- 2021Design
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
- 2025Implementation
Background
The Inspectorate of Education, which monitors school quality and compliance with central rules and regulations, developed an inspection framework in close collaboration with stakeholders. This framework has been in place since August 2017. In addition to its supervisory role, the inspectorate will have a more supporting role, assisting VET providers to improve education and training quality.
Description
In a 2020 letter to parliament, the education ministry announced that a new inspection framework (2021-25) will be developed. The inspectorate will further implement the principle of proportionate supervision; supervision and its intensity will depend on the quality delivered. Schools are expected to jointly develop and commit to more ambitious benchmark values. CINOP, the EQAVET national reference point, and the Quality network of upper secondary VET schools (kwaliteitsnetwerk mbo) will further stimulate peer reviews and other learning activities between VET schools and between teacher teams.
The development of the new inspection framework (2021-25) started in 2021. Making agreements about a more ambitious implementation of the elements of quality assurance is one of the improvement actions that have been initiated for the development of the new inspection framework. By constructing the framework with various stakeholders in vocational education, agreements can be made about what schools need considering quality assurance to claim educational monitoring. The second improvement action concerns the stimulation of peer reviews and other learning activities. This also includes encouraging greater student involvement in quality assurance.
The new inspection framework has been used since 2021, and was updated in 2022. In the updated version of the framework the verdict ‘zeer zwak’ (very poor) is added, as addition to the verdicts ‘onvoldoende’ (insufficient), ‘voldoende’ (sufficient) and ‘goed’ (good). Schools rated ‘zeer zwak’ risk losing their right of funding and their right of awarding official diplomas. In a policy letter, the education ministry consulted the parliament about this updated version and informed them that the inspection intends to shorten the process of observing problems and resolving them, in order to make sure the quality of education is quickly brought up to the standards. The ways in which the inspection intends to do this are still under discussion.
In the yearly update of the inspection framework, basic skills – including Dutch language, arithmetic, and citizenship – have been added. As a result, the inspectorate will now also monitor the extent to which a VET institution’s basic skills education prepares students for further education, the labour market, and society.
The most significant change in the yearly update of the inspection framework is the introduction of random quality inspections at VET institutions. These inspections aim to periodically provide a representative picture of the quality of education in VET schools.
The most significant change in the 2025 yearly update of the inspection framework is that from 1 August 2025, the Inspectorate of Education will also include the Basic Skills Standard in the quality assessments in VET (and in primary and general secondary education). Since its introduction in 2023, the Basic Skills Standard (OP0) was assessed only descriptively: the Inspectorate reported its findings but did not issue a formal rating. From 1 August 2025, this changes fundamentally—OP0 will become a fully rated standard, with schools and MBO programmes receiving a judgment of Good, Sufficient or Insufficient. This marks a shift from observation to accountability, as an Insufficient rating on OP0 can now influence the overall inspection outcome.
Bodies responsible
- Inspectorate of Education
- CINOP (EQAVET national reference point)
- Ministry of Education, Culture and Science
Target groups
Education professionals
- Teachers
- School leaders
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Thematic categories
Governance of VET and lifelong learning
This thematic category looks at existing legal frameworks providing for strategic, operational – including quality assurance – and financing arrangements for VET and lifelong learning (LLL). It examines how VET and LLL-related policies are placed in broad national socioeconomic contexts and coordinate with other strategies and policies, such as economic, social and employment, growth and innovation, recovery and resilience.
This thematic category covers partnerships and collaboration networks of VET stakeholders – especially the social partners – to shape and implement VET in a country, including looking at how their roles and responsibilities for VET at national, regional and local levels are shared and distributed, ensuring an appropriate degree of autonomy for VET providers to adapt their offer.
The thematic category also includes efforts to create national, regional and sectoral skills intelligence systems (skills anticipation and graduate tracking) and using skills intelligence for making decisions about VET and LLL on quality, inclusiveness and flexibility.
This thematic sub-category refers to further development of national quality assurance (QA) systems for IVET and CVET, for all learning environments (school-based provision and work-based learning, including apprenticeships) and all learning types (digital, face-to-face or blended), delivered by both public and private providers. These systems are underpinned by the EQAVET quality criteria and by indicative descriptors applied both at system and provider levels, as defined in Annex II of the VET Recommendation. The sub-category concerns creating and improving external and self-evaluation of VET providers, and establishing criteria of QA, accreditation of providers and programmes. It also covers the activities of Quality assurance national reference points for VET on implementing and further developing the EQAVET framework, including the implementation of peer reviews at VET system level.
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Inspection framework: Netherlands. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2025 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/es/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28438