The European Quality Assurance (QA) Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) is the standard EU wide framework to support and strengthen QA mechanisms in VET provision.

The EQAVET framework is inspired by the traditional DEMING cycle (planning → implementation → checking → revising → planning → etc.).

Uses and application of the EQAVET are many and diverse, the framework maintains its relevance in all typical settings in which:

• New VET programmes/procedures are designed
• Existing VET programmes/procedures are revised and/or updated
• Well-established VET programmes/procedures are monitored and evaluated with regards to their effectiveness and the impact achieved up to that moment

A visual representation

A two-folded application dimension

The EQF is a transnational framework used to increase the comparability, transparency and international transferability of people’s qualifications at cross-national level. The EQF is currently adopted by all EU Member States and other 11 countries* and provides for a very comprehensive mapping of all possible ranks of qualifications.

Eight learning-outcomes based levels of qualifications are foreseen, with level 1 and level 8 as respectively the lowest and highest level of qualifications possible.

When designing and strategizing the content of training programmes, and learning outcomes desired, VET providers are recommended to look into the EQF and compare what is the positioning of their offer.

*Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway, Albania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Türkiye, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Kosovo and Switzerland.
 

Leanirng outcomes are defined in terms of Knowedlge, Skills and Autonomy

Source: European Union

CEDEFOP is the EU agency for the development of education and training. The agency’s official website provides for several strategic resources for VET providers across Europe.

These kind of resources goes from publication and reports, to operative online tools available for the use of professionals from the most vary themes.

Most importantly, in cooperation with the European Commission, CEDEFOPS proactively operates to give concrete application to EU Parliament & Council’s 2009 ECVET recommendation – a common EU instrument to help individuals in transfer and accumulate their learning outcomes across EU.

Online tools

EURES helps workers and job-seekers across Europe to find their ideal job, and employers to find their ideal candidates. VET providers can leverage on the EURES portal to ease the matching of demand and offer, and ease the transition into the job market of their students. More specifically, EURES’ services focus on the following:

• Matching of job vacancies and CVs on the EURES portal
• Information and guidance and other support services for workers and employers
• Access to information on living and working conditions in the EU member states, such as taxation, pensions, health insurance and social security
• Specific support services for frontier workers and employers in cross-border regions
• Support to specific groups in the context of the EURES Targeted Mobility Schemes
• Support to dynamic recruitment events through the European (Online) Job Days platform
• Information on and access to post-recruitment assistance, such as language training and support with integration in the destination country

As we saw for EURES, EUROPASS is also another resource made available by the EU to ease the transition and movement of workers and job seekers in the labour market.

EUROPASS makes available a large cluster of services and resources that people can look into to prepare for their next big step in life.

Hence, VET providers themselves need to be very proficient and familiar with the kind of scale and scope of such resources to transfer their knowledge at best to their students.

ESCO is the official EU framework for the classification of Skills, Competences and Occupations. In practical terms, ESCO is used as the official glossary to describe in details all possible professionals occupations and the kind of skills and competences associated to them and that should be detained by workers.

The objectives of this standardization is to ease the mobility of workers and job seekers across the EU while supporting at the same time a much better and more integrated international labour market.

For VET providers, the use of ESCO is strategically relevant as it contributes to better frame the kind of learning outcomes that are needed by workers to access that job opportunity

Why is ESCO needed and what is its use

Since the late beginning of the new decade, the EU has been particularly vocal of a renewed approach to education and training supported by the implementation and operationalisation of micro-credentials.

Unlike traditional training programmes (e.g., diplomas and degrees, etc) micro-credentials-based training and education initiatives works on a very specific filed of learning and the learning outcomes associated to it can be achieved over a sensibly shortened period of time.

Micro-credentials are becoming increasingly more popular in EU and at international level due to the higher degrees of flexibility they seem to guarantee and the befits of their practical use in very narrowed-focus education fields do not require extensive training programmes.

Still a new-born concept

The concept of micro-credential is still in a very early stage of development and no consensus on the very definition of micro-credential still exists.

The best reference available as of 2023 comes from UNESCO, as per which a micro-credential:

• Is a record of focused learning achievement verifying what the learner knows, understands or can do
• Includes assessment based on clearly defined standards and is awarded by a trusted provider
• Has standalone value and may also contribute to or complement other micro-credentials or macro-credentials, including through recognition of prior learning
• Meets the standards required by relevant quality assurance