The European Parliament and European Council under the Czech Presidency on 11 May 2009 formally adopted the recommendation to establish a European reference framework for quality assurance in vocational education and training (EQARF), based on its predecessor the Common Quality Assurance Framework (CQAF, 2004).

EQARF is a reference tool which can assist Member States in the promotion, observation and continuous improvement of their vocational training systems based on common European benchmarks. The major aims are to increase the quality of vocational training, the creation of transparency, coherence and mutual trust between Member States and foster the mobility of employees and learners as well as encouraging lifelong learning. EQARF comprises a quality assurance and improvement cycle, which covers planning, implementation, evaluation and review of vocational education & training; each of which is supported by common quality criteria and indicative descriptors and indicators. EQARF is applicable at both, system and provider level. It does not prescribe a specific quality assurance system or approach, but rather, provides common principles, quality criteria and descriptors and indicators that may be suitable for the evaluation and improvement of existing systems and training schemes in vocational education and training.

Following the 2009 recommendation the Member States were invited to devise an approach aimed at improving quality assurance systems in accordance with the four stages of the quality cycle, the indicative descriptors and, the indicators at a national level no later than 18 June 2011.

The European reference framework for quality assurance in vocational education and training is built up of 4 key elements:

-       quality cycle, based on quality process cycle commonly known as PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act),

-       method for the application of the EQARF quality cycle,

-       10 indicators, representing the three priority areas for policy and practice in VET at EU level,

-       indicative descriptors, which shall support EC member states in reviewing their quality assurance system and gauge how much progress has been made,

-       A set of guidelines, which is considered calls for action to create an EQARF compliant quality assurance system.