Since its inception in 2017, the ETF Forum for Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (VET) has been one of the effective tools to strengthen cooperation amongst EU partner countries. A chief important method adopted by the Forum in this regard is peer visits.
The peer visits mechanism constitutes a critical part of the process of bringing national VET entities together; it helps in exchanging expertise and boosting dialogue through an analytical and reflective peer review process amongst officials from partner countries in a way that is mutually beneficial to every member of the Forum.
On May 30 & 31, the Forum is organizing a peer visit to Budva, Montenegro with the aim of giving the opportunity for delegations from member states to provide constructive feedback on the quality assurance measures related to the methodology for external evaluation in VET schools. The visit is hosted by the Forum Member institution for Montenegro represented by the Centre for Vocational Education and Training of Montenegro, as well as by the Ministry of Education of Montenegro.
Kicked off through an online session on 19 May, the visit comes as an excellent opportunity to reconfirm the ever increasing role of quality assurance in today’s educational and learning systems. The online session included several discussions on VET systems in Montenegro, as well as external evaluation of VET providers. The VET system of Montenegro and the work of the Center for Vocational Education and Training of Montenegro were presented by Marko Vukašinović, Head of Directorate for planning and implementation of EU Funds of the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sports of Montenegro, and Ivana Vučinić, Senior Adviser for International Cooperation in the Centre for Vocational Education and Training of Montenegro. The session also witnessed an active participation of ETF QA Forum member representatives for Montenegro - Vladislav Koprivica, Head of Department for Quality Assurance of the Centre for Vocational Education and Training of Montenegro, and Ivan Marković, the Senior Specialist for Quality Assurance of the Centre.
Mounir Baati, ETF Senior Specialist in VET Quality Assurance and Nadezda Solodjankina, ETF HCD expert moderate the peer visit from the ETF side.
While the Forum, in general, is concerned with a variety of activities including monitoring and reporting on quality assurance systems and mechanisms, as well as mapping the understanding, relevance, coverage, usage and characteristics of data collection in terms of the EQAVET indicators, the peer learning activities remain a particularly significant part of its mission thanks to their collective, participatory and interactive nature, which adds a lot to the entire experience at the policy level. It is worth mentioning that the ETF has developed a methodology on peer visits and a guidance and training manual for benefiting those who would like to apply the idea and mainstream it in other VET related contexts and policy settings.
The Montenegro peer visit is the 2nd official peer visit to be organised by the ETF after the first visit to Tunisia in 2019. Participating peers are from Albania, Armenia, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Morocco, Palestine, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey. It is good to note that such events are extremely valuable for peers knowledge wise for they are encouraged to think about the transferability of what they have heard and seen in their own national context.
Coordinated by the ETF content wise, a peer visit is regarded as a development-orientated procedure that supports the capacity to analyse and identify strengths and weaknesses of existing quality assurance approaches and measures.
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