With the help of the European Training Foundation (ETF), Morocco is pressing ahead with its plans to introduce a national qualification framework (NQF) by 2011. Together with Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan, for the last three years Morocco has been involved in an ETF project looking at the benefits of introducing an NQF and what changes this would imply for the education system as a whole.

In the case of Morocco, the project might include introducing a system of quality assurance and establishing a separate qualifications agency. The ETF’s past work on easing accreditation procedures for private VET providers may also come in useful.

The ETF is providing support to the new organisation composed of Moroccan employers and trade unionists which is in charge of funding continuing education and accrediting VET providers.

If there is a mandate from the European Commission, the ETF may also help pave the way for a future sector-wide approach to reforming the VET system. This could take the form of institutional capacity building and facilitating identification missions and the design of any future interventions by the EC. Similar work carried out by the ETF in Jordan in 2006 may provide a model for this intervention.