The VC is one of the eight communities set up by Cedefop to fulfil two of its missions, namely to exploit and disseminate information on VET and to provide a forum for debate and exchanges of ideas.
The VC is one of the eight communities set up by Cedefop to fulfil two of its missions, namely to exploit and disseminate information on VET and to provide a forum for debate and exchanges of ideas. The VCs are part of Cedefop's interactive website, called European Training Village (ETV).
The present VC focuses on quality in VET. It treats information on the developments in this field, mainly within the Member States and at national and European levels. This is the reason that information on managing VET through quality in the rest of the world is although welcomed, scarce.
Apart from Cedefop's own studies, two are the main sources of information: the Member States on one hand, and the European Institutions with the European Commission occupying the central position, on the other hand. This is due to the fact that the European Commission and the Directorate General Education and Culture (DG EAC) are in charge of promoting VET in the European Union, through the implementation of the European policies in this field as defined in the EU documents and programmes. Besides, DG EAC seats in Cedefop's Governing Board and assures the Centre's budget.
Over the last six years, Cedefop provided DG EAC with technical and scientific support for implementing its programmes on Quality in VET. The first one was called European Forum on Quality in VET with a two-years mandate (2001-2002). The second one, the Technical Working Group on Quality in VET (TWG) was set up in the context of the Copenhagen Declaration for a two-years period (2003-2004) which extended to 2005 also. In October 2005, a major development took place, namely the setting up of the European Network on Quality in VET (ENQA-VET). Members of the VC will find information on the work within the Network mainly, whereas the work realised under the European Forum and the TWG is stored within the website on Quality Assurance in VET on the ETV: Quality Assurance in VET. Subsequently, the content areas addressed in this VC regard the main topics developed within this process.
These topics aim at reinforcing the central policy objective to render VET a vital component of the 2000 Lisbon Council's agenda to make by 2010 Europe the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world, capable of sustaining growth and producing more and better jobs as well as creating greater social cohesion.
- In particular, the topics addressed in the Virtual Community focus on the exchange of models and methods on:
- The development and use of Quality standards and norms in VET with particular emphasis on output/outcome standards and targets
- The development and adoption of Quality criteria in VET
- The development and use of Quality indicators in VET
- The development and adoption of self-evaluation approaches as a support mechanism to assure Quality in VET and the elaboration of a self-assessment guide for VET providers
- The identification of tools and systems used for better matching the demands of the labour market and the training and competences offered in view of increasing the employability at local, regional, sector or national levels
- The identification, creation and/or strengthening of links between the Quality assurance approaches in VET and those in Higher Education under the overall perspective of the European Qualification Framework.
Members will also find information on the Quality strategies developed within enterprises and sectors, with a special interest on the small and medium firms.
All the above is to be consulted in the "Documentation" folder of the VC.
The Virtual Community serves also the communication needs of the members of the ENQA-VET which is actually consisting of the officially nominated representatives of 23 countries plus the representatives of the European social partners, UNICE and ETUC. This is the reason it has a special section devoted to them which is not accessible to the rest of the members.
A VC can not contain everything even at the restricted level of the quality in VET. This is the reason we have created a special section with "Links" to several electronic addresses where members can find useful related information and be kept informed of the latest developments.
A VC is not a library and it is much the outcome of the interactions between its members. As animator of the present VC, I would like to urge members to post by themselves or to send to me information on their activities, needs and news and I shall insert it on their behalf. The quality dimension of education and VET in all their forms and all levels is a constantly evolving field of experimentation and research.
