Overview of Cedefop main activities on Quality assurance in TVET: events, news, publications

Quality assurance in VET is a key priority at EU level to promote increased transparency of VET policy developments between Member States, thereby enhancing mutual trust, mobility of workers and learners, and lifelong learning. In cooperation with the European Commission, Cedefop supports the implementation of the EQARF Recommendation at EU, national and sectoral level.Quality assurance in VET is a key priority at EU level to promote increased transparency of VET policy developments between Member States, thereby enhancing mutual trust, mobility of workers and learners, and lifelong learning. In cooperation with the European Commission, Cedefop supports the implementation of the EQARF Recommendation at EU, national and sectoral level.

Quality in VET is a key priority at EU level to ‘promote mutual trust, transparency and recognition of competences and qualifications, and thereby establishing a basis for increasing mobility and facilitating access to lifelong learning’.

European cooperation on quality in VET started in 2001 with the European forum on quality in VET (jointly set up by the Commission and Cedefop) and the establishment of the technical working group on quality in VET (TWG) which functioned until mid 2005. Subsequent European cooperation led to the definition of common principles, guidelines and tools for quality development which resulted in the establishment of a common quality assurance framework for VET (CQAF) endorsed by the Council in 2004. In October 2005, the TWG was replaced by ENQA VET, the European platform financed through the Leonardo da Vinci programme to ease exchange of experiences, common learning, consensus building and support to further developing the CQAF model in 2008 and 2009.

In April 2008, the European Commission presented a draft recommendation on the establishment of a European quality assurance reference framework for VET (EQARF) adopted by the European Parliament and the Council in June 2009.

For all these years Cedefop provided the European Commission with technical and scientific support for implementing its policy.

Cedefop supports implementation of the EQARF Recommendation through: a) advice and expertise to the EQARF steering committee to be set up by the European Commission; b) analysis of national and sectoral approaches to quality; and c) support to European cooperation between experts and stakeholders on quality in VET. Cedefop also runs a virtual community on quality assurance in VET which addresses quality experts and education/VET stakeholders to disseminate the work done at EU level, to gather and share information, and to promote the exchange of ideas and best practices.