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How to wIN the challenGE: internationalising EQF Level 5
Start date: Sep 1, 2015, End date: Aug 31, 2018 PROJECT  FINISHED 

The general objectives of the project are to strengthen cooperation between the world of education and training and the world of work, to foster quality, innovation and internationalization of partner institutions and to establish transnational cooperation between education providers and regional/local authorities in charge of accreditation of training bodies, development of LLL and recognition of qualifications . In line with the actions put forward in the 2012 Country Specific Recommendations, the project intends to develop methodologies and tools for internationalizing short cycle tertiary qualifications (2 years) and apply the methodology to a pilot SCHE focused on ICT, area where the partner countries present skills shortage and growth potential as well as the need to improve exchange of information between the world of education and the labor market at international level. The project contributes to the strategies of “Europe 2020”, “ET 2020” and the priorities of “Modernising Europe’s Higher Education Systems”, “Opening up Education”. The European Qualification Framework – EQF identifies 8 Levels for the classification of knowledge, competences and skills acquired within formal, informal and non formal educational systems. The EU members were called to take EQF as a reference framework and instrument for understanding qualifications in their national systems. The rapid development of NQFs and their linkage to EQF, is increasingly influencing the writing of curricula and qualification standards, thus signaling that the learn¬ing outcomes approach has been broadly accepted as the basis for European cooperation in the area of education and training, at all levels (ET 2020). “ET 2020”, key instrument to modernise education and training, “Europe 2020”, agreed to stem the worst financial and economic crisis in the EU history, and the 2012 Annual Growth Survey, all stress that education and training systems have to be modernised to reinforce their efficiency and quality and to equip people with the skills and competences they need to succeed on the labor market and call for a particular focus on young people, who are among the groups worst affected by the crisis. The countries where the partners belong are severely affected by the crisis and are registering the highest rate of unemployment of young people thus making the achievement of the objectives agreed at European level very critical. Indeed the governments reduced investment in education and training also at tertiary level, while promoting reforms in line with the directives. In this environment the institutions must exploit all the opportunities offered by European policies to avoid that the reduced financing delays the positive results envisaged by Agenda for Modernising HE, ET 2020 and Europe 2020, with devastating consequences at all levels. The project intends to contribute to 1) Increase Tertiary or equivalent education attainment, 2) Promote Learning mobility. In the partner countries the main gap exists in the scarce connection between VET and HE and in the poor linkage of both with the requirements of the labor market. Thus the provision of international curricula at Level 5 would be the best way to remove the obstacles in connecting the three worlds: universities, VET and labor market, that are often related to the lack of a common language (on knowledge, skills and competences) and of a clear strategy on how to use information on skills supply and needs. The partnership is composed by universities and local decision-making authorities. The universities are very active in the internationalization of curricula and play a key role in the development policies and education reform of their regions/countries but are facing problems due to huge variety of educational offers at VET level that are not clearly inserted in the EQF/NQF and need a proper evaluation. The local authorities which have the task to define and recognize the qualifications developed locally as well as identify the criteria for the recognition of informal and non formal skills and competences, need to start up a clear and fruitful cooperation with the universities and other actors in the education area for the enhancement and warranty of quality and portability of qualifications. The main results of the project are: 1) the development of methodology and tools for the organization of an international degree at Level 5, 2) the experimentation of a pilot SCHE in ICT with the organization of blended mobility, and 3) establishment of clear criteria for the recognition of competences and skills in line with the LO description. Strong emphasis is given to the quality assurance of the curriculum developed through methods and tools for a continuous assessments of learning outputs and activities.

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