Engaging the Business Sector in dual VET

By definition, dual vocational education and training (VET) depends on the active involvement of the business sector. While companies are best known for providing workplace-based learning opportunities, they can also contribute, for instance, to skills needs assessments, curriculum development, training regulations, examinations, governance structures, and the provision of equipment and expertise.

At the same time, business engagement is often one of the most challenging aspects of dual VET, particularly in development cooperation contexts. Companies may lack the capacity, incentives, experience, or trust required to engage in education and training, while SMEs and informal businesses often face additional constraints.

This page brings together DC dVET’s tools, publications, and practical guidance on engaging the business sector in dual VET. It is intended for development partners, policymakers, practitioners, VET institutions, and business associations seeking to build effective and sustainable partnerships between the worlds of education and work.

Why engaging the business sector matters?

Engaging the business sector is essential for making VET more relevant, effective, and sustainable. Companies help ensure that training reflects real labour market needs, while workplace learning complements classroom instruction with practical experience, improving both the relevance and quality of training. Business involvement can also increase the attractiveness and status of VET, create opportunities for young people to earn while they learn, and improve their transition into employment. For companies, engagement in VET helps develop a skilled workforce, increase productivity, and reduce skills shortages. At a broader level, strong business participation contributes to economic development, social inclusion, and reduced youth unemployment.

From Intentions to Strategy Development

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In this video, Prof. Dieter Euler (author of the DC dVET Working Tool for Engaging the Business Sector in VET) introduces the rationale for business sector engagement, discusses key challenges, and presents practical entry points and a roadmap for action.

Who is the business sector?

When discussing business sector engagement in dual VET,  it is important to recognize that the “business sector” is not a single, homogeneous actor. Different types of enterprises and intermediary organizations play different roles, have different capacities, and require different forms of support. Effective engagement strategies therefore need to be tailored to the local context and to the specific actors involved.

Not all sectors of the economy are equally relevant for dual VET. Business engagement efforts should focus on sectors that have a demand for skilled workers and can offer meaningful workplace learning opportunities. Examples may include manufacturing, construction, agriculture, tourism, ICT, or renewable energy, depending on the country’s economic structure and labour market needs.

The objective is not to engage the entire economy, but to identify and work with sectors where skills development can contribute to productivity, competitiveness, and employment creation.

In many developing and emerging economies, the informal economy plays a major role in skills development. Large numbers of young people acquire occupational skills through informal apprenticeships and on-the-job learning in small enterprises, workshops, farms, and family businesses.

Rather than creating entirely new systems, dual VET initiatives can often build on these existing practices and strengthen them through improved training quality, certification mechanisms, and connections to formal education and labour market institutions.

Formal enterprises

  • Generally more structured training environments
  • Often better positioned to participate in curriculum development, certification, and governance
  • May offer larger numbers of training places

Informal enterprises

  • Frequently provide the majority of workplace learning opportunities
  • Often require simple and flexible engagement models
  • Can be important entry points for reaching disadvantaged groups and local labour markets

Companies differ significantly in their capacity, incentives, and experience with training. A differentiated approach is therefore essential.

Micro and small enterprises (MSEs)

  • Limited financial and human resources
  • Often lack dedicated trainers or HR departments
  • Face higher relative training costs
  • May struggle to supervise apprentices while maintaining production

Despite these challenges, micro and small enterprises constitute the backbone of many economies and provide a large share of employment and training opportunities.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

  • Often have strong demand for skilled workers
  • Can benefit significantly from collective training arrangements and support services
  • Frequently require intermediary organizations to coordinate training activities and reduce administrative burdens

Large companies

  • Often possess greater training capacities and technical expertise
  • May have dedicated training centres or in-house training departments
  • Can act as pioneers, champions, and demonstration models for other enterprises

Beyond company size, enterprises also differ in their experience with vocational training.

First-time training companies

These companies often require support to:

  • Understand their role in dual VET
  • Assess costs and benefits
  • Develop training plans
  • Train workplace supervisors
  • Navigate administrative requirements

Experienced training companies

These companies may:

  • Already have established training processes
  • Mentor smaller enterprises
  • Contribute to curriculum development and assessment systems
  • Play leadership roles in sector-wide training initiatives

Recognizing these differences helps ensure that support measures respond to actual needs rather than assuming that all companies face the same challenges.

Engaging the business sector is not only about working directly with companies. Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) and other intermediary organisations are often critical partners for the sustainable institutionalisation of dual VET.

Examples include:

  • Chambers of commerce and industry
  • Employers’ associations
  • Sector associations
  • Craft and artisan guilds
  • Industry clusters
  • Training networks

Their primary value goes far beyond simply promoting dual VET to companies. They serve as trusted intermediaries between the worlds of education and business by:

  • Building trust among stakeholders
  • Translating educational concepts into business language
  • Representing business interests in policy dialogue
  • Coordinating networks of enterprises
  • Supporting quality assurance
  • Organising examinations and certification processes
  • Collecting labour market intelligence and skills demand information
  • Facilitating collective training arrangements for SMEs

In many countries, these meso-level organisations are the key institutional link that enables business engagement at scale.

