Croatian Peer Review on ‘Quality Assurance in Adult Education: Self-assessment and external evaluation’ – Flash Report

The focus of the Peer Review

This Peer Review took place in Zagreb on 9-10 April, 2026. It was hosted by the Croatian
Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education (www.asoo.hr) which acts
as the Croatian EQAVET National Reference Point (NRP). Seven EQAVET Network members
from Finland, Germany, Hungary and Slovenia acted as peer reviewers. In addition, an
observer from the European Training Foundation (ETF) joined the meeting. The review
focused on Croatia’s introduction of an external evaluation system, alongside internal selfevaluation in adult education.
Quality assurance in adult education was systematically introduced into the Croatian adult education system through the Adult Education Act, which
was adopted in 2021. This Act recognises the existence of formal, non-formal, and informal
learning, but its scope – including the part dealing with quality assurance – applies exclusively
to formal adult education i.e. education that leads to a publicly recognised qualification. The
legislation does not prescribe how individual adult education providers organise their internal
self-evaluation but it is prescribed that methodology and tools for self-evaluation are introduced
by The Agency. To support institutions in development their internal quality Agency developed
Guidelines for self evaluation and organises trainings for adult education institutions. According
to the Adult Education Act a national external evaluation process was established and it applies
to approximately 360 institutions. The external evaluation, carried out by the Agency for
Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education every five to seven years, is based on
a quality assurance model consisting of 18 standards grouped into five quality areas. This
evaluation process includes institutional self-evaluation report supported with evidences, an
on-site visit by an independent panel of three experts, and a decision on the grade of the
institution’s quality which ranges from very high to unsatisfactory. The evaluation results are
published on the Agency’s website to ensure transparency and support informed learner
choice. So far, following a pilot testing programme of the new system, 42 adult education
providers have been evaluated.

Discussion

The Peer Review began with short presentations from officials from the Ministry of Science,
Education and Youth and the Agency for Vocational Education and Training and Adult
Education. These were followed by opportunities for the peer reviewers to ask questions and
discuss the system-level issues arising from the introduction of an external evaluation system.
These presentations, alongside the self-assessment report prepared by the hosts before the
start of the Peer Review, highlighted that:
 this was the first time an external evaluation system had been introduced into the adult
education system;
 a very significant amount of guidance for providers had been produced by the Agency for
Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education;
 the recruitment, training and retention of a team of external experts (over 70 people) is
critical to the successful implementation of the new system;
 the development of a quality culture within every adult education provider takes time and
requires ongoing support and training.

The Peer Review focused on discussions with staff from the Agency for Vocational Education
and Training and Adult Education, adult education providers and external evaluators. The peer
reviewers’ discussions focused on the following three questions which had been identified by
the hosts:
 to what extent, has the quality assurance model in adult education been designed in line
with the EQAVET guidelines and recommendations?
 to what extent, do you think implementing external evaluation will contribute to greater
transparency and visibility of the quality of adult education institutions?
 from your experience, to what extent does the introduction of a national and/or regional
quality assurance framework with guidelines and quality standards at VET provider level
promote continuous improvement and self-regulation?
The peer reviewers reflected on:
• the strengths and ambition of the new system. The peer reviewers noted that it is never
easy to introduce a national initiative across such a diverse range of providers;
• the breadth and depth of the support offered to adult education providers by the Agency
for Vocational Education and Training and Adult Education;
• the Agency’s processes and willingness to adapt and learn from the first wave of external
evaluations;
• the extent to which the external evaluation system had been informed by the EQAVET
framework;
• the benefits of simplifying the communication surrounding the outcome of each provider’s
external evaluation in order to support learners and other stakeholders;
• ways to ensure that the data collected by the Agency from the adult education providers is
quality assured to strengthen its validity, accuracy and reliability;
• the beneficial connections between the external evaluation system and other aspects of
adult education policy such as the accreditation processes, the supporting legislation,
qualification reform etc.;
• how best to respond to those adult education providers whose external evaluation
highlights weaknesses and leads to an unsatisfactory grade.

Next steps

At the end of the meeting, the peer reviewers thanked the hosts and shared their initial
feedback on the three questions which had been identified as a focus for the Peer Review.
The full report of the discussions will be shared with the hosts. The feedback from the peer
reviewers’ report will help to inform the development of the external evaluation system in the
formal adult education sector, and support the review of the current evaluation system which
is used for initial VET.

The original article is available here: https://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=28119&langId=en