Technopolis Group’s National Qualification Framework evaluation at international conference

Last week, Mikaela Almerud and Maria Ricksten from our Swedish office participated in the Annual Chain5 Conference.

The Chain5 is an international network and the community of practice for the international stakeholders and policy actors involved in the developments of level 5 of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). The main objective of the annual Chain5 conference is to provide a forum for discussion and best practice exchange on strategic developments of the EQF and policies of vocational education and training (VET). In total, the conference included 140 participants from 16 European countries.

During the conference, Mikaela and Maria presented the results of a feasibility study which investigated possible ways in which the Norwegian government could revise their National Qualification Framework (NQF) to include VET-qualifications at the higher levels of the framework and further facilitate lifelong learning. The study includes case studies from Austria, The Netherlands, Wales, Sweden and Germany. It also points out the different approaches to the learning outcomes from the Bologna process as opposed to the European Qualification Framework (EQF). Based on the empirical data, the study suggests four alternative ways to reform the Norwegian NQF to further development and improvement. Find out more about the study here.