VINCE is European funded project that aims at promoting validation of learning in higher education and provide support to HEI staff in order to validate migrants‘ and refugees‘ prior learning.

VINCE so far has developed

• Country reports about the implementation of validation in various European countries,
• Case studies about the impact of validation on inclusion,
• Guidelines and a prototype training course for university staff involved in validation processes to be better prepared when working with newcomer candidates.

Furthermore, policy recommendations are being developed, targeted at EU, national decision makers and institutional learners.

On 4th July 2019 a workshop took place at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, which brought together experts, stakeholders, HEI staff and students in order to discuss the European model of validation of competences in the field of refugees.

In a first step the participants were presented the major pillars of the Lisbon Recognition Convention, which sets out the standards that shall govern validation. While recognition of prior learning refers to the recognition of formal qualifications (prerequisites for entering a higher level of a hierarchical, formal system), validation goes beyond, and also refers to the assessment of competences acquired outside the formal education system. The aim is

• to determine which competences are certifiable at all and, where this is feasible (Information)
• to identify the goals against which competences shall be validated (Identification)
• to create portfolios of supporting documents relevant for validation, such as certificates, test results, work results (Documentation)
• to evaluate the person’s skills and competences (Assessment)

In the second section of the workshop the participants jointly with practitioners from in- and outside HEI discussed the practical implications of the Convention with a view to

• identify changes in current practice necessary to meet the standards of the Lisbon Recognition Convention,
• identify constraints in the recognition of informal learning, such as competences hardly to prove or testify,
• consequences recognition practice in Germany has or can have for universities, students and in the context of the wider society.

Learn more about the project from the VINCE website

The call for LifeLong Learning Awards 2018 has been launched. In 2016, the Lifelong Learning Platform launched the LifeLong Learning Awards to celebrate creative and inclusive practices. The aim of the Lifelong Learning Award is to give visibility to innovative practices taking place all over Europe in order to attract public attention on lifelong learning as well as to inspire new practices and policies. The Lifelong Learning Platform (LLLP) will select each year its annual specific priority that can be linked to the European year if the theme is relevant.

The LLL Platform and its InnoVal partners in September 2018 will organize a European Conference on Innovative Assessment Methods for Validation. The event will take stock of recent policy developments in line with the 2012 Council Recommendation on Validation of Non-Formal and Informal Learning (VNFIL), and discuss the next steps forward.

VINCE is an ERASMUS+ project that is developing training materials for university staff working in processes of Validation of Prior Learning (VPL) and Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning (VNIL) with migrant and/or refugee students. The objective is to provide university staff with tools to be better equipped when working with newcomers who want to access Higher Education (HE) and want to be more aware and integrated in European society.

The VINCE open call for case studies and VINCE Validation Prize 2019 have just been launched! The VINCE Validation Prize 2019 is an award given to the most innovative and transferable initiatives in the area of the Validation of Prior Learning (VPL) and/or Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning (VNIL) in all sectors of education in Europe. The 2019 prize follows the initiative of the OBSERVAL and OBSERVAL-Net projects, which awarded a total of 5 Validation Prizes in 2009, 2010 and 2013.

The 2nd partner meeting took place in Munich, from 9th to 10th October 2017. The event was hosted by the Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich (Germany). The partner organisations discussed VNIL (validation of non-formal and informal learning outcomes) in Higher Education from different ankles, such as with regard to its meaning for

InnoVal aims at identifying innovative and reliable assessment methods that can allow all learners to have a chance at validation, with a special focus on the needs of disadvantaged groups such as refugees and early school leavers.

The number of refugees and new migrants who reach Europe, escaping from wars or critical life conditions and looking for new life opportunities, has increased dramatically in recent years and is likely to continue growing in the coming years. These newcomers face many challenges in settling into Europe and among these are the obstacles to accessing the labour market or continuing their studies.

The German Federal Institute for Education and Training (BIBB) just published the results of a national monitoring on validation of informal and non-formal learning in Germany. The results are based upon a national survey, conducted in 2015. More than 850 stakeholders in Vocational Education and Training on this occasion have been asked about the future of validation and recognition of informal and non-formal learning in Germany.

PROMOTE is a EU-funded project that started in 2014 and will be completed in October 2016. The project aims at promoting and validating social, personal and organisational key competences such as entrepreneurship, civic competences and learning to learn with the help of an innovative, self-directed learning approach at the interface of higher education and business.

VALERU aims to establish mechanisms and human resources for the validation of non-formal/informal learning in Russian Higher Education in order to ensure sustainable development of Russian HE.

Young people acquire competencies not only at school, vocational education and training and other formal learning settings. They also acquire competencies when they take up responsibilities within their family, when they are meeting their friends, when they work in jobs, when they engage in sports or music, when they do volunteer work.

This project aims at developing an awareness raising campaign for the validation of learning outcomes of non-formal and informal learning as a tool to further improve adults’ career perspectives and stimulate their further education and training.

I greatly enjoyed the DISCUSS project conference in Munich last week at which I spoke together with Steve Wheeler. After the morning speeches, there was a cafe type session in the afternoon looking at four key challenges the project has identified for education in Europe. All were interesting and given the venue tended to be reflected through the lens of the present refugee crisis.

The focus of the project is the question whether it is possible to adapt successful mechanisms of open innovation to open organizations. In open organizations people from outside the organization are not asked for cooperation because of their individual knowledge but are integrated as a person with all the competences they have. To do so it is not only important to have open organizations. You also need open persons. It is important to know a lot about the competences needed in one organization and the competences that are offered by an individual. And it is important for managers to be open, act as an open person and to act in an open organization. The competences they need for this shall be trained by a serious game application.

The DAVE project has produced an adult education trainer competence profile and a methodology for validating competence of Adult Education Trainers (AETs), called Expertise Check up. The competence profile is based on desk research on existing competence profiles at OECD level and on a need analysis carried out in a number of adult education providers including the partners. 

The main goal of the VTeCOACH project is to develop an assessment tool based on a 360º evaluation system so that VET learners can later be provided with the necessary feedback to carry out an action plan in order to work on and hopefully improve their SOFT skills.

Many experienced, knowledgeable and competent adult educators have no formal teaching qualification. If this situation applies to you, then the Toolkit will help you get recognition for what you have learned so far as an adult educator, by universities, colleges and employers. The resources can also be used to help you make plans for your professional development, with a view to achieving excellence in the practice of adult education.

The objectives of the VOW+IPLM project are to exchange best practice in the validation of informal learning, to develop transferable competence standards to be used when validating individuals against job standards, and to develop an innovative tool "E-evaluation Platform" for the validation of competences acquired at work place and give to each beneficiary the possibility to build an individual further career by lifelong learning.

Many disadvantaged young people have acquired competencies that may be relevant for VET through processes of non-formal and informal learning but that cannot be used systematically, because these competences are invisible.