For more than a decade, CRPE has been working on vocational education and training (VET), work-based learning, career guidance and the links between schools and the labour market.
Over the past two and a half years, together with the HEKS/EPER Romania Foundation, we have organised 16 local working groups in Covasna, Alba and Sibiu counties and published 10 reports and analyses. We have worked with schools, companies, local authorities and other actors involved in VET, while also looking at models and good practices from other European countries.
Some of the recommendations that emerged from this work have already fed into public consultations and our discussions with the institutions responsible for these areas.
We are bringing together some of the main ideas here as well.
Career guidance needs to start earlier
Career guidance is one of the issues we have returned to repeatedly over the past few years. The system remains under-resourced and support often comes too late: many students have to choose their educational path without enough exposure to different professions or the labour market, while school counsellors are often responsible for around 800 students.
We believe career guidance should start earlier and accompany students throughout their education. We have proposed a minimum number of career guidance hours starting from the fifth grade, reducing the number of students assigned to each counsellor, training teachers in career guidance and extending counselling and guidance to dual technological education.
Just as importantly, students need more opportunities to meet professionals, engage with companies and learn about different occupations before deciding which path to follow.
Dual education cannot expand without SMEs
Romania plans to expand dual education considerably over the coming years. For this to work, however, many more companies need to be able to take in students and work alongside schools.
This is where one of the problems we have encountered repeatedly in our discussions becomes apparent: the current system is much easier for a large company to navigate than for an SME.
SMEs account for around 68% of private-sector jobs. Yet only 18% of Romanian SMEs are involved in work-based learning or VET partnerships, compared with an EU average of 67%.
Many small companies simply cannot accommodate large groups of students at the same time. Others do not have available workplace tutors or the administrative capacity to manage a work-based learning partnership.
At the same time, tax incentives for companies involved in dual education do exist, but many SMEs are either unaware of them or do not know how to access them.
This is why one of our main recommendations is to adapt the system to the reality of small and medium-sized businesses: more flexible conditions for organising work-based learning, lower minimum student thresholds for forming groups and work-based learning models suited to sectors dominated by small businesses. This should be accompanied by easier-to-use rules for accessing tax incentives and additional incentives for companies that take on students for work-based learning.
Beyond dual education
Our research over the past few years points to several other recurring issues.
- Work-based learning remains far too limited. Across Europe, six in ten young people in vocational or technical education undertake at least one month of work-based learning. In Romania, this is the case for only 7.2% of IVET graduates aged 20–34.
- The way we assess technological high schools is not suited to their role. The Baccalaureate pass rate continues to carry considerable weight, while graduate employment, the quality of work-based learning, employer involvement and the progress of vulnerable students receive far less attention. We believe VET needs an assessment framework that reflects its own objectives.
- Technological schools need greater financial autonomy. Work-based learning, laboratories, consumables and technical infrastructure come with costs that are not sufficiently reflected in the current funding formula. For agricultural high schools, we have also proposed clearer rules allowing schools to use revenues and products generated through their own activities to support students’ practical training and education.
These are issues we have followed closely in our research over the past few years and will continue to bring to consultations and discussions on the future of VET.
All our recommendations, together with the data and arguments behind them, can be found here.
We are also sharing the 10 analyses and policy briefs CRPE has published on these issues:
- Career Guidance in Secondary Education: A Prerequisite for Access to Decent Work
- How Should School and Career Counselling Be Organised? Part I
- How Should School and Career Counselling Be Organised? Part II
- School and Career Counselling in Relation to the Community
- Good Practices in Ensuring the Quality of Career Guidance
- Career Guidance and the Community: Good Practices at European Level
- Governance of Technological Education at Local Level
- Promoting Vocational Education and Training: Good Practices at European Level
- Reducing School Dropout in VET: Solutions and European Good Practices
- Recalibrating VET Assessment in Romania
The reports were produced as part of projects implemented by CRPE together with the HEKS/EPER Romania Foundation.