Quality and education

Quality Management (QM) systems have been introduced in vocational schools in various European countries over the past ten years and it has become clear that individual schools have had varying degrees of success in implementing their QM systems in full and in an appropriate manner, i.e. in accordance with the underlying QM principles, in gaining acceptance from those involved and in achieving the desired impact. Various stakeholders working on the development of the QM systems (such as education administrators, evaluators, school development advisers) have come independently to the same conclusion, namely, that this situation may result from the differing cultures in the individual schools, which may or may not favour successful implementation.

During the project Q-KULT the six partners will focus on the topic ‘Quality and school culture’ and deal with the question of how the culture of individual schools influences the implementation of QM systems.

Preparatory work for the project has shown that quality culture (as part of the organizational culture) plays a major role in the implementation of quality systems. With the diagnostic instrument to be developed during the project, the influence of quality culture on the implementation of quality management systems in vocational schools will be made tangible. Further, based on results gained by the use of the diagnostic instrument, vocational schools should be more capable for sustainable and effective (with or without consultative support) implementation of their quality management systems. In addition to the provider level approach, also information for the purposes of steering at system level will be generated by the project.