The panel aims at the analysis of problems in VET governance, according to the framework of VET research proposed at the Vocational Skills Week, Brussels. Issues of multilevel coordination were identified as a main challenge. Examples from four countries (Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy) are discussed, to illustrate the challenges in governance of VET.

Bridging multilevel problems by the Austrian lifelong learning strategy? (Lorenz Lassnigg)

Governance of VET is strongly fragmented to different sectors (full-time school and apprenticeship), different actors (state bureaucracies, social partners, enterprises) and different levels (local, regional, central), and education is governed by separate systems without overall coordination. A government based lifelong-learning-strategy was set up during the 2000s  to coordinate lifelong learning across different policy silos (education, science, labour and economic affairs).

This strategy is taken as an exemplary attempt of how the various NPM tools (definition of goals and indicators, involvement of actors in temporary working groups and projects, open fund raising, etc.) might work in such an open and flexible governance structure.

New distribution of governance tasks across levels in the German Dual System (Ludger Deitmer)

The decentralized German system is governed by a fragmented system with responsibilities distributed to local; states (Laender), and federal levels. States are responsible for the school part and teacher education; the federal government is responsible for the in-company training. Local coordination is therefore weak, and a sustainable governance strategy is searched for.

The Bertelsmann study proposes according to the NPM philosophy (1) a concentration on the strategic functions at national level, and the distribution of more operative governance tasks to regional and/or local levels. This requires (2) the establishment of proper evaluation and feedback schemes along the whole training process. Some remarks about the research methodology will be made.

Questions of building an efficient multilevel governance system in Hungary (Magdolna Benke)

Governance is rooted in historical, political, cultural, etc. traditions and values; building an efficient multilevel governance system varies according to these factors. The level of democratization in the society, the autonomy and responsiveness of different groups, the dialogue and partnership between key actors, the role of the social partners, and the power of the civil sector are important conditions. Crucial tasks are to secure the representation of all interest groups and the empowerment of the local stakeholders, in a balanced relationship between top-down and bottom-up processes.

Lessons from the ’Learning Regions’ research project show how local innovative agro-product development by learning communities can bring together local people and appears as good starting point to develop strong local governance.

Introducing a dual system in the Italian multilevel structure (Marco Perrini, Guiseppe Tacconi)

Italy is hit by high youth unemployment of above 20% and a slowly emerging dual system was introduced in 2015. The VET structure is confronted by (1) shared management between central government and local administrations with unclear responsibilities, (2) by territorial heterogeneity of training due to economic and social differences, and (3) by a deep separation of production and the labour market from education system.

This poses questions about the implementation of the apprenticeship reform, e.g., in training of trainers, curriculum development, adequate use of media supporting work based learning. The authors  report on the Italian situation and discuss prospects of the reforms and implications for further research.

A discussant (Ursel Hauschildt) responds in the light of a comparative study that has addressed (1) a definition of favourable governance structures and financing arrangements, (2) the realisation of the governance model in different country settings, and (3) visions and strategies for advancing the governance structures. using the instrument of the governance equalizer (Hauschildt, Wittig 2015).

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