2025

The Ministry of Education and Research has continued to implement educational policies to enhance the quality of the educational process through: 

Increasing access to and the attractiveness and quality of VET 

The call for proposals Another opportunity with VET (2021-2027 Education and Employment Programme) has been launched. This call for proposals, launched on 30 April 2025, provides funds for initiatives designed to increase access to and the attractiveness and quality of VET, including for dual education. The call is aimed at schools, regional consortia, local authorities, NGOs and other relevant actors. Among its beneficiaries there are schools with VET classes (including dual education), school inspectorates and local partnerships for employment and social inclusion. 

Update of the framework curricula and of the curriculum for the technological path of high school education and VET

In 2025, public consultations are conducted, and new framework curricula are being developed for technological high-schools (upper secondary education), integrating the dual model (education plus internship) at system level throughout the high-school route and promoting cooperation with businesses in the development of qualifications and curricular content. 

A modernisation programme for the educational infrastructure and resources 

In 2025, funding is provided to equip more than 900 VET schools with computer science laboratories and modern practical training facilities, as well as to develop interactive digital platforms and to provide the IT infrastructure, in the framework of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) and other national programmes. These measures cover both technological high-schools and schools offering dual education. 

By 2026, under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP), 57 agricultural high-schools will receive support to modernise, renovate and extend their school laboratories, workshops and computer science laboratories, cafeterias and student hostels; to purchase biological supplies, agricultural equipment and machines for the execution of agricultural works; to train teachers based on curricula that are specific to agriculture, developed together by the Ministry of Agriculture and the Ministry of Education. 

Strengthening dual education 

The new regulations in place and the access to the call for proposals Developing 29 regional consortia and developing and equipping 29 integrated vocational campuses, with funding provided under the National Recovery and Resilience Plan, allow for a wide-ranging development of dual school education and higher education. 

A consortium has to include at least four types of entities, namely: (1) Public/Private accredited higher education institutions. (2) Public/Private accredited or temporarily authorised VET/technical schools. (3) Administrative-territorial units (ATUs). (4) Economic operators. 

A total number of 29 complex projects have been funded, with various measures and generous budgets, for which grant agreements covering two phases have been signed. Because these agreements were signed at different times, the 29 consortia are now at different stages in their implementation. 

Each of the 29 consortia will receive a grant to develop their campus infrastructure. Each integrated campus that has been built will be equipped for digital workshops, based on a digitisation concept which is adapted to the profile of technological high-schools and technological universities. Therefore, technological universities and high schools involved in a partnership structure related to dual education centres may receive specific grants. Consortia will offer training programmes at basic (ISCED 3-5) and advanced (ISCED 6-8) levels. Out of the 29 integrated vocational campuses, 16 campuses are funded under NRRP and 13 from the state budget. 

Oradea Campus is a project for dual education, for which students who are admitted to grade 9 can enroll if they want to study for a promising well-paid profession in demand in the job market. The available fields of studies are mechanics, constructions, plumbing and public works, electrotechnics, electronics and automation, and industrial chemistry. Students will receive a monthly grant ranging between RON 400 and 1 000, free accommodation, three meals a day and a reimbursement of transport costs. The campus will operate laboratories, practical training facilities for different specialisations, rooms for theoretical learning, a student hostel with 140 places, a cafeteria, medical offices, a swimming pool and a gym. 

Professional standards 

In the document A profile and professional standards for teachers in school education, with career stages and education levels, the professional profile and standards reflect teachers’ competences at different stages in their career, namely the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are necessary to provide quality education and support each child or youth to reach their development potential.

Teachers’ professional profile and standards are organised across: 

• education levels: (i) early childhood education and care; (ii) primary education; (iii) lower secondary and upper secondary (high school) education; (iv) technological education and dual technological education.
• seven competence areas: (1) Knowledge about students and how they learn; (2) Curriculum and the teaching-learning process; (3) Learning environment and wellbeing; (4) Student counselling, cooperation with families/guardians and with the community; (5) Ethics, reflection and lifelong learning; (6) Institutional development; (7) Digital technology in education, and
• stages of the teaching career: (i) graduate, with a bachelor's degree; (ii) teaching degree 2; (iii) teaching degree 1.

