To find work or learning opportunities, people need proof of what they know and are skilled to do. And potential employers or providers of further learning need to clearly understand their knowledge, skills, and qualifications. Hence the importance of making individuals’ learning visible, regardless of the setting – formal, non-formal, informal – in which it has occurred. Skills and qualifications are a precious personal asset, and people must be able to take them with them when they change jobs, engage in further learning, or move to another region or country. Vocational education and training (VET), traditionally more closely tied to its local or national context than higher education, has been changing – and continues to do so – in response to European and global developments. Multiple European and national initiatives, policies and tools have improved the transparency, comparability, and transferability of qualifications and thus helped target barriers that prevented people from moving freely between learning and working, jobs and sectors, and between places. Over the past two decades, they have enhanced the flexibility of European education and training systems by emphasising principles like
Cedefop’s research work on qualifications and learning outcomes, its leading role in the design and implementation of the European Qualification Framework and its support of the subsequent development of national qualification frameworks across the continent have been far-reaching: they have contributed to improving transparency, comparability, and permeability of education and training, and to facilitating individual progression routes in education, training and lifelong learning. The European multilingual classification of Skills, Competences and Occupations (ESCO) is a reference instrument at European level for comparing qualifications and fostering a common understanding of their content, level and value. Today, the snowball is rolling, and all EU Member States develop national qualification frameworks, define and refine their qualifications based on learning outcomes, and look for ways to ease the mutual understanding and recognition of people’s certificates and diplomas. The possibility to go for a period of one’s studies to another European country, e.g. within the Erasmus Programme, and get it recognised back home is arguably most visible in higher education. In the field of VET, Cedefop’s and Member States’ work in this direction continues. The validation of prior learning, including in non-formal and informal settings, is a means of valuing people’s knowledge and skills and contributes to making learners’ and workers’ mobility a reality. The 2020 Council Recommendation on VET builds on these common achievements and fosters, in turn, their further development. At present, Cedefop is setting out on a comprehensive reality check: Taking a cross-national and cross-sectoral perspective, it will analyse how far countries have really come enhancing the transparency and transferability of their qualifications and making it possible for citizens to move between learning and working, between sectors and between places throughout their careers.
Stay updated on Cedefop’s work: login or register on our web portal to subscribe to Cedefop’s products (newsletter, briefing notes, publications, podcasts, events). On 28 November, Cedefop organises its 15th Brussels seminar, in cooperation with the Spanish Presidency of the Council, on Empowering individuals for better mobility – transparency and recognition of VET qualifications. This seminar will provide deeper insight into the theme of this CedefopInfo. It will take place from 10.00 to 13.00 at the Permanent Representation of Spain to the EU, Boulevard du Régent 52 in Brussels (invitation only) and also be live streamed. To join the event, please contact Cedefop’s Brussels officer. A workshop on progress made on transparency, transferability and recognition of skills will follow in February 2024. In this context, delve into the second volume of the Global Inventory of national and regional qualifications frameworks 2022 which Cedefop has just published in cooperation with the ETF, UNESCO and the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning. You can also browse Cedefop’s online tool which allows you to have a look at all national qualifications frameworks in Europe, compare them, and check them against the European qualifications framework (EQF). For more information on mobility and VET qualifications across borders, have a look at our related project pages.
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