Development of standards in vocational education and training : specification, experience, examples; Volume 2: Manual, July 1999 (reprinted with updates 2000)

One year ago the European Training Foundation published volume 1 (Manual) "Development of Standards in Vocational Education and Training"1 in its series "Qualifications and Training Methods". In that Manual the results of discμssions at three meetings (1995 - 1997) of an international expert group of the Foundation's Advisory Forum are summarised and supplemented. This led to a first guide for the design and implementation of vocational education and training standards, in which alternative models (basic types) and development processes are described. The Manual is designed for political decision makers and experts in central and eastern Europe who face the difficult task of fundamentally reforming initial and continuing vocational training in their respective countries. The Manual prompted a major response and considerable approval not only in Central and Eastern Europe. Other regions of the world too, which find themselves in a comparable historic period of transition, have indicated their interest. It presents the complex and confusing area of vocational education and training standards in a transparent manner and offers assistance for their development. But that is by no means enough. Undoubtedly advice and an exchange of experience must be continued in order to further improve the international dialogue between east and west on vocational education and training and to make it even more fruitful. This is what prompted the Foundation to commission a second volume on the subject "Standards in Vocational Education and Training". This report continues on from the 1998 Manual. It presents the key terms and attitudes, reports on experience and knowledge in standards development collected in recent years on the basis of questions raised by us, and suggests how to deal with the problems encountered.