Based on the indicator VET occupations, which estimates the share of people with vocational qualifications in employment across occupations, the Future of VET occupations indicator brings their employment outlook up to 2030. The VET occupations are evolving in time. As the concept of VET is changing, the definition of a VET occupations expands beyond its traditional meaning. This indicator tries to capture this by splitting VET occupations into three groups:

• traditional VET occupations, which focus and level of education remain mostly unchanged (such as construction workers or plant operators);
• modern vocational occupations, such as care workers or personal service workers, which tend to require either a higher level of qualification than in the past (with strongly rising share of tertiary education graduates) or require the same level of skills but in subjects outside of traditional VET areas. Finally,
• new vocational occupations require a higher level of skill and in subjects outside the scope of traditional vocational education (for example ICT technicians or health associate professionals).

In addition, the indicator compares employment outlooks of these VET occupations with those considered being non-VET, such as managers, professionals and most clerical jobs, but also those requiring lower level of skills (elementary jobs).

Note: The detailed estimates are subject to possibly large and uncertain margins of error. They should not be taken literally but suggestive of indicative trends and patterns. As a rough rule of thumb, any cell containing fewer than 10,000 people should be regarded with caution. Cells with fewer than 1,000 people should be regarded with considerable skepticism.