EU to facilitate mobility in vocational education

If a new recommendation by the European Commission is accepted, it should become easier for the thousands of Mcast students to do part of their study and training in one of the other 30,000 vocational training institutions in the EU.

The Commission yesterday presented plans to introduce a Europe-wide credit system for students in vocational education and training.

The system, called ECVET, would make it easier for European students to get formal recognition of the knowledge, skills and competences they have gained in another country.

According to the Commission, the new initiative aims to build on the success of ECTS, the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System in higher education, introduced in 1998 and which has improved transparency and facilitated the recognition of study components done in a country other than one's own. Education systems in Europe are highly fragmented and often complex. The number of different qualifications and procedures, even within one country, can make it difficult to transfer the results of learning from one system, or learning context, to another. By facilitating such transfer situations, ECVET would support citizens' mobility and give them better access to lifelong learning, whether in formal, non-formal or informal contexts.

According to the proposal, in ECVET, units of learning outcomes are defined with an associated number of credit points. This in turn helps qualification-awarding authorities in the EU member states to translate learning outcomes and associated points acquired elsewhere into their own vocational training qualifications system.

The Commission's proposal will now be submitted for approval to the European Parliament and the Council.

Member states would eventually adopt it on a voluntary basis and implement it according to their own rules.