Putting the European Qualifications Framework into practice

Stakeholders from national bodies, social partners and industry met up this week to consider how best to implement the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), which aims to ensure that qualifications are recognised across the EU.

The aim of the EQF is to act as a translation device to make qualifications more understandable to employers, individuals and institutions, so that workers and learners can use their qualifications in other countries.

Ján Figel, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, who spoke at the event, said, “The EQF is an important step in increasing the transparency of the credentials that learners and workers present when they are looking for a job or a place of study anywhere in Europe. The proposal to set the EQF up is in place; now it is the job of the Member States’ authorities to implement it.”

By 2012, all new certificates and qualifications issued in the EU should specify one of the eight Reference Levels in the EQF system. The eight levels are based on learning outcomes, that is, what a learner knows, understands and is able to do, rather than learning inputs such as the length of a learning experience, the type of institution.

This first EQF implementation conference focused on how to best link national qualifications levels to the European framework, how to make them work across different educational sectors and how to validate non-formal and informal learning.