In a meeting at the headquarters of the European Federation for Welding (EWF) in Lisbon on 27 January, international and welding sector experts discussed the latest vocational education and training (VET) developments and reflected on future scenarios in relation to the European tools and their use in the sector.

Cedefop Head of Department for VET Systems and Qualifications Loukas Zahilas presented and discussed the latest EU developments and Cedefop work in the areas of the European qualifications framework and national qualifications frameworks, quality assurance, ECVET and the shift to learning outcomes.

Welders have a long tradition in working with European tools and are currently in the process of transforming their qualifications profiles to a learning outcomes format. Their work has been presented in various Cedefop and European Commission events.

The EWF and the International Institute for Welding (IIW) operate in 45 countries and have awarded hundreds of thousands of diplomas/certificates with a high labour market value.

The EWF/IIW system specifies detailed requirements for learning and assessing several different welding functions at different levels. The ‘guidelines’ specify threshold requirements for access, curricula, learning provision and assessment in some detail, all of which have been agreed at European and, then, international level. The main effort is to move these guidelines to learning-outcomes logic.