Theoretical overview of ECVET

1. Theoretical overview of ECVET Sabine Tritscher-Archan Institut für Bildungsforschung der Wirtschaft 17 January 2008

2. Overview • Background • Aims and Pinciples • Definition and Usage • Key Components of ECVET

3. Background • Great diversity of VET landscape • Lisbon Strategy 2000: …making the EU the most competitive and dynamic economic area in the world by the year 2010… • Copenhagen Process • ECVET: European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training • Increase of transparency and mobility

4. Aims and Principles • ECVET supports and promotes transnational mobility between qualifications systems. • It contributes to permeability between learning systems.  Lifelong Learning • Implementation is voluntary. • ECVET competent institutions play a key role.

5. Definition and Usage (1/2) • ECVET = credit system • Credit = expresses the validity of a learner’s achieved learning outcomes for the purpose of transfer and accumulation • Example: • Austrian VET students goes to France for three months during his VET programme (“learner’s mobility”) • His learning outcomes are assessed in France. • Credit is transferred to Austria, i.e. learning outcomes are validated and recognised in Austria. • Student accumulates credits to achieve full qualification.

6. Definition and Usage (2/2) • Prerequisites for credit transfer: transparency, quality assurance and mutual trust • Transparency is achieved through • Common structure in the description of qualifications in terms of units of learning outcomes • Credit points • Partnerships • ECVET: provides a methodological framework for achieving transparency • New approach: no input criteria (learning context, learning site, length of programme, age of learner, access requirements, exit exams etc.) but focus on learning outcomes

7. Units of learning outcomes (1/3) • Units are elements of a qualification. • They contain learning outcomes that are defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competences (KSC). • Units should be described in legible and understandable terms by referring to KSC. • They should be constructed in a way that enables discrete assessment and validation of learning outcomes contained in the unit. • Units may be specific to a single qualification or common to several qualifications. • They may have a limited validity in time.

8. Units of learning outcomes (2/3)

9. Units of learning outcomes (3/3) • A unit is not to be confused with a component of a VET programme or with a curriculum. • Units are defined by the ECVET competent institutions but specifications should include • Generic title of the unit • Learning outcomes contained in the unit • ECVET credit points associated with the unit • Procedures and criteria for assessment of the learning outcomes

10. ECVET points (1/3) • ECVET points provide complementary information about qualifications and units in a numerical form. • They have no value independent of the acquired learning outcomes to which they refer. • Allocation of ECVET points: first to qualification, then to its units • Allocation convention: • 60 points allocated to learning outcomes expected to be achieved in a year of formal full time VET; on the basis of this formal learning context the total number of points is allocated to the full qualification • Allocation of points to units is based on their relative weight within the qualification

11. ECVET points (2/3)

12. ECVET points (3/3) • Relative weight of a unit of learning outcomes, with regard to the qualification, should be established according to the following criteria or a combination of these criteria: • The relative importance of the learning outcomes which constitute the unit for labour market participation, for progression to other qualification levels and for the needs of society • The complexity, the scope and the volume of learning outcomes in the unit • The effort necessary for a learner to acquire the KSC required for the unit • Allocation is made by the ECVET competent institutions • The relative weight of any given unit may vary from one qualification to another. • The successful achievement of a unit triggers the award of ECVET points to a learner, independent of the actual time required to achieve it.

13. ECVET partnerships (1/2) • Credit transfer is facilitated by establishing partnerships between competent institutions that are empowered to award qualifications or give credit for achieved learning outcomes for transfer and validation • The establishment of a partnership aims to • Provide a framework of cooperation between the partners set out in a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) through which a climate of mutual trust is established • Enable the partners to design specific a Learning Agreement for credit transfer for learners.

14. ECVET partnerships (1/2) • Memorandum of Understanding • Accept each others’ status as competent institution • Accept each others’ quality assurance, assessment, validation and recognition criteria and procedures • Agree on the comparability of qualifications concerned for the purpose of credit transfer using EQF to establish the reference level • Learning Agreement • Distinguish between “home” and “hosting” competent institution • Specify the particular conditions for a period of mobility such as the identity of the learner, the duration of the mobility period, learning outcomes expected to be achieved and the associated ECVET points.