BEST Institute for vocational training and personal training GmbH

EXPANDVET

EXPAND QUALITY ASSURANCE IN VET (BENCHMARKING TOOL)

Background

This Leonardo da Vinci Transfer of Innovation project addresses the problem of improving quality assurance systems in VET. The project transfers good practice and innovation techniques to four EU countries (Austria, Lithuania, Poland and United Kingdom) from the previous Leonardo da Vinci development of innovation project “Benchmarking Tool for Quality Assurance in VET (BEQUAL)”. The project mainly aims at the development and adaptation of self-evaluation approaches, assessment cultures and also practical applications of CQAF, which is currently not on a sufficient level in the partner countries.

Aims

  • develop quality assurance in VET institutions through promotion of self-evaluation, quality benchmarking and networking in VET
  • promote the use of European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQAVET) in VET institutes
  • update the outcomes related to the implementation of CQAF in the view of adaptation to EQAVET
  • allow for practical application of the quality assurance framework in VET through the use of online benchmarking tool and a good practice database
  • promote international cooperation and exchange of experience through the enhancement of a thematic portal in quality assurance and expanding the Community of Practice

The project is being implemented by 6 partners from 5 EU countries. The consortium is based on the effort to use the best European practice in the field of quality assurance systems in VET. Each country has its own tools, instruments and procedures as well as different contexts, different legislation and educational systems. From the core partner IDEC (Greece), all other partners are importing the innovation, which will improve the ability to implement and benchmark quality assurance in VET.

Outcomes

  • On-line benchmarking tool which offers VET institutions the possibility to compare their quality processes and practices and to identify their strong points and processes to be improved compared to competition. The core of the benchmarking tool is a multiple choice questionnaire to be filled in by VET providers. Each institution has to self-assess its state of fulfilment of the indicators in question and to compare results with similar institutions operating in the same country and/or in other countries. The tool offers VET stakeholders, policy makers and consultants information on which indicators are at a good point of fulfilment by the majority of VET institutions concerned and which points need to be further enhanced. The benchmarking tool is hosted in the thematic portal.
  • Web based quality sharing network and good practice centre establishing Community of Practice (CoP) in the field of quality assurance in VET. Establishment of CoP involves also a series of networking activities for VET stakeholders and practitioners, blogging in the thematic portal, creation of profiles over facebook and twitter.
  • Thematic portal on quality assurance in VET, hosted in the address www.bequal.info. The portal includes the following functions: Online benchmarking tool, good practice centre, statistics, blogs, news and news feeds, links, library, resources and articles, polls, on-line login module and information on the project. The portal is multilingual. The national versions are not identical with the English one.
EU-Program: LLP, LdV Transfer of Innovation
Coordination: Kaunas Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Crafts (LTU)
Contact: Karin Kronika
Duration: October 2012 – September 2014
This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.