10/03/2026
FYI: The VETpreneur project has became the VET Balkans!
VET Balkans is a platform in vocational education and training, where we exchange knowledge, experiences, ideas, launch initiatives, network, create common experience and practice, and together create better VET in the Balkan countries.
Why is VET important for the countries of the Balkans, and especially for the countries of the Western Balkans? The VET prepares for the labor market good craftsmen, good cooks and confectioners, good car mechanics, varnishers and vulcanizers, good hairdressers and milliners, good construction workers, masons, painters, plumbers, electricians, good carpenters, welders, bakers, dairymen, technologists, and all other workers in various professions that we encounter every day. Fewer people are trained for these occupations than before in the Balkan countries, which is a consequence of negative demographic trends, the emergence of new occupations, the quality of VET that does not follow the changes and needs of the labor market, as well as the influence of new technologies in traditional occupations, and other reasons. At the same time, there is an exodus of these workers to EU countries, for the high-demand occupations and where working conditions and wages have been better than in the Balkan countries for a longer time. The consequence is the lack of craftsmen and professionals in the Balkan countries, lower quality and access to these services, and skyrocketing of costs of these services. Although Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Croatia and Slovenia are members of the EU, the situation is only slightly better than in the Western Balkans countries that are not in the EU. They also record the outflow of professionals and workers towards the countries of central, northern and western Europe, while they are partially substituted by labor coming from the Western Balkans and third countries. We see a similar process in the Western Balkans, where the number of domicile workforce in many VET occupations is shrinking and the imported workforce from third countries is increasing, especially in the fields of construction and transport, but also in services and trade.
For all these reasons VET has already become one of the highest priorities both in educational policies and in the planning of human resources in the industry in the Balkan countries but also in the EU contribution the the development of this region.
VET Balkan was created as a process of cooperation between the education and industry sectors aiming at intensifying communication, increasing the number of relevant participants and actors, increasing the relevance of cooperation, increasing the complementarity and synergy of numerous parallel processes, initiatives, programs and projects and creating a greater effect in raising the quality of VET in the Balkan countries. VET Balkan was initiated within the VETpreneur project 101092503 (full title: Vocational Education and Training Provision with Entrepreneurial Education Uptake in the Region) funded by the EU within the Erasmus+ program, CB VET for the Western Balkans.