2024

Vocational education and training, mainly dual, focused on students’ needs and in line with the developments in the labour market, which brings in economic added value and social cohesion.

Related projects and programmes

• Establishing partnership agreements with economic operators for the vocational training of students in technological education, including those in dual education.
• Implementation of 29 projects that have been accepted for funding under the call A pilot programme to develop regional consortia for dual education; the projects are spread across the eight development regions. In the North-West Region, the first dual campus has already been constructed.
• Promoting technological education with the platform Choose Your Path! and participating in partnership networks with economic agents in relevant training fields.

2023

The National implementation plan for initial and in-service vocational education and training (PNI – VET) defines measures for fulfilling the objectives set at European level and it ensures a correlation between the EU’s objectives for VET and the objectives of national policies. The measures provided for in PNI-VET will be implemented in the period 2021-2027. The general objective of PNI-VET is to improve the relevance, accessibility, flexibility, attractiveness and quality of initial and in-service VET programmes, which should sustain economic and social cohesion; support competitiveness, growth and smart, inclusive and sustainable development; and facilitate individuals’ professional and personal development. 

Dual education

Complete vocational route for technical higher education

The establishment of a complete vocational route for technical higher education – with the entry into force of the legislation concerning the methodology for the organisation of the complete dual route and of the new qualifications resulting from this route – will facilitate the development of dual education with a focus on students’ needs and in line with the needs of the labour market, both by an increased number of fields, qualifications and graduates and by ensuring a complete educational path for the students enrolled in dual school education, so that they are able to enter dual tertiary education programmes. 

For the development of dual education, there are plans to develop 10 regional consortia and to develop and equip 10 integrated occupational campuses. The occupational campuses will be built by 30 September 2025, while the dual education consortia will operate at full capacity by 31 March 2026. All 29 grant applications were approved.

Consolidation of the professional and technical education, and especially the on-the-job-training component

VET programmes are adapted to the needs for competences and the trends in the labour market so that they respond to the national priorities for economic and social development.

Traineeships for school students and university students in the agriculture-food sector, industry and services

Under the call for proposals Traineeships for school students and university students in the agriculture-food sector, industry and services, which supports workplace learning programmes for university students and students in lower secondary education, high-school education (upper secondary) and post-secondary education, including the foremen schools, 85 projects have been completed and other three projects are in course of implementation. There are 21 471 individuals targeted for support and the intention is to qualify 8 102 learners through these projects. 

Traineeships for school students, the ITI Danube Delta region

Under the call for proposals Traineeships for school students, the ITI Danube Delta region, grant agreements have been signed for nine projects. In the framework of these agreements, 980 individuals (school students / apprentices) should be supported to participate in VET programmes.

Traineeships for school students from less developed regions

Under the call for proposals Traineeships for school students from less developed regions, grant contracts have been signed for 154 projects. In the contracts that have been signed, the assumed target is 28 663 people (school students/apprentices) who should receive support to participate in vocational education/vocational training programmes. 

Increasing the accessibility, the attractiveness and the quality of technical and vocational education and training (TVET)

Under the call for proposals Increasing the accessibility, the attractiveness and the quality of technical and vocational education and training (TVET), priority will be given to measures intended to facilitate access to and retention in vocational training programmes, streamline the mechanisms for monitoring and assessing vocational training public policies and for anticipating the needs for competences, as well as to measures related to quality assurance of workplace learning and the certification of learning outcomes in initial VET. The Education and Employment programme (EEP) 2021-2027 will support the adaptation of educational services for learners and teaching staff in TVET and the development of schools so as to support excellence in TVET, with a focus on digitalisation and sustainable development. Moreover, EEP will provide funding for Erasmus+ cross-border mobility opportunities for TVET, as well as for support measures for disadvantaged school students to help them participate in TVET and prevent school dropout.