EfVET

Founded in 1991, EfVET is a non-profit, pan European organisation of technical and vocational education and training providers. EfVET represents 187 members in 31 countries in Europe and beyond (USA, Russia, Turkey, Hong-Kong and Nigeria). EfVET connects key players and talents in the lifelong learning area and is a tool to inform and advise policy makers on the major issues in Vocational Education and Training and the value of a European/International approach. Its mission is to champion and enrich technical and vocational education and training through transnational co-operation by building a pan-European network of institution.

EfVET’s policy and strategy is formulated by its member colleges and VET institutions. It collaborates with but is independent of all government and funding bodies. Its income is derived from membership subscription, grants and sponsorship.

EfVET represents directly the views of its members on VET issues to all the European Union Institutions and Bodies and responds to all appropriate consultation processes. EfVET offers a network of, and for, professionals to foster connections between researchers, business people, and practitioners in Vocational Education and Training and lifelong learning.

The principal aim of EFVET is to provide a transnational framework to support all co-operative actions aimed at enhancing and improving technical and vocational education and training; in particular:

• - To facilitate networking and partnership
• - To stimulate creation of co-operative projects and thematic networks
• - To enable widescale promotion and dissemination of innovative measures and transnational projects
• - To provide technical support and advice to its members and help them access E.C. programmes
• - To act as an agent for collaborative projects with TVET (technical and vocational education and training) organisations in outside Europe
• - To represent the views of its members issues in the European public forum and provide a platform for the European Commission and others to consult

The Lifelong Learning Platform is an  organization that gathers more than 40 from different lifelong learning sectors, coming from all over Europe and beyond. Currently these networks represent more than 50.000 educational institutions and associations covering all sectors of formal, non-formal and informal learning. EfVET has been an active member of LLLPlatform from the beginning.

LLLPlatform was born in 2005 in Brussels (EfVET was one founding members) as a response from civil society organisations to the definition and implementation of a European policy in the field of education and training in the so-called Open Method of Coordination. The platform has grown, learnt, made more friends, gained more new members and supporters. The LLLPlatform aims to voice citizens’ concerns about lifelong learning. The idea is that no one should be left out and that bridges are built across sectors to increase access to quality education for all.