Qualifications

Much of the knowledge and competence individuals acquire throughout their lives is left out of their diplomas, certificates, and titles. Nonetheless, these documents must reflect the individual's knowledge and skills accurately; they must prove that these skills correspond to the standards required by the labour market; and they must be clearly understood by all users - individuals, employers and education systems - across the single labour market of the EU.

To make qualifications comparable is one of the tasks of the European and national qualification frameworks. Their role is to show the relationships between all qualifications, regardless of how they are acquired. The principle of such frameworks has become widely accepted throughout Europe: using the learning outcomes approach enshrined in the European Qualifications Framework (EQF).

Next year, the Centre will explore qualifications further by examining

• how curricula based on the "learning outcomes" approach affect teaching and learning (report due in 2010);
• how qualifications can best link education and the labour market: the quest for a common language;
• the relationship between the Directive on professional qualifications (2005/36/EC) and the EQF;
• how companies use validation methods for skills development;
• the continued development of skills forecasting;
• coherence between the various European tools (EQF; the European Credit System for vocational training - ECVET, Europass, validation, and guidance and counselling); and
• the need to reduce barriers between higher education and vocational education and training (links between the Copenhagen and Bologna processes).

Sharing the costs

Cedefop has further published a new report and held a conference on the theme "Sharing the costs of vocational education and training: An analysis of schemes in the newer EU Member States". The report shows that both overall investment and participation in training can increase if there are well designed financing schemes that combine public and private funds for vocational education and training (VET).

It is the first to map and examine a wide range of cost-sharing training schemes in these countries. Despite the proliferation of cost-sharing schemes - especially around the time of accession to the EU - the twelve newer Member States had - until now - paid little attention to monitoring and evaluation.

The report further provides evidence and arguments on what works and what doesn't and how the situation can be improved - both in terms of the schemes themselves and of evaluation methods. At present, almost all cost-sharing mechanisms used in the new Member States score relatively low in equity - that is, most of them do not offer equal opportunities to all qualification levels. The report therefore recommends that more attention be paid to ensuring equal opportunity of access in order to increase efficiency.