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A journal for HRD specialists
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Journal of European ISSN 0309-0590
Volume 32
Industrial Training Number 2/3
2008
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JEIT EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD
32,2/3 Professor Rona Beattie
Glasgow Caledonian University, UK
Professor Wim Nijhof
University of Twente, The Netherlands
Professor Phillip B. Beaumont Dr Barry Nyhan
Department of Business and Management, University University of Bremen, Germany
of Glasgow, UK David ODonnell
Amanda Cahir-ODonnell Intellectual Capital Research Institute of Ireland,
80 Managing Director, TIO Consulting Ltd, Ireland Ireland
David Collings Dr Rob F. Poell
JE Cairnes School of Business and Public Policy, Department of Human Resource Studies,
National University of Ireland, Ireland Tilburg University, The Netherlands
Maria Cseh Dr Christopher Rees
Oakland University, USA University of Manchester, UK
Professor Donal Dineen Dr Ian Roffe
University of Limerick, Ireland Centre for Enterprise, European & Extension
Catherine Edwards Zara Services, University of Wales, UK
Centre for Lifelong Learning, University of Professor Eugene Sadler-Smith
Warwick, UK School of Management, University of Surrey, UK
Dr Stephen Gibb Dr Sally Sambrook
University of Strathclyde, UK University of Wales, Bangor, UK
Dr Jeff Gold Sue Shaw
Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Manchester Metropolitan University, UK
Dr John Goodwin Professor Andy Smith
University of Leicester, UK Charles Sturt University, Australia
Dr Jim Grieves Dr Paul Smith
Newcastle Business School, University of University of Teesside, Middlesbrough, UK
Northumbria, UK Professor Jim Stewart
Associate Professor Timothy Hatcher Leeds Business School, UK
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA Dr Adrian Thornhill
Professor Frank Horwitz University of Gloucestershire, UK
Faculty of Management, University of Capetown Dr Massimo Tomassini
Business School, South Africa ISFOL, Italy
Professor Paul Iles Dr Kiran Trehan
Leeds Metropolitan University, UK Lancaster University, UK
Alma McCarthy Dr Mireia Valverde
National University of Galway, Ireland Universitat Roviri I Virgili, Spain
Dr Martin McCracken Professor John S. Walton
University of Ulster, UK London Metropolitan University, UK
Professor Jim McGoldrick Sandra Watson
Dundee Business School, University of Abertay, Napier University, UK
Dundee, UK
Dr John Wilson
Dr David McGuire Department of Continuing Education,
Queen Margaret University, Edinburgh, UK Oxford University, UK
Professor Sharon Mavin Professor Jonathan Winterton
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK Toulouse Business School (ESC Toulouse), France
Dr Michael Morley Dr Roland Yeo
Department of Personnel and Employment Relations, College of Industrial Management, King Fahd
University of Limerick, Ireland University of Petroleum & Minerals, Dhahran,
Professor Dr Martin Mulder Saudi Arabia
Department of Social Sciences, Professor Adrian Ziderman
Wageningen University, The Netherlands Department of Economics,
Dr Fredrick Muyia Nafukho Bar-Ilan University, Israel
Journal of European Industrial Associate Professor & Chair, HRD Program,
Training
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
Texas A&M University, USA
p. 80
# Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0590
Guest editorial
Guest editorial
The Copenhagen process: concepts, experiences and prospects
On November 15, 2007 the European Council has adopted the European Qualifications
Framework. This is an important step in the process that has started in 2002 when the 81
European Vocational Education Policy was set in motion with the Copenhagen
Declaration (European Commission, 2003). European VET policy has reached new
dynamics and as compared too earlier VET policy phases there is a surprisingly high
commitment through the member states and the different stakeholders.
Since 2002 an intensive discussion on the major instruments particularly EQF
and ECVET took place, which has despite its adoption not been completed yet.
The member states are now challenged in putting in National Qualification
Frameworks, an imperative resulting from the adoption of the EQF. More or less all
representatives of the Vocational Education Research have set this subject on their
agenda in the meantime. Besides few exceptions the different positions vary among
affirmative and descriptive orientation. Only the implementation process can now
show about the real potentials and pitfalls when implementing this concept in different
European VET contexts. This special issue of the Journal of European Industrial
Training is a critical contribution to the debate about the tools adopted by the
European Union. At the same time, it also documents constructive aspects of the
discussion around the increasing Europeanisation of VET and lifelong learning based
on empirical experiences in national and European research and development projects.
The different contributions illustrate the different risks and challenges but also the
chances and prospects of the new commitment to European VET policy that can be
observed.
In this logic, the first volume of this double special issue provides a forum for
conceptual and analytical contributions to the debate whereas the second volume
directs its focus towards empirical experiences that have been gathered from projects
within European VET co-operation.
References
Drexel, I. (2005), Die Alternative zum Konzept des Berufs: Das Kompetenzkonzept - Intentionen
und Folgeprobleme am Beispiel Frankreichs, in Jakob, M. and Kupka, P. (Eds),
Perspektiven des Berufskonzepts die Bedeutung des Berufs fur Ausbildung,
Erwerbstatigkeit und Arbeitsmarkt, Vol. 297, IAB, Nurnberg, pp. 39-53.
European Commission (2003), Enhanced Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training.
Stocktaking Report of the Copenhagen Coordination Group, Brussels, October 2003.
Habermas, J. (1992), Faktizitat und Geltung: Beitrage zur Diskurstheorie des Rechts und des
demokratischen Rechtsstaats, 2. Aufl edn, Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main.
He, E. and Tutschner, H. (2003), Experiment und Gestaltung. Uber das Wirkungspotential des
Programmes LEONARDO DA VINCI, Kolner Zeitschrift fur Wirtschaft und Padagogik,
Vol. 18 No. 34, pp. 135-50.
Leney, T. (2004), Reflections on the five priority benchmarks, in Standaert, R. (Ed.), Becoming
the Best. Educational Ambitions for Europe. CIDREE Yearbook, Vol. 3, CIDREE, Enschede.
Corresponding author
Philipp Grollmann can be contacted at: grollmann@uni_bremen.de
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0309-0590.htm
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the internationalisation of nearly all
spheres of society and the process of European integration will be leading to the development of a
European vocational education and training (VET) architecture.
Design/methodology/approach The analysis of the Copenhagen process is based on the EU
documents on the realisation of a European Qualifications Framework and a credit transfer system.
Findings The result of the study shows that the strategy adopted by the European Union for the
establishment of a European area of vocational education is confronted with a dilemma. The European
Qualifications Framework is highly abstract since any reference to real educational programmes and
qualifications and any concrete provision for the transition and for the transf erability between
educational levels and sectors (vocational and higher education, initial and continuing training) was
avoided in order to adhere to the anti-harmonisation clause. The result is an abstract, hierachically
structured one-dimensional qualifications framework that lacks any reference to existing VET
systems and that contradicts all scientific insights from VET research and knowledge research.
Practical implications The implications for VET policy are far-reaching. A European area of
vocational education can be established only on the basis of European open core occupations and an
open VET architecture, which ensures that vocational education becomes an integral part of national
educational systems. The qualification of employees for the intermediary sector can be realised only as
a European project.
Originality/value There are only a few contributions available that undertake a conceptual
analysis and critique of the European Qualifications Framework.
Keywords Vocational training, Europe, Qualifications, European legislation
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
Following the declaration of the European Parliament in Lisbon in 2000, the goals for
European development were pushed to the forefront: according to this declaration,
Europe should, by the year 2010, develop into a dynamic and competitive,
knowledge-based market in the world. At the same time a high degree of social
cohesion is also highly sought after.
This implies the integration of innovation, occupational, and (vocational) education Journal of European Industrial
politics. For education and training the following agreement from Barcelona was Training
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
pp. 85-98
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
The author would like to thank Philipp Grollmann for his various suggestions and input in 0309-0590
writing this article. DOI 10.1108/03090590810861640
JEIT added: education and training systems in Europe should become a reference point for
32,2/3 quality throughout the world by 2010. The ministers responsible for vocational
training and the European Commission agreed, in the Copenhagen Declaration of 2002,
on how this goal should be implemented. Vocational training was thus defined as a
connection between initial vocational training and further education within a
framework of life-long learning. The successes which had been achieved during the
86 development of a genuine European labour market and a knowledge-based economy,
the fight against social inequality as well as the realization of an integrated and highly
qualified vocational structure are considered the standards for a successful politics of
vocational training.
The decisions of the European Parliament on the construction of a space for
European higher education (the Bologna Process) and for its quick implementation are,
nowadays, considered to be positive examples, and are also seen as the first step
towards expansion of the educational area of higher education into education in
general. The processes of change set in motion by the Bologna Agreement have
activated a dynamism within the German higher education landscape which eclipses
all the last decades attempts to reform higher education.
Without a discussion on reform that includes higher education, the classical
university, with its course of study ending in a degree, developed at the very latest in
the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, will be abolished within a few years. Under the
pressure of the setting of time standards through academic politics and administration
the universities are occupied with the operationalization of the structuring of new
Bachelors and Masters Degree programs and the associated modulization of higher
education curricula.
The sheer shortage of time allows no room for a self-determined academia to discuss
the sense of the situation. Success is measured by the speed of implementation of the
political and academic guidelines derived from the Bologna decisions, and the degree of
their progressive establishment. Critical annotation to this process, which has come
from the circles of higher education didacts, and argues that the new higher education
with its offers of polyvalent modules is misleading students, through the collection of
credit points, to give up their search for understanding or expertise-based studies, or
any connection of understanding and social engagement, effects at the most a mere
footnote to the Bologna Process. From this example of the establishment of a European
space for higher education, four lessons can be drawn for the subsequent project of
creating European Vocational Training:
(1) The decisions of the European Parliament on innovation, economic, labor
market, and occupational politics have wide-reaching consequences for the
development of European educational structures.
(2) The veto on harmonization (subsidiarity principle) for the educational system,
which is anchored in European Union law and which seeks a kind of cultural
dignity for the nation-state, has unfolded in competition with other, more
highly-valued legal norms, such as the freedom of movement of workers and the
creation of a real European labour market, which, in fact, has only very
limited effects.
(3) The experiences of the usual speed of reform within the German educational
system (the amendments to the vocational training law in 1969 have been
debated and discussed since the middle of the 1970s) obstruct the view towards European VET
a new pace, in which reforms on the European level are being set out in terms
of years and not decades.
(4) The occurrence, which is unthinkable in the world of German vocational
education and training, that the Copenhagen Process provides structures for
European vocational education and where, within the steps of implementation,
only the question of speed of implementation is still pushed into reachable 87
proximity. (the evaluation project and the report Achieving the Lisbon Goals:
The Contribution of VET Tender No. EAC/84/03)[1]
The strikingly small echo that the Copenhagen Process creation of a European space
for vocational education with an open architecture has, up until now, triggered in the
professional public, certainly has multiple causes about which only mere speculation is
possible. Initially, the parallels with the realm of higher education are conspicuous: the
relative speechlessness of those affected. Here, as there, a reform project of great or
greater range is reduced to the dimension of its administrative operationalization. The
widespread resignation of those responsible for a functioning vocational educational
system, which is related to the problem that all attempts, up until now, to stop the
erosion process of the dual system for vocational education, have not had any lasting
reach, may be a reason for this exhibition of speechlessness. Perhaps, in a clearly stated
bypass, the Copenhagen Process has increased the chances for modernization of
vocational training in Germany, if it must occur through a systemic change, in any
direction whatsoever. The postponement of responsibility which accompanies it on the
European level promises relief.
The economic and social meaning which the realization of a European space for
vocational training and thus also the European vocational training system after the
Copenhagen statement has, results in two-thirds of the employed being assigned to the
mid-skilled level (skilled workers, technicians) (Figure 1). The qualification of skilled
labor below the higher educational level is deemed to be a key question for every
modern economy as well as a central factor for the realization of socially stable and
democratic structures.
88
Figure 1.
Development of the skilled
labor structure
References
Coles, M. and Oats, T. (2004), European reference levels for education and training. An
important parameter for promoting credit transfer and mutual trust, unpublished
manuscript, London.
Eraut, M. (1994), Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, Falmer, London.
Frommberger, D. and Reinisch, H. (1999), Ordnungsschemata zur Kennzeichnung und zum
Vergleich von Berufsbildungssystemen in deutschsprachigen Beitragen zur
international-vergleichenden Berufsbildungsforschung: Methodologische Fragen und
Reflexionen, Zeitschrift fur Berufs- und Wirtschaftspadagogik, Vol. 95 No. 3, pp. 323-43.
Fulst-Blei, S. (2003), Im Spannungsfeld von Modularisierung und Europaisierung: die deutsche
duale Berufsausbildung im Test; ein deutsch-englischer Leistungsvergleich, Hampp,
Munchen.
Gardner, H., Csikszentmihalyi, M. and Damon, W. (2001), Good Work When Excellence and
Ethics Meet, Basic Books, New York, NY.
JEIT Jager, C. (1989), Die kulturelle Einbettung des Europaischen Marktes, in Zapf, W. (Ed.), Kultur
und Gesellschaft, Campus, Frankfurt am Main, pp. 556-74.
32,2/3 Kern, H. and Sabel, Ch.F. (1994), Verblasste Tugenden. Zur Krise des deutschen
Produktionsmodells, in Beckenbach, N. and van Treeck, W. (Eds), Umbruche
gesellschaftlicher Arbeit. Soziale Welt, Sonderband 9, Gottingen, pp. 605-24.
Kopp, B. (2003), von Globalisierung, Liberalisierung, Deregulierung und GATS: Gefahr fur das
98 offentliche Schulwesen?, Tibi, Vol. 1 No. 1.
Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991), Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge
University Press, New York, NY.
Oerter, R. and Horner, W. (1994), Frankreich, in Lauterbach, U. (Ed.), Internationales Handbuch
der Berufsbildung, Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp. F13-F131.
Rauner, F. (1998), Moderne Beruflichkeit, in Euler, D. (Ed.), Berufliches Lernen im Wandel
Konsequenzen fur die Lernorte? Dokumentation des 3., Forums Berufsbildungsforschung
1997 an der Friedrich-Alexander-Universitat Erlangen-Nurnberg, Nurnberg, pp. 153-71.
Rauner, F. and Grollmann, Ph. (2004), Einheitlicher Qualifikationsrahmen im
Brugge/Kopenhagen-Prozess zwischen Schulabschluss und Kompetenz, Berufsbildende
Schule, Vol. 56 Nos 7/8, pp. 159-65.
Schon, D.A. (1983), The Reflective Practitioner How Professionals Think in Action, Basic Books,
New York, NY.
Sellin, B. (2002), Bildung in Europa, in Tippelt, R. (Ed.), Handbuch Bildungsforschung, Leske
Budrich, Opladen, pp. 201-16.
Sellin, B. and Piehl, E. (1995), Berufliche Aus- und Weiterbildung in Europa, in Arnold, R. and
Lipsmeier, A. (Eds), Handbuch der Berufsbildung, Leske Budrich, Opladen, pp. 441-54.
Sennett, R. (1998), Der flexible Mensch, Die Kultur des neuen Kapitalismus, Berlin.
Tender-Nr. EAC/84/03 (2004), Achieving the Lisbon goal: the contribution of vocational
education and training systems, background study for a Ministerial Conference on
Strengthening European Cooperation in VET under the Dutch Presidency.
West, J. (2000), Higher education and employment: opportunities and limitations in the
formation of skills in a mass higher education system, Journal of Vocational Education
and Training, Vol. 52 No. 4, pp. 573-88.
Corresponding author
Felix Rauner can be contacted at: felix.rauner@uni-bremen.de
Performance-
Can performance-related learning related learning
outcomes have standards?
Michaela Brockmann and Linda Clarke
Westminster University, London, UK, and 99
Christopher Winch
Kings College London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to explain the distinction between educational standards and learning
outcomes and to indicate the problems that potentially arise when a learning outcomes approach is
applied to a qualification meta-framework like the European Qualification Framework, or indeed to
national qualification frameworks.
Design/methodology/approach The methods used are documentary, political and conceptual
analysis, with some reference to empirical work carried out in relation to other projects.
Findings It is found that there are substantial differences between learning outcomes and
standards with large educational and political implications. Furthermore, the pure form of learning
outcomes approach contains a design flaw, which makes its coherent implementation problematic.
Research limitations/implications The stimulation of further research on learning outcomes
based approaches to qualifications and the problems that arise in their implementation.
Practical implications The EU needs to think carefully about the fitness for purpose of the
current descriptors for EQF and whether or not it is desirable to move away from a pure
outcome-based approach to qualification frameworks and meta-frameworks.
Originality/value As far as the authors are aware, this is the first paper to draw attention to this
distinction.
Keywords Learning, Standards, National vocational qualifications, Europe
Paper type Conceptual paper
Introduction
There is a fundamental design issue in attempts to provide a European Qualifications
Framework (EQF) and on the basis of this to increase the transparency and transferability
of vocational and professional qualifications[1]. This is the adoption of a learning
outcomes (LO) approach to qualification comparators, qualifications and qualification
systems themselves which underlies one of the key instruments of the Lisbon Process,
namely the European Qualification Framework (EQF) due to be adopted by the Council
of Ministers in late 2007. Yet, as we show such an approach may compromise this process
and thereby risks undermining the goal of achieving European comparability.
The EQF is described as a reference tool which allows qualifications from different
educational systems to be compared at a criterion referenced level of equivalence (EU,
2006, p. 8; Coles and Oates, 2003, p. 36, para 6.27). It consists of eight levels comprising Journal of European Industrial
three aspects of outcome: knowledge, skill, competence. The horizontal levels range from Training
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
primary/low level secondary school completion (level 1) to doctoral (level 8). Each level pp. 99-113
has a descriptor in each of the three vertical categories (Appendix). The EQF is not q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0590
explicitly attached to any curriculum or pedagogic processes. It is designed to be used DOI 10.1108/03090590810861659
JEIT with qualifications gained through APEL (Accreditation of Prior Experiential Learning)
32,2/3 as well as through more conventional routes.
The learning outcomes approach is distinct from curricular and qualification
systems that benchmark progress through criterion-referenced standards, as is the
case with the Attainment Targets in the English National Curriculum, which are
essentially waymarks along a progressive programme of study. Learning Outcomes
100 (LO) cannot, of course, be standards in this sense, since the EQF is deliberately
detached from any specific curriculum or pedagogical practice. It is in this sense an
outcomes-based framework par excellence.
