The Impact and Implementation of National Qualifications Frameworks: A Comparison of 16 Countries

This article provides some of the key findings of a comparative study commissioned by the International Labour Organization (ILO), which attempted to understand more about the impact and implementation of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs). Sixteen case studies were produced, on qualifications frameworks in Australia; Bangladesh; Botswana; Chile; England, Northern Ireland and Wales; Lithuania; Malaysia; Mauritius; Mexico; New Zealand; Russia; Scotland; Sri Lanka; South Africa; Tunisia; and Turkey. This is the first international study in which detailed case studies have been produced to attempt to understand how NQFs are being implemented around the world, and what their impact has been. In asking these questions and examining them through actual country experience, this study made an important contribution to an under-researched but increasingly important policy area. Countries had different understandings of what a qualifications framework is. Clearly, frameworks are more than the collections of qualifications on paper, and include systems, institutions and relationships between institutions. In the full research report an attempt is made to analyse three main types of frameworks which seem to emerge. This, though, is very much a work-in-progress, as qualifications frameworks are still under development in most of the countries. This article focuses instead on what was achieved in the various countries, as well as some of the tensions and difficulties with implementation that were discovered. (Contains 2 notes.)