Self-concept

ARQA-VET combines knowledge in vocational education and training research with practically oriented know-how in quality management. Our expertise has a scientific basis, is interdisciplinary, and corresponds to the European quality assurance standards in vocational education and training. Our high network competence is an important basis for a national quality network in an international setting. We question the quality of our own work and aim at continuously improving our services and procedures. Our umbrella organisation, the Austrian Agency for International Co-operation in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH), has been certified according to ISO 9001:2015.

We work in a service-oriented, competent, independent, transparent, science-based, and quality-oriented way. As many teachers and students in vocational education and training as possible should benefit from our work.

ARQA-VET’s overarching goal is to foster quality development in vocational education and training by actively providing expertise for the implementation of quality assurance procedures and quality management systems.

Therefore we deem it necessary that ARQA-VET

• offers demand-oriented services;
• develops itself into a central communication hub concerning quality assurance in vocational education and training;
• as a national reference point actively participates in the developments of the European network;
• is an attractive workplace for its employees with possibilities for personal and professional development;
• gives to the principles of a modern quality management a core importance in its own organisation too.

• We see ourselves as a service institution that wants to serve the actors in vocational education and training in Austria as well and as comprehensively as possible by means of providing services and know-how in the fields of quality assurance and quality development.
• We provide information about quality assurance topics and support the international exchange on the topics of new developments in the field of quality management in vocational education and training.
• We support our stakeholders in the introduction of a quality culture in their organisations as well as in the implementation of quality management systems.
• We develop concrete measures for the implementation of quality assurance procedures in vocational education and training.
• We co-operate with reference points for quality assurance in vocational education and training of other member countries and support the international exchange in the European Network on Quality Assurance in Vocational Education and Training (EQAVET).
• A special concern of ARQA-VET in close co-operation with the Directorate II for Technical, Vocational, and Adult Education of the Federal Ministry of Education (BMBWF) is to promote the significance and attractiveness of the topic of quality in vocational schools and colleges.