On March 7, at ANQA’s initiative, Armenia continued the online piloting of the European Training Foundation’s (ETF) diagnostic tool for VET. The process aimed to assess the current state of the VET system, identify best practices and bring out areas for enhancement.
Munir Baati, ETF specialist in VET Policies and Systems, noted that the results will be analysed and the VET system’s strengths and areas for enhancement will be addressed at a conference scheduled for May in Yerevan.
Munir Baati emphasised that for each area, the effort is to understand what is being done and how, study the evaluation of the implemented processes' effectiveness and identify guiding principles for further actions and areas in need of enhancement. The diagnostic tool is based on the EQAVET (European Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training) framework and covers five key areas. During this phase, three areas were considered in Armenia:
- Policy and Governance;
- Assessment Validation and Certification;
- Data and Knowledge Creation.
During the initial phase of piloting the diagnostic tool, conducted in Yerevan in October 2024, two areas were considered:
- Standards Behind Qualifications;
- Provision.
For the piloting of the diagnostic tool, ETF specialists held online meetings with representatives of the RA VET system, employers and ANQA’s experts. ANQA will conduct a self-assessment of the VET system based on the collected data, following the diagnostic tool template. As a result of the piloting, the RA VET system will undergo a thorough assessment against international standards, receiving enhancement-led recommendations from international experts, while based on ANQA's feedback, the ETF will improve and refine the diagnostic tool for VET.
The piloting results will also be shared at the ETF Forum for Quality Assurance in VET: Annual Meeting, taking place in Turin on June 17-18.
It should be noted that the diagnostic tool was previously piloted in Serbia.