After three weeks of the Russian war against Ukraine, more than 3.2 million people have had to flee their country, while an additional 6.5 million Ukrainians are internally displaced.
Not only do these refugees need homes and food, medical care and protection, but they also need jobs and possibilities for continuing their education. Access to the labour market and to higher education, however, depends on what qualifications they have, and education diplomas are often not the priority when bags have to be packed at short notice if bags can be packed at all.
Therefore, we need to find ways of assessing refugees’ qualifications even when documentation is missing. The European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) does exactly that. It could be of great value to the many Ukrainian refugees who have had to leave their diplomas behind.
Developed through a Council of Europe project and based on a methodology first developed by the Norwegian ENIC-NARIC (European Network of Information Centres in the European Region-National Academic Recognition Information Centres in the European Union), the EQPR provides a proven methodology for assessing refugees’ qualifications even when they cannot be adequately documented as well as a format for describing these qualifications so that if and when EQPR holders move to a new host country, they do not need to undergo a new assessment.
The EQPR puts Article VII of the Lisbon Recognition Convention into practice.
All applicants provide background information through a standardised form. Those who are judged to have a reasonable chance of obtaining the EQPR are then interviewed by two credentials evaluators from two different national recognition centres (ENIC-NARICs), at least one of whom will have specialised knowledge and understanding of the education system in which the refugees obtained their qualifications as well as of the language of instruction in the system.
All new credential evaluators in the project now have to undergo a five-module training course and, once issued, information on the EQPR is stored securely on the web through a system developed by the Italian ENIC-NARIC.
All EQPR holders have access to their own EQPR – of course, without any possibility of modifying the information stored – and can give access to it to specific persons for a specific time, for example, if they apply for access to a study programme or for a job.
To date, more than 610 refugees have received the EQPR and the success rate is around 83%-84%. The rate does not vary significantly between interviews conducted face to face (prominent in the early phase of the project) and online (dominant now, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic).
More information about European Qualifications Passport for Refugees (EQPR) can be found if followed the link.
Information resource:
https://www.universityworldnews.com/post.php?story=2022032210205066