The 7th issue of the ECVET magazine contains
- an editorial by Christian Lettmayr, Acting director of CEDEFOP on the active involvement of social partners in implementing the common European tools on the VET-Agenda;
- an article on the final events of eight of the 1st generation European pilot projects (Call 2008-2012) and the key messages conveyed
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project CPU Europe that is an element of a major reform of the vocational education and training (VET) system in the French Speaking Community of Belgium;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project MENECVET that aims to examine how VET qualifications of the French Ministry of National Education compare with principles of ECVET;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project EASYMetal which develops and tests methods and tools to enhance transparency and permeability at the interface between pre-vocational training and vocational training in Germany;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project ICARE that aims at developing a recognition model in the field of personal care and establish mutual trust among the partner countries involved;
- an article on the 2nd generation pilot project 2get1care that seeks to develop an approach for inter-professional and transnational transferability of training components in health professions;
- a series of news items;
- an outline of the concept of the joint Final conference of the European pilot projects on 22-23 February 2012.

MENECVET – How do French qualifications of the Ministry of national education compare with ECVET?
Note: This article refers only to those VET qualifications that are governed by the Ministry of National Education. This article is in particular based on presentations of Maryannik Malicot and Martine Paty both from the Ministry of National Education.
What is MENECVET?
The project MENECVET aims to examine how VET qualifications of the French Ministry of National Education compare with principles of ECVET. Based on this comparison the project will develop recommendations to be used for VET qualifications falling under the Ministry of National Education, regarding:
• Description of qualifications and more specifically the description of learning outcomes;
• Organisation and practical arrangements that will enable the recognition of learning outcomes achieved through mobility (international geographical mobility);
• Use of ECVET points.
The project is based on five qualifications, all of the same type and level (vocational leaving certificates EQF 4 – Baccalaureat Professionnel), but covering different sectors (production and services);
The project is structured in three main phases:
• March to December 2011 – an analysis of the legibility of qualifications of the French Ministry of National Education compared with the ECVET Recommendation;
• January to September 2012 – transfer of learning outcomes: does the norm in place in France enable the recognition of learning outcomes abroad and under what conditions;
• August to December 2012 – how to allocate and use ECVET points.
Context
The French Ministry of National Education is the main certification authority for learners in initial VET even though the qualifications of this Ministry can also be achieved by adults (through continuing training or through the validation and recognition of non-formal and informal learning). The Ministry is the competent authority for designing VET qualifications that fall under its competence. This is ensured through national bodies called « Consultative professional committees », (commissions professionnelles consultatives) involving the economic world, that are chaired by the Ministry. It is also the competent authority for defining assessment requirements as well as for awarding VET qualifications. The last competence is devolved to the regional representations of the Ministry – Rectorat (local education authority). Using ECVET terminology, this means that the Ministry is the competent authority for several functions that are engaged in the implementation and use of ECVET.
The rules for designing and awarding VET qualifications are set in a national framework composed of two elements:
• The education code which sets the regulatory framework;
and
• A National guide on the development of vocational qualifications (Guide later in the text)
According to this framework, all VET qualifications must have the following structure and content:
• The professional activities standard which describes the activities and tasks that a holder of the qualification will be able to carry out;
• The certification standard that describes the professional competences expected to be achieved by the graduate. In particular, this concerns the description of competences using active verbs and defining the conditions in which these competences are to be realised in addition to the associated knowledge;
• The assessment standard which is a document that defines the conditions/terms of certification. This part contains the units that constitute the qualification. The assessment regulation and the conditions of assessment (such as the type of assessment, who can assess, etc.);
• Description of the compulsory on-the-job training period. In summary, the qualifications are based on competences and use the structure of units that indicates convergence with the ECVET principles. The objective of this project is to analyse in more detail how the national framework fits with ECVET, to identify points that could be used to update the existing National guide and to develop specific guidelines that will support the use of ECVET for the geographical mobility of learners (particularly in initial VET).
First phase of project work – structure and content of VET qualifications compared to ECVET In the first phase of this project, the five qualifications selected (vocational leaving certificates EQF 4 – Baccalaureat Professionnel), were analysed and compared with:
• The national framework for qualification design and description (the education code which sets the regulatory framework; and the National guide on development of vocational qualifications); and
• The ECVET technical specifications.
