S.L. 607.1 Art. 2Interpretation.

For the purposes of these regulations, unless the context otherwise requires -

"the Act" means the Further and Higher Education Act; "award" means a document issued by an awarding body, providing official evidence of an individual’s vocational, educational and training achievements. An award may also include the following types:

(a) a "customised award" which means a qualification built on specific occupational areas and applied by employers and training organisations to upgrade the knowledge, skills and competences of the workforce;

(b) a "legacy award" which means a qualification awarded to an individual prior to 1st July 2007 but which the competent authorities establish as still relevant in today’s labour market requirements;

(c) a "work-based award" which means a qualification obtained as a result of an apprenticeship scheme in which learning takes place in controlled work environments and which may take into account prior learning; "the Commission" means the National Commission for Further and Higher Education established by article 3(1) of the Act; "credit" has the meaning as assigned to it by the Act or any regulation made thereunder for the purpose of quality assurance, accreditation and licensing of further and higher education providers;

"European Qualifications Framework" means the European Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning as adopted by the European Union from time to time; "learning outcome" means a statement defining what a learner knows, understands and is able to do upon completion of a learning process; "level descriptors" means an expression of the level of knowledge, skills and competences within the Malta Qualifications Framework in relation to higher or lower levels of achievement by an individual;

"formal learning" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"further education" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"higher education" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"informal learning" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"learning" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"lifelong learning" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"Malta Qualifications Framework" means the Malta Qualifications Framework for Lifelong Learning and has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act; "the Minister" means the Minister responsible for education;

"non-formal learning" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"programme" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"provider" has the same meaning assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"qualification" has the same meaning as is assigned to it by article 2 of the Act;

"Qualifications Framework of the European Higher Education Area" means the qualifications framework adopted by European Ministers responsible for higher education, in the framework of the Bologna Process, from time to time; "referencing" is a process of comparative analysis of knowledge, skills and competences of levels of qualifications between one or more qualifications frameworks;

"school" has the same meaning as is assigned to it by article 2 of the Education Act;

"sectoral qualification" means an award confined to a specified sector, which may exist at national and international levels;

"transcript" means an official report issued by a licensed and accredited provider about the learning record of an individual, listing courses, grades received and information about education and qualifications systems; "validation of non-formal and informal learning" has the same meaning assigned to it by the Act or any regulations made thereunder for the purpose of validating non-formal and informal learning.