Quality in Technical Vocational Education and Training

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Quality in TVET

In these days of borderless education, workforce mobility within regions and demand for mutual recognition of qualifications, it is important to adhere to some common or internationally agreed-upon quality framework.

 

(The following text is from “Using ICTs and Blended Learning in Transforming TVET”, s17-18 [1])[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

The Highest Possible Standard

Winch (2013) stressed that no amount of promotion or image-making can rescue TVET systems that are lacking in quality. In many cases, quality assurance (QA) has yet to be fully embraced by TVET. Much more needs to be done by the sector to provide incontrovertible evidence to potential students, parents, employers and the wider community that TVET courses and qualifications are of the highest possible standard.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5885″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”http://www.eqavet.eu/” css=”.vc_custom_1516802347429{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

European Union Quality Assurance Framework

The European Union (EU) has developed the Common Quality Assurance Framework (CQAF) [2] to increase transparency and consistency in TVET provision between Member States. A set of coherent quality indicators including input, process, output and outcome measures enables TVET systems and institutions in the EU to improve, monitor and evaluate their QA policies and procedures. Other regions could similarly collaborate in developing principles, standards and quality indicators for the Member States to assure the quality of their TVET systems and benchmark these indicators against those of other nations.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5889″ img_size=”full” onclick=”custom_link” img_link_target=”_blank” link=”https://www.asqa.gov.au/about/australias-vet-sector/vet-quality-framework” css=”.vc_custom_1516802762430{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

Australian Vocational Education and Training Quality Framework

National QA systems are also required along the lines of the Australian Vocational Education and Training (VET) Quality Framework [3] to ensure consistency in the way nations’ TVET providers are registered, operated and monitored.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”5891″ img_size=”75×75″ alignment=”right” css=”.vc_custom_1516803644111{margin-top: 30px !important;}”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]

International Organization for Standardization

Another way of assuring and demonstrating quality is to seek certification from the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) [4]. A number of TVET providers across the globe have sought and obtained ISO 9001:2008 certification. This certification confirms their ability to consistently provide products and services that meet customer and applicable statutory and regulatory requirements and conform to international standards, and that their systems are subject to continuous improvement. The recently launched ISO 21001 [5] standard on Educational Organization Management Systems (EOMS) provides a common management tool for organizations providing educational products and services to meet learner and other customer requirements and needs. It is a stand-alone management system standard, based on ISO 9001 (without being a sector application), and is aligned with other ISO management system standards which focus on the specific interaction between an educational organization, the learner, customers and other relevant interested parties.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]

Develop Rigorous QA Policies and Practices

The TVET systems and institutions also need to develop their own rigorous QA policies and practices. They need to embed continuous self-improvement in all of their operations; monitor and assure quality in their curricula, pedagogy, delivery and assessment methods and qualifications; and provide evidence of their relevance to employers’ and societal needs. QA is a high-impact strategy for improving educational outcomes in TVET. As DETYA (2001) advises, applying QA in TVET institutions not only provides for a nationally consistent vocational education training system and mutual recognition but also improves the organizational health of the institutions, helps to recruit and retain well-qualified and well-experienced staff, and develops capabilities in leadership, management, and innovation. The challenge for the sector is getting QA to be taken seriously, persuading managers and staff that it is not a time-wasting, bureaucratic and unnecessary adjunct to the teaching but essential for assuring fitness of purpose, correcting faults and failures, ensuring that the reality matches the rhetoric and raising the status of the institutions and sector as a whole.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_column_text]

References

[1] Colin Latchem, Ed (2017): “Using ICTs and Blended Learning in Transforming TVET”, UNESCO and COMMONWEALTH OF LEARNING (UNESCO ISBN 978-92-3-100212-0)

[2] www.cqaf-online.eu

[3] www.asqa.gov.au/vet-registration/understand-the-requirements-for-registration/the-vetquality-framework.html

[4] www.unevoc.unesco.org/tvetipedia.0.html?&tx_drwiki_pi1%5Bkeyword%5D=ISO%20standard

[5] www.iso.org/iso/iso21001_briefing_note.pdf[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row]