The challenge

Despite considerable reform efforts, Central and Eastern European countries struggle to provide quality technical vocational education and training (TVET) and lifelong learning to respond to the needs of labour market. Skills mismatches are prevalent, and employers repeatedly report difficulties in recruiting adequately skilled young graduates and adult workers. This adversely affects productivity and wages, thereby increasing migration and the loss of talent.

At the same time, large parts of the population cannot realise their full potential. An average of 22 per cent (2020) of the youth in the sub-region is neither in employment, nor in education or training (NEETs). Adult workers, in particular those with low qualifications, have outdated skills. Gender stereotypes still strongly influence career choices and thereby professional progression and earning opportunities. The digital divide, urban-rural disparities, and discrimination on the ground of disability and ethnicity call for making skills development systems more inclusive.

Countries need to develop functional TVET and lifelong learning system to provide their workforce with opportunities for skilling, upskilling and skills recognition. Skills development and lifelong learning are at the heart of tackling inequality and empowering people to manage their work trajectories.

Service offer

ILO supports countries in Central and Eastern Europe in five main areas:

• Skills needs anticipation and skills matching: Understanding future skills needs is the pre-condition for aligning TVET with the labour market. ILO applies a compendium of tested tools for strategic skills forecasting.
• Sectoral skills-strategies in support of growth industries: The ILO STED methodology (Skills for Trade and Economic Diversification) is a tool for identifying skills needs and prioritising skills-related interventions that can help to boost productivity and competitiveness in strategic economic sectors. See what our partners say on our STED analysis for the IT sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
• Digitalisation of TVET: ILO quality E-learning and blended learning in TVET. See our project in Ukraine
• Skills for a green economy: Support to Member States in developing skills for green jobs 
• Lifelong-learning: Developing policies for Lifelong-learning (LLL), including governance, financing, inclusiveness, and the recognition of prior learning.

For more information on our results please visit the country pages on the ILO/SKILLS Knowledge Sharing platform for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Ukraine

Contact: Alessandra Molz, Senior Specialist, Skills Development and Employability through budapest@ilo.org