6.1.2 Focusing on needs of students

For another category of VET institutions, the central notion of quality lays in teaching and learning, in provision of individualised training including targeted support, in ability to meet individual needs of students, and in achieving educational success even under difficult sometimes personal conditions. Here, ensuring educational success includes supporting social integration, preparation for more active participation in society and access to the world of work.

Thus, for these VET institutions quality of teaching and learning, including relationships with the world of work to provide work-based learning, lay at the heart of their quality concept. Quality-related activities promote motivation and active participation of teachers and trainers and the tools and methods applied to manage quality that will strengthen their engagement.

These VET providers often view adoption of a formalised QMS very critically and consider it a demand coming from their external environment. They sometimes consider it a bureaucratic burden and even a waste of time. Quite frequently these VET institutions choose to shape their individual approaches to quality management to reflect their particular intentions and objectives. Accordingly, they build their own tailor-made quality systems, deviating from standard models and corresponding to their concept of quality. Further developments of their QMS result directly from continuous experimentation with new methodologies and tools to improve communication with students and external stakeholders.