ABSTRACT
The global spread of national qualifications frameworks (NQF) at times has been accompanied by some extravagant claims about what they can deliver. Vague concepts such as ‘enhancing lifelong learning’ accompany more modest aims such being ‘mainly seen as communication or transparency tools whose main task is to clarify the relations – vertically as well as horizontally – between the different parts of the national system’ (CEDEFOP 2009). Coles (2007) has noted that while there have been high expectations of NQFs, many of the perceived benefits cannot yet be discerned, cannot be measured, or lack evidence for their realisation.
