Regional Conference Riga, 20-22 April, 2016

April 20, 2016 to April 22, 2016

Riga

Representatives of the European Union Member States – Latvia, Poland, UK and others as well as representatives from the European Commission and the European Training Foundation. Delegates from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, representing officials from the respective Ministries of Education and Ministries of Labour, employers‘ associations and practitioners, researchers and experts in Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Education and Training (VET).

Content

Following the First Ministerial Meeting in Riga in June 2015, the members of the CAEP Steering Committee Meeting in Brussels in January 2016 endorsed a CAEP Work Plan until 2017/18, addressing the following themes:

Development of Qualification Frameworks and Standards
Quality Assurance and Accreditation
Employment and Labour Market Needs.

In accordance with the ToR of the project, the CAEP work plan included the organisation of a regional conference on Qualification Frameworks.

The CAEP Regional Conference on National Qualifications Frameworks will take place in Riga on April 20-22, 2016. Since Latvia has assumed a leading role for VET under the “Central Asia Education Platform (2015-2018)”, this conference will be held in close cooperation with the Latvian Ministry of Education and Science (MES).

Representatives of the European Union Member States – Latvia, Poland, UK and others as well as representatives from the European Commission and the European Training Foundation will attend the conference. Delegates from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are expected to participate, representing officials from the respective Ministries of Education and Ministries of Labour, employers‘ associations and practitioners, researchers and experts in Higher Education (HE) and Vocational Education and Training (VET).

This conference will be underpinned by a recent report produced by the CAEP Technical Assistance Team “Stock-taking report on National Qualification Frameworks (NQF) in Central Asia”, which will be published shortly on our CAEP website.

The Regional Conference on NQF in Central Asia aims at

Sharing the results of the CAEP NQF stock-taking report with all stakeholders involved;
Promoting and facilitating exchange on the positive effects of NQF for modern, capable and effective education systems between representatives of Central Asia public authorities, education practitioners, business representatives, representatives of EU Institutions and EU Member States and international donors;
Strengthening the discussions between the VET and HE sectors on closer cooperation in designing, developing and/or further developing NQF or NQF like systems;
Contributing to exchange at regional level to enhance regional co-operation between the countries of Central Asia on NQF (identifying common challenges and possible synergies, local best practises etc.);
Building on the report’s main conclusions for each country, gathering ideas and developing recommendations for a NQF focused peer learning approach in CA countries (an activity as well foreseen in the CAEP Roadmap and Work Plan) after the Riga conference.

Structure of the conference

The first two days of the conference are dedicated to the presentation and discussion of the status of current developments with regard to NQF in Central Asia and in the EU. The final day offers a great opportunity to link these discussions with practical insights by visiting various education and municipal institutions in Jelgava and Valmiera cities.

Furthermore, we will organise four working groups (two on each day) on different topics to facilitate interactive exchange of experience and highlighting various pathways to develop and implement NQF in national and regional context.