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Objectives
This policy development aims at developing a quality assurance system based on continuous improvement in IVET.
Description
An online guide, Qualéduc, was made available to education institutions and inspectorate bodies in April 2016 to help them develop a quality assurance system based on continuous improvement.
By March 2017, 25 out of the 30 existing education districts (académies) had been involved in Qualéduc. Two national conferences were organised in 2016 to promote the use of this tool among schools and inspectorate bodies. The tool has since been complemented with sections to guide on how to adapt the management and steering of education institutions to accommodate the needs of people with disabilities, and on handling and supporting this specific target group.
In addition, in line with the circular of August 2016, providers applying to obtain or renew the Lycée des métiers (vocational high school) label, must have defined and set up an organisational structure that meets quality criteria in line with the Qualéduc tool.
In September 2017, a European project Qualéduc Mobilités was launched to promote European mobility of staff, to support the acquisition by staff of a mobility culture and skills.
The Qualéduc Mobilités project aims to encourage the development of a shared quality culture among the academic teams by comparing French practices with others in five European countries: Germany, Italy, Austria, Sweden and UK-Scotland. Conducted as part of the Erasmus+ programme, Qualéduc Mobilités allowed participants from 18 academies to visit these countries in order to discuss their self-assessment practices and collect examples that could potentially be transferable to France. The project took place over the two school years 2017/18 and 2018/19, and resulted in a dissemination seminar in April 2019.
105 VET professionals from the education ministry and 18 education districts (académies) have taken part in study visits focusing on quality assurance in VET organised across the five countries involved in the project.
In terms of deliverables, 44 information sheets are intended to enrich the reflections on and procedures for self-assessment and continuous improvement undertaken in France, to help students succeed; they are grouped together in the collection Qualéduc mobility - Self-assessment for action (Qualéduc Mobilités - Autoévaluer pour agir) published in March 2019.
Steered by both the management staff and the inspectors, Qualéduc has proven to be an efficient tool which promotes a participatory and collaborative approach for educational, teacher and management teams.
The Qualéduc guide was updated in 2020. It includes 31 information sheets on the transformation of the vocational pathway, teaching and pedagogy, and life in the education establishments.
Among the Qualéduc deliverables, Qualinclus is a tool for inclusive and quality education, made available to secondary education institutions. Its objective is to deploy an interactive and reflexive approach to improving the efficiency and fairness of the education and training system for students with disabilities. Five information sheets were produced in order to:
- formulate an analysis and suggest a shared diagnosis, supported and established based on observations and facts;
- establish or adapt a plan by presenting objectives and areas for progress, improvement actions, and an implementation plan, providing for monitoring tools (such as dashboards, monitoring sheets) etc.
The tool is operational and runs as a regular practice. Managed jointly, between the management staff and the inspectors, Qualéduc has proved to be an efficient tool, promoting a participatory and collaborative approach for education, teacher and management teams. Concrete examples are made available to inspectors as support for teams and individuals to ensure the quality of teaching provided to students and, hence, to promote their success.
Work on the issue of self-assessment and continuous improvement of public IVET institutions continues to progress. For example, the Qualéduc guide on self-assessment and how to prepare teaching audits of apprenticeships in order to support teams in their continuous improvement process has been developed and is available online.
With regard to Trades and Qualifications Campuses (Campus des métiers et des qualifications, CMQ), cooperative work has resulted in a guide entitled ,Guidelines for the self-assessment process at Trades and Qualifications Campuses,. This guide has been distributed to the CMQ directors and regional academic heads of initial and continuing training institutions.
An online training with the title 'Qualéduc: an approach to continuous improvement for schools and networks of schools', dedicated to the presentation of the Qualeduc tool, was held on 11 and 12 May 2022, as part of the 2022 national training plan.
Finally, among other goals the Qualeduc tool invites to work on the support of continuation and permeability of studies for VET learners.
The Lycée des métiers quality label initiative is in progress: the list of schools that have recently been awarded the label or of those that had their label renewed for 2022, has been published in the official bulletin.
The lycée des métiers label has been renewed: from the start of the 2023 academic year, the label should also be awarded to a network of VET schools (in addition to one-to-one schools) in order to encourage collective initiatives, whatever the sector of activity and the territory.
The circular of 23 October 2023 replaces the previous one of 2016, refining the scope and criteria of the Lycée des métiers label. This update allows the label to be awarded to projects focused on specific sectors of activity or geographical areas, provides a national framework for specifications, and details its alignment with other labels and evaluation systems, as well as the labelling process itself.
The Qualéduc methodology is now recommended as part of the national framework for the Trades and Qualifications Campuses (Campus des métiers et des qualifications). It is also incorporated into the 23 October 2023 circular guiding the Lycée des métiers label and certification process. This approach is detailed in the sustainable development education handbook, in link with the E3D label for schools and education establishments with a sustainable development approach (écoles et établissements en démarche de développement durable).
The lists of newly labelled Lycée des métiers and Lycée des métiers networks awarded between 1 January 2023 and 25 July 2024 have been published to recognise institutions that meet these updated standards.
Bodies responsible
- Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research
- Delegate Minister for VET under the education and labour ministers
- Ministry of National Education and Youth (until 2024)
- Ministry of National Education, Youth and Sports (from 2020 till 2022)
Target groups
Learners
- Learners in upper secondary, including apprentices
- Young people (15-29 years old)
Education professionals
- Teachers
- Trainers
- 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.
