Systematic quality work – Tertiary vocational education
Vocational colleges
Vocational colleges are required to have an adequate internal quality assurance system that supports the enhancement of quality and the relevance of their study programmes to the job market. The system must also identify potential quality failures. The internal quality assurance system serves as a tool for the quality management of vocational colleges, outlining their objectives, how they manage quality, their decision-making structures and reporting lines.
For vocational colleges with accredited academic disciplines, the internal quality assurance system must also include procedures for establishing new study programmes and for implementing substantial changes to existing programmes.
Vocational colleges must set quality targets for their study programmes. They are required to collect feedback from students, staff and relevant stakeholders on the quality of their programmes. Additionally, they are required to gather information generated by their internal quality assurance system in order to assess whether the quality targets for each study programme have been met. The colleges must then use these assessments to address quality failures and further enhance the quality of their programmes.
Quality management should be integrated into the leadership and governance structures of the vocational colleges, with active involvement from students and staff. The colleges must ensure that they have adequate documentation of their quality management processes.
The Act relating to tertiary vocational education § 5 outlines the national regulations governing systematic quality assurance in vocational colleges.