The National Plan for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training

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Index

• Introduction
• The European Strategy on Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training
• The European Quality Assurance Framework for Vocational Education and Training
• The National Vocational Education and Training Quality Assurance Plan and the dual role of the Reference point in the preparation of the plan
• Bibliography
• Community sources

Introduction

In June 2009, the European Parliament with the Recommendation establishing a European Quality Assurance Framework for Vocational Education and Training, called on member countries to establish their own national strategies for ensuring quality in vocational education and training systems by June 2011.

Italy, consistent with European guidelines and the priorities of policy national, has the task of preparing, by June 2011, the construction of the National plan for quality assurance in vocational education and training, aimed at improving quality assurance systems at the national level and making the best use of the European framework, involving the social partners, regional and local authorities and all stakeholders, in accordance with national legislation and practice.

The European Strategy on Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training.

First, the salient stages that marked the European process of quality assurance in vocational education and training, which involved member countries and their national vocational education and training systems, are reconstructed.

The issue of Quality Assurance in vocational education and training, which cuts across the different types of educational offerings, is the subject of much attention in community reflections and interventions.

Continuous improvement of Vocational Education and Training Systems has been one of the strategic goals, defined within the Lisbon European Council of March 23 and 24, 2000 and work program Education and Training 2010, to promote the development of a knowledge society, increase employability, and improve access to lifelong learning (lifelong learning).

The Lisbon Strategy was formalized at the March 2000 Lisbon European Council with the ultimate goal of making Europe “the most competitive knowledge-based economy in the world” and “the European Union’s education and training systems a world quality benchmark by 2010”
(Barcelona European Council of March 15 and 16, 2002)
in order to reconcile social cohesion and competitiveness on the basis of the positive correlation between improving the educational levels of the population and the economic growth of countries that invest in vocational education and training.

The Barcelona European Council adopted concrete goals to improve the education and training systems of member states including improving education and training for teachers and trainers.

The Council also called on member states to take further action to improve the mastery of basic skills by teaching at least two foreign languages from an early age.

For the implementation of the Lisbon goals, the Education, Youth and Culture Council approved on November 12, 2002, a resolution on the promotion of greater European cooperation in vocational education and training, the contents of which were later incorporated and expanded by the Declaration approved in Copenhagen on November 29-30, 2002, in order to promote the quality and attractiveness of vocational education and training to give rise to what has been called the Bruges-Copenhagen Process;this process, starting with a renewed belief in greater cooperation among member states, dictated the coordinates for improving the outcomes of vocational education and training systems.

Among the strategic priorities set out in the Copenhagen Declaration was the promotion of greater cooperation among EU member states on quality assurance, with a focus on the exchange of models and methods, as well as common criteria and principles for developing quality in vocational education and training. Based on the guidelines and priorities defined in Copenhagen, the European Commission established in 2003 a Technical working group on quality in vocational education and training (Technical Working Group on Quality-.TWG) with the task of developing the Common European quality assurance framework for vocational education and training (Common Quality Assurance Framework-CQAF),which was subsequentlyapproved by the Council of the European Union on May 28,2004.

In line with the Bruges-Copenhagen process, in the Helsinki European Council Document of December 2006, member states were called upon to promote the Common European Quality Assurance Framework on Education and Training, to coordinate activities at the national and regional levels among key players in vocational education and training, and to encourage the creation of cooperative networks to enable transnational exchanges of the best practices deployed in different countries.

Given the process of strengthening cooperation among member states in the field of vocational education and training launched in Copenhagen and based on the work done by the Technical Group on Quality, the Commission also established in October 2005 a European Network for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (ENQA-VET).

The European Network, which was formed by 23 countries and social partners with the support of Cedefop and ETF, aimed to promote synergies and cooperation for quality assurance in vocational education and training among member states.

Based on the work of the European Quality Network, the Proposal for a Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council was formalized on April 9, 2008, inviting member states to use the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training on a voluntary basis.

Subsequently, in June 2009, the European Parliament approved the
European Recommendation on the establishment of a European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training
which places quality assurance and quality improvement of their respective vocational education and training systems at the center of national policies.

The Recommendation commits member countries to establish their own national strategy to ensure quality in VET systems. By June 11, 2011, all member states must prepare a Plan for the Quality of Vocational Education and Training, which follows the directions of the Recommendation. In March 2010, the European Commission presented the strategy
Europe 2020
to exit the crisis and prepare the EU economy for the next decade. Europe 2020 constitutes Europe’s new agenda and takes the place of the current Lisbon Strategy.

