With a last blog this year the ETF qualifications team wishes all QP members and visitors a happy festive season and all the best in 2019.
2018 has seen some changes for our team and this will continue in 2019. Colleagues have moved to other positions in ETF and we are expecting new colleagues in the new year. We have supported partner countries with further development of National Qualifications Frameworks and validation of non-formal and informal learning. But we have also embarked on new themes such as curriculum development.
And we have started work on the sequence of the toolkit ‘’Getting organised for better qualifications’’ (2017). Title and topic of our new toolkit and an ETF conference in November next year is "Skills and qualifications, benefits for people’’. As the title suggests, the work on this publication takes us beyond NQFs and qualifications and beyond our usual focus on systems and policies. With a purpose, for two reasons. First, most ETF partner countries now have NQFs, although in different stages of development. Countries are modernising their qualification systems. We want to encourage countries to look not at NQFs and the qualification system in isolation, but to link qualifications to skills development, to curricula and provision, to teaching and learning, and to career guidance. Second, reforms of qualification and broader VET systems are slow. Governments pass laws, establish institutions, set up stakeholder platforms, design curricula. There is a risk that too much stays on paper and too little finds its way to benefit people. And isn’t benefits for people the ultimate goal of any reform?
Looking at what is happening at the level of government and policies gives only part of the picture. A lot is happening in schools by teachers, in companies by entrepreneurs and practical trainers, in employment agencies by career guidance and recruitment officers. They are the “brokers” that can ensure that policies bring benefits to learners and employers, if the policies are good. But they can also inspire policy makers and shapers.
Our new toolkit will include many examples of successful practices that benefit people, in teaching and learning, in curriculum development, in career information and guidance. Practices, from ETF partner countries, EU member states and worldwide.
Therefore, last month, ETF initiated a call for success stories. I have written about it in an earlier blog. We already received a number of good stories. Some examples: A teacher in Kazachstan who uses her own experience to make her lessons more attractive for students. A teacher from Turkey who has taken all kind of initiatives to increase the interest and participation of girls in IT, with success, the choice for IT related occupations in his school has increased from 11 – 60%. An entrepreneur from Pakistan who has set up a successful company to provide skills development training for teenagers from poor families, motivated by his own experiences as a child. A company in the Netherlands that uses virtual reality as a recruitment tool to attract young adults to the metal sector. The quality of the practices we received is high and so is the variety. This confirms our assumption that A LOT is happening ‘on the ground’ that benefits people directly, which can be inspiring for practitioners in other countries ánd for policy makers.
Looking at social media activities, we see that there is a lot of interest in this call for success stories, especially in Turkey, Albania, Egypt, Armenia and Azerbaijan! So we expect to receive many more stories, from these countries and from others. Please send us your success stories and encourage others to send theirs. The deadline is 31 January 2019.
We expect 2019 to be an exciting year, we wish all of you an inspiring and exciting 2019!
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