Pan-European qualifications move closer

The European Parliament has formally adopted the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), clearing the way for a system that will make it easier to understand and compare qualifications from one country to another, and it is hoped, promote mobility of workers.

The system will be based on a reference framework that relates different countries’ qualifications systems to each other. This will act as a translation device to make the level and standing of qualifications more understandable to employers, individuals and institutions, allowing workers and students to use their qualifications in other countries.

To make the EQF work across different national systems, its levels are based on learning outcomes, in other words, what someone with a particular qualification knows, understands and is able to do – rather than on inputs, such as the length of a course or the type of institution.

The aim is to make qualifications from different countries easier to compare. For example, a company in Ireland may hesitate to recruit a job applicant from Hungary because it doesn’t understand his or her qualifications. But once the EQF is implemented, Hungarian certificates would carry an EQF reference, for example, EQF level 5.

Many countries are in the process of establishing a National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in response to the EQF. It is expected that qualifications frameworks will increasingly be seen as ways of connecting different parts of a country’s education system, allowing people to pursue a variety of learning pathways, moving more freely between different types of institutions such as universities or vocational training institutes, or by gaining recognition for their non-formal learning.

There is a target of 2010 for member states to relate their qualifications systems to the EQF. From 2012, all new qualifications should bear a reference to the EQF.

An Advisory Group, comprising the governments and social partners including employers and trades unions, will coordinate the processes required to relate national systems to the EQF.