The research network for vocational education and training (VENET) was launched at ECER '96 in Sevilla, Spain in an open meeting of VET researchers. The initiative was taken by Martin Mulder, the representative of the Dutch Educational Research Assciation at the EERA Council. Since ECER 1997 in Frankfurt the VETNET network has organised regular network programmes with several parallel sessions and special events.


Between 1996 and 2000 the VETNET network was run by an executive board (appointed by the EERA council) with Martin Mulder (then University of Twente) as convenor and Johanna Lasonen (University of Jyväskylä) and Sabine Manning (WIFO) as co-convenors.
Since ECER 2000 the VETNET network has had an elected board that consists of the Convenor and 10 Board members (Co-vonvenors).
During the period 2000-2003 the convenor of VETNET was Toni Griffiths.
Since 2003 Ludger Deitmer (University of Bremen, ITB) has been the convenor of VETNET.


During  the last ten years the VETNET programme at ECER has become the main European forum for presenting research in vocational education and training (VET). The community of European VET research brings together researchers with different disiplinary backgrounds and methodological interests. The scope of VET research covers different models of vocational education and training and workplace learning. VETNET covers also  research in career development, organisational learning and web-supported learning.
Since the beginning the VETNET programme has served as a plaform for dissemination of the results of EU-funded European cooperation projects and networks. At the same time the VETNET network has been actively promoting wider European participation and integration of new participants in European cooperation.

VETNET has developed