The NQF-IN Project Kick-off Meeting in Warsaw
On November 24-25, 2015, the NQF-IN Project Kick-off Meeting took place in Warsaw at the Educational Research Institute. The meeting initiated implementation of the Erasmus+ project “Developing organisational and financial models for including non-formal sector qualifications in National Qualifications Frameworks”.
The main goal of the NQF-IN project is to provide evidence based support to national governments, EU agencies and key stakeholders in developing policies on including non-formal VET qualification into NQFs. This will be done by:
(1) analysing systemic solutions implemented in 7 EU countries and;
(2) developing organisational and financial models related to the inclusion of non-formal qualifications to NQFs.
Each analysed country case will include a description of:
(a) the main elements of the qualifications system and the role of the NQF;
(b) institutional arrangements – which institutions are responsible for NQF management and the quality assurance of non-formal qualifications;
(c) costs of including qualifications into the NQF, indicating who covers these costs;
(d) the strengths and weaknesses of particular systemic solutions.
Each developed model will include a description of:
(a) institutional arrangements – its pros and cons depending on the goals set for the NQF and the broad institutional context,
(b) cost intensity – how cost intensive are the systemic solutions envisaged by the model,
(c) recommendations on its financing,
(d) “conditions of success”, i.e. which conditions have to be met in order for a particular model to work effectively within a national qualifications system.
The project partners expect that better evidence based support for decision makers and stakeholders will provide more impetus and greater efficiency in NQF implementation and its opening to the non-formal sector, resulting in better VET and LLL policies within EU countries and at the EU level.
Representatives of all seven project Partners participated in the kick-off meeting: Dublin Institute of Technology, Ireland (represented by Dr. Anne Murphy), Educational Authority, Hungary (Ms. Erzsébet Szlamka and Mr. Zoltán Loboda), University of Split, Croatia (Ms. Tea Reić), Centre for Research on Qualifications (CÉREQ), France (represented by Mr. Matteo Sgarzi and Ms. Josiane Paddeu), National Institute for Education, Czech Republic (Mr. Jan Brůha), Scottish Credit and Qualifications Partnership, United Kingdom (Ms. Sheila Dunn) and leader of the project: Educational Research Institute, Poland (Dr. Agnieszka Chłoń-Domińczak, Prof. Ewa Chmielecka, Dr. Stanisław Sławiński, Mr. Horacy Dębowski, Ms. Agata Poczmańska, Ms. Barbara Przybylska, Ms. Sylwia Walicka). Additionally, the project will involve the following silent partners: German Federal Institute of VET (BIBB), Dutch National Agency NCP NLQF and Luxembourg Ministry of Education.
During the meeting, participants introduced themselves and their institution. The objectives of the project were discussed as well as the role and responsibilities of each partner within the Work Packages. Participants also discussed the project’s target groups and timetable. By the end of the first day, each participant presented an overview of their country’s qualifications: Ireland, Scotland and France as countries with developed systems of including non-formal sector qualifications in NQFs, and then Poland, the Czech Republic, Croatia and Hungary, as countries fairly new to this process or not yet having started it.
During the second day, an overview of the management processes of the project was presented together with the Monitoring and Evaluation Plan. Additionally, participants discussed the Dissemination Plan, which includes, among others, local seminars in each country, articles, two international conferences and information on websites. The next project meeting is planned for Dublin at the beginning of February 2016.
The project will last 36 months (from September 2015 to September 2018).
All information and news related to the NQF-IN project can be found at the project’s website: www.nqf-in.eu.
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