Centres of Excellence

Part of a European network of CoVEs.

CoVE Sales is one of a growing network of European Centres of Vocational Excellence funded under the Erasmus+ programme. CoVEs link vocational education and training to local skills ecosystems and to wider European policy on skills, growth and competitiveness.

What’s distinctive about CoVE Sales: it’s the first centre in this network dedicated to sales as a profession.

CoVEs are designed to work at three levels: local, sectoral and European. Locally, they connect schools, VET providers, universities and employers around a shared curriculum. Sectorally, they convene the people who shape an entire profession. Europe-wide, they create the kind of cross-border infrastructure — taxonomies, open resources, credentials — that makes a profession portable.

Our work

Inside CoVE Sales, the work plan is organised into six connected areas, delivered by partners across the consortium. Together they form one integrated programme — from defining the future sales profession to rebuilding the regional ecosystems that develop it.

01

European taxonomy of emerging sales professions

ERCULES maps how sales roles are changing across Europe. The project will describe 10 emerging sales-related professional profiles and develop a shared European Sales Roles and Skills Taxonomy. This will help education providers, companies and policy stakeholders speak more clearly about the skills future sales professionals need.

02

Six modular training pathways

Based on the taxonomy, CoVE Sales develops six modular and customisable curricula. These training pathways will support learners, workers and jobseekers with relevant sales skills and make it easier for education providers to adapt content to local labour market needs.

03

AI-powered didactics for sales learning

The project explores how AI can strengthen sales education and teacher development. Through learning factories, educators will test new approaches to coaching, simulation, feedback and digital sales learning.

04

AI Sales Applied Innovation Labs

ERCULES creates applied innovation labs where education providers, researchers and companies can test how AI and digital tools are changing sales work. The labs will generate practical use cases, prototypes and guidance for future sales education.

05

Women in Sales Network

CoVE Sales works to make sales careers more attractive, visible and accessible for women. The Women in Sales initiative will create a European community, share role models and support discussions about barriers, opportunities and inclusion in sales careers.

06

Skills ecosystems for the future of sales

The CoVEs build stronger local and European skills ecosystems by connecting education providers, companies, chambers, professional organisations and policy stakeholders. The goal is to make sales education more responsive to labour market changes and more useful in practice.

What you can use

Outputs are open as they release.

Each area publishes its own outputs — papers, taxonomies, teaching materials, recordings, tools. They all surface in the Resources library as soon as they’re ready.