But herein lies the problem. The LO approach lacks coherence because it seeks to
fulfil two incompatible functions:
(1) to provide a notional progression in which achievement at each level beyond
level 1 implicitly presupposes achievement at level 1 and all the levels below the
one which is currently being assessed; and
(2) to provide a means of establishing whether someone has satisfied the criteria at
any given level irrespective of their achievements at any other level.
To both implicitly presuppose achievement at a certain level and at the same time to
act as if previous achievements below the level currently being assessed are irrelevant,
within the same instrument, is to produce something that is either of little value or that
is bound to throw up paradoxes that undermine its credibility.
A second problem is to assume that learning outcomes can be devised without an
explicit reference point, whether the curricula or labour market activities. This
stand-alone nature of learning outcomes is a very Anglo-Saxon notion and
inconceivable in most other European countries. Even in Britain it is difficult to
conceive of learning outcomes, occupational standards and curricula as other than
integrated, as somehow distinct from each other certainly at a professional level.
This is because learning outcomes are inevitably the outcome of a specific learning
process which may, in its scope be shallow or deep, broad or narrow, and involve
competences of a qualitatively different nature.
However, in Britain with respect to vocational education and training (VET) the key
reference point for learning outcomes is performance criteria in the workplace related
to particular tasks or functions, to given outputs, such as erecting a masonry structure
in the case of the bricklayer. In Germany, in contrast the key reference point is not the
performance function per se but the development of the individual to become a
bricklayer, as defined through the curriculum. In other words, in Britain the learning
outcome refers to a performance output and in Germany to the Berufsbildung process,
which is built on the attainment of standards at different levels. The assumption in the
British case is that the output of the work process is what represents the learning
process whilst in the German case it is provided through the curriculum, intended to
enhance the value of the labour itself, unattached to a specific output. The question is
whether performance output in the workplace can ever be associated with learning
outcomes in the narrowly defined British sense.
A learning outcome therefore, in the sense in which that term is used within the NVQ
system is a criterion of performance in the workplace which does not presuppose either
aims or curriculum. This system goes together with a peculiarly Anglo-Saxon and
class-based understanding of vocational as distinct from general education.
In the vocational context, learning outcomes have been adopted as a certification
principle, associated with narrowly defined, task oriented, activities that do not require
significant levels of knowledge or understanding. In effect, it is not a system aimed at
enhancing the value of labour itself but rather at performance output in the workplace.
But, whilst for England and Wales the learning outcomes approach adopted for the
EQF is likely to be interpreted in the NVQ sense, this does not mean that it will or can
be so interpreted in countries that do not use such an LO-based approach and do not
appreciate the important distinction between an LO and an educational standard. For
such countries, the default attitude will be to regard the EQF descriptors as
descriptions of standards rather than LOs.
Learning outcomes
Aims can thus provide guidance for setting appropriate standards and educational
performance may give an indication as to how those aims are being met, indirectly
through using the standards as a benchmark. Learning outcomes in the NVQ sense,
however, purport to act be this inadequately and impossibly as a surrogate both
for aims of education and for standards, as a statement of the knowledge, skills,
attitudes and understanding that a student is expected to have reached at the end of a
vocational programme or when h/she has attained a particular level of certification. In
this respect, LOs represent a statement of the purposes of a vocational programme and
an advance on NVQ descriptors, by measuring a broader range of attributes rather
than just skill. LOs in this sense, however, fail as aims, because they specify these too
narrowly in terms of individual performance-at-work attributes rather than of societys
purposes for vocational education. Neither are they intended to do the job of standards
in the educational sense. Educational standards allow one to devise a range of
assessment instruments and can measure competence and understanding in a broad,
as well as a narrow sense. They also allow one to assess how well someone has met a
standard, not merely whether or not they have done so in a binary sense as the
occupational standards of the NVQ do. Learning outcomes in the NVQ sense, by their
nature, can do neither of these things. Indeed for assessments that are broad and allow
for differentiation, it is educational standards that are needed, not performance-related
learning outcomes.
The difficulty in using LOs in this sense is apparent in the example of truck drivers.
An NVQ for Large Goods Vehicle (LGV) drivers seeks to ensure the safe and efficient
driving of a large goods vehicle and has two levels of qualification, the higher one
demonstrating more advanced driving and vehicle management abilities than the
lower level one. What are the options?
(1) To specify that, at the lower level, the driver can operate the vehicle safely and Performance-
efficiently. Then one has the problem that, at the higher level, this is not a related learning
requirement. One would be in the paradoxical position of stating that a less
qualified driver would have to drive safely and efficiently while the more
qualified driver need not do so.
(2) To specify that, at the higher level, the driver can operate the vehicle safely and
efficiently. Then one has the problem that, at the lower level, this is not a 105
requirement. Yet the driver qualified at the lower level has to be able to do so,
otherwise they would not be allowed to drive at all.
In fact, the National Vocational Qualification (NVQ) for LGV drivers suggests that
drivers only need to drive lorries safely and efficiently at level 3, thus grasping one
horn of this dilemma (Skills for Logistics, 2003). Such a solution is only possible,
however, because all drivers will already have a license, which presupposes that they
can drive safely and efficiently irrespective of whether or not they have achieved any
NVQ (Skills for Logistics, 2003). In effect, the driving license is a safety net, which
saves the NVQ qualification from inoperability. This is the kind of problem that arises
when learning outcomes relate to performance output.
When performance, instead of being related to the carrying out of a particular task
or output is instead attached to the development of the individual, it can be measured
against a progressive and cumulative curriculum, which itself determines not only
whether, but also to what extent, the relevant standards or alternatively which
standards on a progressive scale of standards, as in the English National Curriculum
have been met. Thus, were the NVQ for Large Goods Vehicle Drivers part of a
curriculum to enhance the value of the labour of the lorry driver, driving safely would
be a lower level requirement and any driver taking the higher level qualification would
need to do the lower one as a prerequisite. The problem arises because of the implicit
contradiction in performance-related learning outcomes that are meant to operate
without regard to previous achievements and to rely on implicit cumulation of previous
achievements.
Just as standards can only be really understood in terms of the aims for which they
provide a measure, so they also need to be understood in terms of the curricula that are
designed for the aims to be achieved. The standards not only provide a measure of
whether or not aims are being achieved but they also provide a goal for the curriculum,
a measure of the success or otherwise of following a particular curriculum and, for
students, the extent to which that curriculum in the sense of prescribed content of
education (Barrow, 1976; Winch, 1996) was followed successfully. They thus face
upwards towards aims and downwards towards curricula and failure to refer them
to one or the other is a recipe for confusion. Yet this is what outcome based
approaches to education threaten to do, by detaching criteria of success from any
meaningful educational context.
It is not difficult to find examples of the kind of confusion that learning outcomes
engender, often because they are imported into systems which rely on standards for
their operation. Take the English BTEC National Level 3 in Construction as an
example[2]. Unit 1 covers Health, Safety and Welfare and is prefaced by a number of
learning outcomes, whose content includes:
JEIT .
Accident prevention: risk assessments: items to be assessed, principal hazards,
32,2/3 likely injury outcomes.
.
Use of control measures: use of procedures, substances, lifting assessments and
manual handling assessments, inspection, personal responsibility for health,
safety and welfare.
.
Legal uuties: legal duty of each person to obey safety rules and to use protective
106 equipment, consequences of non-compliance for both the individual and the
company (Edexcel, 2003).
References
Barrow, R. (1976), Common Sense and the Curriculum, David Elgar, Cheltenham.
Coles, M. (2007), Qualifications Frameworks in Europe Platforms for Qualifications, Integration
and Reform, EU Education and Culture DG, Brussels.
Coles, M. and Oates, T. (2003), European Reference Levels for Education and Training, QCA,
London.
Edexcel (2003), Edexcel Level 3, BTEC Nationals in Construction, Edexcel, London.
EU (European Union) (2006), Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council for
the Establishment of a European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning,
European Commission, Brussels, available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/educ/
eqf/com_2006_0479_en.pdf (accessed 23 July 2007).
Hirst, P.H. (1974), Knowledge and the Curriculum, Routledge, London.
Jessup, G. (1991), Outcomes: NVQs and the Emerging Model of Education and Training, Falmer
Press, London.
Nuffield Review (2004), The Nuffield Review of 14-19 Education in England and Wales 1st Annual
Report, available at: www.nuffield14-19review.org.uk/files/documents36-1.pdf (accessed
23 July 2007).
PISA (2006), OECD Programme for International Student Assessment, available at: www.pisa.
oecd.org/pages/0,2987,en_32252351_32235731_1_1_1_1_1,00.html (accessed 23 July 2007).
Pring, R. (1992), Standards and quality in education, British Journal of Educational Studies,
Vol. XXXX No. 1.
Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA) (2005), English in the National Curriculum, QCA,
London.
Raggatt, P. and Williams, S. (1999), Government, Markets and Vocational Qualifications: An
Anatomy of Policy, Falmer, London.
Skills for Logistics (2003), Skills for Logistics Industry Qualifications: Driving Goods Vehicles,
Skills for Logistics, Milton Keynes.
Toulmin, S. (1957), The Uses of Argument, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
White, J.P. (2007), What Schools Are for and Why, Philosophy of Education Society of Great
Britain.
Winch, C. (1996), Quality and Education, Blackwell, Oxford.
Appendix Performance-
related learning
Kenntnisse Fertigkeiten Kompetenz
JEIT
32,2/3 European qualifications
framework
Weighing some pros and cons out of a French
114 perspective
Annie Bouder
Centre dEtudes et de Recherches sur les Qualifications, Marseille, France
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to question the appropriateness of a proposal for a new
European Qualifications Framework. The framework has three perspectives: historical; analytical; and
national.
Design/methodology/approach The approaches are diverse since the first insists on the
institutional and decision-making processes at European level questioning the impact that could have
on the recently formalised Open Method of Coordination. The second goes into more detailed analyses
of the instrument itself and of its shortcomings both in conceptual terms and on its pragmatic ones.
The last approach is a comparative one by which the French system is benchmarked against EQF
guidelines.
Findings The main conclusion is that there is obviously a political will to question the role and the
structure of qualifications in view of an economy and a society of knowledge and that research has
much to contribute on very different levels like the three chosen for this article.
Research limitations/implications Choosing to mix three quite different approaches in one
short text is an attempt to be valued since it shows the different aspects under which a so-called
neutral instrument needs to be regarded.
Practical implications Practically, this speaks for the further involvement of research in the
present, very institutional and organisational discussions on European qualifications.
Originality/value In terms of research, it is seldom that these various levels are considered
together. The article proves that there is a case to do so.
Keywords Qualifications, Decision making, Comparative tests, Vocational training,
European directives, France
Paper type Conceptual paper
Since the Lisbon summit in 2000 and its follow-up both in the Education Training
2010 programme and in the working groups attached to the Bruges/Copenhagen
process, many stakeholders of vocational training in the member states envisage that
important changes could be brought to traditional processes and principles in their
respective fields, at European but also at national levels. Levers for these changes
should be new European instruments for the definition and the legibility of formal
qualifications. In 2004 a proposal for the implementation of a European Qualifications
Framework (EQF) was put to a Europe-wide consultation and in 2006 the same was
Journal of European Industrial
done for a proposal designing an ECVET system (European Credits for VET).
Training Mobilisation of stakeholders has been high and many papers, articles, comments have
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
pp. 114-126 circulated. With this book, the editors want to bring these debates further. The
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0590
contribution of this article will be at three levels: the first section contextualises the
DOI 10.1108/03090590810861668 above mentioned developments in the overall Europe-and-qualifications-history;
with the second one, some aspects related to the proposed design for an EQF are European
discussed; the last section focuses on the French system looking at its potential in view qualifications
of the European challenges.
framework
Part 1. Europe and qualifications: what is new?
When faced with a debate placed at such a high political level, it is always useful to
look back on history to help clarifying the terms of the present debate[1]. Doing so, one 115
can see that since its inception the EC and then the EU has had to deal with the issue of
qualifications.
The very first Community intervention in the field dates all the way back to the
Rome Treaty in 1957. Its purpose then was to eliminate barriers to the freedom of
establishment and concerned, to start with, regulated professions since these may only
be carried out by people having the appropriate qualification/credential. In this field, it
was considered necessary to intervene through the legal compelling tool of the
Directives. It obliges national Laws to comply with the set objectives, leaving the
achievement means to national choice. However, these achievement means have
been largely pre-defined, mostly in terms of contents and of length of the education and
training programmes leading to the attribution of the qualification. While the Directive
provides for the recognition of work experience (Title 2, Chapter 2), the main elements
defining qualifications are input-orientated: content and length of learning are
ultimate indicators for quality, together with the notoriety of the organisation
delivering the document. The credential (the certificate) conveys the qualification,
but based on the input-elements that it represents.
As a whole, some 15 Directives concerning, with various importance, several
hundreds of qualifications have been enacted, all of them being consolidated into one
single one in September 2005[2]. Nowadays, the European obligations created by the
Directive have been largely integrated by national systems. It appears somehow
normal that its provisions partly influence their understanding of a qualification.
Further Community incursions into the field, addressed the correspondence of
qualifications. The operation started in 1985, under the direction of CEDEFOP. It
compared the nature of the work tasks expected in the various countries from those
holding a similar qualification. To this end, groups of professional experts were asked
to extract these joint core contents out of their respective qualifications. With this
operation, training contents are ignored: only work tasks and activity do matter (the
practical professional requirements for a vocation or a group of vocations[3]). In the
various countries, it proved that these requirements are largely dependent on the
modes of work organisation, the development of technologies, the outcomes of
collective bargaining and the resulting classifications: labour market orientation for
the joint definition of qualifications proved to be quite difficult. The operation rose
however a lot of expectations but also pretty much controversy: it has proved to be
very lengthy and to bear little results at practical level. The common cores arrived had
to be the smallest common denominator (Merle and Bertrand, 1993), giving them
little meaning both for a European and for national labour markets. As it was
voluntary, the operation was stopped after a few years, having concerned occupations
at qualified worker[4] level in 19 sectors[5].
It appears that its promoters in CEDEFOP made use of the earlier lessons, to set-up
in 1998 the European Forum on Transparency of Qualifications. Aiming still at making
JEIT understandable to outsiders the content of vocational qualifications, several
32,2/3 documents were developed by a group of experts representing social partners, national
authorities in charge of education and training and researchers. These documents were
gathered in a Portfolio named Europass, whose content was extended after 2002. In its
December 2004 version, Europass gathers up to five kinds of documents: the European
CV, the Certificate Supplement and/or the Diploma Supplement, the language passport
116 and the Europass Traineeship certificate. Finalised as a Decision of the European
Parliament and Council, it has created a legal obligation to every member states to
foster its use, setting-up specific structures to this end.
Qualifications and the organisation of learning pathways have also played a crucial
role in the higher education area. Starting 1988, the Universities envisage a closer
organisational structure, in which qualifications play a major role: Bachelor, Master
and Doctorate qualifications should become the common currency, and a credit and
transfer system (ECTS) should facilitate both mobility between universities and
ultimately the integration of different learning environments such as work or other
learning situations. In this context, qualifications are mainly related to education and
training, the credit units being defined in terms of length of study time needed to
acquire it.
It is interesting to note that no legal text is underpinning these developments in the
higher education area. The texts of the various Communiques are morally binding,
not legally. But their impact does not seem to be weakened. Motivation for higher
education institutions to follow the Bologna process comes from a well understood
self-interest: comparability standards, competition at European and international
levels . . . Universities were the initiators of this process and the way they moved
towards a joint and closer process makes them one of the precursors of the Open
Method of Coordination (OMC), as it was formally adopted at the Lisbon Summit in
2000.
For the time being, the most recent developments in the field of qualifications fall
under this new decision-making process that provides for the cases (in terms of policy
fields) when the EU institutions have no formal right to intervene, whereas member
states governments do want to bring their policies closer[6]. To this end, governments
state some general policy guidelines that are then detailed in more precise objectives
foreseen with indicators of achievements and a calendar. When it comes to the area of
qualifications, the stated goal of developing the European society towards a
knowledge society gave rise after 2002 to the proposals for both a European
Qualifications Framework (EQF) and a European system of credits for VET
(ECVET)[7].
Putting the proposal for a European Qualifications Framework on the table has
stirred much discussion among stakeholders in VET. The very high political relevance
given to the proposal through its inclusion in the Lisbon process towards a knowledge
society, and the high pressure that the OMC procedures may give rise to (in terms of
evaluation and benchmarking), overcomes the fact that its legal basis is only a
recommendation. Administrations, mostly in charge of managing national
qualifications and national qualifications frameworks where they exist, have to
perform something in the set direction.
To come back to the question raised by the title of this first section what is new?
one must say for first that EQF and ECVET add an other layer to quite a long list of
European initiatives in the field. While it is to be admitted that they are of different European
character and could also find their place amongst cooperation instruments between qualifications
member states, it is also clear that the other initiatives will not resume. This gives a
sense of scattering of efforts. framework
There is however a resolute new element in the debate, that has to do with the
inclusion of education, training and qualifications in the recent OMC procedure. The
application of this mode of cooperation to employment policies and services (Barbier, 117
2004) shows how far non-legal decisions can influence organisational and structural
operative modes.
Apart from decision-making considerations, the launching of an EQF raises the
question as to whether it will constitute a real contribution towards a knowledge
society. Final answers to this issue are yet to be found. But several issues can be raised
that could support one or the other kind of arguments. Some of those relate to the very
instrument itself, the present EQF proposal. Others can be drawn from one national
experience, the French one.
The challenge is big to take the global labour market as the dominating reference, since
it is itself very much subject to drastic changes that might become even greater in a
knowledge economy. The capacity for change of vocational training systems is being
largely under-estimated, privileging the labour market as the main innovating factor
and increasing in this way a gap that a knowledge society should to the contrary
contribute to fill.
Since 2004 the situation has evolved and much experimentation is on their way that
will or not comfort the feasibility for an EQF. As for now, it appears important to
accept that the contradictions and hesitations described above reflect a reality still in European
construction that does have contradictions and hesitations. In periods of change, clarity qualifications
is difficult to gain. But will it be change or agitation?
Questions remain as to why it was necessary to launch both the EQF and the framework
ECVET in the name of the knowledge society? Being purposefully polemic, it seems
that they would rather prove being important steps towards a European market for
awarding and accrediting bodies! 121
But to come back to sensible arguments, it is to be regretted that national systems
have not been more trusted in their capacity to adjust to new developments. The
following short example of the French system is meant to give insights into what could
be relied upon to construct the changes.
