Greater trust in each other's education and training systems through quality assurance
European education specialists want to develop a strategy focusing on quality assurance and increased transparency between the different sub-sectors of education. These were the issues at the core of the “Quality assurance and transparency as interface between Vocational Education and Training, Schools and Higher Education to enhance mobility and to support easier pathways to lifelong learning” conference, which took place in Bruges on 6 December.
The conference had three main objectives:
- to provide a platform for the representatives of the various sub-sectors of education and training from the countries of the European Union, candidate Member States and the EFTA countries;
- to exchange information and experiences about the various quality assurance systems at all levels of education;
- to exchange ideas on how we can achieve greater trust in each other's education and training systems.
In his opening speech, Mr Truszczynski – the Director-General of the Education and Culture DG of the European Commission – announced that more than ever we have to focus on the development of competence in a lifelong learning perspective. In this respect it is important that the qualifications obtained by people from different institutions and in different countries should be equivalent and can therefore also be used as proof of competence in other institutions and countries.
Keynote speakerMs Barbara Kelly – Director of the “Further Education and Training Awards Council (FETAC)” from Ireland – in her presentation titled “Towards a quality assured and integrated lifelong learning implementation strategy”, confirmed the need to have more and better structured cooperation between and across the various sub-sectors in education and training.
However, all this presupposes mutual trust between countries and institutions, and for such trust to exist, the quality in the different education and training systems must be assured.
In the course of the conference, two European instruments for quality assurance were extensively examined: the “Standards and Guidelines for quality assurance in higher education” and the EQAVET for vocational education and training. Both instruments are intended to:
- assure quality both for learners and 'clients' (including employers);
- render account to investors including the government and the business community;
- improve quality within the institutions.
Conclusions from the five workshops at the conference:
- Greater attention will have to be devoted in the quality assurance systems to the learning outcomes used to develop curricula.
- Increasingly, creative solutions will have to be sought to take into account the interests of the various stakeholders with the planning of training and with the evaluation of the quality of such training.
- A culture of quality is required within educational establishments. The stakeholders (management, teachers and students) are best placed to make contributions to the improvement of quality.
- External quality assurance and accreditation are the ideal means to connect the various sub-sectors of education. The accreditation agencies for the sub-sectors should be connected via networks for an optimal exchange of experiences.
- The quality criteria for workplace learning are not very different from the criteria in formal education. Hence, workplace learning should be able to be fitted in at any level of education.
High priority actions that should be taken according to participants in the conference include:
- The development of coordinated national qualification frameworks that can be used for the validation of formal and non-formal education;
- The provision of national frameworks for quality assurance in vocational education and training;
- The development of lifelong guidance and counselling.
Minister Pascal Smet presented the conference conclusions to his colleagues in the course of the Informal Council of Ministers for Education held in Bruges on 7 December.
