Portugal: agreement for vocational training and qualification

Background

The signing took place at a time when there is a growing interest in skills, vocational training and qualification. Portugal's structural skills gap continues to be a key factor in inequality of opportunity and to inhibit enterprise competitiveness in different sectors. The country has the highest proportion in the European Union of adults aged 25 to 64 who did not complete secondary education in 2020 (PT 44.6%; EU-27 20.8%). This includes a high proportion of young people (18.3% of those aged 20 to 24), who enter the labour market without having completed secondary education.

Reinforcing vocational training

The agreement for vocational training and qualification reinforces vocational training by:

• securing its accreditation, as a significant part of the growth effort;
• ensuring recognised training programmes in alignment with the labour market needs;
• implementing new curricula which improve graduates’ employability;
• increasing the role of social partners in the training system.

The new agreement promotes participation in training and qualification levels and strives for achieving, by 2030, the European target of having at least 60% of adults annually attending lifelong learning activities. It also supports the aims of the EC (Recommendation 2021/402 of 4 March) in active support to employment following the COVID-19 crisis.

The purpose of the agreement is to be the core of tripartite understanding between the government and the social partners, focusing their support in the following intervention areas:

• regulation and governance of the vocational training system (framework and regulation, regulation model and financing sources, quality improvement);
• further development of the system’s instruments and responsiveness (improve the flexibility of the National qualifications catalogue, strengthen responses to sectoral needs and dynamics, and improve incentives for the participation of companies and individuals);
• raise the population’s qualifications level (Qualifica programme);
• post-secondary training and intermediate qualification levels;
• innovation and flexibilisation of training modalities and responses;
• digital area and distance learning.

Looking ahead

It is expected that this agreement implementation will bring about results at individual level, considering the interconnection between vocational training and qualification acquirement. For example, more training and better personal and citizenship skills allow more successful career paths and higher salary levels; in the long term, the competitiveness of the economy and society as a whole is also improved.

The next step is to define a timeline and an action plan for the implementation of the agreement.

Read more

• Portugal 2020 on the agreement
• The document of the agreement