Blog: Make it visible. Improving validation and recognition of learning outside of formal education and training
Anglais
Organisations internationales
Des informations sont recueillies auprès d'autres organisations internationales qui promeuvent le développement des compétences et la transition entre l'éducation et la formation et le travail. Le Groupe inter-agences sur l'enseignement et la formation techniques et professionnels (IAG-TVET) a été créé en 2009 pour partager les résultats des recherches, coordonner les efforts de recherche conjoints et améliorer la collaboration entre les organisations travaillant aux niveaux international et national.
L'apprentissage tout au long de la vie
Il est indispensable d'accroître l'investissement global dans l'éducation et la formation, en particulier dans les pays en développement. Les investissements dans l'éducation et la formation devraient être étroitement liés aux stratégies et programmes de croissance de l'économie et de l'emploi. La responsabilité doit être partagée entre le gouvernement (responsabilité principale), les entreprises, les partenaires sociaux et l'individu. Pour faire de l'apprentissage tout au long de la vie une réalité pour tous, les pays devront procéder à des réformes majeures de leurs systèmes de formation professionnelle et d'éducation et de formation. Les programmes de transition de l'école au travail pour les jeunes devraient intégrer l'éducation et l'apprentissage sur le lieu de travail. Les systèmes de formation doivent devenir plus flexibles et s'adapter à l'évolution rapide des besoins en compétences. Les réformes doivent également porter sur la manière dont l'apprentissage peut être facilité, et pas seulement sur la formation à des catégories professionnelles spécifiques.
Autres thèmes
Opinion by Antonio Ranieri is Head of Department for Learning and Employability at Cedefop.
There are so many ways to learn. Formal education and training is only one of these, especially when it comes to acquiring knowledge, competencies, behaviours, and values necessary to perform a job properly. However, if people cannot document the “worth” of their skills, the learning acquired is often accounted as worthless in principle and also in practice by the labour market.
Validation is the process that makes learning acquired in non-formal and informal settings visible and ‘usable’ for the individual. Whatever they may call it - accreditation of prior learning, prior learning assessment – the underlying principle in validation is that all learning is valuable, irrespective of how or where it has been acquired. As learning is both a process (how it happens) and a product (the outcomes), by shifting the focus from the learning process to the learning outcomes validation makes visible and provides currency to the knowledge, skills and competences acquired out of the formal settings.
This approach has much to commend it. Today’s European labour market must confront with a continuous and accelerated process of transformation of the economy, as well as growing disparities between and within countries that have marginalised and impoverished specific groups of the population. As we know, it’s not just about young people out of the labour market, but also long-term unemployed, displaced workers, and low-skilled adults more generally.
Validation has a major role to play especially for people with low levels of formal education and training who may have acquired valuable skills and competences throughout their working life or even other experiences such as volunteer work. Identification, assessment and certification of their skills may be effective to tailor their training needs and make them more attractive to the labour market.
Since 2004, through the European Inventory Cedefop has been monitoring and analysing developments in validation of non-formal and informal occurring in EU Member States. Initially conceived as a way of opening up and making formal education and training more flexible, especially vocational education and training, validation is increasingly seen as a tool to make economies more competitive, encourage labour market participation, and combat social exclusion.
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