This process has been taking place in a context in which since the 1950s the
schooling of learning was favoured: whereas at that time vocational learning mainly
took place on the job, it was then progressively transferred to the schools, aiming in
doing so at an evolution towards a parity of esteem between the two tracks, general
and vocational education. A recurrent debate followed through: are vocational
education and training primarily an answer to the immediate needs of the economy or
do they participate of a more general objective to build both the worker and the citizen?
On several occasion in its history, the French system has decided for the latter. Its
national qualifications are organised with this perspective. For example, they are
designed so as to allow for both further education and entrance to the labour market.
The main instrument that served as a spine for what was to become a national
framework has been the scale of qualifications levels defined in 1969 by the body in
charge of planning the economy[12]. Its launching was meant to help a better match
between education and training for young people and the recruitments needs of the
economy. It concerned therefore qualifications of initial VET. These needs were
defined with a certain distance from the immediate, observable needs and more in
terms of desirable ones.
A couple of years later, when the Law organising the right to further vocational
training for employees was passed (1971) it could have given rise to a parallel totally
different system for validating qualifications. This did not happen and in the name of
JEIT equal dignity, qualifications delivered by both systems were put in correspondence to
32,2/3 one another and validated thanks to the same scale of levels and fields of economic
activity. A specific commission was set-up in 1972, which was in charge of the
accreditation of those qualifications[13] that were not delivered by the Ministry of
Education.
Progressively since then, qualifications from initial and continuing general and
122 vocational training have been organised in a joint national framework structured
around this scale of levels. In 2002, the National Accreditation Commission (CTH) was
replaced by the National Commission for Vocational Qualifications[14], which
increased the unification of the system in two ways:
(1) in enforcing the accreditation of prior experience (APE); it became conditional
for a qualification wanting to be included in the national framework to provide
for an APE procedure; and
(2) in opening the framework to the sectors qualifications (CQP[15]) that are
designed and managed by the social partners of the economic sectors.
Notes
1. A more detailed and encompassing article on the same subject will next be published in the
fourth European research report of CEDEFOP.
2. Directive 2005/36, published in the Community Official Journal L255 from 30 September
2005, p. 22.
3. Community Official Journal L199 from 31 July 1985.
4. ISCED 2 level.
JEIT 5. The corresponding qualifications profiles have been published in the EC-Official Journal.
32,2/3 6. More details and analyses of the OMC can be found in Georgopoulos (2005).
7. Resolution of the European Council to promote the reinforcement of European cooperation in
VET, from 19 December 2002.
8. For detailed comments refer to (Young, 2005) and (Tuck, 2007).
9. Savoir-etre.
124
10. We refer here to the answers to the questionnaire used for the Maastricht middle-term
evaluation of progress towards the Lisbon goals (cf. Leney et al., 2004).
11. More detailed developments of the following are to be found in Kirsch, J.-L. and Bouder, A.
The French system for vocational training: an unappreciated prototype? to be published in
the European Journal of Education.
12. Commissariat General du Plan.
13. The Commission Technique dHomologation des titres et diplomes (CTH) the National
Accrediting Commission.
14. The Commission Nationale de Certification Professionnelle CNCP.
15. Certificats de Qualifications Professionnelles.
16. Kirsch, J.-L. and Bouder, A. The French system for vocational training: an unappreciated
prototype? to be published in the European Journal of Education.
References
Barbier, J.-C. and [with the contribution of Samba Sylla, N.] (2004), La strategie europeenne pour
lemploi: genese, coordination communautaire et diversite natinale, Rapport de recherche
pour la DARES, Centre dEtudes de lEmploi, Paris.
Bruyere, M. and Lemistre, P. (2006), La specialite de formation: un signal de competences
specifiques et generales, working paper, Note LIRHE 430, Toulouse.
Commission of the European Communities (2005), Towards a European qualifications
framework for lifelong learning, Commission Staff Working Document SEC (2005) 957,
Brussels.
Georgopoulos, T. (2005), La Methode ouverte de coordination europeenne: en attendant Godot ?,
Note de recherche No. 01/05, Institut dEtudes Europeennes, Universite de Montreal,
Montreal, p. l.
Leney, T. (2004), Achieving the Lisbon Goal: The Contribution of VET, European Commission,
Brussels.
Merle, V. and Bertrand, O. (1993), Comparabilite et reconnaissance des qualifications en Europe.
Instruments et enjeux, Formation Emploi, Vol. 43, pp. 41-56.
OECD (2005), Moving Mountains How Can Qualifications Systems Promote Lifelong Learning?,
OECD, Paris.
Savoyant, A. (1996), Une approche cognitive de lalternance, Cereq BREF No. 118, March.
Tuck, R. (2007), An Introductory Guide to National Qualifications Frameworks: Conceptual and
Practical Issues for Policy Makers, Skills and Employability Department, ILO, Geneva.
Westerhuis, A. (2001), European Structures of Qualification Levels, Volume 1-3, CEDEFOP,
Thessalonique.
Young, M. (2005), National qualifications frameworks: their feasibility for effective
implementation in developing countries, Skills Working Paper 22., International
Labour Office, Geneva.
Further reading European
Bertrand, O. (1996), Comparabilite et reconnaissance des qualifications: lexperience qualifications
europeenne, in OCDE, (Ed.) (Ed.), Qualifications et competences professionnelles dans
lenseignement technique et la formation professionnelle Evaluation et certification, framework
OECD, Paris, pp. 73-91.
Bouder, A. (2005), La transparence des qualifications et son articulation avec la construction des
diplomes en France et en Europe, CPC Info 40 Le point sur . . . la formation professionnelle 125
et la mobilite en Europe, MEN-DESCO, Paris, pp. 33-6.
Bouder, A., Dauty, F., Kirsch, J.-L. and Lemistre, P. (2006), Legibility of qualifications: an issue
as long-standing as Europe, in Descy, P. and Tessaring, M. (Eds), Modernising Vocational
Education and Training. Fourth Report on Vocational Training Research in Europe:
Background Report, CEDEFOP reference series, EUR-OP, Luxembourg.
Bouder, A., Coutrot, L., Kirsch, E., Kirsch, J.-L., Paddeu, J., Savoyant, A. and Sulzer, E. (2001),
Certification and legibility of competence, in Descy, P. and Tessaring, M. (Eds), Training
in Europe, Second Report on Vocational Training Research in Europe 2000: Background
Report, Vol. 2, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg,
pp. 169-212.
Coles, M. and Oates, T. (2004), European Reference Levels for Education and Training An
Important Parameter for Promoting Credit Transfer and Mutual Trust, CEDEFOP,
Thessalonique.
Commissariat General du Plan Secretariat dEtat a la Recherche (1996), Le service public en
recherche. Quelle modernisation?, La Documentation francaise, Paris.
Conference internationale du travail, 91eme session (2003), Rapport IV Apprendre et se former
pour travailler dans la societe du savoir, Bureau International du Travail, Geneve.
Gremion, C. (1996), Crise des moyens ou crise des fins ? Quelques enseignements dun seminaire
in: Commissariat General du Plan, in Secretariat dEtat a la Recherche (Ed.), Le service
public en recherche. Quelle modernisation?, a Documentation francaise, Paris, pp. 385-96.
Le Mouillour, I. and Teichler, U. (2004), Making European Credit Transfer Work ECTS and
ECVET, Actes du symposium Construction des qualifications europeennes, Beta-Cereq,
Strasbourg, pp. 93-102.
OCDE (1996), Qualifications et competences professionnelles dans lenseignement technique et la
formation professionnelle evaluation et certification, OECD, Paris.
OCDE (2005), Promouvoir la formation des adultes, OCDE, Paris.
Sellin, B. (1999), Les programmes deducation et de formation professionnelle de la CE et de lUE
de 1975 a 1999 ebauche dun bilan historique critique, Formation Professionnelle, No. 18,
septembre-decembre, pp. 17-28.
Teissier, J. and Rose, J. (2006), La certification, nouvel instrument de la relation formation-emploi
un enjeu francais et europeen, Relief 16, Cereq, Marseille.
Winterton, J., Delamare-Le Deist, F. and Stringfellow, E. (2005), Typology of Knowledge, Skills and
Competences: Clarification of the Concept and Prototype, Roneo, Toulouse.
Young, M. (2003), National qualifications frameworks: an international and comparative
approach, Journal of Education and Work, Special Issue, 3 September.
Young, M. (2004), Towards a European Qualifications Framework: Some cautionary
observations, Actes du symposium Construction des qualifications europeennes,
Beta-Cereq, Strasbourg, pp. 40-5.
JEIT Corresponding author
Annie Bouder was trained as a sociologist at the University of Hamburg (Germany) and
32,2/3 completed her education with a post-graduate degree of the College of Europe in Bruges
(Belgium). She joined Cereq (the French Centre for Research on Qualifications www.
cerequation fr) in Marseille in 1992, a public centre working to both the education and labour
national ministries but also for social partners, enterprises, regional governments. She is one of
the Executive Officers for International Relations. Her present research interests are:
126 qualifications, education and training regimes, iterative relationship between employment and
training, knowledge creation. Annie Bouder can be contacted at: bouder@cerequation fr
Towards a
Towards a European qualifications
qualifications framework: framework
some cautionary observations
127
Michael Young
Institute of Education, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the European Commissions and the
member states attempts to introduce a European Qualifications Framework and national frameworks
respectively.
Design/methodology/approach The paper is based on a review of policies and substantive desk
research in countries that have applied a qualification framework approach.
Findings The analysis shows that qualifications frameworks (QFs) are resisted partly from inertia
and conservatism and partly because important educational purposes are being defended. NQF
experiences suggest that hopes associated with QFs are unrealistic (e.g. accreditation of prior
learning).
Research limitations/implications The paper draws mainly on conceptual and secondary
analysis. In future primary empirical analysis would be desirable.
Practical implications The findings are extremely relevant to policy makers on the European
and national levels. The lessons from NQFs suggest incrementalism, building blocks, supporting
policies, consensus and staying as close as possible to practice are important.
Originality/value This paper is one of the few attempts to evaluate current initiatives based on
prior experiences.
Keywords Europe, Qualifications, Vocational training, New Zealand, South Africa
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
A recent CEDEFOP paper concluded that:
The creation of a European Qualifications Framework is essential to . . . improv(ing) the
quality of vocational education and training . . . and for further developments in
transparency, recognition of qualifications, credit transfer systems and quality assurance.
A number of things can be noted about these goals for a European Qualifications
Framework (EQF):
.
They are very similar to those found in proposals for national frameworks.
.
Although there have been many proposals for NQFs, no fully comprehensive
national frameworks yet exist.
.
All attempts to implement an NQF have been faced with considerable difficulties.
Journal of European Industrial
.
NQFs have been the subject of considerable debate. They have been criticised as Training
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
being part of neo-liberal and market oriented approaches to the economy, for pp. 127-137
having an instrumentalist view of educational policy and for, undermining some q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0590
of the most basic educational goals. DOI 10.1108/03090590810861677
JEIT What is striking about the recent proposals for NQFs is that while they have borrowed
32,2/3 from earlier examples, none have explicitly considered the actual experience of
introducing an NQF. As a result the difficulties faced by the first phase NQFs have by
and large been reproduced in the second phase. These observations form the
background to the rest of my paper.
The paper is based on two assumptions. First, I start by accepting the long-term
128 goals of a Europe-wide qualifications framework as summarised in the CEDEFOP
document (CEDEFOP, 2004). Second, I argue that implementing an EQF will inevitably
face the same problems, but in an exaggerated form, that have been faced by countries
introducing NQFs. It follows that unless lessons are learned from the experience of
introducing national frameworks, a Europe-wide qualifications framework will get
similarly bogged down in jargon, bureaucracy and even active opposition and stands
no chance of achieving its goals.
What then are the assumptions made by NQFs that have created such difficulties?
And how might an EQF strategy avoid or at least minimise them?
Not all NQFs have adopted all these criteria. However, they provide the basis for
claiming that, in principle, an NQF allows qualifications to be:
.
achieved by accumulation over time (credit accumulation and transfer);
.
transportable units of one qualification can be used for other qualifications;
and
.
transparent learners know precisely what learning outcomes they are required
to demonstrate.
It is these features that make clear the sharp differences between NQFs and most
existing qualification systems. I find it useful to express the differences in terms of a
tension between two pairs of principles. The Principle of Difference and the Principle of
Equivalence and the Principle of Inputs and the Principle of Outcomes.
Existing qualification systems are organised around the principles of equivalence
and inputs. They assume that different qualifications (e.g academic and vocational,
university and non-university, and vocational qualifications for different occupational
sectors) relate to fundamentally different types of learning and the acquisition of
different types of knowledge. Furthermore they will differ in the extent to which they Towards a
depend on periods of study (in a college, a school or a university) following specific qualifications
syllabuses and periods of work experience (as in work-based vocational qualifications).
In contrast, qualification frameworks give priority to stipulating that all framework
qualifications have similar features and that outcomes can be separated from the
way in which they are achieved.
The issue of validation or accreditation of informal or experiential learning highlights 129
the problems of applying the Principle of Equivalence to qualifications. No one doubts
the importance of the informal learning. However, assuming that common criteria can be
identified for recognising formal and informal learning creates a number of problems. If
the criteria stress evidence of codified or disciplinary knowledge, validation of informal
learning will in most cases be impossible. If, however, criteria emphasise practical
problem solving in specific contexts it will be treating the knowledge component of
vocational competence as less important at a time when the knowledge economy thesis
argues it should be more not less important. A further problem is that in accrediting
informal learning in its own terms denies the learner access to the knowledge he/she is
likely to need to progress to further or higher education.
These differences between existing qualification systems and qualification
frameworks are not small. They imply different notions of learning and knowledge, of
expertise and experience, and different approaches to assessment. One example of the
difference is that outcomes stress general criteria of achievement or performance
whereas input approaches stress knowledge content. The point here is that given these
differences, it is not surprising that implementing NQFs has come up against difficulties.
An incremental approach
The countries that have tried to make a radical one-off break with their previous
qualifications systems have had the most acute difficulties. A radical break gives
neither practitioners nor other stakeholders any bench marks to test the new ideas
about outcomes and levels against their experience. Incremental approaches minimise
the likelihood that polarised positions are established.
Building blocks
Scotland demonstrates very well the importance of the building blocks of a framework
being in place. Only when there were separate frameworks for upper secondary
schools, vocational education and universities in place was the overarching Scottish
Credit and Qualifications Framework introduced. It was the existence of these
building blocks that established both the confidence in and the practicality of a
broader more comprehensive framework.
Supporting policies Towards a
Qualifications frameworks are sometimes seen as separate instruments of education qualifications
reform which will themselves ensure portability, transparency and quality. The
lessons from the successful countries such as Scotland, New Zealand, Ireland and to a framework
lesser extent Australia is that an NQF is only one element in what must be a much
broader strategy that includes staff and curriculum development, a review of funding,
institutional improvement and developing a new assessment infrastructure. In the case 135
of an EQF staff development in European languages is likely to be a crucial supporting
policy.
Links to institutions
The primary rationale for an NQF or an EQF that separates qualifications from
educational institutions is so that it can accredit non-formal or informal learning. The
NQF experience suggests that this is an unrealistic hope. A far more realistic approach
is to link institutions to informal learners through supporting alternative access
programmes. It is difficult to see who would value qualifications achieved by
accreditation alone. The policy priority that arises from the logic of the knowledge
economy is not to accredit existing informal learning but to use that informal learning
to provide new forms of progression into further and higher education.
Implementation strategy
The lessons from NQFs suggest incrementalism, building blocks, supporting policies,
consensus and staying as close as possible to practice are important. This inevitably
means it will be a slower process than the Commission appears to hope when it argues
that an EQF should be established by 2005. Work can begin on an Europe-wide level
but the framework design operation should not rush ahead of the trust and new
practices on which the framework must be based. If the new EQF moves too far from
practice it will inevitably repeat the problems of the NQFs and have many new criteria
but little actual mobility or progression.
Notes
1. Two senses of the term prescription need to be distinguished. One refers to the degree of
specification required for a qualification to be registered on the framework. Typical
examples are. (i) whether a qualification is required to be available via the accreditation of
prior learning; and (ii) whether a qualification has to be expressed in a specific number of
units to which credit is assigned. The second meaning of prescription refers to the role of the
State and whether the registration of qualifications is a legal requirement.
2. However, as was mentioned earlier, while the NVQ framework was strong in terms of its
requirements, government did not make it a legal requirement for all those using or
providing qualifications.
3. The term weak is not used in an evaluative sense and for this reason some people have found
the distinction between tight and loose frameworks more useful. It is important to stress that
my typology of frameworks is itself open to debate and discussion. The only question is
whether it is useful in clarifying issues.
References
Callaghan, R. (1962), Education and the Cult of Efficiency, The University of Chicago Press,
Chicago, IL.
CEDEFOP (2004), European Reference Levels for Education and Training An Important Towards a
Parameter for Promoting Credit Transfer and Mutual Trust, Office for Official
Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. qualifications
Granville, G. (2003), Stop making sense: chaos and coherence in the formulation of the Irish framework
qualifications framework, Journal of Education and Work, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 259-70.
Phillips, D. (2003), Lessons from the New Zealand qualifications framework, Journal of
Education and Work, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 289-304. 137
QCA (2004), Thinking on Reform, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority, London.
Raffe, D. (2003), Simplicity itself: the creation of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications
Framework, Journal of Education and Work, Vol. 16 No. 3, pp. 239-57.
Vargas, F.Z. (2005), Key Competencies and Lifelong Learning: Three Perspectives on these Subjects
in Latin America and the Caribbean, Skills and Employability Department/CINTERFOR,
ILO, Montevideo.
JEIT
32,2/3 Professional competence as a
benchmark for a European space
of vocational education and
138
training
Philipp Grollmann
Institute of Technology & Education, University of Bremen, Bremen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose The papers aim is to present a critical review of the current European process of
co-operation in VET with a special view to the European Qualification Framework and its competence
orientation.
Design/methodology/approach The approach reviews the official documentation and the
consultation process and a contrastive analysis of the state of the art of research and developments in VET.
Findings In order to make European VET a direct contribution to the revised Lisbon agenda, a
more concise shared vision with regard to the processes and structures of vocational education might
be needed.