The preliminary results of this analysis are summarised as follows:
With regard to the first component of French qualifications’ description, definition of professional activities, this element is not part of the ECVET technical specifications. In the description of French qualifications this is a core element of the qualification design. It describes the objective of the qualification – what the person holding the qualification will be capable to perform in the workplace. This description justifies the existence of the qualification in the eyes of employers and employees’ representatives. It situates the qualification in the reality of the professional field. It sets the basis for understanding the remaining aspects of the qualification and enables discussions about the qualification with stakeholders in France and also partners from other countries. It also gives a clear reference for the assessment of learners: this component of the French framework governing qualifications therefore seems to be an important element in the perspective of ECVET implementation. The analysis of the five qualifications selected for the project showed that certain differences exist in how a part of a qualification is defined and described. In particular the following questions were identified, and will require further consideration:
• What is the unit of analysis for describing professional activities – is it the activity, the task or the basic operation?
• How to group professional activities – according to functions or according to professional situations?
• How to articulate transversal elements that are common to all or many qualifications?
The qualification standard is the core of the qualification. It defines the competences to assess as well as the associated knowledge and groups these into units which are coherent with regard to a given professional situation. The qualification standard is the part of the qualification description in which ECVET meets the national standard. The French rules in this area do not distinguish between the terms knowledge, skills and competence (KSC see the ECVET definition of learning outcomes) but instead use the terminology of competences, aptitudes and capacities as well as associated knowledge.
The analysis of the five qualifications selected for the project showed that there can be semantic differences among qualifications: this semantic aspects will have to be clarified later in the project.
The analysis also showed that the French terminology should not constitute a major obstacle for the use of ECVET in the French context: we can consider that French units are units of learning outcomes, covering all: knowledge, skills and competence. It is also important to underline that in the French context the different components (competences, aptitudes, capacities and associated knowledge) are not considered separately one by one (even though they are separated in the description). The term: competence is seen as an encompassing term - the combination of skills and knowledge resulting in the capacity to carry out a given activity...
The assessment standard of French qualifications systematically contains:
• The assessment regulation which defines how units will be assessed, the assessment mode (e.g. oral, written or practical) and their coefficient (the coefficient gives the weight of each unit in the overall assessment);
• Definition of assessment situations for each unit (list of competences to assess, assessment criteria, duration of the assessment situation, etc.);
• The possibility to assess the unit through either a oneoff final assessment or continuous assessment. Continuous assessment takes into account the assessment made in the workplace. The conditions of continuous assessment (objectives, duration, context – place) are also described in the standard.
Compared with ECVET, this means that there is a clear framework for the assessment (per unit) that leads to certification.
The fact that the option to use continuous assessment exists makes it possible to share the assessment between different actors (potentially including assessors abroad). However, it is necessary to clarify and refine the conditions in which such shared assessment (shared between the training centre and a French company or a foreign training centre/company) takes place. In particular the following questions arise:
• How are we sure of what we assess – is it the competence or the result of professional activities?
• How can we develop trust between assessors who are French teachers and assessors who can be professionals in the enterprise, or assessors ‘abroad’? Consequently how can we develop trust in assessments made ‘by delegation’?
In summary, the first phase led to the following preliminary conclusions:
• the fundamentals of the national framework for designing and awarding qualifications are close to the ECVET specifications. The national framework contains aspects such as the definition of qualification in terms of learning outcomes, grouping of learning outcomes into units, partial delegation of assessment to actors such as training centres, companies and possibly foreign actors competent for such intervention in the future;
• the analysis of specific qualifications showed the need to clarify certain aspects in the French context: review and/or deepen and precise the definition of the concepts (activities, tasks, competences), eliminate some aspects of the norm which currently make the presentation of qualifications somewhat complex to read;
• there is a need to extend and clarify what regulatory, operational and human conditions will enable the extension of the principle of ‘shared assessment’ to other actors without derogating from the principle of a national qualification (i.e. a qualification that is guaranteed to be homogeneous across the whole territory, ensuring that all persons qualified have reached the same minimum requirements).
Next stage of project work
The next stage of this project will analyse the conditions for credit transfer in the French context in particular. It will among other things build on the experience of French organisations involved in earlier ECVET pilot projects such as OPIR, VaLOGreg, Recomfor and others.
CPU- Europe: Certification based on units (Certification par Unités)
Context
CPU is much more than a European project. This project (called CPU-Europe) is an element of a major reform of the vocational education and training (VET) system in the French Speaking Community of Belgium (French speaking Community later in the text). The VET system of the French speaking Community faces a number of important challenges (see below). Since 2010, a reform of the VET system focusing on certification by units (hence the name CPU - certification par unites) is being progressively implemented. This reform is based on the principles of ECVET as well as those of lifelong learning.
See also ECVET Magazine n. 6, ECVET Magazine n. 5, Issue 4, April 2011, Issue 3, January 2011, Issue 2, November 2010, Issue 1, June 2010, Issue 4, April 2010, Issue 3, November 2009, Issue 2, July 2009, Issue 1, April 2009.