Sectoral Qualification Framework – Military Officer Profession (SQF-MILOF) Familiarisation Course. A first step to the implementation of SQF-MILOF at National Level

Through the recent formal validation of the SQF-MILOF Package, the Member States (MS) found the SQF-MILOF very useful and appreciated it as a good opportunity to contribute to the transparency of qualifications and to help improve the interoperability of military officers across the European Union’s armed forces. Moreover, most MS acknowledged that the SQF-MILOF should be more widely promoted, and that its successful implementation requires broader interaction between several national stakeholders.

It was in that context that the Italian Centre for Higher Defence Studies (CASD), under the aegis of the European Security and Defence College (ESDC), organised the Sectoral Qualification Framework – Military Officer Profession Familiarisation Pilot Course, from 30 June to 1 July 2021 in Rome.

The course aimed to familiarise competent personnel from the EU Member States and institutions with the SQF-MILOF Package by discussing the implications of implementation roadmaps at national level and providing the basic skills required to level selected national military qualifications to SQF-MILOF and to the Core Curriculum for Military Officers (MILOF-CORE) (Fig 1.).

Fig. 1 Framing both complexity of learning and complexity of military officer profession (Ref. SQF-MILOF Volume 1, page 35, at https://esdc.europa.eu/sqf-milof/ )

Ms Manuela Bonacci (National Institute for Public Policies Analysis – INAPP) and Ms Manuela Costone (Information Centre on Academic Mobility and Equivalence – CIMEA) explained the link between the European Qualifications Framework (EQF), National Qualifications Framework (NQF) and SQF-MILOF, using Italy as an example. Dr Anemona Peres and Cdr Barbara Magro each shared important lessons from the implementation of similar initiatives of the European Border and Coast Guard.

Ms Virpi Levomaa (Finish Defence Forces) and Mr Alin Bodescu (ESDC) provided participants with advice on the practical application of one of the key implementation measures: levelling national military qualifications to SQF-MILOF and defining their military focus.

Finally, highlighting the lifelong learning dimension of the SQF-MILOF, Mr Ernesto Villalba-Garcia (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training- CEDEFOP) spoke about the importance of acknowledging the benefits of validating learning acquired in non-formal and informal settings.

Thirty participants from the Member States attended the course. The participants came from entities responsible for implementing the SQF-MILOF at national level (e.g. human resource departments) and training departments responsible for levelling the military qualifications to SQF-MILOF.