Research limitations/implications It does not seem possible logically and pragmatically to
fully abstract from the processes in which competence is acquired and in which it is going to be used.
Practical implications Research and development activities in the European Union should be
integrated towards an agenda that covers structures, conditions and processes of learning for the
world of work.
Originality/value Apart from a few other contributions, critical accounts of current policies and
its implications for research and practice are scarce.
Keywords European legislation, Vocational training, Qualifications, Competences
Paper type Conceptual paper
Copenhagen-process
Within the framework of the Copenhagen Process, the ministers of education of the EU
member states have agreed to re-align their vocational education policies to encompass
common aims and provisions. Especially since the follow-up conference to evaluate the
progress of the Copenhagen Process held under the Dutch presidency in Maastricht in
December 2004, the provisions for the drafting of a European credit system for
vocational education and training (ECVET) and the European qualification framework
(EQF) have assumed a special significance (Europaische Kommission.
Generaldirektion Bildung und Kultur, 2004). This European qualification is planned
to become approved by the council and the parliament during the second half of the
year 2007 and European countries are already preparing the setup of national
qualification frameworks. The earlier agenda of increasing the transparency of VET
in Europe (Sellin and Piehl, 1995) is given away to a more binding agenda.
The consultation phase prescribed by the Commission, within it was possible for
member states to respond to proposals presented by the Commission, expired at the
end of December 2006. The proposal made by the English education authority QCA in
co-operation with the Commission provides a basis for the realisation of a European
vocational education area (Commission of the European Communities, 2005).
At this point I would like to subject the proposal for an EQF to a critical analysis but
also point out the prospects that could arise from a competence-orientation as it is
envisaged by the EQF. We have already submitted the more fundamental orientations
and procedures of the Copenhagen Process to a critical analysis at different locations
(Grollmann and Ruth, 2007). First, the proposal for an EQF, the consultation process
and the results (Commission of the European Communities, 2006) will be described and
assessed (partly based on Grollmann and Rauner, 2004). In a second step the
consequences of an orientation towards professional competences as an option for
European VET policies and research will be outlined.
Of course, when evaluating these two questions one must take account of the fact that
the process of life-long learning takes place in different professions, (occupational)
domains and vocational fields, and that within their careers some people attain
successive qualification levels, but may also change profession or vocational field.
Either way, the vocationally determined structures of work and the related vocational
training are of crucial importance.
After graduating from school, a three-year Bachelors degree generally provides the
foundation for a subsequent masters. Simultaneously, internships convey vocational
competences. The classification of graduates from such degree courses is complicated
by the fact that degrees in further education prepare for a vocational career path, but
do not provide vocational skills such as those provided by the training of skilled
workers and master craftsmen, for instance. We could estimate that graduates from a
Bachelors degree require a further two years to familiarise themselves with vocational
tasks (i.e. the usual trainee programmes). If a graduate with a Bachelors degree wanted
to pursue a master craftsman career, he would practically have to start from scratch if
he has no previous vocational training. Parts of his theoretical knowledge could
certainly apply to the new career. This would be no different for the master craftsman
wanting to embark on an academic degree. More generally, this means that
knowledge acquired during ones learning pathway is by no means necessarily the
knowledge required for a different pathway. Whilst a subject-specific degree course
conveys the closely defined fundamental scientific knowledge and methods of that
particular field, the master craftsman must have a command of comprehensive
expertise, entrepreneurial, practical and educational competences, which might be in
big parts rather acquired through work experiences than in formalised learning
processes.
Based on the examination of published literature Competence means the proven ability to use
from France, the United Kingdom, Germany and knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or
the United States of America, the following methodological abilities, in work or study
composite definition of competence is offered. situations and in professional and/or personal
Competence includes: i) cognitive competence development. In the European Qualifications
involving the use of theory and concepts, as well as Framework, competence is described in terms of
informal tacit knowledge gained experientially; ii) responsibility and autonomy
functional competence (skills or know-how), those
things that a person should be able to do when they
are functioning in a given area of work, learning or
social activity; iii) personal competence involving
knowing how to conduct oneself in a specific
situation; and iv) ethical competence involving the
possession of certain personal and professional
values. [. . .] This understanding of competences
will be reflected in the EQF reference levels
described in this document where a distinction
will be made between knowledge (reflecting
Table I. element (i) of the above definition), skills
The development of the (reflecting element (ii) of the above definition and,
use of competence in finally, wider competences (reflecting elements
the EQF (iii) and (iv) of the above definition)
such frameworks rests with some of the natural features of learning. The framework in Professional
its current form tries to separate the learning process from its outcomes. It seems to be competence as a
illogical to make this distinction since there are no starting or ending points of a
learning process as such (apart from birth and death). Human beings learn constantly benchmark
and do not just stop learning, as if they were finished or complete. The content of this
learning might be deemed useful or detrimental. This is basically dependent on the
subject of evaluating the content and results learning (might be the individual itself, a 145
teacher, a societal institution such as an examination board, a psychologist interested
in the nature of learning etc.). When doing this evaluation based on certain criterions
considerations will be playing a role implicitly or explicitly what could have been
learned at all after a certain process. This will entail certain ideas about the context of
learning. For example, you would not assume the ability to swim from someone who
has never jumped himself or been tossed into water. That context is a fundamental
variable in shaping learning apart from individual dispositions has been stressed by
several approaches looking at the situatedness of learning and cognition (Brown et al.,
1989; Lave and Wenger, 1991)
In that regard, the emphasis on competence as a learning outcome could be turned
into a useful and stimulating concept giving direction to the European dialogue on
VET and its development on a European scale. This dialogue would have to focus
around the nature of professional competence as an educational end and the conditions
for its development and use at work, i.e. the learning processes. In this section a
strategy which puts professional competence at its centre will be discussed in its
consequences for the European VET agenda. First some remarks will be made on the
macro-level of such considerations.
147
Figure 1.
Concepts of VET and
competence
[. . .] two things are essential: Competence based education is explicitly aimed at the key
issues or problems in professions and careers, and prepares the learner to deal with them; the
accent is put on an optimal competence development of the learners, tailored to their personal
wishes and possibilities. The aim of competence-based education is to train people to become
competent citizens and professionals. Competences and competence development are the
pivot around which content, programming, organisation and pedagogic-didactical design of
the educational process should be developed.
The table provides an idealised view of conceptions of competence development and
education. In the table, educational ends lie on the continuum between liberal education
and targeted vocational or technical instruction (the horizontal axis). Pure liberal
education aims at the development of the cultured and educated person/citizen and
targeted vocational or technical instruction aims at the development of the qualified
worker. The vertical axis is a continuum ranging from adaptive and reproductive ways
of learning towards innovative and proactive orientations to learning processes.
Looking at a the emerging quadrants of the matrix we find four types of competence:
(1) An adaptive competence building favouring learning contents primarily
derived from external (technological and labour market) demands and focusing
on qualified workers rather than on educated citizens.
(2) An explanatory knowledge and competence, emerging as a result of adaptive
competence building and an orientation towards the educated citizen.
(3) An emphasis on innovative and proactive competence formation, combined
with an orientation towards the qualified, specialist worker. This is often
associated with the characteristics of high performance work systems.
JEIT (4) Finally, the orientation towards innovative and active workers (learners) in
32,2/3 combination with the educated citizen perspective results in a reflective shaping
competence.
It can be argued that different European systems place emphasis on different parts of the
matrix. An example on the European level, fitting into the two upper quadrants is the
148 European occupational profile Car-Mechatronic, combining sophisticated technical,
service and business competences. Whether the implementation of the profile tends more
towards participative human resource development or reflective shaping competence
depends mainly on the national way of organising the connection between IVET and
CVT. Reflective shaping competence is a goal that is pursued in many VET systems,
that locate VET in the secondary educational system but that is not always achieved.
Despite the differences illustrated in this section there seem to be sufficient commonalities
within the variety of VET-Systems in Europe to carry out a discussion on such strategic
orientations. In addition, it is a big task for research to develop an understanding how
vocational competences develop and what circumstances influence their growing.
The structures and content of competence a big task for research and development
It is only with difficulty that the dimensions at the core of the EQF could be assigned to
the theories and concepts of competence research (see also Haahr and Hansen, 2006).
E.g. since the reform of large occupational fields at the end of the 1980s, the traditional
division into knowledge and skills shared by the planning and research of
vocational training in Germany, has been abandoned in favour of the qualifications
category. This was to support vocational education that would emphasise the relaying
of practical vocational competences. This entailed among other things the concept of
comprehensive work activity (vollstandige Arbeitshandlung, Hacker, 1998) as a full
feedback circle (Miller et al., 1973). From this perspective a renewed division of
professional competence (qualification) into knowledge and skills would spell a
qualitative step backwards for vocational education (Table II).
The term qualifications is used because the usual way of developing vocational
training regulations is rather based on an objectivist conception of work processes
instead of profiles of vocational competences that are built on the subjective basis of
coping with the tasks and challenges of work. Terminological accuracy is needed in
this regard, since there is a longstanding discussion on the different terms for quite
some time in different research traditions (Erpenbeck and Rosenstiel, 2003; Hartig and
Klieme, 2006) that is partly backed up by empirical research.
As the table shows competence in this understanding is an intermediate concept
between an objectivist view on tasks and the abilities needed in order to fulfil this task
(qualifications) and a fully subjectivist view on individual intelligence as a stable and
more or less unmodifiable cognitive resource. The draft of the EQF was strongly
driven by such notion of competence whereas the current version has turned back to a
description of competence by the degree of autonomy, i.e. a more objectivist feature.
However, the current version is not fully consistent in this more qualification driven
perspective since it still mentions knowledge, skills and personal, social and/or
methodological abilities as major dimensions. Those dimensions are closely rooted in
curricular input considerations and the structuring of learning content (Reetz, 1999;
Roth, 1971). They are not necessarily empirically valid accounts of the structure of
professional competences in domains of skilful work. Since autonomy is now the
Professional
Qualification Competence Intelligence
competence as a
Derived from tasks and Individual abilities to solve Generalisable, ability to solve benchmark
challenges in work situations certain problems in specific new problems in any context
situations and contexts
Can be adjusted through Can be learned in formal settings Stable trait, determined to a
changing the organisation and or through experience (with such large extent by biophysical 149
distribution of work specific situations and contexts) potentials over time
Structure is mainly subject to Structure is mainly subject to Structure is subject to general
the way work is organised intra-individual ways of cognitive processes
organising cognitive resources
Often broken down into a large Coherence between subjective One-dimensional, few
number of tasks abilities and cognitive resources dimensions
and external challenges
Industrial sociology, work Vocational and work psychology Differential cognitive
Table II.
science and educational research; HRD psychology
The concepts
Descriptions, task and job Methodological vacuum Psychometric testing qualification, competence
analysis, etc. and intelligence
major descriptor for the achieved level within the EQF, the respective hierarchy of
work organisation gets much more weight then the actual ability or disposition of
someone to cope with tasks on a specific level of job performance. Research would be
needed in order to find out systematically about the specific challenges and tasks in
domains of work as well as about the development of the individual dispositions to
cope with such challenges.
For the concept of intelligence, Howard Gardner points to the roles and professions
respected in different cultures, such as hunter, farmer, shaman, psychiatrist,
sportsmen, artists and scientists. The attempt to trace the variegated capabilities
embodied in these roles and professions to a universal intelligence does not do justice
to the variety of capabilities that people may possess or acquire (Gardner, 1993). This
critique can even more be applied to the use of a universal term of competence, since
competence in the cognitive psychological does not even presuppose a bio-physical
potential, as it is claimed by Gardner and his colleagues for their notion of multiple
intelligence. Competence as opposed to intelligence can be acquired, whereas
intelligence by definition remains more or less stable. If, in accordance with Gardner, a
multiple notion of intelligence is applied, it becomes obvious that individual
competence profiles can only be adequately represented if they are conceived
multi-dimensionally. Competence profiles can be described in analogy to tasks and
situations within the corresponding image or profile of a profession. Competence in this
regard is an intermediate concept between individual cognitive resources and the
challenges in the outer world the individual has to cope with (Connell et al., 2003).
In empirical educational research competence would be described as a as an
individual disposition that can be acquired by processes of formal learning and
through experiences and that puts the individual into the position to solve problems
and tasks in a specific domain (Hartig and Klieme, 2006). Up to now this concept has
not sufficiently found entrance into research on professional and vocational
JEIT competence development. A research agenda looking at this concept of vocational
32,2/3 competence would take a close look at the knowledge and skills dimensions on which
those processes could be described (Fischer, 2000), the different stages this process
would go through (Eraut, 1994), the methodologies how this can be identified and
assessed (Stenstrom and Laine, 2006a, b) and the conditions under which vocational
competence can develop.
150
Conditions for the development of competence and its use
There is an ongoing debate among industrial sociologists on the polarity between a
trend to an increasing taylorisation of work on the one hand and an increasing
complexity of job-profiles on the other hand. The diagnosis of a renaissance of
Taylorisation (Springer, 1999) stands vis-a-vis the emergence of new work systems that
are labelled as high-performance work systems:
The core of a high-performance work system (HPWS) . . . is that work is organised to permit
front-line workers to participate in decisions that alter organisational routines. This may be
achieved by using shop-floor production teams or through employee participation in problem
solving or quality improvement teams and statistical process control. Workers in an HPWS
experience greater autonomy over their job tasks and methods of work and have higher levels
of communication about work matters with other workers, managers, experts . . . and, in some
instances, with vendors or customers. Work organisation practices in an HPWS require
front-line workers to gather information, process it, and act on it (Appelbaum et al., 2000,
pp. 7-8).
In a global context of high economic competition it is difficult to make projections
about the relative strengths of the two polar trends. However, based on the findings of
European studies on the development of national systems of developing qualifications
and vocational education as well as based on insights on learning in work processes,
some desirable initiatives of research and development can be outlined.
Increasingly, no matter if in systems with a strong vocational tradition of systems
with a traditional academic orientation, work experiences are integrated formally into
the upper-secondary and post-secondary curricula (Griffiths and Guile, 2004; Leney
and The Lisbon-to-Copenhagen-to-Maastricht Consortium Partners, 2005, p. 122). In a
recent report for the European Commission features of workplaces providing learning
opportunities have been identified. The report also postulates instruments and tools to
be developed by European initiatives in order to tap the potentials for learning at work
through integrating work and education. According to the report such instruments
should help to secure for the following elements:
The completeness of a job. A complete/holistic job offers learning opportunities because it
allows workers to prepare and support work autonomously.
The number of short-cycle tasks in a job. Acquiring occupational qualifications requires that
the job has a variety of tasks that belong to this occupation.
Difficulty. A confrontation with problems is a prerogative for an opportunity to learn.
Autonomy, or regulation capacities in a job.
Contact opportunities. Social contacts allow one to learn from others and to solve difficulties
together with others and learn from these solutions. It thereby allows for the development of
social-communicative qualifications.
Organisational tasks. Insight into the functional interdependence between workers in Professional
organisations helps to reveal the innovative potential of workers.
competence as a
Information supply. Without information and feedback on ones own work it is difficult to benchmark
learn from work and mistakes made (Huys et al., 2005, p. 5).
Other studies come to similar conclusions with regard to learning in work processes
(Boreham et al., 2002; Eraut, 2004; Skule and Reichborn, 2002). Competence-building 151
processes are often highly contextualised and vary with sectors, business processes
and use of technologies. In this respect, the contribution of VET to the development of
of competences in the workplace is highly context dependent. In this regard VET can
be seen as a partly independent variable that has to be taken into account as a variable
shaping work processes. On the other hand, the way work is being organised is a
crucial feature, which needs to be taken into account when looking at the possibilities
of development of competences within work processes.
In addition to a purely company and production-based view of competence building
there is also a societal and macro-economic level that is important to consider. Research
of a Danish group of researchers has found that there is a close connection between
how people work and learn in a country and the way firms innovate. Discretion in
organising individual work and job profiles and work that involves problem-solving
and learning correlates positively with a type of innovation labelled as endogenous
innovation. Interestingly, other forms of work enrichment do not correlate positively
with this type of innovation, but are rather associated with incremental innovation,
such as for example in Japan (Arundel et al., 2006).
Conclusions
It is hoped that this contribution has achieved the following goals:
.
Illustrate the dilemma in which the current process of European co-operation in
VET is by the example of the development of EQF and the use of the term
competence in particular.
.
Pointing out a possible way out of this dilemma by sketching a strategy
focussing on the development of professional competence as point of orientation
fro European VET research, development and policy.
.
Indicating what further steps would be required in order to implement a strategy
that is conducive to developing professional competence as a benchmark for
VET on its different levels of realisation.
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Abstract
Purpose This paper seeks to concentrate on bottom-up approaches in order to promote a European
vocational education and training (VET) concept. The overall aim of this article is to demonstrate that
sophisticated approaches still have a chance of becoming common practice in European countries.
Design/methodology/approach The centre of the article is the discussion of a core occupational
profile called ECO-recycler, which tends to be an alternative to the discussion of a uniform European
Qualification Framework. The method of participatory discourse is applied in order to shape a VET
space jointly with European partners. However, the partnership should not only discuss an abstract
level because the implementation of the ECO-recycler is the main target of the discourse and it will be
demonstrated how it works.
Findings After the clarification of a bottom-up approach, the implementation process of a core
occupational profile in the partner countries is described.
Research limitations/implications The empirical approach for the creation of work process
based core occupational profiles will be offered.
Practical implications European policies must be changed if these approaches are pursued.
Originality/value This article offers an alternative to existing European policy and will be of
interest to those in the field.
Keywords Europe, Vocational training, Qualifications, Education and training, International politics
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
Since the beginning of the discussions of the European qualification framework (SEK,
2005) it is obvious at the latest that Europe is focussing at a minimum of two ways for
the further differentiation of a European educational policy: a top-down approach and a
bottom-up approach. The aim is the introduction of an instrument for the classification
of different qualification levels in Europe into a linear, hierarchically structured
framework with the objective to increase the comparability and the transparency of the
graduations. The discussion of this qualification framework is manifold and will still
take a lot of time. On the other hand, the alternative approach, i.e. the bottom-up
perspective of the establishment of European occupational profiles has hitherto hardly Journal of European Industrial
been considered. It is likely that this way seems to be comparatively complicated at Training
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
first sight and that it is suspected to enforce the occupation oriented approach[1]. This pp. 157-170
is, however, by no means correct. As soon as occupational profiles, qualification q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0590
concepts, modules etc. below the respective systems are more closely examined it DOI 10.1108/03090590810861695
JEIT becomes evident that the work and work process orientation is in the centre of all
32,2/3 qualification and competency development concepts. Consequently, the idea of
European core occupations safeguards that those transnational work and work process
orientations not interfering with existing system structures are in the centre of interest.
