The document summarizes the origins and development of qualifications frameworks in Ireland and internationally. It discusses how Ireland established a national qualifications framework (NFQ) in 1999 to promote quality, access, and progression across all education and training. The NFQ defines 10 levels of qualifications and relates Irish qualifications to the European Qualifications Framework and Bologna Framework. Implementation of the NFQ across higher education, further education, and vocational education has led to new qualifications, terminology and opportunities for learners. Studies show the NFQ is now well established and integrated into quality assurance, curriculum design, and other areas across Ireland's education and training systems. Globally over 150 countries now have or are developing qualifications frameworks to support recognition of learning and cross

1. Qualifications frameworks
in national and international contexts
Bryan Maguire
Quality and Qualifications Ireland
Conference on National Qualifications Framework
Astana, June 8-9, 2015

2. Overview
• National Framework of Qualifications in Ireland
• Evaluating the impact of the European Qualifications
Framework
• Qualifications frameworks globally

3. Where are we?

4. Origins of Irish framework
• 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

5. • “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

6. 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

7. 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. EQF levels EHEA Framework (Bologna) NFQ Levels NFQ Major Award-types
1 1 Level 1 Certificate
2 Level 2 Certificate
2 3 Level 3 Certificate, Junior Certificate
3 4 Level 4 Certificate, Leaving Certificate
4 5 Level 5 Certificate, Leaving Certificate
5 Short Cycle within First Cycle 6 Advanced Certificate (FET award); Higher Certificate (HET
award)
6 First Cycle 7 Ordinary Bachelors Degree
8 Honours Bachelor Degree, Higher Diploma
7 Second Cycle 9 Masters Degree, Post-Graduate Diploma
8 Third cycle 10 Doctoral Degree, Higher Doctorate

11. Promoting the NFQ - video
http://youtu.be/5qH2m6oQ7XI

12. 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

13. 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, June 2009
• study on Implementation and Impact of the Framework, 2009

14. 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

15. 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

16. 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

17. 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

18. 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.”
• Implementation and Impact Study, 2009

19. % 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

20. Evaluation summary
“Considering the stage of implementation of the EQF
Recommendation, evidence of its outcomes and
impact on national education and training systems in
participating countries, on the use of learning
outcomes and validation of non-formal and informal
learning has been scarce so far. This means that the
implementation needs to progress further before this
impact becomes visible.”
Evaluation of the Implementation of the EQF
Recommendation, Oct 2013

25. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

26. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

27. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

28. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

29. Added value – early
adopters
• UK, Ireland, France, Malta
• Political momentum, among shareholders
• Technical sharing, peer learning
• Mobility – network good
QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

30. Added value – new NQFs
• Impulse to develop NFQ
• Deadlines for action
• Policy learning
• Structured feedback
• Developmental support
• Wider network benefits
• Infrastructure
QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

31. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

32. Global Inventory of Regional and
National Qualifications
Frameworks
• UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning(UIL )
• European Training Foundation (ETF )
• European Centre for Development of Vocational Training
(Cedefop)
• Two volumes: Thematic chapters and inventory of 86
country and 7 regional frameworks
• 2nd
edition, 2015

33. Qualification frameworks rule the
world!
• Over 150 countries have or are developing frameworks
• Evolving understanding of role and functions of
frameworks
• Growing use for recognition of non-formal and informal
learning
• Challenge of populating qualifications frameworks
• Support for cross-border mobility

34. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

35. QQI, an integrated agency for quality and
qualifications in Ireland

36. EQF and the world
• EQF technical alignment project with Australia, New
Zealand and Hong Kong
• QFs in the Lisbon Recognition Convention
• European and Asian Recognition conventions bridging
declaration 2013
• UNESCO global reference levels following the Shanghai
consensus 2012

37. Thank you
• www.nfq.ie
• www.qqi.ie
• bmaguire@qqi.ie