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Patrick Werquin reports back from the:
Meeting on the Peer learning activity of European Commission on the Costs and benefits of validation of non-formal and informal learning, held in Reykjavik, Iceland, 12-13 February 2009
I went to Reykjavik on 12-13 February 2009, to participate in one of the meetings of the European Commission peer learning activities (PLA), to talk about cost and benefit of recognition of non-formal and informal learning (NFIL).
The third PLA on Validation of Non-formal and Informal Learning was hosted jointly by the Icelandic Ministry of Education, Science and Culture and the Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research. It brought together 35 representatives from 21 countries. Several experts from national administrations came accompanied by representatives from the economic sector or by other stakeholders. In addition to national delegates, representatives of the European Commission, Cedefop, the European Training Foundation and external experts to the Commission attended.
The PLA in Reykjavik was organised by the Cluster on Recognition of Learning Outcomes (RLO), in the context of the Education and Training 2010 work programme. The RLO Cluster brings together interested countries around the theme of recognition of learning outcomes, particularly, in relation to validation of non-formal and informal learning and the development of national qualifications frameworks (NQFs). PLAs are one of the tools that enable cluster members to engage in in-depth discussions and exchanges about topics of importance to participating countries with the objective to inform policy-making at national level about developments in other countries.
This PLA was building on the previous work of the cluster such as the two PLAs in Brussels and Paris dealing with quality assurance of validation of non-formal and informal learning and systems for validation of NFIL respectively. During the period 2007-2008, the cluster has also produced the European Guidelines for the validation of NFIL (draft available on request) which are based on national experience, peer-learning exchanges and research and have the objective to support the development of validation of NFIL across Europe. These activities as well as other research and experience show that ensuring sustainability of validation approaches is a challenge at all levels: European, national, regional, local, enterprise etc. Therefore the cluster has expressed great interest in exploring the issue of costs and benefits for validating NFIL. Given that several countries have already established systems or large-scale approaches for validation of NFIL while others are in the process of consolidating their approaches, this PLA was timely.*
In my presentation, I started from the fact that, in almost all the countries I visited and/or studied in the context of the OECD activity (www.oecd.org/edu/recognition), it seems that recognition of non-formal and informal learning is organised based on the belief that it is good for the people and for the system. There is no hard evidence whatsoever and barely any data. I therefore proposed, together with John West from the University of Leicester, a model to analyse the additional value of formalising the recognition process. I came to the conclusion that all learning should be recognised but that not all recognition processes should be highly formalised. For instance, it is not necessarily cost effective to try to bring all non-formal and informal learners to a certification. My rather simple model was above all an attempt to provoke the reflection on the value of recognition of non-formal and informal learning for people and on the likely cost.
From my field work, another of my conclusions is indeed that RNFIL is not free, and not even always cheap (it is for instance extremely time consuming for low skilled individuals). A reasonable assumption is rather than recognition of non-formal and informal learning is cheaper than full time training. Policy makers should therefore be examining all the plausible alternatives and training is among the obvious ones.
* Download the full summary records
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