Vocational education and training policy development for young adults in the European union: a thematic analysis of the EU trend of convergence towards integration, drawn from the brief presentation of the VET policies adopted in three member states

In this article the author looks at the extent to which European Union (EU) suggestions for Vocational Education and Training (VET) policy development for young people, are translated in the context of convergence, as the result of an international trend for adaptation of common policies towards integration. The article traces issues that describe the relation of VET to convergence and integration, and questions the feasibility of socioeconomic integration in the EU, by presenting a short thematic analysis of issues and trends in three Member States, that have conformed to a large extent to the EU policy framework for VET. It is suggested that integration, as a multidimensional process, relates more to the pressure exerted by adults on young people to conform to predetermined standards, whether in working or social life, and argues that if there is to be a change, there will be a need for new methods of integration into a society which is not fixed and immutable, but in fact in the process of upheaval and of being constantly restructured.