European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training
http://www.ecvet-team.eu/en/ecvet-essentials
ECVET is an instrument to support lifelong learning, the mobility of European learners and professionals and the flexibility of learning pathways to achieve professional qualifications. ECVET is meant to become a ‘translation’ tool for the different national educational systems, allowing learners to validate in their own countries the training and certification received abroad (already happening through ECTS credit system for Erasmus mobility at university level).
“ECVET is a technical framework for the transfer, recognition and, where appropriate, accumulation of individuals’ learning outcomes with a view to achieving a qualification. ECVET tools and methodology comprise the description of qualifications in terms of units of learning outcomes with associated points, a transfer and accumulation process and complementary documents such as learning agreements, transcripts of records and ECVET users’ guides. ECVET is intended to facilitate the recognition of learning outcomes in accordance with national legislation, in the framework of mobility, for the purpose of achieving a qualification. It should be noted that ECVET does not imply any new entitlement for citizens to obtain the automatic recognition of either learning outcomes or points. Its application for a given qualification is in accordance with the legislation, rules and regulations applicable in the Member States.”