Effective pre-employment skills development strategies are critical in preparing individuals with relevant labor market skills and competencies. Within the context of rapidly changing skills demands, this paper documents and examines recent pre-employment skills development trends within OECD countries and reviews its main success factors. Despite the increasing focus on general and higher education, it is documented that participation in TVET systems at the upper secondary level in OECD countries has remained at approximately 50 percent of total enrollment in recent years. In response to the growing demand for general competencies and higher-level skills, there has also been an increasing trend in OECD countries to defer vocational specialization and more effectively integrate general and vocational education. Furthermore, in an effort to combat the image of TVET as a “dead-end” pathway, OECD countries are undertaking measures to improve permeability between TVET and higher education (e.g. the establishment of national qualifications frameworks). Finally, while traditional apprenticeships are declining in popularity, OECD countries are adopting new approaches of effectively integrating workplace experience in pre-employment TVET systems.