(Slovenian) Journal of Contemporary Educational Studies, Volume 62, Issue5, pp. 36-55., 2011
National (and European) qualifications frameworks which map qualifications in a similar way accor... more National (and European) qualifications frameworks which map qualifications in a similar way according to the specification of learning outcomes and then assign them a unique position within a hierarchical system of levels have proved very attractive to policy makers. They offer the prospect of improving transparency between qualifications and aiding mobility, but as with all policies the acid test is how the policy is implemented in practice and whether the benefits outweigh the costs, particularly bearing in mind the opportunity costs of achieving the same goal by different means. As many countries now consider how to implement a National Qualifications Framework (NQF), it is perhaps instructive to look at the reasons for the policy failure of an NQF based exclusively on learning outcomes in England. Learning the particular problems to avoid may be a useful lesson for other countries to learn from the English experience when developing their own NQFs. However, the major lesson to be learned is that a focus on competence, mapping qualifications, levels and outcomes can become a distraction from the much harder goal of improving the quality of teaching and learning. Shifting attention to a developmental approach to the development of expertise may be more effective by highlighting the importance of processes of learning and the need to support the development of expansive learning environments in education, training and employment. Recognising that the development of an NQF has a limited part to play in this process, and that a 'rough guide' to equivalence will often be sufficient in mapping potential progression pathways, may be a useful starting point for this shift.
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interactions, and how it can encourage individuals to take charge of their own professional learning and development.
interactions, and how it can encourage individuals to take charge of their own professional learning and development.
training (CVT) and, more precisely, how individuals use continuing learning and engage with continuing
vocational training to develop and direct their individual careers, particularly in the context of increased
labour market flexibility and mobility. As a response to this research gap a study was commissioned in 2007 to examine continuing vocational training from the perspective of how individual careers are developing across Europe. In particular, the European Commission was seeking to get a better understanding of the different kinds of continuing
training workers engage with and the role that work itself plays in individuals’ skills and competence
development. To date, most research and surveys in this area have focused upon the take-up of formal
CVT provision and self-directed individual learning and development. In addition, the emphasis has been
mainly on learning and training in the past few months or in the last year.What was missing, however,
was some sense of how individuals integrate learning and development into their evolving careers over
a much longer period of time. The main objective of this study was therefore to develop an understanding of the different ways individual careers are unfolding over time and the implications such processes have for European policies on CVT. The study was designed to involve a desk review of qualitative material on work biographies, learning and career decision making styles in the first year, and the implementation of a small-scale international comparative survey in the second year. The desk review and feasibility study, which also included the
review of third party surveys, resulted in the generation of hypotheses that provided the basis for
developing a standardised questionnaire for survey implementation. The English questionnaire was pretested
and translated into Dutch, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish to be implemented in ten European countries. Overall, answers from 1148 respondents, of which 900 questionnaires were fully completed, were used for a descriptive statistical analysis.