On Wednesday, 29th November 2023, the first thematic conference "DIGITAL AND GREEN DON'T FALL FROM THE SKY" took place in Ljubljana, Slovenia. This conference is part of the project Modernisation of secondary vocational education and training, including apprenticeship, renewal of higher education study programmes and creation of digitally supported learning places 2022-2026, which is led by the Slovenian Centre for Vocational Education and Training within the framework of the Recovery and Resilience Plan (RRP). The project aims to modernise vocational education and training (VET) in a way that strengthens competences for the digital and green transition, makes VET more flexible, resilient and responsive to the needs of the economy and society, and facilitates the transition from education to the labour market.

The keynote speech was given by Dr Darjo Felda, Minister of Education and Training:

"Almost two-thirds of the Slovenian student generation is enrolled in vocational education and training, which is one of the highest proportions of young people among EU countries. In order to maintain the attractiveness of VET for young people and to ensure that a high proportion of young people remain enrolled in this form of education, it is essential that we continuously update and modernise the system. This will ensure that young people are adequately trained for the challenges of the modern labour market. This is also the aim of the Modernisation of Secondary Vocational Education and Training project, which is Slovenia's way of implementing the Council of the European Union's Recommendation of November 2020 on VET for sustainable competitiveness, social justice and resilience. All of this will be implemented in the project, where various activities will address current social and technological developments: digitalisation, decarbonisation, circular economy, renewable energy, sustainability, as well as active citizenship, higher literacy, numeracy and financial literacy, and the strengthening of general competences".

Dr Agnė Kudarauskienė, Deputy Minister of Education, Science and Sport of Lithuania, was invited to share her experiences and the process of reforming vocational and professional education in Lithuania:

"In my presentation, I wanted to present the latest changes and initiatives in vocational education and training in Lithuania, which meets the needs of the labour market and is attractive to young people and adults. We are constantly monitoring the needs of employers and seeing rapid changes in the labour market as companies transform their business in the light of digital and green transformation, and we are planning our reforms and initiatives in this direction. At the same time, we are working to make vocational education and training the first choice. We are also trying to raise the profile of vocational education among all stakeholders, as its potential strengthens the country's economy".

Helena Žnidarič, project manager, gave some pointers on digital and green in VET and provided essential information on the progress of the project. The conference also featured presentations by experts Dr Gregor Torkar, Dr Marko Radovan and Mag. Tomaž Blatnik, who addressed the issues of integrating digital and green competences in VET. In the second part of the conference, parallel workshops were held where, in addition to the integration of digital and green competences in educational programmes, special attention was paid to the discussion of the proposal for the baselines for the preparation of educational programmes for lower and upper secondary vocational education and training.