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EU policy and strategy context for developing qualifications

and competences

Thessaloniki 13 October 2008Loukas Zahilas, Project Manager

Qualifications and learning outcomes

Vocational education and training (VET) –EU policy agenda

Member States and social partners: • committed themselves to modernise VET systems at

Lisbon in 2000• agreed to enhance cooperation to develop VET

policies at Copenhagen in 2002• defined VET policy priorities at Maastricht in 2004 and

reaffirmed them in Helsinki in December 2006

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Cedefop is a key part of this process

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Lisbon Strategy

Bologna ProcessCopenhagen Process

Education and training in Europe

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European Qualifications Framework

The European tools and principles

The development of Common European principles and tools to enhance transparency of qualifications and facilitate cross-border mobility: a central role of Copenhagen and E&T 2010 processes

• EQF

• ECVET

• EU principles on validation of non-formal learning

• CQAF

• Europass

Are bringing in a stronger European and international dimension to the development of national VET systems.

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EU tools: purposes and advantages

• To increase transparency of qualifications

• To facilitate Lifelong Learning

• To improve access to and facilitate progression in learning

• To support cross-border mobility

EQF is setting the trend

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What is EQF about?

• The EQF is a translation grid for qualifications throughout Europe, it

supports cross-border mobility by simplifying comparison of the content

and profile of qualifications

•EQF facilitates lifelong learning; enables linking and combination of

qualifications from different institutions and sub-systems and

encompasses general, vocational and higher education and training

•Based on learning outcomes, covers the entire span of qualifications

from end of compulsory school to highest level of professional and

academic qualifications. The overarching character is critical to address

progression between VET and HE, initial and continuing training

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Tools for

citizens

•Europass•Ploteus•ECVET

National & Sectoral

Qualifications

The European Qualifications Framework

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Where do we stand?

• 23 April 2008; Formal signing of the EQF

Recommendation by the Presidents of the

European Parliament and the European

Council

• 2010; Countries invited to refer national

qualifications levels to the EQF

• 2012; Countries invited to introduce reference

to EQF in certificates and diplomas

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EQF is based on a Recommendation- therefore a voluntary process

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Focus on learning outcomes

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The focus on learning outcomes and the opening up to lifelong and lifewide learning

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Key element of the EQF: Learning outcomesLevels Knowledge Skills Competence

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Learning outcomes - what a learner knows, understands or is able to do at the end of a learning process

Supports better matching between education and training provisions and labour market needs

Facilitates validation of non-formal and informal learning

Increases transparency of qualifications

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Each of the 8 levels described through knowledge, skills and competence

The 8 levels distinguished by

• the complexity and depth of knowledge and

understanding • the degree of necessary support or instruction• the degree of integration and independence required• the range and complexity of practise/application• the degree of transparency and dynamics of situations

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A practical example: the Europass Language Portfolio

The Europass Language Passport allows you to describe your language skills, skills that are vital for learning and working in Europe.

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European levels – self assessment grids

A1

Listening

I can understand familiar words and very basic phrases, concerning myself, my family and immediate concrete surroundings when people speak slowly and clearly

Reading

I can understand familiar names, words and very simple sentences, for example on notices and posters or in catalogues U

nd

ers

tan

din

g

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Learning outcomes and qualifications

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Learning outcomes and standards

Standards are the interface between the labour market and the education and training system as they express, in a codified way, the basic objectives pursued by users as well as providers of qualifications.

We need a common “language” in the formulation of standards, the language of competences and learning outcomes.

Standards pertaining to “inputs” cannot be easily compared. Learning outcomes on the contrary can facilitate the understanding of qualifications and enhance their legitimacy abroad.

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Learning outcomes and curricula

The curriculum can be seen as an expression, by the education and training providers, of the education-training standards and, more indirectly, of the occupation standards.

The increased emphasis on learning outcomes could potentially change curriculum development, bringing profound implications in defining, designing, organising, planning and implementing learning activities and for making systems more learner-centred.

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Learning outcomes and certification

Certification processes (assessment, validation and recognition). are critical when judging whether a person has obtained learning outcomes to a given standard.

Certification processes have been developing rapidly the last decade, not least focussing on the opening up towards non-formal and informal learning.

Of critical importance is the degree to which the certification methods used are influenced by the occupational standards and how they are specified in the education-training standards.

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Learning outcomes and quality

To achieve comparison and transfer of qualifications mutual trust is a necessity. The existence of transparent quality assurance mechanisms covering all dimensions (systems, mechanisms, standards, certification, curricula etc) is crucial for achieving this

A strong need to ensure that when learners are awarded a qualification they have really acquired the level of knowledge, skills and competence that are attributed to a certain qualification regardless of the fact where, when and how they have been assessed.

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Learning outcomes and career guidance

Diverse training delivery needs to be related to common-core elements, which will allow career guidance practitioners to create individual but integrated learning pathways to support their own career progression.

As an initial step, the learning outcomes of existing training provision can be mapped against an agreed competence framework, showing which areas of competence are addressed in which modules of training.

Preferably, such mapping should be acknowledged at a national level, using a competence framework which should be developed nationally, including customising the ‘contexts and conditions’ to both national and sectoral circumstances.

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The big challenge for the future are the individual learners. The shift to the

learning outcomes should finally manage to have a direct positive impact

to the users of education, training and learning.

We need bridges that will facilitate lifelong and lifewide learning and that will

allow:

a) the individual learners to see what they are expected to know and be

able to do at the end of a course or a study and

b) b) the employers to see what a holder of a qualification knows

and/or is able to do.

The users perspective – bridges to the future

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