Erasmus+ to fund new projects in Vocational Education and Training involving Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine
On 19 October, the European Commission and the European Education and Culture Executive Agency announced the results of the 2026 Calls for Proposals of Capacity Building in the field of Vocational Education and Training.
With a total available budget of more than €28 million, 59 projects were recommended for funding out of 1,112 submitted proposals.
Among the selected initiatives, seven projects involve 22 Ukrainian organisations working in the field of VET.
These new projects focus on modernising vocational education and training systems through educational recovery for displaced learners, cybersecurity and AI skills integration, strengthening VET systems in transfemoral prosthetic implantation and rehabilitation, teaching workforce readiness for Ukraine’s recovery, alignment with employer requirements, and technological innovations for quality assurance of vocational education and training.
Project teams from Ukraine will implement activities together with 33 partners from 15 countries representing among others Armenia, Georgia, and Moldova.
For example, Armenian institutions will participate in the ‘BACK2VET: Restoring Interrupted VET Pathways for Displaced Learners’ project. The initiative addresses a critical gap in VET systems affected by displacement: how to ensure that Ukrainian and Armenian learners residing in the EU can continue the practical parts of their original vocational pathway without losing progression, recognition, or certification opportunities. The project focuses on practical VET continuity in four technical fields: electricians, mechanics, carpenters, and food-industry-related pathways.
Another winning project – ‘I Rise Up Again’– strengthens VET systems in transfemoral prosthetics implantation and rehabilitation between EU Member States (Italy, Romania), countries associated to the programme (Türkiye), and Neighbourhood East countries (Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia), responding to war‑related ‘amputation crises’ and long‑standing gaps in specialised training and services.
The ‘Armenian Revival of Crafts through Advanced technologies’ project, coordinated by Latvia, involves three Armenian educational institutions and the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport. The initiative aims to integrate digital fabrication technologies into traditional craft education, directly linking cultural heritage with emerging digital production systems.
‘Strengthening cybersecurity skills in the VET systems in Moldova and Ukraine’, coordinated by Greece, will tackle key structural weaknesses regarding cybersecurity in both countries’ VET systems. These include outdated curricula, shortages of qualified trainers, limited practical-training ability as a result of the lack of specialised laboratories, especially in secondary VET schools, not strong links between VET providers, market actors and public agencies, and gender underrepresentation.
Moldova also has a country-targeted initiative. The ‘Work-based learning accelerator MD’ project focuses on capacity building towards a modern work-based learning oriented VET system in Moldova.
EU grants for such projects amount up to €500,000 per project and cover international and local missions – travel and subsistence costs, staff cost, equipment costs and subcontracting as well as costs for dissemination of information, publishing or translation.
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