The European Qualification frame

The European markets are growing together at an incredible speed, companies are producing on a Europe-wide basis and national politics are increasingly influenced and coordinated from Brussels. All of Europe is on the move – it is only the employees that are strangely staying put in their respective nation-states. In the European Commission’s opinion, an important reason for this is the lack of mutual recognition of vocational and educational qualifications. The proposal by the European Commission is to introduce a European Qualification Framework for lifelong learning which eliminates this lack and makes the European education and continuing education system more transparent and accessible. Those in charge of education as well as employers and employees are to be provided with a facility for better comparing qualifications by the end of 2007 at the latest.

With the Lisbon Strategy, the European Union has set itself the ambitious target of climbing its way up to being "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge based economic area in the world" by the year 2010. The prerequisite for this is the rapid exchange of knowledge at all levels of qualifications – and to date this has only been happening in dribs and drabs. Currently, only 2 per cent of European employees are working in another European country and only 1 per cent of trainees. Even only 13 per cent of students from European universities complete a part of their studies abroad.

The idea of the EQF as a multifunctional and inter-education meta-framework was formulated by the EU Education Minister in 2003 in the Maastricht Communiqué which was published as part of the labour programme "General and Vocational Education 2010". The aim was to improve the means of comparing the different vocational and educational qualifications, to create the prerequisites for people to study that have completed their vocational training and to create a credit point system for vocational education and training (ECVET).

The EQF shifts the focus towards comparing the learning results and no longer towards comparing the learning input. Therefore, the abilities of the student are important for the qualification framework - in other words what the student is capable of, regardless of the original education system in which the qualification was obtained. The traditional points of comparison such as the duration of a learning process or the type of institution are superseded in favour of a comparison of the actually acquired skills.

The EQF assumes the role of a "translation instrument" between the different education systems and encompasses general education, adult education, vocational training and continuing education and higher education. The individually obtained skills are classified into eight “Reference levels”, with each level subdivided into three sub-groups: “Knowledge”, “Skills” and “Competence”. In the area of “Knowledge”, details on theory and / or specialist knowledge are described and characterised through attributes such as general knowledge, special knowledge etc. The area of “Skills” is devoted to the student’s cognitive skills (use of logical, intuitive and creative thought) and practical skills (skilfulness and use of methods, materials, tools and instruments). The area of “Competence” is interpreted in terms of the assumption of responsibility and independence in carrying out work. Typical characterisations for this are “Working under direct instruction / independently” or “Assumption of responsibility for groups/individuals”.

The European Qualification Framework also forms the basic framework for the (still to be developed) National Qualification Framework (NQF), which is to be linked to the EQF by 2009 at the latest. The competences that are obtained as part of vocational training and continuing education or university studies are to be initially classified in the country specific qualification framework and then transferred to the EQF.

In a later process, the difference competences will be assigned credit points which are to be developed within the European credit point system (ECVET). With the aid of the reference level, it is then possible to derive the value of a qualification in another EU country. For university degrees, the system will mainly fall back on the existing credit point transfer system (ECTS). The credit points should also facilitate the recognition of vocational qualifications for admission to university studies. Those that have completed a vocational training programme and are vocationally qualified can thus avoid unnecessary double qualifications and reduce their time of study. The European Qualification Framework will increase the level of occupational mobility within Europe and thereby substantially support the goals of the Lisbon Strategy.