In 2012, the Council approved recommendations on validation. The plan is that member states have validation systems in place by 2018. We have now had 20 years of national and European practice, but it is still very fragmented. Later this year, the Commission will also publish an updated version of the European Inventory on validation and new Guidelines. However, the partners believe that MSs will have to face big challenges (and in some even resistance) while putting in place such systems and thus they should be supported more. A major role could be played by adult education providers and stakeholders, which are often the implementing bodies of the validation systems. By analysing tools and methodologies in different European countries and proposing solutions from the civil society perspective, this project will contribute to reducing the fragmentation on different levels, namely policy and practice. The project should show possible solutions, explore the best practices and strategies for validation for the disadvantaged, contribute to an exchange of tools, procedures and experiences. The two main objectives and themes are: Contributing to a reduction in the number of low-skilled adults (re-skilling and up-skilling of adults) Facilitating the validation of non-formal and informal learning and its permeability with formal education pathways EAEA is the main umbrella organisation in Europe for non-formal adult education providers. NVL has worked on validation in the Nordic countries for a long time and has a number of expert networks that can contribute to the discussion but also disseminate to the results. The other partners, Kerigma, VOEV, Learn for Life and EUROED, have wide-ranging project- and validation experiences that will contribute to making this project a success. The consortium represents a geographic diversity that will benefit the project and contribute to a wide-ranging level of experiences that will benefit the project. We will establish an online communication room. All partners will post their materials on validation. Reading of Inventory and examining Guidelines; Launch of debate on the survey (The survey is meant for adult education providers and stakeholders in order to get grassroots feedback from concerned organisations, to find out their experiences and practices and to understand their challenges and fears.) In December 2014, we will organise the kick-off meeting, which will introduce the partners, decide on the survey, the evaluation, start the dissemination and discuss the European Inventory and Guidelines. Further activities: feedback on online communication, discussion of online articles, January – September 2015: The survey will be published, then it will need follow-up (clarifications etc.) and analysis 2nd Partner meeting in Vienna (1 1/2 days): October 2015; Discussion of survey results, preparation of concept of expert seminar, dissemination etc.; Linked to: Jour fixe - 1-day multiplier event in Vienna: a lecture, a critical response to the lecture and a discussion with field-experts, stake-holders, students and university staff October 2015 – December 2015: Prepare the concept of the expert seminar, organisation of the logistics, promotion of the event January 2016: Expert seminar (This 2-day seminar will bring together about 40 experts that will debate the main themes and the outcomes of the survey. They will also exchange experiences, explore the main challenges and propose possible solutions.) 2 days – linked with 3rd partner meeting (Oslo) Introduction and final sessions together, otherwise we’ll split into two strands that will discuss one of the objectives each January 2016 – May 2016: Preparation of Action Plan (Drawing on the results of the survey and the expert seminar, key messages and actions will be proposed); preparation of policy debate May 2016 – Policy debate (+ final partner meeting) June – August 2016: Sending out and following up the action plan; Questions on impact; Final report Participants in the project but also the wider adult education community will be able to develop and learn how things could be done. They will learn from others, gain insight into different tools, develop different approaches, propose possible solutions, develop partnerships between systems and sectors and understand existing European tools better. For the individual learners, this project will mean better validation, more quality and better recognition across systems. For policy-makers we will provide more practice-based evidence for better policy-making. For the dissemination, a detailed plan has been foreseen. We believe that the materials and outputs will remain useful and will be used at least until 2018, the deadline for the implementation of national validation systems. We will therefore use them on European and national levels for further advocacy, everything will remain on the websites of EAEA and NVL where interested parties can download everything they need.
By analysing tools and methodologies in different European countries and proposing solutions from the civil society perspective, this successful project contributed to reducing the fragmentation of validation systems in Europe. It showed possible ways forward to make validation systems in Europe more inclusive and accessible, explored the best practices and policy strategies for validation for the disadvantaged, contributed to an exchange of tools, procedures and experiences among validation stakeholders in the EU and beyond. To be in line with the European Council Recommendation of 2012, Member States should have validation systems in place by 2018. The AVA consortium initiated this project to support Member States in their work towards this objective, acknowledging that they were facing significant challenges (and in some cases even resistance) while putting in place such systems and that a major role could be played by adult education providers and stakeholders. In the first project phase, the consortium drafted and promoted a survey addressing adult education providers, validation arrangement providers and analysed its results. Both the survey and the analysis had very positive feedback from validation professionals and had been instrumental in drafting important key questions and collect inspiring best practices. These were also the starting point in preparing the AVA Action Plan, which was drafting in the second phase of the project and represent probably the milestone of the AVA consortium work. The plan provides key messages, concrete examples and suggestions targeted at both policy makers and adult education organizations. It is available in three languages and freely downloadable from the project website: http://www.eaea.org/en/projects/eaea-coordinated-projects/ava.html The partners also produced five articles on validation practices and their impact as well as developed an event methodology that allowed the smooth and fruitful running of expert seminar but could be also used by other stakeholders in the organisation of similar events. Three events were organised in the framework of the project. A jour fixe was held in Vienna on 13 October 2015. It had the purpose to present the initial survey results to a wider public and discuss the main challenges arisen in the analysis. An expert seminar took place in Oslo on the 1-2 February 2016 in order to debate the main themes and outcomes of the survey and collect recommendations for drafting the action plan. A policy debate at the Economic and Social Committee attended by more than 60 participants (Brussels, 29 June 2016,) was instrumental in presenting the AVA intellectual outputs to key validation stakeholders and discuss the Action Plan. The consortium was composed of 6 organisations: the European Association for the Education of Adults (BE), the Nordic Network for Adult Learning (NO), the Association of Austrian Adult Education Centres (AT), the Innovation and Social Development institute - Kerigma (PT), the Dutch Platform for International Adult Learning (NL) and the Euro Adult Education Association (RO). Partners had wide-ranging and long-standing experience on validation as well as broad and established networks of contacts. This contributed to making this project a success both in terms of quality of results and of quantity of people reached. The AVA main target groups are adult education providers as well as national and European policy-makers dealing with validation systems. Participants in the project, as well as the wider adult education community, learned from each other, gained an insight into different validation tools, developed different approaches to support disadvantaged learners, proposed possible solutions to face the fragmentation of systems, built partnerships between providers and sectors and deepened their understanding of existing European policies for validation. The consortium also provided more practice-based evidence for better policy-making on the topic. By raising awareness of validation and making it more inclusive, the project had also a positive impact on individual learners and the society as a whole. According to the AVA consortium, validation is one of the key tools and components for lifelong learning and thus should be considered as a right. All citizens should be able to access validation arrangements and get their competences acquired outside the formal system recognized. This will allow them to move one step up in their personal lives and careers, increase people’s motivation for lifelong learning and bridge the labour market gaps between the job supply and demand. We believe that the materials and outputs will remain valid and will be used at least until 2018, the deadline for the implementation of national validation systems. The consortium is deeply committed to exploiting them on European and national levels both in their advocacy and daily work on validation.