The paper analyses the current EU policy aiming to gear education and training towards what comes out of learning activities. CEDEFOP[1](2009) defines learning outcomes as ‘statements on what a learner knows, is able to do and understands following completion of learning’. Learning outcomes belong to qualification frameworks. At an EU level, there are qualification frameworks in the sectors of VET (ECVET[2]) and higher education (ECTS[3]), both subsumed under the European Qualification Framework. The global expansion of qualification frameworks through the political influence exercised by international organisations and constellations like the OECD and the EU, demonstrates that the frameworks are instruments for changing national systems of education and training (Garcia Molina 2011).

 Analyses of the EU policy for a shift to learning outcomes should take account of governance mechanisms in the sectors of education affected by the proclaimed shift, as well as governance mechanisms triggered by this policy. The paper is therefore guided by the following research questions:

1. Does the discourse on learning outcomes comply with current tendencies in knowledge production?
2. Which signs of shift and/or continuity towards a paradigm of learning outcomes can be observed?
3. Does the shift trigger new or modified learning practice in certain sectors of education or economic sectors?
4. Which governance mechanisms are used for promoting a paradigm of learning outcomes?

The paper looks for parallels between transformations of higher education and Vocational Education and Training (VET) as to how knowledge production is organised. In VET, we particularly analyse arrangements set up for the purpose of forecasting and anticipating of skills (cf. European Training Foundation 2012); and for the aim of renewing the provision of VET by means of improved feedback between the labour market and the institutional framework of VET (CEDEFOP 2013). Several studies suggest that that learning outcomes are not yet neatly related to the EU policy instrument ECVET (cf. studies assembled in Christiane Eberhard 2013).

In the field of higher education, Amaral et al. (2010) report a shift from internal to external control, notably the introduction of externally initiated evaluation mechanisms, the professionalization of institutional management functions and the growing pressure to be accountable to society. In this educational sector, changes in the degree structure and the introduction of learning outcomes are increasingly discussed, - yet the major transformation seems to be external control of a broader governance agenda more than specific interventions in curricula and learning outcomes.

 Powell and Solga (2010) analyse the complementary and competitive relationship between higher education and vocational education and training. They argue that this relationship is important for understanding dynamics and institutional change in national skill formation systems. When allowing for permeability between VET and higher education, it is crucial to assign the learning outcomes to the appropriate reference levels of national qualifications frameworks (Spöttl 2013).

[1] The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training.

[2] European Credit system for Vocational Education and Training.

[3] European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System.

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