Qualifications frameworks in national and international contexts

Bryan MaguireQuality and Qualifications Ireland Conference on National Qualifications FrameworkAstana, June 8-9, 2015

Overview

• National Framework of Qualifications in Ireland• Evaluating the impact of the European Qualifications

Framework• Qualifications frameworks globally

Where are we?

Origins of Irish framework

• Rapid growth of post-compulsory education and training in the 1990s, both higher education and vocational education and training

• National debate on how to promote expansion while securing quality • Concern about lower stock of learning among older cohorts and the

need for lifelong learning • Qualifications (Education and Training) Act, 1999, to establish quality

assurance and a national framework

• “This Bill is no less than crucial to the future work of much of our education and training system. The one essential principle which informs all of its provisions is that the interests of the student must be to the fore. In order to achieve this, quality must be guaranteed and appropriate routes of progression provided.”

• “The principal aims of the Bill are, first, to establish and develop standards of knowledge, skill or competence; second, to promote the quality of further education and training and higher education and training; third, to provide a system for co-ordinating and comparing education and training awards and, fourth, to promote and maintain procedures for access, transfer and progression. “

• Minister for Education, Irish Senate, 13 March, 1999

What is the Irish NFQ?

• “The single, national and international accepted, entity through which all learning achievements may be measured and related to each other in a coherent way and which defines the relationship between all education and training awards”

• Vision for the recognition of learning

The Framework in outline

• architecture: Levels, Award-types, Named Awards

• a structure of 10 levels• level indicators• 10 level grid of indicators, defined in terms of 8 dimensions of

knowledge, know-how & skill and competence (‘sub-strands’)• Accompanied by Policies and procedures for access, transfer and

progression

EQF levels EHEA Framework (Bologna) NFQ Levels NFQ Major Award-types

1 1 Level 1 Certificate

2 Level 2 Certificate

2 3 Level 3 Certificate, Junior Certificate

3 4 Level 4 Certificate, Leaving Certificate

4 5 Level 5 Certificate, Leaving Certificate

5 Short Cycle within First Cycle 6 Advanced Certificate (FET award); Higher Certificate (HET award)

6 First Cycle 7 Ordinary Bachelors Degree

8 Honours Bachelor Degree, Higher Diploma

7 Second Cycle 9 Masters Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma

8 Third cycle 10 Doctoral Degree, Higher Doctorate

Promoting the NFQ - video

http://youtu.be/5qH2m6oQ7XI

The Framework: blueprint for change• a new concept of an ‘award’:

an award is a recognition of learning outcomes (rather than a recognition of participation in a programme or in any particular learning process)

• many new awards, new titles, new terminology• not a compendium of existing awards• not just a mapping of relationships between existing awards

• no distinction made between ‘education’ and ‘training’

• one system shared by all sectors of education and training – schools, VET, further education, higher education

Developing the Framework

• consultation, research and development, 2001-2003• National Framework of Qualifications launched in October 2003• new system of awards in higher education and training, introduced July 2004• new system of awards for Further Education and Training (VET), introduced

summer 2006• alignment of Irish framework (HE) with EHEA Bologna framework, 2006• referencing of Irish framework to EQF, June 2009• study on Implementation and Impact of the Framework, 2009

HEI response

• Technological sector• Implemented quickly – HETAC as regulator• Accepted, and ultimately welcomed, as addressing a range of issues in a

comprehensive fashion – e.g. Bologna, flexibility, curriculum reform, learner centeredness, recognition

• University sector• Slower implementation• More decentralised structures & stronger impacts from other factors• Little or no active resistance – benefits welcomed

VET sector response

• Changes in patterns of provision in response to labour market and learner demand (e.g. craft apprenticeships during construction boom)

• Loss of awarding function for some bodies • Welcome for enhanced progression opportunities to HE• Chafing at funding policy restrictions on upward drift• Major government led change in structure of provision – dissolution of

national training agency and creation of 16 local education and training boards from existing 32 existing county vocational education committees

Implementation and Impact

• Framework implementation and impact study - September 2009• Broad satisfaction with framework

• No demand for revision or abandonment - It’s a “keeper”• Growing awareness of framework but significant gaps

• Educators, policy makers, learners, employers, general public• Use as policy tool

• Planning, legislation, regulation• Use as guidance tool for learners• Use as curriculum development tool

• Very varied across sectors, institutions, fields of learning

Coherence

• Framework is used in• Quality assurance of education and training at all levels • Curriculum design and reform at all levels• Recognition of prior learning• School and adult guidance• Employer workforce development • Facilitating inbound and outbound international recognition• National Skills Strategy• Targeting public funds for retraining for employability• Professional regulation• Private and public sector job recruitment• 2011 National census

Implementation and Impact

• “The Framework underpins a deep, long-term cultural shift in teaching and learning from an inputs-based approach to an outcomes-based one. The Qualifications Authority, awarding bodies, institutions and providers should continuously support and monitor this process. The alignment of assessment processes with teaching and learning will similarly take time and requires continued attention and support by the relevant bodies.”

• Implementation and Impact Study, 2009

% HE Places Accepted by VET graduates

Fig. 1.1 % HE Places Accepted by FE Applicants

2.7%

7.4%

9.9%

0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

2005 2006 2007

Evaluation summary

“Considering the stage of implementation of the EQF Recommendation, evidence of its outcomes and impact on national education and training systems in participating countries, on the use of learning outcomes and validation of non-formal and informal learning has been scarce so far. This means that the implementation needs to progress further before this impact becomes visible.”

Evaluation of the Implementation of the EQF Recommendation, Oct 2013

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

Added value – early adopters

• UK, Ireland, France, Malta• Political momentum, among shareholders• Technical sharing, peer learning• Mobility – network good

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

Added value – new NQFs

• Impulse to develop NFQ• Deadlines for action• Policy learning• Structured feedback• Developmental support• Wider network benefits• Infrastructure

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

Global Inventory of Regional and National Qualifications Frameworks

• UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning(UIL )• European Training Foundation (ETF ) • European Centre for Development of Vocational Training

(Cedefop)

• Two volumes: Thematic chapters and inventory of 86 country and 7 regional frameworks

• 2nd edition, 2015

Qualification frameworks rule the world!• Over 150 countries have or are developing frameworks• Evolving understanding of role and functions of

frameworks• Growing use for recognition of non-formal and informal

learning• Challenge of populating qualifications frameworks• Support for cross-border mobility

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

QQI, an integrated agency for quality and qualifications in Ireland

EQF and the world

• EQF technical alignment project with Australia, New Zealand and Hong Kong

• QFs in the Lisbon Recognition Convention • European and Asian Recognition conventions bridging

declaration 2013• UNESCO global reference levels following the Shanghai

consensus 2012

Thank you

• www.nfq.ie

• www.qqi.ie

• bmaguire@qqi.ie