Until recently, few graduates of technical and vocational education and training (TVET) aspired to further learning, particularly higher education. But higher-level qualifications are now a common expectation among young people, reflecting increased ambitions, labour market demand for higher-level skills, and a need to upskill and reskill throughout life. Clear and flexible learning pathways are necessary to ensure that young people have the necessary skills to enter the labour market; they are also essential to keep the skills of the workforce up to date and adapted to the changing economic conditions and opportunities that will facilitate the transition to sustainable economies and societies. The emergence of new occupations and the rapid transformation of existing ones, the explosion in knowledge and technology, the shift to an information and knowledge-based society, new ways of organizing the workplace in an increasingly integrated economy are some of the reasons why establishing learning pathways in a lifelong learning perspective are an imperative today.

This publication examines the drivers behind recent developments in improving the articulations between TVET and post-secondary, including higher, education, the challenges and obstacles to establishing effective learning pathways and the measures and good practices adopted by different countries to address them. Drawing on the available literature, including a number of in-depth country case studies, it makes recommendations on how effective learning pathways can be developed in different country contexts. A set of policy guidelines to assist policy-makers interested in improving the articulation of and pathways between TVET and post-secondary education and developing more effective pathways between the two is published separately.