Vocational vs University: Which Qualification Gets You Hired Faster in Europe?

The headline employment rates

In 2025, recent graduates with tertiary education had an EU-wide employment rate of 87%, according to Eurostat. Recent graduates from medium-level education - upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary - reached 77.2%. The figures cover people aged 20-34 who had left education 1 to 3 years before the survey and were no longer studying at the time.

The gap between the two groups stands at 9.8 percentage points. It has been consistent for a decade: in 2015, tertiary graduates had an employment rate of 80.4% against 69.9% for medium-level graduates. Both groups rose through 2019, dipped with the onset of COVID-19 in 2020, and recovered in the years that followed. The narrowest gap on record was 8.9 percentage points in 2018.

Methodology note: apprentices - people primarily working while also engaged in education or training - are excluded from these figures by the EU labour force survey methodology.

Vocational beats general secondary in most countries

Within medium-level education, the data draws an important distinction. Eurostat records that in most EU member states, recent graduates from vocational upper secondary or post-secondary programmes had higher employment rates than those from general upper secondary or post-secondary programmes. The data notes that programmes designed to equip students with skills and competences for a particular occupation appear to increase the likelihood of finding a job.

The EU had set a target: at least 82% of recent VET graduates aged 20-34 should be in employment by 2025. The actual EU figure came in at 80.2% - just short of the goal. Eight member states did reach the 82% mark: Germany, Denmark, the Netherlands, Czechia, Austria, Sweden, Hungary and Slovakia.

Country differences are wide

The range across EU countries is large. Germany recorded an employment rate of 91.5% for recent vocational graduates in 2025. At the lower end, Greece reached 58%, Romania 63.4% and Italy 64.9%. Each EU member state runs its own education and training system, and national labour market conditions shape these outcomes directly.

For tertiary graduates, the country picture also varies. In 2025, employment rates reached 90% or above in Estonia, Malta, Hungary, Lithuania, Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg, Poland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Sweden, Slovenia, Austria and Bulgaria. In Greece and Italy, the rate was below 80%.

The gender gap

Across all recent graduates in the EU in 2025, men had an employment rate of 84.4% against 81.5% for women - a difference of 2.9 percentage points. For VET graduates specifically, men reached 81.5% and women 78.2%, a gap of 3.3 percentage points.

This gender gap within VET has shifted over time. At its widest, in 2018, it stood at 6.4 percentage points in favour of men. By 2023 and 2024 it had narrowed to 1.7 percentage points, before widening again to 3.3 in 2025. Of the 18 EU countries for which reliable data for both sexes were available, 16 showed higher employment rates for men in VET. The largest gap in favour of men was in Lithuania at 16.0 percentage points, followed by Poland at 12.4 and Hungary at 11.2. Two countries showed higher rates for women: Finland at 5.8 percentage points and Spain at 5.6.

Eurostat notes that some of these differences may be linked to the subjects studied and differences in labour market demand for those fields.

Reading the data as a job seeker

Tertiary graduates record the highest employment rates across the EU and have done so consistently. But among those who leave education at secondary level, vocational qualifications with a direct occupational focus outperform general academic ones in most member states.

Where you plan to work matters as much as the type of qualification. A VET certificate carries very different weight in Germany than in Greece or Italy. Gender also shapes outcomes, particularly within vocational pathways, where gaps between men and women remain wide in several countries.

Source: Eurostat, Employment rates of recent graduates, data extracted June 2026.