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The paper's aim is to present a critical review of the current European process of co‐operation in VET with a special view to the European Qualification Framework and its competence orientation.

The approach reviews the official documentation and the consultation process and a contrastive analysis of the state of the art of research and developments in VET.

In order to make European VET a direct contribution to the revised Lisbon agenda, a more concise shared vision with regard to the processes and structures of vocational education might be needed.

It does not seem possible logically and pragmatically to fully abstract from the processes in which competence is acquired and in which it is going to be used.

Research and development activities in the European Union should be integrated towards an agenda that covers structures, conditions and processes of learning for the world of work.

Apart from a few other contributions, critical accounts of current policies and its implications for research and practice are scarce.

The purpose of this article is to provide research findings on learning and the structuring of qualifications in the IT‐sector in Germany and relate this to the international discussion on the structuring of qualifications for the IT‐industry.

The article is based on desk research as regards the international discussion. The empirical findings stem from a standardised survey and case studies on learning in the IT sector within Germany and analysis of supplementary studies.

Two general approaches can be distinguished: one based on coherent occupational profiles and one based on market‐driven smaller unit certificates. The German system can be interpreted as a hybrid. It includes elements of both, thus allowing for a direct comparison of the two approaches. The empirical findings illustrate an acceptance problem. The study also suggests that work process‐oriented learning is not always sufficient to generate the necessary competences required for new tasks, that profiles do not correspond to the more comprehensive profiles in small and medium‐sized enterprises and that they do not match career aspirations of employees.

The research presented here is based only on empirical research in the IT sector in Germany. It is hoped that this can be extended to other contexts in the future.

From the performance of the German case and the empirical findings it can be concluded that the model of comprehensive profiles is more promising in terms of mobility and transfer of qualifications. This is interesting for stakeholders and decision makers.

Empirical evidence on the topic is scarce. This article aims at contributing to filling this gap.

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate that the internationalisation of nearly all spheres of society and the process of European integration will be leading to the development of a European vocational education and training (VET) architecture.

The analysis of the “Copenhagen process” is based on the EU documents on the realisation of a European Qualifications Framework and a credit transfer system.

The result of the study shows that the strategy adopted by the European Union for the establishment of a European area of vocational education is confronted with a dilemma. The European Qualifications Framework is highly abstract since any reference to real educational programmes and qualifications and any concrete provision for the transition and for the transferability between educational levels and sectors (vocational and higher education, initial and continuing training) was avoided in order to adhere to the anti‐harmonisation clause. The result is an abstract, hierachically structured one‐dimensional qualifications framework that lacks any reference to existing VET systems and that contradicts all scientific insights from VET research and knowledge research.

The implications for VET policy are far‐reaching. A European area of vocational education can be established only on the basis of European open core occupations and an open VET architecture, which ensures that vocational education becomes an integral part of national educational systems. The qualification of employees for the intermediary sector can be realised only as a European project.

There are only a few contributions available that undertake a conceptual analysis and critique of the European Qualifications Framework.

This article aims to take up a mirror image‐oriented position of the EQF and the announced ECVET system. It seeks to be concerned with the effects that the EQF transformation process into the respective NQF might have on the underlying systems of vocational education and training.

A comparison is drawn between the competence development the four different VET systems in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK initiated by the identical qualification demands of the sector of aircraft industry (AIRBUS plants in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK). This serves as a finding for the evaluation of the EQF and the effects it will could on the sector of the European aircraft industry.

Three hypothesises on: convergence of skill requirements because of the technologies and procedures tend to become the same all over the world if the same products are manufactured; divergence of the national VET systems as a consequence of adaptation such requirements; and a structural reference between requirements and the development of competence, are tested and validated.

The research was confined to the aircraft and space industry and one enterprise co‐operating in France, Germany, Spain, and the UK.

It was possible to establish two European occupational profiles for this sector (aircraft mechanic and avionic). The applicability of a method for depicting competence development based on Havighurst's theory of developmental tasks, is expected to be improved.

A method of evaluating competence development was applied that can be used, despite some differences.

This paper aims to provide a critical analysis of the European Commission's and the member states' attempts to introduce a European Qualifications Framework and national frameworks respectively.

The paper is based on a review of policies and substantive desk research in countries that have applied a qualification framework approach.

The analysis shows that qualifications frameworks (QFs) are resisted partly from inertia and conservatism and partly because important educational purposes are being defended. NQF experiences suggest that hopes associated with QFs are unrealistic (e.g. accreditation of prior learning).

The paper draws mainly on conceptual and secondary analysis. In future primary empirical analysis would be desirable.

