Belgium hosted the 2024 EQAVET Annual Network Meeting (ANM), which brought together EU country representatives in charge of Quality Assurance (QA) in Vocational and Educational Training (VET), National Reference Points (NRPs) for Quality Assurance (QA) in Vocational Education and Training (VET), as well as staff members of the European Commission, European Training Foundation (ETF), Cedefop, and thematic experts

The 2024 EQAVET ANM took place in Brussels on 13-14 June and gathered 78 participants from 33 countries, including 27 EU Member States and 6 non-EU countries. The host country, Belgium, provided an overview of their efforts to make VET more attractive and labour-market relevant, to respond to emerging skills needs.

The ANM also provided participants with the opportunity to hear from three Network members’ initiatives, receive updates on EU policies, and engage in interactive discussions and networking.

The European Commission presented policy updates in the VET context, including lessons learnt from the European Year of Skills. It also shared the outcomes of the evaluations of two key instruments related to EU Education and Training policy: the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), and Europass.

Cedefop presented the ongoing initiative to monitor national implementation plans (NIPs) under the VET Council Recommendation.

Participants also learned more about the European Training Foundation (ETF) diagnostic tool developed to support self-evaluating quality assurance processes and procedures across various areas of VET systems (policy & governance, qualifications and awards, VET provision, assessment, validation and certification, and data and knowledge creation) and identifying and planning quality enhancement actions linked to these areas.

The OECD summarised the outcomes of a mapping study related to QA in Adult Education and Training (AET).

Lastly, the EQAVET Secretariat updated participants on the mutual learning activities of the EQAVET Network since the last EQAVET ANM in June 2023 and highlighted the communication activities planned for the 2024-2026 cycle.

Check out the flash report summarising the main outcomes of the discussion.