Technical and Vocational Education Qualifications in Romania in the European Context

1. Technical and Vocational Education Qualifications in Romania in the European Context Claudia Calinescu National Centre for Technical and Vocational Education and Training Development

2. Our mission • The mission of the NCTVETD is to contribute to the development of a qualitative and attractive Technical and VocationalEducation and Training (TVET), offering equal chances of personal and professional development to each student so that to make that person able to work and to continue its lifelong learning, to be able to contribute as a TVET graduate to the economic development of its community, to consolidation of the Romanian democratic society.

3. Our responsibilities • To assure both the relevance of the TVET developments in the perspective of the strategic, economic and social needs of the Romanian economy and society and the correlation between national approaches and European and international measures • To contribute to the methodological developments referring to: the educational supply planning, the development of schools’ institutional capacity, the organization and development of the teaching-learning process, the students’ training examination and certification and the TVET quality assurance • To promote social partnership for TVET development

4. Initial VET in Romania • Through formal education and training, technical and vocational education (VET), medium-and long-term oriented, part of ongoing training pathways • Through apprenticeship at the workplace, short-term oriented, depending on the needs of employers

5. Strategic Approach of the Initial Training through TVET • to serve the interests of young people and adults from the perspective of lifelong learning by increasing the attractiveness • to respond and, especially, to anticipate the needs and changes on the labor market • to provide relevant qualifications for the labor market • to integrate academic and vocational training • to allow flexible entry and exit in and from the system • to enable a quality training • to integrate school learning with workplace learning • to provide professional skills that enable mobility and labor market flexibility • to provide equal opportunities for all learners, including those with SEN

6. The current architectural context of TVET European and National Tools: • National Law of Education • National Qualifications Framework correlated with the European Qualifications Framework • The European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET) • European Reference Framework for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training • EUROPASS documents • 2020 EU Strategy • 2010 Bruges Communicate

7. The National Law of Education According to the law: • High school education is focused on developing and diversifying the skills and training of key competencies according to the route, profile, expertise and skills. • Education and training are described as being a coherent and continuous overall of learning activities and experiences during the educational and formative route. • VET consists of: vocational, technical and secondary education. • VET qualifications can be arranged for the National Register of qualifications, regularly updated, according to labor market needs as identified by strategic planning documents of the regional, county and local training offer. • National Qualifications Framework is defined as a tool for establishing qualifications, based on a set of criteria for specified levels of learning.

8. 2020 EU StrategyPriorities and targets relevant to TVET Priorities: • Knowledge-based increasing as a value generator factor • Developing skills in inclusive societies Targets: • employment rate of people aged 20-64 should increase from the current 69% to at least 75%; • early school leaving rate must fall below 10% • the share of young population to have completed tertiary education will be of at least 40%.

9. 2010 Bruges Communicate • education and training systems flexible, quality, responsive to the needs of today and tomorrow • appropriate skills/competencies to meet the needs of sectors in development and those of change and quick adapting; • introduction of green skills; • increasing international mobility and recognition of skills acquired in different learning contexts, including those at international level • a transparent structure of qualifications through the National Qualifications Framework; • involvement of social partners in education and training

10. Vision on NQF • NQF correlated with EQF, based on the consensus of the main stakeholders • EQF terminology adopted • Romania taking part in all related developments, such as: quality assurance in all education and training systems, prior learning validation, counselling and guidance, key competences, ECVET/ECTS, Europass etc. • A coherent methodological framework developed (for qualifications’ development, validation, and certification) • Responsibilities clearly defined • Legislation adapted • Institutional arrangements operational at national and sectorial level • Full involvement of the social partners in development and implementation of NQF ensured • A coherent National Qualification Framework (including IVET, CVT, HE, apprenticeship at the workplace) developed • Sustainable development

11. NQF in Romania • EQF Recommendation – a reference document for Romanian NQF • National Qualifications Autority (according to National Law of Education) • NQF based on stakeholders implication • Partnership structures • Occupational analisys (to present data on the skills, knowledge and attitudes required by people working in an occupation) • Occupational standards (include general units, key units and specific units) • Qualifications development - training standards (a document that describes learning outcomes for a qualification)

12. VET Qualifications VET training programs lead to obtaining academic and professional qualifications Professional qualifications • Learning-based • Theyare described by Units of Competences (Learning units); a unit of competences consists from a coherent set o competences/ learning outcomes • They lay the accent on key competences training • A professional qualification can be associated with one or more occupations • A professional qualification satisfies the possibility of a long term • Ensure the premises of the progress in career • They can provide Continuous Professional Training

13. VET Qualifications Based on Training Standards • Title of the learning unit (competences) • Level • Value of the credits • Learning outcomes(competences) • Performance criteria • Details on the applicability of performance criteria • Assessment Tests

14. The qualifications’ structure in IVET Key Units of LO General Units of vocational LO General Units of vocational LO Specialized Units of vocational LO Specialized Units of vocational LO Specialized Units of vocational LO Specialized Units of vocational LO Specialized Units of vocational LO Specialized Units of vocational LO Q 1 Q 2 Q 3 Q 1 Q 2 Q 3 Training Domain « commerce » Training Domain “tourism”

15. Certification in TVET Certificate of professional qualification (national) levels 1, 2, 3 and 3+ (equivalently 2, 3, 4 and 5 in EQF) • all competence units have been demonstrated • entitles practicing one or more occupations Certification Authority: Ministry of Education, Research, Youth and Sports

16. Accumulation and Transfer Credits • Provides career development and occupational mobility in the training routes in the lifelong learning perspective • IVET, CVT and HE should be based on systems compatible or at least transparent of credits allocation and transfer • Recognition / transferability of credits between different learning systems are subject of: • Ensuring consensus among all stakeholders • Common principles of quality assurance in the different learning systems

17. Quality assurance in VET • Professional training standards and curriculum • Accreditation of training providers • Self-assessment of training providers • School inspections of training providers as external monitoring and external evaluation • Semi-outsourced national examinations: the participation of employers in the certification exam committees • Monitor quality assurance during the certification exams

18. Basics of TVET curriculum • Curriculum developed on the basis of training standards • ModularCurriculum • Curriculum in local development for adaptation to local and regional qualifications relevant to the labor market • Key skills units to develop employability and interpersonal skills • Teaching methods based on student-centered learning • Teaching methods Adapted to SENstudents • Competency-based assessment and certification

19. Instead of conclusions…… Ensuring consistency of training pathways from the perspective of the learner and its relevance for labor market Improve mutual trust between the different training systems Provision by the training systems of equal opportunities to learners

20. NCTVETD headquarter in Bucharest and 12 regional offices www.tvet.ro vet@tvet.ro Tel.: 004.021.311.11.62 Fax: 004.021.312.54.98

21. Thank you for attention!