The Erasmus+ flagship initiative on Centres of Vocational Excellence (CoVEs) aims to be a driving force for reforms in the Vocational Educational and Training (VET) sector.

The main objective is to ensure high quality skills that lead to quality employment and career-long opportunities, swiftly responding to the needs of an innovative, inclusive, and sustainable economy as well as to social needs, and contributing to increasing the attractiveness of VET.

The Centres of Vocational Excellence initiative support “upward convergence” on VET excellence through transnational partnerships, increasing the quality and effectiveness of VET in the participating regions and setting inspiring standards in the broader international community.

In particular the project should select at least five activities among those below (list of activities not exhaustive):

• Peer learning activities, networking, in-depth targeted analysis of national/regional frameworks for vocational excellence, set up of governance structures and advice from and to policy makers/stakeholders from the different countries;
• Support exchanges of good practices in a particular region/country and/or across the Erasmus+ CoVEs projects, with a thematic or sectoral focus, with the aim to expand activities and/or partnerships, scale up and mainstream successful projects at national level;
• Develop and implement an evidence-based methodology and/or engagement strategy, in order to secure the systemic impact of the CoVE initiative on thenational and regional levels, including exploring a strong role for national and regional authorities;
• Create synergies at local/regional/national level among vocational excellence stakeholders, including with European or national initiatives;
• Promoting vocational excellence at regional and/or national level, and act as catalyst/inspiration to other stakeholders and to national and regional VET systems;
• Connect existing CoVEs to skills ecosystems / CoVEs in other economic sectors to create economies of scale and work on cross-sectoral societal challenges;
• Explore how to ensure the sustainability of the results of the CoVE projects, for example recognition of teaching and learning provisions, applying different approaches, in line with relevant national requirements, to support major roll out of the courses at national, regional level to learners and staff, etc.