Network QA in Detail

There are various results that we hope to yield from this project, known officially as Intellectual Outputs. Please see a brief outline of these below:

• IO1: An adapted Net-Working for Quality Assurance model relevant for the wider VET journey, across a variety of case studies and across partner countries. The aim of this output is to develop a well researched and relevant model of Interagency working focused on quality issues, which is based on the previously developed NQA model and which ultimately supports EQAVET.
• IO2: The NQA Quality label. This segment of the project aims to develop the Net-Working for Quality Assurance (NQA) brand into a quality label, launch and establish it in each partner country so that it becomes recognisable in each of the associated countries as a label that represents quality from the bottom-up.
• IO3: Implementation of the NQCA model In implementing the revised NQCA model, the aim will be to place quality culture at the core of Quality Assurances processes by building interagency networks across the partnership countries that will commit to developing quality cultures within and across the interagency participant organisations. Ownership of the approach will be enabled by involving the relevant individuals from the outset.
• IO4: Toolkit for Policy Impact The purpose of developing the toolkit is to provide a document which can be used by policy makers to participate in and support the development of Quality Culture and Quality Assurance at national, regional and local levels.
• IO5: NCQA Training and Master Training In this regard, the aim is to further adapt the training developed in the original NQA project for interested parties in the area of interagency working and quality culture and assurance, to be used to train two Master Trainers from each partner country who will deliver one training course each in their own country. This will ideally ensure participation in the project by members of new potential interagency groups across the country.
• IO6: Social Impact Evaluation This aims to evaluate the impact of interagency working by measuring the social value created for a range of key stakeholder organisations across the partnership, by an objective external evaluator.

There will also be seven public events held across the lifetime of the project. These are referred to as Multiplier Events, and are utilised for dissemination purposes. They will be discussed in more detail in the next section.

• E1: Launch of the NQCA Interagency Network This kick-off event will be held in Dublin. It is to be an introduction to the project for the partners and key stakeholder organisations or interested parties.
• E2: Quality Culture and Quality Assurance in Apprenticeships This event will be hosted in Turku, Finland. The purpose is to take a thematic approach to VET and choose one aspect, namely Apprenticeships, by examining the apprenticeship system in Finland.
• E3: Quality Culture and Quality Assurance: National, Regional and Local This event will be held in Italy. The focus is to learn from the host organisation CIOFS-FP about how the interagency model at local, regional and national levels is impacting on quality assurance and the development of a sustainable quality culture.
• E4: Measuring Interagency and Quality Culture Belfast will be the host city of this thematic seminar. In organising the event, the focus will be on measuring the value created by interagency working and quality culture. The external evaluator who has been subcontracted into the project to conduct the social impact assessment will be invited to attend and present the importance of such an evaluation in the context of this project.
• E5: Quality Culture and Quality Assurance in Workplace Learning During this event, to be held in Hungary, the focus will be on employers and their role in vocational education and training, in up-skilling and in ensuring a quality culture is maintained in the workplace, especially for individuals with weaker skills who may continue to access VET in the workplace.
• E6: NQCA in Practice This event, to be hosted in London, will provide an opportunity to disseminate information regarding the project to the relevant individuals across an extensive consortium of partners. It will share the results of the project to date.
• E7: Final Conference In the concluding event, to be hosted in Germany, the focus will be on the overall learning from the project, and the impact at national and EU policy level. It will aim to raise the profile of the concept of Quality Culture and NQCA’s role in supporting and enabling this from a bottom up perspective.

As part of the fifth output, the NQCA training for relevant and interested parties will be developed. It will ideally facilitate the sustainability of the NQCA model into the future, but will also enable a genuinely balanced Quality Culture to flourish. This will help to transfer the learning from the project and enable a level of standardisation in how it is achieved.

• C1: Master Training in Interagency Working and Quality Culture and Assurance

European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET) is designed to provide tools for the management of quality in VET. Its aims are seemingly in line with the current NQCA project. The interagency model intends to support the implementation of EQAVET and intends to establish a community of practice, to ultimately develop and improve quality assurance in European VET systems within the context of the implementation of the European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF).

• European Policy: Education and Training 2020 (ET2020)
• European Quality Assurance Reference Framework (EQARF) Indicators
• EQAVET Framework
• Quality Assurance in Life Long Learning (QALLL) Project
• Equal Youth Project
• Net-working for Quality Assurance Project
• NQCA

Here we will share information and provide links that set out the project deliverables as the project progresses.