91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ

UNESCO hosted the 11th World Reference Levels (WRLs) Experts’ Group Meeting online on 19 April 2021, to further advance its work on developing the tool, a universal tool for the recognition of skills and qualifications across borders. Participants included representatives from regional and national organizations such as the , the and the and the , , and , among others.

91Â鶹¹ú²ú¾«Æ·×ÔÅÄ been working to develop a system that responds to the demands of increasing migration and internationalization of education for several years. As labour markets and education systems are increasingly globalized and the range and type of credentials increases, a common understanding of skills and qualifications through a universal tool would help peoples’ mobility and their working and learning opportunities.

Progress of the WRL tool and other updates

The meeting highlighted the re-commitment and relevance to further advance the WRL tool, which takes into account the feedback from the piloting of the tool in the next steps of its development. The WRL tool is now in its 2.4 version, which includes important changes concerning wording, format and better user experience, and the next steps are being taken towards developing a 2.5 edition and finalizing its guidelines to ensure broader utilization.

Cedefop provided an update on the International . Such a publication has been improving the way in which the learning outcomes approach is understood and implemented, and allowed experts and stakeholders from different regions to cooperate and systematically exchange experiences about skills recognition. In the pipeline are a few regional webinars that will be jointly organized by Cedefop and UNESCO with the aim to feed the discussion around learning outcomes and to advocate broader collaboration across countries.

Other sessions presented updates from regional organizations on the most recent developments regarding skills frameworks in the regions. They highlighted and confirmed how frameworks are indeed evolving in the context of ever-faster technological, social and economic changes, and the intensified globalization and internationalization of labour markets, digital technologies, and migration. Most organizations expressed interest in engaging in the discussion and dissemination of the international handbook on defining and using learning outcomes, as well as participating in the next edition of the  

, currently coordinated by UNESCO in collaboration with experts from Cedefop, ETF and UIL, is planned for December 2021. It will shift its current PDF format to a digital version that will improve the navigation, search function and cross-country comparisons.

Partnership with WHO to facilitate lifelong learning and recognize skills among health workforce

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted education systems, skills development and labour markets at an unprecedented scale. Mr Borhene Chakroun, Director of the Division of Policies and Lifelong Learning, emphasized that the discussion and planning of the recognition of skills, needs to take into account the current exacerbated crisis and the increased need to reimagine learning. This is also relevant regarding the urgent need for developing a skilled healthcare workforce.

Despite growth in the global health workforce, there will be a shortfall of around 18 million health workers by 2030. This is in part due to the shortcomings of currently used training models such as traditional classroom learning and lack of hands-on practice through online learning. To accelerate the development of skilled healthcare workforce around the world, efficient lifelong learning methods and new ways of delivering knowledge and information directly in the hands of health workforce, public health officials or caregivers is needed. New tools and methods for recognition of skills in the framework of lifelong learning are currently being investigated through the WHO Academy.

At the end of the year 2020, UNESCO launched its partnership with the which was also announced at this meeting. The partnership considers integrating strategies of the WRL tool into the WHO Academy Learning Experience Platform. The WRL tool will support the development of the Academy’s Learning Achievement and Recognition System and might be used to support the framework for leveling the complexity of the Academy’s learning experiences.