Referencing between sub-national qualifications frameworks, NQF, and AQRF are underpinned by 2 key principles including learning outcomes and quality assurance principles.
Thai experience: Sub-national qualifications frameworks need to align their learning outcomes and QA systems to the NQF and the NQF to the AQRF.
1.1 Learning outcomes
Alignment of learning outcomes make qualifications easier to understand and compare across different training systems and borders, which reduces barriers to mobility.
Learning outcomes state what a learner is expected to know, be able to do and understand at the end of a learning process or sequence. Therefore, it helps employers and trainers understand the content and profile of qualifications more clearly and make recognition easier.
1.2 QA
The other key aim of the AQRF is to build trust in qualifications issued across Member States in ASEAN. As such, the framework is underpinned by a set of agreed quality assurance principles and broad standards related to the functions of the responsible approving agencies as well as systems for the assessment of learning and the issuing of qualifications. Referencing process ensures that qualifications are quality assured and issued by competent bodies, and thus, they could be trusted. Trust in qualifications facilitate recognition of skills and mobility across countries.
(1) Countries need to have robust and transparent QA mechanisms and all QA systems in the country need to follow NQF QA principles in order to promote skills recognition and mobility. In other qualifications mapping and skills mobility-related activities that TPQI has worked on, benchmarking of QA systems is the main concern that needs to be addressed. QA mechanisms enable consistency and trust in skills assessment results.
In ASEAN, Indonesia and the AQRF committee have been working on developing the guideline to promote QA principles. This will complement the ASEAN guideline on QA principles. The ASEAN guideline is a common and agreed set of principles that are flexible and broad enough for different national systems to follow. However, the guideline we’ve been working on will show and compare QA mechanisms of each ASEAN member state. By showing and comparing national QA systems, it will promote understanding and trust in quality of the national qualifications and certificates.
This also leads to my next point, which is that framework referencing is a continuous and long-term process. It is as much about constant dialogue as the technical work in order to facilitate skills recognition and mobility. We also find that this is a good practice that the European Qualifications Framework recommends.
(2) Another thing I’d like to highlight is that referencing is not a one off process. NQF and AQRF or other regional frameworks should be updated periodically to ensure that they remain relevant. We should engage stakeholders for successful implementation of NQF and AQRF, and create feedback loop. Stakeholders could provide diverse perspectives on the needs of the workforce and the labor market, ensuring that the NQF remains relevant and supports skills development and mobility.
Furthermore, with increasing use of AI, green skills, and micro credentials, there have been talks in ASEAN and Europe that perhaps we need to update the frameworks to incorporate that.
(3) Promotion of AQRF implementation in ASEAN member states
The ASEAN guideline talks about post-referencing activities. One of the activities include putting the AQRF level on national qualifications and certificates. “The purpose is to raise the public profile of the AQRF and its added value. It also shows in an explicit way that the AQRF is a force for cooperation and mobility of direct relevance to citizens of ASEAN.”
Thailand, in collaboration with the AQRF Committee, will develop a guideline to indicate AQRF level on national certificates. This will act as a translation device helping different countries to understand the level of learning outcomes on the national qualifications and certificates, and thus, could facilitate skills recognition. That way it will add value to national certificates, and thereby, to the end users.
I wouldn’t say “barriers;” it’s more like a process and different stages of development. There are many steps ASEAN member states need to do in the NQF and AQRF referencing process. In order to reference to the regional framework, the NQF needs to be quite developed. However, NQF has been a recent development for many countries. Each component in the NQF development takes time, for example, development of QA systems, bringing all stakeholders to the table to get their endorsement, and so on.
However, the upside is that the NQF development could follow AQRF principles and good practices and strengthen the country’s education and training system. It will also make it easier when it comes to referencing to the AQRF.
Linking the world of work and the world of learning
Industry-led standards ensure that training programs developed from the standard reflect skill demands, and learners will be equipped with relevant skills. Competency-based certifications strengthen national qualification systems by aligning training with industry needs, enhancing the employability of individuals with validated skills, and improving recognition and the overall quality of the workforce.
