Thessaloniki (GR)/Brussels (BE), November 2009 - Cedefop and the European Commission's Directorate General for Education and Culture have introduced new European tools: the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF) and the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET).
The recommendations of the European Parliament and of the Council on EQARF and ECVET, adopted on 18 June 2009, provide solutions to several issues related to coordination among EU Member States in vocational education and training (the "Copenhagen process"): the mobility of learners in Europe, quality in the provision and management of vocational education and training (VET), and helping learners create their own pathways to qualification.
ECVET and EQARF are the latest tools to be adopted through the open method of coordination, the modus operandi of the Copenhagen Process, after the success of Europass and the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning (EQF). A launching conference on these tools was held in Brussels on 17-18 November.
ECVET is intended to make it easier for individuals to transfer and accumulate learning outcomes from one qualification system to another, from one training system to another, or from one learning pathway to another, inside a country or across Member States' borders.
It will help make learning and qualification systems more open to each other (permeability) and increase compatibility between systems for general education and for vocational education and training.
EQARF is designed to help Member States promote and monitor better quality in vocational education and training - a sector that is characterized by a multiplicity of training providers and approaches. To this end, EQARF provides a "reference platform", including quality principles, reference criteria, and indicators. It helps Member States make their VET systems more accountable and more transparent by focusing on results ("outputs and outcomes").
It also encourages the adoption of a systematic approach to planning, implementing, checking, and modifying, in which self-assessment and indicators of measurable results play a critical role. Member States are invited to appoint a "national reference point" in order to provide a link between the EU and national levels and to participate in a designated European network for quality assurance.
