The Flemish Education Minister Zuhal Demir (nationalist) has said that she intends to to speed up and simplify the procedures for the recognition of qualifications obtained abroad. To this end, she is currently working on legislation that will make it easy and quicker for foreign qualifications to obtain recognition.
Flanders to speed up the procedure for the recognition of foreign qualifications
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Ms Demir was speaking in response to a question from the Flemish liberal member of the Flemish Parliament Stéphanie D’Hose. People that have obtained a qualification abroad are often required to get it recognised before they can get a job or start a course that requires a qualification in a particular field here in Flanders. The procedure for the recognition of foreign qualifications is managed by the National Academic Recognition Information Centre (NARIC).
NARIC has two procedures: recognition by level, where NARIC determines the level of a foreign qualification compared to that of a Flemish qualification such as a bachelor's or a master’s degree and specific recognition, where NARIC determines which Flemish qualification is equivalent to a foreign qualification in a particular field.
Due to an increase in requests, waiting times have lengthened and the average wait time is now three months. In the case of some specific qualifations, , the average waiting time has even increased to nine months.
Ms D’Hose says that “This lengthy period can make all the difference between finding a job or not or being able to enrol in a training programme or not”. The Flemish Education shares this concern and wants to reduce times people have to wait to get their foreign qualifications recognised.
Ms Demir is considering creating a database that would include all the results of previous qualification recognition cases. In the coming weeks, she will also present measures to simplify and speed up the recognition procedures. “In my proposal, the focus will be on people's real needs, and nothing more. In this way, we will reduce waiting times by optimising procedures”, the Flemish Education Minister said.