Public debate on the future of work and of education and training has been raging across Europe. Globalisation, digitisation, migration, demographics and the greening economy are the challenges fuelling discussions. Unemployment, underemployment, mismatches between people's skills and available jobs, and flat or falling incomes have been undermining the cohesion and the social model of European societies. As the current framework for cooperation in vocational education and training (VET) approaches its 2020 horizon, Cedefop is now looking further ahead to stimulate the debate on European VET cooperation until 2030. The first step has been to take stock of the current features of European VET systems, to identify similarities and differences.