On April 25, ANQA held a meeting with representatives from the Erasmus+ QA4VET project’s partner VET institutions. In total, nine VET institutions participate in the project, including seven associated members. The meeting aimed to update the institutions on the project’s progress, planned processes and intended outcomes. Varduhi Gyulazyan, head of ANQA’s Institutional and Programme Accreditation Division, introduced the project’s stages and upcoming activities.
It was highlighted that a needs assessment was conducted among the partner VET institutions ahead of this stage, with the results to be used in the project trainings. The trainings aim to build the VET institutions' expert capacities and develop their skills for conducting self-evaluations. The project will include mock accreditation at partner VET institutions.
The project stages are as follows:
- Skills development for conducting self-evaluation: The project's international and Armenian partners will conduct training sessions on self-evaluation and SWOT analysis.
- Expert capacity building: ANQA will organise trainings to strengthen the VET staff's skills in posing questions, drawing conclusions and writing reports.
- Self-evaluations by the VET institutions: The institutions will conduct self-evaluation in preparation for ex-ante accreditation.
- Desk review: A site visit will be conducted to the VET institutions for the external review.
- Preparation of expert panel reports, with a focus on recommendations: The expert panel will prepare reports, evaluating the VET institutions’ activities against accreditation criteria and providing enhancement-led recommendations.
- Development of follow-up plans: The VET institutions will prepare a follow-up plan informed by expert panel reports and recommendations.
The process will help the VET institutions to effectively prepare for institutional accreditation through internal capacity building.
The QA4VET project aims to enhance the VET quality in Armenia, developing and implementing mock accreditation processes and tools that support quality assurance in VET institutions, fostering the formation of education quality culture. The project intends to study European practice, strengthen Armenian specialists’ capacities and prepare recommendations for continuous quality enhancement in VET institutions, with a special emphasis on green and digital education.
The coordinator of the QA4VET (Implementing Mock Accreditation for supporting quality assurance in Armenian VET institutions) project is the Romanian Agency for Quality Assurance in Pre-University Education (ARACIP). The Armenian partners are ANQA, Yerevan Regional State College No. 2 named after N. Achemyan, Vardenis Medical-Humanitarian College, and the "Armenian Center for Educational Policy and Management" NGO. The project also involves a German partner, INVOLAS Institute for Vocational Education and Training, Labor Market and Social Policy.