquire work experience through apprenticeships and other forms of work-based learning, and creating avenues for up-skilling or re-skilling of workers who have been displaced, or in need of training to adapt to a changing work environment.
VET systems differ widely between countries in terms of how programmes are designed and delivered. Moreover, countries differ in terms of the types of providers that deliver VET. This report looks at the VET provider landscape in five selected OECD countries, to provide insights into the number of different providers by country, their focus areas and target populations, and the way in which different providers collaborate. The diversity of VET providers often reflects the diversity in VET programme types, levels and student population. The size of the private VET provider market also differs strongly by countries, with some countries having encouraged the entry of private providers in an attempt to diversify the offer and increase efficiency, and other restriction private provision.
This report was drafted by Shinyoung Jeon, Viktoria Kis, Malgorzata Kuczera, Rodrigo Torres and Marieke Vandeweyer from the OECD Centre for Skills, under the supervision of El Iza Mohamedou (Head of the OECD Centre for Skills). Irina Vogel provided research assistance. The report has benefited from comments provided by Mark Pearson (Deputy-Director for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs). Administrative and editorial assistance was provided by Jennifer Cannon and Duniya Dedeyn from the OECD Centre for Skills.
The OECD would like to thank the Department for Education in England (United Kingdom) for the financial support for this report and for the feedback provided on early drafts. The OECD is also grateful for feedback provided on the five case studies presented in this report by the Australian Department of Education, Skills and Employment; TAFE Directors Australia; the Danish National Agency for Education and Quality; the Danish Ministry of Higher Education and Science; the Standing Conference of the Ministers of Education and Cultural Affairs of the Länder in the Federal Republic of Germany; the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research; the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science in the Netherlands; and the Swedish Ministry of Education and Research. The reported also benefited from comments from the OECD Group of Experts on Vocational Education and Training.