RECOGNITION OF NON-FORMAL AND INFORMAL ... - Solidar

RECOGNITION OF NON-FORMAL AND INFORMAL
COMPETENCES OF WORKERS’ REPRESENTATIVES
PART I
1 /
VALIDATION OF INFORMALLY AND NON-FORMALLY
ACQUIRED COMPETENCES: EUROPEAN
RECOMMENDATIONS AND THEIR IMPLEMENTATION
and organisational models proposed or already in place in other
countries are soon to be developed. Here the objective cannot
be to establish new organisations but to use existing ones and
extend their functions and offers.
The organisational structure of accreditation and of accredited
education providers and organisations at universities and in
parts of further training can serve as a role model. Analogous
to the accreditation bodies, the competent agencies would be
special institutions with the general or sector-based competence
to authorise recognitions, categorisations into the DQR or certifi
cates and certifying bodies. Among others these might be
public authorities, chambers, professional organisations, companies
or the intermediary organisations recently established in
Germany in which the federal government, states and business
are involved in equal parts. However, those institutions must not
be education providers themselves and they must be offi cially
authorised to defi ne generally accepted standards for learning
outcomes, qualifi cations and competence assessment procedures,
to accredit providers and to categorise competences into
the DQR with the providers’ consent.
CATEGORISING NON-FORMALLY OR
INFORMALLY ACQUIRED COMPETENCES
INTO THE DQR AND EQF
The DQR aims at building a bridge between formal, non-formal
and informal learning and helping to make learning outcomes
acquired by experience visible. To date, however, the DQR has
concentrated on qualifi cations acquired formally through vocational
or university education.
The right to have informally and non-formally acquired competences
recognised and categorised into the DQR offers an
opportunity to disadvantaged youths in particular as they often
lack formal school and vocational certifi cates. Consolidating
single competence bundles that are to be categorised in the
DQR simplifi es recognition and pathways to vocational training
and work.
Categorisation must be based on a transparent and quality-assured
procedure. As stated above, it should be carried out by the
competent bodies with participation of the providers accredited
for validation. In doing so the standards relevant for validation,
like structural models for competences, orientation towards
competence-based training programmes, quality of identifi cation
and assessment, have to be taken into account. A similar
procedure also applies to the further categorisation in the EQF.
Editorial: European Qualification Framework
The European Qualifi cations Framework for lifelong
learning (EQF) provides a common reference framework
which assists in comparing the national qualifi cations systems,
frameworks and their levels. It serves as a translation
device to make qualifi cations more readable and
understandable across different countries and systems in
Europe, and thus promote lifelong and life-wide learning,
and the mobility of European citizens whether for studying
or working abroad.
In order to make the EQF work, European countries participating
in „Education and Training 2020“ are invited to
relate their national qualifi cations levels to the appropriate
levels of the EQF and to indicate in all new qualifi cation
certifi cates, diplomas and Europass documents the
relevant EQF level. The German Qualifi cation Framework
(DQR) has been developed to this end.
QUALITY ASSURANCE AND
DEVELOPMENT
The role that quality assurance and development have played
so far in the context of DQR drafting has not been substantial
enough, although these aspects are a major factor in the implementation
of national qualifi cation frameworks and the new
steering and organisation concepts involved. It is an essential
prerequisite for the acceptance of identifi cation and validation
of learning outcomes as well as the categorisation into the DQR.
This is true for comprehensive procedures as well as for single
phases, competence assessment, description of learning outcomes,
assessment, an effective level categorisation, advice and
the people and institutions involved. This means that standards
have to be defi ned for the respective fi elds and an internal and
external quality assurance system has to be established in order
to guarantee compliance.
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