Erasmus+ · Apr 2026 to Mar 2030
Driving Inclusion and Innovation in Vocational Excellence for SMEs
DiverseVET · Germany's national centre
Smart Leap leads the German national Centre of Vocational Excellence for Diversity.
Five national centres in Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece and Lithuania work as one Centre of Vocational Excellence for Diversity, with a partner from Belgium supporting communication.
DiverseVET creates a Centre of Vocational Excellence for Diversity with five national centres in Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece and Lithuania. It embeds diversity, equity and inclusion in vocational education and in SMEs, especially in the energy and digital sectors, and targets the barriers that limit access for women, migrants, ethnic minorities, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities and older workers. The project develops modular, accessible curricula from EQF level 3 to 7 and training pathways for roles such as inclusive HR professional, diversity auditor and DEI manager.
Smart Leap leads the German national centre, one of the five national CoVEs, and represents it in the project's Steering Committee and Quality Assurance Committee. Our team contributes to gender-sensitive, inclusive training content and mentoring models, supports the piloting of inclusive training with outreach to marginalised learners, and helps make the results visible to VET providers, SMEs and policymakers.
01The idea
Centres of Vocational Excellence bring vocational education, employers, research and public authorities together to make vocational education more attractive and better matched to the needs of the labour market. In DiverseVET, five national centres share one focus: diversity, equity and inclusion.
The centres involve public authorities, civil society and employers in curriculum co-design, outreach and policy development, through SME engagement, DEI innovation labs and awareness campaigns.
02Curricula
DiverseVET makes vocational education in green and digital pathways more inclusive through modular, learner-centred and accessible curricula. Planned outputs include a new VET course and a new VET module in each country, higher education learning units, and a transnational course on DEI, ESG, digital and transversal skills.
03Training pathways
Dedicated pathways respond to new labour market needs linked to corporate sustainability and ESG reporting.
Recruitment equity, inclusive onboarding, bias-aware performance evaluation and retention of diverse talent.
Internal and external auditors who assess workplace inclusion, compare practices and write diversity reports that lead to action.
Professionals who lead diversity, equity and inclusion strategies, linked to sustainability and ESG reporting.
Get involved
Help shape inclusive courses and modules, and take part in pilots and training.
Get in touchBring the needs of SMEs into the curricula and find out how DEI roles can support your workforce.
Get in touchCo-funded by the European Union
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the granting authority. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.