The Lifelong Learning Platform and the European Volunteer Centre with the support of Cedefop organised a peer learning activity in Brussels, on 22-23 January. The PLA looked at the way validation approaches identify and document soft and/or transversal skills and competences. Using learning outcomes of – mainly but not solely – volunteering activities, participants discussed how to strengthen the conceptual basis of validation and how to further cooperate.

Around 50 participants from NGOs, European institutions, national governments and research centres joined the discussion to feed the debate with their privileged point of view. Experiences from participants addressed the conceptual – and practical – challenges that recognition of these competences bring along, all the while focusing on the documentation and identification of transversal and soft skills. Comparison of tools was also an important aspect of the PLA, and a factor to its success.

At the end of the event, participants formulated a number of policy recommendations. One of the main points raised was that there should be better coordination between frameworks, i.e. Key Competencies for Lifelong Learning, ESCO, UNESCO dimensions of learning and others.