The year of validation

Post added by Michael Graham

About 6 years ago, when I used to work in the Western Balkans, I attended a VET conference in the region. A local expert gave a presentation on the uses of validation of non-formal learning and suggested it be a priority in VET policy in the country. I can still hear the voice which loudly criticised the suggestion….not a local but an expert from an EU country…. Validation (VNFIL), or recognition of prior learning, was not, he said, an acceptable or legitimate process, and qualifications could only be awarded except against one, specific, linked programme. You cannot obtain a qualification based on skills and experience acquired outside an institution, he claimed.

I won’t name the guilty man, but he shouldn’t be laughing now. Four countries in the region, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Turkey, are all implementing VNFIL systems, and are quite high on the mountain. Their neighbours, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia are in the foothills, but have started the journey.

In the EU, in education and training, 2018 is arguably the year of validation. The Commission and Cedefop are conducting the latest European Inventory on VNFIL, an external analysis Member State by Member State. Countries themselves also report on their systems against the 2012 Recommendation this year, to the EQF AG. To celebrate advances in VNFIL the EU, the Commission is hosting its Validation Festival in Brussels in June. VNFIL is therefore mainstream in European education and training systems, even if variable in depth by country and still, even in advanced countries, such as the Nordics, not yet reaching the numbers of learners they are after. See Anna Kahlson’s blog on this site.

What will be new in the European Inventory is that 3 countries - Montenegro, Kosovo and Macedonia - will appear for the first time. Turkey makes its second appearance. ETF has been working with them on VNFIL, on laws, methodologies, procedures, training the counsellors, trainers and assessors and supporting production of manuals. We will capture these and other advances in the Inventory. Indeed, VNFIL has much to offer in the region. Many people have skills uncertificated, a consequence of war, upheaval, economic collapse and recovery, inadequate formal schooling and so on. Many migrate to EU and other countries then return home with skills but not qualifications in the form of certificates.

Turkey has certificated several thousand adults via validation paths. Nearly 50 centres, private, public or partnerships, assess and certifiy applicants. Numbers of applicants obtaining validation of non-formal learning in Montenegro and Kosovo are obviously smaller but reach the hundreds now.

Validation saves money - no repeat training. It is efficient – employers use it to re-train and certify workers. They, further, engage with the sometimes abstract world of education and render it more practical, through joining assessment panels, for example. It supports matching supply and demand of labour. Learners save time; for them it is a quicker route to an attainable qualification. It is rewarding, fulfilling and a lift to people’s self-esteem to obtain a qualification. I know this even from obtaining an Italian language qualification in middle age......

Validation is also fair …(I know that sounds old-fashioned).

All points that tell me that our old friend cited above didn’t know what he was talking about.

Michael Graham, ETF