Today’s learning opportunities for young people are limitless, individuals learn and acquire new competences not only in the traditional setting of a classroom (formal learning) or at work, but more and more outside of it. Important learning takes place through participation in civil society whether individually or with peers, increasingly often, young people experience mobility to develop key competences through organised but non-formal or informal learning, namely the EVS. Experts agree that volunteering experiences generate skills, knowledge and wider competences that often remain invisible.The partners have identified a series of needs interesting the situation of young people in the European socio-economic context. In particular The existing recognition tools are not sufficiently oriented toward the needs of young people; key competences acquired through non-formal or informal learning, namely through mobility, by young people need to be more valorized, Youth workers lack of competences regarding innovative approaches on recognition; cooperation among institutions at regional national and European level needs to be reinforced and there is a scarce integration of NFIL recognition with formal education, VET sector, and labor market.Therefore the European Badge Alliance is a project aimed at innovating the recognition, validation and communication processes of key competences acquired by young people in NFIL contexts, with particular reference to learning mobility, in order to increase their personal and professional development, their participation in learning and their employability. 4 specific objectives have been set out by the partnership. 1) To increase the use of learning badges as an innovative tool for the recognition of key competences2)To improve Youth workers competences pertaining recognition processes of non-formal or informal learning.3)Raise awareness on the importance of improving recognition of key competences learned through mobility among decision makers4)To increase the integration and interaction among non-formal, informal and formal learning, including vocational educational training.The project will unfold into a the realization of 5 intellectual outputs:1) A study analysis on the identification of the state of the art and potential of learning badges2) The creation of a set of badges for all the eight key competences3) testing of badges and guidelines on the use of learning badges addressed to all youth workers in Europe4) Policy recommendations on the potential of learning badges as a tool for the recognition of competences from non formal and informal learning addressed to decision makers 5) A user-friendly website that allows organizations to issue learning badges to young people and include the possibility for the latter to update the Europass CV with the earned badgesIn order to achieve these outputs all the partners will be responsible for the implementation of the project according to a management strategy outlined since the beginning of the activities. 1 representative for each organization will participate in 5 transnational meetings held every 6 months to assess the project development and coordinating the activities. 2 training events with 30 participants will be addressed to youth workers before the testing of the leaning badges. A multiplier event will be arranged in Bruxels in occasion of the final meeting of the project to disseminate the projects results at European level, in particular among decision makers. After the creation The main results of the project will be:Introducing, testing and mainstreaming the use of learning badges as a new tool for the recognition of competences from non-formal and informal learning among young people in Europe; valorizing the key competences acquired by young people through the use of badges in the Europass CV; increasing competences of youth workers in the process of recognition, meaning improving capacity of answering to young people’s need; mainstreaming the use learning badges toward the creation of a badge ecosystem across Europe for the modernization of organizations working in the youth field. Increasing knowledge among decision makers on the role of mobility in the acquisition of key competences: improving the integration of formal, non formal and informal learning and their collaboration through the use of badges The impact of the project in the long run will contribute to the discussion on the policies for recognition of competences gained through non-formal and informal learning at European level. EBA will provide evidence-based material on the used of learning badges which can be transferred to other sectors (i.e. formal education, vet, labor market).
Today’s learning opportunities for young people are limitless, individuals learn and acquire new competences not only in the traditional setting of a classroom or at work, but more and more outside of it. Learning mobility is one of the ways in which people can enhance their development as active citizens and strengthen their future employability. While traveling and getting in touch with new cultures for studying, volunteering or having a working experience abroad youngsters develope personal, professional and intercultural skills. Nevertheless most of these skills often remain invisible, because the existing recognition tools do not fully answer to the need of self reflection, awareness, validation and recognition of the key competences acquired by young people in these contexts. The European Badge Alliance project - EBA - brought together 8 european organizations - 6 organizations active in learning mobility (EFIL, YEU, AECA, Uniser, LINA and Semper Avanti ) and 2 technical partners (BadgeCraft and HOC-Lab) - who decided to innovate the recognition, validation and communication processes of key competences acquired by young learners and staff through experiences of learning mobility. How? By using Open Badges, an innovative digital tool originally developed by the Mozilla Foundation that perfectly meets this need of recognition and validation. Technically speaking Open Badge are digital certificates that encrypt information related to the learning process, the organization delivering it and the achievements or competences of the badge owner. Concretely speaking Open Badges are practical tools, getting more and more used to redefine the learning process and to certify competences and skills developed within diverse educational settings, key competences acquired through non-formal or informal learning, including through learning mobility. The final aim of EBA is innovating the recognition, validation and communication processes of key competences acquired by young people in NFIL contexts, with particular reference to learning mobility, in order to increase their personal and professional development, their participation in learning and their employability. From September 2015 to august 2017, the project unfolded into the realization of the 5 main intellectual outputs: 1) A preparatory research about the state of the play and the potential of using Open Badges. The paper is shortly presenting the aims, origins, technical terminologies and development of Open Badges. 2) 7 “new” sets of Open Badges available on the Badgecraft issuing platform each one contextualising learning taking place in specific types of motilities implemented by partners (International mobility training, International facilitators, Junior and Senior Trainers, Organizers of International activities, Long Term School Exchanges, International Placements, VET Mobility). Moreover 5 sets of badges which have already been developed by other organisations have been tested and adapted (International Youth Exchanges, EVS, EVS mentors, Youth Workers Mobility, Strategic Partnership). 3) The piloting of the 7 sets of badges created and the 5 already existing by each partner according to the learning mobility managed and the creation of guidelines on the use of the Badge System addressed to youth workers (available both as video and graphic PPT) 4) A policy recommendations paper about the potential of Open Badges as a tool for the recognition of competences from non formal and informal learning addressed to decision makers. 5) The upgrade of the www.Badgecraft.eu platform for badge issuing on the base of the partners organisation's needs and the feedbacks collected by the learners. The platform allows now to embed badges into the Europass CV. On June 2017, a multiplier event have been organized in Brussels to disseminate the projects results at european level, in particular among decision makers (morning session at the Parliament) and among organizations managing learning mobility (afternoon training session at Mundo J). The project had a big impact: - on the partners organizations who introduced the use of Open Badges on the management of their mobility projects to valorize the key competences acquired by young people while experiencing life abroad. - on all organisations reached thanks to dissemination who got familiar with the open badges and can now use the badge systems developed and join the Alliance - on the non formal education sector in general and on the EU institutions by mainstreaming the use of Open Badges across Europe for recognising non formal and informal learning The project in the long run will contribute to the discussion for recognition of competences gained through non-formal and informal learning at European level. Moreover it will allow the development of the Open Badges ecosystem by transferring Open Badges to other sectors thanks to new projects developed by partner organisations.