The National Qualifications Authority of Ireland co-hosted this conference with the Higher Education Authority, supported by the Further Education and Training Awards Council, the Higher Education and Training Awards Council and the Irish Universities Quality Board. The conference attracted an international audience of over 150 delegates from countries across the European Union and beyond. The conference aimed to contribute to building mutual trust and understanding in order to better achieve the shared goals of supporting individuals’ lifelong learning and mobility.

An issues paper was prepared by Dr Bryan Maguire of HETAC and made available in advance of the conference. This identified a number of issues for consideration. These were framed around five themes as follows:

• Why two meta-frameworks?
• How are qualifications frameworks supporting mobility?
• European Directives on the regulation of professions and the meta-frameworks
• The role of sectoral qualifications frameworks
• Qualifications frameworks on the global stage