Transcript Milleks kutsetunnistus?

APEL in Estonia
3-4 June 2010, Riga
Legal background
• APEL is regulated on state level centrally and created systematically and
covering all education levels and sectors
• Implementation of APEL in VET is governed by the following legal
provisions:
– Professions Act (2008, last amendments 2009)
– Vocational Education Institutions Act (1998, last amendments 2009)
– Vocational Education Standard (2006)
– List of mandatory documents relating to schooling at vocational education
institutions and the formats and procedure for completion thereof (2005)
– Professions Act (2008, last amendments 200)
Where APEL is happening
• APEL happens most actively in Higher
Education and award of professional
qualifications
• Today it is also often used in Vocational
Education
• APEL is less used in general education
Purpose of APEL
• The purpose of Accreditation of Prior Learning and Work
Experience (APEL) is development of links between lifelong
learning and the levels of education, the studies and the labour
market.
• APEL enables to highlight and recognise the knowledge, skills
and competencies of a person, irrespective of how they were
acquired, and increases the flexibility of opportunities for
vocational education and professional careers.
APEL enables to recognise:
• Courses completed at another educational
institution
• Competencies acquired through in-service
training or independent studies
• Knowledge and skills acquired through
work experience
It is possible to use APEL for:
• progression in education for partial certification (final examination and final
thesis are not subject of accreditation INFL)
• education and training for partial certification (final examination and final
thesis are not subject of accreditation INFL)
• Work
• award of professional qualification for full or /and partial certification
• personal development.
It is not allowed by the law to use APEL for entry to the next level of
education without previous level certificate or diploma.
Validation is done by
• the educational institutions for the education
• employers for work
• Professional Qualifications Committee for
award of professional qualifications
Validation criteria
• Validation and recognition is based on the
study programmes descriptions in learning
outcomes; and competences descriptions in
professional standard
Tools and methods of assessment
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Application forms
CV
Work description and analysis
Examples of work
Methodology is based on the theory of experiential learning (Kolb,
Schön):
– self-reflection of prior experiences and one’s competencies;
– portfolio method for assessment of experiential learning;
– assessment criteria are based on learning outcomes and evidence of
learning;
– feedback is important in all cases: full, partial or no validation.
– Portfolio is a good tool for facilitating learning and assessing its
successfulness.
The process of validation
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Orientation
Guidance and counselling
Preparation of application and evidence
Assessment and feedback
Certification
Appellation (if needed)
Assessors
• In educational institutions respective temporary or permanent
commissions (e.g. commissions for curricula, studies, admission)
or the teacher (academics) of the given subject deal with
assessment of APEL. There are no full-time APEL professionals; all
staff dealing with APEL issues has a lot of other duties.
• Award of professional qualification – Assessment Committees
are established by the Professional Qualifications Committee,
work on part-time basis.
• Every institution dealing with APEL is responsible for training of
assessors and counsellors
The results of assessments
• The results of assessments are described in
Academic Record or Diploma Supplement, on
difefrent certificates
• The output of validation is full, partial or no
validation
Monitoring of the process and quality assurance
• Quality assurance of APEL process is very important for obtaining
trust and recognition of APEL by the society.
• For quality assurance bigger universities have established Quality
System, including:
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Setting of the quality standards for APEL
Annual APEL reports from Faculties
Monitoring and revision of the APEL policies and procedures
APEL Quality Committee
Analysis of the APEL decisions once a year by the APEL Quality
Committee
– Exchange of experiences and good practice
• Quality assurance for award of professional qualification is assured
by the regulations and systematic approach as well as monitoring of
the process.
Guidance and counselling
• Guidance and counselling is offered by the
institution where validation takes place (Educational
institutions, Professional Qualifications Committees,
Unemployment Insurance Fund)
• In Estonia is no joint system for counselling and there
is no official free access for working adults to advice
and guidance and because is need for Lifelonglearning counselling system.
Financing
• Higher Education: PRIMUS Programme (supported by European Social Fund
and Estonian Government) is supporting centrally APEL developments: APEL
network, APEL Council (experts), APEL counsellors, further development of
APEL assessment, staff development – training for counsellors and assessors,
development of website and handbooks for APEL.
Educational institutions are responsible for orientation, guidance and
counselling of students and other interested groups.
• Award of professional qualification: mostly people who are looking for
validation have to pay certain fee depending on the area of validation,
sometimes it is centrally financed by state (teachers) or from some Funds.
• Guidance and counselling for youth and for job seekers is financed by the
state.
Public awareness
• Awareness about APEL possibilities is on the increase during last 3 years,
but needs continuing development and dissemination. People are not very
aware of their opportunities, they are not able to assess their experience
/knowledge and offer it as their development /prior studies.
• Tradition and attitude – suspicion and sometimes even opposition to
alternative education of those who have acquired classical formal education.
Attitude is moving more open and suspicions are decreasing, but it needs
continuous open debates and good examples (success stories).
• Information about validation is provided mainly by the Educational
Institutions and Awarding Bodies.
• During ESF APEL project is created central APEL web-portal for information
and guidance of APEL (www.vota.archimedes.ee)
Current debates and plans
• Discussions on open the access on the basis of APEL to the
next level of education without previous level diploma or
certificate, HE institutions are interested to open access to the
Masters level.
• the integration of APEL in the National Qualifications
Framework
• assessment tools and methods and quality assurance
• development of the counselling system
Interesting APEL activities
• Voluntary Pass, Youth pass
• It’s possible for working people to continue studies
in VET (programme KUTSE) and in HE (programme
TULE) with the help of APEL process
• APEL week in April 2010 (dissemination materials,
information days in schools and for labour market,
articles in newspapers and magazines and other
activities)
International projects
INLearning - Validating Learning for an Inclusive Society
1.02.2009 – 31.01.2011
• To support the realisation of a European Area for Lifelong Learning
• Empower individuals who were not “successful” within the formal
institution and providing them with validation – Social Cohesion
• To support the development of ICT-based content (Lifepass) to
validate informal and nonformal learning (through self-assessment)
• Partners: Malta, Austria, Italy, Greece, Romania, Slovenia, Estonia,
Turkey, Portugal
Strengths
• Cooperation between different stakeholders
• Systematic approach – developed is APEL
system
• Support from European Social Fund
Weaknesses
• Impossible to apply for whole diploma or certificate on the basis of experiential
learning.
• Impossible to use APEL for admission without formal educational qualification
(diploma or certificate)
• APEL professionals work mainly part-time.
• Portfolio and assessment methods are still in development, as learning
programmes are described in leaning outcomes very lately
• Rigidity /resistance of academic staff; change of thinking goes very slowly
• Subjectivity, awareness about APEL possibilities needs continuing development
and dissemination
• Danger of lowering academic standard, it is crucial to assure quality and meet
academic standards.
• Lack of experience and experts; good experts are moving to other fields.
Thank you!