While Tunisia´s VNFIL system is in its early developmental stage, some pilot activities involving capacity building exercises and awareness raising activities, and a supporting programme (PEFESE) for education, vocational training and higher education are providing a broad platform for progressing the development of a VNFIL system.
Significant developments in recent years include the 2008-10 law that provides in principle the possibility to award vocational qualifications through VNFIL. For this to become a practice, further legal work is needed that describe the conditions for such validation procedures.
Providing an impetus for progressing the completion of a comprehensive legal framework, some labour market stakeholders and various social partners in Tunisia already support VNFIL development. In their views, the existing ‘Certificate of labour market competences’ recognition approach available for certain craft sectors illustrate the key benefits a VNFIL system could bring for the broader workforce and mobility.
With early developmental stage work ongoing in Tunisia, the country does not yet have an official VNFIL definition although a circulating broad ‘understanding’ describes it as validation of acquired knowledge from working life. In addition to developing a national VNFIL definition, Tunisia would also benefit from operationalising its National Qualifications Framework (NQF) to establish linkages between the NQF and VNFIL. Developing the groundwork for a VNFIL system provides Tunisia with an opportunity to widen the group of key national stakeholders involved in the next stages, along with fostering collaborative networks to strengthen linkages between various actors. In future stages, such networks would provide highly valuable support for national and regional VNFIL implementation and communication strategies for the labour market and the broader public.
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