Quality Assurance in VET

Jürgen Horschinegg

Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture

March 24th 2011, Bled, Slovenia

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Outline

• History of QA in VET – the last 10 years

• EQAVET

• The Reference Framework

• The Quality Cycle

• Essentials of QA

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The last ten years

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The European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) Network is composed of

• two representatives per Member State

• the Social Partners

• the European Commission (chairs the network)

• Cedefop and ETF (co-opted to the network)

• The Secretariat (contracted by the Commission)

www.eqavet.eu

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The Reference Framework

• The European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for VET (the Framework) provides an European-wide frame to help Member States and stakeholders to document, develop, monitor, evaluate and improve the effectiveness of their VET provision and quality management practices.

• It can be applied at both system and VET provider level and can therefore help to document the efficiency of VET provision. It is adaptable to the different national systems and it can be used in accordance with national legislation and practice.

• The framework comprises a quality assurance and improvement cycle (planning, implementation, evaluation/ assessment and review/revision) based on a selection of quality criteria, descriptors and indicators. The aim is not to introduce new standards, but to support Member States’ efforts, whilst preserving the diversity of their approaches.

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Timeline

• 18th June 2009: Recommendation on the establishment of the Reference Framework has been signed by the European Parliament and the Council

• June 2011: Member states should have devised an approach aimed at improving quality assurance at national level

• June 2013: the Commission will report to the European Parliament and the Council on the results of actions taken at Member State level.

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The Essentials of QA/QM:

What are the critical points?

• Systematic implementation of the whole cycle• From Check to Act • Don‘t overrate data (you measure what you measure)• Follow up!• Transparency is a prerequisite and a consequence of QM• Involvement of all parties• Clear responsibilities• Ownership of the management AND bottom up• You cannot force quality : possible drivers for implementation

Key issues for implementation

• Process is at least as important as content• „Slow motion“ not „fast forward“ • Reduce external evaluation as much as possible, but make best use

of results (Start „soft touch“, i.e. Peer Review) • Strategy has to fit the system:– Are there subsystems? What are the key drivers? – Use working structures/channels – Variance needed but also (broad) direction – Leadership (at all levels) and school management are key – How to enable people? (VET-CERT)

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What does this mean for QALLL?or: a possible

contribution of QALLL to EQAVET

• Find, map and analyse projects/good practice dealing with the „critical points“ and/or the „cycle“

• Make the essence of the analysis available (maybe in a similar form as the „building blocks“ in EQAVET)

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Thank you!

JÜRGEN HORSCHINEGG

Austrian Federal Ministry for Education, Arts and Culture

Head of Dep. II/7: Strategy development in VET and II/8a: Resarch&Development, Quality

Minoritenplatz 5A 1014 Viennatel.: ++43 1 531 20 4424fax.: ++43 1 531 20 814424email: juergen.horschinegg@bmukk.gv.at