On May 19-20th, LLLP attended one of the main international events around validation, the Validation for Prior Learning (VPL) Biennale. The event which had previously been postponed due to the pandemic took place in Iceland in hybrid format and gathered an impressive number of experts from around the world in person with over 200 attendees!
This edition was hosted by The Education and Training Service Centre (ETSC) and aimed at “Building a common ground” between validation experts from different fields of lifelong learning (VET, adult education, third sector, etc) and institutions (public authorities, validation centres, international organisations, education and training organisations etc.) A few LLLP members also took part, with Gina Ebner from the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA) participating in a panel and the European University Continuing Education Network (eucen) presenting the Vince project on integrating migrants through validation at a workshop.
The Biennale’s main themes were:
- Validation and working life
- Validation and education/training
- Validation and social sustainability
- Validation and personal development
The lead coordinator of the TRANSVAL-EU project, the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD-GmbH) also joined as participants while Maurice De Greef from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) was invited to present the project research work at a workshop on Theme 3: VPL and personal development. You can see find and download his presentation here
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LLLP’s main takeaways and highlights from the event are:
- The concept of “undocumented learning” and “documented learning” which does not solely apply to migrants;
- The usefulness of the PPMI study on microcredentials (PPMI co-authored a NESET analytical report “Towards a European approach to microcredentials: a study of practices and commonalities in offering microcredentials in European higher education”);
- The social dimension of guidance, which should not only be just about the individual;
- The presentation by the Nordic Adult learning network (NVL) on the quality compass, which is a very useful tool for assessing validation practices, policies, procedures as well as competences of validation practitioners;
- And the EC-VPL research on trends in society regarding validation and challenges in the research (automation, privatisation, co-creation/governance and sharing common language).
You can find recordings of the following keynotes among others:
- More than 20 years working on validation, Ernesto Villalba, experts at CEDEFOP
- The development of „Credentials as you go“, Nan Travers, SUNY Empire State College, USA
- A users voice, Jón Gnarr, Icelandic actor, comedian and politician
- ILO perspectives on VPL, Pedro Morena da Fonseca, ILO
- UNESCO perspective: Creating and embracing a culture of lifelong learning, Marie Macauley, UNESCO UIL
You can find all materials (PPTs and Keynote recordings) from the Biennale HERE