Brussels, 19/12/2014 (Agence Europe) - Validation strategies and legislation for non-formal and informal learning are developing slowly but steadily across Europe, according to Cedefop (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training). However, there remains room for improvement, particularly with regard to reliability of information on take-up and use of validation arrangements. The European Council recommendation of 2012 set a deadline of 2018 for setting up national arrangements for the validation of non-formal and informal learning.
This fifth update of Cedefop's European inventory on validation of non-formal and informal learning, which assesses the development of validation of prior learning in 33 European countries, provides a thematic analysis of issues relating to further development and implementation of validation. The inventory reveals that the number of countries which have set up national validation strategies has increased from five to thirteen since 2010. Of these, only Finland, France and Spain have put in place a comprehensive strategy involving all education subsystems (vocational, general and higher education). Cedefop flags up fragmentation of validation practices, on the one hand, and the fact that the main target group for validation initiatives in the EU remains, as in the 2010 inventory, the one made up of people with low qualifications.
As 2018 approaches, the inventory also highlights the challenges facing countries: 1) better coordination of establishing validation arrangements (more than one arrangement can exist in a single member state); 2) greater parity of esteem between qualifications obtained via validation and those obtained through formal pathways; 3) more financial resources to allow arrangements to be put in place properly; 4) data collection to assess progress in the validation process; 5) guidelines on the quality of validation; 6) raising awareness among the public of the validation system; 7) setting up a system that establishes the specific knowledge that validation staff must have. (IL)