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Embedding ICT/Multimedia Standardisation Initiatives into European Vocational Training Development Strategies

Socio-economic change of the last years is characterized by globalisation of economy and by the arising information society. Both developments have produced new demands on training and education: New job profiles have come into being, requiring new content of training, traditional job profiles have to be modified as basic IT skills have to be included, and new technologies have created new possibilities of learning (e-learning). Last but not least globalisation forces EU member states to co-ordinate their systems of training and education in order to make their economy competitive on the world market.These demands on training and education can be subsumed under the requirement of up-to-date standards of training and education, directly or indirectly valid all over Europe. Europe is far away from having reached this objective, not due a lack of standardisation activities, but since there are so many initiatives of standardisation initiatives on national and European level, and they are not linked to each other in a systematic context. So on a governmental and European level, a lot of initiatives have been started after the Lisbon summit (2000), all aiming to make national systems compatible (Bologna Process, „Objectives“-Initiative, Bruges-Copenhagen-Initiative). But disgarding this, in some countries and limited to some sectors, career paths, learning and assessment methods have been standardized without linking them to developments at other places (e.g. SFIA or the German System of Advanced IT Training). There are also initiatives as EUCIP or Career Space which have been allocated on a European level from the very beginning, but have not managed to create real links to national systems up to now. The project Embedding Standards shall deliver a contribution to overcome this „standardisation divide“. The European Credit System for Vocational and Educational Training (ECVET), to be developed by the Technical Working Group (TWG) for Credit Transfer in VET (Follow-up of the Copenhagen-Declaration) shall be piloted in the framework of national systems of education in order to create “zones of mutual trust” based on a substantially identical assessment of learning results in different countries with different qualification frameworks. For this purpose, a sectoral approach is pursued which is especially appropriate: ICT/Multimedia sector has come into being in a transnational framework from the very beginning; so job activities should not differ too much from country to country. This facilitates a joint definition of learning units as starting point of assessment which has to be carried out on a specialist basis. The following core activities are provided:- To develop a current optimum model of assessing vocational training and education in the ICT Multimedia sector which takes in consideration discussion of the Virtual Community for Credit Transfer in VET as well as national and sectoral features, - - To put the model in concrete terms by using two exemplary job profiles (which includes assignment of credits to learning units) - - To pilot the approach in the framework of “zones of mutual trust” to be set up, and to use findings of piloting as feedback to TWG work
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