The competitive human resources are one of the essential factors for the country's economic development. The vocational education, its quality, compliance with the development trends of the national economy and labor market demand has a significant role in formation of these resources. Researches carried out in the world suggest that as a result of technological development, one fifth of the workers in the coming decades will need to develop their knowledge, skills and competences, or to completely change their field of activity. In this situation, vocational education acquires an important role in the context of the development of the national economy and labor market and requires continuous improvement of knowledge which does not necessarily require a long-term training process, but, conversely, it must be fast and qualitative in order to be able to respond effectively to changes in the labor market. The aim of the study is to define the determinants of competitive vocational education, their impact on the labor market and the development of the national economy. In order to achieve the objective of the research the tasks to analyze the vocational education system in Latvia as well as the medium and long-term forecasts of the labor market in the aspect of the national economic development are set. Generally recognized methods of research in economics as document analysis, comparison, classification, and statistical analysis are used. As a result of the research, the authors determine the factors that affect the competitiveness of vocational education and suggest the creation of a flexible vocational education system that is internationally open, widely available, quality and capable of providing demand for relevant qualification professionals in accordance with the needs of the national economy and the trends of the global education market.