During the last years particular focus has been placed on European vocational educational (VET) schools and training centres as the current economical crisis is forcing them to respond to the demands of increasing attractiveness, embedding stronger work based learning, enhancing labour market relevance, implementing teachers and trainers professional development. To help to overcome these challenges the implementation of national level quality assurance (QA) systems in the VET highly recommended; aligned with EQAVET, the European Reference Framework. The implementation started several years ago in almost all European countries, but reports and relevant studies reveal several difficulties (the reluctance of the staff, the lack of human resources are commonly quoted) and confirm that improved methods and approaches are needed to speed up the process. These difficulties hinder the implementation of a Quality Assurance System (QAS) at all levels of education. Open QAsS project offers a number of small, but effective, steps towards satisfying this need for overall improvement. The main concept behind the project vision is to utilise the practical potential of today’s networking technology in all areas of the implementation of the EQAVET Reference Framework principles, and so to make the resulting tools part of the daily practice of institutional Quality Assurance in our VET schools. The consortium intends to develop a complex, open package of QA tools for actors in vocational education, made freely available in four European languages. The results are aimed to strengthen the quality culture by convincing and motivating VET teachers, trainers and headmasters of the need, and helping them to recognise the potential of quality assurance tools and methods for improving the effectiveness of their pedagogical work. In the consortium eight partners will collaborate from five European countries; from Hungary, Italy, Spain, Ireland and from the UK - representing all type of organisations working in the VET sector. The consortium has all the theoretical background (research capacity) and the practical experience (creating online knowledge sharing communities, Web 2.0 based online content development, software design and development, many years experiences in operating and managing educational Quality Management Systems) needed for the successful implementation of the planned objectives. One of the main strengths of the consortium is the effective project and quality management methodology – based on IT tools –used previously with success in several national and European projects. Project management and the related QM activities (breakdown and mastering schedules, using standards for documentation, planning the risk and change management, and controlling and evaluating outcomes) will: contribute to a harmonious collaboration and effective communication among the partners; create a productive environment for project development; ensure the appropriate quality of project outcomes. To ensure the successful development strategy we will use PDCA-SDCA (Plan, Do, Control, Act, Standardise) methods. Following QMS, every product of the project must be controlled, verified and validated. The attached Gantt chart contains the detailed timeline for the project implementation. The main activities are: research to define the precise needs; software design and implementation; curriculum and content development; pilot testing for feedback from the users at every phase of the implementation. The main outcomes of the project are highly focused and planned to successfully provide a complex package, including a knowledge base, an interactive manual on educational quality assurance systems published online, a software toolkit for managing institutional QAs. The aim is to ensure that traditional bureaucratic processes can be transformed by use of practical ICT tools to show a transformational improvement in the effectiveness of the pedagogical work of teachers and schools. The project implementation will involve a significant number of VET teachers and trainers. This community, to be developed over the three years of the project, will be encouraged to be intensely involved in the effective dissemination of the developments. As a final result (O7) the openass.org website will be implemented as a virtual meeting place for interested developers and users. Open QAaS toolkit will operate as a free software project supported by the project team and its developers, guided by an evolving user community. The online community website will encourage debate, but will also invite constructive criticism. The users will be free to modify and distribute the software under the terms of the GNU General Public License. Its development will be centrally managed within the project (e.g. through the use of a Github repository), with changes managed and introduced to the repository by the project team.