The year 2014 saw a stronger political commitment and technical work towards developing and implementing national qualifications frameworks (NQFs) across Europe.

Cedefop’s fifth annual report and analysis on European NQF developments confirms the key role of these frameworks in making qualifications comparable within and between countries.

Moreover, NQFs are now triggering reforms and supporting changes in education and training.

Although still uneven across countries and sectors, NQFs have bolstered the implementation of approaches based on learning outcomes. They have also helped to bring education, training and employment stakeholders together to develop new qualifications.

More countries are now opening their NQFs to qualifications gained outside the formal, public system, such as those awarded by non-formal and private institutions; more are associating their NQFs more closely to arrangements for validating non-formal and informal learning; and more are linking national frameworks to the EQF.