What statements is VPL based on?

• In the 21st century learning society, the role of the the learning system changes from an institutionalised learning system with uniform learning paths and little room for personal input, into a learning system characterized by flexible and more personal steered learning. 

• Learning is outcome based. All that a learner knows, understands and is able to do on completion of a learning process can be stated and it is defined in terms of knowledge, skills and competence.

• Learning is formal, informal and non-formal.

• Linking formal, informal and non-formal learning within any context is possible.

• Linking all the prior learning experiences to further development steps opens to a lifelong learning-strategy for everyone in their given context. In this perspective, VPL is not designed to highlight the lack of competences but precisely the opposite – to take stock of existing competences.

• There is always good practice out there!

The VPL purposes?

Personal: it improves opportunities for selfempowerment and development towards lifelong learning perspectives. The validation of informally and non-formally acquired competences will boost people's desire to keep on learning and their awareness of how, what, when and why to learn.

Economical: it supports a more competence demand-led labour market and the employability, improving the match between the competence acquired by people 

Educational: it aims at a learning system characterised by a flexible and more personal steered learning, in tight compliancy with the labour system. VPL acts in a Learning Triangle, made up of Individuals, Labour system and Learning system in mutual interaction and cooperation. That leads to an innovation of infrastructures and process.

Social: validating competences requires demonstrating ability to apply knowledge, skills and attitudes for achieving observable results in a specific socio-economic-cultural context. Proofs and evidences are possible only when the others, whom one has interacted with, recognise and validate them as well. It positively impacts on social cohesion and empowerment and on the competence required by the organisations. 

The phases of VPL

Validation of prior learning is, first, about making visible the diverse and rich learning of individuals. This learning frequently takes place outside formal education and training – at home, in the workplace or through leisure time-activities – and is frequently overlooked and ignored. VPL is, second, about attributing value to the learning of individuals, irrespective of the context in which this learning took place. Going through validation helps a learner to ‘exchange’ the outcomes non-formal and informal learning for future learning or employment opportunities. The process must generate trust, notably by demonstrating that requirements of reliability, validity and quality assurance have been met. These elements of visibility and value will always have to be taken into account when designing validation arrangements, although in different ways and combinations.

The above formulation does not limit validation to a particular institutional context. While it is most commonly found within education and training, making it possible for individuals to acquire a formal qualification on the basis of non-formal and informal learning, validation is also carried out by several institutions and stakeholders outside education and training: labour market authorities, economic sectors, enterprises and voluntary organisations. The multiple outcomes of validation, ranging from formal qualifications to enterprise-internal proofs of acquired competences, are all united through their efforts to increase the visibility and value of the learning taking place outside classrooms.

To clarify the basic features of validation-systematics, the European recommendation for validation of non-formal and informal learning (Cedefop, 2015) identifies four distinct phases:

1. Identification of an individual’s learning outcomes acquired through non-formal and informal learning.

2. Documentation of an individual’s learning outcomes acquired through non-formal and informal learning

3. Assessment of an individual’s learning outcomes acquired through non-formal and informal learning.

4. Certification of the results of the assessment of an individual’s learning outcomes acquired through non-formal and informal learning in the form of a qualification, or credits leading to a qualification, or in another form, as appropriate.