Adult and Vocational Education Act (WEB) - Netherlands

Source: European Training Foundation and Ministry of Education, Culture and Science

• Overview
• Continuing Vocational Education
• Training for Employees
• Education Inspectorate
• Statutory Instruments for Quality Improvement
• The System of Quality Assurance
• Involvement of Business and Industry in the Content of Vocational Programmes

Overview

On 1 January 1996, a new Adult and Vocational Education Act (WEB) was introduced to impose a single coherent structure on disparate forms of vocational and adult education. Such courses are now to be provided mainly by 46 Regional Training Centres (ROCs). These all provide a very wide range of education and training and have been created by amalgamating several hundred previously separate vocational and adult education institutions. In addition to the 46 ROCs, there are also 13 specialised vocational training institutions. Senior secondary vocational education and apprenticeship training are now bracketed together under the term secondary vocational education.

The Act distinguishes between what must be achieved in vocational education and the path along which this must be achieved. Establishment of the attainment targets of the MBO training courses is thus a joint responsibility of the field of education and employers and employee organisations. The attainment targets and the clustering in (part) qualifications of MBO training courses are developed and fixed nationally.

The development and organisation of training courses which the participants must pursue over the fixed number of years and via one or both learning paths until these qualifications are achieved is a responsibility for the schools, the ROCs. A national structure of qualifications must also come into force for the educational training courses of a ROC to guarantee the coherence with vocational training courses.

As well as greater coherence in the training system, the Education and Vocational Training Act is also aimed at achieving a better response to developments in the labour market (e.g. through the division of responsibility mentioned for the development of attainment targets, by having a greater proportion of training time in all training courses spent in occupational practice and through the administrative involvement of local employers and employees in school policy). In addition, the Act aims, by bringing together training courses in large ROCs in each region, to develop broad school communities which can offer a wide range of initial (and post-initial) training courses. These school communities have a central role to play in their own region in the labour-market-oriented training of young people, but the education and training of vulnerable young people and adults and the (local) labour-market-oriented training of employees and job-seekers also form part of this task.

If the ROCs are to be able to fulfil these tasks, they must be able to make their own policy, directed towards the needs in their own region. To this end they have a large degree of autonomy, for example in offering continuing training courses, developing individual learning paths in which account is taken of what everyone can and wishes to do, or working out in more detail the national attainment targets in consultation with industry.

Five types of training are distinguished in vocational training from 1 August 1997, linking up with four levels of qualification.

Level	Training	Duration
1. simple executive work	assistant training	0.5 - 1 year
2. executive work	basic vocational training	2 - 3 years
3. complete independent execution of work	vocational training	2 - 4 years
4. complete independent execution of work with broad usability or specialisation	middle-management training specialist training	3 - 4 years 1 - 2 years

Two learning paths are distinguished for training courses at these levels:

• Off-the-job learning path (comparable with the old apprenticeship system)
• Vocational-training learning path (comparable with the old senior secondary vocational education).

Four types of training course are distinguished from 1 January 1997:

• Continuing general adult education (VAVO)
• Training courses aimed at broad social functioning
• Training courses in Dutch as a second language
• Training courses aimed at providing an ability to cope socially.

We classify as continuing vocational education all (full-time and part-time) qualifying learning activities available to persons who are leaving initial education and for whom education is no longer compulsory and who wish to improve their position in the labour market via these qualifying routes. A broad range is available for these people, although this is not accommodated in a coherent system.

The approximately 500 different training courses offered within senior secondary vocational education (MBO) are also offered as a part-time variant. This part-time variant must not be confused with the off-the-job learning path, in which the emphasis is on "training in vocational practice" (the apprenticeship system).

The intention with the part-time variant is that the school education is usually provided outside regular school hours, i.e. in the evening or at the weekend. It is usually people who have terminated their position in the labour market or who have prematurely terminated a training course in the initial phase who make use of this part-time variant. Part-time MBO is therefore counted as continuing vocational training, although it trains for qualifications which have been developed for initial vocational education.

Training for Employees

Training for employees (2.4.17 and following) falls under the responsibility of the social partners. Government policy is limited to improving the conditions for this training. It has a number of priorities. Increasing access to (vocationally oriented) training for vulnerable groups is one of these priorities. A good example of this is the structural financing of adult education: the supply of training for newcomers to the Netherlands, the non-indigenous population and job-seekers offered in an ROC.

The establishment of the Reduction in Payment of Income Tax and National Insurance Premiums Act (WVA) is another example. This gives employers a reduction in the payment of income tax and national insurance premiums if this employer over a long period takes on unemployed people or is willing to train employees in the off-the-job training paths of MBO.

Another priority is the increasing importance of the intensification of knowledge in the Dutch industrial and services sectors. Employers and employees must be given the opportunity to shape this intensification of knowledge by taking part in continuing vocational training. The government wishes by (fiscal) measures to make initial training courses more accessible to employees and encourage participation in training. These measures must in particular benefit Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, increase the numbers of highly trained people joining SMEs and increase the attention given to training for employees.

