about ave exemplo

Valid need ...

in the enterprises in all of the countries is the recognition of skills acquired in non formal learning, the matching between existing and required skills and the practical implementation of tools that solve entrepreneurial and organizational questions in the daily life of enterprises.

Overall objective of the AVE EXEMPLO project is to provide companies and employees with equally manageable methods for self-assessment and external assessment of the competencies acquired in non-formal learning processes.

More specifically, the project primarily aims at integrating experienced employees in life long learning processes by enabling them to self-organised learning. The second  aim is to provide companies with a methodology for knowledge-transfer. The third objective is to enhance the existing set of tools for the assessment of non-formally acquired competencies and the fourth aim is a sustainable use of the tools in companies by including intermediaries and decision-makers of vocational training and by winning them for implementation in standard operation.

Since labour is demanded

... across borders, documentation methods that are closely linked to national (vocational) training systems and their rules are no longer adequate. Practical competences need to be described in a way that is separate from national educational systems and explains practically relevant learning outcomes beyond formal certificates.

Problems of acquisition and description of competences are still prevailing in most countries but the need is even more visible in Germany, Romania , Bulgaria, Greece and Turkey. In Germany “there has been little need for recognition of non-formal and informal learning” (*) and “experiences are limited” (**). In Greece “the profile of validation has been rising on the national policy agenda” since several years (***) but “without any overall framework”. In Turkey the economy is deeply rooted in SMEs and the national VET policies and structures are not that much stable and developed like in other areas of Europe. As a consequence there are very few experiences with recognition of non-formal achievements.

Background and reference

... of this project is the Leonardo da Vinci pilot project EXEMPLO, 2003 – 2006 (www.exemplo.de), in which partners from seven European countries with different vocational education systems and traditions of competence promotion as well as validation of non formal and informal learning worked together. The common goal was to promote of competence development in SMEs and to provide tools that give SMEs and their employee’s information on competences acquired in non-formal and informal learning processes.

The previous project has proved its validity and its usefulness in real life. AVE EXEMPLO will have an added value and unique approach. The new project team is going to adapt the best practice issues of EXEMPLO (approach, partner composition, product-variety), into a new geographical context (Turkey, Greece, Bulgaria) and to combine them with media-technological innovations (ePortfolios and online-learning-scenarios) and recent developments in recognising non formal learnings.

Quotes:

(*) European Inventory on Validation of non-formal and informal learning, A Final Report to DG Education & Culture of the European Commission, 2005, p.114 - 118

(**) ref. p. 126

(***) CEDEFOP, Making learning visible: Identification, assessment and recognition of non-formal learning in Europe, 2000