7 June 2011 Lidové noviny page 25 Academy, R. Kvačková
After 2012, every certificate of achieved education will be provided with a supplement understandable in other countries as well.
Searching for opportunities to work or study abroad is often connected with proving qualifications. Sometimes it is not easy. For example, when you say that you have studied at secondary school, it is not always clear what you mean. It helps if you speak about "secondary education". Yet this is not perfectly clear either. While in our country and in some other countries, secondary education means a secondary school, for example people in Germany would probably ask: what level of secondary school? They have two types: lower secondary (our higher level of primary school) and higher secondary (our secondary school).
This also goes for verified practical experience. The terminology – and the educational systems – differ from country to country, and the European Commission does not show any intention of unifying them. However, the Commission clearly says that a tool to compare the systems should exist. Therefore, following the Commission's recommendations, referencing processes have been in progress since 2008. The purpose is to refer all existing qualifications to the common European Qualifications Framework (EQF), so that every certificate (final report) provides information about the knowledge and competence level, so that it is clear what can be expected from the graduate. Hence employers can just take a look and – without subsequent verification – they will know who is standing in front of them.
There are, in total, eight levels. The first is related to our completed special school or incomplete primary school, while the eighth level corresponds to doctoral studies.
However, the levels are not described by the type of school but by means of the knowledge, competences and skills which you could have acquired not only through school attendance – from primary school up to university – but through practical experience, or by means of courses, other studies, or in your free time. There is one condition: the knowledge, competences and skills must be verified by means of a standardized exam.
The fact that acquisition of qualifications does not have to be connected with the formal educational process facilitated by certain types of school is a novelty – and this cannot be applied everywhere and every time. In the Czech Republic, for example, it is now possible to acquire without formal education just partial qualifications at the vocational school level. Although this approach is the way to go for upper educational levels as well, for the time being we do not think that without formal education someone could achieve, for example, Level 6, which means a bachelor's degree and, according to the EQF description, requires "advanced knowledge in the branch, or studies which comprise critical comprehension of theories and principles".
People who achieve Level 6 should be able to "manage complex technical or specialized activities or projects and be responsible for decision making within the context of unpredictable work or educational content, as well as for the management of professional development of individuals and groups". It is descriptions like this which make a difference between the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), which does not describe the results of your education but the study programmes you have graduated from.
According to the ISCED, a person who graduated from a school which provides tertiary education with the possibility to continue studies (our bachelor's studies) is different from the level you achieve when you graduate from a school which provides lower, more practical tertiary education (our tertiary technical schools – in Czech "VOŠ"). According to the EQF, a graduate from a bachelor's programme facilitated by a university and a graduate from a tertiary technical school (the "VOŠ") achieve the same level, namely Level 6. This probably will be perceived as beneficial by those tertiary technical schools which are not completed by a bachelor's degree; however, bachelors with a university education seem to be pulled one level down.
Concurrently, the government educational policy is different. It is emphasised that bachelor's studies should be better recognised, and this study programme should be considered the full tertiary level.
This seems to be rather strange. What if the merging of both types of schools in the same EQF level means an argument to say that bachelor's degrees are a lower level than "real" university graduates? "I have to admit that this may be confusing, but it reflects the status quo. The profile and the position of tertiary technical education has not been clearly defined yet", says Michal Karpíšek, a member of an expert team for reforms in tertiary education. According to him, at this point we seem to be aliens within the European context. This is one of the reasons why a debate on stabilization of the sector of tertiary technical schools and reformation of a selected part of the tertiary technical schools into universities has been opened. Within this reformation, the tertiary technical education should be moved to Level 5.
One of the issues to discuss is shortening the duration of studies. The reformed, small group of tertiary technical schools should then be capable of offering short cycles of higher education (e.g. two years long), comparable to the education provided by universities, or even bachelor's programmes. "My regret is that there is a strong dissenting opinion on the side of many representatives of universities against the introduction of short cycles in the academic structures and legislation", says Michal Karpíšek.
We do not have short cycles. The fact is that we have trouble with EQF 5 level, which corresponds to shorter than three-year-long programmes. That is to say, schools which we could include in this Level 5 do not exist here yet. Anyway, the factual proposal of an act on tertiary education includes implementation of this type of school.
According to Jitka Pohanková, Deputy Director of the National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education, the Report on the Referencing of the National Qualifications Framework of the Czech Republic was approved by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, and will be submitted to the Czech government in June, and subsequently (in autumn) to the European Commission that provided the funding to the project.
After 2012, every final certificate of completion of education will comprise – besides the grades or verbal assessment – the EQF level achieved. In the case of university diplomas, the statement of the EQF level will be included in the diploma supplement.
In comparison with other countries, at present France, Great Britain, Ireland, Malta and Denmark are ahead of us as their reports on referencing to EQF levels have been accepted by the European Commission already. This means that if a person coming from any of these countries comes here and applies for a job, we do not have to have the names of the schools shown in the documents translated since the EQF level clearly indicates that this person is, for example, something like our vocational school graduate with an apprenticeship certificate. Or has passed their doctoral studies.
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The European Qualifications Framework levels and corresponding educational programmes
* Level 1 – basic general knowledge, ability to work or study under direct supervision – incomplete primary school or completed special primary school * Level 2 – basic factual knowledge of a field of work or study, ability to work or study under supervision with some autonomy – primary school * Level 3 – knowledge of facts, principles, processes and general concepts in a field of work or study, ability to take responsibility for completion of tasks – three-year long vocational training branch or field
* Level 4 – factual and theoretical knowledge in broad contexts within a field of work or study, ability to exercise self-management within guidelines, supervise the routine work of others, taking some responsibility for the evaluation and improvement of the activity – graduates who passed the final exam (maturita exam) * Level 5 – comprehensive, specialized, factual and theoretical knowledge within a field of work or study and awareness of the boundaries of that knowledge, ability to develop creative solutions to abstract problems, exercise management and supervision – we have not had educational programmes for this category
* Level 6 – advanced knowledge of a field of work or study, involving a critical understanding of theories and principles, ability to manage complex technical or professional activities or projects – graduates from bachelor's studies as well as from tertiary technical schools * Level 7 – highly specialised knowledge, some of which is at the forefront of knowledge in a field of work or study, as the basis for original thinking and/or research, critical awareness of knowledge issues in a field and at the interface between different fields, ability to develop new knowledge and procedures and to integrate knowledge from different fields, manage and think strategically – master's studies * Level 8 – knowledge at the most advanced frontier of a field of work or study and at the interface between fields, innovative potential, the most advanced and specialized skills including synthesis and evaluation, sustained commitment to the development of new ideas or processes – doctoral studies. Source: National Institute of Technical and Vocational Education; the full version can be found at www.nuov.cz