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National Qualifications Frameworks Developments in Europe 2019

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National Qualifications Frameworks Developments in Europe 2019 ENEN NATIONAL QUALIFICATIONS FRAMEWORKS DEVELOPMENTS IN EUROPE 2019 National qualifications frameworks developments in Europe 2019 Qualifications frameworks: transparency and added value for end users Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020 Please cite this publication as: Cedefop (2020). National qualifications frameworks developments in Europe 2019. Qualifications frameworks: transparency and added value for end users. Luxembourg: Publications Office. http://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2801/105773 A great deal of additional information on the European Union is available on the Internet. It can be accessed through the Europa server (http://europa.eu). Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, 2020 © Cedefop, 2020 Except otherwise noted, the reuse of this document is authorised under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). This means that reuse is allowed provided appropriate credit is given and any changes made are indicated. For any use or reproduction of photos or other material that is not owned by Cedefop, permission must be sought directly from the copyright holders. PRINT ISBN: 978‐92‐896‐3089‐4 doi:10.2801/978846 TI‐06‐20‐150‐EN‐C PDF ISBN: 978‐92‐896‐3090‐0 doi:10.2801/105773 TI‐06‐20‐150‐EN‐N Designed by Missing Element Prague Printed in the European Union The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop) is the European Union’s reference centre for vocational education and training, skills and qualifications. We provide information, research, analyses and evidence on vocational education and training, skills and qualifications for policy- making in the EU Member States. Cedefop was originally established in 1975 by Council Regulation (EEC) No 337/75. This decision was repealed in 2019 by Regulation (EU) 2019/128 establishing Cedefop as a Union Agency with a renewed mandate. Europe 123, Thessaloniki (Pylea), GREECE Postal address: Cedefop service post, Thermi, GREECE Tel. +30 2310490111, Fax +30 2310490020 Email: [email protected] www.cedefop.europa.eu Jürgen Siebel, Executive Director Barbara Dorn, Chair of the Management Board Foreword This booklet comes at a time when Europe is devising its plans for recovery from the economic and social crisis induced by the Covid-19 pandemic. The subsequent faster shift to the digital and green economy, and the need for many people to find new jobs in different sectors, will require large-scale upskilling and reskilling initiatives. Recent experience in working and learning remotely may encourage more citizens to look for opportunities beyond regional or national borders. With the widely accepted European and national qualifications frameworks for lifelong learning (EQF and NQFs), we have powerful tools that make it easier for people to ‘carry their skills and credentials’ with them to different contexts. Qualifications reflect a country’s specific socioeconomic, education and training and employment policy context. Even if qualifications issued in different countries bear the same title, the knowledge, skills and competences they certify may vary: this is a challenge for employers, education institutions, guidance staff and citizens in the EU. Understanding qualifications across borders has, therefore, been at the heart of European cooperation in education and training from the beginning, aiming to ease mobility for work and learning and to match skills and jobs more effectively. We are proud to say that Cedefop’s expertise in vocational education and training, the most diverse part of any education system, has helped shape a breakthrough concept: using the expected outcomes of learning rather than programme duration, for instance, to build a framework that ‘translates’ qualifications across national borders. This focus on learning outcomes has led to a ‘common language’ indicating similarities and differences in qualifications and making it easier to compare them. National and EU-level debates, prompted by countries’ work to create national frameworks linking their qualifications to their ‘corresponding’ EQF levels, have paid off. They have led to modernising VET qualifications, curricula, teaching and assessment. They have also increased awareness of the skill sets and competence levels necessary to obtain VET qualifications, not least by making the relationships of the latter to university diplomas and degrees more evident. By encompassing more and more credentials awarded outside formal education and training or through validation of non-formally and informally acquired skills, NQFs are becoming comprehensive qualifications maps. This is a major prerequisite for making seamless lifelong learning paths a reality. But this is not where the process ends. Globalisation and rapidly changing skill requirements, as those triggered and accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, and the trends we can observe in the gig economy, point to a new direction. Besides including international qualifications based on a consistent approach, countries will need to open their NQFs even further to (micro)credentials and digital badges. By including them in the NQFs they can encourage people to participate in training, as they see the value of these credentials for their lifelong learning journeys, employability and career advancement. Foreword 5 So far, NQFs have helped strengthen transparency and trust in qualifications across different countries and education and training systems, which is crucial if we want to create a European education and training area. Employers’ use of NQFs, however, has been limited. This suggests not enough awareness of their potential to support workforce planning, recruitment, and employee development. People’s formal qualifications may not always play a decisive role in these contexts but the actual skills and competences referenced by their credentials do, whether traditional methods or algorithms are used to match people to jobs. NQFs, related databases and certificate supplements need to be promoted in the business world, including qualifications and (micro)credentials awarded by the industry itself. As our analyses demonstrate, NQFs for lifelong learning are more than just technical tools. The debates that their creation triggered have brought together a variety of actors from very different worlds, who would normally not have an opportunity to communicate with one another. They have developed into platforms for reform. Maintaining these platforms, reflecting on qualifications and skills policies regionally, nationally and at EU-level will be crucial, as NQFs will need regularly reviewing to remain up to date. NQF implementors will also need to be closely involved in the national skills strategies that the European Commission, with the European skills agenda, is promoting; these will help shape and create more agile, forward-looking, flexible and permeable qualification and education and training systems. In this booklet, which complements our publications series on NQF devel- opments, we have summarised and illustrated the state of play of the 43 frame- works created to date in the EU, EFTA, candidate and potential countries and the UK. We are happy to see that our conceptual contributions and accompanying analyses to support these developments have helped achieve this progress. Jürgen Siebel Loukas Zahilas Cedefop Executive Head of department for Director VET systems and institutions Contents Foreword .................................................................................................................................................4 Introduction ...........................................................................................................................................10 PART I Overview and main tendencies ..........................................................................................................11 National qualifications framework developments in Europe: overall progress 2019 �����������������������������12 Common characteristics of European qualifications frameworks ........................................................14 Growing awareness, use and contribution of frameworks ...................................................................16 3.1. Improved system transparency and consistency ..................................................................16 3.2. Strengthened use of learning outcomes in designing and comparing qualifications .............17 3.3. Reference point in validating non-formal and informal learning ............................................18 3.4. Cross-sectoral stakeholder engagement and coordination ...................................................19 3.5. NQFs opening to qualifications awarded outside formal education and training ..................20 3.6. Making vocational education and training at higher qualifications levels visible ....................21 3.7. Labour market visibility and use ............................................................................................21 3.8. Support to qualifications recognition across countries .........................................................22 PART II National qualifications frameworks ...................................................................................................25 EU Member States ..............................................................................................................................25 1. Austria ���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������26
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