The current and final issue VET-CERT project’s newsletter briefly presents the products developed in the course of the project, provides information on the final conference (held on 03.12.2012) and provides both a review of previous activities and an outlook for the next step: the implementation of the developed curriculum. 

This Cedefop research paper, addressing 32 countries participating in Education and Training 2020, discusses different curriculum policies focusing on learning outcomes and examines the implications these have on teaching and learners’ assessment in initial VET. Karin Luomi-Messerer (3s) was one of the experts interviewed for providing information on the Austrian situation.

VET-CERT is European project with a duration of two years which seeks to contribute to the further professionalisation of quality managers in vocational education and training – by developing guiding recommendations for Competence Profiles as well as for supportive training models. The products which have been developed in the course of the VET-CERT project are now available on the project website.

This issue includes current information on the implementation of ECVET and also includes several contributions from members of the 3s team:

On December 13 and 14 the European ProfDRV-project held its final conference „Transport meets Education“ at the Gustav-Stresemann-Institut in Bonn. Two years of project work are heading for their finals. Eleven partners from eight countries, from Hungary to Canada, have examined the effects of Directive 2003/59 EC and likewise made suggestions on how to improve professional driver qualification, in order to meet the requirements of this challenging profession.

Since 2010 3s Unternehmensberatung supports the European Commission (DG Employment und DG Education and Culture) in the development of ESCO, the European Skills/Competences, qualifications and Occupations taxonomy, and it will intensify its contribution in 2013.

By end of 2012, a new cross-country comparative micro data set, covering representative samples of IVET (Initial Vocational Education and Training) students in Austria (3s), England, Germany, Greece, Lithuania, Latvia and Slovenia is made available via CESSDA and the participating data archives, respectively.

3s has been commissioned by the TÜV NORD Group – a leading provider of certified training and certification of personnel in Germany, represented since 2010, with a branch in Austria – to conduct a study on the importance, supply and demand for certified training in Austria. In a 3s-working paper, the 3s internal study series, the results have been supplemented with additional empirical sources and have been embedded in a theoretical context.

The current issue of the newsletter presents the framework curriculum developed in the VET-CERT project ‘Quality Management in Vocational Education and Training’, informs about the final conference on 3.12.2012, and includes a review of project activities and an outlook for future events. 

Starting today (28.11.2012), DISCO is – besides the 10 already existing language versions – available in Polish (www.disco-tools.eu); the thesaurus (terms and phrases) as well as the website texts are online. Europass Centre Poland translated all content free of charge, 3s implemented the translations into the existing technical solution and together with the technical partner Johannes Fiala into the existing project website.