The findings are extremely relevant to policy makers on the European and national levels. The lessons from NQFs suggest incrementalism, building blocks, supporting policies, consensus and staying as close as possible to practice are important.

This paper is one of the few attempts to evaluate current initiatives based on prior experiences.

The purpose of this article is to look closely at the development of a European Credit Transfer System for Vocational Education and Training (ECVET). The European Commission, together with the member States, are working on it and several pilot projects have been initiated within the Leonardo da Vinci Programme of the European Commission. The problem of the transfer as well as a convincing transparency of vocational competences has yet been developed. The aim is to discuss this in the article.

This contribution illustrates a model using the Dreyfus/Dreyfus approach of acquisition of profiles in such a way that the levels of competence development are not applied to overall professional actions (as shown for pilots, nurses, teachers and others), but to smaller entities of professional profiles.

While strongly taking into account work related tasks and contexts (objects, tools, work organisation) the authors define “groups of competencies” and apply Dreyfus' ladder to these new entities. That means the authors adopt Dreyfus' model in two ways: by applying the model to groups of competencies (corresponding to specific core work profiles) instead of using it for overall competency profiles (corresponding to professionals/ experts); and they make the model flexible and dynamic by not restricting it to a certain number of levels, but only defining the differences between levels.

The background of the paper is the so‐called work process analysis to identify the work related tasks and related groups of competencies.

The article offers a new concept for the European discussion of the Qualification Framework as well as the Credit Transfer System.

This article provides an alternative to existing European policy.

The quality of an education system or a comparative international assessment refers more and more to quantitative parameters, i.e. “educational indicators”. The paper aims to analyse the structure of several educational indicators and indicator systems and answer the question “What can educational indicators achieve?”

Starting with a general consideration of the term “indicator” the findings are applied to the educational area and the development of educational indicators is analysed critically.

Indicators allow for the illustration of outcomes and of system processes. Beginning in the 1950s, following the empirical turn in research methods, and the growing significance of approaches from economics of education, indicators are now applied in national and international settings. The findings show that the combination of the quantitative and qualitative approach is more successful as the isolated research.

The research is based on secondary analysis. A combination of quantitative and qualitative research methodology should be undertaken in following the progress of educational systems.

The findings of quantitative research based on educational indicators determine the general public and political discussion and often the discourse in the scientific community. The analysis shows that a critical distance especially when preparing political decisions is a necessary attitude.

This paper seeks to concentrate on bottom‐up approaches in order to promote a European vocational education and training (VET) concept. The overall aim of this article is to demonstrate that sophisticated approaches still have a chance of becoming common practice in European countries.

The centre of the article is the discussion of a core occupational profile called ECO‐recycler, which tends to be an alternative to the discussion of a uniform European Qualification Framework. The method of participatory discourse is applied in order to shape a VET space jointly with European partners. However, the partnership should not only discuss an abstract level because the implementation of the ECO‐recycler is the main target of the discourse and it will be demonstrated how it works.

After the clarification of a bottom‐up approach, the implementation process of a core occupational profile in the partner countries is described.

The empirical approach for the creation of work process based core occupational profiles will be offered.

European policies must be changed if these approaches are pursued.

This article offers an alternative to existing European policy and will be of interest to those in the field.

The purpose of this paper is to show that the quality of learning in German apprenticeships can be increased without raising costs under certain conditions. It starts with a contextual description of apprenticeship in the dual system, showing that this insight is of central importance, since employers in Germany are increasingly withdrawing from apprenticeship provision.

The paper is a case study‐methodology and shows one selected case out of 24 presented. The selected case is then related to the findings of the other cases explored.

The findings in the paper imply that quality of apprenticeships can be improved without an increase in costs, challenge the classical economics of apprenticeship. “Grounded” indicators of quality in apprenticeship are formulated: learning in productive work processes is a core characteristic of apprenticeships; the productive work apprentices engage in needs to follow a well thought through sequential logic; learning is based on a high degree of autonomy; learning is embedded into the business process; client satisfaction provides an important quality benchmark; commitment to occupation and the company can provide a source of responsibility and quality; and professional competence is the ultimate goal of learning.

The results in the paper were further processed into a self‐evaluation tool assisting companies in their cost‐benefit calculation. The developed standardised instrument was not tested in an international context. Both instruments presented could be further validated by taking up the view of multiple stakeholders and comparing results with alternative methodologies of assessing the learning quality.

The paper suggests an intensified integration of apprenticeship training into productive work processes. In order to turn this into quality learning the complexity of tasks needs to be increased over the course of apprenticeship.

The paper proposes a new look at the costs of apprenticeships. Therefore, it is of interest to researchers and managers with an interest in apprenticeship training.