We are delighted to be able to share a report by Ralph St. Clair of the University of Victoria, Canada:

Maximising Mobility: Qualification Frameworks as a Strategy to Support Adult Learners

This project was sponsored by the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfers to help identify lessons for the design of systems to support adult learner mobility. It compares a series of case studies in different international contexts and will be of interest to anyone and any organisation aiming to design and implement Qualifications Frameworks that genuinely support adult learners.

This project was sponsored by the British Columbia Council on Admissions and Transfers to help identify lessons for the design of systems to support adult learner mobility. Credit and qualification frameworks span across sectors and/or jurisdictions to bridge different types of qualifications and permit learners to carry previous experience and education into future learning. The source of these lessons was analysis of four selected credit and qualification frameworks:

• the British Columbia Transfer System (BCTS)
• the European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS)
• Australian Qualification Framework (AQF)
• the Scottish Credit and Qualification Framework (SCQF)

Each of these offers an example of a different approach to building a comprehensive framework for adult learner mobility.

The report makes 6 important recommendations. The author acknowledges that they are significant in terms of complexity and expense, and their viability will vary with context. However, the study provides evidence for the belief that they are necessary to achieve the full benefit of credit and qualification frameworks for adult learners.