AQUA-TNET lifelong learning strategy changes E & T attitudes towards ECVET implementation and the EQF

Abstract

In 2011, the EU ERASMUS Thematic Network AQUAT-NET (representing the fields of aquaculture, fisheries and aquatic resources management) began a study on lifelong learning needs in the sector in order to find ways to tackle issues of articulation between different types of qualification frameworks. The survey (1913–1915) (37 organisations (universities, research institutions, associations and private companies providing lifelong learning (LLL) courses) from 16 European countries) examined their use of, and opinions concerning, the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the corresponding European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). The survey, published in 2015, revealed that two thirds of the respondents (65%) agreed or strongly agreed that there was a genuine need to establish the ECVET system of credit points in education and training and a majority of those respondents (58%) considered that the ECVET system of credits should be put into force as soon as possible, though with certain caveats. If the raft of new educational initiatives created by the European Union since then is considered along with the redefinition of key terminology in the EQF (i.e. competences) and the delayed rollout of the ECVET credit system, these AQUAT-NET results take on renewed significance, e.g. the admittedly low take-up rate of ECVET credit points. According to Reports and Evaluations on the state of ECVET implementation (e.g. CEDEFOP (2016) and the much later 2019 European Commission study on VET instruments ECVET and EQAVET), both the concept and the definition of ECVET credit points need to be revised (rather than removed). One acknowledged obstacle to the acceptance of the entire ECVET package lay in the absence of a large, well-organised peer learning group able to disseminate up-to-date relevant information. Within the small aquatic sciences sector, the steady flow of information concerning new lifelong learning initiatives to all stakeholders accounted for the success of the AQUA-TNET approach in promoting informed decision-making at the relevant level. This continues to be one of the recommended best practice approaches, while surveys such as ours are relegated to the vast unread mountains of EU studies.