Focused on the priorities of innovation in vocational education and training, adaptation to the needs of the labour market and quality assurance, the DEValAT project essentially pursued two objectives. One objective was to discuss validation approaches, procedures and instruments in the light of practical experience and thus to continuously improve quality and professionalism. The other objective was to keep validation on the educational and vocational training agenda and move it forward.
The validation of informally and non-formally acquired competences, often embedded in higher qualification measures, is seen internationally as an important way for low-skilled employees to access a higher level of qualification. A higher level of qualification improves their position on the labour market and in the company and has a positive impact on the length of time they remain in the company and their social and economic situation. Even during participation in a validation process, positive changes were observed in constructs such as self-concept of abilities, proactivity, internal control beliefs, self-efficacy and others. In view of this significant added value of validating non-formal and informal competences and the simultaneous need to integrate validation procedures into the national education systems in Germany and Austria, five educational and research institutions carried out the Erasmus+ project DEValAT in the years 2022-2024.