A stringent and concerted methodology in defining the professions and assessment criteria:

For each profession, management and labour representatives from various sectors and education and training providers form a Commission for Skill Unit Indicators (COREF) which follows a methodology aimed at outlining the necessary criteria for the verification of the acquisition of skills.

Each profession is divided into several skill units. For example, the household assistance profession includes two skills units: on the one hand, upkeep of the home and on the other, laundry. This subdivision into skills units can be justified by the fact that a single person may only be an expert in one part of the profession but should, nonetheless, be able to seek employment thanks to their skill.It is these skills units which will be subject to validation. This should allow candidates to have their expertise recognised for part or for all of the skills involved in a profession. Therefore, the commissions for skill unit indicators (specific to each profession) define:

• The Skill Reference Indicators: the profession involved and the key activities of this profession and the required skills for its undertaking.
• The Skill Units: each corresponding to a Skill Certificate. Each Unit corresponds to a Validation Reference Indicator.
• The Validation Reference Indicators: define the testing situation, the task to be carried out, the conditions for testing for each skill unit to be validated and the assessment criteria sheet, with assessment being undertaken via indication criteria.

  This mechanism therefore allows assessment procedures to fulfil the quality criteria:

• Transparency: all candidates receive identical information about the assessment procedure.
• Fairness: all candidates benefit from an identical assessment procedure, on the basis of a single set of skills assessment indicators, no matter who is being assessed, where, when or how an assessment takes place.
• Validity: assessment procedures are stringent.