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Erasmus Plus Capacity Building for VET

 

The Erasmus Plus Capacity Building for VET call offers opportunities for international projects for the first time aimed at VET and lifelong learning that can be used as well to support the developments of RQFs and NQFs. The call is open for cooperation projects with

Region 1: Western Balkans

Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro

Region 2: Neighbourhood East

Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Moldova, Territory of Ukraine as recognised by international law

Region 3: South-Mediterranean countries

Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia

Region 4: Russian Federation

Territory of Russia as recognised by international law

Region 9: Sub-Saharan Africa

Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cabo Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Congo – Democratic Republic of the, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Eswatini, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe

Region 10: Latin America

Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela

Region 11: Caribbean

Antigua & Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent & Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago

 

 

Asian and Pacific countries and Canada and USA are not included in this call.

 

The projects should have a focus on Vocational Education and Training, but not exclusively. VET includes different forms of initial vocational education and training but also Continuing Vocational Training and even Higher Education focused on VET.  Projects supporting on exclusive Qualifications Frameworks for higher education are not eligible.

 

The size of projects is 100.000-400.000€ and the duration 1-3 years, i.e. 1 or 2 or 3 years. At least two partners from one third country (see list above) should be involved.

 

Projects can be sectoral, national, regional (covering a group of neighbouring countries) or inter regional (covering several of the abovementioned regions). There are regional priorities that would need to be taken into account when developing a regional or inter regional project.

 

For the partner countries of the ETF in the European neighbourhood, the regional priorities (applicable only to ETF countries) are published in the FTOP portal in the section “Call updates” or “Topic updates”.

Regional priorities. Note that Central Asia and Belarus cannot participate in this call.

 

More information on the application conditions and process can be found here.

Online Info Session on 8 December 2021: New action - Capacity building in the field of Vocational Education and Training (VET) (europa.eu) – There is a video (in English), the presentations are available in English and French. There is also a leaflet is available here (in English and in French).

 

The application should be made online: via the FTOP portal (see the section “Submission service”)

 

It is important to understand that the applications can only be submitted  by  an applicant organisation from the 27 EU Member States or third countries associated to the Erasmus+ programme: Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Turkey.

 

As the focus is on VET systems in the third countries not associated to the Erasmus+ programme  there must be a balance in the participation that benefits third country participants.

 

The deadline for submitting projects is 31 March 2022 at 17.00 Brussels time.

 

If you do not manage in time, there may be another call for projects next year.

 

 

Why focusing on the development of RQFs and NQFs?

 

As you know, many countries in the world are developing regional qualifications frameworks and national qualifications frameworks. There are many opportunities for peer learning, exchange of experiences and capacity building between partners from different countries and world regions.

 

We know that many new qualifications frameworks developments are outside Europe, we mapped 17 RQF initiatives around the globe in 2020 and are aware that there are at least 19 today. Most countries in the world have also started developing NQFs.

 

You will not find the development of qualifications frameworks as a priority in the call, but we have been assured this is eligible.

 

Note ETF cannot participate or coordinate these projects, they will have to developed and implemented by you.

 

What project might focus on – building on recent initiatives and dialogue

 

Projects can focus on many aspects of the developments of qualifications frameworks. I quote from the conclusions of the Global Webinar based on statements from participants from more than 60 countries and international organisations.

 

We need to find and share innovative solutions. RQFs are operating in different environments, have different objectives and developed different tools. This gives us a common capital of knowledge that we can share and use to make RQFs more effective, based on what works. Working together has become easier; during the crisis we have learned to work more online, reducing the physical distances between us. There are many common challenges that need to be addressed. We need new types of qualifications and credentials to recognise when people have undertaken upskilling and reskilling activities. There is still important work ahead in improving mutual understanding and working towards common languages and definitions to support global transparency. Recognition is increasingly interlinked with qualifications frameworks, but there is a need to work more on professional recognition. Qualification systems are moving from a chasing a basically paper trail to digital, connected and interoperable systems. These new technologies can benefit all RQFs, and we need to explore how we can share them to better support the digitalisation of qualification systems.

 

Capacity building is an obvious starting point as many RQFs are still in an early phase of development and all RQFs face several new challenges together. The focus has to be on the people in the first line for developing the frameworks, but one should not forget practitioners who have to implement the qualifications frameworks (according to Anna Kahlson, Sweden). Building capacities for national teams is important to support the RQF process as well as the NQF development. Learning is easier and faster for those of us who are starting from our National Frameworks. We need to strengthen local technical support (according to James Keevy, South Africa). Priority technical areas are legislation, developing and using learning outcomes, and the design of qualifications and frameworks (according to Teresa Duarte, Portugal). Building qualifications and certification systems are seen by many as critical.

 

There is a need to organise a series of webinars between the various RQFs. We need to advance as well in more agile conversations, including face to face, and share experience in workshop-type formats. Collaborative events could be used for information sharing. They will help to widen everyone’s horizon, with an open mind towards other systems and their specificities. Many participants demonstrated a readiness to facilitate webinars or cooperate in webinars organised by others. Some of these workshops could have a more regional character, others could be global from the start.

 

Participants in our Global Webinar stressed that we need to develop the sense of usefulness of the NQF and the RQF with decision makers. The link between RQFs facilitating international transparency and lifelong learning strategies, needs to be better articulated. This can help us to put the framework at the top of the public agenda. Participants were interested in how political commitment for RQFs can be secured, particularly at the regional level. RQFs make use of different communication tools to reach end users and stakeholders. Many participants indicated that it is important to build a common understanding between RQFs, about concepts and levels that we all use.

 

The starting point is to share conceptual inputs, but in the end, we need a common language for comparison of qualifications. It is important to work together towards a consistent approach to the relationship with credentials and international qualifications. In this respect the recent initiative of Unesco to agree a universal definition for micro-credentials is laudable. Can we develop a database with common concepts and common tools? We could undertake collaborative work on models for RPL, Credit Accumulation and Transfer mechanisms, articulation, and flexible learning pathways (according to Heidi Bolton of SAQA). We can exchange existing toolkits and guidelines. Another area of joint work could focus on assessment : design strategies and structures (tools development).

 

The successful implementation of RQFs depends to a great extent on how the NQFs that are linked with the RQF progress. Sometimes one or more NQFs in a region can be a regional champion to promote the RQF, but in the end RQFs need to progress across all the countries that are involved. Therefore, many participants emphasised the need to support NQFs in specific countries in order to develop the RQFs. Learning to work together with different groups of stakeholders could also be an important topic for capacity building. NQFs and RQFs have created new partnerships and we can share experience in these dialogues.

 

In the conclusions the following topics were identified as key interests

 

Exchanging information on what works

Referencing, alignment of NQFs to RQFs and comparison between RQFs

Defining, writing and implementing level descriptors and learning outcomes for qualifications and curricula

Identifying emerging qualification needs

Developing regional and national databases of qualifications

 

Below some important information sources on recent developments of RQFs

 

 

You may use the ETF Open Space (link https://openspace.etf.europa.eu)  to find interested partners.

 

For any questions do not hesitate to contact us.

 

Good luck,

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