The paper starts from the stated governmental ambition in Norway and Spain, particularly evident in the last two decades, to increase the coherence of their vocational education and training systems; in Spain from three largely unrelated strands (initial VET, continuous VET/ training for the unemployed) into a unified system and, in Norway, from an underdeveloped VET system to more VET schools and courses at all educational levels. Based on the literature on the origins of educational systems, the paper enquiries the extent to which it is possible to observe a coherent (perhaps unified) system of vocational education and training in the two countries, which exhibit some commonalities in their VET governance structures but also very different labour markets as well as diverse historical and cultural backgrounds. Second, the paper will review the main VET policy measures implemented in both countries to achieve greater coherence within VET over the last two decades and the main drivers of their introduction. These include internal as well as international developments such as initiatives related to the so-called ‘shift to learning outcomes’ and learning from abroad sparked off by OECD, the European Commission and other supranational organisations.

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