NQFs reflect a worldwide pattern in educational policy-making. Approximately 60 countries around the world are developing NQFs. The list of countries is diverse and impressive, and includes Singapore, Canada, New Zealand, Botswana, Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Africa, Namibia, EU member states, and many EU partner countries.

The motivations for the concurrent development of NQFs are diverse, and include the search for efficiencies across different education sectors. In some economies the motivation may be the pursuit of modernity, or the desire to gain legitimacy and to participate in international dialogues on education. There are also trends towards the transfer of policy knowledge between proximal states, pressures for transparency in order to facilitate labour mobility, and the distribution of ideas through international communities of policy-makers and experts. The ILO's (2004) Recommendation on Human Resources Development stated that education, training and lifelong learning encourages members towards the adoption of ‘measures, in consultation with the social partners and using a national qualifications framework, to promote the development, implementation and financing of a transparent mechanism for the assessment, certification and recognition of skills, including prior learning and previous experience, irrespective of the countries where they were acquired and whether acquired formally or informally’.

The development of frameworks that use similar or related principles to shape education and training systems creates new opportunities for cooperation between different countries in education and training. The frameworks include a number of common elements that can serve as a basis for closer links between countries and for the sharing of expertise and experience.