Guidelines on developing and strengthening qualifications frameworks in Asia and the Pacific

17 Sep 2018

Collaboration with stakeholders throughout Asia and the Pacific is increasingly important to develop quality and relevant lifelong learning systems. Technical planning tools like qualifications frameworks aim to promote transparency around expected learning outcomes, yet education and training providers in many countries struggle to deliver on these mechanisms. A key to changing that lies in taking a serious look at qualifications frameworks around the region to see how we can better engage stakeholders throughout the development process and implementation of qualifications frameworks. This is crucial because such frameworks cannot be effective with governments acting alone. To ensure equal access to quality tertiary education, including university, we must promote a culture of shared responsibility.

With generous support from the Republic of Korea Funds-in-Trust, the new Guidelines on Developing and Strengthening Qualifications Frameworks in Asia and the Pacific aim to connect several important areas of work at national and regional levels. Main ideas include:

• The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) underline the importance of relevant and effective learning outcomes as a means to promote quality education.
• National Qualifications Frameworks (NQF) are a means to build a culture of shared responsibility throughout education and training systems, including for the development of expected learning outcomes (e.g. knowledge, skills and values).
• Despite the rapid growth of qualifications frameworks in Asia-Pacific, questions remain about how NQFs are being implemented to improve student mobility and employability. It is therefore critical to address the misconception that NQF is a shortcut to international recognition of qualifications, or a quick solution to quality assurance.
• New tools and strategies are being developed by UNESCO Member States to strengthen an integrated approach to NQF, quality assurance and recognition, including around key policy instruments such as the Tokyo Convention and forthcoming Global Convention on the Recognition of Qualifications.

Further comments or requests for national-level capacity building or collaboration with UNESCO’s Asia and Pacific Regional Bureau for Education are invited via: eisd.bgk@unesco.org.