The "Qualifying Differences" Project is developed by a European partnership made up of 6 entities from 6 European countries: Portugal, France, Spain, Greece, Czech Republic and Italy. Its general objective is to contribute to the development of a European Skills area by developing a European Platform to support and ensure the recognition, validation and certification of skills of adults with disabilities in other European countries, allowing the combination of theoretical and practical approaches, and broadening the national 'vision' to the European 'vision' in the context of Adult Education and Training. The project provides a set of structured activities, shared by the partnership, over 3 years, in order to: 1. Develop a Booklet for Employers and Adults with Disabilities. It will address the various types of disabilities and their characteristics, as well as legislation supporting disabled citizens and employers of citizens with disabilities. 2. To elaborate matrices of correspondence between the practices of the entities of the different countries, with respect to the recognized and innovative methodologies in the recognition, validation and certification of competences; 3. Design the manual "Balance of Key Competences for Universal School Certification" composed of a methodological guide for professionals (a descriptive guide to the methodology followed) and a set of tools of the various steps and sub-steps of the work involved in the process of diagnosis, recognition, validation and certification of skills of adults with disabilities. This product results from the shortage found at national and international level since each entity uses its own methodology; 4. Develop an inclusive European Digital Platform to support and ensure the recognition, validation and certification of skills at European level. The platform will have integrated all the methodology developed in the previous point; 5. Make available on the European digital platform access to certified adults to other transversal formations (motivational, behavioral, entrepreneurship, among other subjects) that distinguishes them at the moment of insertion in the world of work. The intellectual products resulting from this project will be disseminated through multiplier events to be carried out in the context of partner countries and other activities.
Validation of non-formal and informal learning is commonly understood as a key factor in the success of lifelong learning strategies because of its potential to increase permeability within education and training systems. The validation of this learning brings several benefits, including empowering low-skilled adults and other disadvantaged groups by identifying and valuing their skills and potential. It assumes an even more important role in the case of citizens with disabilities resulting from various types of accidents, since they see their personal and professional situation change abruptly, requiring a career adapted to their new reality. At the European level, the validation of this learning is systematically promoted since the adoption of the European principles. In 2012, the Council Recommendation on the validation of this learning was published with the aim of motivating more adults to participate in lifelong learning, particularly socio-economically disadvantaged groups, low-skilled adults and adults with disabilities. The Recommendation invited Member States to put in place mechanisms for the validation of this learning to enable adults to see their their knowledge/competences/skills to be assessed and validated and obtain a full qualification or, where applicable, a partial qualification. Emphasis is placed on the fact that disadvantaged groups, including adults with disabilities, can especially benefit from such mechanisms. Epralima has been working with adults since 2002 and supports the idea of creating a common working tool, common to all centers nationally and internationally, that will serve as a common thread for the work of the professionals. to the work to be developed by professionals in the "field". In this sense, the purpose of this project was to create a methodological manual composed of a methodological guide for professionals - training basis for all coordinators/technicians/teachers involved in the process, as well as a battery of specific tools for recognition, validation and certification of competences to be applied to adults with disabilities and, also, support tools for the Career Reconversion process. The aim is that this manual is common to the entities, so that everyone is supported in an equitable way and, above all, that it allows or enables the adult to continue and finish his process somewhere else in the country or abroad in order to validate the process at a European level and that it does not prevent him from mobilizing in space due to a change in personal situation. Thus the objectives of this Project were: General objective: in the context of the school qualification of adults it is intended to contribute to the development of 1 methodological manual that ensures the recognition, validation and certification of adults with disabilities, allowing the interconnection/combination of theoretical and practical approaches to validation and certification in order to broaden the national vision and the European vision Specific Objectives: 1 - Create the methodological manual to the reality of the partners, composed by: 1 methodological guide for professionals and by 1 battery of specific tools, for the process of Diagnosis and recognition, validation and certification of competences and career reconversion. And, also, the construction of a common tool that allows the mobilization of adults without fear of not being recognized at the European level. To equip adults and make their certification transversal to other countries, the manual will serve as a training basis for all coordinators/technicians/teachers who work or will work in these processes. 2 - Creation of a digital platform to disseminate the methodology used with adults and to implement complementary tools to promote insertion in the national and international labor market. It is a tool at the disposal of adults, already certified by the partner entities, which aims to boost the monitoring and attainment of specific training of other transversal knowledge. This is an inclusive platform, in that the materials available on it are adapted to the needs of adults with hearing impairments, visual impairments and reduced mobility in the upper limbs. This platform also has a space available where success stories of adults with disabilities can be shared, so that these can serve as "role models" for those who suddenly see their reality changed. 3 - Creation of a Booklet "Understanding Disability", which resulted from a research/collection of information on the various types of disabilities and their characteristics; supporting legislation, both for adults with disabilities and for employers, which will serve as elucidation/training for professionals working with these citizens and also for employers, both nationally and internationally.
All over the world, people with disabilities are entrepreneurs and self-employed in many different areas, and almost any job can be held by someone with a disability. But as documented by several studies, both in developed anddeveloping countries, people with disabilities of working age have only significantly decreased access to jobs. If the fact of disability is combined with a low level of education, the risk of social exclusion, and consequently of poverty, increases exponentially. And although article 27 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) "recognizes the right of persons with disabilities to work, on an equal basis with others; this includes the opportunity to obtain work that is freely chosen or accepted in a labor market and work environment that is open, inclusive, and accessible to persons with disabilities," as well as prohibiting the use of work that is "open, inclusive, and accessible to persons with disabilities," it also prohibits the use of work that is "open, inclusive, and accessible to persons with disabilities. with disabilities," as well as prohibiting all forms of discrimination in employment, promoting access to vocational training, promoting opportunities for self-employment, and requiring reasonable accommodation in the workplace, among other provisions. However, these rights are not always safeguarded, mostly due to employers' lack of knowledge/training on disability and disability rights, as well as a lack of knowledge, on the part of people with disabilities, of the laws that protect their rights. It is necessary and urgent to create synergies that contribute to the reduction of this scourge and, in the medium and long term, to eliminate these barriers and create a scenario where all elements have the same opportunities, both in terms of work and in Lifelong Learning, namely the RVCC Processes for people with disabilities, born but especially those resulting from accidents at work. The validation of non-formal and informal learning is commonly understood as a key factor in the success of lifelong strategies, but finds gaps in its implementation. As there was no specific and common methodology for all the entities that develop it, nor validation at the European level. The "Qualifying Differences" proposal was born from the need to create a totally innovative methodology (creation of a methodological manual, a digital platform and a booklet "Understanding Disability"), both nationally and internationally, in order to provide professionals with the same line of action, in the monitoring provided to the adult. In this way we allow the adult and the professional to start and/or develop and/or finalize the process of certification and validation of skills, based on the same work methodology (methodological guide for professionals and battery of tools to support the process of Diagnosis and RVCC, anywhere in the country or partner country. In a global society that is intended to be integrativeintegration, the mobility of adults/technicians within the country or across borders should not be an obstacle to the migration of the work done, regardless of the Center / Institution or country.