The decisive advantage of bottom-up approaches is that an uncoupling of
occupational requirements from formalised instruments a feature of qualification
158 frameworks could not take place. Furthermore, those competencies could be
measured which are concretely developed within the framework of training, e.g. by
dealing with work processes.
Figure 1.
Three ways to the mutual
recognition of graduations
in Europe
The so-far surveyed automotive sector and the closed loop and waste economy Ways toward a
sector correspond at a rate of 70 to 80 per cent. European VET
This way was first shown with the European occupational profile of a Car Mechatronic space
(Rauner and Spottl, 2002), which was implemented in four countries. It was followed by a
project on the closed loop and waste economy. The occupational profile resulting thereof
was implemented in seven countries (Blings and Spottl, 2003). Another project is currently 159
being carried through in the European aerospace industry.
The work process as a reference value basically allows to assess the different
qualitative characteristics of skilled work from country to country and from company
to company and to make it the crystallisation point of core occupational profiles. If
work processes are determined as structuring common ground of core occupational
profiles it is possible to shape vocational educational and qualification processes
according to country-specific institutional framework conditions by maintaining the
transnational, basic core occupational structures.
Generally, it is to be noted that work process oriented approaches safeguard that:
[. . .] the national vocational educational training courses can be opened towards Europe and
that the permeability of educational areas within and beyond the borders can be realised (He
and Tuschner, 2003, p. 135).
The relocation of the discussion on recognition and transparency from the abstract
system level to the work process has at least three further advantages:
(1) One avoids the trap that due to the very different institutional framework
conditions in all European countries the educational courses cannot be
compared with each other.
(2) The examination of work processes ensures a distinct closeness of the
discussion to the labour market. Furthermore, the question of the real
requirements for competency plays an important role. This facilitates to involve
all persons concerned into the discussion process.
(3) A process orientation clearly lessens the danger of a fragmentation of
knowledge in favour of a coherence of knowledge as the foundation of a
European education space. The second of the above mentioned advantages at
the same time clearly indicates that a bottom-up approach can only be
realized via clear sector references. With the aid of core occupational profiles
and a sector reference, a work oriented European vocational education and
training can develop on a high content level.
Sector references not only allow to assess the multi-dimensional challenges of the
shop-floor such as relevance of work organisation, communication structures, legal
stipulations, use of tools etc. but also to define relevant profiles for core occupations
and further training (Spottl, 2005).
Leonardo da Vinci projects with a sector reference facilitate the cooperation with
and the support by the social partners. A successful cooperation with the social
partners is guaranteed and a successful dissemination of the results is the prerequisite
of an overdue European education dialogue.
Other central advantages of sector references can be named as follows:
.
Sector structures in industry and trade in Europe are predominantly similar and
can be clearly identified.
.
The dynamics immanent in the sectors can be transferred to the profiles and to
the level of European oriented (core) occupational profiles.
.
The development and the change of sectors is considerably influenced by the
European legislation and other European stipulations and can thus be precisely
monitored and assessed.
.
The challenges of similar European sectors are only slightly differing. Therefore,
both sector oriented and sector spanning qualifications and competencies can be
assessed and made the objects of vocational education.
.
Industry cultural characteristics can be taken into consideration by sector
oriented competency profiles and/or occupational profiles.
.
The application of a system of credit points for the work process structures of a
sector seems to be more successful as the attempt to improve the transparency of
graduations in a general way through formalised certificate structures.
.
A sector oriented vocational education and training facilitates and guarantees
the participation of the social partners because the orientation to their relevant
work of world is in the centre of interest.
.
A sector oriented involvement of the Social Partners in the discussion on
vocational education and training is one of the most important prerequisites for
the establishment of a European vocational educational dialogue.
.
Due to its definable framework the sector approach also allows for declinating
ambitious vocational educational goals down to the project level in an
operationable way.
The clear references of the Copenhagen Declaration to the world of work explicitly call
for declaring them the core of a European vocational educational system in terms of a
work oriented vocational education and training. This can only be achieved with the Ways toward a
aid of sector references, because: European VET
.
the multi-dimensional challenges of the shop-floor can thus be assessed; space
.
the relevance of the work organisation models is taken into consideration;
.
the corporate communication structures become a subject;
.
the legal regulations are introduced to vocational education and training; and 161
.
the tools, the products themselves move into the centre of vocational education
and training.
Contrary to the discussion on the formal comparability, the regulation of the mutual
recognition and the transparency of certificates only feasible by a top-down approach,
the sector orientation as a bottom-up approach is highlighted. The latter is very likely
to support a conversion of national systems as the cultural framework conditions and
industrial cultures of the individual societies are being considered and respected right
from the start.
Sector orientation always also means a concretisation of vocational education and
training and the discussion of visions and wishes in terms of the necessary and the
expected qualification levels in a real field of work. Even if this results in
interest-guided and controversial discussions and positions, a participatory process is
safeguarded which holds a great chance for a European dialogue of vocational
education and training.
The special importance of a bottom-up-strategy results from the objectives of
these approaches:
.
Based on a contribution for the development of a European vocational education
and training system.
. Based on a vocational educational and labour market political answer to an
economic sector that is currently establishing as a European sector.
.
On the one hand, based on a practice oriented (initial) education and training that
on the other hand facilitates the transition to higher education in Universities of
Applied Sciences and Universities. There is the uniform basis for the
organisation of a cooperative education between schools and companies by a
networked learning environment.
.
Based on a contents orientation of the core profile to work processes because it no
longer supports the different industry cultural accesses. Visions of a European
vocational education and training can be implemented without any conceptual
dissens.
.
Based on an alternative for the highly segmented vocational education and
training which no longer corresponds to the challenges of the world of work and
which results in an abstract comparison of country specific certificates.
.
Based on an orientation to process thinking starting with vocational training.
This entails the fact that a business process orientation has to be pursued as
early as initial vocational training.
.
Based on a high identification with sectors.
JEIT Core occupational profiles are unambiguously linked to the challenges of the sectors.
32,2/3 This is safeguarded by the fact that the exact future oriented need for qualification will
be assessed by sector specific surveys by:
.
the identification of sectoral challenges up to the survey of the central work
processes dominant in all European countries;
.
an orientation of the occupational profiles towards the sector specific work
162 processes; and
.
encouraging a dialogue of vocational education and training with the European
Social Partners.
The success of this approach depends on the fact that the needs and challenges of a
sector are precisely analysed and that the concerns and the characteristics of the
sectors in European countries are reflected and taken into consideration.
Another important advantage of sector oriented vocational educational approaches
lies in the fact that the so-called qualitative zones defined according the Draft
Directive 119 of the European Commission can be equipped with occupational
profiles instead of courses, modules, units etc. Thus, a considerably better quality of
competency development is achieved because the idea of a vocational educational
system and the creation of system structures are in the centre of interest right from the
start rather than the accumulation of random modules for a (vague) entity.
Among the essential instruments for the implementation were the national curriculum
handbooks set up within the European cooperation. These handbooks document the
national, contents and structural implementation of the core occupational profile. All
curriculum handbooks:
.
are based on the European core occupational profile; and
.
contain the nationally required adaptations of the contents of the core
occupational profile in order to take into consideration the regional and national
specific (20 to 30 per cent additional contents) as well as the industry cultural
requirements (10 to 30 per cent).
On the other hand, country specific handbooks were created within the European
cooperation. These handbooks focus on implementation measures on the levels of the
companies and schools. They contained a didactical-methodical concept,
methodical-organisational implementation aids and learning arrangements for the
work process oriented implementation of the core occupational profile. On the whole,
28 learn and work tasks for the training practice in companies and at school have been
developed in the European context.
The social partners were continuously involved in the implementation in all other
countries (Figure 2). They:
.
supported and guided the vocational educational scientific research work with
the aid of sector studies, case studies and work process studies in all countries;
.
advised, guided and evaluated the development core occupational profile of the
ECO-recycler;
.
guided, advised and evaluated the transfer of the core occupational profile of the
ECO-recycler in the national context; and
.
supported and ensured the implementation.
JEIT
32,2/3
164
Figure 2.
Seven national
implementation teams
formed the project group
for the implementation of
the core occupational
profile of the
ECO-recycler
Figure 3.
Political background of
the implementation
strategy of the German
team
JEIT .
Greece in October 2006;
32,2/3 .
Lithuania in 2006; and
.
Austria in September 2006.
A first concept for an ECVET recognition system based on the work process structured
occupational profile was additionally established for the core occupation of the
166 ECO-recycler in order to facilitate the transparency and the recognition between the
different nationally implemented forms of the ECO-recycler.
The centre for vocational training of the republic has pursued the following tasks
within the implementation team and the Advisory Board:
.
the translation of the core occupational profile into Slovenian language;
.
the transfer of the contents and the structure of the core occupational profile to
the members of the implementation team and the Advisory Board;
.
the preparation of the first drafts for the development of an organisational
structure corresponding to the requirements of the closed loop and waste
economy;
.
the need analysis of the labour market of the closed loop and waste economy in
Slovenia;
.
the preparation of a quality development plan for the sector; and Ways toward a
.
the coordination of all work within the implementation team, with the Advisory European VET
Board and of all research work done within the sector. space
In order to verify the fitting of the core occupational profile in Slovenia, five case
studies were carried through analysing and breaking down the main business and core
work processes. In addition, the ECO-recycler core tasks were evaluated with the aid of 167
a questionnaire survey carried out by sector experts.
These surveys resulted in the introduction of the ECO-recycler profile on three
levels. Four national occupational profiles for the sector emerged during this process:
(1) Eco waste sorter (Slovenian Level 3);
(2) Waste maintainer up-keeper/Operator of vehicles and machines for handling
waste (Slovenian Level 4);
(3) Technologist for the closed loop and waste economy (Slovenian Level 5); and
(4) Hazardous waste manipulator (Slovenian Level 5).
Furthermore, a detailed standard was established, forming the basis for the future
recognition of informally acquired knowledge and competencies.
The content of the Slovenian Curriculum Handbook is structured in the following
way:
(1) Introduction: Objective of the publication and description of the transformation
process for the implementation of the ECO-recycler into the national context.
(2) Description of the key requirements for enterprises and employees in the closed
loop and waste economy sector.
JEIT (3) Description of the consequences resulting from the requirements of the sector
32,2/3 for vocational education and training.
(4) Introduction to the closed loop and waste economy in Slovenia, including the
legal stipulations.
(5) Introduction to the national system of vocational education and training.
168 (6) Confirmed and officially introduces Catalogues of standards of knowledge and
skills for national vocational qualifications: Eco waste sorter, Waste
maintainer up-keeper/Operator of vehicles and machines for handling waste
and Hazardous waste manipulator.
The curriculum handbook is meant for employees of the closed loop and waste
economy (trainers and apprentices, responsible persons for personnel issues), members
of the vocational training institutions as well as certification units and the political
level (commissions, ministries, labour offices). The Slovenian implementation
approach has been carried through on a high contents level in spite of its swiftness.
This is probably one of the advantages of small countries when it comes to the shaping
of vocational training: The agreements with the social partners can be achieved more
rapidly and simply and the State institutions can react more efficiently.
Summary
The advantages of European core occupational profiles as an answer to the current
demands for comparability, transparency and recognition of different national
vocational education graduations in Europe are evident:
Ways toward a
European VET
space
169
Figure 4.
Convergence of
occupational concepts in
Europe
.
The development will be realised by a Bottom-up approach at a national and
on a European level. Social partners play a decisive role, sector experts support
the shaping of contents.
.
Sector oriented comparability, transparency and recognition can be ensured on
the level of the work processes in terms of contents.
The comparability with national structures is always present as the structuring takes
place on the work process level rather than on the level of the vocational training
systems.
It is crucial to ensure a discussion in terms of contents and quality backed up by
occupational profiles. Emphasis should be given to find out which occupational profile
and which qualification level is necessary for the individual sectors (Spottl, 2005).
Scientists, vocational educationalists and sector representative are invited to offer the
best qualitative solution.
Notes
1. The occupationality approach is generally alleged to result in the exact opposite of what the
European policy has in mind, i.e. not promoting flexibility, permeability, comparability etc.
2. The Leonardo-Project RecyOccupation developed the European core occupational profiles
ECO-recycler for the closed loop and waste economy with six European partners in four
countries (Germany, UK, Spain, and Greece) from 2000 to 2003. The project work carried out
JEIT on the project European RecyOccupation Profile, carried through between 2003 and 2005,
the implementation of the core occupational profiles ECO-recycler was prepared and
32,2/3 started in the countries involved earlier as well as in Slovenia, Lithuania and Austria.
References
Blings, J. and Spottl, G. (2003), ECO-recycler ein europaisches Kernberufsprofil fur die Kreislauf-
170 und Abfallwirtschaft (A European core occupational profile for the closed loop and waste
economy), Impuls-Reihe, Nummer 21, Nationale Agentur fur Bildung in Europa beim
BIBB, Flensburg.
European RecyOccupation Profile Project (2005), Implementation Report Implementierung des
europaischen Kernberufsprofils ECO-recycler in sieben nationalen Systemen
(Implementation of the European Core Profile ECO-recycler in seven national systems),
biat- Schriftenreihe Mt 20, Flensburg.
He, E. and Tutschner, H. (2003), Experiment und Gestaltung, Uber das Wirkungspotential des
Programmes, Vol. 18 No. 34, pp. 35-150.
Kommunique von Maastricht (2004), Kommunique von Maastricht zu den kunftigen Prioritaten
der verstarkten Europaischen Zusammenarbeit in der Berufsbildung (Fortschreibung der
Kopenhagener Erklarung vom 30 November 2002). Maastricht, den 14.12.2004.
Loose, G. (2002), Planning Paper Dual System Project, Dual System Project, Kuala Lumpur.
Rauner, F. and Spottl, G. (2002), Der Kfz-Mechatroniker Vom Neuling zum Experten,
W. Bertelsmann Verlag, Bielefeld.
SEK (2005), 160: Arbeitspapier der Kommission, Beitrag zum Bericht der Kommission fur die
Fruhjahrstagung des Europaischen Rates am 22. und 23. Marz 2005 uber die
Lissabon-Strategie zur wirtschaftlichen, sozialen und okologischen Erneuerung, Brussel,
den 28.1.2005.
Spottl, G. (2005), Sektoranalysen, in Rauner, F. (Ed.), Handbuch der Berufsbildungsforschung,
W. Bertelsmann Verlag, Bielefeld, pp. 112-8.
Putting Dreyfus
Putting Dreyfus into action: into action
the European credit transfer
system
171
Jorg Markowitsch and Karin Luomi-Messerer
3s Research Laboratory, Vienna, Austria
Matthias Becker
Berufsbildungsinstitut Arbeit und Technik, Flensburg, Germany, and
Georg Spottl
Institute of Technology & Education, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this article is to look closely at the development of a European Credit
Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). The European Commission,
together with the member States, are working on it and several pilot projects have been initiated
within the Leonardo da Vinci Programme of the European Commission. The problem of the transfer as
well as a convincing transparency of vocational competences has yet been developed. The aim is to
discuss this in the article.
Design/methodology/approach This contribution illustrates a model using the Dreyfus/Dreyfus
approach of acquisition of profiles in such a way that the levels of competence development are not
applied to overall professional actions (as shown for pilots, nurses, teachers and others), but to smaller
entities of professional profiles.
Findings While strongly taking into account work related tasks and contexts (objects, tools, work
organisation) the authors define groups of competencies and apply Dreyfus ladder to these new
entities. That means the authors adopt Dreyfus model in two ways: by applying the model to groups of
competencies (corresponding to specific core work profiles) instead of using it for overall competency
profiles (corresponding to professionals/ experts); and they make the model flexible and dynamic by not
restricting it to a certain number of levels, but only defining the differences between levels.
Research/limitations/implications The background of the paper is the so-called work process
analysis to identify the work related tasks and related groups of competencies.
Practical implications The article offers a new concept for the European discussion of the
Qualification Framework as well as the Credit Transfer System.
Originality/value This article provides an alternative to existing European policy.
Keywords Europe, Qualifications, Competences, Vocational training
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The mutual recognition of qualifications is seen as a basic requirement for increasing
the mobility of vocational training and for the development of a European job market.
Amongst other things[1] a system that would make it easier to combine and transfer Journal of European Industrial
contents of education and training and certain competencies is necessary. This is a Training
Vol. 32 No. 2/3, 2008
central goal of the Bruges-Copenhagen Process wherein the EU countries have pp. 171-186
declared their willingness to strengthen cooperation in vocational education and q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0309-0590
training (VET)[2].. In the course of the process, the intention is to create a system for DOI 10.1108/03090590810861703
JEIT VET similar to the European Credit Transfer System (ECTS), which for years has been
32,2/3 successfully used for student mobility in the field of higher education. In 2002, a
Technical Working Group (TWG) was implemented by the European Commission in
order to develop a proposal for a European credit transfer system in VET (ECVET).
This working group has meanwhile presented their concepts in several papers without
proposing detailed models[3]. At the same time, projects and initiatives have been
172 promoted and they are working on the exemplary development of some kinds of credit
transfer systems, especially within the framework of the Leonardo da Vinci
Programme[4].
The objectives of these projects, initiatives and of the working group of the European
Commission reach beyond the simple transfer of a university credit point system on
vocational education and training. In order to consider the special requirements of the
internationally very differing educational field, the Commission thinks that we need a
system which is oriented towards the learning outcomes[5] in terms of knowledge, skills
and competencies. The core idea of actual approaches is to focus on the comparability of
learning results. For this purpose the European discussions stated learning units
must be split up into small, standardised units described in the form of learning
outcomes. These units of learning outcomes thus function as a kind of learning atom or
molecule, i.e. small, isolatable and individually revisable units forming our learning
worlds. Although this approach does not openly aim at a unification of learning
processes and contents it is to be feared that it will strongly influence the latter and will
thus become a universal construction set for curricula. In any case, the comprehensive
aspect of competency for employed persons is neglected.
