Reforming the VET System via National Qualification Frameworks? A Comparison of Germany and Austria (original) (raw)

2012, The Future of Vocational Education and Training in a Changing World

Issues Determining the Current Development of the German Qualifications Framework National qualifications frameworks 'support the objectives of strong and accessible qualifications pathways, a transparent qualifications system, and one that facilitates lifelong learning' (Keating, 2008, p. 1). In this context, the European Union-with the implementation of the EQF-sees the boundaries between various sectors of the educational and/or training system, including higher and further education, as more and more permeable subsystems. 'This premise is based on a specific understanding of 'competence'-very similar to the concepts developed in Anglo-Saxon countries, such as Australia and the UK, which are countries with rather 'open' training markets without strong formal regulation (Harris, 2001). 'The idea of a flexible, individual and ongoing acquisition of competences which should be independent from courses also provides the basis for open forms of learning. In this context, which includes new approaches to assessment (Wolf, 1995; Deissinger and Hellwig, 2005; Hellwig, 2006), such as RPL (recognition of prior learning) or APL (accreditation of prior learning), two facets of the debate have become relevant in particular for the German situation and also emerge as problems when it comes to drafting of the DQR published in February 2009: • 'The first one refers to the to the problem of interpreting 'competence' in different national contexts, i. e. transforming the EQF to a national semantic level, with the specific German tradition and use of'competence' being 'holistic' rather than 'functional: 'This includes the creation of a 'competence matrix' featuring vertical