Unlocking the Potential of Migrants
Cross-country Analysis
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Among the millions of asylum seekers who recently arrived in OECD countries, the majority are young people who may be able to take advantage of vocational education and training (VET) opportunities to help them enter skilled employment. This report provides advice to governments and other stakeholders who are seeking to use VET to promote integration, in particular for young humanitarian migrants. While the study draws particularly on policy and practice observed in Germany, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland, it also highlights other international practices.
The report focuses on the main channels through which migrants succeed in VET. It is essential that migrants are fully informed about the opportunities VET provision offers and that they have access to high quality preparatory programmes enabling access to upper-secondary VET. Once in such provision, targeted support should help them to complete VET programmes successfully. OECD countries are putting in place innovative measures to achieve better outcomes for both migrants and for economies as a whole. Ultimately this report argues that VET systems can become stronger, more flexible and more inclusive, when working better for all students, including those with diverse and vulnerable backgrounds.
Getting in: Enabling easier access to upper-secondary vocational education and training
This chapter presents what vocational educational training and training (VET) pathways are available for young humanitarian migrants and what barriers are faced by those migrants when entering substantive upper‑secondary VET, notably apprenticeships. Barriers are faced by entry requirements that are difficult to attain in a short period time for newly arrived and effectiveness of preparatory measures and financial barriers. For work-based VET in particular, difficulties in connecting to employers and lack of social networks are addressed as well as employer discrimination when securing an apprenticeship. The chapter then lays out how countries and their VET systems can respond to such barriers to facilitate the entry of those migrants across OECD countries.
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