Cedefop research paper on ‘Coordinating guidance and validation‘ published
Validation and guidance help individuals, organisations and Member States adapt to career challenges and create successful lifelong learning systems. However, little is known about how they are linked in practice and how this connection can be made more efficient.
This study – based on the analysis of 13 practices from 12 countries – explores how coordination between career guidance and validation of non-formal and informal learning can be improved. Results point to three factors:
- comprehensiveness: provision of adequate information and guidance before a decision to undergo validation is taken, throughout the entire validation process, as well as after it;
- coherence: use of common qualifications or competence standards, occupational standards or other reference frameworks in all the stages of the practice to identify, document and assess skills;
- quality of staff, resources, competences, and tools used.
The study concludes with policy recommendations on how to improve the link between guidance and validation. It is based on research conducted by a consortium led by 3s (Mariya Dzhengozova, Karin Luomi-Messerer) in collaboration with ICF (BE). The Austrian practice-oriented case study on ‘Du kannst was!‘ was prepared by Julia Fellinger (3s).
The publication is available for download here.