On 3 August 2023, the State-Regions Conference approved the Report on referencing the qualifications to the European qualifications framework (EQF). The report was publicly presented on 11 October 2023 at the National Institute for Public Policies Analysis (INAPP). It represents the outcome of a long process of interinstitutional cooperation, sharing and discussion within an ad hoc working group comprising central and regional public administrations, chaired by the Ministry of Labour and Social Policies.
Background of the report update
The Ministry of Labour and Social Policies, together with the Ministry of Education and Merit and the Ministry of University and Research, adopted – by Decree of 15 June 2023 – the Italian report, which updates and replaces the previous version published in 2013.
This is a significant milestone indicating Italy’s progress towards the full implementation of the skills certification system established by Decree 13/2013, aligning with the rest of Europe.
The new edition of the report includes the referencing of national and regional education and training systems, and their respective types of qualification, to the National qualifications framework (NQF) and the EQF. Italy produced this new edition in response to the EQF Recommendation 2017, which urged Member States to review and update, where appropriate, the previous referencing to establish a clear and transparent relationship between national qualifications levels and the EQF levels.
The report in a nutshell
The Italian report defines the common criteria for the attribution of EQF levels to qualifications issued by Italian public bodies, to make them transparent, readable, comparable and usable both nationally and in Europe. The purpose is to coordinate the different systems that contribute to the public offer of lifelong learning, and of the services for the identification, validation and certification of competences.
The report presents all the Italian qualification systems in a single framework, ranging from levels 1 to 8: primary, lower and upper secondary, tertiary education, regulated training, vocational regional training, and adult education.
The report operationalises the NQF established in Italy by inter-ministerial decree in 2018. The NQF serves as the mechanism for referencing qualifications to the EQF, aiming to link and compare the Italian qualifications system with the systems of other EU Member States within the scope of cooperation in education and training. It also represents the national governance system aimed at fostering transparency, usability and portability of qualifications and competences within the National Skills Certification System.
Read more
- Interministerial Decree of 15 June 2023
- Interministerial Decree of 8 January 2018
- Cedefop and ReferNet (2023). The Italian national qualifications framework (QNQ): Italy. Timeline of VET policies in Europe. [online tool]
| Please cite this news item as: ReferNet Italy, & Cedefop (2024, June 18). Italy: adoption of Report on referencing qualifications to European qualifications framework. National news on VET |