The European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) emerged from the 2009 European Parliament and Council recommendation as a European-wide framework to support quality assurance in vocational education and training (VET) across Europe. EQAVET is based on a quality assurance and improvement cycle (planning, implementation, evaluation/ assessment, and review/revision) and descriptors and indicators applicable to quality management at both VET system and VET provider levels.
Regardless of where the quality assurance journey begins, using all four stages of the cycle is necessary to achieve high-quality VET. The EQAVET Framework has resulted in the development of a wide range of quality assurance approaches in Member States that meet national and regional needs, circumstances, and traditions. All of these approaches use the EQAVET cycle, indicators, and indicative descriptors to support national, regional, or local quality assurance processes.
- Teacher: Sami Atif
Education is an essential pillar of the society's development, and vocational schools play a crucial role in preparing young people for a successful career. However, in order to ensure quality education and an effective transition to the labour market, it is imperative to develop training programs that meet students' diverse needs and promote social inclusion. In this context, the module "Vision and Mission" is a fundamental component of the EQAVET 4 INCLUSION Training Curriculum for personal training in vocational schools.
The EQAVET 4 INCLUSION curriculum is designed to support the development and implementation of high-quality vocational education focused on social inclusion and educational equity. It is based on the principles of ECVET (European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training), EQF (European Qualifications Frameworks), and EQAVET (European Quality Assurance Frameworks for Vocational Education and Training) to ensure high standards of quality and relevance of vocational education.
The module "Vision and Mission" substantiates and guides the process of developing educational strategies and practices in vocational schools. This essential component of the EQAVET 4 INCLUSION curriculum aims to provide school staff with an understanding of the institution's vision and mission. This creates a solid basis for defining specific objectives and values that guide all aspects of the educational process.
The vision that the school wants to achieve in the future is an inspirational and bold statement of what the educational institution aims to accomplish for students and the community. This is not just a simple phrase, but a guide to all decisions and actions taken in school.
The mission, on the other hand, describes how the school aims to achieve this vision. It is the institution's commitment to the personal and professional development of students and service to the community. The mission provides a clear framework for developing curricula, teaching, and assessment strategies and for interacting with parents, the local community, and external partners.
The European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) emerged from the 2009 European Parliament and Council recommendation as a European-wide framework to support quality assurance in vocational education and training (VET) across Europe. EQAVET is based on a quality assurance and improvement cycle (planning, implementation, evaluation/ assessment, and review/revision) and descriptors and indicators applicable to quality management at both VET system and VET provider levels.
Regardless of where the quality assurance journey begins, using all four stages of the cycle is necessary to achieve high-quality VET. The EQAVET Framework has resulted in the development of a wide range of quality assurance approaches in Member States that meet national and regional needs, circumstances, and traditions. All of these approaches use the EQAVET cycle, indicators, and indicative descriptors to support national, regional, or local quality assurance processes.
International experts and professionals nowadays pay considerable attention to the organisation of vocational guidance and career advice for students to promote their career development, prevent dropout rates and promote lifelong learning. The wrong choice of the training programme, wide gaps between the expectations and the actual training of students, and inconsistencies in the way the staff of the institution works on career development led to a lack of motivation among the students, and consequently to their expulsion from the institution or transfer to another programme.
Effective career advice and guidance services in educational institutions help students to unlock their potential, increase their own competence awareness and develop career management (lifelong learning) competences. Personalised, non-biased and relevant information from the career and education advice services enables students to make constructive decisions regarding their future career, its development, and the successful realisation of their potential in their future professional activities.
The organisation of vocational guidance and career advice for students will be active if the management and teachers/trainers of the educational institution cooperate with vocational guidance specialists (teachers/trainers) working in other educational institutions, representatives of career development services, state employment services, and public and volunteer organisations. In the context of such cooperation, the organisation of vocational guidance and career advice for students requires new forms of work to create flexible relationships between employers, management, teachers/trainers of educational institutions and students’ parents.
The successful organisation of vocational guidance and career advice for students is focused on cooperation with external organisations and educational institutions for further education, taking into account current trends in improving career and educational trajectories in educational institutions and includes a number of related activities that will promote career development; dissemination of career information; individual and group career guidance/counselling; interaction with employers; development of skills necessary for job search and self-employment.
The use of the suggested areas in the organisation of vocational guidance and career advice for students is necessary for the formation and development of the students' career competencies (lifelong learning) that meet national and regional needs, circumstances, and traditions. The suggested areas of organisation use the EQAVET cycle, indicators, and indicator descriptors to support national, regional, or local quality assurance processes.
“It Takes a Village to Raise a Child”
(Ancient African proverb)
It is now commonly recognised by the experience of thousands of teachers and the pedagogical literature that individual educational agencies alone are not enough to foster student's well-being and deep learning; it takes a broader network, a community that can offer additional relationships and opportunities for growth, and a safe, healthy, and inclusive learning environment where students can develop and flourish. What students learn, how they learn and how much they learn is not only a matter for the teachers and other people working in the school but is a real priority for the entire surrounding social context (Wright and Saks, 2000).
Since "nothing motivates a child more than when learning is enhanced by schools and families/communities working together in partnership" (M. Fullan, 1997, p. 42), it is necessary not only to convey this message to parents and other community members to make them active members of the learning community that has its focus in the school, but also to be aware that "...these forms of involvement [...] do not happen by chance or even by invitation, but happen through explicit strategic intervention" (ibid. p. 43).
In Epstein's Overlapping Spheres of Influence model (1987;2002), schools, families, and communities are depicted as spheres that share the goal of "caring" for students. These three spheres of influence do not operate independently of each other but are mutually reinforcing or weakening and may positively or negatively influence a student's cognitive and emotional development. Although the three spheres are separate because they have their philosophies, experiences, and practices, it is up to the school to activate the practices to bring the three spheres closer together and to create an overlapping of them through interaction and communication, namely partnerships, among families, schools, and the community.
This process is especially important for disadvantaged students or those from vulnerable groups who:
1) are overrepresented among dropouts;
2) are in educational poverty i.e., with a lack of access to opportunities for growth both in the family and in the broader community and life context;
3) and who come from families who, to a greater extent than others, tend to be less involved in their children's VET programmes