Presentation for Regional TAM on National Qualifications Frameworks based on EU Experience Venue: The University of Jordan 23-24 May 2017

1. Ireland’s National Framework of Qualifications
Dr Bryan Maguire
Quality and Qualifications Ireland
National Qualifications Frameworks based in EU Experience
Regional TAM Workshop – Amman, Jordan - 23-24 May, 2017

2. Origins
• Rapid growth of post-compulsory education and
training in the 1990s, both higher education and
vocational education and training
• National debate on how to promote expansion while
securing quality
• Concern about lower stock of learning among older
cohorts and the need for lifelong learning
• Qualifications (Education and Training) Act, 1999, to
establish quality assurance and a national framework

3. • “This Bill is no less than crucial to the future work of much of our
education and training system. The one essential principle which
informs all of its provisions is that the interests of the student
must be to the fore. In order to achieve this, quality must be
guaranteed and appropriate routes of progression provided.”
• The principal aims of the Bill are, first, to establish and develop
standards of knowledge, skill or competence; second, to promote
the quality of further education and training and higher
education and training; third, to provide a system for co-
ordinating and comparing education and training awards and,
fourth, to promote and maintain procedures for access, transfer
and progression.
• Minister for Education, Irish Senate, 13 March, 1999

4. What is the Irish NFQ?
• “The single, national and international accepted, entity
through which all learning achievements may be
measured and related to each other in a coherent way
and which defines the relationship between all
education and training awards”
• Vision for the recognition of learning

5. The Framework in outline
• architecture: Levels, Award-types, Named Awards
• a structure of 10 levels
• level indicators
• 10 level grid of indicators, defined in terms of 8
dimensions of knowledge, know-how & skill and
competence (‘sub-strands’)
• Accompanied by Policies and procedures for access,
transfer and progression

9. Video promoting the framework
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qvbDD09yUhM

10. The Framework: blueprint for change
• a new concept of an ‘award’:
an award is a recognition of learning outcomes (rather than a recognition of
participation in a programme or in any particular learning process)
• many new awards, new titles, new terminology
• not a compendium of existing awards
• not just a mapping of relationships between existing awards
• no distinction made between ‘education’ and ‘training’
• one system shared by all sectors of education and training – schools, VET, further
education, higher education

11. Developing the Framework
• consultation, research and development, 2001-2003
• National Framework of Qualifications launched in October 2003
• new system of awards in higher education and training, introduced July 2004
• new system of awards for Further Education and Training (VET), introduced
summer 2006
• alignment of Irish framework (HE) with EHEA Bologna framework, 2006
• referencing of Irish framework to EQF, 2009
• study on Implementation and Impact of the Framework, 2009
• merger of HE & VET qualifications & quality assurance bodies into QQI, 2012
• Policy impact study commenced, 2016

12. HEI response
•Technological sector
• Implemented quickly – HETAC as regulator
• Accepted, and ultimately welcomed, as addressing a range of
issues in a comprehensive fashion – e.g. Bologna, flexibility,
curriculum reform, learner centeredness, recognition
•University sector
• Slower implementation
• More decentralised structures & stronger impacts from other
factors
• Little or no active resistance – benefits welcomed

13. VET sector response
• Changes in patterns of provision in response to labour
market and learner demand (e.g. craft apprenticeships
during construction boom)
• Loss of awarding function for some bodies
• Welcome for enhanced progression opportunities to HE
• Chafing at funding policy restrictions on upward drift
• Major government led change in structure of provision
– dissolution of national training agency and creation of
16 local education and training boards from existing 32
existing county vocational education committees

14. Implementation and Impact
• Framework implementation and impact study September 2009
• Broad satisfaction with framework
• No demand for revision or abandonment - It’s a “keeper”
• Growing awareness of framework but significant gaps
• Educators, policy makers, learners, employers, general public
• Use as policy tool
• Planning, legislation, regulation
• Use as guidance tool for learners
• Use as curriculum development tool
• Very varied across sectors, institutions, fields of learning

15. % HE Places Accepted by VET graduates
Fig. 1.1 % HE Places Accepted by FE Applicants
2.7%
7.4%
9.9%
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
2005 2006 2007

16. Coherence
• Framework is used in
• Quality assurance of education and training at all levels
• Curriculum design and reform at all levels
• Recognition of prior learning
• School and adult guidance
• Employer workforce development
• Facilitating inbound and outbound international recognition
• National Skills Strategy
• Targeting public funds for retraining for employability
• Professional regulation
• Private and public sector job recruitment
• 2011 National census

17. Implementation and Impact
• “The Framework underpins a deep, long-term cultural shift in
teaching and learning from an inputs-based approach to an
outcomes-based one. The Qualifications Authority, awarding
bodies, institutions and providers should continuously support
and monitor this process. The alignment of assessment processes
with teaching and learning will similarly take time and requires
continued attention and support by the relevant bodies.”

18. Recent developments and plans
• Policy Impact Assessment of the NFQ in progress
• Published
Qualifications Frameworks – Reflections and Trajectories
(2016)
• Expanding bilateral contacts (eg, New Zealand, Hong
Kong, China, Bahrain) in the context of wider Irish
engagement with these countries
• Update legislation to
• include additional awards and awarding bodies in NFQ
• Link NFQ to an international education mark for “exports”