Excellence in VET – national implementations, diversity of understanding and transfer
26.10.2026
Excellence in VET is a concept which most European countries as well as the European commission deal with in their policy agendas. After an initial event in December 2025, the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB) invited experts from different European countries and institutions on 21st and 22nd October for a second online expert seminar to discuss the concept of excellence in Vocational Education and Training.
The online international expert seminar gathered colleagues from BIBB´s network of national VET institutes in Europe (among others Austria, France, Italy, Slovakia, Switzerland) and universities in France (Aix-Marseille, Dijon) as well as from European agencies for VET – the European Centre for Vocational Education and Training (Cedefop) and the European Training Foundation (ETF). The seminar focused on national implementations, research questions and theoretical approaches for comparing the multidimensional concept of excellence in VET.
What is excellence in VET?
BIBB’s Head of the Department “VET International”, Birgit Thomann, opened the seminar by underlining the relevance of excellence in VET as a catalyst for innovation and policy framing as well as its relevance for comparative research and analysis. Exploring the concept of excellence in VET implies getting knowledge on single national policies and initiatives.
In a first session, colleagues from France (Josiane Paddeau / Ekatarina Melnick-Olive), Italy (Sandra D’Agostino), and Slovakia (Tatiana Pončáková) presented their reflections on national implementation. This led to highlighting the diversity in approaches, understanding and state of development of policies and practices for excellence in VET. Next, the discussion zoomed in on different approaches of mapping and measuring excellence. Colleagues from Austria (Monika Autzinger), Cedefop (Anastasia Pouliou) and ETF (Jose Manuel Galvin-Arribas) explored how to monitor, evaluate and signal excellence based on their ongoing comparative work.
How to address research on excellence and in comparative VET research?
Excellence is a multi-facetted concept, core to recent VET policies, relevant for the development of VET systems as well as to lifelong learning policies. The second day resumed with a contribution by Marthe Geiben. She shifted the expert discussion on how to prompt and support policy learning on excellence in VET within VET cooperations. Colleagues from France and Germany (Claire Bonnard, Isabelle Le Mouillour, Noémie Olympio) ended the expert seminar with their on-going analysis on excellence in VET in a German-French comparative perspective.
Network of researchers and VET institutions on the topic of excellence
The seminar took stock of joint activities during the past year and ended with a commitment to jointly further develop comparative VET research, to continue exchanging on theoretical approaches in comparative research and to strengthen cooperation with partner institutes and universities in Europe to deepen the knowledge on excellence in the countries.