Gestión de la calidad y del conocimiento en la formación profesional en Europa

This article aims to analyze, from a theoretical approach, the characteristics of
knowledge management and quality management in vocational education centers
in Europe. A literature review has been carried out, including the revision of reports,
doctoral theses, books, book chapters, and articles published in scientific journals,
both in English and Spanish, without establishing a time limit. The results show a
harmonization of the concept of vocational training at the European level, although
there are differences in how each state perceives the educational system's quality.
As a result of this discrepancy, different proposals appear, many of them derived
from business models, to manage the quality of vocational training centers. Due to
the use of business models based mainly on processes, there is a need to include
knowledge management models focused on creating, transferring, storing, and
applying the knowledge available in vocational training centers. However, there
is no agreement to define how these models should be or the relationship they
should establish with quality assurance systems. The review carried out allows us
to conclude that there is still a long way to go to harmonize vocational education
centers' quality assurance systems and their link with the organizational knowledge
management system. However, the concept of vocational education is being
consolidated across Europe.