Lifelong Learning Regimes versus Vocational Education and Training Systems in Europe: The Growing Hybridisation of National Models

Abstract

Any attempt to compare national vocational education and training (VET) systems comes up against the constraint of complexity, for such schemes are embedded in other social sub-systems (e.g. labour relations, basic education, higher education, labour market, company management). In addition, focusing on the national frame of reference alone may be problematic because of the multiplicity of levels stemming, on the one hand, from increased decentralisation and, on the other, from a supra-nationalisation which introduces a new level of regulation. In rhetorical terms, the expression ‘lifelong learning’ both reflects this complexity and accentuates it still further, since it endows this resource with a new purpose, namely that of helping to safeguard career paths and job transitions, to the point of making it a ‘pillar’ of social protection systems.