Guide for the review of institutional arrangements

Guide for the review of institutional arrangements July 2014

A methodology guide to the use of the RIA tool to verify the capacity of a country to implement its programme of VET reform.

Short description:

This guide was developed in the context of the EU-funded FRAME initiative to help EU pre-accession countries prepare for the 2014–2020 funding cycle of the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II). The overall goal of IPA II is to support accession countries in implementing the reforms required to bring them closer to EU values, rules, standards, policies and practices, with a view to their joining the EU.

A total of seven countries took part in the FRAME Foresight for Skills initiative: the five (at the time) pre-accession countries of Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey, as well as two accession candidates, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo. The corresponding reports resulting from the application of RIAs to each of these countries are available on the ETF website. The RIAs provided a reality check to ensure that each country had the capacity to carry out the needed reforms. Where capacity was lacking, the roadmap was updated to include corresponding capacity-building measures.

In each country, the RIA was part of a larger programme made up of the following four main components:

• a Foresight component to create a shared vision of what the VET reform programme is intended to achieve;

• an assessment component, based on an RIA, to gauge the capabilities of the actors required to implement VET reform, their ability to deliver on the reform agenda, and their needs in terms of capacity-building measures;

• a monitoring component, based on a system of indicators defined along with a roadmap for reforms, as part of the Foresight component;

• a regional cooperation component to encourage mutual learning among VET policy experts from South Eastern Europe and Turkey.

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