Quality standards and quality control

The college assesses by means of examinations whether a participant complies with the knowledge, skills and professional attitude, required for a particular vocational programme.

Examinations for vocational courses are in the form of continuous assessments. These assessments demonstrate whether a partial unit in the programme has been successfully concluded. Obtaining a partial qualification entitles the participant to a certificate. Once all partial qualifications and the placement are concluded satisfactorily, the course participant receives a diploma. Information about examination can also be found at Colo site (http://www.colo.nl/English%20version/examination.htm).

government to guide and monitor the institutions in relation to quality:

 the qualification structure and the attainment targets for the courses;

 examinations and external legitimisation;

 the teaching agreement between institution and participant;

 more output-focused financing to reward good performance;

 information requirements concerning entrance, progression and exit of participants;

 a system of quality assurance with public accountability and supervision by the Education (or Teaching) Inspectorate.

The following paragraphs present some of these tools that guarantee the societal value of the certificates and institutions.

3.6.1. Board of examiners, biannual reports and the Teaching Inspectorate

The Adult & Vocational Education Act (WEB) requires colleges to establish and maintain a system of quality assurance. This system is aimed at ensuring conscious and systematic quality assurance. It encourages institutions to reconsider and re-evaluate their functioning, and to regularly formulate and monitor the targets set. In addition, it requires institutions to involve independent experts in quality assurance, and where possible, co-operate with other institutions.

In establishing the system, the institutions have a large degree of freedom. However, the system must be functional, and an institution must be able to demonstrate this fact to the outside world, at least in the four areas subject to statutory provisions by the government:

 multiple qualification: for the labour market, for progression and for citizenship;

 accessibility for vulnerable target groups;

 efficient learning routes;

 good advice, guidance and information provision.

In these four areas, the institutions must report on the objectives set, the results achieved, the discrepancies between objectives set and results achieved and the actions undertaken to ensure improvement.

Every two years, each college accounts for its activities by publishing a fully open quality assurance report, describing the structure and results of its quality assurance process. The report must indicate how quality assurance is implemented within all layers of the institution, and who is responsible for this process. This may include such matters as personnel policy, development of new programmes, organisational structure, system management, assessment of learning results and decisions taken on continuity/discontinuity of programmes based on labour market information.

Colleges submit their account in writing to central government, by submitting their biannual quality assurance report to the Education Inspectorate. If the Inspectorate identifies a quality problem in a particular college, consultation is arranged, and the college is given a reasonable opportunity to improve. If these efforts are without result, the Minister may issue a formal warning, and as a final step, withdraw certain rights (the right to award certificates, and the right to financial support).

The Teaching Inspectorate each year assesses the content and level of the examinations, in a number of vocational programmes and at a number of institutions. In its annual examination report, the Inspectorate lists the institutions evaluated and their results in full detail.

3.6.2. CREBO, independent and approved examining bodies

In order to guarantee the societal value of the certificates, the WEB requires that colleges subject 51 percent of the part-qualifications as identified by the Minister to an independent,

external assessment. This means that an independent and approved examining body must state in advance that the content and level of the examinations to be held complies with the relevant attainment targets, and that the examination procedures are correct and in accordance with the statutory requirements.

This requirement of independence means that the examining body itself must not provide any teaching within the qualification structure, nor must it have any interest in the number of successful candidates. Examining bodies may and must not compete with one another.

In order to apply for external verification, the teaching institution can in principle select any examining body it likes, on condition that that body is approved. An examining body registers with the Central Register for Vocational Education (CREBO), indicating the part qualification for which it is willing to offer external verification. The body is free to choose the form of its offer.

This may vary from the imposition of parameters and supervision, right through to the actual execution of external verification. The imposition of parameters and supervision means that the examining body draws up guidelines for tests.

The teaching institution itself develops the test, and holds them. The examining body supervises the process of development and setting of exams. The actual execution approach means that the examining body itself develops and possibly also sets examinations. If the teaching institution uses these tests, they are by definition legitimised.

3.6.3. Examining bodies combined in Excenter association

All national bodies for vocational training have their own examining body. The 22 examining bodies joined forces in 1997, by establishing the Excenter association. This association was established to support the teaching institutions in guaranteeing and improving the quality of examinations in vocational education, based on the interests of business and industry. The Excenter association aims to guarantee the quality of professional skills for pupils, for teaching institutions and for companies.

Basic model for external verification

Teaching institutions require greater uniformity in the services offered by the examining bodies.

At a time when more than one examining body offers its services to the same school, ten or often even more descriptions of service packages, all with different charges and differing contents, may land on the desk of a single person. The examining bodies united in Excenter present their service provision to the teaching institutions in a recognisable manner. The members of Excenter make a clear differentiation in their package of services between the minimal form of external verification, their services in relation to the development of tests, and other additional services, which can be purchased. The minimal form of external verification is known as the ‘basic model for external verification’. This basic model covers both theory and practical testing, and relates to both the vocational practice pathway and the vocational training pathway. The model complies with the legal requirements and follows the guidelines imposed by the teaching Inspectorate. The Inspectorate has a supervisory role for ensuring compliance with legislation and regulations in relation to education.

Assessment procedures and testing refers to:

 Partial certification leading to the total certification; compulsory and free partial certifications; see paragraph 3.5.

 College-based and work-based routes; see paragraph 3.5.1 and 3.5.4

 Responsibility for examination, internal and external quality control; paragraph 3.6 For more information see these paragraphs.