It also aims to support the skills development pathways that provide access to qualifications and assist people to easily transition from training into work.
Flexible pathways and lifelong learning promotion
Furthermore, competency-based certifications make learning more flexible and supports lifelong learning. While some people would acquire a college or a university degree, others might choose vocational training, apprenticeships, professional certification, and assessment-based training certificates, but all of these are parts of the national qualifications system. In many countries, a large part of the population has been excluded from the formal education system or there is a high number of school dropouts, recognition of their non-formally acquired skills could facilitate their integration into the formal system and provide them with opportunities to decent work and career advancement. Recognition of their existing skills and prior learning also allows them to continue their education or get further training without redundancy of learning the skills they already have, and allow them to stack credentials.
I’d like to share 2 examples:
Industry Competency Board
TPQI supports industry to come together and make their voice heard in workforce development policy by establishing Industry Competency Boards or sector skills councils for different sectors. The Industry Competency Boards help forecast future skill demands, ensure training programs prepare workforce for the future, and strengthen their own sectors.
Industry’s roles in training and assessment
TPQI places experts in the professions, professional associations, and industry training providers at the center of competency training and assessment. Companies and professional associations can apply to be TPQI’s accredited assessment centers and examiners/assessors are experts with at least 5 years of experiences in the professions. This ensures that the assessment is up to industry standards.
In addition to assessment, TPQI works with industry to endorse industry training programs. Those who enroll in such programs could get formal national qualifications. This helps promote portability of qualifications and ensure that industry training programs align with national occupational standards and follow QA principles.
Stakeholder engagement
TPQI has always involved a broad range of stakeholders, ranging from trainers, employers, people in the profession to policymakers, since the initial development until the implementation of qualifications to ensure it has practical value and shared ownership. They’ll have a clearer understanding of the qualifications and buy-in if they are involved from the beginning. Upon implementation, they can always give feedback to improve the qualifications, training, and assessment. The shared ownership will also encourage them to use qualifications and help stakeholders to address challenges collectively.
Public-private partnership
Vocational education in Thailand has a long tradition of public-private partnership. Apart from working together to develop occupational standards and qualifications, at a practical, hands on level, the government supports industry and TVET institutions to align training with industry needs through joint curriculum development and work-integrated learning, asking workplace trainers to help train students in dual education, and share resources. For example, TVET institutions often lack up to date industry equipment and technology for training, but work-integrated learning or apprenticeship could help with that. The public-private partnership helps keep the training up to date with technological changes and strengthen industry’s link to workforce development.
TPQF, NQF, AQRF referencing
TPQI aligned level descriptors in the Professional Qualifications Framework to the NQF, and worked alongside the Office of Education Council to reference the Thai NQF to AQRF. This ensures that the levels of learning outcomes in our professional qualifications are comparable to ASEAN. And we make reference to the level descriptors when we develop occupational standards and professional qualifications with industries.
Standards mapping and benchmarking
TPQI works bilaterally with international organization or other countries to map and benchmark occupational standards, training and assessment systems, as well as QA systems to make sure that our standards and qualifications are comparable to international ones and facilitate qualifications recognition and skills mobility. The qualifications are industry-validated domestically to make sure that they respond to skill demands and Thai industries, but TPQI also places emphasis on international standards.
We work with ASEAN on mapping standards to identify common skills to develop common occupational standards frameworks. For example, we work with other ASEAN economies and Hong Kong to develop common occupational standards frameworks for freight forwarders and warehouse operators to support the ASEAN-Hong Kong Free Trade Area.
For Thailand, national skills priorities are aligned with ASEAN and global commitments in ensuring inclusive and sustainable growth. The Thai 20-year national strategy places emphasis on “leaving no one behind,” and ensures that the marginalized groups could benefit from skills development in order to access economic and social opportunities. It also focuses on reskilling and upskilling people to help them respond to disruption.
As for sustainable development aspect, the Thai government focuses on developing digital skills, AI literacy, and green skills to help workforce respond to emerging trends effectively and enable them to contribute to new economic engines of Thailand including Bio-Circular-Green Economy and digital economy.
