Quality assurance system
The aspect of quality assurance is not new, but has been developed in the past decades into a more overall structure wherein various angles are highlighted such as the didactical or pedagogical viewpoint, the macro-economic perspective, the sociological viewpoint, and the client and management perspectives. By the mid-nineties the MoNE received assistance from the World Bank for, among others, improving the quality of management within the education sector. Groups/units were created that gradually dissipated the quality knowledge to lower levels in the education sector. The quality improvement system was also implemented at provincial level. As a final outcome of this dissemination approach around 200 schools are currently using the Total Quality Management tool.
The EU is very active in the further development and introduction of quality assurance in VET in its member states; these activities are all based on 3 policy priorities, namely better employability, matching and access. The VET system should reflect these priorities in the quality system, and ensure the development and implementation of a new quality assurance mechanism in Turkey that guarantees consistency and transparency in the VET system.
The activities to be developed within this expertise field will be coordinated by the establishment of a working group, which will first start working on a quality assurance concept. The concept will be translated into a strategic plan including inputs from different parts of the project such as training standards, labour market analysis, curriculum development, decentralisation, etc. A pilot quality assurance system will be developed and piloted in 2 pilot regions. Each of the pilot areas will have workshops running to acquaint participants with the draft Quality Assurance System. Then implementation of the pilots will start and will operate for a year with back up support. The reason for having a pilot period of one year is to allow for a complete cycle to test the elements of the QAS. This process will be followed by evaluation and adjustments after which a nationwide introduction will follow for which a dissemination plan will be drafted and launched. Selected trainers from the regions will be trained as disseminators of the QAS.
At the stage when the strategic plan is adopted by the MoNE and the stakeholders, work on the legislative and regulatory aspects of the QAS can start. These activities will be going on in parallel with the piloting. |
