The NQF will play a major role in the development and identification of new qualifications in the Czech Republic. It will thus supplement some of the existing mechanism, supported mainly by the following two pillars:
1) At the nation-wide level, new qualifications and occupation profiles have been created in cooperation with the "world of labour," i.e. in cooperation with the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic and with other social partners, such as employers. Ever since the year 1998, the importance of the Integrated System of Typal Positions has been growing steadily:
- It has been established and maintained thanks to the support from the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs.
- All major nation-wide employer and employee associations have been involved in the system establishment and maintenance, such as the Confederation of Industry, Czech Chamber of Commerce, and Union of Employer Associations on one hand, and Czech-Moravian Confederation of Trade Unions on the other hand.
- The system has been co-developed also by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and by the National Institute for Technical and Vocational Education - which uses ISTP as an important information resource used to create educational programmes.
- The system is available and accessible on the internet free of charge (www.istp.cz). The system is based around a so-called Registry of Typal Positions, a database of job positions common on the regional and local labour markets.
- The system allows users to inform the system administrator of any suggestions with respect to new or existing typal positions to supplement or amend the description of qualifications.
ISTP has not been established by law - it must provide high enough quality information and a user-friendly environment to succeed on the market. The quality of the system has been confirmed by the results of international audits; the system has been copied and implemented by another EU member country - Slovakia.
2) New qualifications also developed through the system of technical and vocational education. The system for the development of educational programmes for initial secondary education is particularly well elaborated, including:
- Educational programmes established at regional or local level (schools are entitled and invited to design their own educational programmes to reflect the local labour market conditions and requirements),
- Educational programmes are also designed at nation-wide level (in the National Institute for Technical and Vocational Education). These programmes comply with standards applicable to full qualifications. For more information please click here (link to study field groups).