Training is becoming an integral element of employment-finding tailored to the unemployed individual.

Education Inspectorate

The Education Inspectorate each year assesses the content and level of the examinations, in a number of vocational programmes and at a number of institutions. In its annual examination report, the Inspectorate lists the institutions evaluated and their results in full detail.

In order to guarantee the societal value of the certificates, the WEB requires that colleges subject 51 percent of the part-qualifications as identified by the Minister to an independent, external assessment. This means that an independent and approved examining body must state in advance that the content and level of the examinations to be held complies with the relevant attainment targets, and that the examination procedures are correct and in accordance with the statutory requirements.

The national bodies for vocational training collate information about the comparability of qualifications obtained in the Netherlands and abroad. They also provide information about the recognition of professional qualifications in vocational education within the European Union. The purpose of this activity is to facilitate access within the European Union to professions for which a specific national certificate is required. Together with the International Diploma Comparison Department of Colo, the national bodies carry out international diploma comparison for vocational education.

A college can be said to be providing quality if it succeeds in matching the courses it offers to the expectations and wishes of its customers (participants, labour organisations, further education, municipalities and central government) whilst also complying with its own professional standards.

The Adult and Vocational Education Act contains a number of instruments employed by the government to guide and monitor the institutions in relation to quality:

• the qualification structure and the attainment targets for the courses;
• examinations and external legitimisation;
• the teaching agreement between institution and participant;
• more output-focused financing to reward good performance;
• information requirements concerning entrance, progression and exit of participants;
• a system of quality assurance with public accountability and supervision by the Education Inspectorate.

The Adult & Vocational Education Act (WEB) requires colleges to establish and maintain a system of quality assurance. This system is aimed at ensuring conscious and systematic quality assurance. It encourages institutions to reconsider and re-evaluate their functioning, and to regularly formulate and monitor the targets set. In addition, it requires institutions to involve independent experts in quality assurance, and where possible, co-operate with other institutions.

In establishing the system, the institutions have a large degree of freedom. However, the system must be functional, and an institution must be able to demonstrate this fact to the outside world, at least in the four areas subject to statutory provisions by the government:

• multiple qualification: for the labour market, for progression and for citizenship;
• accessibility for vulnerable target groups;
• efficient learning routes;
• good advice, guidance and information provision.

In these four areas, the institutions must report on:

• the objectives set;
• the results achieved;
• the discrepancies between objectives set and results achieved;
• actions undertaken to ensure improvement.

Every two years, each college accounts for its activities by publishing a fully open quality assurance report, describing the structure and results of its quality assurance process. The report must indicate how quality assurance is implemented within all layers of the institution, and who is responsible for this process. This may include such matters as:

• personnel policy;
• development of new programmes;
• organisational structure;
• system management;
• assessment of learning results;
• decisions taken on continuity/discontinuity of programmes based on labour market information.

Colleges submit their account in writing to central government, by submitting their quality assurance report to the Education Inspectorate. If the Inspectorate identifies a quality problem in a particular college, consultation is arranged, and the college is given a reasonable opportunity to improve. If these efforts are without result, the Minister may issue a formal warning, and as a final step, withdraw certain rights (the right to award certificates, and the right to financial support).

The content of every vocational programme is laid down in a way, which guarantees support for the programme from business and industry, government and education. Programme content is determined in four stages:

1. The social partners (employers and employees) in a particular sector submit the job profiles relevant to the programme. Job profiles are descriptions of the core tasks of a job or position and the related skills. These profiles may not be limited in scope for a specific position. They must be representative for an entire sector or branch.
2. The national bodies for vocational training (business and industry and education) then develop the qualifications for the programme. Social and cultural qualifications are added to the job profiles together with intake profiles for higher education. As a consequence, the programme meets the statutory requirement for multiple qualification: for the labour market, for progression and for citizenship.
3. Subsequently the Minister of Education, Culture and Sciences (the government) sets the attainment targets - the requirements that a participant must fulfil at the end of the programme. The Minister also decides which components of the programme will be subjected to external, independent examination. He then places the programme in the Central Register of Vocational Training Programmes. This register contains all approved programmes, the institutions where they are provided, and the authorised examining bodies available for providing an independent assessment of the examinations.
4. The final step is for the colleges to develop their curricula, on the basis of the predetermined attainment targets. In this process, they combine forces in sector groups, which with professional support develop and produce teaching plans and new didactic concepts. In this process, colleges are not allowed to use more than 20 percent of the length of the programme for adding elements to the course, which are specific to the sector, the region or the college.

Throughout this process, employers and employees, government and educational authorities are involved in developing the programmes at moments relevant to their competences. Where necessary, they sit at the negotiating table as equal partners. This consensus model, typical of the Dutch way of working, does take a considerable amount of time. From start to finish, the process takes on average about three years.

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