Centres of Vocational Excellence for the Next Generation of SME Successors and Entrepreneurs
Owners preparing to hand over a company can turn to advisory services, tax specialists and chambers.
No vocational qualification prepares the people who would take those companies on.
VET4Succession is a proposal to close that gap. It would establish a network of eight regional Centres of Vocational Excellence, one in each participating country, and build a qualification pathway for business successors at EQF levels 4, 5 and 6.
Twenty-two organisations in eight member states have prepared the proposal. Hanse-Parlament in Hamburg would coordinate the work over 48 months.
What the network would build
A succession pathway at three levels
An entry route at EQF 4, a main route at EQF 5, and two routes at EQF 6: a dual business transfer specialisation of 20 to 30 ECTS, and business transfer modules inside master craftsperson training. All routes rest on work-based learning in real companies.
Two diagnostic instruments
The SME Transfer Readiness Check looks at the company and the owner. The SME Successor Readiness Profile looks at the learner. Together they produce an individual Business Transfer Learning Plan.
The two instruments assess what a learner still needs to learn. They do not value a company, they give no legal or tax advice, and they do not decide who is suitable to take a company on.
A new professional profile
The Business Transfer Learning Facilitator would be prepared through a train-the-trainer programme running in rotating nodes.
Company mentors
Experienced owners and managers prepared to accompany a successor through the handover itself.
Eight Business Transfer Labs
One in each node, where the curricula are tested with real learners and real companies before they are recommended for wider use.
The proposal in figures
Values as submitted on 3 September 2026.
| Regional CoVE nodes | 8 |
|---|---|
| Beneficiaries | 22 |
| Countries | 8 |
| Duration | 48 months |
| Learners at EQF 4 and 5 | at least 375 |
| Learners at EQF 6 | at least 115 |
| Facilitators trained | 30 |
| Company mentors prepared | 40 to 50 |
| SMEs advised | at least 180 |
| Business Transfer Labs | 8 |
| Regional education strategies | 8 |
Three ways in
For enterprises
If you are preparing a handover, or if a member of your workforce could take the company on, the labs in your node would work with both of you. The readiness check identifies what the successor still needs to learn, not whether the company is worth buying.
For VET providers and schools
The curricula, the diagnostic instruments and the facilitator programme would be published as open educational resources. Providers outside the consortium would be able to adopt them.
For policy makers and education authorities
Each node would produce a regional education strategy for business transfer. The proposal follows Commission Recommendation C(2026) 3799 of 22 June 2026, which asks member states to support business transfer through training, mentoring and education.
Eight nodes, one Regional Captain each
- Germany
- Poland
- Lithuania
- Hungary
- Austria
- Cyprus
- Spain
- France