Qualifications frameworks and credit systems: a toolkit for education in Europe

Europe should become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world by 2010, while at the same time safeguarding social cohesion. In the field of education policy, this aim is being pursued by means of a comprehensive programme for the creation of a European Higher Education Area (EHEA) as part of the Bologna Process, and in the VET sector through the so-called Copenhagen Process. On the way towards an integrated European Higher Education Area in 2010, the European Commission's proposal for a European Qualifications Framework (EQF) offers opportunities on the one hand for increased mobility within the higher education sector, especially at European level and, on the other, for mobility or enhanced permeability between education sectors. Further development of the ECTS [European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System] and ECVET [European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training] credit systems from a function of transfer to one of accumulation, and from an input-based to an outcome-related orientation, should promote enhanced mobility of students, trainees, graduates and workers through the accreditation and recognition of acquired knowledge, skills and competences; it should also facilitate access to education and VET and the development of comprehensive continuing training which lasts an entire (working) year. It is against this background that the characteristics of, and interactions between, these instruments will be explored.

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