Best practices
Denmarks's responsive policy approaches for rapid accreditation in vocational and higher education
Users: Training Providers (Public), Training Providers (Private) | Theme: Accreditation and Certification |
Action: Framework/Methodology | Beneficiaries: Training Providers (Public), Training Providers (Private)
The challenge?
Enabling higher education institutions (HEIs) to swiftly respond to changing demands for qualifications in society requires a system that balances flexibility and efficiency. This involves reducing the bureaucratic burden during the external quality assurance process, ensuring that institutions can adapt quickly while still adhering to the European Standards and Guidelines as part of the Bologna Process.
The Bologna process aims to create a more comparable, compatible, and coherent system for higher education across Europe. The process established the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), which facilitates student and staff mobility, ensures the mutual recognition of qualifications, and implements a system of quality assurance.
Our solution
The solution involved first introducing institutional accreditation, which allowed higher education institutions (HEIs) to establish their own quality assurance systems tailored to their specific needs. This initial step aimed to provide HEIs with the flexibility to design processes that best suited their unique contexts.
During the second cycle of institutional accreditation, a new concept was introduced to further reduce the amount of required documentation and the overall burden on HEIs. This approach aimed to streamline the accreditation process, making it more efficient while ensuring that institutions maintained high standards of quality and relevance in their programs.
Outcomes
93-95%
Less documentation
required from universities
Switching from programme-based to institutional accreditation has significantly reduced the accreditation time for modified courses.
Accreditation of all programs, including existing ones, typically required between 6 and 8 months under the old system.
Institutional accreditation allows for accreditation of organisations, which is valid for an entire 6-year cycle, within approximately 12 months. Pre-qualification of new programmes can then be achieved within 10 weeks.
Key takeaways
- Balancing Documentation & Internal Quality Assurance: Accreditation processes must balance external documentation requirements with the need for effective internal quality assurance systems.
- Defining When a Programme is Considered “New”: Establish clear guidelines on when a study programme qualifies as “new” to avoid unnecessary re-evaluations of slightly modified programmes.
- Selecting the Right Accreditation Format: Identify the most beneficial and cost-effective accreditation format for different types of institutions so that each context is appropriately evaluated.
- Encouraging self evaluations: Encourage training providers to conduct self-evaluations with external expert reviews.
- Implementing Student Performance Monitoring: Implement comprehensive tracking of student academic progress using statistical analysis to provide insights into programme effectiveness and institutional quality.
Case Summary–
Context: Fit4internet is a non-profit initiative aimed at enhancing digital literacy across Austria. By using the Digital Competence Framework (DigComp AT), which identifies key components of digital competencies and aligns with European standards, Fit4internet helps individuals showcase their digital skills. The Fit4internet platform offers a way to track and prove digital competencies, helping with employability and ensuring that the Austrian workforce has the necessary ICT skills to meet market demands. Through the digital skills profile platform, the initiative supports both individual growth and the development of a digitally capable society.
Challenge: The challenge faced is managing proof of competencies acquired through various learning methods, including formal education, non-formal training, and informal certifications, which can lead to inconsistent records. Securing sustainable funding to support the continuous development of new digital competencies, ensuring that programs remain up-to-date with evolving market needs. The second main challenge was fostering broad participation and engagement, especially among groups who may lack access to digital tools or education.
Identified Approach / Solution: The Fit4internet platform provides a centralised, user-friendly system to manage and showcase digital competencies, aligning with the European Qualifications Framework (EQF). Through this platform, individuals can track and showcase their digital skills, making it easier for employers, educators, and organisations to assess their talent.
The platform allows users to create an e-portfolio that showcases their digital skills, with the option to share it through a link or as a PDF. This portfolio highlights the digital competencies that a user has acquired, linked to their certificates. These certificates can be formal, non-formal, or informal.
The platform also supports the generation of a digital skills profile that showcases the user’s acquired skills. Users earn digital badges as a visual representation of their skills. This allows them to continue with their learning journey, while showing off their competencies to others.
Outcomes:
Key takeaways:
Fit4internet engage multiple stakeholders from academia, industry, and policy to develop holistic and relevant digital competency frameworks. They also use widely applied frameworks to measure skills gaps, enabling better planning for individuals and institutions. By doing this they improve reinsertion rates into the labor force by addressing individuals digital skill gaps and aligning them with market needs. This benefits companies by providing clear insights into the skillsets that are being developed and that are available in the workforce.