BEYOND FORMAL LEARNING

WHAT, WHY AND HOW MOSCOW 21 APRIL 2015

MAIN AIM

 Make visible a persons learning outcomes that were achieved outside of the formal educational system – paradigm shift underway?!?

 Make use of that learning  Enhancing lifelong (and life wide) learning

WHY?

 Making education and labour market systems more efficient and sustainable  Better matching between supply & demand of competence  Important for growth and to fight unemployment

WHAT VNFIL BRINGS TO THE TABLE

    ENHANCING PEOPLES

MOTIVATION

IN LEARNING FOR LEARNING AND INCREASING PARTICIPATION CREATING POSSIBILITIES FOR

MOBILITY

AND STRENGTHENING

EMPLOYABILITY

FACILITATES QUICKER UPDATING OF KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS BY

NOT RE-TRAINING

PEOPLE, INSTEAD MAKING COMPLEMENTARY TRAINING POSSIBLE BY RECOGNISING WHAT PEOPLE ALREADY KNOW AND CAN DO.

BUILDING BRIDGES

BETWEEN THE WORLD OF WORK AND THE EDUCATION SYSTEM, FOR EXAMPLE BY INVOLVING EMPLOYERS IN THE ASSESSMENT OF SKILLS AND COMPETENCES

A TOOL OR A SYSTEM?

BOTH!

IT SHOULD BE A SYSTEMATICALLY USED TOOL WITHIN A SYSTEM (OR SEVERAL SYSTEMS)  The tool: a set of processes, procedures and instruments operating for making learning outcomes visible and put to use  The system: includes all surrounding support structures and technical/legal/societal effects

AN ATTITUDE TOWARDS LEARNING!

FOR WHAT?

Validation is used for:  Access to further education/training  Exemption  Individulising education/traning  Obtaining qualification  Certification  Competence development in companies (QA)  For integration  … the list goes on

IDENTIFICATION AND ASSESSMENT

BENEFITS

 Employers will have more and better qualified individuals to employ    Individuals will enhance their employability Decreasing education/training costs Decreasing time in education/training equals money (for the individual, employers, state)  time  Better matching between demand and supply of competence in the labour market  Better cooperation between labour market and educational systems  System reform/change

CHALLENGES

 Trust and legitimacy –the value of VNFIL    Quality assurance Financing  Who pays?

Infrastructure  Who does what?

 Paradigm shift regarding how we think about learning?!!

 Follow-up, statistics, cost/benefit-analysis  what are the actual benefits/gains???

 INFORMATION & GUIDANCE

MAKING VNFIL OPERATIONAL

CHALLENGES  Limited coverage  Fragmented delivery  Lack of cooperation across sectors and institutions  Link to qualificationssystems and framework weak or unclear  Lack of trust  Lack of explicit QA arrangements  Too weak cooperation between education and training sub-systems on standards, methods and QA ANSWERS  National qualifications frameworks  Outcome based standards  National and regional strategies  Increased involvement of guidance and employment services  Same standards for both validation and formal education  Develop validation systems where QA is an integrated part  Use NQF to promote a more holistic approach

A WALK IN THE PARK?

OR MORE LIKE CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN?

COMPLEX ISSUE THAT REQUIRES YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT?

WE KNOW FROM EXPERIENCE THAT IT IS NOT A QUICK FIX!

POSSIBLE SUCCESS FACTORS

         START NOW, DON’T WAIT FOR PERFECTION! LEARN AND IMPROVE ALONG THE WAY!

SUPPORTIVE LEGAL FRAMEWORK HOLISTIC APPROACH – LINKED WITH NQF INTEGRATED IN THE FORMAL EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM OUTCOME BASED STANDARDS INTEGRATED LONG-TERM FUNDING MECHANISMS START SMALL DECIDE FOR WHO AND WHY VPL SHOULD BE DEVELOPED. TRY TO FIND BALANCE BETWEEN THE NEEDS OF INDIVIDUALS AND THE NEED OF SYSTEMS. EMPOWERMENT VS. EMPLOYABILITY???

DON’T COPY PASTE!

THE IMPORTANT QUESTION

TO SUPPORT TRUST, TRANSPARENCY AND QUALITY

WHAT WILL GENERATE THE MOST TRUST, ENHANCE TRANSPARENCY AND QUALITY IN OUR CONTEXT?

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION!