www.ecvet-team.eu

In the second case study, Sylvie Bonichon
from the Ministère de l’enseignement
supérieur in France explained
how a two-year higher VET qualification
(EQF Level 5.) had been redesigned
to accommodate the ECVET and the
ECTS credit systems. This has allowed
students to transfer between this higher
VET course and universities and have
their prior learning recognised. This
enables students who, after their first
year at university, fail or simply want to
change direction to join a professional
course to train for a specific job. It
also enables VET students who decide
to take a longer course to move to a
university. The national initiative (www.
ecvet-projects.eu) began in 2011 and
covers five different subject areas. In
2015, following the completion of the
evaluation, the new approach to the Diploma
could be implemented in every
vocational sector.
In the third case study Dorien Krassenberg
and John Bres from the Branche
Bureau Mode in the Netherlands demonstrated
how employers’ organisations
have been actively involved in
designing vocational qualifications. A
Level 3 qualification for sales specialists
(www.ecvet-team.eu) was used to illustrate
how three parts of the retail sector
– fashion, supermarkets and electrical
retailing - had been able to adjust the
structure of the qualification to meet
their needs. This had led to a qualifi-
cation which was both standardised
and tailored to the needs of the labour
market. Alongside the formal qualification,
some employers’ branches (e.g.
fashion) offer students and employees
a non-formal training route that leads to
the award of a diploma.
The ideas and approaches outlined
in each case study were developed in
discussion groups with delegates from
each of the EQAVET, EQF and ECVET
networks as well as colleagues from the
higher education sector. The case studies
showed how flexibility and specialisation
could be combined through the
use of units. This way of designing qualifications
also allowed individual units to
be easily up-dated to reflect emerging
labour market trends and new ways of
thinking. It also facilitated:
• mobility as time abroad or in another
context could focus on specific units;
• lifelong learning as experienced staff
could complete only the units that
they needed (this was one way of recognising
prior learning);
• recognition of non-formal learning;
• specialist and/or work-based VET
providers offering the units where they
have expertise (it is often easier for
specialist organisations to offer parts
of a qualification rather than the full
qualification);
• those learners who needed more time
to complete the qualification, or needed
to take time out of their study.
The case studies highlighted the difficulties
faced by those that wish to organise
mobility between countries and
between the VET and higher education
sectors. The case studies illustrated
the importance of ‘mutual trust’ and
the subsequent discussions considered
how this could be developed and
sustained. There was a strong feeling
that formal agreements were needed,
preferably ones that were based on
learning outcomes rather than ‘credits’
or ‘points.’ Creating these agreements
can be easier for the higher education
sector as ECTS has been the basis for
similar agreements across Europe for
a number of years, and ECVET is just
starting the journey. Delegates felt that
local or individual agreements gave the
best opportunity for progress, and EQA-
VET, EQF, ECVET and ECTS provide the
basis for this type of agreement.
Delegates discussed the need to place
learners at the centre of the system. Too
often decisions appeared to focus on
the organisations in the system rather
than the users of the system, namely
students and employers. One obvious
way to emphasise the users’ perspective
was to focus more on high-quality
work placements which meet the needs
of employers and prepare students for
www.ecvet-team.eu 05
www.ecvet-projects.eu