Quality Management (QM) systems have been introduced in vocational schools in various European countries over the past ten years and it has become clear that individual schools have had varying degrees of success in implementing their QM systems in full and in an appropriate manner, i.e in accordance with the underlying QM principles, in gaining acceptance from those involved and in achieving the desired impact.
BEQUAL is a Lifelong Learning Development of Innovation project that has developed a portal on the theme of quality assurance in VET and an on-line benchmarking tool to be used by VET providers to benchmark their quality assurance systems with their peers. The benchmarking tool is based on the European Reference Framework for quality assurance in VET (EQAVET) and on the EFQM excellence model. It is available in ten different European languages and it gathers benchmarking data from more than 450 VET institutions.
The project produced an online benchmarking tool, which can be used to compare quality practices of vocational training institutes (VET) with each other, and to identify best practices. The objectives are: to develop quality assurance in vocational education and training institutes, to promote the use of the European Quality Assurance Framework, to allow its practical application through the use of online benchmarking tool and best practice database.