European Parliament – 2 December (13.00-15.00)

The Lifelong Learning Platform welcomed the 2012 Council Recommendation on the validation of non-formal and informal learning (VNIL) as it gave a political impulse for Member States to speed up the building of validation systems. Significant progress has been made in the last few years, especially with regard to the development of the legal frameworks and strategies. However more efforts should be made in order to increase the potential benefits of validation for a wider group of beneficiaries and especially for disadvantaged groups, such aslow-qualified adults, migrants and refugees. The 2012 Recommendation pays a particular attention to the role of guidance and counselling in taking forward validation. How to develop targeted communication and tailored guidance based on individual needs? How to coordinate guidance services? How to reach the targets and make them understand that validation is also for them? Could validation be a tool to integrate refugees? How could it then be adapted? The challenge of ensuring quality and consistency of services is directly related to the cost of validation. Who pays for the development and implementation of such learner-centred services? The speakers presented their experience in combining the need to reach out and deliver quality guidance and the challenge of finding the adequate human and financial resources.

Read the Guidance and counselling to take validation to the next level Report