60 Years OeAD: Why work with children and youth work benefit in multiple ways from NQF assignments
Certification and assignment to the National Qualifications Framework lead to better comparability.
3 min read
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11. March 2021
The OeAD as NQF Coordination Point (NCP) is the central administrative, coordination and information body for the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) in Austria. It maintains an online register at www.qualifikationsregister.at in which assigned qualifications can be accessed. The NCP's core task is to examine assignment requests with regard to form and content and to assign qualifications to one of eight NQF qualification levels. Moreover, there have been NQF service points since 2020 that enable assignments in the non-formal education sector.
One of these service points is aufZAQ. Wolfgang Rauter from aufZAQ tells us about a new assignment in work with children and youth work to the NQF in his article:
Education and training as well as recognition of educators and people accompanying children and youngsters are central pillars on which the quality of work with children and youth work is based. We all want our youngsters to be “in good hands”.
Education and further education in extracurricular work with children and youth work usually takes place in a non-formal way, i.e. not regulated by law and outside of state educational institutions. Skills acquired through commitment in this area are therefore often not well communicated and thus not visible to all.
Certification and assignment to the National Qualifications Framework lead to better comparability
The aufZAQ certification of courses preparing youth workers for their work describes acquired skills to the outside world. As an NQF service point aufZAQ also enables linking to the National Qualifications Framework. The assignment of courses in work with children and in youth work to the NQF compares them with other qualifications in the Austrian education system.
With the assignment of three courses of the Austrian Alpine Club’s Youth Section at the end of 2020 non-formal education in the youth sector was recognised via the NQF for the first time and has thus become nationally and internationally comparable with different educational offers.
Advantages at different levels
For the graduates of these courses this means that the recognition of the acquired skills will be more easily transferable to full-time work with children and youth work as well as other occupational fields (such as project management, training or team leadership). For organisations in work with children and youth work this means quality-assured courses, stronger networking and interlinking of offers and ultimately a stronger perception and higher status as an independent area of the Austrian educational landscape.
