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The European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)

Lifelong learning and mobility for learning are taking place increasingly in a wide variety of contexts; formal, non-formal and informal and in different countries. One of the key solutions to attracting more interest in trans-national mobility for vocational training and education (VET) and to supporting individuals' lifelong learning paths, is to facilitate validation, recognition and accumulation of learning outcomes acquired during a stay in another country or in different learning contexts, and leading to the award of a qualification.

ECVET belongs to a series of European initiatives to recognise learning experiences across different countries and different types of institutions, including the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) in higher education, Europass, the European Quality Charter for Mobility (EQCM), the European principles for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning and the European Qualification Framework for lifelong learning (EQF).

ECVET aims for better comparability, compatibility and permeability between different VET and qualification systems. The system, which should be implemented by Member States by 2012, is a technical framework to describe qualifications in terms of units of learning outcomes, including an assessment, transfer, accumulation and recognition procedure. Each of these units will be associated with a certain number of ECVET points developed on the basis of common European standards: 60 ECVET points are allocated to the learning outcomes achieved in a year of full time VET.

The basic principles of ECVET are summarised in the ECVET flyer. More detailed guidance, answers to frequently asked questions and examples of practice can be found in the brochure "Get to know ECVET better".

Flexibility

In ECVET, an individual’s learning outcomes are assessed and validated in order to transfer credits from one qualifications system to another, or from one learning "pathway" to another.

This approach supports individual learning pathways, where learners can accumulate required learning outcomes for a given qualification over time, in different countries, and in different learning situations. The flexibility of the system facilitates mobility experiences for VET learners, while preserving the overall coherence and integrity of each qualification. The system also allows the possibility to develop common references for VET qualifications and is fully compatible with ECTS.

To ensure the quality and overall coherence of ECVET, the Commission is developing an ECVET users' guide and tools, and establishing a European ECVET users' group and a European ECVET network. Finally, Members States should ensure that all relevant qualifications and related "Europass" documents issued by national or regional authorities contain clear information related to the use of ECVET.

Background

The development of ECVET began in 2002 after the Copenhagen Process emphasized the need for a credit transfer system for VET. Several preparatory documents and studies were carried out in the following years and the Commission conducted a public consultation from November 2006 to March 2007, the results of which were discussed in a conference in Munich in June 2007. The Commission released its final proposal for ECVET in April 2008 for approval from national governments and the European Parliament. The process led to the adoption of the Recommendation on 18 June 2009.

Several projects focused on the experimentation and promotion of ECVET are developed, funded by the Lifelong learning programme, in different sectors (automobile service, chemistry, tourism, international trade…).

More information on the current ECVET projects can be found on the ECVET Pilot projects website and in the ECVET Projects bulletins.

A conference on implementing ECVET was held on 17-18 November in Brussels. See material and information conference outcomes.

Documents

• Establishment of the European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)
  Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council (June 2009)
  
  
• Establishment of the European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET)
  Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the Council - June 2009 (Brochure)
  
  
• ECVET flyer
  
  
• European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training
  Commission staff working document (2006)