EQF Recognition Directive - DQR - BQFG
Although qualifications frameworks do not themselves contain any recognition mechanism, they are able to offer basic information for individual credit transfer rights by acting as a transparency instrument. What now are the explicit correlations which exist between the Recognition Directive and qualifications frameworks, both of European and national kinds?
As early as the beginning of 2005, even before the first draft of the EQF was available, the German Confederation of Skilled Crafts (ZDH) went public with a decisive plea for a national qualifications framework (cf. ESSER et al. 2005). The Vocational Training Department at the ZDH believed that the competence orientation of the qualifications framework approach represented a suitable way of presenting the value of German qualifications in an internationally appropriate form. The plan was for this to counter the Recognition Directive being negotiated at the same time, the five-level educationally oriented classification of which aligned the German qualification of master craftsman in the craft trades to level 2, the same level as a journeyman1. For this reason, appeals were also made during the subsequent period for the national qualifications framework to be structured in a "clearly labour market oriented" manner and for it to be taken as a benchmark for a revision of the Recognition Directive (cf. SCHLEYER 2008).
At a European level, the developments of the Qualifications Framework and the Recognition Directive continued independently of each other in different Directorate Generals (Education and Culture and Internal Market). The Directive was adopted in 2005, when the EQF was still in its infancy. For this reason, it is the final version of the EQF (European Parliament and Council 2008) which contains a reference to the other document rather than the Directive of 2005. It its opening section, the Recommendation on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning states that development and recognition of knowledge, skills and competences "should facilitate transnational mobility for workers and learners" (p. 1), and goes on to say that "the objective is to create a common reference framework which should serve as a translation device between different qualifications systems and their levels" (p. 2), although: "This Recommendation is without prejudice to Directive 2005/36/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 September 2005 on the recognition of professional qualifications. Reference to the European Qualifications Framework levels on qualifications should not affect access to the labour market where professional qualifications have been recognised in accordance with Directive 2005/36/EC" (p. 2).
In the Proposal to amend the Recognition Directive (cf. European Parliament and Council 2011), consideration is now accorded to the EQF which has in the meantime been adopted. It is stated that the five levels contained within the Recognition Directive "should have neither effect upon the national education and training structures nor upon the competence of Member States in this field, including a national policy for implementing the European Qualifications Framework". The levels established for the operation of the general system should in principle no longer be used as a criterion for excluding Union citizens from the scope of Directive 2005/36/EC when this would be contrary to the principle of lifelong learning (cf. p. 17).
The "Law to improve the assessment and recognition of vocational education and training qualifications acquired abroad" (BQFG) relates in many ways to the European Recognition Directive. The European procedures are, in principle, generalised within a national context. This means that functional, formal and material equivalence between 'foreign' and German qualifications are checked and certified where necessary. The BQFG does not, however, contain any references of any kind to the German or European Qualifications Framework.
The introductory passage to the German Qualifications Framework (DQR) states that the DQR is a "national implementation of the European Qualifications Framework", assists in "achieving appropriate evaluation and comparability for German qualifications in Europe" and thus helps "promote the mobility of learners and employees between Germany and other European countries" (DQR Working Group 2011, p. 1). At the same time, it is emphasised that the DQR "should not (sic!) replace the existing system of access qualifications" (p. 4). The consequences of 'appropriate evaluation' remain excluded. This is applied to the educational system, but can also be transferred to the employment system, the terrain of the BQFG.
