- 2016Pilot
- 2017Pilot
- 2018Implementation
- 2019Implementation
- 2020Implementation
- 2021Implementation
- 2022Implementation
- 2023Implementation
- 2024Implementation
- 2025Implementation
Background
Decree-Law No 92/2014 states that public and private professional schools must introduce a quality assurance system for monitoring their training process and learner results. The implementation must be linked to the European reference framework for quality assurance in education and professional training (EQAVET). Overall supervision is the remit of the National Agency for Qualifications and VET (ANQEP).
Objectives
To promote and monitor the implementation of a quality assurance system for professional schools leading to an EQAVET certification.
Description
Since 2016, a national approach to improving quality assurance in VET and related work-based learning has been developed, using the EQAVET framework. VET providers have been aligning their quality assurance approaches to the EQAVET framework. Evaluation guidelines have been piloted in professional and public secondary schools offering VET programmes.
In December 2018, two guides were published by ANQEP: one for aligning quality assurance with the EQAVET framework and one for validation. The objective is that once the quality assurance approach is fully set up, all VET providers are able to adopt it and be awarded an EQAVET seal based on its quality criteria and indicative descriptors. This process was planned to be developed gradually up to 2020.
The quality label is awarded for a period of three years. It will then be renewed (or suspended) upon re-evaluation. Introducing a one-year conditional seal is under consideration.
In early 2019, VET schools started applying this model.
The project is funded by the Operational programme for human capital (POCH).
In 2020, the model was adopted by all schools offering professional programmes; 251 schools were awarded the EQAVET certification.
The expansion of the project led ANQEP to increase the number of external experts in charge of school validation to 160; 100 more external experts were trained in January and February 2020 to fulfil the validation functions. Five training actions were carried out, in 2020, to enable external experts to develop EQAVET compliance verification.
The pool of external experts, created through protocols established between ANQEP and 35 higher education institutions, was expanded. It currently includes 173 experts. The aim is to respond to the increasing number of EQAVET verification requests submitted by training providers who developed their alignment processes (professional schools, secondary schools and private schools offering professional programmes or specific curriculum programmes).
In 2021, the EQAVET seal (certification) was awarded to 225 schools.
The measure is part of the NIP under the package Quality assurance.
The Quality framework of Qualifica centres (Carta da Qualidade dos Centros Qualifica) was published. It is the Qualifica centres reference for their activity regarding the quality of service provided and efficiency and effectiveness levels achieved and for the management and regulation of the network by the National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education and Training (ANQEP).
37 EQAVET seals awarded in 2022 (16 new seals and 21 renewals).
In 2023, 78 EQAVET seals were awarded.
The EQAVET platform has been improved to make it more user-friendly and with more functionalities, such as enabling more reports and queries related to the awarding of the EQAVET seal and setting alerts for the label's expiration date, better interface and forms, or updated typology of VET providers.
In June 2024, an initial training session for new external experts was held face-to-face.
In November 2024, two workshops with EQAVET external experts took place online.
110 EQAVET seals awarded in 2024 (12 new seals and 98 renewals).
The EQAVET platform was improved to become more user-friendly and feature-rich.
A face-to-face technical meeting took place in October 2025 with EQAVET external experts. The meeting aimed to discuss a topic related to the upcoming 2026 peer review: the involvement of internal and external stakeholders in the quality assurance cycle in schools, particularly employers.
180 EQAVET seals were awarded until October 2025 (2 new seals and 178 renewals).180 EQAVET seals were awarded until October 2025 (2 new seals and 178 renewals).
Bodies responsible
- National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education and Training (ANQEP)
Target groups
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.
European priorities in VET
VET Recommendation
- VET underpinned by a culture of quality assurance
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Improving quality assurance in VET: Portugal. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2026). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2025 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/sl/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28698