Building resilient society: The role of VET in civil preparedness and dual-use skills

In an increasingly complex geopolitical and societal landscape, resilience and civil preparedness are becoming essential priorities across Europe. While preparedness often focuses on infrastructure, emergency services and other physical capacities, these are only as effective as the people who operate and maintain them. Strong societal resilience is therefore built from the ground up - in our communities, municipalities and through the practical skills of our workforce. Vocational education and training (VET) is uniquely positioned to contribute to this effort, equipping people with the practical skills needed for emergency response, digital infrastructure protection, technical logistics and other dual-use applications. Our vision for the session is to bring together multi-level actors to exchange experiences, highlight the importance of embedding civil preparedness in vocational education, and explore models and practices that could be replicated. A strong focus will be placed on public engagement, as we want participants to directly shape the discussion. Participants will use live card voting to test their views against the room, contribute to a real-time Slido word cloud, submit and upvote questions, and share their own experiences and initiatives.