National survey on quality in post-secondary vocational education

Policy development
Practical measure/Initiative
Norway
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Timeline
  • 2018Completed
ID number
28815

Background

A brief overview of the context and rationale of the policy development, explaining why it is implemented or why it is important.

This survey has its origin in the 2016 white paper Skilled workers for the future. The paper also suggested establishing a survey for students in vocational colleges.

Objectives

Goals and objectives of the policy development.

There is already a national survey for higher education (VET at post-secondary level is considered part of higher education in Norway) and it provides good information for public authorities, students and working life, and, not least, for the education institutions themselves.

The survey for vocational colleges ensures knowledge about post-secondary education.

Description

What/How/Who/For whom/When of the policy development in detail, explaining its activities and annual progress, main actors and target groups.

The first national survey on quality in post-secondary vocational education was carried out in April 2018. The survey aimed not only to provide post-secondary vocational education schools with useful information for their internal quality work, but also to develop a knowledge base for the government to strengthen the quality development work in the sector. Results were presented in September 2018. The survey is conducted on a yearly basis.

2018
Completed

The national survey on quality in higher vocational education has become annual.

Bodies responsible

This section lists main bodies that are responsible for the implementation of the policy development or for its specific parts or activities, as indicated in the regulatory acts. The responsibilities are usually explained in its description.
  • Ministry of Education and Research (KD)

Target groups

Those who are positively and directly affected by the measures of the policy development; those on the list are specifically defined in the EU VET policy documents. A policy development can be addressed to one or several target groups.

Other

Higher vocational education students

Thematic categories

Thematic categories capture main aspects of the decision-making and operation of national VET and LLL systems. These broad areas represent key elements that all VET and LLL systems have to different extents and in different combinations, and which come into focus depending on the EU and national priorities. Thematic categories are further divided into thematic sub-categories. Based on their description, policy developments can be assigned to one or several 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.

Further developing national quality assurance systems

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

Part of the vocational education and training and lifelong learning systems the policy development applies to.
IVET
CVET

Further reading

Sources for further reading where readers can find more information on policy developments: links to official documents, dedicated websites, project pages. Some sources may only be available in national languages.
Article about the survey
Comparison tool for educational offers

Country

Norway

Type of development

Policy developments are divided into three types: strategy/action plan; regulation/legislation; and practical measure/initiative.
Practical measure/Initiative
Cite as

Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). National survey on quality in post-secondary vocational education: Norway. 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/28815