Against a background of social changes and economic problems in the mid-1970s, Cedefop emerged as a consensus among Member States of the then European Economic Community (EEC) over the need to improve vocational education and training (VET). Although education had been a research field since the early 1960s, the late 1960s and early 1970s saw a trend towards more focused and systematic research into VET. West Germany set up its Federal Institute for Vocational Training Research (Bundesinstitut für Berufsbildungsforschung) in 1969.