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.
2023
There have been no reforms to date in this area.
2022
Action plan for the Strategy of lifelong learning and counselling for the years 2022-2024;
On April 21, 2022, the Government of the Slovak Republic approved the Action Plan for the Strategy for Lifelong Education and Counselling for the years 2022-2024 (Akčný plán k Stratégii celoživotného vzdelávania a poradenstva na roky 2022 – 2024). The task of this document is to elaborate and specify the measures approved in the Strategy for the given period of the coming years 2022-2024.
The action plan contains a plan of activities for the specified time period, which is based on the defined thematic areas of the Strategy and the measures proposed in them. Each measure contains a proposal for a set of activities aimed at achieving the goals of the given measure, as well as the overall goals of the Strategy, output indicators, institutions involved in their implementation, and an indication of possible financial resources. Financing of the activities is planned to a large extent from EU funds from the programme period 2021-2027 through the Slovakia Programme.
The action plan also includes measures to support professional training and education of adults. Arrangements were made for
- the implementation of the programme of lower secondary vocational education with an integral part of completing elementary school and the creation of an educational program for obtaining lower secondary education - second chance education,
- support for capacity building of Centres of Excellence in vocational education and training
- the introduction of short educational study programmes and their incorporation into the quality system of universities,
- the creation of a comprehensive system for tracking high school and university graduates in Slovak conditions, including its institutional security,
- supporting civic education of adults by creating the concept of the Regional Center for Lifelong Education and Counseling at VÚC and supporting entities providing civic education,
- improving the quality of lifelong guidance: create and introduce a quality standard for career guidance providers, introduce accreditation for career guidance providers, introduce accreditation of career advisers, create a National Skills Framework for career management and develop information tools to support lifelong guidance,
- individual education accounts as a tool for individualized support of individuals in further education (retraining) and a pilot scheme for strengthening the motivation of adults to participate in education.