CEN workshop Agreement (CWA)

The CWA on European Criteria for Quality Internships is available : here

The main goal of the SPRINT project is to create a quality European framework for internships with the support of standardization.

The results of the research led in O1 (research on indicators and standards for quality internships) allowed to identify best practices and indicators for quality internships to be promoted in the CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA).

A CEN Workshop Agreement (CWA) is a draft for consultations that goes through an open consultation to be officially recognised by CEN (European Committee for Standardization¹).
This draft is written via a CEN workshop:
   - Such a workshop is a consensus working group driven and open to direct participation of any interested party.
   - The participants who are involved in this workshop develop the draft of the CEN workshop Agreement (CWA).
   - This document is approved and the final version is published on the CEN website.

The CEN workshop (CW) that was carried out within the framework of the SPRINT project is called CEN WS 95. It developed a European quality framework for internships by mapping and comparing legislations related to internships in the EU member states and by identifying good practices to ensure the quality of an internship.

CWA's steps are the following :

Project plan / April - November 2018 with a commenting phase in September 2018 (30 days)
Kick-off meeting of CEN workshop / November 9^th 2018: approval of the project plan for the CEN Workshop on European Quality Framework for Internships (CEN WS 095)
Drafting / November 2018 - July 2019: CEN workshop participants worked on CWA draft and inputs were gathered
Adoption of CWA / September - October 2019: 60 days open commenting phase by CEN + November 2019: Disposition of comments on draft CWA
Publication of CWA on CEN website / March 2020 when CEN approved CWA

The CEN workshop Agreement was developped as follows:
1. Preparatory stage (April-November 2018)
   - April-June 2018 / Preparation of CW project plan.
   - July 3^rd-4^th 2018 / Approval of documents by SPRINT partners : CW project plan, self-assessment, agenda of the kick-off meeting.
   - September 2018 / 30 days open commenting phase on CEN website: CEN workshop project plan was publicly available for comments.
   - November 2018 / CEN Workshop Kick-off meeting : November, 9^th 2018.

2. Production stage (November 2018-July 2019)
   - November 2018-January 2019 / the SPRINT partners worked on the first draft as an input for CWA.
   - January 2019 / Writing of the CEN workshop participant list.
   - January-July 2019 / Production of draft CWA by SPRINT partners and CEN workshop participants:
     . January 7^th 2019 / First draft of CWA was sent to CEN workshop participants for comments.
     . January 18^th 2019 / Second draft of CWA with updated chapters was sent to CEN workshop participants for comments.
     . January 21^st 2019 / Compilation of workshop participants' comments.
     . January 23^rd 2019 / First CEN workshop meeting was organised in AFNOR with all participants in order to work on CWA draft by exchanging on participants' comments and approving inputs.
     . April 11^th2019 / Second CEN workshop meeting
     . May 7^th 2019 / Third CEN workshop meeting

3. Approval stage (August 2019-January 2020)
   - September-October 2019 / 60 days open commenting phase by CEN : draft CWA was publicly available for comments on CEN website.
   - November 2019 / Disposition of comments on draft CWA.
   - January 2020 / Comments resolution meeting.
   - February 2020 / Information sent to CEN BT for the final approval.
   - March 2020 / Publication of the CWA on European Criteria for Quality Internships on the CEN website.

The final CWA presents the core, where all the best practices and criteria are gathered in the European criteria for quality internships. It represents the broad agreement on quality internships based on the expertise regarding existing best practices, input from broader public and final consensus among all different stakeholders.

¹A CWA does not have the status of a European Standard. It involves no obligation at national level.