The Commission identifies three priorities:smart growth, sustainable growth, and inclusive growth and proposes five objectivesto revitalize the economic system and sustain growth. Concrete actions to be taken at the European and national levels include promoting smart growth by supporting knowledge, innovation, education and the digital society.

The benchmarks considered by Europe 2020 are:

• 75 percent of people between the ages of 20 and 64 must have a job
• 3 percent of the EU’s GDP must be invested in research and development
• “20/20 “climate/energy targets must be met (including a 30% increase in emissions reductions if conditions permit)
• the school dropout rate must be less than 10 percent, and at least 40 percent of young people must have a college degree or diploma
• 20 million fewer people must be at risk of poverty.

The European Quality Assurance Framework for Vocational Education and Training

In fact, the European Quality Assurance Framework highlights the need for the evaluation process to be organically embedded within the decision-making process. Otherwise, evaluation results would be useful for monitoring, but not for system development.

In addition, the European Recommendation focuses on internal to external monitoring and evaluation, which must be appropriately defined by member states to identify strengths of systems, processes and procedures and areas for improvement.

The European Recommendation on Quality in Vocational Education and Training also contains a set of 10 quality indicators related to different aspects of training action, which can be used to facilitate evaluation and quality improvement of systems:

Quality indicators are intended to support the evaluation and improvement of the quality of vocational education and training systems and/or providers in accordance with national legislation and practice and may serve as tool box thanks to which each user can choose the indicators best suited to the conditions of their specific quality assurance system.

1. Dissemination of quality assurance systems for VET providers – share of VET providers implementing quality assurance systems defined by legislation or on their own initiative – share of accredited VET providers.
2. Investment in teacher and trainer training – share of teachers and trainers participating in continuing education – amount of funds invested.
3. VET program participation rate – number of participants in VET programs by type of VET program and individual criteria
4. VET program completion rate – number of people who completed/abandoned VET programs, according to the type of – program and individual criteria.
5. Placement rate following VET programs – destination of VET learners at a given time after completion of training according to program type and individual criteria – share of learners employed at a given time after completion of a training activity, according to program type and individual criteria.
6. Workplace use of acquired skills – information on the activity performed by people who have completed a training activity, according to the type of training and individual characteristics – satisfaction rate of workers and employers in relation to the qualifications/skills acquired.
7. Unemployment rate according to individual criteria
8. Prevalence of vulnerable groups–percentage of vocational education and training participants classified as belonging to disadvantaged groups (in a given region or employment basin) by age and sex–success rate of disadvantaged groups by age and sex.
9. Mechanisms for identifying training needs in the labor market–information on mechanisms developed to identify changes in demand at various levels–evidence of their effectiveness. 10) Systems used to improve access to VET–information on existing systems at various levels–evidence of their effectiveness.

The use of benchmark indicators is not mandatory, but it is a useful reference point for comparing certain strategic aspects of the training process, such as participation levels, training success, employment rate, utilization of acquired skills, and inclusion of the disadvantaged. The list of indicators is not intended to propose new benchmarks that are mandatory for all European states, but rather to offer a tool to be used on a voluntary basis to support evaluation and quality improvement at the system and provider levels.

The National Vocational Education and Training Quality Assurance Plan and the dual role of the Reference Point in the preparation of the plan

The
Recommendation of the European Union on the establishment of a European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training
approved on June 19, 2009 commits each member state to prepare, by June 2011, a National Plan aimed at improving quality assurance systems at the national level and making the best use of the European framework, involving social partners, regional and local authorities and all stakeholders, in accordance with national legislation and practice.

The new National Accreditation System, approved following the
State-Regions Agreement of March 20, 2008,
is based on more simplified quality criteria than those provided in Ministerial Decree 166/2001.

The quality criteria under the new national accreditation system are:

• Criterion A: infrastructure and logistics resources
• Criterion B: economic and financial reliability
• Criterion C: management skills and professional resources
• Criterion D: effectiveness and efficiency
• Criterion E: Land relations.

In the new National Accreditation System, the central elements of the accreditation arrangements tend to become the results achieved marking the shift from an approach of bureaucratic ascertainment of formal requirements, mainly of a logistical and organizational nature, to an approach focused on the assessment of the results achieved by accredited entities, in terms of the learning acquired by learners at the end of the training courses and their employment outcomes.

In light of the considerations made so far, it can be reasonably assumed that the National Quality Assurance Plan will be able to take into account, as far as the area of reference of the Ministry of Labor and the Regions is concerned, the new National Accreditation System, which could be further implemented in coherence with the directions of the European Recommendation.

Author: Debora Gentilini National Reference Point for Quality Editorial Coordination: Digital Publishing Focus Isfol ISSN 1974-4986