Qualifications systems are useful tools for modernising education and training. National qualifications frameworks are treated as one aspect of qualifications systems that is useful for improving education and training. The focus is on the reality of policy development in EU partner countries. After reminding the reader that education and training systems, and therefore qualifications systems, are always closely integrated with a country’s social and cultural priorities, this study gives evidence from a range of countries that proves learning can be enhanced by developing the recognition of learning through qualifications, and that the definition of qualifications levels can be useful. The fact that qualifications system reform is just one element of education and training reform is emphasised.


Starting with the complexity of qualifications systems in partner countries and problems facing modernisation, the publication sets out specific examples of how qualifications systems have been used to provide a strategic tool for improving the quality of provision and increasing levels of learning. Examples of these strategies include the creation of qualifications bodies; new legal frameworks; the separation of assessment and certification from providers of training; development of NQFs and moves towards an increased use of learning outcomes in curricula; and qualifications and descriptors for framework levels.