Introduction

The apprenticeship toolbox is a joint project of five countries, which all have successful apprenticeship systems- namely Denmark, Germany, Luxembourg, Switzerland and Austria. The toolbox provides a structured and searchable overview of key features of the apprenticeship systems and how they are implemented in the five countries.

The key features are: governance and regulations, social partners and companies, financing, programmes and pathways, standards and matching, training and teaching, attractiveness and excellence. By comparing particular features the toolbox shows that apprenticeship on one hand build on some common features, but the way apprenticeship is implemented is highly diverse.

Apart from providing a comparative overview of the five countries’ apprenticeship systems users may access key documents for each of the apprenticeship systems, which national stakeholders use in developing, adapting, running and supporting a dynamic apprenticeship system. Furthermore users can find labour market and educational context country back ground information as well as country reports on the five counties VET systems.

Excellence and quality in apprenticeship requires constant policy development, stakeholder’ engagement  and innovation to ensure that the apprenticeship system is responsive to the wider development in the economy and in labour markets, and which is key to ensuring a smooth transition to the labour market as well as employability. In that regard the toolbox supports policy decision making and provides best practices that can be further developed. The toolbox is an invitation for exchange between VET stakeholders from different countries. The project member organisations are committed to fostering  dialog and policy learning with peer organisations in European and international contexts.