Development of National Qualifications Frameworks

Peer Learning Cluster or other group

Background

The second PLA on the theme of national qualifications frameworks (NQF) was hosted by the Polish Ministry of National Education.

It was building on the outcomes of the Budapest PLA and expected to provide inputs for the following PLA to be held in London.

• Types of NQFs; Stimulating involvement and commitment of national stakeholders;
• NQFs as tools to create links among education and training sub-systems;
• NQFs as means for recognition of migrants experience and qualifications.

Description

Key lessons from the PLA

• Obtain commitment from stakeholders by engaging them in a discussion, design and implementation and making them understand the wider issues and challenges;

• Formulate clear policy goals that can guide the NQF design and functions;

• Lifelong learning strategy is an important element for the NQF;

• The time-frame for design and implementation should be realistic and adequate funding needs to be made available;

The following challenges were identified:

• The full development and implementation of a NQF will require more time;
• Coordination across the different education and training sectors and bodies involved needs to be created;
• Legal regulations will be required and these also take time.

• Update the mapping of NQFs;

• Prepare a paper capturing the discussions in the cluster on the practicalities of building an NQF that also sets out the variety of objectives a NQF can serve, the different functions it can have and most importantly the added value an NQF can bring to a country.