2026

Amendment to the Act on Vocational Education and Training 

In October 2025, members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic approved a package of education laws and implemented the most extensive education reform in recent years. The reform package also includes an amendment to the Act on Vocational Education and Training (Act No. 324/2025 Coll.), which introduced the following changes:  

• Introduction of an agency system for dual education, which will enable small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in dual education.
• Expansion of practical teaching opportunities – pupils will be able to undertake practical training outside the employer's premises.
• Introduction of a new type of secondary school: secondary industrial school – transformation of secondary vocational schools into a new type of school and changes in relationships with higher education institutions.
• Introduction of new forms of vocational education: "vocational internship" - a vocational subject taught by a university lecturer, and "digital vocational practice" - a form of practical training at the employer's workplace. 
• Establishment of Centers of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training – centers linking schools, companies, and research institutions.
• Expansion of the rights and powers of professional organizations.
• A higher education teacher holding the position of associate professor or professor may also become a school principal if they meet the qualification requirements for the school in question, or even a non-teacher - a manager with 5 years of experience in management and a second-level higher education degree.

The amendment will take effect on January 1, 2026, with the exception of provisions concerning the establishment of Centers of Excellence, which will take effect on September 1, 2027. 

2025

Amendment to the School Act

In January 2025, an amendment to the School Act (Act No. 290/2024 Coll.) came into effect, introducing the following changes for education in vocational secondary schools:

• A requirement for medical fitness is introduced for secondary school pupils.
• A candidate may be admitted to the first year of a lower secondary vocational education programme if they have attended primary school for at least nine years but did not complete the primary school programme, or if they studied at a primary school for pupils with intellectual disabilities and obtained at least primary education. The director of the respective secondary school may admit the applicant based on a recommendation from a specialised counselling and prevention centre, provided that the school has a support team in place.
• Admission conditions for secondary education are revised.
• Determination of the maximum number of first-grade pupils in full-time study programmes, categorized by individual study and training fields.
• New rules for allocating students to the first year of eight-year gymnasium programmes. The Ministry of Education, after consultation with the relevant self-governing region, will propose the number of pupils to be admitted to each gymnasium offering an eight-year education programme.
• In secondary schools, for every 50 pupils from socially disadvantaged backgrounds, there must be one teaching assistant, one social pedagogue, or one social worker.

2024

National project Centres of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training

In 2024, the Ministry of Education launched the national project entitled Centres of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training. The project aims to create and verify the system of Centres of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training in the Slovak Republic, which will increase the quality, flexibility, and adaptability of vocational education and training with an emphasis on the development of adult education processes in selected areas of the economy. 

In the next step, the project will create the methodology of professional development of pedagogical employees, provide education to teachers of vocational subjects, and vocational training teacher, and connect it with the education of instructors and main instructors, career advisors in relation to the activities of the newly created Centres of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training. 

The project aims to create at least eight pilot Centres of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training and the project’s target groups include employed people, pedagogical and professional employees, career advisors, as well as lectors and workers in adult education. The support of extended cooperation and involvement of partners in the Centres of Excellence for Vocational Education and Training system is also an important part of the project.

The project will be implemented throughout the whole of Slovakia by the State Institute of Vocational Education − a budgetary organisation of the Ministry of Education. The indicative amount of funding allocated for the call for submitting applications for non-refundable financial contributions is €13,247,803 from the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) sources.