05.09.2016 AVA, projects, validation

Everyone will benefit from better validation policies and practices

Validation of non-formal and informal learning makes our labour markets more resilient and contributes to the integration of migrants and refugees by valuing the prior knowledge and experiences of people. It increases the access to lifelong learning and flexible learning pathways. Ultimately, but probably most importantly, it provides vulnerable people with a second opportunity.

In order to support the European Union and its member states to achieve this, the AVA project consortium is proposing a sound and comprehensive plan to allow everyone to work for more inclusive, permeable and effective validation systems. The AVA action plan was launched last week and it will be soon available in three languages. It includes general and targeted recommendations as well as a plan of action that sets out concrete proposals for implementation, following the logic of the validation process.

This is the final output of the successful EAEA-coordinated project which started in 2014.

“Being at the same time very high level content-wise and pragmatic in its approach, the project and its outcomes are considered very valuable for all the organisations involved and have a great potential to be appreciated by many validation and adult education stakeholders,” declares Gina Ebner, the EAEA Secretary General.

The project results have already been appreciated by the participants of a policy debate which took place in Brussels in June 2016 during the EAEA Annual Conference and General Assembly. In particular, the plan has been endorsed by the European Economic and Social Committee member Pavel Trantina, who welcomed the feasible and concrete solutions proposed which complement the recommendations that the EESC adopted in September 2015.

The project consortium was composed by the Nordic Network for Adult Learning (NVL) and four EAEA members from, Austria, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania.

“We are very grateful to the partners for their precious support in making this project a success and we wish to continue work closely with this team in the future,” says Francesca Operti, EAEA Project Officer and Project Coordinator. She assures the project consortium aims at a long-term impact with the project. “Despite of the ending of the Erasmus+ financial support in the end of August, we will carry on with our advocacy activities on the topic, first of all by widely promoting the plan at the European and national level.”

By doing so, the AVA consortium hopes to convince public authorities, education providers and NGOs, social partners and the business sector to stand up and take action for better validation arrangements in the EU. Everyone will benefits from better validation policies and practices, adult education insitutions included, as the last online AVA article pointed out (Long-term effects of validation in non-formal adult education – Gerhard Bisovsky – VÖV). A cooperative and joint action is needed not only for more functional validation policies and practices and thus more flexible learning pathways for everyone, but also to ensure the participation of vulnerable groups in lifelong learning and in the labour market.