Feasibility of a Quality Award

Explore the feasibility of a Quality award on Vocational Excellence

Purpose: to cultivate a culture of excellence, foster international dialogue and recognise effective practices. The award and/or the label will be based on the set of criteria for VET excellence established in ISATCoV and will be aligned with EU policies and priorities regarding CoVEs

Projected outputs:

A feasibility study on the character, the processes, the benefits and the applicability, of an Award and/or Label for Excellence for CoVEs

A four-phase process:

June-August 2022: ETF will conduct a mapping of existing national and international labels and awards for educational organisations, to identify key aspects to be taken into account in the development of an EU quality award prototype.

September-November 2022: develop an award concept in terms of objectives, eligibility criteria, dimensions and criteria for excellence, identifying a process by which the award/label can be operationalised.

December 2022-May 2023: conduct a feasibility study to establish the award methodology, set out a prototype and estimate its sustainability February-March 2023: run a simulation with a limited number of volunteer CoVEs, evaluate lessons learnt and potential impact of award ahead of final consultation.

May-July 2023: Finalise the feasibility study, assess the award sustainability and review and validate final recommendations to the Commission.

Several scenarios for a possible award or label for Centres of Vocational Excellence have been developed and articulated, identifying preliminary critical issues that can affect their applicability.  These scenarios have been explored and evaluated through internal discussions within the ETF and external consultation: at the World Federation of Colleges and Polytechnics Conference (16/17 June 2022) and during the first meeting of the project Consultative Panel (28 June 2022). Important issues were raised which should be taken into account while developing the feasibility study.

A team of consultants has been contracted to undertake the Feasibility Study (Consortium 3S and Ockham – IPS) that has already delivered its Inception Report and is currently addressing the first phase of the work to map a sample of existing international labels and awards according to a series of agreed criteria.