Portability/transferability of learning outcomes

The project looks at European and national policy initiatives promoting transparency and transferability of learning outcomes of the past two decades (2000-20) to examine how they have supported individual citizens’ lifelong and life-wide learning. Over a period of 3 years (2021-25), the project will analyse how the diverse initiatives have increased flexibility, allowing individuals to enter, re-enter and combine education, training and learning according to their specific needs and circumstances. Potential future polices choices and their implications will also be explored through a scenario approach.

The project provides a better understanding of the role microcredentials play in supporting labour market-related and employment-relevant education, training and learning. The first phase of the project (2020-23)   offered new knowledge about the characteristics of microcredentials, their added value for individual learners and employees, as well as their impact on existing qualifications and recognition systems. The current research phase (2025-27) is looking at microcredentials emerging outside formal education and training systems, focusing on specific labour market sectors and independent initiatives of companies and professional bodies. 

The project aims to find the link between the comparison and recognition of VET qualifications and learning outcomes, clarify difficulties in this process, analyse the tools used and propose solutions. The project builds on previous Cedefop work on comparing qualifications and is closely linked to the ongoing project on the transparency and transferability of learning outcomes, as well as the projects related to the EQF and NQFs. 

National qualifications frameworks (NQFs) help to make qualifications easier to understand and compare. They can also encourage countries to rethink and reform national policy and practice on education, training and lifelong learning.  

NQFs classify qualifications by level, based on learning outcomes - that is, what the holder of a certificate or diploma is expected to know, understand, and be able to do. This classification reflects the content and profile of qualifications. The learning outcomes approach also ensures that education and training subsystems are open to one another. Thus, it allows people to move more easily between education and training institutions and sectors. Cedefop’s National qualifications frameworks (NQFs) online tool provides detailed and interactive information on national qualifications frameworks. 

The learning outcomes principle is - explicitly since 2004 - systematically promoted in the EU policy agenda for education, training and employment. The learning outcomes approach binds together important European tools developed during the last decade, notably the European Qualification Frameworks (EQF). At national level, the learning outcomes form the basis on which national qualifications frameworks  are built and is increasingly influencing the definition and writing of qualifications and curricula as well as the orientation of assessment and teaching and training.  

The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) is a common European reference framework whose purpose is to make qualifications more readable and understandable across different countries and systems. Covering qualifications at all levels and in all sub-systems of education and training, the EQF provides a comprehensive overview over qualifications in the 41 European countries currently involved in its implementation. In close cooperation with the European Commission, Cedefop provides analytical and coordination support for the implementation of the EQF and carries out a number of comparative studies and analysis on issues related to the implementation of the framework at EU, national and sectoral level.