Development of qualifications frameworks in Ethiopia and Austria – an...

Thematisches Forum im Rahmen der 7. Österreichischen Konferenz für Berufsbildungsforschung

Qualifications frameworks are being implemented as a globally observable education policy process (UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, 2015). The development of qualifications frameworks in Ethiopia ("ENQF") respectively the European Union ("EQF") began roughly simultaneously: in 2006/2007 in Ethiopia (UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, 2015, p. 108), and in 2008 in the European Union (European Commission, 2018). In Austria, however, implementation was clearly delayed: the corresponding law was not enacted until 2016 and establishing corresponding structures and the actual implementation only then picked up speed (NKS – Nationale Koordinierungsstelle für den NQR in Österreich, n.d.).

Implementation of NQFs was associated with quite different intentions in Ethiopia respectively the European Union:

In the European Union, the EQF was principally designed as a transparency instrument whose purpose was to make (existing) qualifications more understandable and comparable across different European countries and education systems and, subsequently, to promote mobility of the (qualified) workforce.

While efforts to adopt the model of apprenticeship training of the German-speaking countries (Austria, Germany, Switzerland), the dual system, have been documented for Ethiopia (Shaorshadze & Krishnan, 2013), there are currently contacts to Australia and the Philippines, which do not have such standardised work-integrated youth training models in the education system (Geleto, 2017). The reasons cited are the institutional prerequisites (training companies, social partner institutions, nationwide occupational profiles, etc.) which are not established or not established in a comparable form (Shaorshadze & Krishnan, 2013). The decision for an outcome-oriented qualifications framework considering different qualification levels, an orienting entry level and defined higher qualifications seemed to be the logical consequence (TVET-Levels 1-4, preparatory courses, TVET-Extensions).

The panellists shall focus on recognition of prior learning in terms of validation of non-formal and informal learning outcomes within their NQFs (TVET related) and on transformative potentials of NQFs in terms of (1) continuing learning/workplace learning, (2) upskilling, and (3) permeability within TVET (qualifications, professions/jobs).