Assignment of continuing education courses to the NQF possible as of the autumn

The The National Qualifications Framework (NQF) is intended to promote mobility, permeability and recognition of skills between education and training systems as well as life-long learning. The range of offers of qualifications in non-formal education – particularly in adult education, continuing education and non-school child and youth work – is diverse. For this reason the Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF) has appointed six new service centres for the NQF. These are intended to ensure the quality of non-formal education offers and act as a link between the NQF committees and the qualification providers. As of the autumn of 2019 they will advise institutions offering qualifications in non-formal education on the NQF and support them in submitting their educational qualifications to the National Coordination Point for the NQF in Austria. The new NQF service centres are AQ-Austria, aufZAQ, University of Agricultural and Environmental Education, ibw – Austrian Institute for Research & Development in VET, öibf – Austrian Institute for Vocational Education and Training Research, and Quality Austria.

Jakob Calice, managing director of the OeAD, which houses the National Coordination Point, sees the authorisation of the NQF service centres as an important step towards the full implementation of the National Qualifications Framework in Austria: ‘The BMBWF has created a basic prerequisite for assigning non-formal qualifications from the field of continuing education and training to an NQF level.’ If you want to be mobile within Europe you need clarity about what qualifications mean. I am looking forward to working with the NQF service points in the future."

All assigned qualifications are published in the NQF Register.

Enquiries and contact:
National Coordination Point for the NQF in Austria (NCP) at the OeAD
OeAD (Austrian Exchange Service) GmbH
nqr@oead.at | www.qualifikationsregister.at