This paper given a generic overview of the policy developments in vocational education and training in the European Union, the research that is been done, and the research priorities which are emerging from the current state of play. The paper contents that there is a wide diversity in European VET and national systems of education. National VET systems are caught in their national contexts of legislation, culture and regulation. In some EU member states there is even variation within the state, such as in Germany (with its sixteen Bundesländer), the United Kingdom (with England, Wales, Scotland and Northern-Ireland), and Belgium (with its three language communities). As an example some aspects of vocational education in the Netherlands will be presented, mainly to show a VET system which is characterised by massive participation and reasonably high recognition. The paper also argues that the relationships between initial and continuing vocational education and training, human resource development and lifelong learning are blurring.

The paper describes the VET development process in the European Union and goes into the institutional context, which, as will be seen, is very complicated. The European Union is formed based on a large amount of voluntary agreements and regulation, referred to as the acquis Européenne, which is basically all legislation of the EU. The so-called European competences (areas of legal responsibility) are distributed over various institutions which all have their influence on agreements regarding vocational education. To fully understand the essence of the decision making process of the European Union, also regarding vocational education, it is necessary to know that the EU uses a system of collective deliberation which is referred to as the sectoral social dialogue, which is supported by the European Commission. The parties in this dialogue also contribute to the development of the agendas and dossiers regarding vocational education. Different from regulations regarding the Eurozone and agriculture however, there is no binding European legislation in the field of education. Policy development is based on voluntary actions such as comparisons, study visits, exchanges, case studies, benchmarks and reference models.

Next an overview is given of the EU vocational education and training policy instruments which are the result of and give focus to the VET development process. Policy instruments are: the European qualifications framework (EQF), the European credit system for VET (ECVET), the European quality assurance framework for VET (EQAVET), the Europass, guidelines for Guidance and counselling and the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning.

Next, the paper gives a description of the research which is conducted within member states of the EU. The field of VET research is quite scattered, so giving a full overview is hardly possible. Nevertheless, the research presented at the ECER 2011 in Berlin is reviewed, as well as the content of the research journals of publication year 2011. Thematic lines are distinguished that can be discerned in the research reports.

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