Comparing Approaches to the Role of Qualifications in the Promotion of Lifelong Learning*

Abstract

The issues discussed in this article arise from three recent developments with implications that most countries are or will soon be facing. The first is the growing interest on the part of governments in the idea of a single national qualification framework designed to include all types of qualification, those that are school- and work-based, whether they are general, vocational or professional, and all levels of qualification from those certifying basic skills to postgraduate degrees. The origin of the idea of a qualification framework based on outcomes can be traced back to the NVQ framework introduced by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications (NCVQ) in the UK in late 19871. As far as I am aware, this was the first attempt to establish a national qualifications framework based on criteria and levels and independent of any institutions providing programmes of study. Although the NVQ framework was restricted to vocational qualifications, Gilbert Jessup (Jessup, 1990)-one of those involved in its design from the early dayssaw an outcomes-based framework as having a much wider potential. Learning outcomes could be the basis for a comprehensive framework for all qualifications. What was not apparent at the time but has become much clearer since is that the concept of learning outcomes is not as neutral as it appears. If a qualification is described in terms of a set of learning outcomes that in principle can be applied to any kind of learning, an assumption is being made about learning or at least the learning that can be assessed and certified for a qualification. In an outcomesbased qualifications framework, the criteria for learning must be precisely specifiable in advance. This concept leaves out learning that might be important and valued but not specifiable in advance or indeed not specifiable at all except in very general terms2. Some kind of pre-specification of outcomes is, of course, a feature of any qualification, since one of its functions is to communicate something about a person's capability to a user, whether an employer or admission tutor. However, with the launch of NVQs, pre-specification of outcomes became much more detailed. It changed from being a guide to those devising assessments and an indication of a person's capabilities to claiming to be a precise definition of what a person could do-in other words, evidence of his or her competence. The precise specification was designed to replace the kind of normative criteria which in more traditional qualifications were used to compare one individual with another. There *An earlier version of this article appeared in Working to Learn (2002), K. Evans, P. Hod Kinson & L. Unwin (Eds)