First project report from 'The future of work: Opportunities and challenges for the Nordic models' This initial report describes the main drivers and trends expected to shape the future of work. It also reviews the main distinctions of the Nordic model and recent developments in Nordic working lives, pointing towards the kind of challenges the future of work may pose to the Nordic models. Too often, debates about the future narrowly focus on changes in technology. This report draws attention to the broader drivers and political-institutional frameworks influencing working life developments, aiming to spur debate about how the interaction of changes in demography, climate, globalization and digital technologies may influence Nordic working lives in the coming decades.

Working Paper No. 22 The aim of the European credit system for vocational education and training (ECVET) is to allow individuals to gain a full vocational education and training (VET) qualification, or to update/upgrade their VET qualifications in a flexible way, by use of credits.

ECVET requires qualifications to be described in terms of learning outcomes that will be then defined as units that might translate into credits. Learning outcomes recognised in form of credits may be transferred between education and training institutions, whether in the same country or abroad, and accumulated towards achieving a full or a partial qualification. If the VET system allows it, learning acquired in non-formal and informal settings may be assessed and validated as credits to be used for transfer and accumulation purposes. In this context, ECVET is more likely to reach its full potential if linked to the European qualifications framework (EQF)/national qualifications framework (NQF) developments that support the description of qualifications in terms of learning outcomes, as well as with national arrangements and practices for validating non-formal and informal learning.

This report covers ECVET developments in 38 countries and regions up to September 2013; it is the fourth since 2010, when Cedefop started its regular ECVET analysis in relation to national VET reforms. The deadlines of the ECVET recommendation set 2013 as the year for ECVET’s gradual application to VET qualifications at all levels of the EQF, following more than three years of testing and development.