The 4th NQF-in Project Meeting took place on May 4-5, 2017 in Marseille, at the Centre for Research on Qualifications (Céreq). Its aim was to discuss the country reports, models of including non-formal education qualifications to National Qualifications Framework, as well as to plan the project conference in Prague scheduled for November 2017.
The meeting in France was organised within the Erasmus+ project “Developing organisational and financial models for including non-formal sector qualifications in National Qualifications Frameworks” that is led by the Educational Research Institute from Poland.
Representatives of all seven project Partners participated in the meeting: Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland (represented by Dr. Anne Murphy), Educational Authority, Hungary (Mr. Zoltán Loboda), University of Split, Croatia (Ms. Ivana Carev, Mr. Mile Dželalija), Centre for Research on Qualifications (Céreq), France (represented by Mr. Matteo Sgarzi, Ms. Josiane Paddeu, Mr. Patrick Veneau and Mr. Alexandre Meliva), National Institute for Education, Czech Republic (Mr. Jan Brůha and Ms. Viola Horská) and leader of the project: Educational Research Institute (IBE), Poland (Mr. Horacy Dębowski, Ms. Agata Poczmańska). The representative of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Partnership, Scotland (Mr. Anthony O'Reilly) participated in the meeting on-line.
The meeting was opened by Mr. Alberto Lopez, Director of Céreq. He welcomed all project partners and expressed his appreciation for the importance of the work that has been done so far within the NQF-in project. Then Horacy Dębowski from IBE warmly welcomed all present and explained the aims of the meeting.
The main part of the meeting was a discussion on the country reports, as well as the organisational and financial models for including qualifications in NQFs. Country reports provide relevant information about the rationale of the qualifications system in each country, procedures and the institutional set-up in the particular system. The main topic of the country reports is the approach toward qualifications awarded outside the formal educational system, which are neither provided in school nor regulated by the state. These reports will be a valuable source of information for decision-makers, researchers, stakeholders and all other persons interested in this field.
Each project partner prepared a draft country report, which was followed by an internal review process. The meeting in Marseille provided the opportunity to share the gathered comments and opinions. The next step is the external review. The project’s silent partners are invited to provide this review, among them, the German Federal Institute of VET (BIBB), Dutch National Agency NCP NLQF and Luxembourg Ministry of Education.
Horacy Dębowski presented a first approach toward developing the models and their key elements. The models of the solutions will be a synthesis of information included in the country reports and will refer to, among others: (a) the types of qualifications that are included in the NQFs, (b) the institutional arrangements – their pros and cons depending on the goals set for the NQF, and the broad institutional context, (c) cost intensity – how cost intensive are the systemic solutions envisaged by the model, (d) recommendations on its financing.
The participants discussed also the forthcoming project event – the international conference in Prague (November 9, 2017).