Another and not a completely different approach, aims at considering the
incomparability of training contents (due to clearly different training concepts) via the
comparability of occupations and/ or work processes for which training is carried
through. It is assumed that the occupational requirements in each country can be better
compared than the training courses on which they are based.
As, however, the persons to be trained are in the focus rather than the skilled
workers who are already coping with the task profiles, the preparation of such task and
competency profiles is not sufficient. If details of training courses should be underlined,
also partial profiles must be set up albeit imbedded in a comprehensive concept.
These profiles reveal two dimensions in a simple and a prevailing form: The depth and
the level as well as and the width and the scope of the acquired knowledge and skills. In
other words: In order to carry through a development logical differentiation of a
competency profile (empirical or normative), a competency development model (also:
competency acquisition model) is required.
The following chapters will refer to the competency acquisition model of Dreyfus
and Dreyfus as a basis for the further development of this approach. We like to suggest
a new formulation of the core problem as a basis for the development of an ECVET
system in a way that an international discussion cannot lead to misinterpretations and
false estimations.
How the application of the Dreyfus model shows the way to a solution and
which new problems are emerging
The most popular and in our case most promising model for the acquisition of
competencies[6] is the model designed by Dreyfus and Dreyfus (1986a). The model
describes the competency development in five levels from the novice to the expert. In Putting Dreyfus
order to mark the multi-dimensionality of competency development we choose the into action
description in Figure 1, highlighting the characterisation of situations, abilities and
actions at each of these levels.
Based on the competency profile of, e.g. a skilled worker (description of his/her
abilities, his/her expertise), five development levels can be characterized which have
to be run through. Each of these levels is marked by certain characteristics (kind of 173
perception, dealing with rules etc.).
If this approach is also taken into consideration during the training this leads to
abandoning the specialized systematic structure of curricula in favour of the
development of a logical structurisation[7]. The analysis of work processes and work
tasks in their situatedness is crucial for an adequate description of the development
Figure 1.
Use of the
Dreyfus/Dreyfus model to
characterise competency
development
JEIT levels (Rauner, 2004). This includes the descriptions of the objects of occupational
32,2/3 work, the tools, the work organisation, the methods as well as the requirements.
The application of the Dreyfus model for vocational education helps to better
considering the practical knowledge central for these training courses (experience
knowledge, know-how, know-that) and additionally points at didactical implications
which may lead to curricula structured in a development logical way. In order to solve
174 the initial problem, the model offers starting points for an adequate description of the
development of competencies within the framework of a training course. Training
specialisations and/or individual competencies may according to the initial idea
reflect competency requirements in competency levels as soon as they maintain holistic
and occupationally oriented links to work processes. In spite of this process the
approach still faces some problems, which will be sketched below.
a) Area of application
In their dissertations, Dreyfus and Dreyfus refer to the process of competency acquisition
of airplane pilots, chess players, vehicle drivers and adults learning a second foreign
language. The case of the airplane pilots is the only case of a classical occupation. The
three other cases just deal with certain abilities with a relevance for every-day life or
leisure time rather than cohesive vocational training courses. As a consequence, more
comprehensive studies were carried through on nurses (Benner, 1984) and on the car
mechatronic (Rauner and Spottl, 2002). These studies focused on requirements for
occupations as a whole. Benner for example defines seven areas of nursing practice,
subdivided into five to ten sub-areas. Generally, she states (and this is also be shown by
other authors) that reaching level 3, i.e. the level of the actual competent person
(Dreyfus and Dreyfus call this level the competent actor) requires an occupational
practice of two to three years and repeated routines. At the time of their entering their
professional careers, graduates of nursing schools could, however, just be allocated to
Level 2 i.e. the intermediate beginners (Benner, p. 183) Based on this fact the
application of the model for a vocational training course (regardless whether on
secondary or tertiary level) raises the question whether it can be effective at all if only
two out of five levels seem to be relevant. Nevertheless the levels are part of the
competency development model which nowhere defines an absolute competency level for
experts. A vocational training enables students to acquire expertise in certain areas
which in other areas my not be so distinct and which may only reach the level of an
intermediate there. Altogether, the graduation from a vocational training ensures a
relative expertise, a level of competencies which allows for a successful professionalism.
The consideration of this coherence is crucial for the description of competency
development because it points at the embedding of competencies into the work
coherences. A close link of competencies to the respective domain and the context of
skilled work such as vocational education eventually characterizes occupational
competency. Unlike intelligent machines where a sudden decrease of competency beyond
the narrow area of domain (plateau effect) often leads to a failure of machine solutions
for practical tasks, occupational competency is embedded in a context (work and living
coherences) and is reflected in different intensity and multi-layered levels (Becker, 2004).
For example: A mechatronic (to-be) may be an expert when it comes to repair a
malfunction of a certain material flow system where he or she already has experiences.
At the same time he or she may be just an intermediate with regard to the same system
of a different manufacturer (same domain) which is differently structured and for which Putting Dreyfus
completely different programming principles are valid (different context). into action
Competency development of persons in training forms with a focus on holistic fields
of applications can better be mapped with descriptions maintaining the application
coherence than by persons in purely scholastic training systems[8]. A thus unavoidable
preference of training systems featuring a closer interrelationship between theory and
practice, however, is better suited to meet the requirements of vocational education. 175
With respect to these coherences interlinking work complexes can also be found and
described for less profiled and consistent branches and fields of work (Blings and
Spottl, 2003).
The statement has to be scrutinized that the Dreyfus model is a holistic model which
always considers the expert as the target perspective. Dreyfus and Dreyfus are,
however, only holistic in terms of sub-areas which, however, merge in domains. The
holistic aspect refers to the competency of the researcher for the mastering of
occupational work tasks and/or the ability to solve an occupational problem. Only by
reflecting this interrelationship the multi-dimensionality of the professional
competency will become visible[13].
How these problems can be solved and to which extent Dreyfus and
Dreyfus themselves give the decisive hints for a solution
Dreyfus and Dreyfus also provide decisive hints for the solution of these problems.
These hints have so far not been considered in the model as it was not necessary for an
application in sections for certain occupational and every-day competencies. We think
that Dreyfus and Dreyfus are only interpreted in a correct way (and that their model
can be correctly applied) as soon as the following statements are taken seriously. They
are all related to a few pages of introduction to their model concept (Dreyfus and
Dreyfus, 1986a, p. 19):
One is not generally an expert as a person but only for certain areas of competency!
Consequently, an individual will be at the same time an expert with respect to certain types of
problems in his area of skills, but less skilled with respect to others. A businessman, for
example, may show expertise in marketing while at the same time being only competent as
financial planner, and a mere novice when it comes to negotiating a merger (Dreyfus and
Dreyfus, 1986a, p. 20).
Dreyfus and Dreyfus stress that a person cannot at the same time be an expert in
clearly different areas better domains even if he or she requires adjacent or
related fields of tasks for his or her own work. Benner also deals with the topic of
specialisations and gives a concrete example: A nurse who had done a very good job
at the intensive care station found it hard to meet the requirements she faced at a
general surgery station (Benner, 1994, p. 177).
This trivial fact continuously causes considerable difficulties during the consequent Putting Dreyfus
application of the Dreyfus model as it may lead to a differentiation of the expert profile into action
according to tasks[14]. This trap can be avoided if the work processes with their different
dimensions are the focus of the considerations rather than isolated, work oriented
thinking. This always ensures competency structures and profiles encompassing both
the width and the depth. Thus, the problem can be solved by a deliberate differentiation
of an occupational competency profile with the aid of work process orientation and the 177
structurisation according to the Dreyfus competency ladder (Figure 1).
Dreyfus and Dreyfus almost always speak of the person as an expert rather than of
the expertise in competency areas. These formulations imply that the professional
expert is always perceived as someone mastering an absolute expertise for all tasks in
his area of work. He or she is rather marked by a considerate rationality. Such a
rationally does not aim at separating situations into context free elements but to better
assess entire situations. Even Benner who unlike Dreyfus deals with a concrete
differentiation with the aid of competency areas does not strictly differ between the
respective attained expertise within the competency areas and the person as an entity.
This results in the following problem which is more or less inherent in the model: One
talks about experts without defining which competency level in which area must be
attained in order to be recognised as an expert in the entire profession defined by the
individual competency areas[15]. Expertise is thus always a relative dimension.
Someone can also be an expert for simple tasks without reaching expertise in
neighbouring domains. The car mechatronic for example is not an expert per se for all
tasks and problems around the vehicle. He or she is neither the car developer nor does
he or she master all specialized tasks of the branch but he or she can be called an
expert because he or she masters the domain relevant for him or her. The domain
neither includes the vehicle development nor the driving of a car but encompasses
service, repair, diagnosis, and customer advisory tasks with the aim to keep the vehicle
functioning.
The solution of this problem lies in the way of differentiation of different
competency areas which collectively characterize the profile of an occupation.
Competency levels have to be assigned to core work tasks.
Not all persons achieve the expert level for certain competency areas and the latter have
very different meanings for the every-day life or the professional life
Not all people achieve an expert level in their skills. Some areas of skill chess, for example
have the characteristic that only a very small fraction of beginners can ever master the
domain. [. . .] Other areas, such as automobile driving, are designed in a way that almost all
novices can eventually reach the level we call expert, although some will always be more
skilled than others (Dreyfus and Dreyfus, 1986b, p. 21).
Here, it becomes apparent that:
.
one and the same level in different competency areas can have both social and
individually different impact; and
.
a comparison of one and the same level across different competency areas does
not make sense.
Experts for motoring and chess experts are completely different in terms of training,
duration of experience, social perception (reputation) and socio-economical importance.
JEIT With regard to a similar point of departure i.e. the introduction of the British
32,2/3 National Vocational Qualification System (NVQ) Eraut also recognises the social
dimension of this problem:
The proponents of this system [NVQ] will argue that it frees qualifications from being defined
by the length of a training course. But it also risks a certain lack of comparability across
occupational sectors; because the amount of training needed to reach Level 3 in one
178 occupation could easily be twice as much as that needed in another. From a learning-needs
perspective this presents no problem, but it conflicts with other societal norms (Eraut, 1994,
p. 185).
A different length of the training course can, e.g. result in different salaries and a
different social prestige[16].
As for our point of departure, the hint is sufficient that defined competency levels
cannot compared to each other (even in one and the same professional area) and that a
basic differentiation in levels nevertheless makes sense because as Dreyfus and
Dreyfus (1986b, p. 21) state: The most talented persons on a competency level will
always perform better than the most talented persons on the level below! This is why
the model makes sense in spite of a limited comparability[17].
Figure 2.
Competency development
for an occupation by
dealing with development
tasks
Putting Dreyfus
into action
181
Figure 3.
List of competency areas
for relevant work tasks
(First column of the
competency matrix for a
mechatronic)
are described in the second column of the row. Figure 4 is an example of the description
of competency steps for the competency area D. Manufacturing mechatronic parts,
components and systems.
In earlier chapters we have already mentioned some of the basic principles for the
creation of such competency descriptions, which highlight the context of professional
action within a domain: the reference to objects of work, tools, the use of examples. By
considering these principles, it becomes evident, how difficult it is to draw up a good
competency description. Even the examples we have developed in the mechatronics
area do not yet live completely up to these demands. This is especially true for the use
of examples.
Figure 4.
Steps of competency
development for the
competency area D
(column two in the row of
the competency matrix for
a mechatronic)
JEIT It is also clear that in particular with a view to the last set of dimensions described
32,2/3 not always all aspects can be considered in a competency description. Rather
pragmatic paths will have to be stroken and it will only show in practice how
comprehensive these descriptions have to be. Furthermore, specific expert knowledge
is needed, in particular methodical know-how to be developed in order to moderate
processes for the setting up of competency descriptions.
182
Open questions and conclusions
We have shown exemplarily that standardised descriptions of different phases of
competency development of individual persons undergoing training and individual
training programmes respectively can both as a principle and in practice be carried
through with an orientation to domains and contexts. The contents of such competency
matrixes can thus be set up by making use of research instruments above all of work
process analyses (Spottl and Becker, 2005b). Expert workshops and national
consultations of the bodies responsible for training can increase the acceptance at
political and branch levels[20]. The amount and the grade of detailing of the descriptions
can be coped with as it may be assumed that the descriptions will possibly not exceed
two pages. The expenditure for the preparation and the continuous review for all
member states may be assumed to be of lesser importance than the expenditure which
is currently necessary for the preparation and the implementation of Certificate
Supplements. In addition, the certificate supplements are summaries of curriculum
descriptions which are problematic for the mutual recognition of competencies and are
rather suitable to increase the transparency of national training contents.
Although the feasibility may be taken for granted, there are some questions which
we have partly already raised and which we have not yet raised. Finally, we would like
to raise some important questions:
Does the shaping of curricula really remain unaffected by this instrument of competency
description?
Probably not. In contrast to the current ECTS or ECVET system respectively an
immediate intervention or an adaptation of the curricula is not necessary. In the
long-term, however, an impact on the latter is to be expected. This is especially valid for
those countries or areas which are so far not revealing any curricula oriented to learning
outcomes as there will be a new aspect of traditional curricula through competency
descriptions. If the general trend towards learning output oriented curricula should be
opposed, it is better to stay off the proposed model or to avoid any discussions at all!
Notes
1. European Qualification Framework Commission of the European Communities, 2005;
EUROPASS (http://europass.cedefop.eu.int); Ploteus (http://europa.eu.int/ploteus).
2. See primarily the Copenhagen declaration (EC, 2002).
3. Reports from the technical working groups (TWG, 2004/2005).
4. Vocational Qualification Transfer System (VQTS, see www.vocationalqualification.net), ECTS
for Chemistry Workers (see www.ects-chemie.de/), see also www.leonardodavinci-projekte.org
5. Learning outcomes can be defined as a set of knowledge, skills and/or competences an
individual acquired and/or is able to demonstrate after completion of a learning process
(Tissot, 2004, p. 47).
6. cf. also other competency development models such as the one designed by Schmidt, Norman
and Boshuizen (1990) for physicists. These models seem, however, to be less suitable for our
aim to characterize vocational developments.
7. This was, e.g. applied for car mechatronics (Rauner and Spottl, 2002) and skilled workers in
the recycling sector (Blings and Spottl, 2003).
JEIT 8. Markowitsch has already discussed the consequences of this model for teaching (for
instruction) in another publication (Markowitsch, 2001, p. 137): (...) here the teachings meet
32,2/3 their limits as according to Dreyfus and Dreyfus expertise cannot be taught. The
conventional pedagogy is, however, rather powerless not only with regard to this last
competency level but also in terms of the entire level model. Level 1 clearly forms part of this
area and level 2 is taken into consideration and further developed in pedagogical models.
Starting with level 3, it is evident that the teacher in his and her traditional function will
184 become obsolete. The development of occupational competency as a target of vocational
education cannot solely be promoted by general approaches of pedagogy and calls for
vocationally oriented didactics in order to support the development of competency levels up
to the expert level.
9. The choice of experts who are able to describe the work processes with adequate depth is
crucial. This is not always possible in expert-skilled-worker-workshops. Therefore,
interviews in terms of Benner as well as more comprehensive methodical approaches aiming
at the direct survey of work processes are playing an important role (Spottl and Becker,
2005b; Spottl, 2003).
10. As for a discussion of the term, e.g. Roben (2004).
11. It is crucial to state that the expertise of a person is oriented to occupational work which, on
the other hand, requires a certain embedded competency (relative expertise, see above).
12. The expertise research has proved that the transfer problem is due to a lack of link to the
context and the domain (Becker, 2004).
13. A domain characterizes an area, a dominion or special subject where someone excels in a
special way. Therefore, it seems to be justified to call each delimited acting area a domain
where someone can act in a dominant way. The expertise research makes use of this
opportunity as it assumes that competencies of an expert can only be related to his or her
special subject.
14. Janik et al. (2000, p. 110) underline this problem in their survey on implicit knowledge in
physicists: Due to the extensive specialisation of science and the subsequent expertise of
scientists, the physics expert cannot not found. They introduce the somewhat bulky term
of a partial expert compared to the global expert.
15. There is a close relationship between the individual competency areas, marked by the
domain and the context. The description of isolated competency areas dedicated to work
tasks freed of their context thus does not lead to applicable competency descriptions and
classifications for occupational profiles.
16. This is also the core problem of the so-called European Qualification Framework (EQF),
currently developed by the European Commission: the abstract, occupational and
sector-decontextualised level descriptions do per se represent coherent competency and
applicability and/or level descriptions. They are, however, across the grain of any
occupational reality.
17. The adherence to the Dreyfus terminology may result in problems here as the use of the
same gauge (numerically arranged levels) for different and incomparable competency areas
can easily lead to misunderstandings. As for our approach, we will therefore speak of
competency levels of different, non-numerically arranged competency requirements.
18. Cf. the limitations of Dreyfus and Dreyfus in the case of a pure acquisition of skills (1986b,
p. 227).
19. Within the framework of the VQTS project.
20. Other reflections for the practical implementation are laid down in a document of the VQTS
project (cf. VQTS, 2005).
References Putting Dreyfus
Becker, M. (2004), Domanenspezifische Kompetenzen fur die Facharbeit im Automobilsektor, into action
in Roben, P. and Rauner, F. (Eds), Domanenspezifische Kompetenzentwicklung zur
Beherrschung und Gestaltung informatisierter Arbeitssysteme, W. Bertelsmann, Bielefeld,
pp. 31-44.
Benner, P. (1984), From Novice to Expert Excellence and Power in Clinical Nursing Practice,
Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Menlo Park, CA. 185
Benner, P. (1994), Stufen zur Pflegekompetenz From Novice to Expert, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern.
Blings, J. and Spottl, G. (2003), A European core occupational profile for the closed loop and
waste economy. Herausgeber: Nationale Agentur Bildung fur Europa beim Bundesinstitut
fur Berufsbildung (BIBB), in Bremer, R. (Ed.), Impuls-Reihe, Heft-Nr. 9, Bonn, Technik
und Bildung Habilitationsschrift, Bremen.
Commission of the European Communities (2005), Commission staff working document.
Towards a European qualifications framework for lifelong learning, paper presented at
the SEC(2005) 957 conference, Brussels.
Dreyfus, H.L. and Dreyfus, S.E. (1986a), Kunstliche Intelligenz Von den Grenzen der
Denkmaschine und dem Wert der Intuition, Rowohlt, Reinbeck b., Hamburg.
