The concept of competency is considered both in relation to the educational competency of the short-cycle student described in the 'Dublin Descriptors' of the Bologna Process and in the European Commission's European Qualifications Framework, and in relation to the legal competency that the European Commission has within the field of education and training. This article focuses specifically on the short-cycle/foundation degree introduced in 2003 into the pan-European Bologna Process, and considers its relevance to the European Union's Lisbon Strategy. It argues that the 'shortcycle/foundation' student represents the mid knowledge-skilled learner that is frequently missing from policies and analyses of the knowledge economy that concentrate on either 'basic skills' learners or graduates/postgraduates and that this particular learner, clearly linked to employment, is located at the intersection of vocational and academic learning. The article also considers the role of the European Commission in both the Lisbon and Bologna Processes. Based on an analysis of policy texts the article suggests that the two definitions of competency, whilst quite distinct, are, at the level of policy, very closely connected and serve to increase the Commission's activities within areas of education that are beyond their legal competence. Introducing CompetencyThis article focuses on the short-cycle/foundation degree introduced in 2003 into the panEuropean Bologna Process (Bologna Declaration, 1999), and its relevance to the European Union's Lisbon Strategy (European Council [ECO], 2000). The concept of competency is central to the article, indeed the argument rests on the difference and interplay between two main definitions of competency. The first, and that most commonly associated with education and training, is that attributed within qualifications frameworks and related to specific levels of educational attainmentdescribed as competences. The second refers specifically to the legal competence given, through the European Treaties, to the European Commission. These legal competences are the means by which the Commission's involvement in the policy-making-implementing-evaluating process is defined and legitimated. Throughout this article I will refer to the competency of the Commission as legal competency -even when referring to that attached to the fields of education and training -and as educational competency when referring to that related to the qualifications frameworks.
The European Social Fund (ESF) is the European Union structural fund that redistributes funds to facilitate vocational education and training (VET). With the exception of the Common Agricultural Policy it is the EU's largest instrument for redistribution. Currently linked to the European Employment Strategy it match-funds, and through its policies, directs, much of the Member State's training for unemployed people. Drawing on a discursive analysis of ESF official policy text from 1957 to 2000, the article explores the relationship between the different actors and levels of governance involved in the construction of the EU: the Council, the Commission and the nation state. There are two strands to the article's argument: first, that Member State politicians and officials use the EU governmental space to make policies that they would otherwise find difficult to introduce at the national level. Second, that despite its apparent focus on vocational education and training the Social Fund's main function is to distribute funds to maintain political stability within, across and between the Member States and this is a vital requirement for the construction of the Union. 'Community Method' of integration (Eberlein & Kerwer, 2004). This has not, however, been the only means of promoting integration for there are many other less public ways as, for example, through informal networks and related events such as the European Conference on Education Research with its emphasis on a European space in education (Nóvoa & Lawn et al, 2002). Then there are the formal networks, such as that of epistemic communities, involved in the policymaking and policy-implementation processes (Brine, 2000). In between the treaties at one end and the networks at the other, lie the policies of the EU: high-impact ones such as the Euro, and lowvisibility, everyday ones that rarely attract any public political or media attention, such as the European Social Fund (ESF). The number of such policies, and their impact on national policymaking, should not be underestimated.
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