Transcript Slide 1

Informal and non formal learning
and frameworks
in the development context
UNESCO Institute for Lifelong
Learning
2009
RVA
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The recognition, validation and accreditation (RVA)
of skills, knowledge and competence against
quality assured and standards of education and
training
Special emphasis on the issue of mechanism to
recognize both prior learning from informal
settings; and
Equivalent learning from non-formal programmes
for purposes of certification, qualifications and
access to and progression within formal learning
systems.
The move towards NQFs within a LLL
context in developing countries
• Go beyond basic learning
• Go beyond the mere communal
validation
• Develop more complex competencies
• The poor have acute knowledge needs
to cope with globalization
The move toward NQFs within a LLL context in
developing countries
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Avoid the dual education agenda of LLL for rich countries and basic
education for poor countries
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Renewed interest in all sub sectors
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Universal coverage of primary education will not do; children, youth
and adults need to have alternative access programmes linked to
overarching frameworks
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Basic and non-formal education needs to be included within NQFs
in order that ladders and bridges avert dead ends.
The move toward NQFs within a LLL context in
developing countries
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NQFs seen as a way to reform education and training
systems:
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Limited pathways
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Difficult transitions
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Ever growing number of early school leavers
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Certificates contain little information on competencies
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Fragmentation of training of the variety of providers
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Limited qualifications and career routes
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No comparability with other certificates.
Typology of reference points for recognition
1. Systems with a unified NQF
2. Systems without an NQF but with a
developed national curriculum and/or
developed sub-sectoral frameworks or
industry benchmarks that are used for
recognition
3. Systems with an ad hoc approach to
reference points for recognition
Africa
South Africa
Kenya
Namibia
Seychelles
Botswana
Lesotho
ABET included in the South African NQF. Lessons learned in
relation to adult education.
Centralized accreditation system to facilitate standardization
and equivalency of coordination of non-formal and adult
learning. Curriculum based approach. RPL not addressed.
In the process of establishing equivalencies between schoolbased and non-formal education; national Council on Adult
Learning to work closely with NQF; 10 level framework;
SQA’s policy and legal framework to help create an integrated
education and training system. It is evaluating courses
developed in the last five year, using set standards and
position the course on the new NQF. Comprehensive
recognition of learning (formal, non-formal and informal)
NQF is still being developed – a new adult basic
education curriculum in tandem with the NQF
All technical colleges provide vocational qualifications that
have parity with the South Africa‘s National Qualifications
framework. All tertiary institutions are planning bridging
Programme that facilitate entry to tertiary programmes through
non-traditional routes.
Africa
Mauritius
Mali
Uganda
Ethiopia
Institutional, individual and economic views. Making NQF operational.
MQA set up Industry Training Advisory Committees (ITACS) to
generate unit standards and qualifications. Adult literacy
is one of the committees.
Mali’s community schools represent almost half of all the schools in the
country, but no official recognition even though these non-formal community
schools are key to mainstream education. No NQF but a new
curriculum framework based on standards drawn from informal
learning and outcome-based approach.
A business, Technical and Vocational Education and Training (BTVET)
will provide a framework for technical skills development to become an
alternative to academic education in the last two years of secondary
level. The BTVET legislation includes the recognition of non-formal and
informal learning. The government is working with various stakeholders
to develop a national adult literacy qualifications framework, which will
be fitted into the proposed NQF. Little opportunity for adult continuing
education vis-à-vis adult basic education.
Design of the Ethiopian Technician Vocational education and Training
Qualification Framework, which is to be integrated into the NQF. Various
stakeholders will be involved including an inter-ministerial committee for
adult education.
Africa
Gambia
Ghana
Angola
GSQF is partial qualification framework; regulates
national vocational qualifications in specific trades;
GSQF promotes horizontal integration because it
includes formal and informal learning of skills, postschool college or centre based and on-the job- learning ,
full-time and part-time learning. It includes provision for
illiterate learners, apprentices with weak or even no
formal education. It draws from international
and emerging European Qualifications Framework
Has seven levels that are nationally recognized for
employment and further education; intends to
formalise traditional apprenticeships by linking this
mode of skills development to a NQF
One of the purposes of certification at the literacy level is to
facilitate continuation of learning at the next higher level.
Asia and Pacific context
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Low basic education countries – Mongolia, Pakistan, Bangladesh. Bangladesh has a big
non-formal education sector, but it is still very project-oriented.
Asian Giants – China and India. Under a National Skills Development Policy, India now
has a comprehensive scheme to acknowledge the existing skills of workers and provide
training to improve the skills level and employability of entire Indian workforce. In the
process a developing a comprehensive NQF with the focus being in the vocational
training, organizing the curriculum around a 7 level competency based system. Informal
and non-formal learning can be recognized through assessment and certification
processes that are determined and quality assured through a centralized system to
enhance consistency across the country. Open Basic Education (OBE) curriculum for
adults
Advanced basic education countries – the Philippines, Indonesia , Thailand, Vietnam–
have policy frameworks for the implementation of NFE programmes. Equivalency
programmes accredit learning from outside the formal school, and accredit skills and
job experiences for employment.