Dreyfus, H.L. and Dreyfus, S.E. (1986b), Mind over Machine The Power of Human Intuition and
Expertise in the Era of the Computer, The Free Press, New York, NY.
EC (2002), Declaration of the European Ministers of Vocational Education and Training, and the
European Commission, Convened in Copenhagen on 29 and 30 November 2002, on
Enhanced European Cooperation in Vocational Education and Training. The Copenhagen
Declaration, EC, Copenhagen, 30 November.
Eraut, M. (1994), Developing Professional Knowledge and Competence, Falmer Press, London,
Philadelphia.
Gruschka, A. (1985), Wie Schuler Erzieher werden Studien zur Kompetenzentwicklung und
fachlichen Identitatsbildung in einem doppeltqualifizierenden Bildungsgang des
Kollgeschulversuchs NW, Wetzlar.
Janik, A. (1995), The concept of knowledge in practical philosophy (in Swedish).
Janik, A. (2002), Impure Reason (in Swedish).
Janik, A., Markowitsch, J. and Seekircher, M. (2000), Die Praxis der Physik Lernen und Lehren
im Labor, Springer Verlag, Wien/New York, NY.
Markowitsch, J. (2001), Praktisches Akademisches Wissen Werte und Bedingungen
praxisbezogener Hochschulbildung, Schriftenreihe des Fachhochschulrates 4,
WUV-Universitatsverlag, Wien.
Markowitsch, J., Kollinger, I., Warmerdam, J., Moerel, H., Konrad, C., Burell, D. and Sellin, B. (2002),
Competence and Human Resource Development in Multinational Companies A Comparative
Analysis between Austria, The Netherlands and United Kingdom, CEDEFOP, Thessaloniki.
Rauner, F. (2004), Praktisches Wissen und berufliche Handlungskompetenz, ITB
Forschungsberichte 14/2004.
Rauner, F. and Spottl, G. (2002), Der Kfz-Mechatroniker Vom Neuling zum Experten,
W. Bertelsmann, Bielefeld.
Roben, P. (2004), Kompetenzentwicklung durch Arbeitsprozesswissen, in Jenewein, K. (Ed.),
Kompetenzentwicklung in Arbeitsprozessen, Bildung Arbeitswelt Band 9, Vol. 9,
Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden.
JEIT Spottl, G. (2003), Work Process Analyses as Instrument for Developing Standards, Flensburg:
biat, Kuala Lumpur.
32,2/3 Spottl, G. and Becker, M. (2005a), Work related zones of mutual trust (WRZMT) as a basis for a
model for credit transfer in vocational education and training, discussion paper within the
project VQTS Vocational Qualification Transfer System, Flensburg.
Spottl, G. and Becker, M. (2005b), Arbeitsprozessanalysen Ein unverzichtbares Instrument fur die
186 Qualifikations- und Curriculumforschung, in Huisinga, R. (Ed.), Bildungswissenschaftliche
Qualifikationsforschung im Vergleich Qualifikationsbedarf und Curriculum, Band 3, Verlag
der Gesellschaft zur Forderung arbeitsorientierter Forschung und Bildung, Frankfurt am
Main, pp. 111-38.
Tissot, P. (2004), Terminology of vocational training policy a multilingual glossary for an
enlarged Europe, CEDEFOP, available at: http://europass.cedefop.eu.int/img/dynamic/
c313/cv-1_en_US_glossary_4030_6k.pdf (accessed 15 January 2006).
TWG (2004), Principles and essential rules for implementation of a European credit transfer
system for vocational education and training (ECVET), interim report of the working
group, Brussels, 23 November.
TWG (2005), European Credit System for VET (ECVET), Technical Specifications, Report of the
credit transfer technical working group.
VQTS (2005), Competence Certificate, Proposal for Implementation of an ECVET-Procedure
Developed within the Framework of the VQTS Project, VQTS, Vienna.
The European
VET in the European aircraft and aircraft and
space industry space industry
Rainer Bremer
Institute of Technology & Education, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany 187
Abstract
Purpose This article aims to take up a mirror image-oriented position of the EQF and the
announced ECVET system. It seeks to be concerned with the effects that the EQF transformation
process into the respective NQF might have on the underlying systems of vocational education and
training.
Design/methodology/approach A comparison is drawn between the competence development
the four different VET systems in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK initiated by the identical
qualification demands of the sector of aircraft industry (AIRBUS plants in France, Germany, Spain,
and the UK). This serves as a finding for the evaluation of the EQF and the effects it will could on the
sector of the European aircraft industry.
Findings Three hypothesises on: convergence of skill requirements because of the technologies and
procedures tend to become the same all over the world if the same products are manufactured;
divergence of the national VET systems as a consequence of adaptation such requirements; and a
structural reference between requirements and the development of competence, are tested and
validated.
Research limitations/implications The research was confined to the aircraft and space industry
and one enterprise co-operating in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK.
Practical implications It was possible to establish two European occupational profiles for this
sector (aircraft mechanic and avionic). The applicability of a method for depicting competence
development based on Havighursts theory of developmental tasks, is expected to be improved.
Originality/value A method of evaluating competence development was applied that can be used,
despite some differences.
Keywords Competences, Individual development, Europe, Vocational training, Aircraft industry,
Aerospace industry
Paper type Research paper
The sequence of steps one and two stands for the reference to the requirements.
These are vested in the product, the organisation of its production, as well as the
technologies and processes utilised for production.
Step three represents the attempt at making an inventory of the existing, well-tried
qualification measures related to the work process, in their respective system-specifics.
This step obviously also incorporates the problems that may result from either too
great a distance of training to work processes or vice versa, too much proximity. Both
situations could result in deficits of the theory, which in turn, could hinder the further
vocational development of an employee.
The execution of the third step opens up a further possibility for the investigation of
applied training, as it occurs in the four countries involved in the common aircraft
company. As soon as the country specific qualification and training guidelines are known,
then empirical methods can be implemented for investigating, how these specifications
relate to the documented task based work, and how the required qualifications evolve in
the individual development process. Here, we put a method contiguous to work processes The European
to the test, for the evaluative ascertainment of specialist competency. aircraft and
The aim here, is to use the elements involved with the first step, (sector and location
based task) and the fundamentals of the second step (validation and inventory of the space industry
existing work process related qualification measures in their respective system
specifics) as a basis and to enrich these with a new method, where the level of
requirements represented in the setting of tasks, is crossed with the respective forms of 195
training in such a manner, that the trainees become aware of the state of their skills and
knowledge and abilities in close relationship to the requirements of the vocation
rather than their systemically divergent, organised vocational learning.
This lends itself to inferring the manifestation of complex vocational work tasks
from the hypothesis formulated under (1) about the universalisation of qualification
requirements, the overcoming of which necessitates inter-workplace competencies.
Without getting into adversity through imposing occupations as normative
constructs onto these tasks, professionalism can be recognised in regard to such tasks,
against the background of its technologically and organisationally contingent
structure, brought about by the mastery of just these tasks.
In addition to the objective factor, contributed by the requirements inherent in work
and organisation, there is also a subjective response, which bestows something like
professionalism on a set or an ensemble of tasks. This touches on the second
hypothesis, on which the EVABCOM project is methodologically based (see Figures 1
and 2).
Tasks of this nature will be set in all countries, during the course of further
developments within the AERONET project. The criterion used, is not so much the
learning level, as might be presumed i.e. the question as to whether suchlike was learnt
or not, but rather the real, actual task posed similarly everywhere.
In steps one and two it is ascertained beforehand, whether a task can really be
considered to mutually apply. Where this is found to be the case, an informed
judgement can be made about the performance effectiveness of the national
respectively, sector specific training and qualification systems, on the basis of the task
or the level of solutions worked out by the test person(s).
By this means, AERONET attempts to compare the training performance of the
different countries, and avoid drawing results exclusively from the logic of these
systems.
Figure 1.
Example of the
documentation of research
results developed as a
consequence of steps one
and two
JEIT
32,2/3
196
Figure 2.
Example of an evaluation
task, with reference to the
task
The reason behind avoiding this is not a methodological one, of ambitious comparison
it rather arises from an interest in the optimisation of the learning processes, in the
sense of the quality requirements of the sector. This typically results in the
establishment of transparency, since one of the prerequisites is the establishment of a
yardstick for comparison.
Corresponding author
Rainer Bremer can be contacted at: bremer@uni-bremen.de
Evaluating
Evaluating progress of European progress of
vocational education and training European VET
systems: indicators in education
201
Uwe Lauterbach
Deutsches Institut fur Internationale Padagogische Forschung (DIPF),
Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Abstract
Purpose The quality of an education system or a comparative international assessment refers more
and more to quantitative parameters, i.e. educational indicators. The paper aims to analyse the
structure of several educational indicators and indicator systems and answer the question What can
educational indicators achieve?
Design/methodology/approach Starting with a general consideration of the term indicator the
findings are applied to the educational area and the development of educational indicators is analysed
critically.
Findings Indicators allow for the illustration of outcomes and of system processes. Beginning in
the 1950s, following the empirical turn in research methods, and the growing significance of
approaches from economics of education, indicators are now applied in national and international
settings. The findings show that the combination of the quantitative and qualitative approach is more
successful as the isolated research.
Research limitations/implications The research is based on secondary analysis. A combination
of quantitative and qualitative research methodology should be undertaken in following the progress
of educational systems.
Originality/value The findings of quantitative research based on educational indicators determine
the general public and political discussion and often the discourse in the scientific community. The
analysis shows that a critical distance especially when preparing political decisions is a necessary
attitude.
Keywords Vocational education, European Union, Quality indicators, International organizations
Paper type Conceptual paper
By keeping to these parameters, and below them, the European policy-makers intend to
ensure price stability and prosperity, hence assuring the welfare of the population in
the Euro currency area.
The 60 indicators relating to (A) to (D) are assigned to six topical areas:
(1) access, participation, and progress;
(2) achievement, attainment, and curriculum;
(3) economic and other outcomes of education;
(4) size, growth, and output of educational institutions;
(5) climate, classrooms, and diversity in educational institutions; and
(6) human and financial resources of educational institutions.
The indicators are processed for these focal and topical areas of education reporting.
High school leavers without a degree (dropout rate) are illustrated by indicator 5
following the remark that the dropout rate is slowly decreasing and that the
differences between black and white school leavers are growing smaller. In some cases
not only US-American, but also international comparisons are performed. This
pertains to indicator 20 (reading literacy), or indicator 27 (attainment in higher
education). For indicator 20, internationally binding standards define what is meant by Evaluating
reading literacy, these agreements do exist for higher education, too, by the ISCED progress of
classification system (indicator 27). However, this only implies a formal perspective, in
relation to the educational institutions and their systemic position, and does not refer to European VET
the qualifications that are acquired, and their function in professional occupation.
The pronounced analysis and interpretation, which refers to political and societal
values, in the COE may easily lead to an emphasis of the results that are desired by 207
politics. This may be justified as besides COE, thee comprehensive and differentiated
Digest of Education Statistics (DES) is published by NCES each year. The structure
underlying the ascertainment of data, which relates to the individual Federal States,
territories and the Union, is continued on a yearly basis so that not only cross-section
comparisons are possible, but also longitudinal comparisons can be performed that
cover several years. Based on these data the users can appraise the data that are used
in COE, and perform contextualised analyses themselves.
3.2 Switzerland
The authors of the brochure cited below, from the Swiss Federal Statistical Office
(BFS), address the significance of indicators:
In analogy to other policy areas, the governance of system processes in the Swiss education
system is more and more based on indicators. Nowadays, educational indicators that mainly
describe the function of systems are well-founded, their initial purpose is to enable a
comparison at international or cantonal level] (Original in German: Bundesamt fur Statistik,
2004, p. 5).
The brochure refers to the OECD works performed since the mid-1980s and the original
motivation for developing educational indicators is mentioned, that is the description
of national education systems by internationally approved indicators in order to render
the structures of national education systems transparent, and allow for an international
comparison. This principle of transparency, and the conjunction of context, process
and result is based on the idiographic theory approach from comparative education. A
diligent description is thus a pre-condition to understanding and comprehending a
national education system by external, strange onlookers (Lauterbach, 2003, p. 108). In
these times when vast data are easily accessible, transparency seems easy to achieve.
Despite the necessary precaution whether this ideal framework might not lead to a
misjudgement regarding the interpretation of internationally comparable indicators
(Lauterbach, 2003, p. 171), the BFS resigns from the transparency approach. It affiliates
itself to further considerations by the OECD and the EU, for performing an
outcome-oriented and evaluating assessment of educational indicators.
Educational results and the way how education systems achieve their educational goals are of
focal concern (Original in German: Bundesamt fur Statistik, 2004, p. 5).
The BFS approves of the transition in educational reporting from an approach oriented
towards context, process and result to a topical approach as it enables a focus on
relevant political questions.
The BFS is well balanced in accepting this concept because it does not follow the
growing fashion of opting for economic efficiency as the leading argument. While
emphasising the adaptivity of the Swiss education system regarding current
challenges, it ties this into the central argument of a democratic society, the question
JEIT whether the achieved educational outcomes are socially just, equal opportunities
32,2/3 constitute a direct criterion. Besides these basic values, current indicators are brought
into focus, such as lifelong learning, but also efficiency and innovation in the education
system.
3.3 Germany
208 In Germany, there is no tradition of educational reporting based on indicators. Only the
international pressure following the large scale assessments by the IEA and the OECD,
and the supra-national dynamics that are supported by the Lisbon-Copenhagen
Process in the EU made the persons in charge of educational policy issue a first
educational report in 2003, which follows a context-process- and result approach (ten
years after Switzerland first became active in this area).
The education system has been of public interest for a while now, this can in particular be
attributed to international comparative assessments such as TIMSS, PISA, IGLU and the
internal supplementary study, PISA-E. These imply that we might know something about
the status and development of our education system, but a total perspective is lacking.
Against this background, the Standing Conference of Ministers of Cultural Affairs (KMK)
decided to issue regular reports on the status and development of the education system in
Germany in the future (Original in German: Bildungsbericht fur Deutschland, 2003, p. 3).
Since then, a second study has been published in 2006. The construction of indicators is
now more strongly based on political objectives, thus there is a closer focus on
individual problem areas or positive developments. The situation in Germany with
respect to general and vocational education is characterised by a high degree of
complexity. No standard reference publication, such as the DES that is issued annually
in the USA, is available in Germany. Therefore, the primary challenge and task of
educational reporting is constituted by developing a transparency of the system.
Indicators must be tied into systemic contexts of educational structures in each of the
16 Federal States and at the level of the state as a whole. The illustration of system
transparency is in particular challenged by vocational education and training, adult
education and the recognition of informal competencies.
The Bologna Process (since 1999) introduced the European Credit Transfer System
(ECTS) for higher education in Europe. In connection with the provision of Bachelor and
Master study courses the foundations are improved for supra-national transparency, the
recognition of study achievements and degrees in other countries and hence the mobility
of the labour force in Europe. A harmonisation of vocational education and training
objectives has been undertaken since the formulation of the Lisbon Strategy (2000),
within the framework of the Bruges-Copenhagen-Maastricht-Process. The European
Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET), which is an
equivalent instrument to the ECTS. ECTS and ECVET are to be connected via the
European Qualifications Framework, EQF, which covers both higher education and
vocational education and training[5].
3.4.2 Educational indicators as an instrument for analysis, quality and governance.
The fact that vocational education and training efforts in the EU were to no avail for
decades indicates that this field is difficult to introspect. The political agents (Council,
Commission, and Parliament) need to rely on information that is difficult to obtain for
their governing decisions. Since these data are tied into complex relations, there
JEIT nowadays seems to be a didactic necessity to plausible indicators that are relevant to
32,2/3 political decision-making as well as for a supra-national agreement. Prior to this stage,
it was necessary to conduct comparative studies in the initial stage (which occasionally
lasted several decades) in order to ascertain overviews of vocational education and
training systems and occupational degrees in the member States including
assessments of the theory of convergence of national systems. Furthermore, a
210 statistical system was introduced in cooperation with the pertinent organisation,
EUROSTAT, and statistical standards were developed[6]. With new members since
1973 and the large expansion in 2004 the situation grew even more complex.
In parallel to political efforts the European centre for the promotion of vocational
education and training (Centre europeen pour le developpement de la formation
professionnelle, CEDEFOP) began to install an educational research that subscribes to
the European concept of thought that is systematically described in the European
Research Reports in VET)[7]. The quality of vocational education and training is a
crucial topic here. Since apprenticeship and the alternating instruction are repeatedly
highlighted as a role model for vocational education policy in the member States, an
analysis assessed how up-to-date the concept of apprenticeship actually is. The
example of a comparative analysis of apprenticeship in the First Research Report
demonstrate the erroneous interpretations that occur if little consideration is paid to
national systemic contexts and characteristics of the educational streams that are
observed in the area of apprenticeship. Several EU member States were analysed by
the educational indicator modernity of apprenticeship to assess if the concept of
apprenticeship could be installed in innovative branches, and a further indicator was
used to assess whether the graduates from these educational careers enter further
training. The general factor of comparison (tertium comparationis[8]) is constituted
by data on the total working population. This is followed by a selection that relates to
the English term apprenticeship. In consequence, the following educational streams
are subsumed under the category of apprenticeship: the mainstream in Germany,
margins in France, Portugal, Spain and Greece, the alternative schools in the
Netherlands and Austria (i.e. as opposed to full-time vocational schools), modern
apprenticeship in the UK and the labour market-oriented measures in Italy. Neither the
integration of these streams into the system as a whole, or its underlying philosophy,
are acknowledged appropriately. A result following the metric comparison that is
based on two educational indicators of quality consequently proves that
apprenticeship is on its way to becoming a cul de sac. A brief reflection on the
categorisation that was performed prior to the metric comparison leads to the
conclusion that the assessment may follow a logical calculus, but it makes no sense in
the end: the development of the two educational indicators on the basis of the term
apprenticeship, which is hardly specified, was not conducted in a reliable manner. The
author seems to have intended a confirmation of existing prejudices by a seemingly
neutral empirical study. This process can be observed in comparative analyses of
educational indicators every now and again.
