Monitoring the Evolution of Education and Training Systems: A Guide to the Joint Assessment Framework

This technical report represents the official guide to DG EAC’s Joint Assessment Framework (JAF). The JAF methodology was first introduced by DG EMPL in 2010 to standardise the monitoring of benchmarks and indicators under the Employment Guidelines. Since two of the Employment Guidelines concern education and training, DG EAC was directly involved in developing the methodology and has since introduced it into its own monitoring approach concerning the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (ET 2020). The JRC’s Centre for Research on Education and Lifelong Learning (CRELL) has helped EAC to adapt the JAF to the context of education and training, developing the quantitative part of the methodology for the ET 2020 benchmarks. This report details the main empirical, theoretical and policy arguments behind the selection of the various sub-groups and sub-indicators for each of the six operational ET 2020 benchmarks; it also lists the methodological criteria adopted throughout the JAF development work. Finally, the report provides explanations on how to interpret the JAF charts that are produced annually by CRELL for the quantitative assessment.