International Aspects

AITTS in the European Context

On a European level, a multitude of political and technical workgroups aspiring to achieve the goals laid out in the Lisbon Accords, the Bologna and the Copenhagen-Bruges Process has come to life.

AITTS is an active party in these groups striving to make results and its experience available and wanting to take part in the establishment of a European Area for Higher Education and Continuing VET.

Representatives of ministerial bodies and AITTS’ stakeholder organizations have been involved with the consultation and establishment of a European Qualification Framework (EQF). AITTS is an active member of the e-Skills Forum invoked by the DG Enterprise of the European Commission, CEDEFOP work groups, and in the CEN/ISSS work group on establishing recommendations for common qualification standards and certification in the EU.

Currently, there is a lively debate about a “European e-Skills Meta-Framework” (more information). In an attempt to support mobility, transparency of qualification, and to build mutual trust for the IT industry, this Meta-Framework gains importance in the context of the EQF as a sector specific implementation of the general EQF. Connection to German education and training systems, AITTS is already such a IT sector specific qualification framework.

AITTS strongly advocates qualification frameworks that 

•  Are outcome- / competence-based;
• Refer to qualification levels compliant with the EQF;
• Provide instruments for credit transfer in the context of Lifelong Learning;
• Enable transparent and international procedures of quality assurance that involves performance assessments.