Preface

Since the adoption of the Copenhagen Declaration in 2002, the Copenhagen process has progressed and contributed to the development of common tools and the sharing of good practices within vocational education and training (VET) across Europe. Within the field of quality, the process has enhanced cooperation through networks, projects and study visits, and in this way increased transparency and the understanding of quality approaches in other European countries.

The focus on quality in VET has proved to be common across Europe, as framework governance and decentralisation of the VET systems have become mainstream policies. Granting providers greater autonomy in adapting the VET they provide to local needs and demands (and thereby ensuring greater flexibility for VET) accentuates the need to implement national quality strategies which find a balance between control and mutual trust among VET stakeholders. Denmark has experienced this situation over the past fifteen years, where the majority of efforts have been focussed on promoting a more systematic approach to quality assurance at provider and system level.

One of the tools that has been developed at a European level with the aim of promoting transparency and a common basis for quality assurance and development, is the Common Quality Assurance Framework (CQAF). The CQAF was developed by the European Forum on Quality, in cooperation with the Technical Working Group (TWG). Its aim is to inspire stakeholders in VET at national, regional, and local levels in their work with quality. The CQAF describes the various elements in a quality model, and raises a number of key questions to be considered by the major stakeholders when assuring and developing quality in VET.

In this publication, focus is on the Danish approach to quality assurance and development. The publication deals with quality assurance in both initial vocational education and training (IVET) and continuing vocational education and training (CVET). The CQAF has been chosen as a framework for the description of the Danish approach to quality, and to describe the state of affairs in regard to the overall policy priorities: employability, matching and access.

One of the characteristics of the Danish approach to quality in VET is that quality is not only a policy issue per se, i.e. policy measures dedicated specifically to quality. Quality is built into the very fabric of the Danish VET system by involving all the major stakeholders, and entrusting them with the power to continuously adapt and renew the system in light of social, technological and economic changes.

It is our hope that this publication can contribute to the European knowledge sharing within the field of quality, and that it will become part of the overall process of promoting transparency and cooperation within VET.

Søren Hansen
Head of Department of Vocational Education
January 2008

This page is part of the electronic publication "The Danish Approach to Quality in Vocational Education and Training"
© The Ministry of Education 2008