PROMOTING ECVET IMPLEMENTATION

Abstract

The European Credit System for Vocational Training (ECVET) recommendation by the European Parliament and the Council, 2009, invites Member States to start progressive ECVET implementation from 2012 onwards with a possible evaluation foreseen in 2014.

As part of its support for the introduction of ECVET in the nuclear energy sector, the Institute for Energy and Transport (DG JRC, EC), through the action CAPTURE, developed three tools for action: the European Human Resources Observatory for the Nuclear Energy Sector (EHRO-N), a series of workshops on Nuclear Job Taxonomy development and a series of ECVET Seminars customized for the Nuclear Energy sector.

The following abstract for ENS NEWS emphasises the specific support actions that have been initiated by the IET, which is part of the EC’s DG JRC, through the intiative CAPTURE, in order to implement the European Credit System for Vocational Training (ECVET) in the nuclear energy sector, with a special focus given to the 2nd ECVET Seminar for the Nuclear Energy Sector (Budapest, 7-9 October 2013).

Recently, the IET at JRC-Petten organised the Second ECVET Seminar for the Nuclear Energy Sector, in collaboration with the ECVET-Team of DG EAC and DG RTD. The seminar was held from 7 - 9 October 2013, in Budapest, at the Aquincum Hotel (Fig. 1). The event’s main objective was to offer to the nuclear VET providers the opportunity to acquire the knowledge needed for implementing the ECVET system. The seminar was attended by participants selected according to their nuclear background, as well as to their interest in implementing ECVET in their respective institutions. In addition, the second seminar had a strong practical profile (Fig. 2), answering specific problems raised by the participants in the first seminar, such as: defining nuclear qualifications, designing units of Learning Outcomes (LO) and LO itself.

The seminar was organised according to four sessions: VET in the European Context, Designing LO and Units, The question of transfer and From Qualifications to Training Program for the Nuclear Sector.

The main topics addressed during the Second ECVET Seminar were as follows:

• The role of the IET-JRC in ECVET implementation, presented by Alicia Lacal-Molina

• ECVET in the European Context, presented by Rob van Wezel

• From Qualifications to Training Program for the Nuclear Sector, presented by Thierry Lefeuvre

• Case studies: Designing nuclear qualifications, LO and Units of LO, presented by Mihail Ceclan 

After three days of debates and case studies, the participants evaluated the seminar as ‘good to excellent’ in terms of organization and ‘useful to important’ in terms of ECVET knowledge acquired.

Readers can get all ECVET information regarding the Institute for Energy and Transport of JRC-Petten activities from the ECVET section of ehron.jrc.ec.europa.eu.

By Mihail CECLAN, European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, Institute for Energy and Transport (IET)