Teachers, trainers and school leaders competences
Competent and motivated VET teachers in schools and trainers in companies are crucial to VET becoming innovative and relevant, agile, resilient, flexible, inclusive and lifelong.
This thematic category comprises policies and practices of initial training and continuing professional development approaches in a systemic and systematic manner. It also looks at measures aiming to update (entry) requirements and make teaching and training careers attractive and bring more young and talented individuals and business professionals into teaching and training. Supporting VET educators by equipping them with adequate competences, skills and tools for the green transition and digital teaching and learning are addressed in separate thematic sub-categories.
The measures in this category target teachers and school leaders, company trainers and mentors, adult educators and guidance practitioners.
This thematic sub-category refers to all kinds of initial and continuing professional development (CPD) for VET educators who work in vocational schools and in companies providing VET. VET educators include teachers and school leaders, trainers and company managers involved in VET, as well as adult educators and guidance practitioners – those who work in school- and work-based settings. The thematic sub-category includes national strategies, training programmes or individual courses to address the learning needs of VET educators and to develop their vocational (technical) skills, and pedagogical (teaching) skills and competences. Such programmes concern state-of-the-art vocational pedagogy, innovative teaching methods, and competences needed to address evolving teaching environments, e.g. teaching in multicultural settings, working with learners at risk of early leaving, etc.
Supporting lifelong learning culture and increasing participation
Lifelong learning refers to all learning (formal, non-formal or informal) taking place at all stages in life and resulting in an improvement or update in knowledge, skills, competences and attitudes or in participation in society from a personal, civic, cultural, social or employment-related perspective (Erasmus+, Glossary of terms, https://erasmus-plus.ec.europa.eu/programme-guide/part-d/glossary-common-terms). A systemic approach to CVET is crucial to ensure adaptability to evolving demands.
This broad thematic category looks at ways of creating opportunities and ensuring access to re-skilling and upskilling pathways, allowing individuals to progress smoothly in their learning throughout their lives with better permeability between general and vocational education and training, and better integration and compatibility between initial and continuing VET and with higher education. Individuals should be supported in acquiring and updating their skills and competences and navigating easily through education and training systems. Strategies and campaigns that promote VET and LLL as an attractive and high-quality pathway, providing quality lifelong guidance and tailored support to design learning and career paths, and various incentives (financial and non-financial) to attract and support participation in VET and LLL fall into this thematic category as well.
This thematic category also includes many initiatives on making VET inclusive and ensuring equal education and training opportunities for various groups of learners, regardless of their personal and economic background and place of residence – especially those at risk of disadvantage or exclusion, such as persons with disabilities, the low-skilled and low-qualified, minorities, migrants, refugees and others.
This thematic sub-category refers to ensuring smooth transitions (permeability) of learners within the entire education and training system, horizontally and vertically. It includes measures and policies allowing learners easily or by meeting certain conditions to move from general education programmes to VET and vice versa; to increase qualification levels in their vocation through the possibility of attending vocational programmes at higher levels, including professional degrees in higher education. It also covers opening up learning progression by introducing flexible pathways that are based on the validation and recognition of the outcomes of non-formal and informal learning.
This thematic sub-category refers to making VET pathways and programmes inclusive and accessible for all. It concerns measures and targeted actions to increase access and participation in VET and lifelong learning for learners from all vulnerable groups, and to support their school/training-to-work transitions. It includes measures to prevent early leaving from education and training. The thematic sub-category covers measures promoting gender balance in traditionally ‘male’ and ‘female’ professions and addressing gender-related and other stereotypes. The vulnerable groups are, but not limited to: persons with disabilities; the low-qualified/-skilled; minorities; persons of migrant background, including refugees; people with fewer opportunities due to their geographical location and/or their socioeconomically disadvantaged circumstances.
European and international dimensions of VET
This thematic category covers both European and international cooperation in initial and continuing VET, aimed at promoting EU VET systems as a European education and training area and making it a reference for learners in neighbouring countries and across the globe.
Expanding opportunities and increasing participation of VET learners, young and adult, and staff in international mobility for learning and work, including apprenticeship and virtual and blended mobility, account for most initiatives in this thematic category.
Apart from established and financially supported EU cooperation, VET opens up to cooperation and promotion of European values and national practices beyond the EU, which is becoming a trend. This thematic category also encompasses internationalisation strategies, transnational cooperation projects and initiatives – including those where joint VET programmes, examinations and qualifications are developed – and participation in international skills competitions that promote the image of VET. Using international qualifications – awarded by legally established international bodies or by a national body acting on behalf of an international body – in the national VET systems and recognising them towards national qualifications is also in focus.
This thematic sub-category refers to providing opportunities for, implementing and increasing rates of, learning mobility of VET and adult learners and staff, including virtual mobility, apprenticeship placements, long-duration mobility and mobility to third countries, in line with national regulations, collective agreements and health and safety provisions. It also includes the provision of information about mobility, support structures and tools, strengthening the quality of mobility experiences and recognition of learning outcomes acquired abroad, including with the use of relevant EU tools, e.g. memoranda of understanding or learning agreements (ECVET elements).
Subsystem
Further reading
Country
Type of development
Cedefop, & ReferNet. (2025). Development of a quality assurance culture in initial VET training: France. 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/28832