Recognizing foreign acquired VET qualifications: Potential to empower and challenge skill formation eco-systems in countries of origin

The recognition of foreign vocational qualifications (RFQ) is a crucial labor market institution, fostering mobility, flexibility, and lifelong learning while enabling effective skills signaling and screening. RFQ is particularly significant for countries with elaborate vocational education and training (VET) systems grappling with skill mismatches due to demographic decline and increased academization due to the rise of the knowledge economy. RFQ has emerged as a critical tool in such contexts, helping to address mid-level skill shortages while safeguarding occupational protectionism and standards. However, the impact of RFQ extends beyond the countries where qualifications are recognized; it also influences countries of origin, where mid-skilled workers seek to have their credentials acknowledged for labour migration purposes. Given the rising prominence of RFQ as a labor market institution and the relatively limited scholarly attention it has received compared to higher education (e.g. Bologna processes), our paper seeks to understand how and why RFQ policies and practices in destination countries shape the skill ecosystem in countries of origin. We focus our empirical analysis on the relationship between Germany, a nation with an elaborate, collectively-driven VET system and an occupational labour market in high demand for individuals with VET credentials, and Kosovo, a country with a strong diaspora and positive migration inflows to Germany. However, in contrast to Germany’s VET system, Kosovo's VET system is characterized by a predominantly school-based, centralized, and state-driven system, and complex historical challenges stemming from communist rule, conflict, and instability since gaining independence in 2008. We thus specifically investigate how the skill eco-system has evolved due to new RFQ policies and practices in Germany and the underlying politics explaining why the Kosovar skill eco-system has transformed. The empirical analysis, with a particular emphasis on the health and construction sectors, draws on 11 interview transcripts with experts and stakeholders within the Kosovar VET system, along with grey and secondary literature. The case study reveals that Germany's policies and practices in facilitating RFQ have led to the emergence of new RFQ-driven VET programmes and transformed stakeholder landscapes in Kosovo. This includes a vocationalisation of the Kosovar skill-ecosystem oriented towards the German labour market, such as a rise in dualized VET programmes in occupational profiles in high demand in Germany, increased private and non-formal provision of VET aligned to German occupational standards, and greater enrollments of youth opting for VET programmes due to prospective migration possibilities. The political factors enabling this transformation include Germany's strong structural power, both economically and in terms of foreign aid, as well as a political elite benefiting from these transformations due to decreased internal pressures resulting from remittances and lower youth unemployment. The findings challenge the methodological nationalism prevalent in much VET scholarship, advocating for a new research agenda that considers the geography of skills development beyond national borders.