Eure.K aims at producing a European Memorandum for validation, recognition and definition of certification modes of the 8 European Key Competences (EKC) from the observation and the certification of devices experiencing their evaluation and validation in partner countries. The 8 EKCs set at the 2002 Lisbon Summit are indeed considered by the EU as "essential for personal fulfillment, active citizenship, social cohesion and employability in a knowledge-based society. " But their integration into national employment/training systems is hampered by the lack of explicit and recognized models for their validation. Eure.K therefore aims to overcome this obstacle by implementing: • An observation and experimentation device for evaluation and validation of the last 4 EKCs which are those that pose the most of problems in assessment terms as they integrate informal and non-formal knowledge not taken into account in initial and further traditional training institutions. These ECKs are the following: [5) learning to learn; 6) social and civic competences; 7) sense of initiative and entrepreneurship; 8) cultural awareness and expression]. Thus, observations will be made of existing devices, which refer more or less explicitly, to EKCs. When these devices are non-existent or non-significant in countries or in acquisition fields (formal, informal and non-formal), experiments will be carried out. Competencies acquisition will be observed through a cross-approach which (1) implements referentials identifying the content of these EKCs, as well as (2) their acquisition fields. Thus, 8 working groups will bring together members of the partner countries for the last 4 EKCs and the following acquisition fields: the work context, that of the "civil society", the training and the European mobility. Thus, collecting observation data from 12 devices is scheduled. Observation outcomes on the last 4 EKCs will then brought closer to what exists in the validation framework of the first 4 competencies, for a production encompassing the 8 EKCs. • The design of this observation and experimentation device will be preceded by an overview of the use of EKCs in training and recognition systems in partner countries and at European level (from a literature review). This overview or inventory will provide a useful diagnostic to identify 12 significant observation and experimentation devices. The recommended methodology for their implementation will provide a matrix for the future development of guidelines for EKCs validation, after the observation and experimentation steps. • Project successive productions will involve institutions and actors in the field of employment and training, in order to define with them, national / regional strategies to be implemented for EKCs' recognition and certification. To this end, « Dissemination Days » will be organized in each partner country. • Finally, all of these national strategies will be presented to experts from European countries not project's partners and EU experts to develop a European Memorandum for EKCs' validation, recognition and certification. The Memorandum will be presented at a final conference in Paris. Proximity and relative diversity of partner countries allow this in-depth work. Are involved : Belgium, Italy and Portugal. The Cnam, in France, is responsible for the coordination, monitoring and animation : as a large institution of vocational higher education, aimed at adults, it is a leading actor in the lifelong learning and the acquired experience validation. The consortium composition, which involves 5 higher education institutions and 5 training organizations, allows to take into account different points of view : that of the research as well as that of training engineering, educational engineering, and expertise in the evaluation and validation field. The challenge is this one: the recognition and the development of all acquired learning, including informal and non-formal in a simple, explicit and recognized framework for all young people and adults who want to be actors of the knowledge society, whatever their status, educational and academic levels, and their employment integration.
Eure.K has set itself the aim of producing a recommendation document based on experience developed during the course of the project on the procedures applied for recognizing, validating and certifying European key competences in the field of vocational training and adult education. Initiated in 2016, Eure.K thus conducted its studies concurrently with the development of the 2016 European Parliament and Council Recommendation revision that provides a Reference Framework on Key Competences for Lifelong Learning. The recommendation revision resulted in the new Recommendation of 22 May 2018 which advocates in particular “further developing the assessment and validation of key competences acquired in different settings (…)” (see § 3.3 of the recommendation) by an application of best practices. The Recommendation specifies in its annex that “different approaches to assessment of key competences in non-formal and informal contexts could be developed” (see Annex, C,c). The Eure.K project thus anticipated the new recommendation by providing the first contribution to the sharing of practices called for by the European Council. The Eure.K project has involved university professors and researchers (Lisbon and Algarve; Padua, Italy; Le Cnam, France), training organizations and networks (APap in France, Le Forem in Belgium), business training resource centre organizations (Politecnico Calzaturiero, Italy) and knowledge dissemination institutions (Istituto Sturzo). Each partner was involved in the development and analysis of one of these practices. Partners were also involved within the Steering Committee in a general reflection: the Committee thus operated as a collective player, members of the committee being collectively responsible for specific projects led by their colleagues. The diversity of member profiles within the Steering Committee was therefore a source of enrichment and a significant asset. The committee first examined the use of the European Reference Framework by actors and institutions working in the field of vocational and adult education. The framework cannot and should not be applied “mechanically”. On the contrary, starting from the actual context of actors and institutions, from the purposes they pursue and from the target audiences involved is necessary to understand the use of the reference Framework, even if this means amending it to fit the context. This is what the project undertook by conducting 10 “action-research” studies. Each partner within the consortium was involved in the implementation of schemes in the 4 countries represented in the project so as to give an account, taking their own specificities into consideration, of the use of the Reference Framework. Target groups varied from people with low levels of education but with a significant life experience to doctoral students. Implementation contexts were diverse, varying from the field of social inclusion to company or professional development contexts as well as formal training. Objectives of the schemes could be the empowerment of individuals through self-recognition of prior experience, employability, professional qualification or simply assigning a value to prior learning acquired from remarkable experiences. The project therefore provided to all actors and institutions concerned a restitution of unique experimentations which showed, based on the experimentations themselves, the multiple possible uses that can be made of the reference framework. Although it may be amended, supplemented or clarified, the framework nevertheless serves as a reference without imposing a normative “Framework”. By formalizing strengths and points of concern which emerged from the great variety of experiments, the project also contributed in a first sharing of findings. This is the subject of the document called the "Memorandum", in which six recommendations are thus set out. Its aim is to share with all the actors and institutions wishing to be involved in processes and schemes for the recognition, validation and certification of skills, the lessons learnt from the experimentations themselves as well as from their collective analysis. The recommendations are only valid within the scope of the 10 " action-research " studies. They simply have the ambition of being useful in the design and "engineering" phase of these schemes.