Key DC dVET Resources

DC dVET Working Tool for Policy Dialogue and Project Design

The working tool supports donors, project collaborators and other players in the field of development cooperation in their policy dialogue and in the implementation of VET projects and programs.  It reveals how the relevance, quality and attractiveness of VET can be increased by an (enhanced) engagement of the business sector. It includes two parts:

  • Part 1 (Study) offers a theoretical overview on where, how and under what conditions the private sector can be involved.
  • Part 2 (Questionnaire) enables you to transfer key elements of the study to your work. It facilitates systematic analysis, planning and further development of your VET project and ideas.

The study and questionnaire are available in English, French, German and Spanish.

Engagement of business membership organisations and intermediaries

Business Membership Organisations (BMOs) and other meso-level intermediaries play a crucial role in bringing stakeholders together and creating the conditions for sustainable collaboration. Chambers of commerce, employers’ associations, sector associations, guilds, and training networks help translate the needs of businesses into training requirements, coordinate collective action, support quality assurance, represent business interests, and build trust between the public and private sectors. They are often the key institutional actors that enable business participation at scale, particularly for SMEs.

Learn more about the role of BMOs and intermediary organisations on our dedicated subpage and explore our practical guide. The guide provides concrete recommendations and tools for chambers, employers’ organisations, and other intermediary institutions seeking to strengthen their role in the design, implementation, and governance of dual VET systems. It is available in English, French and Spanish.

Practical guide for private sector involvement in dual VET in West Africa

This guide offers a simple and effective method for developing dual vocational training in West Africa. It helps identify key stakeholders, strengthen partnerships with companies, enhance their capacities, and ensure sustainable financing. The objective: to create training programs rooted in market realities and to promote the professional integration of young people.

Evidence and Economics

Many practitioners struggle to convince firms. Find below resources that engage with the economic aspects of private sector engagement, such as arguments to convince them, the cost-benefit considerations of investing in training, and how training costs can be shared between different actors.

Learning from DC dVET Webinars

Business Sector Engagement in Dual VET: Webinar & Expert Consultation (19 & 26 September 2023)

Engaging with the business sector remains one of the recurring challenges in dual VET. During the Webinar Prof. Dr. D. Euler provided an input on the essential needs for effective cooperation with the business sector and on particularly relevant framework conditions. The webinar also included insights into the Skills for Jobs (S4J) Project in Albania. The webinar was followed by an expert consultation where participants could ask questions to Prof. Euler around their own challenges and discuss them with him and the other participants (the expert consultation is not documented).

Input by Prof. Dr. Dieter Euler

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Interview with F. Dragoshi & E. Çaro (S4J Project, Albania)

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Micro-, Small- & Medium-Sized Enterprises and Dual VET in Sub-Saharan Africa (10 March 2021)

This presentation provides an overview on the characteristics of TVET in Sub-Saharan Africa. It explains the differences between informal and formal apprenticeships and the rationale and options for upgrading informal apprenticeships.

Matching VET with Labor Market Needs – How to Assess the Skills Demand (14 May 2020)

For developing and transition countries, skills matching and anticipation tends to be a particularly complex task, amongst others due to missing labour market information and weaknesses in institutional cooperation. The presentation provides an overview on different methodologies and tools which can be used to assess the skills demand in a given context, as well as the characteristics and suitability of the different approaches.

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Expert Input by Dr. Anthony Gewer

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Expert Input by A. Molz (ILO Office for Eastern and Central Europe)

Business sector engagement vs. Private Sector Engagement (PSE)

The terms Business Sector Engagement and Private Sector Engagement (PSE) are often used interchangeably, but they refer to different concepts and objectives in development cooperation. Understanding this distinction is important when designing and implementing dual VET initiatives.

Engaging the Business Sector in Dual VET

Business Sector Engagement in dual VET focuses on the role that companies and their representative organisations play in skills development and training systems. The objective is to strengthen the connection between the world of work and the world of learning by involving businesses in the design, delivery, and governance of vocational education and training.

Focus

  • Skills development
  • Apprenticeships
  • Workplace learning
  • Employer participation in VET systems

Main actors

  • Companies and enterprises
  • Business membership organizations

Private Sector Engagement (PSE)

Private Sector Engagement (PSE), by contrast, is a broader development cooperation approach that seeks to engage private companies as partners in achieving development outcomes. PSE often involves donor-company partnerships, shared-value business models, investment mobilisation, and other forms of collaboration linked to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The OECD and the Donor Committee for Enterprise Development (DCED) define PSE broadly as engaging the private sector to achieve development results through the active participation of businesses.

Focus

  • Donor-company partnerships
  • Shared-value and inclusive business projects
  • Investment mobilisation
  • SDG partnerships and development impact

Main actors

  • Development agencies and donors
  • Domestic and international companies
  • Investors and financial institutions
  • Public-private partnership platforms

Examples

Further Resources & Important Links