The development strategy of lifelong vocational education in the European Union

Abstract

The quality of education and quality control are the most import-ant elements of the functioning and management of educa-tional systems. The European system of education and a number of European national educational systems that are part of it are no exception. The European Commission and the Criteria and Indicators Council are responsible for the ideology, education policy of the EU, the structure of the system for assessing the quality of education. Represen-tatives of the European Trade Union Confederation of Educators (ETUCE) take an active part in the development of ideology, standards, programs, requirements for the quality of education, criteria and indicators. The article stud-ies the main trends in the development of the higher voca-tional education system in leading European countries, forms and methods of organizing educational activities. The formation of an innovative educational environment is asso-ciated not only with the application of new techniques, methods and forms of organization of the educational pro-cess, the use of modern equipment and information tech-nologies. Exploring innovative processes in the system of higher vocational education, we should rely on the use of historical experience, as well as on specific methods of the educational process, techniques and methods used in for-eign practice of higher vocational education. The article considers approaches to assessing the quality of modern European education and some trends in its modernization. It is shown t hat the quality of education and quality control are the most important elements of the functioning and management of educational systems and that the modern-ization of a country’s education system should be carried out taking into account its own national strategic goals and objectives of economic and social development. The Lifelong Learning Program (LLP) is revealed by the article to be the most large-scale and resource-intensive project currently being implemented in the European Union, which is taking advantage of initiatives provided in strategic docu-ments. The study presents a system of sectoral programs that are distinguished by taking into account different aspects.