Vocational Education and Training in Lithuania: Reform Processes and Tendencies

Vocational education and training (VET) is the most rapidly developing part of the educational system. It is changing in accordance with the requirements of the labour market. Lithuanian vocational education reform started at the end of the 1980s, when the ‘socialist’ system collapsed and opened the door for the development of a new system. New economic relationships developed, the country’s economy was restructured, and the technological provision for manufacturing and service sectors changed rapidly. The reformof VET became an objective factor determining social economic advancement.

Such factors as the market economy, restructuring, change in the laws of ownership, democratisation of societal processes, the intention to integrate into the structures of the European Union, etc., created favourable conditions for rapid changes in the system of VET. Vocational education reform, launched more than a decade ago, was pursued very swiftly. It summoned the efforts and experience of all the participants in vocational education from other countries, to help develop VET into a well-rounded education and to meet the challenges of rapid change in the country.