EU stelt online hulpmiddelen beschikbaar voor waarborgen kwaliteit beroepsopleidingen (en)

Met dank overgenomen van Directoraat-generaal Onderwijs, jeugd, sport en cultuur (EAC) i, gepubliceerd op donderdag 12 mei 2011.

A new online tool offers national and regional policy makers guidance on how to approach quality assurance in vocational education and training. The aim is to make vocational education and training more attractive across Europe by ensuring that courses respond to the needs of the labour market and today's high quality standards.

The new online tool provides guidance on how to build and monitor a quality assurance system in vocational training. It is based on examples of different approaches from EU countries.

For those Member States that are building their system on a series of interdependent ‘building blocks’ the website gives clarity on what has already been achieved and what more could be done.

The tool has been developed by quality assurance experts from 33 European countries participating in the EQAVET network.

Making vocational training more attractive

More than half of all students in Europe choose to follow vocational training, which provides them with a qualification that enables them to easily get a job later. While in some EU countries vocational education and training are educational choices with a high standing, in others they suffer from the image of being dead-end paths or linked to low quality training.

Across the European Union policy-makers and education providers agree that it is important to offer high-quality vocational education and training so as to make this option attractive for students and parents. Since the middle of the 1990s expert groups have been working on joint European guidelines on quality assurance in vocational education and training.

A shared understanding across Europe of the significance of quality and quality assurance for qualifications and education and training systems in general will create mutual trust and recognition and make it easier for Europeans to move between countries.

Improving quality assurance

In 2009 the European Parliament and the Council backed the creation of a European quality assurance framework for vocational education and training (EQAVET). Under this voluntary scheme Member States have pledged to improve national quality assurance systems where appropriate, making best use of the European framework.

EQAVET is backed by a network of experts and one of the first results of this co-operation is the new online guidance tool.

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