Keeping and reinforcing the focus on the development of key competences throughout the education, training and employment programmes will be an important step to regain the trust of employers in the quality of future employees, and as a more general consequence to public provision.

Maintaining and expanding the financial mechanism of individual incentives to engage in in-demand occupations is a safe channel to prepare young people with the necessary skills. In addition, as previously described, some financing instruments have been created to encourage young people to choose training pathways corresponding to the in-demand occupations, and this measure needs to be continued, perhaps expanded. This could also be combined with priority development of dual education in these occupations.

In complement, the further development of dual education, as the main innovation within the VET system, with a proper mechanism for monitoring and evaluating impact, is a promising way forward: not only does it smooth the transition from school to work, but beyond individual cases, it also fosters engagement of the private sector in the training provision, and in management of the system more broadly. This is internationally recognised as a key condition for success.

In the short to medium term, further developing the system for non-formal and informal learning could help fill occupations that do not attract people with the required skills. More long term, the expansion of adult education provision and the systematisation of targeted active labour market measures combined with social protection should become a national priority, consequently better resourced from the state budget, given the demographic situation of the country.

An expansion and redesign of the career guidance services is recommended and a coherent national system should be developed, including adult guidance. The current services must be better aligned and coordinated. Career guidance needs to start at an earlier stage and should also be embedded in the curriculum, with an emphasis on career management skills.

Clear and realistic targets for apprenticeships should be set and additional measures are needed to boost apprenticeship supply. The existing quality challenges of traineeships in VET should be addressed immediately, drawing upon the recently proposed Quality Improvement Plan for traineeships in IVET.

Further research, analysis and more frequent monitoring is needed with regard to the large horizontal skills mismatch of VET graduates, including comparison with graduates from apprenticeships and general and higher education.

Current VET fields and branches should be reviewed to ascertain whether they correspond to current and anticipated labour market needs.

The two systems of IVET and CVET should not remain separate but should be more closely linked, or even dovetailed. Such a concept could offer people new and attractive career perspectives, as well as making VET more attractive.

A more systematic approach could start in key sectors of the economy as well as in the fields which suffer most from the traditional VET image problem.

Cooperation and coordination both within organisations (e.g. MoNE) and among organisations (e.g. various ministries, providers such as PEC and LLL Centres, universities and employer organisations) need to be enhanced. The role of the National LLL Council and the National Adult Learning Coordinator should be reviewed.

Improving the evidence base for the overall public funding of adult learning and analysing its share compared to other segments of the education system. Revisiting existing funding schemes and gradually expanding the funding for adult learning to priority target groups and sectors.