Vocational Education and Training in Romania. Short Description

This short description contributes to better understanding of vocational education and training (VET) in Romania by providing an insight into its main features and highlighting system developments and current challenges. Romanian VET offers diverse paths for learners. It comprises professional and technological programmes, regularly updated to combat low participation in lifelong learning and early leaving from education and training. As many EU countries, Romania has an ageing population. This has an impact on VET, with an 8.5% decrease in the number of VET upper secondary schools since 2012/13. Efforts are being made to increase student participation, enable access to VET, and improve its quality and its relevance to the labour market. Recent system developments include the introduction of a dual VET form: it complements the work-based learning tradition in school-based programmes and aims at making VET a more attractive option for learners, while adapting training better to employer needs.