According to the Recommendation of the European Parliament and of the European Council on the establishment of the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for lifelong learning (April 2008), the Member States were encouraged to establish national coordination points. The national coordination points are the state education governance authority with relevant functions, which would provide support for and, in cooperation with other institutions and organizations, would supervise the referencing of national qualifications to the EQF.
Since February 2008, the Academic Information Centre has acted as the Latvian National Coordination Point.
National Coordination Points have the following tasks:
To reference existing national qualifications levels to the eight levels of the European Qualifications Framework;
To ensure that a transparent methodology is used to reference the national qualifications levels to the EQF in order to facilitate comparisons between them, as well as to ensure that the resulting decisions are published;
To provide access to information and guidance to stakeholders concerning the issues how national qualifications relate to the EQF through the national qualifications systems;
To promote the participation of all relevant stakeholders (education institutions, social partners, sectors and experts) on the comparison and use of qualifications at the European level in accordance with the national legislation and practice.
A particularly important task of national coordination points is referencing national qualifications to the EQF levels; therefore, initially a clear understanding of national qualifications levels should be created as a result of an agreement between the national stakeholders.
The national qualification level descriptors should be based on learning outcomes, and the NCP should promote the use of transparent learning outcomes. In order to foster this transparency, the national coordination points gather and disseminate information on the referencing process and context by establishing an open discussion among stakeholders about the use of learning outcomes based approach at the national and the European level.
This website was developed to create a supporting tool for such discussion and for the information provision.
The Latvian NCP website is used as a platform for the consultation process of the NQF implementation.
N!B!
Qualification (izglītības kvalifikācija or izglītību apliecinošs dokuments) – an outcome of any knowledge and skills acquired, which is formally documented, i.e. document certifying obtained formal education is awarded
Learning outcomes (mācīšanās rezultāti) – knowledge, skills and competences that are acquired during a certain period of education
