The European Parliament has as expected voted in favour of adopting the Recommendation on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework for lifelong learning (EQF), proposed by the Commission in September 2006.

The aim of EQF is to act as a translation device between Member States' qualifications systems in order to help employers and individuals compare and better understand citizens' qualifications and thus support mobility and lifelong learning.
The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) is a translation grid for qualifications around Europe. It has two principal purposes: (1) to promote mobility between countries, and (2) to facilitate lifelong learning. Both are seen by the systems promoters as indispensable for achieving more and better jobs and growth.

Ján Figel´, European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Youth, claimed that "People in Europe too often face obstacles when they try to move from one country to another to learn or work. They sometimes also face obstacles when they want to move from one part of their own country's education system to another, e.g. from vocational education and training to higher education. The EQF will make different qualifications more easily readable between different European countries, and so promote increased mobility for learning or working. Within countries, it has already encouraged the development of National Qualifications Frameworks. This will promote lifelong learning, for example by making it easier to gain credit for the learning people have already achieved."

The benefits of EQF are modeled on experiences from the US, where a more of less unified system has existed for a century. Following the initial positive reactions by the non formal adult education community, growing concerns about side-effects and unflexible implementation have begun to emerge. The formalistic approach to what and how to measure has also been critizised. At the core of the EQF are its eight reference levels, covering basic to most advanced qualifications. These describe what a learner knows, understands and is able to do, regardless of the system in which the learner's qualification was acquired. While very useful if actually working, critical voices point out that the system is tailor made to suit higher education and vocational training teaching methods, leading to a gap in the measured results where non-formal adult education is concerned.

The EQF therefore shifts the focus away from learning inputs (such as the length of a learning experience, or the type of institution), to learning outcomes. The idea is that

• it should support a better match between education and training provisions and the needs of the labour market (for knowledge, skills and competences);
• it should facilitate the validation of non-formal and informal learning; and
• it should facilitate the transfer and use of qualifications across different countries and education and training systems.

As an instrument for promoting lifelong learning, the EQF encompasses general and adult education, vocational education and training, as well as higher education. The eight EQF levels cover the entire span of qualifications from those achieved at the end of compulsory education, up to those awarded at the highest level of academic and professional or vocational education and training.

The Recommendation approved by the European Parliament foresees that Member States relate their national qualifications systems to the EQF by 2010, and that individual certificates or diplomas should bear an EQF reference by 2012.

The political agreement reached in the European Parliament follows three years of intensive preparation, in close co-operation with Member States and stakeholders. The EQF is already influencing the development of National Qualifications Frameworks (NQFs) in many Member States, where NQFs are often themselves part of the wider national reform process. Most countries now are developing NQFs. The Commission is also supporting this process by funding projects bringing together groups of countries and sectors testing the implementation of the EQF.

It will therefore enable individuals and employers to use the EQF as a reference tool to compare the qualifications levels of different countries and different education and training systems.

Following the agreement between the European Parliament, the Council and the Commission, the EQF will be formally adopted by the Council in the coming weeks.