In Austria, an open and democratic consultation process was conducted, involving all stakeholders in VET (ministries, social partners, provincial authorities, schools and other VET institutions). On as early as 26 September 2006, an information event was held at the Austrian Chamber of Labour, at which occasion the initiative was presented to a wider Austrian public for the first time and which attracted many visitors.

On 17 November, the official consultation document was dispatched to a large number of Austrian VET actors.

A total of 28 organisations have so far submitted their positions, which is more than in the previous consultation procedure on the EQF.

A consortium of scientists was commissioned to conduct an analysis and systematic evaluation of these positions. This analysis, which also takes diverging positions into account, forms part of the national position and has been appended as Appendix 1.

The key messages derived from the Austrian consultation process have been summarised by the Federal Ministry for Education, the Arts and Culture based on eight core hypotheses. Austria requests the European Commission to take these hypotheses into account when rephrasing its proposal regarding a recommendation for ECVET, elaborated for the codecision procedure by the European Council and the European Parliament.

Summary

The Austrian consultation process revealed that the planned recommendation meets with broad support; there was not a single rejection of ECVET for reasons of principle in the 28 positions submitted. ECVETs benefit of serving as an instrument to enhance mobility between EU member states was seen as its prime objective in this context

Tniżżil

Individual positions

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Austria's position paper (EN summary)

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Austria's position paper (DE original with appendices)

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