The European Qualifications Framework (EQF) acts as a
translation device to make national qualifications more readable
across Europe, promoting workers' and learners' mobility between
countries and facilitating their lifelong learning. The EQF aims
to relate different countries' national qualifications systems
to a common European reference framework. Individuals and
employers will be able to use the EQF to better understand and
compare the qualifications levels of different countries and
different education and training systems. Agreed upon by the
European institutions in 2008, the EQF is being put in practice
across Europe. It encourages countries to relate their national
qualifications systems to the EQF so that all new qualifications
issued from 2012 carry a reference to an appropriate EQF level.
An EQF national coordination point has been designated for this
purpose in each country. The core of the EQF concerns eight
reference levels describing what a learner knows, understands
and is able to do – 'learn