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 OIC Ten-year Programme of Action also noted the profound importance of economic and social cooperation in strengthening solidarity among the Islamic countries, maximizing the advantages and averting the pitfalls of globalization, considering the eradication of illiteracy, diseases and epidemics, and the fight to alleviate poverty in the Islamic World as urgent, strategic objectives requiring them to mobilize all necessary resources. It also emphasized the need to make optimal use of the human, natural and economic resources of the Muslim world in order to promote existing cooperation.

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.