METHODS FOR THE VALIDATION OF COMPETENCIES Training Unit 9.1 National and European policies for the validation of placement experiences

Methods for the validation of competencies European Commission Participants ought to achieve the recognition and validation of knowledge acquired abroad. That tackles again national characteristics of educational and vocational systems and, consequently, of modalities for validation of competences acquired.

Methods for the validation of competencies The validation identifies a certification process CERTIFICATION: can be understood as a whole of actions expecting the development of procedures and tools, which a subject institutionally legitimated attests his ownership and the existence of concrete objects by. COMPETENCES: acquired by persons during personal, professional and work experiences.

Methods for the validation of competencies The key principle linked to the certification is the transparency. can be understood as a whole of practice to work out the context of the elements which the recognition and/or the certification will be made on. Instead of providing an ambiguous image the principle of transparency is made to provide a clear one about facts, experiences, results (as competences owned, qualifications acquired,...) or processes (for example, modalities for the definition of training outputs), to get a best understanding from the side of third subjects.

Methods for the validation of competencies The European development towards a certification system The process in question was started up since ages, but the most important advance (and the most relevant results) can be linked to the setting up of the Lisbon Strategy and the launch of the European Employment Strategy. By the Lisbon Strategy, launched in March 2000, Europe has accepted the challenges of planet social changes of knowledge. Consequently, high educational and vocational systems have been considered as an essential preliminary condition to have a competitive knowledge economy. The Copenhagen Declaration has been initialed on November 2002, an agreement aimed to establish a stronger cooperation in some fields of vocational training, among these ones this is the key field for our theme, that is the transparency of qualifications and competences, the quality guarantee, the transfer of courseware units and the working out of common principles for the recognition of no formal and informal learning and the lifelong guidance.

Methods for the validation of competencies The process that runs to adopt this declaration was launched in 2001 a Bruges by the Communication of the European Commission named: Building an European lifelong learning espace Europe has chosen to develop a common currency in terms of qualifications and competences and establishes how to make it: by identifying different concrete results in a reasonable strategy, whilst working with all member States being involved.

Methods for the validation of competencies The strategy and concrete results regard: the working out of a single framework for the transparency of competences and qualifications, able to join in a single form the current transparency tools; the working out of a credit transfer system for education and vocational training; the adoption of common qualitative principles about education and vocational training; the adoption of common principles for the recognition, the certification of the formal and informal learning, in order to guarantee more compatibility among the different approaches of the member States; the arrangement of learning vocational guidance to strengthen the European dimension of both the information guidance and counseling services.

Methods for the validation of competencies LEQF – European Qualification Framework (founded officially in 2008) The EQF is an European common framework of reference to promote the mobility of persons and to make easier the lifelong learning. EQF is binded to the national qualifications systems of each country, working as translation tool able to bind and compare the different qualifications issued by the member States.

Methods for the validation of competencies The member States are kindly asked for: using EQF as tool of reference to compare qualifications levels of the whole systems; referring the national qualifications systems to EQF levels by 2010, probably, through the development of national qualifications reference frameworks; assuring that all new certificates, qualifications and Europass documents make reference to the EQF right level by 2012; developing an approach based on the results of the learning for defining and describing the qualifications.

Methods for the validation of competencies Contents : Concepts of validation, recognition and certified competences. The principle of transparency. European development towards the certified competences. The European Qualification Framework.