Vocational education and training (the Copenhagen Process)
Being able to complete part of your education in another EU country should be a matter of course for anyone wishing to do so. Equally, it should be natural that any knowledge and skills acquired be recognised when moving between different qualification systems and forms of learning. European cooperation is crucial if these goals are to be achieved. It is important to create tools that make it possible to navigate between the different education systems and to compare different education programmes with each other. To do this, systems and tools must be simple for people to understand.
Within the framework of the Copenhagen Process, EU countries are cooperating on several specific instruments aimed at facilitating mobility in Europe. These instruments are being developed on behalf of the ministers responsible for vocational education and training in 34 European countries and the social partners at European level. The participating countries are the EU Member States, EEA/EFTA countries (Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein) and the candidate countries Croatia, Macedonia and Turkey. This cooperation has, among other things, resulted in agreements on quality, guidance and validation, on the establishment of a European Qualifications Framework (EQF), the development of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) and the development of the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF). These agreements mean that participating countries commit to continuing their national implementation efforts.
A European reference framework for qualifications for lifelong learning (the European Qualifications Framework, EQF)
In August 2008, the European Council and Parliament approved the establishment of a European reference framework for qualifications. It is a tool to enable qualification levels (course certificates, professional certificates, etc.) to be compared across different European countries. The purpose of EQF is to make it easier to compare educational and professional qualifications by linking examination and educational levels in different European countries to a common framework. In doing so, increased mobility is made easier and stimulated. Greater awareness of the knowledge, skills and abilities of a person with a specific qualification increases his or her opportunities to work and study in other countries.
The European reference framework is divided into eight levels, where level one is the lowest and level eight the highest (equivalent to a doctoral degree). In the next stage of the process, each Member State is to decide how the country's qualifications are to be linked to EQF. The reference framework describes the expected results of learning, learning outcomes', i.e., what a person knows, understands and is able to do, not what study programme, etc. a person has completed. The aim is that in the future it will be simpler to acknowledge learning in other environments, such as in the workplace, and that the national systems will make it easier to determine the level of both formal study programmes and of knowledge gained in working life, for example.
In Sweden, the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education has been tasked with developing a proposal for a Swedish framework for qualifications (National Qualifications Framework, NQF). The agency has submitted its proposal to the Government. The decision to adopt a national framework is expected to be taken in 2011. Swedish qualifications will be set at the most appropriate level in the national framework, and this will in turn be linked to the European reference framework, EQF. The Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education is the national coordinating point for the European reference framework for lifelong learning, the European Qualification Framework (EQF).
European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)
In June 2009, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament decided to establish a European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). The purpose of ECVET is to make it easier for individuals to study and work in different countries. Today, it can be difficult for those who have studied or worked abroad to have the results of their learning acknowledged in their home country. ECVET will facilitate the acknowledgement of the outcomes of such learning.
The idea is that from 2012, ECVET will gradually be applied to qualifications within vocational education and training at all levels. ECVET is a technical framework that will facilitate the transfer, acknowledgement and accumulation of assessed learning outcomes for those who wish to receive a certificate of education. Under the ECVET model, a qualification is divided into modules with associated points that can be transferred and accumulated with the help of supplementary documentation, such as learning agreements, grade documentation and ECVET guidance.
In order to develop ECVET, a network and a user group was formed at European level in 2010. Sweden is represented in the network by a representative from the Ministry of Education and Research, a representative from the National Agency for Education and a representative from the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education. The representatives from the Ministry of Education and Research and the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education are also part of the user group.
European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQARF)
In June 2009, the Council of the European Union and the European Parliament decided to establish the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQARF). The reference framework is intended to improve the quality of vocational education and training and to increase transparency and consistency in the development of vocational education and training policy between Member States. The idea is that EQARF will support quality in the introduction of EQF, ECVET and the common European principles for identification and validation of informal and formal learning.
EQARF will assure quality and improve vocational education and training through a process consisting of planning, implementation, evaluation/assessment and review/revision of the study programme. The intention is that by June 2011 at the latest the Member States will have developed a strategy to improve the quality assurance systems wherever necessary.
In order to develop EQARF, a network was formed at European level in 2010, among other things. Sweden is represented in the network by a representative from the Ministry of Education and Research, a representative from the Swedish Schools Inspectorate as well as an observer' from the National Agency for Education. The representatives from the Ministry and the Swedish National Agency for Higher Vocational Education are also part of the user group. The Swedish Schools Inspectorate has also been appointed as the national reference point in Sweden (Quality Assurance National Reference Point, QANRP).
