The OIC Strategy and Plan of Action to Strengthen Economic and Commercial Cooperation among the OIC Member Countries, which was adopted by the Seventh Islamic Summit Conference in 1994, identified "Technical Cooperation and Human Resource Development" as one of its ten areas of cooperation.

The OIC Ten-year Programme of Action to Meet the Challenges Facing the Muslim Ummah in the 21st Century, which was adopted by the Third Extraordinary Summit in December 2005, indicates that there is an urgent need for the OIC Member Countries to cooperate decisively in order to face with grave political, socio-economic, cultural and scientific challenges and to take necessary initiatives to overcome them.

The 33rd Session of the Islamic Conference of Foreign Ministers (ICFM), held in Baku, Azerbaijan in June 2006, noted the need to evolve sound approaches for the education and training of Muslim youth for the attainment of optimal cooperation and coordination among the Islamic Countries with a view to achieving the best levels of an all-embracing and just progress for all the youth of the Islamic Ummah.

The 23rd Session of the COMCEC held in Istanbul on 14-17 November 2007 took note of the proposal submitted by SESRIC on Vocational Education and Training Action Programme for the OIC Member Countries to improve the quality of vocational education and training in public and private sectors in Member Countries and supported this initiative.

The 24th Session of the COMCEC held in Istanbul on 20-24 October 2008 approved the proposed implementation mechanism of Vocational Education and Training Programme for the OIC Member Countries (OIC-VET) prepared by the SESRIC and called upon the member states to incorporate their vocational training programs into the OIC-VET Programme, thereby, generating a common OIC platform for the benefits of the OIC Member Countries in this area.

Official Launch of the Vocational Education and Training Programme for OIC Member Countries (OIC-VET) was made by H.E. Abdullah Gül, President of the Republic of Turkey and Chairman of the COMCEC, at the COMCEC Economic Summit held in Istanbul, Turkey on 9 November 2009 with the participation of the heads of states and governments of the OIC Member Countries.

The First Operational Meeting of the Programme was held with the concerned OIC institutions in the area of VET in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in April 2009 to discuss monitoring and operational aspects of the OIC-VET Programme where the participating OIC institutions showed strong support for the OIC-VET Programme. Furthermore, the First Meeting of the Monitoring and Advisory Committee (MAC) of the OIC-VET held in Izmir, Turkey, in May 2009 marked the formal process imbedded in the substantive dialogues through cooperation in initiating the OIC-VET Programme.