Focus group on Quality assurance in VET

November 27 2014

 

CENTRE FOR TOURISM TRAINING

Cluj-Napoca, Romania

Target group:

1. VET providers in tourism
2. Employers
3. Representative of the national authority (The National Authority for Qualifications – ANC)

 

Participants: 8 persons – 4 VET providers, 1 employer in tourism, 1 representative of the National Authority for Qualifications (ANC) and 2 representatives of the Faculty of Geography, Geography of Tourism programme of the Babeş-Bolyai University.

 

Duration: 60 minutes

 

Group leader: Adriana Şerban, expert of the Centre for University Development and Quality Management, Babeş-Bolyai University

 

Location: Centre for Tourism Training, Faculty of Geography, Babeş-Bolyai University

 

Themes:

1. Quality assurance in VET

• The utility of a quality assurance system in the participants’ organisations
• The used quality assurance system in the participants’ organisations

 

2. RECOMMENDATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 18 June 2009 on the establishment of a European Quality Assurance Reference Framework for Vocational Education and Training

 

• THE EUROPEAN QUALITY ASSURANCE REFERENCE FRAMEWORK: QUALITY CRITERIA AND INDICATIVE DESCRIPTORS

 

• A REFERENCE SET OF SELECTED QUALITY INDICATORS FOR ASSESSING QUALITY IN VET

 

• The utilization of the EQAF for VET in the participants’ organisations
• The presentation of the EQAF for VET

 

3. Short presentation of the QUATS Project – the aim and the objectives

• The utility of an on-line instrument for evaluating the quality assurance system in the participants’ organisations
• Launching the invitation for participation to the workshop regarding the AQUAS toolkit.

 

 

THE RESULTS OF THE FOCUS GROUP

 

            After the self-presentation of the organizers, of the moderator and of the participants, the three subjects to be discussed were exposed.

1. The first discussed theme was the utility of a quality assurance system in VET organization. The participants were asked to evaluate, on a five steps scale (1- not at all useful, 5 – very useful) the utility of a quality assurance system in any VET organization and to bring arguments for their opinion. They all believe that a QA system would be very useful (the group mean 4.88), the declared arguments being as follows:

• The coherency of the entire activity
• The support for the planning activity
• The assessment of both the provided services and the final product – the students
• The selection of the future employees
• Setting the needed skills and competences
• Organizing the practice activity
• Establishing a better link between the VET providers, employers’ requests and the national authority demands
• Helping the financial profit growth of the organization

The VET providers and the employer declared that they don’t use a coherent QA system in their organization. Also, all the participants, except the representative of the ANC, declared that they are not familiar with the EU recommendation.

2. The moderator presented THE EUROPEAN QUALITY ASSURANCE REFERENCE FRAMEWORK: QUALITY CRITERIA AND INDICATIVE DESCRIPTORS and THE REFERENCE SET OF SELECTED QUALITY INDICATORS FOR ASSESSING QUALITY IN VET, asking the participants to think at the utility of the criteria and indicators in their organisations.

The discussions on this theme lead to the conclusion that all of the four criteria and ten indicators can be useful for a VET provider and employer in tourism, but must be adapted to the specific national and organisational conditions, especially indicator 10. Also, the participants believe that a proper support for the ANC is needed for the implementation of this recommendation, especially regarding the indicators 5, 7 and 9.

After discussions, the results on the perception on the utility of the EQAF framework (expressed on the five steps scale) were closely the same as it were at the beginning of the meeting (group mean 4.63).

3. Short presentation of the QUATS Project – the aim and the objectives

The participants were asked to evaluate, on a five steps scale (1- not at all useful, 5 – very useful) the utility of an on-line instrument for evaluating the quality assurance system in the participants’ organisations, based on the EQAF recommendations. They all agree that such a toolkit would be useful or very useful (group mean 4.38), but they also have underlined the above mentioned issues regarding the specific national and organisational context.

In closing of the focus group, the invitation for participation to the workshop regarding the AQUAS toolkit was launched and their opinion on the focus group was asked. They all declared that the meeting was very interesting, maybe a little too short for a detailed statement of all opinions and they expressed their interest for the soon coming workshop.

 

Main points

• The 8 participants believe that a QA system would be very useful for any VET provider, the arguments being as follows:
• The coherency of the entire activity
• The support for the planning activity
• The assessment of both the provided services and the final product – the students
• The selection of the future employees
• Setting the needed skills and competences
• Organizing the practice activity
• Establishing a better link between the VET providers, employers’ requests and the national authority demands
• Helping the financial profit growth of the organization

 

• The participants think that all of the four criteria and ten indicators of the EQAF can be useful for a VET provider and employer in tourism, but must be adapted to the specific national and organisational conditions, especially indicator 10. Also, the participants believe that a proper support for the ANC is needed for the implementation of this recommendation, especially regarding the indicators 5, 7 and 9.

 

• The participants agree that an on-line toolkit for evaluating the quality assurance system in the participants’ organisations would be useful or very useful but they also have underlined the above mentioned issues regarding the specific national and organisational context.