This paper aims to disclose and to describe the specificities of the institutional development of skills formation and VET system in Lithuania in the light of their comparability to the well-established and analysed types of institutional settings and their development pathways in this field. Referring to the question of comparability it also aims to consider similarities and differences of the evolution of methodological approaches and political-institutional development in the initial vocational education and training and skill formation. It leads to the following questions of research: - What are the specificities of the pathways of institutional development vocational and further education (initial VET, higher education, adult education and lifelong learning) in Lithuania? - To what extent and how do these factors influence policy making in VET? - How do the outlined specificities of institutional patterns of skill formation and VET change in the light of the latest trends of socio-economic and institutional development (globalisation, development of the EU labour market and common education area)? The methodological approach of research is multi-disciplinary and comparative consisting of: 1) application of the historical institutionalism approach in analysing development of the mechanisms and processes of skill formation, 2) critical analysis of the implications of the educational processes and education policies for the development of skill formation systems and settings. Research discloses and discusses such critical junctures of the institutional development of skills formation and VET system in Lithuania, as the dominant influence of employers and state in the field of skill formation, liberalisation of the pathways of skill acquisition and development, superficial functioning of the tripartite structures of social partnership at national in the field of initial VET (Myant, 2014; Norkus, 2008; Tūtlys, Kaminskienė, Winterton, 2016; Sommers and Woolfson, 2014, Woolfson, 2008). These critical junctures make a critical influence for the current strategic and ambitious policy initiatives oriented to competence-based VET and skill formation, including implementation of the Lithuanian Qualifications Framework and occupational standards, as well as modularization of initial VET curricula (Tūtlys and Spöttl 2017).

Myant, M. (2014), “Economies Undergoing Long Transition. Employment Relations in Central and Eastern Europe”, in Wilkinson, A., Wood, G., Deeg, R. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Employment Relations, Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp. 359-384. Norkus, Z. (2008). Kokia demokratija, koks kapitalizmas? Pokomunistinė transformacija Lietuvoje lyginamosios istorinės sociologijos požiūriu. (Which Democracy, which Capitalism? Post-communist Transformation in Lithuania from the Viewpoint of Comparative Historical Sociology), Vilniaus universiteto leidykla, Vilnius. Sommers, J. and Woolfson, C. (eds) (2014) The Contradictions of Austerity: The Socio-Economic Costs of the Neoliberal Baltic Model, London: Routledge. Tūtlys, V., Kaminskienė, L., &Winterton, J. (2016). Policy borrowing and policy learning in the initial VET reforms of Lithuania after 1990. In S. Bohlinger, T.K. Anh Dang, M. Klatt, Education policy: mapping the landscape and scope. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, pp. 376-397 Tūtlys, V., Spöttl, G. (2017). From the analysis of work processes to designing competence-based occupational standards and vocational curricula. European Journal of Training and Development, 41 (1), 50-66. Woolfson, Ch. (2008). Social dialogue and lifelong learning in new EU member states: ‘reform fit’ in Latvia. Journal of European Social Policy; 18(1), 79–87