Developed Asia – Australia, Japan, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Singapore – In New
Zealand and Australia, procedures for the recognition of prior learning exist. NQF
ensures that flexible system exists for the recognizing competencies already achieved;
evidence can come from written tests and tasks, ongoing work or learning activities,
attested prior performance, using evidence from previous jobs, or outside a formal
learning or work environment.
Central Asian countries – Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan – are keen that profiles
of occupations are compatible with the EQF. The next step is to translate the new
occupational standards into clear, measurable requirements of performance for
students.
The Arab region
Sultanate of Oman
Morocco
Arab Region in general
Illiteracy eradication classes consist of learners
from grades 1-3 (equivalent to grade 1-6 in
primary school). Adult classes cover 7-12.
The Moroccan Education Charter of 1999 and
the apprenticeship law of 12 June 2000 created
climate for recognition of on-the-job training to
improve workforce skills, and the development
of socially vulnerable groups .
Reference to LLL is missing; the term ‚adult
education‘ is used interchangeably with literacy;
Little intersectoral and interministerial
cooperation so that adult education sector is
very narrowly defined as remedial education. No
attempt to link adult learning to other sub
sectors of the education and training system.
Latin America and the Caribbean
Mexico
Nicaragua
The model of Education for Life and Work (MEVyT) of
INEA provides the benchmark for assessment of nonformal adult education (15 +) for entry and re-entry to the
formal system. Agreement 286 is designed to give
access to the different levels by providing a different
pathway to the same standard.
Accreditation important for reducing black
market practices in the informal economy
and the development of small business.
Adult basic education linked to work-related continuing
education programmes. Cooperation between Ministry
of Education and the Ministry of Vocational
Education.
Good International practices
Austria
Canadian
Cyprus
France
Collecting important approaches and developing a
typology
PLAR especially focuses on migrants to
include them in the formal workforce. No national
education system. Coordination varies across the
10 provinces and 3 territories.
No specific procedure or guidelines of the
recognition of non-formal and informal learning
within the educational system. RVA is a priority
issue of the Youth Board of Education and
higher education institution can allocate credits for
existing skills gained informally.
Has a law that obliges all learning and training
institutions to set up a procedure for the
recognition for applying candidates. A range of
evidence is used.
Good international practices
Germany
Netherlands
Norway
Slovenia
NQF is under development. Recognition of informal
learning at work. Adult continuing education is
supplementary. Numerous courses on offer for adults.
‘learning regions’ programme. ProfilPASS for
documenting all kinds of learning
Law on Adult Education and Vocational
education (WEB 1996); RVA in the schooling sector is
focused around upper secondary vocational level
rather than the general education level. RVA in the
labour competence and voluntary sectors.
Norwegian reform or lifelong learning. Adults
rights for primary, secondary and upper
secondary education is stated in laws regulating
education
Education and training reform opening up
pathways for adults to re-engage in learning and
continue to develop skills
Good international practices
Sweden
Sweden has made it an obligation for all
higher education institutions to assess
prior and experiential learning of
applicants who demand it.
Scotland
Introduced RPL, which can be undertaken
by learners for personal and career
development to support the transition
between informal and formal learning , or
for gaining credit either for entry or credit
within formal programmes of study.
Formative and summative recognition are
important for identifying a learning
pathway or gaining credit respectively.
Good international practices
UK
USA
Two fold purpose: (1) the recognition of vocational
skills for the labour market; 2) development and
recognition of skills more aligned to generic,
personal and participation goals.
Alignment between NVQ s and the adult alternative
programs produced by the national open college
(NOC) network is an example of how programmes
and quality assurance serve to support confidence
in the qualification reference points.
No national RPL policy, but there are examples of
RPL. APL or PLA are used for credit provided to
individuals seeking recognition of skills and
knowledge gained through the individuals life
experience against college credentials. One key
barrier to the implementations of RPL is the
absence of outcome-based curricula and
occupational skills standards.
Challenges of transferring Learning
across the North-South Divide
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Non-formal does not mean the same thing in all country
contexts often the dividing live between formal and formal is
only definitional rather than actual.
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The position of the individual versus collective activity - the
latter requiring systemic recognition and policy coordination,
rather than just overcoming individual resistance.
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Importance of levels of learning below upper secondary
schooling to overcome issues of progression to and through
education and labour market in South Countries.
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Focus of informal learning in industrialised countries is on
firm related learning; in developing countries it is more about
documenting available competencies of persons with broken
educational and employment careers, working in the informal
sector.
Cross-regional observations
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Understanding the strategic value of RVA: lifelong learning, an
important context for the development of NQFs
The trend towards policy intent to improve mobility between
education and training sub-sectors as well as other learning
The use of outcomes-based approaches in the qualifications or
recognition reference points as a response to linking pathways
The need for professional skills and capability of staff in the area
of RVA provision, and the need to move from assessment to
accreditation
NQFs need to be coupled with lifelong learning to give the
epistemological and mechanical architecture to enable
the validation, accreditation of non-formal and
informal learning;
6. To emphasise both qualifications and recognition.
Thank you
Madhu Singh
UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning
Feldbrunnenstr. 58
20148 Hamburg
Germany