- 2018Design
- 2019Legislative process
- 2020Legislative process
- 2021Design
- 2022Design
- 2023Design
- 2024Design
Background
Developing a methodology for quality assurance in continuing vocational education and training (CVET) has been a pending issue for many years. Successive modifications of the normative acts regulating the national qualifications system led to non-unitary approaches in implementing quality assurance. Non-unitary approaches to the development of occupational standards and training standards, and the lack of labour market information on skills and skills needs, have created difficulties in ensuring a strong correlation between labour market requirements and qualifications development regulations.
Objectives
The main objective of the initiative is to develop and implement a national quality assurance system in continuing vocational training, using an approach compatible with the European reference framework for quality assurance in vocational education and training.
Improving the quality of vocational training is also one of the objectives of the Education and training strategy for 2015-20.
Description
Since 2017, the labour ministry has taken over the coordination of authorising vocational training providers and started drafting the legislation on quality assurance in adult learning. Relevant stakeholders have been invited to take part in the process: the Romanian Agency of Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education; the National Qualifications Authority; the National Accreditation Centre; the National Centre for TVET Development; and institutions responsible for regulated professions and sectoral committees.
The methodology:
- contains a cycle of assuring and improving the quality of continuous professional development of adults planning, implementation, evaluation and review, supported by common quality criteria, indicative descriptors and indicators;
- provides a systemic approach to quality that covers and interrelates the national level with the county, local and sectoral levels;
- emphasises quality monitoring and improvement, by combining internal and external evaluation, review and quality improvement, supported by qualitative measurement and analysis;
- is a basis for development of mechanisms of cooperation at national, regional and local level between the institutions involved;
- proposes the description of quality assurance processes and criteria both at the level of the adult vocational training system and of the authorised providers/centres for the evaluation and certification of professional competences obtained...
Since 2017, the labour ministry has taken over the coordination of authorising vocational training providers and started drafting the legislation on quality assurance in adult learning. Relevant stakeholders have been invited to take part in the process: the Romanian Agency of Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education; the National Qualifications Authority; the National Accreditation Centre; the National Centre for TVET Development; and institutions responsible for regulated professions and sectoral committees.
The methodology:
- contains a cycle of assuring and improving the quality of continuous professional development of adults planning, implementation, evaluation and review, supported by common quality criteria, indicative descriptors and indicators;
- provides a systemic approach to quality that covers and interrelates the national level with the county, local and sectoral levels;
- emphasises quality monitoring and improvement, by combining internal and external evaluation, review and quality improvement, supported by qualitative measurement and analysis;
- is a basis for development of mechanisms of cooperation at national, regional and local level between the institutions involved;
- proposes the description of quality assurance processes and criteria both at the level of the adult vocational training system and of the authorised providers/centres for the evaluation and certification of professional competences obtained other than by authorised formal means.
The draft methodology was brought to public consultation in December 2018.
In 2019, the methodology was revised but its approval by the government was pending.
In 2020, the approval of the methodology was pending.
In 2022, the proposal for methodology was being updated based on the new priorities in education and training.
In 2022, the proposal for methodology was revised in line with objectives in the National Strategy for Employment and NQF general guidelines. It was still subject to approval by the government.
The proposed methodology was under development in consultation with social partners.
In 2024, the proposed methodology was still under development.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of Labour and Social Solidarity
- Ministry of Labour and Social Protection (until 2021)
- Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-university Education
- National Qualifications Authority (ANC)
- National Centre for TVET Development (CNDIPT)
- Ministry of Education
- Ministry of National Education (until 2021)
Target groups
Learners
- Adult learners
Entities providing VET
- VET providers (all kinds)
Other stakeholders
- Social partners (employer organisations and trade unions)
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 both to formal mechanisms of stakeholder engagement in VET governance and to informal cooperation among stakeholders, which motivate shared responsibility for quality VET. Formal engagement is usually based on legally established institutional procedures that clearly define the role and responsibilities for relevant stakeholders in designing, implementing and improving VET. It also refers to establishing and increasing the degree of autonomy of VET providers for agile and flexible VET provision.
In terms of informal cooperation, the sub-category covers targeted actions by different stakeholders to promote or implement VET. This cooperation often leads to creating sustainable partnerships and making commitments for targeted actions, in line with the national context and regulation, e.g. national alliances for apprenticeships, pacts for youth or partnerships between schools and employers. It can also include initiatives and projects run by the social partners or sectoral organisations or networks of voluntary experts and executives, retired or on sabbatical, to support their peers in the fields of VET and apprenticeships, as part of the EAfA.
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
Osnabrück Declaration
- Resilience and excellence through quality, inclusive and flexible VET
- Establishing a new lifelong learning culture - relevance of continuing VET and digitalisation
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Developing a methodology for quality assurance in CVET: Romania. In Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Timeline of VET policies in Europe (2024 update) [Online tool].
https://www.cedefop.europa.eu/en/tools/timeline-vet-policies-europe/search/28513