Glossary

Looking for terms? The ECVET Glossary lists the ECVET key terms. The basic ECVET concepts are defined in the ECVET recommendation adopted by the European Parliament on 18 December 2008 and by the Council on 17 April 2009.

• Qualification
  
  a formal outcome of an assessment and validation process which is obtained when a competent institution determines that an individual has achieved learning outcomes to given standards.
  
  
• Learning outcomes
  
  statements of what a learner knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process and which are defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence
  
  
• Unit of learning outcomes (unit)
  
  a component of a qualification, consisting of a coherent set of knowledge, skills and competence, that can be assessed and validated
  
  
• Credit for learning outcomes (credit)
  
  a set of individuals' learning outcomes which have been assessed and which can be accumulated towards a qualification or transferred to other learning programmes or qualifications
  
  
• Competent institution
  
  institution which is responsible for designing and awarding qualification or recognising units or other functions linked to ECVET, such as allocation of ECVET points to qualifications and units, assessment, validation and recognition of learning outcomes, under the rules and practices of participating countries
  
  
• Assessment of learning outcomes
  
  methods and processes used to establish the extent to which a learner has in fact attained particular knowledge, skills and competence
  
  
• Validation of learning outcomes
  
  the process of confirming that certain assessed learning outcomes achieved by a learner correspond to specific outcomes which may be required for a unit or a qualification
  
  
• Recognition of learning outcomes
  
  the process of attesting officially achieved learning outcomes through the awarding of units or qualifications
  
  
• ECVET points
  
  a numerical representation of the overall weight of learning outcomes in a qualification and of the relative weight of units in relation to the qualification