European Qualifications Framework
The EQF is a common European reference framework acting as a translation device to make qualifications acquired within the different education and training systems in Europe more readable and understandable. It has two principal aims: to promote citizens' mobility between countries and sectors, and to facilitate their lifelong learning. The European Qualifications Framework was developed in the years 2004-2007 and formally adopted as a Recommendation by the European Parliament and Council on 23 April 2008.
The EQF will relate different countries' national qualifications systems and frameworks together around a common European reference: the eight EQF reference levels. The eight EQF levels are defined in terms of learning outcomes: what a learner knows, understands and is able to do after a learning experience, as opposed to learning inputs such as the length of a learning experience or the type of institution where the learning takes place etc. This enables the EQF to connect the different national systems and to have a bridging function between systems, covering all qualifications awarded within the general education, higher education and vocational training systems, as well as those awarded by sector based organisations.
Thanks to its overarching, integrative perspective and the learning outcomes approach, the EQF should:
facilitate the transparency and comparability of qualifications and therefore their portability and transfer across countries, systems and sectors.
make it easier for citizens to gain access to qualifications either though formal learning opportunities and/or fair validation of non-formal and informal learning, and therefore to achieve progression through qualification levels across systems and countries.
Implementing the EQF
The Recommendation sets 2010 as the recommended target date for countries to relate their national qualifications levels to the EQF, and 2012 for countries to ensure that individual qualification certificates bear a reference to the appropriate EQF level. These target dates are close and implementation is under way at European and national level.
An EQF Advisory Group has been set up to ensure the overall coherence and transparency of the implementation of the EQF. It consists of representatives of all 32 Education and Training 2010 countries, the social partners, the European Higher Education Area (Council of Europe) and other stakeholders.
In its first meetings, the EQF AG has agreed a set of criteria and procedures for the referencing of national qualifications levels to the EQF. The EQF AG is dealing – including in particular through specific sub-groups – with such issues as quality assurance related to the EQF, sectoral qualifications and frameworks and is providing guidance materials and tools e.g. manuals facilitating the implementation of the EQF.
In each country, an EQF National Coordination Point (NCP) has been designated to be the single national contact for all issues related to the EQF.
Supporting the EQF
Projects
To test and develop the EQF, before its formal adoption, DG EAC and the Executive Agency launched Calls for Proposals in 2006 and 2007 resulting in 12 and 11 projects respectively. A third Call was launched in 2008 and led to the selection of 10 projects. By then the EQF legal basis had been adopted and implementation had started, so projects were no longer meant to test the concept of the EQF, but rather to support its implementation and development.
The Compendia of all selected projects (from 2006 to 2008) are available at http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/llp/general_information/key_activity_1_en.html
In November 2008, Cedefop organised a seminar that brought together most of the 2006 and 2007 projects. The background papers, the presentations given and the conclusions drawn are available at http://www.cedefop.europa.eu/index.asp?section=3&read=4010/
Events
Specific events have been organised to support the implementationof the EQF.
Stakeholders from across Europe were set to discuss how to best implement the European Qualification Framework at the conference Implementing EQF in Brussels on 3-4 June 2008. The conference addressed a number of topics relevant to implementation - notably the requirements to national self-certification and quality assurance, the relation between validation of non-formal and informal learning and the EQF, the role of sectoral frameworks, the role of the NQFs in implementing the EQF and how EQF and NQFs could bridge different sub-systems of education. Relevant documentation is available at http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/eqf/conf_en.html
Given the huge interest in the EQF in countries outside the EU, the European Training Foundation (ETF) in cooperation with the Commission and Cedefop, organised the conference entitled Linking to a globalised world, held in Brussels on 29-30 January 2009. Participants from all over the world took part in this event, in particular addressing the potential added value of National Qualifications Frameworks and the implications of a shift to learning outcomes in education and training policies and practises. Conference documents are available in the site of the ETF: http://www.etf.europa.eu.
Relevant activities
Since 2006, within the Education and Training 2010 programme, the Commission and Cedefop are coordinating the activity of a cluster on the recognition of learning outcomes. Most of the work of this cluster takes place through peer learning activities (PLA) organised in one of the 26 countries participating in the cluster, focusing on the development of national qualifications frameworks (PLAs in Budapest 2007, Cracovia 2008, London 2008) and the validation of non-formal and informal learning (PLAs in Paris 2007, Brussels 2007, Reykjavik 2008). Documents resulting frome these activities can be found at http://kslll.net.
Link:
http://ec.europa.eu/education/lifelong-learning-policy/doc44_en.htm