First phase: developing common principles and tools

The Copenhagen Process was launched as the contribution of Vocational Education and Training (VET) to the challenges identified in the Lisbon strategy. In the Copenhagen Declaration, approved on 30 November 2002, the ministers responsible for vocational education and training in the Member States, candidate countries, EFTA-EEA countries, the European social partners and the European Commission agreed priorities and strategies for the process. It's main aim is to promote mutual trust, transparency and recognition of competences and qualifications to increase mobility and to facilitate access to lifelong learning.

Four priorities for enhanced European cooperation in VET across Europe were identified:

• strengthening the European dimension;
• improving transparency, information and guidance systems;
• recognising competences and qualifications;
• promoting quality assurance.

In the two years following Copenhagen, the Education Council reached political agreement on a number of concrete results, in particular a resolution on guidance throughout life, principles for the identification and validation of non-formal and informal learning, a common framework for quality assurance in VET and the EUROPASS single framework for the transparency of qualifications and competences.

The Maastricht Review, December 2004

The first review of the process took place on 14 December 2004 at a ministerial meeting in Maastricht, where it was acknowledged that substantial progress had been made.  Based on the Education Council Conclusions adopted on 15 November 2004, the Maastricht Communiqué set out priorities for the next phase of the process.

The Maastricht Communiqué linked the Copenhagen Process more firmly with the 'Education and Training 2010' work programme and, for the first time, introduced national priorities:

• Raise awareness, implement and use agreed instruments;
• Improve public / private investment, including training incentives through tax & benefit systems and use of EU Funds;
• Address the needs of groups at risk - low skilled, older workers, early school leavers, migrants, persons with disabilities, unemployed;
• Develop open learning approaches & flexible more individualised pathways to enhance progression;
• Strengthen planning of VET provision, including, partnerships and early identification of skills needs;
• Develop pedagogical approaches and the learning environment in training organisations and at work;
• Enhance competence development for VET teachers & trainers.

At European level, priorities included the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) and the European credit transfer system for VET (ECVET). The other priorities were:

• Consolidate existing Copenhagen priorities
• Examine the specific learning needs of VET teachers and trainers
• Improve the scope, precision & reliability of VET statistics
  

Second phase: Consolidation and further development of tools

Immediately following Maastricht, Europass was launched in Luxembourg in January 2005, and during that year National Europass Centres were established. The interactive Europass portal came into operation on Internet and now exists in 22 languages. In March 2006 it was serving 8,000 visitors daily.

In November 2005, the Council approved Conclusions on the role of the development of skills and competences in taking forward the Lisbon goals and addressing in particular the issue of sectoral skills.

The Commission organised an open public consultation on EQF during the second half of 2005. Responses from 31 European countries were received. The results from the consultation were discussed in a concluding conference in February 2006 in Budapest. The wide acceptance of the need to focus on learning outcomes and different ways of linking national qualifications to EQF have stimulated much reflection on national reforms. Building on the rich feedback and debate generated by the consultation process, a working group submitted a revised EQF proposal to Member States' representatives in June 2006. The proposal, with revised descriptions of the eight reference levels that accommodate VET at each level, was accepted as a basis for a recommendation which was presented by the Commission to the Council and European Parliament in September 2006. On 14 November 2006, the European Council agreed on a "general approach" for recommendation which is expected to be formally adopted during 2007.

The emphasis on quality assurance in the Copenhagen Process aims to improve the quality of VET systems and provision, increasing transparency and consistency of initiatives across Europe, thereby contributing to enhancing the status of VET within and across Member States and participating countries. A European Network on Quality Assurance in VET (ENQA-VET) was established in October 2005 by the Commission, with the support of countries participating in the Copenhagen Process and the social partners. ENQA-VET's main role is to promote the use of the Common Quality Assurance Framework (CQAF) on a voluntary basis, and promote cooperative, inclusive and sustainable networks at all levels. It is a platform of exchange of experience, debate and consensus-building on concrete proposals on quality assurance and development. It will serve as a bridge with EQF and link VET to higher education. A conference on quality assurance in higher education and in VET was organised in May 2006 in Graz to foster cooperation on quality issues between the Bologna and Copenhagen Processes and to support the development of the common European Qualifications Framework (EQF).

A technical specification for ECVET, the proposed device for promoting the transfer, accumulation and recognition of credit for VET in Europe, was presented to the Advisory Committee for Vocational Training (ACVT) in June. A consultation process inviting all stakeholders and experts to give their views will begin in autumn 2006. Experimentation and testing of the prototype will run in parallel. A feasibility study of ECVET for apprentices started in January 2006. Call for proposals published in May 2006 encourage transnational partnerships and platforms and inter-institutional cooperation activities to further test and promote ECVET and CQAF. A consultation process inviting all stakeholders and experts to give their views began on November 2006.