Conference Report

Program Type: International Conference /
Venue: Manila, Philippines /
Date: December 1-2, 2009 /
Organizers:

Colombo Plan Staff College, UNESCO UNEVOC International Centre for TVET, InWEnt (Capacity Building International) /

The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is a quality-assured national system for the development, recognition and award of qualifications based on standards of knowledge, skills and attitudes acquired by learners or workers of a certain country. For a more demand-led education and training, labour, and educational mobility within the region, the participants of the 2007 UNESCO Round Table Meeting raised the issue of establishing Qualifications Framework (QF) and harmonizing Quality Assurance (QA) systems in TVET.

CPSC, as an inter-governmental organization for human resource development in the Colombo Plan Region, and in support of the collective interest to take up harnessing qualifcation framework towards quaity assurance in TVET, recognizedits need in the Colombo Plan Region for standard setting and facilitation of greater workforce mobility. There are varying levels and stages of development from country to country, as far as TVET provisions and delivery, as well as qualifications frameworks and quality assurance mechanisms are concerned. Hence, TVET skills and knowledge seen from this angle of current education and training landscape in the region must be looked into to inspire and influence further development of coherent and acceptable terms of recognition and qualifications standards in TVET applicable for the region.

Furthermore, the 12-point strategies of the 2008 Manila Declaration, signed by 120 representatives of different sectors from CPSC member countries as initiatives in addressing poverty and contribute to achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals stated the “development of skills standards, certification and accreditation for quality assurance and harmonization in TVET to satisfy the labor market needs”.

Thus, CPSC, in collaboration with InWEnt (Capacity Building International) and UNESCO - UNEVOC International Center for TVET, Germany organized this International Conference on Harnessing Qualifications Framework TowardsQuality Assurance in TVET, held on 1st and 2nd of December, 2009 with the input and cooperation of various international and regional organizations, and government agencies and private institutions & organizations. This International Conference served as venue to exchange and share experiences, research results, creative ideas, and new initiatives in the prespective of national qualifications frameworks including models and best practices in quality assurance mechanisms in TVET system.