From Brazil to Peru: New presidency of the Alliance for dual VET in Latin America and the Caribbean 2026

At the first general meeting in early April 2026, the presidency of the Alliance for dual VET in Latin America and the Caribbean (Alianza para la formación dual de América Latina y el Caribe) was successfully handed over from SENAC (Serviço Nacional de Aprendizagem Comercial), Brazil’s leading vocational education and training institute for commerce and services, to SENATI, Peru’s National Service for Industrial Vocational Training.

Founded in 2021, the Alliance currently comprises 17 vocational education and training (VET) institutions from 15 countries and has established itself as a strong platform for exchange on topics relating to dual vocational training in the region.

New priorities for 2026

Under the new presidency, SENATI is setting clear priorities for 2026, as Gustavo Alva Gustavson, the national director, emphasised in his inaugural speech:

• Strengthening regional identity – further developing dual VET systems in the region and embedding them institutionally,
• Integrating training and the economy more closely – strategically expanding cooperation with businesses,
• Emphasising social participation – focusing on the inclusion of women, the strengthening of SMEs and genuine economic improvement, and
• Promoting innovation – positioning vocational education and training as a driver for solutions to global challenges.

SENAC review: Focus on cooperation

All the speakers at the General Assembly expressed their special thanks to SENAC for its dedicated and successful presidency in 2025, which has further strengthened the Alliance both in terms of content and structure. Anna Beatriz Waehneldt, Director of Vocational Education and Training at SENAC’s national office, emphasised the importance of ongoing cooperation within the Alliance. She noted that the past few months had been characterised by intensive coordination, regular exchange forums and active participation from member institutions. This had further strengthened the Alliance in terms of both content and structure and helped it to make its mark on the international stage. A highlight was the international conference organised by SENAC in Rio de Janeiro last October. With regard to the new presidency, she emphasised that she would be happy to make the wealth of experience gathered available to it.

Global perspective: challenges and future issues

Since its foundation in 2021, the BIBB, as the reference institution, has been supporting the work of the respective one-year pro tempore presidency in the joint coordination group, together with ILO/Cinterfor as the Technical Secretariat.

In his keynote speech, Michael Wiechert, head of the BIBB department responsible for the Alliance cooperation, highlighted the constructive discussions of the past year. He made it clear that demographic change, securing a skilled workforce and rapid technological progress pose similar challenges to all vocational education and training systems. Many systems – including the German one – remain heavily focused on stability, whilst at the same time a section of the younger generation is falling behind. His central call was therefore: “We must consider how resilience can become a guiding principle in vocational education and training systems.”

Wiechert referred in particular to six key points from the position paper published by BIBB President Esser, “More flexible, more inclusive, more excellent – success factors for resilient vocational education and training in the transformation”.

For the debates within the Alliance for dual VET in Latin America and the Caribbean, Wiechert emphasised the following aspects in particular:

• Governance structures should be designed to be significantly more adaptive and learning-oriented, whilst retaining the tripartite governance model.
• Flexibility, inclusion and quality must be strengthened – whilst upholding the occupation principle (“Berufsprinzip”).
• Transdisciplinary skills are central to resilience and must be specifically promoted.
• The distinction between initial, continuing and further VET must be overcome, and permeability must be embedded both horizontally and vertically.

Wiechert emphasised that this debate would be a key focus for both Germany and the Alliance in the coming years – and that he was convinced the Alliance could make a concrete contribution to jointly developing and strengthening vocational education and training systems.

Elena Montobbio, Director of ILO/Cinterfor, posed the key question: Where should the Alliance be in five years’ time? In addition to the fundamental importance of strengthening social inclusion, she identified three areas of action for the region:

• Improving transitions between education and the labour market, particularly against the backdrop of drop-out rates in the education system,
• Promoting employment prospects for young people and
• aligning VET more closely with changing labour market requirements.

Outlook: Exchange and next steps

A series of webinars and the annual international conference, this time to be held in Lima in November, are already planned for 2026. In addition, further alliances at international level are to be strengthened and joint activities, such as those with the ‘Towards a Global TVET Agenda’ initiative funded by the Federal Ministry of Education, Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (BMBFSFJ), are to be coordinated.

A Global TVET Agenda