The European qualifications framework (EQF), with its eight levels, serves as a translation grid between qualifications acquired in different European countries. Part of Cedefop's work to make qualifications easier to understand and compare, this study takes a closer look at those acquired through initial VET and assigned to EQF levels 3 and 4 via…

Vocational education and training (VET) in Germany is based on close cooperation between the State, companies and social partners. The Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) is responsible for general VET policy issues and has a coordinating role for all training occupations. The BMBF works closely with the Federal Institute for…

The past two decades have seen some evolution towards a more nationally consistent vocational education and training (VET) system. One of the challenges is to find the right balance between national consistency and appropriate flexibility, to accommodate the regional and local industry requirements and learner preferences that best serve the needs…

This occasional paper provides the views of 17 "thought leaders" in the Australian vocational education and training (VET) sector. Their insight and opinions were sought to inform a larger research project focused on the student entitlement reforms that were introduced into the national VET system from 2012. These individuals offered a…

This research overview summarizes the work undertaken by Kaye Bowman and Suzy McKenna in exploring jurisdictional approaches to the implementation of student entitlements to vocational skills training, a key reform initiative in the National Partnership Agreement on Skills Reform (NPASR) of 2012-16. The overview is a condensed summary of three…

This article examines the concept of misrecognition as advanced by Pierre Bourdieu in the development and implementation of educational leadership standards in the USA and in England. The line of argument advanced is that leadership standards were promulgated as an agenda to control and dominate a contested field in both countries by certain…

Level descriptors are essential elements of national qualifications frameworks being established across Europe. They define what is meant by learning outcomes, describing what an individual is expected to know, be able to do and understand, having acquired a qualification at a particular level. This Cedefop working paper shows that most of the 36…

This collection of papers introduces the proceedings of the Fourth Annual Conference-Eurasian Higher Education Leaders' Forum held on the 11-12 June, 2015 at Nazarbayev University in Astana, Kazakhstan. Our presenters come from different professional backgrounds including higher education institutions, national business companies as well as…

Graduate students seeking to be educational leaders in today's high-demand society require more than lectures and textbooks to learn the requisite leadership skills. They must also have the opportunity to develop and test job skills in an on-the-job environment. Future leaders need the opportunity to grapple with the dilemmas principals face…

The aim of this study is to give an overview of the ways in which human resources are managed in public higher education institutions in the Tempus Partner Countries. It is based on a survey addressed to individuals involved in Tempus projects and on information gathered at the level of the national authorities. In all the countries covered by the…

Representatives of business, industry, and education have long perceived a gap between students' existing skills and those needed in the workplace. To address this problem, a strong movement toward adopting voluntary skill standards is now seen within career and technical education (CTE). In this article, the author discusses how addressing skill…