Following these initial attempts, the governance and quality assurance of education
were rendered more dynamic by the Lisbon Declaration (2000) and its specifications by
the Barcelona Declaration (2002) and the Copenhagen Declaration (2002). These
instruments of an open coordinating method, such as benchmarks, indicators, the
exchange of experience and peer reviews aim at a dissemination of proven practices
and at a convergence of the most important EU targets (EU Council, 2002), they further Evaluating
intend to support the member States in the step-by-step development of their policies. progress of
In a first step the European Benchmarks as a hands-on policy tool were put into
practice[9], within the framework of progress reports on the Lisbon Process[10]. These European VET
educational indicators constitute an implementation of the Lisbon Declaration on
general and vocational education, and they formulate quantified objectives that are to
be achieved by the year 2010. The relate to: 211
.
investment in general and vocational education;
.
school drop-outs in terms of compulsory school education;
.
higher education graduates in mathematics, the sciences and technical science;
.
completion of upper secondary school grade;
.
key competencies; and
.
participation in lifelong learning.
The progress reports record these benchmarks for the individual member States, and
for the EU as a whole.
They are compared with results for the OECD countries, the USA and Japan. A
ranking of EU member States is performed for each indicator. In addition, the three
countries with the best results are evaluated according to three methods of assessment
(last year, average in the last five or ten years respectively). Nevertheless, this ranking
of EU countries raises a problem as it is no longer concerned with recommendations for
governing processes, but with naming a victor in the combined assessment for
national education systems (general, vocational and higher education). Only eight out
of 15 participating member States are among the best achievers. A first introspection
of context variables would soon have made clear that even though the statistics are
true, the priority of vocational education lies, for instance, in the areas of higher
education or continuing education, because the upper secondary level does not
integrate an extensive, highly challenging vocational training, and vice versa. This
soon explains the winner indicators of Germany, Ireland or the UK. The first two
countries, Denmark and Sweden, bear the advantage of being fairly straightforward,
and the profiles of their education systems are congruent to the six hands-on
education indicators.
The EU benchmarks are exploited at a national level when this seems opportune.
When taking a closer look at these findings and comparing them with the OECD,
divergences are apparent that should be a warning on statements. The EU statistics for
the completion of the upper secondary school level offer several educational indicators
(EG, Eurostat, 2005, p. 311) for instance, the school degree of persons aged 20 to 24.
The ranking for Germany is different depending on the chosen indicator. In the issue of
Education at a Glance (OECD, 2005, p. 40) the German results for the 2003 upper
secondary graduation rate occupy a top position. These results can only lead to a
demand for a critical evaluation of educational indicators and for a recurrence to
statistical data prior to an evaluation.
These examples point out the correlations between political frameworks,
benchmarks and educational illustrators as well as their evaluation and ranking. It
is further evident that without a contextualisation of results in the national States, and
without the definition of functional equivalences for the miscellaneous concepts of
JEIT vocational education, (including higher education systems), reliable and scientifically
32,2/3 grounded results can hardly be expected[11].
3.4.3 Foundations of a common reference framework for quality assurance in
vocational education and training in the EU and its Member States. In the meantime,
the EU Commission, its Council and the Parliament have considered this area in more
detail. Within the Bruges-Copenhagen-Maastricht Process the European Commission
212 installed a technical working group for the quality of vocational education, i.e. the
Technical Working Group Quality Assurance in VET, TGW], this group published an
annual progress report on the quality of vocational education and training in the years
2002 to 2004. Furthermore, a series of other documents was published[12]. The
documents operationalise the objectives formulated in the
Bruges-Copenhagen-Maastricht Process, in order to support the individual member
States in their establishment of quality assurance systems[13].
The central document for supporting these activities is called the Fundamentals of
a Common Quality Assurance Framework for Quality of VET in Europe, CQAF
issued by the TWG in 2004[14]. This paper presents a definition of indicators for
monitoring vocational education and training systems in the member States. Related
general objectives are determined in the following indicators:
.
heightening employability;
.
improving the harmonisation of supply and demand; and
.
promoting access to lifelong vocational education and training, particularly for
disadvantaged groups.
The scope of these output-oriented criteria for quality assurance refers to national VET
systems as well as individual VET providers.
The document focuses on suggestions for the process of quality assurance
including:
.
a model for planning, executing, evaluating and checking the systems of the
member States; and
.
process methods such as quality criteria and self evaluation (system and
provider level), monitoring system (with reference to State regulation and
administration bodies).
Notes
1. For the IEA see Lauterbach (2003, p. 78); Lauterbach and Hellwig (2001, p. 359).
2. For the distinction of international and cross national comparison, (Lauterbach, 2003, p. 138).
See also Maurice comments on cross-national comparisons: If in many cases references to
micro and macro levels can be found, these levels do not really connect. They are placed in
opposition and brought together mechanically rather than organically. They serve
societal context conditions or they often provide a general analytical framework, a cultural
context that allows for deducting observed differences. In other words: At best this is a
description that permits an assignment of the investigated object to a national context. The
observed similarities and differences are directly related to this context. Hence, the
comparison is limited to a description, without interpreting or explaining the similarities or
differences- Maurice.
3. Original document, UNESCO International Standard of Classification of Education, INCED
1997. Available at: www.uis.unesco.org/ev.php?ID 3813_201&ID2 DO_TOPIC. For the
classification of degrees in European countries, see Eurydice: European Glossary on
education, examinations, qualifications and titles Second edition Volume 1, European
glossary on education, available at: www.eurydice.org/portal/page/portal/Eurydice/
showPresentation?pubid 046EN. See also OECD publications such as the Handbook for
Internationally Comparable Education Statistics (Organisation for Economic Co-Operation
and Development (OECD), 2004), and Education at a Glance. This publication provides a
reasoned assignment of national educational careers to ISCED standards.
4. For a good overview of policy developments in thee area of promoting mobility since the
foundation of the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic
Community, see Frommberger (2006).
5. See EU web site, Towards a European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning,
available at: http://ec.europa.eu/education/policies/2010/consultations_en.html
6. Key data on education in the EU since 1994, available at: www.eurydice.org/portal/page/ Evaluating
portal/Eurydice
7. Tessaring (1998); Descy and Tessaring (2001); Descy and Tessaring (2005).
progress of
8. Two objects are only equal with regard to specific features. These are analysed by a
European VET
particular interest (research question), i.e. a third, external dimension known as Iertium
comparationis It is differentiated in terms of the intention and the basis of the comparison
hypothetically (assumed equality), Lauterbach (2003, p. 130). 217
9. Benchmarks concern the construction of a relation between internal findings (working
results) and external data that are used as a reference that can be compared in a meaningful
way. Benchmarking can be performed at different levels, e.g. students in a class, class-school
year, school in comparison with other, similar schools.
10. European Commission (2002): European benchmarks for general and vocational education.
11. For the area of vocational education the concept of functional equivalence enables us to
equate differences with regard to the function at the workplace. The comparison of four
economically prosperous regions in Germany, Italy, France and Spain with similar economic
structures rendered clear that it is possible to produce formally distinct human resources in
four different education systems and their distinct political, cultural and historical contexts
(Lauterbach, 2003, p. 103).
12. The TWG was installed in 2002 by the General Directorate for Education of the EU
Commission to advance the development and implementation of common objectives in the
area of vocational education and training, it was commissioned until the end of 2004. Its
tasks included the documentation of the current state of affairs, a development of quality
development, a construction and description of quality indicators for VET at system level,
and the design of a general reference framework for developing and reforming quality in
VET systems, the Common Quality Assurance Framework. Moreover, the group had to
describe methods and instruments for supporting self-evaluation and quality assurance. For
a full documentation, see Virtual Community an Quality Assurance in VET: http://
communities.trainingvillage.gr/quality
13. These documents can be accessed via the web site, available at: http://communities.
trainingvillage.gr/quality, a simple registration procedure is required.
14. See www.bmbfde/puh/alleemeine
15. See Jens Henrik Haahr, Hanne Shapiro, Signe Sorensen, Danish Technological Institute
(managing partner) Cathleen Stasz, Erik Frinking, Christian vant Hof, RAND Europe
Francis Green, Ken Mayhew. Rosa Fernandez, SKOPE (2004) Defining a Strategy for the
Direct Assessment of Skills. This study supplies an overview of Large Scale Assessment
approaches and practices for the area of adult education.
16. This long-standing phenomenon is known in comparative educational research as learning
from abroad, best practice, international argument, etc. (Lauterbach, 2003, p. 99).
References
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Indikatoren, Schlusselstellen des Bildungserfolgs ein kantonaler Vergleich, Neuchatel.
JEIT Descy, P. and Tessaring, M. (2001), Second report an vocational training research in Europe,
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Stuttgart.
218 Eckstein, M.A. (1988), Concepts and theories in comparative education, in Postlethwaite, T.N.
(Ed.), The Encyclopaedia of Comparative Education and National Systems of Education,
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korrespondierende Disziplin Comparative Education/Vergleichende Erziehungswissenschaft,
Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, Baden-Baden.
Lauterbach, U. and Hellwig, W. (2001), VET research in other European and non-European
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Bildungswesen in der Europaischen Union Ausgabe 1994, 110 S.
Europaische Gemeinschaften, Statistisches Amt (eurostat) (1996), Schlusselzahlen zum
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Union, Daten und Kennzahlen 1996, Luxembourg, 349 S. (Themenkreis 3. Bevolkerung
und soziale Bedingungen, Reihe A: Jahrbucher und jahrliche Statistiken.
Haider, G. (2001), System-Monitoring und Qualitatsentwicklung in der Schule, Salzburger
Beitrage zur Erziehungswissenschaft, Vol. 5 No. 1, pp. 5-19.
Hegelheimer, A. (1971), Berufsbildung und Arbeitswelt. Berufsbildungsforschung, Ziele
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Sozialordnung, Heft 17, Stuttgart u.a.: Kohlhammer.
Hellwig, W. and von Kopp, B. (Eds.) (2001), Innovationen nationaler Berufsbildungssysteme von
Argentinien bis Zypern Berufsbildungsprofile im Blickfeld des internationalen
Fachkrafteaustausches (IFKA), Nomos Verlagsgesellschaft, BadenBaden.
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32,2/3 Scholz, B. (1994), Die berufliche Bildung in westeuropaischen Landern unter dem Gesichtspunkt
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VET in Europe
Vocational education and training
in Europe
An alternative to the European qualifications
framework? 221
ITB Working Group
Institute of Technology & Education, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to address the development of a European architecture of
vocational education and promotes and alternative proposal.
Design/methodology/approach This paper is the result of discussions of researchers in the
Institut Technik und Bildung on a European Qualification Framework.
Findings The paper provides an alternative approach to the European Qualifications Framework
that accepts learning in professional and occupational practice as a form of learning in its own right.
Research limitations/implications Even though the European Council has made a decision on
the adoption of the EQF, this paper is a worthwhile contribution to the further dialogue that
emphasises the notion of learning in settings of professional and occupational practice.
Practical implications The practical question arises if the accreditation and assessment methods
for learning through experience on the one hand and learning in formalised settings on the other can be
the same.
Originality/value The paper provides an alternative approach to the European Qualifications
Framework and will be of interest to those in that field.
Keywords European Union, Qualifications, Vocational training, Organizational structures
Paper type Conceptual paper
In general, the employees affected perform highly specialised and quite demanding
tasks that cannot simply be located within existing occupational profiles and formal
curricula. These workers qualify for their jobs exclusively via in-company training,
and there is no alternative to the established practice of training on the job.
Therefore, the integration of semi-skilled workers into a European Qualifications
Framework is hardly possible[2].
Conclusion. The results of labour market and qualification research suggest a
vertical differentiation into four qualification levels:
(1) unskilled and semi-skilled workers;
(2) intermediate level 1;
(3) intermediate level 2; and
(4) highly qualified employees.
225
Figure 1.
Five steps from the novice
to the expert
Level 2: Operative professionals (300 CP). The following qualifications are located on
this level:
.
Technicians and Fachwirte who attend a two-year programme at a Fachschule
after having finished initial vocational training and having gained at least one or
two years of work experience.
.
Technicians and Fachwirte who attend a two-year dual study programme at a
Fachschule subsequent to their initial vocational education; Master craftsmen
(industry and craft trades).
.
Graduates with a Bachelor degree who have added an appropriate two-year
programme of vocational training to their studies or are in possession of
reasonable work experience.
The level of operative professionals includes skilled workers and qualified employees
whose levels of qualification are comparable, but who remarkably differ from each
other in respect of their competence profiles and educational careers. The competence
of a master craftsman, for instance, is based on prior dual vocational training followed
by domain-specific work experience and a supplementary programme of theoretical
education which aims at extending the ability to take over entrepreneurial
responsibilities. In the case of the education of technicians, on the other hand, the
emphasis is put rather on deepening the theoretical foundations of process-related
knowledge. Finally, the contents of undergraduate programmes normally focus on
JEIT
32,2/3
228
Figure 2.
Three-level European
qualifications framework
theoretical education with a scientific background, which means that the Bachelor VET in Europe
degree itself does not yet constitute a level 2 qualification profile. Upon graduation,
participants of Bachelor programmes achieve the qualification to continue their studies
within an appropriate Masters programme.
The equivalence of qualifications on the second level does not mean that the
diplomas and job titles in question are interchangeable. The passing of a master
craftsmans or technicians examination does not entail the assignment of a Bachelor 229
degree. Conversely, graduates with a Bachelor degree do not have the right to assume
the title of a master craftsman.
Level 3: Strategic professionals (420 CP). The following qualifications are located on
level 3:
(1) Graduates with a Masters degree who have completed a two-year programme
of practical vocational training or acquired appropriate work experience.
(2) Graduates with a Masters degree who qualify for academic positions by
obtaining a doctorate.
(3) Operative professionals who qualify for management positions by means of a
programme of continuing vocational education and training of 120 CP. Typical
examples would be the planender Baumeister in Austria or the German
Kapitanspatent fur groe Fahrten:
.
Competences acquired in the general educational system are not taken into
consideration within the present framework. School certificates in general
education are a prerequisite for the development of occupational
competences in the domains of work[6].
.
A level of competence is achieved when domain-specific employability can
be proved. School-based and academic programmes of (vocational) education
lead to domain-specific employability only after an additional period of
practical vocational training lasting two years on average.
.
Unskilled and semi-skilled workers are not being included in the present
framework since their training is beyond formally regulated vocational
education and training and beyond the certification of acquired competences.
.
The different qualification steps are weighted according to the European Credit
Transfer System, which is proven in the academic sector and which allows for
the appropriate consideration and weighting of different forms of learning.
.
The weighting of different kinds of education takes place in accordance with
the experiences from the academic sector. In general phases of practical
training are given the same weight as phases of theoretical instruction or
studies.
.
To the extent that work experience is a prerequisite for the attainment of
domain-specific employability only half of the respective time is taken into
consideration in the calculation of credit points. Thus, a two-year
preparatory service (Referendariat) is equal to 120 credit points, whereas
two years of work experience without formal regulations are worth only 60
credit points.
JEIT .
Positions above the three levels of the present framework are characterised
32,2/3 by the fulfilment of functions with: higher responsibility; higher risk; and
higher added value.
.
This goes along with competences that emerge from the professional career,
ambition and motivation of the individual and cannot be covered by formal
vocational and academic education. Accordingly they are not represented in
230 the present framework.
.
Domain-specific work experience cannot be replaced with theoretical studies
or school-based learning. Competences acquired at the level of skilled work
can be taken into account for the qualification of operative or strategic
professionals only to a limited extent. The recognition of qualifications
therefore takes place with reference to the context of the respective
(occupational) domains.
Notes
1. Achieving the Lisbon Goal: The Contribution of VET: Final Report to the European
Commission 1-11-04, p. 8.
2. The levels 1 and 2 of the QCA proposal for an eight level European Qualifications
Framework do not characterise work-related qualifications. Level 3 describes tasks which
are typical for semi-skilled workers. These three levels consequently do not constitute
qualification levels which should be included in a European framework.
3. In expertise research this is labelled deliberate practice.
4. Cf. in this regard the European project car mechatronic (Rauner and Spottl, 2002).
5. As the criterion of learning outcomes does not differentiate between competences acquired
in school or university settings and those that are decisive for occuopational competence or
employability, it is not appropriate for the definition or foundation of qualification levels.
6. The authors thank Georg Hanf for his useful comments and remarks.
References
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Studies in Human Resource Development, London.
Chi, M.T.H., Glaser, R. and Farr, M. (Eds.) (1988), The Nature of Expertise, Hillsdale, Erlbaum, NY.
Esser, H., Kloas, P.-W., Brunner, S. and Witt, D. (2005), Uberlegungen fur die Konstruktion eines
integrierten NQF-ECVET-Modells, ZDH, Berlin.
Europaischer Rat (2000), Schlussfolgerungen des Vorsitzes, Europaischer Rat, Lissabon.
Fischer, M. and Rauner, F. (Eds.) (2002), Lernfeld: Arbeitsprozess Ein Studienbuch zur
Kompetenzentwicklung von Fachkraften in gewerblich-technischen Aufgabenbereichen,
Nomos, Baden-Baden.
Hanf, G. and Greinert, W. (Eds.) (2004), Towards a History of Vocational Education and Training
in Europe in a Comparative Perspective, Vol. 1, Office for Official Publications of the
European Communities, Luxembourg.
Gerstenmaier, J. (1999), Denken benotigt Wissen Die Bedeutung des bereichsspezifischen
Wissens fur Wissenserwerb und Leistung, GdWZ, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 65-7.
Gruber, H. (1999), Erfahrung als Grundlage kompetenten Handelns, Verlag Hans Huber, Bern.
Rauner, F. and Spottl, G. (2002), Der Kfz-Mechatroniker Vom Neuling zum Experten.
Berufsbildung, Arbeit und Innovation, Vol. 12, Bertelsmann Verlag, Bielefeld.
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Schon, D.A. (1983), The Reflective Pracitioner How Professionals Think in Action, Basic Books,
New York, NY.
JEIT Further reading
32,2/3 Benner, P. (1997), Stufen zur Pflegekompetenz From Novice to Expert, 2nd ed., Hans Huber
Verlag, Bern.
Dreyfus, H.L. and Dreyfus, S.E. (1986), Mind Over Machine: The Power of Human Intuition and
Expertise in the Era of the Computer, Blackwell, Oxford.
Rauner, F. (2002), Berufliche Kompetenzentwicklung vom Novizen zum Experten, in
234 Dehnbostel, P. (Ed.), Vernetzte Kompetenzentwicklung. Alternative Positionen zur
Weiterbildung, edition sigma, Berlin, pp. 111-32.
Corresponding author
Felix Rauner can be contacted at: felix.rauner@uni_bremen.de