Consultancy on the development of a National Qualifications Framework in the Autonomous Palestinian Territories
Melanie Hoppe, Dr. Georg Hanf
Translated by: Martin Kelsey (Global Sprachteam)
In October 2009, the Minister of Labour of the Autonomous Palestinian Territories and the person responsible for the vocational education and training project being carried out in Palestine by giz (German Agency for International Cooperation) visited the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) and the Federal Institute for Vocational Education and Training (BIBB). The visit resulted in consultations between BIBB and giz in August 2010, which in turn led to the agreement of work packages for process consultancy regarding a National Palestinian Qualifications Framework (NQF).
A total of three workshops with representatives of the Ministry of Education and Labour were staged in the period from February to June 2011. These events were used to present the basic theoretical principles of a qualifications framework and to work together to draw up the necessary process stages for its development, consultation procedure and implementation. The establishment and mandating of the following groups may be viewed as an essential step within this process.
- A steering group made up of the two General Directors of the Ministry of Education and Labour. The political agreement and legitimation of the project for the development of the qualifications framework is being navigated by this group.
- A working group comprising around 30 representatives from the two ministries. In this function, they are actively involved in the structuring of the NQF and are responsible for representing the interests of their institutions.
- An Editorial Group, which is made up of selected members of the working group and which has the task of authoring the consultation document based on the discussions and results of the working group.
The first fundamental decision taken by the working group concerned the scope of the qualifications framework. Although the initial impetus for the development of the qualifications framework came from vocational education and training within the portfolio of the Ministry of Labour, the decision was to opt for a cross-sectoral qualifications framework and thus lay an essential foundation for the future structuring of the educational system. The second important decision was in respect of the number of levels and learning outcome categories. The decision to go with eight levels and with knowledge, skills and competence did not come as much of a surprise. The final decision which needed to be made was regarding the structure of a consultation paper.
An initial draft of the consultation document is available. This will be discussed and further developed by representatives from the working group together with decision-makers from other sectors in further workshops. The plan is for the public consultation process to begin in the fourth quarter of 2011.
