An impetus for quality assurance
Thomas Gruber
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Around 150 experts in initial and continuing vocational education and training came together in Bonn on 22 September to take part in a joint conference staged by the National Agency "Education for Europe" (NA) and the National Reference Point for Quality Assurance in Vocational Training (DEQA-VET). Numerous discussions on the status of quality assurance in vocational training in Germany were held against the background of demographic development in Europe and Germany. The main focuses of debate were on the areas of dual training and continuing vocational training. The increasingly discernable shortage of skilled workers, including on the German labour market, makes it necessary to act in conjunction with the other members of the European Union to agree on a common culture of quality assurance in vocational training. The legal foundations in this regard were put in place by the Commission and the Council of the European Union in June 2009 in the form of the EQAVET Recommendation. Notwithstanding this, the Recommendation of the European Parliament and the Council on Quality Assurance, which also dates from June 2009, describes criteria for a systematic quality assurance process and provides reference indicators which can be used to assist the planning, implementation, measurement and optimisation of national quality assurance measures rather than containing a specific quality model.
For this reason, the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) needs to be viewed as a "tool box" from which the various users select the indicators which appear to them to be of relevance to the requirements of their respective quality assurance system. The proposed indicators are intended as a guide. They supplement existing quality assurance systems rather than replacing them and can be selected and used in a way which harmonises with national circumstances. The indicators can be deployed in the fields of initial training and/or continuing vocational training depending on the relevant characteristics of the respective VET system and on the type of vocational education and training providers involved.
The aims of the event were to provide information on the current status of the application of quality assurance procedures in Germany and to engage in debate on the added value associated with the use of the European Reference Framework. One central objective is to foster the communication of all those involved in vocational training and thus assist in the creation and development of a basis of trust between the stakeholders in the member states.
