Ensuring quality learning

Quality assurance (QA) is a broad term which, when applied to vocational training and to higher education must be contextualised, otherwise, it will miss its targets, which are to ensure quality education and credibility of qualifications.

Programmes of studies, for example, differ even at the same level of qualification; the same can be said for the use of equipment and infrastructure, for learning outcomes and the assessment procedure, for the credit systems, qualifications of teachers and links with the labour market and with the professional sectors.

Qualifications frameworks (QFs) are first and foremost tools for quality assurance. They encourage the proliferation of private and public training provision by establishing a clear level playing field competition through agreed standards and quality assurance. Furthermore, learners stand to benefit from an open and transparent process in which the quality of information on each qualification will determine the value of their learning experience.

In a paper written for the European Commission earlier this year, Jens Bjornavold and Mike Coles listed 10 indicators in the relationship between a QF and a QA system, namely, increased consistency of qualifications, better transparency for individuals and employers, increased currency of single qualifications, a broader range of learning forms are recognised, a national/external reference point for qualifications standards, clarification of learning pathways and progression, increased portability of qualifications, a platform for stakeholders for strengthening cooperation and commitment, greater coherence of national reform policies, and stronger basis for international co-operation, understanding and comparison.

These indicators clearly imply that a QF is a classification device for quality assurance as it spells out both the market and the intrinsic value of a qualification. At a higher level, a qualifications framework is the meeting point of standards and structures managed by key stakeholders such as (i) all competent authorities (designated by law), (ii) representatives of industry and other diverse sectors such as those of arts and culture, sports, personal services and many others.

A QF is a pre-condition to a QA system. As a translation device, a QF aims at the transparency, comparability and portability of qualifications across national, sectoral, institutional, European and global borders. To be successful in this process, extensive mutual trust based on recognised quality assurance mechanisms between all stakeholders is needed.

Furthermore, to facilitate the acceptance of qualifications in the labour market at a national and international level, the involvement of social partners at all levels is highly recommendable.

A system that maintains a QF ensures that the lifecycle of a qualification starts from visibility to accessibility and ends in mobility, career progression and self-actualisation. For this purpose, a QF establishes quality assurance by clarifying learning pathways and progression by level-rating, by acting as a focal point for stakeholders to own quality in learning environments, by creating greater coherence of national reform policies and by establishing a stronger basis for international co-operation, understanding and comparison.

Above all, a QF is an added value to individual learners (and particularly, parents of younger children) in terms of increased consistency, transparency, currency and portability. However, it is the stakeholders, such as career/school counsellors, trainers, teachers and recruitment agencies (including, in particular public sector recruitment units), that ultimately sustain the benefits of quality that a qualifications framework offers to prospective learners. Such frameworks were originally created in the UK to unify three overarching systems of education through a standard quality assurance structure linked with an agreed framework. Similar initiatives quickly flourished in the 1990s in other Commonwealth countries such as Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.

France established a qualifications framework in 2002 based on a national repertoire of professional qualifications, and including the validation of informal and non-formal learning.

In all these countries, qualifications authorities were established to maintain and manage a quality assurance system that safeguards the principles and practices of a qualifications framework.

The process to establish a European Qualifications Framework (EQF) in all EU member states started in 2004 and reached its first goal with its adoption by the European Parliament in 2008. Malta has actively participated in this process and the MQC has twice been awarded pilot projects to test the EQF in 2006 and 2008.

The EU targets are that by 2010, all national qualifications frameworks are to be referenced to the EQF and that member states adopt a reference to the EQF on all certification.

In Malta, this process started in 2005 with the setting up of the Malta Qualifications Council (MQC). Malta is one of four EU countries with an established qualifications framework that incorporates all levels of education, from pre-school to post-doctoral degrees, continuous professional development and adult education. The Malta Qualifications Framework (MQF) is modelled on the EQF and the framework of the European Higher Education Area.

Designing an overarching QA system for further and higher education is an excellent initiative if higher education and vocational education and training work interdependently, as they do with QA systems in compulsory education.

The unifying factor between the three sectors is the MQF, which sets standards by putting in place visible, predictable and coherent national systems. This is necessary to define qualifications on the basis of established quality standards, for assessing learning outcomes and for awarding qualifications.

Malta's QF is currently being referenced to the EQF. Following this process, MQC will launch a draft MQF referencing handbook for consultation to illustrate an explicit link between the MQF level-descriptors and those of the EQF.

This referencing process is defined in terms of learning outcomes at any level of qualification. Such an approach is fundamental for the application of a QF to an education system that measures quality in compulsory education by the acquisition of key competences by all learners; the quality of further and vocational education by mobility and relevancy to the labour market and that of higher education by research and innovation.

With adequate investment, a QF translates quality in education into cost-effectiveness and competitiveness. In this regard, one is obliged to define a quality assurance policy for Malta which is based on the MQF referencing process on the standards and guidelines for quality assurance in the higher education area and on the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Training.

For more information on the MQC, visit www.mqc.gov.mt.

Dr Calleja is chief executive, Malta Qualifications Council.