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The European credit system for vocational education and training
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The European credit system for vocational education and training

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This note seeks to look back at the development and implementation process of the European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). It takes take stock of its main achievements and how they are taken forward in the 2020 Council Recommendation on vocational education and training (VET) for sustainable competitiveness, social fairness and resilence and pave the way for future EU initiatives. The key objective of ECVET, as intended in the 2009 ECVET Recommendation, was to facilitate the transfer, recognition and accumulation of assessed learning outcomes of individuals who are aiming to achieve a qualification. ECVET could therefore: - help transfer and recognise learning that has taken place during a stay abroad (geographical mobility); and - support lifelong learning, by allowing people to transfer and accumulate learning outcomes achieved in different contexts within their country to build up recognised qualifications, update or upgrade them. ECVET was designed as a European credit transfer system that should be flexible enough to accommodate the characteristic features of European VET systems. In order to achieve this, ECVET was based on common principles concerning the design fo qualifications and arrangements for credit transfer and accumulation. One of these key principles is the structuring of qualifications into units of learning outcomes. As an initiative, ECVET was closely linked to a number of other instruments and initiatives aimed at increasing transparency, supporting mutual trust and recognition in the area of education and training. The implementation of the ECVET Recommendation between 2009 and 2020 was supported by a number of mechanisms and activities at European and national levels, to ensure quality and overall coherence in this process. In addition to the ECVET support structure set up at European level, this was accompanied by funding provided to implement centralised and decentralised ECVET projects, as well as funding provided to set up National teams of ECVET experts. In its eleven years of implementation between 2009 and 2020, the ECVET principles were used to support quality assurance in VET qualifications design as well as in the development and delivery of mobility schemes in many countries. However, while the implementation of ECVET can be considered a success in several respects, these eleven years have not been a journey without its challenges. A 2019 study on EU VET instruments ECVET and European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQAVET) found that ECVET made a significant contribution to the implementation of a learning outcomes approach and to a higher level of quality of mobility experiences (better understanding of competences gained, sharing experiences about methods, management competences). In some countries, ECVET contributed to reforms of national VET systems. However, ECVET had limited success with the use of credit points to transfer assessed learning outcomes . The 2020 VET Council Recommendation repealed formally the ECVET and EQAVET Recommendations. While this means the end of ECVET as an initiative and its related implementation mechanisms, the main objectives and principles of ECVET have been enshrined in the VET Council Recommendation and will continue to be a priority in European VET policy. Members of the ECVET Users’ Group, as well as coordinators of the national teams of ECVET experts, met for the last time on 27 January 2021 for an EU meeting on the achievements of ECVET and the way forward.
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ISBN 978-92-76-38414-4
DOI 10.2767/298513
Catalogusnummer KE-02-21-718-EN-N
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ISSN ISBN 978-92-76-38414-4 DOI 10.2767/298513 Catalogusnummer KE-02-21-718-EN-N
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